Deep Thoughts From Bea (not really)

Don't you just hate days when you wake up and realize that you are going to fail your children? You'll notice that I am not in line outside the Javits Center, waiting in line for a ticket to see John Green so that I can get his autograph for my boys. I also kind of liked the look of the Good King Wenceslas advent calender that was being given away at a ticketed signing (Christmas is just around the corner)...but not enough to drag my weary self out of the house just yet. (I only had one (generous) cocktail at Little Brown's lovely party last night, so it can't be that.....).

I have noticed no bloggers behaving in anyway other than pleasant attendees. The only person I saw behaving badly was an older man who was not a blogger jumping nimbly over the white chain that had closed a signing.

I found one of the books I really wanted discarded in the mail room--What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt. The nice person at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had looked for one for me, but didn't have one....so it was rather pleasing to encounter it, sad and abandoned, and give it a good home.

I have been, however, very good about not ending up with books I won't read. Since I self-sabotaged myself on purpose by not bringing a wheeled suitcase, I can only take what I can get from the Javits Center to Penn Station.....

Greetings from New York

Of course I meant to have reviews scheduled for the days I was at BEA, but although I successfully did almost everything on my pre-BEA task list (see the bottom of this post) this didn't happen. Oh well.


What did happen is that I went to the Book Blogger Convention at BEA. I count it a success, because I chatted to almost all of the people on my list of people to see that would be there: Sheila, and Angie, and Cecelia, and Cat, and Maggie, and Janicu, and said hi to a few more people I hope to see more of later, and hope to see more today.

Viz the conference: I think that blogger conferences are almost at the point when they need to break it up by experience--to have a track for people new to blogging, and a track for those of use who no longer need to hear "You don't have to review every book you get." So although it was not unenjoyable, I didn't actually learn much.

That being said, I would have been happy to listen to the lawyer talking about libel for longer. He involved us in his presentation--we got to vote on what we considered potentially actionable language from real book reviews. Basically, don't say things that aren't true as if they were statements of fact. Fine: It appears as though this author has not completed elementary school. Not fine: The author is a fascist (if there is no factual evidence the author is). Since I rarely make bold, declarative statements, I think I am safe. But it is good to know that there is an organization called Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, who might be able to help if I did get a threatening letter....

Then I went to an event at Scholastic, in which eight great writers with books coming out late summer/fall performed extracts from their books in ensembles of four. All did a great job, but perhaps most memorable was James Dashner, channeling Downton Abbey in his role as Maggie Stiefvater's malevolent aunt, in a scene from Sharon Cameron's The Dark Unwinding... Thank you, Scolastic and the authors involved, for a great evening!

And today, the exhibit floor and another wild evening of publisher fun...

The June 3 round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy posts from around the blogs

Welcome to another round-up of the middle grade sci fi/fantasy posts I found in my weekly blog reading! Let me know if I missed yours!

The Reviews

Albrek's Tomb (Adventures Wanted #3), by M.L. Forman, at The Write Path

At the Firefly Gate, by Linda Newbery, at Charlotte's Library

Battle of the Zombies, by The Beastly Boys, at Back to Books

Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones, at HumbleIndigo

The Council of Mirrors, by Michael Buckley, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dandelion Fire, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Door in the Forest, by Roderick Townley, at Bibliophile Support Group

Dragon Castle, by Joseph Bruchac, a joint review at Maria's Melange and The Brain Lair

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Reads for Keeps

The Emerald Tablet, by P.J. Hoover, at Raising Boys World

Eye of the Storm, by Kate Messner, at The Reading Zone

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Beyond Books and To Read or Not To Read

Liesl and Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Thoughts of an Endless Dreamer

The Ninnies, by Paul Magrs, at The British Fantasy Society

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at A Backwards Story, Charlotte's Library, and My Precious

The Paradise Trap, by Katherine Jinks, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan, at The Write Path

Song, by Jason Lethcoe, at HumbleIndigo

The Unseen Guest, by Maryrose Wood, at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea-Cozy and Sharon the Librarian

A two for one at Ms. Yingling Reads-- Zac and the Dream Stealers, by Ross MacKenzie, and The Color of Bones, by Tracy Edward Wymer.

Authors and Interviews

Jennifer E. Smith (The Storm Makers) at There's a Book

Caitlen Rubino-Bradway (Ordinary Magic) at A Backwards Story

Derek the Ghost (Scary School) at The Book Pixie

Anne Ursu (Breadcrumbs) at Novel Novice

A character interview with the princes from A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, at Small Review

Other Good (?) Stuff

Harry Potter, Seriously--at Nine Kinds of Pie

Question: can you think of any mg sff titles that are quotations from famous poems? At Tor, there's a post that plays one of my favorite type cocktail party games--how many spec fic titles come from Blake’s “The Tyger” and how many from Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”

Another interesting question--Would a unicorn be qualified to be president? Some people think not...and have raised questions about what exactly is hiding beneath Mitt Romney's hair... (I myself think that just because someone might have a horn doesn't mean they shouldn't be president. And have now spent far too long trying to imagine a unicorn wanting to be president).

And now, before I go off to BEA on a 4:30 bus, I must
a. dig up and pot lots of plants from the garden as a present for my son's teacher who has a new house with no plants in the garden yet
b. go to Staples to print out and mount two posters for a public meeting on underwater archaeology at one o'clock this afternoon
c. attend said meeting, and give a brief talk (mercifully already written)
d. write a blog post for Monday
e. plant tomatoes and potatoes (I am awfully late on planting this year)
f. go to the bank

If you are going to BEA, and might want to say hi, this is what I look like (give or take a cat and a blanket):

Haunted Waters, by Mary Pope Osborne

So there I was browsing in my local used book store with about forty dollars of trade-in credit to spend, and I saw on the shelf a signed first edition copy of Haunted Waters, by Mary Pope Osborne (Candlewick, 1994, YA, 153 pages), a retelling of the story of Undine. My eyes lit up, and I pounced on it....because I WAS CONFUSED. I though this was a rare book by Elizabeth Marie Pope (author of The Perilous Gard), and I was ever so so happy...

Still not knowing what I had done, I began reading. Right at the beginning, in a short prologue, we are told that the sea king has delivered his niece to a human family, to liven up the merfolk gene pool. So when a medieval knight, lost in a demonic wood, meets an improbable fisherfolk family--kind old man, insane old woman, and beautiful but mysterious girl who swims really well--we can guess who this girl is! Especially since her name is Undine.

A storm of supernatural strength kicks up, forcing the knight to stay with the fisher family. For no good reason (other than animal attraction) he falls for Undine (since she is virtually monosyllabic it can't be for her wits, although in fairness, since she's apparently never seen another person in her whole life (evil demonic spirits don't count) she hasn't had much chance to develop that part of her personality). The Undine falls for him too (for even less clear a reason--she was getting tired of swimming all day, I guess, and having demonic spirits looking through the windows), and a handy priest washes ashore who marries them.

