Bad Apple (Merits of Mischief #1)

Jan 31, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-mt-bookpile

Poor Seamus: one incredible, coincidental, horrible throw of an apple and his entire life is changed. That apple? It hit a substitute teacher, in the head, and killed her. And that one action got him sent to Kilter Academy for Troubled Youth, where his roommate, Lemon, has gone through twelve roommates in three weeks thanks to his habit of playing with fire. Seamus is homesick, ashamed of what he did, and hopes only to make it through the first semester so he can go home. But the Kilter Academy...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Arsh M is currently reading it

I am currently reading Merits of Mischief The Bad Apple by: T.R. Burns. I am at the part where Seamus waits in the cafeteria line for fish sticks but the guy in front of him Bartholomew Eats all the fish sticks and Seamus doesn't get any. I think the author does a good job of describing because I could tell about Bartholomew is strong because he crushed a milk carton and fat because he eats almost all the fish sticks. I think me and Seamus aren't the same because she likes fish sticks and I don'...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: school, self-esteem, bullies, community, death, families, friendship, gifted, teachers, writing

Things happen quickly in this madcap story of twelve-year-old Seamus Hinkle's life at Kilter Academy, a place for gifted troublemakers. To his dismay, Seamus accidentally kills a substitute teacher with a well-thrown apple in his school's cafeteria, prompting his banishment to the reform school which turns out not to be what it purports to be. Seamus is essentially a good kid, and he tries hard to stay out of trouble. But staying out of trouble is not the way to succeed, and he ends up being all...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Lessa Pelayo-lozada rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the story of a pretty good kid who makes one bad decision and becomes a murderer. No thanks to his great aim, an apple, and a substitute teacher in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of a sudden, Seamus Hinkle becomes a reform school candidate and his parent's ship him off to Kilter Academy. What his parents don't know is that Kilter Academy is actually a school to turn your trouble-maker child into a professional trouble-maker. The school thrives on pranks, thievery, and earning as...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: tag-nominees-2012-13

Seamus is a kid with a conscience. He's polite and a conscientious student. Except for the small fact that he accidentally killed a substitute teacher in the cafeteria, you'd probably never notice him. But one apple changes his fate in unexpected and perplexing ways. Expelled from school, his parents enroll him in a school for wayward delinquent youth that turns out to be a front for an elite, posh training facility for troublemakers of all sorts. Seamus' crime gives him brownie points among his...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: guys-read, adventure, humor, j, life, not-graphic

"But if this isn't a reform school . . . what is it?

Houdini's feet drop to the floor. He leans forward. Holds my eyes with his. "A world-renowned, top secret training facility."

I want to look away but can't.

"Kilter Academy for Troubled Youth doesn't accept just anyone," Houdini continues. "Each semester, the admissions board receives thousands of applications and fills only thirty slots. Acceptance is based on a number of criteria, the most important being a student's natural talent for bad beha...more "But if this isn't a reform school . . . what is it?

Houdini's feet drop to the floor. He leans forward. Holds my eyes with his. "A world-renowned, top secret training facility."

I want to look away but can't.

"Kilter Academy for Troubled Youth doesn't accept just anyone," Houdini continues. "Each semester, the admissions board receives thousands of applications and fills only thirty slots. Acceptance is based on a number of criteria, the most important being a student's natural talent for bad behavior."

"Like the kind we get grounded for?" I ask.

"Exactly."

"But we're not here to learn good behavior?"

"Nope."

I try to solve this puzzle on my own, but it makes no sense. "Then what exactly are we training for?"

Houdini's grin takes up his whole face and makes him look even younger than he is.

"You're training," he says, "to become professional Troublemakers."

The problem is, Seamus isn't really much of a troublemaker. It's true, a substitute teacher is dead because of something he did--which makes him the first late-admission Kilter Academy has ever accepted, because of his promise--but it was an accident and he's never really done anything wrong before that incident. And he feels awful about it; he wants to be punished for his crime, not celebrated. But here he is, at a school that secretly teaches kids like him how to get away with pranks and causing all kinds of trouble, and it seems he's the worst of the lot, whether he means to be or not. All he really wants to do is go home. What's Seamus to do?

