Magic, Fantasy, and Science Fiction

For readers who are interested in taking a trip into their imagination, these books provide all kinds of wonderful adventures, from a young woman who discovers that she has psychic powers to the struggle of a genetically engineered young man to reclaim his life and destiny.

See more titles in the following booklists:

A Wish After Midnight

A Wish After Midnight

Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time. Facing the perilous realities of Civil War–era Brooklyn, Genna must use all her wits to survive. This time-travel novel tells the story of a fearless young woman’s fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.

Bless Me, Ultima

Product Description: Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico during World War II. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past — a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world…and will nurture the birth of his soul. Winner of the Premio Quinto Sol.

Chasing the Jaguar: A Martika Galvez Mystery

Martika begins having strange dreams about jungles and jaguars just before her quinceañera. Her mother brings her to Tía Tellin — the neighborhood bruja, or witch, to help sort out what she sees. Martika is astonished to learn that Tía Tellin is her great aunt and that they are both descended from a long line of Mayan healers, whose powers include psychic divination. When the daughter of her mother's client is kidnapped, Martika's visions help guide the search for the missing girl. — Booklist

City of the Beasts

In the midst of his mother's struggle with cancer, fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the opportunity to take the trip of a lifetime. Accompanying his fearless grandmother, a magazine reporter for International Geographic, Alexander sets off on an expedition to the remote world of the Amazon. On this mission he meets Nadia, the young daughter of their local guide and together they begin a magical and mystical adventure.

Diego's Dragon, Book One: Spirits of the Sun

Product Description: Eleven-year-old Diego wins a district-wide writing contest for sixth graders. When an author visits his school to award his prize, a handsome, glistening black dragon, Diego Ramirez has no idea how much his life is about to change. As the statue, who is the leader of the dragons living within the sun's fire, comes to life, he becomes quite mischievous and leads Diego on an unexpected adventure.

Echoes of Grace

Two sisters surrounded by flowers

In Eagle Pass, Texas, Grace struggles to understand the echoes she inherited from her mother — visions which often distort her reality. One morning, as her sister, Mercy, rushes off to work, a disturbing echo takes hold of Grace, and within moments, tragedy strikes. Attending community college for the first time, talking to the boy next door, and working toward her goals all help Grace recover, but her estrangement from Mercy takes a deep toll.

Keeper

By: Mal Peet
Age Level: Young adult (14-18)

Product Description: When journalist Paul Faustino flips on his tape recorder for an exclusive interview with El Gato — the phenomenal goalkeeper who single-handedly brought his team the World Cup — the seasoned reporter quickly learns that this will be no ordinary story. Instead, the legendary El Gato narrates a spellbinding tale that begins in the South American rainforest, where a ghostly but very real mentor, the Keeper, emerges to teach a poor, gawky boy the most thrilling secrets of the game.

Lotería

A girl holding lotería cards
Illustrated by: Dana SanMar
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)

In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an eleven-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería. Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate — a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age.

Magic Moments

"A bilingual collection of 15 traditional tales from Latin America, arranged into four sections: Scary Stories, Trickster Tales, Strong Women, and Myths. Extensive notes about sources and variants make this a particularly useful resource in classrooms." — School Library Journal

Mexican Bestiary: Bestiario Mexicano

Mexican Bestiary: Bestiario Mexicano

Who protects our precious fields of corn? What leaps from the darkness when you least suspect it? Which spirit waits for little kids by rivers and lakes? From the ahuizotl to the xocoyoles—and all the imps, ghosts and witches in between—this illustrated bilingual encyclopedia tells you just what you need to know about the things that go bump in the night in Mexico and the US Southwest.

Milagros: Girl from Away

Milagros de le Torre hasn’t had an easy life: ever since her father sailed away with pirates she’s been teased at school, and her family struggles to make ends meet. Still, Milagros loves her small island in the Caribbean, and she finds comfort in those who recognize her special gifts. But everything changes when marauders destroy Milagros’s island and with it, most of the inhabitants. Milagros manages to escape in a rowboat where she drifts out to sea with no direction, save for the mysterious manta rays that guide her to land.

On a Clear Day

It is 2035. Teens, armed only with their ideals, must wage war on the power elite. Young heroes decide that they are not too young or too powerless to change their world in this gripping, futuristic young adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Printz Award–winning Monster.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Product Description: One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women — brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul — this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

Raining Sardines

"In pre-Castro Cuba, wealthy Don Rigol exerts almost total control over his rural town. However, when he lays claim to a mountain that the villagers consider theirs and starts clearing the jungle for his coffee plantation, he encounters unexpected opposition. Ernestina, a classmate of Rigol's spoiled daughter, joins her friend Enriquito in efforts to save the wild horses on the mountain. They soon realize that Rigol's real goal is to locate the gold mentioned in Taino legend.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

Drawing of boy and trying to hold together the broken letters of the title.
Age Level: Middle Grade (9-14)
Language: English

This brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence poses this question: What would you do if you had the power to reach through time and space and retrieve anything you want, including your mother, who is no longer living (in this universe, anyway)?

How did a raw chicken get inside Yasmany's locker?

Shadowshaper

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then strange things start to happen. Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one. Diversity and themes of social justice and identity are skilfully woven into this urban fantasy novel.

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs

Monarchs flying around young girl

Ever since Solimar was a little girl, she has gone to the ouamel forest bordering her kingdom to observe the monarch butterflies during their migration, but always from a safe distance. Now, on the brink of her quinceañera and her official coronation, Solimar crosses the dangerous creek to sit among the butterflies. There, a mysterious event gives her a gift and a burden — the responsibility to protect the young and weak butterflies with her magical rebozo, or silk shawl. Solimar is committed to fulfilling her role, and has a plan that might have worked.

