A book set in an alternate history, reality, or world
ADULT
America Was Hard to Find by Kathleen Alcott
In the wake of an affair, the lives of an astronaut and a radical are forever altered by the political fault lines of the 1960s, setting off a series of events ricocheting from anti-Vietnam activism to the Apollo program to the AIDS crisis, in this sprawling multigenerational novel.
Ecuador, 1969: An American expatriate, Fay Fern, sits in the corner of a restaurant, she and her young son Wright turn away from the television where Vincent Kahn becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
Years earlier, Fay and Vincent meet at a pilots’ bar in the Mojave Desert. Both seemed poised for reinvention—the married test pilot, Vincent, as an astronaut; the spurned child of privilege, Fay, as an activist. Their casual affair ends quickly, but its consequences linger.
Though their lives split, their senses of purpose deepen in tandem, each becoming heroes to different sides of the political spectrum of the 1960s and ’70s: Vincent an icon with no plan beyond the mission for which he has single-mindedly trained, Fay a leader of a violent leftist group whose anti-Vietnam actions make her one of the FBI’s most wanted. With her last public appearance, a demonstration that frames the Apollo program as a vehicle for distracting the American public from its country’s atrocities, Fay leaves Wright to contend with her legacy, his own growing apathy, and the misdeeds of both his mother and his country.
An immense, vivid reimagining of the Cold War era, America Was Hard to Find traces the fallout of the cultural revolution that divided the country and explores the meaning of individual lives in times of upheaval. It also confirms Kathleen Alcott’s reputation as a fearless and vital voice in fiction.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.
Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician, the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome, and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.
This harrowing, Hugo Award–winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.
Portal of a Thousand Worlds by Dave Duncan
The looming threat of a once-in-a-millennium magical event sends nineteenth-century China into violent chaos in this epic alternate-history fantasy.
Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century—an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer Rebellion era—with a spellbinding tale of rebellion, political intrigue, larceny, seduction, shape-shifting, dark magic, and murder. These are troubled years in the Good Land.
Ten centuries have passed since the last time the Portal of a Thousand Worlds opened, bringing chaos, upheaval, and radical change to the then-ruling dynasty, and now the mystical gateway is rumored to be on the verge of opening once more. Only the Firstborn—he who has been reincarnated through countless generations and remembers all he has ever learned—knows what the future holds, but he has been imprisoned for refusing to comply with a repressive imperial government’s wishes.
Now, those hoping to seize the opportunity for wealth and position are hatching sinister plots. And as the cold-hearted dowager empress closely guards a fateful secret, and a rebel army led by a fanatical zealot gathers strength under the Bamboo Banner, the cataclysm approaches. . . .
The recipient of two Aurora Awards and numerous Locus and Endeavour Award nominations, Dave Duncan is an acknowledged master of sword-and-sorcery adventure on par with George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. A sprawling epic with a colorful cast of royals, thieves, prostitutes, gods, warriors, dragons, assassins, merchants, and mages set against the backdrop of a volatile alternate Asia, Portal of a Thousand Worlds is a magnificent work of invention from one of the premier fantasists of our day.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde’s Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it’s a bibliophile’s dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense.
All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë’s novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde’s ingenious fantasy unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino
When three delinquents hole up in an abandoned general store after their most recent robbery, to their great surprise, a letter drops through the mail slot in the store's shutter. This seemingly simple request for advice sets the trio on a journey of discovery as, over the course of a single night, they step into the role of the kindhearted former shopkeeper who devoted his waning years to offering thoughtful counsel to his correspondents. Through the lens of time, they share insight with those seeking guidance, and by morning, none of their lives will ever be the same.
By acclaimed author Keigo Higashino, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is a work that has touched the hearts of readers around the world.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth’s efforts to colonize space, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for a much larger share of humanity to take part.
One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too—aside from some pesky barriers like thousands of years of history and a host of expectations about the proper place of the fairer sex. And yet, Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions may not stand a chance.
The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills
In this inventive, moving, and funny coming-of-age novel, two human-like teen robots navigate high school, basketball, and potentially life-threatening consequences if their true origins are discovered by the inhabitants of their intolerant 1980s Michigan hometown.
Fraternal twin brothers Darryl and Kanga are just like any other teenagers trying to make it through high school. They have to deal with peer pressure, awkwardness, and family drama. But there’s one closely guarded secret that sets them apart: they’re robots. So long as they keep their heads down, their robophobic neighbors won’t discover the truth about them and they just might make it through to graduation.
But when Kanga becomes the star of the basketball team, his worrywart brother Darryl now has to work a million times harder to keep them both out of the spotlight. Though they look, sound, and act perfectly human, if anyone in their small, depressed Michigan town were to find out what they truly are, they’d likely be disassembled by an angry mob in the middle of their school gym.
“Curious, sweet, heartbreaking, and redemptive” (Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author), this is a funny, poignant look at brotherhood, xenophobia, and the limits of one’s programming.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and The Professor.
