Un Lun Dun

3/4 the way through Un Lun Dun and I'm enjoying it very much.  Definitely young adult  I wish I had thought to read it to Eryn when she was a bit younger.  I might still recommend it to her.  She's find the binjas amusing.

But my favorite section has to be the following exchange:

"There's the occasional skymugger," Jones said. "Airsquid, though mostly they hunt high, where the deep-sky fisherfolk go.  And there are other things.  Conductors on other routes, if they're real unlucky, sometimes get attacked by giraffes."

The girls stared at each other.

"You're the second person to say that," Deeba said.

"I've seen giraffes," Zanna said.

"They're not so scary . . ." Deeba said.

"Ha!" the whole bus looked up at Jones's laugh.  "They've done a good job making people believe that those hippy refugees in the zoo are normal giraffes.  Next you'll tell me that they've got long necks so they can reach high leaves! Nothing to do with waving the bloody skins of their victims like flags, of course."

[Later we get to see an illustration of a vicious giraffe by Mieville, scythe-like head knobs, and vicious fangs, drooling the blood of a savaged monkey].