Night Runner by Max Turner

Zack Thomson is 15 years old and lives in the pschychiatric ward of a hospital in Barrie. He's not mentally disturbed although he certainly has some unusual problems. For instance, he has a severe allergy to sunlight which means that he can only go outside at night. And he can't tolerate any solid food - he only drinks a frothy red beverage that Nurse Ophelia whips up for him every night.

His monotonous life, enlivened only by visits from his friend Charlie, changes abruptly when an elderly man on a motorcycle crashes into the lounge room of the ward. From him, Zack learns that his condition is vampirism, and further, that another vampire is out to kill him.

Zack bolts from the hospital, and with an unknown person (thing?) on his heels ends up at Charlie's family cottage in the Muskokas. Here, his would-be killer is still on his heels, but at least he gets to do some late-night partying with other teens and a tiny bit of a romance before the action heats up again for him.

Short chapters, lots of action, humorous dialogue make this a fast and absorbing read even for the reluctant reader.

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier

Reason Cansino has spent her whole life on the run from a grandmother who supposedly practices black magic. Now, she is forced to live with her grandmother and learns that she herself has inherited magical powers. But she faces a terrible dilemma. If she practices magic she will shorten her life by many years. If she doesn't use her magic powers, she will go mad. Determined to find a way to avoid either fate and to escape her grandmother, Reason steps through a portal which leads from sunny Australia into wintery New York. Only now she is being pursued not only by her grandmother, but also her grandfather who seems much, much worse.

This is a wonderful book, first in a trilogy.

Cybele's Secret byJuliet Marillier
"Wildwood Dancing" introduces us to five sisters who have managed to find their way through a portal into a Faerie Kingdom. At the end of the the story, the eldest sister remains in the kingdom, with the others seemingly barred from ever returning.
"Cybele's Secret picks up six years later with the scholarly sister Paula on a hunt in Istanbul with her father for an ancient artifact which supposedly brings good fortune to its owner. Paula begins to catch glimpses of a mysterious veiled woman who may be her sister and who passes cryptic messages to her about Cybele.
Marillier creates a strong character in Paula, who was very much a secondary character in "Wildwood Dancing." However, the plot concerning Cybele, is rather a weak one. The first part of the book offers only glimpses of who and what Cybele is. This in itself, might have been intriguing if only the second part of the book had followed through with a Cybele worthy of the build-up. But after a harrowing ocean trip, journey through the jungle, and a descent into an Otherworld where the main characters must undergo a bizarre series of tests the payoff seems disappointing.
Not a bad book - readers may enjoy the romantic angle - but not a great one.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Where to start with Smekday? Okay. The earth is invaded by a bunch of aliens called Boovs. The Boovs generously "give" Americans Florida so that they can have the rest of the country. When eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci's mom is taken by the Boovs to be a translator, she decides that she will drive to Florida by herself with only a cat named pig for company. Along the way, they meet a Boov who calls himself J.Lo (he's been hiding out in the magazine section of a store). J. Lo is on the lam from other Boovs, although Gratuity doesn't know this at first. Eventually, when another group of aliens called Gorgs arrive, J.Lo has to admit that he accidentally sent out radio signals to the Gorg. The Gorgs are much worse than the Boov and will not only kill all humans but will completely destroy the planet. But Gratuity, with the help of J.Lo and Pig manage to save the day.

At over 400 pages, there are alot of detours into side adventures, meeting with quirky characters, and lots of humour. But Gratuity and J. Lo are always at the heart of the story, their initial fear and antagonism gradually giving way to respect and frlendship. A fine book whose story and characters will remain with the reader long after the last page is finished.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

With five minutes before my kids got home for lunch and fifteen minutes before I had to head to work I was racing through the last few pages of Life As We Knew It. I really wanted to know how things were going to turn out for 16-year- old Miranda and her family who are trying to survive after a meteor knocks the moon into closer orbit to the earth, resulting in tsunamis, earthquakes, illness, and starvation (among other things).

