Adolescent Mystery
This book was awarded the 2013 Newberry Honor. I feel it is fully deserving of the top place honor. I read the Award winner and just felt like this one was better. It is my very favorite kind of book--one that drips Southern sweetness like sweet tea, thick and honeyed with just a hint of danger. (Doesn't everyone drink their tea this way?)
Moses LaBeau is quite a character, which is a shame because I'd love to meet her in person. She is funny, sassy and take-charge. Her backstory? She was found in the waves of a hurricane by her adoptive father, the Colonel, and now they're quietly running a cafe in small-town, North Carolina, where nothing much ever happens. Except on the day a policeman shows up asking about a murder, a situation Mo LeBeau needs to be in on.
Mo enlists the help of her very best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, a boy just about afraid of his own shadow and almost willing to die for Mo. (That almost part is really important in the story.) But suddenly, Colonel is missing and her adoptive mother Miss Lana is frantic with worry. Mo now has two cases to worry about and is worried that the two might be connected.
Tupelo Landing, North Carolina is a town I want to visit and these are people I want to meet because this is a story you can just plunk down and marinate in. It is a book that will make you howl with tears and chortles. My only warning would be that it is borderline appropriate for elementary students. Besides the murder, there is some domestic abuse.
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