Thursday, May 07, 2020

THE STRANGERS by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Adventure, Paranormal, Supernatural, Mystery

405 pages

Description
Booklist (February 1, 2019 (Vol. 115, No. 11)
Grades 5-8. With this book, best-selling Haddix launches a new middle-grade series that blends adventure and sf elements into an engrossing mystery. Something strange is going on in the Greystone household. Chess (12), Emma (10), and Finn (8) come home from school one day to find their mother in despair over a news story about a bizarre kidnapping—bizarre because the three children who were taken share the names, ages, and birthdays of the Greystone kids. Then Mrs. Greystone is called suddenly out of town, leaving her kids in the care of a stranger, with nothing but questions and a coded letter. Convinced their mother’s in danger, the kids and Natalie (their new caretaker's daughter) set out to crack the code and save Mrs. Greystone. Third-person narratives switch among the Greystone kids, giving readers an intimate sense of their personalities and close sibling bond. The kidnapping alone could have made a compelling mystery, but Haddix throws in secret rooms, alternate realities, and a cliff-hanger ending to raise the stakes and delight fans new and old. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The buzz is high for this new series, which the publisher is betting will bring Haddix “to a new generation of reader.”

My Comments
This is another Haddix winner. She is a sure bet recommendation for middle school students. I love the suspense in this book, the relationship of the siblings with their different perspectives. The book ends with a cliffhanger. Can't wait to read book 2! Perfect upper elementary through 7th. 

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