Babylonne

Jinks, Catherine. Babylonne. 2008. Candlewick Press, Cambridge, Mass.

ISBN 13: 978-0-7636-3650-0. Hardcover $18.99.

Annotation:
Babylonne is a young girl living in France during the Middle Ages. She escapes the abusive home she is living in and strikes out on her own, determined to help the rebels fight against the kingdom of France.

Booktalk:
Cathars are the sworn enemies of the Catholic Church and of Rome. When the French come in and take over a new town or territory, the first thing they do is to kill off all leaders and open followers of the Cathar faith.

Babylonne is 16 years old. She has survived six seiges by the French. She is living with her abusive Grandmother and Aunt in Languedoc in a convent of the Cathars. When she is given the news that she is to be married off to a senile old man, Babylonne decides to run away and strike out for the nearest army to fight against the French and avenge her family.

Attempting to escape in the early morning hours, Babylonne runs straight into the very last person that she wants to see- A Roman Priest. Not only does the priest offer to help Babylonne, he claims that he is the former traveling companion of the father that she has never known.

Can Babylonne trust this priest to help her escape from her horrid living situation? Will he help her escape to fight the French? Can he be trusted to do what is right for her? Did he truly know her father?

Find out in this fascinating look back at Medieval France...

Author Web Site: Catherine Jinks

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Fantaskey, Beth. Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. 2009. Harcourt: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY.

ISBN 13: 978-0-15-206384-9. Hardback, $17.00.

Annotation:
In this book, Jessica meets up with her destiny. Adopted as an infant from Romania, Jessica has grown up in the United States. On the first day of her Senior year, Jessica meets a handsome foreign exchange student from Romania. The mysterious stranger is welcomed by Jessica's family and moves into the garage for their Senior year of high school. Armed with Jessica's birth name, the stranger claims that Jessica is a Vampire Princess and must return to Romania and resume her rightful place.

Book Talk:
Jessica is your normal, ordinary, every day American teenager. She loves Math, Science, and logic. She is looking forward to her Senior Year of high school and all of the excitement that comes along with your last year of school. On the first day of school, she is confronted by a mysterious stranger who calls her by her birth name. The name that no one has mentioned since her parents adopted her from Romania and brought her to the United States. Not only does he know her birth name, he claims that he is her betrothed, and that they've been engaged to marry each other since birth. Not only that, but he claims that they are vampire royalty, and their marriage is required in order to prevent a vampire war.

After a heated discussion with her parents, Jessica retreats to her room where she ruminates about her first day of school:

"And that is how a teenager who claimed to be a vampire came to reside in our garage at the start of my once-in-a-lifetime senior year. And not just any vampire. My arrogant, overbearing, vampire betrothed. The last person in hell - or from hell- I wanted to share a ride to school with, even, let alone be bound to for eternity.

I lay awake half the night thinking about my ruined life. My birth parents; cult members who swore they drank blood- and whom I'd try never, ever to think of again. There was nothing I could do about them now except put them out of my mind. Their story could - and would - remain hidden in the past.

But the future...all I'd wanted was a chance to go out with Jake Zinn, a normal guy, and instead I'd gotten a freakish fiance, right in my garage. As if everyone at school didn't already think my family was bizarre enough, with Dad's yoga and his unproductive, organic, anti-meat farm, and my mombeing the breadwinner, studying make-believe mumbo-jumbo." (pages 33-34)

Fortified by the book "Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire's Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions", Jessica strives to make sense of her world turned suddenly upside down.

Author Web Site:Beth Fantasky