Alibi, Alibi, Who Needs an Alibi?

Alibi High by Greg Logsted

3Q 4P; Audience: M/J

Living life on the run, constantly looking over your shoulder for danger, surviving attempts on your life - it's all easier than being in high school. That's the conclusion that Cody comes to when his father sends him to live with his aunt after their narrow escape from a bomb.

All Cody has known from his very earliest memories is the life of a CIA spy. That's his dad's job, and it's his, too. He knows how to tail a suspect and how not to be tailed himself. He knows how to spot suspicious characters in a crowd, and he knows how to keep them from spotting him. He knows five languages and how to fire a gun. He's got black belts in two different martial arts. He knows how to take care of himself.

What he doesn't know is how to be a teenager. He doesn't know how to dress (Baggy pants with all those pockets? What's wrong with a suit and tie?). He doesn't know how not to tick off every teacher he's got (Don't they want to know when they have their facts wrong?). He doesn't know how to make friends with the guys, and he doesn't have a clue how to deal with girls (Cell Phone Girl thinks he's a psycho and he can't even talk to Renee). Why did he think high school would be easy?

As if that's not bad enough, Cody can't shake off the memories of being in that cafe when the bomb went off. Everywhere he looks, there's a Yankees cap. Every strange sound makes him twitch. He can't sleep. He's taken to patrolling the house at night. He can't shake the feeling that he's being watched. He's right. There's someone out there. Who is it, and why is he there?

Musings:

Readers expecting the constant adrenaline surge of the Alex Rider series may be a little disappointed, but they shouldn't count this book out. The pace and tension build throughout the book.


I appreciated the way Logsted made Cody's training so much a part of his every day life, particularly in the beginning. When he arrives at the airport, he instantly scans the area and people for signs of danger. He's aghast to learn that his aunt is naked - meaning she's not carrying a gun. When an enemy (such as the school security guard) comes too close, he instantly calculates how best to bring him down. A walk isn't a simple walk, it's a reconnaissance mission. Because of those touches, it made it easier to buy the premise that he is, essentially, a born spy.


I also liked the relationship between Cody and Andy, a former Army Ranger who lost his arm while in the service. They each quickly recognize the signs of someone who's been through the wars and bond over nightly surveillance surveys, martial arts, and post-traumatic stress syndrome (the latter unspoken). At the same time, Cody is never quite sure if he can trust Andy.


Okay, it's a cliche to have the gym teacher be a jerk. I liked this storyline anyhow, right down to the martial arts demo and the principal's (eventual) reaction. (I really enjoyed Cody's descriptions of his various meetings with Mrs. Owens. As Cody says, the humor grows on you.)


Logsted hits just the right notes as far as the romance angle is concerned. It's there, with just enough humor, but not enough to put off readers who aren't into it. The junior high dynamics are spot on.


I'm not as fond of the ending as I am of the rest of the book. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that I had a "You have to be kidding me" reaction, mostly relating to the actions and motivations of a particular character. But the nicely-built tension and great action will make many readers overlook that.


I expect this one to be a hit with my sixth-eighth grade boys, and I'm glad to have another book to recommend to the Horowitz, Muchamore, Higson, Sniegoski, and Butcher fans.

Tamar: Appearance vs Reality

Tamar by Mal Peet
4Q 2P    S


I usually try to do an overview of a book and then write about my impressions. But 1) I read this book several weeks ago and details are starting to fade, 2) what I started to write was dull, and 3) cutting to the chase (well, as much as I ever do!) feels right.

When I finally got my hands on Tamar, I only had three days to read it and Dreamquake, because I was trying to finish them in time to cast a vote for the JHunt Award. They're both over 400 pages, and I wondered how I could possibly do it. But Tamar was compulsively readable. How could I not get wrapped up in the story of two young men working with the Dutch Resistance in service to the British Army? How could I not get invested in a love triangle between those two men and the Dutch woman they both secretly love? How could my stomach not tie up in knots at the danger these three faced? The tension of these situations kept me riveted as I read.

