I have a running gig as visiting writer at the UN school in NY. I go there in the spring and talk about researching and writing in conjunction with a week of mystery-related activities for 7th graders, which has a lot to do with logical thinking and working as a group. To prepare for me coming, they're assigned CHINA TRADE over the summer. This fall they decided to write letters to tell me their reactions to the book and ask me questions. Gratifyingly, most of them at least liked what they'd read, and some claim to have totally loved it.

But there were one or two...

"I'm writing this letter by order of the school. I read CHINA TRADE. It was a good book but it could have been better. It was very slow because it keeps describing Lydia drinking tea all the time. It would be better if she never drank any tea."

"I never read a mystery before but from what I can see the way it's supposed to work is everything is described very boringly up until the big turbulence at the end. Your book does this magnificently."

"I read your book but I didn't follow a lot of it. My favorite hobbies are baseball, basketball, soccer, football, skiing, swimming, skateboarding, rollerblading and track. I also like to eat and sleep a lot."

Don't anybody give these kids the url for Amazon.com!