Anna Dressed in Blood

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9780765328670

Reading Level: Grades 9-12

Genre: Horror

Reader’s Annotation: A teenage ghost killer sets out to eliminate the murderous ghost of a young girl.

Review
This book starts off promisingly. The premise is interesting: some ghosts haunt the places they died and kill living people who happen by. Seventeen-year-old Cas has a special calling, inherited from his murdered father, to destroy them. He and his mother move all over the country, following stories of mysterious deaths. Cas researches the local haunting, seeks out the ghost, kills it, moves on.

The story centers on Cas's quest to subdue Anna Dressed in Blood, a particularly murderous ghost who haunts a Victorian mansion in the small town of Thunder Bay, Michigan. Anna is a truly terrifying creation, and Cas's first encounter with her is very, very scary. Her backstory, too, is disturbing and compelling, though it owes so much to Carrie that I find it completely mysterious when reviewers gush about the book's "originality."

The book loses focus about halfway through, when it becomes clear that another ghost has followed Cas to town. Though there are certainly some tense moments in the second half, I think the author would've done better to make the story all about Anna and tightened it into a single novel. (The sequel, which appeared in 2012, is called Girl of Nightmares.) One more complaint: for a kid with a most unusual life, Cas has a disappointingly generic, unmemorable voice.  

Challenge Issues: Gore, child abuse, language

Little Brother

Title: Little Brother
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor Teen
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9780765319852

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 9 and up

Genre: Adventure/Thrillers--Espionage and Terrorism

Reader’s Annotation: In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, Marcus and his friends fight to win back the civil liberties the Department of Homeland Security has taken away using hacker technology.

Plot Summary
When Marcus (aka w1n5t0n, pronounced Winston) and his friends get picked up by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, Marcus’s insistence on his right to privacy angers his interrogators. He is finally let go after days of brutal questioning and humiliation, but is warned that he’s not free—the DHS will be watching him. When he gets out he discovers that the DHS is now watching everyone, employing unprecedented surveillance measures in the name of safety. Marcus, now going by Mik3y online, creates the Xnet, an alternative, untraceable Internet, and unwittingly starts a major underground movement. Soon he and the other Xnetters are sabotaging the DHS’s surveillance data, but they have to come up with increasingly measures to avoid being identified. In the midst of all this, Marcus meets Ange, another Xnetter who is just as smart and passionate as he is, and the two fall in love. When Marcus discovers that his friend Darryl, who never returned after their initial detention by the DHS, is alive and in custody on Treasure Island (now “Gitmo by the Bay”), he decides to take drastic measures—including telling adults the truth.

Critical Evaluation

A suspenseful mood; timely, thought-provoking themes; and excellent characterization combine to make Little Brother a riveting read. The chilling mood is set as soon as Marcus and his friends get inside the DHS’s detention truck. The agents talk and laugh among themselves while the prisoners are uncomfortable and terrified. The sense the Marcus is always just one false move away from getting caught and disappearing, perhaps forever, keeps the pages turning.

Doctorow takes the interesting step of including long—sometimes pages-long—asides about computer science and hacker technology. These are almost always surprisingly interesting and clearly explained; there was only one such passage that I couldn’t make sense of. Doctorow is also unapologetically didactic when it comes to ideology. Nevertheless, the themes of exchanging freedom for security and the ethics of civil disobedience are food for thought and discussion.

Marcus is a charming narrator and exceptionally fully-realized character. His voice is authentically teenage and geeky, with occasional lapses into Internet-speak (such as “teh suck” for “unpleasant”). He is very smart and sometimes arrogant about it, but he’s not above acknowledging when other people are better at something than he is. He is passionate and committed to his cause, but also scared for his own safety and leery of endangering others. His feelings for Ange and the development of their relationship are believable. Although the sex is not essential to the plot, it is realistic and sensitively handled. Ange and Marcus’s other friends are also well-drawn. The only disappointing character is the dad, who becomes increasingly irrational in his defense of the DHS. From what we know of the dad’s character and background (including his profession—librarian) his behavior rings false.

Curriculum Ties: Government--Bill of Rights, civil liberties

Booktalking Ideas
Explain how Marcus uses pebbles in his shoes to evade the gait-recognition cameras.
Read Marcus's initial interrogation in the DHS truck.

