I Am Number Four

Lore, Pittacus. I Am Number Four. Book 1 of the Lorien Legacies series. 2010. 440p. ISBN 0061969559. Available at FIC LOR on the library shelves.

Eleven years ago, the planet Lorien was invaded by the Mogadorians. Though the population was scientifically advanced and possessed enormous powers called legacies, the surprise attack all but obliterated what was a beautiful planet, turning it into a wasteland.

Nine children, each accompanied by a tutor, were able to board a spaceship and escape to Earth, where they have been hiding ever since. The group split up and now each pair of trainer and child disappeared into the population, slowly training and awaiting the emergence of their legacies. Their hope is to re-establish life on Lorien and rebuild its prosperous civilization.

The Mogadorians followed them to Earth, however, and each of the nine is hunted down by these sadistic soldiers. Fortunately, they are under Lorien’s protection and can only be killed in numerical order. When Number Four, going by the name John Smith, is alerted through a painful tattoo that Number Three has just perished, he knows the Mogadorians are coming after him next.

Now established in the small town of Paradise, Ohio, John and his trainer Henri attempt to lay low. Unfortunately, John falls for beautiful Sarah and runs afoul of Mark James, captain of the football team and a bully. He also becomes friends with Sam Goode, an alien conspiracy theorist.

As the school year passes, John is forced to evade questions about his origins, while Henri continues to push his training and work on his legacies, which include resisting fire and minor telekinesis. Unfortunately, a party at Mark James results in the house burning down, and John is observed saving Sarah and Mark’s dogs from the second floor room where they were stuck. Now John’s picture and name is out on the Internet. With no time to spare, John and his friends must get ready for the Mogadorians’ assault and their dreaded monsters. Can a motley group of aliens and humans survive one of the savagest races in the galaxy?

Urban Legends

Stewart, Gail. Urban Legends. Part of The Mysterious & Unknown series. 2012. 96p. ISBN 978-1-60152-185-9. Available at 398.2 STE on the library shelves.

The growth of communication and social media has led to an explosion of false information. Some of it is done to confuse or obfuscate. Others are done for commercial or economic advantages. But some are fabricated to provide a moral or to explain specific circumstances. Known as urban legends, these arise with a kernel of truth and are just far out enough to be almost unbelievable yet provide enough convincing elements to make people believe they are true.

From the urban legend that dropping a penny from the top of the Empire State would kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk to the live cockroach growing in the tongue of someone who gave himself a papercut licking an envelope, urban legends are persistent, widely circulated, and often morph into other legends retaining the same lesson or moral. This book presents several urban legends and how they have evolved over time. These urban legends deal with stories that are too good to be true, stories that are meant to scare, stories about celebrities, stories about animals, and stories about food and drinks.

Readers who enjoy the paranormal or the thrill of the strange will appreciate the urban legends presented in this short book.

Trials of Death

Shan, Darren. Trials of Death. Book 5 of the Cirque du Freak series. 2004. 207p. ISBN 0-316-60395-3. Available at FIC SHA on the library shelves.

Having been presented to the Vampire Princes in Vampire Mountain, Darren must now survive the five Trials of Initiation to atone for Mr Crepsley's sin of transforming him at such a young age and in such a wanton fashion. Drawn from a pool of seventeen out of the possible sixty, these trials are designed to prove that he deserves to become a full-fledged vampire. Should he fail and not perish in the attempt, he will be put to death as being unworthy of the title of vampire.

Most vampires, however, are cheering for Darren and hope that he succeeds. The game master himself decides to train the young apprentice and prepares him for the games. But as Darren participates in one event after another, the vampires themselves feel uneasy. The vampire princes and their generals are holding counsel, discussing Mr. Tiny’s message that a Vampaneze Lord will arise and lead the Vampaneze in a fight against the vampires.

Darren succeeds at the first three trials, though he is badly hurt each time, but as he is about to be gored to death by a boar in the fourth trial, Harkat intervenes and saves his life, much to the displeasure of the vampires. Now faced with two choices, certain death or possible escape, Darren selects the cowardly way out and flees deep in the mountain with the help of friends. But when they encounter a large group of 30 to 40 Vampaneze, Darren and his friends realize that there is a traitor on Vampire Mountain...

The story continues in The Vampire Prince.

Wink Poppy Midnight

Tucholke, April Genevieve. Wink Poppy Midnight. Dial Books. 2016. 256p. ISBN 978-0803740488. Available at FIC TUC on the library shelves.

