The Wish Stealers

By Tracy Trivas

Aladdin, 2010

$16.99, ages 8-12, 284 pages

Griffin Penshine never thought twice about making a wish until the day she met an old woman and accepted her box of stolen wishes. Now one wrong wish from Griffin could lead to powerful trouble unless she can return 11 pennies to their rightful owners.

In this charming debut by Trivas, Griffin is the kind of girl who throws caution to the wind: she never misses a chance to blow dandelion fluff or rescue a friend's loose eyelash so she can make a wish of her own, and she never hesitates to wish wondrous things, like raindrops turning into chocolate.

But when 12-year-old Griffin is tricked into becoming the new guardian of stolen wishes on the eve of her sixth grade year, suddenly all of her good thoughts are being cancelled out and anything she wishes for out of anger but doesn't really mean (especially toward the nasty girl in class) is coming true.

Unless Griffin can figure out how to break the curse of being a wish stealer, she could lose all of the things she's dreamed about, becoming an amazing bass guitarist, having a healthy new baby sister, seeing grandma recover from her dizzy spells, and all that's good inside of her could shrivel up just like it did in the old lady who stole the wishes.

Griffin's troubles begin one afternoon at her neighbor Mr. Schmidt's antique store. While tagging along with her astronomer mother Dr. Penshine, Griffin is approached by his great-aunt Mariah Weatherby Schmidt and offered a shiny penny and a box of polishing cloths. Though deep down Griffin wants to refuse the gift, something inside her can't resist.

The penny, an 1897 Indian Head, seems to have a hypnotic pull over her and that night, Griffin discovers that it's not the only one. During a thunder strike the box of polishing clothes mysteriously pops open and reveals 10 more Indian Head pennies and a note from Mariah, detailing a wicked curse that she's passed on to Griffin.

Long ago Mariah stole pennies from a wishing fountain to indulge herself with treats. Every time she scooped up change, she blocked any wish someone made from coming true. Now that Mariah is 92 and her life is coming to a close, she's chosen Griffin to be the next wish stealer -- anyone in possession of the stolen pennies automatically bears the curse -- and made it next to impossible for Griffin to do anything about it.

Mariah warns Griffin that wish stealers are controlled by three rules: 1. Their good wishes can no longer come true. 2. Anything evil they wish for will happen. 3. If a wish stealer tells anyone about the curse, that person will be doomed for life and will never have wishes come true. What's more the longer a wish stealer is in possession of stolen wishes, the more corrupt she becomes.

Not a great beginning for Griffin's sixth grade year, but with a little insight from ancient alchemists, an eerie troupe of traveling Shakespearean actresses, and a Pennies for the Planet fundraising campaign, and some guidance from her grandmother, Griffin might just find there's something more powerful than a wicked curse.

This story sparkles from start to finish -- the perfect pick-me-up for any reader who's ever thrown a wish to the wind. Every chapter ends with an inspirational quote about believing in yourself and not letting others trounce on your dreams, either from a famous thinker or the author, including some I'm sure to borrow.

My favorites, "Stuff your ears with clouds," (Grandma Penshine's advice if someone tries to pull you down with negativity), and philosopher Joseph Campbell's "Follow your bliss."

Consider sending this gem to your favorite middle-grade reader, along with a box of 11 shiny pennies she can label and give away, as well as a few good luck charms similar to those given to Griffin by her grandmother, a shiny river rock, a ring with a faux blue gem and one lucky penny of her own.

Then check out these great websites under my "BLOGS AND LINKS I'M FOLLOWING" -- www.penniesfortheplanet.org and www.worldwishproject.com -- and help turn wishes into gold.

The Chestnut King

By N.D. Wilson

Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010

$16.99, ages 9 and up, 496 pages

It's been three years since N.D. Wilson wowed readers with the first installment of The 100 Cupboards trilogy, and as the series comes to a close, I feel as though I've come out of an incredible adventure.

In much the same way that D.M. Cornish's mythical Half-Continent in the Monster Blood Tattoo series seemed so tangible and alive, Wilson's Henry, Kansas, and his worlds of the cupboards, Baden Hill, Hylfing and even Endor feel like places I've entered.

In this last, climactic book about Henry York and the magical cupboards he found hidden in his aunt and uncle's Kansas farmhouse, Henry is no longer the naive, sheltered boy who wonders why he's so disconnected from the parents who raised him in Boston.