This is a fun entry in a new series. Not quite as fun as I'd hoped, however, because Seamus wrestles with some pretty serious things that created an odd tension with the lighthearted premise--the idea promises more than the execution pulls off, as there are themes that don't quite gel. Still, vague or not, they are there, I enjoyed them, and there are more books coming, so I'll keep reading to see if they blossom more fully in the next book; I have a feeling issues bubbling under the surface will come to light in a way that makes things "click." And I'll suggest it to young readers, whether they're troublemakers themselves or just looking for a different take on Hogwarts.(less)

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Aug 24, 2012 Mjohnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

There are so many elements of this book that I really liked, including the premise. And the kids. But all the way through I was so confused as to the actual purpose of it all. Too many elements were so very disjointed.

As an adult, I can figure out that the skills being developed a this "school" are actually helping promote natural bents and talents. As a fan of alternative schooling, I can see the potential. But it takes way too much reading into to it (esp. for the age of this intended audience...more

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Aug 13, 2012 BAYA Librarian rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book has an intriguing premise: a school that teaches troublemaking and rewards misbehavior. Sadly, this book failed in so many ways, it was barely readable. Let’s begin with the concept that a school for tomfoolery has a very rigid authoritarian structure. Add to that characters whose motivations and reactions make very little sense much of the time and a plot that goes only to the most obvious places.

Seamus Hinkle has killed a substitute teacher and is shipped off to the Kilter Academy w...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Jessica rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: baya-review

Hidden deep inside this book is an intriguing premise: a school that teaches troublemaking and rewards misbehavior. Sadly, this book failed in so many ways, it was barely readable. Let’s begin with the concept that a school for tomfoolery has a very rigid authoritarian structure.

Seamus Hinkle has killed a substitute teacher and is shipped off to the Kilter Academy which his parents believe is a reform school but is really a home for future troublemakers. Seamus spends the ensuing weeks, stewing...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Kelly Hager rated it 4 of 5 stars

Seamus is a good kid, the kind who always has his homework done early and is unfailingly polite. Unfortunately, the one time he decides to act out (to stop a fight in the cafeteria), a substitute teacher ends up dead. (Seamus throws an apple, which hits her in the head---total freak accident.) Next thing you know, he's been sent to the Kilter Academy, which is a reform school for troublemakers.

Except it turns out that what it ACTUALLY is is a school to make "bad" students even worse! Demerits a...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Leo added it

Shelves: favorites

I recently read Tricia Ray Burns's The Bad Apple (Merits Of Mischief #1). I really thought this book was funny. After Seamus Hinkle "Accidentally" kills his substitute teacher during a food fight at lunch, his parents send him to Kilter Academy, which they think is a reform school.It turns out Kilter is quite the opposite. Seamus there is taught to be a professional troublemaker, a criminal of sorts. To advance in level(as well as popularity), he has to "get" each teacher with the techniques t...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was looking for a light and funny read after a couple emotionally difficult death-themed, high-school YA books. And this was not it.

This is definitely a funny read. Seamus is a truly good kid who lands himself in a huge pile of trouble and ends up at what he thinks is the toughest reform school in the country--but turns out to be a boarding school that aims to create an army of merry pranksters. Demerits are like gold stars, and gold stars are like demerits. The only way you succeed is if you...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Mary Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to Mary Anne by: Mom

Shelves: fiction

My mother picked this up for me as ARC from a small conference she attended. And I sense I'm going to be in the minority on this one. Granted, I'm not the intended audience for this book. With that in mind, enter the spoiler link!

(view spoiler)...more My mother picked this up for me as ARC from a small conference she attended. And I sense I'm going to be in the minority on this one. Granted, I'm not the intended audience for this book. With that in mind, enter the spoiler link!

(view spoiler)[I'd like to think I started this book with very little expectation. I'm not familiar with the author, but I'd like to think I like this sort of literature. It's light, full of action and colorful characters, easy to grasp, and short. And my opinion is that this book fell a bit short.