As a reader, you know from page one that disaster is just around the corner. But of course, everyone is looking forward to viewing this night-time spectacle - many of Miranda's neighbours are hosting parties to coincide with the meteor's arrival. Maybe not such a bad idea, since no-one's going to be celebrating again for a long time - if ever.

As the year progresses, things get progressively worse for the family. While not directly affected by tsunamis, volcanoes erupting around the world block out the sun and cause food shortages. The local and national infrastructure is fractured and gradually oil, internet, radio, and medical help disappear. Through it all, life becomes increasingly precarious for the family but they are determined to survive if at all possible.

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

After Jazz supposedly dies in a fire, her mom sinks into a deep depression and her dad is drinking heavily. Younger sister Sunny is struggling to run the household and keep up with her school work. Then a letter arrives - supposedly from Jazz - saying that she is still alive and is coming home. Trouble is, the girl who shows up looks like Jazz, acts like Jazz, but isn't Jazz. Who is she and why is she doing this?

The plot of "Dead Girls" reminded me a lot of Lois Duncan but with more substance. The relationships between family members is what makes it stand above other books in the suspense genre. Although a quick read , Giles manages to convey a lot about the complex interactions between family members and between family members and the Jazz impersonator.

Named an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant readers.

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.

London Calling by Edward Bloor

Martin hates the private school he is attending. Henry Lowery and his gang are bullying him, but school officials won't help because Henry's family donates much-needed money to the school. When a bullying incident leads to a statue of Henry's great-grandfather, World War 2 hero General "Hollerin' Hank" Lowery, being damaged, Martin and his friends are unfairly blamed. Depressed, Martin retreats to his basement bedroom feeling that his life has no purpose, but when he inherits a 1940's radio from his grandmother his , perspective begins to change.

As he is drifting off to sleep one night, he hears the voice of a little boy over the radio, and suddenly he finds himself in London England during the blitz. Jimmy needs his help but for what?

This is a marvelous book on many. It gives young readers a gripping glimpse of a period in London's history where every moment of life to mattered because it was so precarious. It provides reflection on the nature of history - who determines how it will be seen by future generations. And it is shows a boy learning to determine his own path in life rather one that has been determined by others. Oh yes - and all written beautifully

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

A plane mysteriously appears on a tarmac. Inside the plane, there is no pilot, no crew, no adults. However, there are 36 babies strapped into the seats and after the last baby is removed, the plane vanishes as mysteriously as it appears.

Thirteen years later, Jonah and his new friend Chip, both of them adoptees, begin to receive odd and threatening notes in the mail. When they start to investigate, with the help of Jonah's sister, Katherine, the FBI tries to discourage them with threats such as deportation. Next, strangers offering help appear and disappear mysteriously but are friends or enemies? Jonah, Chip, and Katherine scramble to find out what is happening, and, more important, to discover the true identity of the boys.

This one pulls in readers right from the start and with a cliffhanger ending, has them looking forward to the next installment.

First in a series

Farthing by Jo Walton

In an alternative world of the 1940's, Europe has been taken over by Nazi Germany. England has made peace with Hitler and political control is in the hands of a facist upperclass group that calls itself the Farthing Set. Against this backdrop, Lord and Lady Eversley, members of the Farthing Set, host a weekend party, during which another member of the Farthing Set is murdered. A Star of David has been pinned to his chest and suspicion immediately falls upon David Kahn, the Jewish husband of Lucy Eversley, daughter of Lord and Lady Eversley. Lucy and David realize that he has been set up to take the blame, as does Inspector Carmichael from Scotland Yard. As the Kahn's and Carmichael attempt to find the real killer, it appears that the crime is a political one with huge implications for the future of England.

While not a book about teenagers, and not marketed to teens, this should have cross-over appeal to those look for an engrossing mystery which also provides a lot of food for thought.

