Beach Party by R.L Stine

This is the first R.L Stine book I have read for teenagers, and whilst I enjoyed us, all I kept thinking the whole time I was reading the book, "I am glad that my daughter didn't have the attitude and self-righteousness of the two teenage girls depicted in this book. "It is essentially a softened-up crime novel for older kids. The two main protagonists, Karen Mandell and Ann-Marie ( a bit wishy-washy) are childhood friends who meet up again when Karen  invites Ann-Marie,who had moved to New York some years before,  to  spend some time with her back in her old stomping ground  in Venice Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles. The more physically-striking of the two, Karen finds herself sought after by two young attractive males, Jerry a seemingly well-balanced guy with great friends, and the other Vince, a leather-clad member of a gang. Karen soon discovers things are not as straightforward as she initially thought, especially after discovering that Jerry already has a girlfriend  called Renee who is non-to-pleased about their blossoming friendship, and that Jerry recently lost his brother in unfortunate accident. Karen starts getting threatening messages to stay away from Jerry, then her friend Ann-Marie starts behaving in an odd manner, and suddenly Karen finds herself being questioned about a murder. The plot,  even if slightly contrived, is not too obvious, and I think most teenage readers would enjoy this book. The only thing I find about R.L.Stine's characters is that they are not very well developed so it is hard to feel an attachment to any of them, but then again like James Patterson, he is known for his racy page-turning publications.

Wreck by Allan Baillie

This is a real gem of an Australian children's book which would be appropriate for 10-14 year olds. It is about two children, Renee and Ian, who find themselves in the middle of a cyclone. They eventually seek safety in a beach cave after their houses are destroyed. Later they emerge to be confronted with a huge wreck of a freighter washed up on the rocks. They clamber aboard but are not prepared for what awaits them there. Alan Baillie writes the following about his novel: "The spark for this story had to keep on glowing for about twenty-five years before it was written. Back then, my wife and I were cruising near Noosa, when we saw a freighter, the Cherry Venture, driven by a storm onto a beach. The freighter had been on the beach for only a couple of months and that image stayed with me."

Allan had a close encounter of his own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU6VOorKdg4

The Cherry Venture wreck was removed from the beach in 2007. Here are some photos of it.