Here are 59 books that Skellig fans have personally recommended if you like
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Maurice Sendak said, "Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do." In other words, children do the impossible. Growing up, stories where the real and imagined collided were like fresh air when I felt like I couldn't breathe. They've always been important to me, and for many reasons, hold a special place in our literature. Now, as a full-time teacher, writer, and daddy, I get to be on the other side of that joy equation, guiding new readers and writers as they become travelers of the fantastic.
This book does African American magic on a scale that I’ve never seen before. It was given to me as a gift. “Cameron, you need to read this.” And they were right. I’ve read plenty of fantasy that makes use of the same African American and Caribbean folklore (my family is from Belize) but never at such depth for middle-grade novels.
I love how we get dropped right into the mix very early without explanation because no explanation is needed. I’m on the inside. I know exactly who and what he’s talking about. And because it’s a full-on fantasy novel, I got to know these staple characters that everybody thinks they know, like Brer Fox, as whole people, not just walking, talking cautionary tales.
Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods.
*"Mbalia expertly weaves a meaningful portrayal of family and community with folklore, myth, and history―including the legacy of the slave trade―creating a fast-paced, heroic series starter."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading…
Three friends become caught up in a monkey-worshipping cult when a stone circle suddenly appears overnight next to their home.
The cult is headed by famous racing driver Gordon Smash who disappeared in the Amazon rainforest in the 90s after a stunt went badly wrong. Alongside space tech billionaire Micky…
I’m a grown-up who struggles to stay in the here and now, vastly preferring to live in the stories in my head or in the book in front of me. I grew up in New England, Spain, and now have settled in Colorado after traveling around most of the lower 48 states. I’ve been a fan of well written fantasy since I learned to read, and at 35 I started writing my own fantasy stories. Now when I need a perfect getaway escape, I read my own books!
As someone who’s moved around a LOT and lived far from family most of my life, I’m a sucker for found family of any kind.
This story is one of the best. I loved reading about all these demi-god children working together and finding their connection through loyalty and depth of friendship.
As someone very familiar with Greek mythology, I really enjoyed the fresh and enjoyably new story with familiar players.
The Lightning Thief: the First book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.
The first bestselling book in Rick Riordan's phenomenally successful Percy Jackson series.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive.
Maurice Sendak said, "Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do." In other words, children do the impossible. Growing up, stories where the real and imagined collided were like fresh air when I felt like I couldn't breathe. They've always been important to me, and for many reasons, hold a special place in our literature. Now, as a full-time teacher, writer, and daddy, I get to be on the other side of that joy equation, guiding new readers and writers as they become travelers of the fantastic.
If you like The Labyrinth, then you will love this book. If you grew up in a household that always felt in some way dangerous, then you will need it. I know Fran Wilde. The author is a friend of mine. I moderated a panel conversation with her and Carlos Hernandez about middle-grade and just how transformative it could be, and we talked extensively about Riverland.
One of the things I liked most about it (besides the gorgeous writing. Seriously, some books I read just for the ways the author puts words together, and this is one of them). Riverland deals with real abuse in a way that is as sensitive as it is powerful. Hope and storytelling are forms of magic that make a difference.
When things go bad at home, sisters Eleanor and Mike hide in a secret place under Eleanor's bed, telling monster stories. Often, it seems those stories and their mother's house magic are all that keep them safe from both busybodies and their dad's temper. But when their father breaks a family heirloom, a glass witch ball, a river suddenly appears beneath the bed, and Eleanor and Mike fall into a world where dreams are born, nightmares struggle to break into the real world, and secrets have big consequences. Full of both adventure and heart, Riverland is a story about the…
In a time of alternative facts and the loss of a shared sense of reality, A Foot is Not a Fish playfully illustrates the difference between what is true and what is not through absurd fun comparisons that every child—and parent—will instantly understand.
As a child, growing up in New York as a first generation Greek-American, my family believed in the power of storytelling. My family embraced both classic Greek mythology and village folklore as words to live by. I learned how transformative storytelling can be. It transformed me as a child, finding solace in freedom in reading, and formed the foundation for my career as an actress and writer.
My new book, The House in the Middle of the Street, is my winter Gothic tale about a house, its occupants, and a yearly visit made by a boy and a girl on New Year’s Eve. It's a setting where magic and myth rule. The stories below spoke to me about the mystery that surrounds us all.
