This Sunday's Round-Up of Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction

Happy Halloween, and welcome to another Sunday of what I found around the blogs that pertains to middle grade science fiction and fantasy. For those who might wonder just how these posts work, I wrote up a Full Disclosure statement yesterday. But in short, I find posts while browsing, and assemble them here! Please let me know if I missed yours.

The Boneshaker, by Kate Milford, at Never Jam Today.

Brains for Lunch: a Zombie Novel in Haiku, by K.A. Holt, at Green Bean Teen Queen.

The Brimstone Key, by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Come Fall, by A.C.E. Bauer, at TheHappyNappyBookseller

The Coming of the Dragon, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at Manga Maniac Cafe.

Curse of the Were Wiener (Dragonbreath), by Ursula Vernon, at Charlotte's Library and Coffee for the Brain.

Dark Life, by Kat Falls, at Bart's Bookshelf.

The Fairy's Mistake, by Gail Carson Levine, at Manga Maniac Cafe.

The Familiars, by Adam Jay Epstein & Andrew Jacobson, at The Slowest Bookworm and The Lost Entwife.

Flight of the Outcast, by Brad Strickland, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Frozen in Time, by Ali Sparks, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

The Handcuff Kid, by Laura Quimby, at I Capture the Rowhouse.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch, at TheHappyNappyBookseller.

The Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Stella Matutina.

Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation, by Matt Myklusch, at Coffee for the Brain.

Knightly Academy, by Violet Haberdasher, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

The Lost Conspiracy, by Frances Hardinge, at Chachic's Book Nook.

The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, at Books Are Like People, For the Love of Reading, Books in the Spotlight, and Fairrosa Cyber Library.

Magic Trixie, by at Great Kid Books.

The Magnificent 12: The Call, by Michael Grant, at Booked Up.

The Memory Bank, by Carolyn Coman, at Becky's Book Reviews.

Mythil's Secret, by Prashani Rambukwella, at Sri Lankan Books (I would love to read this, but can't find a way to order a copy...any help gladly appreciated! edited to add--Kate Coombs found out how --here's the link. Thanks Kate!)

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at Booked Up.

The Phantom of Blood Alley, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, at Charlotte's Library.

Rise of the Darklings (Invisible Order Book 1) by Paul Crilley, at Book Aunt.

Saraswati's Way, by Monika Schroder, at Words World and Wings. (I'm not sure if this is really fantasy qua fantasy, but there seems to be a godess involved--and it sounds great!)

Scarlett Dead, by Cathy Brett, at Nayu's Reading Corner.

The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi, at Books4yourkids

The Shadows, by Jacqueline West, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

The Sisters Grimm: The Inside Story, by Michael Buckley, at Booked Up.

The Steps Across the Water, by Adam Gopnik, at Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books.

Tamsin, by Peter S. Beagle, at Books & Other Thoughts (technically YA, but good for older mg readers. But it's been a long time since I read it...)

Thomas and the Dragon Queen, by Shutta Crum, at Ms. Yingling Reads (with bonus dragon book list)

The Witches, by Roald Dahl, at Middle Grade Ninja.


There's a three for one post (The Dead Boys, by Royce Buckingham, The Snowbird, by Mette Ivie Harrison, and The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi) at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Spooky Stuff:

And this being Halloween, here are some posts containing spooky favorites, at Vulpes Libris, The Book Zone (for boys),

And in a similarly festive vein, visit "how to make a monster," a post in which various Enchanted Inkpot authors share their most monstrous thoughts.

But if you really want something scary, go to Comics Alliance for "The Terrifying Children's Illustrations of Stephen Gammel" from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.


Interviews:

Laura Sullivan (Under the Green Hill) at The Spectacle.

Julie Berry (Second Hand Charm, which sounds like a good YA for upper mg readers, and a more specifically mg series- The Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys) at Gamila's Book Review.

Clare Dunkle (House of Dead Maids--another YA older mg readers might like) at Cynsations.

Michael Spradlin (The Youngest Templar) at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Rick Riordan at Oh No They Didn't

And another lovely post in Katherine Langrish's Fairytale Reflections series--this week the featured guest is Lucy Coats, author of Hootcat Hill...which I am seriously wanting to read....

Other things of interest:

At The Gaurdian, Naomi Alderman and Frank Cottrell Boyce depate a question of great interest--Should J.K. Rowling write another Harry Potter book?

Two museum exhibits of interest:

If you've read The Red Pyramid, head on over to the British Museum's new exhibit centering on the Book of the Dead.

If you live anywhere near Worcester, MA, you should make a point of visiting the Higgins Armory Museum. Not only do they have an absolutly fascinating collection of arms and armor, and a gift shop that is a perfect place to shop for a young fantasy lover, but, through 2011, they have a gem of an exhibit that should delight any fan of fantastical creatures: Beyond Belief: The Curious Collection of Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell. It's a Victorian Cabinet of Curiousities, with mythological creatures in place of zoological specimens. Here's the gargoyle skeleton:

In which I disclose all regarding my middle grade fantasy and science fiction roundup posts

In the interests of transparency I've decided to explain how I construct my weekly Sunday roundups of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (mg sff) posts from around the blogging world.

I started these roundups of blog posts because I wanted them to exist! I wanted to read reviews of the sub-genre I enjoy most, and mg sff reviews tend to be scattered all over the place--every week it seems I find them at blogs I'd never heard of before. And I wanted to help shine a spotlight on mg sff in general--YA and adult sci fi/fantasy get much more blog coverage, and my hope is to balance things a bit. I'm awfully pleased that people are enjoying the roundups; I enjoy doing them.

I want to make it clear that this isn't a list of reviews I think are the best, or a list of the books that I think are the best. It's simply what I've found. Initially I had envisioned people sending links to me that I would list à la Poetry Friday or Nonfiction Monday, and I thought someday I would send the meme on its way to other hosts. But this didn't happen (although one person does send me links regularly--thanks). Maybe it will someday.

What has happened instead is that I compile every mg sff related post I find during my daily blog reading, and on Sunday morning I also do google blog searches on "middle grade fantasy," "middle grade science fiction," and "children fantasy book" or a variant of the same. If you put one of the first two in your post, I should find it. If I'm feeling ambitious, I might blog search titles of new releases that I haven't seen reviews for yet. Every week I miss things, and I'm happy (in a very rueful way) to be told that I have, so that I can put them in. I post these roundups in the morning...so Sunday afternoon posts will (mostly) appear in next week's version.

