Hildy Biddle is feisty, funny, and and has a very good mind of her own. She is Banesville High's star reporter, determined to be as good as her father was. Apples are the "core" of Banesville's economy and two years of poor crops have farmers struggling. Life becomes really rotten when threatening signs appear on the town's old haunted house and Hildy gets a midnight call alerting her to a break-in there. Hildy and her friends are determined to break the story and solve the mystery.

The premise of a cub reporter breaking the story is hardly original, but Peeled is a very good young adult novel. Hildy is not only smart, determined,caring, and responsible, but the kind of girl who knows that beauty is more than skin deep and that fickle boyfriends aren't worth the bother. There are worthwhile lessons about corruption, the struggles faced by small towns and small farmers, and the power of the press -- and abuse of that power.

Fans of mysteries or crime novels might find the clues too heavy handed and could become impatient waiting for Hildy and her friends to catch on.

In a nutshell, I would recommend this to girls in the 12 to 15 age range. ( )

Starts out as a ghost story/mystery, then segues into the first amendment rights of students. Bauer continues her winning streak! ( )

Reviewed by Grandma Bev for TeensReadToo.com

Banesville's newspaper, The Bee, has been printing stories about the town's old haunted house and stirring up fear in the town. Hildy Biddle, a reporter for the high school newspaper, The Core, wants to know just who, or what, is haunting Banesville.

Banesville is a quiet little town where the whole economy revolves around producing and selling apples...it's a whole way of life. It seems that because of the old haunted house and the sensationalism that The Bee has stirred up, a very large company wants to build a haunted amusement park revolving around the old Ludlow house. Hildy thinks the editor of The Bee is more interested in sensationalism and selling papers than he is in telling the truth, and now someone is trying to make the apple farmers sell out at below market price to make room for the proposed amusement park.

It's true that there have been reports of eerie, strange happenings and ghostly sightings, but Hildy and her friends at The Core are out to disprove the rumors and save the farmers. Their conflict with the editor of the rival newspaper causes the school to shut down publication of The Core, but Hildy isn't going to let that stop her. Together, can the kids figure out some way to keep the amusement park out and keep the apple country intact?

Bauer specializes in warm, funny, but strong characters, with witty dialogue, and is a genius at plotting exciting, very entertaining stories. PEELED is one of her best. Hildy stays true to her commitment to the town and her dream to be a great journalist as she struggles to overcome obstacles and expose the truth. Her leadership is inspirational as she confronts the established newspaper and its editor to try to save a way of life. ( )

Contemporary story of a young girl working on the high school paper who learns about the world of journalism and propaganda as she covers the happenings in her small town. The local paper has been sensationalizing a story about mysterious ghostly sightings in the town and she, her friends, and a veteran reporter turned advisor take on the fabrications and secrets that haunt their town. Light, fun story with life lessons attached. ( )

Another great book from Joan Bauer ( )

slow getting going, but the last third was great.

Another good book from Bauer! Strong female protagonist, which is so nice, and good plot with themes of censorship and media literacy. ( )

Another of Bauer's spunky teenage heroines, this one a budding journalist. ( )

Richie's Picks: PEELED by Joan Bauer, Putnam, May 2008, 248p. ISBN: 978-0-399-23475-0

"Baker Polton put his feet on the table, leaned back in his chair, and read, '"The long, lonely high school corridors seemed to be filled with the whispers of the graduating seniors who had left their marks on us all."'
"Elizabeth smiled nervously.
"He looked up. 'Did the seniors draw on you with laundry markers?'
"'Why no...'
"He slashed through her copy, wrote in red, We won't forget the graduating seniors. 'Keep it simple, kid. This is journalism, not creative writing.'"

Back when I was traversing my own high school corridors on Long Island in the early 1970s, I distributed an underground newspaper called Dog Breath (apparently named after the melodic Zappa song) to fellow students at Commack North. I knew that those stacks of newspapers were coming from someone in the Huntington area.

(Don't you just love the Internet for being able to track down all sorts of weird stuff?)

