This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi (2/24/2013)

Welcome to this week's (wet and cold) round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction book reviews, author interviews, and interesting (d.v.) miscellanea from around the blogs!

In case you wonder how I find the links, here's how.   I follow about 500 blogs on google reader (which doesn't mean I read them.  Just the post titles, mostly.  So it doesn't actually take too long).  On Sunday morning, I do a blog search on "middle grade fantasy."  I have been known to go through the books recently reviewed on Kirkus, so I can do some specific title searches, and I search for books I myself know about.  Occasionally people send me links.

Which leads gracefully to my next point--more people are welcome to send links directly! (charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com). This includes authors and publicists.  That being said, I do reserve the right to decline to link to posts I don't find valuable.  People are also welcome to leave links in the comments. 

Onward.

The Reviews:

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, at books4yourkids

The Book of Doom, by Barry Hutchison, at The Book Zone

Case File 13: Zombie Kid, by J. Scott Savage, at Book Nut 

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Lust for Stories

Demonkeeper, by Royce Buckingham, at Known to Read

Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham, at BooksYALove 

Drizzle, by Kathleen Van Cleve, at GreenBeanTeenQueen 

Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun, by Liz Kessler, at theawseomeadventuresoflulu

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Kristen Evey

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson, at Charlotte's Library

Freaks, by Kieran Larwood, at Finding Wonderland

Herbert's Wormhole, by Peter Nelson, at Maria's Melange

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at Karissa's Reading Review 

The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire) by Tui T. Sutherland, at Ms. Yingling Reads 

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave, by Candace Fleming, at Log Cabin Books

The Runnaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Stacked and Bookshelvers Anonymous

The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere), by Jacqueline West, at Middle Grade Ninja

The Space Between, by Kiki Thorpe, at Sharon the Librarian

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner, at Charlotte's Library

The Strangers (Books of Elsewhere 4), by Jacqueline West, at Log Cabin Library 

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Bookalicious and Literacious, and as an audiobook, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Time Paradox, by Eoin Colfer, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Time-Travelling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Time Travel Times Two

Authors and Interviews

Jennifer Nielsen (The Runaway King) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Mike Yung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Anna Staniszewski (My Very UnFairy Tale Life) at Readatouille

Jasmine Richards (The Book of Wonders) at The Brown Bookshelf (as part of the wonderful 28 Days Later series)

The middle grade members of the Lucky 13s (debut authors of 2013), many of whom have written sff books, share their thoughts on why they write middle grade fiction.

Other Good Stuff

Shortlists!  The Andre Norton Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and the Diagram Prize (for quirkiest book title).  Here are this year's contestants for that one:

Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne
Was Hitler Ill? by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

I think I like the peaceful simplicity of "How to Sharpen Pencils" the best.  What I'd really like, though, is a book on how to keep pencil erasers fresh, or at least, how to restore them to eraserability.

Children's Book Week (May 13-19, 2013) is on its way, and this year's bookmark is nicely mg sff!  Plus it has a hidden letters challenge.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, by Wendy Welch

...was perfect Friday night in front of the fire comfort reading.  Anyone who loves used bookstores and/or stories of people leaving their ordinary jobs to follow idiosyncratic dreams will probably also enjoy it.

In a nutshell:  a couple stakes all their economic hopes on turning an old house in a small town into a used book store.  After initial tension (will they find enough stock to make all the new shelves look less pathetically empty?) it works out for them.  They make friends.   There are cats.   Tea and coffee are served.  Homemade gifts are exchanged.  Books are sold.  Customers are interesting--humorous, moving, difficult.

As one who is collecting stock (antiquarian and out of print children's books) for her own bookstore, I appreciated the practical side of things very much.  As a lover of bookstores, I appreciated it even more.

Quibble:  I wish Wendy Welch had put in a map, showing how to get to her store! 

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson

Oh yay, it's a middle grade science fiction book, oh yay....sorry.  It's just that there are so very few solidly middle grade sci fi books, and every time I do a Sunday round-up of "middle grade sci fi/fantasy" I want to apologize for not actually having any sci fi in it, so there you go.

So in any event, The Fellowship For Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson (Walden Pond Press, Feb 26, 2013) is true blue sci fi, one to which I can comfortably apply the shopworn, but sincere, adjectives "exciting" and "fun."  Albeit with a slight reservation.

Haley thinks aliens have been kidnapping people.   Dodger hears a radio station in his head, broadcasting from a town that doesn't exist.    When Haley and Dodger both get summer grants from the mysterious Fellowship for Alien Detection, they're off on two separate road trips to find out the truth.  Haley and her dad head south and west from Connecticut, and Dodger and his go east and south from Washington.  And when their paths converge, they find that the truth is even stranger, and much scarier, than they had ever dreamed.

Each kid's journey to that convergence point is told as a distinct story.  I was not expecting this--there I was,  happily following Haley (smart girl, would-be reporter) on the track of her interesting mystery (involving missing time and missing persons),  and things were getting excitingly tense....then suddenly Haley is left on a metaphorical cliff and the story jumps to  Dodger's journey.   Haley's story and Dodger's are rather different in mood (Dodger's being darker), and this added to my uncertainty about narrative coherence.   And then there were small extracts from the very mysterious life of a third character, another kid....I enjoyed them, and they added suspense, but I was confused.

However, everything does fit together, and very nicely too.   All three narrative strands conjoin, and everything becomes very exciting indeed.  

My only reservation is that the author spends considerable time making sure that the reader really Knows the characters, which is fine, except that it throws the balance off a tad--there's a lot of character development before Haley's true adventure starts, and then we go back and have lots of character development before Dodger's gets going.   I found this made the book less of an all-absorbing read than it might otherwise have been (perhaps because it also made the book longer).  And so I'd recommend it to kids who already are strong readers, rather than annoyingly picky ones like some children I live with.

My only other slight reservation about the book is that the cover makes it look a tad younger than is accurate--I think it's one for eleven-year olds, rather than nine-year olds.

That being said, it was great fun to see all the different little mysteries and clues that had filled the first three hundred pages converging into a whole, and I think this one has as much appeal to the mystery loving kid as it does to the reader of speculative fiction.  Although if you have a kid on hand who is fascinated by Roswell, you should definitely offer them this book.

Here are two other review (both glowing) from  Maria's Melange and This Kid Reviews Books

And for those in the Seattle area--there's a launch party on March 5 at Mockingbird Books...