The Squad: Perfect Cover by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Bayport High School's varsity cheerleading team is composed of the most beautiful, the most athletic, the best-dressed, and the most popular girls in town. Toby Klein may be a black-belt in karate and an expert computer hacker but she has no school spirit, dresses badly, and has a tendency to beat up the guys who pick on her younger brother. She is horrified to be invited to join the cheerleading team until she learns that the girls are actually highly trained spys for the United States government Their cover is perfect - who would expect anything from a cheerleader?
What follows is lots of great clothes and accessories that double as spy gadgets, lots of girl bonding and gossip, lots of wildly improbable technology (a huge spy complex under the school). The reader really needs to suspend disbelief for Squad books (their is mention of Charlie's Angels but it reminded me even more of the Teletoon show "Spy Girls), but this looks like a fun series for those who are happy to do so.

Staying Fat For Sarah Byrne by Chris Cructher

Since grade school, obese Eric (Moby) has been best friends with Sarah Byrnes, a girl who was horribly disfigured by an accident at the age of three. In high-school Eric joined the swim team and began to slim down. Fearing that Sarah would feel alienated by his new appearance he tried to "stay fat" for her for almost a year, until Sarah pointed out to him that their lives were bound to eventually go in different directions but that their friendship would not be affected by his weight loss. But now Sarah is in a near-catatonic state in the pychiatric ward of the hospital and Eric is desperate to help her. As he hopes for a break-through with Sarah, he and his friends question why this is happening to her and what they can do - and there are no easy answers.

While the hardcover book jacket is a little dated, the characters and situations are as fresh and relevant as when the book was published in 1993.

The 13th Floor by Sid Fleishman
In attempting to find his sister Liz, who has disappeared, Buddy steps off the elevator onto the 13th floor of the old building and finds himself 300 years in the past on a pirate ship. And it just happens to be a ship belonging to an infamous ancestor, Captain Crackstone who according to family history was hanged for piracy. When the ship is set upon by other pirates in search of treasure, Buddy and the captain are set adrift in a small boat. Fortunately, they are washed ashore in New England, but only to face new problems. Another of Buddy's ancestors, 10-year-old Abigail, is being charged with witchcraft and Buddy's sister Liz, who happens to be a lawyer is defending her. Unfortunately, Liz is a little too modern and ends up under suspicion of witchcraft herself. Somehow, they need to save Abigail, save Captain Crackstone, and get themselves home, preferably with some of the Captain's treasure.
There's lots of action in this fast-paced story, but it's all kept pretty light-hearted with Fleishman managing to sucessfully juggle all these sub-stories and neatly wrap everything up in a little over 200 pages.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Ruby is living by herself in a broken-down old farmhouse after her mom takes off on her. In a few months she will be eighteen and legally independent but when social services learns of her situation she is obliged to live with her older sister, whom she has not seen for many years. Suddenly, she is living in a beautiful house and going to a private school, but Ruby is uncomfortable with the situation. Because she feels that everyone she has ever cared about ultimately leaves, she is determined not to get close to anyone or to rely on anyone. But life doesn't work that way. As the people around her, including the popular guy next door, begin to find their way into her life, she finds that they too have problems and secrets to deal with. While Ruby and other characters are well-developed and the plot an interesting one, I found that the dialogue was a bit unbelievable. Lessons about relationships are provided through conversations and I kept thinking that people really don't talk like this. However, Sarah Dessen is tremendously popular and this would be a good bet to recommend to teen girls who like books about working through problems in relationships. Another one, in the same genre, but much shorter is Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Poor Percy. He's been kicked out of six schools in six years for being a troublemaker but he doesn't begin to know the meaning of trouble until his math teacher turns into a monster and tries to kill him while on a class visit to the museum. It turns out that Percy's dad is a Greek god, Poseidon, no less, and life for the offspring of the immortals tends to be dangerous and short. Percy must head to Camp Half-Blood where along with other children of Greek gods he can learn skills that will help him to survive. But after being accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt he must set out on a quest to find it before all-out war breaks out between the gods with humanity as the casualty.

There is plenty of action in The Lightning Thief but it is also laced with lots of humour, much of it emanating from the modern twist Riordan gives the Greek gods. The Camp Director happens to be Dionysius, punished for some past infraction by being forced into doing good works with youth; Mount Olympus is on the 60oth floor of the Empire State Building; chapters have amusing titles such as "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death".

Kids who are not familiar with Greek mythology may be tempted to do more background reading. Those who are, will be amused by how Riordan incorporates the ancients into a modern story.