I don't include every blog post I find. I don't, for instance, include short posts that are simply mentions, reiterations of the publisher's blurb, and/or two sentence reactions--I want the links I include to have some substance. This is, of course, a judgement call. I also chose not to link to posts that seem to me to be essentially advertisements for a book, other products, or particular websites.

I also find myself making judgement calls every week about what constitutes "middle grade," (which is technically ages 9-12). Sometimes I include reviews of books that are labeled YA that seem to me, or to the reviewer, or to some other reviewer altogether, the sort of thing an eleven or twelve year old might really enjoy. Some weeks, I seem to adhere to stricter parameters. The fact that I haven't read every book myself adds randomness to what I include, which can't be helped.

Sometimes I link to graphic novels that are mg fantasy, and sometimes I don't. I've never made an effort to find them, but if I do come across them, I might put them in...

Whether I agree or not with the worldviews of other bloggers isn't a factor when I decide to link to them. A variety of perspectives adds interest; that being said, the blogs I tend to read are the ones I tend to like, so I'm more likely to find their posts. I do most emphatically reserve the right not to link to any post that I find abhorrent.

And finally, I won't, in general, link to reviews of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, or, indeed, early books of other popular series...unless they say something new and special (there are only so many reviews of the same book that one wants to read).

Please free to contact me with suggestions as to how to make the round-ups better, or if you'd like to try your own hand at a week's worth of rounding up! Please let me know if I've misspelled a name or a title! And please feel free to send me links at any time, if you've written a post, read a post, had your book written about in a post, or done an interview -- charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com.

And thank you, all you nice people who have mentioned these roundups on your own blogs! It is much appreciated.

(question--which do you prefer, round-up or roundup? I've just been told the latter is more correct (and took all the hyphens out), but the former looks nicer to me...)

Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-Wiener!

This afternoon the boys and I walked up the steep flank of Wolf Hill, kicking acorns and rustling leaves with our feet, and climbed the treacherous granite ledge that lets one sneak through a fence into the back parking lot of our local Barnes and Noble. Anticlimax, perhaps, but we left with the book we wanted--the exquisitely seasonally-appropriate Curse of the Were-Wiener, by Ursula Vernon (2010, Dial, upper elementary/younger middle grade, 208 pages, although there are lots of pictures).

This is the third of Vernon's books about a young dragon, Danny Dragonbreath, and his best friend, an iguana named Wendell. And this adventure is perhaps their darkest yet. The titular were-wiener is a Dark Creature of Horror, and it bites poor Wendell, setting in motion a hideous transformation. The two young reptiles have little hope of defeating the evil alpha wurst. Unless...they can find the living potato salad that we last saw, in book 1, disappearing down a storm drain.

But forget my summary--just watch the book trailer (and I almost never ever (this is only the second time) put up book trailers, but I love this one. And it shows you what the artwork looks like. And it's Spooky....).




Me and my boys love Dragonbreath. With dry humor coupled with whatever the opposite of dry humor is*, oodles of charm in the drawings of the reptile lads, just the right amount of grossness (that is, enough to amuse them while not disgusting me), and an exciting story (will the potato salad remember them, or will it attack???), this is a lovely book to put into the hands of the young reader, and to enjoy oneself.

*here's an example--Wendell's mother buys him Periodic Table of Elements bandaids. "We put the pain back in learning!" says the box. Hee hee hee. I would totally buy them.

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke (2010, Little Brown, upper middle grade onwards, 394 pages, illustrated by the author)

"Once upon a time, there was boy who set out to learn the meaning of fear..."

After his father's disappearance, Jacob Reckless made a habit of creeping into his study, searching for answers. One night, when he was twelve, he found a piece of paper: "The mirror will open only for he who cannot see himself." And with that cryptic clue to guide him, Jacob passes through his father's mirror into another realm. A place where fairy tales are real.

Fast forward twelve years, during which Jacob has explored the mirror world obsessively, neglecting his mother and little brother, W
ill. The mirror world has become enmired in a war between humans and the Goyl, stone-skinned subterranean people who are bent on claiming the upper lands as their dominion. For the first time, Will has followed Jacob through the mirror, and disaster has struck. Will has been injured by a Goyl, and is slowly turning into one of them himself, the stone spreading through his skin.

Now Jacob must desperately quest through all the dangers of the twisted tales of the mirror world, looking for a way to save his little brother. Accompanying the two brothers are Fox, a shapeshifting girl who has been Jacob's companion for years (who is waiting for him to notice that she is more than just his friend, the fox, but also a girl who loves him), and Will's girlfriend Clara, who made her way through the mirror to find him. Together they face a frightening panoply of magic and mayhem in a world where death is no fairy tale at all.

"I know why you're here." Clara's voice sounded distant, as though she were speaking not about him but about herself. "This world doesn't frighten you half as much as the other one. You have nothing and nobody to lose here. Except Fox, and she clearly worries more about you than you do about her. You've left all that could frighten you in the other world. But then Will came here and brought it all with him." (page 208).

Despite the ostensibly already grown-up age of the central characters, this is a book about growing-up, about how the relationships of brothers and friends, and perceptions of oneself, change in terrifying ways as adulthood is entered. Jacob might be 24 on paper, but the young man in the mirror world is more an avatar of oldness exploring a fantasy world than a convincing adult--his character is still very much that of the reckless adolescent, confused by his emotional responses to the questions posed by growing up. Although sex lurks in the background (it's never explicitly or centrally part of the story), for Jacob it is still the hormonally charged lust of the adolescent--he has yet to learn love (oh poor Fox. I felt for her so very much).

And the lands behind the mirror, built of fractured fairy tales, are full of metaphors that reflect this. The younger brother, turning into unloving stone, who his older brother can no longer protect. The tomboy girl (Fox), who now wants to be seen as someone else. The fairy tales share this theme--there was no instant true love that could save the sleeping beauty here in this place, and the gingerbread houses lie empty. The way to the Red Fairy, with all her magically irresistible sex appeal, lies through the lands of the unicorns, who gore and trample anyone who looks at them. The mirror world itself is rushing away from its own childhood--new inventions and technology (many of them introduced by Jacob's father) are changing things rapidly.

This reliance on metaphor is fascinating, and had a profound effect on the way I read the book. Mostly I gallop through books I'm enjoying, hardly aware that there is an author at all. When reading this book, however, I was always conscious of the Funke's presence, deliberately introducing scenes and set pieces to further the creation of the edifice of the story. This feeling was heightened by the occasional insertion of explicit fairy tale references, like the quote I used to begin this review (which comes right at the end of the book, on page 389--I hope it's not too much of a spoiler). She is a lot like a dungeon master, putting challenges in the way of her characters, rolling her narrative dice to determine if they will live or not.

