In the good old days, magic was indispensable—it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain. But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer. Because something is coming. Something known as . . . Big Magic.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
Rain & Fire: A Companion to the Last Dragon Chronicles
Scrivener’s Moon
When she returns home after two years, Fever finds that her Scriven mother’s creation, New London, the city on wheels, is nearly complete and ready to fight the nomad tribes of Britain–and Fever must journey to the north to find the ancient birthplace of the Scriven mutants and solve the mystery of her own past.
Splendors and Glooms
When Clara vanishes after the puppeteer Grisini and two orphaned assistants were at her twelfth birthday party, suspicion of kidnapping chases the trio away from London and soon the two orphans are caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it is too late.
Execution
Alex Sawyer has escaped his underground nightmare to discover that the whole world has become a horrible prison run by his nemesis, Alfred Furnace, and only Alex can stop him, even if that makes him the executioner.
A Book of Tormod: A Templar’s Destiny
The Chosen, Tormod, aided by Aine and Bertrand, returns to France seeking other Gifted members of the Templar Order and striving to recover the relics he is bound to protect, while also hoping to find and rescue his brother, Torquil.
Diary of a Parent Trainer
Thirteen-year-old Katie Sutton, a self-proclaimed expert on grown-up behavior, begins writing a user’s manual to help other teens train and operate their parents, but when her own mother starts dating Yellow Tie Man, Katie needs all of her expertise to get rid of him.
Keeping the Castle
In order to support her family and maintain their ancient castle in Lesser Hoo, seventeen-year-old Althea bears the burden of finding a wealthy suitor who can remedy their financial problems.
Castle of Shadows
Ever since the Queen mysteriously disappeared and the King went mad five years ago, eleven-year-old Princess Charlie has lived a wild and mostly unsupervised life in the country of Quale, running amok through the castle instead of following affairs of state. Now revolution whispers through the air, and Charlie is powerless to stop it. Then she discovers a clue: a desperate, unfinished letter scribbled years before by the missing Queen. Charlie doesn’t understand the danger her mother writes of, but she does know that the Queen absolutely must be found-together, they can surely save the King and the kingdom. So plucky Charlie embarks on a quest to track down her mother, armed with the precious scrap of paper and with Tobias, the gardener’s boy, as an unlikely ally. Putting away her tattered old clothes, she must deal with games of political intrigue, the rebels’ rough-laid schemes, and the prime minister’s sudden interest in the forgotten princess’s well-being. And every step closer to the Queen pulls Charlie deeper into an entangling web of lies and secrets, where nothing is as it seems and people are not who they say . . .
Long Lankin
When Cora and her younger sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their great Auntie Ida in an isolated village in 1958, they discover that they are in danger from a centuries-old evil and, along with village boys Roger and Peter, strive to uncover the horrifying truth before it is too late.