This week's roundup of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (6/5/16)

Welcome to this week's roundup; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Box and the Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Demigod Diaries, by Rick Riodan, at Lunar Rainbows

The Drake Equation, by Bart King, at Charlotte's Library

Escape the Vortex, by Jeanne DuPrau (Voyagers #5) at Say What?

The Eye of the Warlock, by P.W. Catanese, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

Grayling's Song,  by Karen Cushman, at Kid Lit Geek, BooksForKidsBlog, Next Best Book, and Mom Read It

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at Kid Lit Geek

Infinity Riders, by Kekla Magoon (Voyagers #4), at Say What?

Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher, at Leaf's Reviews

The League of Seven, by Allan Gratz,  at Say What?

The Ninja Librarians: The Acccidental Keyhand, by Jen Swann Downey, at Reviews With Lilah, and its sequel, Sword in the Stacks, also at Reviews With Lilah

Now You See It… by Vivian Vande Velde, at The Book Wars (with particular attention to elves)

Omega Rising, by Patrick Carman (Voyagers #3), at Say What?

So You Want to be a Wizard (Young Wizards, Book 1) by Diane Duane, at Hidden in Pages

Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs, at Charlotte's Library

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at Fuse #8

Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes, by Keira Gillett, at Mom Read It

Authors and Interviews

Tracey Hecht (The Nocturnals) at Middle Grade Ninja

Other Good Stuff

The 2016 Mythopoeic Award finalists  have been announced, with a nice Children's Literature section.

And just for kicks, here's a door from Denmark

Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs

I very much enjoyed Stuart Gibbs' first Moon Base Alpha book, Space Case, a middle grade murder mystery set in a small moon base, and was happy to find myself enjoying the second, Spaced Out ( Simon & Schuster, April 2016) too; perhaps not quite as much because of it lacking the first fine freshness of the first, but still it provided perfectly adequate reading pleasure.   My thoughts will contain a spoiler for the first book, so don't read anymore if you haven't read Space Case (you can go read my review of it here instead).

So life on Moon Base Alpha continues to be an introvert's nightmare (not a lot of space to get away from it all) with bonus bullies in the form of the two nasty kids of a the rich family of moon tourists.  Spaced Out opens with those two kids attacking the protagonist, Dashiell, who gets the best of them with a clever/desperate counterattack with suction plumbing.  It's no surprise to Dash that the commander of the moon base, Nina, wants to talk to him about this incident (NASA needs the space tourist bucks), but is a surprise when she fails to follow through with his punishment.  And then he finds out he was the last person to see her before she disappeared without a trace.

Nina can't be found anywhere inside the very small, hiding-place free base or on the nearby lunar surface.  Suspicions flair and tempers are strained.  A murder had been committed not long before (the sort of thing that sets peoples nerves on edge), and when evidence incriminating Nina of NASA rule breaking is found, things get even tenser.  Dash once again puts his mind to solving a lunar mystery, and once again he finds his own life is in danger.

And in the meantime, there's a subplot going on involving Dash's communications with an alien emissary, who's learning about humanity from him.  "She" hints at dire things awaiting humanity but is frustratingly unforthcoming about specifics, which adds to Dash's tension....

So it's more of the same sort of story that we had in the first book--a mystery in a closed, confined space with few suspects.  I thought it was a perfectly fine mystery.  But since a lot of the fun of the first book was seeing the moon base and reading the promotional literature from NASA sprinkled into the narrative, this one isn't quite as fun.  I think though that I enjoyed the mystery story of this one more, and am happy to look forward to the next book, since it looks like Dash's adventures are going to really get going!

Dash, like most people on the moon base (the only exceptions being the nasty rich family) is a mixed race kid, so it counts as a diverse read.

Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke

The arrival of a new book by Ben Hatke is always a happy thing in my house.  Even though my boys are several years beyond the ostensible target audience age for picture books, and I am too, we all enthusiastically read his latest offering, Nobody Likes a Goblin (First Second, June 7, 2016), and enjoyed it very much.  There's something just so friendly and pleasing about his art, and when paired with a good story, it's all just as nice a read (and look) as all get out.

