New releases of science fiction and fantasy for children and teens--the end of August edition

August is going out with a bit of a bang--there are several books on this list of new releases that I'm anxious to read. Especially the new Skulduggery Pleasant! And the sequel to The Sky Inside, and the sequel to Found, and The Dream Stealer sounds great, and As You Wish and Rampant have been on my list for ages... etc. Vampire lovers should be very happy too. Zombie lovers, not so much (which is too bad, because today is the start of Zombie Appreciation Week). As ever, I got my information from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs come from Amazon.

BLOOD OF THE WITCH: SCREAM STREET by Tommy Donbavand. "What better way to feed the neighborhood vampires than to pipe blood from residents’ cuts and nosebleeds straight into kitchen taps? And how better to foil Luke’s mission to free his folks than to cut off this vital (if icky) blood supply to Luke’s best vampire friend? What’s more, the local sewer rats have been accidentally turned into raging vampire rodents. Now Luke and his pals must keep the critters at bay while searching for the second crucial relic — a vial of witch’s blood — while avoiding being turned into vampires themselves.

CHANTEL'S QUEST FOR THE ENCHANTED MEDALLION by Oliver Neubert. Chantel "...must brave evil-doers and muster her courage to retrieve four ancient relics — the only way to defeat an evil power that's killing nature and corrupting minds. On the way, Chantel encounters different parts of her fantastical world, faces nail-biting challenges, and meets new friends — and enemies. Once she's gathered the four relics, she'll finally have enough power to defeat the sinister spirit."

CLASH OF THE DEMONS: THE LAST APPRENTICE by Joseph Delaney. "As the Spook's apprentice, Thomas Ward's first duty is to protect the County from ghosts, boggarts, and other dangerous creatures. But now his mother has come back from her homeland to seek his help. One of the most dangerous of the old witches, Ordeen, is about to return to earth, bringing with her suffering and devastation. Tom's mother has mustered a powerful army—including Tom's friend Alice, the Pendle witches, and the assassin Grimalkin—to confront Ordeen. If Tom joins them, the Spook will refuse to take Tom back as his apprentice. What sacrifices will be made in the battle against the dark?"

THE DREAM STEALER by Sid Fleischman. "There is a bandit who comes in the night. He does not want pretty silver earrings or dangly gold necklaces, not diamonds or rubies...He wants dreams. He is supposed to take only nightmares—the dreams of monsters and phantoms—but he's grown scared. He's been taking the good dreams instead. But one night he steals from the wrong girl. Susana is clever. She is wily. She is brave. And she wants her dream back."


THE DREAMER, THE SCHEMER, & THE ROBE: THE AMAZING TALES OF MAX & LIZ by Jenny L. Cote. "After saving Noah and family from the evil stowaway Charlatan aboard the ark in The Ark, the Reed, & the Fire Cloud, heroes Max and Liz, along with faithful mates Kate and Al, earn immortality and a directive from God to serve as His envoys for pivotal points in human history. They have waited for centuries for a word from the Maker; now they learn they are to work behind the scenes in the life of Joseph. In The Dreamer, The Schemer, & The Robe the fate of an entire nation rests in their paws."

THE FACELESS ONES: SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT by Derek Landy. "Valkyrie screamed, sprinting toward Skulduggery. He looked up and reached out to her, but it was too late. If you've read the other Skulduggery books by Derek Landy (and you really should have read them by now), you've seen it all before: Some bad guy wants to bring about the end of the world, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie fight valiantly to stop it from happening. A few people get hurt, sure, but everything's all right in the end. Well, not this time."

HALF-MINUTE HORRORS by Various Authors, "How scared can you get in only 30 seconds? Dare to find out with Half-Minute Horrors, a collection of deliciously terrifying short short tales and creepy illustrations by an exceptional selection of writers and illustrators, including bestselling talents Lemony Snicket, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, R.L.Stine, Faye Kellerman, Holly Black, Melissa Marr, Margaret Atwood, Jon Scieszka, Brett Helquist, and many more. With royalties benefiting First Book, a not-for-profit organization that brings books to children in need, this is an anthology worth devouring."

