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Tumtum & Nutmeg. (Bearn, Emily)
Wealthy, married mice Tumtum and Nutmeg find adventure when they secretly try to help two human siblings who live in a tumbledown cottage with their absent-minded inventor father.
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Beast Quest series. (Blade, Adam)
When Tom’s village experiences hardships, he vows to go to the king and bring back help, but when he learns that there is terrible trouble throughout the kingdom, he is sent on the greatest quest of all–the Beast Quest.
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Amulet of Avantia series. (Blade, Adam)
Taladon the Swift has returned! But to Tom’s horror, his father is a ghost. To save Taladon, Tom must battle the Ghost Beasts and collect the pieces of the shatteredAmulet of Avantia. First is Nixa the Death Bringer. Will her deadly disguises lure Tom to his death?
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Dark Realm series. (Blade, Adam)
The good beasts of Avantia are in danger. They have been captured by six terrible new Beasts and taken to Gorgonia, kindom of the evil wizard Malvel. To free the Beasts, Tom and Elenna must journey into the sinister Dark Realm. There, Tom meets one of the deadliest creatures he has ever faced. Huge, with terrifying horns and a shining golden ax, Torgor the Minotaur will stop at nothing to serve his master. But Tom is determined to defeat the Beast, bringing him one step closer to victory over Malvel.
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Secret series. (Bosch, Pseudonymous)
Two eleven-year-old misfits try to solve the mystery of a dead magician and stop the evil Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais, who are searching for the secret of immortality.
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Obi, gerbil on the loose! (Delaney, MC)
Obie the gerbil must fend for herself in a dangerous household, consisting of a dog, three cats, a parrot, and a mouse hidden in the attic, when the Armstrongs go on vacation and instructions for taking care of Obie get lost.
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The magician’s elephant. (DiCamillo, Kate)
When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.
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The outlandish adventures of Liberty Aimes. (Easton, Kelly)
Ten-year-old Libby Aimes escapes her prison-like home by using a strange concoction of her father’s, then tries to make her way to the boarding school of her dreams, aided by various people and animals.
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The call. (Grant, Michael)
A seemingly average twelve-year-old learns that he is destined to gather a team of similarly gifted children to try to save the world from a nameless evil, which is threatening to reappear after having been imprisoned for three thousand years.
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Warriors series. (Hunter, Erin)
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest, but now the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger as the sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. In the midst of this turmoil appears an ordinary house cat named Rusty who may yet turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all.
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Dragonbreath series. (Vernon, Ursula)
Danny Dragonbreath and his friend Wendell get an up-close underwater tour of the Sargasso Sea from Danny’s sea-serpent cousin, encountering giant squid and mako sharks–and learn about standing up to bullies in the process.
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Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. (Grabenstein, Chris)
Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new townlibrary, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.
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Thea Sister Adventures series. (Stilton, Thea)
Thea Stilton and her journalism class try to find a missing student.
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Ulysses Moore series. (Baccalario, Pierdomenico)
After moving from London to an old mansion on the English coast, eleven-year-old twins Jason and Julia discover that their new home has twisting tunnels, strange artifacts from around the world, and a mysterious, locked door.
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The Bridge to Never Land. (Barry, Dave)
Sarah and Aidan begin to decipher a mysterious document that refers to the origins of Peter Pan and are suddenly pursued by a being that can take any form and will stop at nothing to get what it wants from them.
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Artemis Fowl series. (Colfer, Eoin)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
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The outcasts. (Flanagan, John)
Hal, who does not fit into Skandian society, ends up in a brotherband, a group of boys learning the skills that they need to become warriors, with other outcasts, and they compete with other brotherbands in a series of challenges.
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Reckless. (Funke, Cornelia)
Jacob and Will Reckless have looked out for each other ever since their father disappeared, but when Jacob discovers a magical mirror that transports him to a warring world populated by witches, giants, and ogres, he keeps it to himself until Will follows him one day, with dire consequences.
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Wormling series. (Jenkins, Jerry)
Guided by a mysterious book and invisible guardians, meek high-schooler Owen Reeder learns that there is another world besides his ordinary one, where he is destined to face an evil dragon in order to make his own world safe and whole again.
