This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs--"like Calvin and Hobbes, but with muffins"

"Like Calvin and Hobbes, but with muffins" (as in, the two main characters are muffins) is how my youngest described the graphic novel he's currently working on.  It tickled me very much; however, this week's round-up of the mg sff posts I found in my blog reading has nothing to do with muffins.  In any event, let me know if I missed your post!

First:  Nominations for the Cybils close tomorrow.  Middle grade sci fi/fantasy nominations are trailing YA 101 books to 132 (as of 6:26 pm).  MG SFF fans, represent!  Nominate!  (It seems like there are fewer nominations this year.  Last year we had c. 150 in mg sff....why is this?)

Here's where you go to nominate.

Here are the books that have already been nominated.

(I have a few posts of mg sff books that haven't been nominated yet here, here, and here)


The Reviews:

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at The Accidental Novelist

Circus Galacticus, by Deva Fagan, at Book Nut 

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at The Book Smugglers

Demons of the Ocean, by Justin Somper, at Madigan Reads

The False Prince, by Jennifer Neilsen, at Book Nut, Finding Wonderland, and Semicolon

The Fire Chronicle, by John Stephens, at Karissa's Reading Review and The Artolater

The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman, at Slatebreakers

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Fantasy Literature

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Semicolon 

The Golden Door, by Emily Rodda, at The Write Path

How to Seize Dragon's Jewel, by Cressida Cowell, at The Telegraph

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at A Monster Ate My Book Report and Charlotte's Library

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at The Book Smugglers

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at LiterariTea

The Last Hunt, by Bruce Coville, at Fantasy Literature

The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, at Riffs and Reviews

Mira's Diary--Lost in Paris, by Marissa Moss, at Bumbles and Fairy Tales

The Orphan of Ellis Island, by Elvira Woodruff, at Time Travel Times Two

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Bibliophilia--Maggie's Bookshelf 

Path of Beasts, by Lian Tanner, at Bewitched Bookworms

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at Book Nut and Charlotte's Library

The Prince Who Fell From the Sky, by John Claude Bemis, at Semicolon

Princess Academy, and Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at The Book Smugglers

Princess of Glass, by Jessica Day George, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

Runemarks, by Joanne Harris (audiobook review) at library_mama

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lundquist, at Semicolon 

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at books4yourkids and Shelf Elf

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schiltz, at books4yourkids and Becky's Book Reviews

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin, at BookDragon and Reads for Keeps

The Storm Makers, by Jennifer E. Smith, at library_mama

Storybound, by Marissa Burt, at Semicolon

Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull, at The Book Smugglers

The Time Garden, by Edward Eager, at Tor

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at HumbleIndigo

What Came from the Stars, by Gray Schmidt, at Becky's Book Reviews and Random Musings of a Bibliophile

When Marnie Was There, by Joan C. Robinson, at Charlotte's Library

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton, at Paranthetical

The Wikkeling, by Steven Arntson, at 300 Pages

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Book Nut

Wings of Fire, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Semicolon and Bookworm Blather

Woodenface, by Gus Grenfell, at Read in a Single Sitting

Young Fredl, by Cynthia Voight, at Great Books for Kids and Teens

and a two for one at Ms. Yingling Reads--Behind the Bookcase, by Mark Streensland,  and Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm, by David Shapiro


Authors and Interviews

Grace Ling (Starry River of the Sky) at Abby the Librarian

Lana Krumwiede (Freakling) at A Thousand Wrongs (giveaway)

RL Stine is asked "How do you think scaring kids is different than scarring adults?" at The Huffington Post

Lisa McMann (Island of Silence) at A Thousand Wrongs (giveaway)

Katherine Catmull (Summer and Bird) at Cynsations 

JK Rowling at Scholastic, answering fans questions live

Other Good Stuff:

Q is for Questing Beast, with Mary Hoffman, at Scribble City Central

New Zealand is releasing Hobbit coinage that's going to be legal tender.   The New Zealand Post said it expected "strong international interest"-- that would include my boys. 

And if you want a quick little Lord of the Rings chuckle, here's a fun video clip of demonstrating the power of Saruman's voice...

24 Hour Readathon minichallenge--a great way to directly celebrate the reading child

My actual reading for the readathon doesn't go all that well--2 books finished, 1 short story finished (about which more later), and 2 books each half done...

But there's a mini challenge going on right now that I can take part in wholeheartedly! Celebrate the Reading Child, at joystory, asks bloggers to do something celebratory and reading child related-ish...

so

I just went to the Fall Book Fair for Ballou, a high school in D.C. where the library is pitifully bare of books, and bought Vessel, by Sarah Beth Durst (which I'd like to buy for myself one of these days....it sounds super amazing, and is that a beautiful cover or what).

If you'd like to help book hungry teens celebrate reading, here's the information at the blog behind the book fair, Guys Lit Wire. 

Horten's Incredible Illusions, by Lissa Evans

Horten's Incredible Illusions--Magic, Mystery & Another Very Strange Adventure, by Lissa Evans  (Sterling Children's Books, September, 2012, middle grade)

In Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms (my review), we were introduced to young Stuart Horton, transplanted to the small town in England where his illustrious great-uncle Tony, a renowned stage magician, had lived, invented magical mechanisms, and mysteriously disappeared.  Stuart followed the clues his uncle left, and found the cache of miraculous mechanisms....but does he have a legal right to them? Not unless he can find his uncle's will...

