The Witching Hour Is Upon Us

This week, enjoy some teen stories of magic and witches.  Here are a few of our favorites . . . .

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch.

Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney

When her father betrays the Scottish king and is hung as a traitor, Lady Mary's future is bleak after she loses her only true protector and ends up locked away in the tower by the powerful and deadly Lord and Lady Macbeth.

Black Spring by Alison Croggon

Lina is enchanting, vibrant but wilful. And her eyes betray her for what she truly is - a witch. With her childhood companion, Damek, she has grown up privileged and spoiled and the pair are devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But times are changing. Vendetta is coming. And tragedy is stalking the halls of the Red House.

Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi

Told in interconnected stories, three witchy best friends brew a love potion on Halloween that is said to produce a love that will last forever as long as it is sealed by true love's kiss before the stroke of midnight.

More Books --

A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi

Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

Ever Cursed by Corey Ann Haydu

Extasia by Claire Legrand

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

Improbable Magic of Cynical Witches by Kate Scelsa

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

Mark of the Wicked by Georgia Bowers

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich

Witch Child by Celia Rees

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

In the Days of Yore . . .

This week I thought I would recommend some books for teens set during Medieval Times and the Renaissance . . .

The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
In medieval Wales, follows Cecily whose family is lured by cheap land and the duty of all Englishman to help keep down the "vicious" Welshmen, and Gwenhwyfar, a Welsh girl who must wait hand and foot on her new English mistress.

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney
When her father betrays the Scottish king and is hung as a traitor, Lady Mary's future is bleak after she loses her only true protector and ends up locked away in the tower by the powerful and deadly Lord and Lady Macbeth.

Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper
In 1650, while Robert, a young medical student, steels himself to assist with her dissection, twenty-two-year-old housemaid Anne Green recalls her life as she lies in her coffin, presumed dead after being hanged for murdering her child that was, in fact,stillborn.

The King's Arrow by Michael Cadnum
In England's New Forest on the second day of August, 1100, eighteen-year-old Simon Foldre, delighted to be allowed to participate in a royal hunt as squire to the Anglo-Norman nobleman Walter Tirel, finds his future irrevocably altered when, during the hunt, he witnesses the possible murder of King William II.

Classics, Retold

I love retellings of classic stories.  It is always interesting to see how the author interprets the story and what new elements are added to the story.  Here are some teen retellings of classic books . . .

Breath by Donna Jo Napoli
Elaborates on the tale of "The Pied Piper," told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full payment for ridding Hameln of rats .

Enter Three Witches: A Story of Macbeth by Caroline Cooney
When her father betrays the Scottish king and is hung as a traitor, Lady Mary's future is bleak after she loses her only true protector and ends up locked away in the tower by the powerful and deadly Lord and Lady Macbeth.

The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
A collection of variations on the familiar story of a boastful miller and the daughter he claims can spin straw into gold.

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily receives special protections from the spiritual forces of Neverland, but then she meets her tribe's most dangerous enemy--Peter Pan--and falls in love with him.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
Will Scarlet shadows Robin Hood, with an unerring eye for finding treasures to steal and throwing daggers with deadly accuracy, but when Gisbourne, a ruthless bounty hunter, is hired by the sheriff to capture Robin and his band of thieves, Robin must become Will's protector risking his own life in the process.