Mr Ripley's New Children's and Teen Books September 2014 - Post Two

Scott Westerfeld - Afterworlds - Published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books (25 Sep 2014)
Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings...Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about 
most.

Kenneth Oppel - The Boundless - Published by David Fickling Books (4 Sep 2014)
After a murder is committed, Will finds himself in possession of a key that has the potential to unlock the train's hidden treasures. Together with Maren, a gifted escape artist, and Mr Dorian, a circus ringmaster with amazing abilities, Will must save the Boundless before someone else winds up dead. With villains fast on his heels and strange creatures lurking outside the windows, the train hurtles across the country as Will flees for his life. His adventure may have begun without his knowing...but how it ends is now entirely up to Will.

Dave Shelton - Thirteen Chairs - Published by  David Fickling Books (4 Sep 2014)
Jack stands in the dark on the landing of the old house, and looks at his feet - He has been here for minutes, his hand on the door handle, debating whether or not to go in. A high-ceilinged room lit only by candles. Thirteen chairs, one empty. Twelve ghostly storytellers, waiting to begin. Come in! Sit down. We have been expecting you. Listen to our stories. Are you brave enough? And what is the story that you must tell? Jack is a curious boy. Are you?

Kendall Kulper - The Witch of Salt & Storm - Orchard Books (4 Sep 2014)

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the sea witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe and prosperous at sea. But before she could learn how to control her power, her mother - the first Roe woman in centuries to turn her back on magic - steals Avery away from her grandmother. Avery must escape before her grandmother dies, taking with her the secrets of the Roe's power.

The one magical remnant left to Avery is the ability to read dreams, and one night she foresees her own murder. Time is running short, both for her and for the people of her island who need the witches' help to thrive.

Avery has never read a dream that hasn't come true, but a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane tells her he can help her change her fate. Becoming a witch may prevent her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers it will also require a sacrifice she never expected. And as she falls in love with Tane, she learns it is his life and hers that hang in the balance.

Mr Ripley's New Children's and Teen Books September 2014 - Post One

Charlie Higson - The Hunted (Enemy Book 6 ) - Published by Puffin (4 Sep 2014) 

The Hunted is Charlie Higson's sixth terrifying installment in the thrilling The Enemy series

The sickness struck everyone over fourteen.

First it twisted their minds.

Next it ravaged their bodies.

Now they roam the streets -

Crazed and hungry

The others had promised that the countryside would be safer than the city. They were wrong. Now Ella's all-alone except for her silent rescuer, Scarface - and she's not even sure if he's a kid or a grown-up.

Back in London, Ed's determined to find her. But getting out of town's never been more dangerous- because coming in the other direction is every SICKO in the country. It's like they're being called towards the capital and nothing is going to stop them . . .

In the penultimate book in The Enemy series, the survivors' stories cross with chilling consequences.

Rick Yancey - The 5th Wave: The Infinite Sea - Published by Penguin (6 Sep 2014)

The Infinite Sea is the hugely anticipated follow-up to the phenomenal - and bestselling - The 5th Wave by Carnegie-shortlisted Rick Yancey.

THE 1st WAVE: Took out half a million people.

THE 2nd WAVE: Put that number to shame.

THE 3rd WAVE: Lasted a little longer. Twelve weeks . . . Four billion dead.

IN THE 4th WAVE: You can't trust that people are still people.

AND THE 5th WAVE?

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others' ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven't seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Tom Becker - Afterwalkers - Published by Scholastic Press (4 Sep 2014) 

Grave robbery, murder and fear... For hundreds of years the people of Alderston have guarded a terrible secret. When Jamie's family receive a summons to do a mysterious job, they move into a house that looks over the graveyard. Soon Jamie witnesses a series of strange visions and terrible attacks. He begins to suspect that the great iron cages placed on top of the graves are not there to keep robbers out, but to keep the dead in. A curse rests on the town. The undead are in charge, and somehow Jamie is the only hope.

Alex Campbell - Land - Published by Hot Key Books - ( 4 Sep 2014)

The sea rose. Civilisation was wiped out, countries drowned. Out of the ashes of a desperate refugee camp, a new society was born, with a new place to call home: Land. Trapped by an aggressive sea, its citizens were bound to rules that saw the weak removed, marriage and children by approval only, and designated work for all. All for the greater good...Decades later, and seventeen-year-old Christy's life is on the cusp of irrevocable change. She has become eligible for The Pairing, a carefully selected marriage of political and social convenience where romance is out of the question. Her grandmother, Cons, has also reached a significant age - sixty-six: soon the Selection Truck will arrive to take her away forever. Christy's only hope for protection lies with her errant rebel father ...but nothing goes as it's supposed to. As Christy finds a Pairing which might offer a new opportunity for love and security she also uncovers a destiny that has been hidden from her; truths that have been disguised as childhood lies. With Cons' life under threat, Christy is forced to face a whole new world, one where she must choose between those she cares about and the greater good. A new life where she must play the reluctant rebel, revolutionary, lover ...and assassin.

