Waiting on Wednesday--Sunbolt, by Intisar Khanani

Thanks to this review by Tanita over at Finding Wonderland, I ordered myself a copy of Thorn, by Intisar Kahnani, and I am currently reading it, and enjoying it very much (in particular because it's in part a Goose Girl reimagining, and I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings).   So when I saw the beautiful cover for her forthcoming book, Sunbolt,  it was an obvious choice for a Waiting on Wednesday post.

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she conceals her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to bring down the powerful and corrupt Archmage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she has to escape with her life.

Magic orphan in captivity!  Win!

(It looks like it might only be an ebook; I just hope it is also available as a paper copy at some point, for those of us who are still Luddites....and a cover so pretty deserves to be on paper in an event!)

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

The things I was writting five years ago, or why indexing is hard, hard, hard

I am up to March of 2008 in my indexing, and it is a bit tricky, because I want an index of reviews, not an index of reviews along with responses/remarks/embarrassing dreck. 

I can't decide, for instance, if I should include what I wrote about The Missing Piece, by Shel Silverstein--the only post I've ever written that elicited a truly impassioned negative response from a general audience member!

Here's what I said:

"I was very happy yesterday to find that someone had donated a lovely copy of Shel Silverstein's book, The Missing Piece (1970, Scholastic 1995) [to the library booksale]. I was even happier when my seven year old seized it and started reading out loud to us. For the first two thirds of the book, I was day dreaming about the glowing blog entry I would write about it. Then, betrayal. Total betrayal.

The story is as follows- a happy-face (in profile) shaped piece is looking for his missing triangle. He rolls through the world, slowly because of the missing piece, smelling flowers, meeting various insects, and then encountering various triangles, one of whom doesn't want his identity subsumed by a larger shape, and many who just don't fit. At last he finds a triangle who fits beautifully, and is willing to enter into a relationship, and both shapes are happy. But not for long.

With the new triangle in place, the shape now rolls quickly, too fast for nature appreciation. So what does the original shape do? Does he say, "Let's stop for a while, and rest, and I'll explore a bit but come back to you?" NO! He leaves the poor triangle, who looks sad and stunned, in the dust, and totally abandons it! What a jerk. The message of the story becomes this--if your partner in a relationship holds you back from doing the things you liked pre-relationship, dump your partner without apology. I'm just glad they hadn't had any kids."

Gosh, I still am sore about the poor triangle.

Then I came to  this, more happy, book post, about I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean:

"It was just as good as I had hoped it would be. It is, in fact, the best picture book I’ve read since Scaredy Squirrel. The “biggest thing in the ocean” is a Giant Squid, who smugly says on the jacket flap, “I’m bigger than this book!” Encounters with other sea creatures bolster his conviction that he’s the biggest, until the much, much larger Humpback Whale appears—bye bye squiddy. This is a powerfully illustrated scene (in a bright and playful way), showing the squid’s tentacles dangling horrifically from the whale’s mouth. We were a bit taken aback. Was squiddy gone for good?

Spoiler

No! On the next page, there he was inside the whale, with all the other sea creatures, looking sad and bewildered, but then --- “I’m the biggest thing in the whale!”

And don’t neglect to look at the back of the book -- “I’m bigger than this bar code!” says Squid, gleefully.

In a nutshell, I might have to actually spend my own money on another copy of this book. My 4 year old does not want it to go to the library, and the fact that we are going to keep the complimentary bath clings with which it came does not mollify him. I don’t think that bath clings are really something that should circulate, somehow…"

Which no one commented on.  Sob.

I'd forgotten this cheerful (not) book, Mass Extinction: Examining the Current Crisis, by Tricia Andryszewski: "Leafing through it with my children, I had to close it quickly when we got to the picture of the seven legged frog."

And the whole reading through back posts becomes intolerable for the moment when I get to a post wherein I had an embarrassing brain freeze and the author of the book I was talking about was unhappy.

Life is so much better now that I am peacefully reading middle grade fantasy and science fiction.  Today's happy book--Stolen Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, whose publication day it is!

Dragon Magic, by Andre Norton, for Timeslip Tuesday

Well, you know, you win some, you lose some...and Dragon Magic, by Andre Norton (1972), sadly fell into the later category for me. 

The premise was interesting enough--four middle school boys of desperate backgrounds and interests all living in the same neighborhood in the early 1970s, but not interested in being friends.  Then one of them discovers the magic of the beautiful dragon puzzle he finds in an old abandoned house--a puzzle with four dragons.  Each boy in turn puts together a dragon, which whisks him on a journey back in time, and they become friends in the present when they share their experiences.

The boys whose interactions in the present make a framing device for the stories of the past are:

Sig--ordinary guy of Germanic heritage, who finds himself helping Sigurd take on Fafnir.

Ras, aka George--a black kid, whose big brother has embraced the Black Power movement, who finds himself a Nubian prince enslaved in Babylon along with Daniel.  He gets to watch Daniel overcome an African swamp dragonish creature.

Artie--would be cool boy, who goes back in time to King Arthur and learns a valuable lesson about meaningful relationships.

Kim--adopted from Hong Kong, he goes back to ancient China where there is a very confusing war going on, and comes back knowing he should try harder to make friends.

So a diverse cast of kids who don't get all that much page time, but who actually manage to be somewhat more than stereotypes, which is good, and four stories that varied a lot in interesting-ness, which wasn't so good.  The first two (Sigurd and Daniel) were very interesting, the last two I found tedious.