Tamar's assignment is to gather the various factions of the Dutch Resistance and get them to work together under one leader with one common goal. Dart is his radio man. Tamar has the advantage of living in a farmhouse with his lover and her grandmother. Dart has a less cozy cover story, posing as a doctor in a local psychiatric hospital. Peet is a master of building and relieving tension. While it's obvious that anyone working in the Resistance must have led a life of constant stress and fear, I had no idea how nerve wracking it was to be a radioman in particular, or about how many of them became dependent on pharmaceuticals as a result of having to deal with long stretches of tedium interrupted by minutes of sheer terror. Just reading about Dart's first attempt to get past the Nazi soldiers guarding the gates into town had my heart racing along with his. My stomach was in knots later in the story when the moment he's feared for so long actually arrives. By comparison, Tamar seems to have it good. Networking and diplomacy aren't the beacons for the Nazis that turning on a radio signal is, so although he must be careful, his chances of being caught by the Nazis while doing his job are not as high as they are for Dart. And he has Marijke, his lover, to turn to. So when the story turns to them, we get a different view of Resistance work. We see the methodical, longterm planning and experience the frustration of trying to bind together people who don't want to be melded into one. We also see more of the privations that people in occupied territories faced. But we also get a love story. This is an adult love affair, told from an adult perspective. Having been separated once before, Tamar and Marijke cherish each other all the more. But they must be circumspect about their love. To the outside world, Tamar must appear to be no more than a laborer for the family. Tamar also fears that their partnership would be weakened if Dart learns about his love for Marijke. So this is one more secret for him to hide on top of all the others they must keep.

The secrets and the stress that we witness in the WWII sequences come home with a vengeance almost fifty years later, starting with Tamar's suicide. Before he jumps naked from his balcony, he leaves something behind for his granddaughter, also named Tamar. It is a box, one that she refuses to open for months afterward. When she finally does open it, it turns out to be a Pandora's box of sorts - all sorts of secrets come out as a result.

I've heard some complaints that the 1995 sections of the book are less compelling than those that take place during the war, and I can't disagree. They are slower, and the romance angle of it didn't work for me. But I also felt that they gave the book more context and more richness. This is a story that demands that some insight into how actions and decisions of the past impact the future.

Tamar is very much about what seems to be isn't always what is, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that there's even debate about who this book is written for and who it will appeal to. Tamar tells two stories. The one that is most compelling and which takes up the majority of the book does not feature a teenage character. Because YA literature by most definitions must feature a teenage character in an integral role, some are questioning whether this is adult fiction or YA fiction. Good question. I think this is a book that has appeal for both adults and teens, and I think it would be very interesting to hear the discussion if a group of adults and teens read the book and got together to share their thoughts on it. But it's also fair to say that this is probably not a book that is going to be widely and hugely popular among teens. It's a niche book. Teens who like to read books about other teens and don't like historical fiction may not be able to relate to Tamar-the-younger enough to find this book appealing. But teens who like war and espionage stories, romance intertwined with danger, and stories that take their time in the telling are going to relish the time they spend with it.

RANGER'S APPRENTICE

Here's a book that middle school kids will really enjoy, particularly boys. I really enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to the sequels. The book indicates that there will be four books in the series, but I did an Internet search on the author, and it looks as though there will be seven or eight. At this point, I can only say that that's good news.

Booktalk:

As his fifteenth birthday approaches, Will has just one dream: he wants to be chosen as a Battleschool apprentice on Choosing Day. Choosing Day is when the Duke's wards learn their fates. Will they be chosen to apprentice in a craft or guild, or will they be sent to work on a farm as a common laborer? More than anything, Will wants to join the Battleschool and become a knight someday. Will knows little of his family, not even his own last name. The only scraps of knowledge he has are that his mother died in childbirth and that his father died heroically in battle against the evil Lord Morgarath. That must mean his father was a great knight, and Will wants to follow in his footsteps. But knights are big and brawny, and Will is small and scrawny. He knows in his heart that he doesn't have the build to be a knight, but he knows that he is strong and fast, and maybe that will count for something. But it doesn't.