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
“A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review
It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.
Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World.
The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
Our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history and traces its ominous impact on one family.
When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but upon taking office as the thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe and virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty.
What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family - and for a million such families all over the country - during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
An alternate history / historical fantasy / steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo, from noted short story writer Nisi Shawl.
Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group, Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Cracked on the head by a crowbar in nineteenth-century Connecticut, Hank Morgan wakes to find himself in King Arthur’s England. After using his knowledge of an upcoming solar eclipse to escape a death sentence, Hank must then navigate his way through a medieval world whose idyllic surface masks fear, injustice, and ignorance.
Considered by H. L. Mencken to be “the most bitter critic of American platitude and delusion…that ever lived,” Twain enchants readers with a Camelot that strikes disturbingly contemporary notes in this acclaimed tour de force that encompasses both the pure joy of wild hijinks and deeply probing insights into the nature of man.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.
In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Looking for more? Check out these alternates we didn’t have room to include:
YOUNG ADULT
Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Callum is a naught, a second-class citizen in a society run by the ruling Crosses. Sephy is a Cross, and daughter of the man slated to become prime minister. In their world, white naughts and black Crosses simply don't mix -- and they certainly don't fall in love. But that's exactly what they've done.
When they were younger, they played together. Now Callum and Sephy meet in secret and make excuses. But excuses no longer cut it when Sephy and her mother are nearly caught in a terrorist bombing planned by the Liberation Militia, with which Callum's family is linked. Callum's father is the prime suspect...and Sephy's father will stop at nothing to see him hanged. The blood hunt that ensues will threaten not only Callum and Sephy's love for each other, but their very lives.
In this shocking thriller, UK sensation Malorie Blackman turns the world inside out. What's white is black, what's black is white, and only one thing is clear: Assumptions can be deadly.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.
Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the Colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.
Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home… forever.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
In this exhilarating series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time.…
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.
Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.
When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn....
Invictus by Ryan Graudin
Time flies when you're plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time traveler from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in ancient Rome, Far's very existence defies the laws of nature. All he's ever wanted was to explore history for himself, but after failing his entrance exam into the government program, Far will have to settle for a position on the black market--captaining a time-traveling crew to steal valuables from the past.
During a routine heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl named Eliot who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Eliot has secrets--big ones--that will affect Far's life from beginning to end. Armed with the knowledge that history is not as steady as it seems, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to set things right before the clock runs out.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
The Walking Dead meets “Formation” in Dread Nation—a meditation on race in America that takes the form of an alternate-history adventure in a post Reconstruction world where Confederate and Union soldiers rose from the dead at the end of the Civil War. At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, this is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War between the States and changing the nation forever. In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations. But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
The Jekyll Island Chronicles by Steve Nedvidek
At the beginning of the 1900s, 1/6th of the world’s wealth vacationed in and around the tiny Georgia island of Jekyll. Captains of Industry like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Carnegie all called the Jekyll area home. Using this place of grandeur and elegance as a backdrop, an alternate history is explored between the World Wars. A time of great social, political, and technological upheaval. A time of ingenuity and anarchy. A time for some of the most brilliant, and horrible, minds of the 20th century to confront each other. And a time of great new heroes and fantastic new machines.
The Jekyll Island Chronicles: A Machine Age War is the first in a series of graphic novels. Part historical fact, part clockwork, and part diesel punk, they span an age of furious advancement in machine technology while exploring the span of man’s soul – whether evil or good.
Glitter by Aprilynne Pike
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike comes a truly original new novel—Breaking Bad meets Marie Antoinette in a near-future world where the residents of Versailles live like it’s the eighteenth century and an almost-queen turns to drug dealing to save her own life.
Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.
When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play…blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates. Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.
But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.
Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve
Fever Crumb is a girl who has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. In a time and place where women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly, the only female to serve in the order. At age fourteen, she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.
Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin
Get ready to die laughing: this is an outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager’s life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on.
Denton Little’s Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. For Denton, that’s in just two days—the day of his senior prom.
Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle—as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend’s hostile sister. (Though he’s not totally sure—see, first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton’s long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters…. Suddenly Denton’s life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.
Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.
MIDDLE GRADE & EARLY CHAPTER
The Hidden Stairs and The Magic Carpet (Secrets of Droon #1) by Tony Abbott
When Neal and Julie agree to help Eric straighten up his basement, they never imagine that they're in for more than getting a little dusty. But as the three kids follow a soccer ball into the small room under the basement stairs, the floor suddenly evaporates to reveal a rainbow staircase to another world!
Before they have a chance to look around, they are caught in the midst of a battle. Shiny red men riding giant lizards are shooting arrows straight at them. They are saved by Princess Keeah of Droon who tells them the red men are warriors for the evil Lord Sparr. She promises to help them get home if they will carry a message for her. The message is delivered successfully, but the brave Keeah has been captured by Lord Sparr. Equipped with a cape of invisibility, a six legged camel/horse, and a talkative spider-troll named Max, the three children manage to sneak in and rescue Keeah.