Highly recommended for tweens.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson.

In pre-Revolutionary America, Octavian and his mother Cassiopeia live in luxury on a grand estate. Octavian, a brilliant child, is receiving a classical education where he is taught to observe, reflect, and draw rational conclusions about the world around him. But then in one horrible moment, he discovers that his upbringing has been an experiment to prove the inferiority of blacks to whites - and thus to encourage the continuation of slavery.

This is not an easy read. Octavian narrates the book in an 18th century style that may be off-putting to some. However, it is a powerful story where you feel Octavian's rage and pain as he observes the hypocrisy of those who purport rational thought and free will but only do so as it fits their own motives.

Just finishing up The City of Ember by Jeanne Du Prau, as a read-aloud. The premise drew us into the story immediately - a city that has existed under the earth for so many years that its inhabitants no realize the existence of a world above them. This city has been stocked with all the necessities of life and draws its light from a huge generator. But now the supplies are running low and the generator is wearing out. Blackouts are more and more frequent and although unspoken, there is a fear that some day the lights will go out permanently. When young Lina finds a manuscript, she is convinced that it provides information that will lead Ember's inhabitants away from the city and to safety. Unfortunately, her little sister Poppy has eaten chunks of the manuscript but with the help of a friend, Doon they begin to decipher the message and make plans to escape from Ember.

Because Du Prau doesn't give much away in "Ember" we often paused in our reading to speculate. Who built the city? Why? Are there people above ground? Given that all copies of the next book in the series are currently out of the library, I figure that lots of kids had similar questions and were eager to find the answers.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I know that Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" is the hot teen book right now, but I honestly couldn't get into it. The setting was great - all that rain and fog was just right for a vampire theme. But I got tired of Bella mooning over Edward the vampire and kept wanting to shriek at her "Focus on your studies!" "He's totally unsuitable!" "What are your parents going to say?" sigh..it must be my age showing.

However, I loved City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Yes, there are vampires and romance. There is also tons of action and a wonderfully twisting plot. Fifteen-year-old Clary becomes involved with teens who belong to a mysterious group called the Shadowhunters. They are embroiled in an attempt to find an ancient cup possessed of great powers, before former Shadowhunter Valentine gets his hands on it. It does sound like a pretty standard plot, but it grabbed my attention with complex characters and relationships, clever plot surprises, and entertaining dialogue.

A fun read and the first in a series.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
How to describe Junior -aka Arnold Spirit? Skinny, huge feet, big head, ugly glasses, myriad medical problems, and the lousiest fighter on the Indian reservation where he lives. Or as he describes it "...a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation." He is also funny, intelligent, and a gifted comic artist. When he accidentally (kind of) breaks his teacher's nose, a discussion with said teacher makes him realize that the only way that he is going to survive and thrive is if he leaves the reservation. And so, as a first step, he enrolls in the all-white high school in a nearby town where other than the school mascot, he is the only Indian. But his decision is seen on the reservation as an act of betrayal and in the school he is shunned as an outsider and oddball.
"True Diary" should be a terribly sad read and sometimes is. Junior suffers more tragedy and disappointment in one year than many people do in a lifetime. But he springs off the pages with his acerbic comments, his insightful, funny cartoons and his determination, so that ultimately the tone of the book is one of joy rather than tragedy.

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
I only got about half-way through this one before handing it over to a ten- year-old who was looking for something to read. We compared notes when he got to about the same point in the book that I had reached, and it seems that our opinions were somewhat different.
First, a quick summary. 11 year old James is mathematically brilliant, but a little too quick with his fists and prone to get into trouble. When his mother, a successful fence for stolen goods, dies, James ends up in group home where he starts to run with a gang. He gets picked up by the police, but before he is charged, he is recruited by a mysterious group called Cherubs. Cherubs is a secret branch of M15 and consists of kids 11 to 17 who perform missions for this British spy agency. James undergoes a rigorous 100 day training before receiving his first assignment.
I certainly thought that The Recruit is a page turner as did my 10-year-old reviewer. However, while I thought that the training was down-right abusive, my co-reviewer thought it was all pretty cool. This is the first in a series about Cherubs. While definitely grittier than the Alex Rider spy novels, it will definitely appeal to kids who are fans of spy novels, which are currently an incredibly popular genre.
On a quick note, James Patterson has done a cross-over from adult into teen novels with his Maximum Ride series. It features a group of genetically enhanced kids who are being pursued by unknown killers. If this isn't trouble enough, they need to save the world from unspecified threat. These are real page-turners with short chapters and lots of action. While past titles in the series have been marketed to teens and tweens, apparently the next book out is going to be marketed across the board to adults, teens, and tweens. I guess the publishers want to squeeze as much out of this series as possible.

