Fantasy and Science Fiction

Picture Books | Younger Fiction |
Intermediate Fiction | Young Adult Fiction | Nonfiction

The books recommended below were published within the last two years. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.

Picture Books
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Extra! Extra!: Fairy-Tale News from Hidden Forest written by Alma Flor Ada, illustrated by Leslie Tryon (Atheneum)
Three cleverly detailed issues of the Hidden Forest News relate worrisome local happenings concerning a giant beanstalk, as well as numerous small tongue-in-cheek fairytale headlines. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Polo: The Runaway Book illustrated by Regis Faller (Porter/Roaring Brook)
In his second wordless adventure, the little dog sets out on a journey to recover his new book from mischievous alien thieves. Grade level: Preschool–3. 80 pages.

Un-Brella written and illustrated by Scott E. Franson (Roaring Brook)
A little girl’s magical umbrella has the power to reverse the weather under it in this wordless, crisply illustrated exercise in whimsical wish-fulfillment. Grade level: Preschool. 40 pages.

SuperHero ABC written and illustrated by Bob McLeod (HarperCollins)
Alliteratively described superheroes leap off each eye-popping page, alike only in their desire to do good in alphabetical order. Grade level: Preschool. 40 pages.

The Witch’s Walking Stick written and illustrated by Susan Meddaugh (Lorraine/Houghton)
A bad-tempered witch loses her wish-granting walking stick to a playful dog, who uses it to gain the friendship of a mistreated youngest child. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Another Day in the Milky Way written and illustrated by David Milgrim (Putnam)
The young narrator wakes up on the wrong side of the galaxy, and spends a bizarre but lighthearted day trying to get back home. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Midsummer Knight illustrated by Gregory Rogers (Porter/Roaring Brook)
In this wordless book, watercolor cartoons bring to life the fairyland adventures of a knightly bear and his magical companions. Grade level: 1–5. 32 pages.

Jack and the Night Visitors illustrated by Pat Schories (Front Street)
A boy and his dog Jack meet some friendly space aliens in this wordless, humorous charmer. Grade level: Preschool. 32 pages.

One-Eye! Two-Eyes! Three-Eyes!: A Very Grimm Fairy Tale written by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Gary Clement (Atheneum)
Ridiculed by her one-eyed and three-eyed sisters for her oddly even optics, the Cinderella-like Two-Eyes eventually triumphs — wishes, prince, and all. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

Sausages written and illustrated by Jessica Souhami (Frances Lincoln)
In a spare, humorous version of the well-known “The Three Wishes,” a colorfully homespun couple’s three wishes go zanily awry. Grade level: Preschool–2. 32 pages.

Younger Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: K–3

Pish and Posh Wish for Fairy Wings written by Barbara Bottner and Gerald Kruglik, illustrated by Barbara Bottner (Tegen/HarperCollins)
Though they have many differences, best friends Pish and Posh learn the age-old lesson — be careful what you wish for — when trying to get their wings. 48 pages.

The Monster in the Backpack written by Lisa Moser, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones (Candlewick)
An annoying, wisecracking monster in Annie’s backpack (who eats her lunch and shreds her homework to make confetti) turns out to be not so bad after all. 40 pages.

Intermediate Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: 4–6

Strange Happenings: Five Tales of Transformation by Avi (Harcourt)
Unrepentant characters get well-deserved comeuppances in five dark, eminently discussable stories. 137 pages.

The Last Night: A Knight and Rogue Novel by Hilari Bell (Eos/HarperCollins)
Youngest-son-cum-knight-errant Michael and squire Fisk (possessed of a shady past) team up for a life of heroic deeds, then must redeem themselves when their first damsel in distress turns out to be a murderess. 357 pages.

The Prophecy by Hilary Bell (Eos/HarperCollins)
Scholarly Prince Perryndon saves the day when he discovers a prophecy that explains how to defeat the dragon ravaging his father’s kingdom. 195 pages.

