2010 YA Fiction and Fantasy: Part II
Explore the best 2010 YA fantasy and fiction books in Part II of our curated list. Discover must-read titles and hidden gems for young adult readers.
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The Magic Thief: Found
by Sarah Prineas
The Magic Thief: Found, the third book in Sarah Prineas’s acclaimed middle grade fantasy series, finds wizard’s apprentice Conn on the run! Sneaking out of prison isn't easy, unless you are a thief, or a wizard. Luckily, Conn is both! Trouble is, once he's out, where does he go? His home is a pile of rubble since he blew it up doing magic. His master, the wizard Nevery, is not happy with him. Worst of all, Conn's been exiled, and staying in the city will mean his death. But Wellmet is in danger from an evil predator coming to destroy the city, and Conn must set off on a quest to fight it. Suddenly, a huge shadow looms over him and he is swept away by something more awesome than his wildest imaginings. Is Conn brave enough to answer magic's call, or is he really just a thief at heart? Sarah Prineas's incredible world explodes with adventure—a place where cities run on living magic and heroes come from the most surprising places. Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl's Moving Castle, praised this middle grade fantasy series filled with magic and wonder, saying of the first book: "I couldn't put it down. Wonderful, exciting stuff."
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The Demon's Covenant
by Sarah Rees Brennan
Mae Crawford’s always thought of herself as in control, but in the last few weeks her life has changed. Her younger brother, Jamie, suddenly has magical powers, and she’s even more unsettled when she realizes that Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle, is trying to persuade Jamie to join the magicians. Even worse… Jamie hasn’t told Mae a thing about any of it. Mae turns to brothers Nick and Alan to help her rescue Jamie, but they are in danger from Gerald themselves because he wants to steal Nick's powers. Will Mae be able to find a way to save everyone she cares about from the power-hungry magician's carefully laid trap?
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Calamity Jack
by Shannon Hale
In this graphic novel interpretation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," Jack is a born schemer who climbs a magical beanstalk in the hope of exacting justice from a mean giant and gaining a fortune for his widowed mother, aided by some friends.
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Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus
by R. L. LaFevers
Dragged by Sticky Will to a magic show featuring the Great Awi Bubu, magic detector Theodosia Throckmorton sets into motion an unexpected chain of events while Henry makes an accidental and highly significant discovery at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities.
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The Wide-Awake Princess
by E. D. Baker
Annie, younger sister of the princess who would be known as Sleeping Beauty, is immune to magic and stays awake when the rest of the castle falls into an enchanted sleep, then sets out to find a way to break the spell.
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Wayfarer
by R. J. Anderson
In a time of deadly crisis, Linden alone has the power to save her people. The faeries of the Oak are in danger of extinction, and their only hope for survival rests in fifteen-year-old Linden. Armed with the last of her people's magic, she travels bravely into the modern human world. Along the way she makes a reluctant ally—a human boy named Timothy. Soon Linden and Timothy discover a danger much worse than the Oakenfolk's loss of magic: a potent evil that threatens to enslave faeries and humans alike. In a fevered, desperate chase across the country, Tim and Linden must risk their lives to seek an ancient power before it's too late to save everyone they love. R. J. Anderson has artfully crafted a world of stunning magic, thrilling adventure, and delicate beauty, where the key to the future is in an unexpected, forbidden friendship.
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The Sisters Grimm
by Michael Buckley
Chasing the devious Master through a series of classic children's tales in order to save their kidnapped baby brother, Sabrina, Daphne and their friend Puck inadvertently change various stories, inciting the wrath of the guardian Editor.
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The Kane Chronicles, The, Book One: Red Pyramid
by Rick Riordan
One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
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Princess of Glass
by Jessica Day George
In the midst of maneuverings to create political alliances through marriage, sixteen-year-old Poppy, one of the infamous twelve dancing princesses, becomes the target of a vengeful witch while Prince Christian tries to save her. Includes directions for 2 knitting projects.
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The Necromancer
by Michael Scott
While Josh and Sophie consider placing their futures in the hands of the mysterious Nicholas Flamel, Machiavelli unleashes murderous monsters with the power of killing both the alchemist and Perenelle.
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Pegasus
by Robin McKinley
Because of a 1000-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylvi is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her 12th birthday, but the closeness of their bond becomes a threat to the status quo and possibly to the safety of their two nations.
