Here's what I found this week; please let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
The Calling, by Philip Caveney, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Criminal Destiny (Masterminds, #2) by Gordon Korman, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia Wrede, at Semicolon
Everland, by Wendy Spinale, at Becky's Book Reviews
The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at On Starships and Dragonwings and BN Kids Blog
Fridays with the Wizards, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature
The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
The Harp and the Ravenvine, by Ted Sanders, at This Kid Reviews Books
Key Hunters--The Mysterious Moonstone and The Spy's Secret, by Eric Luper, at Charlotte's Library
Magic Marks the Spot, by Caroline Carlson, at Pages Unbound
The Map to Everywhere, by Carrie Ryan & John Parke Davis (audiobook review), at Got My Book
The Mysterious Abductions (The Nocturnals, #1) by Tracey Hecht, at Kid Lit Reviews, and Always in the Middle
The Nest, by Kenneth Oppel, at books4yourkids.com
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Charlotte's Library
Project Alpha (Voyagers #1) by D.J. MacHale, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, by Patrick Samphire, at Boys Rule Boys Read!
Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at Great Kid Books
The Trials of Apollo, by Rick Riordan, at BN Kids Blog
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Charlotte's Library
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at Jen Robinson's Book Page
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Wishing Day, by Lauren Myracle, and Once Upon a Frog, by Sarah Mlynowski
Authors and Interviews
Kathryn Tanquary (The Night Parade) at Cynsations
Lauren Oliver, H.C. Chester, and Chubby (The Screaming Statue) at The Reading Nook Reviews
Other Good Stuff
The Guardian picks the top ten dragons in fiction
The registration information and call for proposals for Kidlitcon 2016 is up! KidLitCon 2016 will be held October 14th and 15th in Wichita, KS. This year’s theme is Gatekeepers and Keymasters: Connecting bloggers, librarians, teachers, authors, and parents to promote literacy.
5/8/16
5/5/16
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung
Chloe's teeth are also on edge because of her parents' lack of understanding that she might want to explore Korean culture, and hear stories of her family, and that she might want a bit of help figuring out what that part of her identity entails. When (wonder of wonders!) her new social studies teacher turns out to be Korean as well, something in Chloe relaxes, but her teacher doesn't exactly help her feel comfortable in her own skin. Instead, when she assigns a family history project, which goes very wrong for Chloe, things get even more uncomfortable. Chloe's anger starts driving her best friend Shelley away, and that just makes her madder.
And then Chloe's parents throw her an utterly astonishing curveball of family history that, in it's unexpectedness and unbelievableness, jars her out of her loop of angry withdrawal, and (somewhat ironically, given what she learns) she's able to find herself again. There have been negative consequences to her rebellion, and they don't magically go away, but it's clear that Chloe is on her way to being a stronger person (and she and Shelley repair their friendship, which is nice for both of them!).
I couldn't quite warm to USO, because Chloe was just so darn prickly so much of the time, with reason, and totally believably in a middle grade way, but still, not much empathy. The twist that makes this speculative fiction, though, is just spot on appealing for the target audience. I think that if you like realistic fiction in which the tension comes from internal conflicts (rather than, for instance, distant, drunk, or dead parents/friends/siblings), and if you enjoy having that realism turned on its head (while managing to remain fully rooted in our world), you'll like this one lots. My friend Brandy, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile, did, for instance, and Ms. Yingling recommends it as well, so there you go.
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
5/3/16
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, for Timeslip Tuesday
In England in WW II, Lottie's scientist father spends his days trying to figure out the secrets of time travel. He believes that shimmering time portals randomly appear, but doesn't know how they work. Time travel could have military uses, and so 10-year-old Lottie and her dearest friend Kitty are taken hostage; the kidnappers think her dad knows more than he's letting on, and are going to kill the two girls unless he spills his secretes.
And then a time portal appears (!) and Lottie, hardly pausing to think, jumps through to escape her captors, leaving Kitty behind. And her father, and the whole world of WW II England. She finds herself in our time, in the Midwest, in her pajamas in the middle of nowhere, with no way to get home again. Fortunately, she finds a friendly library (which has relevance to the plot). Fortunately as well, she is taken in by a foster family (child services is almost magically wonderful), and so she becomes an ordinary American school kid. Except that she is haunted not just by her lost life in generally, but by her abandonment of Kitty. Never will she have another friend like her, and so she goes along with the group of girls who took her in, enchanted by her English accent, even though she doesn't have much in common with her.
But then she finds something hidden in a copy of her favorite book that gives her hope that she might find Kitty again, that maybe Kitty didn't die, even though that's what it says on line. And so she finds a way to get to Italy, with the help of a boy who could have been her friend if her clique of girls hadn't taught her to shun him, following clues that Kitty maybe, perhaps, left.....
This is both a good, solid time travel story (by which I mean it deals with the whole cultural dislocation of time travel nicely, without getting too terribly caught up in Lottie's exploration of the wonders of the future), mixed with a good friendship story--being true to yourself and making friends with who you want to be friends with without getting caught up in peer pressure. The best part of the book was when Lottie and the shuned boy who is now her friend get to know and appreciate each other, and Lottie starts realizing that even though she left Kitty that doesn't mean she shouldn't ever be allowed to have good friends again.
So if you go to Amazon you'll see that there are people saying this will appeal to fans of When You Reach Me and Wrinkle in Time. Um, not so much, I think, especially not Wrinkle in Time which is not actually about time travel qua time travel for crying out loud. And When You Reach Me feels like it has sharper edges than this one. I think it will really appeal to fans of Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, which probably hasn't be read by young people today....to me, a fan of older English books like that one, it had a lovely familiar feel and I enjoyed it very much. A contemporary review of Charlotte Sometimes said ""…this is really a study in disintegration, the study of a girl finding an identity by losing it… " and this is exactly what happens to the Charlotte of Once Was a Time as well.
It also reminded me of Dreamer, Wisher, Liar, by Clarise Mericle Harper. But even if you don't like time travel for its own sake, it's also a good one for fans of middle school girl friendship drama.
And now I will treat myself to a round of "What does Kirkus say?"
drumroll
Total agreement! Kirkus says: Her transition to her new life is awkward but realistic, and the focus of this charming novel is always on friendship and loyalty. Rewarding and uplifting."
So there you go.
5/2/16
Key Hunters--The Mysterious Moonstone and The Spy's Secret, by Eric Luper
Key Hunters is a new series by Eric Luper that's a good choice for older elementary kids not yet ready for fantasy door stopper books. The font size and spacing fits my sense of "chapter books for young readers," and the plots are such as will be more pleasing to the young reader who has little experience with genre fiction, for whom mystery solving in historical times and spy foiling with lots of technology involved are still new fictional ground. The first two books, The Case of the Mysterious Moonstone, and The Spy's Secret, just came out (Scholastic, April 26, 2016).
Cleo and Evan were very fond of their old school librarian, who was also fond of them, and encouraged them to enjoy the library. She's been replaced (without saying goodbye) by a new librarian, a nasty piece of work, who wants the kids to sit and be quiet, and nothing else, when they are in the library. One day Cleo and Evan happen to be in the library when they hear the bad librarian muttering to herself, then crying out and disappearing. She's gone through a hidden doorway, opened by a book in the literature section, and Cleo and Evan head off down the secret stairs to find out what's going one. In the room below, there's a note from the good librarian, saying she's stuck in a book, but has left clues to be followed to find her. The Case of the Mysterious Moonstone lies on a table, and when the kids open the book, they find themselves whirling into its 19th century world, where they are characters helping to solve the mystery of a missing gem. The bad librarian is there too, in the role of a villain.
