Grade 6-8?Becoming a teenager always brings changes, but for certain adopted kids in the small town of Metier, their 13th birthdays reveal terrifying secrets. In Blood, Ashley Rose survives a near-drowning on her birthday and emerges with supersonic hearing and sight and the ability to remain underwater for long periods?an advantage in her swim-team competition. In Terror, Ethan has always been more interested in science-fiction comics and role-playing games than sports, much to his father's disappointment. Hoping to toughen him up, the boy's parents enroll him in karate school, where he suddenly exhibits superhuman strength and unearthly fighting skills. The interrelated plots follow a closely paralleled formula. Ethan and Ashley Rose are both pursued by a faceless alien killer. They use their newfound powers to confront and humiliate school rivals and they learn that their weird abilities are somehow connected to their biological parents. Many unanswered questions are left to be resolved in future books. While these titles make no pretense of being quality science fiction, they do offer an alternative to the more lurid series and could fill a need where there is high demand for series science fiction.?Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL
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