This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Happy Day Light Savings Time (I guess), and welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction postings from around the blogs. Please let me know if I missed yours!

The Reviews:

An Acceptable Time, by Madeline L'Engle, at Tor

Astercote, by Penelope Lively, at Charlotte's Library

The Crowfield Demon, by Pat Walsh, at Fantasy Literature

Dragonskin Slippers, by Jessica Day George, at Nayu's Reading Corner, followed by Dragon Flight here, and Dragon Spear here

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens (audio book review), at Bunbury in the Stacks

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Fantasy Matters

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Books of Wonder and Wisdom, Shannon Messenger (giveaway) and Waking Brain Cells

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, at A Strong Belief in Wicker (I used to think this was YA, but after watching my sixth grader and his colleagues avidly consuming it, I guess it's middle grade too...)

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, edited by Kazu Kibuishi, at 100 Scope Notes and books4yourkids.com

The Inquisitor's Apprentice, by Chris Moriarty, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Lens and the Looker, by Lory. S. Kaufman, at The O.W.L.

Mouse Guard: Winter of 1152, by David Peterson, at Karissa's Reading Review

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath, at books4yourkids.com and Confessions of a Bibliovore

On the Blue Comet, by Rosemary Wells, at BookMoot

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Middle Grade Mafioso (giveaway) and Fuse #8

Popular Clone, by M.E. Castle, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Princess of the Wild Swans, by Diane Zahler, at Good Books and Good Wine

Scary School, by Derek the Ghost, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Secret World of Arietty, vol. 2, by Studio Ghibli, at Back to Books

Talina in the Tower, by Michelle Lovric, at The Book Zone

When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean, by Jan Andrews, at Charlotte's Library

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, at Intergalactic Academy

The Wide-Awake Princess, by E.D. Baker, at The O.W.L. (giveaway)

A two-for-one time travel pair--Archer's Quest, by Linda Sue Park, and Frozen in Time, by Ali Sparks, at Time Travel Times Two

And a three-for-one, of the books by Randall Jarrell, illustrated by Maurice Sendak ---Fly by Night, The Animal Family, and The Bat-Poet-- at Book Aunt

Authors and Interviews

Robert Pease (Noah Zarc--Mammoth Trouble) on writing for boys at The O.W.L.

Stephanie Burgis (Kat, Incorrigible) on writing middle grade at The O.W.L. (giveaway)

Derek the Ghost (Scary School) at Everything to do With Books

Other Good Stuff

"An Unscheduled Rant: The Death of Science Fiction and Unrepentant Ignorance of YA Sf" at The King of Elfland's Second Cousin

"Why Middle Grade Fantasy Novels Can be Educational" at Pineapple Press, Inc.

Amy shares pictures from her library's Wrinkle in Time party at Amy's Library of ROCK

The program for the Book Expo America Bloggers Conference (Monday, June 4) is up! I am on the fence about going this year--I want to make sure first that there will be lots of people I want to see there before I commit to giving up three days of precious vacation time!

And finally, in 1939 "Sparko" became the first robot dog killed chasing a car (thanks io9). Sparko seems to have been a nice dog; here is a Sparko (there were three of them) at the 1939 World Fair, just before his untimely end (and you can see more pictures here):