Which could have been just me.  But the particulars of the stories aside, the whole ensemble never felt enough like a cohesive story to rise above the fractures of its form and make me really care.  In large part this is because the time travel magic put the boys into characters in the past--they weren't themselves, so there was no ongoing metacommentary.  The stories were told straight up,with no ties back to the present, in much the same way as you might find stories anthologized in a book of "Dragon Stories of Many Lands."  And on top of that, the boys had almost no agency within their stories, which made them even less interesting.

So that's generally why I didn't care for it.  Here's a particular thing that vexed me--in Ras's story, Norton keeps referring to him as "the Nubian" and not by his name.  All the other boys were referred to by name, and it bothered me that he was depersonalized this way. 

But the dragon puzzle was beautifully described...best dragon puzzle ever.

The Silver Door, by Emily Rodda

In The Golden Door (my review), Emily Rodda introduced the walled city of Weld, beset every night by horrible, man-eating skimmers who fly over the wall from the lands beyond.  Three magical doors lead out of Weld, and in the first book, a boy named Rye and his chance companion, Sonia, head out through the Golden Door in search of Rye's oldest brother.   In the sequel, The Silver Door (Scholastic, 2013), Rye and Sonia, along with the rescued older brother, Dirk, journey through the Silver Door--searching not just for Rye's other brother, but for the answers to the mystery of the skimmers.  Where do they come from, and why?

In the blasted land behind the Silver Door, Rye finds answers...and terrible dangers.   It is a darkish book, dystopian in feel, as the characters move from one awful situation to another.  And Rodda does a great job making these perils vivid; there isn't gratuitously graphic violence, exactly, but there is death, slavery, and some really scary flesh eating snails (and though bad snails might sound silly, when you are in a hideous blasted landscape about to be consumed by them, they are not nice...).   But much worse than the snails is the dark entity behind the evilness of the skimmers.

Fortunately Rye has the magic talismans he was given in book one, and fortunately he has companions who are brave and smart.   Most fortunately of all, though, he finds his missing brother in just the right place to overcome the immediate threats, and make it home....where the third door awaits.

So for those who like a darkish middle grade fantasy adventure, with some interesting magic and world-building, it's good stuff.  Rye and Sonia are characters kids can relate too.  It was a bit too dark a journey from one danger to the next for my own taste, but that being said, although I have a lamentable tendency to skim the "exciting showdown" bits in general, I was utterly sucked in by the excitement at the end of this one!

And I really enjoyed Rye's science-loving middle brother's role in it all.   Yay for characters keenly interested in science, even when in mortal peril!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs, with bonus rabbits wearing egg costumes

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade (ages 9-12 ish) fantasy and science from around the blogs! Please let me know if I missed your link.

The Reviews

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at alibrarymama 

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, by Charles de Lint, at Reading to Know

The Colossus Rises, by Peter Lerangis, at Bobs Books Blog

The Dead Gentleman, by Matthew Cody, at Books for Boys 

Dragonsinger, by Anne McCaffrey, at alibrarymama (audiobook review)

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel, at Charlotte's Library (arguablyl more YA, but if I don't put it in I would have anything this week....)

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Writer of Wrongs 

The Frog Who Croaked (Platypus Police Squad) at Fuse #8 (more a sneak preview than a review, but still.)

Gabriel Stone and the Divinity of Valta, by Shannon Duffy, at So I'm Fifty 

The House of Many Ways, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Fighting Dreamer

House of Secrets, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at Scott Reads It

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at The Book Monsters

Iron Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill, at The Book Monsters

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, at Book Nut, Random Musings of a Bibliophile, and Waking Brain Cells

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Writer's Alley

The Legend Thief, by E.J. Patten, at My Precious

Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb, by Ally Malinenko, at Middle Grade Ninja

The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, at Good Books and Good Wine (audiobook review)

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at alibrarymama

Rat Runners, by Oisin McGann, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books 

The Runaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Jen Robinson's Book Page  and The Book Monsters 

Return to the Willows, by Jacqueline Kelly, at Reads for Keeps

The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda, at Guys Lit Wire 

The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, at Bound by Words 

The Secret War, by Matt Myklusch, at BooksYALove
and Bookworm Blather

The Shadows (Books of Elsewhere 1), by Jacqueline West, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

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

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Nerdy Book Club

"They Might Be Dangerous," a short story by Kate Messner, at Maria's Melange

The Treekeepers, by Susan McGee Britton,  at The Write Stuff

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer, at Kid Lit Geek

The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop, by Kate Saunders,  at Bookin' with Bingo 
 

Authors and Interviews

Stephanie Burgis (Stolen Magic) writes about being caught in the middle of the conflict between Simon and Schuster and Barnes and Noble.  (Dueling Magics, a short story set in the world of Kat, Incorrigible, is available for free at Smashworlds)

Luciano Storti (the music maestro from the trailer for The School of Good and Evil) at the website for the book

More Good Stuff

If you enjoy drooling over middle grade speculative fiction, here are two posts rounding up all the new and recent covers  at the Enchanted Inkpot:  one and two 

Lovely illustrations of the creatures and plants from the world of Tankborn, and its new sequel, Awakening, by Karen Sandler

A round-up of mg and ya books drawing on Greek mythology at books4yourkids

At Kirkus--"More Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Kids Should Be Reading In School."   I can't remember ever reading any sci fi or fantasy in school....

Not directly mg sff relevant, but I'm giving away a copy of Writing Children's Books For Dummies (very helpful) and it ends tomorrow.

