PIE

Author: Sarah Weeks

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publication Year: 2011

Most of the readers will be: 4th-7th grade girls.

Reader's Advisory: Another charming historical fiction novel that has been a Georgia Book Award Nominee is The Luck of the Buttons by Anne Ylvisaker.

Summary:
Alice's Aunt Polly put Ipswitch on the map with her award-winning pies. Now Polly has passed away and she left her secret-pie crust recipe to her cat, Lardo. And she left Lardo to Alice. As Alice tries to deal with the loss of her beloved Aunt and tries to convince her parents not to get rid of Lardo, she realizes that someone is trying to steal the recipe. But, even Alice doesn't know where it is. After all, how do you leave a recipe to a cat?
And for all the readers out there who are also bakers, a different pie recipe precedes each chapter.

My favorite passage:

The next stop was the parsonage, where they found Reverend Flowers in his kitchen with a dish towel tied around his waist.
"Good gravy, what happened to you?" Charlie exclaimed when he saw the Reverend's red fingertips. "Did you cut yourself or something?"
"Cherries," said the Reverend, wiggling his stained fingers to demonstrate that they were all still working. "I had no idea how much work it was going to be to pit them."
"Aunt Polly taught me a little trick about pitting cherries," said Alice. "Use a paper clip. You just unfold it, stick it in, and pull the pit right out."
"How ingenious!" cried Reverend Flowers. "I can hardly wait to try it."
"Do you mind if I offer you another piece of advice?" Alice asked politely. "You might not remember this, but Aunt Polly won the Blueberry for her cherry pie last year. As far as I know, they've never given the prize to the same kind of pie two years in a row."
Reverend Flowers smiled and put his hand on Alice's shoulder.
"I've heard that there are some folks in town who've set their sights on winning the Blueberry this year, now that Polly's not here to do it, but I'm not one of them. Your aunt was a remarkable person and I miss her dearly. I got to thinking about her today and for some reason it made me want to make a cherry pie."
Alice felt better somehow knowing that the reason Reverend Flowers was baking a pie was because he missed Aunt Polly. (pg 148-149)

What I really think:
I have a hard time getting into historical fiction sometimes and I think many of my students do, also. This book is light and fun and although the historical setting adds flavor to the story it doesn't overpower it, or require that you know too much about the time period to appreciate what is going on.
Death and grieving are a part of the story, but not the main focus. It is mostly a mystery about both what Aunt Polly has actually done with the secret recipe and whether or not someone is trying to steal the recipe (and who that person might be). The friendship between Alice and Charlie is warm and real, with both ups and downs. The issues that Alice's mother continues to have with Polly illustrate how sibling rivalry is not limited to children. These issues are resolved in a sweet and satisfying way. A lovely novel and a serious contender for a read-aloud during library class next school year.

The Morgue and Me

Author: John C. Ford

Publisher: Viking

Publication Year: 2009

Most of the readers will be: High school boys.

Reader's Advisory: For another 2009 mystery, try The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Summary: Christopher Newell thinks that working at the morgue over the summer will help prepare him for his future career as a spy. He is more right than he could have predicted. One day he sees the medical examiner and the sheriff talking over a dead body. He finds $15,000 in a brief case in the medical examiner's office. Christopher learns from the newspaper the next day that the dead guy is named Mitch Blaylock and his death was ruled a suicide. But when Christopher sneaks a peak at the body himself, he sees that Mitch took several bullets to the chest. In his search to uncover who murdered Mitch Blaylock, and why the murder is being covered up, he teams up with Tina, an attractive journalist. Can Christopher and Tina unravel the mystery without ending up like Mitch?

My favorite passage:

Someone was knocking on my window. Loudly.
It was the insanely hot woman from the Courier, which made me wonder if maybe I was still fantasizing. Or maybe, better, she was stalking me. I rolled down the window to find out.
"You again," she said. "You're popping up all over."
"Yeah, me again. Hi."
"So listen..." She stopped to fish for something in her bag and came up with the memo I had left for Art Bradford, Senior Reporter. Apparently, she had decided to intercept it. Hmm. Her eyes found what she needed and looked back at me. "...Chris. We need to talk."
I almost said something. I make everyone call me Christopher. It fits the savvy NSA operative I hope to be someday. "Chris" feels neutered, like the professors who ride bikes around campus with straps around their pant legs. But something about the woman turned me to jelly, and I made my first-ever exception to the name rule.
"Umm, okay. About what?"
"What do you think? C'mon, we're going to lunch." She walked over to her car, not bothering to check if I was following her. On the way, she pulled out a cell phone and tossed the gum she'd been smacking into some bushes.
The car was a black Trans Am. It had a T-top roof and a gold falcon painted on the hood.
It fit her perfectly. (pg 51-52)

What I really think:
The mystery kept me reading, but there were many other charming elements to this novel. I like that Christopher seems very grown up while he is doing some of his investigating, but he is still a kid when it comes to relationships. The fact that he is spending so much time with an older woman seems weird, but the way they interact with each other is realistic. He has a crush on Tina, but realizes she isn't interested in him. And although he constantly talks about how hot Tina is, he clearly has stronger feelings for his high school crush - a girl he has been too shy to ask out. The book is both fun and well written.