Fairy Tales For Girls

This is the story of the greatest funambulist who ever lived. Born into a postwar circus family, our nameless star was unwanted and forgotten, abandoned in the shadows of the big top. Until the bright light of Serendipity Wilson threw her into focus. Now an adult, haunted by an incident in which a child was lost from the circus, our narrator, a tightrope artiste, weaves together her spellbinding tales of circus legends, earthy magic and folklore, all in the hope of finding the child. But will her story be enough to bring the pair together again?

When Dad tells Luna and her little sister Aurora that they're moving to live in a real tower, it's almost like they've stepped inside a fairytale. But everything is not as magical as it first seems. The tower needs patching up, Dad still doesn't have a job and they're not even allowed in the room up at the very top. When it's time to start at their new school, Luna quickly finds a friend, but six-year-old Aurora absolutely hates the children in her class. She prefers to spend her time with her imaginary friend Tansy.

A British boy narrowly survives the sinking of his yacht in a huge storm off the coast of Morocco. After days alone at sea in a tiny rowing boat, Bill rescues a girl clinging to a barrel. Aya, from the nomadic Berber tribe, was escaping to Europe when her migrant ship was destroyed in the storm. Through endless days and nights, they drift. Aya tells Bill about the Arabian Nights, and Shahrazad, who told 1001 stories to save her life. As hope of rescue begins to fade, they find strength in these tales of magic, brave heroes, wily thieves, greedy sultans, and courageous girls.

When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces listeners to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own.

When her brother is kidnapped, Cassie Goodlight is determined to save him - even if it means learning the magic that nearly destroyed her mother. But how can she beat a shape-shifting sea goblin that taunts her at every turn? Cassie must find a way before a year is up, or her brother will be lost forever. And who, or what, is the handsome stranger who keeps turning up in her life?

When Tranquila Obiit's salty, daytime television-addicted grandmother tricks her into selling her soul to Hades, dodging near-death experiences becomes a daily ritual. Now, as an employee of the Underworld, Tranquila is pet-sitting a three-headed dog that is hell-bent on destroying her. She's not alone: Hades is battling negative Hollywood stereotypes. Persephone is trying to overcome her jealousy issues. Most importantly, Hera is trying to gain control of a domain that isn't hers.

Lieutenant Katalina Wimple ran out of bad guys to chase. She found love and peace and nothing seemed impossible…until the one-that-got-away showed up in need of help. Her new case takes her through the portal to Dark Earth where she's expected to save a man with a shady past. She'll face not only mythology and folklore in the flesh, but a relationship strained to the point of no return by an old flame.

For Kalla, born to human parents but raised by a family of elephants, growing up in the rainforest is a grand adventure - until she realizes that humans and elephants make better enemies than friends. Determined to prove she belongs with the herd, Kalla goes on a quest to find the Oracle Stone, a mythical object as ancient and sacred to the elephants as the stories they keep. Once again among a human tribe, however, she faces new challenges and doubts about where her true loyalties lie.

You have quite likely heard of the girl who trod on a loaf so as not to soil her pretty shoes, and what misfortunes this brought upon her. The story has been written and printed, too. She was a poor child, but proud and arrogant, and people said she had a bad disposition. When but a very little child, she found pleasure in catching flies, to pull off their wings and make creeping insects of them.

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother's legacy. I am yours to command. Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn't know that pelesits have a dark side - and when Pink's shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive...before they are both lost to the darkness.

Laid low by a tropical disease and an accompanying malaise, Crispin Clare returns to his ancestral home in East Anglia. Local folklore seeps into his fever dreams and into his writing, and the lines between reality and myth soon start to blur. In this finely woven tale of illness and recovery, family and fable, Randolph Stow creates a unique, imaginative landscape, populated by figures from old English myths and legends, and from Clare’s present.

Maine-bred, independent Rilla Brae is no stranger to the deep. She knows the rhythms of hard work and harder seas. But when she experiences the sudden death of her father, the veil between the living and the dead blurs, and she begins to be haunted by a girl on a nearby uninhabited island. The girl floats a song over the waves, and it is as beautiful as it is terrifying. Familiar and distant. Then Rilla meets Sam, a University of Southern Maine archeology student tasked with excavating the very island where the ghostly girl has appeared.

Willow Moss' small magic has always seemed unremarkable. But when the most feared witch in the land of Starfell appears on the Moss family’s doorstep looking for help, it’s not Willow’s talented sisters she seeks, it’s Willow. Because Willow is a finder of lost things - and Moreg Vaine says that last Tuesday has gone missing. Willow and Moreg set out on a perilous journey across the wilds of Starfell, looking for what they’ve lost. If they don’t discover what happened to the missing day, the repercussions could be devastating for the entire kingdom.

Travel along with Girl, guided by Pony and Bee, as she remembers whom she was born to be. Parables remind us to thoughtfully reflect upon our own lives, maybe even our reason for being.

Jane Thorburn straddles two worlds: her life as a “factory girl” in Scotland’s mills, and her birthright as fairy royalty. Abandoned by her parents as an infant, and uncertain about the true motives of the Fey, she learns to depend only on herself. All she wants is to be a great weaver and to maintain her independence. The Fair Folk, fighting for their very survival, have other plans for her, as does the handsome and charismatic Robert Stein. What life will she choose? And will she even have a choice?

Sorry, not sorry, you’d say it too if you’d ever been to Neverland. I know the big story is that Wendy Darling is the first girl to end up on Neverland because girls are too smart to fall out of their prams. I’m living proof that’s a lie. Wendy was just the first time Peter actually asked permission before he took a girl to Neverland to be his mother. I guess he learned his lesson from me. He kidnapped me from my bed while I was sleeping and just expected me to be his mother. I’d rather be a lost boy than his mother. Peter eventually gave up on me.

Daimbert hasn't messed up this badly since all that embarrassment with the frogs back in wizards' school. At first it seems simple: he's supposed to use his magic to find a girl lost in the mountains. But no one else believes him that there's a mountain range in the middle of the kingdom of Yurt. A mountain range couldn't become invisible even to him--could it? To make it worse, the royal heir has gone missing, and it's all his fault. Meanwhile, old ghost stories and legends seem to be coming to life.And then there's the kobold. This novella is intended both to introduce new readers to the Royal Wizard of Yurt series and (I hope!) to give reading enjoyment to old friends.

Healey’s second novel The Shattering stars Keri, a 17-year-old trying to come to terms with her brother Jake’s death. Although authorities believe Jake committed suicide, Keri cannot accept that her brother would take his own life. And when she’s approached by her classmate Janna, whose brother also committed suicide years earlier, the two team up in search of answers. Soon the girls come to a grim realization—that their brothers weren’t the first in town to die under mysterious circumstances.

Lena has lived her whole life near the beach, walking for miles up and down the shore and breathing the salty air, swimming in the cold water, and watching the surfers rule the waves. The problem is, she's spent her whole life just watching. As her 16th birthday approaches, Lena vows she will no longer watch from the sand: she will learn to surf. But her father, a former surfer himself, refuses to allow her to take lessons. After a near drowning in his past, he can't bear to let Lena take up the risky sport. Yet something lures Lena to the water - an ancient, powerful magic.

Three fun-loving Anglo-Asian sisters rule the roost since their mom died. They’ve got a reputation at school for being the coolest babes in town, and what they don’t need is an interfering Auntie-ji from India cramping their style. The girls decide the only way out of the problem is an arranged marriage - for their auntie.