by Andy Weir What do you get when you put Dorothy, Wendy, and Alice into a boarding school together? A world-hopping adventure where the Witch of the West teams up with Captain Hook and the Cheshire Cat comes to Oz, of course. This graphic novel was a lot of fun, blending elements from our favorite […]
by Eric P. Kelly When Joseph’s family home is destroyed by enemies, he and his family must flee to Krakow. But why are evil men after them, and who is really behind it? And what is the family secret that is for the king of Poland’s ears alone? I was pleasantly surprised by this story. […]
by Jacqueline West When her family moves into the big stone house, Olive can tell it’s creepy. But she doesn’t expect to meet three talking cats or find a pair of spectacles that allow her to climb into and out of the paintings. The truth of the previous owners is even stranger—and more awful—than she […]
by Adam Gidwitz and David Bowles In another fun adventure of the Unicorn Rescue Society, Elliot and Uchenna travel across the country with Professor Fauna to rescue a chupacabras—essentially a vampire coyote. They make friends, see old enemies, and learn about these fascinating and terrifying creatures and the borderlands they live on. I enjoyed this […]
by Gail Carson Levine Writing Magic is a collection of writing advice geared specifically for young writers, covering everything from voice to characters to dialogue to point of view, using examples from her own books and others to illustrate her point. Carson Levine is thorough, addressing nearly every aspect of storytelling, while keeping chapters short, […]
by Victoria Aveyard This is a story of “haves” and “have-nots,” where the “haves” have superpowers and the “have-nots” get trampled underfoot. A “have-not” girl gets unexpectedly thrown in among the “haves,” for surprising reasons and with dire consequences. It’s like X-Men meets Gladiator meets British history’s War of the Roses, where everyone did whatever […]
by Patricia C. Wrede This is a coming of age story of a girl on the frontier in an alternate America where magic is a part of daily life and woolly mammoths and steam dragons threaten the settlements. Eff Rothmer must sort out her relationships with magic, her family, the frontier, and herself, while confronting […]
by Gail Carson Levine This collection of false apology poems (where the poem comes from someone who is not sorry at all) covers a range of topics from sibling fights to fairy tales to nursery rhymes and beyond. I didn’t know what to expect when I discovered this book at my library, but I thought […]
by Sarah J. Maas This book is a mash-up retelling of Beauty and the Beast and the legend of Tam Lin, intended for a YA audience, with a good deal of faerie mixed in. I disliked this book so much I couldn’t even finish it–I made it about three-quarters of the way through. I almost […]
by Hugh Lofting This is one volume of the classic story of Dr. Dolittle, the English naturalist who can talk to animals. He and his young protegee Tommy Stubbins go on an epic adventure, meeting many interesting people and creatures along the way. I found this book light, funny, and an easy read, but at […]