Books
When twelve-year-old Nick runs away from his uncle’s in the middle of a blizzard, he stumbles onto a very opinionated bookstore. He also meets its guardian, the self-proclaimed Evil Wizard Smallbone, who calls Nick his apprentice and won’t let him leave, but won’t teach him magic, either. It’s a good thing the bookstore takes Nick’s magical education in hand, because Smallbone’s nemesis—the Evil Wizard Fidelou—and his pack of shape-shifting bikers are howling at the borders. Smallbone might call himself evil, but compared to Fidelou, he’s practically a puppy. And he can’t handle Fidelou alone.
Wildly funny and cozily heartfelt, Delia Sherman’s latest is an eccentric fantasy adventure featuring dueling wizards, enchanted animals, and one stray boy.
REVIEWS FOR THE EVIL WIZARD SMALLBONE
“Fans of fantasy will be captivated—and hoping for a sequel!” — Kirkus Reviews
“Will satisfy wizardly apprentices and readers alike.” — Horn Book
“Avid readers will enjoy Sherman’s nods to other literary works, and reluctant readers will find themselves immersed in the tale.” — School Library Journal
Shortlisted for the Andre Norton Award, the Magnolia Award, and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award.
Best of Lists include Parent’s Choice Silver Honor Winner, Chicago Public Library, and Amazon.
A Listening Library Audiobook
Junior Library Guild Selection
Candlewick Press
A determined heroine, a quest, and adventure galore!
Neef is a changeling, a human baby stolen by fairies and replaced with one of their own. She lives in New York - between a Manhattan that exists side by side with our own, home to various creatures of folklore. Neef has always been protected by her fairy godmother - until she breaks a Fairy Law. Now, unless she can meet the challenge of the Green Lady of Central Park, she’ll be sacrificed! Neef is determined to beat the rap - but time is running out . . .
REVIEWS FOR CHANGELING:
“I love it: contemporary fantasy with plenty of urban hipness and a girl hero who thinks on her feet!” — Tamora Pierce
“Delightful, witty and magical!” — Holly Black
Viking Press
Thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer of 1960 at her grandmother’s old house in the bayou. Bored and lonely, she can’t resist exploring the house’s maze, or making an impulsive wish for a fantasy-book adventure with herself as the heroine. What she gets instead is a real adventure: a trip back in time to 1860 and the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation. Here, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment is almost four years away. And here, Sophie is mistaken, by her own ancestors, for a slave.
REVIEWS FOR THE FREEDOM MAZE:
“Multi-layered, compassionate and thought-provoking.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In transporting the reader so fully into another time, The Freedom Maze becomes timeless. This is true magic.” — Alaya Dawn Johnson, author of The Summer King
Andre Norton Award - Mythopoeic Award - A Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book
A Listening Library Audiobook: Audie Finalist & ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice
Candlewick Press
Neef, the official Changeling of Central Park, has survived a life-threatening quest, but that’s nothing compared to her first experiences at Changeling school. At Miss Van Loon’s, she meets her counterparts from all over Manhattan, learns the basics of diplomacy, and, of course, gets in trouble. This time Neef must recover the Magic Mirror, or else New York Harbor’s Mermaid Queen will turn all of the city’s fresh water to salt—and everything will die.
REVIEWS FOR MAGIC MIRROR:
"Plenty of humor, a brave and likable heroine and a nice balance between lunchroom chat and wild adventure combine to make this that rare beast- a cheerful urban fantasy." --School Library Journal
Berthe Duvet, chambermaid to a French duchess, narrates this tale of eighteenth-century Paris, describing the dazzling world of Marie Antoinette, Beaumarchais, and the Marquis de Sade, already living in the shadow of the guillotine.
REVIEWS FOR PORCELAIN DOVE:
"Fantastic in every sense of the word, Sherman's ( Through a Brazen Mirror ) second novel is a skillfully crafted fairy tale that owes as much to E.T.A. Hoffman as to Charles Perrault … Although the title and some 'tis-ing and 'twas-ing may seem twee, The Porcelain Dove is no dainty vertu but a seductive, sinister bird with razored feathers.” — Publishers Weekly
"A mixture of fantasy and historical fiction, this work traces the fortunes of the ducs de Malvoeux during the last days of the ancien regime and the beginnings of the French Revolution. Narrated by the duchesses' devoted maid, it is both a careful portrait of those brutal times and the tale of an ancient curse and a magical quest.” — Library Journal
