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The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System

MSBSolarSystem

The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole, 1990.

Ms. Frizzle’s class is planning a trip to the planetarium as part of their lesson about the solar system, but of course, their magic school bus has other plans.  When they get to the planetarium and find out that it’s closed for repairs, the bus sprouts rockets and takes them on a real trip through the solar system.

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This time, the class is accompanied by Arnold’s visiting cousin, Janet.  Janet is a show-off who brags constantly about everything, making up stories when she has nothing real to brag about.  She gets on the other kids’ nerves, but when they’re separated from Ms. Frizzle because she got out of the bus to fix a taillight broken in the asteroid field, Janet takes charge, using Ms. Frizzle’s lesson plan to continue the field trip, eventually figuring out how to turn the bus around to rescue her and get back to Earth.

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All through the book, there are facts about the sun, the moon, and the planets in the solar system from the students’ reports.  Each time they stop at a planet, a scale shows the difference between Arnold’s weight on Earth and his weight on each planet.  The book considers Pluto to be a planet because it was written before its planet status was reconsidered.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Journeyman Wizard

JourneymanWizardJourneyman Wizard by Mary Frances Zambreno, 1994.

This book is the sequel to A Plague of Sorcerers.

Jermyn Graves has finished his apprenticeship and is ready to move onto his Journeyman studies.  As a Spellmaker, an especially rare type of wizard, he really needs to study with a Master Spellmaker, and for years, there has only been one in the Wizard’s Guild: Lady Jean Allons.  Jermyn’s current teacher, Theoretician William Eschar, once studied under her himself.

Mistress Allons is a formidable old woman, and Jermyn is nervous about going to live with her and completing the next part of his training. Master Eschar says that she is strict but an excellent teacher, and he has fond memories of her from his own youth.  However, much has changed for Mistress Allons since those days.

Mistress Allons lives in her manor house in the small town of Land’s End with her widower son-in-law, Duncan, and her granddaughter, Brianne, who is only a little younger than Jermyn himself. Since the death of her only daughter, Annalise, in a mysterious accident during a magical experiment, Mistress Allons has not really practiced magic and no longer even keeps a familiar.  As Jermyn soon learns, everyone in Land’s End is still haunted by Annalise’s death.

Although Brianne has magical talent, both her father and grandmother refuse to let her study magic.  In defiance and because her talent will not allow her to leave magic alone, Brianne has taken to studying magic with a local Hedgewitch, Maudie.  Hedgewitches, or Wise Women as they call themselves, practice a very natural form of magic, but it can also be very dangerous because of its raw, undisciplined nature.  Although magical accidents are usually rare, that type of magic is more prone to them than the more formal kind that Jermyn is studying.  Jermyn tries to convince Brianne of the danger, but Brianne sees it as her only hope for learning anything, in view of her father and grandmother’s opposition.

Jermyn is not there for very long before Mistress Allons herself dies, the victim of another strange magical accident. Was it really just a terrible accident, or was it actually murder?  Jermyn struggles to find the answers while some people believe that he may have been responsible for Mistress Allons’s death himself.

I enjoyed the fascinating combination of mystery and fantasy in this short series.  While Jermyn’s magical studies are fictional, the book has some interesting insights into cross-disciplinary studies as Jermyn comes to understand something that Mistress Allons was trying to explain to him about using lessons from art and science to solve magical problems because different fields of knowledge are connected and the principles of one discipline have some bearing on the other.

There is also something interesting that Jermyn says to the evil wizard who is responsible for everything about how he can’t really do all the things that he thinks he can do (specifically flying) because the kind of drugs that evil wizards use to boost their powers also cause hallucinations.  When I was in college, I did a report about witchcraft trials, and some of the plants used by supposed “witches” in their potions also had hallucinogenic properties, which is probably the origin of the belief in flying witches.  Just an interesting little cross-over from real history.

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A Plague of Sorcerers

PlagueSorcerersA Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno, 1991.

Jermyn Graves comes from a family of sorcerers, but although he seems to have the talent, it takes him unusually long to get his familiar. Familiars, animals with a special link to a wizard, assisting them in their magic, come to their masters when they are ready to begin learning magic, and without one, Jermyn cannot really be a wizard.

