Here are 24 books that Greystone Secrets fans have personally recommended once you finish the Greystone Secrets series.
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I am a middle-grade author and mother to four children. I have been an avid reader my entire life. I love fantasy novels and feel that this passion not only makes me a better writer, but an excellent reader. I appreciate well-rounded characters, fun and twisty plots, and intriguing conflict. When I wrote Fable Nation, it was to convince my own children that reading was fun. I had them hooked by page two. A good story has the power to transport readers to new worlds. My goal as a writer is to create such places. My goal as a reader: to find myself blissfully lost in someone else’s world.
Only a few books can engross a reader so fully they forget to play video games. This first book in the Warrior series is so captivating it will cause the most reluctant reader to spend hours turning pages. This book focuses on clans of wild cats. It is full of heroism and adventure. As a writer, I am always searching for characters to keep my readers engaged. Erin Hunters has done a masterful job with each and every one of her many feline characters. Is this book all about cats? Yes. It is fun and engaging? Absolutely.
Epic adventures. Fierce warrior cats. A thrilling fantasy world. It all begins here.
Read the book that began a phenomenon—and join the legion of fans who have made Erin Hunter’s Warriors series a #1 national bestseller.
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their ancestors. But the warrior code has been threatened, and the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger. The sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying—and some deaths are more mysterious than others.
In the midst of this turmoil appears an ordinary housecat named…
I despise long-winded books with an electoral roll of characters or characters with unnecessarily complex names. Reading should be a pleasure, not a chore. High school does its best to suck the joy out of reading with its “what did the author mean here?” nonsense. If the reader has to guess what the author means, the author failed to tell their story. Symbolism and hidden meanings are a joke. I won’t read pretentious books that people only read so they can say they’ve read them. One of the reasons I started writing was to reach people who ended up as non-readers because high school ruined reading for them.
Originally, I was looking for a book series to get my 12-year-old (non-reader) nephew interested in reading. The cover art is great, and the description, “a smart-ass skeleton detective and a secret magic world, in the shadows of the real world,” piqued my interest. Yes, an actual walking, talking skeleton.
I first purchased a copy for myself so I would know if it was appropriate for him. I enjoyed reading it so much that I went out the next day and bought him the first four books in the series. They became the first books he voluntarily read. I love the depictions of magic (and magical creatures) in the real world and the constant battle to keep regular humans ignorant of the events that take place virtually right in front of them.
She's twelve. He's dead. But together they're going to save the world. Hopefully.
The iconic first book in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series.
Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction.
Pursued by evil forces, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source - the wisecracking skeleton of a dead sorcerer...
I have been an avid sci-fi/fantasy lover and tabletop gamer my whole life. Many of my best memories involve me inventing stories explaining why my buddy’s armies and mine were duking it out on the battlefield or interpreting what the dice rolls really meant for my character. Today, I write for one of my favorite game universes, Kings of War. I have made a living out of stories by writing them or teaching about them. I love making my universes believable while still maintaining integrity to their original source material. I also love making flawed, relatable characters to give readers hope as they read about them overcoming those flaws.
The late Sir Pratchett was a hero of mine. The Discworld universe is one of the most well-put-together, zany, yet relatable places. The amount of depth that he was able to achieve with a setting that others might consider a joke is astounding.
In order for a universe to connect with me, it has to have characters that I love dearly. Granny Aching and her granddaughter Tiffany are among the few literary characters that have ever brought me to tears on multiple occasions. I used to read this book to my students, and there is one scene in particular towards the end that causes me to choke up every time I read it.
It’s simple and powerful, and it speaks to me on a personal level. I lost my mom back in 2008, and the scene to which I am referring here hits on that sense of loss so well…
A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . .
Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle - aka the Wee Free Men - a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men.
Together they must face headless horsemen, ferocious grimhounds, terrifying dreams come true, and ultimately the sinister Queen of the Elves herself . . .
I have been writing for the past 21 years on mystical themes with a good dose of Mother Earth Love tossed in. Fifteen years ago, I launched the spoken word website, offering one ten-minute recorded essay monthly on mystical/philosophical themes. Having published three nonfiction books, I decided to take my love of nature and interest in mysticism and write a novel for young philosophers and Earth-loving elders. My book follows the mystical journey of a rather practical eleven-year-old to an enchanted lake in the high Alps. It contains gentle animals, wise trees, kindred spirits, and healing waters.