But though the moonstone mystery is solved, Cleo and Evan don't find the good librarian. So they head into another book, The Spy's Secret, where they are spy kids with lots of gadgets, trying to foil the plot of the evil Viper who's plotting world domination from his underwater lair. The bad librarian is also there a villain, but somewhat more ambiguously so than she was in the first book, which adds interest. Once again, they don't find the good librarian, but perhaps they will in the third book, The Haunted Howl, coming in September.
If you are older than ten or so, you can skip these, but they are good ones for the target audience. These are books I'd give to any fans of the A-Z mysteries, for instance (do kids these days still read those?). The many cartoonish illustrations will help uncertain readers along, and the stories move briskly. And of course they are good gateways to all the books for older kids out there in which the characters fall into the world of stories; for instance, a nice next step might be The Island of Dr. Libris, or Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series, though the later, in particular, is a perhaps a bit of a jump in terms of number of words....
Here's what I personally appreciated--Evan and Cleo work together as equal friendly partners, and as the cover shows, Evan's a kid of color, a fact that has no bearing on the plot.
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
Cleo and Evan were very fond of their old school librarian, who was also fond of them, and encouraged them to enjoy the library. She's been replaced (without saying goodbye) by a new librarian, a nasty piece of work, who wants the kids to sit and be quiet, and nothing else, when they are in the library. One day Cleo and Evan happen to be in the library when they hear the bad librarian muttering to herself, then crying out and disappearing. She's gone through a hidden doorway, opened by a book in the literature section, and Cleo and Evan head off down the secret stairs to find out what's going one. In the room below, there's a note from the good librarian, saying she's stuck in a book, but has left clues to be followed to find her. The Case of the Mysterious Moonstone lies on a table, and when the kids open the book, they find themselves whirling into its 19th century world, where they are characters helping to solve the mystery of a missing gem. The bad librarian is there too, in the role of a villain.
But though the moonstone mystery is solved, Cleo and Evan don't find the good librarian. So they head into another book, The Spy's Secret, where they are spy kids with lots of gadgets, trying to foil the plot of the evil Viper who's plotting world domination from his underwater lair. The bad librarian is also there a villain, but somewhat more ambiguously so than she was in the first book, which adds interest. Once again, they don't find the good librarian, but perhaps they will in the third book, The Haunted Howl, coming in September.
If you are older than ten or so, you can skip these, but they are good ones for the target audience. These are books I'd give to any fans of the A-Z mysteries, for instance (do kids these days still read those?). The many cartoonish illustrations will help uncertain readers along, and the stories move briskly. And of course they are good gateways to all the books for older kids out there in which the characters fall into the world of stories; for instance, a nice next step might be The Island of Dr. Libris, or Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series, though the later, in particular, is a perhaps a bit of a jump in terms of number of words....
Here's what I personally appreciated--Evan and Cleo work together as equal friendly partners, and as the cover shows, Evan's a kid of color, a fact that has no bearing on the plot.
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
5/1/16
My latest batch of dragon books is up at B. and N. Kids; here's what I didn't say there
I have a very nice batch lot of current MG Dragon Books up at BN Kids blog, and it was a pleasure to read them and to recommend them.
But there are certain things I couldn't say at B.and N., partly because of space constraints, and partly because the point is to be enthusiastic about books, not share my own idiosyncrasies, and there are three things in particular that I want to share here that I didn't feel comfortable sharing there.
A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder, is the sequel to the very excellent A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans. Here's what I couldn't say--this sequel is just fine, and I enjoyed reading it. But what I loved about the first book was the two main characters, dragon and girl, figuring out their relationship. Here that relationship has been pretty much worked out, so this second book is more a string of episodic adventures, which are fine if you like episodic adventures but I like narrowly focused character relationships more (as long as the characters are interesting).
Dragons vs. Drones, by Wesley King. What I couldn't say--What the hell are they eating? I was pleased when one main character packs a granola bar in his backpack at the start of his adventures--here, I thought, is an author that knows his characters need to eat, and that middle grade and teen kids often think about eating. I was so wrong. Weeks go by before the two main characters eat again, and since they have fled a city being destroyed to take shelter in a remote dragon cave, far from any kitchen, it is hard to imagine that there would be anything for them to eat even if it occurred to them. I don't need to know the details of every meal, but when I start to imagine the main characters stoically starving to death it distracts me from the story. The granola bar is never eaten on page, either. I think if you mention a granola bar at the beginning of the book, it should be eaten by the end of it. Although God knows many a middle grade back pack has an ancient granola bar substrate.
I don't think the lack of food will bother the target audience, who in my experience are used to food magically just being always available with arm's reach (although my older son has been forced to walk down the street in the rain to buy cheerios on occasion).
The Trelian series, by Michelle Knudsen. What I couldn't say quite this enthusiastically--I reread the first two right before reading the final book that just came out, The Mage of Trelian, and oh boy was it a fine reading experience going from the beginning all the way to the end! I felt Love, untrammeled by food concerns, as -character driven adventures, which were also tense and desperate circumstance-adventures, swept me along in the story. I also happen to like magic that involves color; the mage of Trelian has a sort of magical synesthesia and so he sees different types of spells as having different colors.
But there are certain things I couldn't say at B.and N., partly because of space constraints, and partly because the point is to be enthusiastic about books, not share my own idiosyncrasies, and there are three things in particular that I want to share here that I didn't feel comfortable sharing there.
A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder, is the sequel to the very excellent A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans. Here's what I couldn't say--this sequel is just fine, and I enjoyed reading it. But what I loved about the first book was the two main characters, dragon and girl, figuring out their relationship. Here that relationship has been pretty much worked out, so this second book is more a string of episodic adventures, which are fine if you like episodic adventures but I like narrowly focused character relationships more (as long as the characters are interesting).
Dragons vs. Drones, by Wesley King. What I couldn't say--What the hell are they eating? I was pleased when one main character packs a granola bar in his backpack at the start of his adventures--here, I thought, is an author that knows his characters need to eat, and that middle grade and teen kids often think about eating. I was so wrong. Weeks go by before the two main characters eat again, and since they have fled a city being destroyed to take shelter in a remote dragon cave, far from any kitchen, it is hard to imagine that there would be anything for them to eat even if it occurred to them. I don't need to know the details of every meal, but when I start to imagine the main characters stoically starving to death it distracts me from the story. The granola bar is never eaten on page, either. I think if you mention a granola bar at the beginning of the book, it should be eaten by the end of it. Although God knows many a middle grade back pack has an ancient granola bar substrate.
I don't think the lack of food will bother the target audience, who in my experience are used to food magically just being always available with arm's reach (although my older son has been forced to walk down the street in the rain to buy cheerios on occasion).
