Wooding, Chris. Velocity.

Wooding, Chris. Velocity. Scholastic Press      2017  325p  $18.99  Hardback  ISBN 978-0-545-94494-6    ms/hs  Adventure  E-BN         

Cassica and Shiara live in the boonies in a time after a terrible global war.  They spend their free time racing.  Cassie is the fearless, reckless, decisive driver.  Shiara is her mechanic, who can build working vehicles from scrap and calculate winning strategies.  Together they make a great team, in spite of and because of their differences.
 

After winning a dangerous local race, they attract the attention of a promoter who wants them to participate in a national event.  The girls are considered underdogs but the crowd loves their gutsy determination.
 

There are exciting race sequences in which the girls manage to survive somehow in a world where forces are out to specifically destroy them.  The friendship is sorely tested but wins out in the end.  The girls discover that the deck was stacked against them from the beginning, and the glamorous world of racing is crooked and not what the projected image shows.

Velocity is a wonderful story of friendship that survives challenges and tests, set among exciting action scenes that include highly imaginative and dangerous threats to the girls. Readers in grades 7 and up will be drawn into this explosive world.      It would be an excellent purchase for middle- and high-school libraries, because of the exciting adventure and riviting action.

Summary: Set in the future after a global war, this is a story of ultimate car racing and the friendship between two teen girls.  It features exciting action-filled racing sequences with imaginative villains.  Grades 7 up.

Automobile racing-Fiction                                         --Joan Theal

Wooding, Chris. Velocity.

Wooding, Chris.  Velocity. Scholastic Press     2017  325p  $18.99  ISBN 978-0-545-94494-6        ms/hs     Science Fiction  E-BN

Cassica and Shiara live in the boonies in a future time after a terrible global war has taken place.  They spend their free time racing vehicles.  Cassie is the fearless, reckless, decisive driver.  Shiara is her mechanic who can build working vehicles from scrap and calculate winning strategies.  Together they make a great team, both in spite of and because of their differences.

After winning a dangerous local race, they attract the attention of a promoter who gets them to participate in a national event.  The girls are considered underdogs, but the crowd loves their gutsy determination.  There are exciting race sequences in which they manage to survive in a world where there are forces out to specifically destroy them.  The friendship is sorely tested but wins out in the end.  The girls discover that the deck was stacked against them from the beginning, and the glamorous world of racing is crooked and not what the projected image shows.
 

This is a wonderful story of a friendship that survives challenges and tests, set among exciting action scenes that desribe the exciting threats and dangers of racing.  Readers in grade 7 and up will be drawn into this explosive world.

Summary: Set in the future after a global war, this is a story of ultimate car racing and the friendship between two teenaged girls.  Exciting action racing sequences with imaginative villains.  Grades 7 up.                       

Racing-Fiction, Friendship-Fiction                                      --Joan Theal

Silver: The Final Exam is Survival.

Wooding, Chris.  Silver: The Final Exam is Survival.  Scholastic Press  2014  313p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-60392-8      ms/hs Horror  E-BN

Young adults at a private boarding school become victims of an attack by a rogue military bioweapons experiment that turns normal people into zombie-Borg mash-up creatures.  This is a rollicking good horror/sci-fi tale.  The author ramps up the story slowly, with some foreshadowing of what is to come with the earliest “silver” creatures.  As time passes, and more animals and eventually people are infected, survival becomes difficult, and those who remain human try to not only survive but to determine what is happening.  The author ties up most of the tails of the story, but leaves enough hanging to develop a series.              

Summary: In this rollicking good horror story, young adults at a private boarding school become victims of an attack by a rogue military bio-weapons experiment that turns normal people into zombie-Borg mash-up creatures. 

Zombies-Fiction                                       --Lynn Fisher    

Pandemonium

Wooding, Chris    Pandemonium        

Scholastic/Grolier/Childrens Press/Watts  2012 158p   $12.99      978-0-439-87759-6  E-BN     ms/hs       Graphic novel    

Seifer Tombehewer comes from a loving home. His dad sometimes can be too strict, and he wants Seifer to focus on the game of skull ball and nothing else.  Seifer wants more!  He wants to study astronomy and other subjects, to be a scholar and travel the world.  Then, one day while he is walking through the forest on his way home from Grandpa’s house, Seifer is knocked over the head and kidnapped. When he wakes up he finds himself in a faraway palace, and he is informed that he must impersonate a prince who happens to look just like him!

This is when his real adventures begin.  He is given new clothes and a bedroom worthy of a prince, and he discovers that he must act like the prince at all times, to create an illusion that the prince has never gone missing.  This is not an easy task to fulfill, but along the way he learns a few tricks and has a few harrowing encounters with monsters and enemies who would like nothing better than to kill the prince.

This first book of Pandemonium sets the stage for the series.  We all want to know how it is possible that Seifer is almost identical to the real prince.  Are they twins who were separated at birth?  Is Seifer a better prince than the real prince?

I can’t wait to see how this story develops in upcoming sequels!

The colors are on the dark side, illuminated by blues and grays and accentuated by deep red.  Did I fail to mention that all the characters have black wings and can fly?  The novel is also very humorous and has very likable characters.

           

E-BN  Magna Diaz              Graphic novels, Fantasy, Impersonation