Linked

Linked by Gordon Korman

After a swastika appears in a rural middle school, the school adopts special training classes. After more swastikas appear, the school attracts the notice of a popular vlogger. The talk of anti-semitism also is the opening for a popular boy (Link) to learn from his mother that grandma was an orphan in Europe because her family was killed in the holocaust. The family only found this Jewish ancestry recently. The boys talks to the one Jewish girl at school (who is there because her parents are working on a nearby dinosaur dig). After that discussion, he decides to work towards a Bar Mitzvah at a synagogue in a nearby town. He also attracts other students to a student council meeting where they decide to make a paper chain with a link representing every Jew that died in the holocaust. The project ends up attracting worldwide attention due to the vlogger who has now set up shop in town. They do complete the chain and eventually caught a girl who had done all but the first swastika. However, the vlogger then has one more bombshell. Link, the boy undergoing a bar mitzvah, was the one that painted the first swastika. He is suspended. He is very repentant and makes peace with the school and Jewish community and has all attend his ceremony. 

While Link is well-developed and undergoes realistic growth, other characters are caricatured. The swastika girl suddenly gets a bit of history only to be an unrepentant racist who happens to leave town after getting suspended. (She obviously had spent a lot of effort planning all of these - why is she such a throwaway.) The vlogger was needlessly demonized. Individual students were playing towards type (art club, jock, student government, etc.) rather than being more fully developed. Did the author intend to paint a color character with a black and white supporting cast?

The 39 Clues, Book 2: One False Note

The second 39 clues books takes a turn towards the arts. They discover that artists from Mozart to Rembrandt were all part of the family.  In this book, the clues are centered around Mozart. Our heroes travel to Austria and Venice as they attempt to uncover more information. There are even an additional set of catacombs. This book continues the adventures of the Cahills as they compete to find the clues. The two children have many near misses as they try to beat others to the clues. The book is short and sets things up for the next one in the series.

Masterminds: Payback

Project Osiris involved cloning criminal masterminds and bringing them up in a sheltered environment. This was intended to prove that nurture could overcome nature. A few kids escaped. They were on the run to try to understand themselves. They teamed up in various groups to meet their "original". They did see stuff in common with associated mastermind. Eventually the group meets with the original founder of the project who feels regret. They find the group has moved from New Mexico to the Bahamas and they attempt to break them free. There go through all sorts of adventures before the series reaches the conclusion in this book.