Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire, Candlewick Press, 496 pages, $19
Gregory Maguire became famous for re-telling well-known fairy tales, and is most well known for Wicked, a spirited, sympathetic spin on The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West. In Egg and Spoon, he plays with Russian folk tales, with a delightful nod to the ever-wicked, ever-beguiling Baba Yaga. Elena and her brothers Alexei and Luka navigate the Firebird territory of a somewhat imaginary Russified landscape, complete with magic matrioshkas, and a healthy helping of playful language that makes the story here a delight.
Like No Other by Una LaMarche, Razorbill, 352 pages, $19.99
First comparisons to Eleanor & Park aside, here is a first-class Romeo and Juliet story of star-crossed love. Devorah Blum, a Hasidic young woman, meets nerdy, out-of-his-element Jaxon Hunte, and the two explore the passages of young love as neither ever thought possible, modestly frank, suddenly aware and full of feeling. A prescient telling of a tough-to-navigate first love, here there is a privileged view into very specific families, and what that can do to very real, very mobile adolescent understandings of the world. It really is its own thing, and a breath of fresh air into the mostly WASP-y world of contemporary YA. There should be more of these stories.
The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, Scholastic Press, 304 pages, $19.99
Take two YA superstars who are friends and ask them to collaborate: it could be a set-up for disaster. But The Iron Trial is a fun, heroic narrative that avoids relying on predictable tropes. Yes, there are two boys and a girl and yes, there is a school of magic, but what we have here is less a Harry Potter story and more a telling of an entirely new system of magic, which is an accomplishment in itself. Those seeking a new series of young-blood magicians, take note: Black and Clare deliver Shadowhunters, a Butterfly Pool, and The Devoured. A delicious must-read for the famished.