The knight, however, hasn't thought things through all that well viz the demons that lurk around the girl and her general mysteriousness, and she hasn't thought things out either (although how would she know that not everyone likes swimming as much as she does? But still I would have liked her to be a tad more aggressive in trying to find out answers, instead of being all mysterious and inarticulate) and things don't go well.

And as I read all this, I kept waiting for the fine writing of Elizabeth Marie Pope--for the characters to leap of the page and become people I cared about, and it didn't come. Instead I got what felt like overly careful writing, and overly conscious story-telling, all from the point of view of Lord Huldbrand, who never became a particularly sympathetic character. Here's a random example of the prose style:

"Lonely music wafted from a shepherd's flute. I looked back at Undine. She clutched her shawl and stared at the barley field. Did the rippling silver-gold grain remind her of her ocean waves? Was she yearning for the sound of the fisherman's pipe? For a terrible moment, I regretted having stolen her from her old life.

Then the fisherman's words came back to me. He had begged me to take Undine far away from the inhuman force haunting their shore. Revived by the memory of his charge, I began leading my horse through the swelling fields." (page 56)

In a nutshell, it's a doomed relationship: Huldbrand needs to talk to Undine more than he does; she needs to try to answer him.

In a second nutshell, it's all very medieval fantasy Gothic, but without enough emotional heft behind the gothic-ness to make it work for me.

In a third nutshell, I wish it had been an Elizabeth Marie Pope book instead.

But yet I was interested enough to want to see how the story played out, and I read the book in a single sitting (it's short). So if you have patience with narration that is unrelentingly Narrated, and if you like retellings, especially those with Dark Mysteries at their core (which unfortunately aren't mysteries to any reader who's read the prologue), you may well enjoy this one more than I did.

For anyone put off by the cover, on which Undine looks like she's having a shower, Candlewick released a new edition in 1996, with a different, and much more beautiful cover, that looks like the sort of handsome book that one might like just for the handsomeness of it...

The paperback cover, however, goes off in a different direction entirely--not one I particularly care for.

How to leave home (to go to BEA) if you are an introvert

I was very happy to see that my post of tips for introverts attending Book Expo America was pleasing! Today, the day before I leave for New York, I thought that I would write a post about the introvert's perspective on leaving home to go to BEA, and how to make this a happier thing. This one is, even more so than the first, written for my own peace of mind, because I found it soothing (although I am not entirely sure how tongue in cheek I am being).

From my own experience, it's very easy to happily sign up to go to large exciting events (like BEA), but then, as the day approaches on which you will actually leave home, it becomes all too clear that it was Bad Idea. The safety and comfort of home is never so dear to the introvert as it is on the day before she has to leave it, especially if she is going somewhere new and strange filled with lots of people.

But a stressed introvert is one who is burning through her precious emotional reserves before she even leaves home. This is not good.

Issue #1: Denial

-- The introvert might expend great quantities of energy in a desperate attempt to deny the fact that she is actually going away the next day.

Relax. Tempting though it might be, don't try to start a major renovation project in your house. It will still be there when you come back. Instead of deciding that you must clean out the insides of your cupboards, either do soothing tasks--like dusting your books, which will bring back happy memories, and remind you of why you are going to BEA in the first place, or do tasks that provide quick gratification--tidy up the place next to the door where the mail gets dumped.

-- if you are both a procrastinator and an introvert, you might also put off packing, because once you've packed, you no longer have days and days in which to quietly putter around your house and it is Undeniable that you really are leaving home.

Don't fall into this trap, tempting though it is. Allow the process of packing to soothe you by focusing on the really interesting question of what book you will take to read on the bus/train/plane that will a. hold your interest satisfactorily b. be one you will not mind leaving behind once you get there.

Don't look on packing clothes as something tedious. Introverts sometimes worry that no one will care about them. Demonstrate to yourself that you, at least, care, by taking the time to make sure that you are not packing one of the (many) black tee shirts that has white paint paint on it. Important: Find your party shoes today, not half an hour before you need to leave. If you are an introvert, you might not have worn your party shoes for a year or so, and you may well have no clue where you carefully put them (the top shelves of the closets all have books on them, so at least I know where not to look). Once you have managed to find them successfully (d.v.), you will have a boost of self-esteem.

Issue #2-- Social Anxiety

You may well be fretting about socializing, and you may well be utterly sick of fretting about socializing, and be finding it all very tedious. So stop. Now.

--make a list today of the people that you know already who will be there, and who you are really pretty sure will be glad to see you. Email these people today, if you haven't already (I've actually done this!). Get their cell phone numbers (if you are me, consider going out to actually buy a cell phone today). Even if this list has only two people on it, you now have something tangible with which to bolster your social courage.

--remember that you are going because there are people you have been wanting to meet in real life for ages! It might help to find pictures of these people, so that you can get some sense of what they look like--you can then start to imagine talking to them, and you might be able to recognize them.

--tell yourself to just grow up and get over it. Adopting this sort of tough persona is useful not just mentally, but physically--if you hold yourself in a confident way, you will actually feel more confident. And if you are thinking hard about your posture, you will have less room in your head for other, more weakening, thoughts.

--stop over thinking it all, for crying out loud, and just go have fun!

sigh (although I do actually feel better now myself, which is all to the good!)

An introvert's guide to having a good time at BEA

I am going to BEA, and the book blogger convention, and two night time book events. And I am anxious.

Not because of being shy--there will be lots of people there who I already know and can't wait to see again, plus blogging friends who I can't wait to meet in real life!

But I am anxious because I am an introvert, and I wilt easily in a hothouse environment of excitement and gaiety and noise and chatter. So I thought that, in case there were others of the introvert persuasion who were similarly anxious, I would offer some advice, based on my experiences last year (and encourage myself, in the process!).

General Advice:

Yes, you are going to want to meet people and talk to people. But you do not have to talk to everyone! It is much less tiring to have a few in depth conversations than many excited ones.

It is not a competition. You do not have to prove anything to others. You are going because you love books, and love talking to people about books. Allow yourself to enjoy that, without fretting about what other people are thinking about you! Chances are, they aren't, anyway. They are probably thinking about books.

Drink lots of water. Finding water fountains and spending time drinking can give pointfulness to idle minutes during which you might feel that you aren't Doing Enough.

On the exhibit floor:

--when you are on the exhibit floor, don't spend all your energy being diffident at the big and busy publishing booths, where folks are trying to talk to lots of people. Seek out the smaller, though equally interesting, publishers. Last year, my best publisher conversation was at the Kane Miller booth--nicely one on one.