So Stuart and his friend April (one of the triplet girls next door) are off following a second hunt devised by Uncle Tony that requires them to enter each of the illusions.  In the first book, true magic only came into play right at the end.  But here, it soon becomes clear that each of the elaborate mechanisms--the Well of Wishes, the Arch of Mirrors, the Cabinet of Blood and more--holds a magical trap, from which only the keen witted can escape.

I found this book more entertaining than the first--I loved the various mechanisms and their tricks, and enjoyed the little humours side plots spinning off from the main story.   But on the other hand, it was perhaps not as emotionally involving as the first book--Stuart is now established in his new life, so there is less emotional angst...

Still, a good, fun, fast read!

So fun and fast that I just finished it in the first hour of Dewey's Readathon, in which I am a last minute participant.

Readathon!

During my morning blog browse, I happened to see over at April's that this is a Readathon Day!  And so I quickly jumped on board...I'm not very very hopeful about being able to read for 24 hours, but I will try to get at least ten books read!

Off I go...

Questions via 24hourreadathon.com


1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Southern New England-- a crisp fall day, with a hint of the first frost still on the grass

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I'm really looking forward to not having a stack at all...but one book I'm most certainly going to read is The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
The cranberry apricot bread I'm going to make

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I am woefully unprepared for winter, both in fact (there are still windows awaiting reglazing in the barn) and in mind--this cold dark morning stuff rots.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I'm not going to fret about having to do other things in between reading--I'll give the books my best shot, and get at least 14 hours of reading in, but won't feel bad about not reading every book in my pile!

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton Juvenile, Sept. 27, 2012, middle grade)

In A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010), Gidwitz fractured the story of Hansel and Gretel into a quest that was a conglomeration of several fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.  In a Glass Grimmly is a companion to that story, again drawing on several desperate tales to make a surprisingly coherent narrative about the trials and tribulations that befall royal children Jill and Jack.  As in the first book, there are frequent intrusions from the narrator, a considerable helping of danger, and some really unpleasant moments.  But there's also humor, and hope, and character growth to balance off the less cozy aspects of the tale....

Both Jack and Jill are leading lives that are somewhat twisted--Jack longs to be accepted by the village boys, and Jill longs to be as beautiful as her beautiful mother, so as to win attention from her.    But when the tailor responsible for the Emperor's New Clothes comes to town, Jill finds herself the victim of his cruelty....and runs off the village where Jack lives.   Jack has his own problems--he's just traded a cow for a bean.  And these happenings set in motion a journey that will take the children on a quest of a mirror that will tell the truth to whoever looks into it...if they can deliver the mirror to the mysterious woman who asked them to find it, they'll get their hearts desire.  If they don't get it, they've agreed their lives are forfeit.  It's the sort of quest that involves dangers from goblins, giants, evil mermaids, and finally a face to face encounter with a massive, very fiery salamander.

And it's the sort of quest where, when all the pieces fall into place, Jill and Jack have changed so much that what they thought they wanted--validation from others--has changed as well....

Comic relief along the way is provided by a three-legged frog (throwing a frog against a wall doesn't actually turn a frog into a prince, you know.  It just hurts him).  And the pluck of the two kids, and their quick wits adds zest to the story.   So all in all, I found it a very diverting read, one I preferred to the first book.   I'm not quite sure why that last is so--perhaps this book had a more hopeful, interior oriented character arc, perhaps the authorial intrusions were intruded with a more practiced hand, perhaps I just found Jack and Jill more interesting...perhaps it's because I liked the frog.

In short, although A Tale Dark and Grimm didn't work for me, this one did, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to kids from fourth grade on up (yeah, it's dark, but so is Harry Potter).   I know lots of people loved ATDAG--I'd love to hear from any of you who did about whether this one worked as well for you!

And as a final aside--there's no need to have read the first book before picking this one up, and there's no real need to know the fairy tales, although it adds considerably to the interest.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books, October 2012, 12 and up), is an utterly enthralling story about five Mexican American sisters who go on road trip to take a dead man home to Mexico, and who are beset by supernatural forces on the way.

When I get a book to review that I already know I want to read,  I don't look at the blurb on the back jacket--I don't want preconceptions.   I'm saying this because all the while I was reading Summer of the Mariposas, I was thinking--wow, this is almost a retelling of the Odyssey! How clever I am to have noticed this! (I was also thinking that I would never want to take a road trip with a corpse).   And then I look at the back, and read, in big letters:  "Odilia and her four sisters rival the mythical Odysseus."  I guess that means I was on to something, but I feel a lot less original now....

When their papa left Odilia and her sisters, their mama had to go to work.  So the girls are spending their summer neglecting their chores and running wild--which includes going down to a secret spot on the Rio Grande to swim.  And there, one day, they find a drowned man, and in his wallet are pictures of his children....   Growing up on the boarder, the girls are well aware of boarder crossings gone wrong, and their hearts are moved by the thought of his family waiting for news in Mexico.   So the younger sisters decide that the only thing to do is to avoid the tangles of boarder bureaucracy and drive him home themselves.  Having made their delivery, they'll then go further into Mexico, to visit their paternal grandma, who they haven't seen for years.

