The Real Boy

A Dark and Starless Forest

Somewhere Else

The Pack #3: Two Truths and a Lion

Weird Kid

In Limbo

Homebound

A For Effort

A fantasy about a kingdom beset by monsters, a mysterious school, and a girl caught in between them.

If no one notices Marya Lupu, it is likely because of her brother, Luka. And that's because of what everyone knows: that Luka is destined to become a sorcerer.

The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city of Illyria, but that doesn't matter. Every young boy born in in the kingdom holds the potential for the rare ability to wield magic, to protect the country from the terrifying force known only as the Dread.

For all the hopes the family has for Luka, no one has any for Marya, who can never seem to do anything right. But even so, no one is prepared for the day that the sorcerers finally arrive to test Luka for magical ability, and Marya makes a terrible mistake. Nor the day after, when the Lupus receive a letter from a place called Dragomir Academy--a mysterious school for wayward young girls. Girls like Marya.

Soon she is a hundred miles from home, in a strange and unfamiliar place, surrounded by girls she's never met. Dragomir Academy promises Marya and her classmates a chance to make something of themselves in service to one of the country's powerful sorcerers. But as they learn how to fit into a world with no place for them, they begin to discover things about the magic the men of their country wield, as well as the Dread itself--things that threaten the precarious balance upon which Illyria is built.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

The Real Boy

Erin Mcguire, Anne Ursu, 2013

A Dark and Starless Forest

Sarah Hollowell, 2021

Somewhere Else

Sandra Glover, 2008

The Pack #3: Two Truths and a Lion

Lisi Harrison, 2023

Weird Kid

Greg Van Eekhout, 2021

In Limbo

Deb Jj Lee, 2023

Homebound

John David Anderson, Erson, John David, 2022

A For Effort

Jarad Greene, 2024