Wendy Glenn, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Cody Elliot is a bright but unmotivated youth who misses his former home and friends in California. Due to poor grades in his new Massachusetts school, his father forces him to attend Vlad Dracul, a private high school unlike any that Cody has imagined. With their tall, lean forms, jet black hair, and fair skin, most of the students look strikingly similar. They move quietly through the halls, generally ignoring him and his obviously different ways. He soon learns that he is attending a school for vampires, or jenti, as they prefer to be called. He is granted admission only due to his ability to enter water, a fear held by vampires, to compete on the school's water polo team. Without him and his fellow non-jenti students, the school would not meet accreditation standards and would thus be shut down. As a result, Cody does not have to do any homework or even attend class, a seeming paradise for a kid like him. Cody refuses to abide by this system, however, wanting to prove himself by completing the impossibly advanced homework assignments and earning at least his own self-respect. When he willingly donates his blood to a suffering jenti friend, he is called a hero, undercutting the school's attempts to maintain separation between jenti and non-jenti students. With the help of Justin and Ileana, two jentis who befriend him, he learns and helps teach others acceptance and trust. Cody's wry tone and perceptive observations lend incredible humor to the tale. Rees is keenly aware of the hypocrisy that inhabits teenage life. Although far-fetched, the idea of vampires works especially well as an alternate setting for teen (and human) woes that plague us all. With well-crafted details that answer such questions as to why the school exists, where the vampires get their blood, etc., Rees creates a story that is believable despite the unusual premise. Fun and imaginative. 2003, Delacorte, $15.95. Ages 12 to 16.

Beth Guldseth (Children's Literature)
This is a light but deft satire about life in a high school for vampires. Cody Elliot has moved against his will from California to New Sodom, MA (near East Gehenna). He flunks out of the local public school so his choices are Our Lady of Perpetual Homework or Vlad Dracul High. The latter needs to recruit a few non-vampires for their swim team, as their kind cannot go in the water. The author is good at maintaining the protagonist's will to never please his father in that maddening attitude that only certain adolescents can muster. In the end, pride, change (even in traditional communities) and love add depth to the laughs. This book has a memorable lycanthropic high school librarian and my current favorite quote--"...everyone was lying his head off except the wolf." Did you know that Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, and Jeff Davis were vampires and that Bram Stoker had it all wrong? 2003, Delacorte, $15.95. Ages 14 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 17))
Cody Elliot's plan to get his parents to return to California (Objective #1: fail all subjects in his new Massachusetts public high school) backfires when his not-so-doting dad transfers him to Vlad Dracula Magnet School. His new school is populated by persons of Romanian descent known among themselves as the Jenti-and guess who their honored ancestor was. Cody's fresh mouth keeps him in trouble in his new school, while his two Jenti friends, Justin and Ileana, labor to incorporate him into the school culture. Rees presents amusing twists on the fantasy tropes about vampires, with funny and convincing details about their daily lives and living preferences. Although predictable, the ending will not bother teen readers one bit. The humor, engaging characters and need to find out what Cody is up to will carry them through a fast, satisfying read. Could Vlad Dracula still rule? Readers will love to find out. 2003, Delacorte, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 to 14. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, September 2003 (Vol. 37, No. 5))
Angry over his family's move from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, Cody acts out by flunking all his courses--even homeroom. His parents search out an alternative school, and offer him a choice between Our Lady of Perpetual Homework and Vlad Dracul Magnet School, which has a gorgeous campus and a great reputation, though it's a little unusual. For instance, the principal has a pet wolf, and most of the students look similar--tall and pale, with dark eyes and black hair, and Roumanian names. Cody is admitted to Vlad Dracul immediately, on condition that he joins the water polo team. The academic workload is impossibly hard, but Cody is reassured that he doesn't need to do anything at all other than be willing to get in the pool. It turns out, of course, that the other students are vampires, who abhor water; Cody has been admitted only because Massachusetts requires schools to offer water sports. When he comes to the aid of a fellow student who is being bullied, Cody makes some friends, including a lovely vampire princess, but also some enemies, and he starts to learn more about vampire culture. He rebels at school by actually trying to win water polo matches and demanding to be graded like the other students. His forthrightness also ends up bringing about changes in the relations between vampires and non-vampires, with surprising and happy results. Snappy dialogue and the age-old appeal of the vampire make this comedy a winner. Action, romance, literature and humor all play a role, and the result is an entertaining romp that middle school and junior high students will enjoy. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2003, Random House/Delacorte, 176p., $17.99. Ages 12 to 15.