MORE BONES: SCARY STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD by Arielle North Olson & Howard Schwartz. "Have you heard about the man who marries . . . a corpse? Or what about the magic school where one student in every class is never allowed to leave? Many of these tales go back hundreds of years and to the farthest corners of the earth, but as diverse as they are, they also reveal one important truth: everyone loves a scary story. The authors have dug deeply—from Egypt to Iceland—to find the spookiest stories that are perfect to share around a campfire or at a sleepover."

THE NINE POUND HAMMER: THE CLOCKWORK DARK by John Claude Bemis. "Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog. Why the Gog wants the Siren, they can’t be sure, but they know it has something to do with rebuilding a monstrous machine that John Henry gave his life destroying years before, a machine that will allow the Gog to control the will of men and spread darkness throughout the world."

Young Adult (sorry there are no pictures; I just didn't have time...)

ANDROMEDA KLEIN by Frank Portman. "Andromeda Klein has a few problems. Her hair is kind of horrible. Her partner-in-occultism, Daisy, is dead. Her secret, estranged, much older and forbidden boyfriend-in-theory, has gone AWOL. And her mother has learned how to text. In short, things couldn't get much worse. Until they do. Daisy seems to be attempting to make contact from beyond, books are starting to disappear from the library, and then, strangely and suddenly, Andromeda's tarot readings are beginning to predict events with bizarrely literal accuracy. Omens are everywhere. Dreams; swords; fires; hidden cards; lost, broken, and dead cell phones . . . and what is Daisy trying to tell her?"

ANOTHER FAUST by Daniel & Dina Nayeri. "One night, in cities all across Europe, five children vanish — only to appear, years later, at an exclusive New York party with a strange and elegant governess. Rumor and mystery follow the Faust teenagers to the city’s most prestigious high school, where they soar to suspicious heights with the help of their benefactor’s extraordinary "gifts." But as the students claw their way up — reading minds, erasing scenes, stopping time, stealing power, seducing with artificial beauty — they start to suffer the sideeffects of their own addictions. And as they make further deals with the devil, they uncover secrets more shocking than their most unforgivable sins. At once chilling and wickedly satirical, this contemporary reimagining of the Faustian bargain is a compelling tale of ambition, consequences, and ultimate redemption."

AS YOU WISH by Jackson Pearce. "Ever since Viola's boyfriend broke up with her, she has spent her days silently wishing—to have someone love her again and, more importantly, to belong again—until one day she inadvertently summons a young genie out of his world and into her own. He will remain until she makes three wishes. Jinn is anxious to return home, but Viola is terrified of wishing, afraid she will not wish for the right thing, the thing that will make her truly happy. As the two spend time together, the lines between master and servant begin to blur, and soon Jinn can't deny that he's falling for Viola. But it's only after Viola makes her first wish that she realizes she's in love with Jinn as well . . . and that if she wishes twice more, he will disappear from her life—and her world—forever."

THE AWAKENING: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES by L. J. Smith. The latest in the series...(sorry, no blurb on Amazon, and I don't have time to hunt)

BLOOD PROMISE: VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Richelle Mead. "The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them. . . including Dimitri. He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa—the one she has sworn to protect no matter what—and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?"

DARK OF THE MOON: DARK GUARDIAN by Rachel Hawthorn. "Brittany is determined to prove herself to the Dark Guardians. And yet she's been keeping a devastating secret: She hasn't experienced any of the intense, early signs of change that mark a Dark Guardian's transformation. The only intense feelings she has are for Connor—and she's kept that a secret, too. But she knows she'll never truly have Connor's love if she's not a Shifter like him.At the first full moon after her birthday, her greatest fear is realized: She doesn't transform. Brittany is so desperate to become a wolf that she'll go to extremes she never thought possible... and put all the Dark Guardians in incredible danger."

RAMPANT by Diana Peterfreund. "Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years. Or not. Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries."

