Off The Record

As Sam took her seat and pulled out her notebook, she had a hard time concentrating. She needed to figure out who was behind the grade tampering and fast, before Felicia took the blame for it. Everybody was looking for the person responsible, and the principal and district would want the situation resolved soon. With Felicia’s past it’d be easy to pin the blame on her and let her take the fall.

Way too easy.

Book: Samantha Sanderson Off the Record (FaithGirlz! / Samantha Sanderson) by Robin Caroll, Zonderkidz Publishers, 2015

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Mystery

Target Audience: Girls 11-15

Subjects: Family Relationships, Rumors, Truth, Evangelism, Friendship, Crime

Summary: A “C” in English? A “D” in PE? Is that even possible? Something is very messed with the grades and a lot of someones are very unhappy about it! Somehow the computer printed incorrect grades for everyone in school and no one knows why. It’s traced back to the computer system and a virus is discovered but no one seems to know how to get rid of it or how it got there in the first place. Rumors are flying and the first suspect is Samantha’s new friend Felicia. It seems she got expelled from her last school for hacking into a grading system! Thankfully Sam knows just who to have help her with this project: her best friend, “Ninja Computer Genius Makayla” as Sam calls her.

Notes: This is the third in a series about a middle-school girl with a passion for cheerleading and investigative writing. She is a strong Christian who takes her faith seriously. She encounters friends who are not Christians and makes a strong effort to not look down on them, but rather show them love and hope that they come to know the Savior she has found. In this book Samanatha continues to wrestle with obedience to her parents and following the rules and procedures when she’s on a story. She tends to bend a few rules to get what she wants and then gets herself in trouble, getting caught by her parents. She’s also continuing to learn how to trust God more as her mom encounters some dangerous situations as part of her job. One of the lessons Sam is working on in this book is “loving your neighbor as yourself” and recognizing that that includes the bully at school. This book is a part of the faithgirlz imprint – books for girls 5^th-8^th grade that specifically focus on helping their grow in their faith.

I highly recommend this book.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Proverbs 12:18 – Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Thank you to either the author or the publishers - whoever sent me a free review copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion. I enjoyed it! I just don't know where it came from! :-D