Tag Archive | magic

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer (fiction) – traveling fairy tale roads in search of a way home

book cover of Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer published by Little Brown

Jack and the Beanstalk.
Rapunzel.
The Walking Fish?
Perhaps we haven’t read all the world’s fairy tales yet!

A family love of books may very well be the key to escaping from the Land of Stories for a brother and sister who are still mourning their father’s death.

They’ll also find out what happened “happily ever after” to Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and other famous fairy tale subjects when they grew up!

When I picked up The Wishing Spell, my first thought was “hey, this guy’s book will be shelved next to Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series – should get lots of attention that way” – not realizing that author Chris Colfer was also television star Chris Colfer. He ably weaves new stories like the Curvy Tree and the Walking Fish into Conner and Alex’s adventures and encounters with classic fairy tale characters.

This first book in The Land of Stories series will be published on July 17, 2012, so get on the reserve list at your local library or independent bookstore now.
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Book info: The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1) / Chris Colfer. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012. [book series site] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: A dark dungeon or a middle school classroom – both can be prisons until the right fairy tale magic opens all the doors. One story sends a brother and sister questing through amazing lands where courage and cleverness may unlock the secrets to save a kingdom …and their lives.

Conner and Alex loved Dad’s stories, like the legend of the Curvy Tree and the tale of the Walking Fish. Since he was killed last year in a car crash, it’s been rough for the twins and their mom. When Grandma gives them the family’s special storybook for their twelfth birthday, Alex reads herself right into the Land of Stories, and her brother has to jump in after her!

A talking frog who collects books, a gingerbread house in the woods, the three Charming brothers (formerly princes, now kings) – all the tales that the Baileys grew up hearing are real and true here! But now Goldilocks has grown up to be a swordswoman and wanted fugitive, the Big Bad Wolf’s family has vowed revenge on self-obsessed Queen Red Riding Hood, and Queen Cinderella is expecting a royal baby any day now.

If they ever want to see their mom or their world again, the twins will need the rare Wishing Spell. Luckily, Froggy had found a handwritten journal outlining the items needed to create the Spell, sending Conner and Alex through all the kingdoms of Happily Ever After to find them.

Alas, the Evil Queen has escaped from Queen Snow White’s dungeon with the magic mirror and will stop at nothing to have the Wishing Spell for herself!

Will the twins be able to acquire everything for the Wishing Spell? Can they escape troll caverns, goblin prisons, and over-talkative travel companions? Is the Big Bad Wolf Pack still on their trail? And what did the journal-writer wish for when he completed the first Wishing Spell?

First in a new series, this adventure story introduces new-to-us fairy tales along with intriguing what-happened-later versions of familiar classics. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The Filth Licker, by Cristy Burne (fiction) – Japanese demons attack British school camp!

Jul6

book cover of Filth Licker by Cristy Burne published by Frances Lincoln

A week at camp with school chums means bonfires,
ghost stories, silly pranks,
demon attacks?

Away from the protective pillar in her family’s home back in Japan, Miku is accosted by yokai, unearthly spirits ranging from annoying to deadly. And away from London, with just a few teacher-chaperones, Miku’s classmates will find more in the forest than normal foxes and badgers.

Cursed tofu and Shape Shifters, an amnesia attack on her best friend, sickle weasels and a yuki-onna – maybe the seventh graders should have stayed at school!

Grab the first Takeshita Demons book (my recommendation here) at your local library or independent bookstore along with The Filth Licker (#2). You ought to get Monster Matsuri (#3) while you’re there – you know that the demons will keep chasing Miku and her friends!

Hmmm…and perhaps you’d consider having a toad-shaped aka-na-me in your bathroom to slurp up mold and soap scum, right?
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Book info: The Filth Licker (Takeshita Demons #2) / Cristy Burne; illustrated by Siku. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: A week at camp should be great, but Miku senses demons lurking in the forest. Cait scoffs at her – until the ghost stories told by school friends around the bonfire start coming true!

