Long Way Home, by Michael Morpurgo

After a somewhat trying day at work, I needed a soothing break. After sawing some kindling in seasonally appropriate way (storm's a coming, and we were running low on the small stuff), I picked up almost at random a small paperback that has been on one of the several downstairs piles for ages--Long Way Home, by Michael Morpugo (of War Horse fame). It was rather nice to read a book that I didn't feel any obligation to review, and just the pleasing escape I was in the mood for. (Note--the cover of my copy has smiling children haying in the sun, not a dark and ominous storm).

12 year old George has been sent out to a number of foster families, but always ended up back at the children's Home. He doesn't expect this summer, spent on a farm out in the middle of the English countryside, to be any different--awkward social interactions, uncomfortablness becoming intolerableness, then running away back to the Home.

Tom wasn't looking forward to having George either. He was tired of his family fostering new kids every summer, making trouble and extra work. But when George arrives, and sets to work on the farm with a will, Tom's opinion begins to change rapidly. His little sister, Storme (her name was the only thing I found jarring in the book) took to George from the start, and George begins to feel at home. Everything seemed to promise that the summer would be a good one....

Then an unlucky chance destroyed all hope of that. George was forced to leave the farm...and the one foster family with whom he would have been willing to stay.

Nice family, nice farm, nice story. It was just the sort of soothing quick (only 116 pages) comfort read I wanted (I didn't even have to look at the end to be sure it would all work out just fine). Lots of good details, making the pictures of the farm and the countryside clear in my mind, lots of interesting bits of characterization, building clear pictures of the people too! If you like orphan-on-English-farm stories with happy endings, you will probably like this too.

(uh, having typed that, I can't think of any others, except a few WW II evacuation stories, which I don't count as comfort reading. Any recommendations????)

Long Way Home was published back in 1975, but didn't feel dated to me (then again, I don't have a cell phone, and (mostly) heat my house with a wood burning stove). This is my second Michael Morpurgo book (the other being The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, which I also found to be a nice comfort read!). I am wary of War Horse, but browsing around his extensive back list I found one which looks good: Dear Olly, which I think will be my next one of his. Anyone read it?

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize--a sff perspective

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlists have been announced, and, as is my sci fi/fantasy driven wont, I went through them to see what sff books were included. It's often the case that this list includes books published in the UK but not here yet, which makes for interesting browsing, and this year, at least for the ages 5-12 set of books, is no exception.

Claude in the City, by Alex T. Smith. "Claude is no ordinary dog - he leads an extraordinary life! When Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes set off for work, Claude decides what adventure he wants to have that day. Today he and Sir Bobblysock go to the city for the very first time. The have tea in a cafe, go shopping and visit a museum. It is all very normal until...Claude accidentally foils a robbery and becomes the local hero!"

Muncle Trogg, by Janet Foxley "Giants live on top of Mount Grumble, hidden from humans below. But not all of them are big. Muncle Trogg is so small that he's laughed at by the others for being human-sized. Fed up, he decides to take a look at the 'Smallings' that he's meant to look like. But what he discovers is very surprising indeed...Winner of The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2010, "Muncle Trogg" is the charming upside down fairytale about a tiny giant who saves the day."

The Windvale Sprites, by MacKenzie Crook. "When a storm sweeps through the country, Asa wakes up the next day to find that his town is almost unrecognisable - trees have fallen down, roofs have collapsed and debris lies everywhere. But amongst the debris in his back garden Asa makes an astounding discovery - the body of a small winged creature. A creature that looks very like a fairy. Do fairies really exist? Asa embarks on a mission to find out. A mission that leads him to the lost journals of local eccentric Benjamin Tooth who, two hundred years earlier, claimed to have discovered the existence of fairies. What Asa reads in those journals takes him on a secret trip to Windvale Moor, where he discovers much more than he'd hoped to..."

Sky Hawk, by Gill Lewis (which looked like a possible fantasy, and even sounded like one in the blurb) is the UK title of Wild Wings. Which isn't.

The other two books in this age bracket are Milo and the Restart Button, and The Brilliant World of Tom Gates.

There's only one sff book in the teenaged books, which is too bad-- Divergent, by Veronica Roth, a US export. There's the UK cover at right--very different. I love the crows/ravens, but can't remember them from the book (but I only read the first 2/3, so maybe they swoop down toward the end?)

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for past shortlists...it's interesting to see which books travel from the UK to the US, and vice versa (and probaby from Austalia as well, but I didn't see any on the list that I recognized as such).

Forgotten, by Cat Patrick

Forgotten, by Cat Patrick (Little Brown, 2011, YA, 288 pages) is a fascinating thought-experiment and a gripping read. London Lane might appear to be an ordinary sixteen-year old girl, going about her normal high school life...but her mind works in a rather unusual way. She can only remember forward--every night, her memory of the day she just lived vanishes, and she can only remember tomorrow. London copes by taking extensive notes about her life, and muddles through well enough.

But well-enough is about to change. Unhappy with the futures London sees for her friends and classmates, she starts to wonder if she can change the future. Even more disturbing for London is the arrival of a new boy, with whom she makes an instant connection--but she doesn't "remember" him from her future. And her sleep is increasingly troubled by a horrible nightmare--showing an event she doesn't remember either.

It turns out that there are things in London's past that she has forgotten...in particular, an event that changed the course of her life. Part mystery, part teen romance, and a fascinating look at a very different way of being in the world, this was a page turner.