And indeed I think the most perfect audience for this book would be the roll playing 12 or 13 year old boy, caught (metaphorically) in the same place as Jacob...So although this is one that will be enjoyed very much by many adults, this is a middle grade book (I had wondered). But it's not a middle grade book for younger kids--there are terrifying things here. The cover is rather brilliant in this regard--it is fierce and scary and magical, just like the mirror world, but it is disturbing enough to deter those looking for happy endings who won't be comfortable inside this world (it's another one I had to keep face down so my seven year old didn't have to look at it).

I'm not quite the right reader for this one--I enjoyed it lots intellectually, but the flip side of that is that I never lost myself in the world of the story, which happens with the books I love best. That being said, my only real complaint is with the ending; as the jacket flap says: "If you've come for happily ever after, you've come to the wrong place." But I wouldn't have minded just a bit more reason to think that Jacob is finally going to grow up....(oh, Fox, I feel for you so), and I think the story needed that hope.

Other thoughts at Squeaky Books, IMCPL Kids, and A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy.

Help wanted (but not actually expected) with deciphering a title on my t.b.r. list....(sigh)

It is time again for me to transcribe my main to be read list, shown here:



As you can see, it is getting messy.

But I have hit a problem. There is a title that I cannot decipher:

It looks like The Cumlity to me, but that can't be right, and it's driving me nuts.

There's a chance it could be C....dity. But the "ity" part I'm pretty sure of. Unless--could this be the breakthrough I need? it' s C....lits. The Cromlits? The Cronelits?

This particular list is mostly books mentioned on other blogs, so if you by any chance reviewed a book beginning with C and ending (possibly) with -lity, could you let me know? Thanks.

Changing Times, by Tim Kennemore, for Timeslip Tuesday

Changing Times, by Tim Kennemore (1984, YA, 144 pages, but the type was smaller and denser back then). It isn't much of an autobiographical link, but Kennemore doesn't seem to have her own website, or wikipedia entry. And vexingly, I wasn't able to find a picture online--I'll have to scan the cover tomorrow.

It is Victoria's fifteenth birthday, and her parents have bestowed lavish presents upon her. Presents that she barely acknowledges--why give them any emotional response, when they have neglected her emotionally for years? Caught up in their own bitter relationship, and in their obsessive bridge playing, neither has any time or real interest in their daughter. One present she does appreciate is the chance to pick anything she wants from her uncle's antique store. And the thing that appeals most is a strange and seemingly non-functional clock....

Turns out the clock can take its owner back, or forward, to any part of their life. Victoria is about to find out what happened in her childhood that made her parents the miserable people they became...and she'll find out what might happen to herself and her boyfriend, Daniel, as well.

Victoria's travels through her own life form the bulk of the book, as she relives days from her past--days that flit away again, once she sleeps, so that there are no consequences. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much depth to Victoria's journey as I had hoped for, in large part because Victoria is a prickly character. She's been warped, rather, by her unloving parents, and in consequence has become rather unlovably cold and distant. Although she learns about her life in a rational way, she doesn't grow that much emotionally, and so the book, while interesting and well-written (nice crisp prose-wise, although a tad archaic--I haven't come across "clad" for years), isn't one I took to my heart.

Changing Times is a British book, and I've found the same very smart but emotionally distant feel to quite a few of the (admittedly small number) of 1960s to 1980s UK YA books that I've read. And it's a funny thing in general, reading a YA book from way back in the early eighties. The marital relationships of the various grown-ups seem dated in their somewhat sordid unhappiness, or, in the case of Daniel's parents, old-fashioned ideas about the woman's role in the family. It's strange, too, to read a YA book in which girl friend and boy friend don't even kiss (although partly this is because Daniel has been so warped by his domineering father).

However, at the time of its publication it was lavished with praise--- "Quite extraordinary skill and originality," said the Guardian. "A powerful exposition of family relationships marred and scarred," The Junior Bookshelf opined. "A distinctive sharp witty style...refreshing and exhilarating," commented British Book News.

So maybe it's just me. And indeed, this one might well appeal to fans of Honor Arundal and Jane Gardam (two other UK authors writing YA in the 196os and 1970s), although it doesn't come close to the utter brilliance of Gardam's Bilgewater. In looking up these three authors just now, I was rather interested to see that although Jane Gardam began writing books for adults, Tim Kennemore moved from this type of somewhat acerbic YA drama to lighter stories for younger children (like Circle of Doom, from 2006, which sounds like a lovely fun book).

Timeslip-wise--the clock is never explained, the consequences of time travel negligible (except for the effect on Victoria's understanding of her life). It's much more a family dynamics/growing up story than an adventure through time.

Blogging the Backlist --a recap of what I said at Kidlit Con

At Kidlit Con I found myself on a panel about blogging the backlist, with two Holiday Inn post it notes clutched in my hot little hand. Fortunately, I was flanked by three other eloquent speakers (Melissa, Jen, and Carol), and it’s hard to be nervous when talking about books to kidlit bloggers (because you know they care too). My two post it notes are long gone, but here’s my effort to recapture my scattered thoughts.

Our panel’s structure was based on a framework developed by Jen, who posed the following questions about why one might blog about out of print or backlisted books.

1. What’s in it for me?
2. What’s in it for my blog?
3. What’s in it for my readers?
4. What’s in it for the greater good?

And so these are the points that I address, starting, as comes so naturally, with Me.

Sometimes, I think I want mine to be a cutting edge blog--one of the beautiful blogs whose template is never wrinkled, who talk about the latest new releases, and who always seem to know what is New and Hot. But I have decided that is simply not who I am. Sure, I like getting ARCs in general, and Love getting ARCs of Megan Whalen Turner books, in particular, and it’s lots of fun to write excitedly about new books. I will never not want to review new books. In fact, I just wrote to HarperCollins requesting one today (Invisible Things, the sequel to The Explosionist, by Jenny Davidson, which I loved).

But there’s a downside to blogging about what’s current and accepting lots of review copies—it’s stressful. The beady eyes of all the review copies accumulating on every flat surface of your house, watching as you read a library book, or, heaven forbid, a book off your own shelves, make for nervous pleasure reading. And there’s no time for re-reading at all. It's considerably more relaxing to write about an old favorite that one loves--there are no deadlines for sharing old favorites, and there they all are, in my own case, on the shelves closest to my bed, just peacefully waiting.