A goblin lives a peaceful subterranean life in a dungeon with his best friend, a skeleton, not doing any harm to anyone.  Then adventures invade, in true Adventuring style, and plunder, while the poor goblin hides under his bed. When he emerges he finds all the dungeons' treasure is gone, but much much worse, the adventurers have taken Skeleton too!  So Goblin sets off to find his friend, and to find the "honk honk" stolen from his troll neighbor, despite the troll's warning that "nobody likes a goblin."

And he finds that this is indeed the case.  Chased by a farmer, an innkeeper, a band of elves, and the original adventurers, Goblin finds shelter in a cave, where he finds that there are those who like goblins lots--other goblins! 

And now its the adventurers et al. who are on the run, and Goblin brings all his new friends (including a young woman the adventurers had tied up in their spoil heap) and his old friend Skeleton back to the dungeon for happily ever after.

The goblins are portrayed in  suitably non-human ways, in various permutations of the monstrous, but still manage to have just tons of appeal, some being downright adorable.  The party of adventurers, on the other hand, are pretty much the clichés one expects, and it's nice to see them losing!   It was good to see the young woman who was tied up as part of the loot getting a bit of retaliatory smiting in once the goblins had surged out of their cave to attack.  (The troll's goose gets to attack too, which I also appreciated).

It's a rather inspiring story, not just for the obvious inspiration of finding the courage to save a friend part.  There also the message that even if you feel alone, and people are mean to you for no good reason, there's a good chance that somewhere there's a tribe of friends for you (yay for finding "your people"), and (one can hope) a good chance that the jerks will cease to matter. 

Here's the Kirkus review, in case you want independent confirmation that this is a good book.

disclaimer: review copy gratefully received from the publisher

The Drake Equation, by Bart King

The Drake Equation, by Bart King (Disney-Hyperion, May 10, 2016) is an excellent choice for middle school kids (10-11 year olds in particular) who are still liking their science fiction a tad on the whacky side, but who are well into reading solid stories that offer more than silliness. 

Noah's a bird watcher, a rather lonely hobby for a middle school kid, but one that he's passionate about.   Checking on wood duck nesting boxes in a woods near his home, he finds something much rarer--a family of black swifts.  And even rarer still, he finds a strange device--a sort of swirly-colored round thingy.  When he investigates the device with the help of his two best friends, twins Jason and Jenny, he discovers that it can bestow upon him a range of incredible powers, like shooting freeze rays from his hands.  But there are complications--the menu of the device doesn't come with much in the way of explanations; the kid who's been bullying Noah doesn't appreciate having been basically turned into a sac of protoplasm (even though it was temporary), and Noah, being the trusting sort, perhaps made a mistake in showing the device to his science teacher.  Almost certainly, using it to halt construction on a subdivision threatening the black swifts was the right thing to do, except that it ended up with his parent's getting arrested...

And then Noah finds out who (or possibly what) is on the other end of the device, and why it was created, and learns that the stakes are much higher than just keeping  the device from falling into the wrong hands, or saving the swifts....(here's a hint, without spoiling it too much--the titular Drake Equation, in Noah's mind, refers to wood-duck nesting boxes; for most people, it gives an estimate of the number of extraterrestrial civilizations that might be out there).

I don't know if kids these days ever read Edward Eager (I did, and am a big fan!).  This is a similar sort of story--ordinary kids having their lives thrown into turmoil when they find a magical device (although this story is science fiction with regard to its fundamental premise, the device functions like magic), and having to master the magic, and figure out its rules, while coping with the consequence of things going wrong before they've finished the figuring out.   And then the particular adventure ends, and the magic is put away, but with lots of room left for more to come....

As is the case with Eager's kids, the characters here are interesting, relatable, and well-rounded, with some cute little kids getting involved as well (I think this will appeal to the target audience-- many middle school kids, now they are the big ones, feel a nostalgic fondness for third and fourth graders).  There are plenty of amusing bits, but while it's not a serious, entirely straight-faced story, it never gets farcical. 

Though I enjoyed the book, it didn't quite work perfectly for me; I think the action felt a tad jerky, careening around more than is to my personal taste, especially with regard to the arrival of the big confrontation at the end.   But readers younger than me who like humorous stories about ordinary kids having extraordinary things happen to them will probably find it very much to their taste.

