4/11/17

Blue Thread, by Ruth Tenzer Feldman, for Timeslip Tuesday

Blue Thread, by Ruth Tenzer Feldman (Ooligan Press, 2012) is historical fiction about the women's suffrage movement in 1912 Portland Oregon with a time travel twist.

16 year old Miriam, daughter of a relatively well-off Jewish family in Portland, is desperate to work at her father's printing shop, but he is convinced a woman's place is in the home.  She finds some outlet for her frustration by supporting the suffrage movement, secretly printing cards to hand out at the polling places as Oregon, the last holdout state on the West Coast, votes on the issue.  

Though her family doesn't support women's rights, the strength of Miriam's convictions has been bolstered by a most unexpected source.  A mysterious woman named Serakh, whose abrupt appearance in Miriam's home is tied to Miriam's grandmother's  prayer shawl, leads her on a journey back in time.  Serakh, and the power of the blue thread in the shawl, combine to take Miriam back to several thousand years to inspire a young woman fighting a patriarchal system for her own rights.  Tirtzah is one of the Daughters of Zelophehad, and thanks to Miriam's encouragement, she and her sisters become the first women in Biblical history to own land in their own right.  (I'd never heard of them, and was glad to learn!) And in turn, being part of Tirtzah's story inspires Miriam to take her own future into her own hands.

Blue Thread is good historical fiction; the suffrage movement was brought to life just fine, as were Miriam's' frustrations and her father's disapproval.   Miriam's a believable character who thinks and grows as her story progress, and, in as much as I enjoy books about girls thinking about careers, I appreciated all the ideas she came up with for her father's print shop and her desire to jump in and start working.  It was such good historical fiction, in fact, that it really didn't need the time travel part and would have worked just as well without it.

The trips back to Old Testament times were interesting in their own right, but rather brief, and with little real urgency, drama, or emotional investment.  Miriam basically uses her modern perspective to tell Tirtzah and her sisters what to do, they do it, it kind of works, end of story.  Then for much of the book she doesn't even think about Serakh or Tirtzah.  Likewise the story of the prayer shawl and the history of Miriam's maternal line (including a tragedy in her father's generation) could likewise have been expanded with the narrative threads working more cohesively together.   I am reminded of a gourmet doughnut I had last week, in which the chocolate doughnut would have been perfectly tasty without the additional chocolate doodads stuck on top of it to add gourmet doughnut-ness.  Mystical Serakh, acting as a time travel conductor for Miriam's family for generations for unclear reasons just has to be swallowed without explanation....

Short answer-- if you are willing to take this as good historical fiction and interesting girl seeking career fiction, and don't mind the extras that go along for the ride, do give this one a try!  Though Miriam is 16, the social norms of her time and place are such that she reads a considerably younger than a 16 year old of today, and there's nothing here to make a younger reader uncomfortable, so I think it would work better for 11-12 year olds than for teens.


4/10/17

Journey Across the Hidden Islands, by Sarah Beth Durst

Journey Across the Hidden Islands, by Sarah Beth Durst (Clarion Books, April 4, 2017), is an excellent fantasy adventure pick for the 10 or so year old who thinks the cover looks really awesome (it is a very good cover to story fit!).  Two twin girls, still kids (they are just turned 12), have been trained all their lives for their future places in their kingdom of islands.  Seika, the older girl, will rule it, and Ji-Lin will be her champion and protector.  So Seika learns courtly skills and rituals while Ji-Lin, partnered with a winged lion, is sent off to learn how to fight.

On their twelfth birthday, the girls are stunned to be told by their father that they will be setting off to make the Emperor's Journey, generally an uneventful visit of the heir to the dragon whose powers keep the islands cut off and safe from the rest of the world.  They had not expected to make this journey for several years, but are rather pleased to have the chance to journey together, flying on the winged lion.  But the Hidden Islands are in danger.  The magical barrier is weakening, and the islands are no longer completely hidden from demonic and human intrusions....Each island they visit on the way to the dragon offers more excitement of a tense and difficult kind than the next, and by the time they reach the dragon, they have learned almost more than their previous 12 years of careful education had taught them.

But will it be enough to keep their islands safe?

As is the case with your basic middle grade fantasy journey to save the kingdom, the characters learn to trust each other and themselves as they confront a series of escalating challenges.  Because the two girls have been separated for years, they need to reconnect, and  their loyalty and protectiveness for each other is one of the best parts of the book.  That being said, the winged lion, a character in his own right (he converses just as much as any one else) is lovely too!  The central dilemma of the safety of the Hidden Islands is one that I think will resonate just as resonantly as all get out with young adolescents--change and opening to new experiences is scary and unsafe, but has advantages as well.

Though the world building brings to mind Asia, it's more inspiration rather than a thinly veiled version of any reality, and in fact I wouldn't have spent any time thinking about its sources of inspiration if it weren't for the names.   As such it offers a nice, though somewhat surficial, change from European inspired world-building, without reading to me as cultural appropriation (which I think is much less troubling an issue when the cultural providing the inspiration is an equal in power relationships, and which I also think involves much more borrowing from another cultural than is the case here). .

Short answer--enjoyable, not deeply deep but still with enough thought-provoking characters and situation for the fun adventures to have emotional backbone.

disclaimer: review copy provided by the author

4/9/17

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/9/17)

Here's what I found this week; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelly, at The Shannon Messenger Fan Club

The Bone Flute, by Patricia Bow, at The Book Wars

The Castle in the Mist, by Amy Ephron, at The Book Monsters and Geo Librarian

Castle of Shadows, by Ellen Renner, at Leaf's Reviews

Cavern of Secret (Wind and Claw 2), by Linda Sue Park, at Ms. Yingling Reads

A Crack in the Sea, by H.M. Bouwman, at Charlotte's Library

The Crooked Sixpence, by Jennifer Bell, at Fantasy Book Critic

The Crystal Ribbon, by Celeste Lim, at Reading Violet

Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull, at Say What?