This is one of my favorite stories from Gaiman who I absolutely revere.
His style is a perfect whimsical blend of mythological fairy tales with the insightful science fiction grit and truth-telling of Rod Sterling’s "Twilight Zone” tales.
This particular story of Gaiman’s ushered me into this world with its poetic rhythm. A man returns to his childhood home and meets a girl named Lettie and her family. It felt like I stepped into a world where all things are possible, a homecoming is at hand, filled with the threat of danger and the loss of self. As the man remembers his past, he travels through time and crosses between our world and a darker one that brings terror as well as an understanding and protection.
It’s a beautiful story that informs my writing and deepens my love for a modern fairy tale.
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.
This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...
Being a petite person, I can’t move furniture by myself or lift heavy boxes. It’s freaking annoying. I dream of having a magic wand or some sort of power that would make me stronger. If there was a potion to turn me into a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, kick-butt type of girl I’d drink it in a second. Since there is no such potion, I write and read books about supernatural girls who don’t take crap from anyone, especially the guys in their lives.
I love Academy series where the reader discovers the world along with the main character. At the Fallen Academy you’re either Demon Cursed or Angel Blessed. Of course, Brielle is a little of both, which shouldn’t be possible and confuses everyone and makes her life a mixture of heaven and hell.
Family is everything to Brielle, so when she learns about an opportunity to free her mother from Demon City, she takes it. No matter how dangerous, Brielle will do anything to unite her family in Angel City. All is going according to plan, until her brother's awakening ceremony. What he is… it shocks everyone, and he's sent away until he can get his powers under control. Then Brielle loses someone precious to her and goes to great lengths to get them back, lengths Lincoln doesn't agree with. He thinks Brielle is too much of a risk taker, too wild, and…
I’ve always been fascinated by science fiction and by Biblical Scripture. That may seem dichotomous to some, but not to me. I have a passion for science and for Scripture because both bring understanding about our world from the microcosm to the macrocosm. My writings are a mixture of science and mystery with a science fiction feel and a Christian perspective. I like stories that show how truth arises even from the dark, confusing, and ambiguity of life to help one discover something about God they may not have considered before, and at the same time enjoy a fun, fast-paced, and exciting journey as they read.
One could say there are different stages of heaven. This book talks about how wonderful things will one day be on earth but shows that paradise is not paradise just because the devil doesn’t exist anymore. A plot develops to go against the king who has brought wonderment to the earth. It is the story of how peacefulness meets mankind at its selfish core. There are more Bible quotes that I would think would be necessary to go into a fiction story, but overall it is a good presentation to show what this future world will look like and function.
The sequel to the best-selling Christian fiction series that has sold over 63 million copies!
Reunite with all your favorite characters and see how they fare in this capstone final title of the Left Behind saga.
The horrors of the Tribulation are over, and Jesus Christ has set up his perfect kingdom on earth. Believers all around the world enjoy a newly perfected relationship with their Lord, and the earth itself is transformed. Yet evil still lurks in the hearts of the unbelieving. As the Millennium draws to a close, the final generation of the unrepentant prepares to mount a…
For those who enjoy fantasy adventure, the Faerie Tales from the White Forest series offers a new twist on the traditional faerie tales so loved by young readers.
From devastating curses to death-defying quests, Brigitta and her growing collective of misfit friends face greater and greater challenges when destiny calls…
I grew up in northern Wisconsin, where a love of books set my imagination on fire as I waited out the long, cold winters. Southern writers were my favorites because they took me from the plains of my northern home to a landscape vined in lushness, where people had names like Scout, Calpurnia, and Battle Fairchild; where places had names like Yoknapatawpha, and where a streetcar was named Desire. I got lost in that place of different constellations with its mint julep and velvet evenings, and its readiness to accept magic. It wasn’t until my children were grown that I finally earned bachelor's and master’s degrees, and determined that I would be a writer.
This one is all about the enchantment and disenchantment that comes with love. In it, women fall for the wrong sort of man and a grieving mother grows “belladonna, thorn apple, hemlock, black nightshade...everything poisonous” in her garden. The story is told in reverse until it comes to 12-year-old Lucy Green in 1952 who blames herself for a tragic accident, then spends forty years looking for the angel she hopes will renew her faith.