Odilia, the oldest of the five, is the only one who thinks the whole thing is a bad idea.  But she can't let her sisters go alone.  And so, with the corpse neatly dressed, a touch of rogue applied, and a spritz of perfume for freshness --"Oh great," [Odilia] retorted, "So now he's not just going to look like a prostitute, he's going to smell like one too?"--they cross the border. 

But while they were extracting the drowned man from the river, Odilia was visited by the spirit/ghost/goddess Llorona--doomed for eternity to try, and fail, to keep her own boys from drowning.  Llorona has come to help Odilia find her way on this quixotic quest--giving her a magical earring that will bring help in times of trouble. The reader begins to suspect that this is going to be no ordinary, earth-bound, adventure...

Indeed it isn't.  The girls' journey takes them from one supernatural trap to another.  Though Odilia finds her instincts screaming at her with almost every encounter, her sisters rush on heedlessly into danger (it takes the younger girls a long time before they start learning from their mistakes--which is useful for the plot, but which stretches credulity). There's a witch who wants to keep them as her pets forever, an almost deadly encounter with a ravenous chupacabras, harpy-like owls who torment the sisters with a litany of their failings, and a deadly warlock.   But each time hope seems lost, Odilia calls on the magic of her earring, and help comes.

And then the girls must go home, face the music of the police and the feds (they were all over the news as suspected kidnapping victims) and bring what they learned back with them to their poor hardworking mama...Which leads to my only slight reservation about the book--the whole quest seemed largely to have come about so that the girls could be pushed into growing-up a bit, which seems like a lot of effort for not all that much point on the Supernatural Force's side of things (although Odilia does give something back).  But still.  Better that, I think, than the girls being Chosen Ones of Too Much Point--this way, the fantastic is still part of our world, part of the very real character arcs of this family of sisters.

It's often easy to describe a book as an amalgamation of other books...This meets That.  It's tricky here, because I can't think of a single other YA book that is at all like a story of five very real sisters on a road trip through a Mexican fantasia (The closest I'm getting is The Indigo Notebook, by Laura Resau, but it's a stretch).  The Odyssey meets...something oh so very different from the cannon of European-based quest fantasy, something fresh, and fascinating, and entertaining as all get out.

Here's another review at Finding Wonderland.

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher.

Dangerously Ever After--a lovely fantasy picture book

I don't, in general, review picture books, but sometimes one comes my way that demands attention (in a good way). Such a book is Dangerously Ever After, by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Valeria Docampo (Dial, September 13, 2012).

It's the story of Princess Amanita, who loves dangerous things--her pet scorpion, her brakeless bicycle, but most of all, her beautifully, horribly dangerous garden, full of stinging plants, stinking plants, spiky plants...

And then Prince Florian comes to visit:

"Hello," he said.  "Nice flowers."
"They're not at all nice," said Amanita. "Their itch is worse than a thousand mosquito bites."
Then she noticed the prince's sword, which looked very sharp and dangerous.  "Nice sword," she remarked.

Florian's sword unfortunately proves sharp enough to slice off what he assumed were harmless grapes...and the ensuing explosion (they were actually grenapes!) destroys Amanita's wheelbarrow.  By way of apology, he brings her roses, and when Amanita realizes just how beautifully thorny they are, she decides she must grow them in her garden.  So Florian sends seeds...but instead of roses, they sprout noses!

And the noses seem to have allergies (with yucky results).

So off she goes, on her brakeless bicycle, all in a huff, determined to stick the noses in Florian's ears.  Unfortunately, she doesn't know the way to Florian's castle.  And so, for the first time in her life, Amanita, lost in a dark forest,  encounters Danger!  Fortunately, she has a bicycle basket full of Noses....

It's a charming, quirky little story, and the pictures add tons of nuance, humor, and charm (bonus cats!  Bonus sea serpent topiary!  Bonus scorpion stinger pony tale!) There's enough pink to draw in your basic princess lover, and even Amanita's armoured dress is delightful, but the story subverts the standard tropes of the princess genre very nicely.

I also liked the fact that even though Amanita had a rather harrowing time of it, she didn't suddenly switch gears and renounce dangerous things--the story ends with her planting nine of the thorniest rosebushes in her garden.

So all in all, a rather delightful fantasy picture book, one I enjoyed lots!

(disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher)

National Book Awards finalists announced

The finalists for the National Book Awards have been announced!  Here are the books in Young People's Literature:  William Alexander's Goblin Secrets, Carrie Arcos' Out of Reach, Patricia McCormick's Never Fall Down, Eliot Schrefer's Endangered, and Steve Sheinkin's Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapons.

It strikes me as a very nicely balanced list--something for everyone (more or less) including a nice middle grade fantasy for me.  I myself bought Goblin Secrets after Ursula Le Guin recommended it, but then it got lost behind a radiator before I could read it, and has only just now surfaced....and I must now really put my mind to reading it, because it is also in the running for the Cybils in MG SFF!

