Bargains and Betrayals

June 1, 2011

Volume three in the 13 to Life series begins in a mental asylum and ends with an unexpected burst of girl power.

Jessie's life is complicated: Her current boyfriend Pietr's a werewolf, her ex-boyfriend controls minds and her blood is a vital ingredient in the cure for lycanthropy. To top it all off, she's been thrown into a pseudo-Victorian mental institution of dubious legitimacy. The narrative, alternating between Jessie's point of view and that of Pietr's human brother, leaves no point of drama unexploited. There are imprisoned mothers and battered girlfriends, Interpol and the Russian mob, drugged cafeteria food and zombie-golem-robot thugs. Jessie and her friends are determined to rescue Pietr's mother from a shadowy organization that is probably not the CIA, but at what cost? It's not always clear what's going on, with prose so terse (one-to-two–sentence paragraphs are the norm) that vital information is often left unsaid. Still, all the players manage to come together for a final shootout that gives the girls an opportunity to get a small amount of their own vengeance—a brief moment of respite in the institutionalization, domestic violence, rape, medical experimentation and other constant violence against women that permeates Jessie's story.

New mysteries—Does the cure work? Why are teenagers exploding?—will keep Jessie's story going for at least one more volume. (Paranormal romance. 13-15)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Gr 2-6-The titles in this series introduce young viewers to a variety of artists and their work. In this program, Puffer the puffin goes to Florence, Italy, where his friend Polly teaches him about Renaissance artists. Elements of the Renaissance are briefly introduced and then information about Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael is presented. A brief biography of each artist is presented, and two examples of his art are examined in detail. The material in the DVD is based on the book (Crystal Prods., 2010) by Pamela Geiger Stephens. Jim McNeill's soft, computer-generated illustrations are simply animated. There are also photographs of these masterpieces: "5 Grotesque Heads" and "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo's "Pieta" and "The Creation of Adam" (carefully framed for elementary audiences); and Raphael's "The School of Athens" and "St. George and the Dragon." This simple yet interesting introduction to an important part of our artistic heritage will be embraced by art teachers for use with young students.-Teresa Bateman. Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Grades 7-10 Tensions escalate in this third entry in the 13 to Life series, as heroine Jessica spends involuntary time in a nut house, hero (and werewolf) Pietr makes a bad deal with the Russian Mafia, and the cure for what ails the Rusakova family seems more distant than ever. The action is unabated, and several characters continue to share narration duties in another rousing foray into the fantastic from Delany. Many of the loose ends from the first book are taken up again in this volume, so readers should start at the beginning of the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)