Islands of the Black Moon — Erica Farber

Now that you have reached the magical age of 11, it is time for your inheritance. . . .

So begins the note Lila da Gama receives from a distant aunt, and so begins an adventure that will take Lila much farther than Tiger Lily, her aunt's crumbling estate. She'll travel to another world, the Islands of the Black Moon, the place where Lila suspects her father disappeared six years earlier. There she must face terrifying creatures, including a beautiful but evil sorceress, who are all after one thingâ€"Lila's inheritance. Lila refuses to relinquish her precious birthright, until the sorceress says the six words that Lila cannot resist: I know where your father is.

With a little magic, a little science, and a lot of courage, as well as help from an island boy, this spunky heroine sets off to change her family's fortune and bring her father home.