Young Adult: The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

Author, actor and director Adrienne Kress (Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate) attacks her first young adult novel with cinematic verve. In her newest book, Kress delivers a high-spirited study of the nature of heroism at the hands of a trio of girls in a steampunk world.

The Friday Society (Dial) brings us lab assistant Cora, magician’s assistant Nellie and Michiko,

Best Books of 2012: Children’s Books

This is the Best Books for Children and Young Adults segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2012 feature. Also available are our picks for best crime, mystery and thriller fiction of 2012, in two parts: one and two. As well, here are the best cookbooks of 2012. Still to come: our contributors’ selections of the Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography and Best

Young Adult: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

It seems ironic that the author who suffered a scandal for weaving too much fiction into his memoir should come back as part of a writing team that claims no earthly connection. Some would say there is room for scandal at the heart of Full Fathom Five, the writer’s factory Frey set up to create new projects. We won’t go into that here, as it’s been well covered in the press and may, in any case,

Young Adult: Blood Storm by Rhiannon Hart

In Blood Storm (Random House Australia) Princess Zeraphina and Rodden, the King's right-hand man, are both “harmings,” a kind of vampire who isn’t actually undead, but does need blood; it doesn’t have to be human and they make the most of small creatures such as rabbits and squirrels. But now beggars and other unlikely-to-be missed folk have been found drained of blood in the streets. Sailors and

SF/F: Under My Skin by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint is one of the ranking names in SF/F. With 36 novels to his credit, as well as 36 collections of short fiction, he is prolific as well as fiercely talented.

While de Lint has published fiction for young readers in the past, those works have been much overshadowed by his novels and stories for adults. For instance, 2007’s Little (Grrl) Lost and The Painted Boy from 2010 seem to

Forget Vampires: Dystopia is the New Black for Teens

With her bleak but beautifully rendered visions of a dystopian future, in books like Oryx and Crake and even 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, we always knew Margaret Atwood was ahead of her time. Now The Telegraph (who knows everything) confirms:Many parents might feel worried on finding their teenage children addicted to grim visions of a future in which global warming has made the seas rise, the

Young Adult: Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan

If, like me, you’ve grown up on Celtic folk tales, you’ll be familiar with the story of the human male who gets himself an otherworldly bride. With a few exceptions, it’s really only in modern YA paranormals that it’s the other way around.Basically, there are two kinds: There’s the one where she’s the daughter of a king of the otherworld, whether it’s the sea or Faerie; and there’s the one where

Holiday Gift Guide: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

It’s encouraging to me as a human to see the large numbers of really good authors of young adult and children’s books getting a lot of attention and drawing ever-increasing armies of new readers. I’d be hard pressed this holiday to choose a single must-have book to buy in the place where a Twilight or a Harry Potter book used to go. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books are contenders, of course.

Holiday Gift Guide: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

“In the beginning, there were dragons: proud, fierce, and independent. Their scales were like gems, and all who gazed upon them despaired, for their beauty was great and terrible.”Inheritance (Knopf) is the fourth and final book in wunderkind Christopher Paolini’s heart-stoppingly good series. It finishes this deeply imaginative story in a satisfying and completely creative way.Looking back it

New Today: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Fans of Tamora Pierce’s series featuring Provost Guard Bekka Cooper will meet the third book in the series, Mastiff (Random House) with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it seems a long time since the last installment, Bloodhound, was released in the first half of 2009. On the other, this is the end of what has been a terrific, ground-breaking series for Pierce, a prolific writer who, nonetheless,

Young Adult: Angel Arias: The Night Creatures Book 2 by Marianne De Pierres

In Burn Bright, Retra, a girl from the Puritan-like Seal community in Grave, followed her runaway brother to the island of Ixion. On Ixion, where teenagers party throughout the night (there is no day) she discovered some terrifying truths about what happened to those teens once they got too old for Ixion. But Retra, now named Naif, was a lot stronger than she had thought. She has fought for her

Young Adult: The Witch Hunter Chronicles: Army Of The Undead by Stewart Daly

The year is 1666. The hero: Jakob, a teenage member of the Hexenjager, a German military witch and demon hunter organization. Jakob has been a member for only about a month when, one night in a cemetery, investigating something fishy involving exhumed bodies, he learns something the Witch Hunters weren’t expecting. Something a lot nastier than a bunch of warlocks or minor demons. Try