Another reason there's less stress is that when one writes about a backlist or out of print book, the audience is simply people who love books. When posting about a new book I received for review, I'm writing for the gatekeepers. I feel that I should be thinking Critically, making clear arguments about the book's strengths and weaknesses. I enjoy doing that (otherwise I would do it), but it still takes a bit of effort. When writing about a book I just happen to love, I don't feel compelled to do that as much (which is good, because it's hard to think critically about a book you've practically memorized). If I want to write about the loveliness of the heroine's room, or her charming boots, I can gush at will. And boy, is it gratifying when some one reads a review of a childhood favorite, and shares their own love for it! Or rushes out to hunt for a copy of their own.

I've done both of those things when reading reviews of out of print books at other blogs. And one reason I like such posts is not just for the books, but because of the insight they give me into the character of the blogger. For one thing, the choice of which books to talk about is much wider--not just what is new, but what is loved--so you can learn about the blogger. When some one posts a review of a D.E. Stevenson book, for instance, I think "This person could be a friend," and I want to keep reading their blog. It's not just the choices that express a blogger's character, it's the writing as well-- when I posted my review of Valley of Song, by Elizabeth Goudge, for instance, I was writing much more as me, Charlotte, than is the case when I review a new book, with the gatekeepers in my mind. And so maybe my readers know me a bit better.

It doesn't hurt one's blog stats, either, to include older books. My look at The Green Book, by Jill Patton Walsh, is my fourth most googled post. If you want comments, write about an old favorite.

There are some blogs whose have made a clear choice to focus on backlist or out of print books, or at least to include lots of them. This gives them a lovely clear point, that greatly benefits readers. The Children's War, for instance, is a place where you'll find exclusively books about kids in WW II; lots of them are old, but that doesn't make them less wonderful, and it is a great resource. I include a lot of backlist/out of print titles in my two thematic lists--Time Travel Books and Multicultural sci fi/fantasy, and I think this makes them a much more useful place for people to come. (And, as an INFP, I am apparently focused on making the world a better place, seeking to serve humanity as best I can (pats self on back). I don't think I'd want to blog if my blog wasn't Useful to someone).

Finally, thinking now of the greater good--blogging the backlist gives historical depth to issues still very contentious today. It puts things in context. It brings to readers books that might not be on bookstore shelves, that still have the power to wake people up, shattering bubbles of naivete. And I think it's incredibly important to go back, as Debbie Reese does at Native Americans in Children's Literature, to re-examine old books with insights that expose their weaknesses, so that we don't just blindly accept the printed pages of yester year, with all their ignorance and prejudice. I'm looking forward lots to participating in Mitali's upcoming feature--community re-reads of children's classics, looking at them with fresh eyes (up first, on November 1-5, Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace).

And those are the reasons why, amongst my of new books, there are lots of reviews of old ones! So join Angie for her Retro Friday feature, if you want some structure to your backlist blogging, or simply share an old favorite...Rediscovering what lurks on your own shelves, or in the public library, can be just as rewarding as a full mailbox of new books. (But I really hope HarperCollins sends me Invisible Things).

I wish I could remember the insightful things my co-panelists said, but sadly I can't remember much. I'm pretty sure that the comments I've just made above were shaped very much by what they said too (if not lifted directly from something they said first)--so thanks to Jen and Melissa and Carol!

I do remember one specific point-that blogging the backlist can be instrumental in bringing beloved books back into print--with the Betsy-Tacy books being a shining example (although this hasn't helped Betsy Bird's Winged Girl of Knossos yet...every year she mentions it, to no avail). And I'm sure the others said many more wonderful things--I do remember nodding lots and lots in agreement...

Ursula Le Guin is blogging!

I am back from Kidlit Con 2010, which was great fun, and there are lots of things I want to post about, which are going to require Time and Thought, but, since at this moment I have neither, I just wanted to share the exciting news that Ursula Le Guin has started blogging, here at Book View Cafe! I am so pleased, because I admire her so much, and I welcome the chance to sit at her (virtual) feet...

This Sunday's Round-Up of Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction

This week's round-up was compiled last Friday, just before I headed out to Kidlitcon 2010 in Minneapolis...I'll update it on Sunday night (or, more likely, Monday morning....)

Here's what's new since I posted this on Friday:

Kate Coombs has a fascinating, utterly fascinating, post about trends in mg sff using the Cybils Nominees as a data set--check it out here at Book Aunt.

Reviews:

Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising, by Jason Henderson, at Booked Up.

Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at Booked Up.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture, by Kathryn Lasky, at The O.W.L.

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, by Mary Downing Hahn at Lucy Was Robbed.

Halt's Peril, by John Flanagan, at Ms. Yingling Reads.

Heart of Glass, by Vivian French, at Back to Books.

The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan, at Charlotte's Library.

The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, at Ms. Yingling Reads, Essa Pamandanan, and The Book Zone

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan, at One Librarian's Book Reviews.

On the Blue Comet, by Rosemary Wells, at Charlotte's Library

Takeshita Demons, by Cristy Burne, at Great Kid Books.

The Thirteenth Princess, by Diane Zahler, at Biblio File and Booked Up.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner, at Bart's Bookshelf.

Zombiekins, by Kevin Bolger, at Cloudy With a Chance of Books.

A three for one at Ms. Yingling reads--Princesses, Fairies, and Basilisks...and do spend some time browsing Ms. Yingling's other posts from this past week--lots of good mg fantasy sprinkled among them!

Interviews:

Panama Oxridge (Justin Thyme) at The Book Zone
Penny Noyce (Lost in Lexicon) at Author.
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero etc) at Wired

And an interview with Stacy Whitman, editor of Tu Books (an imprint of Lee & Low dedicated to publishing multicultural fantasy/sci fi for kids and teens) at Cynsations.

Katherine Roberts is this week's contributor to Katherine Langrish's Fairytale Reflections series.

There's a guest post J.S. Lewis (Grey Griffins books) at Reading Vacation

News:

J.K. Rowling is the first winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize, which comes with a prize of slightly over $93,000. This prize is given to an author comparable to Anderson, and is not the same award as the Hans Christian Andersen medal, which was first awarded in 1956). I am still mulling over ways in which Rowling is comparable to Andersen...and not quite coming up with much that satisfies me, apart from "famous" and "memorable." In Andersen's case (for me at least) too many horrific details are all too memorable....

