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

Hi everyone. Here's this weeks round-up of all the middle grade sci fi and fantasy posts etc. I found in my blog reading this week! Please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews:

Above World, by Jenn Reese, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Between Two Ends, by David Ward, at Lisa is Busy Nerding

The Cheshire Cheese Cat, by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright (audio book review), at Abby the Librarian

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, at The Children's War

Entwinned, by Heather Dixon, at Read in a Single Sitting

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, Kazu Kibuishi, ed. at The HappyNappyBookseller

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Geo Librarian, The Book Smugglers, The Reading BookWyrm, Reading Between Classes, BooksYALove, Fantasy's Ink, and Charlotte's Library

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre, at Waking Brain Cells

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Tor

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at YA Sleuth

The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary, at Middle Grade Ninja

Neversink, by Barry Wolverton, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia (giveaway) and The Write Path (also a giveaway)

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Paperquake, by Kathryn Reiss, at Charlotte's Library

Project Jackalope, by Emily Ecton, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Quest for the Secret Keeper, by Victoria Laurie, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley,in the New York Times Sunday Book Review

Return to Exile, by Eric Patten, at Geo Librarian

The Rise of the Darklings, by Paul Crilley, at Books Beside My Bed

The Ruins of Noe, by Danika Dinsmore, at Book Twirps

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lindquist, at Nye Louwon

The Song of the Quark Beast, by Jasper Fforde, at Bart's Bookshelf

Spirit Fighter, by Jerel Law, at Sharon the Librarian

The Storm Makers, by Jennifer E. Smith, at Ms. Yingling Reads (scroll down)

Sword of Light, by Katherine Roberts, at Rebecca's Book Blog

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex (audio book review), at Good Books and Good Wine

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Phillipa Pearce, and The Doll in the Garden, by Mary Downing Hahn, at Time Travel Times Two

The Wind of Life Series, by Oliver Neubert, at The Musings of a Book Addict

You Can't Have My Planet, But Take My Brother, Please, by James Mihaley, at Ms. Martin Teaches Media

Young Fredle, by Cynthia Voigt (audio book review) at Library Mama

The Zombie Chasers, by John Kloepfer, at Ms. Yingling Reads (scroll down)

Authors and Interviews:

Eric Patten (Return to Exile) at From the Mixed Up Files...

Barry Wolverton (Neversink) at There's a Book, The Other Side of the Story, The National Children's Book Examiner (giveaway), Lori Calabrese Writes!, (giveaway), and Another Gray Day (giveaway)

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at The Lucky 13s and A Thousand Wrongs (giveaway)

Other Good Stuff

Narnia in the eyes of a young Muslim reader, in the Huff Post religion blog, thanks to Educating Alice

Kate Coombs (aka Book Aunt) brings us the Second Annual Pistachio Awards

At Geo Librarian, there's a smorgasbord of mg sff goodness in a two posts on favorite chapter books.

The Hugo Awards, whose nominees were just announced, don't exactly tilt middle grade, but I was pleased to see that Ursula Vernon, of Dragonbreath Fame, has a book nominated in the graphic novel category. Digger is one of those rare books, a wombat fantasy, and it's been on my wish list for ages.

Continuing in the cute critters vein, check out this poignant kiwi staring in a short animated film which I found at The Secret Adventures of Writer Girl.

On the fairy tale side of things--Sue Purkiss has a guest post on The Wild Swans at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, Ruth Sanderson is talking 12 Dancing Princesses at Cynsations, and Kate Forsyth shares her favorite Rapunzel retellings at Read in a Single Sitting (she's just published a new one herself, but for adults--Bitter Greens).

You've probably seen this picture of President Obama and Lieutenant Uhura (aka Nichelle Nichols) but I had to post it because I think it is utterly swell.


And if you want something more seasonally appropriate, I found this cake picture from 1941 at The Children's War, where you can also find a lovely advertisement for the ham of yesteryear. Note the staked, earless bunny faces on the top of the cake: