Reviewed by Grandma Bev for TeensReadToo.com

Thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod is being raised by "Aunt" Nelly, his mother's best friend. His human mother and vampire father were both killed in a fire, leaving their young vampire son an orphan. Life is not easy for Vlad...the school bullies harass him, the principal seems to have it in for him, and the girl he likes best and wants to ask to the dance seems to prefer his friend, Henry.

Aunt Nelly understands his problems and helps him to hide the fact that he is a vampire and must have fresh blood to survive. Vlad's best friend, Henry, is the only other person who knows his secret, although Vlad did bite Henry once when they were eight years old.

The one teacher that Vlad had real rapport with has disappeared and no one knows where he is. Vlad and Henry are determined to find out what happened to him. The substitute teacher begins to question Vlad too closely -- and there is just something strange about Mr. Otis Otis (yep...first name and last name are the same.) Vlad worries that Otis might suspect the truth, and then when Otis assigns vampires as Vlad's research project, and the teacher scribbles "I know your secret" across the bottom of his essay, he is really frightened.

Vlad discovers his father's journal in the attic and is learning about the reality of being a vampire and the powers that he may possess. Vlad also becomes convinced that there is a vampire killer in town, and that he is next on the killer's list. Things go from bad to worse when Aunt Nelly invites Otis to dinner and he confronts Vlad with what he knows.

There is some gross-out vampire stuff in this story. How about chocolate chip cookies dipped in blood? The gripping confrontation with the vampire horde at the climax of the novel is electrifying in this well plotted, exciting, supernatural adventure. I loved the great characters, and the fast action kept me reading most of the night, with my door firmly locked. ( )

I wasn't really intrigued by this book. The characters are flat and dull, and the situations Tod gets himself into seem pretty cookie-cutter. A lot more could have been done with the vampire myths and facts brought up in Tod's essay, but the author kind of dropped the ball there. I won't flat-out say no to the ninth-grade edition of Tod's chronicles, but I sure do hope it's more exciting than 8th grade. ( )

A quick read, but a surprisingly good one, even for an adult. Typical of a kid's book, the plot is a bit simplistic, but it was a good story with believable characters. A lot of background had to be covered & it was well done. This is mostly Vlad figuring out what he is, which fits rather well with his age, too. One of the more interesting points is the characterization of the various people. They're not as simple as in most books of this type & even the bad guys have redeeming qualities, while the good guys have their faults. Refreshing.If I found any fault, it was with the pacing. True to life, there were busy, exciting times followed by others that were typical. Typical days were just cut out. Sometimes a jump of several weeks left me a bit dazed & a few threads got lost. The author is constrained by a year per book & I'm guessing a specific length for each book. It felt like it, at times.Vampire books are all the rage now & I've read so many that I didn't think this series would interest me too much, but I found that it does. I'm looking forward to the next book. ( )

Great book! i got into it in the first five minutes!! ( )

Pretty good. C liked it. Not too challenging