欧宝娱乐

This should have been the Indiana Young Hoosier winner for 2008. It has everything, mystery, suspense, gore, history....I love the fact that Cooney draws students into to this great story and then shows them the way to do research and the way NOT to do Research.

Mitty is a procrastinator and is the epitome of a bright student with a lack of motivation to do his work properly. His girlfriend is the opposite, she is a dedicated, driven student that does above and beyond what is required. She is an exceptional student and reminds me of Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.

The pair are both in an advanced science class, in which the teacher assigns a research paper on an infectious disease. Mitty being the procrastinator that his is waits until the last minute to begin his research notes. The only book he can find on his topic is an antique from the 1900s that his mother has collected for one of her clients. The book turns out to have been owned by a doctor that was dealing with treating small pox. Mitty comes into contact with scabs that were preserved in the book.

An underlying component of this story deals with teens coping with living in New York after 9/11, dealing with the fear of other terrorist attacks. While I was somewhat annoyed with this, it was not didactic or moralistic. It didn't feel preachy or as if Cooney was trying to capitalize on the tragedy. This is probably due to the fact that she is a New Yorker.

There are so many talking points in this book that I feel it would make a great book for a 8th or 9th grade English Classes, or even science for that matter.