I was so distracted, however, by the intricacies of London's memory (what would I do differently? How would I react in each particular situation?), and it is so strangely alien, that it was a bit hard for me to truly loose myself in the story--others might have a different experience. In particular, I couldn't help wondering just how one could sustain a romantic relationship with someone you only knew through your journal entries of past days--every day, London would meet her boyfriend for the first time. That being said, it was an entertaining read, and I don't mind, now and again, reading a book that kicks me out of the story here and there to make me think!

I hope there's a sequel--even though London's story reaches a fine stopping place, I would love to see what happens next (and maybe more about the things that happened back then in the unremembered past).

(note--obviously, this is not realistic fiction. But I think that it is just as good a fit for fans of the realistic teenage romance/mystery as it for sff fantasy fans. That being said, it's definitly speculative fiction, but is neither fantasy, nor really sci fi, which makes sticking a label on it bothersome. So I shall put both on...uncomfortably).

Waiting on Wednesday--Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox

What I'm really waiting for, on this, as on every Wednesday, is for a. the homework fairy to come and bestow gifts of fortitude on my pencil dropping young b. the dishwashing fairy to come and do the obvious c. the time fairy to magically make these few precious last minutes of morning before the Awakenings begin last for hours....

But failing that, I have found yet another book to wait for:

Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox, coming 12 April from Dial.

Here is the blurb [with my thoughts in brackets]

"Thirteen-year-old Suyin is a poor orphan [Team Orphan!] who has a strange gift with languages [that sounds good--languages rarely play a large part in mg/YA fantasy] and a mysterious connection to the cranes [birds are nice] in her small Chinese village [yay for diversity!]. When a shady human trafficker [bad] arrives promising luxury and riches beyond belief in America [ha], the villagers elect Suyin - whom they consider lucky - to go as their benefactress [there are very few Immigration Fantasies. I am intrigued]. But instead of luxury, Suyin is forced to work in a sweatshop in New York City's Chinatown [very bad]. Suyin's future seems hopeless, until her beloved cranes arrive [yay cranes!] and reveal that she is no ordinary girl - instead, she is the daughter of the Crane Queen [hmmm--somewhat familiar ground here, although this sounds like it could be a fresh twist]. Now her mother's life [ack! save the mother! says one who is one] is in danger, and Suyin must prove herself worthy of her position as the Crane Princess, in order to save her mother [mothers so rarely have Agency. Sigh.] and the entire clan of cranes [go Suyin! go Cranes!]."

Anyway. It sounds good.

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Just a few hours left of Team Heifer--and P. Rothfuss has done something very brave that should be rewarded

Patrick Rothfuss has organized an utterly stunning fundraiser of awesome for Heifer International--every donation of ten dollars made through this page is an entry into a world of fabulous prizes.

I donated back in December. But today I donated again, because Patrick Rothfuss did something really, really, really brave and beautifully grown-up.

In this blog post, he describes how he'd carefully planned to share, as part of his fundraising promotion-ness, a video of himself, reading the story of Beatrice's Goat, to his son, Little Oot. But then he watched the final take. And was appalled. And, as he put it, he sissied out.

But today, the last day of the fundraiser, he did something that is just an utterly excellent example to all of us who stay quite because we are afraid of embarrassing ourselves. He posted the video. And it is just fine, and Oot is a darling child.

So I threw in another bit of money, and maybe enough other people will too, before it all ends at midnight CST, today, February 7th, to push this fundraiser over the $300,000 mark. The prizes really are awesome, and Heifer does great things!!!!!

Here's the page again

Sun Slower, Sun Faster, by Meriol Trevor, for Timeslip Tuesday

Sun Slower, Sun Faster, by Meriol Trevor (first puslished in 1955, republished by Bethleham Books in 2004, middle grade, 288 pages) is the story of two English cousins, just post WW II, sent by their respective parents/guardians to live with an elderly old uncle in a beautiful historic old house near Bristol. Happily for Cecil (aka Cecelia) and Rickie (aka Richard), what could be a picturesque but somewhat tedious stay is enlivened by time travel.

The two children, sometimes accompanied by their older cousin, Dominic (Rickie's tutor) find themselves travelling back in time to various moments in the history of the Catholic church in the south west of England. The vignettes of the past feature intersting characters and events, and are vividly described--Saxons burning Romano-Celtic Bath, an Elizabethan Catholic priest needing to be rescued, unrest regarding James II--not bad time travel reading at all, and it was nice to read about events that don't get all that much attention in children's historical fiction. And even though this is time travel made easy (the children appear in the past wearing period cloths, and are greeted as visiting cousins, so no nasty issues about customs, language, etc. here), they have enough of a reaction to the differentness of the past to make their travels satisfying.

But the force of the story is weakened as each successive time travel incident becomes more and more a vehicle for teaching Cecil and Rickie, and through them the reader, about not only the history of Catholisim, but about the religion itself. I really do like learning about history through fiction, but the religious elements were so determinidly forced into the narrative that I found them increasingly unpalatable. There were characters, for instance, who seemed to exist only so they could deliver little homilies about various aspects of Christianity. Not subtle.

However, for those looking for Christian fiction of a historical educative sort, with characters who are rather engaging and whose adventures are interesting, this is certainly one to seek out. I think that if I had read this as a child, the dogmaticness of the religious education would have washed more gently over my head....and I would have been able to appreciate, and enjoy greatly, the time travel adventures! Meriol Trevor wrote a number of other books for children, and I enjoyed the non-dogmatic parts of this one enough so that I would be pleased to have a chance to read them.