--If you want to get some conversation with larger publishers, or publishers you don't know about, find an extroverted friend who will do the ice-breaking. I had a nice few hours last year riding the coat-tales of Pam, aka Mother Reader.

--it can be hard for the introvert to initiate a conversation. In the heat of the moment, the introvert might nervously find herself saying "I blog about middle grade science and fiction and fantasy what books do you have coming out are there arcs I can have." This is Bad, and will not happen to me this year! Instead, I will be Prepared! I will have a little cheat sheet for each publisher, so that I can say, "Oh, I really enjoyed book x. And I'm really looking forward to book y." This will be both honest, and pleasingly friendly.

--lines are the introvert's friend. There is a peacefulness to just sitting there, waiting for a signing to begin. You may, if you wish, chat in an idle way with line-mates, but it is not necessary. Do not waste physic energy being vaguely jealous of groups of people who all know each other and who are sitting in a closed circle laughing and chatting! You will have plenty of opportunities to socialize; take advantage of the peace of queueing to regroup.

--you do not have to spend every moment of your life on the exhibit floor or in the cafe, talking and networking and being excited! The Javits center does not offer much in the way of restful retreats--I explored it pretty well last year, looking for one. But I did snatch some down time all by myself sitting outside around the corner from where the buses come, just having a little snack and enjoying the sun. Totally unscenic, but calming (although you will look pretty eccentric sitting all by yourself on the curb). There are also conference rooms off to the left of the exhibit hall. Some will be in use, but others will be empty. Use these empty rooms as a place to sit and look at the books you've acquired, and, as you gradually feel more peaceful, you'll be better able to make sane decisions about whether or not to keep them.

Off the exhibit floor

The introvert might feel that everyone else already has friends they want to talk to, and may be anxious that no one wants to talk to her. Let's just assume, for the sake of peace of mind, that this is false. There will be people who will be too busy with others to talk to you, but that is not your problem. Look for those standing on the outskirts. Say hi. They will either be friendly, or, if they are hostile, not worth talking to anyway.

If you are going to an after hours event, be aware that you might not have much energy to throw yourself into a wild and noisy fray. Allow yourself to be a spectator. There is nothing wrong with spectating. (Dark, comfortable clothes can give a sense of security when spectating, although they should be livened with sparkling accessories to show that you are a scintillating person once approached).

Although it might be tempting, I suggest not taking a break from humanity during the hour or so you may have on your hands between the daytime events and the evening events--the danger in doing this is that you might completely run out of steam and just want to go home before the evening event gets going (and then you will kick yourself). Instead, I'd advise (and hope I'll be able to take my own advice) finding a few safe friends (ie, ones you can just be yourself with), and maybe finding a peaceful cafe (if such a thing exists in Manhattan) where you can hear yourselves talk.

When you are tired of being at the evening events, which will probably be before others are, congratulate yourself for having gone, and leave.

In conclusion, remember the words of Eeyore: "We can't all, and some of us don't." And it's just the way we are, and we can still have a good time.

(here is Part II--How to leave home (and go to BEA) if you are an introvert)

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

The story of Abby Hale, the hero of Ordinary Magic (Bloomsbury, May 8, 2012, middle grade) by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, is, in one significant respect, the opposite of Harry Potter's story. Harry, of course, finds out that he's a wizard, and is sent off to a magical boarding school. Abby, on the other hand, has grown up in a world full of magic, and is confident that when she is tested (as all 12 year olds are), she will be proven to be a magic user like all the rest of her family.

But Abby fails the test. She is a despised "ord," and to many people, ords are less than human. Ordinary children are shunned as if they were contagious, not welcome in school, discarded by their families. An ord's only use is to be used as a tool by adventurers on magical quests--spells that would zap a magic user to bits have no effect on ords; unfortunately for the ords, however, there are many other dangers on such quests that do prove almost inevitably fatal. So ords are valuable possessions, very much in demand, and Abby's family could have sold her off for a considerable chunk of change.

But Abby's family refuses to abandon her to such a fate. Instead, her oldest sister, an incredibly powerful magic user who is a confidant of the king, arranges for Abby to attend a special boarding school--one for ordinary kids. The primary point of the school is not to educate the children (although there is that) but to keep them safe, and teach them to defend themselves. Not only are adventurers eager to kidnap them, but supernatural creatures see ords as easy prey....as Abby and her new friends learn to their horror, when the defenses of their school are breached.

It's a very fun twist of the standard magical kid tropes. Abby is a likable main character, and the school and the dangers that beset its students make for truly entertaining reading. The world-building is done well, I thought, with all the magical-ness dropped into the story in a pleasantly casual way, with no awkward information dumping.

Perhaps more could have been made of Abby's feelings about being ordinary--only passing mention is made of what is surely a more traumatic experience for both Abby and her family, and so there's not a lot of emotional punch to it. But the plight of the ords in general--pariahs and possessions--added depth to the story. Though the grown-up reader might have to work a bit to suspend disbelief about the premise of kids being cast aside, I think the target audience won't have this trouble. And I think the whole idea of shunned children is one that has a visceral appeal to the anxious young. That being said, the fact that Abby's own family continues to be loving and supportive lessens the trauma, so sensitive young readers shouldn't be too distressed!

I'm looking forward to the next book--especially because I'm more than somewhat interested in the hints of romance viz Abby's big sister!

At the Firefly Gate, by Linda Newbery, for Timeslip Tuesday

Most time travel stories take a person back, or forward--they are still themselves. More rarely, the central character becomes part of someone else's life, thinking that person's thoughts, seeing what that person saw. At the Firefly Gate (2004) by Linda Newbery, uses that later sort of time travel, and mixes it, very gently, with a bit of ghost story.

Young Henry is cross at the world, but in particular with the parents who moved him from his happy life in London off to a village cottage in Suffolk--the summer ahead seems lonely and pointless. But although Grace, the slightly older girl next door, lives up to his expectations and is hostile, Henry's first weeks in his new home are not at all what he expected. There's Grace's old aunt, Dotty, slowly dying but full of life. There are friendly kids in the village, who take Henry into their world.

And then there is the man who stand by the gate outside Henry's house in the late evening, smoking, and waiting...while all around him flash the lights of fireflies (and the author actually does make clear that these are glow-worms, this being England, just in case you were worried about that point).

Henry feels drawn to this mysterious man, who no one else seems to see. And stranger still is that, from time to time, Henry finds himself briefly living bits that man's memories....of life as a young man in the air force, in World War II.

In the garden next door, Dotty still wonders what happens to the Henry she lost long ago, when his plane never came home. The modern day Henry's memories of the past hold the answer, if he can bring himself to talk to her about what he has seen.

And by the fire fly gate, the other Henry is waiting...