Challenge Issues: Sexual content, language
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I will include reviews from Library Media Connection (mixed; objects to sexual content), VOYA (positive), Kirkus Reviews (positive), and Booklist (positive; recommends for use in classroom discussions).

About the Author
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Open University (UK) and Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo (Canada); in 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.

His novels have been translated into dozens of languages and are published by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. His New York Times Bestseller LITTLE BROTHER was published in May 2008, a followup young adult novel called FOR THE WIN was published in 2010. His latest short story collection is WITH A LITTLE HELP, available in paperback, ebook, audiobook and limited edition hardcover. In 2011, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY (with an introduction by Tim O'Reilly) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called CORY DOCTOROW'S FUTURISTIC TALES OF THE HERE AND NOW. His latest adult novel is MAKERS, published by Tor Books/HarperCollins UK in October, 2009. THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW, a PM Press Outspoken Authors chapbook, was also published in 2011.

He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, the Organization for Transformative Works, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, the Clarion Foundation and The Glenn Gould Foundation.

http://craphound.com/bio.php

Why is this title included?
Little Brother is on many best-of lists, including Amazon Editors' Picks: Top 10 Books, 2008; Booklist Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2008; School Library Journal Best Books, 2008; and YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2009.

Flip

Title: Flip
Author: Martyn Bedford
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9780385739900

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Unexplained Phenomena--Out-of-Body Experiences

Reader’s Annotation: Though Flip is handsome and popular, all Alex wants to do is get back to his own body and his own life.

Plot Summary
Alex wakes up from terrifying dreams in another boy’s body, hundreds of miles from home and six months after the last night he remembers. His body is lying in a coma in a London hospital, and he is inhabiting the body of Philip, aka Flip, the son of a middle-class Yorkshire family. Alex’s soul fled his body when the doctors began talking about pulling the plug. In a process called psychic evacuation, it took over the body of someone closely linked to him (Flip and Alex were born in the same hospital on the same day). It takes Alex a while to figure all this out, of course, and even longer to figure out what to do about it. In the meantime he has to go to Flip’s school, avoid Flip’s angry girlfriends, and live with Flip’s family. Alex’s visits to his parents and best friend lead to his arrest, and when he confides in a girl from Flip’s school she thinks he’s crazy, too. He finally finds people to talk to about his situation on a web forum for psychic evacuees. When one of them, a young man named Rob, meets him in person, Alex is at first overjoyed. But it soon becomes clear that the only way Rob is willing to help is by convincing Alex to give up on his old life. Alex realizes he’ll have to go it alone if he’s to have any chance of getting his body, his friends, and his family back.

Critical Evaluation
Flip is an imaginative story with a believable, sympathetic character at its heart. The premise alone is interesting, but Alex’s vivid emotional reactions to his predicament are what make the book work. When he finds himself in Flip’s body, all he wants is to talk to his mother. When he visits his house and sees his obnoxious little brother, he’s overcome with love. He manages some empathy for Flip’s parents despite the frustration of his own situation. He also has moments of rage when he lashes out at the people around him—the people from Flip’s life.

Bedford makes Flip an interesting (though unsympathetic) character too, without ever allowing him to speak for himself. Flip’s character is revealed only in other people’s reactions to Alex in Flip’s body. Flip’s sister is scathing; his friends are slavishly eager for his approval.

The writing is solid, but not beautiful. When it slipped into incomplete sentences with odd formatting toward the end, it took me a moment to understand that it wasn’t typos but the paranormal action of the climactic moment affecting the text. However, the pacing is good and the plotting tight. The satisfying ending ties up all the loose threads in credible ways.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas
Give character profiles of Alex and Flip, then ask, "What would happen if they switched places?"
Read the first section of the first chapter, to "Which would've been fine if he'd known anyone called Philip."

Challenge Issues: Mild language

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist.

About the Author

I grew up in Croydon and worked in a bank for a year. But this is true of so many writers it has become a cliché. So let me tell you about some of the other stuff.

My dad, Peter, was a sheet-metal worker; my mum, Marjorie, a wages clerk. I have no brothers or sisters. We never had a foreign holiday till I was 17. They took me to Belgium for a week, to prove I hadn’t been missing anything. I loved them both. They’re dead, now, but I still love them.

I went to a big comprehensive school and enjoyed my time there so much I wrote my first adult novel about a disturbed man who takes revenge on his former teachers. Made a mess of my A-levels (too much snooker, too little effort) and had to do a re-sit to get into journalism college.