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton

Two years ago, I reviewed The Roar, by Emma Clayon--a fine example of that rare thing, a solidly middle-grade science fiction/dystopia, that I recommended in particular to "boys who love video games that involve blowing up space ships, who also care about the environment." It ended with much of the larger story still untold, and judging from the number of people who visited my blog wondering when the sequel, there will be lots of readers eagerly pouncing on The Whisper, which was just released (Chicken House, Feb 1, 2012, 320 pages). The Whisper picks up right where The Roar ended, and shouldn't be read as a stand-alone.

The basic premise of the books is that humanity has been divided into billions of have-nots, crammed into flooded cities of misery behind a high-tech wall, while a very few enjoy the natural beauties of a rehabilitated earth that those in the city have no idea even exists. But from those cities, a greedy manipulator named Mal Gorman assembled an army of children, including some with mutant powers, planning to use them to claim the unspoiled regions of the world for himself (or at least, a nice piece of it). And his two most prized mutant children are the telepathic twins, Mika and Ellie.

He underestimates them. Little does Gorman know that Mika and Ellie are planning to lead his army to free those imprisoned in the cities, and bring about more equitable age. And little does he know that this army is united telepathically by the Whisper...allowing them unprecentend cooperation and coordination. With the help of lots of cool technology, and their mutant powers (along with the various powers of their mutant cohort), Mika and Ellie begin to fight back.

The Whisper should please fans of the first book--the action and tension (and cool sci fi elements) of that one are here as well. Although the struggle seemed to me at times to be too easy for Mika, Ellie, and co., it still made for interesting. and even, at times, thought-provoking reading. There's room for a sequel--how to deal with the logistical nightmare of resettling billions of people--but by the end of The Whisper,things have reached a satisfactory stopping point.

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend these to adult fans of sci fi distopias (I didn't find them complex enough for that, though there the details of the plot and the world-building were interesting, especially the descriptions of the drowned city, with high-rises built over flooded rivers), but for middle grade readers, I think they make an excellent introduction to the genre.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Here you go! Let me know if I missed anything. I always finding things I missed (like this January review of The Crowfield Demon, by Pat Walsh, at Sci Fi Chick), and it makes me Sad.

The Reviews:

Above World, by Jenn Reese, at BookYurt (Bookyurt?), and Live to Read

Ancient, Strange, and Lovely, by Susan Fletcher, at Library Chicken

The Bloomswell Diaries, by Louis L. Buitendag, at BooksYALove

The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards, at Wicked Awesome Books and Book Review Blog for Caroline Hooton

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at My Brain on Books and Great Imaginations

The Clockwork Three, by Matthew Kirby, at Back to Books

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Book Aunt and More Than True

The Coming of the Dragon, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at My Favorite Books

The Dragon of Cripple Creek, by Troy Howell, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Book Aunt

The Flint Heart, by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson, at Karin's Book Nook

Flyte, by Angie Sage, at Challenging the Bookworm (audio book review)

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Journey of a Bookseller and Great Imaginations

The Inquisitor's Apprentice, by Chris Moriarty, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

Ivy and the Meanstalk, by Dawn Lairamore, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Liesl and Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Books Beside My Bed

The Midnight Zoo, by Sonya Hartnett, at Back to Books

A Monser Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Squeaky Books

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, by William Joyce, at Back to Books

On the Bright Side, by Shelli Johannes, at Project Mayhem

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Stephanie Burgis

Pandemonium, by Chis Wooding and Cassandra Diaz, at Book Aunt

The Puzzle Ring, by Kate Forsyth, at Read in a Single Sitting

The Shadows (Book of Elsewhere 1), by Jaqueline West, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L'Engle, at Tor

Villian School: Good Curses Evil, by Stephanie S. Saunders, at Kristen Evey

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Just Booking Around

The Wishing Ring, by Shellie Neumier, at Novel Teen

At books4yourkids there's much praise for the Mega Mash Ups books.


Authors and Interviews

Sarah Prineas (Winterling) at From the Mixed Up Files

Liz Kessler (A Year Without Autumn) video interview at Cynsations

Other Good (?) Stuff:

Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit, is being re-written by Jaqueline Wilson--there's the Guardian's take. I don't think this is a good or necessary thing, mainly because I liked Nesbit just fine from the age of 8 on up.

I wrote a lenthy article, with all main points supported with direct quotes, on "parents" in A Wrinkle in Time.

Tending a bit YA-ward: Here's Lenore's round-up of the first week of her Dystopian February, and if there were more "middle grade" science fiction books, this survey of themes in YA sci fi, compiled by Margo Berendsen, would allow interesting comparisons to be made.

I like the looks of the Lord of the Ring legos very much:


But not as much as I like Dumbleworf:

Dragonswood, Janet Lee Carey

Dragonswood, by Janet Lee Carey (Dial, 2012, YA/upper middle grade, 403 pages)

When the main character gets tortured in the first thirty pages of a book, I become doubtful (waves to Queen of Attolia). When, for the first fifty or so pages, things continue to be anxious, I become increasingly unconvinced that the book that will provide the pleasant escape I seek on a Saturday morning when late afternoon company is coming and the house is a disaster (I would not want to read, say, Finnekin of the Rock while planning a large dinner party).

Happily for me, I had read enough reviews of Dragonswood to know that it wasn't a dark and grim and bloody story. And I read the end (which didn't spoil much, and was reassuring). At any event, here I am, with Dragonswood having been read and enjoyed, and a small fraction of the house tidying completed during breaks.

Brief synopsis: In a medievally almost-Britain, a girl named Tess is accused of witchcraft, and tortured. She and the two girls whose names were wrung for her by the inquisitor take refugee in Dragonswood--the forbidden sanctuary for dragons and the Fey established by the old queen and king. But it isn't at all clear how Tess and her friends will find a true sanctuary for themselves on an island where witch hunting runs amok, a twisted regent has control of the kingdom, and human people are starting to look hungrily at the protect lands of the forest...