When Jermyn’s familiar finally appears, everyone is surprised to find that it is a skunk. Some people make fun of him for having such a strange familiar. No one is quite sure what the meaning of his familiar is, and the exact nature of Jermyn’s magical talent is still unknown. Still, his aunt apprentices him to a theoretician, a man who does not actually practice magic himself, but who studies the theory behind it. He can assist Jermyn until Jermyn’s true talents become known and he can study with a master who shares his specialty.

Jermyn likes his new master and the young orphan girl who lives with him. However, disaster soon strikes the city. Sorcerers are falling victim to a strange disease that sends them into a coma. Despite their best efforts, none of the remaining sorcerers can discover the source of the disease or its cure, and all the time, there are less and less sorcerers to continue the work. Time is running out, and Jermyn and his unusual familiar may be the only ones capable of finding the answer.

Jermyn does have a special talent which he comes to fully understand, and he uses it to save the other sorcerers and put an end to the mysterious plague.  Although the others had laughed at Jermyn’s skunk, he later comes to realize that she was the one keeping him from getting the plague himself because of some unusual qualities of her own.  The combination of mystery and fantasy is exciting, and there is a mysterious villain who may not even be aware of their villainy because of their own hidden sides.

This book is currently out of print, but there are used copies still available, and you can also buy an electronic copy from American Fantasy Press.

There is a note in the beginning of the book that says that the first two chapters are based on a short story written by the author earlier.  The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.  There is also a sequel to this book, Journeyman Wizard.

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The Wizard’s Apprentice

WizardsApprentice

The Wizard’s Apprentice by S.P. Somtow, 1993.

WizardsApprenticePic1Sixteen-year-old Aaron Maguire thinks of himself as a typical teenager, even though his family is far from typical.  His mother is a buyer for a fashion boutique, and his father does special effects for monster movies in Hollywood.  They’re also officially “separated” and preparing for a divorce, even though they’re still living in the same house.  So far, they’ve just kind of divided the house in two in order to have their own space.  Aaron goes back and forth between the two halves of the same house as his parents share him.  It’s a little weird (and, to Aaron, also a little depressing), but there’s weirder to come.

An old man approaches Aaron and tells him that he’s destined to be a wizard and that he will teach Aaron what he needs to know.  At first, Aaron thinks this man is nuts and probably homeless, but what he says is true.  The old man is the wizard Anaxagoras.  Anaxagoras demonstrates to Aaron how the skateboarding maneuver he had just pulled off defies the laws of physics and tells Aaron things about his personal life that no one should know (how angry he is with his parents about their separation and about his crush on Penelope Karpovsky, a girl he knows from biology class).  He also changes the dollar Aaron had offered him into a $100 bill and shows him that they can travel to magical lands and even through time.  Although Aaron still has trouble believing what he sees (his father does special effects for a living, after all), he becomes Anaxagoras’s apprentice.

Partly because Aaron still has doubts and needs something physical to convince him of the wizard’s powers and trustworthiness, Anaxagoras gives him a mirror.  It looks basically like an ordinary pocket mirror with a neon pink frame, but Anaxagoras invites him to ponder it and figure out what it does, telling him that what he does with it is important.

WizardsApprenticePic2However, when Aaron meets the divine Penelope for pizza and she asks to borrow a mirror to check her hair, Aaron lets her borrow Anaxagoras’s mirror.  He instantly regrets it because the mirror suddenly changes in Penelope’s hands.  Now, it has a tortoiseshell frame and is shaped like a heart.  Penelope, who has low self-esteem in spite of her prettiness, is suddenly really happy when she looks in the mirror and refuses to give it back, insisting that she wants to borrow it for a few days.  Because Aaron is in love with Penelope, he finally agrees to let her keep it for awhile.

When Aaron tries to tell Anaxagoras about Penelope borrowing the mirror, he doesn’t seem concerned.  He just hurries Aaron on to his next lesson, which involves a plumbing problem.  Anaxagoras’s lessons are pretty weird, although Aaron finds himself learning that there is more magic in the everyday world than he ever suspected.

Aaron later attempts his own feat of magical plumbing at the studio where his dad is working and encounters a creature of darkness.  The mirror gets out of his hands, and he enchants a car in order to chase it down.  Finally, a dare from some classmates causes him to unleash a dragon on the unsuspecting city, one that only Aaron can understand and defeat, once he realizes the true nature of his magical mirror.

Aaron has a distinctive voice as a California teenager, and his first experiments with magic lead him to some surprising discoveries about himself which help him to understand and reconcile his feelings about his parents’ divorce.

