Gold!-The Lady Grace Mysteries

By Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler
In the year 1570, in England, at Queen Elizabeth's I court, Lady Grace Cavendish begins to write her adventures in a new diary that Penelope gave to her as a gift. Lady Grace is the youngest Maid of Honour (she is fourteen) of the Queen, and she is also the Queen's Lady Pursuivant, that solves mysteries for the Queen, and the only ones to know this are: the Queen, Ellie the laundry maid, and Masou the tubbler. This time Grace wants to write only about Penelope's wedding, but she doesn't. Penelope was a Maid of Honour, and the Queen is said that she will be going away. To worsen the situation, the Queen's gold is stolen, and Grace tries to find it. After many adventures, Grace discovers that the thief was very clever and gave everyone wrong indications, but Grace with Ellie's and Masou's help demonstrates that the culprit is her friend Lord Ruxbury.

Daughter of Venice

By Donna Jo Napoli
Donata is the daughter of a wealthy nobleman of Venice. She has a twin sister, Laura, and they are always the same, in jewelry and dressing. Donata is a rebel, she wanders the city even though she is not allowed, and her father lets her study with her brothers. One day, her father announces that she will marry, and Laura will enter in a convent, but he doesn't know that Laura has done all the work for Donata in the past month, so Donata could go out and afterwards tell everyone stories of her adventures. Because of this, Donata feels guilty, and she tells her mother that she can't marry. Her mother doesn't believe her, so Donata comes up with a plan in which she will be disgraced and Laura will have to marry in her place. It doesn't really work, but things come out for the best and Laura marries and Donata goes to the university.

Romeo & Juliet

By William Shakespeare
Romeo and Mercutio are two very close friends. They are both about fourteen, but Romeo is a Montague, and Mercutio is of the Prince's family. Still, even though they come from two different families, they both hate the Capulets fiercely. Mercutio is a fierce street-fighter, and loves to joke about people; but he is also a dreamer, and he always tells his friends about his dreams. Romeo, instead, doesn't like to fight as much as Mercutio, and he loves to be in love and suffer for love. In fact, before Juliet, he loved Rosaline, a nun. Romeo and Mercutio are good friends, but Mercutio feels betrayed when Romeo tells Tybalt to make peace, because Mercutio doesn't know that Romeo and Tybalt are related, since Romeo married Juliet. Also, Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt under Romeo's arm, because Romeo was trying to separate them. So, their friendship is broken when Mercutio, right before dying, curses the Montagues (Romeo's family) and the Capulets (Juliet's family) saying: "A plague o'both your houses."

The Sirens of Surrentum

By Caroline Lawrence
The eleventh book in the Roman Mysteries series is "The Sirens of Surrentum". Flavia, Jonathan, Nubia and Lupus are invited to Villa Limona by Pulchra, who is preoccupied because someone is trying to poison her mother. When they get there, they find out that Pulchra has invited the boy that Flavia will be betrothed to, and also three young men and three young women, to try to discover if they were the ones who tried to poison Pulchra's mother. After many adventures, the kids discover that Pulchra's mother was trying to commit suicide because her husband, Pollus Felix, was unfaithful, but she had built up a resistance to the poison. Pulchra's mother had taken poison when those people were in the house because her husband had been flirting with the women and the men had reminded her of her previous husband, which had died many years before.

Stormbreaker

By Anthony Horowitz
The protagonist of this novel is named Alex Rider. He is fourteen, and lives in London with an American woman, that takes care of the house in exchange for a place where to live, and he has an uncle that is a banker and always travels. One day the bank calls Alex and tells him that his uncle, Ian, died. The funeral takes place a week later, and many people come. At a certain point, as a man is opening the door for the bank manager, Alex notices that he has a gun. So, he decides to investigate, even because the things that were in Ian's studio have all disappeared, and Alex has seen the truck that brought them away, and the writing on it. So he goes to the corresponding junkyard and finds his uncle's car, and sees that someone has shot Ian. If you want to know how the story ends, read the book!

The Secrets of Vesuvius

By Caroline Lawrence
The protagonists of this novel are: Flavia Gemina, Nubia, Lupus, and Jonathan. It takes place in ancient Rome, in AD 79.Flavia and her friends are staying nearby Naples, in a villa that belongs to Flavia's uncle. One day, when they are on the beach, they see a boat in the sea, and a man calling for help. The kids' tutor Aristo and Lupus swim to him, and save him. They discover he is Admiral Pliny, a very important person in the Roman Empire, especially the fleet. He thanks them and gives Flavia a riddle to solve, that leads to a treasure. He tells her the smith Vulcan has answers. Flavia solves the riddle and for a lucky coincidence Vulcan stays for a few days in their house. If you want to know how the story ends, you better read the book!

The Fugitive of Corinth

By Caroline Lawrence
"The Fugitive of Corinth" is the tenth book in the Roman Mysteries series. It takes place in Corinth, Athens and Delphi, which are all in Greece. Flavia Gemina and her friends are staying in an hostel in Corinth, when, one night, they hear some yells from Aristo's and Captain Geminus's rooms. When they arrive there they see that Captain Geminus has been stabbed and their tutor Aristo has a bloody knife in his hands. Flavia, seeing her father lying in a pool of blood, faints, so she doesn't see that her father is still alive. Helen, the landlady, realizes and after making two of her slaves bring Aristo to the authorities, she calls the doctor Mordecai. The next morning they discover that Aristo has escaped, so the four friends and a sailor begin pursuing him. They will need all their skill to catch Aristo and understand his reason for stabbing Captain Geminus: if you want to know how this book ends, read it!

Be Yourself

By Michelle Magorian
This book has many different stories. The nicest one is "No Sweat". Mark is at the swimming pool, because he has to do a contest, in which he will swim one hundred laps, and his two friends fifty each. Mark looks at his opponents: four youths with a coach and an old woman. Mark dives in the pool and begins swimming. He sees that the four youths are doing only fifty laps each, and he feels very superior. When he is at ninety laps, and still doesn't see his friends coming, he begins to preoccupy. When he finishes his hundred, his lap-counter and Joan, the old woman, spur him on, telling him to go on until is friends come, or his laps will be annulled, and he squalified. Only after fifty more laps he realises that his friends will not come, and had never ment coming. So, he is spurred on by his anger and by Joan's support. He finishes and goes to spur Joan, that is still swimming, alone.