If you ever ended up in a fantasy world, what would be the one thing you would want to have? Potions from a wizard? A dragon companion? A unicorn to ride? How about a magical sword?
The kids in these books either have a magical sword, or are looking for one. If you’re a fan of fantasy books, you’ll know that they usually prove to be useful…if not right away, then eventually. If you love fantasy, one of these books is sure to fit your reading needs.
Our “5 Books…” lists include five books (usually with a couple extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if the story sounds like something you would like. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (Can you guess which is which?)
Lark is determined to escape her squalid life at Miss Starvenger’s boarding house, but she needs to find the coin to do it. Her grand scheme? To steal her fortune from the Royal Museum.
Unfortunately, her heist goes off the rails, and Lark ends up stealing a magical sword right out from under the nose of Prince Jasper, who’s none too happy to have his plans thwarted. Lark soon discovers that the Sword has a mind of its own, and has chosen her to be the next Nightingale, a fabled hero who must vanquish an ancient evil that is waking after centuries of sleep.
Working alone has its limitations, but relying on others after a lifetime of disappointments feels impossible. Still, Lark will need the help of her boarding house roommates if she wants to defeat the villainous forces that threaten to dismantle everything she holds dear.
For the past two hundred years, the demon sword Asperides has led a quiet life. While his physical form has been tasked with guarding the body of an evil sorcerer, the rest of his consciousness has taken a well-earned vacation. That constant need to trick humans into wielding him (at the price of their very souls, of course) was rather draining.
Nack Furnival, on the other hand, is far from satisfied with his existence. Nack has trained since birth to be a brave and noble knight–but, unfortunately, he isn’t especially good at it. Determined to prove his worth, Nack needs a quest. And to complete that quest, he’ll need the one thing no knight can do without: a sword.
When an attempt to resurrect the evil sorcerer throws Asperides into Nack’s path, the demon sword can’t help but trick the boy into making a contract to become his new owner. And with the newly undead (and very, very angry) sorcerer on their trail, Asperides and Nack find themselves swept up in a bigger adventure than either of them bargained for: saving the world.
Part of the spell has already been broken. The first stones have begun to crumble.
In Artie Kingfisher’s world, wizards named Merlin, fire-breathing dragons, and swords called Excalibur exist only in legends and lore–until the day his video game Otherworld springs to life. You are special, Arthur, says the mysterious message in his game. In one week’s time you will come to me at the it.
Cryptic clues lead Artie to a strange place called the Invisible Tower, where he discovers that nothing in his life is as it seems. Artie is none other than King Arthur, brought to life in the twenty-first century. Artie has won the battle in the virtual Otherworld–now the key to saving the real Otherworld lies in his hands as well.
Green dragons, hungry wolves, powerful sorcerers–suddenly Artie must battle them all as he wields Excalibur and embarks on a quest worthy of the Knights of the Round Table. With his sister, Kay, by his side, Artie steps into the Otherworld–straight toward his destiny. Magical swords REALLY come into play in book two,The Seven Swords. But read the whole series!
Harry Crewe is a Homelander orphan girl, come to live in Damar from over the seas. She is drawn to the bleak landscape, so unlike the green hills of her Homeland. She wishes she might cross the sands and climb the dark mountains where no Homelander has ever set foot, where the last of the old Damarians, the Free Hillfolk, live.
Corlath is the golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the legendary Lady Aerin. When he arrives in Harry’s town to ally with the Homelanders against a common enemy, he never expects to set Harry’s destiny in motion: She will ride into battle as a King’s Rider, bearing the Blue Sword, the great mythical treasure, which no one has wielded since Lady Aerin herself.
Legends and myths, no matter how epic, no matter how magical, all begin somewhere.
Ellie can’t help that she’s a witch, the most hated member of society. Determined to prove her worth and eschew her heritage, Ellie applies to the Fairy Godmother Academy–her golden ticket to societal acceptance. But Ellie’s dreams are squashed when she receives the dreaded draft letter to serve as a knight of King Arthur’s legendary Round Table. She can get out of the draft–but only if she saves a lost cause. Enter Caedmon, a boy from Wisconsin struggling with the death of his best friend.
He first dismisses the draft as ridiculous; magic can’t possibly exist. But when Merlin’s ancient magic foretells his family’s death if he doesn’t follow through, he travels to the knights’ castle, where he learns of a wicked curse leeching the knights of their power. To break the curse, Ellie and Caedmon must pass a series of deathly trials and re-forge the lost, shattered sword of Excalibur. And unless Ellie accepts her witch magic and Caedmon rises to become the knight he’s meant to be, they will both fail–and the world will fall to the same darkness that brought King Arthur and Camelot to ruin.
All Momo wants for her twelfth birthday is an ordinary life–like everyone else’s. At home, she has to take care of her absentminded widowed mother. At school, kids ridicule her for mixing up reality with the magical stories her mother used to tell her.
But then Momo’s mother falls gravely ill, and a death hag straight out of those childhood stories attacks Momo at the mall, where she’s rescued by a talking fox . . . and “ordinary” goes out the window. It turns out that Momo’s mother is a banished Shinto goddess who used to protect a long-forgotten passageway to Yomi–a.k.a. the land of the dead. That passageway is now under attack, and countless evil spirits threaten to escape and wreak havoc across the earth.
Joined by Niko the fox and Danny–her former best friend turned popular jerk, whom she never planned to speak to again, much less save the world with–Momo must embrace her (definitely not “ordinary”) identity as half human, half goddess to unlock her divine powers, save her mother’s life, and force the demons back to Yomi.
Daystar has never seen his mother, Cimorene, actually perform magic. Nor has he ever known her to enter the Enchanted Forest in all the years they have lived on its edge. That is, not until a wizard shows up at their cottage the day after his birthday. Much to Daystar’s surprise, Cimorene melts the unsavory wizard. And the following day, she comes out of the Enchanted Forest carrying a sword. With that and a few supplies, she kicks him out of the house and into the Forest.
Two rules one must always remember when traveling in the Enchanted Forest: always be polite and never say yes to a favor until you know what you’re being asked to do. Daystar has no idea why he’s tromping around the forest fighting wizards and monsters with what is obviously a magical sword, but he keeps those rules in mind as he stumbles upon a quick-tempered firewitch and a baby dragon. Daystar realizes that the sword is leading him to adventures beyond what he ever imagined. This is a stand-alone conclusion to the Enchanted Forest Chronicles–although you might want to brush up on all Cimorene’s adventures before reading this one!
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And there you have it. A phalanx of swords–or sword books, anyway. If you’d like more, just type Excalibur into our Library Catalog, and see what else pops up. You’ll have enough reading to last you through the rest of the winter!
Check out these books, on display over the paperbacks, and see what catches your fancy.
As always, if you need help finding these or any other books, ask one of our librarians for help. We love pairing books and readers!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved adventure stories. And adventure stories that take place on an island? Or about finding treasure? Well, they’re even better! Here are five books about treasures, islands, and what happens when they come together in a book. No promise about the presence of pirates…but they may be lurking somewhere in some of these exciting stories as well.
Our “5 Books…” lists include five books (usually with a couple extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if the story sounds like something you would like. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (Can you guess which is which?)
There was something else out on the sea by the rocks – something dark that seemed to lurch out of the waves . . . What could it be?
Julian, Dick and Anne are spending the holidays with their tomboy cousin George and her dog, Timothy. One day, George takes them to explore nearby Kirrin Island, with its rocky little coast and old ruined castle on the top.
Over on the island, they make a thrilling discovery, which leads them deep into the dungeons of Kirrin Castle on a dangerous adventure. Who – and what – will they find there?
“Only boring people get bored…Interesting people can always find something to be interested in.”
That’s what Tom Trelawney’s father says, anyway. Tom shouldn’t have been interested in playing with matches but he was bored. Now the shed is in ashes. Not a good time, since his parents are going away on vacation and plan to leave him at home. Now strange Uncle Harvey is the only one willing to take Tom in for the time they will be away.
But Tom soon discovers Harvey is going to South America on a treasure hunt, and though nephews aren’t invited, he manages to tag along. The trip is more dangerous that Tom anticipates. Before it’s over he’ll drive a car, fire a gun and run for his life. Tom realizes that life may be about following the rules, but survival may be about breaking them.
Problim Children to the rescue! Sal and his siblings follow a trail of Toot’s toots as they sail through the barrier islands to rescue their baby brother from the evil Cheesebreath. He’s been holding Toot and Mama Problim hostage in the hopes that the Problims will lead him to their granddaddy’s treacherous treasure. But not all treasure is gold, and this one was buried long-ago for good reason.
Can the Problims find Mama, rescue their brother, and destroy the treasure before Cheesebreath and their nasty neighbor Desdemona capture them all? This may be their final adventure! (Make sure to read their previous books too.)
It’s the summer of 1914. Eight-year-old Bernice lives with her family in a lighthouse on Georgian Bay. One day Bernice wakes up to find a stranger named Tom Thomson sleeping in their living room. When she overhears him talk about gold on a nearby island, Bernice is determined to find it.
Inspired by her beloved Mémèr’s stories of their Métis family’s adventures and hardships, Bernice takes the treasure map the stranger left behind and sets out in a rowboat with nothing more than her two dogs for company and the dream of changing her family’s fortunes forever. Can she find the treasure and save her family?
Zane is itching for an adventure that will take him away from his family’s boarding house in Rockaway, Queens. So when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, leading to a spot somewhere in Manhattan, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends Kiko and Jack and his dog, Hip-Hop.
Through strange coincidence, the kids (and dog) meet a man who is eager to help them find the treasure: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past—and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories.
As a vicious rival skateboard crew follows them around the city, Zane and his friends begin to wonder who they can really trust. And soon it becomes clear that treasure hunting is a dangerous business…
Savannah Dare has always wanted to be a pirate. She grew up on legends of Blackbeard from her grandfather—her best friend and fellow treasure hunter.
But now he’s gone. Savannah and her sisters, Frances and Jolene are left to find Blackbeard’s lost loot on their own. It was their grandfather’s dream, and they can’t let him down.
No one else in their small town on Ocracoke Island believes Blackbeard’s treasure is truly still out there . . . no one except their grandfather’s mysterious old business partner, who’s determined to find it himself. And when their family home is endangered, the Dare sisters realize finding Blackbeard’s treasure is their only hope!
