The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill, by Megan Frazer Blakemore; Bloomsbury Children’s Books: New York, 2015; $7.99 In 1953 Hazel Kaplansky is a fifth-grader who wants badly to be a detective. She has read all the Nancy Drew books in her library, feels that she is the perfect sleuth, and is prepared to solve any mystery that comes her way. But none ever do. Until… rumors of communist spies in Hazel’s own town, Maple Hill, begin to float around. Hazel is very eager to help find these potential spies. Finally, she will have something interesting to put in her so far boring Mysteries Notebook. So when she has a hunch that Mr. Jones, the hired gravedigger at the cemetery that her parents run, is up to no good, she starts doing some sleuthing. With the help of Samuel, a new boy in town, who is maybe, possibly, even smarter than Hazel, she uncovers many clues, but, as Samuel says, no concrete evidence. Even though there is no solid evidence, Hazel is absolutely sure “The Comrade,” as she calls Mr. Jones, is a spy. Otherwise, how can the locked safes he receives from Mr. Short, the father of a mean girl in Hazel’s class, be explained? Or the objects he leaves at a grave? This grave, marked “Alice, Ten Years Old,” seems to be a drop-off spot for information. Then there is the mystery of Samuel himself. Everyone seems to know something about his mother that they won’t tell Hazel. Even Hazel’s classmates know. Hazel wants to find out and believes Samuel’s mother must be a communist spy. Then Hazel realizes that thinking every other person in her town is a spy is getting her nowhere, and she is hurting more than one person’s feelings. I connected to Hazel a lot, because I live in Vermont like she does, and I like to climb trees, ride my bike, and I am in fifth grade. Also, she is something of a tomboy, as am I. The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill got me interested McCarthyism and the Red Scare. I did some research about the time period, and I thought it was interesting to learn about when some people were afraid the U.S. would become a communist nation, and Senator Joseph McCarthy made their fears seem real. When I asked my grandfather about the Red Scare and how it affected his family, he said what he most remembered were extended hearings on television almost every day, where Senator McCarthy sat, making accusations. Also, he said a local priest, who was determined to root out all communists, accused the principal at the high school he went to of having communist ties. It was neat talking to him and hearing about what he remembered from the early 1950s. I liked learning about a time that seems long ago about which I formerly knew so little. I really loved this book because I changed my mind so many times. Sometimes I thought Hazel was completely correct, and everyone else was wrong; sometimes I was convinced Hazel was not being observant enough, and she might be mistaken. My favorite thing about this book was that it has a surprise ending. The ending was not at all what I imagined. Also, the author did something very rare: she ended this book in the perfect place. I do not think this book needs a sequel at all, not even an epilogue, because the end is entirely satisfactory. Adelle C. Macdowell, 11Johnson, Vermont
Book-Reviews
Wake Up Missing
Wake Up Missing, by Kate Messner; Walker Children’s Books: New York, 2014; $7.99 “The most terrifying thing about hitting your head so hard is when you wake up missing pieces of yourself.” This is what the main character, Cat, tells the reader near the beginning of Kate Messner’s novel, Wake Up Missing. Cat is a twelve-year-old girl who has a concussion from falling off of an observation platform in a tree while watching birds. She gets headaches and nauseated, and she has balance problems and holes in her memory. Cat wants desperately to be whole again, so her parents send her to I-CAN, an advanced neurology clinic in the Florida Everglades, which they learned about online. Scientific American called it the “Miracle Clinic in the Swamp.” Cat tells us, “I thought if I went to I-CAN I’d wake up found.” But she and three other kids she meets there, all with similar head injuries, bit by bit and that things at I-CAN are not what they seem to be. Cat sees a newspaper headline that says, “Florida Senator Promises Crackdown on Nations That Harbor Terrorists: Wiley Says Military Intelligence Committee Has ‘Secret Weapon.’” She doesn’t know at that time that she and I-CAN are involved. I liked the fast-paced adventure, which kept me reading as the children discover they are part of a top-secret government project. The doctors in charge of I-CAN plan to replace their DNA and memories with the DNA and memories of dead scientists like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein. I am really into genetics and things to do with the brain. Could our memories and DNA be replaced with someone else’s memories and DNA? Is it even moral to replace a person’s memories? Is it all right to replace them without the person knowing? These are questions that the book made me think about. In the science-fiction world of the book it is possible to replace memories and DNA, though one of the characters named Kaylee ends up with a brain tumor from the procedure. Another character, Trent, has had his mind altered, replaced with Thomas Edison’s DNA and memories. Trent can’t remember his own life, including his family. Instead, the only thing he thinks about is alternating current, which from another book I was reading I know is not true. Actually, Thomas Edison was into direct current, not alternating current. But it did not really hurt the flow of the adventure. I would not want a brain tumor like Kaylee, but I don’t know how I would feel about having the brain of Edison or Einstein. If I was one of the kids who found out about the plot, I do not know if I would be like Cat, who just wants to be restored to her former self and escape, or if I would be like Ben, a boy in the story who wants to be turned into a new Einstein. I had read some about Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein already, but not so much about the other scientists the children were going to be turned into: Marie Curie, Robert Oppenheimer, Lise Meitner, and Beatrice Schilling. But after reading the book, I wanted to learn more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an exciting action-adventure story with science and science-fiction intermingled in the plot. Abraham Lawrence, 13Eugene, Oregon
Out of My Mind
Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper; Atheneum Books for Young Readers: New York, 2010; $17.99 Eleven-year-old Melody Brooks is a genius. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her, from the lullabies her parents sang to her as a baby to the words from every documentary and TV show she’s ever watched. Melody’s life is like a movie, and she remembers every bit of it. There is only one problem. Melody can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. Melody Brooks has never taken a single step, spoken a single word, or written a single sentence in her life. Melody has cerebral palsy, a disability that, as she puts it, “limits her body but not her mind.” Unfortunately, not too many people realize this. Melody is tired of being treated like a baby by her teachers, doctors, and classmates. She wants to do something amazing, like Stephen Hawking. She wants the “normal” kids to notice her and ask her to play, just like everyone else. Most of all, though, Melody just wants to talk. Words have always surrounded her, floating around like a cloud of air, always just out of reach. Her inability to speak is making Melody go out of her mind, and she is intent on finding a way to speak. Melody’s story got me thinking: What would it be like to never walk, or talk, or write? I could only think of one word to describe this situation: hard. I would never feel the thrills of crossing the finish line at a cross-country meet, or putting pencil to paper and making words come alive when I write. I couldn’t plant a garden in summer, or go sledding in winter, or ride my bike in spring. I couldn’t feel the rushing of water when I dive into a pool, or thank a friend for a birthday gift. Worst of all, though, I could never even know what it was like to experience these things. Yet, somehow, Melody still manages to always have a smile on her face and embrace life the way it is. She does some pretty amazing things too. Melody makes the Whiz Kids team, stands up to bullies, and even saves her baby sister from being fatally injured. All in all, I found Melody to be an incredible person, with an awesome personality to match. Out of My Mind really emphasizes the quote, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” just like you can’t judge a person by the way they look. As Melody puts it, “You have to go beyond the wheelchair, there’s a real person inside.” Out of My Mind is easily one of my all-time favorite books. I loved everything about it, from the characters to the plot and the setting. I’d recommended it to everybody. Just beware, Out of My Mind is so great, you might not be able to put it down! Lila Gaudrault, 12Cape Elizabeth, Maine