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Two awesome shortlists--the Andre Norton Award, and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize

The list of the books in the running for the 2013 Andre Norton Award have been announced-- here's what's in the running:

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)
Black Heart, Holly Black (S&S/McElderry; Gollancz)
Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)
Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (S&S/McElderry)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
Every Day, David Levithan (Alice A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)
Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)


A lovely, lovely list!  I've read all but three, and even though I didn't myself like every single one of the books, there's a nicely diverse tasty-ness to the ensemble.

Here's the full list of Nebula shortlists.


I take a keen interest in the shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, given over across the pond to new and emerging talent in three categories--picture books, fiction for ages 5-12, and teen books.   I like to have new UK authors to track down.  So I was a tad disappointed that the sci fi/fantasy side of this year's short list is a tad heavy on books I already knew...but I am rather intrigued by The Wolf Princess....

I figured the Norton books didn't need much introducing, but I copied the pictures and links for this list from the Waterstones site, because of some of them being ones I'd never heard of.

For Ages 5-12:

The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Barry Loser: I am Not a Loser by Barry Loser

Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray

 

Teen Books:

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid, et al.

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind... by Andy Robb

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner (Random House, April, 2012, middle grade/YA) tells of the childhood of Himiko, daughter of the chieftain of the small Matsu clan.  By around 238 AD, Himiko was a queen, but before she reaches that point (which will presumably happen in the sequel to this book), she has lots of growing up to do....and so this is a book for the reader who has patience, one who is interested in the small things of life, and who doesn't demand happenings (in this, the cover is misleading--Himiko looks like an Action-Oriented princess, but that part of her life is yet to come).  It's also a good one for the reader who likes historical fiction that explores the lives of little known women--the author's note at the end explains that Himiko's story is based on fact, which pleased me very much.

Himiko is the only daughter of her father, and so is the "princess" of her village.  It is a narrow life, as her father distrusts all outsiders, and Himiko is not permitted to follow her dream of become a great hunter like her older brother (and even if she had been encouraged to follow this path, a fall in childhood leaves with a permanently lame leg).   Slowly she realizes that her path lies elsewhere, as a shaman for her people.   And so, interspersed with various family dynamics, we are told of her apprenticeship to the village shaman, which is kept secret from her dictatorial, xenophobic father, who simply wants to see her nicely married off.

There are shadows of a danger to come, which finally does arrive right at the end of the book.  But until then, there's lots of family dynamics, with nicely drawn secondary characters, some interesting descriptions of Himiko's rather restricted life, some magical encounters with spirit world (although not quite enough for my taste--just barely enough to make this fantasy), and hints of more story to come.

I myself rather enjoyed it, though at first I was doubtful--- I felt that it wasn't quite necessary to spend so much time with five-year old Himiko (adolescent Himiko becomes more interesting).   But even though I did read it avidly, appreciating the different culture, appreciating Himiko's various dilemmas and her growing familiarity with the spirit world, and hoping that it would all work out, I couldn't help but feel that this story is simply the prologue to a more exciting one to come.

And indeed, this is a good time to have read the book, because I am very much looking forward to its sequel, Spirit's Chosen, which comes out this April, and will not have as long to wait!

note on age: I'd be most likely to give this one to a ten or eleven year old girl, although it is described as being for ages 12 and up.  There is nothing in the book that would give your typical middle grade pause, and I think older readers are more likely to be put off by the fact that Himiko is a little kid!

Growing Disenchantments, by K.D. Berry, for Timeslip Tuesday

Anyone in the market for an entertaining fantasy read, one that's lightly fun and amusingly inventive, should consider Growing Disenchantments, by K.D. Berry (2012, Bluewood Publishing, labeled YA, but suitable for adults).  It's not, you know, a World Altering reading experience of Emotional Power, but it is a fine way to spend a snowy day.

It was on such a day that I entered the world of Ragonnard, the new wizard in town, just as the young thief Ganfrey (a girl, and no unskilled) was about to break into his house.  Unfortunately for Ganfrey (although it all worked out in the end), Ragonnard's home proved hard to burgle, and she ended up being caught.  But he made a deal with her--steal a particular portrait from the king's castle, and all would be forgiven. 

That particular portrait, a prison painted to hold a long gone evil wizard, was one Ragonnard had been searching for with a particular passion.  Painted along with with the wizard is an amulet of particular power, and Ragonnard's plan is to extract the amulet, bringing it back to real world while leaving the wizard in painted place.

Things don't work out according to plan, and the evil magician is freed.  Ganfrey finds herself caught up in chaos as his magic take over the castle, sending the optimistically incompetent king out on to the streets, and freeing the stone gargoyles and animating the statues of long dead kings.

But there are things more serious afoot than the deposing of kings and the philosophical conversations of gargoyles.  The magician is bent on revenge on those who imprisoned him 500 years ago, and he won't let time stand in his way.  Unless Ganfry and Ragonnard, with the help of a time travelling agent from the future, the court illusionist, Dewdop, and the head of castle security (who spends his free time reading mysteries, and trying to apply them in real life), can stop him, all of time's coherence will be shattered!

Entertaining stuff.   I found the characters amusing, although not desperately three dimensional, and the more I read, the faster the pages turned as the excitement of the story grew.  The reader has to have a certain tolerance for a bit of slapstick, almost cartoonish in places, and some awful puns (the sentient broom, for instance, is described at one point as a "heaving besom"), and a certain tolerance for plot elements that don't necessarily seem as tidily integrated into the whole as they might have been (time travelling agent from the future, popping up naked every now and then, and not actually doing much that's helpful, I'm looking at you).   But if you just sit back and relax and enjoy the ride, it's lots of fun.  Not quite up to the level of the Discworld books, which are my current gold standard of amusing fantasy, but a good time nonetheless.

The book is the second in a series (the first being Dragons Away), but is perfectly fine as a stand alone.  It's published in New Zealand, but it's available from Amazon as both a book and a kindle edition.  Disclaimer:  I received a copy courtesy of the author (or at least, courtesy of half the author, since this was a team effort).

The Crystal Tree, by Jennie D. Lindquist

Sometimes the thought of trying to write a serious post about a book received for review makes one feel tired...like right now.   So instead I offer a quick look at a book that required no effort to read, and little to write about--The Crystal Tree, by Jennie D. Lindquist  (Harper & Row, 1966), a lovely comfort read.

This is the third book about a girl named Nancy who goes off to live with her grandparents in New Hampshire when her mother falls ill.   Almost a year has passed, her mother is now better, and soon Nancy and her parents will move into a little old house in the country...and Nancy and her friends and cousins are all tremendously excited about it, and try to find out as much as possible about the family who first lived in it.

