Moriarty, Jaclyn

Esther Mettlestone-Staranise, an ordinary twelve-year-old surrounded by overachieving siblings in a magical world, learns that shadow mages have descended upon the mountains surrounding her home and an undercover Spellbinder who's protecting the school is sick. Even though she feels average, Esther is determined to do what she can to stop the encroaching darkness.

"Here are only a few of the wonderful, strange, and mysterious elements in this visit to the Kingdoms and Empires: a very proper girl named Lillian Velvet, living a very lonely life with a nasty Grandmother. A jar of coins, each with the power to take Lillian on a journey to a different time and place...and also to grant a single wish. A small boy in a barn about to be crushed to death by a load of hay. A family, each member in mortal danger, who are strangers to Lillian. And a web of dangerous magic closing tight around all. Who is this Lillian Velvet? And what is her secret?"--OCLC.

"Oscar recounts the week of school he missed with the help of his new friend, Imogen. They tell a story of traveling to new worlds through mirrors, witches curses, spellbinder cures, and elves on quests.".

"Bronte is ten years old when she receives a letter saying that her long-absent parents have been killed by pirates, and the lawyers tell her that their will (reinforced with serious magic) requires her to deliver gifts to her ten other aunts (not Aunt Isabelle, whom she lives with), and to start the trip immediately and alone--but as she travels the kingdoms, she begins to suspect that there is more to this journey than delivering treasures, and that her parents had more secrets than she ever realized"--Provided by publisher.

Esther is content to be the pale reflection of her bright and shining siblings, as long as she does her best with school and has her friends. But when her friends don't come back to school and her new teacher acts like an ogre, Esther begins to think she has bad luck. Then things go from unfortunate to dangerous as the mountains surrounding the school are crowded with Shadow Mages. Now it's up to Esther to burst out of her box of mediocrity to do something extraordinary.

The adult debut from bestselling, award-winning young adult author Jaclyn Moriarty--a frequently hilarious, brilliantly observed novel--that follows a single mother's heartfelt search for greater truths about the universe, her family and herself."I loved this book. . . .Funny, heartbreaking and clever with a mystery at its heart." -Jojo Moyes"With an eye as keen for human idiosyncrasies as Miranda July's, and a sense of humor as bright and surprising as Maria Semple's, this is a novel of pure velocity." -Publishers Weekly (starred?review)Twenty years ago, Abigail Sorenson's brother Robert went missing one day before her sixteenth birthday, never to be seen again. That same year, she began receiving scattered chapters in the mail of a self-help manual, the Guidebook, whose anonymous author promised to make her life soar to heights beyond her wildest dreams.The Guidebook's missives have remained a constant in Abi's life--a befuddling yet oddly comforting voice through her family's grief over her brother's disappearance, a move across continents, the devastating dissolution of her marriage, and the new beginning as a single mother and caf? owner in Sydney.Now, two decades after receiving those first pages, Abi is invited to an all-expenses paid weekend retreat to learn "the truth" about the Guidebook. It's an opportunity too intriguing to refuse. If Everything is Connected, then surely the twin mysteries of the Guidebook and a missing brother must be linked? What follows is completely the opposite of what Abi expected--but it will lead her on a journey of discovery that will change her life--and enchant readers. Gravity Is the Thing is a smart, unusual, wickedly funny novel about the search for happiness that will break your heart into a million pieces and put it back together, bigger and better than before.

Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the schools.

"Told in multiple voices, after students from elite Brathelthwaite Boarding School and the Orphanage School compete in the Spindthrift Tournament, they team up to face the Whisperers"--Provided by publisher.

Bronte is ten years old when she receives a letter saying that her long-absent parents have been killed by pirates, and the lawyers tell her that their will (reinforced with serious magic) requires her to deliver gifts to her ten other aunts (not Aunt Isabelle, whom she lives with), and to start the trip immediately and alone--but as she travels the kingdoms, she begins to suspect that there is more to this journey than delivering treasures, and that her parents had more secrets than she ever realized.