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May Bird and the Ever After

Jodi Lynn Anderson · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

Coraline

Neil Gaiman · 176 pages

When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.

Middle GradePortal FantasyGhosts & HauntingsQuest Narrative
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Abarat

Clive Barker · 489 pages

Candy Quackenbush, a sixteen-year-old girl, is bored with her life and is desperate for something new. She lives in Chickentown, Minnesota, has a drunkard father, and is often made fun of by other kids. One day at school, a strange image enters her head, and she draws it in a textbook. When her teacher notices, she is furious, and Candy has the sudden impulse to simply walk out of school. She wand

Quest NarrativePortal FantasyWhimsicalEerie
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Half World

Hiromi Goto

Melanie Tamaki is human--but her parents aren't. They are from Half World, a Limbo between our world and the afterlife, and her father is still there. When her mother disappears, Melanie must follow her to Half World--and neither of them may return alive. Imagine Coraline as filmed by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle), or Neil Gaiman collaborating with Charles de Lint. Ha

AfterlifePortal FantasyEerieFantasy
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Impossible Creatures

Katherine Rundell · 358 pages

Portal FantasyMiddle GradeAtmosphericQuest Narrative
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Death Watch

Ari Berk · 560 pages

When seventeen-year-old Silas Umber's father disappears, Silas is sure it is connected to the powerful artifact he discovers, combined with his father's hidden hometown history, which compels Silas to pursue the path leading to his destiny and ultimately, to the discovery of his father, dead or alive.

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsEerieAtmospheric
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Inkspell

Cornelia Funke · 635 pages

When Dustfinger finds a crooked storyteller who can read him back to Inkscape, he leaves his apprentice Farid behind. Farid seeks out Meggie and the two follow him back into the enchanted book. Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, the book whose characters became real. But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return

Portal FantasyMiddle GradeAfterlifeAtmospheric
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Splintered

A.G. Howard · 400 pages

Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll's ***Alice's Adventures in Wonderland***. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now. When her mother's mental health takes a tur

Portal FantasyQuest NarrativeEerieWhimsical
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Sabriel

Garth Nix · 368 pages

Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world. Though her journey begins alone, she soon finds companions: Mogget, whose seemingly harmless feline form hides a p

AtmosphericQuest NarrativeEerieGhosts & Hauntings
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The Raven Boys

Maggie Stiefvater · 439 pages

Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger. When she meets Gansey, one of the boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as "raven boys", they can only mean

Ghosts & HauntingsQuest NarrativeEerieAtmospheric
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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Catherynne M. Valente · 247 pages

"One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century."―Time magazine, on the Fairyland series Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), wh

Middle GradeQuest NarrativePortal FantasyFantasy
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Archivist Wasp

Nicole Kornher-Stace · 262 pages

Wasp's job is simple. Hunt ghosts. And every year she has to fight to remain Archivist. Desperate and alone, she strikes a bargain with the ghost of a supersoldier. She will go with him on his underworld hunt for the long-lost ghost of his partner and in exchange she will find out more about his pre-apocalyptic world than any Archivist before her. And there is much to know. After all, Archivists a

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsQuest NarrativeAtmospheric
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The Amber Spyglass

Philip Pullman · 531 pages

In the astonishing finale to the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra and Will are in unspeakable danger. With help from Iorek Byrnison the armored bear and two tiny Gallivespian spies, they must journey to a dank and gray-lit world where no living soul has ever gone. All the while, Dr. Mary Malone builds a magnificent Amber Spyglass. An assassin hunts her down, and Lord Asriel, with a troop of shinin

AfterlifePortal FantasyAtmosphericFantasy
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The Dragon of the Month Club

Iain Reading · 236 pages

Portal FantasyQuest NarrativeWhimsicalMiddle Grade
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Into the Land of the Unicorns

Bruce Coville · 176 pages

Having jumped into the fantasy land of Luster, Cara joins Lightfoot the unicorn in the search for Queen Arabella Skydancer.

Quest NarrativePortal FantasyMiddle GradeWhimsical
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Quest NarrativePortal FantasyMiddle GradeEerie
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Sparrow Hill Road

Seanan McGuire · 312 pages

"Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross--a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn't ask Rose what she thought of the idea. It's been more than sixty years since that night, and she's still sixteen, and she's still running. They have names for he

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsAtmosphericSeries Starter
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A World Without Heroes

Brandon Mull · 459 pages

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been

Quest NarrativeMiddle GradePortal FantasyWhimsical
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Shimmer

Alyson Noel · 176 pages

Having solved the matter of the Radiant Boy, Riley, Buttercup, and Bodhi are enjoying a well-deserved vacation. When Riley comes across a vicious black dog, against Bodhi’s advice, she decides to cross him over. While following the dog, she runs into a young ghost named Rebecca. Despite Rebecca’s sweet appearance, Riley soon learns she’s not at all what she seems. As the daughter of a former plant

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsMiddle GradeFantasy
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Liesl & Po

Lauren Oliver

A mix-up involving the greatest magic in the world has tremendous consequences for Liesl, an orphan who has been locked in an attic, Will, an alchemist's runaway apprentice, and Po, a ghost, as they are pursued by friend and foe while making an important journey.

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsMiddle GradeWhimsical
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Masters of Death

Olivie Blake

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s act

AfterlifeGhosts & HauntingsQuest NarrativeWhimsical
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The Wishing Spell

Chris Colfer · 448 pages

Frustrated by all the happy goofy representations of fairy tales? (Note: Chris began the concept for this book in his late high school years, which were much earlier than the copyright date of 2012.) Well, so was Chris. So, he decided to mix them up a little. This book has several of the standard fairy tale characters, such as Red Riding Hood, the witch who liked to eat children (Hansel & Gretel),

Quest NarrativeMiddle GradeWhimsicalPortal Fantasy
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The Star Cloak

Emily Rodda · 112 pages

When Giff the elf comes asking for Jessie's help, she returns to the Realm on a quest to have the fairies mend the Star Cloak in time for Wish Night.

Portal FantasyQuest NarrativeMiddle GradeWhimsical
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Summer in Orcus

T. Kingfisher · 265 pages

Quest NarrativePortal FantasyWhimsicalAtmospheric
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum · 156 pages

Over a century after its initial publication, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is still captivating the hearts of countless readers. Come adventure with Dorothy and her three friends: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, as they follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City for an audience with the Great Oz, the mightiest Wizard in the land, and the only one that can return Dorothy

Quest NarrativePortal FantasyMiddle GradeWhimsical
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