I personally liked very the bird-watchers way in which Noah views the people around him, and I am all in favor of protecting black swift habitat!

For those interested in diversity--Noah's friend Jenny (a strong secondary character) uses a wheelchair (and there are not many wheelchair-using kids in middle grade speculative fiction, especially ones where I don't find things that bother me with regard to "wheel-chair not being an issue" when necessary for the plot.  The only other wheelchair using kid I can think off in a recent MG fantasy got swept over a waterfall and spent the night in a tree, all in his wheelchair.  I spent a lot of time brooding on the waterfall in particular).

Disclaimer:  An ARC of The Drake Equation was originally picked up happily at ALA, then taken from me when my car was stolen (the car came back with the addition of some beer bottles, but minus severall (though by no means all) of the books that were in it, and Bart King generously sent me a copy so I could finish reading it (thanks!).

This week's round-up of midde grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (5/29/16)

As ever, let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

A Most Magical Girl, by Karen Foxlee, at Kid Lit Geek

The Box and the Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders, at Orange Juice Edits

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox, at Log Cabin Library

The City of Gold and Lead, by John Christopher, at Fantasy Literature

The Dragon in the Driveway (Dragon Keepers #2), by Kate Klimo, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

The Dragon Whistler by Kimberly J. Smith, at This Kid Reviews Books

Fortune Falls, by Jenny Goebel, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Leaf's Reviews

The Haunting of Falcon House, by Eugene Yelchin, at Kid Lit Geek

How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, at Jean Little Library

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, at Got My Book (audiobook review)

The Legend of Sam Miracle, by N.D. Wilson, at Semicolon

The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, by Christopher Edge, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle

The Ministry of Ghosts,  by Alex Shearer, at Charlotte's Library

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Lunar Rainbows

The Secret of Deadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Say What?

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at On Starships and Dragonwings

Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand, at Ms. Yingling Reads and On Starships and Dragonwings

Wishing Day, by Lauren Myracle, at books4yourkids

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Lucky, by Chris Hill, and The Palace of Glass, by Djano Wexler



Authors and Interviews

Anne Ursu (The Real Boy) at Karen Cushman's blog

A look at the studio of Ursula Vernon at The Children's Book Review

Liesl Shurtliff (Red) at The Book Wars

Darryl Womack (Tales of Westerford: Dragons, Knights and Kings), at The Write Path


Other Good Stuff

The New York Historical Society has given its 2015 Children's History Book Prize to Pam
Muñoz Ryan for Echo (via Fuse #8)

The Ministry of Ghosts, by Alex Shearer

The titular ministry of The Ministry of Ghosts, by Alex Shearer (Sky Pony Press, May 2016;  2014 in the UK), is a dusty old backwater left behind by the forward march of government bureaucracy, and its four (and a cat) employees are utterly and completely failing in their mandate to produce tangible evidence that ghosts are real.  This failure has come to the attention of a government auditor who gives the ministry three months to produce a ghost, or it will be shut down for good.   In desperation, the four ministry workers break out of their hardened ruts of inactivity and hire two local children to be their ghost hunters...and the results are rather more dramatic than they could ever have hoped for!

I mysef liked it just fine, but I think that the person I would most enthusiastically press it on would be a college student who enjoyed MG fantasy a lot back in the day and who is in the middle of exam week and who wants something pleasingly diverting that, though it has interesting twists, is not terribly complicated with regard to fantasy world building and difficult names, and which, although good and interesting and amusing, isn't so rapid in its forward momentum that you have to stay up all night reading it (this is a Bad Thing during exam week!).  It also ends with a Heartwarming tie up of the story line, the sort of ending that is a Comfort in times of Stress.  I think it would be just about perfect for that reader.  It's also a very good one for a grown-up reader of mg fantasy to read in less than ideal circumstances (like in the dentist's office, or other places where you need a book that will hold your interest without making demands).