The Trelian series, by Michelle Knudsen. What I couldn't say quite this enthusiastically--I reread the first two right before reading the final book that just came out, The Mage of Trelian, and oh boy was it a fine reading experience going from the beginning all the way to the end! I felt Love, untrammeled by food concerns, as -character driven adventures, which were also tense and desperate circumstance-adventures, swept me along in the story. I also happen to like magic that involves color; the mage of Trelian has a sort of magical synesthesia and so he sees different types of spells as having different colors.
This week's round-up of middle grade science ficiton and fantasy from around the blogs (5/1/16)
Yay, April is over. It was brutal--I had to give four talks yesterday at my office's preservation conference. It was a lovely day (and one of my talks was a boat tour, which was a treat), but Hard Work. But now that it is May I will read and review all the books and clean and repaint the house and pull up all the weeds and study French every day with my 15 year old and eat only healthy food etc. etc.
Here's what I found in my blog reading this week; let me know if I missed your post and I'll add it!
The Reviews
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: The Knights of Crystallia, by Brandon Sanderson, at Nerdophiles
A Chance Child, by Jill Paton Walsh, at Time Travel Times Two
The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders, 1) by Peter Lerrangis, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix, by Kate Saunders, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Freya and the Dragon Egg, by K.W. Penndorf, at Views from the Tesseract
The Girl Who Could Not Dream, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Finding Wonderland
Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel, by Megan Morrison, at The Quite Concert
Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic by Ursula Vernon, at Jean Little Library and Puss Reboots
Island of the Sun (Dark Gravity, Book 2) by Matthew Kirby, at Hidden in Pages
The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Log Cabin Library
The Legend of Sam Miracle (Outlaws of Time, book one), by N.D. Wilson, at Librarian of Snark
Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City, by Will Mabbitt, at Log Cabin Library
Mark of the Thief, by Jennifer Nielson, at Tales from the Raven
The Mirror's Tale, by P.W. Catanese, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
The People in the Castle, by Joan Aiken, at Tor
A Pocket Full of Murder by R. J. Anderson, at Leaf's Reviews
The Power of Dark, by Robin Jarvis, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Red: the True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtiff, at Sharon the Librarian and Librarian of Snark
The Roquefort Gang by Sandy Clifton at Semicolon
The Screaming Statue, by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester, at Middle Grade Ninja and Always in the Middle
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
Secrets of the Dragon Tomb by Patrick Samphire, at alibrarymama
Serafina and the Black Cloak, by Robert Beatty, at Mister K Reads
Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan, at No BS Book Reviews
Sword in the Stacks (Ninja Librarians Book 2), by Jen Swann Downey, at ALA's Intellectual Freedom Blog
Surviving the Improbable Quest, by Anderson Atlas, at Readioactive Books
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Authors and Interviews
Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester (The Screaming Statue) at Middle Grade Ninja, interview with Andrew the Alligator Boy at Middle Grade Ninja and interview with Sam at Always in the Middle
4/28/16
The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater
So then The Raven King (Scholastic, April 26, 2016) arrived in the mail, brightening my day and filling the next few evenings, and I can't say much about the specifics of the story because that would be unfair to anyone who hasn't read the books (because you should read the books!).
But I can say a few things--
1. if you have time to refresh your memory with a re-read, that would be good. It took me a while to get back in the swing of things and remember who all the secondary characters were, and all the very many bits of story that happened (I found myself thinking of Bruegel a lot as I started reading--it's a very dense landscape, that requires immersion and attentiveness to full enjoy).
2. The best part of the books has always been the friendship, a friendship as deep as love, between the main characters. This part got even better. A new Raven boy has joined in, Henry, who you may remember from the last book....and he's great and interesting in his own right (there are more tremendously attractive and intelligent and truly individual boys in this series than any other I can think of, and really this is the only thing that keeps me from pressing the books into the hands of my own target audience, because these boys are so charismatic it's hard for real ones to measure up) and, unlike all the other main characters, Henry the new kid isn't white (Korean mother, father from Hong Kong). So it's nice there's diversity. (There's also an LGBT bit thrown into the larger mix here).
3. How, I wondered for the past few years, will Maggie Steifvater wrap everything up without a cataclysm in a way that is satisfying? Especially now that she has unleased a demon who is destroying the magical forest of Cabeswater. She does (except for one thing I'm not sure about (highlight to see)--what happened to Noah?)
So basically, if you like twisty, mythology-rooted, magic impinging on reality, character-driven fantasy, read these books if you haven't already!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher in the sort of package in the mail form that makes blogging worthwhile!
4/24/16
This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (4/24/16)
Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction gather in my blog reading! Please let me know if I missed your post.
The Reviews
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: The Scriveners Bones, by Brandon Sanderson, at Nerdophiles
Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey, at Leaf's Reviews
The Eye of Midnight, by Andrew Brumbach, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X. by Frank Beddor and Adrienne Kress, at Ms. Yingling Reads
The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Cracking the Cover
The Girl of Ink & Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Pages Unbound
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots
Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar, at Randomly Reading
Hunters of Chaos, by Crystal Velasquez, at Puss Reboots
Infestation, by Timothy J. Bradley, at Jean Little Library
The Inquisitor's Mark, by Dianne Salerni, at Tales From the Raven
Jurassic Classics: The Prehistoric Masters of Literature by Saskia Lacey, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Life With the Tribe
Key Hunters, books 1 and 2, by Eric Luper, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Monstrous, by MarcyKate Connolly, at Book Yabber
The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht, at Mom Read It
Pilfer Academy, by Lauren Magaziner, at Middle Grade Marioso (not sure it's fantasy, but it sure is improbable in real life!)
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at BN Kids Blog
Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs, at BN Kids Blog
Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at Charlotte's Library, BN Kids Blog, and Sense and Sensibility and Stories
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riodan, at Leaf's Reviews
Thursdays With the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature
The Tournament at Gorlan, by John Fanagan, at Log Cabin Library
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile
Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature
Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, by Raymond Arroyo, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
Authors and Interviews
Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester (The Screaming Statue) at This Kid Reviews Books and Literary Rambles
Brian Farrey The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse. at From The Mixed Up Files
Ted Sanders The Keepers: The Harp and the Ravenvine at The Children's Book Review
Liesl Shurtliff (Red: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood) at The Hiding Spot
Rick Riordan at The Guardian, and talking specifically about writing as Apollo in The Hidden Oracle at the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog
Other Good Stuff
Fairy Tale chapter book chat at School Library Journal
"Guess the dragon in children's literature" quiz at the Guardian
Thought on history and memory in the works of Diana Wynne Jones at The Book Wars
A list of "top ten middle grade fantasies that made me laugh out loud" at alibrarymama
and finally, NASA continues to be utterly cool with this new series of travel destination posters, incuding one for our very own planet "where the air is free and breathing is easy" (I meant to post this link last week, but it is even better for this Earth Day week)
The Reviews
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: The Scriveners Bones, by Brandon Sanderson, at Nerdophiles
Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey, at Leaf's Reviews
The Eye of Midnight, by Andrew Brumbach, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X. by Frank Beddor and Adrienne Kress, at Ms. Yingling Reads
The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Cracking the Cover
The Girl of Ink & Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Pages Unbound
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots
Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar, at Randomly Reading
Hunters of Chaos, by Crystal Velasquez, at Puss Reboots
Infestation, by Timothy J. Bradley, at Jean Little Library
The Inquisitor's Mark, by Dianne Salerni, at Tales From the Raven
Jurassic Classics: The Prehistoric Masters of Literature by Saskia Lacey, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Life With the Tribe
Key Hunters, books 1 and 2, by Eric Luper, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Monstrous, by MarcyKate Connolly, at Book Yabber
The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht, at Mom Read It
Pilfer Academy, by Lauren Magaziner, at Middle Grade Marioso (not sure it's fantasy, but it sure is improbable in real life!)
