10/17/10

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction reviews and news

Welcome to another week of middle grade science fiction and fantasy postings from around the blogging world, in which I have searched for everything I could find of interest to aficionados of this particular genre. If you review a mg sff book anytime in this coming week, if you know of something I missed this week, or if you have any other questions or comments, please let me know in the comments or via email! Thanks!

The Big MG SFF news today is that nominations for the Cybils have now closed, and 143 books are in contention! (this number might change slightly). Fantasy continues to dominate--of the eligible books, sixteen (by my reckoning, which might change once I've actually read all the books) are science fiction/future dystopian. However, I'm pretty sure this is more than there were last year...

The Reviews:

Among Ghosts, by Amber Benson, at The Bibliophilic Book Blog.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, by Eoin Colfer, at Bookworming in the 21st Century.

Blimpo: The Third Circle of Heck, by Dale E. Basye, at Back to Books.

The Cabinet of Wonders, by Marie Rutkoski, at Kindle Books: Children's Books, Literature.

Don't Know Where, Don't Know When, by Annette Laing, at The Children's War.

Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Vulpes Libris.

Falling in, by Frances O'Rouke Dowell, at Confessions of a Book Addict

The Familiars, by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, at Bart's Bookshelf.

Forbidden Sea, by Sheila Neilsen, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

The Game, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Stella Matutina

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, at Super Librarian Reviews.

Haunted Houses, by Robert San Souci, at Great Kid Books.

Kid vs. Squid, by Greg van Eekhout, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, at the Kirkus Review Blog.

Luka and the Fire of Life, by Salman Rushdie, at The Telegraph.

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh, at Nayu's Reading Corner.

On the Blue Comet, by Rosemary Wells, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, at Super Librarian Reviews.

Princess for Hire, by Lindsey Leavitt, at Charlotte's Library.

Radiance, by Alyson Noel, at Nayu's Reading Corner, Ms. Yingling Reads, and The O.W.L.

The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi at BookKids

Stopping for a Spell, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Stella Matutina.

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex, at Stacked.

The Tune is in the Tree, by Maud Hart Lovelace (yes, the Betsty-Tacy author wrote a fantasy story!), at A Library is a Hospital for the Mind.

Wiff and Dirty George: the Z.E.B.R.A. Incident, by Stephen Swinburne, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Some posts with multiple reviewing bang for the buck:

At Random Musings of a Bibliophile, Brandy is reading Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci books for the first time...(and liking them lots!)

Ms. Yingling (who is truly this weeks winner for the most mg sff books reviewed) looks at The Immortals (the Edge Chronicles) by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, Unearthly Asylum, by P.J. Bracegirdle, and Curse of the Spider King: The Berinfell Prophecies, by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper.

And a few days before that, Ms. Yingling wrote about The Magic Thief: Found, by Sarah Prineas, The Celestial Globe, by Marie Rutkoski, and Ivy's Ever After, by Dawn Lairamore

And even before that, Ms. Yingling read A Nest for Celeste, by Henry Cole, Whistle Bright Magic, a Nutfolk Tale, by Barb Bentler Ullman, and Legends: Battles and Quests, by Anthony Horowitz.

And finally (guess which Cybils Panel Ms. Yingling is on! Yes, the elementary/middle grade sff!), in this post are reviews of Smells Like Dog, by Suzanne Selfors, and Ortega, by Maureen Fergus.

Another three for one post is here at Charlotte's Library--Fiendish Deeds, by P.J. Bracegirdle, Forbidden Sea, by Sheila Neilsen, and Zombiekins, by Kevin Bolger.

Interviews and Writers talking about themselves and their books:

An interview with Aaron Blecha, illustrator of Zombiekins (and other books) at Literary Asylum

Jennifer Neilson (Elliot and the Goblin War) is interviewed at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Matthew J. Kirby (The Clockwork Three) is this weeks Big Idea at Whatever

Andrew Jacobson (The Familiars) at Sisters in Scribe

Janice Hardy (Blue Fire) continues her blog tour (that's a link to day 12; scroll down her blog for more days), with lots of fascinating posts hither and yon.

Other things of great interest:

Week 5 of Fairytale Reflections at Katherine Langrish's blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, continues, this week featuring middle grade fantasy author Kate Forsyth.

The Class of 2k10 is having a fabulous giveaway for Book Clubs that includes a mg fantasy prize pack (10 copies of each of three books!!!!)

Willy the Wizard is going to face off against Harry Potter in court...

Slightly old news: Michelle Paver has won the prestigious Guardian children's fiction prize for Ghost Hunter, the sixth and final volume of her Guardian's of Ancient Darkness series (this is on my Cybils reading list, and I'm looking forward to it!)

Anamaria at Books Together continues her Middle Grade Gallery Series with the portrait of Queen Etheldredda, from Physik, by Angie Sage.

And speaking of paintings, here is one of my favorite pieces of fantasy art, from German artist Michael Sowa (whose book of collected paintings, Sowa's Ark, I love to pieces):

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link to the Middle Grade Gallery, Charlotte (not to mention all the others, which have been keeping me busy this morning). And how is it I had never heard of Michael Sowa?? Gorgeous bear, must have book (sadly OOP, but there look to be lots of copies available). Thanks again!

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  2. Wow, this is an incredible amount of work, Charlotte. What a great resource.
    Thanks for including one of our links, too. I'm passing this post on!

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  3. Wow, how long did this take you to compile! Thanks for mentioning my review of Artemis Fowl! :)

    Great resource!

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  4. You are all very welcome1

    It's actually not that labor intensive, Kelly and Kristen, because I have a long gmail reading list, and simply pull links out of that on a daily basis, and dump them into an email. And it's very satisfying!

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  5. Glad I wasn't creating too much work for you. I am reading as many of the SFF books as I can get my hands on. If the public library didn't deliver right to my school, I'd be in trouble. Thanks for putting together a great list.

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