I am less certain that the target audience of 9-12 year old kids will persevere long enough to get to the actually ghostly adventures.  The development of the story is not typical of today's standard kids starring in fantasy adventure--the first large chunk is a poke at slacker government workers and the keen government inspectors hunting them down.   Generally in MG fantasy, the reader meets the kids in medias res, with the kids battling wolves or being prophesized about or eaten by trolls or all of the above at once, and then the author pulls back from the slavering jaws/bad rhymes and gives us backstory.  Here it is not until page 75 that the Girl Protagonist, Tuppence, appears, and the Boy Protagonist, Tim, arrives in the next chapter.  And although they do go ghost hunting together, it is the sort of ghost hunting where after one failure in a cemetery, the next two and half months pass in a page of nothing happening.

But it is interesting, in its small tasty details of place and character (both of kids and ministry empoyees) and the trail of clues leading to the ghostly extravaganza of the ending was lots of fun to follow!  I'm just not sure young readers will stick with it long enough to appreciate it.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (May 22, 2016)

Welcome to this week's round-up.  Please let me know if I missed your post, and I'll put it in!

The Reviews

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, at Geo Librarian

Basil of Baker Street, by Eve Titus, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Death Weavers (The Five Kingdoms Book 4), by Brandon Mull, at Hidden in Pages

Diary of Anna the Girl Witch: Foundling Witch by Max Candee, at Sharon the Librarian

The Dragon Lantern (League of Seven, 2) by Alan Gratz, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Drake Equation, by Bart King, at This Kid Reviews Books

Everland, by Wendy Spinale, at Cracking the Cover

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Charlotte's Library

The Foundry's Edge, by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, at This Kid Reviews Books

Handbook for Dragon Slayers, by Merrie Haskell, at Pages Unbound

Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X., by Frank Beddor, at Always in the Middle

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at The Book Smugglers

The Inn Between, by Marina Chohen, at Sharon the Librarian

The Lost Compass, by Joel Ross, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Nethergrim, and its sequel, the Skeleth, by Matthew Jobing, at The Reading Nook Reviews

A Plague of Bogles, by Catherine Jinks, at alibrarymama

Red, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand, at Cracking the Cover

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at On Starships and Dragonwings and Bibliobrit

The Storyteller, by Aaron Starmer, at Tales of the Marvelous

A Taste for Monsters, by Matthew J. Kirby, at Bibliobrit

The Thickety, and its sequels, by J. A. White, at Abby the Librarian

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at Next Best Book

two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Skeleth, by Matthew Jobin, and  The Ghost Faces, by John Flanagan


Authors and Interviews

Claire Legrand (Some Kind of Happiness) at Teen Librarian Toolbox


Other Good Stuff

A look at tiny fairies (not just a Victorian conceit) at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

A nice list of books for young fairy tale lovers at A Year of Reading

Designing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in pictures, at The Guardian

I don't often post links to YouTube videos, and this is an old one, but this salmon cannon really spoke to me at a deep personal level...."Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Salmon Cannon"

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore (Bloomsbury, middle grade, May 2016), is the story of a friendship that shatters one girl's perfect world, forcing her to question everything she's taken for granted about her safe and sheltered life.  Mori and her friends live in a company town, Old Harmonie, where everything is beautifully organized and carefully planned.  The kids themselves are products of that careful planning--they are a mix of genetic engineering and nature, and each kid gets a further brain tweek when they become teenagers, to bring a latent gift to the surface.  All pretty idyllic.

But then a new girl arrives, and Ilana is even more perfect than everyone else.  Almost too perfect....but just right for Mori, who becomes her best friend, straining her old best friendship almost to the breaking point. 

And when Mori and the other kids on Firefly Street start exploring the one non-confirming house in the neighborhood, the abandoned home of one of the company founders, they find out that the utopia in which they live isn't, exactly, all that utopian.  More emotionally important to Mori, she finds out that Ilana, though she seems perfect, might in fact be a lot more flawed than is good for her in this small closed world where perfection is supposed to be achievable.....

So this is one that I would give in a heartbeat to a middle grade girl of ten or eleven who has to read a science fiction book for school, but who prefers middle school girl friendship drama and growing up stories to speculative fiction.  Blakemore does a fine job with this part of her story.  She does a perfectly reasonable job with the sci fi part too....but the problem with being someone who's already read thousands and thousands of speculative fiction books is that I didn't feel there was much that was all that different or excitingly fresh about this scenario (it reminded me quite a bit of Masterminds, for instance).   I'm perfectly willing to concede the point that the target audience members haven't had time yet to read thousands of books, and so it's one that will work lots and lots better for them then it did for me.  I thought it was fine, perfectly solid but not all that exciting; they might well think it's wow!