Since I was preparing to write about a great new middle school novel involving truth, justice, and a school newspaper named The Core, I was fondly recalling that old underground newspaper and started looking around online to see what I could learn about it (35+ years later). It turns out to have apparently been published by the older brother of a brainy Long Island kid who grew up to invent the Palm Pilot!

"'We've got a bozo who likes rubbing fear and lies in people's faces. He's the only media source in town except us. Who are we writing for?'
"Elizabeth raised her hand emotionally. 'The American people!'
"Baker clasped his brow. 'Let's narrow that.'
Darrell stood. 'We're writing for the community.'
"'And they deserve the facts,' Baker warned. 'Don't ever forget it.'"

There are seriously weird doings in Banesville, a picturesque community in upstate New York that has built up around a core of farms and long-established apple orchards . There have long been rumors that the creepy old Ludlow place is haunted. In fact, a young girl died in an accident on the street right out front five years ago. Now, one man has been caught trying to break in to the old house while another one has been found on the property -- dead!

And the town's paper run by Pen Piedmont seems to be going out of its way, through a series of articles about the incidents, to heighten the fears gripping community members:

"The Bee had in-depth coverage of the Ludlow place, including interviews with unidentified sources too afraid to come forward.'
"It's a funny thing how fear grows. It moves like a virus, infecting person after person.
"There wasn't any medicine to stop the epidemic, either.
"Children were having nightmares about the killer ghost; some were afraid to leave their houses and come to school.
"One kindergarten teacher stopped taking her students out to recess because several of them said they saw a bad ghost behind a tree on the playground.
"I remembered my long year fighting fear in eighth grade after Dad died.
"'Everybody's afraid of something,' Gwen, my therapist, told me back then. 'And fear isn't always a bad thing, Hildy. It can alert us to real danger.' The operative word, Gwen said, was real, not imagined.
"Imagined fears are hard to nail down. For a while I was afraid every time my mom would go out that she'd get in a car accident and never come back. I was afraid that I'd never be happy again, I'd always be crying. I was scared that I had a weak heart like my dad and I'd die at thirty-eight just like he did."

Hildy Biddle, who has grown up on one of those old apple orchards in Banesville, is the hard-working high school reporter who is at the center of the action. She is trying to fill the shoes of her dead father -- a great journalist and beloved community member -- while also attending school and doing her share of chores at home. In the process of trying to unravel (peel) the mysteries of the old Ludlow place, the dead body, and The Bee's role in what is going on, Hildy will come to count on the assistance of the new kid in town (Zack) The Core's curmudgeonly new advisor (Baker Polton), and a town resident (Minska) who "grew up in Communist Poland and saw fighting in the streets when she was a girl":

"'My mother,' Minska said, 'always told me something when I was going to give up. She said, "Sometimes just getting up in the morning and standing at the gate can bring the gate down."'"

In an era when community-based agriculture is rapidly coming to be recognized as a plus in terms of helping to mitigate the problems of global warming (It cuts down on trucking cardboard-like produce back and forth for thousands of miles.), Hildy Biddle's journey into the challenging world of high school journalism is an important as well as a lively and very fun tale about getting to the truth, saving farmlands, and embracing the gift of community.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_...
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
Caldecott '09 ( )

I wasn't as fond of this novel as I have been other Joan Bauer works. The whole thing seemed weak and contrived. I liked the description of the town and enjoyed the whole play on the "apple" theme. I just can't imagine anyone getting so excited about a school newspaper! ( )

eh.
that's all i have to say about this book. ( )

Hildy Biddle is a high school journalist on a mission. To report the truth on the haunting of the Ludlow house, she’ll have to ruffle a few feathers in town. Bauer’s writing is clean and makes for a quick read. Although I wouldn’t rush right out to buy this book, I do think it’s worth having in a Middle School or Public Library collection. ( )

