It starts in 1959 on Canny's home, a Pacific island called Southland (a name that will seem an unfortunate choice to many South Islanders reading the book).
Canny is 16 and has always been different, not just because of her phenomenal mathematical ability but because she has always been able to see what she calls her Extra. It wasn't too obvious until her best friend, Marli, contracted polio and lay in hospital in an iron lung.
When school holidays roll around, Canny is sent with her stepbrother, Sholto, to the Zarene Valley. He is helping his father, the professor, in his research on a coal-mining disaster 30 years earlier but Canny is reluctant to go. Forced to go, when she does, the girl finds the secret of her magical Extra and also, with the aid of 17-year-old Ghislain Zarene, uncovers her own origins and solves the mystery of the father she never knew.
Mortal Fire works on a number of levels but, above all, because its strong plot is supported by factual information about subjects such as polio and how an iron lung works. The material on coal-mining, reminiscent of the events of the Brunner disaster of 1896 or Pike River in 2010, is particularly strong.
It is the mix of factual-sounding material with the magical that makes Mortal Fire a strong addition to the teen fantasy genre.
In Agent 21 Codebreaker, the latest in Chris Ryan's fast-paced stories, Zak has the seemingly impossible task of working out who is responsible for terrorising London with a series of bomb blasts.
Great stuff, especially for boys.
One of the boys is Marcus, whose obsession with online games and lack of real-world skills has led his parents to send him to Bourkely Boys Grammar.
Bullying is endemic, conditions are terrible, the food appalling and there is no way out.
Slowly, Marcus overcomes some of the problems and, although the school in Bad Grammar is too much of a caricature to be believable, there are messages about the dangers of isolation for children - and for adults.
Hill manages to give the impression that Alzheimer's can be reversed if stresses in the person's life are relieved. Apart from that, Sinking is an adequately plotted New Zealand story, albeit one that runs on fairly predictable lines.
