The Best Children's Book Picks SEPTEMBER 2023 - US Post - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Fifteen years ago, The Vanishing thrust Manhattan into darkness, forever changing the City That Never Sleeps. By day, resilient New Yorkers have adapted, clinging to the vestiges of their cosmopolitan lives. By night―well, you never go out at night unless you have a death wish. Or unless you're Rei Reynolds. Rei attends an exclusive New York prep school, but unlike her classmates, she welcomes nightfall. That's when she can secretly hunt Deathlings, the deadly creatures that have prowled Manhattan's subway tunnels and blood-soaked streets since the Vanishing. After they brutally slaughtered her parents years ago, Rei is desperate for vengeance. To get it, Rei must qualify for―and win―the Tournament, a competition to join the ranks of the city’s legendary Deathling hunters. Rei’s nightly pursuits should give her an advantage, but the other competitors are fierce, and in some cases familiar: enter Kieran Cross, Rei’s most infuriating rival . . . and ex-boyfriend. As the Tournament progresses―and the cutthroat competition escalates―everything Rei believed about who she can trust is called into question. Soon enough, she’s caught in the crosshairs of the elite who want to keep the city's ruling class in power, as well as those who will stop at nothing to bring it down. Because sometimes it's not the monsters waiting in the dark you should fear . . . it's the ones who dare to walk into the light. Coco Ma's exhilarating urban fantasy thrusts readers into an immersive world of thrills and chills, featuring the smart, sardonic post-apocalyptic heroine you’ll soon wish you could be.
Janelle McCurdy - The Traitor of Nubis: 2 (Umbra Tales) - Published by Aladdin (19 Sept. 2023) - ISBN-13 : 978-1665901307 - Hardback - Age: 7+
Mia grapples with the responsibility of her new powers and uncovers even more of Nubis's secrets in this thrilling second book in the Umbra Tales middle-grade series that's Keeper of the Lost Cities meets The Golden Compass.
The Reaper King's attempt to break free and thrust the rest of the Kingdom of Lunis into darkness has been thwarted, but all is still not well in Nubis, Mia's moonlit kingdom home. The whole city is on guard for another attempt to resurrect the Reaper King. Though imprisoned, his followers, the Elite, are still inside the city, and tensions among the population are at an all-time high.
Meanwhile, Mia struggles to cope with her new Lightcaster powers and to fit in with the rest of the tamers, many of whom are skeptical of her abilities. But it's the appearance of old friends and new maybe-enemies that will truly put Mia's abilities--and the loyalties of everyone she trusts--to the test.
Wrecker needs to deal with smugglers, grave robbers, and pooping iguanas—just as soon as he finishes Zoom school. Welcome to another wild adventure in Carl Hiaasen's Florida!
Valdez Jones VIII calls himself Wrecker because his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather salvaged shipwrecks for a living.
So is it destiny, irony, or just bad luck when Wrecker comes across a speedboat that has run hard aground on a sand flat? The men in the boat don't want Wrecker to call for help—in fact, they'll pay him to forget he ever saw them.
Wrecker would be happy to forget, but he keeps seeing these men all over Key West—at the marina, in the cemetery, even right outside his own door. And now they want more than his silence—they want a lookout.
He'll have to dive deep into their shady dealings to figure out a way to escape this tangled net. . . .
From the author of Scritch Scratch and The Girl in White comes a new spooky mystery about a girl detective who must decode a series of ominous clues tied to a century-old tragedy to find a missing teenager before it's too late…
Twelve-year-old Hazel Woods has always had an unusual knack for sleuthing. Some may call it snooping, but all she really wants is to solve mysteries around town. So, when she not-so-accidentally overhears her brother Den planning to sneak into the cemetery at night for an epic game of hide-and-seek, she decides to secretly tag along. This seems like the perfect opportunity to investigate the claims that the cemetery is haunted.
But the moment the game ends, Hazel realizes something is very, very wrong. From her hiding spot in the bushes, she overhears that her brother's best friend, Everett, is missing. Everyone else was found by the seeker but there's no sign of Everett anywhere. It's as if he just . . . vanished
Hazel and Den are determined to find Everett before it's too late. But as they begin to unravel the terrifying clues that started appearing since that night in the graveyard–eerie whispers that sound like someone counting, the intermittent smell of smoke, and the cold, lost presence that follows them everywhere, she's not sure what they are dealing with. But Everett needs more than search parties and scent-tracking dogs to find him, especially if his disappearance is tied to the history of the cemetery, and the lost, century-old spirits that might still be trapped there . . .
From Ethan M. Aldridge, bestselling creator of Estranged, comes a gothic middle-grade prose novel that follows a nonbinary student who is drawn to their boarding school’s forbidden east wing, where something stalks the shadowy corridors. Perfect for fans of J. A. White and Mary Downing Hahn!
When Guinevere "Nev" Tallow receives an acceptance letter to the exclusive Deephaven Academy, they know it’s the fresh start that they’ve been looking for.
But things are strange from the moment they arrive—the house itself seems to breathe, students whisper secrets in dark corridors, and the entire east wing of the academy is locked away for reasons no one wants to explain. And Nev knows something ragged stalks the shadowy corridors, something that sobs quietly and scratches at the walls, waiting to be released.
With the help of another first-year student, Nev takes it upon themself to unravel the mysteries hidden in Deephaven's halls. But will they risk their fresh start to bring the academy’s secret to light?
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