Keepers of the Flame by Jennifer Armstrong

Five years have passed since a virus killed most of the world's adults. The children who have not died, scavenge for food and shelter in the ruins of towns and cities. They cling to their memories of the pr-virus (fire-us) world, but these memories are distant and distorted. A small group of teens and children are travelling up the coast of Florida and for the first time in five years they have come across adults. Living in a mall, these adults welcome the group warmly and invite them to stay. However, there is something peculiar about these adults....

While this is a trilogy, it was easy to jump into book two without reading the first book. It's a great seat-of-pants adventure with some real depth to the characters and their will to survive.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

15-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh are working at summer jobs in San Francisco when they are inadvertently pulled into a struggle between alchemists Nicholas Flamel and John Dee for a book that will give immortality and unlimited power to whoever owns it. After a fierce battle in a bookstore, the twins flee for safety with Flamel. But is he really concerned for their well-being and the survival of humanity or does he have a much darker agenda, as Dee suggests? Lots of action, lots of great fantasy.

Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly

Someone is killing the vampires of London, England by exposing them to sunlight while they rest and then draining their blood. Simon Ysibro, who has been a vampire since before the Renaissance, wants to know who is responsible for these murders. Because he and his cohorts must avoid daylight, he seeks the assistance of James Asher, former agent for the British government, currently an Oxford professor. To Asher, the vampires are monsters, and deserve their fate. But Asher agrees to search for the murderer, since Ysibro has threatened to harm his wife if he refuses.

Hambly successfully creates an eery1907 London and Paris with flickering gaslight, swirling fog, and shadowy characters. Her vampires are indeed murderers - not exactly the type you'd want to invite to dinner. But they are not card-board characters - Ysibro especially, exibits a certain faded old-world charm and noblesse oblige. Nor are the humans two-dimensional. As a government agent, Asher has committed acts which make him wonder if he is any better than the vampires. A word about Asher's wife Lydia - she is a brave, intelligent woman who is willing to take things into her own hands. For those who can't stomach Bella, from the Twilight series, she comes as a welcome changes.

A good book for teens who enjoy the vampire genre.

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman

Shawn has cerebral palsy. He is unable to dress himself, feed himself, or communicate with anyone, due to the severity of his condition. He has frequent seizures. Specialists have determined that he has the mental capacity of a three-month-old baby. But locked inside this unresponsive body is a highly intelligent teenager. As an observer of life he is humorous, astute, sometimes wise - mostly however, he is a fourteen-year-old boy. Because people think that he is in a near-vegetative state, they say an awful lot of things in front of him that they might not otherwise say. And one of the things that he seems to be hearing is that his dad might kill him, because he believes that Shawn's life is tragic and painful.

This is a lovely little book - there are no black and whites in this story - no villains - no heroes. A good book to provoke thought and discussion.