Once I finished H.I.V.E.: The Higher Institute of Villainous Education, by Mark Walden, there was simply no question that I would immediately and rapidly read its sequel, The Overlord Protocol. Now I impatiently await the third book in the series. I haven’t had so much fun reading since I first discovered Harry Potter.
In fact, H.I.V.E. shares many characteristics with Hogwarts. It is a secret private school with very selective entrance requirements. Instead of magical ability, though, students at H.I.V.E. are required to have extraordinary potential to become evil geniuses. For example, 13-year-old Otto Malpense (notice that the characters’ names are suggestive, like those in Harry Potter) who is one of the new recruits as the first book opens, has spent the last several years of his short life running the orphanage where he has lived all his life, and recently caused the British prime minister to totally embarrass himself on television, effectively ending his political career. The students take classes such as “Stealth and Evasion” and “Villainy Studies.” They are even sorted into different streams: Alphas, Henchmen, Technical, and Political/Financial.
There is plenty of breathtaking action to keep the pages turning, along with quite of bit of James Bond-type gadgetry, finesse, and humor. This series is a definite winner!
The Luxe, by Anna Godbersen, is set in 1899 New York, and follows the lives of several upper-class young women. Readers learn on the first page that one of these women, 18-year-old Elizabeth Holland, fell into the Hudson River and died. The author uses Elizabeth’s funeral to introduce her readers to turn-of-the-century high society New York, where the rich attend balls given at each others’ mansions and rely on servants to cook their meals, clean their houses, tend to their horses, and even help them into their fine clothing. The main story explains what happened in the month prior to Elizabeth’s premature and tragic demise.
This book is another that appears on the 2008 teens’ top 10 nominations list. I enjoyed the story but I found it predictable and rather shallow. Many of the characters seemed like cardboard cutouts rather than real people. I understand that the author is working on a sequel, and I have to admit that despite my criticisms, I will be eager to read the new book as soon as it comes out! This is one of those guilty pleasure books, I suppose – hardly “quality” literature, but fun to read just the same. 2008 teens’ top 10 nominations
Into the Wild is the first book in Erin Hutner's Warriors series. Rusty, who is a pet cat, decides to join ThunderClan, a group of wild cats. Rusty is re-named Firepaw, and he begins training to become a ThunderClan warrior so that he can help defend against rival clans in the area. 
Firepaw also has to worry about treachery from within his own clan, though. There is plenty of adventure here, and the series promises plenty more.
I liked this book, but I did have a difficult time keeping all the names straight, because so many of them end with -paw! It was also strange thinking of housecats as warriors. Once I got past those two problems, I enjoyed the suspenseful story, as well as the complex relationships among the cat characters. This seems like a great series for kids who like both animals and adventure -- very similar to Brian Jacques' Redwall series.