It’s tough to be thirteen, especially when somebody’s trying to kill you. Not that Egg’s life was ever easy, growing up on sweaty, pirate-infested Deadweather Island with no company except an incompetent tutor and a pair of unusually violent siblings who hate his guts.
But when Egg’s father hustles their family off on a mysterious errand to fabulously wealthy Sunrise Island, then disappears with the siblings in a freak accident, Egg finds himself a long-term guest at the mansion of the glamorous Pembroke family and their beautiful, sharp-tongued daughter Millicent. Finally, life seems perfect. Until someone tries to throw him off a cliff.
Suddenly, Egg’s running for his life in a bewildering world of cutthroat pirates, villainous businessmen, and strange Native legends. The only people who can help him sort out the mystery of why he’s been marked for death are Millicent and a one-handed, possibly deranged cabin boy.
Ben and Jake are excited when they dig up a boat that has been filled with rocks and sunk in the sandy river bottom that runs behind their houses. But they’re even more excited when they discover a treasure map in an old jar under the seat in the bow. Marked with an “X”, the treasure is buried in the center of three trees on an island in Quicksand Swamp.
Eager to find the treasure, the boys set out for the swamp in their new boat. Little do they know that they will have to battle alligators, quicksand and, worst of all, a murderer as they go on the scariest journey of their lives.
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There you have it! Five books–well, eight, but who’s counting?–where kids go adventuring to find treasure. Which one do you think you’d most like to read? Maybe you should try them all!
As always, if you need help finding these or any other books, just ask one of our librarians. We love matching books and kids!
Our second movie feature! First Parent Trap read-alikes, now Groundhog Day!
What would you do if you were stuck in a time loop…re-living the same day over and over again, until you change something significant? Would you survive, or would you slowly lose your mind? The kids in these books are holding out hope for a happy ending….but will they get it?
Our “5 Books…” lists include five books (occasionally with a few extra!) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)!
Zoe knows that the only thing harder than middle school is losing a best friend. She and Laura used to do everything together from taking silly selfies, to joining all the same clubs together and even throwing surprise birthday parties for one another.
But lately things have been weird between them. Now Laura will post a photo of her hanging out with other girls before responding to Zoe’s simple text. She doesn’t even want to sit with her at lunch anymore. Zoe is heartbroken–all she wants is for things to go back to normal.
But then a magical app downloads on her phone…and things get even weirder! Suddenly Zoe can travel back in time to moments where her and Laura started drifting apart. It is like a dream come true. A chance for Zoe to mend their friendship.
But as Zoe goes back to moments of middle school drama–sleepover games gone wrong, field trips with cliques and crushes, and school projects that bring on more-than-awkward encounters–she realizes that second chances don’t always go as planned and that sometimes you need to trust the magic of new beginnings.
A picture-perfect look at tween friendship, that also explores more serious themes of social media pressure, bullying and what it means to be yourself.
What if you could get a do-over–a chance to relive a day in your life over and over again until you got it right? Would you?
After finding a mysterious set of paints in her backpack, eleven-year-old Haleigh Adams paints a picture of her last day at the New Jersey shore. When she wakes up the next morning, Haleigh finds that her wish for an endless summer with her new friend Kevin has come true. At first, she’s thrilled, but Haliegh soon learns that staying in one place–and time–comes with a price.
And when Haleigh realizes her parents have been keeping a secret, she is faced with a choice: do nothing and miss out on the good things that come with growing up or find the secret of the time loop she’s trapped in and face the inevitable realities of moving on.
As she and Kevin set out to find the source of the magic paints, Haleigh worries it might be too late. Will she be able to restart time? Or will it be the biggest mistake of her life?
As far as McKinley O’Dair is concerned, the best thing about living in Gap Bend, Pennsylvania, is the Time Hop–the giant party the town throws every June to celebrate a single year in history. That one day is enough to make the few things that aren’t so fantastic about McKinley’s life–like her crabby homeroom teacher or her super-scheduled father–worth suffering through. And when McKinley learns that this year’s theme is 1993, she can’t wait to enter the Time Hop fashion show with a killer ’90s outfit she’s designed and sewn all on her own. But when the Time Hop rolls around, nothing goes as planned. In fact, it’s the biggest disaster of McKinley’s life.
Before she knows what’s hit her, McKinley somehow finds herself in the real 1993–and it’s not all kitschy parachute pants and Jurassic Park. All McKinley wants is to return to the present, but before she can, she’s going to have to make a big change–but which change is the right one?
This humorous and heartfelt novel about destiny and self-discovery shines a poignant light on the way life could play out–if a person is given a chance to rewind.
Mason and Ty were once the very best of friends, like two nerdy sides of the same coin . . . until seventh grade, when Ava Petrakis came along. Now Mason can trace everything bad in his life to that terrible fight they had over the new girl. The one thing he’d give anything for is a do-over. But that can’t happen in real life–can it?
As a science kid, Mason knows do-overs are impossible, so he can’t believe it when he wakes up from a freak accident and finds himself magically transported back to seventh grade. His parents aren’t yet divorced and his beloved sheepdog is still alive. Best of all, he and Ty haven’t had their falling-out yet.
It makes no logical sense, but Mason is determined to use this second chance to not only save his friendship (and his dog!) but do other things differently–like trying out for the football team and giving new friends a chance. There’s just one person he’ll be avoiding at all costs: Ava. But despite his best efforts, will he be able to stop the chain of events that made his previous life implode?
It’s Amanda’s 11th birthday and she is super excited — after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the start, everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that she and her best friend, Leo, with whom she’s shared every birthday, are on the outs and this will be the first birthday they haven’t shared together.
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately. It’s as horrible as she thought it would be.
But when Amanda turns in for the night, glad to have her birthday behind her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is it? Her birthday seems to be repeating itself. What is going on?! And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and a little luck will tell. . .
Vivian Lantz is cursed. Every year, terrible things happen on her first day of school. This year, Vivian has a plan to conquer eighth grade. But eighth grade Turns out to start with her worst first day yet.
Vivian can’t wait to put it all behind her. But instead of waking up to a brand-new day, Vivian somehow gets stuck reliving her catastrophic one. Curse: 9,000 – Vivian: 0. Then she sees her misfortune for what it is: the golden opportunity to get her perfect plan back on track. But when her second chance turns into a third, a fourth, and a fifth, Vivian might have to let go of the perfect day of her dreams… and make a few surprising choices along the way.
Middle school is the worst, especially for David Bravo. He doesn’t have a single class with his best (okay, only) friend, Antoine. He has to give a class presentation about his heritage, but he’s not sure how–or even if–he wants to explain to his new classmates that he’s adopted. After he injures Antoine in an accident at cross-country practice, he just wishes he could do it all over.
He doesn’t expect his wish to summon a talking, shapeshifting, annoying dog, Fea, who claims that a choice in David’s past actually did put him on the wrong timeline… and she can take him back to fix it.
But when their first try (and the second, and the third) is a total disaster, David and Fea are left scrambling through timeline after timeline–on a quest that may lead them to answers in the most unexpected places.
A laugh-out-loud, heartwarming middle grade novel that explores how our choices make us who we are.
“I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.”
When Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, she doesn’t know what to do. The notes tell her that she must write a letter, a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone–not even her (former) best friend, Sal.
It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them appears to have an uncanny ability to predict the future. And if that’s the case, Miranda has an even bigger problem–because the notes tell her that someone needs saving, and she might be too late to help.
Groundhog Day as if seen through the eyes of one of the other characters…the one not reliving the same day.
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So. What do you think? Would you be able to relive the same day over and over if it helped you to fix something? Do you think the characters in these books made things better? Would any of these books make as good a movie as Groundhog Day?
As always, if you need help finding these–or any other books–in the library, ask one of our librarians for help. We LOVE matching kids and books!
Have you ever been in a play or musical? Were you confident, or did you have stage fright? Either way, being on stage is both amazing and scary! Some kids are natural hams, others are brave enough to put themselves right out there, and still others have to overcome stage fright. Read all about what it’s like to join a production in one of these fun books!
Our Five Books list include 5 books (or sometimes more!) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)!
What starts as a diversion to stave off boredom during the holidays soon becomes much more for the seven young members of the Blue Door Theatre Company. The four girls–Lyn, Sandra, Vicky and Maddy–and three boys–Bulldong, Nigel and Jeremy–play every part in the theatre, not only on stage but off it too, producing everthing from the scripts and sets to the music and costumes. They also learn that the show must go on, even in the face of their arch-enemy, Mrs. Potter-Smith, local critic and leader of the Ladies’ Institute.
The classic story of seven children with a longing to be on stage: the inspiration for actors from Maggie Smith to Eileen Atkins.
Meg Kendrick and her sister Lulie expect the usual boring train ride to summer camp. But before the girls can say Camp Hockawattamesset, they’re up to their ears in excitement and intrigue! At the train station, the sisters bump into Pippa Phillips, a famous child movie star, who is running away from her aunt and uncle. She thinks they’re exploiting her talents for their own profit. Immediately sympathetic, Meg and Lulie concoct a brilliant strategy to help Pippa–stage one is to disguise the young actress as just another camper, and to sneak her into Hockawattamesset as their cousin.
Once they’re at camp, Pippa and Lulie have a great time…but Meg is having some doubts. Pippa isn’t used to NOT being in the spotlight, and some of her escapades are getting Meg into trouble. She also starts to have some doubts about hiding someone so famous…who has people looking all over for her. As the week goes on, the girls are facing all kinds of complications, including a riotous ballet performance in the camp Talent Show. How can Meg make Pippa and Lulie see that they need to bring some adults into their little conspiracy? Will this end well for Meg, Pippa, Lulie and all the adults in their lives?
Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. (Heck, he’d settle for seeing a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom.
A hilarious and heartwarming debut novel full of broken curfews, second chances, and the adventure of growing up–because sometimes you have to get four hundred miles from your backyard to finally feel at home. And read the rest of the trilogy too: Five, Six, Seven, Nate! and Nate Expectations.
Monica Garcia has arrived in NYC with her grandmother and a few suitcases to live her dream on Broadway. She’s been chosen as understudy to the star of Our Time, the famed Ethel Merman Theater’s last chance to produce a hit before it shutters its doors for good. Along with her fellow castmates–a.k.a. “the squad”–Monica has a big and very personal reason to want this show to succeed. But rumors of a long-running curse plague the theater. And when strange and terrible things start to threaten their hopes for a successful opening night, Monica and the rest of the squad must figure out how to reverse the curse before their big Broadway debuts. With the help of her new friends, her family, and a little magic, can Monica help save the show–and save their dreams?
