THE GIRL I USED TO BE, by April Henry

The story: When Ariel Benson was three years old, her parents were murdered before her eyes. She was the only witness. Now 17, and using her adopted name of Olivia Reinhart, she returns to the tiny town where the gruesome events took place, determined to find out who did it. Little does she expect that the person is still there, waiting to spring into action if the wrong person every shows up--specifically, the girl Olivia used to be.

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG-13; Sexual content PG; Nudity G; Substance abuse PG; Magic & the occult G; BLGT content G; adult themes (murder) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: As a mystery fan, I'm always pleased to find a good YA story that I can recommend to middle school mystery readers. Although there's a little bit of romance that will skew this one toward girls (and of course, the main character is a girl) even boys will like this, as the emphasis is much more on the mystery and much less on the romance. Plus, it was surprisingly clean in terms of language--really happy about that! I get so tired of books loaded with the "F" bomb for no appreciable reason. This one gets the fourth star just because of that. Good plotting and pacing never hurt either! :)