Heist Society by Ally Carter

Katarina Bishop comes from a family of con artists and art thieves. At 15, she's managed to scam her way into an exclusive boarding school as a way to escape the life of crime. But her escape comes to a sudden end when her best friend Hale shows up with bad news. Someone has stolen five paintings from a very dangerous man. Kat's dad isn't just on the suspect list, he is the suspect list. To save her dad, Kat has to find out who really stole the paintings, so she can steal them back.

Ally Carter has been writing incredible, adventurous, hilarious stories for teen audiences for years. I've been in awe of her since the moment I spotted I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You on my library shelf in 2006. Heist Society, though, exceeded my every expectation. This globe-trotting adventure will keep you on the edge of your seat until you get to the end, leaving you wanting more of the fun Kat and her friends provide.

Brilliantly done, Ms. Carter. As usual.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

A follow-up to the popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters provides readers with another chance to experience classic literature with a twist. This time, the setting of the popular Jane Austen novel has been changed to allow for contact with the deadly sea creatures in the book's title. If you're ready for a laugh, this may just be the book for you.

After her husband is eaten by a shark, leaving the family penniless, Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters move into a rickety old cottage on an island owned by her cousin, the famous treasure hunter Sir John Middleton. The waters around the island chain the Dashwoods now call home are populated with any number of fearsome beasts, many of whom make appearances at the least expected times.

There's less of Austen's work this time around. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies boasted 85% of the story's original wording, whereas Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters only features 60%. However, that doesn't mean that Austen's fans will be disappointed. In a work that I think Miss Jane Austen herself would have approved of, Ben H. Winters has created something that is part Edwardian romance, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and all great fun.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Jane Austen's writing is funny and clever in its own right, but never in my life have I laughed as hard at a book as I did while reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, adapted by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Grahame-Smith took a beloved literary classic and turned it on its head by the addition of zombies. In order to counteract the "strange plague" that is turning English citizens into zombies, Elizabeth Bennett and her four sisters have been trained as ninjas during a stay in China. Mr. Darcy is also an esteemed zombie-killer, and his aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, is the most celebrated slayer of dreadfuls in the nation. The novel follows the same plot and characters it has followed for more than a century, but now with a few detours here and there while the Bennetts and Darcys do their best to protect Britain from the zombie threat.

I didn't know how well the melding of these two genres would work. It could easily have been painful to read, especially given my great love for Jane Austen's works. However, I am glad to say that the zombie part of the story adds rather than detracts, and gives readers another way to experience this well known literary classic.

So now, I have to ask, when will someone get around to writing Wuthering Heights and Zombies?

Chicken Cheeks by Michael Ian Black (illus. Kevin Hawkes)

I don't usually review picture books on this blog, but I feel that an exception should be made for a book that is this exceptional. If you had asked me which celebrity I thought would be least likely to write a truly enjoyable picture book, Michael Ian Black would have been near the top of the list. That being the case, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I saw his name on the front cover of a book I had just read and thoroughly enjoyed. The title and cover art had grasped my attention, and I hadn't even bothered to look for the author's name until I was already a fan of the book.

The premise of Chicken Cheeks is simple. A bear spies a beehive dripping with honey at the top of a very tall tree, and enlists the help of nearby animals to reach the top. The animals form their own sort of ladder by climbing on top of one another. We get a description of each animal's backside as it climbs to the top, including a "penguin patootie," a "moose caboose," and a "duck billed platypus gluteus maximus." Black's hilarious descriptions and Hawkes's charming illustrations are the perfect compliments to one another, making this book a joy for kids and grown-ups alike. I'd recommend it, even if you're not a picture book reader.