I first read about this one over at The Children's War, where you can find a more detailed synopsis, if you are so inclined. I heartily agree with what Alex says about this one--that the main characters, Henry, Grace, and Dotty, are believable individuals, who, more to the point as far as my reading pleasure is concerned, I found likable and interesting (even prickly Grace!). And it was just simply nice to read about a moving, unforced and unpreachy friendship between a boy and an old woman.

The timeslipiness and ghost-ness added just the right amount of poignant magic, and if I never was that much the wiser for why Henry in the present was able to channel Henry from the past, I didn't care.

So all in all, a very satisfying mix of the mundane life of kids in an English village with memories and mysteries from World War II. Strongly recommended to people who like the same books I like,* who will find it pleasantly diverting.

*which is totally different from recommending a book to all and sundry. This is why I dislike giving stars--this one, for instance, I feel is a solid 4.3381 (I thought about that number for a long time; it is not meant to be funny) on the scale of my personal taste, but yet I hesitate to press it wildly and extravagantly into the hands of all comers, because it is driven by character and emotion, with not much that happens, and it has a dream-like quality that some might find chaffing (and Henry's blossoming social life would be hard for a cynic to swallow). In short, it's all very Difficult, this reviewing thing.

But I'm glad that Alex recommended it strongly enough so that I picked it up.

Another week's worth of middle grade sci fi/fantasy postings from around the blogs

Welcome to this week's roundup of posts relating to middle grade fantasy and sci fi that I found in my blog reading; please send me your link, or leave it in the comments, if I missed it!

Sad news, first. Peter D. Sieruta, who wrote the incomparable blog, Collecting Children's Books, has died. This is just really a sad, huge loss for the world of children's books, and of course my heart goes out to his family, and real life friends. I myself never had the pleasure of meeting Peter, but knowing that he was in the world, able to share his vast knowledge of children's books at the drop of the hat, was a great thing. Jules of Seven Impossible Things has more.

The Reviews

Always Neverland, by Zoe Barton, at A Room With Books

Amulet: The Last Council, by Kazu Kibuishi, at Book Nut

Bigger Than a Breadbox, by Laurel Snyder, at Library Mama

The Boggart, by Susan Cooper, at Book-a-Day Almanac

Deadly Pink, by Vivien Vande Velde, at Book Aunt

Giants Beware! by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre, at Library Mama and Wandering Librarians

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Slatebreakers

The Girl Who Owned a City, by O.T. Nelson, at Wandering Librarians

A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle, at Waking Brain Cells

Grimalkin, the Witch Assassin (The Last Apprentice), by Joseph Delaney, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Gustav Gloom and the People Taker, by Adam-Troy Castro, at Shannon Messenger

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at books4yourkids and Random Musings of a Bibliphile

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, at books4yourkids

Knight's Castle, by Edward Eager, at Hope is the Word

Lawn Mower Magic, by Lynne Jonell, at Secrets & Sharing Soda

The Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarvenaz Tash, at Bookworm1856

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-Detectives Extraordinaire, by Polly Horvath, at Oops...Wrong Cookie

Once Upon a Toad, by Heather Vogel Frederick, at Book Aunt

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Small Review and at Book Aunt

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at Parenthetical

Phoebe Alleyn and the Quantum Sorcerer, by S.P. Brown, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Prince Who Fell From the Sky, by John Claude Bemis, at My Precious and Bunbury in the Stacks

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley, at Charlotte's Library

The Rifts of Rime, by Steven Peck, at The Write Path

Searching for Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Book Nut

Seeds of Rebellion, by Brandon Mull, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Spaceheadz, by Jon Scieszka, at Wondrous Reads

Snivel, by Dale E. Basye, at Back to Books

Storybound, by Marissa Burt, at Carina's Books

The Wizard of Dark Street, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey, at Sonderbooks

A two for one, at Candace's Book Blog--The Thief Lord and The Magician's Elephant

Authors and Interviews

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at Literary Rambles (plus giveaway!)

James Mihaley (You Can't Have My Planet, But Take My Brother, Please!) at From the Mixed Up Files and at Project Mayhem

Alyson Miers (Charlinder's Walk), at A Thousand Wrongs (plus giveaway!)

Other Good Stuff:

For those of us interested in books out in the UK, the Bookbuzz 2012 list has just been posted (and includes some mg sci fi/fantasy books that I had never heard of before and now want to read....)

A meditation on Fakelore vs Folklore, by Jane Yolen, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

"It's Complicated" a blog dialogue hosted by CBC Diversity (an orginization "dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children's literature -- encouraging diversity of race, gender, geographical origin, sexual orientation, and class among both the creators of and the topics addressed by children's literature.")


And having nothing to do with mg sff, here's a poignant image I felt compelled to share (via Jenny Davidson). "The ordeal left him with minor wounds...." More at the BBC

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley (Dial, April 2012, middle grade)

In the town of Remarkable, where "the air was always fresh and the weather was always pleasant" (page 1), just about every resident lives up to the high-standards of remarkability. The adults are world-renowned practitioners of their various vocations, and there's even a most remarkable sea monster living in the town's remarkable lake (about which more later). The children are so extraordinary that they all go to the school for the remarkably gifted...all, that is, except for Jane Doe.

She is the only ordinary child in the whole town, and the only pupil at the public school.

But Jane's life is about to become extraordinary, when two twins with a remarkable talent for mayhem arrive in town and manage to get themselves expelled from the school for the remarkably gifted, joining Jane's class. Under the chaotic influence of the Grimlet twins, Jane's teacher casts aside the cloak of normalcy--and begins instructing her three students in the ways of piracy.

And this is not the only intrusion of piracy into Remarkable. A stranger has come to town, clearly a former pirate himself...and he is being hunted by other pirates.

Suddenly Jane finds herself at the center of events as piracy threatens the peace of Remarkable (in mildly absurd ways). But there is a bigger problem. The town's lake monster (the most remarkable one in the world, of course, though a shy and retiring creature), is threatened by the construction of a new (utterly remarkable) bell tower. And Jane's grandfather, a man even more normal than Jane (so much so that people forget he's even in the room), is the only one who knows what must be done to keep the monster safe.

It's a light and funny story. The extremes of specialness exhibited by the townsfolk, not least of whom are Jane's siblings, make for entertaining reading, as do the shenanigans of the Grimlet twins and the over-the-top piraticisms of Jane's teacher. Foley keeps a somewhat wry and humorous tone throughout--even when she's detailing the remarkable things that make her fictional town special, it's clear that she's enjoying the over-the-topness of it all, which made me enjoy it myself.

