VONA STEWART

A boy discovers an abandoned home for children with strange powers, and the danger still hunting them. Eerie and original, told with haunting vintage photographs. For older readers.

A street thief joins a daring crew plotting to overthrow an immortal tyrant, powered by an ingenious metal-based magic. Intricate, beloved epic fantasy for older readers.

Cursed and expected to die, Morrigan Crow is whisked to a secret city to compete for a place in a magical society. Funny, clever, and wildly inventive.

A science-loving girl confronts the legend of La Llorona when her best friend vanishes by the river, in a spooky adventure rooted in Mexican folklore.

When her mountain village is chosen to school potential princesses, Miri discovers her own strengths. A warm, sweet Newbery Honor favorite for younger readers.

An ordinary Navajo girl discovers she is descended from monster-slayers and sets off on a mythic quest. Diné mythology, full of heart and action.

A girl raised to assassinate the crown prince instead becomes magically bound to him, in a lush West African-inspired epic about loyalty and breaking a curse.

A schoolgirl inherits her father's role laying the Dead to rest and crosses into a perilous kingdom. Eerie, gripping fantasy; the Tim Curry audiobooks are superb.

In a future where death has been conquered, teens are chosen to decide who dies, and begin to rebel. A sharp, provocative dystopia.

A girl and the werewolf boy who has watched over her for years race against a coming winter. A tender, atmospheric paranormal romance.

Exiled and silenced by a curse while her brothers are turned into cranes, a princess fights to save them. A gorgeous East Asian-inspired spin on the six-swans tale.

A Halloween haunted house turns out to be a portal, and Cole dives through after his kidnapped friends into the Outskirts, five strange kingdoms each ruled by a different kind of magic. Big, imaginative portal fantasy from the author of Fablehaven.

Iris, a deaf girl and gifted tinkerer, sets out to reach a whale whose call no other whale can hear. Standout Deaf-culture representation; the companion novel The Secret Language of Birds follows another character.

Three women bargain with a cold fae king in a wintry, Rumpelstiltskin-tinged tale. A gorgeous standalone and a lovely gateway to Naomi Novik.

A lively, accessible remix of the history of racist ideas in America, written to speak directly to teens.

A young magician summons the wisecracking djinni Bartimaeus into a dangerous plot, in a clever, darkly funny alternate London. First of the Bartimaeus trilogy.

Orphaned and left to the scheming Count Olaf, the clever Baudelaire children face misfortune with wit and pluck. Wonderfully gloomy and funny; the Netflix series is excellent.

An apothecary's apprentice races to crack ciphers and uncover a deadly plot in seventeenth-century London. Best read in print, so you can solve the codes yourself.

Kidnapped by a desert king, Harry discovers an ancient magic and her own destiny as a warrior. A treasured fantasy from a fairy-tale master.

In Nazi Germany, a foster girl steals books and shares them, with Death himself as narrator. A heart-wrenching, unforgettable story.

An assistant pig-keeper who longs to be a hero joins a quest to save his land from a dark lord. The mythic, fast-paced first Chronicles of Prydain book.

A gifted elemental mage and an exiled prince hide in plain sight at an English boarding school while a tyrant hunts her. Fast, romantic, endlessly re-readable.

In a decaying underground city whose great lamps are failing, two kids race to decode an ancient set of instructions for escape before the dark closes in for good.

Basketball, brotherhood, and growing up, told in propulsive verse. A Newbery Medal winner that hooks even reluctant readers.