Jane Cabaya (Library Media Connection, March 2004)
Cody has flunked out of high school in New Sodom, Connecticut to tell his parents how miserable he is; he wants to go back California. As a last resort, he is enrolled in Vlad Dracul Magnet School. The building, the atmosphere, the students, and even the principal's pet timber wolf set Cody on edge. The students are tall, with very pale complexions, stringy black hair, disturbingly quiet attitudes, and sunglasses. The whole school is a boarding institution for vampires, the majority of the students. The town has tolerated this separate, but equal, situation for hundreds of years. Cody's turns and twists as he goes through the plot move in surprising harmony. Everything that happens is plausible, yet fantastic when you think about it as a whole. He has scary encounters with bullies, strangely difficult class assignments, a very exclusive birthday celebration, a "giving" of himself, and students who turn into seals or "Selkies". The last is a bit far fetched. I told the plot to a few of our ninth graders and they were hooked right up to the end. (Although, they said seals in a subplot seemed a bit far-fetched.) This may compete with Harry Potter books in enjoyable fun with one human being stuck with main characters who have fangs and hundreds of years' worth of history. Recommended. 2003, Random House Children's Publishing, 226pp., $15.95 lb. Ages 10 to 15.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2003 (Vol. 57, No. 3))
Cody Elliot and his parents have just moved from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts so his father can take a job with the law firm of Leach, Swindol, and Twist. After enrolling in Vlad Dracul Magnet School, Cody discovers he isn’t expected to do anything except play on the school water polo team in matches required by the state; if he plays, he gets straight As and guaranteed admission to a prestigious university. The contrary hero finds he isn’t as willing to get something for nothing as he thought; that, and the clues about his fellow students (brilliant, sunglassed, and pale) add up to a mess of trouble for Cody, one of the few humans in a school full of vampires. Cody makes friends with nerd vampire Justin Warrener and future vampire queen Ileana Antonescu; the three form an unusual triad that threatens the historical tenets upon which Vlad Dracul--and the town of New Sodom--are based. Cody stubbornly refuses to bend, and he doggedly defends his own worth by refusing to take the easy way out: he defies the norm, saves the school, wins the vamp of his heart, and, in the end, meets Dracula himself (a rather benevolent old monster with a seventeen-meter wingspan). The author plays fast and loose with vampire lore but puts together an absorbing look at the familiar social dynamics of high school: who’s in, who’s out, what loyalty means, and what it is, exactly, that makes one heroic. Rees gives his hero such a believable voice that even the most unlikely vampiric events are plausible; readers will suspend disbelief just to see how it all works out. Cody is true blue, and his character is admirable enough to carry the day . . . night . . . whatever. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Delacorte, 226p, $17.99 and $15.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2004)
Unhappy about moving from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, Cody is failing every subject in high school. His father decides he needs more academic rigor, but Vlad Dracul Magnet School isn't what either of them expects. Most of the students are vampires, but the dangers Cody faces are the same as those for any kid. A light, engaging parable with a reader-pleasing happy ending. Category: Older Fiction. 2003, Delacorte, 228pp, $15.95, $17.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Jennifer Bromann (VOYA, February 2004 (Vol. 26, No. 6))
Cody is not succeeding in school. In fact, he is even flunking homework. He has two choices for a new school-Our Lady of Perpetual Homework or Vlad Dracul Magnet School. He chooses the latter, but soon notices that things are different. The students are vampires. The school must retain a water polo team so that they are not shut down. Vampires cannot swim. Cody and a few other jentis (this title's version of muggles) are allowed to attend this school, receiving automatic As and advancing to college as long as they play on the team. At first the silliness-the principal tells him he should go back to California-and lack of reality seem to create a story with no values. Soon, however, Cody decides he would rather earn his grades. He also gives his own blood to save a friend. In some ways, this novel is like Harry Potter. Its magical world of jentis (muggles) and vampires (wizards) exists with the focus on school and friendships with a little sport or water polo (quidditch) added. Fans of vampire fiction will not find the traditional darkness, blood and gore, and transformations. Although the characters are in high school, they seem a little younger, especially because Cody and his friends play a game involving dolls. This story will surely be appreciated by reluctant male readers who enjoy the writing of J. K. Rowling or Lemony Snicket. Readers will find humor and reality along with the fantasy. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Delacorte, 226p., $15.95 and PLB $17.99. Ages 11 to 18.