How to ditch your fairy – Justine Larbalestier

Posted on March 8th, 2010 in Out of this world by Maree

‘Rochelle gets a clothes-shopping fairy and is always well attired; I get a parking fairy and always smell faintly of petrol. How fair is that?’

Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all – especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? 

Fantastic Fiction

White is for magic – Laurie Stolarz

Posted on March 8th, 2010 in Out of this world by Maree

I’m watching you . . .
A year has passed since Stacey Brown saved her best friend from a horrible death.
Now she’s having nightmares again, haunted by ghosts of the brutally murdered . . . and by a crazed stalker.
As she desperately casts healing spells, a new student named Jacob enters her world.
Beautiful and mysterious, he reveals that he is also having dreams.
To stop a killer, they must join together.
But can Jacob be trusted?
Or will this new love cause her darkest dreams to come true?

Amazon
bluefiedlsagl

So you want to be a wizard – Diane Duane

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 in Out of this world by Maree

Thirteen-year-old Nita Callahan finally finds a way to get back at the notorious school bullies, Joanne and her gang, when she discovers a library book on the art of wizardry. She hardly dares to believe the book’s claim that she too can become a wizard if she’s willing to take the Wizard’s Oath and undergo the danger of a wizard’s initiation, the Ordeal. But to her astonishment and delight, her new Wizard’s Manual is telling her the truth. While practicing her first spells, Nita meets Kit Rodriguez, another young wizard, and starts working with him to find a solution to her bullying problem.

What they get, though, doesn’t look much like a solution. Kit and Nita suddenly find themselves dealing with a “white hole” named Fred, who’s arrived on Earth with an urgent message regarding the mystical Book of Night with Moon. The Book is missing…and has to be found quickly if dire things aren’t going to start happening to the Earth.

It’s not long before the search for the bright Book leads Nita and Kit to a deadly alternate Manhattan, where they encounter man-eating helicopters, vicious packs of killer cabs, and the terrible wolflike perytons, which attack them at every turn. Despite the danger, Kit and Nita are determined to rescue the Book of Night with Moon from the lair of the dragon who presently possesses it. But can they keep it out of the clutches of the Lone Power, the ancient darkness cast out long ago from the heart of the worlds?…

Youngwizards.com
Lookingglassreview

Fallen – Lauren Kate

Posted on February 23rd, 2010 in Love and other adventures, Out of this world by Maree

Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia.

Luce’s boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her

as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant—even evil—history.

It’s only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there’s a reason to be here—

though she doesn’t know what it is.

And Daniel’s frosty cold demeanor toward her? It’s really a protective device that he’s used again . . . and again.

Good reads
Examiner

The battle for Rondo – Emily Rodda

Posted on February 22nd, 2010 in Action aplenty, Out of this world by Maree

Peril awaits Leo and Mimi on their return to the fantastic world of Rondo.
With the help of Rondo’s seven best witches and wizards, their friends have made plans to combat the attacks of the Blue Queen.
But it soon becomes clear that defence is no longer enough. The queen has a dragon on her side, and is plotting a terrible revenge on all those who have defied her.
A daring plan, a reckless quest and a mysterious prophecy test the friends’ wits and courage to the limit as they plunge into an adventure packed with suspense, shocks and danger, and ending at last in the battle that will decide Rondo’s future forever.

Rainbow
Boomerang Books

The puzzle ring – Kate Forsyth

Posted on February 21st, 2010 in Out of this world by Maree

Hannah Rose Brown is fuelled by an adventurous spirit. She’s not quite 13 years old when she discovers her family is cursed.

The arrival of a mysterious letter, addressed to the Viscountess of Fairknowe, changes her life forever. The letter forces Roz to confess to her daughter that Hannah is actually the great-granddaughter of a countess, and heir to Wintersloe Castle in Scotland. When Hannah arrives at her ancestral home, she learns that her family is cursed by dark magic which caused the disappearance of her father shortly after she was born.

But a prophecy foretells of a Red Rose who will solve the magical puzzle ring. Hannah is determined to travel back in time to the days of Mary, Queen of Scots, break the curse and rescue the father she’s never met.

Independent Weekly
Fantastic Fiction

Philippa Fisher’s fairy godsister – Liz Kessler

Posted on February 21st, 2010 in Out of this world by Maree

Philippa Fisher’s life is a disaster.
Her parents embarrass her in front of her friends; they are party entertainers and drive a bright yellow VW camper with pictures of clowns and jesters and rabbits painted on the side. Then her best friend moves away and she feels totally alone.
She is so miserable, in fact, that the ATC (Above the Clouds) sends her a fairy godmother from 3WD (the Three Wishes Department).
But Daisy, the fairy godmother (called a godsister because of her age), has serious attitude and is vexed at being paired with a human.
She and Philippa get off to a dreadful start when her charge unknowingly leaves the transforming fairy with a limp and bruises.
Just wanting to get the job done, Daisy delivers three wishes that give the girl the opportunity to change her life forever, which results in near disaster.

Amazon
Borders

Milo’s wolves – Jenny Nimmo

Posted on February 17th, 2010 in All creatures, Out of this world by Maree

Laura’s parents tell their children they have a long-lost brother,who is coming to live with them.

But Laura can tell from the way her father’s eyes turn green that he is lying.

Gwendal can’t possibly be their brother.

For a start, he looks nothing like any member of the family.

Who is he and why is he surrounded by an unnatural air of emptiness?

And what does the sinister Society of Angels want from him?

When menacing grey figures begin to circle the family, Laura and her father must make a dangerous journey into Europe to protect the ones they love.

But can they uncover Gwendal’s secret before the wolves close in for the final bite?

Amazon
bowjamesbow

The lovely bones (movie)

Posted on February 15th, 2010 in Criminal intent, Out of this world, Private lives, movies by Maree

On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (”like the fish”) is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer-the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.

Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family’s dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun.

Amazon
Collider

My neighbour Totoro

Posted on February 15th, 2010 in Out of this world, movies by Maree

Totoro is a forest spirit that little Mei, and later her older sister Satsuki, encounter in a giant camphor tree near their new home in the countryside.

Although their father, a university professor, is with them when they move, their mother is in the hospital, recovering from some unnamed illness.

When Mei hears that her mother’s condition may be worsening, she resolves to visit her all by herself.

When everyone realizes she’s missing, only Totoro knows how to find her!

Nausicaa.net
sidtheturtle

Next Page »