The Spoon in the Bathroom Wall, by Tony Johnston (Harcourt, 2005)

Martha (or as the bullies call her, Marthur) is a highly intelligent, good-hearted girl who lives with her father in the boiler room of a school where strange things happen on a daily basis. All she wants to do is … Continue reading

The Spiderwick Chronicles: Notebook For Fantastical Observations, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (Simon and Schuster, 2005)

Appearing as a supplement to Black and DiTerlizzi’s excellent Spiderwick Chronicles series, this lovely little hardbound notebook is a potpourri of imaginative explorations based on the material introduced in the books. Each “section” is prefaced with a mini-essay regarding some … Continue reading

The Singer of All Songs, by Kate Constable (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2004)

Sheltered by her upbringing as an ice priestess in the remote land of Antaris, a place emphatically set apart from the rest of the world by the massive magically-maintained Wall, Calwyn is unprepared for the destiny that meets her head-on … Continue reading

The Purple Emperor, by Herbie Brennan (Bloomsbury, 2004)

Henry Atherton has been different ever since his amazing set of adventures with Pyrgus, Prince of the Faeries of the Light, and Holly Blue, Pyrgus’ sister. Together, they foiled an evil plot, and prevented the armies of Hael from completely … Continue reading

The Prophecy of the Stones, by Flavia Bujor (Hyperion, 2004)

Jade, the daughter of the powerful Duke of Divulyon. Amber, a simple country girl. Opal, an intellectual, artistic city girl. Under normal circumstances, these three teenagers would never have met, never have been forced to travel together, never been forced … Continue reading

The Princess Tales, by Gail Carson Levine, (HarperTrophy, 2002)

Gail Carson Levine revisits three favorite fairy tales, and reinterprets them with a wry sense of self-aware humor in this compilation of the first three books in her Princess Tales series. In The Fairy’s Mistake, twin sisters are given very … Continue reading

The Princess of Neptune, by Quentin Dodd (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004)

Think your life is weird? Try being teenage heroine Theora Theremin, whose last-minute idea for a science project, to study the possible existence of local legendary lake monster, Big Phil, throws her head-first into an adventure like none other. First … Continue reading

The Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2005)

For many years, the people of Mount Eskel have been a neglected part of a larger kingdom, their remote region noteworthy only for the stone they quarry and their fiercely independent ways. That’s how it is, and that’s how they … Continue reading

The Power of Three, by Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow Books, 2003)

The sins of a generation past come back to haunt the present, in this fantasy from Diana Wynne Jones, originally published in 1976 and part of the ongoing reprint effort by Greenwillow Books. The Moor is inhabited by three different … Continue reading

The Phoenix Dance, by Dia Calhoun (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005)

Phoenix Dance suffers from a bizarre affliction which often makes her life unbearable. Sometimes, she’s manic, filled with energy and prone to fanciful ideas, her thoughts churning around too quickly for her to grab hold of them. As this state … Continue reading