Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy from around the blogs--this week's roundup

Welcome to yet another Sunday of middle grade fantasy and science fiction reviews and news from around the blogs. Although every day I toil for hours, neglecting all other commitments to scour the blogging world for mg sff goodness, I'm sure I am missing stuff, and would love to be given more links! (it's actually not really all that toilsome--and I like doing it). So anyway, here it is again.

Just one more note: I'm defining the upper limit of "middle grade" these days as anything I'd give to an eleven or twelve year old, which includes things labeled "YA."

Reviews, reflections, and remarks:

Athena the Brian (Godess Girls) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams at Welcome to My Tweendom.

The Boneshaker, by Kate Milford (2010), at BoingBoing and BSC Kids.

Clair de Lune, by Cassandra Golds (2004/2006), at Charlotte's Library.

Dark Days (Skulduggery Pleasant), by Derek Landy (2010) at Books & Other Thoughts.

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, at The Antick Musings of G.B.H.Hornswoggler, Gent., and at Eva's Book Addiction.

Middleworld, by J. & P. Voelkel (2010), at What to Read.

Night Fairy, by Laura Amy Schlitz (2010), at Great Kid Books

Plain Kate, by Erin Bow (September 2010), at Abby (the) Librarian.

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan (2010), at Bellaonbooks Blog.

The Sixty Eight Rooms, by Marianne Malone (2010), at Literate Lives.

The Time Bike, by Jane Langton (2000), at Charlotte's Library.

Vampirates: Tide of Terror, by Justin Somper (2009) at Nayu's Reading Corner.

Wiff and Dirty George: the Z.E.B.R.A. Incident, by Stephen Swinburne (2010) at Fuse #8.

Fantasy Literature is a site that aspires to review just about every children's fantasy book every--this week's new addition to their archives is a look at Eulalia, by Brian Jacques.

Ms. Yingling offered a smorgasboard of goodness this week, in these posts--Viking Aliens go Hunting, Horses and Unicorns, and Emperors, Queens, and Pharaohs!

Katherine Langresh (author of the The Shadow Hunt, aka Dark Angels in the UK, which is up next on my reading pile-yay!) is one of those bloggers who writes the sort of long and thoughtful topical posts I never seem moved to write, but wish I did :). Here's her take on Fairytale Heroines.

If you aren't familiar with Bookie Woogie, you are missing a fun and funny blog, where a dad talks with his kids about the books they read--here are Dad (Aaron Zenz) and Isaac (11 years old) talking about Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and other fantasy as well.

Here's Greg Van Eekhout talking about his new book, Kid Vs Squid, on John Scalzi's Whatever.

I also just wanted to mention a blog that's new to me--KinderScares, which features a wide variety of horror for the young, like yesterday's look at The Big Book of Horror.

Author Interviews:

Christine Brodien Jones, author of The Owl Keeper, at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Jennifer Cervantes, author of Tortilla Sun, at La Bloga.

Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror, at Fuse #8

Kate Milford, author of The Boneshaker, at Chasing Ray.

And finally, here are The Hazerdous Players, creators of Knightime, interviewed at Finding Wonderland.

One last thing. I don't generally talk about movies, but this involves a favorite author of mine (Ursula Le Guin):

Tales from Earthsea, a 2006 anime film directed by Gorō Miyazaki, will be released in the US this August. It is not to be confused with the Sci-Fi Channel's mini-series. For more on the horror that was, here is Ursula Le Guin's article at Slate, entitled "A Whitewashed Earthsea: How the Sci Fi Channel Wrecked My Books."