My main focus on evaluating a book like this is to focus on the main character. His name is Seamus Hinkle and he's twelve years old, and he accidentally kills his substitute teacher with an apple. All throughout this book, I can't quite get my thumb on who Seamus is in the world. He seems like a mostly good, ordinary twelve-year-old. There's very little interaction between him and other people without much explanation, mostly because he himself has no idea what's going on, and we spend most of our time listening to what other people tell him. I think it's hard to write from the perspective of a twelve-year-old, so I give those authors credit. Seamus just didn't seem like a real kid to me. Yes, I know it's fiction. Bear with me. The same goes for the other characters (the least of which are his own parents and his teachers, like Annika, so don't get me started). You have no idea why they are the way they are, and the only characters who have any hint of personality are the ones who seem to display bad characteristics (Abe, mostly, with his "I'm impatient and want to be a leader" exchanges). No doubt, this is the first of a series, but you've got to give a little for us to go on. I have very little interest in reading another book to see what I should have gotten in the first book.

This leads me to what I perceive is the biggest problem with this book: it can't stand alone. There isn't even any closure by the end. What might have passed for closure was cut short, awkwardly so, with another random twist that I suspect is meant to build suspense for the next book. I understand that technique, but I have too many questions at the end, and that makes the book seem not worth it to me.

I was also looking for what I suppose we consider the typical main character/protagonist arc. By the end of the book, I expect to see some development of the main character. Did he learn a lesson? Appreciate something that he didn't appreciate before? Did he change as a person? Apparently this book spans about three months maximum. I felt no character development, and it seems like he didn't learn a darn thing. (Which makes sense, since there seems to be very little, if any, learning taking place at this school.)

I thought about series like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. The idea is that a child is perfectly ordinary, if not a somewhat outcast, in the normal world, and he (or she) finds a better fit in a completely different sort of school (wizarding school, Greek mythology school, take your pick). That requires quite a bit of creation on the part of the author, in terms of establishing this other world without using half the book to go into a history lesson, while also making this other world relevant as it sits alongside the world we know. None of that in this book. What happens to Troublemakers when they graduate? No clue. Seamus, like Harry and Percy, has a lot of dumb luck. The difference, I think, is that both Harry and Percy needed to do their own share of work. (Granted, that comparison could be unfair, as there are already the seven Harry Potter books and the five Percy Jackson books, versus this one.) The only history, such as it is, is Annika's spoiled and sad beginnings, and the random creation of the school. That's it.

Also, it's been awhile, but I didn't read Hamlet at eleven years old. (hide spoiler)](less)

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May 14, 2012 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-reviews-for-magic-tree

It is always a delight to find such a playful and engaging book as this one, especially for intermediate readers. In this story Seamus Hinkle is sent to a school for misfits after accidentally killing his substitute teacher with an apple. Through a series of (mostly accidental) events Seamus becomes a star on campus at a school that rewards troublemaking and punishes tattling and good behaviors. Eventually he bands up with his fellow classmates to make school history.

What I loved most about thi...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Vicki Sansum rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this ARC because the back blurb sounded fun. And fun, it was.

When quiet 12-year old Seamus Hinkle throws an apple to break up a lunch room fight, the apple hits a substitute teacher in the head and kills her. This premise would be horrible if it weren't for the fact that the story takes an unexpected turn to absurdity.

Seamus is sent to what he thinks is a reform school, but instead he finds out that it's a school deigned to improve the talents of troublemakers.

This fast-paced book ta...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Fiona715 rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm biased . . . but such good fun!

The start of a mischievous new middle-grade series has trouble written all over it.Twelve-year-old Seamus Hinkle is a good kid with a perfect school record—until the day he accidently kills his substitute teacher with an apple.

Seamus is immediately shipped off to a detention facility—only to discover that Kilter Academy is actually a school to mold future Troublemakers, where demerits are awarded as a prize for bad behavior and each student is tasked to pull v...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Seamus Hinkle isn’t a bad kid. When he threw his apple during a food fight in the school cafeteria, he was only trying to prevent the substitute teacher from getting in over her head. He certainly didn’t mean to kill her. Now, he finds himself enrolled at the Kilter Academy for Troubled Youth, and he’s quite certain that he’s in for something truly terrible.