Hildy Biddle is trying to follow in the journalistic footsteps of her late father. Hildy attends a rural high school in New York, in a community surrounded by and whose economy is dependent upon apple orchards. Hildy's own family operates an apple orchard, and in addition to the mutlitulde of school projects she's involved in, Hildy works on the family farm and helps out by giving apple picking tours to elementary school groups. When rumors and strange happenings begin at an abandoned house, Hildy and her newspaper friends decide to investigate-- and wind up taking a bigger 'bite' than they realize. Stories about haunted houses and the supernatural get people in town afraid, but Hildy knows there's something not right, and her journalistic intincts prove correct. This is a squeaky clean book; even with all the supernatural and haunting speculation there isn't anything even approaching a 'gosh darn' for foul language. At times the plot starts to feel like a Scooby Doo episode, and I thought for sure some old man would take off a mask and say, "I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids." But it's an enjoyable read and author Joan Bauer makes the book relevent with questions about journalistic integrity. I'd foremost recommend this to students on the school newspaper or who are thinking about a career in journalism. ( )

Hildy Biddle wants to be a reporter like her dad. She lives in the small community of ___________ and helps her family run their apple orchard and is an active member of the school newspaper staff. Things in this little community are usually pretty quiet, but lately, things have been different. First of all, the last two harvests have been poor and this year will make or break many families. The tension is palpable. Then a mysterious death occurs on property thought to be haunted and strange, scary messages start appearing around town. The fear that runs through the town is made worse by the arrival of a psychic, the local newspapers willingness to promote fear in the community and an over-anxious property development idea. Hildy and her friends think this is a little weird and they set out to investigate. ( )

Bauer's latest coming of age tale tells the story of Hildy Biddle, a high school journalist whose motivation to always get the truth has given her quite a reputation in her small town of Banesville, New York. Big news stories are hard to come by in Banesville, but when the old Ludlow house ghost strikes again, Hildy finds the story of a lifetime. ( )

I always enjoy Bauer's books, but this one wasn't quite as catchy as Rules of the Road or Hope Was Here. I learned a good deal about the newspaper business and how to be sure to get the whole truth, and I also learned a bit about owning an apple orchard. The main character is smart and easy to relate to, but the mystery with the haunted house and the mean real estate people was a little too easy to solve for my taste. ( )

Hildy Biddle is a reporter for the high school newspaper. Something is happening in her small apple-growing town, involving an old house said to be haunted, and it seems to involve the editor of the local paper and the mayor among others. Hildy, as an investigative journalist, is determined to find out what's going on. ( )

See audiobook summary ( )

High school reporter Hildy Biddle is always searching for the truth and the next big story, so when a town ghost makes his presence felt, Hildy jumps at the chance to get the real story. But a dead body and mysterious warnings scrawled on the door of a haunted house cause the rumors to fly even faster than the fear that is spreading throughout the small town of
Bainesville. Asking the wrong people the right questions could be dangerous, but Hildy is determined to get to the truth in this enjoyable mystery. ( )

I love Joan Bauer’s books. All spring I waited with high expectations for Peeled. Maybe I expected too much, but I was disappointed. The book’s main character, Hildy, is a reporter for her high school newspaper. There are evil-doers afoot in her small town, and she and her friends (with the help of a curmudgeonly adult advisor) uncover their shenanigans. If you’ve read Landry News by Andrew Clements, or more recently, the Adam Canfield of the Slash books by Michael Winerip you won’t find anything new here. If you really like the “high school journalist” genre and are looking for a new book, I recommend Defying the Diva, by D. Anne Love, over Peeled. If you haven’t read Joan Bauer, start with Hope Was Here and Best Foot Forward. I thought they were great; Peeled is just okay. ( )

Hildy works for the school paper and is passionate about journalism. When strange things start happening at an abandoned house in town and the local paper starts feeding on the fear to sell more papers, Hildy and her friends go undercover to find out what's really happening. If you like a funny mystery, this is a good read for you. ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )

Hildy, a writer for the student newspaper, The Core, fights the powers that be, in particular the editor of the local paper, The Bee when it starts spreading rumors about the local "haunted house." Hildy, her friends and a Polish woman who participated in the Solidarity movement there, support a free press and local growers against urban development. ( )

Another of Bauer's spunky teenage heroines, this one a budding journalist. ( )