Phil Hickes: The Vanishing of Aveline Jones (Usborne Publishing 2022)
A lot of weird and scary things have happened to Aveline Jones. After years of hoping that Aveline’s uncle would return, her mother and aunt finally decided to sell his house. Sneaking into his office, Aveline discovers that her uncle has been researching possible supernatural activity around an ancient burial mound – linking it to the unexplained disappearances of local residents. There are dark, magical forces at work in the city, and they are doing everything they can to stay hidden…
Jaclyn Moriarty: The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere (Guppy Publishing 2022)
This book is Oscar’s own telling of his adventures from Monday to Friday last week. He was just about to truant from school when he suddenly found himself in a completely different world, and now he, together with Bronte Mettlestone, Esther, Imogen and Alejandro, is tasked with finding nine pieces of a key and unlocking the curse that afflicts the elven town. If their mission doesn’t succeed, at Friday noon the spell will be permanent, and Oscar will remain in that world forever. (Note that this report was made at the request of Oscar’s school principal, who wanted to know exactly what Oscar thought was more important than going to school last week.)
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fall of Númenor (HarperCollins 2022)
This book contains not only the stories about the fall of Númenor, but also all the Second Age stories set in Middle-earth, collected in one volume for the first time. For many years, we could only read a few references to this era in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, later we could read more about the events of the Second Age at the end of The Silmarillion and then in the Unfinished Tales. Now, editor Brian Sibley has collected the new chronicle of the Second Age of Middle-earth into one comprehensive volume, aligned with the Lord of the Rings Count of Years, as well as J.J.R. Tolkien’s notes, complete with new watercolor and pencil drawings by the master of Tolkien illustrations, Alan Lee.
Ying Chang Compestine: Morning Sun in Wuhan (HarperCollins 2022)
Grieving the death of her mother and an outcast at school, thirteen-year-old Mei finds solace in cooking and computer games. When her friend’s grandmother falls ill, Mei asks her doctor father to help, only to find that the hospital is overcrowded. As the virus spreads, Mei finds herself alone in a locked-down city and tries to help the people in need. Drawing on her own experiences growing up in Wuhan, author Ying Chang Compestine illustrates how the darkest times can bring out the best in people, how friendship can give courage in scary times, and most importantly, how young people can make an impact on the world.