Dream Magic, by Joshua Kahn, at Bart's Bookshelf and Log Cabin Library

Future Flash, by Kita Helmetag Murdock, at Mom Read It

The Gauntlet, by Karuna Riazi, at School Library Journal

Greyling's Song, by Karen Cushman, at Tales from the Raven

Henry and the Chalk Dragon, by Jennifer Trafton, at This Kid Reviews Books

Journey Across the Hidden Islands, by Sarah Beth Durst, at FIKTSHUN

The Mesmerist, by Ronald L. Smith, at Charlotte's Library and Leila Roy at Kirkus

A Most Magical Girl, by Karen Foxlee, at Readings

The Princess and the Page, by Christina Farley, at The AP Book Club

The Star Thief, by Lindsey Becker, at The Book Nut

Tricked (Fairy Tale Reform School), by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian

Warren the 13th and the Wispering Woods, by Tania del Rio and Will Staehle, at Pages Unbound

Villain Keeper, by Laurie McKay, at Dead Houseplants

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin, at Strange and Random Happenstance

Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters, by Margaret Dilloway, at Imaginary Reads

Two at alibrarymama--Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Seventh Wish, by Kate Messner

Authors and Interviews

Sage Blackwood takes The Page 69 Test for Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded

Sarah Beth Durst (Journey Across the Hidden Islands) at HMH Young Readers Blog

Jen Swann Downey (The Ninja Librarians) at The Writer Librarian

Jennifer Trafton (Henry and the Chalk Dragon) at Word Spelunking and Cracking the Cover

Christina Farley (The Princess and the Page) at Literary Rambles

C.A. Hartley (The Plight of the Plexus) at Middle Grade Ninja

Ruth Lauren (Prisoner of Ice and Snow) talks about sisters at Nerdy Book Club

Other Good Stuff

The Waterstone's Children's Book Prize has gone to Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s  debut novel, The Girl of Ink and Stars (more at The Guardian)

And for more of what's happening across the Atlantic, visit Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books for an April gathering of new books

A splash (?), a fin (?) or possibly a mesmarization (?) or whatever collective noun you wish of middle grade mermaid books at Mom Read It

Faith Erin Hicks' Nameless City trilogy is on its way to television (via Tor)

Enter to win a middle grade book bundle, and check out the book sale, at Laurisa White Reyes

A Jules Verne time capsule has been found that might have new books in it (more at PR Newswire)

4/7/17

The Mesmerist, by Ronald L. Smith

The Mesmerist, by Ronald L. Smith, is one I'd offer to younger middle grade fans of horror, who don't mind a trip to 19th century London (I have a feeling there are kids who shun historical fiction, which, if this is so, is misguided of them) and who like to read about kids with special powers fighting evil (and winning.  I myself always like the winning part which is why I so often read the end once I get to the middle.  Just to be sure).  I'd also (perhaps obviously) give it to kids who enjoyed Ronald L. Smith's previous book, Hoodoo, because it has much the same atmospheric horror kids fighting evil feel, though in the American south and not London.

But in any event.

Jess and her mother have been making a living as fake spiritualists (Jess' father having being dead for some years, it was the only way her mother could think of to keep up a reasonably genteel lifestyle), and they have perfected their performance, with Jess playing the role of the psychic girl getting messages from Beyond the Grave.  When she actually does have an episode of psychic power that isn't faked, Jess's mother upends their peaceful life and whisks them off to London, to meet with a mysterious gentleman known as Balthazar.  There Jess learns that her father and her mother were part of an order with preternatural powers who fought against an evil necromancer and his evil minions, with her father having died a hero while killing the evil necromancer. 

And all signs point to the evil rising again.

Jess is pressured to join in the next generation's group of good guys with psychic powers (young people have stronger gifts than older folks, so Jess' mom's powers are but a shadow of what they once were).   She doesn't have much time to train with the two London kids she's now teamed up with, because evil is hitting London pretty hard and fast in the form of a horrible pestilential disease and sundry horrid murders.  But since the leader of the bad guys has his sights set on Jess in particular, she doesn't have much choice about doing her best to destroy him as soon as possible....

In the murky streets and down below them in rat-ridden hell-holes, the hunt is on.  Jess with her powers of mind-reading and divination, Emily who controls light and flame, and Gabriel, whose magical singing can work miracles, must become a bulwark of all that is good and holy against demonic powers.

And having  mentioned the holy part, it's rather a departure from standard middle grade fantasy that although some powers on the side of good come from fairy blood and some are unexplained, some are in fact holy and angelic.  Which might make this one have more appeal to Christian readers/parents than other kids-fighting-demonic-evil stories (?)

But regardless, it's a fast paced story with vivid descriptions, lots of tense moments, and interesting powers at play.   I think it will work best for younger middle grade readers-- the gore and ick level seems just fine for kids, especially for horror reading kids, though adults might not like it much, and although Balthazar isn't with the kids for the big showdown part of the story, he's very much the wise grown-up who knows things, and the reader can trust he won't let anything too terrible happen.  If you've read a lot of historical fantasy about young people in secret societies fighting evil demonic things in London, it perhaps won't seem all that strange and fantastical, another reason to offer it to a 9 or 10 year old and not to offer it to a jaded teen.....

Interestingly, xenophobia taken to ugly extremes is one of the consequences of the evil blight attacking London, which I appreciated as it is so very germane an issue.  Likewise, through Jess' appalled and empathetic eyes we see the worst poverty 19th-century London can offer, and these elements make the book a good thought-provoker in addition to being a good adventure.

Here's the Kirkus review, which provides a much clearer synopsis.  Some days I synopsize well, some days less so.....






4/4/17

The Time Museum, by Matthew Loux

The Time Museum, by Matthew Loux (First Second, February 2017), is a real treat for fans of time travel and fun graphic novels, and especially for those of us who are fans of both!

