Fantasy and Science Fiction for Everyone

​Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus
Readers of all ages will be captivated by the creative storylines and formats of the recently published fantasy and science fiction books reviewed in this column. From a picture book for the youngest readers to chapter books for middle grade readers to a complex stand-alone book and first books in a series for older readers, each book offers readers the opportunity to exercise their imaginations as they meet traditional fantasy characters as well as a diverse group of humans having fantastical adventures set in make-believe worlds, futuristic Earth, or outer space. 

​Charlie Hernández & the Phantom of Time (Charlie Hernández #4). Ryan Calejo. (2024). Aladdin.
In this latest fantastic adventure of Charlie Hernández, South Florida middle schooler Charlie, a morphling who can manifest physical characteristics of animals, receives a letter from his dead grandmother predicting “The future is doomed . . . Death reigns” in less than five hours if he cannot stop the obliterating attack to be launched by La Mano Peluda on the Land of the Living in Florida in their 5,000-year war. He must solve the mystery of “The Five Donkeys” in 1956 Cuba. Charlie and his young teen compatriots (cousin Raúl, girlfriend and investigative journalist Violet Rey, and paranormal skeleton Esperanza) embark on a time-travel quest that takes them to Cuba, Colombia, and other locations that come alive in magical and, often, horrifying ways. Teaming up with another time traveler, Evelyn, they uncover more clues, face more enemies, and battle against increasingly unbelievable odds to save the world. With snarky banter augmented by Spanish and Portuguese words and phrases sprinkled throughout and non-stop action, readers new to the series will be hooked and want to seek out the earlier books: League of Shadows (2018), The Castle of Bones (2019), and The Golden Dooms (2022). (Gr 6 Up)
—NB

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​Daughters of the Lamp (Daughters of the Lamp #1). Nedda Lewis. (2024). Putnam.
Twelve-year-old Egyptian American Sahara Rashad never imagined flying to Cairo for her Uncle Omar’s wedding and a two-week visit with the family of her mother, who died when Sahara was born, would immerse her in a family mystery involving magic. In a second narrative set in 985 CE, Morgana, the 13-year-old servant of Ali Baba, flees Baghdad with a jinni lamp and other magical treasures to fulfill the promise she makes to her dying master, who had been attacked by an evil sorcerer, to protect them. As the wedding of Omar and Magada, who Cousin Namia is convinced is a witch, approaches, the necklace Sahara inherited from her mother starts glowing and then disappears. Following a break-in at the family’s shop, Sahara learns that Ali Baba’s treasures have been hidden in an underground chamber and realizes that she must accept her legacy as guardian of the lamp. The second book in this fast-paced fantasy, Children of the Wind, will be published this June. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA

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​The Day I Fell into a Fairy Tale. Ben Miller. Illus. by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini.  (2024). Aladdin.
It is summer vacation, and nine-year old Lana is bored. With the promise of a treat, she agrees to join her mother on a trip to Grimm’s, a supermarket that popped up overnight in their small town. Lana decides on a huge volume of fairy tales although the small elderly man who appears to be the only employee says the stories will be too scary for her. Once her mother starts reading “Sleeping Beauty” to her and gets to the part where the evil 13th fairy casts a curse on the newborn princess, she seems to agree that the tale is too scary when she hides the book. On a return trip to Grimm’s, Lana learns about portals to the fairy tale world in pick’n’mix tubs of candy and, with a push from the clerk, falls down a chute and into the Grimm Brother’s darker version of the tale. Ben Miller’s exciting adventure into the fantasy world may have middle grade readers checking out a collection of Grimm’s fairy tales as part of their summer reading. (Gr 3 Up)
—CA

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​Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear. Robin Wasley. (2024). Simon & Schuster.
Sixteen-year-old Isidora “Sid” Spencer is keeping a low profile as an adopted Korean. She has lost her best friend, Nell, to her almost-boyfriend Finn, and everyone knows about it. Llewelyn (Wellsie), a town with mostly white families, sits on a sealed fault line that keeps old magic locked away and attracts tourism. Unbeknownst to Sid and most people, one of the eight guardians sworn to protect the seal is killed, and this leads to a cataclysmic earthquake ripping the seal open, throwing part of the town into the rift, and releasing zombie-like creatures who feed on the humans. A wall springs up trapping everyone already in the town, and keeping those on the outside, including Sid’s parents, sister, and niece, from returning. When Sid cannot locate her older brother, Matty, she and her cat survive by joining an unlikely group of teens including a guardian. Searching for the other guardians, they dodge magic-hungry strangers in town who are acting like paramilitary and devise a plan using their superpowers (as Sid discovers her own) to close the gap—but will they seal the fault in time to save themselves and the town? (Gr 9-12)  
—NB

