The Missing Guy
While shooting a roll of film at a condemned high school campus, teen photographer Janet Hale runs into Keith Tomlin, a boy who’s been missing for three weeks according to the TV news. Neither her parents nor the police believe Janet when she tells them where Keith is. She takes a picture of him to prove her story, but he doesn’t show up on the film. Is he a ghost? Or is he being held captive by something supernatural? One way or another she finds herself falling in love with him. Read The Missing Guy to find out what happens to Keith and Janet.
“I read The Missing Guy in two days. I think it would make a great movie, with special effects!”
–Cathi Costa, RN
Edith
It is 1692 and 17-year-old widow Edith Griffin travels from England to Salem, Massachusetts, as an indentured servant. Her master and mistress, Joel and Honor Bidwell, seem kind. However, Bidwell tells her to keep an eye on his younger servant, Sally Price, a loose cannon who says and does inadviseable things.
Edith finds that she likes Sally, even though the 15-year-old scoffs at the rumors that there are witches in the community. Sally says the pastor’s niece, Abigail Williams, is faking the bizarre convulsions that seem to be signs of a spell, but the seizures look real to Edith. Then Abigail and several other girls accuse three local women of witchcraft. The women are jailed and scheduled for trial, the penalty being hanging if they’re convicted. When Sally points out that none of the girls that have fallen under “spells” have had to work a day since they’ve claimed to be bewitched, her irreverence makes Edith nervous.
Edith is terrified of black magic herself, and doesn’t know what to think. Is the devil at work in this village? Or are Edith and Sally’s fellow servant girls scarier than any real witch could ever be?
“Edith is like chocolate!”
–Rebecca Sutter, reading teacher and memoirist
The Truth About Orange Souffle
Annabelle Greene, a sixteen-year-old sculptor, has never been able to hold down a job because of her absent-minded mistakes, but with the help of nepotism, and her father’s lies about her cooking skills, she gets a job as live-in nanny on an island in Puget Sound. Her boss, Jared Huxley, is a semi-famous sculptor she greatly admires and also happens to be a distant relative. She desperately wants to do well in the job and impress Huxley, who believes unculinary Annabelle can make orange souffles, his favorite dessert.
In her first week on the job Annabelle gets her boss’s Range Rover stuck in a rut, burns waffles and can’t control Richard Huxley, 9-year-old ADHD sufferer from hell. She also gets locked in a bathroom. Her college student cousin Ellery, who lives there too, covers up her terrible mistakes. He also tells Annabelle whoppers, then laughs at her for believing them. Finally, mischievous Ellery threatens to expose her various disasters if she doesn’t give him her latest sculpture, a piece she’s designed specifically for Huxley. Annabelle tries to outsmart Ellery and turn the tables, but gets so focused on revenge that she neglects her charges at the wrong moment and stuff happens. Read The Truth About Orange Souffle to see if Annabelle can avoid a job disaster, win friends and learn to make orange souffles without Ellery’s help.
Cynthia
In the 1960s much seems surreal, especially to 13-year-old Cynthia Burns, who sees her dead mother in mirrors. Cynthia looks exactly like her mother, Faith, who committed suicide shortly after giving birth to her. She feels like people see Faith when they look at her, too, especially her Aunt Deirdre, who raised her. Deirdre doesn’t like talking about her sister’s death, and her rare accounts of the event seem to have pieces missing. One night, a stranger who knew both sisters very well appears at the door. He and Deirdre proceed to talk about Faith for days, and the weird effects that plague Cynthia intensify and become intolerable. She begins to see Faith reflected on window panes and in the bowls of spoons. Is her mother’s spirit trying to possess her? Or replace Cynthia’s real face with her own? Cynthia finally confronts her irrational fears by making a real-world attempt to find out what happened to Faith. Read Cynthia to find out what Cynthia comes to know.
Spoon Creek Mystery
While minding her aunt’s secondhand store 12-year-old Abigail Smiley sells a book called My Ugly Life by Eddie “Fishface” Malone for a few dollars and a rusty key. Aunt Winnifred, Abby’s guardian, has been trying to sell the book for a high price because it’s a collector’s item autographed by a famous gangster. However, Abby sells it cheap because Drew Miller, who offers to buy it, is her one and only crush. Aunt Winnie is furious and grounds Abbey for two weeks. However, the key turns out to belong to the Nightengale House, whose wealthy owner recently passed away. It was left at Drew’s place by a dog walker who was renting a room from his family. Abbey throws the key out the window after her aunt grounds her, then thinks better of it and retrieves it from the mud. What Abby doesn’t know is that the old key she now keeps in a dish on her dresser will lead to more trouble than she ever could have imagined.
“A great book for preteens! Ms. Ironside has created an engaging heroine in spunky young Abigail Smiley.”
–Marilyn Head, busy mom