From Broadway and television star Mandy Gonzalez comes a story about what it means to dream, be yourself, and be fearless. Read the sequel as well: Boulevard of Dreams.
Megan’s class is putting on their own original musical based on the book The Wizard of Oz, and Megan wants to be the star of the show and play Dorothy. Since she’s deaf, she will sign the songs for her audition. However, a problem develops when Lizzie, her best friend from camp, transfers from her all-deaf school to Megan’s class – and signs the same two songs that Megan was going to do! Luckily, Megan has some other ideas up her sleeve…
From the Best Actress (For Children of a Lesser God) Academy Award winner.
Shannon Carter never considered herself much of a theater person. Not like her two BFFs, Elise, an actress, and Fatima, a techie. Shannon’s always been content to stay backstage, helping wherever she can. But when the director of the summer musical hears Shannon singing, he encourages her to step out of the wings and into the spotlight. At first, Shannon is hesitant. As a twelve-year-old with obsessive-compulsive disorder, she depends on routine.
But when she braves the audition, she discovers that center stage is the one place where she doesn’t feel anxious. She lands a lead role, and everyone in her life is ecstatic . . . except Elise. To make matters worse, Shannon’s eccentric and opinionated grandmother moves in with her and her mom after a fluke house fire. As opening night approaches, Shannon feels pressure to save her friendship with Elise, to make Mom and Grandma Ruby act like grown-ups, and to follow the old theater adage The show must go on.
A contemporary middle-school novel about strained friendships, the positive power of theater, and the realities of being a tween with OCD
When orphans Sorrel, Mark, and Holly are sent to live with their grandmother, a famous English actress, she enrolls them in the Children’s Academy of Dancing and Stage Training, the same academy that made the orphans from Ballet Shoes famous so long ago. It’s the chance of a lifetime, but the academy won’t give the children the “proper” education their parents would have wanted. However, the children learn to love the academy when they discover that Sorrel has dramatic flair, Mark can sing, and Holly charms everyone with her adorable impish ways. Maybe talent does run in the family.
This classic children’s book is perfect for kids who dream of being onstage–dancing, singing, or acting. Don’t miss the other classic Noel Streatfeild books Ballet Shoes, Skating Shoes, and Dancing Shoes!
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I’m pretty sure everyone has already read Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel Drama, but if not, you should definitely read that one too! If you’ve been to a play (or maybe have a friend in one of the Weston Drama Workshop productions this summer) you may be picturing yourself up on stage as well. Would you rather be in a musical, or a dramatic play? Check out one of the books on this list and see what MIGHT be happening behind the scenes. We also have some great books on being backstage at a musical or Broadway production. Check them out in J 792.02.
If you can think of any titles we’ve missed, let us know! As always, if you need help finding these or any other books, ask one of our librarians. We love matching readers with books!
This started off as another Five Books Feature. But there were so many good Robot Books, it got split into categories of types of robots–funny robots, adventurous robots, kid robots, pet robots… But there was no good way to post each segment separately without having it take forever! So here we are..a giant Robot Booklist!
Have you read any of these books? Are there any robots you would add to the list? (If your favorite robot didn’t make this list, it might have been on an earlier version or the list…check that out here.) And enjoy both the old list and the new one!
Lenora is having a very frustrating summer while her parents have adventures around the globe–until she discovers a strange doorway in her local library. It leads to The Library–the ultimate library, filled with all the knowledge of the universe. And Lenora steps right up to become its newest Apprentice Librarian. Lenora’s new job rockets her across the globe and into outer space, to a future filled with robots, and to a dark nothingness that wants to destroy the library. She quickly learns the only way to save it might be unlocking the knowledge inside its endless shelves… The Library of Ever is an adventure across time and space, but more importantly across human knowledge, as a young girl discovers what makes books truly magical.
In the future, robots have eliminated humans, and 12-year-old robot XR_935 is just fine with that. Without humans around, there is no war, no pollution, no crime. Every member of society has a purpose. Everything runs smoothly and efficiently. Until the day XR discovers something impossible: a human girl named Emma. Now, Emma must embark on a dangerous voyage with XR and two other robots in search of a mysterious point on a map. But how will they survive in a place where rules are never broken and humans aren’t supposed to exist? And what will they find at the end of their journey? Humorous, action-packed, and poignant, The Last Human tells a story about friendship, technology, and challenging the status quo no matter the consequences. It’s not just about what it means to be a robot–it’s about what it means to be a friend.
Jed is a regular kid with a normal, loving family . . . that is, if it’s normal for a loving family to drop their child off in the middle of nowhere and expect him home in time for Sunday dinner. Luckily, Jed excels at being a regular kid who-armed with wit and determination-can make his way out of any situation. At least until the morning of his twelfth birthday, when Jed wakes to discover his parents missing. Something is wrong. Really wrong. Jed just doesn’t realize HOW wrong. Yet. A cryptic list of instructions leads Jed into a mysterious world at war over . . . junk. Here, batteries and bottled water are currency, tremendously large things fall from the sky, and nothing is exactly what it seems. Resilient Jed, ready to escape, bargains his way onto a flying tugboat with a crew of misfit junkers. They set course to find Jed’s family, but a soul-crushing revelation sends Jed spiraling out of control … perhaps for good.
Can a robot survive in the wilderness? When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is–but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island’s unwelcoming animal inhabitants. As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home–until, one day, the robot’s mysterious past comes back to haunt her.
Melanie Gate is a foundling with a peculiar talent for opening the unopenable–any lock releases at the touch of her hand. One night, her orphanage is visited by Traveler, a gearling automaton there on behalf of his magical mistress, who needs an apprentice pronto. When Melanie is selected because of her gift, her life changes in a flash, and in more ways than she knows–because Traveler is not at all what he seems. But then, neither is Melanie Gate. So begins an epic adventure sparkling with magic, wit, secret identities, stinky cats, fierce orphan girls, impostor boys, and a foundling and gearling hotly pursued by the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the land.
When Akiko comes home from school one day, she finds an envelope waiting for her with no stamp and no return address. The message inside reads Dear Akiko: We are coming to get you. Meet us outside your bedroom window tonight at 8:00. Don’t forget your toothbrush. How could anyone meet her outside her window? She lives on the 17th floor, for goodness sake. But that evening, as Akiko is preparing to study for tomorrow’s geography test, she finds a small spacecraft hovering outside her window with two odd little men and a robot inside. They have been sent to whisk Akiko off to the Planet Smoo where she will lead a team enlisted to find the King of Smoo’s kidnapped son, Prince Froptoppit. Akiko, the leader of a rescue mission? She’s too timid to be on the school’s safety patrol! So begins Akiko’s adventure across the land of Smoo to find a prince and become a leader.
Maya’s nervous about fifth grade. She tries to keep calm by reminding herself she knows what to expect. But then she learns that this year won’t be anything like the last. For the first time since kindergarten, her best friends Jada and MJ are placed in a different class without her, and introverted Maya has trouble making new friends. She tries to put on a brave face since they are in fifth grade now, but it’s too much! Just when everything seems to be changing, she finds a robot named Ralph in the back of Mr. Mac’s convenience store closet. Once she uses her science skills to get him up and running, a whole new world of connection opens up as Ralph becomes a member of her family and Maya begins to step into her power as she discovers she can always turn to her curiosity if she’s feeling lost.
Annalyn Reynolds Court is one of many children of the powerful, handsome president of Mars. Like her favorite half-brother, Evan, she must enroll at the elite military academy in the capital city of Olympia. There they will train to be presidential bodyguards and also will learn how to defend their fragile, crystal-domed environment from invasion. Although Annalyn performs brilliantly in school, she finds her teachers unwilling to answer certain questions… Who are these enemies that so jealously resent her father’s leadership? Is it true, that MTs–mind-transfer chips—allow some people to live forever as androids? Even before graduation, a deadly struggle between commoners and elites turns Marian society upside down. Now a commander, Annalyn can rely on only her super-intelligent protector robot, Hector, when she finds herself facing a monumental decision.
When a towering giant made of iron appears out of nowhere, young Hogarth sees him not as a monster, but a friend. The townspeople are terrified of the giant and devise a plan to bring him down. But Hogarth believes in his friend, and rescues him when no one else will. Together, they teach the people of the village and beyond to conquer their fears, for beneath the giant’s rough armor there beats a mighty heart. A story so gripping that when you begin to read it aloud, everyone stops to listen. And once you know it, you never forget it. Forty plus years after publication, it was made into a motion picture.
Strange things are happening at Hexwood Farm, not far from London. On another world entirely, a harassed Sector Controller gets a letter from a maintenance team apparently trapped in Hexwood. A small boy called Hume encounters a robot and a dragon there. Anne Stavely, lying in bed with a virus in her nearby home, watches person after person disappear into the old farmhouse and not come out again. When she feels better, Ann decides to investigate. She goes into the wood, where she meets a tormented sorcerer called Mordion who seems to have arisen from a sleep that has lasted centuries. Yet Ann KNOWS she had seen him enter the farmhouse that morning. Nothing seems to happen in the right order. Nothing quite makes sense. And things keep getting stranger and stranger until, long before the end, the strangeness has spread from Earth right out to the center of the galaxy.
On a winter’s day in a British town, Alex receives a package in the mail: an old tin robot from his grandfather. “This one is special,” says the enclosed note, and when strange events start occurring around him, Alex suspects this small toy is more than special; it might be deadly. Right as things get out of hand, Alex’s grandfather arrives, pulling him away from an attack–and his otherwise humdrum world of friends, bullies, and homework–and into the macabre magic of an ancient family feud. Together, the duo flees across snowy Europe, unraveling the riddle of the little robot while trying to outwit relentless assassins of the human and mechanical kind.
Frances Stenzel was just trying to prove her scientific worth to her parents so they would take her with them to their scientific symposiums for once–instead, she reawakened her great-grandfather’s secret and most terrible invention. Before it can destroy the town, she sets off after it, with her pet chimp and sarcastic robot tutor by her side. But monster-hunting isn’t easy, and she’ll have to face a persistent constable, angry locals, and an unexpected friendship ahead–all while the trail for the monster goes cold and time is running out before her science career, and the city itself, are doomed…forever.