Ever since Miku’s family moved from their ancestral Japanese home to London, evil spirits have targeted them. So the young teen brings protective charms to camp, along with all the stories and knowledge of the supernatural shared by her grandmother before they left for England.

Of course, nothing can keep Alex from calling her names or stop goofy Oscar from eating anything offered (eww, now he has a stinky black rash!). No one could predict that they’d find a red aka-na-me Filth Licker in the boys’ bathroom, or that its pet keukegen might innocently attract malicious ShapeShifters to camp.

When the campers’ round-robin ghost stories accidentally complete an ancient ritual, the woods become alive with evil spirits in animal bodies, trickster sprites rain down stinging sand from the trees, and Cait’s memory starts to blank out. And somehow, Alex stops teasing Miku and starts helping her track down the forest demons before they can get the rest of their friends.

Which animals will the demons use for their attack? Have the ShapeShifters already taken over any of the campers? Can Miku and friends turn back these evil forces before it’s too late?

Second in the Takeshita Demons’ series, The Filth Licker is followed by Monster Matsuri (#3) as Miku continues to face ancient evil Japanese spirits in a modern world. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Fated, by Alyson Noel (book review) – spirit worlds, souls unbound, evil or good

May22

She sees him in her dreams,
those visions that sent her over the edge of sanity,
leading her to an adobe house in the desert,
to the grandmother she’s never known,
to the small town where she sees him, in the flesh.
Bound together by love or for evil?

Happy book birthday to Fated, hitting bookstore shelves today (May 22, 2012) in the USA – lucky UK readers have been devouring this first book in the Soul Seeker series for some time, and raving about it, too.

You may start to see its book trailer on TV or explore the Soul Seekers website or like its Facebook page, but you have to read the book for yourself to discover what Daine finds out about herself, her spirit animal guide, and twin brothers Cade and Dace. Noel also has released a short story in which Ever from her popular The Immortals series meets Daire.
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Book info: Fated (Soul Seekers, book 1) / Alyson Noel. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] [UK book trailer] [US book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Time’s flow restarts, and the glowing people observe Daine from shadowed nooks, as she traverses the Moroccan marketplace on the way to her 16^th birthday dinner. Not jet lag, no matter what her mother says – why can Daine alone move among the time-frozen people and animals? And why does she suddenly see severed heads on bloody spikes along the city walls, a murder of crows, the glowing ones attacking?

All her life, it’s been just Daine and her makeup-artist mom, traveling from movie set to movie set, her school classes done online, no other family, no problems. But now these visions and Daine’s uncontrollably violent reactions to them have changed all that.

Suddenly, her grandmother calls – for the first time in Daine’s life, she has another relative – and it’s decided that she must go to her rural New Mexico home and learn how to cope with her… abilities? For Paloma (mother of the father who died before Daine was born) is a seer and a healer who claims that these gifts are part of the teen’s heritage.

First time separated from her mother, first time to attend school, first time to ride a horse – Daine gradually shakes off her mental exhaustion to realize that whatever haunted her in Morocco is even stronger here. As she learns from grandmother Paloma about their family lineage as Soul Seekers, she also discovers that nearby vortexes lead to other worlds and that a strong family of ruthless soul-eaters will try to use them – and her – to bring more evil into this world.

A blind girl who sees auras, a vision quest for Daine’s spirit animal, twins separated at birth who mirror the light and the dark of this struggle – who could imagine that this small town of Enchantment would be the site of a soul-battle on Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead? First in the Soul Seekers trilogy, Daine strives to discover if she’s truly Fated to be part of all this. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis (book review) – fairy tales with a twist

May16

book cover of Enchanted by Alethea Kontis published by Harcourt

Seventh daughter of a seventh son and seventh daughter,
named for her birth-day, according to the traditional rhyme,
Sunday is accustomed to odd things in the Wood,
so a talking frog is rather expected.
But there’s nothing everyday about falling in love with him.

