The Familiars

The Familiars
Author: Adam Jay Epstein
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2011-06-07
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0061961108

When Aldwyn, a young alley cat on the run, ducks into a mysterious pet shop, he doesn’t expect his life to change. But that’s exactly what happens when Jack, a young wizard, picks Aldwyn to be his magical familiar. Finally off the tough streets, Aldwyn thinks he’s got it made. He just has to convince the other familiars—the know-it-all blue jay Skylar and the friendly tree frog Gilbert—that he’s the telekinetic cat he claims to be. But when Jack and two other wizards in training are captured by a terrible evil, it will take all of Aldwyn’s street smarts, a few good friends, and a nose for adventure to save the day!

The Familiars: Animal Wizardry

The Familiars: Animal Wizardry
Author: Adam Epstein
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013-08-29
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0007542801

The first magical adventure in a major new trilogy, Animal Wizardry, is a thrilling blend of edge-of-your-seat action, laugh-out-loud humour and unforgettable characters.

Wizardology

Wizardology
Author: Dugald Steer
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2005-09-13
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0763628956

Merlin the wizard challenges readers to become wizards like himself by deciphering clues hidden in his guide to wizardry.

The Familiars: Circle of Heroes

The Familiars: Circle of Heroes
Author: Adam Epstein
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2013-01-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0007476361

The third and final magical adventure starring three brave and heroic familiars – a thrilling blend of edge-of-your-seat action, laugh-out-loud humour and unforgettable characters. No wonder Sony snapped up film rights, to be directed by Pixar animator Doug Sweetland.

Zoo City

Zoo City
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2016-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316267937

A new edition of Lauren Beukes's Arthur C Clarke Award-winning novel set in a world where murderers and other criminals acquire magical animals that are mystically bonded to them. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. When a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, Zinzi's forced to take on her least favorite kind of job -- missing persons. Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell's undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives -- including her own.

Trio of Sorcery

Trio of Sorcery
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2010-11-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429989181

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mercedes Lackey presents Trio of Sorcery, three exciting short urban fantasy novels featuring three resourceful heroines and three different takes on the modern world and on magics both modern and ancient. Arcanum 101: Diana Tregarde, practicing witch, romance novelist, Guardian of the Earth. Studying at Harvard, Diana is approached by Joe O'Brian, a young cop who has already seen more than one unusual thing during his budding career. The distraught mother of a kidnap victim is taking advice from a "psychic" and interfering in the police investigation. Will Diana prove that the psychic is a fake? Unfortunately, the psychic is not a fake, but a very wicked witch--and the child's kidnapper. Drums: Jennifer Talldeer, shaman, private investigator, member of the Osage tribe. Most of Jennie's work is regular PI stuff, but Nathan Begay brings her a problem she's never seen before. His girlfriend, Caroline, is Chickasaw to his Navaho, but that's not the problem. Somehow, Caroline has attracted the attention of an angry Osage ghost. Thwarted in love while alive, the ghost has chosen Caroline to be his bride in death. Ghost in the Machine: Ellen McBride: computer programmer extraordinaire, techno-shaman. The programmers and players of a new MMORPG find that the game's "boss," a wendigo, is "killing" everyone--even the programmers' characters with their god-like powers. A brilliant debugger, Ellen discovers that the massive computing power of the game's servers have created a breach between the supernatural world and our own. This wendigo isn't a bit of code, it's the real thing . . . and it's on the brink of breaking out of the computers and into the real world. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Circle of Heroes

Circle of Heroes
Author: Adam Jay Epstein
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2013-06-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780061961168

Aldwyn, a street-smart alley cat, pretended he had telekinetic powers so young wizard Jack would chose him as a familiar. Aldwyn then learned that he and two other familiars—Skylar the blue jay and Gilbert the tree frog—were destined to undertake a perilous quest to defeat Paksahara, an evil hare who’d been familiar to the queen. In Circle of Heroes, the third book of The Familiars series for middle-grade readers, Paksahara and her undead animal army control the Shifting Fortress. Aldwyn and his friends have to recapture it to return magic to the queendom of Vastia. Fans of The Guardians of Ga’hoole series and Erin Hunter’s Warriors books will love the mix of humor, magic, and animal adventure story in Circle of Heroes by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson.

Palace of Dreams

Palace of Dreams
Author: Adam Jay Epstein
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2013-12-23
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0062120301

The familiars Aldwyn the cat, Skyler the blue jay, and Gilbert the tree frog are off on an all-new adventure in the series that Michael Buckley, bestselling author of The Sisters Grimm and NERDS series, says "combines the magic of Harry Potter and the adventure of Warriors." With inventive magic, laugh-out-loud humor, and a mysterious conspiracy that will take all the familiars' wits to unravel, Palace of Dreams is the familiars' most extraordinary adventure yet. Peace has returned to the queendom of Vastia. Paksahara has been defeated, and the three familiars Aldwyn, Skyler, and Gilbert are the heroes to thank. But when a birthday celebration at the palace goes dreadfully wrong, and Queen Loranella falls victim to a curse, it seems the familiars are the prime suspects. After narrowly escaping the palace dungeons, they'll have to embark on a quest to clear their names—a quest that will lead them across Vastia and even into the magical land of dreams.

A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2012
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0547851391

Originally published in 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea marks the first of the six now beloved Earthsea titles. Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

The Apothecary

The Apothecary
Author: Maile Meloy
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-10-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101535741

It's 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows - a fascinating boy who's not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy. When Benjamin's father is kidnapped, Janie and Benjamin must uncover the secrets of the apothecary's sacred book, the Pharmacopoeia, in order to find him, all while keeping it out of the hands of their enemies - Russian spies in possession of nuclear weapons. Discovering and testing potions they never believed could exist, Janie and Benjamin embark on a dangerous race to save the apothecary and prevent impending disaster. Together with Ian Schoenherr's breathtaking illustrations, this is a truly stunning package from cover to cover.