Though still a nervous boy prone to throwing up when he's scared, he is now the powerful seventh son in a line of seventh sons, rooted to another world that he's destined to protect.

It's been a year since Henry and cousin Henrietta found seams leading to other worlds through 100 cabinets in the farmhouse attic and their late grandfather's bedroom, and a year since they made the mistake of wandering too far into one and freeing an evil witch-queen from her tomb.

In that time, Henry has made discoveries he never imagined, most importantly that he was born into one of these magical worlds in a seaside town known as Hylfing.

There, behind one of the cupboards, Henry is reunited with his birth mother Hyacinth and sisters Una and Isa, and christened Henry York Macabee just in time to free his legendary birth father, Mordecai Westmore, from a faeren curse and help bring down one of witch-queen's henchmen with a magical arrow.

Now turning 13, Henry has settled into his new life in Hylfing, occasionally sneaking back to Kansas through a cupboard he moved from the farmhouse attic to a shed by his birth parents' home to pitch baseballs to his friend Zeke Johnson, but now he's saddled with an enormous burden.

The witch-queen, Nimiane, whom he released from cupboard number 8 when a mythical creature, a raggant, came looking for him, is leaving a trail of death across the worlds. She wants to devour life from the city of Dumarre, the capitol of his new home, and turn it into a new Endor, an empire of death.

Nimiane, who is blind and sees through a cat she carries, also wants to find Henry, take over his soul and gain strength from his newfound powers.

In the second book, Dandelion Fire, Henry's palm was branded with the magic of dandelion fire, a supernatural power that guards his soul from evil and gives him second sight to escape the witch-queen's trickery, but he was also scarred by Nimiane.

During a confrontation in the farmhouse, Nimiane's blood wormed into his jaw, and now it threatens to spread into his brain and turn Henry into a fingerling, a dead body that does Nimiane's bidding through a finger that sprouts from its head.

The question that keeps us riveted in Book 3 is whether Henry's dandelion fire will be a match for Nimiane's immortality, her "great, grinding death," or whether his mark will be her curse?

Like dandelion weeds, which find life again by broadcasting seeds and multiply quickly, his dandelion fire gains strength from its own renewal -- but as Nimiane feeds off of the living, her power also grows, as does the scar in Henry's jaw that's pulling him to her.

Henry knows his father Mordecai and uncle Caleb entombed the witch-queen once when they were young and might be able to do so again, but this would not save Henry's life. Only when the witch-queen dies will the cold blood in his jaw die as well.

But killing off an undying queen may not even be possible, especially now that the emperor of Dumarre has made a deal with Nimiane.

In exchange for giving his City of the Seas immortality, he is letting the witch-queen hide in his palace and control his fleet in the harbor, as her witch-dogs, wizards, and fingerlings order his imperial soldiers to kill those who oppose her.

And now Mordecai and Uncle Caleb have gone to Endor to search for a way to kill the witch and save Henry's life, and unknowingly left Hylfing vulnerable to soldiers under the witch-queen's control.

Just when Henry is reunited with his brother James, soldiers break into their Hylfing home and haul James away with Uncle Frank, Aunt Dottie, Hyacinth, Isa, cousin Penelope, and wizard friend Monmouth to an imperial ship. Soon after, they burn down their home, entrapping his grandmother, Henrietta and his loyal raggant inside.

Henry's only hope to save his family, his world and himself could rest with The Chestnut King, the ruler of an aloof band of pirate faeries. Mordecai thinks the king, known as Nudd, may know where to find an ancient relic believed to control the witch-queen's immortality, the Blackstar.

But even if Nudd knows where the star is, will he be willing to help? He's already sent his faeren to capture Henry's friend, the rogue faerie Fat Frank, and taken his cousin Anastasia, Una and friend Richard with him. Will he prove to be friend or foe? And if he does agree to help, at what cost?

Though Wilson's descriptions of Endor's history are at times complex, I was completely enthralled in this series and loved every moment.

I was drawn to the inventiveness of Wilson's story, and how skillfully he moved it along, quickly shifting among different characters and their adventures. At times it felt as if the characters barely caught their breath and they were thrown back into danger.

I also liked how genuine the characters felt, the frailty Wilson shows in each of them, as well as the loyalty, boldness and humor.

