The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity

By: Mac Barnett

Steve loves to read detective stories.  His favorite series is "The Bailey Brothers".  Steve has

memorized all of their detecting strategies and believes that one he will be a great detective as well.  Unfortunately, at school, Steve draws the topic of "quilting" while his best friend gets the topic of "detectives".  Steve heads to the library, checks out the only book on quilting, and suddenly is captured by a SWAT team of librarians!  They believe that Steve is working for Mr. E. and trying to steal top secret government secrets.


Mrs. Senechal says:
This was a fun book to read.  If you like mysteries with a good sense of humor, you will enjoy this book.  If you happen to like "The Hardy Boys" series, you'll also see hints of those books throughout this story.  I liked that Steve was a realistic kid who learned that not everything you read in a book will turn out the same way in real life.

Storyteller

By: Patricia Reilly Giff

When a business trips sends her dad out of the country, Elizabeth must stay with an aunt

she barely knows.  At her aunt's home, Elizabeth is captivated by a drawing of a colonial girl hanging on her aunt's wall.  Suddenly, she realizes the girl in the drawing looks almost exactly like her!  Elizabeth's aunt shares that this girl was known as Zee and is an ancestor of hers from the time of Revolutionary War.  Then, staying with her aunt didn't seem so bad as Elizabeth tried to learn everything she could about Zee.

Mrs. Senechal says:
The author tells this story in two parts - from the perspective of Elizabeth in modern times and from the perspective of Zee in the late 1700's.  It is really interesting to see how each perspective adds details to the story and helps solve the mystery of who Zee was.  The author does include some of the historical challenges and tragedies that were a part of the Revolutionary War.  However, she also captures the fierce spirits of the colonists as the fought for their freedom.