Meet Resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name. Res was built to explore Mars. He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop humanlike feelings. Maybe there’s a problem with his programming…. Human emotions or not, launch day comes, and Res blasts off to Mars, accompanied by a friendly drone helicopter named Fly. But Res quickly discovers that Mars is a dangerous place filled with dust storms and giant cliffs. As he navigates Mars’s difficult landscape, Res is tested in ways that go beyond space exploration. As millions of people back on Earth follow his progress, will Res have the determination, courage, and resilience to succeed… and survive?
Everyone in Peter Powers’ family has super awesome superpowers–except Peter. All he can do is make ice cubes and flash freeze little stuff. At least his brother and sister have finally stopped picking on him–mostly. But at school, an even more menacing bully has it out for Peter and his friends. As if that wasn’t enough, Boulder City is being raided by robots! When his parents are captured, will Peter and his siblings be able to work together and save the day? Or will the town–and possibly the world–be iced? Join Peter Powers and his fantastic family for their second action-packed and fun-filled adventure to find out!
Ken is an EngiNerd: one of a super-smart group of friends who have been close since kindergarten. They may be brainiacs, but they’re just like everyone else: they fight with one another, watch too much TV, eat Chinese food, and hate walking their dogs. Well, maybe not JUST like everyone because Ken’s best friend Dan has been building robots and secretly sending one to each of the EngiNerds. At first Ken is awed and delighted: what kid hasn’t dreamed of having a robot all their own? Someone who can clean their room, walk the dog, answer homework questions…how amazing is that? But be careful what you wish for: Dan’s robot, Greeeg, may look innocent, but his ravenous consumption of food–comestibles–turns him into a butt-blasting bot. And once the other robots ‘come alive’ it’s up to the motley crew of EngiNerds to not only save the day, but save the planet!
Finn is the first kid born in space and he spends his days aboard The Famous Marlowe 280 Interplanetary Exploratory Space Station…looking for a new planet to call his own with his robot Foggy and his three best friends Abigail, Elias, and Vale of Explorers Troop. He’s used to wild, galaxy hopping adventures. But when Explorer Troop 301 gets stuck on a planet that’s about to explode, Finn and his friends will have to face giant aliens, a leader with mind control powers, and one evil, fluffy bunny rabbit in order to save the planet . . . and themselves. Join Finn and his friends in all their adventures as they take off to explore uncharted planets, help the occasional alien, and solve a mystery that threatens to destroy the Marlowe.
For monster sleuths Tank and Fizz, proving fourth-grade bully Rizzo Rawlins is planning to cheat in the upcoming Battle Bot Cup should be a piece of cake. But cake crumbles fast, and the case soon leads the detectives to a mysterious hacker known only as the Codex, who threatens all of Rockfall Mountain with a very dark fate. With the help of their wizard-in-training partner, Aleetha, Tank and Fizz leap into action, dodging deadly battle bots and sinister spellbooks in a race to stop the return of a very angry ancient demon.
Kid-genius and inventor Frank Einstein loves figuring out how the world works by creating household contraptions that are part science, part imagination, and definitely unusual. In the series opener, an uneventful experiment in his garage-lab, a lightning storm, and a flash of electricity bring Frank’s inventions – the robots Klink and Klank – to life! Not exactly the ideal lab partners, the wisecracking Klink and the overly expressive Klank nonetheless help Frank attempt to perfect his inventions…until Frank’s archnemesis, T. Edison, steals Klink and Klank for his evil doomsday plan!
Marty, Ralph, and Skyler might make the ultimate secret combo when battling alien-slime ninjas in their favorite video game, but in real life they’re just regular kids. That is, until the three best friends discover Awesome Dog 5000, a robotic dog with very real power-ups. Awesome Dog can “bark” a sonic boom, “walk” at speeds over three hundred miles per hour, and “fetch” with an atomic cannon. Life for Marty, Ralph, and Skyler just got a major turbo-boost! Attention, readers! AWESOME DOG 5000 is a wild action-comedy told through a mix of text and black-and-white illustrations, with a mystery to solve at the end. Can you handle the awesomeness?
In a future United States, civil war is devastating a country on its last legs. On one side- the Patriots. On the other- President Vex’s corrupt government. In the middle- everybody else, just trying to survive. The war is going from bad to worse, but out in the sparsely populated Worselands, twelve-year-old Klynt Tovis doesn’t see much of it. Instead, Klynt spends most of her long summer days bored, or restoring artifacts in her Museum of Fond Memories. Real pet dogs are a thing of the past- after they were found to be carriers of a sickness the government ordered them all killed. But one day an incredible antique shows up at the farm- a D-39 robodog, “Real as a dog can be!” Klynt is overjoyed, but the good luck doesn’t last. When the war makes its way into the empty Worselands, she and D-39 find themselves thrown into an epic journey for survival and hope.
Lacey Chu is a girl who codes. She has always dreamed of working as an engineer for MONCHA, the biggest tech firm in the world and the company behind the “baku”–a customizable “pet” with all the capabilities of a smartphone. But when Lacey is rejected by the elite academy that promises that future, she’s crushed. One night, Lacey comes across the broken form of a highly advanced baku. After she repairs it, the cat-shaped baku she calls Jinx opens its eyes and somehow gets her into her dream school. But Jinx is different than any other baku she’s ever seen…He seems real. As Lacey settles into life at school, competing with the best students in a battle of the bakus that tests her abilities, she learns that Jinx is part of a dangerous secret. Can Lacey hold on to Jinx and her dreams for the future?
When Earth comes under attack by aliens, hilarious heroine Alice Dare and a select group of kids are sent to Mars. But things get very strange when the adults disappear into thin air, the kids face down an alien named Thsaaa, and Alice and her friends must save the galaxy! From her diary: The fact that someone had decided that I would be safer on Mars, where you could still only sort of breathe the air, and sort of not get sunburned to death, was a sign that the war with the aliens was not going fantastically well. I was worried that I was about to be told that my mother’s spacefighter had been shot down, so when I found out that I was being evacuated to Mars, I was pretty calm. And, despite everthing that happened to me and my friends afterward, I’d do it all again. Because until you have been chased by invisible aliens, befriended a robot goldfish, and tried to save the galaxy, I don’t think you can say that you’ve really lived. But if the same thing happens to you, here’s my advice: Always carry tape!
The Robot Federation and the Feline Empire have been at war for eons. And now that fight is coming to a tiny primitive planetoid…Earth. The mission for both cats and robots: retrieve the Singularity Chip. With it, cats can live past their nine lives, and robots are granted eternal battery life. Meanwhile, twin siblings Max and Min Wengrod are as different as can be. Min always gets good grades, and she loves to read and build robots. Max hates school, and prefers to play games and spend time online with friends. When Max rescues two kittens and is determined to keep them, Min is horrified that these furballs could ruin her chances at the Battle of the Bots competition. But with hidden forces at play in their own house, and the larger war between cats and robots fast approaching, will the twins be able to put aside their differences before they get caught in the crossfire?
When a new boy joins their class, everyone thinks he’s . . . odd. George doesn’t behave like other kids. He doesn’t think like other kids. But he’s great at football and snacking, and that’s what matters to Dan and Maxie and friends, who resolve to make George feel welcome. Over time, they learn that he’s just like them, in most ways, except one: George is a robot, part of an ambitious new experiment, with sinister people bent on destroying him. When his lab pulls him out of school, can George’s new friends recover him–and set him free?
It’s the first day at Vanguard One Middle School for a new student—Fuzzy, a state-of-the-art robot! When Fuzzy arrives at the school as part of the Robot Integration Program, seventh grader Max is thrilled. She loves robots. The two become fast friends, and Max teaches her new classmate everything he needs to know about surviving middle school – the good, the bad, and the really, really, ugly. Little do they know that surviving seventh grade is going to become a true matter of life and death! When they discover the super-secret purpose behind the Robot Integration Program, they realize they’ll have to combine Fuzzy’s super smarts with Max’s super savvy to outwit the adults…and an even trickier foe, Vanguard One’s sinister operating system, the all-seeing Vice Principal Barbara!
Who…or what…is Jimmy Coates? Eleven year old Jimmy is on the run. The good news is that he has some sweet new abilities that let him outrun, outjump and outkick anybody—even adults. The bad news is that the mysterious organization that kidnapped Jimmy’s parents is after him and he has no idea why. Except that it might have something to do with his new fighting capabilities. And the fact that he might not be entirely human…
No matter what anyone tells you, I’m real. That’s what the note says that Max finds under his keyboard. He knows that his best friend, Josie, wrote it. He’d know her handwriting anywhere. But why she wrote it–and what it means–remains a mystery. Ever since they met in kindergarten, Max and Josie have been inseparable. Until the summer after fifth grade, when Josie disappears, leaving only a note, and whispering something about “whatnot rules.” But why would Max ever think that Josie wasn’t real? And what are whatnots? As Max sets to uncover what happened to Josie–and what she is or isn’t–little does he know that she’s fighting to find him again, too. But there are forces trying to keep Max and Josie from ever seeing each other again. Because Josie wasn’t supposed to be real…
In an alternative England of the 1930s where the laws of mechanics govern even the most talented engineers, a mismatched group of mechanicals want nothing more than to feel human. Under the guardianship of the devious and unlicensed Gregory Absalom, an engineer who creates mechanical children, they have no choice but to help him in his unlawful practice. But through his unethical work, Absalom winds up creating a loyal and lively group of friends who will go to the ends of the Earth for one another. When the story’s protagonist, Christopher, discovers a devastating secret about himself and the friends are torn apart, it’s up to his friends to find him. What they’ll discover is the secret about the dark experiment that ended in disaster many years before…
Cog looks like a normal twelve-year-old boy. But his name is short for “cognitive development,” and he was built to learn. But after an accident leaves him damaged, Cog wakes up in an unknown lab–and Gina, the scientist who created and cared for him, is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by scientists who want to study him and remove his brain, Cog recruits four robot accomplices for a mission to find her. Cog, ADA, Proto, Trashbot, and Car’s journey will likely involve much cognitive development in the form of mistakes, but Cog is willing to risk everything to find his way back to Gina. Five robots. One unforgettable journey. Their programming will never be the same.
