Florian Bates is not your typical 12 year old. True, he’s a seventh grader doing typical 7th grade activities: eating pizza and serving on the student council. His family recently relocated from Europe to Washington D.C. His mom works for an art museum and his dad’s in security. Florian meets and becomes friends with Margaret, a new neighbor who will be attending the same school as Florian in the fall, but this isn’t what sets him apart from other 12 year olds. Florian employs the power of observation to provide insight, explanation, and anticipation. Florian calls his observational skills T.O.A.S.T. which means, Theory of All Small Things. He teaches T.O.A.S.T. to Margaret and they practice this observational technique with friends and family and in numerous different locations. Florian and Margaret stumble upon clues that become important in solving a crime. Florian is secretly employed by the FBI to help solve the crime. This mystery is funny and suspenseful with enough twist and turns to keep the pages turning at a quick clip. A recommended who-done-it for mystery readers!
Tag Archives: Suspense
Code
Tory and her friends have mutated animal DNA which gives them special powers and a “pack” mentality. They will need all these powers to survive the “Game,” a challenge they found in a geocache. It is only as they solve first one challenge and then the next that they realize that the “Gamemaster” is not a fellow geocacher, and the game is anything but a game. The Gamemaster has planted a bomb that will go off if the four friends cannot solve the clues.
I have not read the first two books in the series, but I was able to follow the storyline although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had had more background. The pack is a lot like Maximum Ride’s flock, but there is more suspense than science fiction in the story. The plot moves quickly in spots, less quickly in others. There is one ongoing subplot that is impossible to make sense of without having read the first two books, but I still enjoyed this one. Fans of Maximum Ride and Alex Rider should enjoy this series.
Sleepless
Students from Saint Opportuna High School go down to New Orleans to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. But when they return, many of the students start having nightmare. Soon they begin sleepwalking and then students begin to turn up dead.
While many of the characters are likable, this book definitely plot driven – you want to figure out what will happen. It is not too difficult to figure out what is at the bottom on the problem, and the end wraps up too neatly and too quickly. However, students who like suspense will probably enjoy this. A little bit of language, a little bit of sex – recommended for grades 9+ for those reasons.