Delia is a science minded kid, and one day her exploration of the flora and fauna around her home leads her to the discovery of her lifetime--the Earth Time Museum!  It's the museum of Earth's history, both cultural and natural, representing our planet to interstellar visitors.  And its collections are developed through time travel!  Delia's offered the chance to apply for a summer internship at the museum, and can't think of anything she'd rather do than work there...but  a group of other kids, boys and girls from both the past and the future, are also contending for the position.

The kids are tested by being sent on missions of discovery back in time, where they are also asked to repair glitches in the continuum of time--removing things out of place.  It's not the competition with each other that's the complicated part, or even coping with unfamiliar time periods, it's learning to work together that's the real test.  And it's a test that leads to a challenge that no-one expected--confronting a mysterious time traveler who seems up to no good and repairing a rip in time itself.

It's lots of fun--the kids are an interesting bunch, and seeing them learn to get along and trust each other, while competing with each other at the same time, was most interesting.  As were their journey's back in time, visiting dinosaurs, the library of Alexandria, and London in the year 3029! Laugh-out-loud moments are combined with an exiting story that begs for re-reading. 

For some of us, additional re-reading might be helpful in figuring out just what is going on with the bad guy, whose degree of badness remains unclear to me...and it's possible that kids who like thinks clear cut and easy to follow will be not as pleased as kids who go with the flow.  It is also possible that it all makes perfect sense on first reading, as I myself am a tad challenged by graphic novels, because I read the words too quickly to absorb the information in the pictures....

There's a bit of diversity--Delia's room-mate and new friend/competitor is from a future Japan, and a woman who's one of  the museum executives who trains the kids looks African-American.  I wish there'd been a bit more diversity in body type--the girls are all supper skinny, which is a stylist choice I found a bit off putting.  Here's  a picture of the group of them, with Delia on the far left:



But in any event, it's great to see a girl scientist as the main hero of the adventure! Delia's a great role-model for girls interested in history, both the natural and the less natural kind.....I loved seeing her self-confidence in her identity flower.  And I absolutely adored the museum and want to intern there myself.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

4/3/17

A Crack in the Sea, by H.M. Bouwman

A Crack in the Sea, by H.M. Bouwman (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, January 2017), is a middle grade fantasy novel that combines krakens, the horrific tragedy of the Middle Passage, the horrors endured by Vietnamese boat people, a second world where people (some with magical gifts) live on tropical islands and on a floating raft town, and Amelia Earhart.  What unites all these threads is a crack in the sea; unpredictably opening to let people from our first world fall though.

Three sets of siblings are central to the story at hand.  Venus and her brother Swimmer survive being kidnapped by slavers, and when the captain of the slave ship that's taken them begins to throw the sick and dying captives overboard, Venus and Swimmer use their gifts to lead their people on a walk underwater to the second world. 

Two hundred years later, two other siblings living in the second world hear their origin story, and embark on an adventure of their own.  Pip, the little brother, is face-blind, so his big sister has always tried to buffer him from the world.  But Pip can talk to fish, and the leader of the raft-people thinks this gift might lead him to the crack in the sea, offering a return to Africa.  And so he kidnaps Pip....In the meantime (which in this case is the 1970s), a family of refugees sets out from Vietnam, and after a voyage full of suffering, finds themselves falling through the crack and being taken in by the raft people. Thanh and his sister Sang find there a most unlikely and truly happy ending.

And then there are two Krakens, tied to all the stories....and Amelia, though I'll refrain from specifying her part in it all!

And it is a lot of stories--moving stories, full of sadness, but always with hope. The Second World is a refugee that gives almost all the characters a peaceful life.  In reality, of course, there was no Crack in the Sea that would have saved the captives and the refugees, and this gives a bitter poignancy to the story that the author herself, as she notes in the afterword, is keenly aware of.   It also gives the story a somewhat fairytale feel, as if the Second World were a place that nothing could go wrong.  Happily, though, the people that live there are in fact people, and so have misunderstandings, and personal growth moments, and hurts, like all people do.

Because it is so many stories, told in layers, it might be hard for some young readers to stay engaged with the book.  And I think that it might in fact work best for many as a book read aloud; as a shared dream within which are other dreams, full of bright images, bright moments of human connection, and the sadness that makes the brightness even more vivid.

Most powerful image-Venus and Swimmer leading the captives along their long walk underwater, the shackles rusting as they go, feeling neither hunger or thirst as they journey hand holding hand holding hand.  It reminds me of the haunting underwater sculpture, Vicissitudes, off the coast of Grenada--



4/2/17

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy (4/2/17)

Here's this week's compilation of what I found in my blog reading; let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelley, at Redeemed Reader

Beyond the Doors, by David Nielsen, at Word Spelunking

The Crystal Ribbon, by Celeste Lim, at Cracking the Cover

Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler, at Charlotte's Library

Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull, at Hidden in Pages

Frogkisser, by Garth Nix, at books4yourkids

The Gauntlet, by Karuna Riazi, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Next Best Book

The Goblin's Puzzle, by Andrew Chilton, at alibrarymama

House of Stories, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at Say What?

How to Outsmart a Billion Robot Bees, by Paul Tobin, at the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog

Me and Marvin Gardens, by Amy Sarig King, at A Year of Reading

Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded, by Sage Blackwood, at alibrarymama

The Princess and the Page, by Christina Farley, at Word Spelunking

Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, by Patrick Samphire, at Fantasy Literature

Simon Thorn and the Viper's Pit, by Aimee Carter, at Say What?

The Story Thieves-Secret Origins, by James Riley, at Always in the Middle

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine, at Leaf's Reviews

Authors and Interviews

Karuna Riazi (The Gauntlet) at The Book Wars

Amy Ephron (Castle in the Mist) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Jacob Sager Weinstein (Hyacinth and the Secrets Beneath) at Word Spelunking

Other Good Stuff

The shortlist for the Australian Readings Chldren's Book Prize have been announced. I've put stars next to the ones that are MG speculative fiction, though I'm not sure about Elizabeth and Zenobia....