Poppy was Midnight’s first love. But Poppy did not love Midnight. Not then, when they first met and not now, when their relationship has gotten to the breaking point. Poppy doesn’t love anyone. She is toxic, a beautiful girl but the biggest bully in their little town, ruling over a group of vicious boys and girls known as the Yellows. Still, Midnight loved her, despite all that. But not anymore. Now he only wants to get as far away from her as possible. But like a virulent disease, Poppy keeps coming back and messing with him.

So when Midnight and his father move to a house outside of town, he hopes that the distance will be enough to keep Poppy and her lackeys away. Across the gravel road from their new house is the Bell household, led by a single mother with so many kids it’s impossible to get an accurate count. Wink is the second eldest Bell, and she is everything Poppy is not: red head, quiet, in tune with her environment, a loner. And she seems very much interested in Midnight. Until Poppy shows up, ready to ruin this new relationship. Can Midnight stop Poppy before it’s too late?

Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. 1999. 198p. ISBN 978-0-374-37152-4. Available at FIC AND on the library shelves.

Melinda has always been engaged with her friends and family. During the summer before 9th grade, however, she attends a barn party with her friend Rachel, has too much to drink, and is raped by an incoming senior who attends Merryweather High. In pain and in a panic, she called 911 but was not able to speak on the phone due to shock. Her friend Rachel found her and realized that she had called the police. The party broke up, and everyone ran away, including Melinda. Now she’s the only one, along with her aggressor, that knows what the real reason for the 911 call was. Her friends all think she simply wanted to ruin everyone else’s fun.

Ostracized by her friends and feeling like damaged goods, Melinda must find a way to survive her freshman year at school. Art is the only subject that offers her a ray of sunshine in an otherwise tedious and depressing day. Even her parents have noticed the change in her, but don’t know how to reach her. Melinda refuses to communicate her problems and her needs, and the only friend she makes, Heather, eventually drifts away as well. As the year progresses, will Melinda rediscover her own voice?

Melinda provides a contrasting response to a very traumatic event than Hermione did in Exit, Pursued by a Bear. Both teens are strong in their own ways, but Melinda internalizes her assault and does not possess the confidence to actively deal with it and the rumors that swirl around that fateful evening. But in the end she finds her voice and, like Hermione, is able to talk about it. Readers who appreciated Melinda’s strength should also look up Naked, the story of a teenage prostitute who ran away from home and is now trying to reintegrate into school two years later.

Loch Ness Monster

Karst, Ken. Enduring Mysteries: Loch Ness Monster. 2015. 48p. ISBN 978-1-60818-403-3. Available at 001.94 KAR on the library shelves.

The Loch Ness monster is one of these enduring myths that haunt our imagination. The possibility, even as remote and unlikely as it is, that a large beast from the dinosaur era survived to today and dwells in Scotland’s deepest lake has intrigued and captivated the world. Many explorers have spent time and money searching the lake from top to bottom with nets, sonars, and divers, and yet have found nothing. Unfortunately, all of these technologies are as of yet unable to fully map the lake and determine what really lives in it.

This book presents all current information on Nessie and provides a closer look at the environment in which the monster supposedly dwells. Cryptozoology is explored, and possible candidates for the role of Nessie are shown. Several new facts are introduced, including the discovering in the late 1990s of a coelacanth specie of fish, a kind of fish thought to have died out millions of years ago. Finally, other monsters rumored to live in lakes throughout the world are discussed. If you love the strange and the weird, you will like this book!

Unfriended

Vail, Rachel. Unfriended. 2014. 282p. ISBN 978-0-670-01307-4. Available at FIC VAI on the library shelves.

Truly and Natasha were best friends in elementary school, but in 7th grade they parted way after Natasha began hanging out with the popular kids. Truly befriended Hazel, and the two of them have been inseparable since. But when, in the middle of eighth grade, Natasha asks Truly to come sit with her and the other popular kids, Truly immediately accepts and walks away from Hazel without a word, leaving her at their lockers.

This betrayal leads Hazel to begin an online campaign to destroy Truly. Meanwhile, Natasha has ulterior motives for inviting Truly over to her table. She wants Truly to work with them on the History Day project, and she knows that Truly will end up doing all of the work. Then her friends will see that Natasha is really nice and takes pity on her old friend Truly.

When her plan backfires, however, Natasha finds herself on the outs with the popular kids, while Truly is fully accepted. Natasha starts her own efforts at destroying Truly. As posts and pictures proliferate and become nastier, the spiral of ill will increasingly descend towards nastiness and will not stop until someone gets hurt.

Told from the perspectives of Truly, Natasha, Brooke, the popular girl at school; Clay, Brooke’s best friend, and Jack, who is secretly enamored with Truly, this is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when your friends turn on you, and how even innocent conversations become fodder for rumors and remarks.