Mr Ripley's New Children's Books Published October 2013 - Post Two Fantasy/Horror Mayhem

                       

Curtis Jobling - Wereworld: War of the Werelords - Published by Puffin - 3, October 2013

Drew Ferran was born a werewolf. Time has always been his greatest enemy.

Across the Badlands the Catlords have turned on each other. In North Lyssia the Seven Realms' greatest armies gather. And in the frozen city of Icegarden an even deadlier force lies in wait. If Drew wants to save his friends, he must fight - but have the heavens already decided his fate?

All roads lead to war. In the shadow of Strakenberg, and by the light of the full moon, the victors - and losers - will be decided.

Andrew Fukuda - The Trap (Hunt) - Published by Simon & Schuster Childrens Books - 24, October 2013

After barely escaping the Mission alive, Gene and Sissy face an impossible task: staying alive long enough to stop an entire world bent on their destruction. Bound on a train heading into the unknown with the surviving Mission girls, Gene, Sissy, David, and Epap must stick together and use everything they have to protect each other and their only hope: the cure that will turn the blood-thirsty creatures around them into humans again. Now that they know how to reverse the virus, Gene and Sissy have one final chance to save those they love and create a better life for themselves. But as they struggle to get there, Gene's mission sets him on a crash course with Ashley June, his first love ...and his deadliest enemy.

                     

Catherine Fisher - The Box of Red Brocade - Published by Hodder Children's Books - 3, October 2013 

On a mission to recover his father lost in time, Jake finds himself in 1940s London. From the rubble of the Blitzed city, a clue leads him to an eccentric seer of ghosts, three sinister children and three strange prophesies. Two of them soon come to pass, but what is the Box of Red Brocade? Does it hold the secret of destroying the Obsidian Mirror? A talking bird, an invisible girl, a walking wood; the second volume of Catherine Fisher's Chronoptika series is packed with mystery, magic and sinister intrigue.

                    

Hilton Pashley - Gabriel's Clock - Published by Andersen - 3, October 2013

Jonathan is in terrible danger. After his home is attacked by faceless monsters in bowler hats, he wakes up in the strange village of Hobbes End. Built by a fallen angel and hidden deep within a forest, Hobbes End protects those who need to be safe - and nobody is more in need of protection than Jonathan.

Jonathan is the only half-angel, half-demon in the universe, and now the forces of Hell want him for their own purpose. Aided by a vicar with a broken heart, a big man with a cricket bat and a very rude cat, Jonathan races to find the mysterious Gabriel's Clock. If he doesn't find it then his family and friends will die, but, if he does, then he risks starting a war between Heaven and Hell that could engulf them all.

Gabriel's clock is ticking . . . and time is running out.

Mr Ripley's New Children's Books Published October 2013 - Post One

                   

Lily Herne - Death of A Saint - Published by Much-In-Little - 17, October 2013 

Some secrets are so unthinkable you can't even admit them to yourself . . . Lele, Ginger, Ash and Saint - aka the Mall Rats - are hiding out in the Deadlands, a once-prosperous area of Cape Town, now swarming with the living dead. Exiled from the city enclave for crimes against the Resurrectionist State, the Rats face a stark choice: return and risk capture - or leave Cape Town and go in search of other survivors.But what if the rest of South Africa is nothing but a zombie-riddled wasteland? Now Lele has discovered the truth about why the lurching dead leave them alone, she can't bring herself to tell the rest of the gang. And she's not the only Mall Rat harbouring a dangerous secret . . . Can the friends' survive on the road if all they have is each other? Or will their secrets tear them apart?

                     

Marcus Sedgwick - She is Not Invisible - Published by Indigo - 3, October 2013
Laureth Peak's father is a writer. For years he's been trying, and failing, to write a novel about coincidence. His wife thinks he's obsessed, Laureth thinks he's on the verge of a breakdown. He's supposed to be doing research in Austria, so when his notebook shows up in New York, Laureth knows something is wrong.

On impulse she steals her mother's credit card and heads for the States, taking her strange little brother Benjamin with her. Reunited with the notebook, they begin to follow clues inside, trying to find their wayward father. Ahead lie challenges and threats, all of which are that much tougher for Laureth than they would be for any other 16-year old. Because Laureth Peak is blind.
                        