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at BN Kids Blog
Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs, at BN Kids Blog
Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at Charlotte's Library, BN Kids Blog, and Sense and Sensibility and Stories
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riodan, at Leaf's Reviews
Thursdays With the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature
The Tournament at Gorlan, by John Fanagan, at Log Cabin Library
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile
Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature
Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, by Raymond Arroyo, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
Authors and Interviews
Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester (The Screaming Statue) at This Kid Reviews Books and Literary Rambles
Brian Farrey The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse. at From The Mixed Up Files
Ted Sanders The Keepers: The Harp and the Ravenvine at The Children's Book Review
Liesl Shurtliff (Red: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood) at The Hiding Spot
Rick Riordan at The Guardian, and talking specifically about writing as Apollo in The Hidden Oracle at the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog
Other Good Stuff
Fairy Tale chapter book chat at School Library Journal
"Guess the dragon in children's literature" quiz at the Guardian
Thought on history and memory in the works of Diana Wynne Jones at The Book Wars
A list of "top ten middle grade fantasies that made me laugh out loud" at alibrarymama
and finally, NASA continues to be utterly cool with this new series of travel destination posters, incuding one for our very own planet "where the air is free and breathing is easy" (I meant to post this link last week, but it is even better for this Earth Day week)
Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier
Sophie is a book mender, working in her father's book shelf carefully and skillfully repairing books, a trade her murdered mother had taught her. But the town she lives in has been overtaken by a movement led by Inquisitor Prigg to purge nonsense from daily life--and nonsense means all magic, and all books, because books of course are full of a magic of their own. When Sophie is arrested for saving some books from the to-be-burned pile, she is saved by two unlikely heroes--Peter Nimble himself, and his friend Sir Tode (a knight transformed into a hooved catlike creature). Peter Nimble is not there by chance. He has come to deliver a very special book to Sophie, the Book of Who. It is on of four magical books, each with their extraordinary ability to answer their own question--Who, What, When and Why. Each book had a storyguard to keep it safe, and now Sophie finds herself the storyguard of the Book of Who.
Then she finds herself running for her life as she and Peter (and Sir Tode) set out to try to find the other three books, before Inquisitor Prigg, and other enemies as well, can get their hands on them! The dangerous excitements of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes are here as well, and there is one hair raising adventure after another. But there's more depth of character to Sophie's story. Peter, for instance, finally shows weakness and self-doubt, making him more human and relatable. His blindness is still magically compensated for, but the loss of his hand becomes a genuine handicap. And Sophie herself is a fine character, one such as any book loving girl can relate to. On the plus side, she is also a kid of color, a brown-skinned girl (like her foreign mother) in a world of white faces.
It's not just an adventure, but a testimony to the power of stories. And though there's still a bit too much of the adventurous shenanigans for my own very personal taste, it's a fine read, and Auxier's any fans should enjoy it very much indeed.
(by way of warning for sensitive younger readers--some of the adventures and characters are rather horrible--for instance, one character's mouth is sewed shut--memorable, and not gratuitous, but disturbing. Lots of people and animals die. Not all books are saved....)
disclaimer: review copy received at ALA.
4/22/16
The Mechanical Mind of John Croggin, by Elinor Teele--blog tour
This is a great book to offer kids who are fans of quirky characters caught in tensely amusing situations! John Croggin is basically a slave to his aunt who runs the family coffin making business with an iron hand, and who plans to rope his little sister Page in as well. His mechanically oriented mind has dreams that reach far beyond coffins. So one day, when the opportunity comes in the form of a travelling circus, he and Page escape. The circus offers only a temporary shelter, but a kindly baker offers hope of a more permanent home, until John comes up with a scheme for a chicken-poo powered oven that goes horribly wrong and they must take to the road once more....still hunted by their evil aunt!
Today for my blog tour stop Elinor Teele has provided a Q and A with Maria Persimmons, the kindly baker. Thanks Elinor! She's my favorite character.
The owner of the Rise
and Shine Bakery, Maria Persimmons is a plump and generous woman who smells – I
swear on my honor – exactly like cinnamon. For this interview, I met her after
the breakfast rush in her kitchen.
Q. It’s very good of
you to spare me some time.
A. Come in, come in! Come and be welcome! Oh, did I get
flour on your fingers? And your suit? And up your nose? I’m so sorry. I seem to
wear gluten like a badge of honor. Here, have a chocolate chip cookie.
Q. Thank you. Holy
mother of… these are delicious!
A. Special recipe. A little trick or two that I learned from
my Dad.
Q. Does your father still
help with the business?
A. No, I’m afraid he’s passed away. But he was an engineer
by trade, just like my friend John. He loved everything to do with cogs and
gears and steam and fire. I still have the boat that he made for my bath. It
blows bubbles while it turns dirty scum into building blocks.
Q. He sounds like a
wonderful man.
A. Oh, he was. Quiet and kind. He was the one who encouraged
me to start my own business.
At this juncture,
Maria asked if we might continue the interview outside in the chicken coop. She
needed to collect eggs from her prize-winning Henrietta hens.
Q. Did you find baking
difficult at the beginning?
A. Of course! Everyone does. Here, would you hold this
basket for me? John and Page usually help, but they’re tinkering with a
top-secret project.
Baking is like writing a book – you don’t know what works until
you’ve tried it. I spent years experimenting with weird recipes and techniques.
And most of my first creations were terrible. Dense, dull, overworked and underproofed. My attempts at
cumin coriander custard went straight into the bin. It took me ten or more
years to get a simple brown loaf right.
Q. But you’re better
now?
A. Perhaps, a little. But I’m still mucking up every day.
Please ignore Griselda’s expression. She always looks that
way when someone is sticking a hand under her bum.
Q. You don’t mind
mucking up?
A. Oh, I mind! Especially when my customers tell me things
taste dreadful. I hate creating work people find disgusting. I wouldn’t be
human if I didn’t mind.
Q. Yet you still keep
at it.
A. Because I love it. I love the moment when you open the
oven door, and the room fills with memory, and you think to yourself: “today, I
might have got it right.” I don’t think I’ll ever be a famous chef, but I hope
to be a respectable baker.
Thanks Elinor!
And thanks Walden for the review copy. Just as a final note, Walden's prepared an Educational Activity Kit for parents and teachers that looks very helpful and interesting in a science meeting writing way, and which does not offer instructions for how to build your own chicken poo oven!
And thanks Walden for the review copy. Just as a final note, Walden's prepared an Educational Activity Kit for parents and teachers that looks very helpful and interesting in a science meeting writing way, and which does not offer instructions for how to build your own chicken poo oven!
4/17/16
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/17/16)
Nothing from me this week--work and other life sucked me dry...but here's what other people posted! (let me know if I missed yours).