One of the great lines of the book comes from Zeke after a near-death escape with Henry and Henrietta from fingerlings into Kansas.

Henry is feeling defeated and Henrietta, always a bit brash, is giving him an earful for daring to suggest that he give up.

She rattles off all the ways they could still try to bring down the witch-queen -- poison her, bomb her, burn her -- when Zeke chimes in and suggests they get Frodo to destroy her like he did the Dark Lord in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

"Maybe she has a ring," he says. "All we need is a hobbit and a volcano."

Wilson's humor, often subtle and unexpected, comes through at just the right moments, adding levity during the darkest parts of the book and heightening the euphoria when Henry's family and friends make it through another close call.

I loved the subtle symbolism in the book, the nod to the Wizard of Oz (Henry's uncle name is Frank and his wife Dottie's name is short for Dorothy), the references to baseball, and the care Wilson took to carry through every theme to the end, no matter how secondary it became as the main story advanced, including how life continued in Henry, Kansas, after Henry and his family left.

One of the risks of any series is that over the course of several books a plot can lose its momentum and spark, but Wilson's imagination was always up to the challenge. His story line, so unique and imaginative, never languished over the three books, and I was continually carried away from my own reality.

At times I caught my eyes darting from one line to the next, my hands gripping either side of the book and myself holding my breath as Henry York and his family struggled to escape danger.

I only wish there was another adventure still to come for Henry York, but for now, I'll be content with whatever Wilson sends our way.

Magic Under Glass

By Jaclyn Dolamore

Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2010

$16.99, ages 12 and up, 320 pages

Eighteen-year-old Nimira thinks she's found the safe future she's been waiting for when a handsome sorcerer rescues her from a seedy life as "trouser girl," but when she arrives at his estate, Nimira is swept into a sinister coverup and must call upon the spirits of the netherworld to help her save a fairy prince.

Desperate to leave behind her humiliating job as a chorus girl, Nimira accepts an offer by Hollin Parry to perform at his estate with a piano-playing automaton. Parry confides that past singers fled his estate after claiming the clockwork man was haunted, but he insists its movements are only lifelike, not real.

Parry, a wealthy widower still anguished by his wife's death, is drawn to the defiant Nimira and doesn't believe she'll be spooked like his past hires. Nimira, who has waited four years for a better life, having fled her country of Tiansher for Lorinar when she was 14 to seek her fortune, wants to believe Parry is right.

Seizing her chance to break free of the possessive owner of the Tassim dance troupe and make a better wage, Nimira leaves the city of New Sweeling with Parry in a coach for Vestenveld estate. Though the country estate looks cold and lonely upon their arrival and she's greeted brusquely by a meaty-armed servant woman, Nimira feels burdens lift as she's whisked into a world of privilege.

But nothing is quite as it seems and soon Nimira discovers dark forces at work at the estate and a disturbing sentiment to destroy the fairies living over a wall from Lorinar. Nimira is horrified when she discovers real fairies frozen under glass in Parry's late father's study and learns that the wind-up automaton she's to perform with is actually a lost fairy prince trapped by a spell.

While Nimira is alone with the automaton, the fairy prince reveals himself, moaning out to her and tapping piano keys that correspond with letters of words in a plea for help. He explains he is Erris, the ninth son in line to the fairy crown, and was imprisoned inside the clockworks 30 years ago by his enemies during the last Fairy War.

Erris explains that he has been waiting for his human friend Garvin Pelerine, Lorinar's late ambassador of magic, to free him from the clockworks and is shaken when Nimiria tells him that Garvin has died, reportedly at the hand of fairy bandits.

The fairy prince doesn't believe fairies were to blame and suspects foul play by Garvin's human rivals in the Sorcerer's Council. Garvin held a controversial view that fairies could be allies, while many on the council believe fairies are evil and conspire to conquer humans.

Erris fears the new ambassador of magic Soleran Smollings will harm him if he discovers he's inside the automaton and believes his only hope to break the spell that keeps him trapped inside it is if Nimira can get word to Garvin's close friend, fellow sorcerer Karstor that he's at the estate.

But when Smollings arrives at Vestenveld to see the automaton, he already suspects it is the long lost fairy prince and devises a plan to trick Karstor into revealing that the clockwork man is Erris. Unless Nimira can get to Karstor first and warn him not to react to the automaton with recognition, Erris will be destroyed.

