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Zusatztext Florian resembles a young Sherlock Holmes! and together he and Margaret use the TOAST technique to prove that things are not always as they first appear. This book will grab readers from the first page with its witty characters and non-stop action. It would be a great read for fans of Chasing Vermeer (Scholastic! 2005). Informationen zum Autor James Ponti Klappentext Series title extrapolated from hardcover edition. Leseprobe Framed! 1. The (Not So) Safeway MY NAME’S FLORIAN BATES. I’M twelve years old and a seventh grader at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, DC. My two favorite foods are pizza and egg rolls. I’m on the student council, I’m in the Scrabble club, and I plan to try out for soccer. I also work for the FBI. I know. That last one kind of comes out of the blue, doesn’t it? Technically they classify me as a “covert asset,” which sounds very James Bond spylike but only means they want to keep me a secret. After all, it would be pretty embarrassing for them to admit they get help from a twelve-year-old, and it would be even worse if one of the guys on the Ten Most Wanted list showed up at my front door in a bad mood. So the covert part is good for both of us. Becoming a detective wasn’t something I meant to do. It just sort of happened because I notice things other people don’t. My brain’s weird that way. It spots details that seem insignificant and snaps them together like puzzle pieces. The only people outside the Bureau who are supposed to know my status are my parents and my best friend Margaret. But that changed the day the Romanian Mafia kidnapped me after school. I was taking a shortcut behind the Safeway supermarket, and unless they were trying to influence any upcoming student council votes, it meant my identity was no longer a secret. It’s funny because earlier that day Margaret had warned me not to take that route. Normally we walk home together. But on Thursdays she has piano, so I go alone. That’s when I look for shortcuts. Not because I’m in a hurry, but because it’s like another puzzle. “There are a lot of Dumpsters back there,” she pointed out when I told her about it. “And you know what Ben Franklin said about Dumpsters. ‘Nothing good ever happens when you’re surrounded by them.’?” “I’m pretty sure Ben Franklin was dead about a hundred and fifty years before the Dumpster was invented,” I countered. “Then maybe I saw it on a poster. Either way, it’s good advice. You shouldn’t go back there.” “It may smell bad,” I said, feeling suddenly defensive, “but it’s not like it’s dangerous or anything.” “Hmmm,” she replied. “And how do you know that?” I thought about it for a moment and smiled. “Because it’s called the Safeway. If it was dangerous it would be called the Un-Safe Way.” She didn’t find this nearly as clever as I did. So while I laughed, she just shook her head and said, “Boys are soooo funny.” Then she leaned in close and added, “And soooo stupid.” Considering I was kidnapped in the exact place she warned me not to go, I’d say that little nugget belongs on a poster too. In my defense, I was going to walk the long way, but it started raining and I didn’t want to get soaked. I’d just squeezed through the gap in the fence and was hurrying behind the store holding my backpack over my head when I noticed the delivery truck. It should’ve been parked by the loading dock, but I was too busy worrying about getting wet to pay attention to that. The rain was so hard I could see through its windshield only when the wipers swished across the glass. That’s why I didn’t notice the driver had gotten out and left the engine running....
