Boots & Pieces Book

Arlie Jacobs has issues. She has a big sister who bosses her around, an incompetent town sheriff who always seems to think she's up to something, and the best dressed pet Chihuahua (Mr. Boots) you've ever seen. Oh, and something is eating the kids in her town.

Arlie has never been one to sit around at home and do nothing when there's something more interesting going on, so she and her best friend Ty decide to do some investigating. And that's when they discover the mutant gummy monster that lives in the local polluted lake. The local lake which is the site of the upcoming prom. One thing's for sure: if Arlie and Ty can't do something about the gummy monster soon, half the kids in town are going to end up as monster hors d'overs.

This book surprised me. It's funny and clever, and a little bit gross, and the tiniest bit gory. The monster is actually (ridiculously) scary. Arlie is a likeable, grumpy, engaging protagonist, with a fantastic voice. She's really funny. She's like an underachieving Buffy without the Slayer powers. This is a book for reluctant readers, girls and boys, who like their fiction with a little bite and fast-paced, funny action. Read this book. You'll like Arlie, and if you've ever had a big sister, or been the dorky kid in school, or wanted to save the day, you'll like this book.

And let me leave you with the first line:

If Ty hadn't kicked me in the head that day, I probably wouldn't even have noticed when Stacy Sizemore disappeared. Heck, nobody else really seemed to, not at first anyway. Not until they found the pieces.

How can you resist a book that starts like that?