Savvy readers will put the pieces together, too, although false leads and red herrings are cleverly interwoven. Alternating first-person chapters allow peeks into how Myla, Peter, and Randall unravel the story and decipher clues. But Myla possesses a necklace that holds a clue. Even after Peter and Myla bond over being the only people of color in an otherwise white school (Myla is Indian-American mixed-race Peter is Indian, African-American, and white), Peter can’t believe the gang is after Myla. The duo’s collaboration is initially an unwilling one fraught with misunderstandings. Now everyone is searching, including Randall. She was rumored to have hidden his diamonds before her suspicious death, leaving clues to their whereabouts. It started long ago when the boys’ grandmother, a diamond-cutter, partnered with the head of the gang. Myla and Peter step into the path of a gang when they unite forces to find Peter’s runaway brother, Randall.Īs they follow the graffiti tags that Randall has been painting in honor of the boys’ deceased father, they uncover a sinister history involving stolen diamonds, disappearances, and deaths. The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality. In Billie Jo, the only character who comes to life, Hesse (The Music of Dolphins, 1996, etc.) presents a hale and determined heroine who confronts unrelenting misery and begins to transcend it. Told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935, this is an unremittingly bleak portrait of one corner of Depression-era life. 9-12)īillie Jo tells of her life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl: Her mother dies after a gruesome accident caused by her father's leaving a bucket of kerosene near the stove Billie Jo is partially responsible-fully responsible in the eyes of the community-and sustains injuries that seem to bring to a halt her dreams of playing the piano.įinding a way through her grief is not made easier by her taciturn father, who went on a drinking binge while Billie Joe's mother, not yet dead, begged for water. However, like last time, the adventure is fun, so fans may be pleased. The kids act more like sixth-graders than high-schoolers. There are moments of great conclusion-leaping, some breaking and entering and a few laughs. Also making a return is the annoying, omniscient narrator who speaks like an espresso-swilling ’tween with ADHD. Home-Economics guru Spizman and English teacher Johnston have brought back all the caricatured characters from their first. After dealing with a few boy/girl issues, the agents first ferret out the secret (Mom’s dissertation was stolen by evil Harry Templeton who built his career on it for 23 years) and then trick the villain into confessing on tape. This time, a secret in Lucinda’s mother’s past threatens to force the family to move to Atlanta. Last time out, they got Kyle’s dad’s book published, but Kyle and friends couldn’t save his parents’ marriage. Kyle Parker and the rest of the secret agents return for another adventure.
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