The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

The Magic Thief is a delightful afternoon read for any adult and will be a marvelous adventure for intermediate readers. This is the first book in a brand new trilogy about magic and wizards. Conn is a pick pocket in the alleys of a setting that reminds me of Dickens' London when he picks the pocket of the Wizard Nevery. Conn should have died instantly when he touched the magicalicus stone in Nevery's pocket. What could it mean? Why does a wizard who has been banned from town for twenty years return to the city much less keep the boy around?

The characters are well developed, the dialog is alive and the adventure engaging. It will be a good read aloud!

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Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Veldi

Giannine receives a gift certificate for her birthday to the Rasmussen Gaming Center for 30 minutes in a total immersion game. She should have know it wasn't going to be a good day when the automated bus would not stop at Rasmussen's because a group of angry Citizens to Protect Our Children were protesting outside. How could she have known that the protesters would batter the servers to the state of malfunction? Caught in a virtual reality game, complete with smell, hunger, emotions, and pain, Giannine has to win the game to be released by the computer functions that are connected to her mind or risk brain damage and possible death. But how could she win when every character in the game was trying to kill her and often enough did? How many times could she wake up to smell the sheep dung, get licked by the dog, and find out that she was the new heir apparent restarting the game once again before her time ran out?

This book is engaging, adventurous, witty, well plotted and skillfully written. I like the fact that it has a girl as the main character in the mix of technology, gaming, dragons, and political intrigue. Let's here it for the girls!