The Sorceress by Michael Scott

Ah, Michael Scott. He's done it again. The "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series of books gets better with each installment. Topping The Alchemyst (2007, Random House/Doubleday) wasn't easy, but he did it with last year's The Magician and followed it with this May's The Sorceress (Random House). I'm a huge fan of this series and highly recommend it to readers 10 and up.

Once again, Scott draws on his vast knowledge of folklore, legend and myth (particularly Celtic) as he continues to expand this story of Nicholas and Parenelle Flamel, the immortal couple charged with protecting the codex of Abraham the Mage, and seekers of the twins of legend.

Picking up where The Magician left off, Nicholas must flee Paris with the twins Sophie and Josh after the destruction of his beloved city by John Dee and Machiavelli. The dark elders have the codex, all but the last few pages, but those pages aren't enough to keep the Flamels from aging. Parenelle is trapped on Alcatraz, Scatty is missing and the sword Josh carries, Clarent (twin sword to Excalibur), is having an odd effect on Josh.

Speaking of the twins, they've both been awakened and need to learn more of the elemental magics and Nicholas must find an elder to teach them before Dee catches up with them again.

Scott weaves well-known characters into this tale such as Shakespeare, Billy the Kid, Gilgamesh and King Arthur, as well as an intense race to Stonehenge and a horrifying twist for two characters that will be tricky to undo.

With three books left in the series (The Necromancer is due out in May of 2010, followed by The Warlock and The Enchantress), there's lots of time to do so, and readers have lots of adventure and fantasy to look forward to.

An enthusiastic 4 1/2 bookmarks.