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Nathaniel Fludd series. (La Fevers, RL)
In 1928, when timid ten-year-old Nate learns that his parents have been lost at sea, he joins his father’s cousin on a flight to Arabia where they must oversee the death and rebirth of the phoenix, thus beginning his training as a “beastologist.”
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The faerie door. (Maxwell, Bruce)
Victoria Deveny is transported from her Northumberland, England, home in 1890 to 1964 Alton Bay, New Hampshire, where she meets Elliot Good and they agree to help the Faerie Queen defeat the Shadow Knight, who is trying to close the portals that allow fairies to help humans in time of need.
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Codebearers series. (Miller, Christopher)
When a mysterious book comes into their possession, strange things begin to happen to ninth-graders Hunter, Stretch, and Stubbs, from a strange janitor and a supernatural book to a disappearing bookstore.
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Secrets at sea. (Peck, Richard)
In 1887, the social-climbing Cranstons voyage from New York to London, where they hope to find a husband for their awkward older daughter, secretly accompanied by Helena and her mouse siblings, for whom the journey is both terrifying and wondrous as they meet an array of titled humans despite their best efforts at remaining hidden.
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Kane Chronicles. (Riordan, Rick)
Siblings Carter and Sadie join their father in a research project at the British Museum and soon discover that an evil Egyptian god has been unleashed on them, banishing their father into oblivion.
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Percy Jackson series. (Riordan, Rick)
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.
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Wizard of Rondo. (Rodda, Emily)
Cousins Leo and Mimi return to the world of Rondo through their family’s enchanted music box to rescue a missingwizard and foil the plans of the evil Blue Queen.
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The story of Cirrus Flux. (Skelton, Matthew)
In 1783 London, the destiny of an orphaned boy and girl becomes intertwined as the boy, Cirrus Flux, is pursued by a sinister woman mesmerist, a tiny man with an all-seeing eye, and a skull-collecting scoundrel, all of whom believe that he possesses an orb containing a divine power.
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The dragon’s apprentice. (Steer, Dugald)
When a dragon chick is kidnapped, Daniel and Beatrice Cook, along with an adolescent dragon named Erasmus, race against time to try and rescue him.
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Hunted. (Maggie Stiefvater)
Journeying to the forests of Eura to confront another hidden Great Beast, four young heroes whose rare spirit animal bonds have shaped their quest to save the world are shatteringly betrayed by a familiar face.
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Heroes of the valley. (Stroud, Jonathan)
When young Halli Sveinsson takes a practical joke too far, he is forced to leave the House of Svein and go on a hero’s quest where he encounters highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may be as fearless as he is.
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Middleworld. (Voelkel, Jon)
When his archaeologist parents go missing in Central America, fourteen-year-old Max embarks on a wild adventure through the Mayan underworld in search of the legendary Jaguar Stones, which enabled ancient Mayan kings to wield the powers of living gods.
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Zorgamazoo. (Weston, Robert Paul)
Imaginative and adventurous Katrina eludes her maniacal guardian to help Morty, a member of a vanishing breed of zorgles, with his quest to uncover the fate of the fabled zorgles of Zorgmazoo as well as of other creatures that seem to have disappeared from the Earth.
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Dragonback series. (Zahn, Timothy)
Falsely accused of stealing from the powerful corporation, Braxton Universis, orphaned fourteen-year-old Jack, accompanied by his “virtual” Uncle Virge, flees to a remote planet where he meets and develops a mutually beneficial relationship with the dragon warrior, Draycos.Framed for a crime he did not commit, Jack Morgan seeks refuge on a distant planet, until a battle forces Jack into a relationship with the sole survivor, the dragon-like K’da, and the two must track down those responsible for the threatened destruction of the K’da.
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The magician’s apprentice. (Heneghan, Judith)
In 1874 Winchester, England, Jago Stonecipher, magician’s assistant to his unscrupulous uncle, becomes involved in a series of plots and deceits revolving around a lady’s maid and her employer’s family, and finally escapes to sea, where the trouble follows him, even aboard ship.
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The postcard. (Abbott, Tony)
While in St. Petersburg, Florida, to help clean out his recently-deceased grandmother’s house, thirteen-year-old Jason finds an old postcard which leads him on an adventure that blends figures from an old, unfinished detective story with his family’s past.
