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Shadow Train
Charlene Keel, J. Gates
Synopsis: Middleburg's teen martial artists scramble to reunite the broken shards of the powerful and mysterious Shen ring, in an effort to locate their missing friend Raphael and avert worldwide disaster―but it won't be easy.

A pack of government agents, a secret order of Chinese kung fu masters, and a family of vengeful fallen angels stand in their way. Amid the struggle, tensions between the two teen gangs flare once again when one of the Flats kids gets jumped and put in the hospital. Zhai and Ignacio, the leaders of the rival factions, struggle to maintain peace and continue their quest for the ring shards amid the rising tide of confrontation.

Meanwhile, Middleburg's leading ladies Maggie and Dalton put their differences aside in an effort to wrest their friend Aimee from the clutches of the sultry and seductive Nephilim, Orias. But when a powerful fallen angel learns that Orias has imprisoned his father Oberon, a new supernatural menace is unleashed on Middleburg, one that threatens to bring all the conflicting factions together in one final, deadly conflagration.

The only hope is that Middleburg's missing teen hero will somehow reappear and find a way to set things right―but he's been gone for over two months, without leaving a single clue as to his whereabouts. As the situation grows more dire, all of Middleburg wonders: where is Raphael Kain? With mighty doses of kung fu, eastern mysticism, and star-crossed love, Shadow Train is the most poignant, romantic and explosive book in The Tracks series thus far!
Publication Date: 06/04/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Magical Mix-ups #3: Grasshopper Magic
Lynne Jonell, Brandon Dorman
Synopsis:    With a POP! and a puff of smoke, the Willows' lawn mower calls it quits. A new mower will cost their parents a lot of money, money Derek had hoped to borrow for a train ticket to visit a friend. Luckily Derek and his brother and sisters find a rusty push mower tucked away in the shed. It doesn't look like much, but it turns out that it's been soaking up magic for years. And it's hungry for grass!

   Can Derek earn his ticket? Maybe . . . if he, Abner, Tate, and Celia can keep the magic mower under control!

   Lynne Jonell follows up her Junior Library Guild selection, Hamster Magic, with a second story of the Willow family's rowdy run-ins with mixed-up magic.
Publication Date: 05/28/13
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Fantasy
Aesop's Secret
Claudia White
Synopsis:

In her debut novel, Claudia White establishes an imaginative world that asks what if all the stories we were told as children were true, even just a little bit. By channeling a child’s sense of wonder to imagine what truths could be hidden in myths and legends, she provides a refreshingly intelligent tale that challenges our understanding of reality.

The shape-shifting Athenites began cloaking themselves in secrecy centuries ago to avoid discrimination and persecution. Glimpses of the Athenites have led humans to create fairy tales and myths to explain the unexplainable. The story of Aesop’s Secret begins when Melinda and Felix Hutton learn that they belong to this ancient race. Their mother and father, Elaine and Jake, have dedicated their lives to proving that Athenites and humans once happily co-existed. Their hope is that, one day, their people with be able to live openly in human society. However, the charismatic and brilliant Professor Stumpworthy emerges as a challenger to these dreams of peace and unity. He has built his personal fortune through the secret use of his transformation abilities while eliminating any Athenite he deems a threat to his way of life. His former colleague, Joe Whiltshire, discovered artifacts that would help identify Athenites as valuable members of society, so Stumpworthy trapped him in the form of a rabbit named Aesop.

When Felix becomes stricken by an unusual sickness while studying at the Stumpworthy School of Science in Paris, the family travels to be with him, unaware that they are Stumpworthy’s next targets. Now Joe, back in his human body, must aid Melinda in her attempt to save her family. White’s narrative employs clever changes in points of view to fully develop the Hutton family and highlight the importance of unity and acceptance within a family, even if they belong in a fairy-tale.

Publication Date: 05/28/13
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
The School for Good and Evil
Iacopo Bruno, Soman Chainani
Synopsis:

The New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil series is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one. Start here to follow Sophie, Agatha, and everyone at school from the beginning!

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?

Publication Date: 05/14/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Mouse Bird Snake Wolf
Dave McKean, David Almond
Synopsis: The imagination of three children takes on unexpected life in a creation tale from the dream team of David Almond and Dave McKean.

The gods have created a world that is safe and calm and rather wonderful. They have built mountains, forests, and seas and filled the world with animals, people, and unnamed beasts. Now their days are fat with long naps in the clouds, mutual admiration, and tea and cake. But their world has gaps in it filled with emptiness, gaps that intrigue Harry, Sue, and little Ben until they begin to see what might fill them. One by one the children conjure, from twigs and leaves and stones, a mousy thing, a chirpy thing, and a twisty legless thing. But as the children’s ideas grow bolder, the power of their visions proves greater and more dangerous than they, or the gods, could ever have imagined. Is it possible to unmake what’s been made?
Publication Date: 05/14/13
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Of Giants and Ice: The Ever Afters
Synopsis: When Rory realizes fairy tales are the real deal at Ever After School, she embarks on a classic quest to fulfill her destiny in this “fast-paced combination of middle school realism and fairy-tale fantasy” (Kirkus Reviews).