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Kat and the Missing Notebooks

KatMissingNotebooks

Kat and the Missing Notebooks by Emma Bradford, 1999.

KatMissingNotebooksDaVinciThis book is part of the Stardust Classics series.

This time, Kat and her aunt, Jessie, find themselves in Florence during the Renaissance. They appear shortly before someone attempts to steal some very important papers belonging to the Florentine City Council from Signor Millori. Kat and Pietro, Signor Millori’s son, both run after the thief, and Kat helps to get the papers back. To thank Kat for her help, Signor Millori invites her and Jessie to stay with him and his family in their palazzo during their stay in Florence.

Signor Millori is a wealthy banker, and the palazzo is a grand place. Kat and Pietro become friends, and he confides in her how much he loves art. Pietro’s father wants him to become a banker, but Pietro’s dream is to study painting with Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, he takes Kat and her aunt to see Leonardo painting a mural at the Palazzo del Vecchio.

Leonardo notices Kat’s aunt and thinks that she has an interesting face. When he asks her to come to his studio to pose for some sketches, she eagerly accepts. Kat hopes that she can use the opportunity to show Leonardo Pietro’s artistic talent and convince him to take Pietro on as a student. However, although Leonardo likes the sketch of Pietro’s that he sees, he says that he has enough apprentices at the moment. Pietro cannot resist the opportunity to study Leonardo’s work, however, and borrows a couple of his notebooks to study.

KatMissingNotebooksFlightBesides being a great artist, Leonardo da Vinci is also a scientist, and along with his notes on art, there are sketches and plans for possible inventions in the notebooks. Kat and Pietro go to return the notebooks the next day, but before they can get to Leonardo’s studio, the same thief who tried to steal Signor Millori’s papers steals the notebooks.

Florence has been at war with Pisa for some time, and the Florentine City Council has consulted with Leonardo da Vinci to see if he can come up with some inventions that would give them the upper hand. They know that the thief must be a spy for Pisa who is trying to see what Leonardo has been working on. However, Kat knows that if they do not retrieve the notebooks, history may be changed. Soon, it becomes obvious that the spy has an accomplice who is living in the Millori’s palazzo. Can Kat and Pietro find the notebooks and stop the spies before it is too late?

Although this is a fantasy story that involves time travel, it is based on historical events, and there is a section in the back that explains more about the Italian Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci.  At the time of the story, Italy was not a united country.  The Italian peninsula was covered with many small city-states which frequently fought each other.  In 1494, Pisa broke away from Florence, and Florence fought for several years to bring it back under their control, until they eventually succeeded in 1509.  This conflict was the basis for the story, and the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was consulted by the Florentine Council during the struggle.

Also in the back of the book is an explanation of mirror writing, which Leonardo da Vinci used in his notebooks.  There are also instructions for making fresco ornaments and a recipe for Nutty Biscotti.

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Kat the Time Explorer

KatTimeExplorer

Kat the Time Explorer by Emma Bradford, 1998.

KatTimeExplorerTrain.jpgTen-year-old Kat is going to be living with her Aunt Jessie for the next year.  Her parents are botanists, and they are spending a year in South America, studying rain forest plants.  Aunt Jessie lives in a house in the same town as Kat and her parents so, by staying with her, Kat can continue going to the same school and see her friends.

Like Kat’s parents, Aunt Jessie is also a scientist and teaches physics at the same college where her parents teach when they’re not doing research abroad.  She inherited her house from their Great-Uncle Malcolm, who was an inventor.  Malcolm never invented anything that made much money or got much attention, but Jessie has been going through his things and discovered something interesting among his unfinished projects: a time machine.  The time machine seems to be nearly complete, although Jessie isn’t quite sure how to operate it or what should power it.  There is a drawing of a strange medallion in Malcolm’s notes, and Jessie found one with the same markings among Malcolm’s belongings, but it’s unclear whether this medallion is supposed to play any role in the time machine’s function or if it’s completely unrelated.

Then, Kat discovers another medallion in Malcolm’s old room, one with identical markings but made out of a different type of metal.  There is a space on the time machine for each of the medallions to fit.  When Kat experiments with how the medallions can fit into the machine, she activates it, transporting herself and Jessie back in time to England in 1851.

