You’ve got blackmail – Rachel Wright

Lauren/Lozzie/Loz Cracknell has a hard time remembering to post the mail from her mother’s salon.  The mail she forgot to post a few days ago was invitations for tonight’s party.  Oops.

Loz calls her friend Dex in a panic and he figures out that they can deliver the invitations themselves on bikes.  So, Loz survives.

But, it turns out that one of the letters wasn’t an invitation to the party.   You’ve got blackmail by Rachel Wright has bullies (but I am not sure who the original bully was…), blackmail, tortoises, a wannabe assassin and possibly a budding romance or two.  And, there is the mystery of who is being blackmailed, why they are being blackmailed, and who is the blackmailer.

This book has a similar flavor to the Georgia Nicolson stories by Louise Rennison.

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (illustrations by Dave McKean)

Nobody Owens, Bod for short, lives in the graveyard on the same street where his family was murdered when he was a toddler.  Because his family is dead, and the killer, the man Jack, is still looking for him, he is being raised by ghosts.  And a guardian.

Bod has been given the Freedom of the Graveyard and as such can see in darkness as well as a bunch of other neat and handy tricks.  He learns his alphabet and numbers with the help of  gravestones.  He learns history from those who had lived it.  But one thing the graveyard can’t give Bod is the experience of being with the living.

I always find Neil Gaiman’s writing to be wonderful, and Dave McKean’s illustrations add to the enjoyment.  I even like how the text is arranged around the art.  Unfortunately, Bod’s clothing in the book doesn’t match up with the clothing in the drawings of him.  Where is the grey winding sheet?  There.  That is my one gripe.

The Graveyard Book is nominated for the Teens Top Ten list for 2009, because a bunch of teens love it.   Not only that, but it won the Newbery Medal for 2009, as well. That means a lot of library people thought it was the best book written for kids and teens last year.

My question to you… What would you have written on your gravestone?

Streams of Babel – Carol Plum-Ucci

When Cora’s mother dies of a brain aneurysm, she is embarrassed that people will know how she has been living for the past three years.  Her mother had been addicted to morphine since her injured return from an accident overseas four years ago.  When a neighbor suddenly falls ill and dies the same night, with similar symptoms but no drug addiction, Scott, the neighbor’s son and a paramedic in training, becomes suspicious.

Shahzad, a sixteen-year-old virtual spy in Pakistan who is working for the United States Intelligence Coalition, finds chatter about water poisonings in “Colony One.”  He is determined to find out where Colony One is and who is responisible.  But, once he leaves Pakistan, he can only do as much as his American handlers allow.  For a country that talks up freedom, his freedom to research is seriously curtailed once he enters the United States.

Streams of Babel is set in February and March of 2002, shortly after the attacks of 9-11; shortly after the anthrax outbreaks. This attack is centralized and only a few people fall ill.  But how are they falling ill from poisoned water when all the water towers have been tested and found to be safe?

This novel is suspenseful, exciting and mysterious.

Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz

Well, I finally read my first Alex Rider novel (Stormbreaker) and I can see why they are often checked out.  As soon as I finished the novel, I picked up the graphic novel. They changed quite a bit of the story, but it was still good.

If you like spy or action stories, try the Alex Rider adventures, of which there are 7 so far.