This Halloween season, trick or treat yourself with these titles, nearly all by authors with Oregon ties.
The Oddmire, Book 1: Changeling
(Algonquin Young Readers, 272 pages, $16.95)
Having established major monster cred with the wry young-adult “Jackaby” trilogy, about a 19th-century New England detective who specializes in paranormal crimes, Oregon author William Ritter has launched a similarly otherworldly, and similarly witty, middle-grade series. Meet Cole and Tinn, accidental twins: The goblin Kull was supposed to switch them as newborns but was interrupted, causing him to panic and leave two babies, one human and one changeling, in one crib. Thirteen years later, the goblin world is in crisis and needs the changeling back. Kull sends the boys a note that lures them out of their beds, into the Wild Wood – and into the Oddmire.
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 352 pages, $17.99)
Oregon native Emily Lloyd-Jones channels Lloyd Alexander in this charmingly creepy fairy tale for young adults and young-at-heart adults. Ryn, an orphaned young gravedigger in a land reminiscent of Wales, knows better than to dismiss the tales of an old magic that can reanimate corpses as “bone houses.” When Ellis, a handsome young mapmaker, arrives in her village at the same time as an unprecedented number of bone houses, he and Ryn wind up heading out together on an epic journey to destroy the source of the terrifying siege. Zombies abound, but so does love in all its forms, making this a bewitching read.
Amy Wang suggests six more great titles in her article. Ask for them at your local independent bookstore.