Learned my lesson, though – I spent much of the journalism course drinking, playing pool or going on protest marches. “Home” was a caravan in a field with two mates from the course. Take my advice, don’t live in a caravan. Even so, it still rates as just about the best year of my life.

For the next 15 years I worked as a news reporter, football correspondent, features writer and sub-editor on newspapers all over England (and one in Wales).

Between jobs I went backpacking in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. I taught English in Hong Kong, despite speaking no Cantonese and being unqualified to teach English (or anything else), and returned from India with dysentery, hepatitis and pneumonia, having lost a quarter of my body weight. Happy days.

All this time, through my 20s and early 30s, I wrote fiction – short stories, a couple of abandoned novels – did creative writing classes, joined a writers’ group … until it dawned on me that I wanted to be a writer more than anything. So, I quit my job and enrolled on the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. That was where I began Acts of Revision.

I’ve been writing novels ever since – first for adults, now for teenagers – and when I’m not doing that, I teach creative writing (even though I still have no teaching qualifications.) Best of all, though, I have a wife, Damaris, and two daughters, Josie and Polly. And I don’t live in Croydon anymore.

http://martynbedford.com/bio/

Why is this title included?
I read about this book in an NPR article that identified five recent YA releases with crossover appeal for adults (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/137456199/hooray-for-ya-teen-novels-for-readers-of-all-ages). Its strong male narrator and engaging plot make it a good choice for reluctant (male) readers.

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9780439023481

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Science Fiction--Dystopia

Reader’s Annotation: Katniss is determined to survive the Hunger Games, the annual contest in which two teenage representatives from each of the twelve districts are forced to fight to the death on national television.

Plot Summary
It starts with a bang—within a few pages the narrator, Katniss Everdeen, is signed up to participate in the annual Hunger Games. This contest is designed to punish and intimidate the districts of Panem, a post-apocalyptic nation located on what remains of North America, and entertain the wealthy Capitol citizens. Every year each district must send two teenage “tributes” to compete in a fight to the death in highly controlled, brutal environment. The Games are mandatory viewing nationwide.

With the survival and hunting skills she learned from her father, Katniss is better qualified for the Games than many of the tributes from the poor districts. The other tribute from District 12, Peeta Mellark, is a baker’s son. In the interviews that kick off the Games, he confesses that he’s loved Katniss from afar his whole life, a strategy that Haymitch, their adviser, promotes.

Once inside the arena, Katniss heads out on her own and Peeta joins up with the Career tributes (teens from wealthy districts who have trained for the Games). Katniss forms an unlikely alliance with Rue, a young girl who reminds Katniss of her sister. When the Careers catch up to Katniss, Peeta turns on them so she can get away. Later Katniss finds Peeta injured. She takes him to a cave where she tries to nurse him back to health and hints that she reciprocates his feelings, but it doesn’t take long for the Game Makers to force her out of hiding.

Critical Evaluation
The Hunger Games is hands down the most gripping book I have ever read. For the few hours that it took me to read it I felt that I literally could not put it down. Though it has its flaws—the writing is basic and essentially devoid of subtlety—the imaginative story and the breathless intensity of the action render them insignificant.

Besides action, The Hunger Games also boasts powerful social commentary and great characters. The Capitol citizens are an extreme example of the human propensity to enjoy brutality. The irony of the fact that this book is going to make a great movie will not be lost on teens.

There are many colorful characters here, notably Effie Trinket, the Capitol representative assigned to District 12 whose signature line is, “And may the odds be ever in your favor;” Haymitch, the hard-living Victor haunted by his deeds in the arena who turns out to be a shrewd strategist and mentor; and Cinna, the stylist assigned to the District 12 tributes whose brilliant designs make a bold (and dangerous) political statement. Peeta and Katniss are less colorful, but are nevertheless solidly developed. Their personalities are almost beside the point—you can’t help but feel that you know them because of the intensity of the experiences you have in their company.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Describe the Hunger Games, including details such as the unpredictable arenas, career tributes, stylists, and interviews. The premise sells itself.

Challenge Issues: Brutal teenage violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, which to varying degrees address the disturbing content of the book and the reasons for its inclusion. I'll also include the assessment from Common Sense Media (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/hunger-games).