Meg longs for her husband and child. Poppy longs for someone to love her for herself, not her beauty. And Tess, abused all her life by her father (so much so that one ear, boxed more times than she can remember, is deaf) longs for a chance to live her life according to her own desires--drawing, riding, climbing trees, and answering whatever it is that calls her to cross into the forbidden world of Dragonswood. With, perhaps, the added bonus of a partner in life who will respect her as an equal.

Little does Tess know that she might well get her happy ending (this is me being cunningly unspoilerish), thanks to the intervention of the mysterious folk who have found sanctuary in the heart of Dragonswood...

This is a book I would give in a heartbeat to a twelve or thirteen year old girl. Once past that the graphic violence, witch-torturing-wise, it has a very pleasant fairy tale feel to it, with lots of magical happenings and adventurings--nothing too twisted and convoluted, but interesting enough to keep my attention. The love between Tess and the character with whom she ends up is romantic, fairy-tale love (all they get to do on page (as in "on stage") is a bit of kissing near the end).

Some weight is given the story by the fact that Tess has been damaged, both emotionally and mentally, by the abuse that she has suffered, and a significant part of the story arc deals with her resultant fears and uncertainties; however, this too is fairy tale-ish in its conclusion, when her validation comes (primarily) from her romantic other (although she does get some validation from her interactions with various dragons, which was nice).

Even though I'm in favor of things working out just fine, my one substantive quibble with the book is how easily this is accomplished in the end...it was a bit hard to swallow an unpleasant character's change of heart. My other reservation is that the change of mood and pace, from the first dark part of the book (Tess in mortal peril from the witch-hunters) to the second (Tess's journey shaped in mostly pleasant ways by others, although she does exercise some brave agency in true fantasy heroine-style) is a bit jarring. That being said, I'm glad, for purely selfish reasons relating to my own need for pleasant escapism, that the mood did change!

Recommended in particular for fans of Jessica Day George--it has a very similar feel to both her dragon series and to her fairy tale retellings. And now I must find Dragon's Keep, the 2008 companion novel to this one (set a few generations before this one)...

p.s. Regarding historical fantasy--I'm not adding Dragonswood to my list of Historical Fantasy. Even though it is set in an alternate Britain at the time of the Crusades, it felt too much like a fantasy realm, taking place, as it does, in an imaginary kingdom with nothing more solid to make it historically situated than a few mentions of real people (Richard the Lionheart and his brother John).

Luminous, by Dawn Metcalf

Luminous, by Dawn Metcalf (Dutton, 2011, YA 367 pages)

Consuela is a normal teenager--until the day she isn't. With a vengeance. Because Consuela is about to leave her body behind and enter a strange alternate world, one where she is no ordinary girl. It is one of the oddest fantastical transformation I've seen in my recent reading:

"Almost without thinking, Consuela slipped her skin over her head like a sweater. She pulled her arms out of their long gloves and stepped gently out of the warm, wet suit left puddled at the bottom of the bathtub. Keeping her eyes on her feet, Consuela stared at the collection of thin, tiny bones suspended in a sort of liquid shadow holding them together, surreal against the peach bath mat. She looked up into the full-length mirror and saw herself.

Consuela was a skeleton." (page 14)

I was taken aback (and somewhat disturbed), but intrigued. And my interest continued as Consuela leaves normal life behind, and enters into the world of the "flow," where reality plays by different rules, and a small group of teenagers (each as freakishly strange as Consuela now is) is charged with saving people who teeter at the brink of death.

But the Flow is under threat from within--someone, or something, wants it destroyed. And so the deaths of the teenagers within the flow begins...and Consuela's struggles to come to terms with her new existence pale in comparison to the new challenge of staying "alive" in a realm where "life" is already a strange thing indeed.

Consuela's new powers are fascinating, the Flow is fascinating, and so are the people she meets there--including one boy with whom romance blossoms (just in case you wondered: Consuela doesn't stay a skeleton for the whole book, which is good, because the romance would have been weird if she had). Unfortunately for the reader, many of these characters die before Consuela gets to know them well (if at all), which was disappointing. However, on the plus side, I found Consuela's reactions and emotional challenges convincing and gripping (I especially liked that she missed her family!), and I read eagerly to the end, waiting for everything to fall into place.

But in the end, things don't, quite, hold together to make a convincing alternate reality. I had to keep squashing my questions firmly, and suspend my critical facilities (which proved quite easy, in as much as I was thoroughly enjoying Consuela and her new found powers). Just for starters, why are there so few teenagers in the Flow? Why does there seem to be so little demand for their services? Why, since so big deal is made of the fact that Consuela enters the Flow in an unprecedented way, does it have no particular consequences as far as I could tell? Who the heck is the mysterious Native American shape-changer, Joseph Crow? Even the veterans of the Flow have no certain answers.

Consuela herself is aware of all these unanswered questions; toward the end of the book, she asks herself a whole long paragraph of them, wanting rather desperately (with good reason!) "to know more about life, about death, and most of all, about the Flow." But her conclusion seems to be identical to the one reached by the author:

"[She] knew none of the answers would make one bit of difference. She had to go. Right now. She had to live, or die now. Her choice." (page 290)

And so the answers are never forthcoming, and Luminous never moved beyond "interesting diversion and very pleasant read" into book I fell hard for. I loved the pictures made in my mind, but the story itself never quite coalesced into a real, solid thing. That being said, I never once wanted to put it down...

I'd be curious to know what any of you who have read this one think! Here's what The Book Smugglers thought....