A third list of books to tempt the reader who hasn't yet nominated anything in mg sci fi/fantasy

I really thought that I'd read a lot of middle grade sci fi/fantasy this past year...but lo, I didn't.  And as a direct result, I continue to wonder if one of the mg sff books that I haven't yet read from this Cybil's year is The One.

And so I spent a happy little time at Kirkus, reading reviews....and found these, none of which have been nominated!  So if you think one of these combines most beautifully kid appeal and quality writing, do nominate it! 

The Crimson Shard, by Teresa Flavin

Gustav Gloom and the People Taker

The Mourning Emporium, by Michelle Louvric

Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Troll Hunters by Michael Dahl

Of Giants and Ice by Shelby Bach

Heart of Stone, by M.L. Welsh

The Last Guardian, by Eoin Colfer

Deadly Pink, by Vivian Vande Velde (nominated-goody!  I'm looking forward to reading this one!)

Crow Country, by Kate Constable (ages 10-14, so perhaps more at home in YA)

Dark Lord, by Jamie Thomson

The land of Neverbelieve, by Norman Messenger (perhaps more at home in picture books)

Unlocking the Spell, by E.D. Baker

The Icarus Project by Laura Quimby (now nominated!)

The Mapmaker's Sons by VL Burgess (now nominated, but yoiks!  Not eligbile cause of coming out too late in the month.  Sorry.)

Robin Hood, by David Calcutt  (although goodness knows Robin Hood might not be fantasy...Scarlet, for instance, is in regular YA not YA sff, but it sounds really good!)

And all of these are in addition to the books from my previous two posts, here and here.

When Marnie Was There, by Joan C. Robinson, for Timeslip Tuesday

When Marnie Was There, by Joan C. Robinson (1967) is a lovely example of the sort of character driven, atmospheric, haunting story that's my favorite type of time travel.

Anna is an orphan, with foster parents who love her, but who have never been able to make her feel loved.   Withdrawn to an alarming degree, with no friends (she's not really even fond of herself) she holds herself tight within a shell of indifference.  When she is sent from London for an extended stay on the coast of Norfolk, to build up her strength, she spends her days idly exploring the shore, drawn in particular to an empty house by the water....a house that feels strangely familiar.  A house that isn't empty, after all.

Because Marnie lives there--the kindred spirit who Anna had never dreamt of meeting.  Marnie, whose parents are rich and fond of her, but who, like Anna, is lonely and neglected.  Marnie, who appears almost out of no-where, and who fills Anna's thoughts...

And when Marnie must go back to the city, she has left Anna the gift of being a person who can have friends... and Anna finds herself drawn into the large family who have moved into the old house, filling its emptiness with love and warmth.  Her memories of Marnie fade like a dream, until the revelation comes that Marnie and Anna are connected more deeply than either girl could have imagined.

Marnie wasn't actually there after all; somehow Anna had gone back into her time (just before WW I).   But it isn't a story about an adventure in the past--Anna doesn't even realize that Marnie was from an earlier time.  Instead, it is a story about friendship, and how Anna's character changes as a result.    So don't pick this one up if you want Excitement.  Do pick it up if you want gripping and poignant introspection.  Highly recommended to my ten-year old self, and to any girl who feels out of step and alone.

My only quibble is with the overly tidy and hasty wrapping up at the end...surely Anna's foster parents had made enquires about her family?  Did she really have no living relatives?

Harper Collins republished it as a "modern classic" in 2002, so although at the moment it's a tad on the expensive side in the places I just looked, if you keep you eye on it you can find a reasonably priced copy (I paid about $5 for the one I just bought--thanks, blog reader Julia, for recommending it to me!).

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann--a murder mystery/alternate history/faery steampunk/brave brother/unwilling hero/utterly gripping story

I like the cover of The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann (Greenwillow, Sept 2012, middle grade)  very much--it is a most intriguing clockwork bird, and the feathers add a nicely mysterious touch.  What the cover does not convey is that this is a book about a 19th-century England in which the gates to the land of faery opened, and a vicious and bloody war resulted--the Smiling War, so called because of all the grinning skulls that covered the fields.   But fairy magic proved to be no match for the British military, and with the gate now closed again, the faeries had no choice but to remain in the human world...constrained both by laws and by the inimical effects of iron and church bells.

Yet some humans and some faeries found each other not unobjectionable....and Changeling resulted--Peculiar children despised by both races.  Bartholomew and his little sister, Hettie, are two such children, confined by their mother for their own protection to the inside of a rundown home in a marginal area of war-torn Bath, now a predominantly faery town.   Bartholomew can pass as human, from a distance; Hettie, with branches growing from her head instead of hair, is much too Peculiar...

But danger finds the two of them, nonetheless.  Nine changelings have been horribly murdered...and all unwillingly, and rather unwittingly,  Arthur Jelliby, a gentleman of means and a junior member of Parliament, finds himself embroiled by conscience and coincidence in keeping the tenth changeling alive.

And Barthlomew might be that child.  Or perhaps Hettie...little branch-haired Hettie, with her raggedy handkerchief doll, who can never play with other children...

