Young adult fiction

After Allie's brother disappeared, her once-superb school grades slumped and she fell into bad company.

When she is picked up by police for the third time, her parents decide to send her away to a school for problem teens.

C.J. Daugherty's Night School is about Allie's time at Cimmeria Academy, a school where there are no computers or phones and the line-up of students includes some who are gifted, a few tough nuts and a handful from privileged backgrounds.

Struggling with her new life and the attentions of sauve Sylvain and standoffish Carter, Allie begins to get hints of secret activities after lights-out, the night school of the title, whose activities non-participants are forbidden to watch.

As she learns more, Allie becomes convinced Cimmeria is a dangerous place, confirmed when she is attacked at the school. Who to trust is the issue and one that helps make Night School a gripping story for young adults.

The ending makes it clear that other books about Allie and Cimmeria are on the way and if they are as good as Night School, Daugherty's switch from travel writing to young-adult fiction will be amply justified.

• Robert Muchamore began writing his bestselling Cherub series when his teenage nephew in Australia couldn't find anything to read.

The series, set in the present, is about a British organisation, Cherub, that recruits children (usually orphans) and trains them as intelligence officers.

The Henderson's Boys series, of which The Prisoner is the fifth book, is set during World War 2 and covers the creation of Cherub.

Four child agents - Marc Kilgour, Paul, Rosie Clarke and PT Bivott - feature in the stories, with the adventures of Marc (16) as a prisoner in Germany in 1942 the focus of The Prisoner.

A rattling good yarn, it is notable for its realistic background on the privations of prisoners and the perils faced by people in German-occupied France - Muchamore is obviously a conscientious researcher as well as a strong writer. Boys (and some girls) from about 12 to 16 will love this one.

• In 1996, it was estimated that only half America's high-school students had used the internet, while mobile phones - introduced commercially in 1983 - were still an option, not a necessity, and Facebook was eight years in the future.

In The Future of Us, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler bring those facts together in an original novel for teens. Josh's family is sent a CD but has no computer, so the boy takes the disk next door so his friend Emma can install it on hers.

When she does, she finds her profile on Facebook, 15 years in the future, and becomes hooked, checking friends as well as her own life.

Each time she looks, the scenario changes from a hopeless adult-Emma complaining about her life, to her marriage to first one, then another, ex-classmate.

Despite the clever plot, The Future of Us meanders somewhat and is less satisfactory than the early chapters promise.

This is a prime example of a book crying out for a rewrite to make the most of a good idea.