*Escape to Moon Islands by Mardi McConnochie
*A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee
Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters by Ailsa Wild
The Secrets We Keep by Nova Weetman
*?Elizabeth and Zenobia by Jessica Miller
*Grover finds a Home by Claire Garth

At the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog I talk about ten middle grade dystopian novels/series

3/29/17

Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler

If  you are looking for fun hero story with interesting twists of magic to offer a handy sixth grader, or for you own light reading pleasure, Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler (Scholastic, March 28 2017) might be just the thing!

Alfie is a pretty ordinary boy, overshadowed by the charisma and accomplishments of his younger twin brother, Richard, the golden boy of their form at the English boarding school they attend.  But for all of Richard's gifts, Alfie overshadows him in one very important way--as the older twin, he's the one who's the heir to the throne of Great Britain.  And when his father dies in a most utterly unexpected way, Alfie inherits everything.  Including the unfinished monster slaying business that went so wrong for his father.

For the kings of Britain are magical defenders of the realm, with a hereditary magical flying horse and suite of weapons. Alfie is forced to scramble not just to get his head around being king, but to learn to fight for his country as the current Defender (neither of which appeals.  He has trouble believing he could do a good job of either.  But the monstrous lizard dragon thing that killed his father is still out there....and Alfie must slay it.

An ordinary girl, Hayley, finds her own ordinary life disrupted when she sees the monster for herself, and witnesses Alfie's father's early attempt to defeat it, taking home with her one of the creatures scales.   She believes in the Defender of the Realm, and is happy to help Alfie as best she can....And he needs a friend he can trust, because sadly there are those working to bring him down.  She makes an excellent side-kick for him, with her confidence bolstering his faltering efforts to become the true hero he needs to be.

Many and various excitements ensue, as Alfie races to secure the magical wards of Britain before his adversary seizes them and become invincible.  It's not tremendously Deep, and doesn't dramatically break any new ground, but it is just fine for what it is--a magical, mythical adventure story whose pages turn quickly and pleasingly in fast-paced jaunts around Britain, with some thoughtful elements of character growth.

(Hayley is mixed-race, of Jamaican heritage, adding diversity.  Though primarily a side-kick, she's character enough in her own right and as a point-of-view protagonist to count this in my Diverse MG and YA speculative fiction list.)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

3/26/17

This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (3/26/17)

I am still missing google blog search something fierce.  I am pretty sure I am missing lots of MG speculative fiction reviews, but can't do much about it, other than to say that if I missed your post, please let me know! 

The Reviews

Ben Franklin: You've Got Mail, by Adam Mansbach, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Dead Air - The Kat Sinclair Files #1, by Michelle Schusterman, at The Write Path

The Door in the Alley, by Adrienne Kress, at Word Spelunking

Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull, at The Book Monsters and Word Spelunking

The Evil Wizard Smallbone, by Delia Sherman, at Fantasy Literature

Flyte , by Angie Sage, at Say What?

The Great Wave of Tamarind, by Nadia Aguier, at B. and N. Kids Blog

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar, at alibarymama

The House of Months and Years, by Emma Trevayne, at Charlotte's Library

Jed and the Junkyard War, by Steven Bohls, at Always in the Middle

King of Shadows, by Susan Cooper, at Bookish Ambition

Me and Marvin Gardens, by A.S. King, at The Book Monsters

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R. L. LaFevers, at Leaf's Reviews

William and the Witch's Riddle, by Shuta Crum, at Tales from the Raven

The Wizard's Dog, by Eric Kahn Gale, at Kid Lit Reviews

Three at Ms. Yingling Reads--Dragonwatch, by Brandon Sanderson, Last Day on Mars, by Kevin Emerson, and Dragon Captives, by Lisa McMann

Other Good Stuff

The Overarching Conflict in Middle Grade, at From the Mixed Up Files

3/21/17

The House of Months and Years, by Emma Trevayne, for Timeslip Tuesday

It's a bit of a spoiler to announce right off the bat that The House of Months and Years, by Emma Trevayne (Simon and Schuster, February 2017), is a book with time travel, but it's the sort of spoiler that might help you decide if its a book your interested in, and how else to review it for this week's Timeslip Tuesday?

10-year-old Amelia was happy with her family and her house and her best friend.  But when her aunt and uncle are killed, her parents pull up all her roots to move in with her three cousins-- two boys, one her age, one younger, and one baby girl.  The cousins' house is larger, and their lives of course had already been horribly disrupted, so that plan made sense to Amelia's parents.  And intellectually, Amelia can see the point.  Emotionally, however, she's a snarling mass of resentment (and her parents don't, in my own expert parenting opinion, spend enough time making sure she's ok, but of course they have the three bereaved children to look after...).

So Amelia is sore and cross.  Her cousins' house, however, is not without interest.  It's a calendar house, with all its architectural features tied to numbers related to time passing--the months, the days, the hours are reflected in its rooms, windows, and doors.  Even more extraordinary, it's original architect and inhabitant is still present, in a shadowy form of not quite corporal presence (though not a ghost).  And this occupant can travel through time, and is happy to take Amelia venturing to the past with him.  All he wants in exchange is for Amelia to be his apprentice....and Amelia, being disgruntled, finds the idea of being an immortal time traveler more than somewhat appealing.

But there are costs.  Horrible costs.  And there's a limit to how spoilery I'm willing to be so I won't say more.  It's this emotionally charged dilemma that is at the heart of the book, and which tilts it almost toward horror in a truly gripping rush toward the ending.

Though I was gripped by the story, and the pages turned, it didn't truly captivate me. For one thing, the time travel is of a tourist sort of variety.  The people in the past are alive around them, but don't seem them.  So it's not uninteresting, but not emotionally gripping.  The tension comes not from the visits to the past themselves, nor even from excursions to a sort of "other place"frequented by the group of time-travelers to which Amelia's guide belongs (though it is a fascinating scenario) but from within Amelia.  Though Amelia's decision about becoming a time traveler herself takes center stage at the end, the tension in the book begins with her refusal to accept her new situation living in her cousins' home with them as part of her immediate family.  And though I sympathize, it's hard to be all that sympathetic toward  her, because she really doesn't make much effort to be kind to her cousins or communicate with her parents.  This sulky unpleasantness of character is necessary for the plot to work, but diminished my enjoyment. 