That being said, the ending opens the way to more story that has the potential to wow even cynical hardened me, and I will eagerly pounce on any sequel that comes along!  And also that being said, I can't think of many other books that do a good job with real-world 12 year old friendship issues in the context of a sci fi dis-utopia, and so this one does offer something fresh in that regard.

Here's the Kirkus review, if you want a second opinion; they call it, and I don't disagree, a "welcome addition to the dystopic utopia genre." 

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher at ALA Midwinter

Cleopatra in Space Book Three: Secret of the Time Tablets, by Mike Maihack

Cleopatra (yes, the original Cleopatra) travelled from Egypt to a far off future in space, where she was greeted by sentient cats, plunged into future-tech military training, and found out she was prophesized to defeat an utterly evil space tyrant warlord, Octavian.  Secret of the Time Tablets (Scholastic, April 2016) the third book in the series, fills in a lot of the story, strengthening the narrative arc.  There's plenty of action-filled adventure (or possibly adventure-filled action), and plenty of difficult choices to be made, and dangers with real consequences to be faced.  Cleo's friends, Antony and Akila, both have nicely satisfying roles to play, and Cleo is just as impetuous and determined as ever.  The story arc of finding the fabled Time Tablets holds things together plot-wise, and the illustrations bring it all to life. 

The time travel aspect is addressed rather more than it was in book 2.  Now that Cleo knows the truth about the prophecy she's supposed to fulfill, and now she's able to use the Tablets to return home, she has to decide where her loyalties lie.....

So basically, lots of fun, with some more serious stuff on the side.

Note on diversity--Cleo is of course North African, although being from the Ptolemaic dynasty, she's on the pale side of dark skin.  Antony, who's clearly a dark-skinned kid, adds diversity, and there is also now a kid with a disability--an arm lost (I think lost, but possibly just damaged horribly badly) during a skirmish and replaced with a high tech prosthetic.

Here's what I'm worried about--now that light has finally dawned in my dim little mind viz Antony and Octavian being characters in the original story of Cleopatra (some of us are slower than others), it's hard to imagine a happy ending...I am imagining Space Asps.  I am also unsure what exactly happened to the character that Octavian zapps near the end of the book, disappearing him with a "blazz" of energy and a "fwish" of dust, and I hope fwishing doesn't have permanent consequences....

Just about any graphic novel reading kid will love these books.  The ones who will really like this series--kids who think cats should be in charge.  There was good cat page-time in this installment!

This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (5/15/16)

Another week, another round-up!  Let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

The Drake Equation, by Bart King, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Cracking the Cover

Fridays With the Wizards, by Jessica Day George, at Leaf's Reviews

Gorilla Tactics (Dr. Critchlore's School for Minions #2), by Sheila Grau, at Log Cabin Library

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at The Reading Nook Reviews and Book Nut

The Island of Mad Scientists, by Howard Whitehouse, at Jean Little Library

Lockwood and Co., by Jonathan Stroud (series review) at Original Content

Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles #1) by Maria Turtschaninoff, at Of Dragons and Hearts

The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez, by Robin Yardi, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht, at This Kid Reviews Books

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Read Till Dawn

The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, at Pages Unbound

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Sharon the Librarian

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at The Book Smugglers

Space Case,by Stuart Gibbs, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

The Toymaker's Apprentice, by  Sherri L. Smith, at Becky's Book Reviews

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, and Rewind to Yesterday, by Susan Beth Pfeffer 


Authors and Interviews

Matthew Jobin (The Nethergrim, and The Skeleth), at A Fantastical Librarian and Middle Grade Ninja

Pseudonymous Bosch, on writing under a pseudonym, at the NY Times

Bart King (The Drake Equation) at From the Mixed-Up Files and My Brain on Books

Martin Stewart (Riverkeep) on how Philip Pullman's Northern Lights changed his life, at The Guardian

Other Good Stuff

The Nebula Award winners have been announced, via Tor

My Brother is a Superhero, by David Walliams, wins the British Book Industry Award

