Psychic Investigator

Plot: This book is about a 13 year old girl named Gilda Joyce. She goes to school in the Detroit suburb with her best friend Wendy Choy. Gilda loves to read, type on her father's typewriter, and have adventures whenever she has the chance. This summer Gilda plans on visiting her mother's second cousin named Lester Splinter. When Gilda gets to California, she is in for the unexpected. But on the good side, she makes new friends, definitely has an adventure, and much, much more.

Character Description: the characters i am choosing to describe are Gilda Joyce and Juliet Splinter, her cousin.

• Gilda- she is a smart 13 year old girl who wants to become a writer when she grows up. She loves solving mysteries and reading her book called The Master Psychic's Handbook. Something i like about Gilda is that she is very sweet and polite. I like this because if she wants to meet new people, like Lester, than she has to be polite and make a good first impression.
• Juliet- she is also 13 years old, but resembles an 11 year old because of her height. She has silky hair, pale skin, and icy, gray eyes. Juliet's parents divorced when she was very young and lived with her mother until she was 10 years old. She now lives with her father in a Victorian Mansion on Laguna Street. Something i strongly dislike about her is that she has a major attitude towards Gilda, when all Gilda is doing is trying to help Juliet live in a calm, peaceful household. She is mean when unnecessary, but when needed she is nice and understanding.

Your thoughts: I really enjoyed this book because i felt as if i was in Gilda's shoes. This book was suspenseful at times, which i liked a lot because it made me wonder and predict. Plus Jennifer Allison, the author, was very descriptive when she described people, places, feelings, etc. I like the way the she transited to one setting and then to a completely different one, but using details that made it feel as if you were moving too. I recommend this book to everyone especially if you like books like Killing Mr. Griffin and the series.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i mainly used was mental images. I used this a lot because since there was so much detail in the story i could clearly visualize each character and their characteristics. I made mental images of Juliet, Lester's reaction when Gilda arrived, Gilda's book (the cover), and more. i usually made a "mini-movie" at the end of each chapter, so by the end of the book i had a whole "movie." I used other strategies, but this one was the main one i used.

Author Information: the author of this book is Jennifer Allison. This is her first book and it is great. She grew up in a small town in Michigan. Since one of her best friends lived on a farm with a spooky atmosphere, they found it perfect to do seances, which inspired her to write this novel. The odd jobs she had before being an author helped her generate ideas for characters and stories. As i said before the thing i really liked about her was that she wrote with great detail.