Fantasy

Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman

eAUDIO
Fantasy

"Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks. Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere."

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors of ALL time. He is descriptive and funny, and has a talent to cleverly weave fantastical elements into a realistic setting. Neverwhere was the first book of his that I listened to in audio form. The added bonus of the audio book is that it is read by Neil Gaiman! His voice and pacing make this great book even better. Neverwhere is a tale that follows Richard Mayhew, an ordinary man who once helped a girl he had found bleeding on the sidewalk. That one kind act lands him in Neverwhere, a place that exists in the cracks and shadows of London. -Becky

Stardust

Neil Gaiman

SCIENCE FICTION Gaiman, Neil
Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Romance

Hard to believe that Stardust has been around for just over 20 years! One of, if not the, first book by modern magician, Neil Gaiman, that I read many years ago. Although written with simplistic prose reminiscent of Grimm, and Andersen fairytales, this is a work that is definitely NOT for children. I can hardly wait to cross the wall and seek a fallen star in Faerie again. -Casey

Breadcrumbs

Anne Ursu

jFICTION Ursu, Anne
Kids, Fantasy

"Hazel and Jack are best friends until an accident with a magical mirror and a run-in with a villainous queen find Hazel on her own, entering an enchanted wood in the hopes of saving Jack's life " -- Provided by publisher.

I think that this story offers many themes that upper-elementary kids would relate to: friendship, family, change, and belonging. Hazel and Jack are best friends and neighbors, but their friendship changes drastically when a piece of glass from a magical mirror gets caught in Jack’s eye. From that moment, we enter into the story of the Snow Queen and Hazel’s quest to get Jack back. -Becky

House of salt and sorrows

Erin A. Craig

YOUNG ADULT FICTION Craig Erin
Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Suspense

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed. Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last -- the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge -- and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sisters' deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who -- or what -- are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family -- before it claims her next.

This retelling of the 12 dancing princesses was an intense read from start to finish. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I read this twisted, lovely book! -Callie