Showing posts with label Jan 2024. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan 2024. Show all posts

Wednesday, 24 January 2024

The Best Children's Book Picks JAN 2024 US Post - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

Author: Ben Guterson 

Illustrator: Kristina Kister

Book Title: The World-Famous Nine

Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books (January 30, 2024)

Age: 9-12 Years

Zander Olinga’s grandmother is the owner of the fabled Number Nine Plaza, the spectacular nineteen-story skyscraper. The Nine, as it’s called, has everything imaginable, including a massive Ferris wheel on its rooftop, monorail tracks suspended from its ceiling, and twenty-five glass elevators. But there’s something evil looming in the shadows, and strange accidents start befalling the guests. When Zander and his friend Natasha come across a series of inscriptions hidden throughout the walls of The Nine, they discover that the clues will lead them to a magical object that protects the store’s very existence. With the future of The Nine on the line, the pair are determined to recover the mysterious object before the luxury plaza and its many guests are destroyed. 

 
Featuring an unforgettable setting and a larger-than-life cast of characters, here’s a spellbinding mystery involving puzzles, art, and high-stakes adventure.

Author: Marcykate Connolly 

Author: Kathryn Holmes

Book Title: The Thirteenth Circle 

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (January 30, 2024)

Age: 9-12 Years

The X-Files meets Scooby-Doo in THE THIRTEENTH CIRCLE, a middle-grade mystery from MarcyKate Connolly and Kathryn Holmes, featuring two unexpected friends, crop circles, science fairs, and Men in Black, perfect for both the highly scientific and cryptid enthusiasts alike.

Cat knows aliens are real, and she’s determined to prove it. By studying the Weston Farm Circles, her town’s legendary crop circle phenomenon, she’ll not only demonstrate the existence of extraterrestrial life, but also win the grand prize in the McMurray Youth Science Competition―a feat she’s sure will impress her distant NASA scientist father.

Author: Cole Poindexter

Book Title: The Griffin's Egg

Publisher: Wild Rose Press (January 15, 2024)

Age: 10-12 Years 

Lost in a wild West Virginia forest, Phoebe Gray's world is upended when she finds an irritable goblin named Gnish-Gnash. She's stumbled into Lerch Hollow, a place of magic and mystery where trolls lurk in shadows and mermaids sway with the tide. The young adventurer soon finds herself caught up in a race against time; the Dark Mistress Lucinda is on the hunt for the last Griffin's egg, for its power will make her unstoppable. It is up to Phoebe to protect the egg while discovering the secrets of her own magical connection to the mysterious wizard Thatcher. With Gnish at her side and her grandfather's old cloak on her back, Phoebe must protect this enchanted world from destruction.


Author: Zack Loran Clark 

Author: Nick Eliopulos

Book Title: The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour: BK 1 

Publisher: Zando Young Readers (January 30, 2024)

Age: 8-12 Years 

What if your favorite scary story was real?

With eerie illustrations and chilling creepypasta interstitials, The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos is the first in a deliciously creepy series, perfect for readers of Jonathan Stroud, Christian McKay Heidicker, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

New Rotterdam is no place for a kid―and that’s what Emrys Houtman likes about it. Emrys obsessively documents his town’s urban legends and cryptid sightings in a Wiki, along with his neighbors and fellow horror fans Hazel and Serena. It’s all in good fun until one day, the trio stumbles upon the Doomsday Archives, a collection of relics with dazzling powers and dangerous consequences.

When a mysterious blood-red hourglass begins appearing around town and children begin to go missing, the trio must band together to stop the horrors plaguing New Rotterdam, or risk losing their home . . . and possibly their lives. Because after all this time hunting monsters, the kids have realized the monsters are now hunting them back.



Sunday, 21 January 2024

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books GRAND FINAL Children's Book Cover Illustration Winner 2023/24

The latest installment of our captivating children's book cover competition has concluded, marking another outstanding year for children's book cover illustration.  We extend our deepest gratitude to all the voters, supporters, talented illustrators, dedicated authors, and forward-thinking publishers who rallied behind our annual competition. Despite the challenges in garnering attention on social media, we've navigated through five brilliant rounds, buoyed by your adventurous and discerning votes. 