Danny’s a kid. Eric’s a kid, too. He’s also a robot, but he doesn’t know that. For Danny, it becomes hard to ignore Eric’s super strange tendencies. He has weekly “dentist” appointments and parents who never stop smiling. It’s almost impossible to wake him up and he’s always getting fancy gifts from his mysterious uncle. Danny always assumed that Eric was just a spoiled rich kid…until he discovers Eric’s hidden robot reality. As the two friends dig deeper into Eric’s origins and purpose, powerful forces swarm into town, and Danny and Eric are left with more questions than answers–and more danger than humanly possible.
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And there you have it. Robots from our world, robots from the future, robots from the past, robots from alternate realities. Read them all, and see what kind of robot you would make…if you could create such a feat of mechanical engineering. Maybe it could be a new goal!?!
As always, if you need help finding these or any other books in the library, ask one of our librarians. We love to help match kids with books!
It’s another magical fantasy list…featuring djinn…sometimes also called genies! Everyone knows the most famous genie…do you? (He helped Aladdin.) But there are other books featuring these mythical characters–and these djinn, or jin, or genies go from silly to helpful to downright scary! I know which type I’d prefer to meet! Do you?
Check out any of these books and see what you think.
(This was going to be a Five Books featuring…but there were just too many good books! It would have been difficult to decide on what to leave out. So…Booklist! But you can keep that in mind, because there’s still at least one old book, one new book, one award winner, one kids’ favorite, and one staff favorite!)
Here we go…grab your magic carpet and settle in to read!
On the day of a rare super blue blood moon eclipse, twelve-year-old Amira and her little brother, Hamza, can’t stop their bickering while attending a special exhibit on medieval Islamic astronomy. While stargazer Amira is wowed by the amazing gadgets, a bored Hamza wanders off, stumbling across the mesmerizing and forbidden Box of the Moon. Amira can only watch in horror as Hamza grabs the defunct box and it springs to life, setting off a series of events that could shatter their world–literally.
Suddenly, day turns to night, everyone around Amira and Hamza falls under a sleep spell, and a chunk of the moon breaks off, hurtling toward them at lightning speed, as they come face-to-face with two otherworldly creatures: jinn.
The jinn reveal that the siblings have a role to play in an ancient prophecy. Together, they must journey to the mystical land of Qaf, battle a great evil, and end a civil war to prevent the moon–the stopper between realms–from breaking apart and unleashing terrifying jinn, devs, and ghuls onto earth. Or they might have to say goodbye to their parents and life as they know it, forever…. Also read the second book: The Quest for the Ring of Power.
Sophie can’t wait to start middle school. She’s ready for positive thinking and cute clothes. So when an odd (okay, totally weird, orange and floating) Zac Efron look-alike appears and offers Sophie his fabulous rhinestone ring–well, why would she refuse?
But Sophie soon discovers that by wearing the ring she’s become a djinn–and things rapidly start to spin out of control. Who wouldn’t enjoy having the power to grant wishes? But when Sophie develops RWD (Random Wish Disorder) and can’t STOP granting wishes, things get more than a little mixed-up!Now she’ll have to learn to manage her new powers–and her new, not-always-entirely-helpful djinn guide–just to survive the first week! Read the other books in this fun trilogy.
Maeve Merritt chafes at the rigid rules at her London boarding school for “Upright Young Ladies.” When punishment forces her to sort through the trash, she finds a sardine tin that houses a foul-tempered djinni with no intention of submitting to a schoolgirl as his master.
Soon an orphan boy from the charitable home next door, a mysterious tall man in ginger whiskers, a disgruntled school worker, and a take-no-prisoners business tycoon are in hot pursuit of Maeve and her magical discovery. It’ll take all of her quick thinking and sass to set matters right. Maeve Merritt is one feisty heroine you won’t soon forget. The final book in this trilogy is coming out in March ’23!
All 12 years of Eden’s life have been spent in an antique oil lamp. She lives like a princess in her luxurious home, but to Eden, the lamp is nothing but a prison. She hates being a genie, all she wants is freedom. When Eden finds a gateway to Earth, she takes her chance. This time, she won’t be sent back after three wishes!
Posing as the new kid at a California school, Eden revels in all of Earth’s pleasures – but quickly learns that this world isn’t as perfect as she always thought it was. Eden soon finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between powerful immortals. A ruthless organization run by a former genie will do anything to acquire the lamp and it’s power. To save her new friends and protect the lamp’s magic, Eden must decide once and for all where she belongs. Read Eden’s Escape too!
Nothing ever happens in Filomena Jefferson-Cho’s sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her progressive school swears there’s no such thing as bullying, she still feels bummed out. But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something strange happens.
Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must be dreaming, or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent–he’s real, the stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once!
Soon, Filomena is thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left of the Fairy tribes. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena must find the truth behind the fairytales and set the world back to rights before the cycle of sleep and destruction begins once more.
Read the trilogy–the third book comes out this month!
One darknight, Emma finds a mysterious green bottle floating in the ocean. When she pulls out the stopper, she sets a blue genie free!
Most genies grant three wishes, but Karim can’t grant even one anymore. A yellow genie stole his magic nose ring, leaving him small, powerless, and trapped in that bottle. Emma and Tristan, her noodle-tailed dog have to help Karim get his nose ring–and his magic–back. And if it takes a magic carpet ride to the distant land of Barakash to help…well, that’s just what they’ll do!
Life is a blast when you have your very own genie. But when Parker Quarry is shipped from sunny Los Angeles to live with relatives in a quiet New Hampshire college town and releases a 2,000 year-old jinn from an ancient canister ‘borrowed’ from the university building where his uncle works, the biggest blasts comes from the millennia old power struggle he reignites.
Now it’s up to Parker, his mild-mannered cousin Theo, and their whiz-kid classmate Reese to stop a battalion of battle-ready jinn from restarting an all-out war–one with humanity in the crosshairs.
Nura longs for the simple pleasure of many things–to wear a beautiful red dupatta or to bite into a sweet gulab. But with her mom hard at work in a run-down sweatshop and three younger siblings to feed, Nura must spend her days earning money by mica mining. But it’s not just the extra rupees in her pocket Nura is after. Local rumor says there’s buried treasure in the mine, and Nura knows that finding it could change the course of her family’s life forever.
Her plan backfires when the mines collapse and four kids, including her best friend, Faisal, are claimed dead. Nura refuses to believe it and shovels her way through the dirt hoping to find him. Instead, she finds herself at the entrance to a strange world of purple skies and pink seas–a portal to the opulent realm of jinn, inhabited by the trickster creatures from her mother’s cautionary tales. Yet they aren’t nearly as treacherous as her mother made them out to be, because Nura is invited to a luxury jinn hotel, where she’s given everything she could ever imagine and more.
But there’s a dark truth lurking beneath all that glitter and gold, and when Nura crosses the owner’s son and is banished to the working quarters, she realizes she isn’t the only human who’s ended up in the hotel’s clutches. Faisal and the other missing children are there, too, and if Nura can’t find a way to help them all escape, they’ll be bound to work for the hotel forever.
A one-armed chauffer? Twin djinn? Three wishes? Qwertyuiop? What does it all add up to?
John and Philippa Gaunt, two not-very-identical twins, live a privileged life on the Upper East of Manhattan with their wealthy parents and two curiously-mannered Rottweilers named Alan and Neil. The twins realize there’s something amiss with their world when a string of strange things begin to happen after their wisdom teeth are extracted: for some strange reason, they dream the same dreams, they become stronger, their zits clear up, and wishes wished in their presence inexplicably come true!
When their estranged Uncle Nimrod asks them to come to England for the summer during one such shared dream, the discovery of their destiny is set in motion. John and Phillippa discover that they are descended from a long line of Djinn and have great inherent powers. They must call on these powers a lot sooner than they anticipated, though, because the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten is not as dead as history has so far declared and his legion of seventy magical djinn could tip the balance of power in the magical realm and affect the whole world order.
Read all eight books in this adventurous fantastical series!
When Abby and her brother Jonah travel through their mirror into the story of Aladdin, they’re excited. There is sure to be magic lamps and genies granting wishes, right?
Wrong.
The genie they meet isn’t quite as helpful as they expected. And if Aladdin’s wishes don’t come true, he won’t get to marry the princess and live happily ever after. Now they have to escape an enchanted cave, find forty buckets of jewels, plan a parade and learn to fly a magic carpet. Otherwise they’ll run out of wishes…and never get home! Read all the other Whatever After books, where Abby and Jonah visit other fairy tales.
Five and a half feet might seem pretty tall for a twelve-year-old, but it’s not when your parents are giants. Lena has kept the fact that she’s a tiny giant secret, using magic to grow when out in the giant village. But hiding who she is has always felt wrong, even though she knows the other giants might not accept her. Fortunately, Lena has friends down in the Cursed City who understand that looking different doesn’t make her less of a giant.
Someone who knows not to judge by appearances is Jin, a young genie currently serving one thousand and thirty-eight years of genie training that requires him to fulfill the wish of whoever holds his magical ring. In Jin’s case, it’s the power-hungry Golden King. At least the king only has two wishes left, one of which is for Jin to go to the Cursed City and capture its protector, the Last Knight–one of Lena’s closest friends.
What Lena and Jin don’t know is how close the Golden King’s plans are to coming together, between his dark magic and his horrible Faceless knights. If Jin does find the Last Knight and bring him to the Golden King, why, that could doom the entire fairy-tale world. Um…This sounds like it’ll end badly, doesn’t it?
This popular author’s series are great…and this is his most recent trilogy!
Nathaniel is a young magician’s apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic. He believes he’s ready to take on more challenging spells than those just for beginners! But when a devious hotshot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of everyone he knows, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who’s boss. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all: summoning the all-powerful Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, blackmail, rebellion and revolt.
Will he control Bartimaeus, or will Bartimaeus control him? Read the whole trilogy and find out! (This book has also been made into a graphic novel…which is also good!)
Meet Princess Cimorene–a princess who refustes to be proper. She is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomobyish smart… And bored.
So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon. And not just any dragon, but Kazul–one of the most powerful and dangerous dragons arounds. Of course, Cimorene has a way of hooking up with dangerous characters, and soon she’s coping with a witch,a a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird, a stone prince, and some very oily wizards.
If this princess ran away to find some excitement, it looks like she’s found plenty! Although the djinn only appears in the first book of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the rest are great reads too!
