Catherine MacPhailReseñas

Picked this up from a free library because it sounded interesting. I knew where the story was going from the start, but still enjoyed it.

Great development of characters and they are relatable. A good fun read, not overly challenging, but still makes one think.

Part of the Collins Read On series. Chance Macduff is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is on his last chance with his teacher. On a school camp to an island called Point danger, Chance notices a kid called Gary being bullied in his class. Then at night he sees Gary sneaking out to the derelict lighthouse. Worried for his safety, he follows Gary but with all his bad luck, is this Chance's LAST chance?

A short book purchased for the EAL/Dyslexic readers, this surprised me by being a very good read.Told from Chantelle ( a "cool" girl's point of view it is about the perils of both conforming and being an individual at high school. Chantelle takes frumpy new girl under her wing to make her in her image but after she does this, Mimi does not follow Chantelle's plan and instead starts taking over from her spot as the tough,cool girl. At 76p. with illustrations that are not too primary, it will appeal to readers who want something short to read.

For the most part I think this is one of those books kids in middle school and high school really need to read because there are very important themes that in the story lines that are so prevalent in their culture today. Younger generations are increasingly dealing with bullying in both reality and on cyber levels, are drawn to the need to become famous and don’t seem to consider the long term consequences of their choices; then again that last one could just be a general condition of the human race.

MacPhail opens the story by dropping you right in the middle of the action thankfully though it doesn’t take long to catch up or understand how these characters are involved with the story as her talented writing answers all the major questions up front. I have to admit at first I was getting pretty bored because the characters seemed bored and completely apathetic that their friend was missing. She definitely captures teenage attitudes correctly which for good or bad was rubbing off on me as the reader. I hung in there and I was glad I did because then some INSANE twists start getting dropped; everything you thought you knew about this story gets upended.

Mixing texts and social media posts with the story added an interesting depth which I felt captured the spirit of the characters involved along with the intended audience. Once I got past the opening and hit the first big “what the hell” moment the story just flew by at this incredibly quick pace. When the story finally began winding down towards its conclusion I never saw this ending coming
but as the pieces fell into place it made so much sense and felt like the perfect way to go.

The ONLY complaint I had was one line of narrative where the main character remarks “Over the next couple of days I grew to understand why teenagers commit suicide.” The character was undergoing some severe bullying and this was her feeling in relation to that. Then later the character says she stopped thinking seriously about suicide because she couldn’t die without finding out what a person’s motivation was for a particular action. I don’t want to get too specific and ruin one of the big twists. Something about the attitude towards suicide really bothered me, it felt a little flippant and with suicide such a HUGE issue with teens I felt like this could have been handled better. Granted it’s a teenager talking instead of an adult so you can’t expect a teen to have some profound viewpoint on this. The taboo subject is only quickly mentioned and forgotten in these 2 instances so I felt like it would have been better to say nothing and the author could have deleted these lines or altered how the character was trying to explain their feelings without harming the story.

The subject of suicide has directly affected my family so I admit to being very sensitive to the subject making it my personal viewpoint whereas others may read those parts and have a completely different reaction if any.

Overall I felt it was an intriguing book, perfect for its intended audience and a good one to get some discussions going. I can see this being used in English classes or teen book clubs. It would be a pretty good idea for parents to read it as well so they could talk with their kids about bullying, its consequences, how to handle it and even how to create a better environment at home where kids can feel comfortable and safe to talk to their parents about anything including how their own behavior is impacting their kids.

Reading this with a student; so far, it's quite a hit. I'm annoyed by the language (the whole British thing), but this is just the type of fast-moving mystery that an 8th grader at a lower reading level can get lost in, forgetting that she's actually "reading" (ewww....)

This got annoying after a while, but then again, I'm not the intended audience. 5th grade reading level, middle school interest level (up to grade 9, I'd say). Suspenseful, short chapters about a typical dysfunctional family, and I would expect that most adolescent girls could relate to the issues at the heart of the conflict and will get swept away with the ghost story/mystery part as well.

A great book to study in a GCSE class, plenty of things to discuss and dissect. Would make a much better choice than Woman in Black, which they are currently doing and more relevant to today's youth society.

