The Rivals

December 15, 2011
Now president of the Mockingbirds, Themis Academy's underground justice society, Alex Patrick investigates a student prescription-drug ring. The drug in question is Anderin, a fictitious ADHD medication that works "like steroids for the brain." The student body votes that cheating is a crime against all students, and Alex and the organization follow a set of contradictory leads. Although the original Mockingbirds (2010) presented the underground group's procedures as a wondrously comprehensive set of checks and balances, the sequel sees Alex floundering both practically and ethically. Believably, the stigma and doubt from previous year's rape trial still cling to Alex, and both her internal struggle and other students' hostility are portrayed with compassion and nuance. The story is ultimately driven by plot, and the author effectively shuttles readers through the twists, turns and double-crosses of the investigation as well as the ups and downs of a romance. Under scrutiny, however, little holds up. Alex asks herself repeatedly if the ends (catching cheaters) justify the means (snooping through other students' belongings), but a tidy resolution despite Alex's snooping undermines the question. The premise that school administrators refuse to acknowledge student wrongdoing remains hard to swallow: Why on Earth aren't the administrators afraid of parental lawsuits? Slick, but, like a student on Anderin, less impressive when the effect wears off. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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

February 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-At the elite Themis Academy, the dean of students so regularly turns a blind eye to misbehavior that students have been forced to create a vigilante justice system, the Mockingbirds, to investigate, try, and sentence their peers. Last year Alex Patrick was helped by this student court system as a victim of date-rape. She is now the leader of the inquisition in this stand-alone sequel to The Mockingbirds (Little, Brown, 2010). This year the problem involves a ring of students illegally using the ADHD prescription-medication Anderin to gain unfair advantage over their academic competitors. The plot twists and turns reveal one red herring after another. On the way, Alex comes to terms with her rape and moves forward both in coexisting with her attacker and establishing intimacy with her boyfriend. Overall, though, the characters are static and lack authentic voices: their revelations are preachy and didactic. Readers may never really identify with any of the characters, and the plot may be too complicated to hold their attention. Purchase only where the first book is popular.-Leah Krippner, Harlem High School, Machesney Park, IL

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2012
Grades 9-12 In this sequel to The Mockingbirds (2010), Alex is now the leader of the underground student-run justice system at Themis Academy, a boarding school where adults ignore bullying and reputation is more important than ethics. Themes of truth, power, leadership, and personal responsibility are echoed in the students' reading assignmentsThe Chocolate War and A Separate Peaceas the Mockingbirds investigate the source of illegal ADHD drugs on campus, and Alex finds a caring relationship. The writing does not rise to the level of Cormier, who is invoked here, but fans of the first book will want to follow along.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)