The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer


Enola Holmes definitely belongs to my "cool girl" list. This much, much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes is growing up as something of a wild child. When her mother mysteriously disappears (to escape the restrictions of Victorian society), Sherlock and Mycroft arrive at the family estate and are properly shocked by their hoydenish sister's upbringing. They decide that she should be packed off to a boarding school where she can learn how to behave as a proper young lady. Enola, however, has very different plans. She gives her brothers the slip, runs off to London, and sets herself up as a detective where she soon is involved in solving a kidnapping case. But despite her incredible competence, she feels very much alone - spell Enola backwards - and longs to connect with Sherlock who is always a step or two behind in catching her sister. Great 19th century London atmosphere, wonderful characters, and a page-turning story in this first book in a series

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

When Daisy's father and stepmother send her to live in rural England with her aunt and cousin, the country is on the brink of war. At first, life seems idyllic to the teens, free from adult supervision when Daisy's aunt must leave the country to participate in peace talks. But when war breaks out, the farm is taken over by the army and the boys are forced to take refuge with one family while the girls are sent to another. Here Daisy sees the fallout of war - food and medicine shortages, a disintegrating infrastructure, and violent deaths. But she also sees people who are trying to milk cows, harvest crops, and perform other vital but unfamiliar tasks. Witnessing this, she is eventually pulled out of her self-absorbtion to perform her own acts of heroism - caring for her young cousin as they cross enemy territory to get back to the farm and reunite with her cousins. Although a short novel, Where I Live Now covers a lot of ground. The kids initially enjoy the war vicariously, then are thrust into the middle where they struggle to survive and finally must deal with going on with life after the war ends. Recommended for teens.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Liz Hall awakens to find herself on a cruise ship with no knowledge of how she got there or where she is going. As she wanders the ship, she notices that most of the other passengers are elderly and it is some time before she realizes that she is dead and she is travelling towards the afterlife. I was curious to see how Zevin was going to handle her version of an afterlife and I wasn't disappointed. It turns out that Elsewhere is very much like Earth, with people having homes, driving cars, holding jobs. However, instead of getting older, people grow younger, until finally as babies they are ready to return to Earth to live out a new life. Liz finds it really hard to accept her own death figuring that at the age of fifteen her life was just starting, but gradually makes friends, gets to know her grandmother who died before she was born, and even finds love. This is a really thought-provoking book, about grief, about letting go, and about being alive. Although in the children's department, it is a book that deals with some pretty adult ideas and would fit well in a teen collection.

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane
I read this book quite a few years ago and recently have been catching up with some of the other titles in the Wizard series. Premise of this first book in the series is that Nita - bookworm and science geek - takes refuge in the children's department of public library to escape a group of bullies. While there, she spots a book entitled "So You Want to Be A Wizard" and as she reads, realizes that she posesses many of the characteristics needed to train to become a wizard. So begins this series, where wizards work to slow entropy in the universe by fighting against dark forces.
Nita is a well-drawn character who over the course of the series matures, as she encounters challenges and even tragedies in both the real and fantasy world. Despite the premise of young adults training to become wizards, the series is very different from the Harry Potter Books. The magic is rooted in science, particularly physics, and the wizards must always be careful to balance their use of magic against the energy available in the universe. A strong series and highly recommended

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Ingrid Levin-Hill's hero is Sherlock Holmes. For several years, the eighth grader has kept a copy of his "Complete Adventures" on her bedside table, and spends a lot of time thinking about how Holmes figures out the world around him. "The more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling..." Holmes tells Dr. Watson.

