English 425tttttSubmitter’s name Crystal AlexanderBook BanktttttBook Bank subject: Reluctant ReaderReference information: Title TellAuthor Norah McClintockPublisher Orca Book PublisherstYear 2006# of pages 100tGenre Reluctant ReadersReading level 4thtInterest level High SchoolPotential hot lava:...
Trisha Hanover has a history of running away from home, but this time she hasn't come back. To make matters worse, Robyn said something mean to Trisha in a moment of anger. Feeling responsible for Trisha's disappearance, Robyn sets out to track her down. But when she discovers Trisha, Robyn also ...
Mike's lies are spinning out of control and now he's the prime suspect in a murder. He can't explain his bruised and skinned knuckles, and he can't explain why he was seen near the park where Robbie was killed. But he insists he's not a murderer. Still, if Mike really is innocent, why doesn't his...
Ashdale gasped. “You mean, someone was trying to kill Ethan?” “I’m just saying where we found the bullets, ma’am. And given Ethan’s past and recent events…” He turned to me again. “Will you help us, Ethan? Will you look at some pictures and see if you can identify the Nine-Eights who were down on...
I ignored him as best I could. “There’s something I have to tell you,” I said to Mr. Mason. “In private.” I wanted to explain about when I had arrived and when Maria had left the house. A cell phone trilled. He reached into his pocket and checked the display. “Sorry,” he said. “I have to take thi...
He was at his locker, engrossed in whatever he was holding in his hand. As I got closer, I saw that it was a phone. But he wasn’t making a call. “Get a new app or something?” I said. He jumped, startled, and then slid his phone shut and jammed it into his pocket before I could see what he’d been ...
Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls, and, for dessert, pie and ice cream. A local bakery donated the pies. Everything else was made at the shelter. Some of it—the gravy, the stuffing, the potatoes—could be prepared ahead of time and frozen or refrigerated. It was a lot of work. Betty ...
She was out behind the house, wearing rubber kitchen gloves and balancing on one crutch while she did her best to clean up the garbage that was strewn around the garbage cans. “What happened?” I said. “I’m hoping it was raccoons. But I’m afraid it might have been a bear.” “A bear? What makes you ...
He’s staring like he thinks if he concentrates hard enough, he’ll be able to see through the mask. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I catch movement, and I see that my dad doesn’t have both hands up in the air anymore. Somehow he’s managed to edge sideways just enough that he’s standing right b...
Maybe I should be the good guy, I thought. When she didn’t answer and I heard her perky voice—“Hi, this is Morgan. Leave a message.”—I got angry. I remembered what she had said to me after the funeral and how she had treated me at school. I thought about her refusal to visit Billy. Okay, so she w...
Tracie Newsome’s funeral. The only thing it has in common is that it’s held in a funeral home. It’s not a bad-looking place either. But as far as I can tell, it’s in the smallest room. I can’t blame whoever made that decision. After all, it’s the city that’s paying for it, not the family. In othe...
It rang at five AM. Dooley groped for it and stared groggily at the display. He held the phone to his ear. Teresa. She was hysterical. Dooley felt himself go colder than ice as he listened to her pour out a stream of words, apologizing for waking him up, saying it was important, running on and on...
The rest of me wanted not to run at all. I mean, why rush into the arms of grief if you don’t have to, especially if the person on grief-distribution duty is a certain Major André Charbonneau, ex-soldier, ex-cop, currently employed by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the armed ...
It turned out Zeke was right. It wasn’t broken. But it was badly sprained. After the doctor examined me, he had a nurse wrap a big elastic bandage around it. “I don’t want you to put any weight on it for at least a week,” he said. “Then we’ll take another look.” The nurse brought me some crutches...
Grayson’s head swivels around when I open the door to his classroom. My mother calls Mr. Grayson a fussy man. Mostly, the male teachers at this school dress in chinos or jeans. Mr. Grayson doesn’t. He always wears a suit and tie, and nine times out of ten he has a vest on under his suit jacket. H...
I told Andrew. He just nodded. He didn’t say he believed me. Miranda didn’t say anything at all. I went to school because I had to, but I can’t remember anything either of my teachers said that day. Then I went to the program because I had to. I thought Mr. Weller would give me a hard time, but h...
Got a quiz coming up in math? Best friend acting like a jerk? Chicken burgers in the school cafeteria for the twelfth day in a row? Parents giving you a hard time over your so-so grades? Lost another library book so there goes this week’s allowance? Late for your after-school job again and for su...
“Well?” my mom said, beaming at me. “Aren’t you going to open it?” I ripped off the paper. I was right. It wasn’t a games system. It was hockey equipment. “Well, what do you say?” Neil said. Neil is my mom’s boyfriend. He’s an accountant, plus he coaches hockey. I hated that he lived with us. “It...
He got into some trouble last year. JD is like that, always into something. He always has some weed, and everyone knows you can buy it off him. But this last time, JD really laid into a guy. He says it was because of what the guy said about Leah. But he hurt the guy pretty bad. The cops got invol...
Goran’s farm the next morning, Aram was standing in the driveway, staring at something he was turning over and over in his hand. “Is everything okay?” I asked. He held up the object he had been handling. It was a key chain with a metal tag attached ...
My feet take me to my classes, which I enter without looking at anyone. I sit down and stare at my desk all afternoon. No one says a word to me, but I swear I can feel all those eyes drilling into me, and I imagine they are all thinking what Karyn is thinking—that it’s all my fault that Stassi is...
Leave a mess—” before pressing the Off button and tossing the phone onto her just-made bed. It’s like a fever. Now that she’s in the grips of it, now that she’s made up her mind, it can’t wait. She has to talk to Derek, the sooner the better. But this isn’t the kind of thing she can say in a voic...
She asked me what had happened. She sounded worried, not mad, when I told her. She didn’t yell at me. That made me feel a little better. “I didn’t do anything,” I told the cops. “Did you hear Mrs. Franklin say that there was no real security at her house?” “Yes,” I said. “But I didn’t know until ...
“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone else,” I said. “My mom and Ted would kill me if they knew I was talking about it.” “I promise,” Morgan said. “But I can tell Billy, right?” “Yes, you can tell Billy,” I said. Unlike Morgan, Billy wouldn’t dream of sharing the information with anyone. Mor...
He keeps slipping out through the alley to get whatever he needs. Ardell sits outside and sits outside, but he never sees Jojo. Well, almost never. Jojo answers the door whenever Shana comes to visit. He scoops the baby out of her arms and swings it up high. Benjamin laughs. Once I hear Jojo call...
Isobel said. “Aren’t you, Grandpa?” Mr. Schuster nodded. “Bit,” he said. “Bit. . . bat. . .” He looked frustrated. Finally, he raised his hand to his face and touched the side of his nose with one finger. His hand shook as he dragged the finger across his cheek. He looked at me intently the whole...