Claim to Fame by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I am a HUGE Peterson Haddix fan- I love her Shadow Children series. I've written about her books here, here, and here

She is such a talented writer- she often creates a world that is similar to ours, but with a real twist to it. In Claim to Fame, the world is just like our current reality, but the main character Lindsay has a special talent. Lindsay has the ability to hear anything anyone ever says about her- around the world. Now for most people, this wouldn't be a really big thing- sure it wouldn't be easy hearing what people you know really think about you, but Lindsay is different. She was a child actress and the show she starred in plays in constant reruns. For Lindsay, while this means lots of money, it also means that each and every day she hears random thoughts from people watching the show. Everything from adults to children and what they really think.

The only safe place for Lindsay is inside her house. For some reason her house 'blocks' the thoughts and opinions and when inside, Lindsay has complete silence. While she isn't happy living only inside her house, she has made peace with her situation. All of this changes when one night she is 'kidnapped' by two boys trying to rescue her. What follows is Lindsay learning about herself, her talent, her home, her town and the people who live there.

I think kids who like Peterson Haddix will also like this one. I enjoyed it, although I did feel that her problem of always hearing peoples opinions of her went on a little long. I also felt that the end of the story wrapped up very quickly. Haddix seem to just want to tie up all the lose ends and wrap the story up. It will be interesting to see if there are any takers when I get back to school.