Will can barely swallow his disappointment when his rival, Horace, is chosen for Battleschool and he himself is refused. Even worse, none of the other guild or craft masters will take him on. Only the Ranger speaks up when the Duke asks if any of them will take a second apprentice, and that is only to give the Duke a note. It seems that Will is doomed to a life as a farm laborer. As crushed as he is, Will also can't help wondering about that note the Ranger gave to the Duke. Clearly, it was something about him. Or was it? Will has to know. Years of sneaking about the castle to play tricks and steal pies from the cook have taught Will how to sneak in and around the castle without being spotted by the guards. It's an easy thing for him to scale the wall of the castle and into the Duke's office. It's even easier to sneak over to the desk to find the mysterious piece of paper. He reaches out to grab it...and a hand reaches out to grab his. Terrified, Will looks up and into the eyes of Halt, the Ranger. Where had he come from?

It's a trap, and Will has fallen right into it. But it is also a test, and Will's refusal to lie about what he was doing means he passes that test. Will is to become the Ranger's apprentice. The training is hard, and Halt is not an easy teacher. It isn't Battleschool, but Will soon learns that rangers play just as important a role in keeping the kingdom safe as the knights do, and maybe even more. Rangers are the eyes and ears of the kingdom, gathering intelligence and reporting to the dukes and king. When Lord Morgarath, who fifteen years ago killed the previous king and was only barely defeated, gathers a new army of alien creatures and begins to menace the kingdom again, it's the rangers who know first, and it's Halt, his old apprentice Gilan, and Will who are on the front lines in the battle against him.

Edited to add a link to a very interesting interview with John Flanagan and a link to his web site. Lucky Australians! They're up to Book 6 there, and the seventh book in the series is due out soon. I'm writing this on August 10, 2007, and Book 3, The Icebound Land, has only just been published here in the U.S. Oh, well. Something to look forward to!

I'd Give My Right Hand... (King of Attolia booktalk)

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
5Q 4P J/S

The King of Attolia is Eugenedes, the former Thief of Eddis. He was once the best thief in the land. But Gen isn’t much of a thief now. The only thing he's stolen recently is the Queen of Attolia's heart. The Queen of Attolia. His wife. The woman who had his right hand cut off. This man, this outsider, is the new and hated King of Attolia.

Costis is proud of being a soldier in Attolia. He's a good soldier, too. Good enough to be promoted to a squadron leader in the Queen's Guard much faster than usual. He is also proud of being Attolian, and fiercely loyal and protective of the queen. It pains him to see her married to a "goat-footed, throne-stealing interloper". This king is a joke! He doesn't look like a king, doesn't walk like a king, doesn't stand like a king...he sits on the throne like he's a printer's apprentice in a wine shop, for heaven's sake! He can’t stand it. In a moment of madness, Costis cocks his fist and throws a punch that lands the king on his back. The king! He punched the king! This is treason! He will surely hang for this.

But he doesn't. To his great shock, instead of insisting on that ultimate penalty, the King makes a deal with the Queen and the Captain of her Guard, Telius. Costis becomes the king's lackey. He has to be the king's sparring partner (and the one-armed king is a terrible sword fighter) and follow him around all day doing nothing. It's a terrible comedown for a squadron leader, and the rest of the guard look at him with both pity and scorn. But a strange thing starts happening. Costis hates the king. But it troubles him to see the way his attendants treat him. They put sand in his food and snakes in his bed. They refuse to dress him properly, so his clothes are mismatched and never quite clean. They even maneuver to sic the hunting dogs on him. This isn't right. He is, after all, the King. It's not until these nasty tricks turn into an attempt to assassinate the king that Costis begins to realize that Gen's stealing days aren't quite over. Little by little, he's stealing Costis's heart and his loyalty. But Costis has one more shock coming to him. He’s learned a lot about Gen, but the one thing he hasn’t learned yet is that he always has something up his sleeve. Never, ever underestimate a thief.