And other, sad, news:

Eva Ibbotson, great creator of magical stories, has died...here's an interview from the Guardian with her from earlier this month, where she talks about her life as a writer, and her most recent book, The Ogre of Ogglefort-- "When I get stuck in a book now, I usually try putting an aunt in," says Eva Ibbotson, matter-of-factly. "I find it difficult to write a book without aunts. With The Ogre I had to put in three aunts, if I remember rightly." Ogre was shortlisted for the 2010 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and will be released in the U.S. by Dutton in summer 2011.

New Releases of sci fi/fantasy for kids and teens--the second half of October, 2010, edition

Here are the new releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens for the second half of October. My information comes straight from Teens Read Too--please let me know of any new releases I've missed!!! The blurbs are lifted from Amazon/Goodreads/etc.

Middle Grade:

AGENT Q, OR THE SMELL OF DANGER!: A PALS IN PERIL TALE by M. T. Anderson. "It's time for Lily, Katie, and Jasper to head home from their exciting Delaware adventure, but the Awful Autarch's spies and goons are everywhere, and it's clear that *they* have other plans for our three intrepid heroes.

Chock full of ups, downs, twists, turns, and even a band of sentient lobsters fighting on the side of Good, this fourth installment of the Pals in Peril series is every bit as wild, wacky, and wonderfully outrageous as the first three."

THE BOOK OF MAPS: SACRED BOOKS by David Michael Slater. "It's been nearly a year, but Dex and Daphna are still not over what happened in Turkey. What they gained and what they lost there is almost too much to conceive. They've done their best to put the whole nightmare behind them, to start a new life with their new mother--but their dreams won't let them move on: dreams of falling into the void through that noxious wind; dreams of wings, millions of black wings, flapping in the dark; dreams of that awful, bone-chilling laughter. And now, the night before they were to officially open a new chapter in their lives, they find their fears are not only in their heads. They find that when they came back from those dreadful caves, something came with them."

THE BOY WHO HOWLED by Timothy Power. "As far back as Callum can really remember, he's been living in the Wild as the furless mascot of a wolf pack. But when his pack sends him back to live with his own kind—humans—fitting in is quite a challenge. He doesn't remember English very well, so he accidentally says his name is "Clam." He's spent most of his life eating fresh-killed elk, so dining with vegetarians is tricky. And when he tries to impress the Alpha student in the school cafeteria by stealing food, people seem offended!

A mix of wildness and humor, Timothy Power's inventive writing makes him a debut author to watch. And Callum's quest to find his place in a strange world will have readers rooting for him—when they're not howling with laughter."

THE COMING OF THE DRAGON by Rebecca Barnhouse. "Rebecca Barnhouse weaves Norse gods, blood feuds, and a terrifying dragon into this spectacular retelling of the end of the Old English poem Beowulf.

When he was a baby, Rune washed up onshore in a boat, along with a sword and a pendant bearing the runes that gave him his nickname. Some people thought he was a sacrifice to the gods and wanted to send him right back to the sea. Luckily for Rune, King Beowulf disagreed. He lifted the boy from the boat and gave him to Amma, a wisewoman living on a farm far removed from the king’s hall, to raise as she saw fit.

Sixteen years later, Rune spends his summers laboring on the farm. And at King Beowulf’s request, he comes to the hall each winter for weapons training. But somehow he never quite fits in. Many people still fear he will bring a curse on the kingdom. Then a terrible thing happens. On a lonely crag on a mountain that belongs to the giants, someone awakens a dragon. It is time for Rune to find the warrior inside himself and prove to the doubters once and for all that he is a true hero."

THE NECROPOLIS: THE FORGOTTEN WORLDS by PJ Hoover. "The situation in Lemuria is rapidly deteriorating. In fact teleportation between the hidden continent and the outside world has become so dangerous, all agents and their families have been recalled. Although Benjamin is pleased to be living in Lemuria full time, he knows he needs to find his last sibling soon. However, between classes, a murderous half-brother, and complications with his friend Heidi, Benjamin can barely focus. Besides, there's only one place left they haven't searched - the hidden continent of Atlantis."

UNDER THE GREEN HILL by Laura L. Sullivan. "Rowan, Meg, Silly and James Morgan are sent to the home of a distant relative in rural England. They are joined by their brilliant, bashful friend Dickie Rhys, and the despised Finn Fachan.

First they scoff at the country traditions – never give your real name to strangers, don’t step on the ants – but soon realize those silly superstitions are deadly serious. They help protect people from fairy influence. Their great-great aunt Phyllida Ash is the Guardian of the Green Hill, the last bastion of fairies in England.

Rowan, the eldest, is chosen to be one of the champions in the Midsummer War. His options are grim: kill his opponent, a beloved friend, or die himself as sacrifice. His sister Meg thinks she sees a way out, but will she risk her life and the fate of the earth itself to change a ritual that has gone on for thousands of years?"


Young Adult:

CRESCENDO by Becca Fitzpatrick. "Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?"

THE DRAGON'S APPRENTICE: THE CHRONICLES OF THE IMAGINARIUM GEOGRAPHICA by James A. Owen. "Seven years after the events of The Shadow Dragons, John, Jack and Charles are finally able to return to their beloved Archipelago of Dreams. But even as their return is celebrated by old friends, new concerns shadow the reunion: the threat of Ecthroi, primordial Shadow. And perhaps even worse, the apparent splintering of Time itself.

Now, the Caretakers must fight against their most fearsome enemy ever and attempt to restore Time. They must journey through a forgotten Door from the destroyed Keep of Time in order to seek out the Dragon's Apprentice. If they fail, it will mean the end of both of the worlds. But success will carry its own price--a price that may be too high even for the Caretakers to bear."

HUNGER by Jackie Morse Kessler. "Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home—her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power—and the courage to fight her own inner demons?
A wildly original approach to the issue of eating disorders, Hunger is about the struggle to find balance in a world of extremes, and uses fantastic tropes to explore a difficult topic that touches the lives of many teens."

NIGHTSHADE by Andrea Cremer. "Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything--including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?"

THE EMERALD FLAME: WARRIOR PRINCESS by Frewin Jones. " Branwen has finally accepted that the Shining Ones have chosen her to save her country from the Saxon invaders. But the next stage in her journey includes a seemingly impossible mission, and the path before her is filled with darkness and danger. Branwen is pushed to the brink of disaster, and with each step she takes, she is being pulled farther from the life she once knew—the life she still desperately misses.

Guided by the spirits, with both her fearless friend Rhodri and the dashing, sometimes maddening Iwan by her side, Branwen must overcome terrifying odds if she is to succeed in her quest. But a true Warrior Princess won't back down . . . even when an old enemy returns."