You’ll nod your head as you recognize the many fairy tales found in the early chapters of Enchanted, from the shape of the Woodcutter family home to the fate of sister Tuesday of the red shoes.

But there’s more to this tale than just homage to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, as Sunday strives to find her own way in the world rather than what’s been previously written, Rumbold tries to undo the actions of his impetuous younger days, and the King has his own sinister agenda.

Enchanted was just published on May 8, 2012, so look for it at your local independent bookstore or library now. Kontis tells us that book two is in the works, giving readers a preview with a short story featuring one of its key characters, Ashes-in-the-Wind.
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Book info: Enchanted (The Woodcutter, book 1) / Alethea Kontis. Harcourt, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: A talking frog, a cow traded for beans that grow a sky-high beanstalk, a house shaped like a shoe – for Sunday, it’s just life as usual in the Wood. But when her friend Grumble disappears and the King seeks a new wife, old tales of evil spells are remembered, and Sunday tries to change what has been foretold.

Seventh daughter Sunday writes that she’s “doomed to a happy life,” but would rather be interesting than good and boring. Of course, wishes made in an enchanted land usually lead to adventures, so life in the Woodcutter family’s odd-shaped house is often more chaotic than taciturn Mama would like, despite the curlicued brightness of Papa’s stories from the Wood.

The ten Woodcutter siblings are children no more, although adopted Trix looks just as he did at age 12, thanks to his fairy blood. Ever since oldest brother Jack Jr. disappeared while in the King’s service, their family has stayed well away from the Arrilard palace, its sole prince, and its rumored curses.

Meeting Grumble by the fairy well was certainly more interesting than doing her chores, doubly so because the frog liked to listen to her stories, appreciative in his praise. Of course, any talking frog in the Wood must have been human first, so Sunday hopes that someday Grumble will tell her how he became cursed into frog form. She’d have to be careful about writing down his tale, as anything that she wrote had a strong chance of coming true, but he left the well without even saying goodbye.

Released from the froggy spell suddenly, Prince Rumbold finds himself in the palace, weak and confused. Who are his friends and who is against him? Why does he hear spirit voices in the palace night asking for death? What was the name of the girl who kissed him beside the well? His cold and regal father does allow Rumbold to invite all the eligible women of the kingdom to a grand ball at the palace, staying in his tower throne room to invoke magic for himself alone.

Will Rumbold find Sunday among all the people at the ball?
Will Sunday recognize Rumbold out of his froggy skin?
Will the Prince or the King choose a bride at the ball?

This bright-and-dark story about family, loyalty, and love in an Enchanted land reminds us that even the simplest fairy tales and nursery rhymes can carry the power of mighty words. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Circle of Gold, by Guillaume Prevost (fiction) – kidnapping, time-travel, treachery

May9

book cover of Circle of Gold by Guillaume Prevost published by Arthur A Levine Books

A treatise on magic,
Seven special coins,
Stone statues as time-travel portals,
One villain intent using them to loot the world’s treasures.

For World Wednesday, this concluding adventure in the Book of Time trilogy pits fourteen-year-old Sam against the shadowy Archos man in a final battle for control of the time-travel gateways that only a few can travel.

Sam always seems to be putting the safety of others first, from his cousin Lucy to the lovely Alicia to his grandparents and his father. Now he’s determined to learn enough of time travel’s secrets to stop his mother’s car before her fatal crash three years ago. Can the avenues of Time stand the strain of this potential paradox?

Whether visiting the vast tomb of an ancient Chinese emperor or walking through an Egyptian pyramid’s secret passageways, author Guillaume Prevost‘s background as a history teacher brings fascinating perspectives to Sam’s many journeys through Time.

Get the whole story at your local library or independent bookstore, starting with The Book of Time (book 1- my recommendation) and The Gate of Days (book 2 – my recommendation), then join Sam on his search for The Circle of Gold.
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Book info: The Circle of Gold / Guillaume Prevost; translated by William Rodarmor. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009. (Book of Time trilogy #3). [author interview] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: The time-traveling talent shared by Sam and his father may be their undoing, as the Archos man tries to wipe them out and plunder all of Time’s riches for himself. But he underestimates Sam’s desire to make the world’s time-stream right again, even if the teen loses himself in the process!

