New leaf turned over
ON A blustery day, Alona eats an apple under a tree, which sheds a heart-shaped leaf on to her head. Unaware of the leaf, Alona goes home, where her exhausted father is waiting with soup. Looking into the bowl, Alona sees the tree from which leaf has fallen — and it talks to her.
by Shira Geffen is mesmerisingly illustrated by David Polonsky (Green Bean Books, £12.99). The pattern on an apple, a tessellated floor, the soupy surface, Alona’s puffed cheeks and huge eyes and the stubbled skin-folds of her father — all are hyper-real. A comforting fable about parenting, loss and love. Age five up.
Unicorns are all the best bits of fairies and ponies combined — and by Anne-Marie Conway (Eponine Press, £8.99) makes full use of both the magic and the horsiness. Ariella’s baby brother is seriously ill and her grandmother has just died. Ariella needs friends, but at school she is bullied and at home her big sister is in a permanent strop. Then, something marvellous turns up in the field. Like The HeartShaped Leaf, the story can be read on more than one level. Age nine to 12. Profits go towards the building of a library at Conway’s son’s school.
by (Bloomsbury, £7.99) is the huge (almost 1,000 pages) finale of the Throne of Glass series. As it opens, Aelin Galathynius is trapped in an iron coffin, released only for torture sessions. Her escape is probably not in doubt but the way it plays out is thrilling — and the start of an epic journey. ToG fans will revel in the magical face-offs, the witchy-bitchiness, enchanted landscapes, shape-shifting. But be prepared for violence. Age 16 up.
Someday by David Levithan (Egmont, £7.99) continues the adventures of A, from Every Day. A wakes up in a new “host” body (sometimes male, sometimes female) each morning. In a previous incarnation, A has fallen in love with Rhiannon and now they long to see each other again. Meanwhile, their friend Nathan is being pursued by the murderous X, another body-swapper, who bizarrely threatens him in painfully inaccurate Latin. Levithan makes us think: when so much of our social interaction is online, is body-swap dating so very different? Age 15 up.