Meanwhile, strange things are occurring in the night at Parry's estate. A young woman with glowing orbs bobbing around her head bursts into Nimira's room screaming for help and is chased by Smollings wielding a sorcerer's staff.

Hollin, running in after them, tells Nimira the girl is a madwoman that Smollings is transporting to prison, but Nimira soon discovers that the woman is imprisoned on the third floor of Vestenveld and is being used by Smollings and the cruel servant woman, Miss Rashten, for dark magic.

With Smollings closing in on Erris, Nimira's only chance to save her fairy prince may be to go to the woman on the third floor and ask for her help summoning a spirit to break the spell. But even if the spirit has the power to free Erris from the clockworks, without a human body to return to, is Erris already beyond saving?

With some novels, you spend the first few pages getting your footing, trying to figure out what's going on, but with Magic Under Glass, you're instantly transported into the story without any effort. I loved the mixture of exotic and magical, and the subtle hints at romance, and finished the book with that delicious feeling you get from being swept away.

The Hotel Under the Sand

Written by Kage Baker

Tachyon Publications, 2009

$8, ages 9-12, 181 pages

Inspired by a true-life tragedy, this beguiling book about a 9-year-old girl marooned on an island and the magical hotel she salvages from the sand is a tribute to the power of the human spirit.

After a terrible storm steals away everything she's known, Emma washes up on an island where a centuries old hotel is buried and embarks on an incredible adventure to get it up and running again.

Though she's always been brave and clever, Emma never imagined she'd end up alone on an island to fend for herself and feel such loss. Then the ghost of an orphaned bell hop appears on the beach at night and Emma discovers that good things can still happen.

The ghost, who is not at all frightening, is that of Winston Oliver Courtland, a good-hearted bell captain who died when an Equinox storm buried The Grand Wenlocke hotel under sand. The Victorian hotel was built by the eccentric inventor Mr. Wenlocke, who figured out a way to make time last as long as patrons wanted it to.

Mr. Wenlocke's invention, the Difference Engine, stretched out time inside the fancy hotel, so vacations would never seem too short, and generated electricity from sand, sunlight and seawater without polluting the dunes outside. Instead of spewing smoke or ash, the engine produced clean water that was piped back into the hotel for use.

But just as the hotel was about to open, the Storm of the Equinox came out of a clear sky and sent up columns of sand a half-mile high, burying the hotel and catapulting Winston out of its front door to his death. Mr. Wenlocke and the rest of the staff went missing, and ever since, Winston's ghost has been waiting to return to the hotel.

After hearing Winston's frightening account, Emma realizes another sandstorm could come without warning and builds a fence with wreckage from the beach around her camp and unearths a deserted rowboat to sleep under. That night, just as she feared, a fierce sandstorm hits the beach, but Winston appears just in time to hold her ground.

When the winds finally die down, Emma and Winston lift the boat off their shoulders to find a magical sight, a five-story palace of turrets and verandas has risen from the sand. It is The Grand Wenlocke, looking exactly as it did the day it was buried. Apparently Emma's fence had deflected the wind just right to salvage the hotel.

At first Emma and Winston are unable to enter the hotel, as the Difference Engine is stuck, but once inside, they find a lushly decorated foyer with graceful settees and golden statues and discover that the hotel's kind cook Mrs. Beet and her dog Shorty have come back to life after being frozen in time with the hotel.

Together, Mrs. Beet and Winston agree that the hotel is rightfully Emma's since she is the one who salvaged it, but soon two other characters are staking claim. A salty sailor with a peg leg comes to the front door with a map to treasure hidden in the hotel and a haughty boy claiming to be the last descendant of Mr. Wenlocke crashes down outside in a flying apparatus.

In exchange for the treasure, the sailor Captain Doubloon agrees to tow The Grand Wenlocke with his ship to an island with firmer ground. They all know another sandstorm could bury the hotel as it had before. But suddenly a strange group of patrons are lining up to stay at the hotel and if they're not careful, Winston's spirit could be lost forever.

Baker's first children's book is an uplifting fantasy about rising above adversity. Emma is as sweet-natured and level-headed as Dorothy was in the Wizard of Oz. In the face of terrifying circumstances, she makes the most of what she has to work with and jumps headlong into an adventure that is as captivating as any child could dream of.