Alicia, the girl that Sam adores, has been kidnapped from their Quebec hometown by the mysterious Archos man. Of course, the ancient book that the villain demands as her ransom is located far, far away in Renaissance Rome. Rescuing Dad from Vlad the Impaler’s dungeon and surviving the eruption of Vesuvius seemed difficult at the time, but this time, Sam will have to travel back in time alone, as his cousin Lucy is away at summer camp; her great problem-solving skills would help so much!

So Sam must use the ancient stone statue in the basement of his father’s bookstore to open the Gate of Days again, using a certain combination of special coins to land in Rome – just as a battle begins. The book is inside the city walls, and Alicia is being held prisoner by attacking forces who offer Sam a different option for redeeming her life.

Will her captors really try to double-cross the Archos man?

Could Sam’s collection of time-travel coins help him find another way to rescue her?

Does the gold bracelet really allow time-travel without having to use the stone statues?

Will he have to travel to future time to defeat the Archos man’s greed once and for all?

All of the time-journeys and trials which Sam experienced in The Book of Time (book 1) and The Gate of Days (book 2) lead him to this final race for The Circle of Gold. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

The Springsweet, by Saundra Mitchell (fiction) – visions on the high plains

May2

Dowsing.
Divining for water.
Rhabdomancy.
Water-witching.

Whatever the name, being able to show just where to drill a water well is an enviable talent in arid places, but not without its consequences. Who could imagine that West Glory’s “springsweet” would be a young lady escaping back-East gossip by moving to the Oklahoma Territory’s vast plains?

And Zora could scarcely have dreamed that her train trip West would bring her to a sodhouse, a nearby all-black town that reminds her of home, a barn-raising, and two unlikely suitors?

While you can read this just-published book on its own, you’ll get a fuller picture of Zora’s life and gifts by reading The Vespertine (my recommendation) first. Just can’t wait for the promised third book to see where Zora’s talent takes her!

So, do you think that dowsing really works?
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Book info: The Springsweet / Saundra Mitchell. Harcourt, 2012. [author’s website] [book website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Ever-separated from her fiancé and her cousin, Zora decides to escape the strictures of Baltimore society by heading West. How can she face friends who don’t understand her continued mourning, family members who expect her to settle for a normal life after losing Amelia’s visions and Thomas’ healing touch?

Rather than allowing seventeen-year-old Zora to marry a widower and raise his children in some log cabin, her mother arranges for her to stay with Aunt Birdie and little Louella at their homestead in the Oklahoma Territory. Rattling westward by train and coach, Zora is jolted when bandits rob the stage just a few miles from her destination, smashing the luggage, and taking the locket that Thomas gave her.

Stranded by the highwaymen in a sudden thunderstorm, Zora trudges along the muddy wagon road toward West Glory and is rescued from a night alone on the prairie by Emerson Birch. Beside his rugged cabin in his lush garden, somehow Zora knows that his well is dug in the wrong place and can see silvery shimmers in the evening darkness that tell her where he should dig for water.

Aunt Birdie welcomes her the next morning, but is openly hostile to Emerson who jumped the gun to claim his land. Life is hard for the two young women and toddler Louella in the tiny sod house, hauling water from a distant well, making soap, trying to keep their crops alive in the dry plains winds.

When dandy Theo de la Croix arrives in West Glory to teach school, Zora wonders if he’d followed her from Baltimore. One kiss at a dance couldn’t mean that much… could it? Courted by Theo, yet drawn by Emerson’s vibrant connection to the land, she begins to finds pieces of joy in the midst of her mourning.

Her gift for seeing where the earth’s secret waters hide is precious in this dry land, so she hires out as a “springsweet” to tell folks where to dig wells. Not all visions are happy ones, and soon Zora must decide whether to tell unwelcome news or to hide her talents.

