This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

Canadian author Kenneth Oppel is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers of middle grade and young adult fiction. His Airborn trilogy with its elements of steampunk adventure is recommended for both boys and girls in middle school. (His female leads tend to be spunky and independent.) His language is perfectly suited to his topics, and his characters are always balanced and believable.
Like several recent notable YA series (Hunger Games and Twilight for example), I was hesitant at first to read a book about a young "monster." But as with these two hit series as well as all of Oppel's other work, I was hooked almost from page one.
This Dark Endeavor tells the story of twin Frankenstein brothers Victor and Konrad, who is older by a mere two minutes. They live a life of intellect, education, and privilege near Lake Geneva in a peaceful part of Europe. Home tutored and pampered by servants, the Frankenstein family is also liberal in their politics and skeptical in their religious beliefs. There are two younger siblings who also appear in the story, but the teenage twins spend most of their time with a distant cousin, Elizabeth, of similar age who was rescued from a convent as a child and grew up with them almost like a sister. Henry Cherval, a close friend and bit of a coward but with the heart of a poet, rounds out their mischievous quartet.
The group frequently goes exploring together and one day finds a secret passage in their vast castle-like home that leads to a hidden basement laboratory and "dark library" full of strange books with mysterious writing in them. Their father learns of their little adventure and immediately puts a stop to their clandestine snooping. Soon, though, Konrad becomes gravely ill and even the best doctors in the region cannot cure his sickness. The remaining trio of Victor, Henry, and Elizabeth decide that the dark library may hold answers to reverse Konrad's mystery sickness, so together they scheme to find a cure for him. Guided by Maria, a trusted servant, the three seek out an old alchemist in town to help them decipher the coded recipes for healing elixirs that may return Konrad to good health. The only question...will they survive the dangerous process of finding bizarre ingredients for this strange potion?
This Dark Endeavor is well-written and the pacing is quick enough to keep readers engaged in the action all the way through. I already look forward to the next title in the series! This book is highly recommended for seventh grade to adult. There are a couple of brief mentions of "enflamed passions" over which brother is more in love with Elizabeth, and a couple of mild oaths uttered in their various trials and tribulations, but overall the book is PG. A scene of violence near the end might leave a couple of weak-stomached readers queasy, but it only lasts a few pages. A copy of this book has been ordered for Stone MS library and it will have a YA label on the spine due to content mentioned above.