The Reviews
The Adventures of Lettie Peppercorn by Sam Gayton, at Pages Unbound
The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards, at Leaf's Reviews
The Books of Ore series, by Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz , at Geo Librarian
Castle Hangail, and other Ursula Vernon appreciations, at Dead Houseplants
Charmed by Jen Calonita, at Cover2CoverBlog
Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth , at Books Beside My Bed
Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver, at Teen Librarian Toolbox
The Dragon Whistler, by Kimberly J. Smith, at Always in the Middle
The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
The Enchanted Egg (Magical Animal Adoption Agency 2) by Kallie George, at Jean Little Library and Jen Robinson's Book Page
The Genius Factor: How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, at Sharon the Librarian
Half Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Tales From the Raven
The Legend of Sam Miracle, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophle
Lilliput, by Sam Gayton, at Jenni Enzor
My Diary from the Edge of the World, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, at That's Another Story
Once Upon the End, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Children's Book Review
The Palace of Glass, by Django Wexler, at The BibloSanctum
Perijee & Me by Ross Montgomery, at The Book Zone (for boys)
Red, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Pages Unbound
Rise of the Wolf (Mark of the Thief #2) by Jennifer A. Nielsen, at Log Cabin Library
Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
Wing and Claw, by Linda Sue Park, at Book Page
Three at School Library Journal-- The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez, by Robin Yardi, The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, and The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox.
Authors and Interviews
Linday Eagar (Hour of the Bees) at Literary Rambles
Django Wexler (the Forbidden Library series) shares a few of his favorite libraries at Nerdy Book Club
Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at Laurisa White Reyes
Lauren Oliver, with Max the Knife Thrower (Curiosity House series) at Kid Lit Reviews, and with H.C. Chester, at Read Now Sleep Later
Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz (The Books of Ore) at Novel Novice
Other Good Stuff
At the Guardian, Jackie Morris shares her selkie drawing process for her newest book
At alibrarymama, Katy shares her top 12 middle grade fantasies for diverse readers
The Reviews
The Adventures of Lettie Peppercorn by Sam Gayton, at Pages Unbound
The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards, at Leaf's Reviews
The Books of Ore series, by Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz , at Geo Librarian
Castle Hangail, and other Ursula Vernon appreciations, at Dead Houseplants
Charmed by Jen Calonita, at Cover2CoverBlog
Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth , at Books Beside My Bed
Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver, at Teen Librarian Toolbox
The Dragon Whistler, by Kimberly J. Smith, at Always in the Middle
The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow
The Enchanted Egg (Magical Animal Adoption Agency 2) by Kallie George, at Jean Little Library and Jen Robinson's Book Page
The Genius Factor: How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, at Sharon the Librarian
Half Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Tales From the Raven
The Legend of Sam Miracle, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophle
Lilliput, by Sam Gayton, at Jenni Enzor
My Diary from the Edge of the World, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, at That's Another Story
Once Upon the End, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Children's Book Review
The Palace of Glass, by Django Wexler, at The BibloSanctum
Perijee & Me by Ross Montgomery, at The Book Zone (for boys)
Red, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Pages Unbound
Rise of the Wolf (Mark of the Thief #2) by Jennifer A. Nielsen, at Log Cabin Library
Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
Wing and Claw, by Linda Sue Park, at Book Page
Three at School Library Journal-- The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez, by Robin Yardi, The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, and The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox.
Authors and Interviews
Linday Eagar (Hour of the Bees) at Literary Rambles
Django Wexler (the Forbidden Library series) shares a few of his favorite libraries at Nerdy Book Club
Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at Laurisa White Reyes
Lauren Oliver, with Max the Knife Thrower (Curiosity House series) at Kid Lit Reviews, and with H.C. Chester, at Read Now Sleep Later
Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz (The Books of Ore) at Novel Novice
Other Good Stuff
At the Guardian, Jackie Morris shares her selkie drawing process for her newest book
At alibrarymama, Katy shares her top 12 middle grade fantasies for diverse readers
4/10/16
This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (4/10/16)
Here's what I gathered this week; please let me know if I missed your post.
The Reviews
The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden, by Emma Trevayne, at Geo Librarian
Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson, at Log Cabin Library
Calling on Dragons, by Patricia Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
The Caretaker's Guide to Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, at Sharon the Librarian
Charmed, by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian
A Colouring Book of Hours: Castle, by Marcia Overstrand and Angie Sage, at Read Till Dawn
Cuckoo Song by France Hardinge, at Leaf's Reviews
The Firefly Code, by Magen Frazer Blakemore, at Jen Robinson's Book Page
The Gallery of Wonders, by Marc Remus, at The Children's Book Review
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Tales of the Marvelous and SF Bluestocking
Hour of the Bees by Linsday Eagar, at Next Best Book
The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth (series review) at Charlotte's Library
The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Cracking the Cover
The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Kitty Cat at the Library
The Mage of Trelian, by Michelle Knudsen, at Read Till Dawn
Magrit, by Lee Battersby, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Good Books and Good Wine, For the Love of Words, and Mother Daughter Book Club
The Paladin Prophecy, by Mark Frost, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, at Always in the Middle
The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Jean Little Library
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
Time Travelling With A Hamster, by Ross Welford, at Bart's Bookshelf
The Treehouse series, by Andy Griffiths, a post by me at Barnes and Noble Kids Blog
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at the New York Times
The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Bibliobrit
The Reviews
The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden, by Emma Trevayne, at Geo Librarian
Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson, at Log Cabin Library
Calling on Dragons, by Patricia Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
The Caretaker's Guide to Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, at Sharon the Librarian
Charmed, by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian
A Colouring Book of Hours: Castle, by Marcia Overstrand and Angie Sage, at Read Till Dawn
Cuckoo Song by France Hardinge, at Leaf's Reviews
The Firefly Code, by Magen Frazer Blakemore, at Jen Robinson's Book Page
The Gallery of Wonders, by Marc Remus, at The Children's Book Review
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Tales of the Marvelous and SF Bluestocking
Hour of the Bees by Linsday Eagar, at Next Best Book
The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth (series review) at Charlotte's Library
The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Cracking the Cover
The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Kitty Cat at the Library
The Mage of Trelian, by Michelle Knudsen, at Read Till Dawn
Magrit, by Lee Battersby, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Good Books and Good Wine, For the Love of Words, and Mother Daughter Book Club
The Paladin Prophecy, by Mark Frost, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, at Always in the Middle
The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Jean Little Library
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
Time Travelling With A Hamster, by Ross Welford, at Bart's Bookshelf
The Treehouse series, by Andy Griffiths, a post by me at Barnes and Noble Kids Blog
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at the New York Times
The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Bibliobrit
Authors and Interviews
Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at The Book Cellar, Cracking the Cover, Good Books and Good Wine
John Claude Bemis (The Wooden Prince) at Tales From the Raven
Jonathan Auxier (Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard) at Nerdy Book Club
Peter Brown (The Wild Robot) at Barnes and Noble Kids
Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at The Book Cellar, Cracking the Cover, Good Books and Good Wine
John Claude Bemis (The Wooden Prince) at Tales From the Raven
Jonathan Auxier (Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard) at Nerdy Book Club
Peter Brown (The Wild Robot) at Barnes and Noble Kids
4/7/16
The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth (series review)
The five books that make up The Impossible Quest series, by Austrailian author Kate Forsyth, are absolutly spot on for the eight or nine year old who loves fantasy, but who isn't quite ready for the middle grade big league--the sort of kid whose a really strong and eager reader, but not emotionally ready for truly harrowing violence or romance or, heaven forbid, cute little animals who die. I don't often wish my now 12 year old was a 9 year old again, but after reading the books myself I did so wish I could send them back in time a few years for his third or fourth grade reading pleasure!