That being said, I must confess I wanted to shake sense into most of the town's inhabitants, and wish Foley had stirred them up considerably more than she did! As an adult reader, the arrogance of the people of Remarkable is more distasteful than I think it would be to a child reader. I think that the average child is, perforce, more used to not having all the knowledge and abilities of the grown-ups around them, and more used to wanting to be special--to be seen, heard, and appreciated (although goodness knows some of us (ie me) have moments (hours, days...) of wanting to be Special Snowflakes). In short, though, I think this is one with much more child appeal than appeal to grown up readers of middle grade fantasy.

However, something I did appreciate about the book is that the author stays true to her central character. Jane never does develop some miraculously special gift of her own (although she does end up happier at the end of the book). It becomes clear to the reader (although not to the majority of the remarkable characters themselves) that being extraordinarily gifted isn't enough to bring happiness, that sometimes you have to take control of your own life (and run off to sea in a piratical way, if that appeals, as two character's did with mixed results).

And in a similar vein, Jane's Grandfather, the most ordinary character of them all, proves himself a hero through a very ordinary (though slightly illegal) course of action (though his bright and sparkling townsfolk don't really realize what he's done, which is fine with him).

A good one for the child who appreciates tongue in cheek humor of a light and fun kind, especially one who has, like Jane, always wanted a dog. Or wanted to run away to sea, or sing to a lake monster....or who simply is tired of being ordinary.

Other thoughts at Mother Daughter Book Reviews, Humbleindigo, and Book Nut

And here's an interview with the author at Presenting Lenore

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Transcendence, by C.J. Omololu, for Waiting on Wednesday

Browsing through new and forthcoming YA fantasy covers over at The Enchanted Inkpot, I found a book that I knew I had to buy, based on the cover alone. I can't, at this point in my life, support diversity in books for kids and teens by actually writing them myself, but I do have a credit card, and I know how to use it. It is also nice that it sounds like a book I'd have been interested in, regardless (but when and why did Cole become a girl's name??? For how much of the book will this bother me?)

Transcendence, by C.J. Omololu (Walker Books, June 5, 2012, Young Adult)

"When a visit to the Tower of London triggers an overwhelmingly real vision of a beheading that occurred centuries before, Cole Ryan fears she is losing her mind. A mysterious boy, Griffon Hall, comes to her aid, but the intensity of their immediate connection seems to open the floodgate of memories even wider.

As their feelings grow, Griffon reveals their common bond as members of the Akhet—an elite group of people who can remember past lives and use their collected wisdom for the good of the world. But not all Akhet are altruistic, and a rogue is after Cole to avenge their shared past. Now in extreme danger, Cole must piece together clues from many lifetimes. What she finds could ruin her chance at a future with Griffon, but risking his love may be the only way to save them both.

Full of danger, romance, and intrigue, Transcendence breathes new life into a perpetually fascinating question: What would you do with another life to live?"

I find the placement of the male and female characters on the cover interesting too--I can't decide if the dude is the passive one, with the girl being in charge, or if she is hiding behind him. I think she looks too fierce for the latter...

(Those interested in writing diversly for kids and teens might want to visit this week's series at CBC Diversity. And anyone interested in the representation of divesity on YA covers should check out this post at Kate Hart's blog)

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

Why I didn't post a time travel review today-- Macbeth, performed by ensembles from 18 schools

Just got back from watching a performance of Macbeth, performed by kids from 18 different schools from around my city. There were at least 30 different Macbeths, sometimes as many as five on stage at once....and some scenes were funny, and some moving, and some (like my son's scene--he was McDuff's son) were utterly brilliant. Or would have been, had he not had his back to the audience for one key line. Still, he did an excellent job being a smart alack to his mother.... almost as if he had had practice.

Happily, the Edwardian news boy hat we bought at a Steampunk festival a little while back was perfect for his role, and he was smothered by it most realistically at the end of the scene.

It's been about thirty years since I read or saw Macbeth, and (bringing this post on to bookish topicness), I was pleased to hear two quotes I recognized from books--"thou cream-faced loon" and "What, all my pretty chickens and their dam?" (although I don't remember the character quoting the later using "pretty.") I'm not saying what books they're from, in case anyone wants to play along at home...

Unraveling, by Elizabeth Norris

Unraveling, by Elizabeth Norris (Balzer + Bray, YA, April 24, 2012) is a sci-fi romance thriller, that I found a gripping (though perhaps overly busy) read.

When we first meet seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner, she's finishing up a day as a lifeguard at a San Diego beach, making plans with her new almost boy friend, and finding her car tires slashed by bitchy jealous girls.

My thoughts: Nothing unusual. She seems nice enough, the boy seems nice enough, the girls are bitchy.

But then Janelle decides to jog home...and is hit by a pickup truck and killed...except that the one person on earth who can bring her back to life just happens to be there--Ben Michaels, a high school classmate from the stoner fringe, a boy who Janelle had barely noticed. And Ben heals her broken body.

My thoughts: is Ben an angel???? (this isn't the vibe I got from the cover--there's nary a feather in sight--but you never know).

Being killed and brought back to life is strange and disturbing, but worse is to come. Janelle knows her Dad, a high-up guy in the FBI, will have started a file on her accident--finding out who the driver was, and the circumstances. But when she starts snooping through his files, she opens a can of worms.

My thought: lax security, Dad.

Here's what her Dad is investigating--bodies of unidentifiable people turning up, hideously, horribly burned by radiation, and an extraordinarily high-tech countdown clock. Both Janelle and her father reach the same conclusion--that there is a bio-terror assault on its way. Janelle enlists her best friend, a guy named Alex, to help her find out more.

My thoughts: ok, an interesting FBI-ish mystery/plot to be unravelled by clever teens. Fine.

And meanwhile, at high school, J. is (naturally--the dude brought her back from the dead) drawn to Ben. He is More than he Seemed. We see J.'s mom, caught in the grips of horrible depression, and see her trying to look out for her younger brother--she is the caretaker of her family.

My thoughts: I liked the high school bits, where Ben and J. spar in English class and conduct physics experiments, lots. He is showing no signs of being Angelic--but obviously there is something up with him (like, the ability to bring people back from the dead).

Then someone close to Janelle is killed. The darkness grows. The clock is ticking...

My thoughts: I am interested in this book, but there is still lots and lots of it left to read! The bioterrorism plot doesn't seem to be advancing much. Ben is still not an angel.

THEN. A twist! An unexpected leap into sci fi! A sudden game changing revelation, that ups the stakes (both in terms of Ben and J.'s romance, and the fate of the world).

My thoughts, on reaching the end of the book: Goodness. What a lot just happened. It all makes sense now...but I think I liked it best when we were just concerned with horrible dead bodies and the threat of bioterrorism...the sci fi part was not so gripping, plus the romance plot begins to take up a lot of room...

My general thoughts about Janelle: All her life J. has been the person who saved others--even as a kid, she was pulling kids out from under waves; as she grew older, she had to save her family when her mom became depressed (and her little brother is only three years younger--she is way too over-protective).

