VONA STEWART

A magician who can travel between parallel Londons is swept into a deadly smuggling plot. A fast, inventive adventure and a step up from City of Ghosts.

At a lethal school of magic with no teachers and no mercy, prickly El hides world-ending power. Sharp, inventive dark fantasy for older readers.

In an underground city famed for magical cheeses and wines, a girl whose face shows her true feelings uncovers deadly secrets. Strange and wonderful.

When her father's fortune vanishes, Sara Crewe is cast from privilege into servitude but holds fast to her kindness and imagination. A tender, beloved classic.

To save her sister, Ning competes to become the realm's greatest magical tea-maker amid deadly court intrigue. Inventive Chinese-inspired fantasy.

A princess must sacrifice a refugee boy to resurrect her mother; he must win a deadly competition to save his sister. A dual-POV, West African-inspired epic with slow-burn tension.

Quiet, mirror-traveling Ophelia is betrothed into a treacherous sky-court, in a world shattered into floating shards. Atmospheric, romantic, wonderfully strange.

A fourteen-year-old whose only magic works on bread must defend her city when an assassin strikes. A lighter, wonderfully inventive T. Kingfisher fantasy.

Meg, her brother, and a friend travel through space and time to rescue her father from a dark cosmic force. A Newbery-winning science-fantasy classic.

American-born Sunny discovers she is a free agent with magical gifts, in a richly Nigerian-rooted fantasy. Fantastic, culturally vivid YA.

Disguised as a boy, Alanna trains to become a knight in a kingdom that forbids it. The rousing start to Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness.

Searching for her missing brother, Amari discovers a hidden supernatural world and her own forbidden magic. A funny, fast, big-hearted adventure.

A talkative, imaginative orphan turns a quiet farm, and a whole town, upside down. A perennial classic; the Rachel McAdams audiobook is a delight.

A twelve-year-old criminal mastermind takes on a hidden, high-tech world of fairies. Clever and funny; skip the movie.

Aru accidentally frees an ancient demon and discovers she is a reincarnated hero, in a funny, fast adventure steeped in Hindu mythology.

Swallowed by a hippo into the world of Lyrian, a boy and a girl from our world set out to topple an emperor. Twisty portal fantasy from the author of Fablehaven.

A luminous memoir in verse of growing up Black in the 1960s and '70s. Short, important, and beautifully written; the audiobook is superb.

When a desert spirit steals her sister, Cece must learn forbidden magic to win her back, in a world drawn from Mexican folklore.

A cyborg mechanic becomes entangled with a prince and a deadly plague, in a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella. Romance and adventure; great for high school.

After a near-drowning, Cassidy can see ghosts, including her best friend, and Edinburgh proves full of them. A cute, gently spooky adventure.

Two young women, a spy and a pilot, are bound by friendship and war in occupied France. Powerful, devastating WWII fiction for older readers.

Countess Meliara leads a rebellion against a greedy king, then must survive an even trickier world of court intrigue. A rousing adventure set in Sherwood Smith's Sartorias-deles.

Bored with princess lessons, Cimorene runs off to volunteer as a dragon's captive and finds far better adventures. The witty first Enchanted Forest Chronicles book.

An honor student writes letters to Dr. King as he reckons with racism and a tragedy that upends his life.