Baker, the author of the popular adult sci-fi series The Company, wrote the book for her 8-year-old niece Emma after she lost family in a terrible tragedy. Every week, Baker would mail off a chapter to comfort Emma in her grief and many of the details, including the pirate and the dog, were added because they were things Emma loved.

The island is modeled after the great Dunes north of Point Conception along the California coast, where the real Emma lived when she was very small. Dubbed "the graveyard of the Pacific," it has seen its share of shipwrecks and at the turn of the century was the site of a hotel that tipped on its side when a storm blew sand out from under it.

Revenues from the book go toward Emma's college fund.

Murder at Midnight

By Avi

Scholastic Press, 2009

$17.99, ages 9-12, 272 pages

While trying to persuade his master to keep him on as his servant, a 10-year-old orphan named Fabrizio becomes entangled in a plot to overthrow the ruler of Pergamontio in this thrilling prequel to Avi's Midnight Magic.

Fabrizio, who was saved from a life on the streets to become the personal servant to Mangus the Magician, is finding it hard to hold onto his position. Mangus thinks Fabrizio is an idle chatterer and a fool for thinking magic is more than illusion, and doesn't believe he needs him.

The magician's wife Mistress Sophia favors the boy, but she's leaving the city to care for her sick sister, which means Fabrizio will have to deal with his difficult master on his own. And if he doesn't convince Mangus that he's useful, Mangus will send him back to the streets to a life of begging.

But then the unimaginable occurs. The surly old magician is accused of plotting to depose King Claudio, the ruler of Pergamontio, and suddenly Fabrizio has a far greater challenge than pleasing his master. Unless he proves that Mangus is innocent, his master will be burned at the stake for treason.

His master's troubles begin when a mysterious figure in a hood shows up at Mangus' magic show and warns Fabrizio that the magician's life is in danger. Two days later the kingdom's chief prosecutor DeLaBina charges Mangus with producing leaflets that call for the king's overthrow.

DeLaBina claims the leaflets were copied too perfectly to be hand-written. Thus Mangus must have created them with magic, as news of the German invention, the printing press, had not yet come to the kingdom. Making matters worse, an informer at the magic show saw Mangus snatch images of the king from thin air and make them disappear then promise to create something from nothing and turn it into many things.

Though DeLaBina offers to spare Mangus' life if he rids the city of the leaflets and reveals who asked him to make the papers, these seem like impossible requests, even for the illusionist and his scrappy servant, and soon both are locked away in the king's castle for plotting against the king. But then Fabrizio remembers his master's lessons in logic and proves he's more clever than anyone knows.

While awaiting execution for aiding Mangus, Fabrizio escapes from his cell, and with the help of a girl he calls a devil, begins to unravel a conspiracy within the King's court. Together they concoct a plan to save Mangus that pits the king's eldest son against his trusted count and requires a coffin to be delivered to the crypt where Mangus is tried.

Master storyteller and Newberry Medal winner Avi creates another taut, suspenseful story that will have you reading faster with every page. What is particularly captivating about Avi's writing is that his characters come to life primarily through dialogue and actions. Avi doesn't pause long to describe his characters and yet you walk away feeling so invested in the characters that it's hard to let them go.

Toby Alone

By Timothee de Fombelle

Illustrated by Francois Place and translated by Sarah Ardizzone

Candlewick Press, 2009

$17.99, ages 9-12 , 384 pages

Toby Lolness, a nimble boy no taller than a crumb, flees the hatred of his people in this fast-paced Lilliputian adventure set in the branches of an oak tree.

At 7 years old, Toby is exiled with his parents, Maya and Sim, from the top of the Tree to the Low Branches, when Sim, a great scientist, refuses to share an invention that would speed up development on the Tree.

Sim is convinced his invention, a black box that converts the Tree's sap into energy, would be abused by weevil breeder Joe Mitch, who is tunneling out the Tree's trunk and digging out huge housing projects into the branches.

He maintains removing sap to power projects would put the Tree in peril. But his neighbors, who aren't convinced the Tree is alive, see his refusal to share his discovery as an impediment to progress and the Tree's council, increasingly under Mitch's thumb, sends the Lolness family to the Land of Onessa.

