My Side by Norah McClintock

Addie is trying to pull her life back together after being lured into the woods and then having a sack thrown over her head by a knife-wielding, masked person. When she is locked in a basement in pitch darkness, she is sure she is going to die. She suddenly remembers girls at school talking about a strange man hanging out in the woods.

And then Addie is able to pull the sack over her head. When a flashlight clicks on, she sees the unbelievable. Her best friend, Neely, is helping with the torment.

High school housekeeping: My Side is one of the Orca Soundings series for teens who are working on improving their reading skills. The Lexile level is 660 (about grade 5). It’s a great, quick read about fear and cyberbullying. It’s also an interesting look at two sides of a story that—it would seem—should allow only one interpretation. Things are not what they seem to be in this little farm town. The author, Norah McClintock, does her usual good job of bringing a lot of story to a very short book. I highly recommend this one for struggling readers.