Astride a magic carpet, Julie, Eric, Neal, and Keeah fly to the stairs that will take the three "Upper World" children back home. The kids are astonished to discover that no time has passed back in their own world. But even as they marvel at their adventure, they realize that Princess Keeah has left them a secret message: Your dreams will tell you to return!
NERDS by Michael Buckley
The excitement of international espionage combined with the awkwardness of elementary makes for non-stop laughs in NERDS, the hilarious series from New York Times bestselling author Michael Buckley!
Meet the NERDS, a team of eleven-year-old super spies:
Duncan “Gluestick” Dewey: He’s a paste-eater who can stick to walls.
Ruby “Pufferfish” Peet: Her allergies help her detect danger and dishonesty.
Heathcliff “Choppers” Hodges: He controls minds with his buckteeth.
Julio “Flinch” Escala: His hyperactivity gives him super speed and strength.
Matilda “Wheezer” Choi: Her inhalers enable her to fly and blast enemies.
Jackson “Braceface” Jones, the new recruit. This metal mouth is the team’s go-to gadget guy . . . if only he can get over becoming a NERD.
Can this team of misfits save the world from their secret headquarters in the basement of their school? Can you read NERDS without laughing? Go ahead and try!
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
If you’ve already read A Wrinkle in Time, check out the sequels! In A Wind in the Door, Meg and Calvin descend into the microverse to save Charles Wallace from beings called Echthroi, who are trying to erase existence. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, when a madman threatens nuclear war, Charles Wallace must save the future by traveling into the past. And in Many Waters, Meg's twin brothers are accidentally transported back to the time of Noah's ark.
Pendragon: Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale
D.J. MacHale’s New York Times bestselling middle grade fantasy series about Bobby Pendragon, a regular kid about to find himself and his two friends pulled into one epic adventure across worlds!
Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.
He is going to save the world.
And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.
If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....
Cleopatra in Space by Mike Maihack
A funny, action-packed graphic novel featuring a young Cleopatra -- yes, THAT Cleopatra -- who's transported to the future and learns it's up to her to save the galaxy!
When she finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, REALLY far future, Cleo learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy from the tyrannical rule of the evil Xaius Octavian. She enrolls in Yasiro Academy, a high-tech school with classes like algebra, biology, and alien languages (which Cleo could do without), and combat training (which is more Cleo's style). With help from her teacher Khensu, Cleo learns what it takes to be a great leader, while trying to figure out how she's going to get her homework done, make friends, and avoid detention! Now a TV series on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock!
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel Jose Older
"An unforgettable historical, high-octane adventure." -- Dav Pilkey, author-illustrator of the Dog Man series
It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.
Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community -- a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1) by Mary Pope Osborne (Recommended for ages 6-9)
A tree house that travels through time? Not possible, says Jack. But he has to admit--when he and his younger sister, Annie, start running into dinosaurs--that they're not in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, anymore.
There are tons of books to be read and adventures to be had in this perennially popular children’s series!
Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson (Recommended for ages 10-14)
In this fantastical thriller, five young teens tapped as models for theme park "guides" find themselves pitted against Disney villains and witches that threaten both the future of Walt Disney World and the stability of the world outside its walls.
Using a cutting-edge technology called DHI--which stands for both Disney Host Interactive and Daylight Hologram Imaging--Finn Whitman, an Orlando teen, and four other kids are transformed into hologram projections that guide guests through the park. The new technology turns out, however, to have unexpected effects that are both thrilling and scary. Soon Finn finds himself transported in his DHI form into the Magic Kingdom at night. Is it real? Is he dreaming?
Finn's confusion only increases when he encounters Wayne, an elderly Imagineer who tells him that the park is in grave danger. Led by the scheming witch, Maleficent, a mysterious group of characters called the Overtakers is plotting to destroy Disney's beloved realm, and maybe more. This gripping high-tech tale will thrill every kid who has ever dreamed of sneaking into Walt Disney World after hours and wondered what happens at night, when the park is closed.
Knights Vs. Dinosaurs by Matt Phelan
From acclaimed author and artist Matt Phelan, Knights vs. Dinosaurs is a hilarious, rip-roaring tale of derring-do. In this heavily illustrated middle grade adventure, the Knights of the Round Table take on their most dangerous opponents yet—DINOSAURS! With art on nearly every page, including an epic fight scene depicted in several graphic-novel style spreads, this engaging story is perfect for reluctant readers, aspiring knights, and fans of How to Train Your Dragon and The Terrible Two.
Let me tell you a secret about the Knights of the Round Table: they don’t actually have much to do. The realm is at peace and dragons are few and far between. So Merlin decides to send the knights out on a real adventure to a world filled with the most terrible lizards of all: DINOSAURS!