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​The Last Bloodcarver (The Last Bloodcarver #1). Vanessa Le. (2024). Roaring Brook.
Eighteen-year-old Nhika Suonyasan believes she is the last of the heartsooths, Yarongese island people with the magical ability to diagnose and heal a body by the laying on of hands. In the industrialized city of Theumas, where as a practitioner of the ancient art of heartsoothing she would be seen not as healer but a bloodcarver, a monster who kills for pleasure, Nhika is abducted and auctioned off on the black market. The highest bidder is Mimi, the daughter of a prominent industrialist, who wants Nhika to heal a comatose witness to her father’s suspicious death. Nhika’s success in doing so becomes complicated as a murder investigation gets underway, the attending physician makes demands to keep her healing gift a secret, and her uncertainty increases as to whether Ven Kohin, the physician’s assistant, is an ally or a foe. Vanessa Le’s richly detailed first book in this intriguing duology has a heart-stopping ending that leaves the reader eagerly anticipating the publication of His Mortal Demise in March 2025. (Gr 6 Up)
—CA

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​The Selkie’s Daughter. Linda Crotta Brennan. (2024), Holiday House. 
Brigit, daughter of a selkie mother (Marella) and a human father (Andrew), hides her painfully-trimmed webbed fingers from her classmates. As fishermen in her isolated Nova Scotia village return home empty-handed, many blame the dearth of fish and various misfortunes on a selkie bane—and point at her family. Hardships intensify when diphtheria takes the lives of Brigit’s little brother and others and her mother slips into her seal skin to search for Andrew, who is lost at sea following a storm that destroys much of the town. After her selkie cousins send her visions revealing baby seals being murdered for their skins, Brigit fears the bane is in retribution from the Great Selkie, the golden seal she glimpses in the harbor. Throughout her struggle to accept her land-and-sea heritage, Brigit knows she is the only one who can get to the undersea kingdom of Sule Skerrie to present the selkie king with a plan to stop the pup killings, rescue her father (with the help of friends), and lift the bane so village life can get back to normal. Celtic mythology and songs are woven throughout this engaging coming-of-age fantasy. (Gr 3 Up)

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​Sky’s End (Above the Black #1). Marc J. Gregson. (2024). Peachtree Teen.
When he was ten years old, Conrad’s father, the Archduke of Holmstead Island of the Skylands, was murdered by his brother, who as the new archduke exiled Conrad and his mother from “High” to “Low” to live in destitution while keeping his younger sister, Ella, hidden away. Although Conrad was raised by a compassionate mother, he is strongly influenced by his father’s belief in the governing system of Meritocracy (“The weak fall; the strong rise. Think hate.”), so he trusts no one. Now 16, he qualifies to enter the Selection of the Twelve Trades after his mother’s death, is assigned to the Hunter Trade (his profession for life with a high mortality rate), and fights the gorgantauns, sky serpents with steel scales that are destroying the Skylands. If he wins the deadly Gauntlet contest, Conrad will earn his own skyship, which he plans to use as a getaway vehicle after kidnapping Ella from his uncle. As captain of The Gladian, with his nemesis, Pound, and other shipmates, each harboring secrets, he struggles to find his own identity during brutal battles against gorgantauns and learns who the real enemy is. Readers will be primed for Among Serpents, the next book in this battle-filled adventure trilogy, to be released in January 2025. (Gr 9-12)
—NB

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 The Spaceman. Randy Cecil. (2024). Candlewick.
A tiny spaceman comments, “I must confess, at first glance I thought this a rather ordinary planet” as he steps out of his tiny spaceship expecting to have another ordinary day at his job of collection soil samples, labeling the soil samples, and filing the soil samples before moving on to the next planet. But then a creature with wings comes along and flies away with his ship. He gives chase into the unknown and has to flee into the starry dark from “a hideous beast” covered in fur. As the darkness fades, he encounters an extraordinary variety of creatures—some strange, some adorable, some beautiful—and when the creature he had considered to be hideous rescues him from a lily pond and seems to have potential as a friend, the spaceman has a big decision to make upon discovering his ship high up on a branch of a tree. Young readers will enjoy knowing more than the little alien does about “the extraordinary place” he has landed on, such as the furry beast being a dog, from what is revealed in Randy Cecil’s warmly humorous oil paintings. (PreS Up)
—CA

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​The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice. Rachel Chivers Khoo. Illus. by Rachel Sanson. (2024). Candlewick.
After ten-year-old Felix tosses his last coin into Whittlestone’s penny fountain and makes a wish that his 16-year-old sister, Rebecca, would like him again, he sees a small elderly man retrieving pennies from the fountain with a fishing pole. Surprised that he can be seen, the man introduces himself as Rupus Beewinkle, the Whittlestone wishkeeper, and offers Felix a job as his apprentice. Rupus needs help not only organizing his chaotic office filled with incoming wishes and fixing wish snags but also in dealing with a wishsnatcher, “a creature of pure despair” that was thought to be extinct, who is responsible for the ever-increasing obliteration of wishes being kept by Rupus. It will be up to Felix to rescue Rupus from the wishsnatcher’s lair before the monster has stripped the last wish from the wishkeeper. Rachel Sanson’s grayscale illustrations for this engaging transitional chapter book complement Rachel Chivers Khoo’s lively magical adventure story. A recipe for Snorlicks, a wishkeeper’s beverage of choice, is appended. (Gr 3-5)
—CA

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Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former Director of the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.