The Sequel

One I had to read quickly because there's such a line-- Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer. In this second installment of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, a vampire slayer is stalking Vlad, and he hangs out with his Uncle Otis to learn vam[ire survival skills. Not my cup of tea, but wildly popular and rather clever. Lots of eating and drinking blood of the prepackaged variety. My students are clamoring for Tenth Grade Bleeds right NOW!

Sarah Beth Durst's Out of the Wild (sequel to Into the Wild) finds Julie fighting the Wild once again, but this time with her father, the Prince, who has mysteriously been released. Some characters are found to be evil, trying to feed the Wild, so that it captures characters and makes them repeat their stories endlessly. Plenty of action and adventure, a fun twist on fairy tales, but I'm not quite getting the whole point of the wild. Still, a worthy successor to the first book.

Why Jennifer Lynn Barne's books are published only in paperback confuses me, because they are quite good. Tattoo is fun, and Perfect Cover and Killer Spirit are great spy novels, with the twist that the elite spy group uses being cheerleaders as its cover. In the latest installment, Toby is nominated for the homecoming court,How can you not like a book that has on the back cover "Terrorist threat? Bloody mission gone wrong? Demented squad captain? Bring it on."

Also of note: reluctant 5th grader really like Danziger and Martin's Snail Mail No More. I found the book, and the first in the series (P.S. Longer Letter Later) a bit depressing, but she burned through them very quickly and I will not complain1