Joe Bolin > Recent Status Updates

"The Other Place" was the best of the lot, with a close second awarded (by me) to "Beautiful Monsters."

Grafton can take the most mundane of topics (large-scale shoplifting) and craft an engaging mystery around it...she has done it again!

This book is really coming together, and is easily the best of this year's intermediate California young reader award nominees. It's taken a while, but finally the story of the polio victims and the fairytale have been fully integrated.

A classic whodunit...this mystery even ended with all of the suspects gathered in one room to learn the identity of the killer!

Okay, I have to say it: the story of Fingal, Jimmy, and Collosso is one of the best I have read, but I really dislike the interruptions to the story from the children with polio. Eventually, I may see the point of these interruptions, but for now, they just break the flow of an otherwise very engaging story.

There's nothing quite like these older mysteries, with idiosyncratic characters who have become a part of the culture.

The backstory on polio is fascinating, but I'm glad to get into the fictional part of the book.

I'd forgotten how good these old series mysteries can be!

I am really engrossed in this tale...Bradbury has written an amazing exploration of the secret life of boys, tied to the larger issues of growing old and trying to stay young.

Bradbury captures perfectly what we all wish our childhood had been like (was anyone's childhood as perfect as the boys featured in this novel?). A magical read.

This is so over-the-top with its message that I can barely keep going. If I wasn't reading it aloud, I would put it aside. The characters are poorly drawn and I am not empathetic with their stock situations.

Not an engaging read! I hope it picks up...once in a while a book does, but it's rare.

Fantastic, suspenseful read!

Fast-paced...I am anticipating the collision of the characters with gritted teeth!

Books with an overt message are not my favorite thing to read, and Eleven presents its front and center, starting on the first page.