New Juvenile Music and More, Highland Park Public Library, Highland Park, Illinois

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud; read by Simon Jones

Grades 3 and older

Bartimaeus, a djinni, is conjured by Nathaniel, a talented, but under-trained, young magician's apprentice, and ordered to steal the Amulet of Smarkand from another magician. After completing his first mission for the young upstart, Bartimaeus finds himself bound to Nathaniel by spells and threats and placed in the middle of a plot to destroy the magical government of England. This first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy is masterfully read by Simon Jones and will leave the listener champing at the bit for the next two books on tape. (If you can't wait for the audiotape of book two, The Golem's Eye, to arrive you can always read the book.)

Reviewer: SH

Pirates! by Celia Rees; read by Jennifer Wiltsie

Grades 7 – 9

When Nancy learns that she is to be married to a terrible man, she and her body-slave Minerva escape from their brutal plantation lives and join a band of pirates sailing to Jamaica. Their pirate life is not carefree however for they have to elude not only the British navy, but also Nancy's spurned husband-to-be who is searching the oceans for them.

Reviewer: SH

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