They find themselves on a train with other travelers heading to The Great Exhibition in London where people from around the world will be displaying new developments in industry and technology.  No one notices Jessie and Kat’s sudden arrival because the train is packed with people and the time machine has somehow altered their clothing and other small objects in their possession to ones that are appropriate to the period.  They also seem to be able to understand people speaking other languages neither of them knew before.  The time machine itself is packed into an ordinary-looking bag.  The two of them decide that they can’t use the time machine on the train where everyone will see them, and besides, they are both curious about the time they find themselves in.  After a temporary mix-up where they are separated at the train station, they find each other again and manage to locate a woman who will rent a room to them for a couple of days.

Unfortunately, when they start unpacking in their room, they discover that their bag was accidentally switched at the station for an identical one.  They no longer have the time machine and can’t get home!  Inside the bag they have, they find articles of men’s clothing, a small spring of some kind, an incomplete sketch of some kind of invention, a ticket to the Exhibition, and a letter written to someone named Edward from his brother Sidney about the Exhibition and the invention they plan to demonstrate there.  The brothers are very concerned about the success of their demonstration and are depending on results to make some money and save their family’s estate.  With those clues, Jessie and Kat must track down these inventors and find their time machine, saving not only themselves from being stuck in the past but the future of the two brothers!

There is an educational section in the back that explains about the Victorian Era and the Great Exposition.  It also discusses Victorian manners and tea parties.  There are tips for making little sandwiches of the kind people would eat at tea parties.

This book is part of the Stardust Classics series.

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Alissa, Princess of Arcadia

AlissaAlissa, Princess of Arcadia by Jillian Ross, 1997.

Alissa, the only child of King Edmund of Arcadia, feels like her life has taken a turn for the worse since she turned ten years old.  Before, she lived a basically care-free life, but now, her family has become more serious about her education and training as the future Queen of Arcadia.  Her great-aunts are mainly in charge of her education now, and they find Alissa to be ill-mannered, impatient, and stubborn.  In some ways, she is.  Alissa is bored with her lessons in the standard school subjects and hates her “deportment” lessons, where she learns etiquette suited to the royal court.  More than anything, she wants adventure and excitement.

To Alissa’s surprise, she meets a strange old man one evening while walking in the garden who promises her the adventure that she’s looking for.  At first, Alissa doesn’t know what to think about this strange old man, Balin, who seems to know everything about her, even what she’s been thinking.  He sets Alissa a “quest”, to solve a riddle to determine where to find him.  After pondering it for awhile, Alissa realizes that the riddle says that Balin lives in the oldest tower of the castle, where no one ever goes anymore.

AlissaBalinIt turns out that Balin is a wizard.  He’s lived in the tower for centuries and hardly ever leaves, so most people have forgotten that he’s there.  He offers Alissa lessons in magic and the kind of quests that she’s been craving.  He once taught Alissa’s father similar lessons, although he thinks that King Edmund has also forgotten that he exists.  Alissa eager accepts the offer of magic lessons.

At first, the only other person who knows about Alissa’s lessons with Balin is Lia, a servant of one of Alissa’s great-aunts.  Lia had been about to run away from her position as servant because she didn’t think that she was very good at her job, but Alissa caught her the night when she was going to find Balin in his tower.  The two of them became friends, and Alissa makes Lia her lady-in-waiting. Alissa enjoys having someone her age to share her secrets and adventures.  Her great-aunts disapprove of her choice of lady-in-waiting, but Alissa’s father appreciates Lia because she sees the better side of Alissa, her bravery and kindness, and somewhat helps Alissa’s impatience because Lia is a more patient, cautious person.

AlissaKingWhen Alissa first begins her lessons with Balin, she thinks that studying magic is turning out to be as boring as her other lessons.  Balin makes her do little chores, like dusting things in his tower, and he has her read books and memorize words.  Alissa is impatient to get on with the exciting magic, but Balin impresses on her that she needs to start out slowly and to recognize that magic is not the solution to all things.

Meanwhile, Alissa’s father is preparing to hold a banquet to celebrate a new alliance with a neighboring kingdom.  Now that Alissa is old enough to participate in such banquets, she learns that she must not only attend the banquet but be the dinner partner of the invited king, who she has heard is a stern man who is a stickler for proper manners.  Alissa is terrified that she will make a mistake during the banquet, anger the king, and ruin everything.

Her fears grow worse when Balin tells her that he has seen impending disaster in his crystal ball and a threat to the alliance.  Alissa begs him to tell her more, but he says that something is preventing his magic from seeing more.  All he has to offer Alissa are a few vague hints which take the form of another riddle.

