I’m excited to have the READ 180 class back in for a book talk today. Since our last visit, I’ve read three Orca Soundings books that I want to share:
Jacked by Carrie Mac
Zane Is bored with his shift at the gas station convenience store. But when he decides to go out or a burrito a block away, he’s surprised by a gunman in a black ski mask. He’s being carjacked. Having gotten way too many speeding tickets, he’s now praying that a cop will stop him in one of the many speed traps he knows about. But what if that plan doesn’t work? And what is it about this weird carjacker whose voice seems familiar?
Oddly, the drama in Jacked stems not just from the carjacking, but from the weird desperation of the the carjacker to get to the hospital. Once Zane figures out what is happening to him, he sees new dangers. And strangely enough, some fun and adventure as well as he and the carjacker take on one new identity after another to make it through the afternoon.
Tell by Norah McClintock
When David’s stepfather, Phil, is murdered, the motive seems to be robbery. But there are odds details that keep pointing to David as a suspect. Leading among those details is the fact that David has a gold-framed picture of his little brother Jamie. This picture had been on Phil’s person when he was killed. In fact, he always carried it, ever since Jamie had drowned in an accident years before.
Now everything is open to question. Who was Phil, really? A nice stepfather who cared deeply about his stepkids? A gambler? He was certainly a poker player. And David learns that poker players who can’t keep a ‘poker face’ sometimes have a ‘tell.’ A tell is something—a gesture, a look—that indicates what’s going on in the game. In the game of murder and suspects, the stakes are high. Can David figure out Phil’s ‘tell?’ And what about the police who are interrogating David? Can David get beyond their poke faces to find the real story?
Lockdown by Diane Tullson
“’That’s the thing, Zoe. I’m not a hero. But I can’t keep living with my head in the sand.’
“She said, ‘Why now?’
“I look at her. ‘Why now what?’
“She studies my face as if she’s looking at me for the first time. ‘Why now, Adam? Why step up now, when there’s everything at stake?’
. . . “I rest my cheek against Zoe’s hair and answer. ‘Maybe I’m stepping up because now everything is at stake.”
When Zoe and Adam realize that the lockdown at their school is not a drill, it’s too late. They are locked outside of the classrooms, and the shooter is making his way through the halls. But Adam knows the shooter, Josh. In fact, he’s the only person at the school who has ever been decent to Josh. Does Adam have the courage to face him?
School Library Lady 