New Releases of Fantasy and Science Fiction for Children and Teenagers--the middle of September edition

Just in case anyone doesn't have enough books on their TBR pile, here are the new releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens for the middle of the month (September 14-17th), taken, as ever, from the list at Teens Read Too, and please let me know if there are any I've missed!

There are three really exciting ones (to me at least), which you can try to guess if you want. Or you could, if you wanted to comment, share the ones you find most exciting!

9-12 year olds:

BANG GOES A TROLL: AWFULLY BEASTLY BUSINESS, by Dave Sinden, Matthew Morgan, & Guy Macdonald. "When a messenger bat arrives at the RSPCB, boy-werewolf Ulf receives a warning that beasts are in trouble in the wild. Unaware of the danger he is facing, Ulf soon uncovers foul play: A rare colony of trolls is being smoked out from their caves to be used as game in an evil beast-hunting preserve. It's up to Ulf to save the day!"



BE A GENIE IN SIX EASY STEPS by Linda Chapman & Steve Cole. "When new step-siblings Milly, Michael, Jason, and Jess move to a town in the middle of nowhere, the last thing they expect is to find a magic book. But when they stumble upon The Genie-s Handbook, their lives are changed forever. Each chapter in The Genie Handbook contains one of six stages of training to be mastered, and the kids are thrilled at the prospect of becoming genies. Then they discover Skribble, the crotchety, magical bookworm who lives inside the book. Unfortunately, he-s eaten a lot of the important bits, and seems to have a secret agenda of his own. Both helped and hindered by the bookworm, the four kids attempt to train to be genies-with results both comic and chaotic. Will it take a near-disaster for the family to realize that you have to be very careful what you wish for?"

THE BIG TALL WISH: THE TWILIGHT ZONE by Rod Serling, Adapted by Mark Kneece. "Washed up boxer Bolie Jackson is about to be knocked down and counted out when Henry, a young neighbor with magical powers, makes the biggest, tallest wish he could think of—for Bolie to win the match. But believing in magic doesn’t come easily to some people. Rejecting Henry’s wish could end Bolie’s career and ruin a young boy’s faith in magic. They each have to the count of ten to make their choice . . . in the Twilight Zone."

D.A.N.G.E.R. SPELLS THE HANGMAN!: HARDY BOYS GRAPHIC NOVEL by Scott Lobdell. "Frank and Joe go undercover at a national spelling bee where a mysterious madman known as the Hangman is determined to erase the competition! Teens from across the globe have been invited to attend, and A.T.A.C. and the Hardy Boys have to do everything they can to keep the Hangman from spelling disaster!"

DOOMRAGA'S REVENGE: MERLIN'S DRAGON by T.A. Barron. "Basil becomes Merlin's partner as they battle the mysterious shadows that threaten the new Avalon. A dark magic has been spreading across Avalon. Initially, the events seemed unrelated: a war in Fireroot between the dwarves and the fire dragons, blight in Stoneroot, and disputes throughout the realms. But as Merlin and Basil scour the realms, they begin to realize that looming behind the growing chaos is a single dark threat—an enemy that they’ve never encountered. One that must be stopped before all of Avalon is lost."

JASPER DASH AND THE FLAME-PITS OF DELAWARE by M.T. Anderson. "It is a land of wonders! It is a land of mystery. It is a land that time forgot (or chose specifically not to remember). Cut off from the civilized world for untold years, this land is called: DELAWARE. It is into the mist-shrouded heart of this forbidden, mountainous realm that our plucky and intrepid heroes, Jasper Dash: Boy Technonaut and his friends Lily Gefelty and Katie Mulligan, must journey to unravel a terrible mystery.Come along on a tale of grand adventure that includes in its pages: Lost cities! Tentacles! Monks! Dinosaurs! Gangsters! Cheap suits! Eye doctors! And, of course, the fabled CURSE OF THE JAGUAR!"

LONGITUDE: ZERO DEGREES by Dianne C. Stewart. The second book in the Quimbaya Trilogy, about a boy who travels through time. (sorry, couldn't find a picture)

A PEARL AMONG PRINCES by Coleen Murtagh Paratore. "Gracepearl Coal is the cook’s daughter on Miramore, the island all princes visit for their summer program in the Charming Arts. Each year, the princes-in-training arrive on gallant seacraft, guided by captains trained to navigate the island’s treacherous waters. Passage on one of these boats is the only method to leave the island—thus betrothal to a royal is the only way for Pearl to find her far-off destiny, the one thatÂ’s started haunting her dreams. Luckily, this year’s crop of princes include some promising prospects, but how will Pearl leave behind her ailing father or—hardest of all—marry a boy other than her long-time beloved, Mackree . . . who now finds it too painful to even speak to her?"

