The Siren's Cry

Gr 7—10—In this sequel to The Otherworldlies (HarperCollins, 2008), Fern, now 13, has a vision of a boy locked in a cage marked "National Zoological Park." She wants to help him, but does not know where to begin (in part because she cannot figure out that "zoo" is short for "zoological"). When her class goes on a field trip to Washington, D.C., she locates him and unravels the plan of his captor, who turns out to be Fern's long-lost father, Haryle. Heavy reliance on coincidence robs the story of force. Haryle plans to collect specific objects (the Hope Diamond, a Mayan arrow, and moon rocks) to use in an immortality potion. Fern recognizes an old drawing of a rock as being the Hope Diamond because she happened to see it earlier in the day at the Smithsonian. Candace, one of her classmates, recognizes a drawing of an arrow because she saw it in a museum in California last summer. She read later in the newspaper that it was stolen, as it turns out, by Haryle. Plus, she knows all about moon rocks because she went to Space Camp, also last summer. The characters are stereotypes. Fern is the socially awkward but supernaturally powerful protagonist (and why make her a vampire if there is no talk of fangs, bloodlust, or preternatural good looks?); Candace is the fact-spouting geek. Principal Mooney is the tyrannical wet blanket. Blythe and Lee, the cool girls, are vain and mean. Flat exposition and characterizations typify this story.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Library, NC