But how else can the little family get enough money to get through the bitter winter ahead? Should Zora accept Theo’s offer of marriage, or sneak away to see Emerson, or just run back home to a pampered life in Baltimore?

This companion volume to The Vespertine follows Amelia’s cousin Zora as she discovers her own psychic gifts and must decide whether she can truly live with the consequences that those visions may bring. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T for Traitor’s Son, by Hilari Bell (fiction) – ecology, mythology, and rescue

Apr23

His father turned away from his heritage.
His grandfather turned away from his son.
He’s a city kid who avoids the wilderness even more than his dad shuns his Native Alaskan roots, and it’s up to him to turn back ecological disaster.

This parable about a possible future world mixes bioengineered plant plagues with Native American/First Peoples/Native Alaskan mythology and symbols as a reluctant hero must decide whether to get involved in the struggle to rebalance the earth’s ecology using a medicine pouch and ley line nodes and other stuff that freaks him out, like that raven.

The Raven Duet begun in Trickster’s Girl brings fresh awareness of humankind’s effects on our ecosystems as we read this second book to see if the Traitor’s Son will really come through. We’d better make every day Earth Day.
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Book info: Traitor’s Son (The Raven Duet, book 2) / Hilari Bell. Houghton Mifflin, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: The leather pouch that she tosses to him must be contraband, drugs, something illegal. Jason can’t imagine any other reason that the teen would risk being shot – with real bullets – to get it over the Alaskan border. He certainly couldn’t imagine that it was the only hope for healing the Earth.

He’s only at the border station to pick up his father’s client and drive him back to Anchorage in the vintage electric sportscar he loves so well. Lots of well-earned perks for a Native Alaskan lawyer who was willing to leave his village and defend a lawsuit that made anyone less than one-fourth Native blood – like his own son Jason – ineligible to inherit Native properties and made his people call him a traitor.

Maybe it’s time to visit his grandparents again, Jason thinks, especially after he dreams of an old Native woman who warns him of a young man coming to steal the leather pouch. Then the new Native girl at his school starts him thinking about heritage and ecological disaster and even nature (strange for a city boy like him).

Odd, disturbing things happen when Jase visits his grandparents’ Native village, each one proving that the girl Raven is right about the earth’s ecology falling further out of balance. When she transforms herself into a real raven, Jase begins to believe she might really know what the medicine pouch can do to heal the earth.

How much is this city boy willing to risk to see if she’s right? Being only three-sixteenths Native Alaskan, can he truly step into the spirit world to fight? Traitor’s Son completes the story begun in Trickster’s Girl in this high-tech, high-security future United States whose only hope is the magic recounted in ancient folklore. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Croak, by Gina Damico (book review) – M for Uncle Mort, the Grim Reaper

Apr14

book cover of Croak by Gina Damico Every family has a relative that’s sort of distant,
never shows up for family reunions…
Bet yours isn’t a Grim Reaper, though!

Spider-silk soul vessels, death-sensing jellyfish, John Wilkes Booth arm-wrestling Elvis Presley in the atrium of the Afterlife – Lex has lots to get used to as she learns how to travel through the Ether and release souls from the bodies of the just-dead.

And then, against the Terms of Execution which allow Gamma Removal and Immigration Managers to swiftly transport souls to the Afterlife, a rogue Grim begins actually causing deaths.

Contrary to popular belief, Grims aren’t immortal, so the good folks of Croak begin rightly to fear for their lives. The “Welcome to Croak” sign’s population number clicks up and down as residents enter and leave the town. Will it keep clicking down and down?

Pick up this funny and serious book in paperback now at your local library or independent bookstore. And be sure to see the Croak Skull Illusion Scarf that the author designed (free knitting pattern)!