The Crystal Tree has many excitements--Nancy and her friend pick out wall paper and curtains!  Nancy orders seeds from a catalogue!  A cat has kittens!  Some cakes are made!  An attic is explored, and something found in it!   And of course they find all sorts of historical clues about the family who built the little house, including the mysterious crystal tree of the title.

I am one hundred percent sincerely interested in reading about such simple happenings.  It was just the right sort of thing to read during a busy weekend.  And sure, I didn't have much clue about who all the kids were (there are lots of them, and though I read the first book in the series, The Golden Name Day, I'd forgotten who they all were, and more apparently appeared in book 2, The Little Silver House, which I think I have to get a hold of), but I didn't try to keep everyone sorted out in my head, which made it much more peaceful.

Spoiler--Nancy's wallpaper has yellow roses.  Sigrid finds a white paper, with little sprays of bluebells, that would have been too expensive, except there wasn't enough for a grown-up size room, so the clerk lets them have it at half price! 

Simple pleasures for simple minds, as my mother is fond of saying.

Oh my gosh, I just looked at the prices on Amazon--used copies are at almost $100! (except for two ex-library copies which are cheaper).   There are, however, two copies still in the Rhode Island library system....I found my copy in a bin of discards the school librarian was going to trash.  She thought I was, perhaps, a odd.  I dove into the bin and started rescuing book after book; it was a happy day.  But I wish there had been a copy of book two as well.

I found it amusing that the cheapest copy on Amazon is described as "fully functioning."  I guess the seller is more used to e-readers than real books!

me reading grown up fantasy

I am still busily doing this thing of reading fantasy books written for grown-ups, although the nice little run I had of actually writing review of them every Sunday night has hit a snag.  Last week's book is going to show up on Tuesday, because it involves time travel, and this week's book, Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett, has only now been finished and it was great fun to read but I feel unable to comment any more cogently than that at the present time.

And just by way of note--I've changed my comment setting, because I was getting inundated with anon. spam junk, so it's now set to "registered user", and though I will probably lose the comments from kids doing book reports (things like "can you tell me the point of this book?"), I hope I don't lose anything more than that....

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy (17 Feb, 2013 edition)

Yoiks--for the first time ever, I think, I myself didn't review any mg sff this week.   Fortunately other people did.  And, as always, sorry if I missed your review and please let me know about it!

The Reviews

The Cat Kin, and its sequels, by Nick Green, at Seven  Miles of Steel Thistles

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Books and Other Thoughts

Fairy Lies, by E.D. Baker, at Nayu's Reading Corner

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Sonderbooks

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Kid Lit Geek

The Magician's Tower, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey, at The Write Path

 Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!, by Philip Reeve, at Madigan Reads

No Passengers Beyond This Point, by Gennifer Choldenko, at Jean Little Library

Princess for Hire, by Lindsey Leavitt, at Sonderbooks

The Seven Tales of Trinket, by Shelley Moore Thomas, at Bookends

Tales from Lovecraft Middle School (books 1 and 2), by Charles Gilman, at The Book Zone

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at In Bed With Books and Waking Brain Cells

The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket, by John Boyne, at Book Nut


Authors and Illustrators

Jennifer Nielsen (The Runaway King) at From the Mixed Up Files

Anna Staniszewski (My Epic Fairy Tale Fail) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Kazu Kibuishi (talking about the new Harry Potter covers) at ABC News

Other Good Stuff

Congratulations to The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, which is this year's Cybils winner in MG SFF!

A look at why Sirius Black is awesome (which he really is) in The Prisoner of Azkaban at Jenny's Books

Cressida Cowell's top ten mythical creatures, at The Guardian 

and the really exciting thing--this just in from the report of a  chat with Megan Whalen Turner (at the fan site, Sounis)-- "No elephants in the next book. They're in the book AFTER the next one. Also, the one AFTER the next one will be from the POV of someone completely new. SOMEONE COMPLETELY NEW."

The Shadow Society, by Marie Rutkoski

The Shadow Society, by Marie Rutkoski (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, YA, Oct., 2012) is the most gripping book I've read in 2013.   The pages turned quickly--my 40 minute bus ride home yesterday took me to page 167, and I almost missed my stop, and my poor children were sent to bed late (my husband being out for the evening) as I finished the last 200 or so pages....(and poor youngest child thought it was Friday, and no one reminded him to do his homework...)

The story, summarized briefly up to the point where the spoilers would be too spoilery:

Darcy was found on the streets of Chicago when she was five years old, with no memory of how she got there or who she is.  After being shunted from one foster home to another, she's now a junior, with a foster mother who is keeping her for a second year (a first).   But her expectations of a happy year in the company of her three best friends are shattered when an enigmatic, and beautifully handsome, new boy, Conn, arrives....

(ok--I would have liked it better if Conn hadn't been so beautiful.  I have never, myself, met anyone with chiseled lips.  And it's rather cliched that of course Darcy is going to be strangely attracted to him, and he's going to be all strange to her, in a "what does this beautiful boy want from me way" and I think this part of the book could have been just a tad more subtle.   But, on the other hand, the way Darcy's small cabal of friends react is rather nice.   Darcy's friends are great.  As is the fact that Darcy and Conn spend much time discussing The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I liked this).

Back to the story.

So there are hints that Conn is odd, it's quite clear that Darcy is different (I'll go so far as to say Special), and even clearer that something is going to happen.

It does.   It involves an alternate Chicago, where the Great Fire never happened, and where humans are locked in a war against beings known as Shades, who can disincorporate themselves.  It's a war of terrorist attacks, torture of captives, and bitter memories....and Darcy finds herself right in the middle of it.

Things get very interesting indeed.  Loyalty, memory, and guilt.  Past death and present danger.  Questions about whether peace is possible after so much bloody history.  And on the lighter side, a new Jane Austin book, discovered after her death in the alternate universe, and a trip to the alternate Chicago's art museum...

And in the meantime, Conn and Darcy, two people almost broken by past atrocity, must negotiate their relationship under terrible pressure.........(there's me reading reading reading all big-eyed and totally engrossed)......

So yes, I liked it very much!

(Here's a quibble--young people today are so selfish.  If my sons ever found themselves spending a couple of weeks in an alternate Chicago, knowing that it was quite easy to come and go between the two worlds, but Never Bothering to let me know they were all right, I'd be really cross.)

Congratulations to this year's Cybils winners! and other good stuff including a favorite sff romantic scene for V. D.