About the Author
Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains It All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/​Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the head writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days.

While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.

Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, live in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find...? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part fantasy/​war series, The Underland Chronicles.

Suzanne currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.

http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm


Why is this title included?
The Hunger Games is the most gripping book I have ever read, bar none. It has won numerous awards and appeared on many best-of lists, includingAmazon Editors' Picks: Top 10 Books, 2008; Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Voice of Youth Advocates, 2008; Booklist Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; Horn Book Fanfare, 2008; Notable Children's Books, New York Times, 2008; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2008; School Library Journal Best Books, 2008; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2009; YALSA Teens' Top Ten, 2009; and YALSA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, 2009.

Birthmarked

Title: Birthmarked
Author: Caragh M. O'Brien
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 9781596435698

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7-12

Genre: Science Fiction--Dystopia

Reader’s Annotation: When her law-abiding parents are taken by the Enclave, docile Gaia is fierce in her determination to get them out.

Plot Summary
Because Gaia lives outside the wall, she is poor. At 16 she’s already worked as her mother’s assistant for years, and soon she’ll be a full-fledged midwife herself. Gaia and her parents serve the Enclave (the wealthy society inside the wall) faithfully, which includes taking the first three babies born each month away from their mothers and turning them over for adoption inside the wall. She herself has two older brothers who were “advanced” as babies to families inside the Enclave. She thinks with envy of the opportunities for education and fine living that they’ve had there. Not until her law-abiding parents are arrested without explanation does Gaia begin to question this state of affairs. When they don’t come back, she decides that she has to go in after them. Almost as soon as she gets inside, though, Gaia is arrested—for performing a C-section on the corpse of a woman hanged for incest. Saving the baby makes Gaia something of a hero and a political liability. Handsome Captain Grey is drawn to Gaia’s bravery, too. When she is taken for interrogation he becomes her ally, helping her make a series of daring escapes in her quest to save her parents.

Critical Evaluation
Birthmarked has a level of complexity lacking in many other dystopian novels—the bad guys aren’t monsters. Yes, they take advantage of the people who live outside the wall and brutally stifle dissent, but they have reasons that go beyond being evil. The family that hides Gaia inside the wall helps her even though they don’t want revolution, just reform. Other characters are similarly well drawn. Gaia, especially, is inspiring. She starts out incredibly naïve, but soon shows that she’s committed, smart, and fierce in the pursuit of what’s right.

The plot has a good balance of conspiring and action. For the most part Gaia’s clever unraveling of mysteries and daring escapes are credible. The exception is her interrogation. Why would the supposedly brainy bad guys need uneducated Gaia to crack a negative space code? It’s too easy. There are some great surprises along the way, though, and a breathless race to a cliffhanger ending that will have teens lining up for the sequel.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Describe Gaia's world--the Unlake, the water rations, the Tvaltar, the wall.

Challenge Issues: N/A

About the Author
A couple of years ago, as I drove across the country with my family from Connecticut to California, the drought in the southern states started me thinking about what’s going to happen to America when climate change really hits. I figured we’d annex Canada and all move north. It wasn’t the nicest idea, and it sparked deeper concerns about how power and politics might evolve in a crisis. Once I threw in babies, too, I had the start of Gaia’s story.

People ask me how I became a writer, and the answer’s slow and simple. Take my book-laced girlhood, and my friendship with my best pal neighbor, and my six wild, musical siblings, and my love for my husband and our goofy kids, and certain losses and fears, and my years of writing and teaching, and then put me on a couch with a computer. I try to write the best thing I can.

I wrote the first draft of Gaia’s story while on sabbatical in Tiburon, CA, and when I was stumped, I’d walk in the hills. I walked pretty much every day.

www.caraghobrien.com/book/about-caragh/

Why is this title included?
This is a solid entry in the popular dystopian genre. It's on the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2011 list.

Peeps

Title: Peeps
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Razorbill
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9781595140838

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9-12

Genre: Paranormal and Horror--Monsters--Vampires

Reader’s Annotation: Cal has a mission: hunt down his ex-girlfriends, whom he's infected with a parasite that causes vampirism, then find the woman who gave it to him.