Gregor the Overlander; Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane; Gregor and the Curse of the Warm-bloods; Gregor and the Marks of Secret; Gregor and the Code of Claw (Scholastic)
The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins
Eleven-year-old Gregor discovers that he is a warrior destined to save the Underland from giant rats and embarks on various quests to fulfill this prophecy.

The Runaway Princess by Kate Coombs (Farrar)
Fifteen-year-old Princess Margaret tries to win the contest for her own hand in marriage by befriending a company of bandits, a fire-breathing dragon, and a frog-prince-making witch. 279 pages.

Victory by Susan Cooper (McElderry)
Modern-day eleven-year-old Molly Jennings experiences a mysterious connection to a young boy pressed into service in the British navy in 1803. 192 pages.

The Castle Corona written by Sharon Creech, illustrated by David Diaz (Cotler/HarperCollins)
Discontented, a king and queen, three royal children, and two peasant children find their lives intersecting following the appearance of a mysterious rider in black in this lush fairy tale. 320 pages.

The Dark Ground; The Black Room; The Nightmare Game (Dutton)
The Dark Ground Trilogy by Gillian Cross
Robert discovers an endangered community of miniscule people, and he’s determined to help them even as he investigates the mystery of their existence.

Revenge of the Witch; Curse of the Bane; Night of the Soul Stealer (Greenwillow)
The Last Apprentice written by Joseph Delaney, illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith
Evil-fighting apprentice Tom Ward develops his powers while fighting terrible creatures in each installment of this chills-and-thrills series.

The Last Dragon written by Silvana De Mari, translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside (Miramax/Hyperion)
The last surviving elf and dragon and the child of the couple who saved them fight for hope in a vividly evoked post-apocalyptic fantasy world. 361 pages.

Poor Little Witch Girl written by Marie Desplechin, translated from the French by Gillian Rosner (Bloomsbury)
Verbena’s longing for a normal life, which is rather difficult when you come from a long line of spell-brewing witches, excites tensions with her mother and grandmother. 124 pages.

Hatching Magic; The Dragon of Never-Was (Atheneum)
Written by Ann Downer, illustrated by Omar Rayyan
Time travel (between the thirteenth-century and modern-day England), wizardry, and lost and found dragons make for a colorful, inventive fantasy sequence. Sequel(s) to come.

Ingo; The Tide Knot (HarperCollins)
by Helen Dunmore
Dreamer Sapphire and her pragmatic older brother discover the undersea realm of Ingo and are drawn away from their life (and family) on land. First in a series. 330 pages.

Murkmere; Ambergate (Little)
by Patricia Elliott
In Murkmere, Agnes Cotter, companion to the unearthly ward of Murkmere Hall, becomes embroiled in a politically driven gothic romance set in an alternative land where birds are worshipped and feared. Ambergate explores the hidden heritage of the kitchen drudge, a target of totalitarian inquisitors. 344 pages.

The Land of the Silver Apples written by Nancy Farmer, illustrated by Rick Sardinha (Jackson/Atheneum)
In this sequel to The Sea of Trolls, Jack experiences challenges and adventures in the underground realm of elves and hobgoblins. 496 pages.

Eager; Eager’s Nephew (Lamb/Random)
By Helen Fox
Drama and comedy alike revolve around Eager, a self-aware robot programmed to experience life like a child.

Into the Woods written by Lyn Gardner, illustrated by Mini Grey (Fickling/Random)
Drawing on well-known fairy tales, Gardner creates a layered, relationship-driven tale of three sisters pursued by a dangerous villain. 438 pages.

I, Coriander by Sally Gardner (Dial)
In this smooth meld of historical and fantastical fiction, Coriander rebels against an evil stepmother (the embodiment of a colorless, puritanical seventeenth-century London) and rescues an enchanted prince. 280 pages.

Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion)
When Jen frees a young fairy imprisoned in her new house, she must deal with a Snow Queen–like antiques dealer bent on recapturing her new friend. 236 pages.

