Plum Ucci, Carol.
THE NIGHT MY SISTER WENT MISSING
Orlando : Harcourt, 2006
IL YA
ISBN 0152047581

(2 booktalks)

A shot shatters the familiar sounds of the teen party.  A splash?  Not really.  A scream?  Or was it laughter?  There are so many questions but one thing is certain -- Casey is missing.  And her brother Kurt is desperate to find her.  But the night is pitch black and the police want all the kids to come to the station for statements.  Kurt and his friend are ushered into a small room and left there while the police questioned the other teens.  But what the police have forgotten is that this new room looks into the interrogation room.  So while the police parade the other kids into the room for questioning, Kurt and Drew are able to hear what is being said.  And what they hear is not always pretty.  It turns out that there are a lot of secrets on the island of Mystic.

Booktalk #2

It was just another party night. A group of teens who called themselves the Mystic Marvels were hanging out at the old pier. Someone brought a gun this time and it got passed from hand to hand. A shot rang out, and Kurt's sister Casey, who was standing by the edge was gone. Kurt was frantic. He couldn't see her in the water, he doesn't know who fired the gun, and he doesn't remember even hearing a splash.

The police are called immediately and Kurt and his friends go down to the police station to answer questions. Kurt is sitting in a back corridor of the station staring at this tinted glass window to an inner room. His best friend Drew, the police chief's son, is beside him. Just then, the glass turnd bright and Captain Lutz and their friend Cecilly come into the room. The boys can hear them talking but the detective could not see or hear them. And then the questioning began.   Drew and Kurt decided to listen themselves and as each "witness" came in to talk, there was a new complication, a new twist, and they couldn't tell who among them was a friend or an enemy. They soon realized that their life and relationships in their small town and, especiall,y their circle of so-called friends was not as they had always believed.   (Rhode Island Teen Book Award nominee 2007-2008)