In the recently published books reviewed in this week’s column, readers of all ages can exercise their imagination as they meet traditional fantasy characters, such as dragons and fairies, in playful tales as well as humans having fantastical adventures in make-believe worlds of the past, present, or future.

Ages 4–8

Baby Dragon, Baby Dragon! Melissa Marr. Ill. Lena Podesta. 2019. Nancy Paulsen/Penguin.

A red baby dragon swoops through a castle, shocking everyone except a young girl, who eagerly chases after it and then soars away on its back. Together they explore the treasures the dragon has gathered in its cave and chase each other through the forest. After calming down, they join a festive feast and then snuggle up for a nap—until the girl awakens. “Baby dragon, baby dragon, time to wake up! Let’s spread our wings and go explore. And see what else we can find together.”  Mixed-media illustrations complement this lighthearted story of an unusual friendship between a boisterous young girl and a playful dragon.
—CA

Dragon Night. J. R. Krause. 2019. Putnam/Penguin.

When a huge dragon steps out his favorite book, St. George & the Dragon, and whispers that it’s afraid of the knight, Georgie says he’s afraid of the night, too. Agreeing to run away together, they soar away on a nighttime adventure, and Georgie learns that the night is dark, but not always scary. When Georgie comes to realize they are not worried about the same thing, he creates a new book (one with a friendly knight) for the dragon to hide in during the day. Now every night, after a flight, they read Georgie and Dragon and with a “Good knight” from the dragon and a “Good night” from Georgie, they fall asleep. J. R. Krause uses brush, pen, and ink and digital coloring to create the woodcut-style artwork for this imaginative tale.
—CA

Elbert, the Curious Clock Tower Bear. Andrew Prahin. 2019. Putnam/Penguin.

When the curiosity of Elbert, one of five mechanical bears in the old clock tower, continues to disrupt their orderly parade each hour, he is given 24 hours to get rid of his curiosity or he will not be allowed to return. As Elbert travels through the town seeking a way to lose his curiosity, he discovers even more things to be curious about. Just as time is running out, Elbert comes up with the perfect way to keep his curiosity and make the other bears eager to discover the amazing things around them.
—CA

Fairy in Waiting (Fairy Mom and Me #2). Sophie Kinsella. Ill. Marta Kissi. 2019. Delacorte/Random House.

In Sophie Kinsella’s sequel to Fairy Mom and Me (2018), Ella Brook resigns herself to being a fairy in waiting until she’s old enough to be like her mother, Aunty Jo, and Granny, who can turn into fairies with sparkly wings and Computawands (even though Mom isn’t good at doing spells and mixes up the codes, a lot). A chapter introducing Ella and her Fairy Mom is followed by four episodic chapters—“Fairy Mom and the Monkey Business,” ”You Can’t Stop a Magic Wardrobe,” “Ice Cream for Everyone” and “Best Birthday Party Ever”—offering hilarious stories about fairy spells that backfire. Short chapters with simple sentences and Marta Kissi’s strategically placed black-and-white drawings in this laugh-out-loud book make this a good choice for newly independent readers.
—NB

Ages 9–11

Gogi’s Gambit (Lost Rainforest #2). Eliot Schrefer. Ill. Emilia Dziubak. 2019. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

The Ant Queen, who awakened from her imprisonment beneath the ancient Ziggurat of the Sun and the Moon in Mez’s Magic (2018), is moving with her hoard of ants and destroying the magical rainforest of Caldera. Just weeks before the next eclipse, Gogi, a “monkey-brained” capuchin monkey still working on controlling his fire powers, rejoins other shadowwalkers (eclipse-born animals with  magical powers)—Mez, a panther with the power of invisibility; Rumi, a tree frog who can control the winds; and Lima, a bat with amazing healing powers—to plan to save the rainforest by locating a powerful object that will allow them to capture the magic of the eclipse and help them defeat the Ant Queen. This fast-paced fantasy adventure is just as full of danger, treachery, and surprising plot twists as the first book.
—CA

Watch Hollow (Watch Hollow #1). Gregory Funaro. 2019. HarperCollins.

After mysterious Mr. Quigley offers their father, a talented clocksmith, a sack full of gold coins to repair a clock at his home near Watch Hollow, Rhode Island, 11-year-old Lucy Tinker and her older brother, Oliver, find themselves spending the summer as residents of Blackford House, a derelict mansion. As Mr. Tinker puzzles out why the gigantic cuckoo clock that is the source of electrical power in the house has stopped working, Lucy and Oliver find themselves joining 12 magical clock animals in an epic battle to save magical Blackford House from Garr, a magical tree monster who lives in Shadow Woods, which is magically creeping toward the house. The cliffhanger ending of this suspenseful fantasy that pits evil against good and fear against love will leave readers eagerly anticipating the sequel.
—CA

Ages 12–14

Contagion (Dark Matter #1). Teri Terry. 2019. Charlesbridge Teen/Charlesbridge.