Logan has moved from Aberdeen to Glasgow with his mother and her new husband Vince, in an attempt to start afresh after he "got in with a bad crowd". In the flats where he lives he has few friends - Baz, the fearless leader of the group, Mickey who loves his dog Ricky, Gary whose Dad is a petty criminal and Claude, the overweight nice guy. His one other friend is Lucie, who goes to "special" school with him and hates Baz. When the boys get into a fight with a rival gang, things start to get ugly:- there's a warehouse fire, stolen goods and then suddenly the boys are running for their lives.
Gripping and suspenseful, the story is told in Logan's journal form, which keeps you guessing until the very end. Recommended for boys 12 and up.
SPOILER ALERT : Think Fight Club!

Maxine’s brother disappear after constant bullying at school, problems with his family at home. Maxine feels utterly ignored by her parents who will drop her and go follow the most recent sighting of Derek making her feel not important and useless. As the sightings become fewer and farther apart the police think they have found a body. Her mother believes the ghost of Derek is with her and is losing her mental grip. Then, Maxine starts getting phone calls from a boy who sounds exactly like Derek. Though he always says someone is after him and he has to go before Maxine can really converse with her brother. At school she is losing friends and is under constant harassment from bullies. The same people that caused her brother to run away! Eventually she plans a meeting with the mysterious figure claiming to be her beloved brother that she hadn’t seen in so long. At their first meeting, before Maxine had been able to meet him to see if he was actually the boy she had known so long ago, he had to run away only saying someone was after him. The phone calls stopped for a while and Maxine’s flame of hope died to an ember. But then she got one last call to meet him at a cemetery. She goes there and Derek appears as they go home, their mother and father are overwhelmed with joy and relief of their son’s return. Within the next few weeks, her brother is somewhat of a superstar getting interviewed about the effects of bullying. But at last they are one reunited happy family.
I gave this book five stars for multiple reasons. The constant war between desire and hatred of her brother touched my emotions. The constant mystery with Derek made me think about the book even when I wasn’t reading it. Maxine’s courage throughout the story was almost inspiring . With these reasons and many more I feel confident this book deserves five stars.

Maxine feels like she’s going crazy. Her older brother, Derek, ran away from home and has been missing for 10 months. Sweeney, the school bully, had made his life, and others, into a living hell, never getting the punishment he deserved. Not knowing what happened to him has torn her family apart, and she feels guilty for wanting him to be dead so they would pay attention to her. When the police discover a body and her father identifies it as Derek, things seem to get worse. After the funeral, her parents seem to forget all about her and Maxie is left even more alone.

Read more at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/

A car accident has left James in a wheel chair and his father dead. He is a very angry and bitter teenager. He is not only angry about the accident, he blames his mother for being asleep and not sharing more of the driving with his father, but also about being in a wheelchair and specifically how people now treat him. It is as though he is invisible to many and others act like he is stupid. He feel s that most people treat him in a patronizing way and he hates that most of all.
James is being treated not only for his physical injuries but also seeing a psychologist for a loss of memory. His mother is over compensating for walking away from the crash without a scratch by trying to protect him from the world and excusing any type of behaviour which only exasperates and frustrates James.
He becomes even more frustrated when he believes that he has seen the driver of the van that caused the accident. The supposed driver is dead and no-one believes him, not even his mother.
How can a boy in a wheelchair prove his case against this man, solve the mystery about who might have really been responsible and bring a guilty person to justice?
This is an exciting and suspenseful story. James' character is difficult and not always easy to like but the reader will admire his tenacity.½

A tense and gripping read that really made me think. Interesting to read it as an adult, I think I may well have seen some if it differently if I was reading it as a teen - there's lots of potential here for discussions. So interesting to see the way Armour manipulated Leo, a pretty stark reality of how things must be happening as young teens are drawn into the criminal underworld. Loved the relationship between Leo and his little brother David.

A tense and gripping read that really made me think. Interesting to read it as an adult, I think I may well have seen some if it differently if I was reading it as a teen - there's lots of potential here for discussions. So interesting to see the way Armour manipulated Leo, a pretty stark reality of how things must be happening as young teens are drawn into the criminal underworld. Loved the relationship between Leo and his little brother David.

