STORMBREAKER by Anthony Horowitz
    Category:  Action-Adventure
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  2/16/06
    Publisher:  Puffin
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating: 5 Stars


    Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider knows something bad has happened when the doorbell rings in the middle of the night.
    He soon learns that his caretaker uncle, Ian Rider, was killed in an automobile accident on his way home. A banker
    who works for Royal & General, Alex's uncle was a fine man who wasn't home much--but he's still devastated by his
    death. Except the appearance of some strange people who claim to be his uncle's co-workers, a gun-toting man at his
    uncle's funeral, and the findings of his uncle's bullet-ridden car make Alex think that there's more than meets the eye to
    the "automobile accident" story.

    Alex soon finds out that his Uncle Ian's life, at least where he himself was concerned, was based on a lie. Ian Rider
    was a spy, employed by the Special Operations Division of MI6. And the last case he was working on, concerning
    multi-millionaire Herod Sayle, was a case that got Ian Rider killed. Now Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones, head of SOD,
    want Alex to pick up where his uncle, their operative, left off--infiltrate the compound where Herod Sayle is building
    his new Stormbreaker computers, and find out what Ian Rider had to die for.

    What follows is an action-packed story of danger, bullets, viruses, and out-and-out excitement. At fourteen, Alex is
    savvy, trained in martial arts, can speak multiple languages, and is, in fact, a truly bliddy good spy!

    Anthony Horowitz has devised a real winner with Alex Rider and his new career (although he was actually forced into
    working for MI6), and I can't wait to read the next book in the series and see what mission Alex will be sent on next!
Alex Rider Bk. 1: Stormbreaker
by Anthony Horowitz