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel

Yeah for reading books that have been sitting around the house, possibly crying in corners, for far too long! Finally I have read Sarah Zettel's Dust Girl (Random House, middle grade/YA, June 2012), and I found it good.  It is good because although the barest bones of the story are familiar--girl finds out she is half fairy,  the opposing sides of the fairy realm fight over her while she figures out how to use her magic--the particulars are very unique indeed.

Callie's mother won't let her go outside the Kansas hotel she runs, in case her skin gets dark and people suspect her father was black.   But then the dust comes (this is the 1930s) and there's almost no-one left in town to care.  Still her mother won't give up and leave, though the food and money are running out, and Callie is choking her life out on dust, because she's waiting for Callie's musician father to come back.

Then Callie plays the piano for the first time.  And her playing awakens the magic in her, and a dust storm like no other comes, blowing her mother away and bringing into town the first (and most truly horrible!) of the magical adversaries Callie must deal with.   (Just to give you a taste--they are grasshopper creatures in human guise, and they are very....hungry).

So Callie, and Jack, the boy she just rescued from the abandoned jail in town, hit the road, first running for their lives (grasshopper creatures sure are fast!), and then running less fast for their lives while searching for the people they have lost. On their journey they encounter madness and mayhem and magic...all the while moving through the blighted landscape of the dust bowl Midwest.

So yes, I liked it lots--although Callie was Special, she also managed to be nicely ordinary, and her motivations and actions all made sense to me.   Callie also had to think considerably about the fact that her father was black--in the racially charged world through which she moves, she can't forget it--yet this aspect of her story was well integrated with the whole, and though sometimes it was underlined, it never felt overly didactic.  And, on top of that, it was a swinging, exciting adventure, with (wait for it!) no Romance front and center, which was rather refreshing--it's nice to read a book in which people are running for their lives without getting distracted by their Feelings for each other.    Callie and Jack will probably hook up in the future, when they're a bit older, and that's fine.

But what I really loved was the historical part of this fantasy--I don't turn to Dust Bowl fiction for my reading pleasure, and so meeting that historical landscape in my favorite genre was a lovely treat.

Here's what I especially appreciated--America is not treated as a fantasy blank slate, just waiting for the immigrants to arrive with their magics.  Instead, the first magical Person Callie meets is Native American, almost certainly Coyote, and this is what he has to say about it:

"Stupid white people.  Stupid yellow people, or stupid brown people.  Bringing in all kinds of ghosts and little spirits.  Can't even tell who's in the game anymore." (p 31). 

And so even though Callie's magical journey doesn't directly involve the native magic of her place, at least there's this acknowledgement that there is an indigenous presence.  The only other fantasies for middle grade/YA readers set in North American that I can think of simply do not have this (The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley, and Patricia Wrede's Frontier Magic series), and I think they are the weaker for it.

Note on cover:  that's the new paperback cover up at the top; it comes out in June.   Some people thought that the cover of the hardback (at right) didn't show Callie  accurately as half black (although since she's been passing as white, or at least, her mother thinks she has, all her life, she has to look at least somewhat ambiguous, and I think the paperback goes a bit too far in the other direction....).  But in any event, it's nice to have the paperback showing a Main Character of Color, and so good on ya, Random House. 

Note on age:  This one is a perfect tween book, great for 11-13 year olds.  As far as I can remember, there's nothing in it that would be Inappropriate for younger readers (which is to say there's no sex, but I'm not sure how well I do at registering curse words, since I am married to someone from Liverpool and have become hardened), but there are issues of racial and religious prejudice (Jack is Jewish), law-breaking and human unhappiness/human evilness that make it a bit strong for a younger kid.

A few other blog reviews, by people who were reading it ages ago:  Bunbury in the Stacks, Someday my Printz will Come, and alibrarymama

Poseidon, by George O'Connor

Poseidon: Earth Shaker (First Second, March, 2013) is the fifth of the Greek gods to get his own graphic novel, in the stellar series written and illustrated by George O'Connor.

The series as a whole is an extraordinarily kid-friendly introduction to the Greek pantheon, and although I wouldn't recommend starting with Poseidon, this latest volume is a fine addition to the series.

It's somewhat episodic, beginning with the division of the cosmos between the three main gods (Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon), with Poseidon revelling in his new dominion over the sea.  The stories of Odysseus and how he outwitted the Cyclopedian (Cyclopsian?) son of Poseidon, and Theseus, another son, come next, followed by the story of the contest between Poseidon and Athena over Athens.  The story concludes with a flashback back to the early struggles between the gods and the Titans, emphasizing the overall theme of the book--Poseidon's conflict between the joy he takes in his dominion of the sea, and his sense that somehow he has been wronged.

Though this is a kid-friendly series, it's not something I'd give to a kid younger than ten or so--there are "adult themes" as is so often the case when one deals with the Greek gods...But for the older, perhaps reluctant reader, this series is a spot-on introduction to the stories--the pictures are powerful and utterly memorable (true for all the books, but I think in this book they are particularly compelling, what with all the ocean action opportunities provided by the subject matter), swinging the events along very nicely indeed. Adding value for teachers, and written in a manner engaging enough for the curious young reader, there's interesting back-matter included as well.

(review copy received from the publisher)

Waiting on Wednesday--The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud

I count Jonathan Stroud as a favorite author, not because I love all the books he's ever written, but because he brought Bartimaeus into the world.   Bartimaeus is a demon, who first appeared in the trilogy that begins with The Amulet of Samarkand.   Those books were a tad to dark for me--I kept hoping that a certain central character would become more sympathetic, and was somewhat disappointed.  But then Stroud went back and gave Bartimaeus his very own book--The Ring of Soloman--a book I love (here's my review).   (Heroes of the Valley, an unrelated book, I never managed to finish...).