Time Warp Trio: Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka (Recommended for ages 7-9)
When Joe, Fred, and Sam are sent back in time by a magic book, they find themselves face-to-face with giants, dragons, wizards, and the Knights of the Round Table.
Lost Treasure of the Emerald Isle (Geronimo Stilton #1) by Geronimo Stilton (Recommended for ages 7-10)
The first book in the internationally bestselling series that stars a mouse who runs the newspaper on Mouse Island--but whose true passion is writing tales of adventure.
PICTURE BOOKS
Oh No! Not Again!: (Or, How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (Or, At Least My History Grade) by Mac Barnett
Some kids are too smart for their own good...and maybe for everybody else's good. The overly ambitious little girl from Oh No! is back for more. But this time, she doesn't have a humongous problem, she has an EPIC crisis on her hands: a mere A on her history test! There's only one solution: travel back in time to 33,000 B.C. to make her wrong answer right!
Mac Barnett and Dan Santat's laugh-out-loud sequel to the critically acclaimed Oh No! will be sure to tickle a prehistoric funny bone for fans new and neanderthal alike.
Henry’s Amazing Imagination by Nancy Carlson
Bestselling author Nancy Carlson shows young readers how they can put their amazing imagination to good use.
Henry loves show-and-tell, because he can tell the class about his neighbor's pet dinosaur, the snowman he built that's as big as his house, and the alien that landed in his yard. But when his classmates start asking questions - and call him a fibber - Henry has to find a new outlet for his stories.
T. Rex Time Machine by Jared Chapman
When two hungry dinosaurs jump into a time machine, they're transported to an unbelievable, magical, surreal future: RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! On the T. Rexes' madcap voyage into the unknown, they encounter the many wonders of the modern world: Police cars! Phones! Microwaves! They don't know how they'll get home—but why would they want to? Acclaimed author and illustrator Jared Chapman combines two favorite kid topics—time travel and dinosaurs—with bold colors, big jokes, and a hilarious escapade. This raucous, laugh-out-loud adventure will delight the very young and keep older readers giggling long into the future.
Time Train by Paul Fleischman
Miss Pym's class is in for a comic adventure beyond their wildest dreams. They've boarded the Rocky Mountain Unlimited, a mysterious train that's winding its way into the heart of prehistoric times. Join the class-and a horrified Miss Pym-as they scramble dinosaur eggs for breakfast, go stegosaurus-back riding and pterodactyl gliding, and play soccer with their giant reptilian friends.
A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce
The book that inspired the Disney movie! Come meet the Robinsons:Young Wilbur has a robot. Uncle Art has his own flying saucer. Cousin Laszlo has an antigravity device. The butler is an octopus. It's snowing in the east wing. And somebody left the Time Machine on, so . . . Well, perhaps you'd care to read what happens next.
From William Joyce, creator of the Emmy-winning Rolie Polie Olie, as well as author and illustrator of a stack of whimsy-based entertainments for children and like-minded adults.
Day Dreamers: A Journey of Imagination by Emily Martin
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wonderful Things You Will Be comes this companion to Dream Animals —a celebration of the imagination of children dreaming both day and night!
Emily Winfield Martin shows readers that letting their imaginations run free will lead them into fantastical day dreams. Whether cloud-gazing or wandering through a museum, reading a book or playing in a tide-pool, the children in this picture book find themselves in places inhabited by magical creatures such as dragons, unicorns, griffins, and jackalopes. A whimsical rhyme accompanies the dream-worthy illustrations.
Dragons Love Tacos 2 by Adam Rubin
The hilarious sequel to the smokin’ hot New York Times best seller, perfect for story time.
News alert! It has just been discovered that there are NO MORE TACOS left anywhere in the world. This is a huge problem because, as you know, dragons love tacos. If only there was a way for the dragons to travel back in time, to before tacos went extinct. Then they could grab lots of tacos and bring them back! It’s the perfect plan, as long as there’s no spicy salsa. You remember what happened last time . . .
Joining the Boston Tea Party by Diane Stanley
Dump some tea for liberty with the time-traveling twins!
Twins Liz and Lenny and their grandmother are back for another time-traveling adventure. With the help of Grandma’s magic hat, the twins travel back in time to 1773 to join the Boston Tea Party! From petticoats to powdered wigs, Liz and Lenny get a firsthand look at life in colonial America—from pudding and chamber pots to lumpy beds and candlelight. But best of all they actually join the “Mohawks,” as they dump tea into Boston Harbor and help begin the American Revolution.
Prize-winning author Diane Stanley blends humor and historical detail in this exciting second installment of the Time Traveling Twins series. With fun-filled word balloons, “then-and-now” endpapers, and Holly Berry’s inviting illustrations, joining the Boston Tea Party will have readers jumping at the chance to join the twins as they learn about history by living it!
