Huddled under the covers long after bedtime, with flashlight propped up to illuminate the pages of your book may be the very best way on earth to read a vampire story. The shadows flickering on the sheets are unfamiliar and
Huddled under the covers long after bedtime, with flashlight propped up to illuminate the pages of your book may be the very best way on earth to read a vampire story.
The shadows flickering on the sheets are unfamiliar and the tension of possibly getting caught mixes nicely with the creepy suspense of the tale. The floor creeeeks… you breathe as quietly as possible… you don’t move a muscle… then wraaAARRGGH! Your sister leaps on top of you screaming bloody murder and your heart beats wildly and deliciously out of control.
This week’s Book Buzz suggests some hot new vampire reads for people of all ages. All manner of excitement lurks on the shelves at your neighborhood library. So treat yourself. Bite into a good book this Halloween season.
Happy reading!
FOR KIDS
Vunce Upon a Time
By J. Otto Seibold and Siobhan Vivian
Easy New Books Se (Grades K-2)
A fearful young vampire, who prefers candy to blood, bravely ventures into the human world on Halloween night to satisfy his sweet tooth.
Secrets of Dripping Fang, Book Three: The Vampire’s Curse
By Dan Greenburg
Illustrations by Scott M. Fischer
J Fiction Gr (Grades 4-6)
Having been reunited with their zombie father only to have him turn into a vampire after drinking an experimental elixir of life, the ten-year-old Shluffmuffin twins continue to try to elude the giant ants who want to enslave all humans. (Hey, what more could you ask for in a horror book?) See also the rest of this series including Secrets of Dripping Fang, Book Four: Fall of the House of Mandible and Book Five: The Shluffmuffin Boy is History.
Switched
By Sienna Mercer
J New Books Mercer (Grades 4-6)
Upon moving to Franklin Grove, eighth-grader Olivia Abbott, a pink-loving cheerleader, learns that she has a twin sister, Ivy Vega, whose “goth” appearance hides a weird secret. This is the first book in a new series My Sister the Vampire.
The Vampire’s Vacation
By Ron Roy
J Fiction Roy(Grades 3-5)
Grab your garlic for this number 22 (V is for Vampire) in Roy’s A to Z Mysteries series in which Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose follow a pale, dark-haired stranger into Ellie’s Diner, where he vanishes! But Ellie has a cut on her neck . . . or could it be a bite? Could there really be a vampire in Green Lawn? And could Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose be his next victims?
Araminta Spookie 4: Vampire Brat
As told to Angie Sage
J Fiction Sage (Grades 4-6)
Things get even spookier at Spookie House when Uncle Drac’s nephew Max comes to stay for a week and Araminta goes on a combined werewolf and vampire hunting expedition. Books 1-3 are My Haunted House, The Sword in the Grotto, Frognapped, and Ghostsitters.
FOR TEENS
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and
Breaking Dawn
By Stephenie Meyer
The Twilight Saga has taken teen literature by storm and the lore of the living dead will never be the same. In these deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful books Edward (good teen vampire) and Bella (ordinary high school girl) fall in love and experience some pretty unusual yet still familiar circumstances. Meyer captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desire.
Pretty Dead
by Francesca Lia Block
Beautiful vampire Charlotte finds herself slowly changing back into a human after the mysterious death of her best friend.
Eighth Grade Bites
by Heather Brewer
For thirteen years, Vlad, aided by his aunt and best friend, has kept secret that he is half-vampire, but when his missing teacher is replaced by a sinister substitute, he learns that there is more to being a vampire, and to his parents’ deaths, than he could have guessed. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series also includes Ninth Grade Slays and Tenth Grade Bleeds.
Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
by Beth Fantaskey
Seventeen-year-old Jessica, adopted and raised in Pennsylvania, learns that she is descended from a royal line of Romanian vampires and that she is betrothed to a vampire prince, who poses as a foreign exchange student while courting her,
Night Road
by A.M. Jenkins
Battling his own memories and fears, Cole, an extraordinarily conscientious vampire, and Sandor, a more impulsive acquaintance, spend a few months on the road, trying to train a young man who recently joined their ranks.
The Reformed Vampire Support Group
by Catherine Jinks
Fifteen-year-old vampire Nina has been stuck for fifty-one years in a boring support group for vampires, and nothing exciting has ever happened to them — until one of them is murdered and the others must try to solve the crime.
Cirque du Freak, Vol. 1
by Darren Shan
In this manga series Darren Shan was an average kid until destiny brought him to the Cirque du Freak. Now Darren’s been immersed into a shadowy world inhabited by vampires, werewolves, and strange creatures the likes of which he’s never imagined, and his life will be changed forever! The movie Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant will be released on Oct. 23.
FOR ADULTS
Blood Lite: A Collection of Nerve-Jangling Tales With a Humorous Bite
813.08738 Ho
This toothsome anthology of 21 funny-scary stories from members of the Horror Writers Association features Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kelley Armstrong and many more stand-out horror stars.
Dead and Gone
By Charlaine Harris
Loveable Sookie Stackhouse is a small town cocktail waitress with a “disability” to read minds. She stars in the Southern Vampire series which begins with Dead until Dark. Dead and Gone, the latest in the series, is number nine in which a race of unhuman beings-older and more powerful and far more secretive than vampires or werewolves is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself an all-too human pawn in their battle as she investigates the murder of a were-panther.
Blood Colony
By Tananarive Due
There’s a new drug, Glow, on the street said to heal almost any illness. Its main ingredient is the blood of immortals and a small but powerful underground railroad of immortals is distributing the drug to wipe out the AIDS epidemic. But the Glow peddlers are being murdered by a violent hundred-year-old sect with ties to the Vatican in order to fulfill an ancient blood prophecy that could lead to countless deaths.
Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures
By Bill Schutt
591.53 Sc
Here’s one about real blood-suckers from a zoologist who takes a witty and informative look inside the world of sanguivores, animals that feed on blood: vampire bats, leeches, tics, mites, bedbugs and the feared vampire fish.
Evermore
By Lynn Viehl
The paranormal romance genre is loaded with titles and series. Here’s just a few: Alien Huntress and Atlantis series by Gena Showalter, Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh, Laws of the Blood and Primes series by Susan Sizemore or Deadly Desire by Keri Arthur, Novels of the Darkyn by Lynn Viehl, Bloodline series by Maggie Shane or the Midnight Breed series by Lara Adrian.
•Like your vampire tales with visuals and sound effects? Check out DVD movies at your local library (Rental fee is $1 for 1 week). Look for the following: Blade Trinity, Let the Right One In, Shadow of the Vampire, Twilight, UltraViolet, Underworld, Van Helsing, and of course Dracula.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