The story is fairly standard stuff--four kids (two boys, two girls) thrown together as unlikely allies when their homeland is invaded. They are a young knight in training, the son of the castle cook, the witch's apprentice, and the daughter of the manor, and they have no clue what they are going to do about defeating their enemies. They do, however, have a riddling prophesy to guide them on what seems at first to be an impossible quest...and so they set out on a journey that ends up making the impossible into reality.
Four mythical animals must be found--unicorn, gryphon, dragon, and sea serpent. One is introduced in each book, and forms a special bond with one of the kids, and I think this aspect of the book in particular has just tons and tons of kid appeal. Each of the kids also has a magical item that they have to figure out how use properly, and each has special strengths that they bring to the group. As dangers are overcome in each book, the kids are forced to make out of their four conflicting personalities and backgrounds a cohesive fighting force. And they actually come to genuinely like and care for each other, putting aside various preconceptions and old grudges. The characters are each given turns as the primary point of view, which helps make each one unique and compelling; the adventure never overshadows the personalities, and worries, and hopes of the adventurers.
The adventures themselves are a fine introduction to fantasy questing, and Kate Forsyth does a very fine job at vivid descriptions. The drowned city full of writhing sea serpents, for instance, was more than a bit memorable. It is not a sweetness and light fantasy for the young, but it is written for young readers--there are things that are horrible (like the army of bog men, reanimated victims of past sacrifice), but the horror is not delved into so deeply or emotionally that it is distressing.
In short, though this series doesn't add much in the way of diversity to the upper elementary fantasy available, and doesn't break wildly imaginative new ground, it is does fill a niche for younger readers wanting epic adventures. The books would also be fine for older middle grade kids who like fantasy but who aren't the strongest, most committed readers-- the short chapters, short overall length, and fairly rapid fire adventures will make the pages turn.
The books were released in Australia two years ago, and are now being published here in the US all at once by Kane Miller (which is very nice indeed from a parent's point of view, because if your kid likes book 1, you can trot out books 2-5 without waiting for ages between books!)
The books in the series are:
Escape from Wolfhaven Castle
Wolves of the Witchwood
The Beast of Blackmoor Bog
The Drowned Kingdom
Battle of the Heroes
(you won't find the US editions for sale on Amazon, as Kane Miller is a strong supporter of indie bookstores. The links above go to Barnes and Noble; you can also get them through your independent bookstore in June).
disclaimer: review copies recieved from the publisher
The story is fairly standard stuff--four kids (two boys, two girls) thrown together as unlikely allies when their homeland is invaded. They are a young knight in training, the son of the castle cook, the witch's apprentice, and the daughter of the manor, and they have no clue what they are going to do about defeating their enemies. They do, however, have a riddling prophesy to guide them on what seems at first to be an impossible quest...and so they set out on a journey that ends up making the impossible into reality.
Four mythical animals must be found--unicorn, gryphon, dragon, and sea serpent. One is introduced in each book, and forms a special bond with one of the kids, and I think this aspect of the book in particular has just tons and tons of kid appeal. Each of the kids also has a magical item that they have to figure out how use properly, and each has special strengths that they bring to the group. As dangers are overcome in each book, the kids are forced to make out of their four conflicting personalities and backgrounds a cohesive fighting force. And they actually come to genuinely like and care for each other, putting aside various preconceptions and old grudges. The characters are each given turns as the primary point of view, which helps make each one unique and compelling; the adventure never overshadows the personalities, and worries, and hopes of the adventurers.
The adventures themselves are a fine introduction to fantasy questing, and Kate Forsyth does a very fine job at vivid descriptions. The drowned city full of writhing sea serpents, for instance, was more than a bit memorable. It is not a sweetness and light fantasy for the young, but it is written for young readers--there are things that are horrible (like the army of bog men, reanimated victims of past sacrifice), but the horror is not delved into so deeply or emotionally that it is distressing.
In short, though this series doesn't add much in the way of diversity to the upper elementary fantasy available, and doesn't break wildly imaginative new ground, it is does fill a niche for younger readers wanting epic adventures. The books would also be fine for older middle grade kids who like fantasy but who aren't the strongest, most committed readers-- the short chapters, short overall length, and fairly rapid fire adventures will make the pages turn.
The books were released in Australia two years ago, and are now being published here in the US all at once by Kane Miller (which is very nice indeed from a parent's point of view, because if your kid likes book 1, you can trot out books 2-5 without waiting for ages between books!)
The books in the series are:
Escape from Wolfhaven Castle
Wolves of the Witchwood
The Beast of Blackmoor Bog
The Drowned Kingdom
Battle of the Heroes
(you won't find the US editions for sale on Amazon, as Kane Miller is a strong supporter of indie bookstores. The links above go to Barnes and Noble; you can also get them through your independent bookstore in June).
disclaimer: review copies recieved from the publisher
4/6/16
Lizard Radio, by Pat Schmatz
Just by way of quick intro--it is almost our world, but with a dystopian fascist overlay, different slang, different drugs, and a nasty way of tucking all non-conforming people (political agitators, criminals, gay and gender ambiguous people) away forever in a prison city of their own.
Kivali was just a little baby, wearing a t-shirt with a lizard picture on it, when she was found by Sheila. Sheila, being unpartnered, had to fight to keep the baby as her foster child, but she succeeded, and then raised her with the story that she is a little lizard child, dropped on earth by suarians, and though this wasn't Sheila's intention, Kivali has ended up believing this, and feels more lizard than human, listening to "lizard radio" when meditating. In large part this is possible because Kivali is a "bender," with a gender score just barely tilted toward female, and she doesn't do human socialization very well (I found myself think of her as being on the autism spectrum, though this isn't explicit).
In Kivali's world, teens have to go to Crop Camps to get their hands dirty and to get indoctrinated before they can be Integrated into proper society. Failing out of Crop Camp more than once means being stuck in the prison city. And as the book begins, Sheila is making Kivali go and get it over with.
Crop Camp is sort of like a religious youth group (lots of emphasis on everyone joining together to find the One) meeting agricultural work camp, and the heavy emphasis on community and belong is made more palatable for people like Kivali by the drugs the campers are given every evening. For the first time, Kivali has friends, and is accepted, and nicknamed, in a friendly way, Lizard. She finds passion for the first time in the kiss of a bright shinning fellow camper girl. And she feels that she has stepped out of her lizard skin, and is actually a person.
But the ruler of Crop Camp wants to manipulate and control the kids, and freedom of thought is not tolerated. Campers disappear. Those who aren't conforming are confined. Lizard cannot stay, but where can she go? And how can she leave her friends? What is a young lizard, who wants to be loved, to do? For Lizard is still a little lizard, trying, as she herself puts it, to get her tail out from under the boot of the camp director. Her answers come from her recognition that she doesn't have to choose between binary opposites, but can instead find power in being both and neither....