Note for those wanting to read diverse sff: Consuela is a Mexican American, and is shown as such (beautifully!) on the cover.

Note on religion: Given that the Flow is essentially a surreal fantastical limbo, I was curious about how religion would play out in the characters' conceptions of it all. From a few brief invocations of the Divine, Consuela might well have a genuine belief in Christianity (at one point, she says a mental "Sorry, Jesus" (page 49)--that sort of small, infrequent reference), but the whole relationship of the Flow to any religion is left unclear. Given my feeling that Consuela would consider herself Christian, it was a little bothersome, not because of my own feelings about religion, but because I found it to be a disconcerting gap between character-building and world-building. While on the subject of religion---Consuela's key decision at the end of the book might not sit well with readers for whom the concept of "the right to die" is anathema.

New releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens--the first half of February, 2012, edition

Here are the new releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens from the first half of Feb., 2012. My information comes, as always, from Teens Read Too, the blurbs from Amazon. I haven't read them all, so had to guess if some of these really are sff--I gave them the benefit of the doubt when it wasn't clear!

My most anticipated book on this list is The Crowfield Demon (it's been out in the UK for a while). I am pretty sure I am getting it as a Valentine's Day present...

Elementary/Middle Grade:

ABOVE WORLD by Jenn Reese "Thirteen-year-old Aluna has lived her entire life under the ocean with the Coral Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides. But after centuries spent hidden from the Above World, her colony's survival is at risk. The Kampii's breathing necklaces are failing, but the elders are unwilling to venture above water to seek answers. Only headstrong Aluna and her friend Hoku are stubborn and bold enough to face the terrors of land to search for way to save their people. But can Aluna's fierce determination and fighting skills and Hoku's tech-savvy keep them safe? Set in a world where overcrowding has led humans to adapt - growing tails to live under the ocean or wings to live on mountains - here is a ride through a future where greed and cruelty have gone unchecked, but the loyalty of friends remains true."

THE ADVENTURES OF BEANBOY by Lisa Harkrader "Never underestimate the power of the bean. Tucker MacBean has been drawing comic books almost as long as he’s been reading them. When his favorite comic has a contest for kids, he hopes he has finally found a way to fix his family—all he has to do is create the winning superhero sidekick . . . Introducing “Beanboy”—the first comic book character to truly harness the power of the bean for good. He is strong, he is relentless, he can double in size overnight (if given enough water).

With thoughtful characterizations and copious comic book illustrations, this laughout-loud novel will have readers rooting for a superhero with true heart."

THE BIG BEAST SALE: AN AWFULLY BEASTLY BUSINESS by The Beastly Boys "Ulf the werewolf is on his most dangerous adventure yet—to Capitol City, where the wicked Baron Marackai is plotting the return of the beast trade and the end of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Beasts (RSPCB). With the public calling for beasts to be banished from the city, or worse still, destroyed, it's up to Ulf to protect them and get to the bottom of the mysterious events. This time, the future of all beasts depends on it."

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER: YOU'RE INVITED TO A CREEPOVER by P.J. Night "Katie Walsh is majorly bummed when her BFF moves away. But her hopes soar when the new girl at school, Whitney, befriends her right away and invites her to spend the night at her house for a sleepover. Katie loved sleepovers with her old BFF, so she’s sure she will have a great time. But Katie doesn’t have a great time. Something is not quite right at Whitney’s house. Whitney seems really, really into her dolls…and later that night, Katie’s convinced that the dolls are threatening her.

The next morning, a freaked-out Katie decides that maybe she hasn’t found a new best friend, after all. Whitney, however, has made up her mind about Katie—they’re going to be best friends forever…no matter what. This too-close-for-comfort friendship tale is ranked a 5 on the Creep-o-Meter."

BLISS by Kathryn Littlewood "Rosemary Bliss’s family has a secret. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles and Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke under lock and whisk-shaped key while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle, wears purple sequins, and whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, nonmagical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun.

So Rose and her siblings experi-ment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke. A few Love Muffins and a few dozen Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble . . . could they?"

BONE: QUEST FOR THE SPARK BK. 2 by Tom Sniegoski "The Nacht, the evil dragon that threatens to destroy both the Dreaming and the Waking World, is growing stronger, and twelve-year-old Tom Elm is the champion the Dreaming has chosen to defeat it. Along with Roderick the raccoon, Percival Bone and his nephew and niece, Randolf, Lorimar, and the two stupid Rat Creatures, Tom must race to find the missing pieces of the Spark. This leg of the journey introduces him to a trio of scheming bears and takes him into the depths of a dangerous beehive. And, on top of everything else, a traitor might be among them. . . ."

COLD CEREAL by Adam Rex

"Cold Cereal Facts Serving size 1 chapter Number of servings 40
Primary human characters 3
Scottish Play Doe, aka Scottpossible changeling Erno Utz genius Emily Utz supergenius Magical creatures at least 3
Mick Leprechaun (or Clurichaun)
Harvey Pooka (rabbit-man)
Biggs indeterminate origin (hairy, large)
Evil organizations 1
Goodco Cereal CompanyPurveyor of breakfast foods aspiring to world domination Adventure 75%
Diabolical Schemes 40%
Danger 57%
Legend 20%
Magic 68%
Humor 93%
Puzzles 35%
Mystery 49%

Not a significant source of vampires. May contain nuts. Daily values based on individual interest. Reader's estimation of value may be higher or lower, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing."

THE CROWFIELD DEMON by Pat Walsh "In THE CROWFIELD CURSE, young monks' apprentice Will learned he was gifted with the Sight: able to see beyond this mortal coil into the spirit realms of Old Magic. Protected by the warrior fay Shadlok -- and befriended by the wry, wary hobgoblin called Brother Walter -- the boy is just coming into his strange powers.

