Going Rogue (AKA #2)

Going Rogue by Robin Benway is the second book in her Also Know As series about a young safe-cracker.

Maggie has been in New York for almost a year - trying to live a normal teen life while taking a break from the high stakes espionage her family participates in to keep the world safe. She is spending time with her boyfriend Jesse and her best friend Roux.

But when the Collective, the group her parents have worked for all of Maggie's life, accuses her parents of stealing evidence, Maggie has to do what she can to clear their names. It seems there is a power play for the lead of the Collective, and the front-runner is not a good guy. He has been forcing out those who will not follow him.

Maggie has to find ten gold coins to prove him wrong - ten golden eagle coins. Only the most valuable coins ever printed. Oh, and study for her SATs.

Benway's series is a fun, action packed read. Great read-alike for Ally Carter's Heist Society. Fans and residents of NYC will appreciate her accurate descriptions of much loved local hang outs.

Benway, Robin. (2013). Going Rogue. New York: Walker Books.

Also Known As (AKA #1)

Also Known As by Robin Benway is a novel of espionage, safe cracking and high school.

Maggie Silver is a sixteen year old spy. Her parents are spies and she picked her first lock at age three. The work for the Collective and travel around the world stopping bad things from happening or collecting evidence to catch the bad guys. It is finally time for Maggie's first solo mission.

She is in New York to infiltrate a private high school and befriend Jesse Oliver to get to his father's computer. He may be writing a story that will expose the Collective and Maggie's family. What Maggie doesn't count on is how hard it is to fit into high school.

Luckily, she makes one friend - Roux. Maggie has never had a friend her age before and though it goes against remaining anonymous, she likes Roux. And Roux knows Jesse Oliver so it could all work out.

Benway has written a fun novel combining espionage, friendship, humor and intrigue. Fans of Ally Carter's Heist Society will love this book as will other readers of spy novels.

Benway, Robin. Also Know As. New York: Walker Books.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is the story the beginning of one young woman's fight to change the world.

Frankie, named after her father, attends the prestigious boarding school Alabaster, in Massachusetts. Her freshman year she was fairly invisible. Her sister was a senior and showed her around, but Frankie didn't make too many friends of her own.

Now, the beginning of her sophomore year, she is more noticeable. She has blossomed. She catches the eye of Matthew, the senior she has had a crush on since beginning Alabaster.

Matthew is a member of a secret society - the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound - that has been a boys club on campus since the 1950s. But it is a secret society and only for boys.

Frankie will find a way to become the head of the Bassets - wreaking havoc all over the school. But when the Order gets caught - who will be punished?

This novel is filled with humor, fun with vocabulary, great pranks, and the coming of age of the heroine. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA fiction.

Lockhart, E. (2008). The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. New York: Hyperion.

The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

It is not often you read a book where two of the main characters grow in such a way that they were better off at the beginning of the book. But that is my take on what happens in The Chocolate War.

Trinity High School is not really run by the monks who teach there, though they do have control over the students. Trinity is run by a group of student - juniors and seniors - know as The Vigil. The Vigil assigns students to tasks and pranks during the school year. No one would dare refuse the order to do something, no matter how crazy.

One student, Goubert, is told to remove all of the screws from the furniture in one classroom. Another, Renault, is told to refuse to sell chocolate for ten days. Once the ten days are over, he is supposed to sell his quota of chocolate like all other students. But he refuses to sell chocolate after the ten days. Now The Vigil must do something or others will begin to refuse their influence.

What started out as one student standing up for himself, with only a single friend to support him, turned into a war. Renault is attacked, taunted, and made an outcast. Goubert is so disgusted by the actions at his school that he quits football and any other voluntary activity. Renault ends up in an ambulance.

The interesting thing about this book is that the bullies don't seem to receive any punishment for their actions. Two students are broken and will never be the same, but nothing is done about it. If Cormier's intent is to make readers think about how this is wrong, then he has succeeded with this reader. The book left an unfinished, disappointed feeling in me. Any book where the revenge on someone it to tease him and call him queer is not my idea of progressing social ideas.

Cormier, Robert. (1974). The Chocolate War. New York: Random House.