The Dark Materials books center around 13-year-olds who have the intelligences of 20+ year-olds. Aided by magical devices, they rampage through physics, natural philosophy, and theology, all the while promoting the notion of "thinking for one's own self". Due to this didacticism, Pullman sometimes tries to stuff too much into the story, but overall, they're fun stories, and they have plenty of treats for adults, too.
SARS' infection rate is looking less exponential, which is great. The markets have reacted well the last couple of days, but I'm out until we see a nice market decline.