The Cybils winners have been announced!  Congratulations to The False Prince, one of my favorite books of last year, for winning in the middle grade sci fi/fantasy category! Congratulations to Giants Beware! my nominee for graphic novels for kids (I think it's the first time a book I've nominated has won!).  Congratulations to Seraphina, for winning in YA sci fi/fantasy!  And of course to all the other fine books and app that won in the other categories.

If you want a chance to show more love to your favorite YA sci fi/fantasy book, voting for this year's Locus Awards has begun, and it's a fabulous list. (You have until April  15th to vote).

And because it's Valentine's Day, and because Patricia McKillip seems to be getting more love these days in the blogs, here is my favorite romantic scene from one of her books.  It is also the fictional romance that frustrates me most, because I can't stand that there isn't any more of it, so this is a book I want everyone to go out and buy so that the possibility of another book in the series increases.

From page 218 of The Cygnet and the Firebird; the first speaker is a prince caught by an enchantment that transforms him each day into a firebird. The second speaker is the heir to her own holding, a young woman with the most insatiably curious mind for magic of any heroine I know, who is determined to break the spell.

"You used to look like a mage."

"What does a mage look like?"

"Like a closed book full of strange and marvellous things. Like the closed door to a room full of peculiar noises, lights that seep out under the door. Like a beautiful jar made of thick, colored glass that holds something glowing inside that you can't quite see, no matter how you turn the jar."

"And now?" she whispered. He came close; the light at their feet cast hollows of shadow across his eyes, drew the precise lines of his mouth clear.

"Now," he said softly, "you aren't closed. You're letting me see."

He slid his hand beneath her hair, around her neck. She watched light tremble in a drop of water near the corner of his mouth. He bent his head. The light leaped from star to star across his face, and then vanished. She closed her eyes and he was gone..."

The Cygnet and the Firebird is the sequel to The Sorcerer and the Cygnet, a fine book in its own right, in that twisty, magical McKillip way. They were recently republished in an omnibus edition.

And finally, the winner of my giveaway of The Madness Underneath is Maureen!

Waiting on Wednesday--Fearless, by Cornelia Funke

 I just found out, to my great excitement, that Fearless, the sequel to Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, is coming out this April from Little Brown!  Reckless is the story of a boy who travels to a mirror-world of fractured fairy tale magic, and it is extremely memorable and moving.  As I said in my review of Reckless,  "my only real complaint is with the ending; as the jacket flap says: "If you've come for happily ever after, you've come to the wrong place." But I wouldn't have minded just a bit more reason to think that Jacob is finally going to grow up....(oh, Fox, I feel for you so)......"  And so I am so utterly full of anticipation about what will happen to Jacob and Fox next....

"Jacob Reckless returns once again to the Mirrorworld--filled with profound characters, extraordinary creatures, and epic life-or-death treasure hunts that could only come from the mind of the master storyteller of our generation, Cornelia Funke.

Jacob Reckless has only a few months left to live. He's tried everything to shake the Fairy curse that traded his life for his brother's--legends such as the All-Healing Apple, the Well of Eternal Youth, the blood of a northern Djinn. And yet hope after hope is extinguished. After months of fruitless searching, Jacob journeys through his father's mirror one final time to deliver the bad news to Fox.

But there they hear of one last possibility--an item so legendary that not even Mirrorworlders believe it exists: a crossbow that can kill thousands, or heal one, when shot through the heart. But a Goyl treasure hunter is also searching for the prized crossbow. Jacob must find it first--and somehow convince Fox to do whatever it takes to save him."

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

Dragonbreath: Nightmare of the Iguana

I have raved many times before about the Dragonbreath books by Ursula Vernon.  They are my default recommendation for books to give the child who is betwixt and between easy readers and longer books--generous font size, heavy on graphic panels that advance the story (although less so as the series progresses), both girl and boy friendly, and funny as heck.   And they are also perfect for giving to your picky 12 year old reader, because they aren't at all patronizing/condescending, so older readers can enjoy them too, and it is so nice to see said picky reader reading a book cover to cover grinning his head off. 

So book 8, Nightmare of the Iguana, is out now, and we get to meet Suki, the smart and sarcastic ex-Ninja gecko, again!  Yay!  It is especially nice for Wendell, the geeky young iguana, because they kind of fancy each other.  Except that Wendell is being plagued by horrible nightmares, with potentially disastrous consequences...and to save him, Danny Dragonbreath and Suki must venture into his unconscious mind...a strange and terrible place....

I probably grinned as much reading it as my twelve year old.  I think Curse of the Were-Wiener is still my favorite, but this one was lots of fun. 

And the next book is on its way, in which Danny, Wendell, and their friend-who-is-a girl [sic] must hunt down mutant thieves, in The Case of the Toxic Mutants, coming Sept. 1..... I hope we get to meet the potato salad again (it's my favorite living potato salad of all time).

This week's middle grade sci fi/fantasy round-up (Feb. 10, 2013)

Here's what I found this week--please let me know if I missed your post!  Reminder: anyone--bloggers, authors, publicists, etc.--is welcome to send me links at any time, although I do reserve the right not to include posts I don't find particularly useful (like announcements, or posts that read like ads).

The Reviews

The Anybodies, by N.E. Bode (aka Julianna Baggott) at Australian Fantasy Adventures

The Colossus Rises, by Peter Lerangis, at The Pretty Good Gatsby
and The Readers Heartstring

Dark Lord: The Early Years, by Jamie Thomson, at Charlotte's Library

Freakling, by Lana Krumwiede, at Charlotte's Library

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, gets its final posts from group readers Maria's Melange,  The Brian Lair, and The Library Fanatic

Girl Meets Ghost, by Lauren Barnholdt, at Charming Chelsey's

The Girl Who Slipped Through Time, by Paula Hendrich, at Charlotte's Library

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford, at Kiss the Book

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at books4yourkids

Margaret and the Moth Tree, by Brit Trogen and Kari Trogen, at That's Another Story

Obsidian Mirror, by Catherine Fisher, at Working for the Mandroid

Physik, by Angie Sage, at Leaf's Reviews 

Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff, at Bookworm1858 by Robert Paul Weston

Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, at books4yourkids

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan, at Nerdy Book Club

Return to Titanic, by Steve Brezenoff, at Time Travel Times Two

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

Ms. Yingling has two--Dead City, by James Ponti, and Son of Slappy (Goosebumps-Most Wanted) by R.L. Stine

Authors and Interviews

Paul R. Hewlett (Lionel's Grand Adventure) at A Thousand Wrongs (with giveaway)

Kell Andrews (Deadwood) at Project Mayhem

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at Middle Grade Ninja (I missed this one last week)

Other Good Stuff:

Even though it's not middle grade, I want to send a quick congratulations to my college house-mate Elisabeth Kushner, whose picture book, The Purim Superhero, just came out.  