Added to that, she is (understandably) disturbed about having been (possibly? she doesn't know) date-raped at a party a few years earlier. This is only tangentially relevant.

Now, as a seventeen year old, she has to help save the world. By the end of the book, she has fallen hard in love, she has lost loved ones, and her city has been devastated by horrible earthquakes. Yoicks.

A more believable, though possibly less interesting, story would be one in which J. cracks under pressure, tells her little brother to help more with the household tasks, and gives voice to the anger she feels towards her father viz. dumping the burden of her mother on her, and possibly runs screaming out of the house.

But no, she decides to play Girl Detective.

Thoughts on J.'s best friend, Alex--Alex is basically the guy next door, the only person who is consistently there for J. He is half-Asian, has a controlling mother, and seems to have no point in life (or the story) except being there for J., and being a voice of reason. Spoiler: highlight to read--I never like it when a minority side-kick gets killed for no good reason, as is the case here. Adding to J.'s burden of grief is unnecessary, plot-wise, at this point in the book.

Final thought about the book: a brisk read with lots of X-file-esque appeal. Some suspension of critical disbelief required. Perhaps too full of minor bits of story that don't advance the plot directly enough.

Note on sex: yes, there is
Note on graphically described dead people: yes, they are.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (5/20/2012)

Welcome to this Sunday's round-up of the middle grade fantasy/sci fi related blog postings (at least, those that I, in my week of blog reading, found and remembered to save the links to after finding). Please send me links I missed! And also, since the point of this whole round-up business is to make it easier for us mg sff fans to find reviews (I myself started doing this because I wanted someone else to have already started doing it), feel free to spread the word that these round-ups exist (thank you those who already have!)

Biggest news of the week: The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman, has won the Andre Norton Award! (Nebula for YA sci fi/fantasy), and the novel winner is Among Others, by Jo Walton. (Here's the whole list). And City of Lies, by Lian Tanner, has won the Aurealis Award for Children's Fiction (Australian sci fi/fantasy)

The Reviews

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Bibliofile

Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, at Wondrous Reads

Beware the Ninja Weenies, by David Lubar, at Intergalactic Academy

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Book Nut

The Dragon's Eye, by Kaza Kingsley, at Fantasy Literature

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, edited by Kazu Kibuishi, at Book Aunt

A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge, at Fantastic Reads

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at My Brain on Books

Flora's Fury, by Ysabeau S. Wilce, at TheHappyNappyBookseller

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rodaso, at Book Aunt

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, at Wandering Librarians

Grimalkin the Witch Assassin, by Joseph Delaney, at Karrissa's Reading Review

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Chris Healy, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Into the Dream, by William Sleator, at Back to Books

The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

Medusa the Mean (Goddess Girls 8) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Small Review

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Popcorn Reads, Known to Read, and Steph Su Reads

Project Jackalope, by Emily Ecton, at BooksYALove

Return to Exile, by E.J. Patten, at Gamila's Review

The Rock of Ivanore, by Laurisa White Reyes, at The Book Cellar and The Write Path

The Saga of Rex, by Michel Gagne, at Karissa's Reading Review

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lundquist, at Shannon Messenger

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan, at The Brain Lair

Swipe, by Evan Angler, at artsy musings of a bibliophile

Talee and the Fallen Object, by Jacquitta A. McManus, at The Children's Book Review

The War at Ellsmere, by Faith Erin Hicks, at Book Aunt

A Well-Timed Enchantment, by Vivian Vande Velde, at Charlotte's Library

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Small Review

A three for one post at Ms. Yingling Reads-- 13 Hangmen, by Art Corriveau, Sir Seth Thislethwaite Seeks the Truth of Betty the Yeti, by Richard Thake, and Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee,

Authors and Interviews

Jasmine Richards (The Book of Wonders) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Danika Dinsmore (The Ruins of Noe) at Just Deb

Stephanie Burgis (Renegade Magic) at Smack Dab in the Middle and distraction no. 99

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore) at Cynsations and The Children's Book Review

Barry Wolverton (Neversink) at Jean BookNerd

Other Good Stuff:

A celebration of dragons at Scribble City Central

From Flavorwire (via 100 Scope Notes) comes 10 of the Weirdest Children's Book Authors of All Time

Neil Gaiman gives the commencement address at Univeristy of the Arts

And finally, for those of us who miss our dollhouses, the most beautiful miniature food I've ever seen (more pictures here, at Jules; found via Light Reading)

Shadows on the Moon, by Zoe Marriott

Shadows on the Moon, by Zoe Marriott (Candlewick, April 2012, YA)

In an alternate Asian world, perhaps closer to Japan than anywhere else, Suzume lives the ordinary life of a well-born, sheltered girl. She's still too young for marriage, and, as far as she knows, she's lacking any extraordinary talents or beauty. She is wrong.

On her fourteenth birthday, the Prince's men come riding up the road, and slaughter her father, her cousin Aimi, and the household retainers. But Suzume escapes, instinctively disguising herself as a hare, and then concealing herself in the chimney flue under a magical blanket of ash. Youta, now the family's old ashman, but with a sad story of his own, finds her, and explains that she is a shadow weaver, one who can spin illusions.

Her mother, away from home during the massacre, almost immediately marries an old family friend, Terayama--who has been determined to possess her mother for himself for years. At Terayama's estate, Suzume's shadows keep a demure smile on her face, but she turns to self-harm to find release from her grief and her situation of forced passivity...and her growing fear that Teryama does not wish her well. When she learns that Teryama himself was responsible for the killings, her shadows are not enough to save her from his need to kill her, too.

Disguised from Teryama's eyes in the mundane rags and filth of a drudge, the only light in Suzume's life comes from clandestine meetings with a young foreigner--Otieno, one of a group of visitors from a land of dark-skinned people whose culture is very different from her own. But her desire for revenge, and her constant self-harm, stand in the way of her happiness, and when she does something unforgivable, she flees into the night.

Fate crosses her path with the one person who might help her take her revenge on Teryama once and for all. If Suzume, well-born girl turned drudge, can transform herself into a courtesan of unparalleled mystery and charm, she can become the Shadow Princess, and destroy her enemy. And give up on the love between herself and her young foreigner....despite the promise he offers of a life of hope.

It is a dark story, with flashes of light--just as the title, Shadows on the Moon, promises. I became emotionally invested in Suzume very quickly, and so I found it especially hard going to read about her time as a drudge--the hopelessness and pain are pretty intense, and I was anxious for the story to move onward more quickly than it did. But the immediacy of the darkness does lift, although, until the end, it remains unclear if revenge will swallow Suzume's life.