Sophie Jordan - Hidden (Firelight) Published by OUP Oxford - 3, October 2013
'Inhaling deep breaths I wait for it to begin. The battle I've been waiting my whole life to fight.'
A group of vicious hunters are drawing dangerously close to discovering the secrets of the draki (descendants of dragons with the ability to shift into human form). Reluctantly, Jacinda realizes that running away to be with her beloved Will is no longer an option while the safety of her draki pride is at stake. Jacinda vows to use every last breath of fiery determination to protect the pride and for the right to control her own destiny.

But when the battle is over, Jacinda must decide where her heart truly lies . . . with the pride or with Will?
    

Catherine Johnson - Sawbones - Published by Walker Books - 3, October 2013 
Sixteen-year-old Ezra McAdam has much to be thankful for: trained up as an apprentice by a well-regarded London surgeon, Ezra’s knowledge of human anatomy and skill at the dissection table will secure him a trade for life. However, his world is turned on its head when a failed break-in at his master’s house sets off a strange and disturbing series of events that involves grave robbing, body switching … and murder. Sparky, persuasive young Loveday Finch, daughter of the late Mr Charles Finch, magician, employs Ezra to investigate her father’s death - and there are marked similarities between his corpse and the others. The mystery takes Ezra and Loveday from the Operating Theatre at St Bart’s to the desolate wasteland of Coldbath Fields; from the streets of Clerkenwell to the dark, damp vaults of Newgate Prison; and finally to the shadowy and forbidding Ottoman Embassy, which seems to be the key to it all…

New Children's Fantasy Books: Published In May 2013 - US Post

                                        
                                          

Viviane Schwarz - The Sleepwalkers - Published by Candlewick (May 14, 2013) - Age 7+ 
Nightmares are turned around with the help of The Sleepwalkers, a dreamlike graphic-novel adventure by Vivane Schwarz. When you are afraid to fall asleep, when all your dreams are nightmares, write us a letter, put it under your pillow, we will rescue you...It is almost time for the old and tired Sleepwalkers to return to the waking world. But before they go, they must conjure and train three new replacements. Who else will look after the Sleepwalking House and be there to answer the call of a child frozen with fear, trapped in a nightmare? Faced with a series of cliff-hanging dream predicaments, the three brave new heroes tackle the weird and the wild in this tale about pulling together as a team and having the confidence to stand up to your fears.

Marianne - Malone - The Pirate's Coin: A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure - published by Random House Books for Young Readers (May 28, 2013) -Age 8+

Fans of magic, mystery, and adventure will love the third The Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure—a perfect next step for kids who love the Magic Tree House series, and just right for readers who love Chasing Vermeer, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Wonderstruck. Sixth Graders Ruthie and Jack return to the Art Institute of Chicago's magical Thorne Rooms. During a school presentation, Ruthie and Jack discover that their classmate Kendra is descended from Phoebe Monroe, the young slave they befriended when they traveled to 19th-century South Carolina. Kendra tells them that long ago her family lost their good name and their business selling herbal remedies when mobsters accused them of stealing the recipes! Only Ruthie and Jack know the truth--because only they know about the secret ledger that Phoebe wrote the recipes in long ago! Ruthie and Jack's mission to clear Kendra's name takes them back to the Thorne Rooms, where a mysterious old coin leads them to 1753 Cape Cod and to Jack's own ancestor . . . the pirate Jack Norfleet! But playing with history can be dangerous! Suddenly, Jack's very existence is in jeopardy! Can Ruthie and Jack find the proof they need to help Kendra? And can they fix the past and save Jack's future . . . before it's too late?
     
                                           

Anne Nesbit - A Box Of Gargoyles -  Published by HarperCollins (May 14, 2013) - Age 8+
In this sequel to The Cabinet of Earths, twelve-year-old Maya is feeling more at home in Paris, a city filled with old magic. Her little brother, James, is safe, and the terrible man with purple eyes is gone. At least Maya believed he was until a person-sized column of dust and leaves with hints of purple where its eyes should be begins following her.
 
Maya suspects the strange, shadowy column is what’s left of the purple-eyed man, and that it—he—is behind the eerie changes in Paris, including the appearance of flying, talking stone gargoyles. She’s right. Worse, he has bound Maya to make him whole again, even if it kills her.

                                            

Anne Cameron The Lightning Catcher - Published by Greenwillow Books (May 7, 2013) - Age 8+
The Lightning Catcher, the first in a funny four-book fantasy / adventure series by Anne Cameron, is a must-read for middle-grade fans of The Underland Chronicles series and the Savvy books.
 
Any kid who has dreamed of having magical powers will want to follow the thrilling story of eleven-year-old Angus, an ordinary boy who discovers he is a Storm Prophet. That means Angus can predict and control extreme weather! While learning about his powers at the Perilous Exploratorium for Weather and Vicious Storms on the island of Imbur, Angus finds out his parents are also far from ordinary. His mom and dad are Lightening Catchers—and they’ve been kidnapped.