A list of fantasy for music lovers, at alibrarymama

A giveaway of interest--The Blackhope Enigma and its sequel, The Crimson Shard, at There's a Book 

A YA book that I am very intrigued by is Midwinterblood, by Marcus Sedgwick--not because it actually sounds like a perfect fit for me, but because it was partly inspired by Carl Larsson’s painting Midvinterblot:

I have a tremendous fondness for the paintings of Carl Larsson, which mostly aren't about midwinter sacrifices, and are instead mostly paintings of children and people making and doing ordinary things.   There is one picture of a girl that I find particularly haunting, so if anyone else feels like writing a fantasy inspired by one of his paintings, could you please write me Suzanne's story?

Dark Lord: the Early Years, by Jamie Thomson

I have April of Good Books and Good Wine to thank for adding Dark Lord: the Early Years, by Jamie Thomson (Walker, Oct. 2, 2012, middle grade) to my reading queue, and it turned out to be a fine choice for reading while snowed in--there wasn't anything about snow in it, but it was nicely diverting. 

The titular dark lord has fallen on hard times, and a hard pavement, as the book begins.   Thrust by the magic of a good wizard from the fantasy realm where he exerts evil power over thousands of minions, he finds himself inhabiting the body of a 12 year old boy, prone and disoriented on a shopping-center parking lot.   None of his evil magic works, and worse than that, no one takes the fact that he is a Dark Lord seriously, and without any power to curse them/blast them to smithereens/etc., there's nothing he can do about it.

Now he is simply a foster kid known as Dirk Lloyd, thrust into a perfectly ordinary middle school. 

But Dirk is undaunted, not so much clinging to his Dark Lord identity, but utterly owning it.  No measly principal will get the better of him!  And with his finely honed Dark Lord military mind, the dynamics of middle school are an easy challenge to master. It helps, of course, that his foster brother and his Goth girl class mate find him diverting as all get out, and, though it strains credulity, his unshakable belief in his true identity does make for interesting conversations....

But, trapped in human form, with real friends and affectionate parents for the first time, and with a large dollop of his wickedness left in the parking lot (in oil smear form), Dirk finds himself changing....how long can he really believe that he is a Dark Lord, when it's not at all clear if he'll ever get home to his orc-breeding pits again (if they even really existed....).

There is tons of kid appeal to this one. Dirk's twisted dark lord memories, though gruesome, are so over the top cliched and exuberantly written that they are entertaining rather than disturbing, and the juxtaposition of his Dark Lord persona with middle school is one that many readers will find amusing.  Up to a point, perhaps, for the adult reader, who might find it a bit of a one-note joke, even a tiresome one, but I think the intended audience will be more completely absorbed by it.

And Dirk himself actually works his way from being Bad Guy to being a sympathetic character.   It's kind of tricky to truly sympathize with him, of course, because he really did do bad things.   But the device of him having had a large part of his wickedness left on the parking lot allows readers to give him the chance to become a decent person, or at least, a decent friend (small steps....).   And perhaps at some point he will start admitting that Dark Lordness isn't all that nice for those who suffer under its bloody tyranny...

And yes, there is a sequel!  Good thing too, because this one ends on a cliffhanger.   This is a UK series, where it was published as Dark Lord: the Teenage Years, and  the sequel, Fiend in Need, came out last March, and which I really would like to read this week because the story of Dirk and his friends looks like it is about to really truly get going....

Recommended in particular to fans of fantasy war games, those who prefer black to pink, and those seeking tips on minion management.  It's also a natural one to give kids who enjoyed Vordak last year, but are ready to move on to meatier fare.

Here's Cory Doctorow's take on it at Boing Boing (enthusiastic), April's review, in case you missed the link above (which isn't enthusiastic, but which still made me seek out the book), and Pam's review at Bookalicious (she liked it).

Well, I've been doing this blogging thing for six years now...

But before I get to that, I wish to share how disappointed I am in our on-going "blizzard."  I can still find the barn without hanging on to the clothesline.  My husband councils patience....so perhaps I will try again later in the evening.  

Back to blogging.

So after six years, I have Changed. 

Change 1.  I am a calmer blogger.   I have realized that there is no point in my trying to write Deep Reviews of Thoughtfulness, because in my limited time it is much more relaxing to dash off  instinctive and impulsive reactions that I hope are sincere, but are rarely deep (partly this is because I am not sure what "deep" entails, and think it might actually be meaningless.  Thoughtful, though, is generally recognizable and a quality to be admired in a blog....although I guess you can have thoughtful flippancy....)

Change 2.   I am now more untrammeled by my early, passionate, desire for review copies--I get as a many as I need, and it's not like I don't have anything to read.  This is good, because it seems as though hard copies of books are getting scarcer, and I have no interest in reading on an e-reader. 

Change 3. And perhaps the biggest change is that no longer do I obsess over my stats in a fiercely competitive way.  Mainly this is because there is no point.  My stats stayed essentially flat all last year (the ten additional people following me in google reader does not count as an uptick in any meaningful sense, and I see no way in which I can actually do anything to make it 20 more people in 2013) and I have decided that if one blogs in a quiet sort of way about mostly middle grade sci fi/fantasy, one is not going to have tens of thousands of visitors a month, and there is no use in fretting over that.  So I'm not.

But it would be nice if more people entered my on-going giveaway of The Madness Underneath.  Thanks.

And thank all of you for reading!

My introverted take on being called on in class

So there's this article about introverted kids needing to learn to speak up in school.   Basically, the teacher wants to compel introverted kids to speak up in class, even though, quoting her, they "live in fear of being asked these sorts of questions."

That makes me very cross. That sounds more like a kid who hasn't done the reading, or who has a full-fledged social anxiety disorder.  Being introverted doesn't mean you live in fear of speaking in public (although it might be something that requires considerable effort).  It doesn't mean that being asked a question that requires thought makes you feel ill!!!   (though it may be distasteful).

Here's a comment I got from a professor in grad. school--"When Charlotte chooses to participate, her comments are very insightful."  If Charlotte had been forced to participate, she could probably have come up with lots of fairly articulate b.s.  Which would you rather have, if you were a teacher?  (the answer is probably Charlotte choosing to participate more, but you can't have everything.)

