The first book in a beautifully produced series of five, The Field Guide sets up the story of the Grace children13-year-old Mallory and 9-year-old twins Jared and Simonwho with their mother move into the dilapidated Spiderwick Estate only to quickly find themselves sucked into a dark and fascinating world of faeries. Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi pull off an impressive five for five with Wrath of Mulgarath, the satisfyingly dramatic conclusion to their series, The Spiderwick Chronicles. After the gory conclusion of the The Ironwood Tree, we don't get even a moment's reprieve before the action picks up again, in a starting chapter entitled, fittingly, "IN WHICH the World Is Turned Upside Down." Thirteen-year-old Mallory and nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon return to the Spiderwick Estate only to find their home in shambles, with trash and broken furniture scattered across the lawn and Simon's griffin chasing a "goblin" across the roof. The faerie world that the Grace kids have so slowly probed in this series has finally come home to roost. Black and DiTerlizzi pack a lot into the finale of this beautifully produced series, with dragons and goblins and elvesand even a magical cameo by Arthur Spiderwick (the long-lost author of the disappearing-reappearing Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You). We get a dramatic rescue, a clever end to a fearsome foe (with some thanks to Hogsqueal from book two), and a long denouement that leads to a final cryptic note from the author and illustrator: "Are there more ogres / and dragons to slay? / Is there more mayhem, / perhaps, on the way? / Ask Tony and Holly. / They'll swear that it's true. / But you still won't believe / what's coming for you!" (Ages 6 to 10) Paul Hughes In this delightful book, best-selling author Debbie Bliss presents 30 classic knitwear designs for children from birth to six years. Block is an award-winning, cutting-edge young adult author who has already attracted a large adult audience. Her first adult novel, Ecstasia is a jolting contemporary fantasy about sexuality, love and death that follows the lives of a band of young musicians living in a city of carnivals and circuses, where the only crime is growing old. Advertising in Locus magazine. Movie stars, rock stars, pond nymphs, intergalactic superheroes . . . who are the real goddesses in Francesca Lia Block's world? Real young womenthe kind who ache, bleed, dance, and talk to blue ghosts in closets. Famous for her lyric Weetzie Bat books, Block blossoms in this collection of short stories about love: straight, gay, familial, and otherworldly. Very few young adult authors talk as frankly as Block about sex and some of the other yearnings we feel in this world, yet she guides her readers toward the self-respect and courage necessary to make smart choices about those yearnings. I feel as if I have been called on to guard the moon herself. A moon with dimples and a tiny crooked grin. How do you do this? How do you safely carry the moon around on this earth? |
Where are the kisses? From the very moment she was born, Primaveras songs made water flow and flowers blossom. She brought new life to the desert where her family lives. But even in Paradise there are dreams that cannot be fulfilled. Primavera is in love with a man who can never be hersso when a handsome stranger offers her the gift of a horse-headed motorcycle, Primavera leaves home in search of the magical city of Elysia, the city once ruled by her parents band, Ecstasia. But in Elysia, Primavera discovers that she has left behind everything she truly needs, everyone she truly cares aboutand, if the city has its way, she will never find her way back home. But this is what Francesca Lia Block, whose Weetzie Bat novels have often been called pop fairy tales, here turns to the real thing for some very different imaginings of Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and other tales. Block's stories are more resonance than retelling, fevered dreams behind which the outlines of the traditional tales move fitfully like figures glimpsed now and then through a summer fog. Veiled references to Block's own Los Angeles appear in the twisty house of the seven dwarfs built into a canyon like Laurel or Topanga, the redwood forest on a seaside cliff through which Beauty travels to her Beast, the tree-darkened canyon houses with French doors that open onto exuberant neglected gardens lush with irises and roses. In these evocations Bluebeard becomes an aging blue-haired producer, Sleeping Beauty pricks her arm with a heroin needle, Red Riding Hood's wolf is a lecherous stepfather, and the Snow Queen is a sex goddess who lives in a marble mansion with her boy toy, possibly in Beverly Hills. Sensuous images enrich these languid and darkly ironic visions: jasmine-scented night gardens, leopard couches with velvet pillows, luscious food flavored with mint, coconut milk, or pomegranate sauce, cool candlelit baths. As always, Block's poetic allegories of adolescence are strikingly original and a bit dangerous, a feast for connoisseurs of YA fiction and savvy older teens. (Ages 14 and older) Patty Campbell From the beloved author of Necklace of Kisses comes a modern-day fairy tale of a willful and intuitive heroine and a world of shocking realism and transcendent magic. Francesca Lia Block has gained a tremendous following writing stories about the young denizens of Los Angeles that are simultaneously ethereal and utterly tangible. Titles such as The Hanged Man, Dangerous Angels, Girl Goddess #9, and I Was a Teenage Fairy explore the heaviest issues facing teensincluding all variety of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' rollwith the light touch of skillful poet. In Violet and Claire, Block once again exposes us to both the best and the worst of the City of Angels, as we trace the rise and fall of a female friendship from thrilling expectations to soul-squelching excess. A modern fairy tale that is funny, moving, and unlike any book you've ever read before. |