Are you looking for an engaging mystery, a Florida locale, and a bunch of elderly retirees doing the investigating? Then this book is for you! Gladdy Gold and her trusty Gladiators, with the help of others in the housing development as well as the local library staff, work to find out what has REALLY been happening to the neighbors. Although Gladdy and her group sprinkle their conversation with Yiddish, everyone will be able to relate to these ladies who lunch, bedevil, and support each other. Read Getting Old is Murder for an enjoyable visit with these intrepid detectives!

Jennifer L. Holm is well-known for her Babymouse books, starting with Babymouse:  Queen of the World (AR 0.5, Level 2.2).  Ms. Holm takes a more serious tone in the Newbery Honor Book, Turtle in Paradise (AR 4.0, Level 3.7).  Babymouse readers who are moving up to upper-elementary school reading will be pleasantly surprised by the likeable Turtle character.

Like the protagonist in The Absolute Value of Mike (AR 8.0, Level 3.9) by Kathryn Erskine, Turtle has a parent who is in an arrested stage of development.  Like Mike, Turtle is sent off to a far away place while the parent is busy with work.  In 1935 Florida, Turtle finds a different culture and bonds with her cousins, who run the Diaper Gang.  Turtle finds a treasure map and seeks a way to get her family out of financial trouble.  Does she succeed?  Why has her mom's boyfriends shown up in Florida?  Read it and find out!

Long criminal histories, alcoholism, nightmares, aggressive behavior, and a constant, tormenting voice in the back of their minds -- this was the end result of many male youth who did time at the Florida School for Boys, a youth prison that housed torture, abuse, and murder, disguised as a reform school with its well manicured landscaping and buildings. The Boys of the Dark by Robin Gaby Fisher tells the story of Michael O'McCarthy and Robert Straley, founders of The White House Boys, an organization committed to finding justice and healing for those who also were victims (The White House was the nickname given to the building on campus where these horrible crimes were committed). 50 years after the abuse, O'McCarthy and Straley find each other through much research and investigation and immediately bond because they were both victims in this prison. During this emotionally and physically draining process, they find some justice through a determined youth advocate and congressman who risks his career to help find closure for these men. A book you won't be able to put down, this is a story filled with sadness, but also shows the strength of human will.

If you are a fan of Carl Hiaasen's previous books Hoot and Flush, you'll be sure to gain more than enough satisfaction and laughs from another of his patented ecological-mysteries, Scat, set in the author's home state of Florida.

This time Hiaasen is writing about an unliked and unpopular biology teacher who has seemingly vanished after a field trip to Black Vine Swamp. Of course there's more going on than meets the eye and our two main protagonists Nick and Marta are interested in finding out what, exactly, is behind the mysterious disappearance. Their guess is that classmate and resident troublemaker Smoke is behind the whole mess and in fact he is, but not how anybody could have imagined. Hiaasen has again created a cast of goofy and memorable characters that all comes back to an endangered Florida panther (hence the title) who is more than a little annoyed by what's going on in the swamp and its natural surroundings.

Great story, funny characters, and ecological relevance ...

Carl Hiaasen at his writer-for-young readers finest. Check it out.

Most readers know that Stephen King's novels usually take place in the state of Maine, where the novel Olive Kitteridge (2008), by Elizabeth Strout also takes place, but King broke out of the mold with the popular Duma Key (2008),which takes place in Florida. Many novels take place in New York, both city and state.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), by Jonathan Safran Foer, a moving 9/11 novel, features a child as the main character. Most of the Agent Pendergrast series of novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, such as Cemetery Dance (2009), start in New York City as well, while also visiting, among other sites, Prendergast's childhood home in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gone Tomorrow (2009), one of Lee Child's best thrillers, also takes place in New York.

Moving West, Jeannette Walls' novel, Half-Broke Horses (2009), is based on her grandmother's incredible life growing up in Texas and Arizona. Alaska is featured in the mysteries of Dana Stabenow and in a bleak new novel about marriage and relationships, Caribou Island (2011), by David Vann. Finally, the "granddaddy" of all writers of novels about states, James Michener, wrote one of the best ever, Hawaii (1959).