Alison Croggon: 9 books

In 2010, the Guardian named Melbourne critic Alison Croggon as a ‘must read’ critic. She was the first online critic to be awarded the Geraldine Pascall Critic of the Year, in 2009. Her blog Theatre Notes was the first theatre blog in Australia and, over its eight years of existence, made Croggon...

In a highly anticipated prequel to the Books of Pellinor, Alison Croggon captivates fans old and new with her ancient, legendary world of Annar. After being seduced into sorcery by an agent of the Dark, the promising Bard Cadvan of Lirigon recklessly unleashed the terrible Bone Queen, bringing...

"An epic fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, with a strong girl hero. . . . I couldn’t put it down!" – Tamora Pierce Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She doesn’t yet know she has inherited a powerful...

Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most. What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they...

The sampler includes chapters from Alison Croggon’s Black Spring, Deborah Noyes’s Plague in the Mirror, and Brian Yansky’s Homicidal Aliens and Other Disappointments.Black SpringInspired by the gothic classic Wuthering Heights, this stunning new fantasy from the author ofthe Books of Pellinor is...

As this enthralling epic nears its climax, the young heroine’s brother discovers his own hidden gift — and the role he must play in battling the Dark. Hem is a weary orphan whose struggle for survival ends when he is reunited with his lost sister, Maerad. But Maerad has a destiny to fulfill,...

"Maerad’s tale continues, luminous, desperate, and bold. . . . Brimming with archetypal motifs but freshly splendorous in its own right." – Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Maerad is a girl with a tragic past, but her powers grow stronger by the day. Now she and her mentor, Cadvan,...

Inspired by the gothic classic Wuthering Heights, this stunning new fantasy from the author of the Books of Pellinor is a fiercely romantic tale of betrayal and vengeance. In a savage land sustained by wizardry and ruled by vendetta, Lina is the enchanting but willful daughter of a village...

"Sonorous motifs and resonant archetypes form the backbone of this series conclusion... [the] prose is aesthetically romantic without romanticizing anything; scars of sadness are shown unflinchingly, but when Maerad registers a celebratory evening at the end as 'rich and vivid and luminous with...