Stroud has started a new series--Lockwood and Co.--whose first book, The Screaming Staircase, comes out from Random House at the end of August.  Even though there's no Bartimaeus, it sounds great:

"A Problem has occurred in London: all nature of ghosts, haunts, and spirits are appearing throughout the city, and they aren't exactly friendly. Only young people have the psychic abilities required to see - and, hopefully, eradicate - the supernatural enemies. Many different Psychic Detection Agencies have cropped up to handle the dangerous work, and they are in fierce competition for business.

In THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE, the plucky and talented Lucy teams up with Anthony, the leader of Lockwood & Co, a small agency that runs independent of any adult supervision. After an assignment leads to both a grisly discovery and a disastrous end, Lucy, Anthony, and their wise-cracking colleague, George, are forced to take part in the perilous investigation of one of the most haunted houses in England: Combe Carey Hall. Will Lockwood & Co. survive the Hall's legendary Screaming Staircase and Red Room to see another day? How did the Problem originate, and how can it be solved?"

(I especially like that it is about a Problem with a capital P). 

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

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Yasutaka Tsutsui, for Timeslip Tuesday

My hopes were high.  Yasutaka Tsutsui is one of the most highly regard Japanese writers of sci fi.  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1967) is one of his most popular books in Japan.    I had never read any Japanese time travel before, and was tremendously eager to do so.

It's the story of a teenaged girl who acquires the ability to slip back in time.  Just a few days back, but still enough to ensnarl her in paradoxes, mysteries, and sci-fi intrigue.

It should have been great!   When my copy of the English translation (by David Karashima, 2011, Alma Books, 105 pages) arrived, and I saw the beautiful cover, I was even more eager to begin it.

Uh.  Total rats, darn, and whine. 

Sample extract:

"Morning!"  called Kazuo from behind her.
"Oh, morning!" replied Kazuko, considering whether she should tell him all about the incident.  Kazuo was a bright individual after all, and might be able to provide some sort of insight.  But she quickly decided that it might be better to wait for Goro to arrive so they could all talk about it together.
"Is everything okay?" said Kazuo.  "You look a little pale."
Kazuo was always rather attentive, so he often noticed little things like that.
"Oh it's nothing," said Kazuko, shaking her head.  "I couldn't sleep much.  First because of the earthquake.  Then because of the fire!  So I'm feeling pretty sleepy today."  (p 27)

Maybe most of the blame for the clunky writing and wooden characterization can be attributed to the translator.   But the final plot twist at the end, that strained all credulity, must be the author's own, and the way it's presented--future character explains everything at length--is really not sophisticated and sparkling.  Plus the future character turns out to be a. 11 years old  b. the love interest of this teenage girl, and that was just weird and c.  able to conduct mass hypnosis at the drop of a hat on every single person (probably hundreds) with whom he's come into contact in the last few months.

So it was a big disappointment.

The English translation also includes another novella, The Stuff that Nightmares are Made Of.  Not only did I find that story clunky as well, but it made me really dislike Tsutsui, because it is never funny when a mother threatens to cut off a five year old's penis with a pair of scissors so he'll be less girly.

My blog's wearing red today

My blog's wearing red today to show my support of marriage equality.  Just saying.

Writing Children's Books for Dummies, by Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy -- with giveaway!

Writing Children's Books for Dummies, by Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy (John Wiley and Sons, 2013).

(Thanks all who entered the giveaway--the winner is Anne.)

Someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, I hope to have written a children's book--non-fiction, drawing on the archaeology side of my life.   I've even taken the plunge and joined the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and will be going to the May New England Conference.  So when I was offered a review copy of  the newly released revised edition of  Writing Children's Books for Dummies, I said "yes, please."

And I found it good--knowledgeable, practical, and helpful.

It's divided into sections that pass from an introduction to the various genres of children's books, into the nuts and bolts of writing (characters, dialogue, setting, etc.), then moving on to editing, and finally tackling the mysteries of publishing and publicity.   Helpful icons in the margins identify especially useful tips and things to remember.

I started out bookmarking every page that had what seemed an especially useful tip, but soon the book had so many pieces of paper sticking out of it that I realized I couldn't share them all.    So you'll have to trust me--there are lots of useful tips!

For instance, there's a valuable section entitled  "Defend your prose--or let it go" (page 137).  If your words aren't moving the plot forward and making the story proceed at a nice pace, or developing a main character, chances are it should go.  The section on what makes good dialogue seemed especially spot on, and if I were a teacher of writing to even quite young kids, I might well share it with them!  The examples of good and bad dialogue, and why the former works and the later doesn't, are spot on.

I could go on.  Short answer--lots and lots of good advice on how to write and publish a children's book.

As an incidental bonus, I found the sections on the mechanics of good writing rather enlightening from my perspective as a reviewer.  Jean Kerr, a favorite author of mine was married to a drama critic, and often went to the theater with him--she has a pithy little line that resonates a lot for me:

"The critic says: this is an extremely bad play--why is that?  The audience says:  This is an extremely bad play--why was I born?" (Penny Candy, page 88)

I myself have trouble getting past the "why was I born" approach, and now feel more able to make informed judgements (look for "the dialogue does not advance either the plot or the characterization" (or, one can hope, the opposite) in future reviews).