This is a wow, I need to recommend this to a friend kind of book. It tells the story of a 15 year old girl called Roxy who gets pregnant by accident and sees running away as her only option. She finds herself taken in by a friendly couple who live far out in the countryside and open their home to numerous young girls who have run away pregnant. But... suspicions start to rise.
Roxy is astounded by the generosity of this couple who ask for nothing in return... well, that is, apart from banning TVs and newpapers, but that's just because they don't want the girls to get upset if their parents appear on the news - isn't it? And the fact that none of the girls should leave the house, but that's just to give their babies the best protection - isn't it?
This becomes an increasingly dark and frightening tale that will have you chewing your nails in anticipation and fear... because the friendly couple just have the girls' best interests at heart - don't they?

Barnslig - passar yngre tonåren, Sam mobbar Omar. Omar berättar positivt ändå om Sam för sin kusin som snart ska komma till landet. Sam har en hemlighet - han kan inte läsa

This book is about a young boy who goes missing because Sweeney (a bulley) thretens to beat him up. It causes troubles in his family, BIG TIME. They find out he is dead. His parentsgo to England to inspect his body. They assure its him, but there daughter keeps getting phone calls. It sounds like fast, short breaths, but finally he talks.Read to hear what he said!

missing is about a girls brother who goes missing and
the cop find her brothers body and a month later the girl
Maxine gets a call and they say "maxy it's me derek" and
derek is her brothers name

Missing is a awesome book to read!!! I recomened it to people who like to read mysteries. Thiss book is about a girl named Maxiene. Maxiene had a brother named Derik. Derik always called Maxiene Maxxi. One morning Derik and mum had got in a agurement. Then Derik didnt sho up for school. Derik went missing. A couple months later they get a phone call from the police who thought they had found Deriks body. Mum became very low after they idenified Deriks body. Until one day Maxiene got a phone call. All there was a short breatyhing on the other line. Then Maxiene got more phone calls with just short breathings on the other side. Ring Ring the phone said, Maxiene didnt want to answer but forced herself to. This time someone said Maxxi its me Derik, your brother. Maxiene didnt beileve a word that person said. She thought who would prank her like this. It surely wasnt Derik because he was dead. Or thats what they thought. was Derik really dead? Was Derik alive? What was Going on? Who would of pranked her like this? Read the book and i promise you will love it and not want to put it down!!!!

missing is a great book it is about a boy named derik and he runs away and his little sister that is only 13 keeps getting phone calls and keeps feeling like she is being watched so when she gets her last phone call it says go to the cemntary so she goes and there stands sweeny and then some body starts talking he gets scared and runs away then here comes her brother out behind the trees and they go home but her mom and dad dont know because they thought he was dead but it is a great book

Missing was a good book and was just what I expected.

A very suspenseful book recommended to readers who enjoy a "quick read". The books' meaning is so intriguing. Great transitions between chapters that make you want to read on. Once you begin reading this book, you will never stop!½

this book is about this family that had there son run away.his parents and sisterthought they lost him forever so read to find out.?.?

a exciting book about a girl named max aka maxine who her brother calls her. her brother goes missing all of a sudden and she keeps getting strange phone calls. ghosts dont make phone calls. read to find out what happens

With short chapters and a fast-paced narrative, MacPhail's first in a series of books about Ram will appeal to teenagers who like mystery and action. Ram is a loner and readers will find his character intriguing as he searches to learn his identity. As this novel ends with many questions unanswered, readers will want to read the sequel.

This was a quick read about a kid whose family has a reputation for being bad. When Col risks his life to save a drowning boy, things begin to change. He stumbles across things that could make him do what he's always sworn he wouldn't, turn his back on his brother.
There's a little of the supernatural mixed in to this family drama.½

Leo is in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses something terrible; the murder of one of the local crime bosses by another. Suddenly, his world is thrown into turmoil, as he knows that if he tells anyone, his life and their life will be in danger. So Leo makes a choice; not to "grass" (dob in) the crime boss Armour and he finds himself starting to fall under the Man's spell as he believes everything the murderer says because he tells Leo he "trusts" him, and that he only killed Macrae because he wanted to rid the area of crime and that he is planning to "go straight". Leo's secrets eat into him and destroy his friendship with his best mate Sean, ruin his budding relationship with the beautiful Veronika and worse, cause his father to mistrust and loathe him. A powerful story about making choices and doing the "right" thing, about fear and protecting your family and friends. p.81-82 Leo runs into Armour in the street after the killing.