FANTASY: AN ARTIST'S REALM by Ben Boos. "Imaginative people have always longed to experience a world more magical, more adventurous, more enchanted than our own. In this lavish volume, Ben Boos welcomes us to a land of his own creation, a land replete with beings of fantasy and folklore, including elves, dwarves, minotaurs, hobgoblins, and undead horrors. From the windy forests where elves and healers dwell to the misty coastal fortresses of Paladins and the towering libraries of Mages, each mysterious region comes alive in Ben Boos’s extraordinary art and descriptive text. Filled with exquisite detail on every page, this is an absorbing and inspiring fantasy experience not to be missed."

THE FLEDGLING HANDBOOK 101: HOUSE OF NIGHT by P.C. Cast & Kim Doner. "This might seem like a scary time, Fledgling, but never fear! As you start your journey through the ancient halls of the House of Night, this indispensable handbook will aid you in your transition from human to fledgling. Within these pages you will find invaluable information about the history of vampyres. You will also come to a better understanding of your body’s transformation, as well as read words of hope from great vampyres of the past and learn essential foundations of rituals and lore. Now, Fledgling, read on. A new life awaits you; your path to that magickal future begins here!"

GHOST TOWN: THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES by Rachel Caine. "While developing a new system to maintain Morganville's defenses, student Claire Danvers discovers a way to amplify vampire mental powers. Through this, she's able to re-establish the field around this vampire-infested Texas college town that protects it from outsiders.

But the new upgrades have an unexpected consequence: people inside the town begin to slowly forget who they are-even the vampires. Soon, the town's little memory problem has turned into a full-on epidemic. Now Claire needs to figure out a way to pull the plug on her experiment- before she forgets how to save Morganville..."

THE HAUNTING OF CHARLES DICKENS by Lewis Buzbee. "Meg Pickel’s older brother, Orion, has disappeared. One night, she steals out to look for him, and makes two surprising discoveries: She stumbles upon a séance that she suspects involves Orion, and she meets the author Charles Dickens, also unable to sleep, and roaming the London streets. He is a customer of Meg’s father, who owns a print shop, and a family friend. Mr. Dickens fears that the children of London aren’t safe, and is trying to solve the mystery of so many disappearances. If he can, then perhaps he’ll be able to write once again."

MISGUIDED ANGEL: BLUE BLOODS by Melissa de la Cruz. "After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all of her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online…for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler’s mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart."

WICKED WOODS by Kailin Gow. "Briony had to move to Wicked Woods, Massachusetts to live with her Great Aunt Sophie after her family disappears on vacation. The woods at the edge of Aunt Sophie s inn is filled with secrets and inhabitants both seductive and deadly. Among them is a beautiful boy name Fallon who saves her one night in the woods. As Briony gets closer to Fallon, she learns he has a secret, as do most of the residents of Wicked Wood. Book 1 of 5 in the Wicked Woods Series."

ORPHAN OF DESTINY: THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR by Michael P. Spradlin

"Tristan and his companions-the fiery archer Robard Hode and the assassin maid Maryam-have escaped to England. But tragedy has occurred to Tristan's beloved abbey while they were on the Third Crusade, and Robard's home in Sherwood Forest suffers under the rule of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Many obstacles still prevent them from delivering the Holy Grail into safe hands. Tristan must defeat the evil Sir Hugh in one final battle. And he must learn the secret of his birth, a secret Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine are willing to kill to protect!"

Blogging the back list

I am off to Minneapolis today, to join in the book blogger fun at Kidlitcon 2010.

Tomorrow I'll be part of a panel talking about "Blogging the Backlist;" for which I am, as yet, not quite prepared....(why change my life's modus operendum at this late date?)

But, just in case I get to check my email later today--what do you thing about old/out-of-print/backlisted books? I like them, myself--partly because I only skim a lot of the reviews of just released books, because of not having read them. But a review of an out of print book, even if it's new to me, I'm more likely to read slowly...especially if it's a review of a children's/YA fantasy book published in the 1990s, when (for many reasons, like playing way too much pool/being in grad school) I didn't read many new-to-me books....

The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan

The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan (Aladdin, 2010, middle grade, 320 pages)

"Plucky Orphans/Neglected Children in Deadly Danger" is one of my favorite sub-genres of fantasy for children, especially (and this is important) when they aren't Chosen Ones. This isn't to say that Chosen One stories can't be good, too--there's just a certain fresh piquancy (or something like that) that ordinary children can have that adds to my reading enjoyment!

The Lost Children delivers plucky children in spades. Young Josephine, neglected by her father, passes through a portal in a shed and finds herself in another world--a world where children are hunted by terrible beasts, known as the Brothers, who serve a sinister and powerful Master. Josephine has landed at the Higgins Institute for Wayward Children and Forsake Youth, but there are only two Wayward Children left (the others having been thrown to the Brothers)--a girl named Ida and a boy named Fargus. Together the plucky youngsters escape (as one might expect), and eventually (again, as expected) overthrow the bad Master.

Their journey to that happy conclusion is dotted with mystery and adventure, and the three central kids are nicely individual. The point of view shifts between them, and other minor characters, which further fleshes out the story. The strong characters of the kids, coupled with the particular circumstances of Cohagan's world-building, are more than distinct enough to keep the story fresh and fun, even though the bones of the plot aren't wildly original, and it never quite delivered all that much emotional power.

In short, a fine fantasy for the plucky-child-loving reader who doesn't require magical pyrotechnics.

Manifest, by Artist Arthur

Manifest, by Artist Arthur (2010, Harlequin Enterprises, YA, 256 pages)

Krystal is angry and hurting. She didn't want to leave New York to go live with her mom and her mom's new husband Gerald in a small town in Connecticut, and she misses her old life, and her dad, something fierce. But one thing has followed her to her new hometown--the dead.

She's seen them before. But now she's being haunted out of her mind by the ghost of a rather cute boy who wants her help figuring out who killed him, and why...And Ricky's just the most persistent of the ghosts who are making contact with her.

Krystal isn't the only freak in her high school--two other kids have mysterious powers as well, and the same birthmark that Krystal does. These three kids join forces, calling themselves the Mystyx. They don't know why they can do what they do, or how it happened, but they do know that something dark is heading their way...and solving they mystery of Ricky's death might be just the tip of the iceberg.