This book is the story of a boy who runs away from his chaotic but loving home in New York City to try his hand at living in the wilderness of upstate New York.
I found it totally charming and instructive. He hollows out a tree to make himself a comfortable place to observe and embrace the Winter on the side of a mountain. This book is written more for child philosophers than Earth-Loving elders, but I read it to my husband, and we both enjoyed it greatly.
It is a different take on mother nature love than the others I have recommended, yet it still shines.
"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."-The New York Times Book Review
Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods-all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.
"An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after…
I've loved horror since I was a kid. However, the horror of the unexpected has frequently popped up in my life. This started most prominently with a day on the beach, near the haunted Hotel del Coronado; while my mind was busy thinking of ghosts, I busily picked up various seashells, only to be shocked to find a crab in one of the shells I had attempted to retrieve. Several paranormal experiences and many late nights of research later, I have become the writer presenting you this list today. I've spent a lot of time watching movies, teaching, and reading about sociology. Happy reading!
It's another sci-fi book! Luckily, it has a fun, psychedelic-flower-child color palette, so it should be fine.
Probably the biggest stretch on this list, this is mostly horror by implication. There are a lot of real-life event references, several characters are hippies (including the main character), and there's even a thread of romance. On the flip side, there's also some other stuff from the era of the "Summer of Love", like clandestine organizations and war protests that poignantly reminded me of the oxymoron, "fighting for peace".
In 1969 a timid teen sets out on a road trip. His goal? Find out the origins of his bizarre super human abilities. Always the follower, his trip is derailed when he befriends a group of extremist war protesters
I've loved horror since I was a kid. However, the horror of the unexpected has frequently popped up in my life. This started most prominently with a day on the beach, near the haunted Hotel del Coronado; while my mind was busy thinking of ghosts, I busily picked up various seashells, only to be shocked to find a crab in one of the shells I had attempted to retrieve. Several paranormal experiences and many late nights of research later, I have become the writer presenting you this list today. I've spent a lot of time watching movies, teaching, and reading about sociology. Happy reading!
I found this book in my high school library, fresh off of The Old Kingdom (trilogy, at the time), and while I needed a break from the Ender's series. Seeing it on the shelf, it looked like a perfect option against the cultural backdrop that was the success of The Matrix.
This is from the less-likely-to-happen end of dystopian spectrum and involves evil overlords ruling over everyone after anyone over the age of fourteen has "disappeared" due to the "Change". No one over fourteen exists due to something called a "sad birthday", of which the details here will be spared, except to say it makes the annual games between districts look like little more than fanfare. Also, please keep stocking this book in school libraries because it is terrifying.
From renowned fantasy author of the Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix, comes a dystopian fantasy perfect for fans of Hunger Games and Divergent.
Imagine a world where your fourteenth birthday is your last and where even your protector may not be trusted....
In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no human shall live a day past their fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the children of the Dorms are taken to the Meat Factory, where they will be made into creatures whose sole purpose is to kill.
The mysterious Shade—once a man, but now more like the…
I've loved horror since I was a kid. However, the horror of the unexpected has frequently popped up in my life. This started most prominently with a day on the beach, near the haunted Hotel del Coronado; while my mind was busy thinking of ghosts, I busily picked up various seashells, only to be shocked to find a crab in one of the shells I had attempted to retrieve. Several paranormal experiences and many late nights of research later, I have become the writer presenting you this list today. I've spent a lot of time watching movies, teaching, and reading about sociology. Happy reading!
Hey, look! It's totally a superhero comic! Some superheroes will probably get some super powers, and maybe a villain will try to destroy a town, and, true to superhero form, at least everything is kind of relatively okay in the end (not to spoil anything).
It has pretty much everyone's favorite superhero, since it has a lot of superheroes. Which is really interesting, because the first few pages are sheer horror. Seriously, it isn't every book that gets my mind flirting with a panic attack, but this one was fine after setting it down for a moment. Then it's mostly a superhero comic again and not really a horror story, except for when it is a horror story.