River Secrets by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury)
Undersized Forest-boy Razo is chosen for important peace-keeping mission but must discover what he can actually contribute. 291 pages.

Sign of the Raven by Julie Hearn (Seo/Atheneum)
While his mother recovers from cancer, twelve-year-old Tom explores a “river of time” in his grandmother’s basement and befriends a group of circus performers from 1717. 328 pages.

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow)
The latest Chrestomanci novel (Charmed Life; The Lives of Christopher Cant; The Magicians of Caprona; Witch Week; Conrad’s Fate) features Cat, a young nine-lived enchanter adjusting to life at the castle, and Marianne, the villager destined to be the next head of her clan. 420 pages.

Questors by Joan Lennon (McElderry)
Three plucky children from three very different worlds are astonished to learn that they are siblings born for a purpose: to reestablish the balance of energy between their worlds. 359 pages.

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire (Candlewick)
Playing with notions of fact, imagination, and art, Maguire frames his story of an orphaned fairy bent on promotion in a military society as a tale told by stranded survivors in the midst of a catastrophic hurricane. 295 pages.

Maddigan’s Fantasia by Margaret Mahy (McElderry)
A traveling circus undertakes a quest to procure a converter for the city of Solis, which is running out of power, in an ambitious, picaresque fantasy set after civilization has self-destructed and only partially recovered. 499 pages.

Peter Pan in Scarlet written by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrated by Scott Fischer (McElderry)
This authorized sequel to the J. M. Barrie classic finds the grown-up Darling children returning to Neverland. 310 pages.

The Squire’s Tale; The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady; The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf; Parsifal’s Page; The Ballad of Sir Dinadan; The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight; The Lioness and Her Knight; The Quest of the Fair Unknown (Houghton)
The Squire’s Tales by Gerald Morris
These rollicking revisionist fantasies, loosely based on the legends of King Arthur, introduce new readers to the classic tales with an appealing balance of drama and farce.

Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel (Eos/HarperCollins)
Natural selection bumps up against established social hierarchies in this bat prehistory (which anticipates Oppel’s Silverwing and companions) when newborn Dusk, marked as different by weak hind legs and an overdeveloped chest, reveals an ability to fly. 422 pages.

Terrier by Tamora Pierce (Random)
Sword-and-sorcery meets police procedural in this latest from the wildly popular Pierce, which stars Beka Cooper, royal guard trainee and ancestor the Lioness Quartet’s King of Thieves. 584 pages.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (HarperTempest)
In this new Tiffany Aching novel (The Wee Free Men; A Hat Full of Sky), the young witch becomes romantically involved with the god of winter, accidentally altering the seasons. 323 pages.

The Book of Time written by Guillaume Prevost, translated from the French by William Rodarmor (Levine/Scholastic)
Investigating the disappearance of his bookseller father, Sam discovers a peculiar stone that sends him back in time, prompting an adventure-filled cross-temporal search in this novel-length introduction to a longer series. Grade level: 5–8. 213 pages.

The Scarecrow and His Servant written by Philip Pullman, illustrated by Peter Bailey (Knopf)
Brought to life on a thunderous night, Lord Scarecrow and his servant Jack set off on an eventful pilgrimage that reads like a fusion of Don Quixote and The Wizard of Oz. 231 pages.

Larklight; Starcross (Bloomsbury)
Written by Philip Reeve, illustrated by David Wyatt
Two siblings in an alternative nineteenth-century Great Britain (in space!) join a teenage pirate and his motley band of extraterrestrials after their home is attacked by giant spiders, then investigate mysterious and sinister happenings at an intergalactic vacation resort.

The True Meaning of Smekday written and illustrated by Adam Rex (Hyperion)
When aliens announce that all Americans must relocate to Florida, Gratuity “Tip” Tucci decides to search for her abducted mother instead in this highly entertaining sci-fi/road trip amalgam. 426 pages.

