I Know You’re Lying by Daphne Benedis-Brab
Four students, Maddie, Jack, Nora and Henry are accused of stealing another student’s bag out of her locker. Now they are stuck in the office trying to figure out who actually stole it. Everyone seems to have a reason to not like Sasha, but do they hate enough to steal from her?
We learn pretty quickly that Sasha has information on each student that she is more than willing to share if her bag isn’t returned. The four teens have even more reason to come together to figure out who is guilty.
The four of them are put into a room by the principal. They have only a short time before the principal returns, and after that, Sasha’s parents’ lawyers will get involved. I get that having your bag stolen sucks, but immediately threatening to bring in lawyers is wild. Call the police to report the theft. What will the lawyers do? This makes me sort of dislike Sasha. I pretty much hated her as the book went on. She is not a pleasant person.
Also, the four teens are doing their best to find out who stole the bag, which is excellent, but they are running around the school to do it. How is no one paying attention to them? I feel like the office would have been told to watch them. Maybe because they are in and out of that room, they are just lucky that no one sees them gone. It just took me out of the story. I can totally see things getting stolen from students if you can’t keep an eye on four kids who are supposed to be held in an ISS-type room. Am I just grumpy today?
Anyway, it’s always lovely to see kids working together on something when they usually aren’t in the same clique. I like seeing them learn about each other and be open with each other. It’s like what teachers hope will happen when you do a group project. Maybe we should start some drama every once in a while, to get kids to work together! Just kidding! Sort of.
Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 