It wasn't perfect.  For instance, the book examples used in the early section on genres of children's books seem somewhat cobbled together (one obscure book is shown twice, for instance), and the pictures of the books float in isolation with no little line why the books were chosen, or what they illustrate.   If I myself were giving a new author lists of books, I wouldn't just offer a list of my own; I'd refer readers to the lists of ALA award books--which, since they are updated every year, would keep current.  (I myself would also include the Cybils lists).  

The sections on publicity and social marketing are not desperately helpful for authors who wish to get their books reviewed on blogs--I think that a future edition could usefully expand that section, with more on what book review blogs are, and who they reach, with the does and don'ts of how to find bloggers who are a good fit for your book (contrary to the advice given here, the best blogs to approach are not necessarily the ones that get the most traffic), and how to request a blog review. 

But still--a very valuable book from which I think every new and aspiring writer of just about any age could learn lots.  

Courtesy of the authors, I'm hosting a giveaway of Writing Children's Books For Dummies.  (International entries welcome!).  Just leave a comment by midnight EST next Sunday (March 31), with some way to contact you. 

If I haven't convinced you that you might well want to enter to win this one, here's another blog review at Ms. Yingling Reads--she called it "an indispensable tool for writers."

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher at the authors' request.

How my bloggiesta goal--indexing my blog--went

So for Bloggiesta I decided to tackle a task I've been contemplating for a while--indexing my blog.  Though I don't think an index by title is desperately useful to either me or the larger world, I started with that, thinking I could build an index by author (which may actually be pointful) from that base.

Here's what happened.

1.  It's taking a lot longer than I thought, partly because I am going in and fixing any typos I see.  I have gotten through about 300 of my 2239 posts, which takes me to January of 2008, for a total of 57 indexed reviews

2.  It was hard to get through those 300 posts.  My first year of blogging was rather feeble, and I had no clue what I was doing.  A number of posts I wrote about particular books I couldn't count as reviews, and so I didn't index them.  Fortunately very few people read those posts.  (I can remember when 20 visitors a day was exciting!) Things got better when I served on the YA Cybils in 2007--there are some pretty decent reviews of some of those books.

3.  I wrote about some of my favorite books back then--books like The Little Broomstick, and Ludo and the Star Horse, by Mary Stewart.  I'd do a better job now (although those posts weren't as bad as some)!

4.  The first book I got from a publisher that I reviewed was Wiggle and Waggle, by Caroline Arnold, which I still think was a nice one.

Someday I'll get around to indexing the rest of them....

This week's middle grade science fiction and fantasy round-up (March 24, 2013)

Here's this week's worth of middle grade sci fi/fantasy fun!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Aviary, by Kathleen O'Dell, at The Hiding Spot

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders, at Time Travel Times Two

Bot Wars, by J.V. Kade, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Charlotte's Library

The Cypher (Guardians Inc.), by Julian Rosado, at Lady With Books

Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at The Hub 

Dragon Born, by Toby Forward, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Run, by Patrick Matthews, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Writer of Wrongs

Frogged, by Vivian Vande Velde, at Candace's Book Blog (scroll down)

Garden Princess, by Kristin Kladrup, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile 

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

Kat Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis, at Welcome to my Tweendom 

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Annie McMahon

Larklight, by Philip Reeve, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia 

The Little Yokozuna, by Wayne Shorey, at Charlotte's Library

The Menagerie, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Book Haven

My Very UnFairy Tale Life, by Anna Staniszewski, at Sharon the Librarian

Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo, at Bibliophilic Monologues

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Book Nut

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at A Fuse #8 Production 


Authors and Interviews

Jennifer Rush, aka J.V. Kade, (Bot Wars) at Sturdy for Common Things

The Chronicles of Egg blog tour reaches its final stops


Other Good Stuff

The Children's Book Week Finalists have been announced, and Tasha at Waking Brain Cells has a nice spread showing them all.   MG sff is represented by Stickman Odyssey, Book 2: The Wrath of Zozimos by Christopher Ford. (And that's it? YA is all speculative fiction).  Rick Riordan, however, is in the running for author of the year...

Thoughts on "Desiring Dragons," by the writers at Unsettling Wonder

Two Blog Events of interest--Fairy Tale Fortnight, hosted by The Book Rat and A Backwards Story, and Once Upon a Time VII, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.

I would love to know what became of the little girl who started embroidering this sampler showing the solar system way back in1811 (recently featured on the blog of the Museum of Childhood).  Clearly her mother was not unsympathetic to the girl's interest in science, and never forced her to finish it....

City of a Thousand Dolls, by Miriam Forster

City of a Thousand Dolls, by Miriam Forster (Harper, Feb. 2013, YA)

The City of a Thousand Dolls is a sanctuary for unwanted baby girls.  It is a producer of young women schooled (depending on their talents and temperaments) in various houses as mistresses, healers, musicians, scholars, warriors, and even assassins.   It is the only home Nisha can remember, though she was six when she was left outside its gate.   And though Nisha was too old when she arrived to be placed in one of the city's houses, has a role to file as the matron's assistant, and she has friends, and hopes for her life after she is too old for the City.   In short, the City runs smoothly along, with transgressions punished severely, escape forbidden, and everyone in their proper place.

But now the City of a Thousand Dolls is home to a murderer.  Girls are being killed.

And Nisha, used to moving freely throughout the city, must find out who the killer is.  Her own life is at stake.  As she investigates, she finds that there are secrets both within the City and in her own past...secrets that will change her life forever.