After several years in exile, however, the Lolness' are called back to the Treetop when Maya's mother dies. There, Sim's old friend Zef Clarac, the Treetop lawyer, hands Maya a rare, expensive Tree Stone, which belonged to her mother. The stone, though it has no powers, is the tree's treasure and would give absolute power to Mitch and his men if they got control over it.

Just as the Lolness family is about to leave for the Low Branches, Mitch and his men ambush them at Zef's house and demand the stone and Sim's black box. But thanks to Sim's quick wits, Toby, now 13, is able to slip out of Mitch's clutches with the stone, setting off a terrifying manhunt for Toby down the Tree.

With a bounty on his head and his parents in a dungeon in the Treetop, Toby flees for safety in the Low Branches, and along the way discovers the loyalties of old friends, is nearly fed to weevils, gets buried in a cave by snow, loses his dearest friend and falls from the Tree into the hands of the feared Grass People, who are believed to be planning an invasion of the Tree.

French playwright de Fombelle creates a fascinating, fun adventure while skillfully weaving in political commentary in this first book in a series translated from French. If your child loved the Littles or the Borrowers, they'll be enthralled by Toby's world and find it hard to wait for the next installment.

13 Novels for Halloween

Looking for a ghoulishly good novel for Halloween? Below is a list of 13 book series and single titles that you won't want to put down.

This year's list includes rousing adventures with monsters, bewitching tales of high jinks and scary mysteries that leave you holding your breath.

1) Here Be Monsters! (The Ratbridge Chronicles), written and illustrated by Alan Snow, Atheneum, ages 9-12, 544 pages. Arthur tries to thwart a fiendish plot to take over the town of Ratbridge with the help of boxtrolls, cabbageheads, rats, pirates and a frustrated inventor in this silly fantasy filled with more than 500 irresistible drawings.

2) Dreamhouse Kings Series, Books 1-6, written by Robert Liparulo, Thomas Nelson, ages 12+, 304 pages. After the King family moves into a run-down Victorian house, 15-year-old film buff Xander and his brother David stumble upon portals leading to far-off places in this pulse-pounding mystery series.

3) Barnaby Grimes series, by Paul Stewart, illustrated by Chris Riddell, David Fickling Books, ages 9-12, 224 pages. Leaping from roof to roof in a fictional city, a courier lad named Barnaby stumbles upon macabre mysteries involving a wolf-like creature and a stuffed bird in this Dickensian series by the creators of the bestselling Edge Chronicles.

4) Halloween Tree, by Ray Bradbury, illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini, Yearling, ages 9-12,160 pages. Eight boys follow a mysterious character named Moundshroud back in time on Halloween night to find their missing friend Pipkin in this haunting, exuberant classic that explores the history of this scary holiday.

5) The Worst Witch series, by Jill Murphy, Candlewick Press and Puffin Books, ages 9-12, up to 352 pages. A bungling girl witch-in-training named Mildred Hubble gets into hilarious fixes with her cat Tabby at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches in this classic 5-book series that debuted in 1974, with the latest books released in 2007.

6) Chrestomanci Books, by Diana Wynne Jones, Greenwillow Books, ages 9-12, up to 688 pages. Enchanters with nine lives try to stop the misuse of magic in parallel worlds in this outstanding fantasy series of six books and several short stories by the author of Howl's Moving Castle.

7) Mariah Mundi series, by G.P.Taylor, Putnam Juvenile and Faber Children's Books, ages 12 +, up to 336 pages. A 15-year-old orphan becomes an assistant in a hotel magic show and together with friend Sacha uncovers a box that can turn anything into gold in the first book of this spine-tingling 7-book series: The Midas Box.

8) The Last Apprentice series, by Joseph Delaney, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith, Greenwillow Books, ages 12 +, up to 416 pages. Twelve-year-old narrator Tom Ward confronts all manner of boggarts, ghosts and other wicked beasts as apprentice to Mr. Gregory, a tall, hooded man he calls a Spook, in this chillingly good series, now in its eighth installment.

9) Tiffany Aching Adventure series, by Terry Pratchett, HarperTeen, ages 12 +, 336 pages. A girl witch learning her craft travels through Fairyland to rescue her brother, drives away a mind-controlling creature and thwarts the advances of the Wintersmith in this hilarious fantasy series, a subset of Pratchett's adult Discoworld.

