Because it is My Blood

July 30, 2012
In this second installment of Zevin’s Birthright series, following All These Things I’ve Done and set in the late 21st century, Anya Balanchine faces additional tragedy and danger as she increases her involvement with her late father’s illegal chocolate business. After escaping from Liberty Children’s Facility, Anya travels incognito to Mexico, where she is schooled in the production of chocolate and taken under the wing of a family of cacao growers. When a failed attempt on Anya’s life sends her fleeing back to New York City, she has some hard choices to make. Her decision to stay in the family business and turn her father’s underground chocolate sales into an aboveboard operation is met with resistance on both sides of her law. The line between Anya’s friends and foes grows blurry as she attempts to weed out traitors and discover who has tried to harm her and her family. Discerning characters’ true motives will keep readers guessing, and the conflicting forces within Anya add an extra dimension of drama to this action-packed sequel. Ages 12–up. Agent: Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic.

January 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Anya Balanchine's life was ruined by a bar of chocolate-and the drama's not over yet. This follow-up (2012) to Zevin's All These Things I've Done (2011, both Farrar, Straus) finds Anya released from Liberty Correctional Facility, determined to walk the straight and narrow. But her criminal record makes a normal life impossible, and she's soon back behind bars thanks to Charles Delacroix. Following a suspicious poisoning incident, Anya is secretly sent to Mexico-and, hopefully, to safety. She learns the ropes of chocolate production and begins to see the lifeblood of her family's illegal distribution business in an entirely new light. Then someone orders a hit on Anya and her siblings. Her cousin is behind a conspiracy to destroy Balanchine Chocolate-and it looks like the plot might succeed. But a loophole in the chocolate ban that allows for medicinal chocolate dispensaries could be Anya's ticket to salvaging both her family's business and her reputation. Zevin's mob-themed dystopian series continues to be inspired and original. However, this title doesn't quite pack the same punch as its predecessor. The plot tends to drag, making for uneven pacing. Also, the times when Anya breaks narrative to directly address listeners are problematic. On the upside, character development reaches new levels, a quality made all the more evident through Ilyana Kadushin's interpretation of the text. This audiobook nicely supplements the print version, but it's not a necessary purchase.-Alissa Bach, Oxford Public Library, MI

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.