I read it in as much of a single sitting as a person with needy loved ones can.   I liked it for the setting (I have a penchant for books that stay in one place), I liked it for the difficult concept of the City-is it a place of refugee and opportunity for girls who might otherwise be victims of infanticide, or is it a prison?--and appreciated that the people within the city thought about that issue themselves.    I liked the details about small things.  And I appreciated the fact that this isn't yet another medieval European fantasy; instead, it is more South Asian in setting and culture.  So though the world-building wasn't perfect (and I have some niggling questions about the mechanics of the whole city thing), I was happy to keep reading.

However, there's a disconnect that makes me unable to heartily recommend this one.

To wit, The City of a Thousand Dolls is marketed as Young Adult, and indeed, because of the whole premise of (some) girls being trained to be mistresses, it's not one to give a naive younger reader (though the author doesn't spell out what being a mistress is all about, and there is no sex within the book itself).   But it skews young in plot and characterization, and ended up feeling more middle grade than teen.   A teen might find Nisha an incompetent detective (she is no Nancy Drew, but, in justice, she never thought she was), too naive to be credible, and may well find the reveal of Nisha's specialness, her romance, and the denouement of the story, all too much to take (and in fact it was all too much like a kid's wish fulfillment for me to swallow).

And there are cats with whom Nisha has a telepathic bond.  Girls having telepathic bonds with cats always makes me think of 10 or 11 year olds, perhaps because when I was that age telepathic cats would have been my own dream come true....

So, uh, I'd hand this to the 10 or 11 year old girl who already is conversant with the concept of women whose role in life is to provide men with pleasure, who wants an exciting mystery/unrealistic romance with bonus telepathic cats.

[edited to add--well, maybe ten is really too young.  It's probably fairer to say 11 to 12 year old girl...]

But like I said, I did find it a page turner....

Stung, by Bethany Wiggins

Stung, by Bethany Wiggins (Walker, April 2, 2013)

When Fiona went to sleep, she was thirteen years old and had a family who loved her.   Now she's woken up--to a nightmare.  Her home is dilapidated and abandoned, and though she's still young, her body isn't child's anymore.  She has no memory of the years that must have passed....and no knowledge of how the world she once knew has descended into ruin.   And she doesn't know, yet, that the tattoo that's appeared on her arm marks her as one of the infected--a person on the verge of becoming a mindlessly predatory beast.

In Fiona's new world, there are those who live safely behind walls....and those out on the streets, infected and starving, hunted by the ravaging hoards of humans turned monstrous.  Fiona, marked as she is, must live as one of the later.  Slowly she learns how to survive, with the help of a boy she knew back when they were kids, and slowly flashes of memory return to her.  But it's what Fiona can't yet remember that will change everything...if she stays alive long enough.

I enjoyed it, once I got in the swing of the short, action-packed, first person sentences in which it was told (just about ever sentence seems to have an active verb).  This is one to offer right away to your handy young Hunger Games fan--it has a similar intensity, mixing ruthless violence with the desperate need to hold on to human feelings when everything seems lost.  That being said, I don't think the scenario of Stung is nearly as original, nor as interesting,  and it's heavier on the teen romance side of things (so I won't be giving it to my mother for Christmas, like I did The Hunger Games).

However, Stung is a perfectly fine book.  Fiona is believable and appealing, the supporting characters nicely nuanced, and the romance is very satisfying.  And though I mostly skim through action-packed sequences because, you now, they are so busy, the great climactic Scene of Action at the end of this one was utterly riveting.  Another thing I appreciated--the humans turned monstrous by sickness were actually still humans...not zombies.  It's definitely sci-fi, not zombie fantasy.

A sampling of other reviews --  Waking Brain Cells, Afterglow Book Reviews, and Step Into Fiction

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

Bloggiesta!

I just found out this was a Bloggiesta weekend! For those of you who don't know what this means, Bloggiesta is a time of community blog improving/fixing/polishing, with mini-challenges hosted by a variety of blogs.  It's both fun and useful, and what is better than that.

I have been waiting for Bloggiesta to give me the impetus to finally take on a huge task--indexing my reviews, by title and by author.   I am very curious to see how many there are!  And as I read through my old stuff, I'm going to make sure to fix all the typos and other messy stuff that I'm sure is there, and I'm going to make sure that my post labeling is consistent.

And that, I think, will be enough for me!

Edited to add:  after ten minutes, I have read through 6 posts and indexed two of them.  I have written 2,135 posts.  This could take a long time.  Especially since I have to go to work now.....

Bot Wars, by J. V. Kade

Bot Wars, by J.V. Kade (Dial, March 21, 2013, middle grade), looked to me from its cover and its title to be a story of a boy fighting in a war against robots.  It turned out to be a lot more complicated than that, in a good way, and is, in fact, an excellent example of a somewhat rare type of book--a sci-fi dystopian adventure for the middle grader reader.

In a future America, robots were once everywhere, both in the factories, and in the home.  Twelve-year-old Trout St. Kroix had been one of many American kids raised by a robot nanny.  But then came the Bot War--the robots had become too human, and xenophobia had reared its ugly head, with much bloodshed resulting.  Now Trout's America is a land without any robots at all, his father is missing in action, and his older brother is home from the war, minus a leg.   But some of the southern states didn't join in the uprising against the robots, and there, behind a wall, is a territory where the robots still thrive.

And there, it turns out, Trout's father is still alive--and an enemy of the northern totalitarian government.  With the result that Trout and his brother are suspect, and as well as being potentially valuable hostages.