Krystal is an angry and annoying character for a large chunk of the book. It was incredibly hard to sympathize with her; I wanted to shake her instead. Fortunately, once the book hits its stride, and the supernatural mystery gets going, Krystal stops being quite so self-absorbed, and I was able to enjoy the ghostly intrigue. And it was a rather gripping mystery, although Arthur stops short of actually bringing all the pieces together, presumably keeping that for future books, which was a tad frustrating. Most of the really interesting paranormal aspects are still utterly unexplained....

What makes this book stand out is that Krystal and her friends are normal African-American teenagers (apart, of course, from their supernatural abilities); their ethnicity wasn't a plot point, just a fact of their lives (and isn't it a beautiful cover!).

In short, although this first book of the series was somewhat uneven, the second book promises more -- Krystal's grown up somewhat, and I no longer want to shake her, and the paranormal plot is about to really get going!

Other reviews at The Brain Lair, Girls in the Stacks, On a Pale Star, YA Addict, and Marie Loves Books.

My blog's wearing purple today...

...because of this.

In the words of Brittany McMillan, who organized this event:

"It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in memory of the recent gay suicides. Many of them suffered from homophobic abuse in their schools or in their homes. We want to take a stand to say that we will not tolerate this. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th to remember all the lives of LGBTQ youth that have been lost due to homophobia. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools."

(I'd be wearing purple too, if I had any, but at any event, more people will see my blog than see me...)

On the Blue Comet, by Rosemary Wells, for Timeslip Tuesday

On the Blue Comet, by Rosemary Wells (2010, Candlewick, middle grade, 329 pages)

Oscar and his dad, a John Deere tractor salesman, have a comfortable life together back in the late 1920s in Cairo, Illinois. Together they've filled the basement of their home with a model train layout that both of them love--Oscar especially enjoys squinching down to peer inside the trains, imagining himself on board.

Then the stock market crashes, and no-one's buying tractors anymore. Oscar's dad heads west to look for work, and their house, and (heartbreakingly for Oscar) all the trains, must be sold. Living with his aunt, and having to eat her casseroles, is very hard for Oscar, but some comfort comes in the regular visits of an out-of-work history teacher, who drops by when the aunt is off in the afternoons giving music and elocution lessons. This gentleman just happens to have been a theoretical math whizz--not only does he help Oscar with his math homework, but (among other conversations, including the best way to memorize poetry) he explains that time travel is theoretically possible.

Eventually the teacher gets a job as a night watchman in the biggest bank in town, which just happens to have a superb model train layout on display for the holidays....and so it's natural that Oscar should drop by to visit his friend, and the trains. But one night, armed bank robbers break in. Oscar's friend is shot, and to save himself, Oscar jumps...into the model train layout. And so a fantastical rail journey through time begins.

Oscar finds himself on a train headed out to his dad in California. But when he arrives, he somehow pushes through a barrier in time, and finds himself ten years older. WW II has broken out, and Oscar's in danger of being drafted--even though he still is eleven inside. Fortunately he made friends, back on the train when he was eleven, with a young man who's destined to become a movie star; ten years later, that friendship gets him inside Joan Collins (!) house (she has a lovely train layout), where he escapes army recruits by diving into trains again...back into the past.

He's still not home, though, and his last adventure, in the company of another magically train jumping girl in 1925, is his strangest yet....

This is a beautiful book, both physically--there are full color illustrations that are beautifully retro--and content-wise. It's the sort of story that combines lots of feeling--the emotions that tug on the heart--with an exciting adventure. Oscar's reactions rang true for me throughout, without being overdone, and the historical aspects of the book were fascinating (I love learning history through historical fiction, and if I were teaching a class on the Great Depression, I'd assign this book). And I never once had any quibbles with the writing--in particular, I thought Wells did a lovely job with Oscar's narration of the story--the short, simple sentences are spot on. In short, it's a great book.

I think, though, that this might be one that appeals even more to the grown-up fan of children's fantasy then to kids themselves, mainly because it takes a while for the Adventure to get going, and because adults, with their (presumably) greater knowledge of history and the culture of the 1920s-40s, might more easily appreciate the details of Oscar's life. If I were giving this as a Christmas present, I'd look in particular for the parent who plays trains with his or her son! The train obsessed kid is, of course, another fine target audience.

Timeslip-wise, the possibility of time travel is sketched early in the book, at a theoretical level, and then Wells leaves it just to happen, without trying to Explain. This is perhaps a wise decision, as it allows the story to flow without potentially awkward attempts to make it Reasonable, but, on the other hand, when a second child is able to magically jump the rails, it becomes possibly too inexplicable for the more logically oriented reader.

Other reviews at Ms. Yingling Reads, and at You Know, for Kids

Supernatural, from DK, for Non-Fiction Monday

Supernatural: Explore the Unknown, from Atlantis to Zombies, from DK Publishing (2010, middle grade, 96 pages) Ghosts. Mediums. Telepathy. Bigfoot. UFOs. These are just a few of the strange and scary topics are covered in DK’s Supernatural, which combines Seasonal Appropriateness, genuinely interesting content and lovely presentation.

The book is a thing of beauty, with silver boarder design and lettering, and a holographic image on the cover. It has much the same appeal, object-wise, as the –ology books (Dragonology, Monstorology, etc). It is given heft (enough so that it is a “tome’), by the thickness and sturdiness of the pages (almost board book thick). And inside is the usual combination that characterizes DK—the subject bites arranged in paragraphs, and accompanied by copious illustrations.

Many and various are the DK books that I have enjoyed reading with my children, but Supernatural is the first that I read cover to cover all by myself in one sitting! It relies heavily on authentic historical images, so that the reader sees the same photographs of ghosts that convinced the masses 100 years ago. There’s a picture of a medium with ectoplasm, a picture of a victim of spontaneous combustion (lying inside a fire place), and a picture of what a poltergeist did to an office back in the 1980s.. These historically-oriented topics I found tremendously engaging, and even more shop-worn topics (zombies and vampires) were not without interest.

This book is not intended to scare the reader, but to inform and educate. The creators of this book to side firmly on the side of disbelief, with “Dr. Doubt” (the self-proclaimed spokesman for “sanity and sense”) introducing the book and showing up to cast aspersions the reality of each topic covered. The book closes with a look at the two opposing sides of Spooked and Skeptic—fringe “scientists” vs. rational thinker and the reader is invited to choose their side. In my mind, at least, the perfectly rational explanations offered for some (but not all) of the supernatural mysteries presented, the gallery of famous hoaxes, and my own natural cynicism make the choice easy!