SENT: THE MISSING by Margaret Peterson Haddix. "Thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip are reeling from the news that they're both missing children from history, kidnapped from their proper time period. Before they can fully absorb this revelation, a time purist named JB zaps Chip and another boy, Alex, back to the fifteenth century, where they supposedly belong. Determined not to lose their friends, Jonah and his sister, Katherine, grab Chip's arms just as he's being sent away. The result? Jonah and Katherine also end up in the fifteenth century, where they decidedly do not belong. Chip's true identity is Edward V, king of England, and Alex is his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York. But Chip is convinced that his uncle, Richard of Gloucester, plans to kill them and seize the throne for himself. JB promises that if the kids can "fix time," he will allow them to return to the present day. But how can they possibly return home safely when history claims that Chip and Alex were murdered?"

SNAP by Carol Snow. "Madison Sabatini thought she knew who she was: an almost-sophomore with a bright future. The newest photographer on her school paper. A shopaholic with great hair and a fabulous wardrobe. Then, in a flash, everything changed. Now she's stuck in Sandyland, a gloomy beach town in the middle of nowhere, living with her parents in a crappy hotel "suite." Instead of spending the summer with her friends at home, she's hanging out with pink-haired Delilah, an artist who works in a shop called Psychic Photo, and a skater boy named Duncan who's totally not her type. Except, maybe he is . . . Determined to make the best of things, Madison throws herself into her one passion: photography. But when strange figures start appearing in her pictures—people who weren't there when she snapped the shots, people who are later reported dead—she begins to question everything about who she is . . . and who she wishes she could be."

THE STONE CHILD by Dan Poblocki. "Eddie Fennicks has always been a loner, content to lose himself in a mystery novel by his favorite author, Nathaniel Olmstead. That’s why moving to the small town of Gatesweed becomes a dream come true when Eddie discovers that Olmstead lived there before mysteriously disappearing thirteen years ago. Even better, Eddie finds a handwritten, never-before-seen Nathaniel Olmstead book printed in code and befriends Harris, who’s as much an Olmsteady as he is. But then the frightening creatures of Olmstead’s books begin to show up in real life, and Eddie’s dream turns into a nightmare. Eddie, Harris, and their new friend, Maggie, must break Olmstead’s code, banish all gremlins and monster lake-dogs from the town of Gatesweed, and solve the mystery of the missing author, all before Eddie’s mom finishes writing her own tale of terror and brings to life the scariest creature of all."

THE STRUGGLE: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES by L. J. Smith (sorry, no blurb on Amazon)

TOMBSTONE TEA by Joanne Dahme. "In order to be accepted by the “in crowd” at her new high school, Jamie accepts a dare to spend one night in a local cemetery collecting rubbings from ten gravestones. Once inside the gate of the dark and frightening burial ground, Jamie meets Paul, a handsome boy who works as a caretaker at the cemetery. Paul explains to Jamie about Tombstone Tea: a fund-raising performance in which actors impersonate the people buried in the cemetery. The actors are supposedly rehearsing on this particular evening, but Jamie quickly discovers that they aren’t actors at all but the ghosts of men and women buried in the cemetery. When one woman decides to adopt Jamie to replace her lost daughter, our heroine fears she may never escape the cemetery."

VIOLET WINGS by Victoria Hanley. "For Zaria Tourmaline, the three years without her mother and brother have been lonely ones, living with a cold and distant guardian while she completes her education. Just as she is ready to join the world of adult fairies and genies, she finds a spellbook written entirely in her mother’s hand. But this treasured object is not safe from a new enemy, a fairy with more power than Zaria ever dreamed existed. Only among the humans–who must never know fairies and genies exist–can Zaria hide the spellbook; but hidden magic, it turns out, can expose a fairy in ways she never thought possible."

THE WALLS HAVE EYES by Clare B. Dunkle. "Martin Glass may have seen his baby sister, Cassie, to safety at the end of The Sky Inside, but his problems are far from over. There's a totalitarian regime in place, murderous game shows on the air, and a host of government agents on Martin's tail. And Martin and his Alldog, Chip, get more than they bargained for when they have to go back to Martin's old suburb to rescue Martin's parents. But spending time in the wilderness with Mom and Dad isn't the worst of it. Because Martin learns that Cassie is still in danger, and to keep her and the other Wonder Babies safe, he's going to have to risk the thing he loves most."