So the vibe I got from this reminded me somewhat of The Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow--the kids forced together under adult control, with threats keeping them corralled, and a protagonist who hasn't been in the habit of reaching out to other people. This one, though, is an almost totally character driven spec fic story; the world around Lizard is bad and difficult, but the point is how she as an individual is going to make it through. Lizard is a brave and hurting and seeking protagonist, one to be held in the heart of the reader. And though there's no firm ending, there's a bit of hope she'll find hope, somewhere. Not a book if you want dramatic action with bombs and stuff, but more a book if you want a person trying to be a good lizard, or good person, in difficult and painful circumstances occasioned by a tangly plot full of mysteries.
4/3/16
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (4/3/16)
Here's this week's round-up; please let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
Ambassador, and its sequel, Nomad, by William Alexander, at Dead Houesplants
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots
Chase Tinker and the House of Mist, by Malia Ann Haberman, at This Kid Reviews Books
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at The Children's War
Cuckoo Song, by Frances Hardinge, at The Cover Wars
Fridays With the Wizards, by Jessica Day George, at Read Till Dawn
Grounded, by Megan Morrison, at The Daily Prophecy
The Night Parade, by Kathryn Tanquary, at Randomly Reading
Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels and Tales from the Raven
Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater, at Next Best Book
Rules for Stealing Stars, by Corey Ann Haydu, at Children's Books Heal
Searching for Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson, at Fantasy Literature
Secrets of the Ancient Gods: Thor Speaks, by Vicky Alvear Shecter, at Jean Little Library
Secrets of Valhalla, by Jasmine Richards, at Views from the Tesseract
Under Plum Lake, by Lionel Davidson, at Views from the Tesseract
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Not Acting My Age
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at The Book Smugglers
The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, at Fantasy Literature
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Final Kingdom, by Michael Northrup, and The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder
Authors and Interviews
Jaleigh Johnson (Secrets of Solace) at The Hiding Spot
Other Good Stuff
A Tueday 10 of sci fi gateway books (the fifth post in a series) at Views from the Tesseract
A horse-lovers guide to The Blue Sword, at Tor
The Reviews
Ambassador, and its sequel, Nomad, by William Alexander, at Dead Houesplants
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots
Chase Tinker and the House of Mist, by Malia Ann Haberman, at This Kid Reviews Books
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at The Children's War
Cuckoo Song, by Frances Hardinge, at The Cover Wars
Fridays With the Wizards, by Jessica Day George, at Read Till Dawn
Grounded, by Megan Morrison, at The Daily Prophecy
The Night Parade, by Kathryn Tanquary, at Randomly Reading
Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels and Tales from the Raven
Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater, at Next Best Book
Rules for Stealing Stars, by Corey Ann Haydu, at Children's Books Heal
Searching for Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews
The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson, at Fantasy Literature
Secrets of the Ancient Gods: Thor Speaks, by Vicky Alvear Shecter, at Jean Little Library
Secrets of Valhalla, by Jasmine Richards, at Views from the Tesseract
Under Plum Lake, by Lionel Davidson, at Views from the Tesseract
Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Not Acting My Age
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at The Book Smugglers
The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, at Fantasy Literature
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Final Kingdom, by Michael Northrup, and The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder
Authors and Interviews
Jaleigh Johnson (Secrets of Solace) at The Hiding Spot
Other Good Stuff
A Tueday 10 of sci fi gateway books (the fifth post in a series) at Views from the Tesseract
A horse-lovers guide to The Blue Sword, at Tor
4/2/16
When is a small thing big enough to make you walk away from a book?
There are lots of valid reasons not to finish a book. There are big ones, like when a book is offensive to your beliefs, or has opinions and perpetuates stereotypes that you find toxic. There are practical ones, like the book falling behind a bookshelf and you feeling too weak to move all the books so you can move the shelf and rescue it, or it falling behind the radiator of a little used room causing you to wander the house sadly and hopeless not finding it. And then there are the very small reasons, that make you wonder if should keep giving the book a chance, even though you know it will probably not work out well.
For instance, I have just put down a book at the start of the third chapter for the following small reason--
A character is sitting under an old, dying oak tree, and he remembers how he used to climb it as a boy (me--wonders if climbing oak trees is something that other people are able to do, because they haven't, in my experience, struck me as climbable, but I'm willing to give the character the benefit of the doubt, especially because I just looked at pictures of oak trees and found one even I could climb, shown at right), but then he remembers eating its fruit (and he's not thinking about acorns!).
This might be a deal breaker for me. It seems to me that the author wasn't really thinking of her tree as an oak tree after all. And if the author can't keep a tree straight, and if the copy editor didn't catch it, what other inconsistences and wrong details will there be in the rest of the book? I can no longer trust the author to smoothly deliver quality world building, and I am not inclined to keep going.
And if the species of tree doesn't matter, why is the author bothering to put it in? If Megan Whalen Turner, for instance, has a character thinking about an oak tree, I can be sure that there is a point to its oak tree-ness; maybe, I might think, it is a reference to an oak tree/character relationship in a Rosemary Sutcliff book. Maybe she is alluding to Philip of Macedon's oak tree diadem. Maybe there will more oak tree metaphorical-ness further along in the book. These things are fun to think about, but are only possible when you trust the author to build the book world with care and attention.
If the oak tree really seems meant to have been an apple tree, I'm not sure it's worth going on.
Am I being too picky? The book was ok otherwise; not great, but reasonably interesting....
For instance, I have just put down a book at the start of the third chapter for the following small reason--
This might be a deal breaker for me. It seems to me that the author wasn't really thinking of her tree as an oak tree after all. And if the author can't keep a tree straight, and if the copy editor didn't catch it, what other inconsistences and wrong details will there be in the rest of the book? I can no longer trust the author to smoothly deliver quality world building, and I am not inclined to keep going.
If the oak tree really seems meant to have been an apple tree, I'm not sure it's worth going on.
Am I being too picky? The book was ok otherwise; not great, but reasonably interesting....
3/31/16
The Wild Swans, by Jackie Morris
(And of course I meant to write about last fall when I read it for the first time, but didn't...and it surfaced yesterday when I was tiding up Book Pile #34 (the books on top of the DVD/CD shelf) and so here it is now....)
So this is the story of the princess (named Eliza) whose bothers (11 of them in this case) get turned into swans by their evil stepmother, and she has to spin shirts of nettles for them, all the while not saying a word, to turn them back. And a prince falls in love with her, and takes her back to his castle, where she ends up being accused of witchcraft, but can't defend herself (because of the no talking rule) and just as she's about to be burned alive her swan brothers come and she throws the shirts over them. And one is unfinished, leaving a brother still with a swan wing...
All this is here in Morris' retelling, but with a lovely detailed richness that a good-lengthed book (173 pages) and lovely pictures can afford that an anthologized 10 page version can't. Morris adds two things of her own to the story, that I appreciated very much. The stepmother does a Bad Thing, but she has reasons that make sense and are emotionally convincing--not just greed or ambition for her own kids but reasons that come from her relationship with the king, and her past before she became queen. And it's not just the prince falling in love with Eliza, but her falling in love with him too, not just because he's a pretty face but because he gives her space to do what she needs to do.