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brian Sanderson (Scholastic)
Newly thirteen-year-old Alcatraz discovers his secret birthright as the scion of one of the Free Kingdom’s most powerful families and is charged with freeing our world, the Hushlands, from oppressive Librarian rule. 308 pages.

Bella at Midnight written by Diane Stanley, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (HarperCollins)
A nuanced reworking of the Cinderella story uses multiple narrators to show how the daughter of an evil man grows up to save a kingdom at war. 278 pages.

Hugo Pepper written by Paul Stewart, illustrated by Chris Riddell (Fickling/Random)
A childless couple — reindeer herders from the Frozen North — find a swaddled infant and raise it as their own in this creative team’s third Far-Flung Adventure. 272 pages.

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson (Greenwillow)
Fifteen-year-old Angus discovers that time is leaking from the modern world into the timeless Tir na n’Og of Irish legend—and he’s only part of the complex puzzle of a plot. 206 pages.

The Shadow Thieves; The Siren Song (Atheneum)
The Cronus Chronicles written by Anne Ursu
In this Greek-themed frolic, Charlotte is a typical teenager with the not-so-typical duty of doing battle with half-demons, ancient deities, and other oddities. Illustrated by Eric Fortune (Shadow Thieves) and Rick Sardinha (Siren Song). Sequels to come.

100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson (Random)
When twelve-year-old Henry’s parents are kidnapped, he moves in with his aunt and uncle and discovers in his wall one hundred cupboard doors, each of which opens into a very different place. 289 pages.

Tanglewreck by Jeannette Winterson (Bloomsbury)
It’s up to eleven-year-old Silver to stop Time from unraveling in this lyrical, adventurous blend of fantasy, physics, and theology. 415 pages.

Young Adult Fiction
Suggested grade level for each entry: 7 and up

Cherry Heaven by L. J. Adlington (Greenwillow)
The stories of three girls—brainy Kat, beautiful Tanka, and tormented Luka—intersect in a distant-future, war-ravaged planet where fascism and racism flourish under a veneer of environmentalism. 458 pages.

Clay by David Almond (Delacorte)
Two boys create and bring to life a clay golem, leading to murder and mayhem in this creepy musing on the nexus between faith and reality, good and evil. 253 pages.

Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard (Brodie/Roaring Brook)
Two teens — one raised in space, one on earth — overcome their prejudices to protect an illegally sentient robot in this warm, quirky adventure. 183 pages.

Being by Kevin Brooks (Chicken House/Scholastic)
After discovering he’s more machine than man, Robert flees from sinister forces and allies himself with Edie, a charismatic but secretive thief. 323 pages.

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Levine/Scholastic)
In a slow-simmering but rewarding retelling of Rumplestiltskin, newly orphaned sisters Charlotte and Rosie struggle to keep the family mill solvent in the face of multiple disasters. 411 pages.

Angel Isle written by Peter Dickinson , illustrated by Ian Andrew (Lamb/Random)
In this sequel to The Ropemaker, young Maja undertakes a quest to find Ramdatta, the last magician with the power to disband the Watchers, soulless rulers of her land. 500 pages.

Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic, Book One by Kathleen Duey (Atheneum)
Depicting the upheaval of a society over the resurgence of magic, Duey entwines two alternating stories for a fast-paced, promising start to a new series. 357 pages.

Corbenic by Catherine Fisher (Greenwillow)
A troubled teen is drawn into a debatably real re-enactment of the Arthurian Fisher-King tale in a depressingly industrial modern England. 281 pages.

Darkhenge by Catherine Fisher (Greenwillow)
This fusion of Welsh legend and present-day archeological adventure follows teen artist Rob, who escapes his traumatized family by taking a job at a Bronze Age excavation site. 357 pages.