In this opener of a new thriller series set in Scotland, 12-year-old Calista Tanzer (known as 369X) is held captive as a guinea pig in a top-secret laboratory trying to develop a cure for the deadly Aberdeen flu. After Callie dies and is cremated (still existing as a spirit with muddled memories), the facility explodes, and she escapes and discovers the virus is spreading, leaving fatalities in its wake. Kai, Callie’s older brother who has dodged the virus, suspects his scientist stepfather of foul play in his sister’s disappearance one year earlier and connects with new friend Shay MacAllister, whose ability to communicate telepathically with Callie may hold the key to stopping this pandemic. With Shay on the run as the army rounds up those who have survived the disease or are resistant to it, what is discovered about the contagion can flip the government upside down.
—NB

A Tear in the Ocean. H. M. Bouwman. Ill. Yuko Shimizu. 2019. Putnam/Penguin.

Bouwman offers fantasy fans two narratives set in an alternate second world during two times: “the present: 1949” (told from the points of view of 12-year-old Putnam, son of the king of Raftworld, and Artie, a 12-year-old Islander) and “about 100 years earlier” (told from the point of view of 14-year-old Rayel, a Raftworld princess). Artie, who is running away from an abusive stepfather, and Putnam, who is determined to travel to the cold south to discover why the once fresh water of the ocean is becoming too salty to drink, become reluctant allies when they both steal away on the same boat. In the other storyline, Rayel, the heir to Raftworld, is taking the same journey south to flee an unwanted arranged marriage. Bouwman masterfully weaves these two adventures together in this fascinating, action-packed companion to A Crack in the Sea (2017).
—CA

Ages 15+  

The City in the Middle of the Night. Charlie Jane Anders. 2019. Tor.

After a great catastrophe on Earth, the Mother Ship planted two cities on planet January in barely habitable biozones surrounded by wastelands. In Argelo, located in frozen darkness, almost anything goes, and in Xiosphant, rigid laws control sleep schedules, light, and heat. When student Sophie takes the blame for stealing three dollars and is thrown by Xiosphanti police from the furthermost mountain peak into the dark ice below, she is rescued by an indigenous, intelligent crocodile-like creature, who communicates with her telepathically and whose community in the hidden, underground city is the planet’s only chance to save itself as technology, resources, and society break down. The rotating viewpoints of Sophie (a silent revolutionary) and Mouth (a smuggler and the living remnant of an earlier society) draw readers into their complex transformations within the politics of a dying planet—and present an intriguing and challenging solution for survival.
—NB

Stain. A. G. Howard. 2019. Amulet/Abrams

Once upon a time, a magical war split a peaceful world into two kingdoms: Eldoria (the Day Kingdom with its endless sun) and Nerezeth (the Night Kingdom with its moon in the belly of the earth). After King Kiran of Eldoria, who has entered into a treaty that arranges for Lyra, his mute daughter, to marry Prince Vesper from Nerezeth when she turns 17, is killed, his greedy sister, Griselda, orders two knights to poison Lyra and dispose of her body in the Ashen Ravine between the two kingdoms so she can groom her own daughter, Lustacia, as an imposter princess. However, Lyra, rescued by a witch (who steals her memories) and a shape-shifting sylph and befriended by a temperamental Pegasus. Lyra, who is living disguised as a boy named Stain, must reclaim her identity and fulfill the treaty and marry Prince Vespers to reunite the two kingdoms in a “hopeful ever after.”
—NB

The Wicked King (Folk of the Air #2). Holly Black. 2019. Little, Brown.

In this riveting sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018), mortal Jude Duarte lives in the land of Faery where she has bound herself as seneschal to the sadistic Cardan, the sworn puppet High King of Elfhame for a year and a day, to control and protect the throne for her younger brother, Ash, heir apparent. Her foster father, General Madoc (who murdered her parents and brought Jude and her siblings to Elfhame), is a high-stakes conspirator waiting to move against the crown. As key players scheme for positions of power in the high court and with a secret traitor or two working against her, Jude is kidnapped and tortured by Orlagh, Queen of the Undersea and adversary of Elfhame, from her twin Taryn’s wedding to Cardan’s cruel brother Locke. When returned to Cardan in a complicated negotiation, Jude is confronted with a monumental twist that changes all the rules and leaves readers eager for the next book in this edgy, wicked series.
—NB

Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English, 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.

These reviews are submitted by members of the International Literacy Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Literacy Daily.