But as soon as his parents drive off, he finds that Kilter Academy isn’t what it first appears to be. He is confused to find that he has som...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: didn-t-finish

I'm torn. This book, the 48 pages that I read of it, we're engagingly written, with humor and intelligence. However, I completely did not like the plot of a school for fostering and encouraging troublemaking. I also didn't like how the main character was literally thrown into the academy without ANY information on what the place was about, meaning the reader was clueless too. I don't like it when the author purposefully withholds information from the characters and the reader. Call me sensitive,...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade, part-of-a-series

When Seamus becomes accidentally responsible for his substitute teacher's death his parents aren't sure what to do with him. Then they hear about Kilter Academy, a reform school. They ship him off right away. At first Seamus is miserable, he didn't mean to kill that teacher, but soon he realizes Kilter Academy isn't quite what his parents signed him up for. It's a school for miscreants all right, but it's more of a training school than a reform school. Trouble-making is rewarded at Kilter and Se...more When Seamus becomes accidentally responsible for his substitute teacher's death his parents aren't sure what to do with him. Then they hear about Kilter Academy, a reform school. They ship him off right away. At first Seamus is miserable, he didn't mean to kill that teacher, but soon he realizes Kilter Academy isn't quite what his parents signed him up for. It's a school for miscreants all right, but it's more of a training school than a reform school. Trouble-making is rewarded at Kilter and Seamus isn't sure what to do. He can't face his parents, but he's not really much of a trouble-maker. When he teams up with some other kids though, he starts to fall into something a little more comfortable. If Seamus has to make mischief, he might as well do his best.

I love the concept of a school filled with mischief makers, so this story was fantastic. T.R. Burns does a great job a constructing a school where kids are encouraged to make trouble. I loved how vivid the school became as Seamus and his friends walked around and got up to no good. Lemon, Seamus' roommate was an interesting kid too. Seamus was tough enough to handle Lemon's fire starting habit and that's something that made them a great pair.

There were lots of interesting character's in this novel, especially some of the teachers. Mr. History was particularly peculiar. Each of the teachers had to be quirky though, to work at that school. No rules and mischief encouraged doesn't make for an easy working environment. They did get to harass the students too, so that is a plus.

This was a really fun novel that girls and boys can bother enjoy. I really liked the fun parts and the serious parts. There was a really nice balance. Make sure, if you're a fan of middle grave novel, that you check this one out!

First Line:
"At exactly 11:17 every Fish Stick Tuesday, I raise my hand in algebra class and make a very important announcement."

Favorite Line:
"'Wow,' she says. ' When you're sorry, you're really sorry.'"

Read more: http://www.areadingnook.com/#ixzz27Py...(less)

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Oct 21, 2012 Lisa Wolf rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: boarding-school-or-college, children-s

I'll just say it. I did not like this book at all. However clever the writing may be, the story itself makes no sense, is morally fuzzy, sends bizarre messages to kids, and has an ending that's not really an ending at all. However, my son found it funny and engaging, and liked it very much (with the exception of the ending, which even he thought was "stupid", as he put it). So, while I'd give it a one-star rating, I have to mark it a bit higher in consideration of its appeal to a 10-year-old.

Th...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Angelhorn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Not long ago I entered a contest on Twitter, asking entrants to detail a mischievous act. I told about the time I filled the fountain in front of city hall with laundry soap and red food coloring so it was pink and bubbly the next day. Ah, high school.

Anyway, I won the contest and the prize was a super fun promo pack for T.R. Burns’s THE MERITS OF MISCHIEF: THE BAD APPLE. Here’s the blurb:

Quirky and irreverent new middle-grade series about a group of kids being trained to cause trouble!

For all o...more Not long ago I entered a contest on Twitter, asking entrants to detail a mischievous act. I told about the time I filled the fountain in front of city hall with laundry soap and red food coloring so it was pink and bubbly the next day. Ah, high school.

Anyway, I won the contest and the prize was a super fun promo pack for T.R. Burns’s THE MERITS OF MISCHIEF: THE BAD APPLE. Here’s the blurb:

Quirky and irreverent new middle-grade series about a group of kids being trained to cause trouble!

