I admit it; I'm doing the easiest one first! Because with this category, it's simply a matter of narrowing down to the best of the new and throwing in some of my old favorites. If you are buying for a younger kid who's reading way up and want to know if there's any older content in any of the titles, just leave me a comment.
Also, with these holiday gift guides (and going forward), this blog has become an affiliate of my neighborhood indie bookstore, Left Bank Books. They ship pretty much everywhere. I can walk there from my house! If you click on a "buy" link from here, a teeny portion of what you buy will come back to me. I in turn will take that money and purchase kids' books and donate them to St. Louis city school libraries. It will be totally transparent; I will tell you how much I have received, what I bought with it and where it went!
Note: this list presupposes that your gift recipient has already read THE HUNGER GAMES, Robin McKinley, GRACELING, MISTWOOD, Cassandra Clare, and DIVERGENT. If they haven't, put all of those titles (and Robin's and Cassie's entire oeuvre) on your thinking-about list. Comment if you want specifics on Clare or on McKinley, my favorite writer of all time.
1. I don't suppose I've mentioned THE SCORPIO RACES, have I? (I reviewed it yesterday.)
2. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor - Not only does it sport one of my favorite covers of the year, but it's also the story of seventeen-year-old Karou, an art student in a Prague boarding school, who carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters--the "family" that raised her. Her father sends her on dangerous missions across the world, collecting teeth for an unknown purpose. Strange black handprints begin to show up on the doors between our world and theirs, and then one day a chance encounter with an angel brings both of Karou's worlds crashing down around her. (And the end is a KILLER.)
3. THE NAME OF THE STAR by Maureen Johnson: This one is definitely for the
Doctor Who fans on your list in particular. Maureen's latest brings us Rory, a Louisiana teen who's spending the year at a London boarding school. And just her luck - the day she arrives, a serial killer begins a series of Jack the Ripper copycat murders across the city. After a body is discovered on school grounds, Rory is pretty sure she's seen the killer - but why did no one else see him? I LOVE this book. Creepy and mysterious and a little funny with a dash of romance.
4. SISTERS RED by Jackson Pearce: I love this incredibly dark Red Riding Hood retelling. Scarlett defended her sister Rosie during the wolf attack that killed their grandmother, but was seriously maimed in the attack - both physically and emotionally. Now Scarlett and Rosie hunt the wolves, protecting the young girls that the wolves seek to lure in and kill. Rosie's getting older, though, and has begun to dream of a different life. Can she have it and still remain loyal to the broken sister who saved her life?
5. SORCERY & CECELIA, or THE ENCHANTED CHOCOLATE POT by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer: I love to haul out an oldie but goodie like this one, book one of a series that began in 2003. It's an epistolary Regency fantasy. (Yes, you read that correctly.) I
love epistolary novels, Regency romances and fantasy, so you can imagine that when this came out I DEVOURED it. It takes place in an alternate, enchanted England, and our two protagonists are cousins: Kate, who's in London for the Season, and Cecilia, who's not allowed to go and has been left behind in the country. They keep up with one another through letters, and when Kate's nearly poisoned by a mysterious old woman and Cecilia meets a girl who she believes is enchanting young men to fall in love with her, their stories start sliding together. This is a romp of a fantasy, told with a wry sense of humor, in two distinct and charming voices.
6.GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson: This is the book for your GRACELING and MISTWOOD fans. Once every hundred years someone is born with the Godstone embedded in their navel, and that person is destined to perform a great duty in their lifetime. Elisa is the chosen one, but has been overshadowed her whole life by her older sister and feels useless and adrift as a result. She comforts herself with food and is overweight as a result (what? a real girl?) and hopes to marry someone ugly - but instead ends up married to a mysterious foreign prince, for reasons no one will tell her. Early in her marriage she is kidnapped, and as a result is forced to grow up quickly - to take charge of her life and become the person she was chosen and destined to be. The book started slowly for me and I really didn't like Elisa at all at first, but stick with it - the writing gets stronger and stronger as the book goes on (as does Elisa), and I think Rae Carson is a writer to watch.
7.PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White: This one's good for Buffy fans. Evie's 16 and lives at the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Because she has the rare power to see through magical
glamours, she helps the Agency capture rogue fantastical creatures and keep the world safe from harm - with the help of her pink taser. In her spare time, though, she's fending off obsessive advances from a nefarious fairy; obsessing over clothes and television shows; befriending a mermaid; and falling for the mysterious new guy who's some sort of magical creature...but no one can figure out exactly what. This one's a lot of fun but also has a ton of thrilling moments, and (despite looking like a bitchy Barbie on the cover) a heroine that you wish you could be friends with.
If I've forgotten your favorite, it's entirely possible I've forgotten one of mine - post what you think I've overlooked and I'll do a catchup post in the weeks to come!
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