Summer Reading 2009: Gear Up With Steampunk

Gear Up and Read 2009 –
Teen Summer Reading Program Reading List

What is steampunk? It’s mechanical dragons. Steam engines. Roving cities. Gas-powered dirigibles. Clockwork spiders. The books below mix fantasy and science fiction with Victorian-era design, creating worlds where steam-powered technology and magic collide. Sometimes these worlds are based on our own, as in alternative histories that pose a question: what if history had taken a different path? Sometimes they look to the future, at what might be. Other times, these worlds are entirely new and fantastic, existing only in the imagination. So, what is steampunk? Read and discover it for yourself!

The Gemma Doyle trilogy. Libba Bray. Y Bray.
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.
• A Great and Terrible Beauty
• Rebel Angels
• The Sweet Far Thing

Airman. Eoin Colfer. Y Colfer.
In the late nineteenth century, when Conor Broekhart discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king, he is branded a traitor, imprisoned, and forced to mine for diamonds under brutal conditions while he plans a daring escape from Little Saltee prison by way of a flying machine that he must design, build, and, hardest of all, trust to carry him to safety.

The City of Ember. Jeanne DuPrau. J DuPrau.
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Howl’s Moving Castle. Diana Wynne Jones. YPB Jones.
Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.

Havemercy. Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. (EPl does not have)

Dreamhunter Duet. Elizabeth Knox. Y Knox.
Laura and her sister, Rose, are the daughters of Dreamhunters. In the midst of a fascinating landscape, Laura’s dreamy childhood is ending and a nightmare beginning. This rich novel is filled with beauty, danger, politics, and intrigue.
• Dreamhunter
• Dreamquake

Perdido Street Station. China Mieville. (EPL does not have.)

The Abhorsen Trilogy. Garth Nix. Y Nix.
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.
• Sabriel
• Lirael
• Abhorsen

The Temeraire series. Naomi Novik. SF/FAN Novik.
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
• His Majesty’s Dragon
• Throne of Jade
• Black Powder War
• Empire of Ivory
• Victory of Eagles

Matt Cruse series. Kenneth Oppel. Y Oppel.
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth’s surface.
• Airborn
• Skybreaker
• Starclimber

His Dark Materials series. Philip Pullman. Y Pullman.
Living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College, young Lyra and her daemon counterpart, Pantalaimon, investigate rumors about Dust, which is feared to be the source of all evil in the world, when children throughout the land are kidnapped by the treacherous Gobblers.
• The Golden Compass
• The Subtle Knife
• The Amber Spyglass

The Sally Lockhart Quartet. Philip Pullman. Y Pullman.
In nineteenth-century London, sixteen-year-old Sally, a recent orphan, becomes involved in a deadly search for a mysterious ruby
• The Ruby in the Smoke
• The Shadow in the North
• The Tiger in the Wall
• The Tin Princess

The Prestige. Christopher Priest. (EPL does not have.)

Hungry City Chronicles. Philip Reeve. Y Reeve.
In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.
• Mortal Engines
• Predator’s Gold
• Infernal Devices
• A Darkling Plain

Larklight series. Philip Reeve. J Reeve.
In an alternate Victorian England, young Arthur and his sister Myrtle, residents of Larklight, a floating house in one of Her Majesty’s outer space territories, uncover a spidery plot to destroy the solar system.
• Larklight
• Mothstorm
• Starcross

The Death Collector. Justin Richards. Y Richards.
Three teens and a curator of unclassified artifacts at the British Museum match wits with a madman determined to use unorthodox methods to reanimate the dead, both humans and dinosaurs.

The Cabinet of Wonders. Marie Rutkoski. J Rutkoski.
Twelve-year-old Petra, accompanied by her magical tin spider, goes to Prague hoping to retrieve the enchanted eyes the Prince of Bohemia took from her father, and is aided in her quest by a Roma boy and his sister.

The Enola Holmes series. Nancy Springer. Y Springer.
• The Case of the Missing Marquess
• The Case of the Left-Handed Lady
• The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets
• The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Jules Verne. F Verne.

Around the World in 80 Days. Jules Verne. F Verne.

The Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic Book One). Patricia C. Wrede. Y Wrede.
Eighteen-year-old Eff must finally get over believing she is bad luck and accept that her special training in Aphrikan magic, and being the twin of the seventh son of a seventh son, give her extraordinary power to combat magical creatures that threaten settlements on the western frontier.

The Cecelia and Kate series. Patricia C. Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer. Y Wrede.
In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecelia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards.
• Sorcery and Cecelia
• The Grand Tour
• The Mislaid Magician

Steampunk Graphic Novels/Manga
Fullmetal Alchemist. Hirmou Arakawa.
Girl Genius. Phil and Kaja Foglio.
Hellboy. Mike Mignola.
The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Alan Moore.