Means of hi-tech life
IN R O B Y N S c hneider’ s Extraordinary Means (Simon & S c h u s t e r , £7.99), a plague of drug-resistant TB has hit America’s teenagers, some of whom are cared for at a hi-tech sanatorium. Here, new boy Lane Rosen falls in love with long-term patient Sadie and becomes part of her friendship group, a rulebreaking set of intelligent cynics so cool and witty that they spend time “sitting in the dark and splitting a side order of existential crisis”.
Bio-ethicist Schneider cultivates the mood of a summer-camp romance but (like John Green, the master of this genre) adds so much more to this young adult novel (age 14 up, some sensitive scenes). There are meaningof-life discussions — Schneider understands the distinction between incurable and terminal illness — and literary allusions from Fitzgerald and Ishiguro to Salinger, Tartt and Frost.
Elephants will stand by a deceased comrade for days, willing them back t o l i f e. They also celebrate the return of a loved one. And, inthesameway that humans are right- or l e f t - handed, they are rightor left-tusked. These are some of the revelations in Steve Bloom’s Elephants (Thames and Hudson, £7.95). Accessible, non-patronising text accompanies photographs of every elephantine element, from close-ups of astoundingly long eyelashes to portraits of elephants that appear to be made of chocolate because they are so covered in mud. For all ages.
A flying bear rug; mysterious sheep rustlers; harridan headmistresses; time slips,anamuletandshape-shiftingcom
bine in (Scholastic, £6.99), a classic magical adventure that also draws upon
expertise in computer-games design, making dramatic use of keys and trap doors, secret messages and unleashed monsters. Age eight to 12.
Stone Rider by DavidHofmeyr (Penguin, £7.99) takes us to a parched, dusty world, policed by robots. The fortunate have abandoned Earth’s extreme climate to live on Sky-Base. Adam Stone’s only chance of escape is to get on his byke — a sentient machine that becomes part of the rider’s body — and race the treacherous Blackwater Trail. Most contestants will die and ultimately Adam must defeat not only his enemies, such as the pleasingly named Levi Blood, but his friends. Hofmeyr steers the plot through the required Hunger Gamesstyle chicanes. Age 12 up.