Plot Summary
Cal Thompson moved from Texas to Manhattan for college, and within days lost his virginity in a drunken stupor to a mysterious woman. She infected him with a terrible parasite--the parasite that causes vampirism. In fact, vampires are known in Cal's world--the shadowy Night Watch organization for which he now works--as "parasite positives" or "peeps." Westerfeld cleverly explains the legends surrounding vampires as resulting from the parasite's symptoms--anathema, or hatred of things loved before the time of infection, is the reason behind vampires' supposed aversion to crosses. The short even-numbered chapters tell the stories of real-life parasites, bolstering Westerfeld's case for the vampire parasite and sneaking lessons on evolution into this otherwise fluffy read.

Since his infection, Cal has become a hunter. He is a carrier, so he is immune to the worst of the parasite's effects--cannibalism and anathema--but he does have heightened senses, super strength, and unusually good reflexes. He also suffers from heightened horniness, since the parasite is sexually transmitted and he must not act on his desires. His mission is to hunt down the ex-girlfriends he unwittingly infected and then to find his "progenitor." In the course of tracking her, he becomes involved with an attractive college student, Lace, who is too interested and clever for her own good. Cal and Lace learn that there's a conspiracy afoot among New York's clannish old families and that there may be something worse than vampires lurking beneath the city streets.

Critical Evaluation
Westerfeld’s witty first-person narrative and the creepy mood of the novel keep the reader turning pages, but the plot gets bogged down with twists, revelations, and explanations in the final chapters. The engaging combination of humor and horror is established in the first chapter, when Cal finds his ex, Sarah, lurking in an abandoned building with a horde of rats and the skulls of her victims—yuck—and uses Elvis paraphernalia, Sarah’s former passion, to trap and subdue her. “I took advantage of my slow ascent to leave a few items from my backpack on the stairs. A sequined cape, a miniature blue Christmas tree, an album of Elvis Sings Gospel” (p. 5).

The science in this book is refreshingly solid. The chapters on real-life parasites are not for the weak of stomach, but are factual and surprisingly captivating. The vampire-parasite premise is convincingly explained. Coming up with a new take on the done-to-death vampire genre is an accomplishment in itself. Characterization is competent, but the characters aren’t especially memorable.

Problems arise as the climax nears. For the first several chapters the book seems to be on track to be a satisfying stand-alone novel, but it veers off toward the end into setup for a sequel (which has yet to appear). There are too many revelations in too short a time, so the story must be put on hold for explication. The creepy mood is undermined when it turns out that the bad guys aren’t really bad. The final revelation is not as scary as it should be after all the buildup, and the final confrontation is somewhat anticlimactic. Who needs monsters when you’ve already got parasites and vampires?

Curriculum Ties: Biology--parasites, evolution

Booktalking Ideas: Read one of the descriptions of real-life parasites. Icky but interesting and witty.

Challenge Issues: Occult content, mild sexual content
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." The reviews a will include come from Booklist (mixed), VOYA (negative), Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices (positive), and Kliatt (positive).

About the Author
Scott Westerfeld is me. I’m the author of eighteen novels. Five are for adults, and the other thirteen for young adults.

I’ve also been an occasional ghost writer, which is like driving someone else’s car really, really fast for lots of money. (I could tell you what famous authors I ghost-wrote for, but then I’d have to kill you. My name can be found on three Powerpuff Girl choose your own adventures, however.) In my artsy days, I wrote music for artsy downtown New York dancers, some of which can be found at the bottom of my video page.

I’m best known for my four sets of books for young adults. The most recent is the Leviathan trilogy. It’s a steampunk retelling of World War I, illustrated by the incomparable Keith Thompson. It features adventure, walking machines, and living airships!

My most famous works are those of the Uglies series, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory when you turn 16, making everyone beautiful. Of course, there are some people who want to keep their own faces . . . and that’s not okay with the government. The series consists of a trilogy—Uglies, Pretties and Specials—as well as a companion novel, Extras.

I was born in Texas, and split my time between New York City and Sydney, Australia. (I have more frequent flyer miles than you do.)

http://scottwesterfeld.com/about-the-author/

Why is this title included?
Westerfeld is a very popular YA author. Peeps is on the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (2006), YALSA Teens' Top Ten (2006), and School Library Journal Best Books (2005) lists.

Sleeper Code

Title: Sleeper Code
Author: Tom Sniegoski
Publisher: Razorbill
Copyright: 2006
ISBN: 9781595140524

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 6-10

Genre: Adventure/Thrillers--Action Adventure

Reader’s Annotation: Is Tom a mild-mannered invalid with a rare form of narcolepsy or highly-trained killing machine?