10) Theodosia series, by R. L. LaFevers, illustrated by Yoko Tanaka, Sandpiper, ages 9-12, 400 pages. Eleven-year-old Theodosia Throckmorton learns how to remove curses around her father's museum, then takes on a secret society trying to bring chaos to the world in this fun, action-packed fantasy series.

11) Billy Bones books, by Christopher Lincoln, illustrated by Avi Ofer, Little, Brown Book Group, ages 9-12, 304 pages. Living in a mansion's secret closet with his skeleton family, 10-year-old Billy Bones discovers a shocking secret and searches for his Uncle Grim and cousin Millicent in the hidden world of Nevermore in this delightfully macabre series of two books.

12) The Black Book of Secrets and The Bone Magician, by F.E. Higgins, Feiwel and Friends, ages 9-12, up to 288 pages. Higgins presents two different stories in the same world of intrigue. In The Black Book of Secrets, Ludlow Fitch assists a mysterious pawnbroker trading money for secrets in a big black book, and in The Bone Magician, a corpse watcher named Pin Carpue encounters a magician who can raise corpses from the dead and make them speak as a killer roams the streets.

13) Seer of Shadows, by Avi, HarperCollins Children's Books, ages 8-12, 208 pages. A 14-year-old photographer's apprentice named Horace Carpetine sees the ghost of a couple's dead daughter in the background of a portrait and tries to prevent her from punishing those who hurt her in this wonderfully creepy tale by Newberry Medalist Avi.

Leviathan

By Scott Westerfeld and illustrated by Keith Thompson

Simon & Schuster, 2009

$19.99, ages 12 and up, 438 pages

A young archduke is rushed from his bed chamber in the middle of the night on the pretense of training for battle, only to discover that his parents have been poisoned to death and he's on the run from assassins in this inventive sci-fi novel by the author of the teen trilogy the Uglies.

In the style of steampunk, Westerfeld reimagines the battle lines of World War I with anachronistic technologies. It is the Victorian era of steam machines; society is divided into aristocrats and commoners, and women are forbidden to be soldiers. But now, Clankers (or fabs) are using war machines resembling living creatures to battle Darwinists, who fight back with beasts fabricated into machines.

The novel, the first in a series, moves between two parallel plots, the escape of Prince Alec, a Clanker, from his homeland, the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, to a castle hidden in the icy cliffs of the Alps, and the daring adventures of Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist girl, who rises to the ranks of middy in the British Air Service by posing as a boy. By mid book, their two lives intersect in an exciting rescue attempt that pits a hydrogen-breathing airship made from sea creatures against AT-ST-like walking machines.

As the story begins, Prince Alec is taken in the night by his fencing instructor Count Volger and master of mechanics Otto Klopp to hide in a mountaintop castle after his parents are assassinated by an operative sent by former ally Germany. Though Alec initially suspects he's been kidnapped by his teachers, he quickly realizes that Volger and Klopp are his only allies when a German dreadnought attacks the walker they've fled in.

Meanwhile, Deryn has begun posing as the boy Dylan to finagle her way into aviator training and during an exercise gets swept away over London in a runaway hot-air beast, only to escape midair into another flying beast that resembles a zeppelin, a behemoth hydrogen-breathing Leviathan fabricated from a whale. But when the Leviathan goes down in battle in the Alps near Alec's castle, an uneasy alliance is forged between Alec and a Darwinist doctor transporting eggs to the Ottoman Empire.

Though Deryn's transition to middy aboard the Leviathan was a little confusing, this was an enthralling adventure, owed in a large part to the inventive workings of Westerfeld's beasts of battle and animalistic machines, and Thompson extraordinary sketches, which allow you to wrap your head around what these fantastical creations might look like. I found myself as fascinated by Westerfeld's imagination as I did by the beasts and machines he fabricates on the page.

Click Scott Westerfeld on my links to see Thompson's Darwinist-Clanker map of Europe. View Simon & Schuster's trailer of Leviathan below!

The Magician's Elephant

By Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

Candlewick Press, 2009

$16.99, ages 9-12, 201 pages

A 10-year-old orphan has every reason to feel despair, but chooses to believe that the impossible can happen in this atmospheric fable by Newberry Medalist DiCamillo that will have readers asking themselves "What if? Why not? Could it possibly be?" long after the book is over.