Oh gosh, how to describe this murder mystery/alternate history/faery steampunk/brave brother/unwilling hero/utterly gripping story?

Perhaps it would give you some idea of the taste and texture of it if I said it reminded me at times of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Stroud, with a generous dash of Diana Wynne Jones, but you have to add steampunk-ness.

I could tell you that Mr. Jelliby becomes lost in passageways that cannot exist, chases a mechanical bird across the streets of London, and is almost eaten by his furniture...and would much rather be sleeping late and drinking tasty drinks than actually doing anything forceful, but that makes him sound too absurd--he is a true hero.  I could say that Bartholomew is a boy scarred by loneliness and poverty, whose one sure place in the world is at his sister's side--almost pitiable, but without self-pity.   I cared, very much, for both these heroes...pitted against an enemy much more powerful, knowledgeable, and capable than either of them.

Because in this world where monsters and magic (beautiful and grotesque) and the steam stink of industry live side by side, there is a dangerous plot afoot that might bring about an even more destructive conflict between humans and faeries than the previous war.  With Bartholomew and Mr. Jelliby the only ones trying to stop it.

Short answer:  this was a truly excellent, gripping read that should utterly knock the socks of 11 to 13 year old readers, and if no one else nominates it for the Cybils (why has no one done so yet?) I will. 

Thank you so much, Maria, for passing on your ARC to me!!!

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs (10/7/12)

 Good morning, and welcome to another week's worth of my middle grade sci fi/fantasy blog reading!  If I missed your post, please let me know.

First: Nominations for the Cybils are open till October 15; if you haven't nominated your favorite eligible mg sff book (one published between Oct 16, 2011 and Oct 15, 2012 in the US or Canada) please do so!  I say "middle grade," but this category also includes elementary--so it's anything above easy readers/short chapter books but below YA (so the Dragonbreath books, for instance, go into this category).  YA sci fi/fantasy has c. 120 books so far;  mg/elementary has only about 80, in large part, I think, because it relies more on gatekeepers to nominate its books.

To jog people's memories, I've put together two little lists of books published in the first half the nomination year--here, and here.  Last year, for the record, this category had c. 150 books.  (The nonfiction, poetry, and book apps. categories also need more love!)

And here's a Cybils related question for those of you who have read The One and Only Ivan to ponder--typically, talking/sentient animals go in the fantasy category (The Cheshire Cheese Cat, for instance, won last year).  Is Ivan a real guerrilla, or a fantasy guerrilla?

The  Reviews:

3 Below, by Patrick Carman, at Book Nut

The Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee, at Time Travel Times Two

The Brixen Witch, by Stacy DeKeyser at Random Musings of a Bibliophile 

The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrope, at Quirky Bookworm

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Clairat Presenting Lenore

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Semicolon

Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at Maria's Melange

The Death of Yorik Mortwell, by Stephen Messer, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Demonkeeper Series, by Royce Buckingham, at Musings of a Book Addict (the last two, Demoncity and Demoneater, are Cybils eligible)

Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham, at 300 Pages

Ever, by Gail Carson Levine, at Read In a Single Sitting

The Ghost of Graylock, by Dan Poblocki, at Fantasy Literature

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Good Books and Good Wine and The Book Smugglers

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger--this one is on a blog tour with lots of stops; you can find a nice list of them here; other reviews at In Bed With Books, and Carina's Books

The Key (Magnificent 12), by Michael Grant, at Book Dreaming

Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris, by Marissa Moss, at Good Books and Good Wine and The Write Path

Monsters on the March (Scary School), by Derek the Ghost, at Imaginary Reads

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath, at Semicolon

Operation Bunny, by Sally Gardner, at Nayu's Reading Corner and Fantastic Reads (more elementary than middle grade)

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Semicolon 

Professor Gargoyle, by Charles Gilman, at Jen Robinson's Book Page and Now is Gone

Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, at Semicolon

The Seven Tales of Trinket, by Shelley Moore Thomas, at My Brain on Books 

The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, by Nikki Loftin, at Presenting Lenore

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at My Precious and My Favorite Books

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, at Semicolon

Unlocking the Spell, by E.D. Baker, at Cracking the Cover

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMan, at Back to Books

The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons, by Barbara Mariconda, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Wednesdays, at Puss Reboots

The Wikkeling, by Steven Arnston, at Novels, News, and Notes

Authors and Interviews

Philip Pullman (Grimm Tales) at The Telegraph

Lois Lowry (The Giver, and now Son) at Story Snoops

Catherynne M. Valente on "Looking Glass Girls" at Good Books and Good Wine and on "Childhood and Growing Up" at The Book  Smugglers (giveaway) and as "the Big Idea" at Whatever

Shannon Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities) at Bookyurt

Lisa McMann (Unwanteds: Island of Silence) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Grace Lin (Starry River of the Sky) at The Enchanted Inkpot
Jama's Alphabet Soup , Pragmatic Mom, and Charlotte's Library

Stephanie Burgis (Renegade Magic) at Templar Publishing--the third, and final, book in her trilogy is coming out this month in the UK

Margaret Peterson Haddix at A Thousand Wrongs (giveaway)

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Avery Flynn

Jenn Reese (Above World) at The Writing Nut


Other Good Stuff

100 YA books with characters of color, at Pinterest.  I might have to try doing this for mg, although I think it would be hard to come up with 100.  However, check out this paperback cover for Claws, by Mike and Rachel Grinti (my review)--I just saw it at my son's Scholastic Book Fair.  You can also note how the "cut off face trend" extends to the cat.