Balin believes that Alissa is the only one who can solve the riddle, stop the danger, and save the alliance, but Alissa doubts herself.  She’s still afraid that she isn’t up to the task and will ruin everything, and she wishes that Balin would give her some magic spell to prevent her from doing anything wrong.  However, the best weapons Alissa has are the ones she already possesses: her wits, her desire to work hard for what she wants to achieve, and the new patience that she is just starting to learn.

One of the things that I liked about the story was that the visiting king, for all of his sternness and demanding nature with others, is surprisingly understanding with Alissa.  Some adults still remember what it was like to be young and awkward and impatient to grow up.

This book does not have extra information or activities in the back, as other books in the Stardust Classics series do.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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The Mysterious Queen of Magic

KleepQueenMagicThe Mysterious Queen of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon, 1981.

This is part of the Kleep: Space Detective series.

Kleep and Till meet a strange young man who is looking for Kleep’s grandfather, Arko.  The young man, Mikkel, tells them a wild story, that an evil wizard is after him.  He is controlling Mikkel’s people on the planet Durth, putting them under a spell and forcing them to become his slaves. Mikkel believes that Arko may have the key to getting rid of him because an old wise man told him to ask Arko how to find Queen Stellara.  Queen Stellara was a legendary queen who could do magic, and Arko has some old write-rolls, scrolls of the kind people used to use before people began using computers alone for learning, that talk about her and her kingdom.  However, Arko doesn’t believe in wizards or magic spells or anything of the kind.

Kleep remembers Arko telling her the old stories from the write-rolls when she was little, and unlike her grandfather, she believes that wizards and magic may be real and wants to try to help Mikkel.  When Arko says that he doesn’t believe in magic and can’t help Mikkel, Kleep and her friend Till decide to use the scrolls to try to help Mikkel find Queen Stellara.  Taking Kleep’s robot, Zibbit, with them, they journey to the planet Loctar, where Queen Stellara was supposed to live.

Although this series is mostly sci-fi with a bit of mystery thrown in, this book is more fantasy.  When Kleep and her friends arrive on the planet Loctar, they discover that they must face a series of challenges to reach the legendary queen’s palace, like heros in a fairy tale.  Magic is real, and they must prove themselves worthy in order to meet the queen and ask her for the solution to the problem of the evil wizard.  But, their ordeal doesn’t quite end there because, while Queen Stellara provides them with the means to fight the wizard, they must face him themselves!

A little corny, but fun, although it’s not my favorite book in the series.  The others were more sci-fi, and this is more fantasy.  Also, for a “detective” series, there isn’t much mystery, more adventure.  It sort of reminds me of the original Star Trek episode Catspaw, except that the magical beings in this one are apparently really magical and not just aliens.  Like the other books in this series, I like the pictures, too.

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Trapped in Time

TrappedTimeTrapped in Time by Ruth Chew, 1986.

Audrey (called Andy) and her younger brother Nathan are having a picnic in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, when Nathan falls and knocks over an old tree stump. They spot something shiny in the deep hole under the old stump, and Nathan climbs down to get it.  It turns out to be an old pocket watch, the kind that needs to be wound with a key.  Nathan has a small key in his pocket, made for a toy, and decides to try it on the watch.  He manages to wind it, but suddenly, the hands of the watch move backwards, the children feel strange, and everything around them seems different.  Although it takes the children a little while to realize it, they’ve traveled back in time about 200 years, back to the Revolutionary War.

They meet a boy named Franz and become friends with him.  Franz is a drummer boy for the Hessian soldiers, Germans hired by the British to help them fight against the rebelling colonists.  Franz’s superior orders his men to commandeer food and supplies from the people living in the area.  Franz is supposed to take a family’s cow, but the family desperately beg him not to because they have nothing left and will need the cow to support themselves.  Andy persuades Franz to leave the family and their cow alone.  However, disobeying the order means that Franz will be in trouble with his superior.  He decides that the only thing to do is to desert the army.

TrappedTimePicFranz had only joined the army in the first place because his parents were dead, and he didn’t know what else to do.  Now, he has to find a new place to live, somewhere where there won’t be other Hessians who would recognize him as a deserter.  Andy and Nathan also have problems because they’ve now realized what time they’re in, and they don’t know how to get home.  The watch no longer seems to work.