ADULT
America Was Hard to Find by Kathleen Alcott
In the wake of an affair, the lives of an astronaut and a radical are forever altered by the political fault lines of the 1960s, setting off a series of events ricocheting from anti-Vietnam activism to the Apollo program to the AIDS crisis, in this sprawling multigenerational novel.
Ecuador, 1969: An American expatriate, Fay Fern, sits in the corner of a restaurant, she and her young son Wright turn away from the television where Vincent Kahn becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
Years earlier, Fay and Vincent meet at a pilots’ bar in the Mojave Desert. Both seemed poised for reinvention—the married test pilot, Vincent, as an astronaut; the spurned child of privilege, Fay, as an activist. Their casual affair ends quickly, but its consequences linger.
Though their lives split, their senses of purpose deepen in tandem, each becoming heroes to different sides of the political spectrum of the 1960s and ’70s: Vincent an icon with no plan beyond the mission for which he has single-mindedly trained, Fay a leader of a violent leftist group whose anti-Vietnam actions make her one of the FBI’s most wanted. With her last public appearance, a demonstration that frames the Apollo program as a vehicle for distracting the American public from its country’s atrocities, Fay leaves Wright to contend with her legacy, his own growing apathy, and the misdeeds of both his mother and his country.
An immense, vivid reimagining of the Cold War era, America Was Hard to Find traces the fallout of the cultural revolution that divided the country and explores the meaning of individual lives in times of upheaval. It also confirms Kathleen Alcott’s reputation as a fearless and vital voice in fiction.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.
Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician, the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome, and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.
This harrowing, Hugo Award–winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.
Portal of a Thousand Worlds by Dave Duncan
The looming threat of a once-in-a-millennium magical event sends nineteenth-century China into violent chaos in this epic alternate-history fantasy.
Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century—an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer Rebellion era—with a spellbinding tale of rebellion, political intrigue, larceny, seduction, shape-shifting, dark magic, and murder. These are troubled years in the Good Land.
Ten centuries have passed since the last time the Portal of a Thousand Worlds opened, bringing chaos, upheaval, and radical change to the then-ruling dynasty, and now the mystical gateway is rumored to be on the verge of opening once more. Only the Firstborn—he who has been reincarnated through countless generations and remembers all he has ever learned—knows what the future holds, but he has been imprisoned for refusing to comply with a repressive imperial government’s wishes.
Now, those hoping to seize the opportunity for wealth and position are hatching sinister plots. And as the cold-hearted dowager empress closely guards a fateful secret, and a rebel army led by a fanatical zealot gathers strength under the Bamboo Banner, the cataclysm approaches. . . .
The recipient of two Aurora Awards and numerous Locus and Endeavour Award nominations, Dave Duncan is an acknowledged master of sword-and-sorcery adventure on par with George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. A sprawling epic with a colorful cast of royals, thieves, prostitutes, gods, warriors, dragons, assassins, merchants, and mages set against the backdrop of a volatile alternate Asia, Portal of a Thousand Worlds is a magnificent work of invention from one of the premier fantasists of our day.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde’s Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it’s a bibliophile’s dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense.
All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë’s novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde’s ingenious fantasy unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino
When three delinquents hole up in an abandoned general store after their most recent robbery, to their great surprise, a letter drops through the mail slot in the store's shutter. This seemingly simple request for advice sets the trio on a journey of discovery as, over the course of a single night, they step into the role of the kindhearted former shopkeeper who devoted his waning years to offering thoughtful counsel to his correspondents. Through the lens of time, they share insight with those seeking guidance, and by morning, none of their lives will ever be the same.
By acclaimed author Keigo Higashino, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is a work that has touched the hearts of readers around the world.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth’s efforts to colonize space, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for a much larger share of humanity to take part.
One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too—aside from some pesky barriers like thousands of years of history and a host of expectations about the proper place of the fairer sex. And yet, Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions may not stand a chance.
The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills
In this inventive, moving, and funny coming-of-age novel, two human-like teen robots navigate high school, basketball, and potentially life-threatening consequences if their true origins are discovered by the inhabitants of their intolerant 1980s Michigan hometown.
Fraternal twin brothers Darryl and Kanga are just like any other teenagers trying to make it through high school. They have to deal with peer pressure, awkwardness, and family drama. But there’s one closely guarded secret that sets them apart: they’re robots. So long as they keep their heads down, their robophobic neighbors won’t discover the truth about them and they just might make it through to graduation.
But when Kanga becomes the star of the basketball team, his worrywart brother Darryl now has to work a million times harder to keep them both out of the spotlight. Though they look, sound, and act perfectly human, if anyone in their small, depressed Michigan town were to find out what they truly are, they’d likely be disassembled by an angry mob in the middle of their school gym.
“Curious, sweet, heartbreaking, and redemptive” (Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author), this is a funny, poignant look at brotherhood, xenophobia, and the limits of one’s programming.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and The Professor.
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
“A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review
It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.
Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World.
The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
Our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history and traces its ominous impact on one family.