So all in all, a well-written, gripping book with a beautifully memorable house that nevertheless didn't quite work for me personally.

3/19/17

This week's roundup of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/19/17)

Welcome to another week of links; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelly, at A Backwards Story

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Librarys

The Celestial Globe, by Marie Rutkoski, at Say What?

The Crooked Sixpence, by Jennifer Bell, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Word Spelunking

Dragonwatch: Revolt of the Dragons, by Brandon Mull, at Fantasy Literature and Cracking the Coverhttps://www.crackingthecover.com/13296/brandon-mull-dragonwatch/

The Evil Wizard Smallbone, by Delia Sherman, at Jean Little Library

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Geo Librarian

The Forgotten Sisters, by Shannon Hale, at Leaf's Reviews

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Sonderbooks

Magyc, by Angie Sage, at Say What?

The Night Spinner, by Abi Elphinstone, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Return Fire, by Christina Diaz, at On Starships and Dragonwings

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill, by Megan Shepherd, at Hidden in Pages

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at the Shannon Messenger Fan Club

The Wizard's Dilemma, by Diane Duane, at Fantasy Faction

Authors and Interviews

Eric Kahn Gale (The Wizard's Dog) at Word Spelunking

Joshuan Kahn (Shadow Magic) at Cybils

Laurel Snyder (Orphan Island) at Word Spelunking

Kandi Wyatt (Dragon's Future) at Word Spelunking

Other Good Stuff

Anne Nesbet "On Fiction, History, and Wishing the World Were Otherwise" with particular mention of A Crack in the Sea and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at Project Mayhem

3/14/17

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, for Timeslip Tuesday

I just gave Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe (Philomel Books, Feb. 2017, April 2014 in the UK)  five stars over at Goodreads, something I almost never do, not because I think it was an absolutely perfect book, but because it did what it set out to do very well indeed, and because it was a book I would have been so happy to find when I was the age of the target audience-11 -14 years old..  I loved  books in which the old stories and legends of the British Isles slipped through into the present day, with dark and dangerous consequences (books like The Owl Service, and A String in the Harp). (I still do, but a less naïvely romantic way....).  If I didn't already know better, I'd believe that Bone Jack was written back in the 1960s or 70s; it has very much the feel of so many excellent British children's books of that era. 

13 year-old Ash has won the competition to be this year's Stag Boy in a race that is now a quaint folkloric custom n his village in the north of England, but which  has dark roots--the other local boys, playing the hounds, are not expected these days to hunt the stag to his death in a ritual to renew the land,  but in the past.....It is a hard time for Ash's bit of the world--foot-and-mouth disease has wiped out the sheep, and a draught is drying up the land.  His best friend Mark's father killed himself after his sheep were slaughtered, and Ash's own father has come home from fighting in the Near East with PTSD.  

The darkness of the present calls to the past, and stirs up the old pattern.  Ash sees the ghosts of a past Stag Boy hunted till he falls from the cliff at Stag's Leap by merciless boys playing the hounds.  Bone Jack is walking the hills again, and the boundary between the past and present is slipping.  Mark, Ash's friend, will be a hound in this year's chase, but for Mark, who's now living wild in the hills, the Stag Chase has become a chance to bring his father back.  For that to happen, the Stag Boy must die.

So the story is filled with things inexplicable at first falling into an ancient grove, and the tension grows very nicely as Ash realizes that what had seemed a simple way of pleasing his father by running as the Stag Boy is turning into something that might end up with Mark trying to kill him.  He considers backing out, but he can't bring himself to do so....

It is not all mythos and ancient darkness--there are side notes of human relationships, giving Ash the opportunity for character growth, that I found moving and convincing--Ash and his mother hoping that Ash's father can come back to them, Ash's feeling of guilt from having pulled back from Mark after Mark's tragedy, Mark's little sister coping as best she can with the tragedy and now with the madness, that has overtaken her life.

I'm counting this as a time slip not because any of the main characters travel through time, but because the Past, embodied in a sense in Bone Jack, has very much awoken in the present.  The boys of the Stag Hunt long ago are perhaps ghosts, or time slipped echoes, but there is a wolf who has slipped from the past in true corporeal form, and that's good enough for me.

So if you like Celtic infused fantasy in which there isn't a Prophecy or a Chosen One or an epic struggle against a power hungry Dark Lord, but in which the tension comes from old stories manifesting in the present, you will like this one!  It might look like YA, but it isn't quite; it's being marketed as 10 and up (in the grades 4-6 slot at School Library Journal, and ages 11-13 at Kirkus), which is as it should be.  I don't know how many young Celtophiles/Anglophies there are today, but it's also a good one for kids who like horror.

My one real, strong, substantial objection to the American edition of Bone Jack is that they Americanized it, most obviously substituting "Mom" for "Mum."  Which subverts the whole point of the book being rooted in its particular, very non-American place.  And which also makes me wonder, in a suspicious and vaguely hostile way, what other changes were made for the American edition...

But in any event, Sara Crowe is now an auto-buy author for me (I think I will go with her UK editions, although I strongly prefer the American cover of this one; the UK cover is at right), and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Here's the Kirkuk Review, which more or less comes to the same conclusion as I do.


3/13/17

Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White

Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White (Harper Voyager, January 2017), has an incredibly catchy premise--Pride and Prejudice with dragons!  And if you find that an appealing thought, you should definitely add this one to your pile.  NB--I have read P. and P. more times than I can remember, so I'll be sprinkling this post with references to the original...

Aliza Bentaine lost her little sister to a gryphon attack (Kitty didn't add much to the original so her death doesn't have much affect on the plot, except that here it gives Aliza a backstory of loss and fear that adds to her character arc).  The gryphons are just one of a number of mythological creatures attacking this version of England, but happily there are other creatures who have joined with humankind to fight back.  Some brave men and women fight on foot, others ride on wyverns and dragons...The people of Aliza's community, Merybourne Manor, have scraped together enough money to hire a group of riders to solve their gryphon problem, but get more than they paid for when one of the hired guns turns out to be a dragon rider, the most elite fighter there is.