For all of his 12 years, Seamus Hinkle has stayed out of trouble, but on one fateful afternoon in the Cloudview Middle School cafeteria, Seamus accidentally does the unthinkable—a substitute teacher is dead, and Seamus is to blame. Unable to return to Cloudview, Seamus’ parents take him to the most infamous of reform schools: Kilter Academy. But when Seamus’ parents drive off, headmistress Annika Kilter shows her true colors: she’s not interested in reforming delinquents, but quite the opposite—the mission of Kilter Academy is to foster troublemaking, and she’s decided Seamus is her star pupil! Together with his new mischief-making friends, Seamus lives every young boy’s dream of getting points for getting in trouble! But soon Seamus discovers that Kilter Academy may have more plans in store for its students than just turning out troublemakers…

I read this book in a day. It’s pretty short, just under 60,000 words with a reading level of grade 4. I can see what Burns is setting up here, and there is great potential in this series, but this book felt a bit like a very long prologue. The main problem, for me, is that Seamus’s GOAL was never articulated. The goal of punking all the teachers one by one just didn’t really grab me. Because of the nature of the school this is kind of like setting a protagonist in a typical school story the goal of getting good grades. It’s such a shame, because there is so much potential mayhem in this premise, but it was never exploited.

So much is left unexplained. Why does this school exist? What possible purpose could these mischief makers serve? Is there some nefarious secret? WHO is the antagonist? There doesn’t seem to be one. All we have a are a bunch of kids at school doing their assignments. Yes, the assignments are funny (in principle) but in reality how these pranks play out are much less funny and entertaining than my bubbles in the fountain. For example, when Seamus pranks one of his teachers all he needs to do is whistle at him from a hidden place in the washroom. Huh? How is that exciting?

This premise needed to be thought out more completely. T. R. Burns is apparently an accomplished author (whose true identity is secret) and this is certainly well written. And, as I said, the premise is great. Where it falls down is characters and plot. There’s just not enough to go on.

The next book in this series comes out next year and hopefully it will more completely exploit this premise. As it is THE BAD APPLE just doesn’t cut it. Not yet.(less)

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Mar 30, 2012 Marika rated it 3 of 5 stars

When Seamus Hinckle accidentally kills his substitute teacher with an apple, he's sent off to the Kilter Academy, which promises to reform him. But Kilter Academy is not as it seems. Seamus' roommate is pyromaniac, the students have access to all sorts of trouble-making tools, and demerits are necessary for passing classes. Seamus is different from his peers- his trouble-making acts are accidents. Will he be able to cause mischief on purpose? And just what is the true purpose of Kilter, anyway?...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kidsbooks

Another entry in the unusual school/kid spies type genre. After accidentally killing a teacher (in the most innocent mistaken way possible) our main character is sent to a "reform school" that turns out to be a training school for miscreates. All the while trying to be good and hoping to be sent home he nevertheless, again without meaning to, becomes the star of the school and is wildly (unintentially) successful at acts of mischief. With a pyromanic sleepwalker as a roommate and a crush on the...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Helen Oh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Seamus Hinkle is an unassuming boy who accidentally kills his substitute teacher with an apple after being pushed a little too far by a bully. This unfortunate event begins Seamus's unlikely journey to becoming the most infamous Troublemaker at Kilter Academy, a reform school for troubled youth. T. R. Burns creates a very likeable character in Seamus, and the predicaments he gets himself into will keep the reader cheering for him, even when his actions are not always praiseworthy. There are inte...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Natalie Cheetham rated it 3 of 5 stars

Seamus Hinkle is a good kid; he stays out of trouble and keeps up his grades. In fact, he's only trying to help when he accidentally kills his substitute teacher with an apple in the cafeteria. Horribly guilt-ridden, Seamus accepts his punishment of attending Kilter Academy, but when he gets there, he realizes it's not a detention school at all, but rather a school for bad behavior. But what will become of a good kid like Seamus in a school for professional troublemakers?

