Then

Even back in primary school days, my main reading interest was in books from the SF genre. That was quite a problem given that I was attending a small school out in the country - there were not many such books on the shelves. I eagerly awaited the country library service van bringing a change of books so that I could see if there were any new titles in my preferred area. That ignores the even larger issue that there were not all that many suitable titles available anyway. It seems that things seem much better these days - there are lots of names of authors being bandied about as being suitable for younger readers. One such is Eoin Colfer who seems to get a lot of positive chatter. Based on that and the $1 price tag I bought and read The Supernaturalist. It was simple and clear with a strong story, flashy gadgets in a futuristic setting and strong characters. My ten year old self would have loved it.