The Veritas Project

Author: Frank Peretti (christian author)

Rating: 4

Summary:  The Veritas Project has two books- Hangman's Curse, and Nightmare Academy.  Hangman's Curse is about high school being haunted by a hundred year old ghost, who is injuring high school students.  In order to find out the truth, teen agents- Elijah and Elisha- go undercover, and are revealed to the ghost story.  Elijah befriends a troubled gothic teen, who wishes death for the people who bully him.  Elisha befriends a nerdy boy, who is also being bullied, but he is much more mild mannered about it.  Later, you find out that the nerdy kid has been tricking every single person in the school to believe there's a ghost, by using the venom of a spider to make people hallucinate.

  Elijah and Elisha go back undercover in Nightmare Academy, to visit a safe house for runaway kids called, Knightmoore Academy.  There they find that the kids are being brainwashed to think a certain way, and they have to fight to not be caught up in it.  By the end of the book, they find out that the teachers for the Academy are planning to blow up the place, and then take their curriculum to the rest of the world.  Elijah and Elisha eventually stop it, and free all of the kids.

           Violence and gore:  In Hangman's Curse there are teens hallucinating, and in some copies of the book, there is a picture of what the hallucinating kids see.  It is the ghost of a kid who hung himself, and after seeing that picture, I was too scared to put the book down.  My suggestion is that you don't let your kid read the version with the pictures unless you think they can.  In Nightmare Academy, two fights occur, but neither of them are very gory.

           Morals:  Hangman's Curse deals with the effects of bullying, and how we should respond to it.  Nightmare Academy deals with the modern education system, where they tell you to believe something, and expect you to believe it, because they said it was true.  Also, Elijah and Elisha are constantly pointing those around them back to God, and are examples of how we should be loving to everyone around us.  They show how to love through actions, and not just words.

Neutral, 9-12 years old, horror

And Then There Were None

Author:  Agatha Christie

Rating:  3

Summary:  Ten people have been invited to Soldier’s Island by an anonymous person, but then some mysterious things starts happening.  Each of them have a secret, and they will all be revealed when they start dying one by one.

Violence and gore:  Every single one of the people in the book die, and some of them die gruesome deaths.  Three of them were poisoned, five of them were stabbed, and two of them committed suicide.  

Morals:  This presents a question of what justice is.  Who enacts justice?  What is justice?  Does there need to be reject involved?

Neutral, 13-14 years old, mystery

The Unexpected Guest

Author:  Agatha Christie

Rating:  3

Summary:  A man’s automobile breaks down, and he has to visit a mansion to get help.  But when he walks into the mansion, he walks into trouble.  Danger and murder are afoot, and everyone seems to be suspect.

Violence and gore:  The only reason why this has violence and gore on it, is because this is a murder mystery.  Two people get shot in the book, but neither of those scenes are shown.

Morals:  This story asks the question if someone can be forgiven?  How long should you hold a grudge?  What is justice?  Does love cover sin?  What kind of love?  Who deserves forgiveness?

Neutral, 13-14 years old, mystery

Deception

Author:  Randy Alcorn (christian author)

Rating:  4

Summary:  Ollie Chandler is on the case for the murder of a college proffessor, and he quickly finds out, that one of his fellow co-workers is the murderer.  The question is, which one?  

Violence and gore:  There are three dead bodies in this book, and Ollie shoots a man.  A man commits suicide, and there is a girl mentioned who committed suicide years before.

Morals:  The afterlife is delved into in this book.  It asks where we go after we die, discusses confronting God during judgement, and what heaven will be like.  Also, it asks what should a person do when they have a hate so strong for murder?  How should you handle it?  

Neutral, 13-14 years old, mystery

The Agency

Author:  Y.S. Lee

Rating:  3

Summary:  Mary Quinn is many things- half caste, woman, teacher, thief, orphan- but the one thing that people don’t know, is that she’s a spy.  When she is seventeen years old, Mary is introduced to the world of the Agency- an underground spy house for intelligent woman.  Mary undergoes several missions to be fully instated as an agent, and at the same time, she falls in love.

Sexual content:  Mary and James kiss and make out in the books

Language:  The ‘d’ word is said occasionally

Morals:  A woman can do anything.  A woman can do just as much as a man can do in the real world, but that doesn’t mean women have to be callous.  We don’t have to block out our emotions, and every instinct to trust that we have, because that is what makes us human.

Girls, 15-18 years old, history mystery

The Outsiders

Author:  S.E. Hinton

Rating:  4

Summary:  Ponyboy has grown up his entire life in a group as close as brothers.  Then, one day, the loyalty of the brothers are tested when one of them makes a bad choice that changes their entire lives.  And everything goes downhill from there.

Violence and gore:  A man is stabbed

Language:  The ‘d’ word is said twice

Smoking:  Ponyboy and all of his friends are addicted to smoking

Morals:  Stay gold.  Johnny presents Ponyboy with this phrase at the end, and tells him what it means.  He talks about innocence, childhood, and never giving up.  This brings the whole of the story back around full circle, presenting the question of what is innocence and brokenness?  Do these things define you?  And whether it does or not, how do you go about your life knowing this?

Neutral, 13-14 years old, classic