The Iron King / Julie Kagawa / 278 pages / First Book in a Series

Meghan Chase is an odd duck at school and is made fun of often.  Thank goodness for her good friend Robbie.  He has helped make her life bearable.  Ten years ago on her sixth birthday, Meaghan's father had disappeared.  Not long after the disappearance, her mom moved them far way to a little hick town in the middle of the Louisiana bayou.  Now that she is turning sixteen, Meghan is sure her life is about to change.  And it does!  Her computer screen displays the message "We see you.  We're coming for you."  Her four year old half brother, Ethan, is kidnapped and replaced with a changeling and her friend Robbie is actually Robin Goodfellow, Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and her father is really Oberon, King of Summer.  Meghan and Puck enter NeverNever/ Fairyland to rescue Ethan.  This is a really clever journey to fantasy land with noteworthy homage to the power of love, loyalty, imagination, and importance of memory...and the disastrous effects of technology on the natural world.  The detail with which the author has crafted her world, her characters, and their relationships is truly phenomenal...