Alaister Daired is very conscious of just how elite he and his family are, and he turns out to be a most unlikeable individual. Aliza, for good reasons, quickly forms a prejudice against him.  Her older sister, however, quickly forms an attachment to Daired's wyvern-riding best friend, Brysney....(and instead of simple house calls and formal dances, we get gryphon slaying, in which Aliza is forced to take a much more active a role than she wished to, slaying one herself.  Although there is also a dance).

A band of Rangers, foot-soldiers not bounded to fantastical creatures and much lower in the social hierarchy, show up in town too, including the not-unappealing Wydrick, who tells Aliza how Daired wronged him, lowering her opinion of him even more.  Mr. Curdred, the heir to the manor, also arrives, and (in as much as he is playing the part of Mr. Collins), asks Aliza to marry him  (Mr. Curdred has more too him than at first appears, unlike Mr. Collins)....and of course her dear friend ends up doing so (although for somewhat unexpected reasons).

So far, so good with P. and P. retelling; everyone is assembled and recognizable, although there are sufficient twists to the story and setting to make this more than just a rehashing of the original.  I was thrown off by "Mary" being described as an introspective blue-stocking, as both concepts post-date Jane Austen's period, and indeed I was never really convinced I was in a Regency England equivalent,  but the excitements of monster hunting, the introduction of a strange shadowy character only Aliza can see, and other assorted bits of magicalness made the story unique enough so that I was willing to ignore this. 

And then we get to my favorite bits of the story, the real meat of the romance, to which the author is faithful enough to please me while allowing dragons, Daired's dragon in particular, to have speaking parts...and the equivalent of the "Pemberley" scenes was lovely, although Daired's transformation in certain particulars seemed unconvincing if looked at too closely.

Though I would have been happy to stay at Pemberely and enjoy the rising consciousness of love on Aliza's part (and shirtless Daired),  perforce I was whisked to an epic and dramatic monster battle, that gave Leyda's (Lydia) story a much more interesting arc than simply eloping with Wydrick, and also, satisfyingly, gave Mr. Brysney's sister (a monster hunter in her own right) a chance to do more than just hate Aliza for winning Daired's heart.  Though perhaps not as exquisitely intelligent as Elizabeth Bennett (who is?), Aliza is a more active agent in the plot (it helps that there's a more active plot in which to be an active participant), and this turned out to be an appealing part of the story.  I also appreciated that characters who were one dimensional idiots in the original are given more complexity here.

It was a somewhat distracting read, because of knowing the original so well...though I enjoyed it, and a lot of the fun was seeing the familiar transformed, it made it hard to evaluate this reimagining on its own merit.  I am pretty sure it works, though; the dragons and mortal peril add enough of a difference to make it feel like its own, exciting and romantic, story!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

3/12/17

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (3/12/17)

Welcome to this week's round-up of what I gathered online this week of interest to fans of middle grade sci fi and fantasy.  Please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Bone Snatcher, by Charlotte Salter, at The Book Smugglers

Boy X, by Dan Smith, at Say What?

Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull, at Fantasy Faction

Dream Magic, by Joshua Kahn, at Say What?

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at For Those About to Mock and books4yourkids.com

If the Magic Fits (100 Dresses #1), by Susan Maupin Schmid, at Log Cabin Library

Me and Marvin Gardens, by Amy Sarig King, at The New York Times 

Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded, by Sage Blackwood, at Kirkus

Payback (Masterminds #3), by Gordon Korman, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training, by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater, at The Book Monsters and Charlotte's Library

Riverkeep, by Martin Stewart, at Sharon the Librarian

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Kahn, at alibrarymama

Showing Off (Upside Down Magic #3) by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Siege of Macindaw by John Flanagan, at Leaf's Reviews

Skyborn, by Lou Anders, at Fantasy Literature

Talons of Power, by Sage Blackwood, at Kitty Cat at the Library

Tricked n(Fairy Tale Reform School #3), by Jen Calonita, at Mom Read It

The Tundra Trails, by Monica Tesler, at Say What?

You Can't Hide (Shadow House) by Dan Poblocki, at The O.W.L.

Authors and Interviews

Margaret Dilloway (Xander and the Dream Thief: Momotaro #2), at Word Spelunking

Other Good Stuff

"Women who lead the Wild Hunt," at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Save the date for Kidlitcon 2017, in Hershey PA, on November 3rd and 4th--it promises to be a great weekend of books and friends and Chocolate!  Once again I'm the program organizer, and even though I've not officially posted a call for proposals, please get in touch if you want to come talk about something relevant to Childrens/YA  book reading and reviewing.

3/9/17

Goodbye Days, by Jeff Zentner

Not to brag, but I have always been good at crying appropriately when reading sad books.  When my boys were born, though, any horrible thing happening to a little child became almost unreadable*....and now that they are teenagers, just about the saddest book I could think of to read would be one in which three beautiful boys die and the story is all about the grief and guilt and gut-churning loss suffered by their best friend, who blames himself for the tragedy.  That book just happens to be Goodbye Days, by Jeff Zentner (Crown Books for Young Readers, YA, March 7 2017), and I knew what I was getting when offered a copy, but said yes regardless because Zentner just won the Morris Award for The Serpent King and I am trying to be Open about reading outside my middle grade speculative fiction niche.  Which is how I found myself sniveling softly during my lunch break at work (it really is a good thing, for so many reasons, that I have the basement of work all to myself....).

I'm not going to try to describe the four boys involved; readers should meet them for themselves.  But they were funny, and smart, and talented, and they were best friends.  And one of them, Carver, the main character by virtue of being the one who didn't die, sent a text to the three who were driving over to get him.  And he sent it to Mars, who was driving.  And Mars was texting back when his car crashed, and all three boys died.