Plot Summary
Tom, 16, has lived a highly regimented life of doctor’s visits, pills, exercise, and sleep in an attempt to control his highly unpredictable illness. Tom has a rare form of narcolepsy that can send him to sleep for days at a time. He lives with his parents, is homeschooled, and has little contact with the outside world. Madison has just moved in next door to Tom—she is staying with her aunt and uncle while her parents work out their acrimonious divorce. She and Tom become interested in each other just as Tom is beginning to figure that there is more to his life than he knows. When Tom has narcoleptic episodes, his alter ego, Tyler, takes control of his body. Tyler is an assassin of unmatched skill and heartlessness, trained as part of a secret government program. It’s been taken over by the corrupt project leader, who plans to sell his weaponized children on the black market. When Tom learns the truth about his doppelgänger he must also come to terms with the fact that his entire life is a lie. Everyone around him, including his supposed parents, has been manipulating and using him. In order to save himself and Madison, he must figure how to use the skills that his body knows from its training as Tyler without letting Tyler’s monstrous personality take over.

Critical Evaluation
Sleeper Code’s greatest assets are its imaginative premise and action-packed plot. It is deficient in characterization, imagery, and language. The characters range from thin to cartoonish. Tom and Madison are typical teenagers—athletic good students who just want to have normal lives. In other words, they are as bland as can be. Brandon Kavanagh, the corrupt government agent, gleefully goes over to the dark side in an unintentionally humorous scene of self-reflection: "Kavanagh had always seen himself as one of the good guys but knew it wasn't a long journey to the other side. ... Wasn't evil all a matter of perception anyway? ... His desire to see the bad guys win had always been his own little secret" (p. 111-112). Tyler, Tom’s alter ego, is evil personified.

Throughout the novel the figurative language is childish to the point of being humorous. At one point Tom describes emotional pain at betrayal as feeling like being stabbed in the gut with “the world’s biggest knife.” Also problematic are the “scientific” details—attempts to explain what goes on in Tom’s brain invariably sound ridiculous. The worst instance of this is when Tom experiences a conversation with a dead scientist that has somehow been implanted in his brain and later activated by visiting a web page. The mechanics of this episode do not make sense. In spite of all this, Sleeper Code is a relatively inoffensive page-turner.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas 
What if someone else lived inside your head—someone who scared you?
Describe what Tom experiences when he has a narcoleptic attack.

Challenge Issues: Violence (mild)
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I will also include the positive reviews from School Library Journal and VOYA along with the fairly positive review from Kliatt. This last review notes that the book has little to no "literary merit" but its appeal to reluctant readers is strong.

About the Author
THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI is the author of more than two dozen novels for adults, teens, and children. His YA fantasy series Fallen was adapted into a trilogy of monstrously successful TV movies by ABC Family Channel. His other books for teens include Sleeper Code, Sleeper Agenda, Legacy, and Force Majeure, as well as the series The Brimstone Network. The author's first adult novel, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, developed into a series of novels about the character Remy Chandler, including Dancing on the Head of a Pin, Where Angels Fear to Tread, and A Hundred Words for Hate.

Sniegoski's work for younger readers includes the Billy Hooten: Owlboy series and the fantasy quartet OutCast, which he co-authored with Christopher Golden. OutCast is in development as a film at Universal. Sniegoski and Golden have also collaborated on the adult dark fantasy series The Menagerie, and multiple creator-owned comic book series, including The Sisterhood, which is being prepped for a feature film by InterMedia, and Talent, currently in development at Universal after a major bidding war.

As a comic book writer, Sniegoski's work includes Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails, a prequel miniseries to international hit Bone. Sniegoski has also written the Bone: Quest for the Spark novels. Sniegoski collaborated with Bone creator Jeff Smith on the prequel, making him the only writer Smith has ever asked to work on those characters. Sniegoski and Golden also wrote the graphic novel BPRD: Hollow Earth, a spinoff from Hellboy.

Sniegoski was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his wife LeeAnne and their dog, Kirby.

http://www.sniegoski.com/bio.html

Why is this title included?
Although this book's primary appeal is to middle school readers, it is engaging enough to draw in reluctant high school readers, as well, as its selection as a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers attests.