** spoiler alert ** Reference information:
Title: Tell
Author: Norah McClintock
Publisher: Orca Soundings Year: 2006
# of pages: 100 Genre: mystery
Reading level Interest level: 11+
Potential hot lava: violence, lying

General response/reaction:
This book was so suspenseful and gripping. I can definitely see a reluctant reader taking and keeping this book. Since the book was only 100 pages, it was really easy to read in a short period of time, but even with my ability I did not want to put the book down! This concise book gets straight to the plot by describing a death in the first two pages. McClintock has a great balance of revealing just enough information to help the reader understand and leaves out just enough to make the reader want to turn the pages faster. This book was an awesome read and I would recommend it to anyone!

Subjects, Themes, and Big Ideas:

• Lying
• Truth
• Poker
• “Tells”
• Cheating
• Past and future


Characters:
• David – main character, narrator, step-son of Phil, police think he has something to do with Phil’s death
• Detective Antonelli – main investigator on Phil’s death, the one who questions David about the situation
• Jack – a friend of David’s mom, reveals information to David that helps him understand more truth
• Phil – David’s step-dad, lies a lot, cheats, overall not a good guy

Plot summary:
The police come to David’s house to tell him and his mom that Phil, David’s stepfather, has been shot and killed in a possible robbery. After the formalities of a funeral, Detective Antonelli pushes to find more answers about the murder. Antonelli believes that David knows more about the murder than he is letting the police know about, so Antonelli pulls David into the police station to question him further.

At first, most of the evidence points to David. A picture of his dead brother is found among David’s laundry which was missing from Phil’s personal effects. David is seen on store surveillance cameras ten minutes before Phil’s death one block away from the murder scene. David has a history of not really liking his stepfather. The police suspect that David either knows more about the murder or committed the murder.

Then David tells Antonelli about Phil. He begins with how Phil loves to play poker and how Jack knows Phil’s tell. When David learns about the “tell”, he studies Phil and realizes that Jack was right. David tests the “tell” and realizes that Phil has been cheating the whole time. While David tells his story, Antonelli becomes impatient because he does not see the point to David’s way of telling the story. Also during this time, David’s mother is out of the room so that David and Antonelli can talk in private. David knows more about his own past than his mother ever told him.

Before the police let David’s mother back into the room, David tells Antonelli about his brother’s death and other information Jack told him. When David’s mother is let back into the interrogation room, David explains the true story about his brother’s death and how Phil did not save his brother. He then explains that he was in the vicinity of the murder scene and saw Phil get murdered. David says he did not call the police after he saw Phil get shot because Phil did not bother to save his brother.

Strengths (including reviews and awards):
This book is really interesting and really easy to read. It is a page turning mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end. Any reader would enjoy this book.

Drawbacks or other cautions:
Not every secret that is revealed gets followed up. The ending is not that great, it kind of just ends.

Teaching ideas:
Pre-reading:
• Anticipation guide
o One question I would definitely ask would be if the students believe that violence is ever justified.
o Another question up for debate would be if someone should be held responsible for not doing anything (like David not calling the cops).

During reading:
• The students could play detective and try to piece all the clues together.
o However, this book is so short that it seems like it would be hard to drag this activity out to more than one day.

Post reading
• Characters on Trial
o The students will get to choose a character and either defend or prosecute them.
• David’s mom for lying about a lot of things (Jamie’s death, Jamie and David’s fathers, etc)
• Phil for lying and cheating
• David for just watching Phil die and not doing anything about it