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Academic Discourse at Havana by Wallace Stevens
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
The Big Pony Race by Erica David
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Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug by Ed Emberley
Camp Buccaneer by Pam Smallcomb
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Child of the Owl by Lawrence Yep
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Cuban Sketches (excerpt) by James Steele
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The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Evergreen by Belva Plain
Enfant Terrible by Scott Dalrymple
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
Flight of the Goose by Lesley Thomas
The Frog Prints by B. L. Harwick
Fullbrim's Finding by Matthew Hughes
A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
Havana Letter by William Cullen Bryant
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
LoveHampton by Sherri Rifkin
Marlin off the Morro by Ernest Hemingway
The Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker
Nana Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa
Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
The Penthouse Mystery by Ellery Queen
Reader's Guide by Lisa Goldstein
Red as Blood by Tanith Lee
The Roberts by Michael Blumlein
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Sea Gift by John Ashby
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
Singing to Cuba (excerpt) by Margarita Engle
Spiders and Scorpions: A Look Inside Series by P. D. Hillyard
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco
Virus Games by G. L. Sheerin
Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson

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Virus Games: 07/24/08

Books have a funny way of grouping together in unexpected ways. For instance, Virus Games by G. L. Sheerin reads like a prequel to Unholy Domain except aimed at children ages nine to twelve.

Virus Games is the first book in the "Peter's Packets" series. Peter Dempsey hates computers until a freak accident gives him the ability to see packets described a bit like animated icons. With their help, Peter ends up being the star of the computer class in his school.

All of this takes place against the backdrop of the "Thanksgiving Virus" created by one of the most interesting and believable antagonists I've come across in my reading this year and certainly among the novels aimed at younger readers. Terry's motivation is not evil even though his actions end up being costly and destructive. He is restless and looking for attention.Tery's part of the story shows how easily pranks can get out of hand.

My only quibble with the book is with its ending. Sheerin works hard to make the packets characters in equal standing with his human characters and after giving some of them noble deaths in their quest to help Peter, one of the lot is saved with a rather hokey ending. I suppose he'll go onto the a co-star with Peter in future books in the series but it would have been more poignant without that last minute Hail Mary.

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