Just as the government moves to arrest Trout and his brother, Trout escapes--thanks to a robot sent from behind the wall to help him reach his father.   But his brother remains behind...captured, tortured, and in danger of death.

Trout has barely time to take in a world in which robots are not beings to be feared, but sentient members of society, before he decides to risk his own life to save his brother.  So with the help of (the somewhat stereotypical stock figure) the plucky girl sidekick, he sets off on an impossible rescue mission....

I enjoyed it quite a lot.   I thought the whole set-up of dystopian, anti-robot North pitted against enlightened South was a most interesting one, I sympathized with Trout, and found the question of robotic sentience nicely addressed.  And, on top of that, I found the pacing brisk without being frenetic.  A bit slow to get going, perhaps, but a page-turner once it does.

(Yay!  I also just found my bus pass, tucked inside the book).

I just went and read the Kirkus review; whoever wrote it did not share my positive opinion.   I can't help but think that I approached it with a mind-set more akin to that of an eleven-year old, in that I didn't question the science (I generally try to avoid questioning the science, unless it really forces me too), and I did not find it in the least "naïve and condescending."  In my case, it was the Kirkus review I found condescending.  For the young reader who hasn't read much dystopian sci-fi,  I think it will be a very satisfying read, and the robots in particular, scientifically improbable though they might be, may well be utterly enchanting to such readers. 

Note on age:  There are serious issues of a grim sort addressed, but it is not a dark and gritty book, and so perfectly suitable for fifth grade readers on up.  It is undeniable that older readers may well find the made-up slang and the future youth culture in general a bit tough to swallow...and Trout's rather easy conversion from a boy who is terrified by robots to their friend is not exactly nuanced.  And, like the Kirkus review points out, the science might not satisfy a sci-fi veteran.   But I enjoyed it, and it made my bus ride pass very quickly indeed.

Short answer:  there really isn't much sci-fi action/adventure for middle grade kids, and I think this is an entertaining addition to the field that will be welcomed by its target audience.

disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

Dragonborn, by Toby Forward

Dragonborn, by Toby Forward (April 2012, Bloomsbury, middle grade), goes to show (and very nicely too) that it's possible to take elements that might seem to have been done to death in middle grade fantasy and make them into a book that appeals even to even the jaded adult reader (ie, me).  In short, I enjoyed it; not with wild  extravagant enjoyment, but it held my interest just fine.  I have underlined the common elements in my summary, in a helpful spirit, just for my own amusement and not because they made me think less of the book.

Sam is an orphaned boy learning magic from a kindly old wizard in a cottage of sylvan simplicity (I liked that he was named Sam, which I thought made a nice change in its matter-of-factness), who has a dragon friend (but not the sort one rides on).  The old wizard dies before Sam has finished his apprenticeship, and all his old pupils show up at the sylvan retreat.  And none of them believes that Sam was a true apprentice, with magic and all.   So Sam, and his dragon friend, strike out on their own, leaving the other wizards faced with a magically locked door that convinces them pretty quickly that Sam has magic after all, and needs to be found.

Sam's journey takes him to a school of magic, but it is no Hogwarts.  Instead it is a degenerate place where the library has been neglected, and a sort of capitalist spirit of magic for profit rules supreme.   There at the magic school is a brave and clever girl,  and a mean boy who plots against our hero.

And then everything becomes a lot more complicated and difficult to explain, with a struggle against malevolent evil in the form of a sorceress who's a really nasty piece of venom,  and magic playing out in interesting ways,  and the grown-up wizards turn up and are interesting and it was really quite engrossing.

( I liked the simpler first part best).

Things got more tricky to follow, and the climactic scene toward the end (involving the whole "dragonborn" thing) didn't make sense to me (to put it more bluntly, I have No Clue At All what happened in the relationship of the boy and the dragon and how it helped thwart the antagonist) but that could be just my own dimness.    And then the book ends, clearly in need of a sequel (which I will  read), but not distressingly so.

So I think that this is one with appeal to adults who enjoy middle grade fantasy; I was very happy to keep reading it, and there parts that I enjoyed very much.   And I think older, middle-grade readers with many fantasy books under their belts will also appreciate it.   The UK cover at right is much more age appropriate than the US cover, which makes it look like a friendly magical book for eight or nine year-olds.  It's most definitely not that age, for two reasons:

1.  It's disturbing.  The good wizard is dead right from the start, and Sam is alone and friendless.   The adults who are supposed to be his friends fail him.  Sam almost dies at one point, and takes a long time to recover.   The magic school is rotten.  The (tremendously appealing) dragon friend is separated from Sam for most of the book.

And on top of all that, the bad character is scary and disgusting (I really could have done without so much detail about her beetle eating habits; one beetle, two beetles, I could have taken, but there were lots more), and she tortures people, and we never (in this book at least) find out who or what she really is, so she remains an undefeated figure of nightmare.   Voldemort is scary too, but we kind of work our way up to him.  This bad beetle-eater is there from the beginning, casting a creepy pall of darkness from her dismal tower.

2.  The story is confusing.  Not in a muddled writing sort of way, but because confusing things happen without much explication.  There is some backstory given for the world in general, through pages from Sam's notebook, but the history of the adult characters (and clearly they have lots of history) is (for the most part) not told to the reader.   One has many questions along the way--why were the older wizards so dim about Sam?  Is such and such character to be trusted?  Who the heck is the bad beetle-eater, and was she always so bad?  Why is the dragon doing that?  There is no spoon-feeding (and as I said, I failed to understand what happened at the end).  

