Last week, we presented Wilde Awards to the best Picture Books of 2005 (see results at www.triangle.com/ books/bookreview). This week we honor novels and other long format books as selected by yours truly and some of our community's children's book experts.

Most Promising New Series

"The Sisters Grimm: Book 1" by Michael Buckley (Abrams, $14.95, ages 9-12). A genre merger of fairy tale and mystery? The balance of quirky and reasonable characters, engaging writing, fresh fairy tale references, and a very real fantasy setting make this a great series start.

Best New Sleuth

"Mr. Chickee's Funny Money" by Christopher Paul Curtis (Random House, $15.95, ages 9-12). Nine-year-old Steven Carter gets a quadrillion-dollar bill stamped with the image of James Brown. Is it real? Mr. Fondoo and the Treasury Department think so, but Steven isn't so sure in this story that mixes humor, fantasy and mystery.

Scariest book

"Whisper in the Dark" by Joseph Bruchac (HarperCollins, $15.99; ages 9-11). Bruchac beautifully blends legend, present-day life, history and a ghost story in this story of Maddy, who loses her parents and the use of an arm in accident. Now her life is threatened by the "Whisperer in the Dark," a frightening figure from Narragansett legend.

Best Fantasy

"Three Good Deeds" by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt Brace, $16, ages 7-10). Bullying Howard, caught in a prank, gets turned into a goose by a witch and must do three good deeds to regain his form.

Best Nonfiction

"Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes" by Pamela S. Turner (Houghton, $17, ages 8-12). Interviews, stories and marvelous photographs allow us to follow vets who make "forest-calls" into the misted mountains of east-central Africa to heal and save endangered apes.

"A Little History of the World" by E.H. Gombrich (Yale University Press, $25, ages 11 and up). This classic history of the world is finally available in English. Witty, clear-eyed and humane, Gombrich tells the sweeping story of humankind in 40 short and fascinating chapters from the stone age to the atomic bomb. Decorated with Clifford Harper's beautiful line illustrations. (Awarded by Clay Carmichael, author.)

Best Fantasy Sequel

"Inkspell" by Cornelia Funke (Scholastic, $19.99, ages 9 and up). Picking up a year after the events described in "Inkheart," this novel returns to the fantasy land where characters can be read in and out of books -- leading to more adventures for familiar characters such as Dustfinger and a whole new cast of heroes and evildoers involved in the brewing war between the royals at Ombra Castle and the cruel Adderhead.

Best Reissue

"All-of-a-Kind Family" by Sydney Taylor (Delacorte, $15.95, ages 8-11). This is the first book in classic series started in 1951 about a loving family of five girls growing up in turn-of- the-century Lower East Side of New York in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood.

Best Non-Issue Issue Book

"Defiance" by Valerie Hobbs (FSG, $16, ages 9-11). Eleven-year-old Toby Steiner is on vacation when he discovers his cancer has returned. Fearing new chemo treatments, he is determined to make his own decisions, an intention reinforced by an elderly poet who, like him, wants to maintain her independence. This story is much more about his making choices than about fighting cancer.

Best Supernatural Romance

"Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer (Little Brown, $17.99, ages 12 and up). Bella, intrigued by her handsome classmate Edward, is in love even though she knows he's a vampire. Meyer takes conventional plot devices and twists them to make a compelling, realistic, exciting romance. (Awarded by Karin Michel, Chapel Hill Public Library.)

Creepiest Book

"Inexcusable" by Chris Lynch (Atheneum, $16.95, ages 12 and up). This disturbing novel takes us inside the mind of a rapist. Keir Sarafian insists again and again that he is "a good person," imprisoning the reader (as he does his victim) in a blind self- justification that gradually reveals his character. (Awarded by Luli Gray, author.)

Most Chilling Setting

"The Diary of Pelly D." by L.J. Adlington (Greenwillow Books, $15.95, ages 12 and up). Fourteen-year-old laborer Toni V. discovers the compelling diary of Pelly D., a vibrant, wealthy teenager who led privileged life before her futuristic society's genetic profiling led to genocide. Set on a planet inhabited by humans with gills, this spare, suspenseful novel will stun readers with its echoes of the Holocaust. (Awarded by children's librarian, Julie Corsaro)

Most Intriguing Premise

"Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zevin (FSG, $16, ages 11 and up). Fifteen-year-old Lizzie enters a parallel universe where you age down to babyhood and then are sent down a watery passage back to Earth and birth. In Elsewhere you have an avocation (Marilyn Monroe is a shrink, but Picasso still paints). Witty writing adds to fascinating details.

Best New Series

"Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse, $6.99, ages 11 and up). In this futuristic world, everyone gets massive plastic surgery at age 16 so they can become "pretties." Tally can't wait for her transformation, But then her best friend joins a group of rebels who decide to stay "ugly." Will she turn her back on her society or her friend? This fast-moving, frightening book is perfect for an age group that craves beauty and parties. (Awarded by Ruffin Powell, librarian at Culbreth middle school.)

Best Pleasure Read for Girls

"Prom" by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking, $16.99, ages 12 and up). Strong voice and saucy dialogue build a believable portrait of Ashley Hannigan, a "normal girl" just getting by who is forced to plan a prom she doesn't care about attending.

Best Pleasure Read for Boys

"Runner" by Carl Deuker (Houghton, $16, ages 12 and up). Seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor lives with his alcoholic father on a small boat. He worries about how they will pay their bills. A job delivering suspicious packages offers money -- and danger. Short chapters, fast-pacing, suspense and action make this a gripping read.

Best Historical Fiction

"Eyes of the Emperor" by Graham Salisbury (Random House, $15.95, ages 11 and up). Sixteen-year-old Eddy Okubo, a Japanese-American eager to prove his loyalty, enlists in the Army in 1941. He and 25 other recruits are used as bait for dogs training to attack Japanese enemies. Knowing this is based on truth makes the story even more absorbing and horrendous.

"The Minister's Daughter" by Julie Hearn (Simon and Schuster, $16.95, ages 11 and up). In a graceful merger of folklore and history, this novel uses a compelling cast of characters to describe the religious battles that gripped England in 1645.

Best Book for Global Awareness

"Under the Persimmon Tree" by Suzanne Fisher Staples (FSG, $17, ages 11 and up). Young Najmah's Pakistani farm family is gone -- killed and conscripted by the Taliban. While fleeing this tragedy she meets Nusrat, an American who has converted to Islam because of her gentle Afghan husband. Staples allows her characters to speak for thousands who had their lives ruined by war.

Funniest Young Adult Novel

"Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie" by David Lubar (Dutton, $16.99, ages 12 and up). High school freshman Scott becomes the sports writer for his school newspaper's in his futile quest to draw the attention of a beautiful girl. As he chronicles the complicated, emotional life of a teenager, Lubar, in witty, pitch-perfect prose, even incorporates genres that Scott's English class is studying. (Awarded by Carol Moyer of Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh.)

Best New Young Adult Series by Local Author

"A Chalice of Wind" by Cate Tiernan (Penguin, $5.99, paper, ages 12 and up). Durham author Cate Tiernan offers edgy doses of magic and secrecy in the first book in her Balefire series. The New Orleans setting is a great backdrop to plot twists like the heroine's surprising friendship with a lost twin sister. This new series promises the same can't-put-it-down tension of her previous best-selling series, "Sweep." (Awarded by John Valentine, Regulator Bookshop.)