SSJCPL (Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library) discussion

Hello All,

I hope everyone enjoyed our February Anti-Valentine's Day read. I thought it would be fun for March to change things up a little bit in our online book club. Since March is known for being a green month, thanks St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be fun to read a book with a green cover! This book can be any genre and any age level it just needs to have a green cover.

And please share with us what your green cover choices are. The best way to get book recommendations is from others. Happy reading!

My March read is going to be The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson. This is the third and last in the Truly Devious mystery trilogy for teens. These books have been so enjoyable to read and harken back to the days of the Agatha Christie who dun its.

All three books take place at Ellingham Academy, a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.