The book is about the aftermath of the accident, and it is harrowing because there is just a world of hurt, not just Carver's pain, but that of his friends' families.   Carver spends a day with each of them, sharing things the families didn't know, learning things he didn't know, and working on the long slow process not of healing, exactly, but of letting his love and memories of his friends be part of the new life he has to make without them.  Fortunately for the feelings of the reader, there are lots of flashbacks to happier times that are funny and warm, and fortunately too Carver in the present is able to find help and doesn't drown.

I'd call it un-put-downable, except that I had to put it down because of being too weepy every so often.  But with no caveats at all, I can tell you that it makes some of the clearest, most vivid, character-pictures of just about any book I've read.  You will feel like you know these four boys, and you will grieve for all of them. While I can't in good conscience urge parents of teenaged boys to read it, I think that teens who want weighty and emotional reading will love it.

And they will perhaps be less likely to text and drive themselves, which is all to the good.

There's diversity here--one of the boys is black, another had an Asian girlfriend who becomes Carver's chief mainstay.  There's a bit of  economic diversity included as well--one of the boys had a horrific childhood of neglectful abusive poverty before his grandmother swept in.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

*if you have an 8-10 year old-ish boy, do not read Ways to Live for Ever by Sally Nichols unless you want to audition for a role that requires you to look like hell or some such.

3/7/17

Seven Stitches, by Ruth Tenzer Feldman, for Timeslip Tuesday

Seven Stitches, by Ruth Tenzer Feldman (Ooligan Press, Feb. 2017), is both a time travel story and a gripping YA novel about a girl coping with the loss of her mother that's set in a near future America.  The year is 2058, the place is Portland, and the global warming has not been kind, but has not yet been catastrophic. Meryam and her biologist mom live in a big old house and keep chickens and goats; things are much like now, only different in believable ways.  But then the earthquake hits, the Big One.  And Meryam's mom was down on the coast that day, and she doesn't come home.  Months pass with no word, but Meryam can't give up hope.  Her home has been filled by other people--her African American/Vietnamese/Jewish grandmother and her great aunt have moved in, people in need of shelter have been rehoused under her roof, and Bandon, a young man who's part of a forbidden organization fighting homelessness, has shown up to offer the services of his male goat to Meryam's surviving female one, and ends up staying too.

Meryam throws herself into the busyness of everyday life as best she can, but can barely distract from her conviction that her mother is still alive.  Reading along, I expected Bandon to be a typical YA distraction, and Meryam to find connections to her grandmother, and for her to find some big sense of purpose, and to an extent these things happen....except that Bandon is gay (and says so right at the beginning), her grandmother not really the connecting type, and her sense of purpose external to her own life is sort of a one shot deal.

But there's also the distraction of time travel.  A mysterious woman, Serakh, shows up out of nowhere in Meryam's house, explaining that women in past generations of Meryam's family have been in the habit of time travelling to do necessary things in the past, and that now she has come to take Meryam back in the past to do a necessary thing--to save a little girl in 16th century Constantinople from slavery.  And there in the past the thread of her own story is twisted, all to briefly, with a bit of her mother's.  Time travel with Serakh is made easy with universal language comprehension, and though there are difficulties and twists to the adventure in the past that made things interesting, I didn't read it with the same intent immersion as I did the story of Meryam's present day life.

That being said, it's a book I recommend with conviction (I read it first in January, and have just now read it again, and didn't mind in the least!) but I'm not convinced that the time travel is sufficiently integrated into the central narrative of Meryam's life.  I think that even if it were cut out completely, there'd still be a really good, really solid YA sci-fi-ish story to enjoy.  That being said, I didn't mind the time travel, and it does give both Meryam and the reader plenty of food for thought....but it was fairly mundane time travel compared to the details of Meryam's real life which I found much more interesting (this could be just me, as I tend to enjoy lots of description of mundane details of house and garden tasks, which is perhaps Sad, as Donald Trump would say, but there it is).  So in the end, I'd really suggest reading this one for a fascinating near future YA growing up/coping with grief story, at which it excels!

This is the third book by Ruth Tenzer Feldman about Serakh and the blue thread that binds her to Meryam's family, the others being Blue Thread, and The Ninth Day, both of which I'm going to look for now for future timeslip Tuesdays!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

3/6/17

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training, by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training, by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce (Scholastic, Feb. 28 2017), is the second story of Pip and the magical creatures she's determined to become an expert on!  In Pip's world, creatures like unicorns are real, and she has the unusual ability of being able to communicate directly with them.  She also has an aunt who's a vet specializing in magical creatures, giving her a chance to get to know many of them up close (sometime too much so) and personal.

In her first appearance (Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures), among other adventures she met a most unusual unicorn.  Instead of being a vain, self-absorbed snot like just about every other show unicorn, Regent Maximus is a neurotic mess, afraid of everything.  Yet Regent Maximus' owner has entered him into the competition that's basically the Westminster Kennel Club for unicorns, and even though the unicorns aren't the only creatures on display, and Pip was looking forward to expand her magical creature studies, she feels responsible for helping poor R.M. cope.

But her attention is distracted when other unicorns are attacked; someone is cutting off unicorn tales!  Though this increases R.M.'s chance of placing in the competition, Pip is determined to do what she can to stop the perpetrator, and since she can talk directly to all the magical creatures, maybe she can find a witness....

A nice little side story is Pip's hyper-allergic friend, Tomas, who finds a magical creature that he can (if he can convince his parents) keep as a pet....

These are great books for the 8 or 9 year old who loves fantasy creatures, and for whom "magical vet"  sounds like just the best job in the world! The unicorns have lots of personality (even though its not all charming personality), there are lots more fun creatures introduced here, and the mystery is satisfactorily resolved (it's a do evil that good might come sort of crime, adding a smidge of ethical thought provoking-ness to the mix). 

Short answer--fun and charming!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

3/5/17

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/5/`7)

Welcome to another week's worth of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs!  Please let me know if I missed your post, and I'll put it in.