I'm just an introvert who's taken lots of classes, not a teacher, but here are what I see as the three main problems introverts face in classroom discussion:

1.  The introvert sits quietly, listening and thinking.  Then the introvert wants to share her idea, one that she may well have been practicing in her head--and she can't cut through the extroverted babble of the conversation so as to be heard.  She gives up.

2.   If she does get a chance to speak, it might seem like there's no meaningful listening, and it might seem that her words weren't worth saying because they're just being brushed aside while other people's words go galloping on. 

3.  If the teacher does call on the introverted student, who seems to have something to share, but asks a specific question instead of issuing an open invitation to talk,  the kid might give only a cursory, reluctant answer, because it wasn't what she wanted to share.

So the idea of a teacher pushing and prodding at introverts to get them to talk seems rather repugnant to me, and the wrong way to go about encouraging them to participate.   I think it would make much more sense to

1.  pay as much attention to them as possible--the introverted kid might not be jumping up with her hand in the air, but may simply be sitting up a little more eagerly and trying to make eye contact when she wants to be called on.

2.  make sure to validate their thoughts when they do share, which will encourage them to keep talking.   As in--"Thank you.  That was an excellent point.  Here's what I think in response..."  perhaps even encouragingly asking for more elaboration.

3.  when calling on the introvert, often just saying "Charlotte?" (or any other appropriate name) is enough.  Not: Charlotte, what do you think of Specific Thing X?

4. perhaps to break the class into smaller discussion groups, so there is more chance to choose to take part.

End of my thoughts on introverts in class discussion circumstances.

Postscript:  My own 9 year old son is an introvert.  When asked by his teacher to identify an area in which he was weak, and wanted to improve, he chose "working in groups." But afterwards he confessed to me that it was a bad answer--"I don't really want to work better in groups; what I'd really like is not to have to work in groups at all."   However, at the same school last year, his teacher let him leave circle time occasionally when he needed a break from togetherness--I love that teacher. 

Freakling, by Lana Krumwiede

Freakling, by Lana Krumwiede (Candlewick, middle grade, October 2012)

Psi powers are something that twelve-year old Taemon takes for granted--everyone in his city can move and manipulate the physical world with their minds--until the day he looses his powers.   His parents hope this affliction is only temporary, and do their best to help him pretend to be normal in a world where no one does anything with their hands that they can do with their minds....because if his secret were discovered, it would mean exile. 

Though the charade is successful for a while, at last Taemon's secret comes out, and he must leave his family for the uncertain fate of the powerless colony outside the city.   And it's actually not so bad.  The powerless are kind and welcoming, and the community is less caught up in rigid protocol and heirophantic social strictures than the city (which has a belief system that Taemon's older brother, the power-hungry bad guy of the story, is determined to take advantage of).   But before Taemon can become truly part of the normal colony, he finds that it has secrets of its own...valuable knowledge that must be kept from the psi users, or else their rather morally suspect society would  become dangerously powerful.

When Taemon is unwittingly responsible for leaking one of these secrets, he must return to his city to try to repair the damage...but the city he's going back to is a much scarier, more dystopian place, than the one he left...

Plot-wise, this is fine reading--the story moves briskly, the conflict is very real, and younger readers may well empathize with the young protagonist's conflicts between family, society, and being true to himself.   Those readers will probably find the whole concept of lives dependent on mental powers fascinating, and, in as much as Taemon enjoys the mechanics of things, it has appeal for kids who like tinkering with devices themselves.  On the abstract side of things, Krumwiede raises interesting philosophical points concerning such things as the responsibilities of power, and on the quotidian side, she makes sure that her portrayal of both ways of life, psi and normal, are detailed and thorough.

Perhaps too much so for older readers (at least for me)--though I was very intrigued by the premise, I felt that the world- and plot-building elements of the book were underlined a tad too much, and there was something of a flatness to the narration.   I never was able to feel any particular emotional connection to Taemon.  So it wasn't  a book that I personally embraced, but I think that it has much more appeal for its target audience!

Freakling works just fine as a stand-alone, but its sequel, Archon, comes out in October.

Other reviews at Semicolon, The Diary of a Bookworm, January Magazine, and My Precious.

Viz labeling:  mental powers sometimes feel like fantasy to me, sometimes like sci-fi--I'm going with sci-fi on this one, because it seems real world possible (if you allow for the possibility of psi!)

Viz the cover--isn't it utterly gorgeous?  I think it's my favorite mg sff cover of the year.

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher for Cybils review purposes.

The Different Girl, by Gordon Dahlquist

The Different Girl, by Gordon Dahlquist  (Dutton Juvenile YA, February 21, 2013, 240 pages) was a lovely character-driven sci-fi  change from my regular reading, and I enjoyed it lots.

It tells of four girls, who have lived all their lives on an isolated island under the attentive eyes of two adults who are their teachers and guardians.   One girl is blond, one brunette, one redhead, and one, Veronika, the narrator of the story, has black hair, but otherwise, they seem identical.  And they never question their routine--it is all they have ever known.

Then a fifth girl comes, the only survivor of a shipwreck.   Veronika's world is forever changed by the differences of this girl, and the questions that her presence brings.   The world of the island is no longer safe--enemies are approaching, death becomes a real possibility-- and Veronika's assumptions about herself and the other three girls are shaken to their core.

Oh goodness, this is a hard one to review, because the reader's assumptions, and the picture of the island that seems so simple at first, all becomes so much more tangled, and interesting, and beautifully thought-provoking, with the arrival of the different girl.  And all these tangles aren't exactly explained, because everything the reader knows is filtered through the lens of Veronika's mind, and her mind is not exactly ordinary.   So we don't see the big picture explaining all the whys of this particular world, because Veronika never finds many answers, but we do see her changing, as her peace, both of mind and of place, become progressively shattered.

Those who enjoy really quirky, occasionally frustrating, stories of what it means to be a thinking being may well enjoy it as much as I did.   (Those who like stories about girls in orphanages/boarding schools might also like it for that aspect of it!).  I myself found it a memorable and gripping character-driven mind-trip.   That being said, those who like their world building actually built, with questions answered and things explained, who like books that have Plot front and central point (as opposed to a book like this, in which the central point is one character's experience of plot-like elements she doesn't understand),  might well be frustrated.  

For those who are curious about the spoilery part of it--it becomes clear pretty early in the book (which I appreciated--it let me in on the whole thought-experiment aspect of the story), and the cover actually shows a rather clever spoiler, and so I will tell what it is (highlight to read)

The four girls are robots.  They are there on the island to be kept safe from those who wish to destroy them, while they are being taught how to be thinking beings.

disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher.