When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but upon taking office as the thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe and virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty.
What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family - and for a million such families all over the country - during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
An alternate history / historical fantasy / steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo, from noted short story writer Nisi Shawl.
Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group, Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Cracked on the head by a crowbar in nineteenth-century Connecticut, Hank Morgan wakes to find himself in King Arthur’s England. After using his knowledge of an upcoming solar eclipse to escape a death sentence, Hank must then navigate his way through a medieval world whose idyllic surface masks fear, injustice, and ignorance.
Considered by H. L. Mencken to be “the most bitter critic of American platitude and delusion…that ever lived,” Twain enchants readers with a Camelot that strikes disturbingly contemporary notes in this acclaimed tour de force that encompasses both the pure joy of wild hijinks and deeply probing insights into the nature of man.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.
In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Looking for more? Check out these alternates we didn’t have room to include:
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- The Lives of Tao (Tao Trilogy #1) by Wesley Chu
- Dreamweaver by C.S. Friedman
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
- Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew
- Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- Star of Fortune (Guardians Trilogy #1) by Nora Roberts
- Empire Games by Charles Stross
- Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson
YOUNG ADULT
Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Callum is a naught, a second-class citizen in a society run by the ruling Crosses. Sephy is a Cross, and daughter of the man slated to become prime minister. In their world, white naughts and black Crosses simply don't mix -- and they certainly don't fall in love. But that's exactly what they've done.
When they were younger, they played together. Now Callum and Sephy meet in secret and make excuses. But excuses no longer cut it when Sephy and her mother are nearly caught in a terrorist bombing planned by the Liberation Militia, with which Callum's family is linked. Callum's father is the prime suspect...and Sephy's father will stop at nothing to see him hanged. The blood hunt that ensues will threaten not only Callum and Sephy's love for each other, but their very lives.
In this shocking thriller, UK sensation Malorie Blackman turns the world inside out. What's white is black, what's black is white, and only one thing is clear: Assumptions can be deadly.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.
Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the Colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.
Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home… forever.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
In this exhilarating series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time.…
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.
Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.
When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn....
Invictus by Ryan Graudin
Time flies when you're plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time traveler from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in ancient Rome, Far's very existence defies the laws of nature. All he's ever wanted was to explore history for himself, but after failing his entrance exam into the government program, Far will have to settle for a position on the black market--captaining a time-traveling crew to steal valuables from the past.
During a routine heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl named Eliot who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Eliot has secrets--big ones--that will affect Far's life from beginning to end. Armed with the knowledge that history is not as steady as it seems, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to set things right before the clock runs out.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
The Walking Dead meets “Formation” in Dread Nation—a meditation on race in America that takes the form of an alternate-history adventure in a post Reconstruction world where Confederate and Union soldiers rose from the dead at the end of the Civil War. At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, this is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War between the States and changing the nation forever. In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations. But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
The Jekyll Island Chronicles by Steve Nedvidek
At the beginning of the 1900s, 1/6th of the world’s wealth vacationed in and around the tiny Georgia island of Jekyll. Captains of Industry like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Carnegie all called the Jekyll area home. Using this place of grandeur and elegance as a backdrop, an alternate history is explored between the World Wars. A time of great social, political, and technological upheaval. A time of ingenuity and anarchy. A time for some of the most brilliant, and horrible, minds of the 20th century to confront each other. And a time of great new heroes and fantastic new machines.
The Jekyll Island Chronicles: A Machine Age War is the first in a series of graphic novels. Part historical fact, part clockwork, and part diesel punk, they span an age of furious advancement in machine technology while exploring the span of man’s soul – whether evil or good.
Glitter by Aprilynne Pike
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike comes a truly original new novel—Breaking Bad meets Marie Antoinette in a near-future world where the residents of Versailles live like it’s the eighteenth century and an almost-queen turns to drug dealing to save her own life.
Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.
When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play…blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates. Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.
But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.
Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve
Fever Crumb is a girl who has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. In a time and place where women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly, the only female to serve in the order. At age fourteen, she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.
Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin
Get ready to die laughing: this is an outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager’s life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on.
Denton Little’s Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. For Denton, that’s in just two days—the day of his senior prom.
Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle—as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend’s hostile sister. (Though he’s not totally sure—see, first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton’s long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters…. Suddenly Denton’s life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.
Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.
MIDDLE GRADE & EARLY CHAPTER
The Hidden Stairs and The Magic Carpet (Secrets of Droon #1) by Tony Abbott
When Neal and Julie agree to help Eric straighten up his basement, they never imagine that they're in for more than getting a little dusty. But as the three kids follow a soccer ball into the small room under the basement stairs, the floor suddenly evaporates to reveal a rainbow staircase to another world!