Summer of the Mariposas

Product Description: When Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero's journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer's original tale. With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother's house. Along the way, they must outsmart a witch and her Evil Trinity.

Tantalize Book 1: Tantalize

Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her parents are dead, and her hybrid-werewolf first love is threatening to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever. Then, as she and her uncle are about to unveil their hot vampire-themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie transform their new hire into a culinary Dark Lord before opening night? Tantalize is the first volume in Cynthia Leitich Smith dark fantasy series.

Tantalize Book 2: Eternal

In this vampire romance from award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith, Miranda is finally the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated by none other than the King of the Mantle of Dracul, she goes from high-school theater wannabe to glamorous fiend overnight. Meanwhile, her guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as her personal assistant, has his hands full saving his girl's soul while planning a fast-approaching Death Day gala.

Tantalize Book 3: Blessed

Tantalize Book 3: Blessed

Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateuse and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life — or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff.

Tantalize Book 4: Diabolical

Tantalize Book 4: Diabolical

When "slipped" angel Zachary and his werewolf pal, Kieren, arrive under suspicious circumstances to a mysterious New England boarding school, they quickly find themselves in a hellish lockdown with an intriguing assortment of secretive, hand-picked students. Plagued by demon dogs, hallucinatory wall décor, a sadistic instructor, and a legendary fire-breathing monster, will they somehow manage to escape? Or will the devil have his due?

The Door at the Crossroads

Time travel, romance, and historical elements are used to tackle tough topics, such as slavery, racism, and war. The story picks up right where the previous book, A Wish After Midnight, left off. Genna and Judah find themselves separated by distance within two different time periods and right in the middle of war and tragedy on American shores. While Judah remains in Weeksville, NY, during the 1860s, he decides to fight against slavery in the American South during the Civil War.

The House of the Scorpion

Product Description: Matteo Alacrán was not born; he was harvested. His DNA came from El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium — a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster — except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive.

The House of the Spirits: A Novel

Product Description: In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand.

The Notebook Series #1: The Indigo Notebook

Product Description: Zeeta's life with her free-spirited mother, Layla, is anything but normal. Every year Layla picks another country she wants to live in. This summer they're in Ecuador, and Zeeta is determined to convince her mother to settle down. There, Zeeta meets Wendell. She learns that he was born nearby, but adopted by an American family. His one wish is to find his birth parents, and Zeeta agrees to help him.

The Notebook Series #2: The Ruby Notebook

"Sixteen-year-old Zeeta, first met in The Indigo Notebook (2009), has lived in 16 countries; she and her peripatetic artist mother, Layla, move every year. In this volume, they land in beautiful Aix en Provence, France…Once again, Resau adds shimmering dimensions of magic realism; here, underground springs fabled to bestow immortality are an undercurrent to both the city and the story." — Booklist

The Notebook Series #3: The Jade Notebook

Product Description: Zeeta and her mom have now settled in the beachside town of Mazunte, Mexico, where Zeeta's true love, Wendell, has an internship photographing rare sea turtles. At first glance, Zeeta feels sure that Mazunte is paradise — she envisions dips in jade waters, sunsets over sea cliffs, moonlit walks in the surf. And she is determined to make Mazunte her home…for good. But as she and Wendell dig deeper to unearth her elusive father's past, Zeeta finds that paradise has its dark side.

The Path, Book 1: The Blue-Spangled Blue

The Path, Book 1: The Blue-Spangled Blue

Jitsu. Once the center of human expansion into distant space, this world was isolated for the better part of a century, a theocratic government rising to fill the void left by its former corporate owners. Now, as Jitsu begins to open itself to the rest of humanity, Brando D’Angelo di Makomo accepts a teaching position on the arid planet. He finds himself drawn to controversial architect Tenshi Koroma and her religious reform movement.

The Path, Book 2: The Deepest Green

The Path, Book 2: The Deepest Green

Twins Teri and Miwa Miranda are happy and popular high school students on the independent world of Terego. Their family is beloved by the community: their sweet half-brother Jakobo, caring stepmother Rhea, and doting father Nando, a model citizen in all aspects of his life. But every bit of that life is a lie. In reality, Nando Miranda is Brando D'Angelo, a wanted fugitive, raising the clones of his murdered wife and daughter, hoping he won't be discovered. Now the armed forces of the Consortium have finally tracked him down.

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad. When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals. But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor's grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen.

Tortilla Sun

Product Description: When twelve-year-old Izzy discovers a beat-up baseball marked with the words "Becausemagic" while unpacking in yet another new apartment, she is determined to figure out what it means. What secrets does this old ball have to tell? Her mom certainly isn't sharing anyespecially when it comes to Izzy's father, who died before Izzy was born. But when she spends the summer in her Nana's remote New Mexico village, Izzy discovers long-buried secrets that come alive in an enchanted landscape of watermelon mountains, whispering winds, and tortilla suns.

What the Moon Saw

"Out of the blue, 14-year-old Clara Luna receives a letter from her grandparents inviting her to spend the summer with them in Mexico. She has never met her father's parents and he has not seen them since he left his homeland more than 20 years ago. Wary of visiting people she doesn't know and yet frustrated and restless with her life at home, Clara embarks on the two-day journey to the remote village of Yucuyoo.