The Ruby in the Smoke: A Sally Lockhart Mystery

BEWARE THE SEVEN blessings . . . When she first utters these words, 16-year-old Sally Lockhart doesn't know their meaning. But when an employee of her late father hears them, he dies of fear. Thus begins Sally's terrifying journey into the seamy underworld of Victorian London, in search of clues to her father's mysterious death.

Interesting facts about Philip Pullman and his books: The Amber Spyglass was the first children's book to be named the Whitbread Book of the Year. Among the other awards Pullman has received are Britain's prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (a sort of Nobel Prize for children's literature) honoring his entire body of work.

Pullman enjoys playing the piano. "I'd like to play it well," he quips on his website. "But I can't, so the rest of the family has to put up with my playing it badly." Pullman persuaded his publisher to let him illustrate the first two books of His Dark Materials with small, symbolic pen and ink drawings at the start of each chapter. Although these illustrations were left out of first editions in the U.S., they have been included in later editions.