So, are you comforted or creeped out by the idea of a Grim Reaper as a high school kid with a sympathetic heart and a yen for junk food?
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Book info: Croak / Gina Damico. Graphia HMH, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: Sent to Uncle Mort’s remote farm to work off her wild violence, Lex learns that it’s part of her lineage – as a Grim Reaper. Now she’s learning the family business of helping souls to their afterlife – some high school summer job!

First time ever away from her twin sister, first time this far out into the countryside, first time ever to breach the space-time continuum of the Ether. The whole town of Croak exists to assist souls out of this earthly plane as they die, released from their dead bodies by a Killer, then escorted to the Afterlife by a Culler.

Mort’s technical know-how has enabled Grim teams to stay in touch with Croak’s death-detection apparatus as they zoom through the Ether releasing souls. Jellyfish arrays that sense deaths in yoctoseconds of time, deadly spiders spinning vessels to transport souls, the dead presidents and poets who welcome the confused newly-dead souls to the Afterlife and beyond…Lex’s head is spinning during her first week in Croak!

Several other Juniors are training this summer, including Driggs who lives down the hall at Uncle Mort’s. But none of them experience the excruciating pain that jolts Lex every time she Kills to release a soul. Lex and Driggs encounter many different causes of death as they work their regular shifts, but one has them baffled – a man who died of no cause at all, whose eyes turned totally white, a mystery for Mort and crew to puzzle over.

When the no-cause deaths increase, the Juniors murmur of a long-ago Grim who found a loophole in the Terms of Execution that bind their powers, one who decided to cause deaths instead of just releasing souls, a Grim who killed Grims.

Is there another Grotton loose in the world? Why can’t Croak’s computers determine the cause of death for those white-eyed corpses? Why is Lex the only Junior with two parents, with any parents? How long can she keep the secrets of Croak from her twin sister back home?

This Grim Reaper wears a black hoodie and carries an obsidian-bladed scythe – travel through the Ether with Lex as she tries to solve the mystery and stop the killer who’s targeting the Grims of Croak. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Peter & Max (fiction), by Bill Willingham – Fables, love & revenge

Mar19

Peter and Bo live up on The Farm,

keeping to themselves after Bo’s crippling accident,

near the moon-jumping cow and that talkative puss.

Oh yes, storybook folk and creatures live in our boring mundane world, leaving behind the enemies and evils that attacked them in their magical homeworlds. But you won’t find Fabletown on any maps of New York City and no country road will let you drive to The Farm upstate where all the magical animals stay. None of the Fables want to draw the attention of the mundy populace – laying low is their key to staying alive.

But here comes Peter’s brother Max, asking for admittance to Fabletown after all these years of evil power and magical domination over Hamelin, outside the mysterious Black Forest.

He wants revenge, he wants Bo Peep, he wants to take over a new kingdom.

Even if you haven’t read the Fables graphic novels, you’ll enjoy the twists and turns of familiar Fables with Willingham’s skillful backstory additions. And Fables fans will delight in this long-form narration which fills in some storyline gaps while staying ever-true to the series.

p.s. remember that the Fables series started publication over 10 years ago, well before TV shows like “Once Upon a Time” – see this interesting article by Bill Willingham.
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Book info: Peter & Max (a Fables novel) / Bill Willingham; illustrations by Steve Leialoha. Vertigo/DC Comics, 2009. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: Left for dead in the Black Forest, Peter and Max are separated from their minstrel family and must find their way through its terrors alone. Sinister forces prey upon the Piper brothers’ minds, twisting one toward wrathful revenge while the other draws closer to the magical music of the flute given to him by their father.

Making such otherworldly music exacts its price, and Peter’s mouth collects many small cuts and scars as he plays. Max finds an instrument of his own, invoking its darker powers to get back at Peter and anyone who may have helped him escape the Black Forest.

Yes, this is the tale of Peter Piper, whose playing gladdened the heart, and of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who lured away all that town’s children. So long have their stories been told that the people are now Fables themselves, including Peter’s childhood friend and love of his life, Bo Peep.

