Fading Tracks

Title: FADING TRACKS
Author: Kristi Holl
Publisher: Zondervan Kidz
June 2008
ISBN: 978-0-310-71429-3
Genre: Young Adult/mystery

Jeri McKane is surprised when her roommate at the Landmark School for Girls doesn’t get back from a field trip in time for dinner. She is horrified when the head mistress of the school informs them that the bus carrying the girls has vanished somewhere on a 2 mile stretch of a treacherous highway. The bus was seen going into that stretch, but no one witnessed it coming out.

Taking matters into her own hands, twelve year old Jeri contacts a news team, and sends out missing persons alerts, which makes the head mistress upset since she wanted to keep the vanished bus and children secret. Jeri gets grounded on campus. How can she find her missing roommate if she isn’t allowed to help? And what happened to the missing girls? Were they kidnapped, or worse?

FADING TRACKS is the first book in The Boarding School Mysteries series. Jeri is an adventurous twelve year old, good at thinking on her feet. I was curious about some of the people in the story, knowing that whodunit is usually introduced in the story, and it seemed a lot of people had opportunity. I didn’t figure out who actually did it until the end of the book though.

I enjoyed reading FADING TRACKS, though at times it seemed a bit contrived and unrealistic. Still, it is a book that will appeal to eight-to-twelve year old girls, and maybe some older ones. Don’t miss this new series. $6.99. 144 pages.