This Sunday's roundup of middle-grade fantasy and science fiction

Welcome to this week's round-up of posts from around the blogging world about middle-grade science-fiction and fantasy! Please let me know if I missed yours, and, since this is a regular Sunday feature, please feel free to send me links during the week for next time!

Reviews:

Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor, at Debuts and Reviews, and one of its sequel Silksinger at Children Come First.

Calamity Jack, by Shannon and Dean Hale, at Book Nut (and check out the paper dolls illustrator Nathan Hale has made! Cool).

There's a look back at Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, at Red House Books (this is one of my favorite time travel stories ever!)

Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at A Fuse #8 Production. (I've never actually read this myself, and it sounded science-fictiony, but apparently it's not--see Monica's comment below)

A Different Day, a Different Destiny, by Annette Laing, at Charlotte's Library.

Dragon Games, by P.W. Catanese, at Eva's Book Addiction.

The First Escape, by G.P. Taylor, at Becky's Book Reviews.

The Magician's Elephant, at Becky's Book Reviews.

Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, at Sonderbooks.

The Roar, by Emma Clayton, at Charlotte's Library.

The Society for Unrelenting Vigilance (Candleman Book 1), by Glenn Dakin, at Fantasy Book Critic.

Toby Alone, by Timothee Fombelle, at Critique de Mr. Chompchomp (who also shares the news that a sequel, Toby and the Secrets of the Tree, is on its way!)

Interviews and miscellaneous items of interest:

Kazu Kibuishi talks about his new book Copper, a graphic novel about a boy and his talking dog, here at Zack Smith: Writer, and here at Newsarama. (Readers of Flight, Volume One, have already met Copper--thanks to my 9 year old for pointing this out). Copper was just released, but already has been named a Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2009. (Kibuishi is also the creator of the Amulet graphic novels for kids, and Amulet 3 seems to be nearing completion...)

This year's winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction is the graphic novel The Storm in the Barn, which is also a fantasy. This has sparked some discussion about fantasy and historical fiction at Oz and Ends, Educating Alice, and here at Charlotte's Library.

Tiffany at Eudaimonium has proposed "a one-day virtual conference sometime in late March or April. I want this to be a truly useful conference to writers and aficionados of MG/YA SFF. Many of us see the same panels over and over again at conferences, making us feel like we've wasted time and money. How might we do it differently? What panels would you like to see that you haven't seen?" The technology part of this daunts me, but it sounds like it could be a good and interesting thing!

And finally, at Kidliterate there's An Argument in Favor of Waiting for Harry, with which I heartily agree! There are lots of great suggestions in the post itself and in the comments for other books (fantasy and otherwise) for kids who aren't ready to be hurried into Harry Potter.