There is magic, but it is not the Point of the story; this isn't a "girl learns to use her magic powers" tale, although the shadow weaving plays an extremely important role in her journey. This kept the magic intriguing, and tantalizing--only gradually do we learn what Suzumi, and other gifted friends she meets, are capable of.

As might be expected from the above, this is very much a character driven book. If the reader doesn't care about Suzume, there isn't much to keep the pages turning--there are no magical battles, or monsters, or supernatural beings of any sort to be confronted. Instead there is intrigue, and plotting, and grief, and internal tension, a mix to which Suzume's romance, doomed or not, brings much needed relief.

If it were not for the rather protracted time in which Suzume is a miserable drudge, I would have loved this--despite that, I liked it quite a bit (although aspects of the story required some firm suspension of disblief). Clearly, I'm shallow--I liked best the part where Suzume is preparing herself to be chosen the Shadow Princesses, and learning dances, and playing music, and falling even more in love with Otieno...

Shadows on the Moon was previously published in the UK, which I'm mentioning as an excuse to show the lovely UK cover, shown at right.

Side note on diversity: as well as being set in an Asian inspired country, with the foreigners seeming to me to come from a West African inspired country, there is also a very important character who, though born male, lives as a woman fully and completely, without this being a source of internal conflict for her.

What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt--Waiting on Wednesday

I recently came across news of a forthcoming book that made me sqee (gently) and add it tout suite to my list of must haves--What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt (Clarion Books, September 4, 2012).

Now, the blurb itself wasn't exactly what made me want the book--it doesn't, for instance, feature an orphanage, an old house, a plucky girl, or enchanted birds/foxes/horses, to name a few things I like in books. But it sounds reasonable enough (although any mention of a dark lord makes me feel a tad twitchy):

"The Valorim are about to fall to a dark lord when they send a necklace containing their planet across the cosmos, hurtling past a trillion starsall the way into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Mass. Mourning his late mother, Tommy doesn't notice much about the chain he found, but soon he is drawing the twin suns and humming the music of a hanorah. As Tommy absorbs the art and language of the Valorim, their enemies target him. When a creature begins ransacking Plymouth in search of the chain, Tommy learns he must protect his family from villains far worse than he's ever imagined."

No. It was not this blurb that made me want this ever so much. It is that GARY SCMIDT, author of my dearly beloved The Wednesday Wars (and Okay for Now), has written a middle grade fantasy! Which I call very thoughtful of him, because a. this is what I read most and b. I will read anything he writes.

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

A Well-Timed Enchantment, by Vivian Vande Velde, for Timeslip Tuesday

A Well-Timed Enchantment, by Vivian Vande Velde (1990, middle grade--that's the original cover shown at left).

Deanna is not happy to be spending her summer with her French relatives in the middle of the country, with only the cat, Oliver, for company. But she becomes even more unhappy when she accidentally drops her Micky Mouse watch down an old well...it was a treasured memento of the last time her father was a happy member of her family.

And she becomes still more unhappy when two rather snooty elves (although they don't think much of that term) appear, and proceed to scold her for having dropped the watch into a time-displacement vortex (the well is no ordinary well). Unless she can get it back, they inform her, it will alter the middle ages, and, in a domino effect, the entire course of world history will be changed.

So without any choice in the matter, Deanna is plunged back to the middle-ages...but the elves have thoughtfully provided her with a companion--Oliver the cat, in human form.

The middle ages to which Deanna travels is something of a deliberate caricature, with bumbling would-be-knights, a vain and mopish lady of the castle, pigs, greasy chunks of meat, etc. And Deanna and Oliver have no clue how to behave--the elves failed to provide lessons in castle etiquette for Deanna (although they did bestow the gift of medieval French), and Oliver, being a cat, is even more at sea. Over-the-top medieval romance complicates matters, but more seriously, the castle is home to a rather terrifying alchemist who has some genuine magical abilities, and naturally, he's the one who ends up with the watch...

It's all a bit silly, with plenty of deliberate eye-rolling moments, some slap-stick, and flashes of the sharp humor I appreciate in Vivian Vande Velde. The best part of the book, by far, is Oliver the cat--we see through Deanna's concerned eyes as he struggles with being human. Sometimes this is poignant, and sometimes amusing, especially when dogs are mentioned:

"Well," [said Deanna], "you heard Leonard and Baylen were fighting to see whose fiancee is the fairest. It turns out since Leonard lost so badly, he figures his lady must be a real dog, so he wants to replace her with me."

Oliver stopped and stared at her. "Leonard is marrying a dog?"

Deanna sighed. She reminded herself that he had come to her rescue twice already today. She sighed again. "It's just another expression, Oliver." (page 57)

Not only does Oliver add great interest to the story, but he is also the catalyst for change in Deanna. She not a very strong character, being kind of lonely and passive, and she knows it, but her concern for Oliver does, by the end of the book, force her to greater depths of personality. "Will Deanna and Oliver fall in love?" becomes a much more interesting question than the slightly MacGuffiny story of the watch.

I found this a pleasant enough read of the faux time-travel sort (there's no point in expecting historical accuracy), and the cat-loving girl suffering through the blahs of sixth and seventh grade would probably enjoy it a lot more.

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

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade (ages 9-12, ish) blog posts that I found in my reading this week! Please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews:

Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith, at Charlotte's Library

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, at Strange and Random Happenstance

The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Gina Carey

A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle, at books4yourkids

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Good Books and Good Wine and The Book Smugglers

How the Camel Got its Hump, and How the Leopard Got its Spots, by Rudyard Kipling (graphic novel editions) at Back to Books here and here

Inkheart and Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke, at Adventures of a Book Wyrm here and here

Keeper, by Kathi Appelt, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

Magyk, by Angie Sage (audiobook review) at Wandering Librarians

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at That's Another Story

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Popcorn Reads

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley, at My Brain on Books

The Sixty-eight Rooms, by Marianne Malone, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Storybound, by Marissa Burt, at library_mama

A Tale of Time City, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Finding Wonderland

Time Snatchers, by Richard Ungar, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Geo Librarian

The Wrath of Zozimos (Stickman Odyssey) by Christopher Ford, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Eight Days of Luke, and Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones at The Book Smugglers

From the New York Times Book Review--The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, and The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

Giveaways:

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente at Tor (ends midnight, May 15)

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Alison's Book Marks

Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street, by Barry Dickins at Read In a Single Sitting (Aussie only)

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Small Review (May 19)

Authors and Interviews:

Caitlen Rubino-Bradway (Ordinary Magic) at My Precious, Yearning to Read, and Small Review

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore) at The Book Cellar

Danika Dinsmore (The Ruins of Noe) at Dead Houseplants

Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland) at Tor

Anne Ursu (Breadcrumbs) at StorySnoops

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at Cynsations

Jonathan Auxier (Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes) at From the Mixed Up Files...