The biggest adventure in DC's history is here! Join visionary writer Grant
Morrison, today's most talented artists, and a cast of unforgettable heroes from
52 alternative Earths of the DC Multiverse! Prepare to meet the Vampire
League of Earth-43, the Justice Riders of Earth-18, Superdemon, Doc Fate, the
super-sons of Superman and Batman, the rampaging Retaliators of Earth-8, the
Atomic Knights of Justice, Dino-Cop, Sister Miracle, Lady Quark, and the latest,
greatest Super Hero of Earth-Prime: YOU! THE MULTIVERSITY is more than a
multipart comic-book series. It's a cosmos spanning, soul-shaking experience
that puts YOU on the frontline in the…
As the saying goes, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Ahem. Not actually. Breaking cover doesn't typically demand killing people. But I might lose my security clearance and my diplomatic immunity in Fairy. Which I don't want to do, so shall we say I have a lively imagination and no personal knowledge about spy craft or espionage either in this world or in Fairy? Promise. I know nothing. And anyway, you can't prove it!
My fifth-grade teacher read this book to my class in 1987, and it lit my imagination on fire!
I would have gone to school, even if it were optional while she was reading this story about three children who learn how to “see” their way to a world of magic and adventure. They ultimately discover myriad and sundry wonderful creatures in a fantasy world where wonder abounds.
I love the understanding that magic is right under our noses, just waiting to be discovered!
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles was the second children’s novel ever written by Julie Andrews, the beloved star of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Perfect for young readers who love whimsical stories about magic!
The Whangdoodle was once the wisest, the kindest, and the most extraordinary creature in the world. Then he disappeared and created a wonderful land for himself and all the other remarkable animals—the ten-legged Sidewinders, the little furry Flukes, the friendly Whiffle Bird, and the treacherous, "oily" Prock. It was an almost perfect place where the last of the really great Whangdoodles could…
As the saying goes, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Ahem. Not actually. Breaking cover doesn't typically demand killing people. But I might lose my security clearance and my diplomatic immunity in Fairy. Which I don't want to do, so shall we say I have a lively imagination and no personal knowledge about spy craft or espionage either in this world or in Fairy? Promise. I know nothing. And anyway, you can't prove it!
I adored Howl’s Moving Castle but that novel probably isn’t Diana Wynne Jones’ best book. This compilation includes Charmed Life and The Lives of Christopher Chant in a fantasy world of magicians and bureaucratic management of magic. You would think in a world where magic is real it might get boring, but I trust Jones because she knows how to protect magic from becoming common, always respecting magic's economy.
Surprises abound in these stories, but it's easy to let go of my critical mind and just have fun. Bonus fact: Diana Wynne Jones was a student of JRR Tolkien’s at Oxford. I laughed my head off when I read Wynne’s descriptions of Tolkien’s lectures online. She is fascinating and also hilarious.
In this multiple parallel universes of the Twelve Related Worlds, only an enchanter with nine lives is powerful enough to control the rampant misuse of magic--and to hold the title Chrestomanci...
The Chants are a family strong in magic, but neither Christopher Chant nor Cat Chant can work even the simplest of spells. Who could have dreamed that both Christopher and Cat were born with nine lives--or that they could lose them so quickly?
As the saying goes, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Ahem. Not actually. Breaking cover doesn't typically demand killing people. But I might lose my security clearance and my diplomatic immunity in Fairy. Which I don't want to do, so shall we say I have a lively imagination and no personal knowledge about spy craft or espionage either in this world or in Fairy? Promise. I know nothing. And anyway, you can't prove it!
This one is a great example of a middle-grade fantasy that deserves more attention. It pulled me right in and wouldn’t let go with its authentic Irish folklore and vivid narrative. Author Pat O’Shea is from Ireland and the sense of place is rich with history and atmosphere.
Brigit’s spunk is a perfect counterpoint to Pidge’s sober personality, and they were my friends. We were on an adventure together.
Set in the world of Irish mythology, The Hounds of the Morrigan tells of the coming of the great queen, the Morrigan, from out of the west to free the snake Olc Glas, and to bring destruction to the world. Two children, Pidge and Brigit, are chosen to thwart the Morrigan.
