Peeled

I usually love Joan Bauer's books - the strong (usually) female main characters who are smart, determined, and insightful, the sense of humor, and the quotable bits that are sprinkled throughout the works. However, this one, even with all the attributes mentioned above didn't have the same magic for me (maybe it was because I listened to it instead of read it?)
In a town that is filled with fear and rumors of ghostly activities, the staff of the school paper led by Hildy tries to provide a balanced voice and find truth in the growing frenzy.

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 show more 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. show less

Something's rotten in the heart of apple country!
Hildy Biddle dreams of being a journalist. A reporter for her high school newspaper, The Core, she's just waiting for a chance to prove herself. Not content to just cover school issues, Hildy's drawn to the town's big story--the haunted old Ludlow house. On the surface, Banesville, USA, seems like such a happy place, but lately, eerie happenings and ghostly sightings are making Hildy take a deeper look.
Her efforts to find out who is really haunting Banesville isn't making her popular, and she starts wondering if she's cut out to be a journalist after all. But she refuses to give up, because, hopefully, the truth will set a few ghosts free.

Joan Bauer is a writer, as her main character Hildy Biddle says of her journalist father, "you want to read all the way through." This touching and humorous story about a high school journalist who stands up against the corrupt developer who wants to destroy her proud little apple-growing community has a big heart and a lot to say about the nature of truth. The main character is a spunky girl who values hard work and brains, and I really liked that. There's a little bit of romance, a little bit of mystery, and even a little bit of revolution. The one complaint I have is that, at times, the book seems to skim along the surface a bit (in a bare bones journalistic style), and I wish we could linger, sink down into the relationships a bit. show more The characters outside of Hildy are fairly one-dimensional, and there are a lot of details about them that fall to the wayside in the focused plot of tracking down the clues and getting sources on the record. Overall, though, a book I will heartily recommend to my students. show less

Most of all, I love the characters! I love Hildy's passsion and her journalistic integrity. I love the character of Minska, who grew up in Communist Poland, and her relationship with Hildy and her friends. And I love the stern character of Baker Polton and his slew of wonderful journalistic tidbits. Some of the situations were a little "too much" like Pen Piedmont's editorials, the antics of the nefarious mayor, and the kids' opportune glomming on to a professional newspaperman for their new advisor, but it was still a fun read and I'm going to read more of Joan Bauer's books.

Writing style is a little choppy at times. I'm not sure if this was me being out of practice reading or not, but there were a few too many characters for me to always keep everyone straight. But I found this an excellent book to remind me why impartial and fact based journalism is so important. If I'm having a hard time finding that sort of journalism in real life, at least this book reminds me of things to beware of when reading todays internet 'news'.

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 show more Forward. I thought they were great; Peeled is just okay. show less