A genie that grants ALL your wishes–it’s a dream come true! Want to fly, turn invisible, or get a lifetime supply of sandwiches? Done, done and done! Ask and you shall recieve. But there are a FEW catches…which Ace is about to learn the hard way.
Ace’s life is about to change in the most unexpected and magical ways–all because of a peanut butter jar.
When he opens it, he inadvertently releases a genie named Ridge. Now a Wishmaker, Ace is given a week to complete a seemingly impossible quest, and if he fails the world will end in the most tragic (but cuddly) way imaginable.
Luckily, Ridge can help by granting Ace an unlimited number of wishes…as long as Ace is willing to accept the consequences. The bigger the wish, the greater the consequence. So, if Ace wants to avoid having pogo sticks for legs or his clothes turn invisible, he’ll have to be careful what he wishes for and get a little creative. But as consequences begin to pile up, Ace finds himself wondering if he’ll actually be able to save the world…or if he might be the one to doom it altogether!
So…there you have it; fifteen plus books about djinn. Or genies. Or jinn. Read them all and see what kind of things happen when you make wishes. And if you find a strange lamp on the beach, or in a storage chest, or up in your attic…would you rub it or not?
If you need any help finding these or any other books at the library, just ask one of our librarians for help. We love matching kids and books!
It’s Dia de los Muertos…and we’re celebrating with some great fantasy adventure!
Whether our characters are facing La Llorona, La Cuca, El Sombreron, K’ukumatz, Qutzacoatl or even a Chupacabra…they’re prepared for anything! Anyone who has enjoyed Percy Jackson should enjoy these books as well, featuring a whole different world of mythology. So check out one of these books, set in Mexico or featuring mythological creatures. You’ll be happy you did!
Our Five Books feature is a booklist of five books (usually with a few fun extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Mostly Middle Grade, with the occasional younger or older or graphic title thrown in for flavor.
Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)!
Adventure to the Underworld! A prophecy predicts that a young boy, half-human and half-mystical being, will defeat the evil king and lead the kingdom back to justice. But can Sayam pass the three impossible tasks the king sets out for him?
The first in a projected graphic novel series set on the Yucatan peninsula a thousand years ago.
Charlie Hernández has always been proud of his Latin American heritage. He loves the culture, the art, and especially the myths. Thanks to his abuela‘s stories, Charlie possesses an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters and ghouls who have spent the last five hundred years haunting the imaginations of children all across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Central and South America. And even though his grandmother sometimes hinted that the tales might be more than mere myth, Charlie hasn’t believed in them. But when Charlie begins to grow wings, he is suddenly swept up in a world where the mythical beings he’s spent his entire life hearing about. And even stranger, they seem to know more about him than he knows about himself!
Soon, Charlie finds himself in the middle of an ancient battle between La Liga, a secret society of legendary mythological beings sworn to protect the Land of the Living, and La Mano Negra (a.k.a. the Black Hand), a cabal of evil spirits determined to rule mankind. With only the help of his lifelong crush, Violet and his grandmother’s stories to guide him, Charlie must navigate a world where monsters and brujas rule and things he couldn’t possibly imagine go bump in the night. That is, if he has any hope of discovering what’s happening to him and saving his missing parents (oh, and maybe even the world). No pressure, muchacho.
Zane would much rather explore the dormant volcano near his home in New Mexico than go to school with kids who bully him for his limp. But what Zane doesn’t know is that the volcano in his back yard is actually a gateway to another world, a world he’s thrust into with his dog, Rosie, and the new girl at school, Brooks. Once he enters the hidden tunnels that lead to the center of the volcano, he is kicking off an epic adventure full of surprising discoveries, dangerous secrets, and an all-out war between the gods.
To survive, Zane will have to become the Storm Runner. But how can he run when he can’t even walk well without a cane? To prevent the Mayan gods from battling each other and destroying the world, Zane will have to unravel an ancient prophecy, stop an evil god, and discover how the physical disability that makes him reliant on that cane also connects him to his father and his ancestry.
Jorge is lonely and resentful after being sent to live with his grandparents. His first day at his new school doesn’t go well after catching the attention of his belligerent principal and the school bullies, so Jorge might be a little desperate for a friend.
But the only kid who shares his interest in junk food and games turns out to be a young chupacabra-a legendary monster whose kind is known for being bloodthirsty livestock killers. The truth is, Carter is anything but savage-he’s kind, a good listener, and has great taste in sneakers. Being friends with a mythical creature should be amazing, but when local cattle turn up dead and his principal suspects the truth, Jorge is torn. Should he trust that his friend is innocent and protect him from exposure, or reveal his dangerous existence and change the world forever?
After encountering a Jersey Devil while on a field trip to the Pine Barrens, Elliot and his new friend Uchenna help their weird teacher Professor Fauna rescue the mythological creature from a pair of greedy billionaire brothers. In this volume, a new adventure begins for Elliot and Uchenna when Professor Fauna bursts into their classroom with a frightening report from the Texas-Mexico border: something has completely drained the blood from a cow’s body! The team must fly to Laredo, where tempers are running high.
Teaming up with local kids Lupita and Mateo–plus their brilliant mother, Dr. Alejandra Cervantes, and her curandero husband, Israel–can the Unicorn Rescue Society save the region’s animals and help bring a divided community together once more? And what is that spiny, bloodsucking, adorable little creature?
Shinji Takahashi is just an ordinary kid. An ordinary homeschooled smart-alecky kid being raised by his globe-trotting aunt Yui. But when a magical guardian decides to use him as a conduit to awaken its power, Shinji’s life takes a turn for the anything-but-ordinary. Captured by the menacing Hightower Corporation, which is bent on using the guardian’s magic for its own nefarious purposes, Shinji must team up with a brilliant young tech whiz named Lucy and her robot mouse, Tinker, in order to escape.
Together the two turn to the venerable Society of Explorers and Adventurers and its ragtag cast of spelunkers, hackers, mapmakers, pilots, and mythology experts (among other things) to return the guardian to its rightful home and release Shinji from its magic–which seems to be draining his life force. Time is ticking, the Hightower Corporation is in hot pursuit, and success or failure might depend on one small thing–Shinji finally coming around to the belief that he is anything but ordinary.
Omega Morales’s family has been practicing magic for centuries in Noche Buena. But over the years, the town’s reputation for the supernatural is no longer one the people carry with pride. So Omega’s family keeps to themselves, and in private, they’re Empaths–diviners who can read and manipulate the emotions of people and objects around them. But Omega’s powers don’t quite work, and it leaves her feeling like an outsider in her own family.
When a witch with the power to transform herself into an owl–known in Mexican folklore as La Lechuza–shows up unannounced, Omega, her best friend Clau (who happens to be a ghost), and her cousin Carlitos must conduct a séance under a full moon in order to unravel the mystery of the legend.
Suddenly Omega’s magic begins to change, and the key to understanding her powers is more complicated than she thought. Omega will have to decide what’s more important–trusting the instincts of others or learning to trust in herself.
Space-obsessed Paola Santiago and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know the rule: Stay away from the river. Pao has been told to stay away for even longer than that, because her mother is constantly warning her about La Llorona, the wailing ghost woman who wanders the banks of the Gila river at night, looking for young people to drag into its murky depths. Pao organises a meet-up to test out her new telescope near the Gila, since it’s the best stargazing spot. But when Emma never arrives and Pao sees a shadowy figure in the reeds, it seems like maybe her mum was right…
Paola has always relied on hard science to make sense of the world, but to find her friend she will have to enter the world of her nightmares, which includes unnatural mists, mind-bending monsters, and relentless spirits controlled by a terrifying force that defies both logic and myth.
Leonora Logroño’s family owns the most beloved bakery in Rose Hill, Texas, spending their days conjuring delicious cookies and cakes for any occasion. And no occasion is more important than the annual Dia de los Muertos festival.
Leo hopes that this might be the year that she gets to help prepare for the big celebration–but, once again, she is told she’s too young. Sneaking out of school and down to the bakery, she discovers that her mother, aunt, and four older sisters have in fact been keeping a big secret: they’re brujas–witches of Mexican ancestry–who pour a little bit of sweet magic into everything that they bake.
Leo knows that she has magical ability as well and is more determined than ever to join the family business–even if she can’t let her mama and hermanas know about it yet.
And when her best friend, Caroline, has a problem that needs solving, Leo has the perfect opportunity to try out her craft. It’s just one little spell, after all…what could possibly go wrong?
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So what do you think? Will you join Paola, Charlie, Omega, Zane and all these other kids on the adventure of a lifetime? On El Dia de los Muertos, it’s the perfect time to visit the library and check out one of these titles. Since most of them are series, you’ll have plenty of reading to keep you going!
As always, if you need help finding these or any other books at the library, ask one of our librarians. We love matching kids and books! (and hearing about it afterwards, too!)
Roller Coasters. Ferris Wheels. Love them or hate them, you can always see them for miles away. Some people travel for miles to ride on one, some people avoid them as much as they can. But the kids in these books end up on amusement park rides to solve a mystery, or prove themselves…or just for fun! So check out these books that feature roller coasters or ferris wheels (but not the scariest ride of all–merry-go-rounds) and see if you would be brave enough to join them!
Our Five Books feature is a booklist of five books (occasionally with a few extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Mostly Middle Grade, with the occasional younger or older or graphic title thrown in for flavor.
Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)!
Would-be amusement park aficionado Dalia only has two items on her summer bucket list: (1) finally ride a roller coaster and (2) figure out how to make a new best friend. But when her dad suddenly announces that he’s engaged, Dalia’s schemes come to a screeching halt. With Dalia’s future stepsister Alexa heading back to college soon, the grown-ups want the girls to spend the last weeks of summer bonding–meaning Alexa has to cancel the amusement park road trip she’s been planning for months. Luckily Dalia comes up with a new plan: If she joins Alexa on her trip and brings Rani, the new girl from her swim team, along maybe she can have the perfect summer after all. But what starts out as a week of funnel cakes and Lazy River rides goes off the rails when Dalia discovers that Alexa’s girlfriend is joining the trip. And keeping Alexa’s secret makes Dalia realize one of her own: She might have more-than-friend feelings for Rani.