A director's cut of the Harry Potter books??? at BBC News

A new fairy tale reimagining, revisiting, retelling blog/literary journal--Unsettling Wonder

It's always fun to buy a sci fi/fantasy book for a needy library serving kids who needs books badly--so here's your chance, at the Guys Lit Wire book fair for Ballou Sr High School in D.C.

Ray Bradbury's final, beautifully inspiring, essay, at LitStack 

So this newly discovered worm is supposed to look like Yoda?

I don't see it.  However, I am glad to know what is being shown on the cover of this book (A Love Episode, by Zola Aemile), or perhaps it's something else...but what? This is just one of the many mind-shakingly awful book covers from Tutis Digital Publishing, whose ability to create incomprehensibly horrible covers is unmatched (thanks to the Guardian, for bringing this to my attention.  Seriously, if you have five minutes, check these covers out).

The Indigo Pheasant, by Daniel Rabuzzi

The Indigo Pheasant (ChiZine, Oct. 2012) is a multi-cultural historical fantasy, with a complicated alternate history/religious bent, written for grown-ups, but with YA appeal.  Here are my thoughts, with a Bonus Question regarding "muscular fantasy" at the end.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of welcoming Daniel Rabuzzi, author of The Choir Boats, and its sequel, The Indigo Pheasant, to my blog--if you haven't visited his post on historical fiction, do!  At the time of posting, I had not yet finished The Indigo Pheasant, which arrived just before I went to New York for Kidlitcon.   So I am reviewing it today.

To briefly summarize: In the first book, The Choir Boats, we are introduced to Yount a place thrust out of normal space, and reachable only by traversing seas full of places that aren't of Earth.   It is the early 19th century.  A family from Scotland has the gifts of music, math, and dreams to restore Yount to its proper place in time and space... but in this imagining of reality, there are malevolent fallen angels who will use that fluctuation in reality to seize control of Earth, and Yount.

The first book is primarily the story of this family's journey to Yount and the dangers that beset them, and focuses on Sally, daughter of mercantile privilege and brilliant mathematically.  In the second book, Sally and her family return to London, to build the great ship (to be called the Indigo Pheasant) that will, through a marvel of music and math, sing Yount home again.   But for this project to succeed, another girl, perhaps even more mathematically brilliant, is essential.

She is Maggie, whose mother escaped with her from slavery in Maryland.  Despite her life of poverty, Maggie is even more extravagantly self-taught then Sally.  But unlike Sally, whose loyalties become torn, Maggie has the clear-eyed fierceness to impel the Indigo Pheasant to completion.   And Maggie has visited the Goddess in her dreams...the Goddess who must wake if order is to be restored.

On the downside, hideous demonic entities are working against them, both supernaturally, and through more mundane financial and political channels (it was a nice mix!), and the bounds of family loyalty are strained.  It is all very tense (but in a less adventuresome, dramatic way than the tenseness of book 1).

Now, as readers of this blog know, I read lots of children's books, and almost never read adult sci fi/fantasy.   So it was a rather different experience, reading these two books--they took longer, the typeface was smaller, the narrative point of view was more distant than I'm used to (more time spent floating above the characters, rather than living inside their heads).  

But that being said, The Indigo Pheasant was a checklist of things I appreciate in my fiction:

1.  strong and interesting protagonists, for whom I can care.  The books have a fairly large cast of characters, but the focus was on Sally and Maggie--teenage girls (hence YA appeal) who are good at math ftw.   A third protagonist, another teenage girl (this one from China) was kind of stuck on at the end in a rather sudden way, which felt a tad awkward--I would have liked to have had her come on to central stage sooner.

Bonus points here for being a book about family--not just biological relationships, but the bonds between people that make them kin.   I like this sort of book.

2.  interesting world building (aided, in the case of this book, by the inclusion of miscellaneous side matter, like newspaper clippings and letters).   Geography, religion, and politics were all important, and deserve their own sentences:
   --the  geography of Yount and the seas around it was haunting.   Really, truly, memorable and gripping descriptions of strange islands and oceans.
   --I wasn't ever fully convinced by the religious restructuring that Rabuzzi asks us to accept, not because of any conflict with my own convictions (the existence of a Goddess, along with an absent God, doesn't phase me), but because I don't think the Goddess actually did enough to be worth making a big deal about waking her.  Rabuzzi draws considerably on the Old Testament, but it's definitely a reworking of basic Judeo-Christian monotheism that might make some readers unhappy.   I myself liked the inclusion of spiritual entities/saint type people from religions and cultures outside Christianity in Maggie's Paradisical dreams.
   --This is historical fiction, and Rabuzzi knows his stuff.  The politics of the burgeoning world system of the early 19th century are a large part of the story; characters reflect and comment, and act, as a result of an accurately presented global reality.