Everything in Ingrid's world seems pretty commonplace. She lives in a 1950s Cape Cod house located in small cozy town where nothing much happens. She goes to school, plays soccer, fights with her brother - all pretty mundane stuff.

But a wrong turn on the way home from soccer practice lands Ingrid on the doorstep of local eccentric Cracked Up Kate and life starts to get pretty weird. Kate is murdered later that night and Ingrid is going to be in big trouble unless she can retrieve her soccer shoes from Kate's house before the police figure out who they belong to. Next, Ingrid is forced out of her lead role in a local production of "Alice in Wonderland" after the producer is injured under suspicious cirumstances. Somewhere, there is a connection between these two events, and with years of studying the techniques of the world's greatest fictional detective, Ingrid is determined to figure it out.

Abrahams does a wonderful job in creating a three dimensional world in Down the Rabbit Hole. Adults who have read his thriller "The Tutor" will recognize some of the same characters, redrawn for a younger audience, but also in my mind, further developed and more enjoyable.

Ages 10 through 14 (and any age if you enjoy a good mystery)

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
While accompanying his father on a photo-shoot to France, Ned Marriner
explores an ancient church where he bumps in Kate, an American exchange student.
Over the next few days, odd things start to happen - man threatens to kill them, wild dogs attack, a fantastical Celtic warrior appears.
Then, a young woman who works for Ned's father disappears when she becomes entangled in love triangle that has recurred every generation for the past 2000 years.
To save her life, Ned must find Ysabel, the woman at the centre of the triangle.
I found Ysabel interesting enough to stick with it. The overlapping of modern with ancient, Ned's transformation from teen to adult, the need for each generation to know when to give way to the next - these are elements that give this book texture. As well, Ned's developing supernatural abilities and the chase across France to find Ysabel provide enough excitement to keep turning pages.
A good choice for older teens - male or female - 14 or 15 and up through adults. Also a good choice for English literature if the teacher is okay with modern fantasy. The author is Canadian and the book has won an Alex Award. However, I would be interested to know if teens reading it do find it compelling.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Claire may be brilliant but because she is only sixteen her parents refuse to let her go to a big university like Harvard or MIT. They figure that Claire would be safer and happier attending a small college in a small town. They figure wrongly. After Claire's bullying room-mates push her down a flight of stairs she finds refuge with three teenagers living in a comfortable, shabby, old house. She feels safe with her new friends but her sense of security disappears when she learns that the town is controlled by vampires who don't hesitate to dine on unprotected humans such as herself.
Part of the appeal of Glass House is the juxtaposition of the frightening confrontations with the supernatural (as well as the bullies) with the mundane activities of everday life. Claire needs to get to classes on time, groceries have to be bought, house-mates have to get along. At the same time, bullies need to be dodged and vampires dealt with. And just what is up with housemate Michael who only seems to appear at night but disappears as soon as the sun starts to rise?
Recommended for older teens

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
14-year-old Alex Rider is orphaned when his uncle, a spy for the British government, is murdered. When the spy agency M16 gives him a choice between going to an orphanage or going undercover for them he reluctantly chooses the latter. His mission: infiltrate the organization of multibillionaire Herod Sayle who will be donating a state-of-the-art computer to each school-child in Great Britain. Is Sayle genuinely thanking his adoptive country through this fantastic gift or are does he have a different motive. Alex is sure that the sinister multibillionaire is up to no good but how to prove it with only a couple of days before the computers will be in the hands of children across the country? Since Stormbreaker is the first in a series, we know that Alex will prevail, but what a page-turning adventure! Armed with a fistful of cool gadgets and a blackbelt in karate Alex must battle the nefarious Sayle and his minions to save not only his own life but a whole generation of children.
The Alex Rider books don't need to be read in any particular order to enjoy them, although Stormbreaker does provide background to Alex's involvement in M16. However, given that these books don't spend much time on the library shelves just grab whichever title is available and enjoy!
Great for boys 10 to 14