A sampling of other reviews:  Presenting Lenore, Reading Rants, and Alexia's Books and Such

The Madness Underneath, by Maureen Johnson (with ARC giveaway!)

I very much enjoyed The Name of the Star, the first book in Maureen Johnson's Shades of London series.  It's the story of a southern girl, Rory, who comes to London for a year in an exclusive boarding school--only to find herself menaced by of a truly creepy killer who is recreating the murders of Jack the Ripper.   Rory begins to realize that there is more to the murders than meets the eye, because it turns out that Rory can see ghosts...and ghosts are involved.  She's not alone in that ability, and is recruited by the small unit (3 young people) of London's police force who are responsible for handling the ghostly crimes of London--but will Rory be able to help them track down the murderer, or will she end up dead herself?  And in the meantime, there's the whole culture shock of life at a British boarding school....

The Madness Underneath (Putnam, Feb. 26 2013)  begins as Rory has more or less recovered physically from the knife wound she got at the end of book one.  Her parents agree to let her return to school....but it's not exactly going to be a peaceful end of term experience for her.  For one thing, she has a new, unique, ability--her touch can dispel ghosts--and since the devices that were able to do this all got destroyed in Book 1, she is the only actual weapon the small police ghost force has to work with.  Her place within that force is uncertain, as Stephan, the leader of that team, is reluctant to recruit her and swear her to a life of secrecy and lies...

But when faced with murderous spirits, and a plot by some very sinister folks indeed to capture Rory and use her for their own ends (this was a slightly odd plot, a bit jarring), there's no way for her to just sit quietly at school and worry about her homework....

Though there are many creepy and exciting goings on, this isn't a book full of non stop action.  I myself like this--non stop action gives me a headache.  Instead, there is lots here about Rory as a person, struggling both with her feelings (toward boys and toward her new ability), and struggling academically.  I must confess I became so worried about her academic struggles that I wanted to flip to the end to see if she flunked out or not.   But then I got interested in the actual plot of ghosts and mysteries and bad guys, and since it was becoming all too clear that Rory was doomed academically, I was able to focus on what was actually Happening.

But oh, Maureen Johnson, why did you have to give me that one full voltage scene of beautiful romantic tension only to snatch it away from me?

Courtesy of the publisher, I have an ARC of The Madness Underneath to give away (US only); please enter by next Wednesday, Feb. 13, at midnight!  It's my first rafflecopter giveaway; I hope it works. Edited to add:  It didn't work.  For one thing, it made me answer the question "What makes you smile" which did Not make me smile and for another it gave extra entries for following rafflecopter on twitter.  So I am going back to --Please enter by leaving a comment that includes some way to reach you!

The Girl Who Slipped Through Time, by Paula Hendrich, for Timeslip Tuesday

Anyone looking for a dated time-travel story that emphatically underlines the message that humans need to save Nature or else need look no further than The Girl Who Slipped Through Time, by Paula Hendrich (Weekly Reader Books, 1978, 128 pages).   It tells of a young girl, Paramecia, from the far future (2040),  who has lived all her life isolated from what little of the natural world has survived man-made catastrophes (including droves of mutated jackrabbits).  Her parents are determined to do what they can to bring the dying earth back to life...and so, as the story begins, young Para is being reluctantly dragged across a scorched wasteland of former prairie in an Air Cushion Vehicle.

And when the Air Cushion Vehicle malfunctions, our angry heroine sets out for a walk on her own...and miraculously enters a world where nature is still alive, and well...at least for the moment.  She is taken in by sympathetic locals--an old woman and the boy she's been looking after.  They are friendly, curious, but not too suspicious, and they can teach her valuable lessons about loving animals!

But she discovers that she is not in some bastion of miraculously intact  nature with no indoor plumbing---she has travelled back in time to the 1930s just as the Dust Bowl is getting going.   And there are people back then who want to eradicate all varmints!   She learns this is bad, and begins to appreciate her parents' mission--but will she ever make it home to tell them?

Yes! The mysterious old woman who helps her is a space alien!  Which actually isn't how she gets home again, and I'm just mentioning it because it is odd.   But Paramecia does bring home two baby coyotes, as well as learning a lesson, so it was all worth while (?).

Maybe to the young reader who's never read a time travel book, never encountered a book that describes a possible future, and never read a didactic book about appreciating the environment will love this one.  The characters and story are fine, I guess, though odd (the whole alien granny twist, for instance, really threw me).

But  I myself found Paramecia's futuristically stiff diction off-putting, and I couldn't believe in the dramatic changes that are supposed to have occurred in technology and society.   2040 is just not far enough away, even from the point of view of 1978, when the book was written.   I myself, born in the late 1960s, still plan on being around with all my quaint archaic words, like "year", in 2040, come eco-catastrophe or not.  (However, judging from the cover, hairstyles stayed stuck in the late 1970s).

However, anyone looking for time travel books that teach Valuable Lessons to the Reader (as opposed to the particular character), and there aren't actually that many of them, should seek this one out.

(I am now thinking Deep Thoughts about what makes a book one with a Message, as opposed to one that just makes a reader more thoughtful and informed.   I suppose, as in so many other things, it is a blurry line...)

Me reading fantasy for grown-ups: Heroes Adrift, by Moira J. Moore

I must say I am quite enjoying reading contemporary fantasy books for adults on a regular basis!  Of course, I have not been making Risky Choices in the books I have been choosing.  This week's book, for instance, was very safe.  Moira J. Moore's Hero series, of which Heroes Adrift (Ace, 2008) is the third, is one that I began reading because of Angie's enthusiastic endorsement.  I am happy to report that these books make lovely comfort reading for those who enjoy character-driven romantic fantasy with generous dashings of intrigue and magical world-building. 

Here's Angie's review of the first book, Resenting the Hero, and yes, it has an awful cover, just awful, one of the worst ever, but don't be deterred. 

In Heroes Adrift, Lee and Taro are relieved of their obligation to use their extraordinary mental gifts to protect the citizens of their alien planet from natural disasters.  Instead, they're sent down to one of the southern islands at the command of the Empress, to track down descendants of an illegitimate member of the royal family.   Confronted with a very different culture, and very different perceptions of their value to society (which is to say that for a change they are now broke), they are forced to re-examine and re-negotiate both the way they think of themselves, and their relationship to each other, and though there are no Big Happenings, there's lots of small goings on that cumulatively make for a good story, and I did enjoy very much the unhurried progression of the two main characters.   It's made more interesting by the fact that Lee, from whose point of view we see things unfold, is, by nature and nurture, a somewhat unreliable observer of both herself and Taro--what she says is happening isn't what the reader thinks maybe going on! 