Turner’s writing is so good that she makes Gen’s transformation into an ineffectual king seem quite believable. It’s only when you start thinking about what you absolutely know to be true about Gen that you being to wonder just what’s really going on here. The development of the relationship between Costis and Gen and the slowly revealed depth of the relationship between Gen and his queen are well handled, and when the final pieces of the puzzle are dropped into place and we see what’s really been going on, it is deeply satisfying. You do not need to have read the other two books in this series to be caught up by this one, but if you haven't, you've been missing out!

Edited on 9/29/2007 to add: Shannon Hale interviewed Megan Whalen Turner. It's going to be a three-part interview. (Parts two and three aren't up at the time I'm posting this, but I'm sure you'll find them easily once they are.) I can't wait to find out if Shannon asks the all-important "When is the fourth Gen book coming out?" and what Megan's answer is!

Absolutely DROWNING in spies! (KIKI STRIKE)

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
4Q 4P M/J


Of all the girl spy books, this is the one that's getting the notice and getting the raves. Maybe I'm more lukewarm on it than others because it was the third in the genre that I read pretty much right in a row. It's a good idea to mix things up a little so that books stand out from each other and things don't run together so much, and I didn't do that well this time. There is a lot to like about this book. It's just that it didn't stand out for me the way I expected it to after hearing so many excellent reviews of it.

Ananka Fishbein 's life changes the day she looks out the window of her New York City apartment to see that a sinkhole has appeared in the park next door. She also sees a small figure crawling out of the hole. The small figure turns and waves to her. It's a girl! Ananka has to know more about that girl and the sinkhole. She runs downstairs to explore the hole and discovers a hidden door that she eventually learns leads to the Shadow City. What's the Shadow City? It's a city of passages, tunnels, and secret rooms that lead all over the city. What's down there? Dead bodies, rats (big ones!), and treasure. But Ananka doesn't learn any of that until she discovers who the girl is: Kiki Strike.

Kiki, it turns out, is a student in her own school, but Ananka has never noticed her before. That's a surprising, because Kiki has the kind of looks that make her stand out in a crowd: she's only about four feet tall (but she's at least fourteen) and she has absolutely white hair. She also carries herself with a confidence few other teens can match. Kiki soon introduces Ananka to several girls with unusual talents: there's Betty (a master of disguise), Luz (an electronics genius), Dee Dee (a chemist who's great at explosives), and Oona (an excellent forger and thief). Together they form the Irregulars, and together they explore the Shadow City. All of those unusual skills come in very handy when you're doing something you don't want anyone else to know you're doing.

But Kiki has secrets she isn't telling the others, and when one of their explorations ends in disaster, Kiki disappears and the Irregulars break up. But that's not the end of the story. Ananka keeps getting glimpses and information that lead her to believe the Kiki hasn't gone far. Two years later, Kiki is back, and this time, things are serious. Kiki doesn't need them just to map out and explore the Shadow City. This time, teenage girls are disappearing, and the Irregulars know why and what the kidnappers want. They also know they have the means and skills to get the girls back and stop the kidnappers. But they don't know everything. And they most definitely don't know everything they need to know about Kiki Strike.

This book is chock full of girl power and advice for would-be spies that just happens to be potentially useful in real life, too. Check out the end of most of the chapters for items such as:

"The Benefit of the Doubt: Most people are willing to give young girls the benefit of the doubt. Girls are too sweet and innocent, they think, to be up to no good. A clever story--generally one involving a missing kitten--can get you out of trouble in nine out of ten situations. Remember, a tear or two will make any tale more believable." (page 16)

"Duct Tape: Take a roll with you whenever you travel. It can be used to immobilize criminals, fix essential equipment, and make a cute skirt if you're in a bind." (page 86)

You've got to like a book that can mix strong characters, a sense of humor, and adventure and do it well. This book does. Really. I admit it, it's not ever going to be on my favorite books list, and it's not likely to wind up on my Top Five or Top Ten of 2006 list (as it has appeared on others' lists already). But I will happily recommend it to readers who enjoyed the Sammy Keyes books and to kids who like interesting characters doing interesting things.

