By Shannon Delany
Series 13 to Life
Grade(s): 8-12

Jessica's life turns upside-down when she meets first-generation Russian-American Pietr Rusakova, and the secrets he holds opens up Jessica's curiosity.

By Catherine Jinks
Grade(s): 8-12

Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before after being found unconscious in the dingo pen at Featherdale Wildlife Park, and he finds out that he is a werewolf from a group of vampires.

By Michael Scott
Series Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

While working at pleasant but mundane summer jobs in San Francisco, fifteen–year–old twins, Sophie and Josh, suddenly find themselves caught up in the deadly, centuries–old struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient and powerful book holding the secret formulas for alchemy and everlasting life.

By Eoin Colfer
Series Artemis Fowl

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. With two trusty sidekicks in tow, he hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn't foolish enough to believe in all that "gold at the end of the rainbow" nonsense. Rather, he knows that the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnap one of them and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to put his plan into action, he doesn't count on the appearance of the extrasmall, pointy-eared Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit--and her senior officer, Commander Root, a man (sorry, elf) who will stop at nothing to get her back.

By Malinda Lo

In this variation on the Cinderella story, Ash grows up believing in the fairy realm that the king and his philosophers have sought to suppress, until one day she must choose between a handsome fairy cursed to love her and the King's Huntress whom she loves.

By Annette Curtis Klause
Grade(s): 9-12

Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.

By Robin McKinley

Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers.

By Avi

The Book Without Words appears to be a volume of black parchment pages. But for a green-eyed reader filled with great desire, it may reveal the forgotten magical arts of making gold and achieving immortality. For generations, its magic has been protected from those who would exploit it. But on a terrible day of death and destruction, the Book Without Words falls into the hands of a desperate boy.

By Cassandra Clare
Series Mortal Instruments

Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen–year–old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

By Christine Johnson
Grade(s): 7-12

On her sixteenth birthday Claire discovers strange things happening and when her mother reveals their family secret which explains the changes, Claire feels her world, as she has known it to be, slowly slipping away.

By Neil Gaiman
Grade(s): 5+

Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

Became the movie: Coraline.

By Sarah J. Maas
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian

Retaining her human heart despite her latent High Fae powers, Feyre struggles with guilt over the deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people while navigating the Night Court's web of politics, passion and evil.

By Rachel Hawthorne
Grade(s): 8-12

While working as a wilderness guide in the national forest where her parents were killed twelve years earlier, seventeen-year-old Kayla is powerfully drawn to Lucas, who she learns is her appointed guardian - and much more - as she discovers her true identity and destiny.

By Tracy Barrett

Retells the story of the minotaur through the eyes of his fifteen-year-old sister, Ariadne, a lonely girl destined to become a goddess of the moon, and her new friend, Theseus, the son of Athens' king who was sent to Crete as a sacrifice to her misshapen brother.

By Kelley Armstrong
Grade(s): 8-12

Chloe Saunders is haunted by a particularly violent ghost and is sent to Lyle House, a center for disturbed teens, where she finds herself investigating a series of other paranormal happenings.

By Jane Yolen
Series Pit Dragon Chronicles

Jakkin, a bond boy who works as a Keeper in a dragon nursery on the planet Austar IV, secretly trains a fighting pit dragon of his own in hopes of winning his freedom.

By Elizabeth Knox
Series Dreamhunter Duet

In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen–year–old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.

By Edith Pattou

A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.

By Frances Hardinge
Recommended By Jenn Jordan, Library Aide

When Neverfell, who has no memory, arrives in Caverna, her facial expressions make her very dangerous to the people who live with blank faces or pay dearly to learn to simulate emotions.

By Diana Wynne Jones

Sent to a boisterous family gathering in Ireland by her overly strict grandmother, orphaned Hayley feels out of place until her unruly cousins include her in a special game involving travel through the mythosphere, the place where all the world's stories can be found, and where some secrets of her past are revealed.

By Alma Alexander
Series Worldweavers

As the seventh child born of the union of two seventh children, fourteen–year–old Thea has not fulfilled her parents' hope of having special magical powers, and they try a last, desperate measure before sending her to a school for those with no magical ability.

By Hilari Bell

A young Hedgewitch, an idealistic knight, and an army of clever goblins fight against the ruling hierarchy that is trying to rid the land of all magical creatures.

By Philip Pullman
Series His Dark Materials

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

Became the movie: The Golden Compass.

By Kristin Cashore

In a world where some people are born with etreme and often feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

By Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

By Libba Bray
Series Gemma Doyle Trilogy

After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen–year–old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

By J.K. Rowling
Series Harry Potter

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

By Nancy Werlin

When seventeen–year–old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both.

By Erin Hunter
Series Warriors

For generations, four clans of wild cats have shared the forest. When their warrior code is threatened by mysterious deaths, a house cat named Rusty may turn out to be the bravest warrior of all.

