Happy Friday! It’s time for more of the books off my TBR that I’m most excited to read. I’m obviously feeling witchy again this week, but I also threw some ghosts in the mix to keep you on your toes. Halloween’s getting closer — can you feel it?
Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe; cover design by Erin Stein
A young witch uses social media to connect with her astrology clients — and with a NASA-loving girl as cute as she is skeptical. A priestess of death investigates a ritualized murder. A bruja who cures lovesickness might need the remedy herself when she falls in love with an altar boy. A theater production is turned upside down by a visiting churel. In Reconstruction-era Texas, a water witch uses her magic to survive the soldiers who have invaded her desert oasis. And in the near future, a group of girls accused of witchcraft must find their collective power in order to destroy their captors.
This collection reveals a universal truth: there’s nothing more powerful than a teenage girl who believes in herself.
I love a good anthology, and this one sounds amazing. I’ll have a review of this one up next week, because I know I won’t be able to keep my hands off it this weekend.
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson; illustrations by Elisa Paganelli and cover art by Melissa Castrillon
All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with.
But that’s tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It’s even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world…carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties — and no playmates that stick around for more than a day.
So when Marinka stumbles across the chance to make a real friend, she breaks all the rules…with devastating consequences. Her beloved grandmother mysteriously disappears, and it’s up to Marinka to find her — even if it means making a dangerous journey to the afterlife.
More Baba Yaga! This book has been on my can’t miss list since I heard the title, and I’ve heard wonderful things about it. I can never get enough of Baba Yaga, so I can’t wait to read this one.
Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer by Catherine Holt; cover illustration by Ayesha Lopez
I received an ARC of the second book in this series — Midnight Reynolds and the Agency of Spectral Protection — so I picked up the first volume to read before I dive into the second. I love a good middle grade series, and this one sounds wonderfully spooky!
The Pomegranate Witch by Denise Doyen and Eliza Wheeler
When a scary old tree blooms with the most beautiful pomegranates ever seen, the neighborhood kids’ mouths water with anticipation. But the tree isn’t theirs — and it has a protector! So begins the Pomegranate War, a fun, rollicking, rhyming tale of a battle between the sly, plucky young rascals and their wry, witchy neighbor who may have more than one trick up her sleeve.
The illustrations in this picture book look really intriguing, and that cover is just gorgeous. Plus, I love a good story about a neighborhood witch.
Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara
At the edge of town lives a clever girl with a spooky problem: Her house is haunted! Luckily, she happens to be a witch and knows a little something about taking care of ghosts. She catches them, puts them in the washing machine, airs them out to dry, and gives them new lives as sofa covers, table cloths, and, of course, bed sheets to cozy up under.
A beautifully spooky picture book about a witch and a haunted house illustrated in just orange, black, and white? You know I can’t pass that up. That’s Halloween perfection, right there.
Tell me about your most anticipated TBR reads! Are you seeing a common theme in what you’ve been reading lately, or are you more eclectic than I am right now? Let me know in the comments!
Spooky KidLit 