The Kingston duology are two books every elementary and middle school should consider for their classrooms. Ruckers Moses and Theo Gangi created an accessible fantasy that's perfect for grades 4th-6th. The characters are genuine, the pacing is quick and the magic feels like a natural part of the story. Set in Brooklyn, these books are a fun read for all levels of readers. The first book is Kingston and the Magician's Lost and Found - Magic [...]
Buckle up for fun. This one is coming January 18, 2022 Logan Foster is an orphan looking for a home. He is difficult to place because he is autistic and has an eidetic memory (like a photographic memory but better). When his meeting with prospective parents Gil and Margie is interrupted by an earthquake and lava flow, he uses his eidetic memory to escape only to discover his new parents are superheroes! A perfect home [...]
Sweep, The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier is a heartwarming story about an eleven-year-old orphan who works as a chimney sweep in London in 1875. Auxier masterfully mixes a magical tale with the truth about the dangerous lives of chimney sweeps (often children) in the 1800s. When Nan was younger, she was looked after by a kindhearted man known as The Sweep. He told Nan many stories and when it was [...]
As 2021 draws to a close, it's time to look ahead to the most anticipated books in a series for 2022. Coming in February is Book 2 of Wilderlore, The Weeping Tide, in which Barclay and his friends must save an island city from the Legendary Beast of the Sea. When the weeping tide, a carnivorous algae bloom eats all the fish and the Legendary Beast swallows ships whole, it's up to Barclay and [...]
Just in time for Halloween comes a chilling tale sure to become a classic. When two runaways stumble upon a mansion in the woods, they uncover a secret kept by the English countryside town of Rookhaven, monsters are real. The town and the monsters have an agreement. As long, as the monsters live alone protected by a magical veil, the villagers will go about their business. They will not hunt each other. This agreement is [...]
Set in the days of horse-and-buggies, Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu is a fantasy about a group of girls who have been labeled "troubled" by the powerful sorcerers of Illyria. They are sent away to the Dragomir Academy to learn how to be proper ladies and who might one day serve in an estate of a sorcerer. That is the best they can hope for. But Marya Lupu begins to discover a strange [...]
Attack of the Killer Komodos is book 2 in the Maggie and Nate Mystery Series. Book 1, also totally worth you adding to your reading list is The Mutant Mushroom Takeover. To get the best feel for the character, you may want to start with Book 1, but Book 2 does more than enough to stand on its own. Komodos wastes no time as it jumps right into the action as Maggie and Nate come [...]
This fabulous historic novel is coming out September 14th, just in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15). But this isn’t just a good Hispanic Heritage story, it’s a great story that tells the hardships that all refugees face, no matter what dangers they’re running from. In 1913, the revolutionary war is raging in Mexico. Twelve-year-old Petra Luna’s father has been conscripted into the Federal army against his will and may never return. [...]
A treasure hunt sends two cousins into a magical world where lost things and people end up. Where do lost things and people end up? Cousins Jake and Marisol are grieving the loss of their grandmother. When they find a map in her house, they decide to go on one last adventure in her honor. They accidentally end up in the World Between Blinks, home to the likes of [...]
This is a haunting fantasy about the bond between sisters and the power of magic that will keep you guessing until the very end. Mayhap and her sisters live in a strange house that tends to their every need. Their parents left them with the peculiar warnings not to leave the house and not to go into the silver grass. When the oldest sister disobeys and goes into the [...]