The Oracle Betrayed; The Sphere of Secrets; Day of the Scarab (Greenwillow)
The Oracle Prophecies by Catherine Fisher
In a fictional ancient culture, an idealistic young girl is guided by a god (whose need for her assistance is equally strong) in her stand against human corruption.

InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves (Eos/HarperCollins)
Joey Harker discovers his ability to walk across alternate realities and is recruited by an organization of his alternate selves to protect the “Altiverse” from warring tyrannies. 239 pages.

Book of a Thousand Days written by Shannon Hale, illustrated by James Noel Smith (Bloomsbury)
Lady Saren and her maid Dashti are imprisoned in a tower when Saren refuses to marry the abusive Lord Khasar. 306 pages.

Rash by Pete Hautman (Simon)
In a futuristic United Safer States of America, Bo is sent to a rehabilitative jail for fist-fighting and joins an illegal football team. 249 pages.

The Fetch by Chris Humphreys (Knopf)
In book one of the Runestone Saga, Sky uses a set of Norse runestones to control his ghostly double, or “fetch,” and explore his ancestral past. 255 pages.

Wish Riders by Patrick Jennings (Hyperion)
A startlingly original Cinderella tale set in a West Coast Depression-era logging camp. 276 pages.

Devilish by Maureen Johnson (Razorbill/Penguin)
In this shrewd, playful drama, cynical high school senior Jane discovers that the ultra-cool popular girls at her school really are in league with the devil. 264 pages.

The Shamer’s Daughter; Shamer’s Signet; The Serpent Gift; The Shamer’s War (Holt)
The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbol
These tense Danish imports feature Dina, a girl with the inherited magical power (and dangerous responsibility) to force others to confront their misdeeds. Sequel(s) to come.

Dreamhunter; Dreamquake (Foster/Farrar)
The Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox
The daughter of a “dreamhunter” (one who collects dreams from the mysterious “Land with consciousness” and shares them with the everyday world), fifteen-year-old Laura struggles to uncover the web of exploitation that led to her father’s disappearance. 367 pages.

Black Juice; White Time; Red Spikes (Eos/HarperCollins)
By Margo Lanagan
Complementary collections of ten taut, original short stories in otherworldly fantasy (Black Juice), science-fiction (White Time), and horror (Red Spikes) settings. 216 pages.

Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
Across Le Guin’s fantastical “Western Shore” landscape, Gavir journeys from slavery to self-realization, questioning the status quo of each society he passes through, in a story that explores issues of liberty, loyalty, and power. 502 pages.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (Knopf)
A combination of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Frog Prince,” and vampire mythology, the author’s YA debut tells the tale of five sisters living on the cusp of the fairy world in Transylvania. 407 pages.

Birdwing by Rafe Martin (Levine/Scholastic)
Beginning at the conclusion of the Grimms’ “Six Swans,” a tale of the youngest brother’s struggle to live with a swan’s wing and recognize his difference as empowering. 359 pages.

Hero by Perry Moore (Hyperion)
Thom, a gay teen gifted with healing powers, joins a superhero society in secret, where he bonds with his fellow trainees, learns about his family’s past, and finally saves the world in this larger than life coming-of-age tale. 428 pages.

Firebirds Rising edited by Sharyn November (Firebird/Penguin)
An appetizing array of short fantasy stories by sixteen established writers including Francesca Lia Block, Charles de Lint, Diana Wynne Jones, and Tanith Lee. 530 pages.

The Restless Dead: Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick)
Ten deliciously spooky tales of the undead run the gamut from a Poe-inspired tale of a heart-transplant patient’s burdens to an old-fashioned house haunting to a richly allegorical tale of a Revolutionary War deserter, providing plenty of chills as well as a strong current of real human emotion. 253 pages.

Airborn; Skybreaker (Eos/HarperCollins)
By Kenneth Oppel
Killing altitudes, conflicting agendas, and ruthless goons power these high-flying adventures set in an alternate Edwardian-styled past. Sequel(s) to come.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Harcourt)
Sixteen-year-old Miranda’s journal entries document her family’s struggle to survive after an asteroid knocks the moon closer to earth, causing cataclysmic natural disasters. 337 pages.