The children travel together, meeting others who help them and seeing the effects that all of the armies, British, Hessian, and American, have on the ordinary people as the war continues around them.

When they finally find a place where Franz can stay safely and someone he can call family, who can also use Franz’s help, Andy and Nathan realize who the watch really belongs to and how they can return to their own time.

The watch’s real owner is the person I thought it would be, and it took the kids unexpectedly long to realize it.  There is a hint of what happened to Franz when the kids finally return to their own time, but I kind of wished that they learned more about what Franz’s life turned out to be like.  From what the kids see, it seems that things went well for Franz and that he continued living in the house where they left him.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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A Wizard’s Dozen

WizardsDozenA Wizard’s Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic edited by Michael Stearns, 1993.

This is a collection of fantasy stories (roughly middle school level) by different authors.  The tone of the stories varies from light and humorous to dark and serious.  The stories in this collection are:

The Sixty-two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd by Patricia C. Wrede

Caliph Arenschadd has a temper, but unlike other rulers, who have been known to cut off people’s head when they’re angry, Arenschadd is also a wizard.  Because he likes to show off his magic, he has thought of something more creative than executing people: a list of curses to inflict on those who anger him.  As people get him angry, he progresses through the curses in the order that he thought of them, each one worse than the last.  Worse still, he also inflicts the curses on the families of people who annoy him, which is how Imani, the young daughter of the caliph’s vizier has experienced so many at her young age.  However, the caliph has made a serious miscalculation in his latest curse.  This time, he has turned the vizier and his family into werewolves without being able to remove the curse.  As far as anyone knows, it’s impossible to cure lycanthropy.  As the vizier and his family find themselves becoming a threat to those around them, can Imani and her friend Tumpkin find a way to break the curse?

Fairy Dust by Charles De Lint

When Marina’s friend Jason manages to catch a real, live fairy in a jar, she tries to convince him to let it go, but he refuses.  He wants to keep it, just overnight.  But, the fairy ends up dying, and suddenly, Jason himself is severely ill.  Marina is sure that Jason is suffering from a fairy’s curse, but is there anything she can do to save him?

This experience touches on Marina’s absent father, an impractical dreamer, although it does turn out that he has taught Marina an important lesson, and she learns for herself that when she sees someone doing something that she knows is wrong, it is also wrong for her to keep silent.

The Princess Who Kicked Butt by Will Shetterly

In a mystical kingdom, people’s names tell everyone something about their destiny and character.  When a new princess is born in the kingdom, the Fairy Who Was Good With Names comes to bestow a new name on her.  However, the fairy sneezes and no one clearly hears the name that the fairy gave her.  Thinking that the fairy said the princess was “the Princess Who Read Books,” the king and queen make sure that she has plenty of reading material while she’s growing up and don’t give it much more thought.  Later, when the Evil Enchanter tries to force the princess to marry him and her parents to hand over the kingdom, the princess’s true name and her real skills become known.

The Sea Giants by Betty Levin

A great-grandmother translates whale songs for her family to tell them an ancient story: There was once a family that was barely surviving on small fish, small prey, and the little berries that they were able to forage for themselves.  The father wished that he were bigger, stronger, and more powerful so that he could catch bigger prey for his family.  One day, the father and mother paddled out to sea in search of food, and they met a group of giants in their own canoe.   The giants took them back to their own village and gave them food, but although the food they were offered was much larger than anything they could catch themselves, next to the giants, it was about as small as the small prey that the people ate back home.  After while, the couple returned home to their children, guided by a strange gray dog which turns out to be a porpoise.  From then on, the family’s luck begins to change, and they do become more prosperous.  However, the father is unable to forget about the giants, and he feels called to join them again.

Efrum’s Marbles by Joy Oestreicher

Efrum is a giant, but he’s no ordinary giant.  Although Efrum is big (being a giant), he hasn’t grown at all since the age of six.  He is over 30 years old, and he is still a child, which is weird, even for a giant child.  He spends his days playing with other giant children, and his favorite game is marbles.  In fact, he has a favorite marble.  No one knows quite what this marble is made of because no one has ever seen another like it.  It’s strange, and it kind of looks like . . . an eye?  Then, a young giant girl named Brinda plays marbles with Efrum, and for the first time ever, Efrum is tempted to let someone else win his precious, mysterious marble, which clever Brinda realizes may be the first step in helping Efrum to grow up.