Peter Augustus Duchene is training to become a soldier, and has no one to love or love him back. His father died on the battlefield, his mother died right afterward giving birth to his sister Adelle and he's been told by his guardian Vilna Lutz, a stern old soldier trapped in his own misery, that Adelle was stillborn. His few memories are of the promise he made to his dying mother to watch over Adelle and an afternoon when his late father tenderly tossed him in the air and caught him.

Longing to be held like that again and to have someone to hold, Peter wonders if Lutz could be wrong, and is drawn to a fortuneteller who promises for one florit to answer the most profound questions of the heart. Peter only has the coin Lutz entrusted to him to buy fish and bread, but he cannot resist finding the truth and spends it to have his palm read. The fortuneteller divines that Adelle is alive, but that Peter must follow an elephant to find her, which seems like a ridiculous suggestion as no elephants have ever lived in the city of Baltese, now in the throes of a particularly gloomy winter.

Though Peter fears he's being played the fool, the fortuneteller tells him that impossible things can happen -- "the truth is always changing," she says -- and as Peter leaves the tent he hears a beggar singing about how things are not what they seem -- and indeed they are not. That night an aging magician trying to recoup his reputation causes an elephant to crash through the ceiling of the local opera house. The elephant, as confused as everyone else, lands in the lap of noblewoman Madam LaVaughn and crushes her legs.

The magician contends he only meant to conjure up a bouquet of lilies, but LaVaughn, who is now confined to a wheelchair, is consumed by bitterness. She asks that the magician be locked away in jail and visits him daily awaiting his remorse, yet the magician cannot summon regret. No one expected him to do anything special that night and the elephant is indisputable evidence that he did something amazing with his life. LaVaughn's manservant and advisor sees the futility of their exchange and calls an end to it, leaving the magician alone in the cell, his only glimmer of hope, a bright star behind the clouds.

When Peter overhears a fishmonger recounting the cataclysmic event at the opera house, he realizes that if an elephant could fall from the sky, Lutz might have lied. That night Peter dreams he sees a golden light in a field of wheat and opens a door to find a baby crying. The very same night, less than five blocks away at the Orphanage of the Sisters of Perpetual Light, a 6-year-old girl dreams of an elephant knocking at the orphanage door but no one answering.

The next day Peter learns that the elephant has been moved to the ballroom of a countess, who wants to use the elephant's fame to make her the talk of the town. He calls on good friend Leo Matienne, a kind policeman living with his wife in the apartment below, to help him find a way to see her. Leo, a poet at heart who asks the questions "What if?" "Why not?" and "Could it Possibly Be?" when others say things are hopeless, soon learns that the elephant will be on display for public viewing and runs to Peter with the good news. Peter is so happy that his face fills with light even though the sun is behind clouds.

But when Peter gets his chances to ask the elephant about Adelle, he sees such despair in her eyes that he forgets why he came to see her. He's felt that kind of loneliness before and promises to find a way to get her back home, though he has no idea how to keep his word. Then a wondrous thought occurs to him. Peter will ask Leo to take him to the magician's prison cell and the magician will again perform an impossible feat, this time sending the elephant home. Though the magician agrees to try to undo his magic, he needs Peter and Leo to bring him the elephant as well as the aggrieved LaVaughn, all of which seem impossible, until they realize that if they try, it may just be enough to make all of their dreams come true.

DiCamillo's story is so extraordinary that when you reach the end of the book you can't help but wonder if anything is possible, while Tanaka's soft, muted illustrations beautifully echo the book's airy, mystical mood.

From the very first chapter, you sense that DiCamillo labored over every sentence, as each thought is so beautifully realized, and by mid-book, you find yourself pausing to marvel at her ability to tie together so many different lives and story lines. As Peter searches for the truth, he comes in contact with secondary characters who face their own struggles to find love, find atonement or believe in something that seems far out of their reach. You also find yourself flipping back to previous pages to reflect on DiCamillo's use of symbolism, which enriches every step of the story. Among them, the dark clouds that have backed up over Baltese, echoing a pervasive sense of despair, and the images of light in Peter's dream, in the magician's eyes, on Peter's face that suggest the promise of good things to come. There is also the gentle, forgiving snow that at the end of the book allows characters to find their way out of their malaise. This is one of those very special books that stays with you long after you close it and inspires you to want more out of your life, or at least make the attempt.