Magicalia (Book 1)

To rescue her scientist dad, Bitsy learns to conjure magicores—extraordinary creatures of all shapes, sizes, and magical abilities. This new fantasy series by an internationally best-selling author will appeal to Pokémon collectors and fans of creature-filled games like Animal Crossing. Bitsy and her best friend, Kosh, are spending a normal evening playing video games—until a purple hamster the size of a bathtub barges in and eats Bitsy’s gym clothes. They rush downstairs to find her dad being vanished away by a mysterious woman. Now it’s a race against time to rescue Bitsy’s dad, starting with learning the truth—that he can conjure magicores, creatures made from the energy of emotions. From magic-carpet-like huffluffs to shape-changing (and purring) copycats and big, stinky lubberwharls, countless magicores and their human companions exist hidden in plain sight. Wasting no time, Bitsy and Kosh hitch a ride on a kangaroo-peacock called an ozoz and follow a trail of clues that leads them from a conjuring school in London to the Taj Mahal to the Palace of Versailles. Swept up in the conflicts between guilds of conjurers, and in pursuit of a shadowy archvillain, the friends must decide who to trust as they solve riddles, fight imaginative magical battles, and get to know the wide, wonderful world of magicores.