Great Fantasy Overlooked!

I know that many of you are fantasy fans looking for new and exciting adventures now that Harry Potter has saved the magic world from the forces of evil. Here are two great fantasy series that seem to be overlooked. They both have lots of action, high adventure, and plenty of evil and ugly monsters to conquer. Please consider them the next time you are looking for a fantasy book.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud - In book one, The Amulet of Samarkand, we first meet Bartimaeus, a five-thousand-year-old djinni, who is called to our world by Nathaniel, a young boy apprenticed to a rather pathetic magician. We quickly learn that Nathaniel is much more powerful than his master, powerful enough to summon Bartimaeus and set him the task of obtaining the Amulet of Samarkand from the possession of Simon Lovelace, an incredibly powerful and ruthless magician. Several things set this story apart from other fantasies. First the narration of the story alternates between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus so we see the story from the point-of-view of an oft-timed scared, but powerful apprentice and a powerful but rude djinni. Then the story takes place in modern-day London, England, but a very different London from the one we would expect. This London, England, and the British Empire are secretly run by magicians who have high positions in the government. Finally Bartimaeus often tells funny stories and makes rude comments about his life and the people around him, but in the footnotes! So don't skip them as you read along. The adventures of young magician and djinni continue in The Golem's Eye and the series ends in Ptolemy's Gate.


Children of the Lamp, by P.B. Kerr - In the first book of this series, The Akhenaten Adventure, we meet the twins John and Philippa Gaunt as they discover that they are descended from a long line of djinn. All of a sudden they have the power to grant wishes, travel to extraordinary places, and make people and objects disappear. While their parents preferred the twins not knowing about their heritage, their eccentric and fun-loving Uncle Nimrod is very willing to be their guide and teacher as they learn to control their powers. This first adventure takes the twins and their uncle to Egypt where they have to find the ancient, dead pharoah Akhenaten and release the seventy lost djinn he is holding to restore the balance betwwen good and evil in the world. The adventure moves at breakneck speed from the deserts of Egypt to the British Museum in London with thrills and laughs all along the way. The twin's adventures continue in The Blue Djinn of Babylon and The Cobra King of Katmandu. What may have started out as a trilogy now boasts and fourth book The Day of the Djinn Warriors. I see a pattern in the titles that may indicated many books are planned for the future.

Tales of Suspense

Do you like a story that keeps you guessing? Then you need to take a look at the books by Margaret Peterson Haddix. You may already be familiar with the Shadow Children series that begins with Among the Hidden. The suspense in that book was always wondering if Luke would get caught by the Population Police as a third child. This science fiction story that takes place in the near future deals with a society with dwindling resources so families are only allowed to have two children. Luke is a third child and is considered illegal. This book which was a Rebecca Caudill nominee lead to six sequels: Among the Imposters, Among the Betrayed, Among the Barons, Among the Brave, Among the Enemy, and Among the Free. I enjoyed the books where Luke was a character better than those where he did not appear, but all of these books kept that element of suspense wondering whether Luke or his friends would be found out. In the final book when the Population Police are overthrown, there is the suspense of wondering what kind of society will take the place of the Shadow Children one.

An earlier book by Margaret Haddix is Running Out of Time. Another Rebecca Caudill nominee, this book looked like it took place in the 1840s. However it was a science experiment where families of the 1990s lived in a protected community made to look like the 1840s. A major disagreement arose when a diphtheria epidemic breaks out and the scientists running the project will not allow 1990's medicine be used to stop the epidemic. Only young Jessie can save the people of the experiment by escaping and finding the necessary medicine in the world of the 1990s that she never knew existed.

In my school-year blog What's New on the Book Shelves I wrote about 2 other Haddix books - Double Identity and The House on the Gulf - both of which will keep you guessing about what is really going on. Two other Haddix books in the IMC collection are Just Ella, a twist on the Cinderella story, and Take-offs and Landings, about two children reconnecting with their mother while flying around the country on a two-week speaking tour. In the fall you can look forward to Escape from Memory, about a girl who reveals another life under hypnosis, as one of our new books. For a complete list of books by Margaret Peterson Haddix, consult Novelist on the IMC webpage. If you have forgotten the ID and password, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

Action and Adventure Time

Hi, Summer Readers! I hope you are enjoying this lovely cool weather by taking some time to read. This week I would like to highlight one of my favorite authors for action and adventure - Will Hobbs. I don't remember now which book was the first one I read by Hobbs, but I can tell you that when I read Downriver, I was hooked! Downriver is the story of a group of teenagers who have ditched an outdoor education program to start their own adventure white-water rafting down the heart of the Grand Canyon. As I read this book I could almost feel the water spraying in my face as the two-boat group navigates the rapids. Of course with no adult or experienced guide, everything that could go wrong does for this group. Plus the fact that there are helicopters out looking for them just seems to add to the excitement. Once I read Downriver, I couldn't wait for the sequel River Thunder.

After that I anxiously waited for each new Will Hobbs book I could get for the Lakeview library. Some of my favorites are: Jason's Gold - about the Alaskan Gold Rush; Kokopelli's Flute - about a boy who changes into an animal to thwart robbers at a cliff dwellers site like Mesa Verde; The Maze - about an escaping teen who teams up with a bird biologist and almost loses his life in a canyon flash flood; Jackie's Wild Seattle - about two kids who spend an exciting summer with their uncle working for an animal rescue and shelter; and Far North - about two teens stranded after a small plane crashes in the Alaskan tundra. And this is only a short list of Hobbs's books at Lakeview. Check the I.P.A.C. for a complete list, and check in the fall for two new books by Hobbs - Go Big or Go Home and The Big Wander.

If you are looking for adventure this summer, Will Hobbs is the name to remember.

The Lightning Thief Tie-ins

If you have already read Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief or any of the books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, you may be ready to enter the incredible world of Greek mythology. Riordan's series unites mythology with twenty-first century characters. But reading the original myths is as adventure-packed as the Percy Jackson adventures. It is best to start with the stories of the gods - Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hera, Hermes. Each god or goddess has his or her own story of powers, symbols, and rivalries. Athena and Aphrodite have very unusual birth stories. You won't believe them! Then there are the stories of the heroes like Heracles, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts, and, of course, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus in the Trojan War. All the blood and gore you could want!

You probably already know the story of the Golden Touch. Well, that's a Greek myth, too. My favorite is the story of Queen Cassiopeia whose kingdom was rescued from Poseidon's sea-monster by Perseus. As a reward Perseus got to marry her daughter Andromeda. Cassiopeia ended up as a constellation in the sky - the "w" that we find pointing to the North Star. I always liked the astronomy connections in the Greek myths.

Do you have a favorite myth? Let me know what you like best.