Rory Landon has spent her whole life being known as the daughter of a famous movie star mom and director dad. So when she begins a new after-school program and no one knows who her family is, Rory realizes something is different. After she ends up fighting a fire-breathing dragon on her first day, she realizes the situation is more unusual than she could have imagined. It turns out the only fame that matters at Ever After School is the kind of fame earned from stories Rory thought were fictional. But as Rory soon learns, fairy tales are very real—and she is destined to star in one of her own.

This first installment of The Ever Afters series reimagines classic fairy tale characters in a modern context, merging familiar fantasy with the everyday realities of middle-grade existence.
Publication Date: 05/07/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Wednesdays in the Tower
Jessica Day George
Synopsis:

A castle that is constantly rearranging itself, and a young royal family sworn to protect it... Celie, Rolf, and their beloved Castle Glower are back in this exciting sequel.

When her brother Rolf dares her to catch magical Castle Glower creating a new room, Princess Celie takes the challenge! No one knows the Castle better than she does. But as usual, the Castle has ideas of its own.Celie finds the new room first, and inside it is hidden a giant egg. It looks like The Castle wants Celie to care for the egg and whatever creature it hatches! Celie hadn't bargained for a pet, and caring for this one will prove to be especially tricky, once Celie and her siblings realize what else the Castle is hiding....

Publication Date: 05/07/13
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Chantress
Amy Butler Greenfield
Synopsis: Lucy’s Chantress magic will make her the most powerful—and most hunted—girl in England.

“Sing, and the darkness will find you.” This warning has haunted fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a lonely island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most important is that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now it is 1667, Lucy is fifteen, and on All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on the wind. She can’t help but sing—and she is swept into darkness.

When she awakes in England, Lucy hears powerful men discussing Chantresses—women who can sing magic into the world. They are hunting her, but she escapes and finds sanctuary with the Invisible College, an organization plotting to overthrow the nefarious Lord Protector. The only person powerful enough to bring about his downfall is a Chantress. And Lucy is the last one in England.

Lucy struggles to master the song-spells and harness her power, but the Lord Protector is moving quickly. And her feelings for Nat, an Invisible College apprentice and scientist who deeply distrusts her magic, only add to her confusion…

Time is running out, and the fate of England hangs in the balance in this entrancing novel that is atmospheric and lyrical, dangerous and romantic.
Publication Date: 05/07/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Portal's Choice
Katherine Mariaca-Sullivan, Katherine Mariaca-Sullivan, KD Pryor
Synopsis: Portals. Doorways. Gateways. All ways to get in or out of someplace, right? Nothing weird, spooky or otherworldly about them. Or, at least that’s what Tallis Challinor always thought. Tallis is a practical young woman, a writer, a lover of words and a natural storyteller. But she’s not sure what to do when real-life sucks her into a story far stranger than anything she’s ever imagined. Tallis discovers that portals are passageways between the human and spirit worlds. She finds out that bent-on-evil ghosts can escape from the spirit realm through those gateways whether they are supposed to or not. And when they do, Tallis finds herself the chosen human, picked by the portal in her basement in New Hampshire, to seek out and return the wayward spirits. All Tallis wants to do is recover from the loss of her parents and settle into her new home. She’d like a boyfriend, someone like the cute guy, Aiden, down the street. She’d like some girlfriends to talk to and maybe even go shopping with. And she’d like the ghosts, the portal, and the responsibility that has been thrust upon her to disappear. But when the ghosts threaten her new hometown, her friends, and the family she holds so dear, Tallis discovers the inner courage to meet the portal’s challenge and save those most precious to her. Along the way, Tallis learns that she is more than she’s ever imagined herself to be and that she deserves more than she’s ever dreamed possible.
Publication Date: 05/05/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Destined
P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast
Synopsis:

Zoey is finally home where she belongs, safe with her Guardian Warrior, Stark, by her side, and preparing to face off against Neferet – which would be a whole lot easier if the High Counsel saw the ex-High Priestess for what she really is. Kalona has released his hold on Rephaim, and, through Nyx's gift of a human form, Rephaim and Stevie Rae are finally able to be together – as long as he can truly walk the path of the Goddess and stay free of his father's shadow…

But there are new forces at work at the House of Night. An influx of humans, including Lenobia's handsome horse whisperer, threatens their precarious stability. And then there's the mysterious Aurox, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous teen boy who is actually more – or possibly less – than human. Only Neferet knows he was created to be her greatest weapon. But Zoey can sense the part of his soul that remains human, the compassion that wars with his Dark calling. And there's something strangely familiar about him…

Will Neferet's true nature be revealed before she succeeds in silencing them all? And will Zoey be able to touch Aurox's humanity in time to protect him – and everyone – from his own fate? Find out what's destined in the thrilling ninth chapter of the P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast's House of Night series.

Publication Date: 04/30/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Hammer of Witches
Shana Mlawski
Synopsis: Baltasar Infante can weasel out of any problem with a good story.