It's a lovely book, beautifully produced, with exquisite illustrations, and if you like fairy tale retellings, go for it! And now I get to go upstairs and put it neatly on the shelf of fairy tales where I will look fondly on it and Book Pile #34 has one less book in it yay me!
edited to add--Thwarted! The fairy tale shelves are full with books sidewise on top and so I will have to expand fairy tales onto the shelf above them which means lot of rearranging. Nothing is as easy as it seems it should be...
3/29/16
The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig, for Timeslip Tuesday
A map that promises it is off Hawaii at the right time takes them there...but several years too late for Nix's mother. What follows is a lot of Nix appreciating Hawaii, intermingled with wondering what the point of her life is (I too wondered) and just getting started wondering if she likes Kashmir (a shipmate from the Persia of the Arabian Nights) more than just as a friend (I wondered about this too--it seemed a lot more like a case of proximity than romance). Alongside this is a heist plot (Nix's father makes a deal to steal all the money from the royal treasury, undermining the monarchy, in exchange for another map that really does seem to be the one that will reunite him with his lost love).
None of this is really all that interesting, primarily because I did not find Nix to be an interesting, thoughtful, person. And not much was actually Happening either in terms of plot development or character development. For instance, another possible love interest for Nix is thrown into the mix, but it is more a convinent happenstance than a gripping drama. On the other hand, the book showcases Hawaii's natural beauty, with bonus bits of mythology and history; on the other other hand, that isn't really what I wanted from a ship bearing mythological treasures sailing through time from map to map.
Things pick up dramatically toward the end, with a visit to the Emperor Qin's tomb (the little pearl eating sea dragon who seemed just a random add on gets to be part of the action). There are twisty revelations revealed that make the whole story more interesting, and the heist goes very wrong in interesting ways. The last fifty pages or so were very good reading! But they came too late to redeem the book as a whole for me.
Small thoughts-- I thought it was great that the crew included lesbian cattle herders from Africa, and I enjoyed the brief bits of page time they got. Kashmir, the Persian love interest and handy thief, got on my nerves because he was pretty one note (or two--love interest + thief). He was clearly suffering from the hots for Nix pretty badly but never demonstrated any depth of personality. (Also I had trouble buying "Kashmir" as a Persian name, but maybe it's more plausible than I found it to be).
Final thought--although I myself was not engaged by this one, lots of people were. Kirkus, for instance, said "it’s a skillful mashup of science fiction and eclectic mythology, enlivened by vivid sensory detail and moments of emotional and philosophical depth that briefly resonate before dissolving into the next swashbuckling adventure.
A nonstop time-travel romp."
Kirkus clearly got more romping out of it than I did. Oh well. At least I romped in the last action filled part of the book (I really did like the visit to Emperor Qin's necropolis).
Here's another review, at the Book Smugglers.
3/27/16
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/27/16)
Welcome to this week's round-up, and happy Easter to all who are celebrating.
Clearly eggs were bigger back in the 19th century; perhaps there were a few Gastornises still kicking around England, which would explain a lot (?)
The Reviews
The 39-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, at Sharon the Librarian
The After-Room by Maile Meloy, at Read Till Dawn
Audie the Angel & The Afterworld (The Angel Archives Volume Three), by Erika Kathryn, at This Kid Reviews Books
Beyond the Kingdoms, by Chris Colfer, at Reading Violet
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Library
Confessions of an Imaginary Friend, by Michelle Cuevas, at The Children's Book Review
The Copper Gauntlet, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Leaf's Reviews
A Curious Tale of the In-Between, by Lauren DeStefano, at The Children's Book Review
Disney Lands by Ridley Pearson, at Carstairs Considers
Eden's Wish, by M. Tara Crowl, at Word Spelunking
The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Golden Mane by SJB Gilmour, at The Write Path
Hour of the Bees, by Linday Eagar, at So Many Books, So Little Time, Becky's Book Reviews, Book Nut, and Charlotte's Library
How to Catch an Invisible Cat, by Paul Tobin, at This Kid Reviews Books
The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Me On Books and Great Imaginations
The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Next Best Book
The Last Kids on Earth, by Max Braillier, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Masterminds, by Gordon Korman, at That's Another Story
Neverseen, by Shannon Messenger, at A Reader of Fictions
Of Mice and Magic (Harriet Hamster Princess book 2), by Ursula Vernon, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Reading Nook Reviews
The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Kitty Cat at the Library
Secrets of Bearhaven, by K.E. Rocha, at Ms.Yingling Reads
Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, by Patrick Samphire, at Geo Librarian
The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson, at books4yourkids
Twice Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones (Mabel Jones #1), by Will Mabbitt, at Word Spelunking
Witherwood Reform School, by Obert Skye, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads: Fortune Falls, by Jenny Goebel, and The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen
Authors and Interviews
Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon et al.) at The Guardian
Janet Fox at Middle Grade Mafioso and Pop Goes the Reader
Other Good Stuff
Here's a lovely post on House Spirits at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
The Aurealis Awards have been announced; here's the Children's list:
Best Children’s Fiction
The Reviews
The 39-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, at Sharon the Librarian
The After-Room by Maile Meloy, at Read Till Dawn
Audie the Angel & The Afterworld (The Angel Archives Volume Three), by Erika Kathryn, at This Kid Reviews Books
Beyond the Kingdoms, by Chris Colfer, at Reading Violet
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Library
Confessions of an Imaginary Friend, by Michelle Cuevas, at The Children's Book Review
The Copper Gauntlet, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Leaf's Reviews
A Curious Tale of the In-Between, by Lauren DeStefano, at The Children's Book Review
Disney Lands by Ridley Pearson, at Carstairs Considers
Eden's Wish, by M. Tara Crowl, at Word Spelunking
The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Golden Mane by SJB Gilmour, at The Write Path
Hour of the Bees, by Linday Eagar, at So Many Books, So Little Time, Becky's Book Reviews, Book Nut, and Charlotte's Library
How to Catch an Invisible Cat, by Paul Tobin, at This Kid Reviews Books
The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Me On Books and Great Imaginations
The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Next Best Book
The Last Kids on Earth, by Max Braillier, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Masterminds, by Gordon Korman, at That's Another Story
Neverseen, by Shannon Messenger, at A Reader of Fictions
Of Mice and Magic (Harriet Hamster Princess book 2), by Ursula Vernon, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Reading Nook Reviews
The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Kitty Cat at the Library
Secrets of Bearhaven, by K.E. Rocha, at Ms.Yingling Reads
Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, by Patrick Samphire, at Geo Librarian
The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson, at books4yourkids
Twice Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo
The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones (Mabel Jones #1), by Will Mabbitt, at Word Spelunking
Witherwood Reform School, by Obert Skye, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads: Fortune Falls, by Jenny Goebel, and The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen
Authors and Interviews
Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon et al.) at The Guardian
Janet Fox at Middle Grade Mafioso and Pop Goes the Reader
Other Good Stuff
Here's a lovely post on House Spirits at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
The Aurealis Awards have been announced; here's the Children's list:
Best Children’s Fiction
- Winner: A Single Stone, Meg McKinlay (Walker Books Australia)
- A Week Without Tuesday, Angelica Banks (Allen & Unwin)
- The Cut-Out, Jack Heath (Allen & Unwin)
- Bella and the Wandering House, Meg McKinlay (Fremantle Press)
- The Mapmaker Chronicles: Prisoner of the Black Hawk, A.L. Tait (Hachette Australia)
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