But now, from its very foundations, Crowfield Abbey has begun to crumble. As Will slaves to salvage the chapel, he discovers something truly terrifying. A heathen creature from a pagan past is creeping up through the rubble -- avowed to unleash havoc on holy ground!"

FAIRY LIES by E. D. Baker "In this delightful sequel to Fairy Wings (originally titled Wings) the fairy princess Tamisin has been kidnapped from her home in the human world by Oberon, king of the fairies, who thinks he’s her father. When Tamisin’s boyfriend Jak finds out, he sets off to rescue her. In this funny and heartwarming romp through a land of fairies, goblins, sphinxes, unicorns, and many more, Tamisin and Jak try to regain their romance even as they find their way back to the human world."

ELLIOT AND THE LAST UNDERWORLD WAR: THE UNDERWORLD CHRONICLES by Jennifer A. Nielsen "As King of the Brownies, Elliot has battled Goblins, tricked Pixies, and trapped a Demon. But now, that Demon has escaped and he's ready for revenge. Elliot will face a challenge unlike anything he's seen before. The Last Underworld War is about to begin. "

FIRST HERO: THE CHRONICLES OF AVANTIA by Adam Blade "At the age of seven, Tanner's father was killed in front of him by the evil warlord Derthsin. But his father's death was not in vain and Derthsin was carried away to his doom by a good Beast, Firepos the Flame Bird. Now, eight years later, another evil army is wreaking havoc across Avantia. But Tanner has been training with Firepos, waiting to avenge his father's death. There is something familiar about this new menace, who rides with a Beast of his own. The evil army is after the pieces of the Mask of Death--which allows whoever wears it to control all Beasts. Tanner sets off on a journey to stop them. Along the way, he encouters twins Gwen and Geffen, who hold the map to finding the remaining pieces."

GHOST PIRATE TREASURE: CREEPELLA VON CACKLEFUR by Geronimo Stilton "Breakout star Creepella von Cacklefur is back in another fur-raising adventure!

Oh, no! Billy Squeakspeare has a big problem, and he needs Creepella's help. Someone's been digging holes around Squeakspeare Mansion at night, and Billy wants to find out who it is. The dangerous, legendary pirate Morgan Darkwhisker is said to have buried his long-lost treasure near Squeakspeare Mansion years ago -- could he be hunting for his hidden riches? It's up to Billy and Creepella to find the treasure first!"

ISLAND OF SHADOWS: SEEKERS, RETURN TO THE WILD by Erin Hunter "Toklo, Kallik, and Lusa survived the perilous mission that brought them together, and now it’s time for them to find their way home. Kallik and Lusa are ready to be among their own kinds again, but Toklo, devastated by the loss of their companion Ujurak, feels hopeless and afraid of what’s to come.

When the group reaches a shadowy island covered in mountains and ice, Kallik is sure they’re almost back to the Frozen Sea. But a terrifying accident leads them into a maze of abandoned tunnels, unlike anything they’ve ever seen before—making them question their path once again.

The bears grow desperate for a sign to guide them, and when they meet a cub who has lost his whole family, Toklo believes the cub has been sent by Ujurak. But the others are unsure. Can they trust their new companion? Or could he be hiding something that will endanger them all?"

QUEST FOR THE SECRET KEEPER: ORACLES OF DELPHI KEEP by Victoria Laurie "Delphi Keep is awash in activity, and for Ian, Theo, and Carl, their safe haven might be nearing its end. The Royal Navy has taken the keep to use as a hospital and the tunnels running under the keep and the castle are ideal to set up a central communications outpost for the approaching war. The earl is happy to help the effort, but now the keep is no longer safe for the orphans and they must be evacuated to his winter residence.
Ian, Theo, and Carl know that if they're sent away, they'll no longer be protected. But more important than their safety is deciphering the third prophecy. All clues point to a quest. The orphans don't know where they must go, but they know they must rescue the Secret Keeper.
To do that, however, they need to work out who this Secret Keeper is. And what, exactly are the secrets he's keeping?"

RAPUNZEL, THE ONE WITH ALL THE HAIR: TWICE UPON A TIME by Wendy Mass "The girl's stuck in a tower. The boy's stuck in a castle. There are two sides to every story...
Rapunzel is having the ultimate bad day. She's been stolen by a witch, may have a ghost for a roommate, and doesn't even have a decent brush for her hair. Prince Benjamin's got it pretty tough, too. His father wants him to be more kingly, his mother wants him to never leave her sight, and his cousin wants to get him into as much trouble as possible (possibly with a troll).

Both Rapunzel and Prince Benjamin are trapped--in very different ways. Once their paths cross, well, that's when things get really strange. Journey back to the days when fairy tales were true with this fun and fresh spin on a timeless tale!"

THE SECRET OF ASHONA: EREC REX by Kaza Kingsley "Erec Rex might still become king—but the closer he gets, the more dangerous his tasks become. Given his romance brewing with Bethany, the discovery that his siblings are secretly king and queen of the Fairy world, and the knowledge that the Stain brothers are growing more and more underhanded, Erec Rex isn’t exactly in an ideal state of mind to face his next two tasks. He will need to lean on his friends more than ever to complete what could be the most terrifying challenge he has ever faced…."