The Reviews

The Battle of Hackham Heath, by John Flanagan, at Say What?

Beauty, by Robin McKinley, at Redeemed Reader

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelly, at Fantasy Book Critic

The Blazing Bridge, by Carter Roy, at Mom Read It, Always in the Middle, and Geo Librarian

Choke, by Obert Skye, at Say What?

The Crooked Sixpence, by Jennifer Bell, at Log Cabin Library

Disenchanted: the Trials of Cinderella, by Megan Morrison, at Leaf's Reviews and Pages Unbound

The Doll's Eye, by Marina Cohen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, by David Nielsen, at Got My Book (audiobook review)

Horizon, by Scott Westerfeld, at The Write Path

The House of Months and Years, by Emma Trevayne, at Sharon the Librarian

Nightborn, by Lou Anders, at Fantasy Literature

Ollie's Odyssey, by William Joyce, at Charlotte's Library

Realm Breaker, by Laurie McKay, at Charlotte's Library

Tut: My Epic Battle To Save the World, by P.J. Hoover, at B. and N. Kids Blog

Three at The Bookshelf Gargoyle--What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible, by Ross Welford, and Shane Hegarty's Darkmouth books.

Authors and Interviews

P.J. Hoover (Tut) on creating promotional extras, at Cynsations

Other Good Stuff

A tribute to Ruth Chew at Time Travel Times Two

The women of NASA Lego project is a GO! (read more at Tor)

3/1/17

Ollie's Odyssey, by William Joyce

One of the things that happens to me every year when I'm a judge for the Cybils is a review backlog, and concomitant guilt, partly because I appreciate the publisher's making the effort to send review copies, and partly because the books I haven't reviewed are just sitting here at home instead of up the street at the public library making new friends (I've been doing it so long that books I donated to the library my first year of doing the Cybils are now being weeded....sigh).  But in any event, this evening I am posting about one of the review copies that came my way--Ollie's Odyssey, by William Joyce (Atheneum, April 2016)  one that I think the young library patrons and their parents will be very pleased with. 

It is a stuffed toy come to life book, but though that has been done before, Joyce has made a fresh and interesting story from it.  Ollie was made by Billy's mom to be his special friend, and they love each other very much.  But then one horrible day Ollie is kidnapped! And Billy must break his parents rules, and head out alone into the night, to find his most Favorite friend.

There's a whole back story to the kidnapper, a clown doll named Zozo, who presided over a carnival booth.  There he fell in love with a ballerina doll, who was taken from him to be the favorite of a little girl.  Warped by this loss, Zozo turned dark, and created an army of clockwork creeps to scour the world for favorite stuffed toys and dolls, hoping to somehow find the one doll he's seeking.  And Ollie, being a favorite, has fallen into Zozo's hands.....

But Ollie, being a very bright stuffed toy indeed, escapes, and finds himself in a junkyard.  There he finds unlikely allies, who agree to take on Zozo's army of creeps and save the other toys.  His new friends are a very odd crew indeed--including a bottle opener, a pet rock, and an aluminum can, but though odd they are stalwart.  As is Billy, still a very little kid making his way through the dark night to find his friend.

And all ends well, which is satisfying.

Joyce's charming illustrations, of which there are many, bring the characters to life, and though Zozo the clown doll is scary as all get out (as is the case with so many malevolent clown dolls), the sweetness of Ollie compensates.  The result is a lovely read to share with young kids who can cope with malevolent clown dolls!  I don't think it's one that most  4th and 5th graders would be interested in, but on the other hand, a 2nd or 3rd grader who is not in too much of a hurry to grow up themselves might well enjoy reading it to themselves. 

2/27/17

Realm Breaker (Last Dragon Charmer 3), by Laurie McKay

Realm Breaker is the third book in Laurie McKay's Last Dragon Charmer series (Harper Collins, March 7, 2017).  The books tell of a young prince and a young girl who's a magic user, inadvertently exiled from their magical homeland to Asheville, North Carolina. There Caden and Brynne found that Ms. Primrose, the principal of the middle school they were forced to attend by their new foster mother is actually a powerful dragon, of uncertain temper, presiding over a staff consisting of banished villains. 

At the end of the second book, the leader of the villains, a  truly sinister fellow, has overthrown the dragon principal and is setting up a dark magical spell  that will allow him to access the magical realm and take control there too.  Caden is naturally determined to stop this evil plan.  But though he has allies in Asheville, and though he has magical gift of his own for persuasively charming speech, it's not at all clear whether he'll be able to do so.  Especially since the dragon ex-principal is being pushed toward her own dark side....

This series is tremendously fun in general, in its lighthearted use of High Fantasy conventions mixed with the real world of Asheville, where Caden is in foster care.  And this third book, not having to set the stage, spends less time playing with Caden's confusion about life in the real world (though he's still confounded at times), giving McKay room to up the ante of the plot.  There's lots of  suspense and danger, making for truly gripping reading! 

The world building of the fantasy realm and its inhabitants is strengthened here, adding interest, and the relationship between Caden and his older brother (banished to Asheville under a cloud of suspicion) is also given more depth. Though there are lots of great character interactions, it's especially fun to see Caden gingerly negotiating with Ms. Primrose, who is one of the most diverting dragon characters of the current middle grade fantasy scene!

Fans of the series will not be disappointed, and younger middle grader aficionados of magical mayhem (the 9 to 11 year olds not ready for YA) should seek the books out post haste!  Here's my review of the first book, Villain Keeper, and the second book, Quest Maker.  Realm Breaker builds on the strengths of these two, making for very good reading indeed!  This installment ends at a good ending point, but there are lots of questions and unresolved issues left, so hopefully there will be more to come!

final note--  I want to share the link to the Goodreads page for the book, because Ms. Yingling's review there gives a lovely detailed summary, and because she loved it, though she is not naturally drawn to middle grade fantasy, so I think her admiration for the series is about as shining a testimonial as one can get....

disclaimer: review copy received (with great happiness) from the author

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