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 Editor Kat O'Shea

Photo by Dr Joseph Valks

 It's Saturday again, and time for some spooky encounters with the paranormal. This one comes courtesy of Kat O'Shea, Editor-in-Chief of Leap Books. Is it any wonder Kat likes to edit the Leap Books line of paranormals?

When I was in high school, I was eating lunch with my friend Alice at a picnic table outside. Two girls sat at the table in front of us, spread out their lunches, and began making fun of Alice. When they made ape sounds and kissing noises, Alice’s eyes filled with tears. (Some people called the guy Alice had a crush on “Apeman.”) She gathered up her stuff and started to flee, but I’d had enough.

I stood and said, “You’d better watch out because I’m a witch. If you don’t leave Alice alone, I’ll cast  a spell on you.”

The girls giggled and pretended to cower.

“Ooo, scary,” one of them said.

I have no idea why I did this, but I held out my arms and wriggled my fingers toward their lunches in what I hoped looked like a witchlike motion.

A sudden breeze blew their bags of chips off the table and dumped them into their laps. Their eyes got wider.

The wind grew stronger. The plastic wrap on their sandwiches and cookies flapped open, a partially eaten pack of Tastycakes slid to the ground. They clutched each other and screamed as a carton of chocolate milk tipped over and doused the cookies.

As the puddle of milk flowed toward their laps, they leapt up. Throwing frightened glances over their shoulders, they fled, leaving their lunches behind.

Truth was, I was as petrified as they were. I have no idea if the wind was a coincidence or if I caused it, but I’ve been afraid to repeat that performance. I worry that nothing will happen, or even worse, that something will. I’m not sure which I’d prefer.

I still wonder: Can people really cause things like that to happen? Why did the wind stop as soon as I lowered my hands? How come only their table was affected by the wind? Nothing on our table or nearby tables even moved.

 Any thoughts? Anyone else ever have an experience like this? Feel free to leave comments or send your story to Lexie North and we’ll post it on the blog.