THE VISITORS: CLONE CODES by The McKissacks "There is a wicked system of operation inside the Topas Corporation, where clones are produced. Only authorized Topas officials are allowed inside. Only they, along with the clones themselves, know what happens within the walls of the world’s largest and most powerful cloning company. This final book of The Clone Codes plunges readers into this strange reality. At the same time, The World Federation of Nations has issued an urgent decree to the masses--find Houston Ye, a cyborg, and Leanna Deberry, a clone, both fugitives! There is a $1 million bounty on each of their heads if captured alive. Once again, the McKissacks blend a futuristic world with events from world history to create a gripping sci-fi adventure."

THE WHISPER: THE ROAR by Emma Clayton "Telepathic twins Mika and Ellie at last are reunited. But if they're ever to free the brainwashed, microchipped child soldiers, they must pretend to play along with the tyrant Mal Gorman's maniacal plan, even as they mind-read his every evil thought. Members of an elite squadron of mutants, the brother and sister have specialized skills that will enable them to steal the top-secret formula for an age-reversing drug developed by rebel scientists on the wild side of The Wall. Juiced by these potent pills, the cadaver-like Gorman foresees a future in which he'll be forever young - released from the machinery that now supports him.

Unless, that is, Ellie and Mika have a master plan of their own: to bring the all-powerful Gorman to his knees, and face-to-face with his greatest fear."


Young Adult (these are covered fairly well on other blogs, which is why I don't include the blurbs)

ARCADIA AWAKENS by Kai Meyer
ALMOST EVERYTHING: A VAMPIRE PRINCESS NOVEL by Tate Hallaway
ANGELINA'S SECRET by Lisa J. Rogers
ARTICLE 5 by Kristen Simmons
BEWITCHING: THE KENDRA CHRONICLES by Alex Flinn
BORN WICKED: THE CAHILL WITCH CHRONICLES by Jessica Spotswood
DIABOLICAL: TANTALIZE by Cynthia Leitich Smith
THE GALAHAD LEGACY by Dom Testa
GREEN HEART by Alice Hoffman
HARBINGER by Sara Wilson Etienne
THE JADE NOTEBOOK by Laura Resau
THE MASKED WITCHES: BROTHERHOOD OF THE GRIFFON by Richard Lee Byers
THE NIGHTMARE GARDEN: THE IRON CODEX by Caitlin Kittredge
PURE by Julianna Baggott
SCARLET by A.C. Gaughen
SEKTION 20 by Paul Dowswell
SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE by Katie Dale
THIEF'S COVENANT: A WIDDERSHINS ADVENTURE by Ari Marmell
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: THE LYING GAME by Sara Shepard
VAMPLAYERS by Rusty Fischer
THE VANISHING GAME by Kate Kae Myers
WINGS OF THE WICKED: AN ANGELFIRE NOVEL by Courtney Allison Moulton
THE WOOD QUEEN: AN IRON WITCH NOVEL by Karen Mahoney

In which I get, pehaps, a bit carried away in my discussion of the Murry parents for the Wrinkle in Time blog tour

It was an honor to be asked to take part in the 50 years/50 blogs tour for the new commemorative edition of A Wrinkle in Time. I still have my childhood copy of the book, and it is well read, and much loved (although I never wanted to be at all like Meg...), and it was a treat to read all the extras (see below) in the new edition.

This week, the participating blogs are featuring the characters. I ended up picking two—the Murry parents. Off-stage for most of the book, they are nevertheless, practically and metaphorically, integral to the story. And the more I thought about the Murry parents, the more I extended the whole idea of “parenting” to the other adults, and started thinking about the parent/child relationship as the driving force of the book as a whole. It's possible I got carried away...

First, the Murry parents.

The Murrys love their children. This is made clear right at the beginning of the book, when Calvin pays his first visit: "You don't know how lucky you are to be loved." And Meg is somewhat startled, and answers "I guess I never thought of that. I guess I took it for granted." (page 38). This is what children do--but as they get older, and more reflective, they (hopefully) learn to appreciate unconditional love.

Meg’s mother is brilliant and beautiful. She is kind and loving, and clearly appreciates her children as individuals. Even though when she’s heating up dinner for the kids in the lab (which L’Engle seems to find amusingly shocking… me, not so much) she’s in control, and rational.

She is also useless—never at any point does she actually do anything that helps anyone, whether in regard to saving the universe or helping her kids get along at school. "...I don't think I can do anything till you've managed to plow through some more time. Then things will be easier for you. But that isn't much help right now, is it?" (page 12).

To Meg, very much not together, very conscious of not being beautiful, a very hot person emotionally, the idea that she will somehow become the type of grown-up that her mother presents is ludicrous. And this, I think, is one of the great sources of tension in her life just before the events of W. in T.—how to reconcile the impossibility of growing up with the fact that it’s going to happen….

Meg’s father gets more page time to actually say and do things. He’s the one that actually started the whole mess, by putting his obligation to "the government" and the chance to try out a new scientific discovery ahead of his family (another harsh fact of growing-up--realizing your parents are people with lives of their own!). He ends up trapped; Meg has to save him. Likewise, when Meg sees her mother through the Medium's magic, she realizes that her mother is weak--Mrs. Murry thinks no one is watching her, and allows herself to give into the weakness of grief and loneliness....rousing in Meg a fierce protectiveness.

This is a reversal of the “natural” order of things. Parents are supposed to save their children! "Her father had not saved her" (page 163) and two pages later "She had found her father and he had not made everything all right" (page 165). And Mr. Murry drives this point even further home when he admits, flat out, that he cannot do a gosh darn thing to save his youngest son, Charles Wallace. Parents are fallible. They are not saviours. They don't have the power to make everything all right.

As I was re-reading, I found that the Murry parents play a much larger role than I expected in shaping the whole emotional arc of Meg's story. And the importance of parent/child relationships plays out in the roles of the other "adults" in the story.