But when he encounters a monster straight out of stories one night, Baltasar faces trouble even he can't talk his way out of. Captured by the Malleus Maleficarum, a mysterious witch-hunting arm of the Spanish Inquisition, Baltasar is put to the question. The Inquisitor demands he reveal the whereabouts of Amir al-Katib, a legendary Moorish sorcerer who can bring myths and the creatures within them to life.

Now Baltasar must escape, find al-Katib, and defeat a dreadful power that may destroy the world.

As Baltasar's journey takes him into uncharted lands on Columbus's voyage westward, he learns that stories are more powerful than he once believed them to be--and much more dangerous.
Publication Date: 04/09/13
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin
Synopsis: This funny fractured fairy tale goes behind the scenes of Rumpelstiltskin. New York Times Bestselling author Liesl Shurtliff "spins words into gold [Kirby Larson, Newbery Honor winner]."

In a magic kingdom where your name is your destiny, 12-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone's joke. But when he finds an old spinning wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into gold. His best friend, Red Riding Hood, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she’s right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse.

To break the spell, Rump must go on a perilous quest, fighting off pixies, trolls, poison apples, and a wickedly foolish queen. The odds are against him, but with courage and friendship—and a cheeky sense of humor—he just might triumph in the end.

A Texas Bluebonnet finalist and winner of the ILA award for middle grade fiction, Rump is perfect for fans of Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted or Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm. And don't miss Liesl Shurtliff's other fairy tale retellings: Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk and Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood.

"A fresh riff on the Grimm Brothers' Rumpelstiltskin, told with wit from the impish point of view of the troublemaker himself." —People

"Lighthearted and inventive, Rump amusingly expands a classic tale." —Brandon Mull, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fablehaven.
Publication Date: 04/09/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Home To Oblivion
Roger Whittlesey
Synopsis: HOME TO OBLIVION leads the reader from a pivotal Revolutionary War sea battle to a mysterious island where time seems irrelevant. Narrator Prescott Fielding, a 12-year-old ship's boy from 1779, meets and befriends Caleb Thompson, a 17-year-old U. S. Marine, who was fighting on the rice paddies of Vietnam, in 1968, before suddenly appearing on the island. Later, Julian Woodgate, a young World War I British Army code-breaker, appears and upsets the comfortable routine that Prescott and Caleb have created. How can people born 200 years apart exist together at one time? Are they living in a time warp? Outside of time? Is it the afterlife? A series of events--both natural and unnatural--convince the characters to travel inland to seek answers. Prescott soon discovers the island is far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined, and standing between him and his dream to go home is a powerful and evil force.
Publication Date: 03/28/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Emospherica (The Destiny of Jasmine Blade, #1)
Synopsis: Jasmine Blade has tightly bottled her emotions for 18 years, but when one chance encounter with a wanna-be rock star ends up in a whirlwind journey across the globe, everything changes. With the invention of 'Emosphere's', Jasmine now has the power to control the emotions of others. Her destiny is to prove to the Council of Carriers, Framers and Readers that Emospherica is a phenomenon capable of controlling the masses - but at what cost? Her unfolding destiny is both dangerous and risky, especially when she has to put absolute trust in others. But Jasmine is determined to remain tenacious and tough until the end - whether it is in jubilant victory or gut wrenching defeat. She is fast learning why emotional warfare is a dangerous game, and that sometimes love doesn't conquer all, no matter what rock star you fall for.
Publication Date: 03/26/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Seeking Dr. Magic
Scott Spotson
Synopsis: Chaos reigns around the world. Strange creatures, accorded the title "Phantom Ninjas" by the media, are leaping off tall buildings and somersaulting back up without any scratch - and then disappear. There follows more spontaneous acts of magic, confounding the world. Who - or what - is responsible? In the middle of the mystery arrives Detective Hetfield, a private investigator just recently released from the FBI due to an on-the-job injury. Hetfield, accustomed to fame as a star witness in the murder trial of a beloved actress, uses the media to put forward the theory that a person of extraordinary magical powers is behind all the incidents, and labels him Dr. Magic. Hetfield gets much more than what he bargained for when that powerful being does exist - in the form of a young man long disillusioned with his past - and cruelly takes him up on his offer. For lovers of light-hearted and fun novels involving magic.
Publication Date: 03/25/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Fireflies
PS Bartlett
Synopsis: However peculiar Ennis Whelan has been for the first six years of his life, not until the day he found the bird, did the degree of his strangeness become so tangible. 

Dr. Owen Whelan and his wife Sarah, both Irish immigrants, have been living the American dream, as well as raising seven bright and expressive children. Their youngest Ennis, however, has since birth, been a bit of a mystery. Ennis was always small, meek and frightfully odd but there is so much more to him than anyone could have imagined. His sister Teagan grows increasingly suspicious of his behavior but their mother dismisses her claims, until the day he starts healing people.When Ennis ultimately reveals the gift of sight, he questions his father about visions of his past, including his voyage to America in 1844. Owen prayed he'd never have to share those tragic memories but he will share them, when he realizes he has no choice. Ennis' life may depend on it.
Publication Date: 03/22/13
Age Level: Any Age
Genre: Fantasy

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