Christopher Healy (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom) at The Book Smugglers

Other Good Stuff:

City of Lies, by Lian Tanner, has won the Aurelis Award (Australian spec. fiction) for children's fiction told primarily through words

A list of fantasy cat books at Charlotte's Library

Seth Adam Smith is working on a documentary about Lloyd Alexander; you can watch the preview at his website

Maurice Sendak (as you doubtless know) died this week. I am wondering how many writers of fantasy for children were inspired (directly or not) by Max's journey to the land of the wild things--it was probably the first book I ever read in with the ordinary was transformed into a portal to a fantasy realm, and this was the part of the book I myself loved best: "That very night in Max’s room a forest grew and grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around...."

Fantasy cats (starring Golden Cat, by Albert Bigelow Paine)

We are, if all goes well, getting a kitten tomorrow! (Hopefully one that actually will catch mice. I have caught more mice with my own two hands than our current kitty has). So here's a short list of some cat books, in which magic, or at least the supernatural, plays a big part. I know I'm missing lots--please feel free to leave your favorites in the comments!

First off, in honor of Mother's Day--Golden Cat, by Albert Bigelow Paine, illustrated by Pelagie Doane (1934). This was my mother's most loved book when she was a girl, and she passed that love on to me and my sisters; as result, the book (that's the actual one shown at left) is now in pieces, but still cherished. It's the story of an orphan girl named Cathy, who lives with a cruel step-aunt. One night Cathy is wakes to find a large golden cat outside her room. A cat that can talk: "I come on an errand, a secret errand...you are supposed to help me." It turns out that Cathy's aunt is a wicked witch--and also a cat. With the help of a magic potion, she can keep her human form--but this magic potion is also desperately needed by a Fairy prince transformed into a cat by the witch's magic. So Cathy and Golden cat find the potion, and take it to Fairy Land, but through mischance, there's not enough of it to do the job properly, and Prince Florizel is left with a white paw. Cathy, Golden Cat, and a rough old Tom cat set off on a journey, partly in Fairy Land, and partly in our world, to find the ingredients of the portion, before it is too late.

It is full of lovely descriptions, and magic, and Cathy and her cat friends are charming characters. And it is just perfect for the eight year old or so cat-loving girl, especially with the added bonus of the lovely black and white illustrations!

Sadly, it's long of print, and rather expensive...but if you ever see a copy for a reasonable price, snag it!

Another favorite cat book from my own childhood (which you can get for two cents at Amazon) was The Little Broomstick, by Mary Stewart. A girl named Mary is sent to her Great Aunt's house deep in the English countryside; there are no children her own age, and the only two creatures at all friendly are the gardener and a black cat, Tib. Mary finds a little broomstick, Tib leads her to the rare Fly-by-night flower, and next thing you know, Mary finds herself flying through the sky... and the broomstick lands in the stable yard of a school for witches.

This is not a friendly wholesome school. Horrible magical experiments are being performed on animals, including Tib's brother Gib. Gib's own owner, a boy named Peter, is desperately searching for him, and the two children, and Tib, end up rescuing the animals from their cages, and escaping the evil witches and warlocks in an utterly brilliant chase sequence that is one of my favorite bits of fantasy ever.

And here are some I read as a grown-up, and enjoyed lots!

The Mousehole Cat, by Antonia Barber. A very charming and beautifully illustrated picture book about a cat called Mowzer who lives in the Cornish fishing village of Mousehole. When storms trap the fishing boats inside the harbor, Mowzer and old Tom, her personal fisherman, set out to test the power of the Great Storm-Cat, who's plays with fishing boats as though they were mice....The sweet songs of Mowzer tame the savage beast, and she and Tom make it home safely with a boat full of fish.

And here's another picture book by Antonia Barber--Catkin (Candlewick, 1994) A little girl has been kidnapped by fairies, and Catkin, her kitten, must journey under the hollow hill to save her. He knows not to drink from the willow stream, and never to give the fair folk his name, but will his wits be sharp enough to best the fairy king in a game of riddles that will determine his fate, and that of his friend? It's a beautifully illustrated fantasy, the type of picture book that is most excellent for the independent reader, as well as making a great read aloud.

Highway Cats, by Janet Taylor Lisle Three tiny kittens are dumped onto a highway median one night, and miraculously make it across the traffic to a scruffy patch of woods that's home to a community of cats. Hardscrabble, down-on-their luck cats, who make a living scrounging in the dumpsters of the strip mall (except for one wily Siamese, who runs a rat farm back among the trees). It's not much of a life, but the ones that are tough and self-centered survive.

This creed is disrupted by the arrival of the kittens, who melt the hearts of the toughest cats of all. And when the cats small and scraggly place in the world is threatened by a new highway ramp, it is the cats' love for the kittens (who are much, much more than ordinary kittens) that will save them all.

My older boy loved this one when he was ten.

Carbonel, The King of the Cats, by Barbara Sleigh (originally published 1955, brought back into print by the New York Review of Children's Books). Rosemary and her mother share a small flat, and there's very little money. So Rosemary decides that she'll clean houses during the summer to earn a bit herself, and sets off to the market to buy the broom she'll need. There she meets a strange old lady, who sells her a second-hand broom, one that comes with a cat...Neither the old lady (a witch) or the broom (it flys) or the cat are ordinary. The cat is Carbonel, a Prince of the Royal Blood, bound into servitude by the witch's magic, and desperate to become free so that he can save his cat people, denizens of the rooftops, from falling victim to tyranny and chaos. Rosemary and her friend John resolve to break the spell, with the help of the magic of the broom, and some tricks that Carbonel has up his paw...

It's a charming story of magic intersecting the ordinary world, that fans of Edward Eager should enjoy. And there are two sequels, The Kingdom of Carbonel, and Carbonel and Calidor, which continue the fun.

And finally, Catwings, and it sequels, by Ursula Le Guin, are utterly lovable books. Winged kittens making their way through a dangerous world! So cute! So utterly engaging!

My nine year old is reading these now, and finding them very good. (He's also engrossed in the Warriors series, and I the new kitten, which is going to be his very own, is probably going to end up being called "something" kit).

And just to give a nod to Young Adult cat books--there's White Cat, by Holly Black, and Cat Girl's Day Off, by Kimberly Pauley. I'm not doing well with fantasy or sci fi cats for grown ups--all I'm coming up with is the flying cats of Ursula Le Guin's Rocannon's World.

Edited to add:

Thanks to an anon. commenter, I've now read The Blue Cat of Castle Town, by Catherine Cate Coblentz, which can be summed up thus: magical kitten as catalyst for creative joy and artistic integrity in an early 19th century Vermont town. Here's my full review.

Like I said up top, please feel free to share your own recommendations!