Gifted Clans

Riley Oh can't wait to see her sister get initiated into the Gom clan, a powerful lineage of Korean healing witches their family has belonged to for generations. Her sister, Hattie, will earn her Gi bracelet and finally be able to cast spells without adult supervision. Although Riley is desperate to follow in her sister's footsteps when she herself turns 13, she's a saram - a person without magic. Riley was adopted, and despite having memorized every healing spell she's ever heard, she often feels like the odd one out in her family and the gifted community.

For Riley Oh, life as the Godrealm's last fallen star is not all it's cracked up to be. Her new divine heritage doesn't even come with cool magical powers, half of her friends and family (including her parents) can't remember her, and to top it all off, the entire Gom clan is mad at her for killing the Cave Bear Goddess and stripping away their healing abilities. But when their anger boils over and a group of witches curse Riley's home, she knows it's up to her to restore magic back to her clan—even if it means sneaking into the Spiritrealm. Luckily, Riley has some backup.

Riley Oh wasn't born into her family. Instead, as she recently discovered, she tumbled down to the earth many years ago as the last fallen star. Riley Oh also wasn't born to be a witch. Like, at all—even her status as a divine celestial being comes with zilch in the magical powers department. And Riley Oh definitely wasn't born to be a leader. But now the entire magical community thinks she and her soul-twin, Dahl, are meant to lead the world into the Age of the Final Eclipse (or whatever it is that the Haetae keeps saying they're "destined" to do).

Pahua Moua has a bit of a reputation for being a weirdo. A lonely 11-year-old Hmong girl with the unique ability to see spirits, she spends her summer days babysitting her little brother and playing with her best friend, a cat spirit no one else can see. One day Pahua accidentally untethers an angry spirit from the haunted bridge in her neighborhood - whoops. When her brother suddenly falls sick and can't be awoken, Pahua fears that the bridge spirit has stolen his soul.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents 10 new stories - including one of his own - about beloved heroes that sprang from the imaginations of some of the best middle grade authors working today.