PEELED

A spunky teen with a passion for newspaper reporting goes undercover to follow leads in rural Banesville, N.Y. Reporter-at-large for her high-school newspaper, Hildy Biddle relentlessly seeks “the truth.” Since her father’s death three years ago, Hildy has tried hard to follow in his footsteps as a reporter while helping at her family’s apple orchard. Her skills as a fledgling reporter are put to the test when she’s assigned “a big, emerging story” involving mysterious goings-on at the abandoned Ludlow house, which locals suspect is haunted. When strange threatening signs, weird-looking people, a renowned psychic named Madame Zobek and a stranger’s dead body all appear at the Ludlow house, the town overreacts, fueled by fear-mongering stories in the local newspaper. As Hildy and her classmates scoop out the real story, they uncover a shady plot that could turn unsuspecting, apple-growing Banesville into a disgusting tourist trap. In Hildy, Bauer introduces a feisty, funny teenage heroine who stays true to her mission and herself while learning the realities of reporting and the importance of sticking to the facts. Highly entertaining. (Fiction. 12-16)