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The case of the purloined professor. (Cox, Judy)
Rat brothers Frederick and Ishbu again escape the comfort of their fifth-grade classroom to go on an adventure, this time to help their friend, Natasha, seek her missing father, who is a specialist in the biochemistry of domestic animals.
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The kneebone boy. (Potter, Ellen)
Otto, Lucia, and Max Hardscrabble, whose mother has been missing for many years, have unexpected and illuminating adventures in the village of Snoring-by-the-Sea after their father, who paints portraits of deposed monarchs, goes away on a business trip.
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Smells like treasure. (Selfors, Suzanne)
Farm boy Homer faces another challenger for his uncle’s spot in the society of Legends, Objects, Secrets, and Treasures but Dog’s hidden ability to smell treasure guides the duo as clues lead them to fantastic mansions and hidden islands.
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The Mysterious Benedict Society series. (Stewart, Trenton Lee)
After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.
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39 Clues series.
Dan and Amy Cahill are given the choice of receiving a million dollars or uncovering the thirty-nine clues hidden around the world that will lead to the source of the family’s power, but by taking on the clues, they end up in a dangerous race against their own family.
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Genius Files series. (Gutman, Dan)
On a cross-country vacation with their parents, twins Coke and Pepsi, soon to be thirteen, fend off strange assassins as they try to come to terms with their being part of a top-secret government organization known as The Genius Files.
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The seven keys of Balabad. (Haven, Paul)
Unlike his news-reporter father and art-historian mother who find living in the ancient, war-torn country of Balabad endlessly interesting, twelve-year-old Oliver, homesick for New York City, feels very much out of his element until he gets caught up in a centuries-old mystery involving stolen artifacts and buried treasure.
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Small as an elephant. (Jacobson, Jennifer)
Abandoned by his mother in an Acadia National Park campground, Jack tries to make his way back to Boston before anyone figures out what is going on, with only a small toy elephant for company.
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Zoobreak. (Korman, Gordon)
After a class trip to a floating zoo where animals are mistreated and Savannah’s missing pet monkey is found in a cage, Long Island sixth-grader Griffin Bing and his band of misfits plan a rescue.
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The death-defying Pepper Roux. (McCaughrean, Geraldine)
Having been raised believing he will die before he reaches the age of fourteen, Pepper Roux runs away on his fourteenth birthday in an attempt to elude his fate, assumes another identity, and continues to try to outrun death, no matter the consequences.
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The small adventure of Popeye and Elvis. (O’Connor, Barbara)
In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye’s summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek.
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Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow. (Rollins, James)
Connecticut middle-schooler Jake and his older sister Kady are transported by a Mayan artifact to a strange world inhabited by a mix of people from long-lost civilizations who are threatened by prehistoric creatures and an evil alchemist, the Skull King.
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Lilly and the pirates. (Root, Phyllis)
Ten-year-old Lilly, a worrier who greatly fears the sea, leaves the home of her librarian great-uncle and sets out with an old woman pirate to rescue her parents, who were shipwrecked while seeking the elusive frangipani fruit fly on an uncharted island.
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Nick McIver series. (Bell, Ted)
With the help of Lord Hawke, whose children have been taken by the evil pirate Captain Billy Blood, young Nick McIver uses a time machine to rescue the two children as well as change the course of events in two time periods, the Napoleonic Wars and World War II.
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Kingdom Keepers series. (Pearson, Ridley)
Thirteen-year-old Finn Whitman and four other young teens have been transformed into holograms to be guides for visitors to Disney World. When Finn is unexpectedly transported to the Magic Kingdom in his hologram form, Wayne, an Imagineer, tells him that he and the other guides must save the park from the scheming witch Maleficent and the Overtakers.
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Oliver Nocturne series. (Emerson,Kevin)
Thirteen-year-old vampire Oliver Nocturne becomes involved with the human world despite himself when a human girl named Emalie takes a photograph of him and threatens to expose the existence of vampires.
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Barnaby Grimes series. (Stewart, Paul)
Soon after Victorian messenger Barnaby Grimes is attacked by a huge beast while crossing London’s rooftops, he becomes entangled in a mystery involving patent medicine, impoverished patients, and very expensive furs.
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