Spies, Spies, and More Spies!

Girl spy book #2: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

I liked this book, too, but it's less focused on actual spying than it is on how difficult it is to conduct a romance when you're a teenage spy in training.

One of the things that's most fun about this book is the description of the Gallagher School for Girls, which is where the story takes place. We just don't know the half of it out here in the "real" world. For instance, who knew about the first assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln? You know (well, no, I guess you don't!), the one foiled by Gillian Gallagher, who killed the assassin with a sword. Who knew someone once planted a bomb in the White House that a Gallagher Girl defused...with her teeth? The Gallagher School is deep undercover, as befits a school for spies. The locals think it's a school for rich, spoiled girls. It is very, very exclusive. But every now and then, someone breaches the defenses one way or the other. When that happens, as it does when a senator, his cosmetic heiress wife, and their very, very disaffected daughter, Macey pull up to the front gates, a Code Red sounds. Instantly, walls turn around, displays disappear into the floor to be replaced by something more innocuous (sports trophies and the like), "Vote for Emily" banners appear, and so on. We learn later on that the school has numerous secret passages, too, also befitting a school for spies. The girls' curriculum is, of course, geared to those things that spies need in order to get by: foreign languages, Culture and Assimilation, Countries of the World (COW), Covert Operations (the professor is seriously hot), and P&E (Protection and Enforcement). In short, this school is just plain fun to picture, and the description of the Code Red and the various courses help set the tone for the rest of the book. Which it might be a good idea for me to finally get around to talking about!

Cammie Morgan is the fifteen-year-old daughter of the school's headmistress. She speaks fourteen languages fluently, including Portuguese, Mandarin, and Farsi, and she knows seven different ways to kill a person, one involving a piece of dry spaghetti. She's known as the Chameleon, because she has a real talent for blending in to the background. She has two good friends, Bex and Liz. Since Cammie, Bex, and Liz are long on spy knowledge and short on boy knowledge, the addition of Macey (reluctantly, on both sides of the equation) to their group becomes important, since Macey, while totally lacking in spy knowledge, is a fount of information on boys.

Remember that seriously hot Covert Operations professor I mentioned earlier? The caper begins when he assigns Cammie, Bex, and Liz to tail one of their professors to a local street fair and determine what he drinks with his funnel cake. This professor is so paranoid that he gets plastic surgery every year to completely change his looks, so their chances of succeeding on this mission are about zero. Sure enough, Bex and Liz get spotted almost immediately. But Cammie, chameleon that she is, manages to evade the professor's notice. She does not, however, escape the notice of a very cute boy, who happens to find her just as she's taking the professor's Dr. Pepper bottle out of the trash can. If Josh were a master villain, Cammie would have no trouble taking him on. But he's a fifteen-year-old boy who's a cross between a young George Clooney and Orlando Bloom, so Cammie's tongue-tied and awkward. She manages to blurt out that the bottle is for her cat, Suzie, who likes to play with bottles (lie!). When he says he'll see her at school, she can't think what to say, leaving him with the impression she's home schooled for religious reasons. (lie! But she can't tell him where she really goes to school, of course!) And, oh yeah, she just barely remembers to tell him her name and get his. She's so addled by Josh that all she really knows is that she really, really wants to see him again. But that's easier said than done. All of her spy skills are going to be needed here, not just to see him again, but also because it's possible that Josh isn't who or what he says he is. Is he just a cute teenage boy, or is he really an enemy agent trying to compromise the school? The girls don't know, but for the sake of true love, they're determined to find out. The rest of the book revolves around how Cammie can sneak out of school (this is a spy school, so that's supposed to be difficult) to meet Josh and how she can avoid letting him figure out her real story.