One issue I had with the world-building is that Rabuzzi has perhaps too much fun with vocabulary--his early 19th-century people use many words (some of which I need to check out in the OED to see if they are really real) that were outside of my ken.  It got a bit distracting.

3.  Authorial tricksy-ness.  The cards are not laid out on the table all at once.  People's motives are not clear right at the beginning, and one character in particular is a really toothsome example of someone who appears one thing, but is really another.
And under this heading of tricksy-ness I'll put the fact that Sally's family knows the Gardiners (from Pride and Prejudice) and corresponds with Lizzy Darcey....

So, to summarize, I enjoyed these books just fine and would happily recommend them to a reader (YA or Adult) who wants something a solidly entertaining and thought-provoking, multi-cultural, historical fantasy, which is just one small step down from Loving them and desperately wanting all and sundry to read them.

That concludes the review portion of this post; and now, a question.

Question:  a review of The Choir Boats called it " a muscular, Napoleonic-era fantasy."   I am not exactly sure what "muscular" means.  Does it mean a really complicated, yet firmly-constructed plot? Do you have to have lots of things happening to be "muscular"?  Or does it mean a really confident, strong authorial hand?  (Choir Boats fits all three definitions).

The opposite of "muscular" I guess would be a "timid" or "weak" fantasy, which implies that no risks are taken, the stakes are low, and everyone, including the author, just vacillates like crazy.  Or it could be one that is simply more cerebral, or spiritual, in which the character development is internal.   If you are a muscular fantasy, are you a less thought-provoking and intelligent book?

My own conclusion is that I will continue to eschew "muscular" as a descriptor of books. 

Thanks, ChiZine, for sending me copies of these! 

MG SFF eligible books from Jan, Feb, and March, 2012

Continuing my quest to make sure that no one forgets to nominate a middle grade science fiction/fantasy book for the Cybils that they loved, and to make the long list of nominees as good as it should be, I am reading over my new release posts (which I don't do any more because of the site I was getting my info. from closing down).

So these books, which haven't been nominated yet, aren't one's I've necessarily read, or liked, just ones that I think might be worthy of nomination, or ones that I might, myself, like to read! (And of course since my opinion is just my own, please do visit the lists for yourselves if you wish to see what else is on them that's eligible! They have the "new releases" tag).

MUNCLE TROGG by Janet Foxley

SEEDS OF REBELLION: BEYONDERS by Brandon Mull

THE STAR SHARD by Frederic S. Durbin

 BLISS by Kathryn Littlewood
 
THE CROWFIELD DEMON by Pat Walsh

FAIRY LIES by E. D. Baker


THE WHISPER by Emma Clayton

 THE BOOK OF WONDERS by Jasmine Richards (now nominated)

 PRINCESS OF THE WILD SWANS by Diane Zahler

STEALING MAGIC: A SIXTY-EIGHT ROOMS ADVENTURE by Marianne Malone

(here are some books from November and December)


And then there are these lovely books-- Darkbeast, and The Golden Door, and Claws, and The Serpent's Shadow, and The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill Fated, and The Wishing Star and........

and here's a third list, that I gleaned during a happy time spent browsing at Kirkus...

Cybils nominations--looking back at eligible books from 2011

So nominations for the Cybils are chugging along, and sixty some books have been nominated in the middle grade sci fi/fantasy category, and over ten mg sci fi/fantasy books have been nominated in other categories....but still there are important and interesting books missing.

Now, I am not a fiercely, desperately competitive and neurotic person and I don't every year get saddened by the fact that more YA sci fi/fantasy books get nominated than middle grade ones and I don't write frantic posts saying ACK! These books haven't been nominated and I don't obsessively check just about every hour to see if any new books have made it onto the mg sff Cybils list.  (Kidding.  I am and I do).

This year some of the pressure is off me because publishers get to do a bit of filling in the blank at the end.  So this is not a frantic, hysterical post; it is a calm and reflective post, in which I look back at November and December of 2011 to see what books came out then that haven't been nominated yet.

It used to be that there was a great website that listed books by their release date, and I used to go through these lists and cull the middle grade and YA sci fi/fantasy books into lists I shared here.  But it went dark in March.   Still, the November (part a and part b) and December lists (part a and part b) are there....So if you haven't nominated, take a look and see if you are reminded of a beloved book, and if looking back at those lists reminds you of a YA title you want to nominate, I guess that's ok too.

I didn't actually read as many of these as I would have thought I might have, but here are some that look interesting to me personally, and some I read and liked:

MOUSENET by Prudence Breitrose

BESWITCHED by Kate Saunders (now nominated!)

THE FUTURE DOOR: NO PLACE LIKE HOLMES by Jason Lethcoe
 
THE GRAVE ROBBERS OF GENGHIS KHAN: CHILDREN OF THE LAMP by P.B. Kerr 

 LITTLE WOMEN AND ME by Lauren Baratz-Logsted 

MADAME PAMPLEMOUSSE AND THE ENCHANTED SWEET SHOP by Rupert Kingfisher

THE OUTCASTS: BROTHERBAND CHRONICLES by John Flanagan

 SNOW IN SUMMER: FAIREST OF THEM ALL by Jane Yolen (now nominated)

 THE TWILIGHT CIRCUS: WOLVEN by Di Toft

(and here are some books from Jan-March) 

Starry River of the Sky--review and interview with Grace Lin

Back in 2009, it was my very great pleasure to be part of the Cybils panel that shortlisted Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (before it won its Newbery Honor!).   It was also a pleasure to welcome Grace to my blog as part of Mountain's blog tour.