So I'm not going to offer this one to my own nine-year old (devourer of fantasy though he is), but I am going to be on the look-out for the sequel myself....and now I see that the sequel, Fireborn, has already been out for a while in the UK, but is coming in December over here in the US...

My top ten books I've bought but haven't read

I've never participated in one of these top ten memes hosted by The Broke and the Bookish before, but seeing other people's lists of their top ten books bought but not read inspired me to go pawing through my own tbr pile to pull out my own.  SIGH.  So many good books are sitting there waiting for me!

Here's what I came up with:

 Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel, and Stealing Death, by Janet Lee Carey, I bought for my multicultural reading...

 

Chime, by Franny Billingsley, I bought cause everyone was raving about it.  I started, but got stuck in the swamp.

Rowan the Strange, by Julie Hearn, went on my list when it was shortlisted for the 2010 Carnegie Award.

Thorn, by Intisar Khanani, went on when Tanita wrote about it

Laurence Yep's City of Death is a new addition to the pile--it's the third in a horribly under-reviewed middle grade fantasy series.

I bought The Returning, by Christine Harwood, because Megan Whalen Turner blurbed it.

The Doom Machine, by Mark Teague, was bought way back in 2009 in an effort to include more middle grade sci fi on my blog.

Faerie Winter, by Janni Lee Simner, I rushed out to buy when it first came out--it's the sequel to Bones of Faerie, which I enjoyed very much.

Three Kidlit Cons ago, Brenna Yovanoff was a speaker, and so I bought a lovely signed copy of The Replacement....

Which one would you read first if you were me?  

The Little Yokozuna, by Wayne Shorey, for Timeslip Tuesday

Way back in May of 2009, I began to conciously seek out multicultural children's books, primarily in an effort to add color to my sons' bookshelves.  One of the books that I ended up buying in that initial burst of enthusiasm was The Little Yokozuna, by Wayne Shorey (Tuttle Publishing, 2003, middle grade).    And I have only just now finished it, partly because of tbr pile inertia, and partly, and sadly, because when I started it back then I realized it wasn't very good.

I still think it isn't very good.   But as well as being multicultural, it is a time travel book, and so in a vague desire for completeness (someday I will have reviewed every children's time travel book ever written in English, Magic Treehouse books and other series-es for the younger reader excepted)  I'm going ahead and posting about it, and it will be my 179th time travel book (and my 124th multicultural sci fi/fantasy book; the links go to my full lists).

Basic plot--Japanese demons have kidnapped an American girl, called Little Harriet.  She disappeared in a museum garden, and her six older brother and sisters have found that the garden serves as a portal, that has whisked them, in pairs, into a whole series of other gardens, mostly Japanese.   One pair of siblings ends up in Japan in the 1960s, where they meet a Japanese boy, Kiyoshi-chan.  He and his family are kind and helpful.  Another pair ends up becoming friends with a haiku-writing monkey named Basho.  The third pair ends up in an underground pit of demons.   They are reunited.  They meet an enigmatic old man who is enigmatic.  Demons are glimpsed; one is beheaded.  More gardens are visited, too quickly to explore in detail.

Finally the six American kids and one Japanese kid end up at a Japanese demon/god sumo wrestling match.  The Japanese kid enters the ring to fight for their lives (and Little Harriet).

The enigmatic old man enigmatically leads them to Little Harriet.  The American kids go back to modern Boston.

Here is what I liked:  Some of the garden descriptions are appealing.   I like learning about new things--I now know more about sumo wrestling.

Here are the reasons why I didn't like it:

1.  The character names.  "Little Harriet."  Her brother, "Owen Greatheart." (He wasn't even all that greathearted).  Another brother, "Knuckleball."  The fact that when we meet the oldest sister, Annie, her brother is calling her "Granny."  This confused me.  I thought she was a grandmother.   The fact that Kiyoshi-chan is never just Kiyoshi (although maybe that's a nod to the reality of 1960s Japan???).  Edited to add--I am reassured by a commentor (thanks) that I did not need to be bothered by Kiyoshi-chan's honorific, so I shall cease being so!

2.  The multiple jumps in perspective.  I coped reasonably well with all the different narrative strands, but I object to shifts in narrative perspective from one paragraph to the next.

3.  The resulting fact that I never felt I knew any of the characters well enough to care about them as individuals.  In particular, what with a considerable portion of the book's beginning told from the perspective of Kiyoshi-chan, I felt invested in him, and so was somewhat put out to find him becoming a minor side-kick (even when he took center stage as a sumo wrestler, and thus became the title character, "yokozuna" being the highest rank in professional sumo, he stayed minor).   I think, also, that if an author tells me some of the kids are blond, but then goes out of his way to say that one has skin "the beautiful dark color of smooth chocolate," he should maybe tell me more about the familial circumstances of the kids (and make a vow never to use chocolate as a skin color descriptor ever again.  I got stuck for a while at this point, thinking deep thoughts like "milk chocolate is smooth but not dark" etc.).

3.  The fact that the plot made little sense, with motivations and meanings that never felt properly developed.  WHY, for instance, did the kids travel through time?  There is no reason, plot-wise, for this, and it didn't add to the sense that I was reading a coherent story.  And what was with the talking monkey?  I am fundamentally against talking monkeys whose only purpose is to introduce Basho's poetry, in a somewhat twisted fashion, to the young.

In a nutshell:  It was like a confused fever dream, and I'm not adding it to my son's bookshelf.

And so that concludes this week's edition of Time Slip Tuesday. Tune in next week for a book I like more than this one.