This Sunday's Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction Round-up!

Hi, and welcome to the first sff mg round-up of fall! This time next week, Cybils nominations will have opened, and (whether or not I am a panelist), I will be obsessively checking the list of what is getting nominated for mg sff! I myself don't know what I want to nominate in most of the categories--I like to hold back, and see if any books that I love still need putting forward. My one exception is Zita the Space Girl, which I am going to try to get in right at the beginning in the graphics novel category, refreshing my screen over and over as I wait for nominations to open... (Life is more fun if you make as much out of small happenings as you can).

But at any event, I'm sure that the big names of mg sff published this last October to October year will be up there--The Emerald Atlas, The Unwanteds,
Breadcrumbs, The Dragon's Tooth, Kat, Incorrigible, etc. The Cybils, though, is a wonderful place for a lesser known books to find love and attention, so I'm hoping that the list of nominations will include books I've never heard of that I fall in love with!

And now, the Reviews:

The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, at Candace's Book Blog

Astronaut Academy, by Dave Roman, at Wandering Librarians

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at A Patchwork of Books, Fantasy Literature, Read Now Sleep Later, and books4yourkids

The Dark City, by Catherine Fisher, at Reading Vacation

Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Eva's Book Addiction

Frogspell, by C.J. Busby, at Wondrous Reads and Tor

The Girl Who Cirumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Vallente, at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy.

Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld, at The Intergalactic Academy (a new sci fi ya blog in town!) and at Libri Dilectio

The Inside Story (Sisters Grimm), by Michael Buckley, at Biblio File

Jennifer Murdley's Toad, by Bruce Coville, at Postcards from La-La Land.

Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Middle Grade Ninja

Kittatinny: A Tale of Magic, by Joanna Russ, at Tor

The Last Council (Amulet Book 4) by Kazu Kibuishi, at Green Bean Teen Queen There's a Book (who are both giving away copies, as am I, in this post here)

Larklight, by Philip Reeve, at Anita Silvey's Book-a-day Almanac

Nightshade City, by Hilary Wagner, at Geo Librarian

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at ck2s kwips and kritiques

Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, at Fantasy Literature

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at A Backwards Story

Radiance, by Alyson Noel, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Rendering, by Joel Naftali, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Search for Wond-La, by Tony DiTerilizzi, at Donna St Cyr (plus giveaway)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin, at Undusty New Books

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at My Favorite Books

Wise Child, by Monica Furlong, at The Accidental Novelist

At Black and White, Anne's gathered a list of four fantasy books she's dubbed lesser known treasures

Authors and Interviews:

M.P. Kozlowsky (Juniper Berry) at Middle Grade Ninja

Laurel Snyder (Bigger Then a Breadbox) at From the Mixed Up Files

Bruce Hale (Chet Gecko) at From the Mixed Up Files

Other good stuff:

"Dubious Monarchy in the World of L. Frank Baum" at Oz and Ends

The LA Times celebrates 50 years of the Phantom Tollbooth

Chris Riddell's top ten author/illustrator pairings at The Gaurdian

Robin McKinley is having an auction to benefit needy church bells in England--included are signed copies of her books, and a selection of mostly out of print books by her husband, Peter Dickinson. One of Robin's books being auctioned is A Knot in the Grain, which contains one of my most loved short stories ever....and, very temptingly, a signed copy of Anne Bechelier's illustrated Rose Daughter (one illustration shown at right, but do click through here to see more)