Mrs. Whatsit – the playful, “relatable” (gosh I hate that word) parent, but the fun times don’t last long as she isn’t actually there when times are tough
Mrs. Who—the parent who is always telling you things and expecting you to work them out for yourself
Mrs. Which -- the authority figure. Does not communicate clearly, but must be obeyed, somehow gives the impression of safety.

Yet none of them can save the day.

"Mrs Whatsit, you have to save him!"
"Meg, this is not our way," Mrs Whatsit said sadly (page 186).

Then there's Aunt Beast—the parent who makes you want to be a child again, held safe in a warm embrace, and this relationship is made clear in the text: "As though Meg were a baby, Aunt Beast bathed and dressed her" (page 179). But Aunt Beast, by the monstrous strangeness of her form, evokes the jitteriness of adolescence makes you recoil from that infantile physicality. And she too cannot bear any of Meg's burdens.

The final “adult” who plays an important role in the series is IT: not a parent type, but rather representing all the pressures of conformity. Yet even IT is presented directly as a parental alternative--instead of the (desirable) messiness of love, and human emotion, IT offers the dubious comfort of being just like everyone else.

"Father? What is a father?" Charles Wallace intoned. "Merely another misconception. If you feel the need of a father, then I would suggest you turn to IT." page 132

Incidentally, when Charles Wallace is part of it, he plays the confrontation child very nicely--"You're not the boss around here" he says to his father (page 147).

Often in adventure stories for children the parents are absent. In fact, there are often no adults worth a fig exercising any kind of influence on the characters or the plot. A Wrinkle in Time, however, is strikingly full of adults. The amount of page time in which there are no adults present, and pretty actively involved, is relatively small. L’Engle doesn’t send Meg and co. out alone on a grand adventure—they are sent on an adventure that is orchestrated by those much older than they are. The whole book can be read as Meg reacting to grown-ups, and learning to think of herself not as a child, but as a puissant actor, moving from wanting grown-ups to save her, to realizing that "...it has to be me. It can't be anyone else" (page 188).

And so, thinking about this off and on for the past week, my conclusion is that the title “A Wrinkle In Time” can be taken as a reference to adolescence, a metaphor for the child’s experience of growing up (no time is as wrinkly as seventh grade). Every adult (human or otherwise) is a parent-type with whom Meg must play out the central conflict of adolescence--the need to be loved and protected child vs the need to grow up, to push parents away.

Meg and co. are not on a quest to defeat some Ancient Darkness by means of magic. They are there to save her father (not defeat IT), and the only weapon Meg has is her ability to Love. Which leads me to what I think is the central point L’Engle is making: that a huge part of growing up is learning unselfish love, leaving behind the needy, possessive love of the child.

I’ve seen a number of people comment on how surprisingly un-dated A Wrinkle in Time feels. Maybe this is because changing state from child to grown-up is just about as utterly timeless a part of the human condition as can be.

It was great fun exploring A Wrinkle in Time in such depth, and I hope the fiftieth anniversy commemorative edition finds new readers for it! As well as the story, it contains:

•Frontispiece photo*†
•Photo scrapbook with approximately 10 photos*†
•Manuscript pages*†
•Letter from 1963 Caldecott winner, Ezra Jack Keats*†
•New introduction by Katherine Paterson, US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature †
•New afterword by Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter Charlotte Voiklis including six never-before-seen photos †
•Murry-O’Keefe family tree with new artwork †
•Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery acceptance speech

* Unique to this edition † never previously published

Here's The Wrinkle in Time Facebook page, and here are my fellow week three character bloggers:
Anna Reads
Bewitched Bookworms
Regular Rumination
Things Mean A Lot
Novel Novice
The Book Smugglers
Coffee and Cliffhangers
S. Krishna’s Books
Lisa the Nerd

Happy Blog Birthday to me!

Charlotte's Library is now five years old. I have posted 1725 times; I wish I knew how many books I reviewed, but that would take too much counting. My most searched for book review is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (although about a third of the searchers think she's a Mrs., which possibly says something about our society's expectations for women, or not)--3822 searches. Second is The Green Book, aka Shine, by Jill Paton Walsh, which makes me happy, because it is the most perfect book going to introduce young kids to science fiction (2267 pages).

The blogisphere (sp? it looks weird) sure has changed from where it was when my blog began--there are so many, many more YA bloggers; when I started, it was possible to visit them all in a day! But the core group of children's book bloggers that were there when I began is, for the most part, still going strong, and I feel very lucky to have strengthened my friendships with these lovely comrades in book love.

I'm pretty happy about where my blog at the moment--I'm reading and reviewing books I love, and the number of visitors keeps going up (which I care about, because I want all the effort I put into this to be useful to people--it makes me awfully happy, for instance, when I look at my stats and see that someone has found one of my list, and opened 15 or so of the reviews), and I get just the right number of review copies in the mail--not so many as to overwhelm, but enough to feel validated (thanks publishers!).

I had one of my most thrilling book blogging moments just last month, when Ursula Le Guin linked to my review of Lavinia on her webpage (UKL read my review!!! And thought it worthy of linkage!!!! Swoon!!!)

I just wish I had more time to write more reviews--I only review about a third of what I read, and that gets a bit stressful. I also wish I made fewer typos. But since I have never been able to schedule posts, and often hit publish at the last possible minute before the kids have to be gotten up and taken to school (like now- argh it is 6:55 and we have to leave in 20 minutes and no one else is up), it is kind of inevitable. Sorry.

Thank you all who visit here--and thank you, other bloggers, for making it fun!