Before they have a chance to look around, they are caught in the midst of a battle. Shiny red men riding giant lizards are shooting arrows straight at them. They are saved by Princess Keeah of Droon who tells them the red men are warriors for the evil Lord Sparr. She promises to help them get home if they will carry a message for her. The message is delivered successfully, but the brave Keeah has been captured by Lord Sparr. Equipped with a cape of invisibility, a six legged camel/horse, and a talkative spider-troll named Max, the three children manage to sneak in and rescue Keeah.
Astride a magic carpet, Julie, Eric, Neal, and Keeah fly to the stairs that will take the three "Upper World" children back home. The kids are astonished to discover that no time has passed back in their own world. But even as they marvel at their adventure, they realize that Princess Keeah has left them a secret message: Your dreams will tell you to return!
NERDS by Michael Buckley
The excitement of international espionage combined with the awkwardness of elementary makes for non-stop laughs in NERDS, the hilarious series from New York Times bestselling author Michael Buckley!
Meet the NERDS, a team of eleven-year-old super spies:
Duncan “Gluestick” Dewey: He’s a paste-eater who can stick to walls.
Ruby “Pufferfish” Peet: Her allergies help her detect danger and dishonesty.
Heathcliff “Choppers” Hodges: He controls minds with his buckteeth.
Julio “Flinch” Escala: His hyperactivity gives him super speed and strength.
Matilda “Wheezer” Choi: Her inhalers enable her to fly and blast enemies.
Jackson “Braceface” Jones, the new recruit. This metal mouth is the team’s go-to gadget guy . . . if only he can get over becoming a NERD.
Can this team of misfits save the world from their secret headquarters in the basement of their school? Can you read NERDS without laughing? Go ahead and try!
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
If you’ve already read A Wrinkle in Time, check out the sequels! In A Wind in the Door, Meg and Calvin descend into the microverse to save Charles Wallace from beings called Echthroi, who are trying to erase existence. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, when a madman threatens nuclear war, Charles Wallace must save the future by traveling into the past. And in Many Waters, Meg's twin brothers are accidentally transported back to the time of Noah's ark.
Pendragon: Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale
D.J. MacHale’s New York Times bestselling middle grade fantasy series about Bobby Pendragon, a regular kid about to find himself and his two friends pulled into one epic adventure across worlds!
Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.
He is going to save the world.
And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.
If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....
Cleopatra in Space by Mike Maihack
A funny, action-packed graphic novel featuring a young Cleopatra -- yes, THAT Cleopatra -- who's transported to the future and learns it's up to her to save the galaxy!
When she finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, REALLY far future, Cleo learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy from the tyrannical rule of the evil Xaius Octavian. She enrolls in Yasiro Academy, a high-tech school with classes like algebra, biology, and alien languages (which Cleo could do without), and combat training (which is more Cleo's style). With help from her teacher Khensu, Cleo learns what it takes to be a great leader, while trying to figure out how she's going to get her homework done, make friends, and avoid detention! Now a TV series on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock!
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel Jose Older
"An unforgettable historical, high-octane adventure." -- Dav Pilkey, author-illustrator of the Dog Man series
It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.
Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community -- a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1) by Mary Pope Osborne (Recommended for ages 6-9)
A tree house that travels through time? Not possible, says Jack. But he has to admit--when he and his younger sister, Annie, start running into dinosaurs--that they're not in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, anymore.
There are tons of books to be read and adventures to be had in this perennially popular children’s series!
Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson (Recommended for ages 10-14)
In this fantastical thriller, five young teens tapped as models for theme park "guides" find themselves pitted against Disney villains and witches that threaten both the future of Walt Disney World and the stability of the world outside its walls.
Using a cutting-edge technology called DHI--which stands for both Disney Host Interactive and Daylight Hologram Imaging--Finn Whitman, an Orlando teen, and four other kids are transformed into hologram projections that guide guests through the park. The new technology turns out, however, to have unexpected effects that are both thrilling and scary. Soon Finn finds himself transported in his DHI form into the Magic Kingdom at night. Is it real? Is he dreaming?
Finn's confusion only increases when he encounters Wayne, an elderly Imagineer who tells him that the park is in grave danger. Led by the scheming witch, Maleficent, a mysterious group of characters called the Overtakers is plotting to destroy Disney's beloved realm, and maybe more. This gripping high-tech tale will thrill every kid who has ever dreamed of sneaking into Walt Disney World after hours and wondered what happens at night, when the park is closed.
Knights Vs. Dinosaurs by Matt Phelan
From acclaimed author and artist Matt Phelan, Knights vs. Dinosaurs is a hilarious, rip-roaring tale of derring-do. In this heavily illustrated middle grade adventure, the Knights of the Round Table take on their most dangerous opponents yet—DINOSAURS! With art on nearly every page, including an epic fight scene depicted in several graphic-novel style spreads, this engaging story is perfect for reluctant readers, aspiring knights, and fans of How to Train Your Dragon and The Terrible Two.
Let me tell you a secret about the Knights of the Round Table: they don’t actually have much to do. The realm is at peace and dragons are few and far between. So Merlin decides to send the knights out on a real adventure to a world filled with the most terrible lizards of all: DINOSAURS!
