"Half-Moon Investigations" by Eoin Colfer

ISBN #978-0-7862-9362-9

Fletcher Moon is a private detective and he has the badge to prove it. He may only be 12 years old, but he has already taken an online detective class and scored the highest points ever!

So he's seen a lot; homework counterfeiters, thieves who steal candy from babies...he's an experienced man. But he has a problem...he has yet to make money off this detective business. Being a 12 year old detective means he's often paid with candy, and while he loves candy, he needs real money. Fletcher, though, is not only 12 years old, he's also one of the smallest kids in the school, so everyone calls him Half-Moon. But just how good is Fletcher? Good enough that he solved his first crime when he was only 3 years old! At that time one of his day care workers was missing a ring...after watching them desperately searching everywhere, Fletcher offers his assistance:

"Mary Ann took the ring," I told them.

Monique tried to be professional through her hysteria. "Now Fletcher, we've talked about this. No making up stories."

"Mary Ann took the ring," I insisted, scowling through the cracker crumbs around my lips.

Mary Ann picked up a building block and hefted it at my head. It made a solid contact, felling me like a tree trunk. Once the bleeding had stopped, I made a second attempt to break the case.

"Mary Ann took the ring," I said again. "Come see."

I dragged Monique over to the sink.

"Look, " I said, pointing to a red smear on the stainless steel, near where the ring had been. "Jam." Mary Ann had jam."
Monique's expression changed from patient to interested.

"That's true, I suppose, but other people had jam."

I had more evidence. "Look. On the floor. Marks."

Monique checked the floors. Wet tracks led across the tiles and onto the Disney rug. Four tracks. A walker.

"Mary Ann has wheels," I said.

It was the clincher. Only Mary Ann had jam and a walker."

(from pages 59-61)

Now Half-Moon knows alot, and he stays on top of things by keeping informants. Among his best is Doobie Doyle, and one day Doobie tells Moon that Herod Sharkey needs his help, and Herod was bad news. The Sharkey family are responsible for much of the crime in the town...so what can Half-Moon do? What would you do? Half-Moon decides to help, but he ends up getting Herod in trouble, and Herod's big brother, Red, doesn't like it and takes Fletcher's badge...but what else has he taken?

The next day, he is hired by a girl named April to find the person responsible for stealing something very important from her...and she suspects it was Red who took her item. What's going on here? Is Red a one man crime spree? Fletcher finds out that there's been a whole lot of crimes committed in town...crimes that nobody can solve because nobody thinks they're related, but he does. And why are so many trouble making boys being kicked out of school for crimes they claim they are innocent of? Is someone setting them up? And what happens when Half-Mooon himself is accused of crimes he has not committed? Something is fishy...but Half-Moon has to go undercover to find out what's going on, because not only do they think he burned down a girl's clubhouse...he escaped from the police. And who is his only ally as he attempts to prove his innocence and solve the crime? Red Sharkey.

Will Half-Moon clear his name? Will he and Red solve the mystery of this crime spree? Does Red give him back his badge? To find out, read the book!

"Endymion Spring" by Matthew Skelton

(978-0-3857-3456-1)

This is a book that takes place in two different eras...one in the mid 1400's and the other in our modern times.

Blake is a young American living in England while his mother studies at Oxford. He lives with her and his little sister, Duck, often finding himself in libraries. One day, as he is walking by, running his hands along the books on the shelf, rapping them with his knuckles...one of the books hits him back! He looks at his hand and sees blood, and he sees a book laying on the floor; he picks it up and sees that it is a vary old book...but it is blank.

Why would there be a blank book in a library, one that doesn't even look like it belongs there for it is not even cataloged? As he is looking through the blank pages, words start to form...and he reads the name "Endymion Spring."

What does it mean? And why is it that only he can read the words on the paper? Did the book really jump out at him for a reason? Did it choose him?

Legends speak of a a book, a book simply referred to as the Last Book. This book contains all the knowledge of good and evil which tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. All of the past and everything to come in the future...it is all written in this book. "Endymion Spring" is the book that tells where to find the "Last Book." And the Person in Shadow is someone who wants that book more than anything else, and will do anything to get it. "Endymion Spring", you see, is literally a living book...it knows whom it can trust, and it knows the heart of the evil that wants the secret which it holds in its covers!

But who is Endymion Spring?

Endymion Spring is a boy living in 1452...an apprentice to Johannes Gutenberg. Johan Fust is a man who steals something very valuable, the contents are stored in a magnificent chest...but he cannot access the contents, not all of them. Only the blood of an innocent can reveal the contents...and Endymion Spring is the boy who can bring forth the words. But he cannot let Fust get the book stored within the chest, for Fust will use it for evil! So Endymion Spring takes the book with him and runs away...he must protect the book!

What, then, is the connection between Blake in the 21st century and Endymion Spring in the 15th century? Who is the Person in Shadow? Can Blake protect the book?

Read this book to find out!