In short, reading Heroes adrift was like going on a trip with good friends, and doubtless book number four in the series, Heroes At Risk, will show up here soon (or maybe not so soon--I'm enoying taking my time with these, saving them for when I need a fun, untaxing break from the rigours of middle grade sff, which is actually quite a lot harder to write about thoughtfully...)

Note on this cover--there is no piratical adventure at sea, and Lee would never skip around a boat looking like that. Sigh. 

This Week's round-up of mg sff, Feb 3, 2013

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy; please let me know if I missed your link!

The Reviews

The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, by R.A. Spratt, at Sonderbooks

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Bone: Quest for the Spark, Book 3, by Tom Sniegoski and Jeff Smith, at Guys Lit Wire

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at The Book Smugglers 

The Crimson Shard, by Teresa Flavin, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Seer's Gift, by Janet McNaughton, at That's Another Story

Elliot and the Goblin War, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Geo Librarian

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson, at Maria's Melange

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at Shannon Messenger, and in a continuing discussion between Maria's Melange,  The Brain Lair, and The Library Fanatic

Ghosts of the Titanic, by Julie Lawson, at Time Travel Times Two 

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, at Sonderbooks 

Michael Vey : Rise of the Elgin, by  Richard Paul Evans, at A Thousand Wrongs

Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris, by Marissa Moss, at Semicolon

North of Nowhere, by Liz Kessler, at Fantastic Reads 

Small Medium at Large, by Joanne Levy, at Annie McMahon

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at The Book Brownie

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin, at Book-A-Day Almanac

The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket, by John Boyne, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Vengekeep Prophecies, by Brian Farrey, at Charlotte's Library

Authors, Illustrators, and Interviews

A chat with the illustrator and designer of The Year of Shadows at The Book Smugglers

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore) at The Enchanted  Inkpot

Katherine Applegate shares her reaction to winning the Newbery at Publishers Weekly

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at Literary Rambles

Other Good Stuff:

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of American ( SFWA) has a new interest group of writers who write mg and YA.  Here's the first of a series of posts from this group--a survey of the writers' editors and agents, asking them how they define MG and YA.

I made a resolution this year to read one fantasy book for grown-ups every week.  My list of possible choice has just expanded--here's the Locus 2012 recommended reading list.   The only one I've heard of is Boneland, by Alan Garner, which has been in the house for months and which my husband says is brilliant....

The Brown Bookshelf is once again celebrating Black History Month with 28 Days Later--every day a different author or illustrator is featured.  And today's entry has just added another book to my tbr list--The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson.

A post in which I look for feminism in middle grade sci fi/fantasy

The Vengekeep Prophecies, by Brian Farrey

The Vengekeep Prophecies, by Brian Farrey (HarperCollins, Oct. 23, 2012).

In a world where magic, and magical beings (goblins, bird-people, etc.) are real, there is a town named Vengekeep.  Centuries ago, powerful seers wove tapestries predicting the future, and every year's tapestry is unveiled in an annual ceremony.  In this town there is also a world-famous family of thieves...whose youngest scion, Jaxter Grimjinx, is a clutz.  So much so that he accidentally sets fire to the mansion he's burgling on the day of that year's tapestry reveal.

But this year's tapestry just happens to show the Grimjinx family saving Vengekeep from 29 different disasters, ranging from mundane floods to attacks from skeletal flying monsters.   And so Jaxter's little slip-up is pardoned...after all, the savious of Vengekeep can't do their saving from prison.

But there are a just a few little problems with the Grimjinx family as saviours.  To wit:

Number 1:  The tapestry of disaster was woven as part of a con by Jaxter's mother, who had a lot of fun making up fictional catastrophes.   Unbeknownst to her, however, she used a magical type of fate thread--anything woven with it actually happens.   The lava creatures that emerge from the earthquake-craked center of Vengkeep are just the first of the disasters to come.

Number 2:  The mundane problems, like flooding, can be dealt with, but no-one in the the Grimjinx family has a clue how to foil things like skeletal deathbringing monsters of the sky.

Number 3:  So the only thing to do is to destroy the tapestry itself, to keep what it shows from happening, but that requires someone to go fetch some extraordinarily scarce magical ingredients.  And Vengekeep has been interdicted by the central government, so that whatever curse its under can't infect the kingdom.  No one can get out.

Fortunately, though Jaxter is not a good thief, he has made friends with a well-born girl, Callie, who knows a secret way out of Vengekeep.  And though Jaxter might fumble at lock-picking, he just happens to have  the talents necessary to save his city.  And they are not magical talents of specialness.  No, Jaxter is that wonderful sort of hero, who loves learning!  He loves taking what he's read and applying it in practical situations, and so Jaxter (along with Callie) sets off equipped with pouches of non-magical ingredients that can be combined in over four thousand ways with great effect.  

And a journey ensues, in which the two kids meet friends, and enemies, and magical creatures, and have all sorts of adventures of a magical adventurous sort!  My favorite part was the least "adventurous" of these--a stay with a wealthy and eccentric woman desperately looking for an apprentice with whom to share all the learning she's amassed, and to help her discover more.  Obviously, Jaxter is the one she's been looking for....but his obligations and loyalties lie elsewhere.   A nice little interlude of geeky fantasy goodness!

I am pretty certain that any young fan of fantasy adventures will enjoy The Vengekeep Prophecies tremendously.   It is fast and fun (even funny in parts!) and imaginative.   It's also a pleasingly stand-alone story, though there's lots of room for more adventures.

I was hoping to love it a tad more myself then I actually did--I am not sure why, but I never felt much emotional attachment to Jaxter.   I think this is because I can't help but read as an adult and a mother, and so many boy heroes of the fantasy books I love have lost their mothers, and/or are all prickly and defensive but sweet underneath (Gen (The Thief), Conn (The Magic Thief), Sage (The False Prince) spring to mind, though doubtless I could think of more).  Jaxter actually has two parents who love him and are proud of him (supportive parents are on the rise, I think, in mg fantasy).  Though he himself was worried about disappointing them, it's clear that his talents will be recognized and valued, and that all will be well for him.  I never was in a position of feeling sharp heart-tearings of concern for him....Callie, although in on all the action, never quite manages to transcend basic plucky girl as sidekick characterization, so I didn't feel any great concern about her either.

And so though I enjoyed The Vengekeep Prophecies just fine, and am happy to recommend it enthusiastically, I didn't love it.  But that's just me.