Riding the Cyclone, the world famous Coney Island rollercoaster, was supposed to be the highlight of Nora’s summer. But right after they disembark, Nora’s cousin Riley falls to the ground…and doesn’t get up. Nora had begged and dragged Riley onto the ride, and no matter what the doctors say, that she had a heart condition, that it could have happened at any time, Nora knows it was her fault. Then, as Riley comes out of her coma, she’s not really Riley at all. The cousin who used to be loud and funny and unafraid now can’t talk, let alone go to the bathroom by herself. Now she’s only 10% Riley. Nora, guilt eating her up on the inside worse than a Coney Island hotdog, thinks she knows how to help. How to get 100% Riley back. But what Nora doesn’t realize is that the guilt will only get worse as that percentage rises.
Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off–except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery. This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller–a race against time. (Be sure to read the sequel, by Robin Stevens: The Guggenheim Mystery.
Margaret is tired of everything always changing. Middle school has gone from bad to worse. Her best friend is becoming a stranger. And her family–well, it’s not even a family anymore. So Margaret is running away to Foreverland, her favorite amusement park. Hiding out there is trickier than she expects–until she meets Jaime, a thrill-seeking, fast-thinking runaway who teaches Margaret how to stay one step ahead of the captain of security. At first, this after-hours, all-access pass to the park is a dream come true: sleepovers in the Haunted House, nonstop junk food, and an unlimited ticket to ride. But as the runaways learn each other’s secrets, they must face the reasons they left their normal lives behind. With the Captain closing in and Jaime’s future on the line, can Margaret finally take control?
Charlie Lewis is a genius at math and a whiz at probability. He and his friends at the genius table in the cafeteria get called the Dork Brigade or Nerd Herd. He expects middle school to be difficult to navigate, as a nerd. He was not expecting a couple of cool older kids to recruit him into a super-smart gang that meets in secret to practice beating carnival games. But their biggest goal is to game the system at the biggest theme park in the world–and win the grand prize. Soon Charlie is caught up in the excitement and thrill of using his math skills for awesomeness…but what’s at stake may be more than he’s willing to risk. How far will Charlie go for a chance at the ultimate reward? It’s a roller coaster ride of risk, math and gaming! Be sure to read the whole Charlie Numb3rs series!
Some things Pip and Tomas will find when dealing with unicorns: Show-offs. Stampedes. Mystery. A unicorn who is afraid of everything. Some things Pip and Tomas will not find when dealing with unicorns: Peace. And quiet! Pip Bartlett has a way with magical creatures. But even she’s challenged by Regent Maximus, a unicorn who’s afraid of everything. With the help of her friend Tomas, Pip has to get Regent Maximus ready for a big unicorn competition-even if Regent Maximus would rather do anything than compete. Making matters worse, someone mysterious is trying to win the competition by cheating-and if Pip and Tomas don’t stop the bad things from happening, it’s not only Regent Maximus who’ll have reason to be afraid.
Using a cutting-edge technology called DHI–which stands for both Disney Host Interactive and Daylight Hologram Imaging–Finn Whitman, an Orlando teen, and four other kids are transformed into hologram projections that guide guests through the park. The new technology turns out, however, to have unexpected effects that are both thrilling and scary. Soon Finn finds himself transported in his DHI form into the Magic Kingdom at night. Is it real? Is he dreaming? Finn’s confusion only increases when he encounters Wayne, an elderly Imagineer who tells him that the park is in grave danger. Led by the scheming witch, Maleficent, a mysterious group of characters called the Overtakers is plotting to destroy Disney’s beloved realm, and maybe more. This gripping high-tech tale will thrill every kid who has ever dreamed of sneaking into Walt Disney World after hours and wondered what happens at night, when the park is closed.
Arthur doesn’t always remember where he buried his bone, or what he was doing before he started scratching his ear, but he never forgets three important facts: 1) Bacon is delicious; 2) He loves his humans, twins Bro and Harmony, with all his heart; 3) Queenie the cat is out to destroy him. So when Queenie wins first place in a feline beauty contest at the county fair, Arthur expects her to be snootier than ever. (Even though she barely beat out another cat who looked almost exactly like her.) Yet when Queenie returns from the fair, she seems oddly nice and sociable — almost like she’s had a personality change! The humans chalk up Queenie’s good mood to her recent win, but Arthur knows the truth. He can tell from the smell that this friendly Queenie is an imposter! Yet before he can decide what to do, Cuthbert the Clown — the only one who knows what’s really going on — turns up missing. Arthur wants to help his humans find Cuthbert, but he has seen some disturbing things they have not. Can he solve a mystery on his own? Or will he have to accept that he needs Queenie as much as he needs bacon?
Every night Paul has the same frightening dream. He’s standing at the edge of a vast empty field, trying to move toward a large, glowing sphere. A small boy is in terrible trouble…and Paul must save him. Paul’s convinced he’s losing his mind—until he learns that his classmate Francine is having the same harrowing dream. Together, the two of them start looking for clues in their dreams…something that might lead them to the little boy they both feel is in terrible danger. As their dreams continue, and the clues mount, Paul and Francine are determined to solve the mystery and same the little boy—before their nightmare becomes terrifying reality.
Meet the Sinister-Winterbottoms: brave Theo, her timid twin, Alexander, and their older sister, Wil. They’re stuck for the summer with their Aunt Saffronia, who doesn’t know how often children need to eat and can’t use a smartphone, and whose feet never quite seem to touch the floor when she glides–er–walks. When Aunt Saffronia suggests a week pass to the Fathoms of Fun Waterpark, they hastily agree. But the park is even stranger than Aunt Saffronia. The waterslides look like gray gargoyle tongues. The employees wear creepy black dresses and deliver ominous messages. An impossible figure is at the top of the slide tower, people are disappearing, and suspicious goo is seeping into the wave pool. Something mysterious is happening at Fathoms of Fun, and it’s up to the twins to get to the bottom of it. The mystery, that is. NOT the wave pool. Definitely NOT the wave pool. But are Theo and Alexander out of their depth?
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So what do you think? Would you go to Fathoms of Fun…ride the London Eye…go to Disneyworld after dark? Are you brave enough?
If you need help finding these–or any other–books at the library, just ask one of our librarians for help. We love matching books with kids! And if you can think of any other books that feature roller coasters or ferris wheels, let us know! We’d love to add to our reading list.
So you like fantasy…and magic…and graphic novels? Do those all work together? Sure they do, and we’re here to prove it! Here’s a little magical light reading in a format that’s become all the rage for middle grade reading.
Our Five Books feature is a booklist of five books (occasionally with a few extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one well-reviewed, and one staff favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)! (Graphic novels are a newish genre, so our “old” title might be decades younger than our normal “old” book in our other lists. But still…our “old” title definitely has sticking power.)
Amaya, princess of House Amethyst in Gemworld, is something of a troublemaker. She and her brother have great fun together until a magical prank goes much too far and her parents ground her…to Earth! They hope a whole week in the mundane world will teach her that magic is a privilege…and maybe washing dishes by hand will help her realize the palace servants should be respected. Three years later, Amy has settled into middle school and ordinary life. She doesn’t remember any other home. So when a prince of the realm brings her home and restores her magical destiny, how will she cope?
Quiet…birds…nature… That’s what Aster expects when her parents move their whole family to the middle of nowhere. It’s just her (status- super-bored), her mom and dad (status- busy with science), her brother (status- has other plans), and…magic? In her new home, Aster meets a mysterious old woman with a herd of dogs who gives her a canine companion of her own. But when she and her dog Buzz are adventuring in the forest, they run into a trickster spirit who gives Aster three wishes. After wishing for the ability to understand and talk to her dog, she becomes only able to talk in dog language…and the trouble she gets into is just starting. Maybe the middle of nowhere will be more interesting than Aster thought!
In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity. Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust. But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing.
Sheltered within her high-society world, Isabel plays the part of a perfectly proper little girl–she’s quiet, well-behaved, and she keeps her dresses spotlessly clean. She’s certainly not the kind of girl who goes on adventures. But that all changes when Isabel breaches an invisible barrier and steps into another world. She discovers a city not unlike her own, but magical and dangerous. Here, war rages between the fairies of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Only Isabel, with the help of a magical necklace and a few new friends, stands a chance of ending the war before it destroys the fairy world, and her own. When Isabel stumbles into a pitched war between two fairy kingdoms, and the fate of San Francisco itself hangs in the balance!
When Dani and Dorian missed the bus to magic school, they never thought they’d wind up declared traitors to their own kind! Now, thanks to a series of mishaps, they are being chased by powerful magic families seeking the prophesied King of Witches and royals searching for missing princes. But they aren’t alone. With a local troublemaker, a princess, and a teacher who can see the future on their side, they might just be able to clear their names…but can they heal their torn kingdom? Two twins, one prophecy, and a whole lot of hijinks.
“Reach out your hand, and your story will begin!” Those words changed young Atsuko “Akko” Kagari forever, sparking in her a lifelong dream of becoming a real witch. Now she’s been accepted to the same school as her childhood hero, Shiny Chariot-the prestigious Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy. As the only student to come from a non-magical family, Akko finds herself surrounded by prodigies from around the world, but giving up isn’t in her vocabulary. Whether it’s making friends, proving the doubters wrong, or just flying on a broom, Akko is going to make her fantasy a reality!
Maddy loved working in her parents’ bookstore… especially when joined by her pet flying toad Ralph. But that was before the mysterious Thimblewitch turned her mom & dad into kangaroo rats! Now Maddy’s on the adventure of a lifetime. To save her parents, she’ll need to sneak past an army of spider-goblins, scarecrow warriors, and much more… Fortunately, an assortment of new friends await, including the cloud cartographers Harry and Silvio, a bear and raccoon who explore the world in their moon-balloon. They’ll help her along the way, but in the end, the fate of everyone will depend on Maddy’s courage, compassion, and creativity.
Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any townhome. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.
Magic is harder than it looks. Moth Hush loves all things witchy. But she’s about to discover that witches aren’t just the stuff of movies, books, and spooky stories. When some eighth-grade bullies try to ruin her Halloween, something really strange happens. It turns out that Founder’s Bluff, Massachusetts, has a centuries-old history of witch drama. And, surprise: Moth’s family is at the center of it all! When Moth’s new powers show up, things get totally out-of-control. She meets a talking cat, falls into an enchanted diary, and unlocks a hidden witch world. Secrets surface from generations past as Moth unravels the complicated legacy at the heart of her town, her family, and herself. A story packed with humor and heart about the weird and wonderful adventures of a witch-in-progress.