I should have posted this last week; not MG SFF, but of interest to graphic novel readers--First Second organized a Children's Book Week Comics Tour, and here are the stops:

Monday, May 2^nd – Forever YA featuring Gene Luen Yang

Monday, May 2^nd  – Read Write Love featuring Lucas Turnbloom

Monday, May 2^nd – Kid Lit Frenzy featuring Kory Merritt

Tuesday, May 3^rd – Sharp Read featuring Ryan North

Tuesday, May 3^rd – Teen Lit Rocks featuring MK Reed

Wednesday, May 4^th – Love is Not a Triangle featuring Chris Schweizer

Wednesday, May 4^th – SLJ Good Comics for Kids featuring Victoria Jamieson

Thursday, May 5^th – The Book Wars featuring Judd Winick

Thursday, May 5^th – SLJ Fuse #8 featuring Eric Colossal

Friday, May 6^th – SLJ Scope Notes featuring Nathan Hale

Friday, May 6^th – The Book Rat featuring Faith Erin Hicks

Saturday, May 7^th – YA Bibliophile featuring Mike Maihack

Saturday, May 7^th – Supernatural Snark featuring Sam Bosma

Sunday, May 8^th – Charlotte’s Library featuring Maris Wicks

Sunday, May 8^th – The Roarbots featuring Raina Telgemeier

Armchair BEA Day 1--introductions

I'm Charlotte, and I've been blogging for nine years.  I now blog for the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog as well as here at my own place.  This is my second  time taking part in Armchair Book Expo America, I think. It is a good thing as I have a few books left from last years BEA still to be read (hangs head in shame).  My goal this summer is to really get on top of my tbr pile so that I can be truly wholeheartedly excited again about all the books (that being said, I still manage bravely to get more than a bit of a frisson from many of the books that come my way...Raven King, I'm looking at you, for instance....).

I mostly blog about middle grade and YA fantasy and science fiction, with a tilt towards middle grade (because I find that middle grade tends to move along with the story more quickly, without getting bogged down in turgid romance, and the middle grade protagonists are more believable and make fewer annoying choices....).  That being said, many of my favorite books are YA (or at least shelved in the YA section), like Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia series (my favorite being King of Attolia).

I have being doing most of my reading on the bus this week, because my car was stolen over the weekend, and though the car was found, Toyota is struggling to get a new key made for it (thoughtlessly, the perps didn't leave the keys in the car.  I guess they are more aware of the need for security than I am....).  Vexingly, the book I was in the middle of reading (The Drake Equation, by Bart King) was in the car too, and they didn't leave that either.  They also took a small stuffed mountain goat, but that was on its way to Salvation Army, so no loss.

So anyway, Armchair BEA is a nice distraction and I look forward to meeting new bloggers!

The Children's Book Week Comics Blog Tour featuring Maris Wicks

The folks at First Second Books have organized an extravaganza of comic book goodness to celebrate Children's Book Week, and it's my pleasure to take part.

So here's Hippopotamister author John Patrick Green, interviewing Maris Wicks, author and illustrator most recently of Science Comics: Coral Reefs

How did you get into comics? What were some of your favorite books or influences as a child?

As a kid, I always liked the funny pages in the newspaper (Gary Larson’s Farside, Garfield, Peanuts) as well as animated cartoons (Masters of the Universe, Batman: The Animated Series, anything Nickelodeon/Disney from the early 90’s). I loved illustrated children’s books too; my mom is a huge fan of Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein, so those were influences as well.  I think the first comic book that got me hooked on comics was Milk & Cheese by Evan Dorkin (which is faaaaar from kid-friendly); I picked it up from a comic store in Vermont when I was in 8th grade.  From there, I discovered many other independent comics. By the time I was in college, I was reading any comics I could get my hands on - anything from superheroes to historical comics (my college library had a great selection).

• From Primates, to Human Body Theater, to Coral Reefs, science seems to be a recurring theme in your work. What's the next scientific topic you're going to tackle? Are there any non-science-related topics, or perhaps even a fictional story you'd like to turn into a graphic novel? Perhaps even something science-fictional?