Despite it's trouble-mak...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Sherrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade, humor

When a food fight breaks out in the cafeteria of Seamus' school he lobs an apple at his sworn enemy, Bartholomew John. The apple misses the intended target and instead takes out Miss Parsippany Seamus' substitute teacher.This incident earns him a spot at the country's top reform school, Kilter Academy. Seamus is a nervous wreck when his parents drop him off at Kilter which is reminiscent of a maximum security prison. After his parents head back home the real purpose of the school is revealed. Ki...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Ms. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh there will most assuredly be a sequel. The ending and even the book's self-promoting final message to visit the website and to email the students at Kilter Academy make that clear. I thought the title and premise of the book were funny and intriguing so I snagged the book up quickly when it arrived new to our library. As for the previous critiques that Fishstick connoisseur Seamus is nice and therefore shouldn't be at Kilter...well, isn't that the whole point of the fish-seemingly-out-of-wate...more Oh there will most assuredly be a sequel. The ending and even the book's self-promoting final message to visit the website and to email the students at Kilter Academy make that clear. I thought the title and premise of the book were funny and intriguing so I snagged the book up quickly when it arrived new to our library. As for the previous critiques that Fishstick connoisseur Seamus is nice and therefore shouldn't be at Kilter...well, isn't that the whole point of the fish-seemingly-out-of-water premise? However questionable and improbable the deadly incident seemed, I suspended my disbelief and went with it hoping that more would be explained as the story progressed. Sure, Seamus is misunderstood, remorseful and ashamed about the incident that placed him at Kilter Academy in the first place. He thinks of himself and his life in one particular way, yet he is discovering so much more about himself, the meaning of family and friendship, the concepts of right and wrong and in general, the way of world he inhabits. Seamus starts out truly baffled about how he "accidentally" seems to be so adept at trouble-making and tries to balance the bad with the good, but all of that is topsy-turvy at K.A. What the reader, and to some degree even Seamus, begin to recognize is that Seamus really just wants to do what pleases others so that he can be assured of their friendship and/or love. From what I'm gathering, the future conflicts in the series probably will arise as he continues this "nature vs. nurture" battle within himself, or the conflicts will evolve as he gradually accepts his natural trouble-making prowess and becomes a skilled master finding that it benefits him, his friends, family and perhaps the wider world in some manner (even people with good intentions "make trouble" sometimes...for example artists, activists, genetic engineers, etc). I, for the most part, "get" this book! Among many other musings, I (like Seamus) want to know how the graduates of Kilter Academy fare in the regular world. Do they typically become career criminals? Lawyers? Politicians? Salespersons? Creators of Weapons of Mass Destruction? School Principals? (Smile--I'm an educator/future librarian, so I can say that with whimsy and aplomb). Though my early suspicions were confirmed by the end, I still had questions at the close. However, I appreciated the lack of finality as the story has lots of creative potential to lead in many directions. All-in-all, I look forward to reading the next installment and hope that it improves upon the first.(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Kristen Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was good, but I didn't love it. I found myself comparing it to Harry Potter, not because it was a greatly written book, but because it followed a similar structure. . .a boy finds himself in a reform school where he knows less than his peers and has to figure things out on his own, he has a knack for outperforming his peers without really trying, he gets "sorted" into a troublemaking group, etc. I know this book is meant to be part of a series, but I felt like the end left too many una...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Nikki added it

I picked up an ARC of The Bad Apple at ALA Midwinters, a few months back. I wish I hadn't waited to read it! It was AMAZING. Full of humor and mystery, mischief and heart. Speaking of hearts, I found my own heart actually racing at one point, I was so caught up in the story. Seriously, folks: palpitations.
My sixth-grade son read it first, loved it, and shoved it on the top of my TBR pile. Glad he did!
We're both a teeny bit desperate for the sequel - one of the great perils of reading an ARC.

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Mar 21, 2013 Kari rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-books, committee-list-1

My rating of this book assumes that all (or at least most) of the questions raised in The Bad Apple will be answered in its sequel. I found that this book had potential - but at every turn it felt like there was another piece of information being left out, one that was vital to actually understanding what was going on. If I ever get around to reading the sequel once it's released and find it to suffer from the same problems, my rating of both will drop significantly...

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Bad Apple (Merits of Mischief #1)

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