Salem Hyde just isn’t like other kids. For one thing, she’s stubborn, independent, and impulsive. For another, she’s a witch. Salem acts first and thinks later–which means most of her thinking involves coming up with excuses! Good thing she’s been assigned an animal companion, Lord Percival J. Whamsford III. This over-anxious cat doesn’t like Salem calling him “Whammy,” and Salem doesn’t like listening to his long-winded explanations as to why she shouldn’t do something . . . like enter the class spelling bee. Salem knows she can beat all her classmates at spells, no problem. Too late, she realizes the competition is about spelling words, not magic. And there’s nothing like a misspelled spell to cause all kinds of havoc!
Effie lost her mom and her home. And now she has to live with two strange aunts who she’s never met before. Life in Brooklyn takes a strange twist for Effie as she learns more about her family and herself. Life in Brooklyn takes a strange turn when Effie discovers that real MAGIC runs in the family. When Tily Shoo, a pop megastar, comes to Effie and her aunts in need of a magical skincare remedy, it takes the charm and skill of all three witches to save the diva’s day. With new friends who will do whatever they can to be there for her and her new magically-inclined family — Effie’s life is about to get verrrrry interesting….
Welcome to the magical, mystical, topsy-turvy world of the House of Secrets, where Zatanna embarks on a journey of self-discovery and adventure … all with her pet rabbit, Pocus, at her side. Zatanna and her professional magician father live in a special house, the House of Secrets, which is full of magic, puzzles, mysterious doors, and storybook creatures–it’s the house everyone in the neighborhood talks about but avoids. Not that Zatanna cares, though, because she is perfectly content. But at school one day, Zatanna stands up to a bully and everything changes … including her friends. Suddenly, Zatanna isn’t so sure about her place in the world, and when she returns home to tell her father, he’s gone missing, lost within their own home. Can Zatanna open the right door and find her father?
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Spells and cats and witches and hats…life is interesting with a little magic flowing! Now most of these books feature magic that touches on the real world…but we have lots of magic books in fantasy lands as well! Another booklist..? Maybe!
As always, if you need help finding these or any other books, ask one of our librarians. We love to match books and readers! And if you have any suggestions for graphic novels about magic we may have missed, let me know. Suggestions from readers are always welcome.
With the success of The Baby-Sitters Club, babysitting has become something EVERY kid reads about. But have you actually tried to babysit? It’s harder than Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Dawn, Jessi and Mallory make it look! From ghosts to temper tantrums to kidnappers to monsters…babysitting can be a dangerous job! Check out these five titles (plus a few extras) and find out what it takes to be a GREAT babysitter!
In case you don’t remember, our Five Books feature is a booklist of five books (usually with a few extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like to read. Five Books–one old, one new, one popular with kids, one award winner, and one old favorite. Some are two or three at the same time! But you’ll have to guess which is which.
The Association Linking Intergalatics and Earthlings (hereby known as A.L.I.E.N.) has a new member. After months of investigation, Gabby Duran, Associate 4118-25125A, has proven herself to be a babysitter extraordinaire. Her celebrity clients fly her around the country to care for their rambunctious little humans. A.L.I.E.N. believes Gabby can be trusted with the truth: aliens are living among humans on Earth. After accepting the top-secret position, Gabby has her first charge, a little girl from the planet Flarknartia. The timing is less than ideal. It’s a school day on Planet Earth, Gabby’s audition for the solo part in the band is tonight, and this tiny alien is a bit more than meets the eye. Can Gabby keep her otherworldly charge safe in the unpredictable halls of middle-school and keep A.L.I.E.N hidden?
In the second story, upon successfully completing her first mission, Gabby has been assigned a more . . . puzzling charge. The relationship between trolls and humans has always been rife with tension, and the troll family Gabby is assigned to is especially prickly. But Gabby is not fazed. Gabby is happy playing, laughing, and snacking with Trymmy, the little troll boy, who seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself. When Gabby learns that trolls love nothing more than a riddle-and stealing items from unsuspecting humans to add to their trove-she’s certain that all this young troll wants is to have fun. However, it might not be as simple as she thinks. After all, there’s a reason this particular alien offspring has been labeled “Unsittable.”
The first and second books in a series that inspired a Disney series.
When middle schooler Kelly Ferguson’s Halloween plans switch from party-going to babysitting, she thinks the scariest part of her night will be the death of her social life. But then Baby Jacob gets kidnapped by the Boogeyman’s minions and Kelly learns there’s a whole lot more to childcare than free snacks and Netflix. Like chasing shadow monsters, drop-kicking Toadies, and mastering monster-fighting moves like the Naptime Headlock and Playground Punch.
Now, with the help of an ancient handbook and a secret society of butt-kicking babysitters, Kelly sets out to destroy the Boogeyman before he brings Jacob’s nightmares to life. But when the monsters’ trail leads to her school’s big Halloween bash, Kelly will have to prove she can save the world–without totally embarrassing herself in front of her friends.
The first in a series that inspired a Netflix series.
Once upon a time, a girl named Kristy Thomas had a great idea: to form The Baby-Sitters Club with her best friends. And now twelve-year-old Malia Twiggs has had a great idea too. Technically, she had Kristy’s idea.(And technically, little kids seem gross and annoying, but a paycheck is a paycheck). After a little convincing, Malia and her friends Dot and Bree start a babysitting club to earn funds for an epic birthday bash. But babysitting definitely isn’t what they thought it would be. Mayhem ensues in their sleepy California beach town when three best friends, find an old copy of “The Babysitters Club” and decide to start their own babysitting business.
Three friends. No parents. Unlimited snacks. And, okay, occasionally watching other people’s children. What could possibly go wrong?
When her best friend is moving away and her mom has arranged for some strange little girl to come and stay with them, Ash–who is petrified of change and new people–is expecting the worst summer of her life. Then seven-year-old Claire shows up. Armed with a love of thrift-store clothes and an altogether too-sunny disposition, Claire proceeds to turn Ash’s carefully constructed life upside down.
While every part of Ash’s life seems to be disrupted, she must protect a carefully hidden secret: She has discovered a magical jar in her basement. It’s a wish jar, full of someone’s old wishes–and it has the power to send her back in time and provide a window into another friendship between two girls. Discovering her own connection to the girls’ story, Ash that her life is full of surprises and friends she never saw coming.
David and Nathan are twin brothers who just can’t seem to keep a babysitter around for long-they’ve had 347 after all. Or is it 734?
Either way . . . there’s got to be someone who can handle these two. Enter: Martin Healey Discount, or “Murray Poopins” as the boys dub him. When they first meet, Martin is all business-well, business and a very bushy mustache. The boys must brush their teeth and clean their rooms and there is absolutely no television allowed. But is there more to Martin than meets the eye? When David and Nathan’s parents leave, the twins aren’t the only ones acting like children . . .
At the end of last summer, Annette Sotherby, daughter of one of the wealthy summer people on Netaquid Island had been kidnapped under mysterious circumstances and returned under even stranger ones. The year-round Netaquidders had helped look, but hadn’t received a word of explanation or thanks from the summer cottagers when Annette was returned.
But when Molly Bassett, who lives on Netaquid year-round with her family, is hired to care for little Sammy Truell, a summer cottager, she begins to learn just why things are so problematic for the islanders. It’s not only that the cottagers blame the islanders for last summer’s mysterious events, but there’s also some secret that all the adults seem to be hiding. To protect Sammy, and Annette, who has also returned, it is up to Molly to discover the truth of what had happened last summer. Along the way, she will also have to solve a brand new and even more disastrous kidnapping in order to bring the islanders and the summer people together again.
From the moment she set eyes on the three Foster kids, Darcy knew being their baby-sitter would be no picnic. But the pay was twice her usual rate, and the job was only for a few hours a day–surely an experienced baby-sitter like her could handle it.
But Darcy hadn’t counted on the mysterious things that started happening at the Fosters’ home after she took the job. She did everything a good baby-sitter was supposed to do: she didn’t let the stranger claiming to be from the gas company into the house and she called the police when the burglar alarm went off in the middle of the afternoon. But that wasn’t enough to prevent a baby-sitter’s worst nightmare from coming true. Now it’s up to Darcy to rescue the Foster kids–and herself–from three ruthless kidnappers.
Henry Reed has another sure-fire money-making plan–but the kids of Grover’s Corner have plans of their own
An intelligent person like Henry should have no problem riding herd on the town’s toddlers. But Henry’s never tangled with such monsters as daredevil Danny, whose stunts keep Henry on his toes–when he’s not ducking the toys Danny hurls at his head. There’s also Bernice, the amazing disappearing five-year old, the always obnoxious Sebastian kids, who don’t have a regular routine, but who want in on the fun the other kids are having. Can Henry, his partner and old friend Midge, and beagle Agony outwit the fiendish plans of their preschool charges? Henry’s going to try!
This is Henry’s first babysitting venture, but he and Midge have plenty of other adventures in Grover’s Corner!
For Rebecca Chin, babysitting has always been fun. But one night, a thunderstorm knocks the power out while she’s watching baby Kyle, and creepy things begin to happen in the house. A locked window opens by itself, mossy handprints streak the wall, and the baby begins acting strange. When she finds out that no one else in town was affected by the storm, Rebecca begins to wonder if something supernatural is going on.
Fellow sitters Tanya, Clio, and Maggie help Rebecca unravel the mystery, only to discover something unbelievable. A sinister, paranormal villain has taken the baby and replaced him with a changeling! The girls can save him–if they can survive a scary journey into the Nightmare Realm!
The first of a series that’s both creepy and fun.
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So there you go. Are you inspired to find some babysitting jobs now? Or will you just read about it? 🙂 I spent a lot of time babysitting as a kid, and I have to say… I never saw any aliens, kidnappers or monsters. I did deal with floods, multiplying kids in the house, and mattress racing down the stairs though. First aid courses would have probably been a little more useful for me than than monster-hunter kits. But your experience may vary!
If you want a great movie about babysitting adventures to go with all these books being made into series and movies, I’d suggest Adventures in Babysitting. It’s a classic! (There is a remake, but it’s not nearly as good.)
As always, if you would like help finding these or any other books–or more books on a similar topic–just ask one of our librarians. We love to match readers and books!
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