Time Warp Trio: Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka (Recommended for ages 7-9)
When Joe, Fred, and Sam are sent back in time by a magic book, they find themselves face-to-face with giants, dragons, wizards, and the Knights of the Round Table.
Lost Treasure of the Emerald Isle (Geronimo Stilton #1) by Geronimo Stilton (Recommended for ages 7-10)
The first book in the internationally bestselling series that stars a mouse who runs the newspaper on Mouse Island--but whose true passion is writing tales of adventure.
PICTURE BOOKS
Oh No! Not Again!: (Or, How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (Or, At Least My History Grade) by Mac Barnett
Some kids are too smart for their own good...and maybe for everybody else's good. The overly ambitious little girl from Oh No! is back for more. But this time, she doesn't have a humongous problem, she has an EPIC crisis on her hands: a mere A on her history test! There's only one solution: travel back in time to 33,000 B.C. to make her wrong answer right!
Mac Barnett and Dan Santat's laugh-out-loud sequel to the critically acclaimed Oh No! will be sure to tickle a prehistoric funny bone for fans new and neanderthal alike.
Henry’s Amazing Imagination by Nancy Carlson
Bestselling author Nancy Carlson shows young readers how they can put their amazing imagination to good use.
Henry loves show-and-tell, because he can tell the class about his neighbor's pet dinosaur, the snowman he built that's as big as his house, and the alien that landed in his yard. But when his classmates start asking questions - and call him a fibber - Henry has to find a new outlet for his stories.
T. Rex Time Machine by Jared Chapman
When two hungry dinosaurs jump into a time machine, they're transported to an unbelievable, magical, surreal future: RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! On the T. Rexes' madcap voyage into the unknown, they encounter the many wonders of the modern world: Police cars! Phones! Microwaves! They don't know how they'll get home—but why would they want to? Acclaimed author and illustrator Jared Chapman combines two favorite kid topics—time travel and dinosaurs—with bold colors, big jokes, and a hilarious escapade. This raucous, laugh-out-loud adventure will delight the very young and keep older readers giggling long into the future.
Time Train by Paul Fleischman
Miss Pym's class is in for a comic adventure beyond their wildest dreams. They've boarded the Rocky Mountain Unlimited, a mysterious train that's winding its way into the heart of prehistoric times. Join the class-and a horrified Miss Pym-as they scramble dinosaur eggs for breakfast, go stegosaurus-back riding and pterodactyl gliding, and play soccer with their giant reptilian friends.
A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce
The book that inspired the Disney movie! Come meet the Robinsons:Young Wilbur has a robot. Uncle Art has his own flying saucer. Cousin Laszlo has an antigravity device. The butler is an octopus. It's snowing in the east wing. And somebody left the Time Machine on, so . . . Well, perhaps you'd care to read what happens next.
From William Joyce, creator of the Emmy-winning Rolie Polie Olie, as well as author and illustrator of a stack of whimsy-based entertainments for children and like-minded adults.
Day Dreamers: A Journey of Imagination by Emily Martin
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wonderful Things You Will Be comes this companion to Dream Animals —a celebration of the imagination of children dreaming both day and night!
Emily Winfield Martin shows readers that letting their imaginations run free will lead them into fantastical day dreams. Whether cloud-gazing or wandering through a museum, reading a book or playing in a tide-pool, the children in this picture book find themselves in places inhabited by magical creatures such as dragons, unicorns, griffins, and jackalopes. A whimsical rhyme accompanies the dream-worthy illustrations.
Dragons Love Tacos 2 by Adam Rubin
The hilarious sequel to the smokin’ hot New York Times best seller, perfect for story time.
News alert! It has just been discovered that there are NO MORE TACOS left anywhere in the world. This is a huge problem because, as you know, dragons love tacos. If only there was a way for the dragons to travel back in time, to before tacos went extinct. Then they could grab lots of tacos and bring them back! It’s the perfect plan, as long as there’s no spicy salsa. You remember what happened last time . . .
Joining the Boston Tea Party by Diane Stanley
Dump some tea for liberty with the time-traveling twins!
Twins Liz and Lenny and their grandmother are back for another time-traveling adventure. With the help of Grandma’s magic hat, the twins travel back in time to 1773 to join the Boston Tea Party! From petticoats to powdered wigs, Liz and Lenny get a firsthand look at life in colonial America—from pudding and chamber pots to lumpy beds and candlelight. But best of all they actually join the “Mohawks,” as they dump tea into Boston Harbor and help begin the American Revolution.
Prize-winning author Diane Stanley blends humor and historical detail in this exciting second installment of the Time Traveling Twins series. With fun-filled word balloons, “then-and-now” endpapers, and Holly Berry’s inviting illustrations, joining the Boston Tea Party will have readers jumping at the chance to join the twins as they learn about history by living it!