 So I have been looking forward to Starry River of the Sky (Little, Brown, Oct. 2012, middle grade), the just-released companion novel, very much, and I was awfully pleased to find that I liked it even more than I did Mountain!

Starry River of the Sky tells of a young boy named Rendi, who we meet running away from home in the back of a wine merchant's wagon.  In a village in the middle of nowhere, Rendi is discovered...and forcibly evicted.   His only option now is to work as the chore boy at the village's inn, until he can somehow make it to the big city.  And he is not happy.

His days are spent scowling at the world, but gradually, sharing stories with the odd-ball collection of inn patrons (all two of them), and the innkeeper and his daughter, he begins to reflect on his life, and the choices he made...and to see outside his own unhappiness (and there are good reasons for that unhappiness.  Magistrate Tiger, who readers of Mountain will recognize, plays a huge role in Rendi's story).

But outside the inn all is not well.  In the night, the sound of crying disturbs Rendi's sleep, and the moon has gone missing.   The world is out of balance...and it won't be righted until the truths inside all the stories of myth and magic that Rendi has been hearing at the Inn come together, and the moon is free again.

Although I like a good questy journey, like Minli's story in Mountain, as much as the next reader, I really love stories that stay in one place and make it a home.  And that's what Grace Lin does here--the external dangers are less important that the internal path that Rendi must follow.  On a more personal note, ever since I've been the mother of boys, I've had a soft spot in my heart for unhappy fictional boys who have lost their own mamas, and so Rendi appealed greatly!

Starry River is full of stories within the story, which sometimes irks me, but not here Perhaps because I was expecting it, but mostly I think it's because they were good stories in their own right, as well as holding the threads to the final resolution.  I felt that the ending brought all these threads together beautifully--it certainly required suspension of disbelief, but I felt very well primed to do so.

So in short, I found it a lovely book, word-wise, made even more so by Grace's utterly lovely pictures.

Now it's my pleasure to welcome Grace Lin!

Me: Both the words and the pictures are beautiful-- which gives you the most joy

to create?  Which comes most easily, or does it depend on variables outside

your control?

Grace: Hmm, that is a hard question to answer. To be honest, I get more joy from the process of painting  then the process of writing, but I get the most joy from hearing from readers and they are usually responding to the words. So, in the end it's about even! It's also hard to say which comes easier--it really depends on the book. I dislike the first draft stage of both writing and illustrating so I can't really say

either comes easy, both feel difficult.

Me: Starry River is your first novel with a boy as a main character.  Does writing from a boy's point of view feel different?  Were you conscious of it, or did Rendi just come out on the page in the same way that a girl character would?

Grace: Yes, this is my first novel with a boy protagonist. In some ways he

did just come out on the page. When I began to form the story, it

seemed to demand a boy character even though I am much more

comfortable writing a girl (I have two sisters!). But it did feel

different; I tried very hard to make sure Rendi felt like a true boy

and used my husband a lot to vet him during the revision process.

Me: And speaking of boys, I know from my own first hand experience with my two

sons that boy readers love Where the Mountain Meets the Moon; they haven't

read Starry River yet, but I'm sure they'll enjoy that one too.  My sample

size is limited (just the two of them)-- have you gotten much positive

feedback from boys?

Grace: For Where the Mountain Meets the Moon I most definitely have, which

is very gratifying (too soon for Starry River of the Sky!). I think

when it was first published, there were worries that it would be seen

as only an Asian book or only a girl book, or even worse  only an

Asian girl book--all of which limits the readership considerably. But,

most likely because of the Newbery Honor, that hasn't happened. Boys

and girls of all races have read and loved the book and I have the

letters and e-mails to prove it! The Newbery can erase the perceived

marginal appeal of a book to show its mainstream potential.  I only

hope Starry River of the Sky can gain a similar readership even

without the shiny sticker.

Me: And my fourth question is the really obvious, but very interesting one--what

are you working on next?  Will you take us back to your fantastical China

again (please)?

Grace: I have one more companion novel that I'd like to do. The storyline has

not been figured out yet, though I do have some ideas flitting in and

out of my brain. I really want to do one more because I have this whim

in my head about these books correlating to the Chinese elements.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is linked to sky, Starry River of

the Sky is link to earth and the next one would be linked to water.

This might not happen, of course, but that is what I'd like to do if

the writing muses are willing!

Thank you, Grace!  And thank you Little, Brown, for 

a. publishing the books 

b. sending me a review copy 

c. bringing Grace down to Kidlitcon to talk to us

and

d. sponsoring everyone's dessert (as reported here).  (The fact the dessert display was utterly sumptuous has, of course, inspired fond feelings in my dessert-loving heart toward Little, Brown, which I will, of course, not allow to influence any of my future reviews in the least little bit).