The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making By Catherynne M. Valente Illustrations by Ana Juan Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-312-64961-6 On shelves now. Well devil if I know what to do with it. Never complain that you are bored, ladies and gentlemen. Say such a [...]
Kat, Incorrigible By Stephanie Burgis Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 9781416994473 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Early nineteenth-century child and teen novels written with an equal influence of Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones are nothing new. Indeed they’ve been around for quite some time. They’re your Sorcery and Cecelia by [...]
Small Persons with Wings By Ellen Booraem Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3471-5 Ages 10-14 On shelves now We’re all sick of vampires right now. We’re also a little tired of zombies and don’t even TALK to me about angels. A couple years ago you could have said the same about child wizards. [...]
Season of Secrets By Sally Nicholls Arthur A. Levine (an imprint of Scholastic) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-21825-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Sally Nicholls is not a household name here in America. She is possibly not even a name that most children’s librarians, booksellers, and teachers would recognize right off the bat. This, in spite of [...]
Windblowne By Stephen Messer Random House $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86195-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves now 2010 was not a great year for fantasies. Sure, there were plenty of books that contained small fantastical elements, but titles that plunged the reader into entirely different worlds with their own set of rules and understandings? Few and far between. [...]
The Adventures of Nanny Piggins By R.A. Spratt Illustrated by Dan Santat Little Brown and Company $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-316-06819-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Don’t judge a book by its cover, they say. To heck with that, say I. When it comes to books for kids, nine times out of ten you’re going to end [...]
The Clockwork Three By Matthew Kirby Scholastic Press $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-20337-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves now I’m in a weird position. I’m tired of Steampunk, and yet if I say that word to most kids that walk into my library they’ll give me a blank stare followed by an immediate, “What’s Steampunk?” I’d explain to [...]
Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate As told to Lesley M.M. Blume Illustrated by David Foote Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86203-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 14th The term “urban fantasy” gets bandied about a bit these days. If you’re unfamiliar [...]
Keeper By Kathi Appelt Illustrated by August Hall Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-5060-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. I don’t consider myself a particularly sentimental person. I don’t really cry at movies (E.T. was supposed to go home, for crying out loud). Television shows leave me high and dry (sorry [...]
The Boneshaker By Kate Milford Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $17.00 ISBN: 978-0-547-24187-6 Ages 10 and up On shelves May 24th It seems that no successful book is an island. Or, to put it another way, no successful genre of book. In the children’s book world Harry Potter does well and suddenly [...]
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling By Maryrose Wood Illustrated by Jon Klassen Balzer & Bray (an imprint of Harper Collins) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-179105-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves now When you’re a parent or a librarian or a teacher or a bookseller who reads a lot of children’s books, you sometimes wish [...]
Fortune’s Magic Farm By Suzanne Selfors Illustrated by Catia Chien Little, Brown and Company $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-316-01818-0 Ages 8-12 Roald Dahl was a troublemaker of the first degree. Did he really have to be so original? So interesting? Did his books have to fall into such a distinctive age range? And did he have to [...]
The Mystery of the Fool and the Vanisher By David and Ruth Ellwand Candlewick Press $18.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-2096-7 Ages 8 and up On shelves now Sometimes I’ll give a speech at events or conferences about children’s books that break barriers. I’ll talk about titles that don’t neatly slot into award categories and, as a result, [...]
The Graveyard Book By Neil Gaiman Illustrations by Dave McKean Harper Collins $17.99 ISBN: 978-0060530921 Ages 11 and up On shelves September 30th I’ve noticed that there’s been an increased interest in the macabre in children’s literature lately. Sometimes when I’ve had a glass or two of wine and I’m in a contemplative mood I [...]
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