“A zingy, buoyant adventure.” —BCCB “A wildly inventive fantasy.” —Booklist Thirteen-year-old chef Lailu Loganberry must stop a war between the elves and scientists in this follow-up to A Dash of Dragon, which Kirkus Reviews calls “a recipe for success.” It’s the Week of Masks, a festival held to chase away evil spirits. But Lailu doesn’t have time to worry about demons. She has bigger fish to fry—or rather, griffons, now that she’s been asked to prepare a mystical feast for the king’s executioner, Lord Elister. Unfortunately Lailu’s meal is overshadowed by the scientists’ latest invention: automatons, human-shaped machines that will respond to their masters’ every order. Most people are excited by the possibilities, but the mechanical men leave Lailu with a bad taste in her mouth. Even worse, the elves still blame the scientists for the attacks on them weeks ago, and Lailu worries that the elves might be cooking up revenge. So when she and her sorta-rival-turned-almost-friend Greg stumble across the body of a scientist, the elves are the prime suspects. With help from Greg, her best friend Hannah, and the sneaky, winking spy Ryon, Lailu has to discover the truth behind the murder, and soon—because hostilities between the elves and the scientists are about to boil over faster than hydra stew. And just ask any chef: war is bad for business.

A thirteen-year-old master chef has a lot to prove as she tries to run a five-star restaurant, cook the perfect dragon cuisine, repay a greedy loan shark, and outsmart the Elven mafia in this entertaining novel that combines all of the best ingredients—fantasy, humor, adventure, action, cute boys, and a feisty heroine! Lailu Loganberry is an expert at hunting dangerous beasts. And she’s even better at cooking them. For years Lailu has trained to be the best chef in the city. Her specialty? Monster cuisine. When her mentor agrees to open a new restaurant with Lailu as the head chef, she’s never been more excited. But her celebration is cut short when she discovers that her mentor borrowed money from Mr. Boss, a vicious loan shark. If they can’t pay him back, Lailu will not only lose her restaurant—she’ll have to cook for Mr. Boss for the rest of her life. As Lailu scrambles to raise the money in time, she becomes trapped in a deadly conflict between the king’s cold-blooded assassin, the terrifying elf mafia, and Mr. Boss’ ruthless crew. Worst of all, her only hope in outsmarting Mr. Boss lies with the one person she hates—Greg, the most obnoxious boy in school and her rival in the restaurant business. But like Lailu always says, if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. And she’s determined to succeed, no matter the cost!

With elves waging war on scientists, it’s up to thirteen-year-old master chef Lailu Loganberry to save both her restaurant and her city in this final book in The Mystic Cooking Chronicles, which Kirkus Reviews calls “perfect for Top Chef fans with a penchant for the fantastical.” Lailu is in hot water. After the events of the Week of Masks, Wren keeps sending insect-like automatons to attack Lailu. However, they’re more irritating than dangerous, and Lailu is more worried about the elves, who have been quiet so far. Too quiet. When Lailu heads out of the city on a hunt with Greg, the elves finally strike. They put up a magical shield separating the Velvet Forest from the rest of the city. Now no human can enter…and unfortunately for Lailu and Greg, no human can leave, either. Ryon shows up to save them both, claiming they were caught unintentionally, but Lailu isn’t sure she believes him. Tensions between the elves and the scientists are reaching a boiling point, and the question is which side will snap first. And in the middle of it all is Lailu. Trusted by both sides, she’s selected to deliver messages and help negotiate a truce between the parties before war becomes inevitable. Easy as pie, right? Not so much. Lailu’s new role as mediator may be one recipe that's headed for disaster!

A girl learns how to walk dogs—and walk tall—in this charming, coming-of-age novel Twelve-year-old Jessie is in for a long, lonely summer at her aunt and uncle’s house. Her uncle is clueless, her aunt is downright frosty, and worst of all, her cousin Ann thinks Jessie isn’t cool enough to hang out with anymore. But Jessie is industrious, and—not content with being ignored all summer—she convinces Wes, a grouchy neighborhood dog walker, to take her on as his apprentice. Sure, dog walking turns out to be harder than she expected, but she has Wes’s dog-walking code, the Rules of the Ruff, to guide her, and soon, she’s wrangling her very own pack like the best of them. But when Monique, a charming rival dog walker, moves to town, she quickly snatches up most of Wes’s business—and Jessie decides she isn’t going to take this defeat with her tail between her legs.

The path to becoming a warlock is long, difficult, and—in Phil Rowling’s case—filled with unhealthy amounts of dangerous sex. After summoning and being dragged off to hell by Verdé and her sexy succubus friends, Phil returns to Wargsnouts College for Warlocks to discover he’s been placed in the fast track Advanced Studies class. Here students are taught how to control and harness the power of their daemons. Phil just wants to find out how to stop his succubi from trying to kill him and his fellow students with mind-blowing, soul-draining sex. On top of this he also has to worry about a callous teacher who doesn’t care how many of his students die, a vengeful student sending an alluring arachne assassin after him to sexually suck him to death, and additional lessons from his own succubus, Cέrμləa, that might just unhinge rather than broaden his mind. Magic, mayhem, monster girls, and dollops and dollops of weird sex abound as hapless novice warlock Phil Rowling continues his misadventures in succubus summoning.

On a strange station in a sector he had never been to before, Fnord was on the run. He had no idea that he was about to meet a teenage gladiator, a pre pubescent hacker and the most sarcastic robot (ghost) in the galaxy. With the promise of death, capture and war the unlikely team must make their way to Earth. While they are doing so they might want to find out why, and lets not forget that the empire, an evil corporation and every pirate in ten sectors will be searching for them. If only Fnord had friends who could help him out, oh wait a minuet, that’s how this whole mess started in the first place!With thrills spills and all the other things they usually say about this kind of story, Cyber Messiah promises to leave you with a feeling of obscure happiness that you just can’t explain. Although how a book made from paper can make a promise is quite beyond me. Last time I checked books were not sentient. Enjoy :-)

Heidi Lang’s novel Wrong Way Summer is a moving summer road-trip story for fans of Crenshaw and The Someday Birds. A Junior Library Guild Selection Claire used to love her dad’s fantastical stories, especially tales about her absent mom—who could be off with the circus or stolen by the troll king, depending on the day. But now that she’s 12, Claire thinks she’s old enough to know the truth. When her dad sells the house and moves her and her brother into a converted van, she’s tired of the tall tales and refuses to pretend it’s all some grand adventure, despite how enthusiastically her little brother embraces this newest fantasy. Claire is faced with a choice: Will she play along with the stories her dad is spinning for her little brother, or will she force her family to face reality once and for all? Equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, Wrong Way Summer is a road-trip journey and coming-of-age story about one girl’s struggle to understand when a lie is really a lie and when it’s something more: hope. “This is a sweet story about family, truth, protection, friendship, and first crushes . . . Not only does the author construct a story that draws the reader in, she also provides a love and understanding of the art of storytelling.” —School Library Connection