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Cat O'Nine Tails
by Julia Golding
Cat is finally living a life of luxury--and so bored she's going out of her mind. But then she and her friends are kidnapped and forced to work on a ship bound for the New World. With a mystery to solve and survival at stake, Cat must use her wits to save herself and her friends.
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Heroes Return
by Moira J. Moore
When Lee Mallorough and Shintaro Karish reluctantly obey the Emperor's command to protect the duchy of Westsea, the homeland Taro has renounced, they find deadly earthquakes and their arrival precipitates a political crisis.
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The Curse of Deadman's Forest
by Victoria Laurie
Determined to recruit six supernaturally gifted children to defeat a growing evil force, Ian and Theodosia Wigby embark on a life-threatening journey through a magic portal in search of a healer who will protect Delphi Keep from a dark enemy.
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The Rat Brain Fiasco
by Julie Berry
Cody Mack's misdeeds land him in a reformatory school, where he soon discovers that the principal and teachers are actual monsters with a sinister plan to alter the boys' brains.
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Curse of the Bizarro Beetle
by Julie Berry
Escaping the Splurch Academy infirmary using stolen keys, Cody Mack and friends prepare for Halloween and try to figure out Cody's dreams about a giant beetle that seems to be turning him into a monster.
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The Wyverns' Treasure
by R. L. LaFevers
When Nathaniel and Aunt Phil are summoned to the Welsh countryside to calm the giant dragons known as wyverns, they suspect the problem was caused by the same sinister man who has been trying to steal the Book of Beasts.
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The Basilisk's Lair
by Robin L. La Fevers
A search for a missing serpent that is threatening an entire Dhughani village is complicated by Nate Fludd's ongoing efforts to solve the mystery of his parents' disappearance and keep The Book of Beasts out of the hands of a sinister man.
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Sea Glass
by Maria V. Snyder
Student glass magician Opal Cowan's newfound ability to steal a magician's powers makes her too powerful. Ordered to house arrest by the Council, Opal dares defy them, traveling to the Moon Clan's lands in search of Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because she is sure another man—now her prisoner—has switched souls with Ulrick. In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn't sure whom to trust. She can't forget Kade, the handsome Stormdancer who doesn't want to let her get close. And now everyone is after Opal's special powers for their own deadly gain….
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Blameless
by Gail Carriger
After she leaves her husband, the pregnant Lady Maccon is dismissed from the Shadow Council, attacked by mechanical ladybugs, and becomes the target of vampires, forcing her to escape to Italy in search of the mysterious Templars.
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Behemoth
by Scott Westerfeld
Continues the story of Austrian Prince Alek who, in an alternate 1914 Europe, eludes the Germans by traveling in the Leviathan to Constantinople, where he faces a whole new kind of genetically-engineered warships.
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Darklight
by Lesley Livingston
Faerie can't lie . . . or can they? Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself. When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom . . . or tear them apart. With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in darklight, the second novel in the trilogy that began with wondrous strange.
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Secondhand Charm
by Julie Berry
On her journey to the royal university to become a doctor, fifteen-year-old Evie, wearing potent gypsy charms, learns of her monstrous inheritance.
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Perchance to Dream
by Lisa Mantchev
From the critically acclaimed author of Eyes Like Stars We are such stuff as dreams are made on. Act Two, Scene One Growing up in the enchanted Thèâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn't know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world. Enter BERTIE AND COMPANY But the outside world soon proves more topsy-turvy than any stage production. Bertie can make things happen by writing them, but outside the protective walls of the Thèâtre, nothing goes as planned. And her magic cannot help her make a decision between— Nate: Her suave and swashbuckling pirate, now in mortal peril. Ariel: A brooding, yet seductive, air spirit whose true motives remain unclear. When Nate is kidnapped and taken prisoner by the Sea Goddess, only Bertie can free him. She and her fairy sidekicks embark on a journey aboard the Thèâtre's caravan, using Bertie's word magic to guide them. Along the way, they collect a sneak-thief, who has in his possession something most valuable, and meet The Mysterious Stranger, Bertie's father—and the creator of the scrimshaw medallion. Bertie's dreams are haunted by Nate, whose love for Bertie is keeping him alive, but in the daytime, it's Ariel who is tantalizingly close, and the one she is falling for. Who does Bertie love the most? And will her magic be powerful enough to save her once she enters the Sea Goddess's lair? Once again, LISA MANTCHEV has spun a tale like no other—full of romance, magic, adventure, and fairies, too—that readers won't want to put down, even after the curtain has closed.