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If you like big special effects, non-stop action, and massive deadly creatures, you will love Steve Cole’s new series for young readers, Z. Rex, Book 1: The Hunting! Taking cues from great films like Jurassic Park, King Kong and Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, with a villainous company bent on controlling the world (Alien, Aliens), Z. Rex blends cutting edge sci-fi technology with fully interactive virtual reality gaming, throwing plenty of mayhem, destruction and adventure into the mix.  Life as the son of a genius virtual reality developer is pretty cool for 14 year old Adam Adlar.  But when his dad mysteriously vanishes and some scary thugsRead More →

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Action, adventure, mythology and high-tech crime are packed into Stephen Cole’s Thieves Like Us.  The first book in an explosive series, Thieves Like Us, introduces us to a crew of brilliant teens whose skill and ambition are harnessed by a criminal mastermind, Coldheart, making them an almost unstoppable band of high-end thieves.  First we meet Jonah Wish, an ultra-talented computer programmer as he’s serving the second month of a year-long incarceration for illegal computer hacking and multi-million dollar theft.  Jonah’s as surprised as the reader when a commotion breaks out in the jail and he’s spirited away by some well-trained, technologically savvy teens to aRead More →

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When Thomas wakes up in a dark lift, headed upwards to who knows where, all he can remember is his first name. He has no idea where he came from, who he is, or how he got where he is. When the door above him opens, he discovers he’s “welcomed” by other teen boys, in a large expanse, called The Glade, surrounded by tall stone walls.  The Gladers also have no memories of their lives before – they only know they’ve been virtual prisoners in the maze for about 2 years.  They know that every morning, the large stone doors open and runners head out into the mazeRead More →

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Chris Woodingcontinues his exploration of deep, dark, scary otherworlds in his latest book for young adults, Malice, due from Scholastic in October 2009. Like all good urban legends, it’s the thrill of the unknown that draws kids in: gather some odds & ends, chant a phrase 6 times, and then wait to see if Tall Jake comes for you.  And then there’s a creepy, hard-to-find comic called Malice that details erratically horrifying snipets of kids trapped in a dangerous underworld, most of whom meet gruesome ends. When one of their friends goes missing and then appears to die in the pages of Malice, Seth andRead More →

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“I will have to travel from district to district, to stand before cheering crowds who secretly loathe me, to look into the faces of the families who children I have killed…” By page four of Catching Fire I am swept away with emotion.   When I left the heroine of The Hunger Games, Katniss, I thought I could easily hold it together until she returned in its sequel.  How wrong I was.  When I was able to read an advanced copy, I found myself pinned to the couch, taking only time to eat one meal…forcing myself to stop at 1am with 40 pages to go.  Why? Read More →

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In screenwriter Greg Taylor’s first novel, Killer Pizza, 14 year old Toby just landed a great job for a guy who dreams of being a celebrity chef – in the kitchen of a cool new franchise, Killer Pizza.  Along with his teen co-workers, Strobe and Annabel, Toby soon discovers the pizza shop is actually a front for a nationwide network of monster hunters – wait?! Monster Hunters? Yep, monsters!  They quickly accept the reality that fearsome monsters exist in their midst, and undergo weeks of combat, technical, and weapons training in order to discover and defeat them. The main ingredient in this recipe is action, action, and more action.  It’s like aRead More →

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Action, adventure and an engaging story set deep in the heart of Chinese culture – oh, and it’s all set on Mars in the year 2515. Welcome to the latest book by Chris Roberson, Iron Jaw and Hummingbird. In this engaging book, Roberson continues his development of  The Celestial Empire, where China rose to world dominance in the fifteenth century on Earth and eventually colonized Mars, or Fire Star.  It’s intriguing to imagine and develop alternate world histories (and futures) as Roberson does with his Celestial Empire stories (which remind me of the excellent book by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt) and toRead More →

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Avery’s got a secret and he doesn’t know how to live with it. Why is this happening to him? How can he control it? What can he do with it? Can he be the only one to have it? It, in Sarah Cross’ smart, quick, and fun first novel, Dull Boy, is superpowers.  In Avery’s case, super strength and the ability to fly.  He prowls around his town trying to find people to help (he’s got a complex about putting his gift to good use); tries to stay under the radar so he doesn’t end up in a test lab; and attempts to figure outRead More →

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In the Deep Freeze of Bartholomew Freezeby Alex Williams, the town of Pinrut has been covered in blizzard conditions for at least 20 years: no sunshine, no warmth, no happiness.  Residents scrape out a meager existence in the frozen turnip fields of their overlord, the selfish, wealthy bully, Bartholomew Tullock. Everyone except for the Breeze family, however.  Rufus and his sister Madeline, together with their parents Elizabeth and Philip, believe that the sun will one day return and they just have to hold out hope that their fan-inventing family tradition will survive until the summer sun returns.  They are, however, the focus of Tullock’s wrath and jealousy, and just when their situation becomes most dire, a strange visitor and hisRead More →