Secret of the Reaping

Gr 4-8–This second installment in Bayron’s “Vanquishers” series picks up where the first book left off. Boog and her friends Cedrick and Jules are now taking classes in Vanquishers history from Mr. Rupert, who doesn’t seem any less grumpy, even though his role in the Vanquishers is out in the open now. Their tight-knit community in San Antonio is rallying around Aaron and his mom, and nightly vampire-prevention measures are taken to make sure all the families on their street will stay safe now that vampires are active again. As in the first novel, the heart of this story is the relationships among Boog and her friends, and the intergenerational support system of their parents who were once Vanquishers. The first half of the book is a little slow, with musings about what is going on from Boog and her group, largely kept in the dark by the adults. Just when readers may start to despair over all the secrecy, the action ramps up, with a final reveal that will leave tweens thirsty for the next book. All main characters are coded Black and Latinx. Jules uses they/them pronouns and Cedrick has two dads.