What I really liked about this books was seeing the inner thoughts of Caitlin.  I'm not familiar with Asperger's, but regardless of which, I felt the inner dialogue was honest and true.  I liked how any spoken word was in italics as if that's how she relates to people when they speak to her.

Most of all I loved the title capped words.  The phrases that adults would say to her to help her understand how people and/or life work: Look At The Person, Your Manners, Get It, The Day Our Life Fell Apart, etc.  To her, these were things she needed work on, the things she needed to remember.

Erskine has herself here a character readers can relate to.  After all, we all have things we need to work on or things we can't seem to get.  And in the case of kids, things adults say they just recite until they truly understand it.

I read this book to see if I should recommend it for the class I am teaching in August.  My conclusion is: Yes.  I liked the weaving of mystery and scary in away that's not too frightening but subtle and creepy.  This story is about Logan, a 13 year-old boy who moves into a house where someone was murdered.  He soon discovers that Mrs. Donaldson was murdered for the money she supposedly stole from Magic Forest, the old amusement park where she worked.  Before he knows it, he's pushed into the middle of the town mystery and unless he, along with his new friend Arthur Jenkins, can figure out the clues he may find himself in a whole lot of danger. 

My favorite character is actually Arthur.  While he may be quite annoying at times, poking his nose where it shouldn't be and not thinking before he speaks.  Arthur knows who he is and doesn't care what other people think especially the bullies or popular boys at school.

This was another book I read for my class and another one I plan on recommending.  First of all, picking Rick Riordan as the first author to start the series, was probably a great move.  His other books are just a testament to the kind of story teller he is and this one is no exception.  He beautifully sets up the stage for the kind of mystery and adventure we can expect from this series.  For an adult, this was a quick but enjoyable read and I can only imagine what the middle grade readers think.  What I love the most, is the intractability this book has to the website.  They provide you with clue cards that you use to find clues on the website, allowing readers to hunt for the clues along side Amy and Dan Cahill.  It's things like this that propel readers to pick up a book.

Ok, let me start by saying, for kids this movie is great. There's action and adventure, humor and dragons. You can't go wrong with that. I've even heard confirmation from parents on how much they liked it.  I will give the movie that.  However, for an adaptation, I was a bit disappointed and upset by it. 

Let's start with the fact that the how-to-train-your-dragon part comes when Hiccup defies the rule of killing dragons and decides to befriend one instead.   The whole point of the book was the school that Hiccup had to attend.  A school designed to teach vikings how to train dragons, hence the how-to-train-your-dragon part of the book.  His heroism comes in taking the weakest dragon and turning it into the strongest by saving the village with it.

There's also Astrid Hofferson, the female student in the school of killing dragons.  There was no female students in the book.  And, as much as I like the idea of a female viking, I felt as if the movie creators added the female as a love interest to Hiccup and nothing else.  As a woman, I don't feel right about that.  We are more than just love interests.