The Non-Fiction Monday Roundup is hosted by Mother Reader today!

(review copy received from the publisher)

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):

Three haunting books

Even though the sun has come out, it is sufficiently blustery outside to make reading inside for the Halloween Reading Challenge (which I joined at the last minute) a rather nice thing to do. Here are the three middle grade fantasy/horror books that I've read today:

The Joy of Spooking, Book 1: Fiendish Deeds, by P.J. Bracegirdle (2008, 215 pages) Despite incessant taunting from the residents of ultra-bright Darlington down below, Joy loves the all but abandoned hamlet of Spooking, where she lives in an old house full of remnants of the past, with a pleasingly gloomy swamp and a large cemetery adding ambiance. When a water amusement park threatens the swamp, Joy is determined to save it....after all, it is almost certainly the home of the hideous Bog Fiend, made (moderately) famous in the fiction of her favorite author, horror writer E.A. Peugeot. But supernatural horrors pale in comparison to the determination of the mayor's nefarious assistant to get the bulldozers going...

Dark gothic fun for the young reader, although there is some strong stuff here, including a grisly chainsaw murder (the details aren't given, but the imagination has more than enough to go on). I'd advise caution here, because it's rather icky. And there are lots of leaches. On the other hand, Joy, with her spunky intelligence, Peugeot obsession, and penchant for dressing in the abandoned clothes of yesteryear (they came with the house) is a most engaging heroine. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Forbidden Sea, by Sheila A. Nielson (2010, 296 pages). Adrienne has heard the story all her life--of how, years before, a mermaid had laid waste to the island, before taking a beautiful girl away, under the water, forever. Now the mermaid has returned, and is haunting Adrienne....the cuts of her fingernails swollen welts on Adrienne's arm, her voice in Adrienne's ears, sleeping and waking. Adrienne's life is already hard--poverty-stricken after her father's death, her family is struggling to survive, and she is convinced she faces a life of bitterness and drudgery. But then the mermaid offers her a chance of a life beyond her wildest dreams--if she forsakes the land, and all those whom she loves, for the sea.

I wasn't sure about this one at first--the characters and the action seemed to me to lack subtly, and the writing felt stiff. Adrienne, who narrates this story, is, with reason, not a happy person to spend time with, and I found the cast of characters to be rather unsympathetic in general (many of them needed a good shaking). But by the middle of the book, I had become, all unwitting, absorbed in the story, and the last hundred pages flew by as the unpleasantness of Adrienne's life turned into a fantasy wish-fulfillment story with a satisfying ending. This one falls on the upper end of mg--it might be just the thing for the eleven or so year old girl who isn't ready for fantasy that's heavy on the romance, but wants something moving in that direction.

Zombiekins, by Kevin Bolger (2010, 206 pages, but not nearly as many words as that suggests). The witty account of a stuffed animal who is Evil. Who is, in fact, a Zombie! Who is turning all the school children into zombies! Who must be stopped!

Copious illustrations of charm (well, in an un-dead kind of way) and humor, and a pleasingly dry tone make this more than just a silly story. A good one for the Wimpy Kid reader who detests cute stuffed animals that giggle annoyingly. A bad one for the kid who might have nightmares about being suffocated by their own stuffed animals. It is easy to tell these two groups apart, by showing them the cover. Some, like my seven year old, will be repulsed and frightened and ask that it be placed face down once at home. Others, like the random boy of around that age who happened to be at the circulation desk of the library at the same time as us, will be intrigued.

This morning's reading is a nice example of why I am so fond of mg/younger YA fantasy and science fiction--there is so much variety within the genre that it does not grow stale!

Time to read....

The Cybils nominations are closed (you can see the lists at the Cybils site), and I have about 80 books to read in the next two months. It's a cold damp day here in southern New England, so working in the yard isn't going to happen. What I'd like to be doing is going to the Rhode Island Festival of Children's Books and Authors, but the car is going to be in Boston (I took my oldest to this festival when he was three--he's always been a huge fan of David Macaulay, who is a regular at it. Poor Mr. Macaulay looked a tad alarmed when I told him my boy wanted to know where he lived so he could go sit outside his house and see more of him).

So I've joined a Halloween Readathon at the last minute!

Princess For Hire, by Lindsey Leavitt

Princess For Hire, by Lindsey Leavitt (Hyperion 2010, upper middle grade, 256 pages)

Who would have thought that fish in a pet store aquarium could grant wishes? Not Desi. But reeling from an unfortunate encounter--one in which the head of her groundhog costume (part of her pet store job) is ripped off by her ex-best friend in front of the boy she's been crushing on for ages---she's willing to suspend disbelief. "I wish I was the kind of person who made an impact" (page 15).

Her chance comes that night, when a strange woman appears inside an iridescent bubble and offers Desi the chance to become a substitute princess. Turns out there's a lot of demand for girls with a touch of magic to them, willing to fill in for princesses who want to take a break. So Desi signs on the dotted line...and is off on a whirlwind adventure of princessly proportions.

Life as a princess, as Desi is soon to find out, isn't all yachts and bonbons. As a novice, Desi is starting at the bottom of the princess scale...the "easy" princesses, the one's whose lives aren't likely to be messed up by substitute incompetence. But Desi, even though she's not incompetent, had wished to make an impact....and before she's done, she's interfered rather dramatically with the lives of a Sheikh's daughter, the daughter of an Amazonian Chief, and that of a lonely girl from a very obscure branch of European royalty.

The job is not an easy one--it doesn't come with instructions about how to play the French horn, perform a tribal dance, or how to know when to kiss a handsome prince....but by trusting to her instincts, Desi finds the confidence to truly make an impact (for the better) on her princesses...and she gains confidence in her own life as well.

It's a fun and diverting book in its episodic way, and I'm pleased that two more are on the way. But, despite the pink and fluffy cover, it's not all makeup and fancy living. The lives that Desi steps into aren't anything like those lived by the stereotypical princess of her imaginings, for one thing (and I was rather pleased that my hackles weren't raised by Neo Colonialism/Western Imperialism in Leavitt's portrayal of these princess). But what raises it above just light reading into the realm of the thought-provoking is the rather appealing message that a fresh perspective on one's life can spotlight things that can be changed for the better.

And now I am now awfully curious about where the princesses go when they're "on vacation" from their own lives...

Note on age: The interest in boys side of life is part of the story, and there is one kiss, but it lightly done, and the book as a whole is very "middle grade" in feel -- less personal angst (although there is some) and more fun adventure than one finds in the average YA book.