Replaying the same dark vengeance wearies even Fables, so Peter and Bo decide to leave their storybook land and retire to an obscure corner of the human world. Such an unmagical place shouldn’t attract the dangerous interest of the dark forces who pursue Fables in their enchanted homelands – but sometimes evil slips through Fabletown’s watch spells and guards.

Max has come into the human world, and he plans to duel Peter to ultimate death, taking Bo Peep as his prize. Can Peter win this fight without exposing Fabletown to the humans?

Peter & Max is the first novel based on the long-running Fables graphic novel series, and author Bill Willingham has called on series cartoonist Steve Leialoha to provide illustrations for this compelling story. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the series or are visiting Fabletown for the first time, you’ll enjoy meeting familiar storybook characters in most unfamiliar circumstances. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Wizard of Dark Street (fiction) – magic, crime, beauty creams

Mar16

Pendulum House, with its namesake device swooshing through the parlor in great arcs.
A dragonbone desk and enchanted daggers.
The Gates of Iron, opening into New York City every midnight for exactly 60 seconds.

Welcome to Dark Street, last of the 13 great roads connecting the worlds of humans and Faerie, in 1877 as yet another crime investigation is bungled by Inspector White. In just weeks, Oona Crate will be considered old enough to select her own life path, and she knows that she must become a true detective, ignoring the magical blood that flows through her.

Stereotypes for wizards and witches go by the wayside on Dark Street, as Oona must deal with slippery memories, the Goblin Tower prison, suppliers of contraband, and a most puzzling riddle.

The author has scripted, scored, and recorded a musical introduction to Oona’s world that you won’t want to miss in a video that charmingly showcases his composing and singing skills.

Look for The Wizard of Dark Street at your local library or independent bookstore.
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Book info: The Wizard of Dark Street / Shawn Thomas Odyssey. Egmont USA, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Oona wants to be a detective, not a wizard. Although she is the first natural-born magician in 200 years, she ought to be allowed to cultivate her other talents – as long as she doesn’t get permanently killed in the process.

As Wizard’s apprentice, Oona was learning spells needed to defend humankind if evil forces from Faerie realms attacked; even in the modern world of 1877, the Wizard must be ready. Dark Street lies in the heart of New York City, but ordinary humans rarely find this last corridor between the worlds of Man and Faerie.

But the Wizard’s disappearance, an increase in crimes along Dark Street, and an incompetent police inspector lead her to investigate many things – Why do only young witch girls venture out of Witch Hill? Who has stolen all of Madame Iree’s dresses? Is the blind actor a victim or a criminal?

A new apprentice must be selected since Oona wants to step away from that role, but which candidate will be chosen – witch girl, human young man, snooty Miss Iree, the clever brother? Something is wrong about all this…

Luckily, Oona has enchanted raven Deacon to tutor her in further magic and her own natural curiosity to lead her in detection. Are the criminals after something bigger than just designer dresses? Were her parents really killed by magic instead of an accident?

This first Oona Crate mystery places readers solidly into its 1877 setting and a very magical place indeed. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

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Recommending young adult books beyond bestsellers

Tag Archive | magic

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer (fiction) – traveling fairy tale roads in search of a way home

Like this:

The Filth Licker, by Cristy Burne (fiction) – Japanese demons attack British school camp!

Like this:

Fated, by Alyson Noel (book review) – spirit worlds, souls unbound, evil or good

Like this:

Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis (book review) – fairy tales with a twist

Like this:

Circle of Gold, by Guillaume Prevost (fiction) – kidnapping, time-travel, treachery

Like this:

The Springsweet, by Saundra Mitchell (fiction) – visions on the high plains

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T for Traitor’s Son, by Hilari Bell (fiction) – ecology, mythology, and rescue

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Croak, by Gina Damico (book review) – M for Uncle Mort, the Grim Reaper

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Peter & Max (fiction), by Bill Willingham – Fables, love & revenge

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Wizard of Dark Street (fiction) – magic, crime, beauty creams

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