Mortal Engines; Predator’s Gold; Infernal Devices; A Darkling Plain (Eos/HarperCollins)
The Hungry City Chronicles by Philip Reeve
Intense emotions and technological wizardry propel these post-apocalyptic adventures, set in mobile “traction cities” that eat others for raw materials.

The Lightning Thief; The Sea of Monsters; The Titan's Curse (Miramax/Hyperion)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
An average kid living with ADHD discovers that he’s really the half-blood offspring of Poseidon…Let the adventures begin!

Undine; Breathe (Greenwillow)
By Penni Russon
In a modern coming-of-age fairy tale that emphasizes the darker aspects of the original myth, a young woman searches for the origins of her disturbing dreams and emergent powers, then deals with the aftermath. Sequel to come. 326 pages.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman (Simon)
Two teens wake from a car accident in a strange shadow-world in between life and death, where they struggle to find meaning, purpose, and escape. 315 pages.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (Simon)
Three teens narrowly escape being “unwound” (having all their organs harvested) in a near-future America that allows for parents to make such a decision, and search for a safe haven amid betrayal, politicking, and ideological conflict. 225 pages.

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick)
All is not what it seems as Quincie Morris and her guardian uncle prepare to open a vampire-themed restaurant. 315 pages.

The Amulet of Samarkand; The Golem's Eye; Ptolemy’s Gate (Miramax/Hyperion)
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
A djinni, a high-ranking magician, and a revolutionary commoner form a strange alliance in a dangerous society ruled by corrupt magicians.

The Fourth World; Only Human; Origins (Bloomsbury)
The Missing Link Trilogy by Kate Thompson
Human-animal genetic manipulation is the motor that drives these books of adventure, fractured identity, and a continual quest for home.

The Thief; The Queen of Attolia; The King of Attolia (Greenwillow)
By Megan Whalen Turner
In a well-realized pseudo-classical world, a thief with a hidden identity becomes a reluctant leader.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse)
The latest entry in the Uglies series introduces Aya, an all-but-anonymous “extra” in a Japanese society that idolizes celebrity, an aspiring reporter whose big lead soon becomes big trouble. 417 pages.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (Razorbill)
Framing vampirism as a parasitic infection, the author spins a tale of one immune carrier determined to track down and restrain all the ex-girlfriends he’s infected. 312 pages.

Uglies; Pretties; Specials (Simon Pulse)
By Scott Westerfeld
Teenager Tally comes of age in a futuristic world where beauty, equated with harmony, is artificially and ruthlessly manufactured.

Storm Thief by Chris Wooding (Scholastic)
On an island where storms can change both topography and inhabitants in moments, two orphans steal a powerful artifact of ancient science. 310 pages.

Nonfiction
Suggested grade level listed with each entry

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary written and illustrated by Lynn Curlee (Atheneum)
Statuesque art depicts sixteen “Strange Beings, Fabulous Creatures, Fearsome Beasts, & Hideous Monsters from Ancient Greek Mythology,” accompanied by straightforward explanations of what these beings were and their role in Greek lore. Grade level: 4–6. 40 pages.

The Science of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials by Mary and John Gribbin (Knopf)
Scientific concepts are used to explain fantastical phenomena in the acclaimed trilogy, reinforcing the idea that “science is explainable magic.” Grade level: 7 and up. 204 pages.

The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy edited by Leonard S. Marcus (Candlewick)
Interviews with thirteen acclaimed fantasy writers born between 1918 and 1963 provide insight into the many ways imagination and fantasy work. Grade level: 7 and up. 202 pages.

Aliens Are Coming!: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast by Meghan McCarthy (Knopf)
A compact, dramatic account of the Halloween broadcast that caused radio listeners to believe aliens had landed on Earth. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

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