Hot Kids' Books at BEA

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• Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, the sequel to Inkheart (Scholastic/Chicken House, booth 302)
• Eldest by Christopher Paolini, the followup to the blockbuster Eragon (Knopf, 4139)
• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray, companion to bookseller favorite A Great and Terrible Beauty (Delacorte, 4139)
• The Mirror of Fire and Dreamingby Chitra Divakaruni, sequel to her acclaimed novel The Conch Bearer (Roaring Brook, 3638)

A number of fantasy series are starting up, including:

• The Mistmantle Chronicles: Urchin of the Riding Stars by M.I. McAllister, book one in a trilogy by a British author (Miramax/ Hyperion, 3959)
• The Water Mirror by Kai Meyers,kicking off a trilogy that was a bestseller in Germany (S&S/McElderry, 3538)
• The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney, first in a series about a boy apprenticed to the local spook (Greenwillow, 3338)

Books from authors best known for their adult fare:

• Carl Hiaasen, whose first novel for kids, Hoot, has sold more than a million copies, offers Flush, another story with an environmental twist (Knopf, 4139)
• Alice Hoffman has written The Foretelling, a novel about a girl coming of age in a tribe of women warriors (Little, Brown, 3946)
• Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck, a suspenseful fantasy from the "bad boy" writer (Bloomsbury, 3670)

Many popular authors are returning with new novels:

• Sharon Creech offers Replay, which focuses on family and theater (HarperCollins/Cotler, 3338)
• Polly Horvath has written The Vacation, in which a boy takes a cross-country trip with his eccentric aunts (FSG, 3628)
• Gail Carson Levine offers Disney Fairies: Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, in which readers enter the world of Tinker Bell and her fairy friends (Disney Press, 3959)
• Suzanne Fisher Staples has Under the Persimmon Tree, interwoven stories of an Afghan girl and an American woman (FSG/Frances Foster, 3628)
• Ann M. Martin tells readers about A Dog's Life, a survival tale from a dog's point of view (Scholastic, 302)
• Audrey Couloumbis returns with The Misadventures of Maude March, a western (Random House, 4139)
• James Howe offers Totally Joe, a companion to 2001's The Misfits (Atheneum/ Ginee Seo Books, 3538)
• Jane Yolen returns with Pay the Piper, a rock 'n' roll retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend she wrote with her son Adam Stemple (Tor/Starscape, 3661)
• U.K. bookseller-turned-author Anna Dale follows up her hit Whispering to Witches with Dawn Undercover, a spy novel (Bloomsbury, 3670)

A number of noteworthy debut novels are being given away:

• Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, about a girl who lives her life backward after she dies at age 15 (FSG, 3628)
• What I Call Life by Jill Wolfson, a look at the foster-care system (Holt, 2050)
• I, Coriander by Sally Gardner, about a childhood touched by unexplained bits of wonder (Dial, 3355)
• A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb, a supernatural love story (Houghton/Graphia, 3554)

Titles with appeal for Harry Potter fans:

• Capt. Hook by J.V. Hart, which tells the "real" story of Captain Jas. Hook (HarperCollins/Laura Geringer, 3338)
• The Printer's Devil by Paul Bajoria, in which readers are drawn into London's criminal underworld (Little, Brown, 3946)
• Sign of the Raven by Julie Hearn, where a boy goes back in time to the early 18th century (Atheneum/Ginee Seo Books, 3538)

And if you're on the lookout for a few gritty YA novels:

• Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge, a tale of three best friends in their final weeks of high school (Harcourt, 3420)
• Theories of Relativity by Barbara Haworth-Attard, in which a 16-year-old boy deals with living on the streets (Holt, 2050)
• Teach Me by R.A. Nelson, about a student-teacher affair (Penguin/Razorbill, 3355)