Hi everyone! Here are the middle grade science fiction and fantasy blog postings I found this week---please let me know if I missed yours.
The Reviews
Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Heise Reads & Recommends
The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile
Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Bart's Bookshelf
Floors, by Patrick Carman, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge, at By Singing Light
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente, at Finding Wonderland
Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld, at Book Yurt and Bart's Bookshelf
Happenstance Found, by P.W. Catanese, at Abby the Librarian
The History Keepers: The Storm Begins, by Damian Dibben, at The Book Zone (For Boys)
Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Bookalicious
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, at Challenging the Bookworm
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford, at Musings of a Restless Mind
Janitors, by Ty Whitesides, at Elana Johnson
The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen, at Bea's Book Nook
The Magnificent 12: The Call, and The Trap, by Michael Grant, at The Book Smugglers, and The Call at Book Dreaming
A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Bookends
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog and Page in Training
Return to Exile, by E. J. Patten, at Other Stuff Exists
Sally's Bones, by MacKenzie Cadenhead, at Wicked Awesome Books
The Scarcrow and His Servant, by Philip Pullman, at Fantasy Literature
Small Persons With Wings, by Ellen Booraem, at Jean Little Library
The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley, at Sonderbooks
Smells Like Treasure, by Suzanne Selfors, at Donna St. Cyr
The Softwire, Books 1 and 2--Virus on Orbis, and Betrayal on Orbis, by P.J. Haarsma, at Books and Movies
Stinkbomb, by Rob Stevens, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Steph Su Reads and Libri Dilectio
The Wikkeling, by Steven Arnston, at books4yourkids
Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Figment
Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke, at Wandering Librarians
Authors and Interviews:
Julia Durango (Sea of the Dead--my review) at Following My Dreams -- she's currently working on a mg fantasy novel set in the Andean highlands in collaboration with Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I'm sold!
Sue Perkins (the forthcoming Spirit Stealer) at Rebecca Ryals Russell
Other things of interest:
Back to school time is here! Here's a post on sci fi books for kids with schools at Suite 101, and here's a post about education in fantasy books at The Enchanted Inkpot.
Tablet has a feature on "Going Golem" (not the Lord of the Rings Golem, but Jewish golems in children's books)
Here's my compilation of the new releases of mg sff for the beginning of September.
And don't forget, all you mg sff reading and reviewing folks, that the time to put your name in the ring for the Cybils Awards is Now! (lots more people volunteer to be panelists than there are slots for, and I know picture books and YA are always inundated, but I am really curious about what happens with mg sff. Is there a glut or a dearth of people making it their first choice?)
Finally-- two people contacted me who I could not help, and I was wondering if any of you all could!
Request the first: A teacher of 4th and 5th graders is doing unit on archetypal characters ala Joseph Campbell. She's seeking a sci fi/fantasy short story to illustrate the archetype of the Threshold Guardian-- "The threshold is the gateway to the new world the hero must enter to change and grow. The threshold guardian is usually not the story's antagonist. Only after this initial test has been surpassed will the hero face the true contest and the arch-villain."
She's also looking for stories illustrating the shapeshifter and the shadow characters.
Request the second: a blog reader is looking a time travel book at least ten year old, shelved near Katherine Paterson. She says: "The title that I "remember" was Inbetween Time, which apparently is non-existent in the book world. The book was part of a trilogy series and the main character was named Strauss and a girl. The basic story line was that a girl would travel back in time and she fell in love with Strauss. I think it was based in the 1800's when she did travel back. Basically, she had to decide rather to stay with him or come back to her own time because he could not travel with her."
Any thoughts?
That's quite a roundup. I'll have to mark your site as a resource.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting a link to the review.