SILKSINGER: DREAMDARK by Laini Taylor. "One faerie, the last of her clan, must fight to complete her sacred duty. Whisper Silksinger is the last of the secret guardians of the Azazel, one of the powerful Djinn who dreamed the world into being. Relentlessly pursued by bloodthirsty devils, she flees to the city of Nazneen to restore the Azazel to his temple. At the same time, Hirik Mothmage is also on a secret quest, to find the Azazel and restore his disgraced clan’s ancient honor. And behind them all flies Magpie Windwitch, first champion of the new age of faeries, desperate to rescue Whisper and the Azazel alike before they fall in the clutches of a sinister hidden enemy."

SWORD OF FIRE AND ICE: THE CHRONICLES OF ARTHUR by John Matthews. A graphic novel about the teenaged years of King Arthur.

WILL THE REAL MARTIAN PLEASE STAND UP?: THE TWILIGHT ZONE by Rod Serling, Adapted by Mark Kneece. "On a cold, snowy evening state troopers track footprints from a mysterious crash site to a nearby diner. There, a group of bus passengers waits out the storm, but oddly, there is one more person in the eatery. Who is he, and what are his intentions for planet Earth?"



Young Adult:

BENEATH, by Roland Smith. (I can't find a picture or blurb for this one; sorry).

DEMON CHICK By Marilyn Kaye. "Jessica may not have the warmest relationship with her mother, aspiring presidential candidate Margaret Hunsucker, but it still comes as a shock when she discovers that her mother has sold her to the devil. Will she have to spend eternity in hell with one of Satan’s minions, a demon named Brad? Brad takes pains to explain that they live in one of hell’s better neighborhoods, and he seems like a nice enough guy—but still! And things only get worse when Jessica learns the full extent of her mother’s evil plans. Can she and Brad come up with a plan to save the world?"

FOREST BORN by Shannon Hale. "Rin is sure that something is wrong with her…something really bad. Something that is keeping her from feeling at home in the Forest homestead where she’s lived all her life. Something that is keeping her from trusting herself with anyone at all. When her brother Razo returns from the city for a visit, she accompanies him to the palace, hoping that she can find peace away from home. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies—magical girls Rin thinks of as the Fire Sisters—as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead."

GIVE UP THE GHOST by Megan Crewe. "Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school. But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees. As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim’s life, she’s surprised to realize he’s not so bad—and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it’s time to give the living another chance…."

TIME OF THE WITCHES by Anna Myers. Possibly not fantasy. "An orphan named Drucilla has finally has a place to call home with the Putnam family in Salem. Although her adopted mother is strange—haunted by a troubled past—Dru feels drawn to her as the mother she never had. When a new reverend and his family move into town with their servant Tituba, life takes a strange turn as young girls begin to fall ill and accusations of witchcraft begin to swirl. Reluctant to turn her back on the Putnams or her peers and overwhelmed by the power of groupthink among the other girls in town, Dru becomes one of the accusers herself. But when her best friend Gabe is accused, she must find a way to end the hysteria, or risk losing him forever."

ONCE A WITCH by Carolyn MacCullough. "Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all."

THE OTHER SIDE: A TEEN'S GUIDE TO GHOST HUNTING AND THE PARANORMAL by Marley Gibson, Patrick Burns, & Dave Schrader. "It used to be you needed a crystal, a psychic, or a Oijia board to make contact with the spirit world. So who would think science would make it possible for just about anyone to experience a ghostly connection? Cameras, recorders, computers, magnetic field readers and other scientific means are now the tools of the trade. But there’s so much available, how does the average teen weed through it all to create the best possible ghost hunting team? Here to help sort it all out are three of today’s leading investigators of the field."

THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT AND OTHER TALES FROM THE CIRQUE DU FREAK by Darren Shan. "Darren Shan is just an ordinary schoolboy who loves to ride bikes and hang out with his three best friends. Then one day Darren and his friends stumble across an invitation to visit the Cirque Du Freak, a strange and mysterious freak show. Almost as if by destiny, Darren wins a ticket and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires."

THE SILVER BLADE by Sally Gardner. Sequel to The Red Necklace. "The year is 1794. With his beloved Sido safely in England and the Reign of Terror at its height, mysterious Yann returns to revolutionary France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But while the two are apart, Yann’s Gypsy origins prejudice Sido’s guardian against their marriage, thwarting their longed-for reunion. When Sido is kidnapped under strange circumstances, however, Yann must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, rescue Sido, and help save all of France."