Book 1 of His Dark Materials trilogy. Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. Talking armored bears and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the opwer to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. A complex, beautiful, multilayered, epic story.

See also Book 2: The Subtle Knife, Book 3: The Amber Spyglass

Accompanied by her daemon Pantalaimon (her other half, psychically linked to her and able to change into any animal form), Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. Talking armored bears and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. A complex, beautiful, multilayered epic story.

Sequels: The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass

Percy Jackson can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being at school is only getting worse -- Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods, where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon, a mystery unfolds and Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. Full of Greek mythology humor.

Book 1 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, is forced to flee when her vicious aunt Redd murders her parents, the King and Queen of Hearts. She escapes through the Pool of Tears to Victorian London, but she finds she has no way home. Adopted by the Liddells, who christen her Alice Liddell and disapprove of her wild stories about Wonderland, Alyss begs Charles Dodgson to tell her real story.  Sequels: Seeing Red, Archenemy

In the tower of Count Stelli in the ancient city-state of Agora, two children meet, apparently by chance. Mark has escaped the plague ravaging the city's slums. Lily is the servant who cares for him. At first, their only goal is survival: In Agora, everything can be bought and sold, debt is death, and Mark and Lily must barter their labor for their lives. Then comes an opportunity for them to exchange destinies: for Lily to escape the tower for the city outside, and for Mark to find refuge inside by taking a serving position with the Count. The exchange will set them on divergent paths: Mark's toward fame and fortune as an astrologer, Lily's as the founder of an almshouse for the city's poor and destitute. Yet their lives remain strangely intertwined, and it is Lily who will discover the role that each of them is destined to play in fulfilling the prophecy and challenge of the secret Midnight Charter devised by Agora's founders...

When the magic that protects their Valley starts to fail, Tilja and her companions journey into the evil Empire to find the ancient magician Faheel, who originally cast those spells.

When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battle school, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.

Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; time stands still for everyone in the world except this group. And the strange dark creatures seem determined to destroy Jess

Sequels: Touching Darkness, Blue Noon