I’m glad that it’s obvious that I love science! Science had been one of my favorite subjects in school. When I decided to go to college for art, I felt like I was abandoning science. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Science and scientific themes were present in most of my projects in college, and that continued into my professional work. My next big book project is a guide to general science: physics, chemistry, biology, math, engineering…all in comics form! There are a few “back-burner” projects that I’ve had in mind that aren’t science-themed (like an autobiographical comic, and some ideas for illustrated kids books).  When I read for fun, I tend to read science fiction. I would like to write/draw something sci-fi someday, or even adapt a book/story that already exists into comics form.  

• What's your favorite part about comics, both as a reader and a creator?

The comic book format is just how I see the world.  I’ve always had an overactive imagination…and thinking of the world in a more cartoony way helps to keep me positive and not too serious. For me, it just makes sense as a way for me to tell (and read) stories.

• What is your process like? With the added requirement of scientific accuracy, how much research goes into it?

When I start a new book, I like to bury myself in research. And not just book research! Any experience that can help me to tell the story is fair game: I trained as an EMT 10 years before I started writing Human Body Theater came, I got scuba-certified to see coral reefs in real life for Coral Reefs! For Primates, the closest I could get to seeing any non-human primates was the zoo, so I went and drew gorillas! I’ve always learned best when I can have a real hands-on experience.

• For many people, drawing is considered a hobby. Is being an artist still a hobby for you, or is it like a job? If drawing is your job, what then are your hobbies?

For me, drawing is both a job and a hobby. I see my comic book and illustration work as my “job” (even though it is fun), and I keep a sketchbook for my more personal drawings (they’re usually silly, but they are just for me; it’s nice to draw just for myself). My other hobbies include hiking, baking, swimming, photography, and reading.

• What's currently on your nightstand?

Oh boy. I have a lot of books waiting to be read. I’ve been reading Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer” in bits and pieces; it’s pretty amazing (and inspiring me for my next project)!  In addition to that, I’ve got Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” on my nightstand.  I’ve never read either of them, and I think that it’s about time!

Thank you both for the great interview!  Here are the other stops in the Children's Book Week Comics Tour:

Monday, May 2^nd – Forever YA featuring Gene Luen Yang

Monday, May 2^nd  – Read Write Love featuring Lucas Turnbloom

Monday, May 2^nd – Kid Lit Frenzy featuring Kory Merritt

Tuesday, May 3^rd – Sharp Read featuring Ryan North

Tuesday, May 3^rd – Teen Lit Rocks featuring MK Reed

Wednesday, May 4^th – Love is Not a Triangle featuring Chris Schweizer

Wednesday, May 4^th – SLJ Good Comics for Kids featuring Victoria Jamieson

Thursday, May 5^th – The Book Wars featuring Judd Winick

Thursday, May 5^th – SLJ Fuse #8 featuring Eric Colossal

Friday, May 6^th – SLJ Scope Notes featuring Nathan Hale

Friday, May 6^th – The Book Rat featuring Faith Erin Hicks

Saturday, May 7^th – YA Bibliophile featuring Mike Maihack

Saturday, May 7^th – Supernatural Snark featuring Sam Bosma

Sunday, May 8^th – Charlotte’s Library featuring Maris Wicks

Sunday, May 8^th – The Roarbots featuring Raina Telgemeier

This week's round-up of science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs is up (5/8/16)

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.

Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung

Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung (Arthur A. Levine Books, middle grade, April 26, 2016), is a book I've been looking forward to for ages.  Mike Jung's first book, Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities was excellent middle grade fantastical fun with a twist, and I wanted more! USO is also excellent middle grade speculative fiction story with a twist, and there are plenty of amusing parts, but I wouldn't call it a light-hearted romp.  Which is fine, because it's not like middle school is one light-hearted romp after another.  Middle school is more about figuring out who you are, and who you want to be, and this is what is preoccupying the heroine, Chloe Cho.  Her family are the only Asians in a small middle American town, and Chloe's teeth are very much on edge about the clueless stereotypes, confusions, and thoughtless racism that's she's put up with all her life. She's smart and plays the violin well not because she's Korean, but because she's Chloe, her own person for crying out loud.

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

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, for Timeslip Tuesday

I have  actually gotten my ducks in a row and have a book for this week's Timeslip Tuesday--Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales (Chronicle Books, Middle Grade, April 5, 2016).

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.

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

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.

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