This is another fun book, but definitely one that goes over the top here and there. This is a top-notch spy school, but one of the professors is seriously deficient in any kind of spy skills (I guess he's a desk man, not a field operator!). Another professor we don't really meet is apparently a scientific genius, but very prone to having major explosions and other catastrophes in his lab. That's really fun to read about, but it leaves you wondering how good he really is. And Cammie seems to be able to sneak in and out of the school at will, despite the fact that this school is supposed to be loaded with every kind of security device and run by experts in their fields. These top operatives don't know how to keep a proper eye on teenage girls? They'd surely know all the tricks, and they ought to know at least as much about the secret passages as Cammie does. But no, these adults are clueless. According to Amazon.com, this book has been optioned for the movies. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it. I hope they don't dumb it down the way they did The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted.

There are spies EVERYWHERE!

I have recently read Michael Spradlin's SPY GODDESS #1: Live and Let Shop and Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and I am almost finished with Kirsten Miller's Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City. Wow. Spy books for girls! It's funny that all three have come out at the same time, when there probably haven't been three other spy girl titles published in the last three years. Anyhow, I'll be happy to recommend all three, though they all address the issue a little differently and the three might not all satisfy the same reader.

First, Spradlin's Spy Goddess. I might be in the minority, but frankly, I think I enjoyed this one the most. Rachel Buchanan, the protagonist, has a smart mouth (which is one of the many reasons she's in big trouble as the book begins), and it makes her fun to read. Rachel's the daughter of wealthy parents who (stereotypically) don't have the time or interest to pay her any attention. Consequently, Rachel has been upping the ante for a while now, hanging out with kids who are bad news, shoplifting, joyriding, anything to get the attention and the goat of her parents. When Rachel and her friends are caught joyriding (the friends take off), Rachel is sentenced to at least a year at Blackthorn Academy, a private school on the East Coast. If she doesn't stick it out, she'll get a year in Juvie instead. Rachel's pretty sure she's not going to stick around, and when she gets to Blackthorn, she's certain: no Internet? No phone? PE every day?! She's outathere! But her escape attempt is foiled by a sprained ankle (wrist?), confusing woods, and the headmaster, Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim puzzles Rachel. He seems to know everything about her (and even what she's thinking), and nothing she says or does pisses him off, even when she's trying her very hardest. He convinces her to give the school a one month trial. Despite herself, Rachel agrees.

Blackthorn Academy is not like most schools. All the kids have some connection to the justice system, there's a top-secret off-limits floor, and the classes are in things like Code Theory, microelectronics, and the martial arts. Rachel is a little intrigued, and she does make a couple of friends. But still, at the end of the month, she decides she's heading back to California, even if it does mean Juvie. She's on her way down to tell Mr. Kim so when the weirdness gets racheted up a couple of notches. The FBI are in the school, talking to Mr. Kim, who doesn't look happy. Then Mr. Kim disappears. Well, Rachel is not one to let her curiosity go unsatisfied. She's determined to figure out what's going on and what happened to Mr. Kim. This leads her and her friends to a secret passage, a secret room, and the biggest secret of all: somebody named Mithras is out to take over the world, and they've just put a major wrench in his plans. And he doesn't like that one bit. Game on!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I liked the blend of humor and tension. Is it realistic? No. Is the plot a little thin? Yes. Is the villain paper thin and stereotypically whacko? Yes. But I didn't care. Rachel and Mr. Kim are interesting characters I'd like to read more about (Rachel's friends need more development, which I think might be coming in book two). And just when you want to roll your eyes at something Rachel says or does, she does it for you with a snarky comment. All in all, it was a quick and fun read that I happily recommend. I will be ordering the next in the series.

This is really long, so I'll post about the other two books separately.