“Come Hither” by Tappan King

Meg hates being the middle child in her family.  Her older sister is praised for being responsible, and her younger sister is pampered.  Meg feels like getting into trouble is the only way that she can get attention.  When she gets into trouble and is grounded from her older sister’s birthday party, she decides to amuse herself by messing with her sister’s computer.  She makes a mistake while typing and ends up receiving an invitation from a mysterious elf to join her for a party in his land.  Has Meg just made a serious mistake?

With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm by Bruce Coville

In a kingdom constantly at war, few young men survive to become old.  Young Brion escapes for a time by pretending to be crippled, but one day, his pretense is exposed, and he is executed for refusing to fight.  However, Brion’s death doesn’t prevent him from returning to end the suffering of his land and hopefully save more people from his fate.

The Queen’s Mirror by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald

This is a re-telling of the story of Snow White.  An older servant tells the young princess about the history of the magic mirror, which belonged to the princess’s grandmother, who ordered her own daughter’s death because she feared and resented her beauty.  There are no dwarves in this version, and it’s a slightly different take on the story.  There are hints that the events in the story repeat with the generations.

The Breath of Princes by Alan P. Smale

When Stephanie is kidnapped from her town by a dragon, the dragon tries to convince her that being a dragon’s prisoner is a much better fate than the one that awaits her in small-town life: drudgery, boring marriage, children, etc.  Of course, he plans to eat her eventually, when he gets tired of her.  Young men try to rescue her, but in a way, Stephanie fears that one of them will succeed.  If they do, she will no doubt be obligated to marry the rescuer, and considering what some of them are like, it might even be worse than being eaten by a dragon.  The man she has always dreamed about is a prince she was lucky enough to meet once, but no prince has come to save her.  There may be a way for Stephanie to save herself from either fate, but she has to sacrifice her innocence in the process.

Harlyn’s Fairy by Jane Yolen

Harlyn lives with her Aunt Marilyn, and when she spots a fairy in the garden one day, her aunt begins to worry about her.  Harlyn’s mother is mentally unstable and prone to paranoid delusions, so Aunt Marilyn keeps a close eye on Harlyn.  She discourages her from reading fantasy stories (although Harlyn loves them) for fear of the effect they might have on her mind.  But, Harlyn really did see a fairy.  The question is, what is she going to do about it?

Lost Soul by Vivian Vande Velde

A young man meets a beautiful, mysterious woman by a stream.  She charms him so much that he no longer loves the woman he was going to marry.  In fact, he is so obsessed with her that he can think of nothing else.  What will he do when he realizes that she doesn’t feel the same?  Is she even . . . human?

The Way of Prophets by Dan Bennett

The royal family of the Stuard Isles has a tradition.  At the age of seventeen, each of them must make a journey alone along an old road known as The Way of Prophets.  The things that they see and the things that happen to them along their journey tell them what their destinies are.  They learn what really matters to them and find a focus for their time as rulers.  So many centuries have passed that no one can be quite sure where the original Way of Prophets was, so mostly, the journey takes on a kind of symbolic meaning, but there are stories that say that, every once in awhile, a young ruler finds their way to the true Way of Prophets, and the kingdom changes in some important way.  When Prince Ransom sets out, he hopes to find the true path himself.  However, when he does, it doesn’t turn out to be quite what he imagined, and it makes him question what he really wants most from his destiny.

I love this story for what the prince’s father told him, “When I am gone, when you take the throne, you will be powerful.  That is guaranteed.  Your knights and armies will make sure of it.  And you will be loved and respected.  That, too, is guaranteed.  No matter what you say and do, there will always be those ready to smother you with love and respect, if you let them, simply because you wear the crown.  Because of who you are, Ransom — because of who you will become when I am gone — you need never be hungry or alone.  But there is no guarantee that you will matter.”  If what Prince Ransom wants most is to matter, can the Way of Prophets make it happen?

Faith by Sherwood Smith

Faith tells her friends fantastic stories all the time.  She comes from a poor family with a lot of problems, so most people assume that she just makes up stories to try to make her life sound better than it really is and avoid thinking about the problems.  Usually, her two best friends don’t mind much, but lately, Melissa has been getting tired of hearing Faith talk about how her dog can talk or how her radio can tune in to Middle Earth.  She’s growing up and losing patience with fantasy stories.  Even the girls’ other friend wishes that Faith would stop asking them to believe these wild stories.  Then, after a visit to the trailer where Faith lives, she begins to change her mind.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.