Official Website of Mette Ivie Harrison, Children's writer, triathlete

Thirsty by M.T. Andersen	About a boy who discovers he is turning into a vampire and he does everything in his power (ultimately —nothing at all) to stop it. Also hilarious.	The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry	There is a superb romance on the side. I like romance where the question isn't--which man does she go for--but is-- can these two really get together and how? Plus the goat is so much fun you will almost want to have one as a pet.
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley	The "folk" in this book aren't nice. They have teeth! So why would anyone volunteer to keep them? There are reasons, gradually unfolded as this story about identity and love unfolds.
Tithe by Holly Black	A dark urban fantasy about the "real" fairy world and what it would be like to find out you belonged to it. I liked it because it made hard choices, but didn’t break my heart.	Ironside by Holly Black	Another great, great book! I love Holly Black's vision of the fairy world, a dark place tht mirrors the worst reality of our own world--and maybe a bit of the best, too. I loved the romances in this book. I find that I can't love a romance if that is all the book is about, but when the romance is wrapped around real-life choices, around betrayal and courage, self-sacrifice and self-knowledge, then I want to stand up and cheer.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore	My daughter and I fought over this one. She read it once. Then I read it. Then she read it again. Then it got loaned out to various friends. I'm not sure either of us knows where it is now. A great story, strong female heroine, and interesting magic. That makes it sound like so many other books, but this is not a book like any others. I loved the intrigue and I didn't anticipate the surprise at the end, which is a hard thing for another author to pull off. If I tell you more, I'm afraid I will ruin it, so I won't.	Sword by Da Chen	This was such a short book, but it packs a great story in its pages. It feels like one of those romantic stories with layers upon layers of storytellers, but it also is a story about--well, a sword.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins	This is a brutal story of the future, where children are used in a kind of reality game where only one survives. One girl is an unlikely hero who changes the games forever. But her own life does not look as good. I'm looking forward to the sequel to this one.	Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey	This is a book about two different heroes in two different times, both dealing with what it is to have magic that is extremely powerful. A finalist for the National Book Award in 2007, and richly deserved!
These Bones by Clare B. Dunkle	This is a fun fantasy romance, but that’s not what it is primarily. It’s also a were-wolf story and a story about a choice. A very hard choice that one person has to make for herself, and for the one she loves. Does she love him enough?	Jessica Day George	I was utterly sucked into this book, and I must say that I thought it was the best retelling of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" that I have ever read. I felt like everything made sense at last, and I felt like the plot didn't get so complicated I wondered what had happened. I loved the lass's relationship with her brother, and the tension between her and her mother.
Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins	I love this new genre mixing magic and old elements of fantasy with modern-day teenage life. Charles de Lint does it so well, but he's a little dark for my tastes. This is just good, plain fun. I thought the things that interested a demon about life as a human felt very real and meaningful to me. It made me rethink my own life and what matters. I loved how the demon tried to get sex. Not so different from a regular teenage boy, it turns out. And the little brother--awesome!	devilish by Maureen Johnson	How do you save your best friend from herself, when she keeps selling your soul to the devil to save her own? This is funny, fast-paced and meaningful, too. I plan to read more from the same author.
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause	This is a book with feeling. It evokes the passion the young girl is experiencing throughout and afterwards, you will never think of humans the same again.	Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox	This is one of the most original books I have read in a long time. I don't know where she came up with the idea or the structure. For those reasons, it is hard to read. It just isn't based on the American fantasy novel template. I loved the main character, though, and I loved the magic of the dreams. Oh, how glad I am that I don't have that magic, however.
Black Juice Margo Lanagan	The whole price of this book is worth it for the first story, "Singing My Sister Down." And for a bonus, you get all of the others. I don't want to spoil it by telling you any of the great details, but I will say that this is a dark book, and that there is something dark inside of me that revels in it.	Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan	This is published as YA, but I wouldn't recommend it for any but the very oldest group. Still, it is the most amazing book. At first you can hardly bear how terrible the world is. Then you can't believe how wonderful the fantasy world is. Then the two come together, and it feels just right, like a fairy tale come to life.
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link	This is a collection of the most hilarious, odd-ball fantasy stories ever. I loved "The Fairy's Handbag," but I also loved just about every funny, unpredictable, stream-of-consciousness line in the book. A must read.	Keturah and Lord Death Martine Leavitt	An incredible story that engaged me all the way through. I wanted one ending so much at first, and then gradually found myself wanting a different ending instead. About a girl who is caught in the forest by death and has to tell a story each day to stay alive. Also about a lot more than that.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley	A classic, with romance, otherworldy magic, girl power, and the discovery of "the truth." I don’t think there is another YA fantasy that compares with this one. What else is there to say?	Robin McKinley	I'm partial to fairy tale retellings, and I love this one, with the fresh voice of Beauty speaking for herself. My style has been compared to Robin McKinley's, and I can't think of a nicer compliment.
Queen of Camelot Nancy McKenzie	McKenzie sets herself a challenge from the beginning: to make Mordred a hero, to make Guinevere and Lancelot’s love true but spotless, and to recreate a king no one would ever betray. She does it well, and she does it all without changing the hallmarks of the traditional story.	Stephenie Meyer	This is the book that will get people reading. I can't say how many times I've recommended it to parents who think their teens (boys and girls) won't read anything. It works! They become addicted. Yes, I know there are flaws in the writing and I am annoyed at how long she is drawing it out, but read!
Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle	This is one of those books I wish I'd written. And if I were as good a writer as Lauren I would have. It’s about the worst side of high school, the girls who seem so high above everyone else in all realms, and the secret of how they got there. You can, too, so long as you’re willing to pay the price. Think it can’t be that bad? It is.	Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer	I devoured this book in a few hours, and I think the most telling thing I can say about it was that every time I looked up or had to go to the bathroom or get food for the kids I had to remind myself that I wasn't still living inside the book. I felt like I was as cold as the main character was. I kept checking the cupboards to see how many cans of food we had in them.
Lirael by Garth Nix	A very different fantasy, where a world of magic and non-magic live side by side. Until . . . Also the story of a girl with the power to hold back the dead. And the price she has to pay to keep the world in balance. My second daughter’s favorite series currently. She is ten.	Garth Nix	I love this dystopian science fiction look at what happens when kids trust adults too much.
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel	I wish I had written this book. Towards the end of the book, there is a scene where Matt tells Kate to take off her shoes so they can walk silently through the airship towards the pirates. It is a long, tense section of the book where the stakes are raised every page and some of the people you really like don't make it through. But at this moment, Kate takes off her shoes and says that she hopes her feet don't stink everyone out. I loved it! Perfect way to cut tension, but also the perfect characterization from Kate.	The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson	This is one of those books I wish I had written. The parents are so creepy and so real, and the problems that this girl faces in the future are not so distant from today. About a girl who wakes up and discovers that she has been dead.
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer	This is the sequel/companion book to Life As We Knew It, which is a family favorite. It is, if possible, more devastating. About when the moon gets struck by an asteroid and moved closer to Earth, a minor disaster strikes. Not the end of the world, just the end of the world as we know it.	Sherwood Smith	I loved her spunky heroine and her hero, too. She made old things a little newer and a little truer.
General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn	This is a romance with all the right elements, plus a bit of fantasy thrown in. Not every fantasy book has to be about high stakes, the end of the world, the worst evil in the universe. This is just a book about revolution and freedom and love and finding yourself. Just that. I love Sharon Shinn. I found her through a short story collection and she is one of the reasons I keep reading them; to find great novel writers.	The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn	I have become a huge fan of Sharon Shinn, but this is an earlier, very tight novel that is part romance, part fantasy, and all over supberly done. You won't expect the ending, but you won't be disappointed.
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner	Megan Whalen Turner's series beginning with The Thief is one of my all-time favorite fantasies. I buy it and give it as gifts. I do NOT loan it out. I have reread this series many times. It is about a very clever thief who can steal anything, even the Queen of Attolia. The twists and turns and intricacies of plot are amazing.	Vivian Vande Velde	About a girl who gets stuck in a video game set in medieval England. She's the king's heir, only she has no idea what's going on or who her real allies are. Until she finds out, it's real dangerous to have that crown on her head. Like a big, red target.
Skinned by Robin Wasserman	I read Robin Wasserman's first book about Scooby Doo to my second oldest who loved Scooby Doo at the time. Now they're both growed up. This is another book I wish I had written. Maybe I did write it, only not as well. Maybe I will still write it, if I can figure out how to do it as well. It's about a girl who can only be saved by having her brain downloaded into a robot's body. She's still beautiful, but she's not human anymore. Or is she?	The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein	I like well done Arthur retellings. In this one, Arthur has twins, a son and a daughter. He still has Mordred, but Mordred can't inherit. What does a son who is raised by Morgan Le Fay do to his younger brother, the sickly one who is nonetheless going to inherit the throne, who is always throwing his illegetimacy in his face? In Wein's world, the unthinkable happens. Mordred turns into a hero.
The Sunbird by Elizabeth Wein	This book took its main character to a place I did not want him to go. But then it got him out again and I began to admire him so much that I think I would read anything about him Elizabeth cares to write. It's about the son of Mordred who lives in Africa in 500 A.D. and becomes a spy for his king at a very young age. Then he becomes a slave, and he pretends to be mute to protect the truth of what he knows that will save the kingdom. But at what cost?	I am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells	I could not stop reading this book about a boy who is afraid he is a serial killer and gradually discovers that there is a real serial killer killing in his city and only he understands enough about serial killers to figure out how one thinks and how to stop him. Also, I loved how it started in our world and then gradually moved into a kind of comic book world of magic. I loved the intense pov and I loved the twists and turns of the plot. It was the kind of book that I could see no flaw in. Fabulous, riveting, and it isn't really horror in the normal sense of the word. For older teens.
Peeps byScott Westerfeld	About the black plague and vampires, and a future where we're going to need them both.	Uglies Scott Westerfeld	About a world where everyone becomes beautiful at age sixteen, through a government-mandated operation. But what else does being "pretty" do to you? And what if you don't want it?
Flora's Dare by Ysabeau Wilce	The sequel to Flora Segunda is possibly even better (and weirder) than the first. This is probably the most original fantasy I have ever read. At first I felt very confused because none of the language is what I expected and it took a long time to figure out who was who and what the rules of the world were. But they are so quirky and original I loved it. I loved how it feels slangy like real teenagers but nothing like anyone you have ever met. I love how character turn out to be not how you expected, but you never feel cheated as the reader.	The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede	I know that this book has been attacked for writing American Indians out of the settlement of the West. I understand the reasoning behind that argument, I think. But I still loved this book. It is such a creative reimagining of the way the West was won. And I really loved the character of the twin who isn't magical and finds herself. I think of this as a sort of companion piece to Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife series, which are a reimagining of Ohio, but on a different planet. I think the only mistake Wrede makes it not making it clear enough that this isn't our world, and has nothing to do with our world. Then she might have avoided the complaints.
Return to home page