Eighth Grade Bites. Heather Brewer (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod) - Softcover

Heather Brewer was not your typical teen growing up. She wore black, danced under full moons and devoured every book in sight. She hasn’t changed much. Today, Heather can be found writing in her funky, black Happy Bunny jammie pants, dancing under the full moon, devouring every book in sight, and attending renaissance fairs in costume (and in character). Heather doesn't believe in happy endings...unless they involve blood. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children. Her new series, BLOODBOUND, is slated to be published in Fall 2011.

Grade 5–8—Vladimir Tod's is a vampire-or at least sort of; he's not quite sure. His father was a vampire, but his mother was human, and they died three years ago in a mysterious accident. Now Vlad has only his friend Henry and his "Aunt" Nelly, his mother's best friend who is raising him, to confide in. He has a hunger for blood, although he's been trained since babyhood to be "normal" and not to act on it. He gets by because Nelly, who's a nurse, brings home bags of blood from the hospital where she works, and he hides one or two in his backpack for when he gets hungry. But Vlad realizes that his father had a history he didn't know about when his English teacher vanishes mysteriously, to be replaced by a tall, thin substitute teacher in a purple top hat who seems to know a little too much about him. This story comes with all the usual eighth-grade angst, and none of the characters is particularly gripping. While some vampire fans will enjoy it, others will find the way that Brewer plays fast and loose with the standard vampire lore hard to swallow. Eighth Grade Bites reads like the novelization of an unexceptional made-for-TV movie.—Walter Minkel, New York Public Library
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