The Crystal Ball Predicts...

A Skype visit from Patrice Lyle.

 With her Spells & Spies sign in the background and crystal ball in hand, Patrice is ready to discuss her tween mystery in the Poison Ivy series, The Case of the Invisible Witch. Other props include items from her paranormal collection (the figure she used to inspire the series) and surprise visits from two of her three cats.

On a recent Skype visit with an elementary class interesting information about herself, such as the fact that her father was a detective and she used to snoop in his files. That's how she learned so much about solving mysteries. She also gave the schools a pdf with discussion questions (authored by Mary Helen Sheriff, along with some great Common Core activities) and writing prompts.

And just to clarify, the pink room is her writing room, not her daughter's bedroom, as one student guessed.

Interested in a Skype visit with Patrice? You can contact her through her website. Learn more about her at her Leap Books author page or Twitter (@Patrice_Lyle).


ABOUT THE BOOK

Thirteen-year-old Tulip Bonnaire, Witch PI, runs Spells & Spies out of her dorm room at Poison Ivy Charm School, a school for polite witches and warlocks. She has only 72 hours to figure out her latest case, or her classmate, Missy, will never be seen again. Literally.

When Missy shows up in Tulip’s dorm room around midnight, she’s invisible. As in not even x-ray vision could spot her. The mean triplets who call themselves The Belles have cast an invisibility spell on poor Missy. But if Tulip can’t break the spell in 72 hours, Missy will remain invisible forever.

It’s a case Tulip can’t resist — between her mom’s annoying new boyfriend and her own secret crush at school, Tulip understands how much it stinks to feel invisible. Luckily for Tulip, her two best friends and her cute, techy guy friend help dig up clues on a case that turns out to be her freakiest one ever.

Saturday Shivers by Kara Eggers

 My great-grandmother went to a fortune teller when she was young. The woman told her that she'd only have three children at a time. Grams didn't know what she meant, but wondered if she'd have triplets. Unfortunately, the fortune didn't mean that at all.

Grams ended up having six children. Her first three children were born within four years of each other. And Grams thought the fortune teller's predicition had come true--until she got pregnant with number four. The other three children now ranged in age from 5-9. A month before the new baby was born, their middle daughter got sick and died.

While she was in labor with her fifth child, the youngest one was hit by a car and died. Grams and Gramps thought they'd beaten the odds when their sixth child was born. All three of the older children were healthy. Relatives kept an extra close eye on all three of them while Grams was pregnant and during her delivery. The new baby was also healthy. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Sadly, though, the newborn died two days later. Now they think it was probably SIDS, but then they called it crib death.

With all the sadness in her life, you'd think Grams would have ended up bitter or depressed, but she was one of the most cheerful people I've ever met. She lived into her late 90s and adored every one of her 16 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren. She never got cross with any of us, even when we were being little "hooligans," as she'd say. When we were misbehaving, she'd scoop us up into her ample lap, give us a hug, and say, "Seems to me you need a little extra loving right now." It always worked.

Wow, Kara! That was both a heartbreaking and inspiring story. And luckily, not all fortunes are as sad as that one. In fact, if you'd like to find out your own fortune, head on over to author Kitty Keswick's website, where you can ask questions of her crystal ball. It'll give you an answer when you click on it. Hope it's one you want to hear.

And if you'd like to share a brush you've had with the paranormal,
feel free to send it to our blog coordinator, Lexie North at leapblogtours@gmail.com. We'd love to post your spooky tales.