Upcoming Harcourt titles

The good people at Harcourt Books were kind enough to send us their Spring-Summer 2007 Catalog, and I'm happy to see that there are several books coming out that I am really excited about, including:

1. Iris, Messenger, by Sarah Deming

"Dreamer Iris Greenwold doesn't care much for the real world. It's generally pretty disappointing: divorced parents, unsympathetic peers, and a middle school that is hell. But then, on her twelfth birthday, Iris mysteriously receives a copy of Bulfinch's Mythology and discovers that the entire pantheon of gods are living in the greater Philadelphia area. Poseidon's running a clam shack, Aphrodite's doing makeovers, Apollo's playing tenor sax...."

2. The Felix Brooke trilogy, by Joan Aiken

"Felix Brooke, the orphaned son of an English soldier and an aristocratic Spanish mother, has been raised in the strict, loveless household of his grandfather in Villaverde, Spain. When Felix gains possession of a letter that contains a clue to the whereabouts of his father's family, he gladly runs away form home to pursue the trail. His journey from Spain to far-off England begins the adventure of a lifetime."

3. Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, by M.T. Anderson

"It is a land of wonders. It is a land of mystery. It is a land that time forgot (or chose specifically not to remember). Cut off from the civilized world for untold years by prohibitive interstate tolls at the New Jersey border, this land is called: Delaware."

Iris, Messenger is Deming's first book, and the synopsis looks cute, although I'm not too enthused about the cover art. You'd have be nuts not to enjoy M.T. Anderson's "thrilling tales". And, of course, I'm mega-excited about the Joan Aiken trilogy--not only am I looking forward to reading the books, but I was worried that a lot of her stuff would fall out of print after her death, so it's great to see this series being re-released.