This journey has allowed us to highlight and showcase 36 exceptional book covers, although the sheer abundance of talent and remarkable illustrators meant that many more could have been featured. Regrettably, not all receive the recognition they truly deserve, but we aspire on our website to illuminate their creative brilliance and efforts. 

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who championed and voted for these covers throughout the rounds - your support has truly done them justice.  It brings me immense joy to reveal that the winning book cover was illustrated by Hannah McCaffery for Bex Hogan's "Bronte Tempestra and the Lightning Steeds," set to be published by Piccadilly Press on February 1, 2024. Another worthy winner to go into the Hall of FAME. 

Thursday, 4 January 2024

Mr Ripley's Children's Book Picks Jan 2024 UK - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

 

Mary Averling - The Curse of Eelgrass Bog

Published by Razorbill (2 Jan. 2024)

Hardback - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593624906

Age: 8+

Dark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.

Nothing about Kess Pedrock's life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family's Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon's head in a jar named Shrunken Jim). 

But things get even stranger than usual when Kess meets Lilou Starling, the new girl in town. Lilou comes to Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse--and the only clue she has leads straight into the center of Eelgrass Bog. 

Everyone knows the bog is full of witches, demons, and possibly worse, but Kess and Lilou are determined not to let that stop them. As they investigate the mystery and uncover long-buried secrets, Kess begins to realize that the curse might hit closer to home than she'd ever expected, and she'll have to summon all her courage to find a way to break it before it's too late.


Jess French - Beastlands: Race to FrostFall Mountain 

Published by Piccadilly Press (18 Jan. 2024)

Paperback - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1800784062

Age: 9+ 

  • BEFORE THERE WERE PEOPLE, THERE WERE BEASTS . . .

    The island of Ramoa was once luscious and populated with mighty beasts. Now though, it is home to barren and tamed cities, where nature is locked out and trouble is brewing.

    When Kayla's beloved animal companion, a rare winged pangron, is stolen, she's determined to get him back. But to do so, she'll have to leave her city and journey into the wild and forbidden Beastlands. 

    There, she meets Rustus, an exiled young warrior, and Alethea, a healer desperately seeking a cure for a mysterious disease. As their quests unite them, they'll adventure across the lands they know so little about, leading them to discoveries both great and terrifying. Not least that the beasts they've always been taught to fear might not be so terrifying after all...


Iszi Lawrence - City of Spies

Published by Bloomsbury Education (4 Jan. 2024)

Paperback - ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1801991014

Age: 8+

It's 1780 and the struggle for American independence is raging. In New York, twelve-year-old Aiden
Blaise is sure that the British will win soon. How can a few rebel colonies hold out against the might of the British crown? And anyway he's more concerned with somehow managing to rise above his lot in life and make his fortune. 

But New York is a powder keg of soldiers and spies, and soon Aiden will be drawn into the fight for freedom in a way he could never have predicted...

Packed with historical detail and tales of the Culper Spy Ring, Benedict Arnold, James Rivington and George Washington, this page-turning thriller about the American War of Independence will have young readers gripped.


Anna Rainbow - Diamond Jack: Your Magic or Your Life

Published by Chicken House (4 Jan. 2024)

Paperback - ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1913322724

Age: 8+

An action-packed swashbuckling tale for readers aged 8 and up! 

While helping in Grandpa's shop, Bramble discovers a strange scarlet mask. A tingling in her fingers tells her to try it on, but when she does she can't take it off . . .

And when she looks in the mirror, the face of a famous highwayman Diamond Jack stares back. 

It seems Bramble has been chosen for a mission. Time to stand and deliver – your magic or your life! READ EXTRACT HERE! 



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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Favourite Children's Book Picks - FEB 2026 UK

  Philip Reeve -  Bridge of Storms (A New Mortal Engines Novel) - Published by  Scholastic Press ( 3 Feb. 2026) -  ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎  978-154613...