ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book Roundup: January 2019

Welcome, welcome to our first Chapter Book roundup of 2019. We've been collecting together the very best chapter books to share with you for our first roundup of this year, and we've got some absolute corkers, so strap yourselves in, and let's get right to it.

First up is "A Pinch of Magic" by Michelle Harrison, the best-selling author of the fabulous "Thirteen Treasures" trilogy.

The story is woven around three sisters stricken by a family curse, and an overpowering air of misfortune that they cannot shake.

However, three magical objects may hold the key to lifting the curse - and so the quest begins for the three sisters to seek out these artefacts and hopefully change their fortunes forever.

Though their quest is not without danger, the originator of the curse will not rest until the family dies out - so it's not only a race against time, but against a hidden foe.

Darkly tinged but absolutely amazing, this is truly atmospheric writing from Michelle, and utterly essential if your kids love deep-woven middle grade fantasy with a real touch of class.

"A Pinch of Magic" by Michelle Harrison is out in February 2019, published by Simon and Schuster. 

In total contrast now is the fantastic "Charlie Changes into a Chicken" by Sam Copeland, with cover and internal illustrations from Sarah Horne.

Charlie McGuffin would love to be the kind of kid whose glass is always half full, but in reality he's a bit of a worrier.

Charlie worries about everything, including:

· His brother (who is in hospital)

· Their very panicked parents

· Unwanted attention from the school bully

· The fact that he's started turning into animals!

Yep that's right, Charlie has the weird ability to assume the form of other animals - which sounds really cool, until you turn into a pigeon in the middle of your school play. Eeeeek!

With the help of his three best friends, Charlie needs to find a way of dealing with his crazy new power - and fast - before interested parties whisk him away to be dissected.

"Charlie Changes into a Chicken" by Sam Copeland and Sarah Horne is in February 2019, published by Puffin.

And now for something completely different! How about a superb supernatural YA novel with truly original characters.

In "Out of Salem" by Hal Schrieve meet Genderqueer fourteen-year-old Z Chilworth, who has to adjust quickly to a whole new status as a zombie after waking from death from a car crash that killed their parents and sisters.

Always a talented witch, Z now can barely perform magic and is rapidly decaying. Faced with rejection from their remaining family members and old friends, Z moves in with Mrs. Dunnigan, an elderly witch and befriends Aysel, a loud would-be-goth classmate who is, like Z, a loner.

As Z struggles to find a way to repair the broken magical seal holding their body together, Aysel fears that her classmates will discover her status as an unregistered werewolf. When a local psychiatrist is murdered by what seems to be werewolves, the town of Salem, Oregon, becomes even more hostile to 'monsters,' and Z and Aysel are driven together in an attempt to survive a place where most people wish that neither of them existed.

Wrought with complex and compelling originality, this is more than just a 'monster of the week' novel, it's a superbly dark slice of self-aware and tantalisingly characterful horror.

"Out of Salem" by Hal Schrieve is out in March 2019, published by Seven Stories Press. 

Also from Seven Stories is a new print of an essential modern analysis of Greek culture in "The Siege and Fall of Troy" by Robert Graves.

For centuries, the ancient world was electrified by the story of the ten-year war that brought down the ancient city of Troy and destroyed the lives of countless Greek and Trojan warriors. In the modern world, according to Robert Graves, "English literature, to be properly understood, calls for as close a knowledge of the Trojan War as of the Bible." Here are ambition, greed, cruelty, suffering, madness, treachery, jealousy, pride, and foolishness in abundance, a tale of woe that brings the ancient world into a modern context.

The ancient city of Troy was sacked sometime early in the twelfth century BC; The Iliad and The Odyssey were composed some four or five centuries later. But there were many other accounts besides Homer's, and Graves uses them all. His writing style is sleek, action- driven, and to the point.
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