By Adrian McKinty
Series Lighthouse Trilogy

Thirteen–year–old Jamie is overjoyed when a bequest sends him and his mother to live on an Irish island, where he and his newfound friend Ramsay travel back in time to help a young girl save her people from certain death.

By Rick Riodran
Series Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

By C.S. Lewis
Series The Chronicles of Narnia

Four English school children find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch who has cursed the land with eternal winter.

By T.A. Barron
Series Lost Years of Merlin

A young boy who has no identity, nor memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of fantastic adventures.

By Cassandra Clare
Grade(s): 8-12

Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

By Patricia Elliot

A village girl, newly companion to the Master's ward in the days following the Ministration, challenges the motives of the religious leaders of the Divine Beings, the birds.

By Alison Croggon
Series Books of Pellinor

A manuscript from the lost civilization of Edil–Amarandah chronicles the experiences of sixteen–year–old Maerad, an orphan gifted in the magic and power of the Bards, as she escapes from slavery and begins to learn how to use her Gift to stave off the evil Darkness that threatens to consume her world.

By Carrie Jones
Series Need Pixies
Grade(s): 7-12

Depressed after the death of her stepfather, high school junior Zara goes to live with her grandmother in a small Maine town, where new friends tell Zara the strange man she keeps seeing may be a pixie king, and that only "were" creatures can stop him from taking souls.

By James Kennedy

Thirteen–year–old Jo suddenly finds her humdrum life turned upside down when Colonel Anatoly Kordakov shows up at her aunt's party and announces he has come to protect her.

By Catherine Jinks
Grade(s): 7-12

Fifteen-year-old vampire Nina has been stuck for fifty-one years in a boring support group for vampires, and nothing exciting has ever happened to them--until one of them is murdered and the others must try to solve the crime.

By Tamora Pierce
Series Circle of Magic

Four young misfits find themselves living in a strictly disciplined temple community where they become friends while also learning to do crafts and to use their powers, especially magic.

By Maggie Stiefvater
Series Wolves of Mercy Falls
Grade(s): 8-12

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf, her wolf, is a haunting presence she can't seem to live without. Sequels are Linger (2010) and Forever (2011).

By Jackson Pearce
Grade(s): 9-12

After a Fenris, or werewolf, killed their grandmother and almost killed them, sisters Scarlett and Rosie March devote themselves to hunting and killing the beasts that prey on teenaged girls, learning how to lure them with red cloaks and occasionally using the help of their old friend, Silas, the woodsman's son.

By David Almond

"I thought he was dead. He was sitting with his legs stretched out and his head tipped back against the wall. He was covered with dust and webs like everything else and his face was thin and pale. Dead bluebottles were scattered on his hair and shoulders. I shined the flashlight on his white face and his black suit."
This is Michael’s introduction to Skellig, the man–owl–angel who lies motionless behind the tea chests in the abandoned garage in back of the boy’s dilapidated new house. As disturbing as this discovery is, it is the least of Michael’s worries. The new house is a mess, his parents are distracted, and his brand–new baby sister is seriously ill. Still, he can’t get this mysterious creature out of his mind–– even as he wonders if he has really seen him at all.

By Edward Bloor

When eighth grader Kate and her Uncle George (who is two years younger than her) receive letters inviting them to attend the Whittaker Magnet School, home of nasty protein shakes and the freakish "Test–Based Curriculum," their reactions are mixed. George, somewhat of a genius, is pleased, while Kate is horrified. Still, as a search on–line reveals, their house is suddenly in the Whittaker school district, so off they go. It’s not long, before they discover something very strange is afoot at their new school.

By Kelley Armstrong
Series Darkest Powers

After fifteen–year–old Chloe starts seeing ghosts and is sent to Lyle House, a mysterious group home for mentally disturbed teenagers, she soon discovers that neither Lyle House nor its inhabitants are exactly what they seem, and that she and her new friends are in danger.

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
Series Tantalize
Grade(s): 8-12

When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of her family's vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Keiren, a werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect.

By Tamora Pierce
Series Beka Cooper

When sixteen–year–old Beka becomes "Puppy" to a pair of "Dogs," as the Provost's Guards are called, she uses her police training, natural abilities, and a touch of magic to help them solve the case of a murdered baby in Tortall's Lower City.

By Patricia C. Wrede
Series Frontier Magic

Eighteen–year–old Eff must finally get over believing she is bad luck and accept that her special training in Aphrikan magic, and being the twin of the seventh son of a seventh son, give her extraordinary power to combat magical creatures that threaten settlements on the western frontier.

By Stephenie Meyer
Grade(s): 7-12

Follows the experiences of Bella Swan, a young woman who moves to Forks, Washington, and becomes caught up in the lives of the handsome vampire, Edward Cullen, and Jake, a werewolf.

By Melissa Marr
Series Wicked Lovely

Seventeen–year–old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries–old battle between the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance.