Alana Oakley returns with her high-school mates - Khalilah, Maddie and Sofia to face new challenges as a Year 8 student at Gibson High and, as usual, Mum isn't making it easy. You'd think, after winning a song-writing contest and meeting the world's hottest rock stars, that life in Year 8 would be sweet, but no, Mum, has other ideas - like getting caught speeding on national television. Alana goes from hero to zero faster than a Ferrari! Awful? It gets worse. Alana still has to dodge Nurse Cathy, get through Shakespeare Week, survive the soccer match against the undefeated Football Academy's Bruisers, and detention with their History teacher, Mrs Snell, who has a personal collection of medieval torture artefacts. When the gypsy cousin of Alana's superstitious friend, Sofia, predicts they will meet a tall, dark, mysterious stranger, Alana doesn't know who it's meant to be - Bad-Boy Flynn who has just started school or Teen Expert, Dr Gray, who starts dating her mum. There's something dodgy about both of them so Alana sets out to uncover the mysteries. But Alana gets more than she bargains for. She gets trouble. Double-trouble. Is Flynn the serial arsonist who is setting schools alight? Is Dr Gray a modern Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Can Alana solve the mysteries before her birthday? And will her birthday be another Epic Fail? All will be revealed in another of the chaotic adventures that Alana calls Life. Welcome back to her world!

Alana Oakley suspects her new neighbors are vampires. Her friends hope Alana is right. Everything they've read about vampires sounds so very cool and the new neighbors are so very hot. Despite her friends' warped sensibilities, Alana is determined to reveal the neighbors' bloody secret. If only her mom would stay out of trouble, Alana would have this mystery in the bag. Hard to know what Alana is dreading more this year: the kiss of immortality from a vampire or her mother throwing her a birthday party, but don't bother asking the woman in Alana's living room...she's already dead.

Sassy, savvy sleuth Alana Oakley is at it again. There's school newbie, Flynn, and the Teen Expert, Dr. Gray, who's dating her mom, to investigate. But as Alana starts probing she gets more than she bargains for. Is Bad-Boy Flynn the serial arsonist setting schools on fire? Is Gray a modern Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Can Alana solve both mysteries before her birthday? And will her birthday be another Epic Fail? All will be revealed in another chaotic adventure Alana calls Life.

The mysterious disappearance of a friend's precious charm sets sassy and savvy sleuth Alana Oakley on the warpath. But Alana quickly realizes that having Attitude with a capital "A" isn't enough to solve the case. She invokes her savvy self to duel with the military-inspired Coach Kusmuk, dodge the over-exuberant Nurse Cathy, and deal with her impulsive and accident-prone mother, who is one click away from Internet-dating a mass murderer! The biggest mystery of all: What spectacular disaster will her mother have planned for her birthday this year?

By identifying similarities in various books, this annual selection guide helps readers to independently choose titles of interest published in the last year.Each entry describes a separate book, listing everything readers need to know to make selections. Arranged by author within six genre sections, detailed entries provide: Title Publisher and publication dateSeriesNames and descriptions of charactersTime period and geographical settingReview citationsStory typesBrief plot summarySelected other books by the authorSimilar books by different authorsAuthor, title, series, character name, character description, time period, geographic setting and genre/sub-genre indexes are included to facilitate research.