This haunting, poignant and addictive story travels effortlessly across time, telling the tale of three generations of women who make the wrong choices and have to live with the consequences.
It opens in London in the present day, when an envious sibling comes to her sister's wedding. Back in the Swinging Sixties, the bridegroom's conventional English mother, Freida, behaves in a wholly unconventional way while working in a Knightsbridge hotel. Even before that, the seeds of tragedy are sown in the Fifties, when twelve-year-old Lucy first visits London and the same hotel. Precocious, impatient, wise beyond her years, Lucy becomes…
I am a gay, neurodivergent, Mexican American, who grew up in a poor family riddled with domestic violence, in a small mid-western town. I’ve always been proud of my identities, but I’ve been particularly fascinated by their intersections. For example, a white gay man will face certain prejudices and discrimination, but a gay man of color, or a neurodivergent gay man, will have compounded challenges . . . and distinct joys . . . resulting from their combination. One of my writing goals is to include intersectional characters in all of my stories. When I read a wonderful, similar story, I like to herald the accomplishment.
I love everything about this book: the writing, the story, and the characters.
The audiobook narrator, Donald Corren, is phenomenal; it’s hard to believe that one person can voice so many varied characters. There is terrific queer and gender representation. There are many fascinating examples of Jewish customs and folklore that add to the rich storytelling that is at times historical, and other times fantastical. Brilliant!
In publishing-speak, here's what we at the LQ office sometimes describe as the Queer lovechild of Sholem Aleichem and Philip Roth:
Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying Talmud together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn the young people from their village to America. And suddenly a murder forces the study partners to follow them.
I’ve obviously read a lot of Holmes retellings. Part of the impetus behind my new novella was trying to figure out whyI was so attracted to them. Part of it, I realized, is the neurodivergence aspect: fundamental to the Holmes story is the idea of someone who thinks differently—and who finds a way to interact with the world that uses that as an asset. The other component I love is the Holmes-Watson dynamic. Whether it's romantic or not, the development of a relationship of affection between two people who think very differently is an emotional counterpoint to plot-driven mysteries. Those elements—along with stellar writing, gripping mysteries, and characters I love spending time with.
This is probably the strangest retelling on this list (rivaling Alexis Hall’s wonderful The Affair of the Mysterious Letter) and—perhaps because of that?—the one that follows the original stories most closely.
Indeed, the mysteries explored by Crow are beat-by-beat versions of Holmes’s, except where they deviate to puncture racism, xenophobia, and sexism or to reflect the dictates of the fascinating paranormal world Addison created.
The wary developing friendship between Watson and Crow, the bizarre half-glimpsed world they live in, and the urgency of the prose make it hugely readable.
This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting. London 1888. Angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A utopia, except for one thing: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. Dr J. H. Doyle returns to London having been wounded in Afghanistan by a Fallen, and finds himself lodging in Baker Street with the enigmatic angel Crow. But living…
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
I've always been fascinated by the idea of the war in Heaven. As a storyteller, the eternal struggle between angels and demons fighting for the fate of creation has been a source of perpetual inspiration for me. But finding stories about angels that aren't YA or paranormal romance can be challenging. So, channeling my love of historical fiction and action-packed adventure, I set out to craft a thrilling, realistic tale that puts the reader right on the front lines beside a peaceful angel forced into becoming a warrior fighting against his former brothers. This list reflects my favorite books that paved the way and inspired my own work.
One of the key references I used in writing The Sabrael Confession, this book is a comprehensive list of all the named angels throughout history, good or bad, complete with their rank in the angelic host and all mentions of them across the world's religions. My copy looks like it's been through a war with dog-eared pages, sticky notes protruding from the sides, and little scribbles in the margins. Whenever I needed a new angel in my book, I scoured this amazing resource to find the perfect fit. All my fallen angels are fallen angels found here. All my good angels are listed here. It's a truly fascinating read, and does well to point out inconsistencies where an angel has been listed as good by some, evil by others.
Gustav Davidson's classic text, A dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, is the result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts. The classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America. This well researched and exquisitely illustrated dictionary is a wonderful collectable for all those who believe in angels, miracles, lore, and faith.
