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

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week of interest to fans of middle grade sci fi (not there's ever much of that) and fantasy! I am thinking less clearly than usual--sleep-over birthday party last night, and as I type five small boys are having a pillow fight of much loudness...so do let me know if I misspelled your name or missed your post!

The Reviews:

The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith, at BooksYALove

The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Riv Reads

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke, at Charlotte's Library

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by at Emily's Reading Room, There's a Book, and A Backwards Story

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, at Cracking the Cover

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Teacozy (arguably not fantasy, but I've been counting it...)

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Legends of Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at That Blog Belongs to Emily Brown!

The Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarvenaz Tash, at That's Swell

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-Detectives Extraordinaire, by Polly Horvath, at GreenBeanTeenQueen

Neversink, by Barry Wolverton, at Good Books and Good Wine, Bunbury in the Stacks, and books4yourkids

The Ogre of Ogglefort, by Eva Ibbotson, at Library Chicken

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlin Rubino-Bradway, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Peaceweaver, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at My Precious

Priscilla the Great: the Time-travelling Bullet, by Sybil Nelson, at Finding Wonderland

Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, at Patrick Samphire's Blog

The Secrets of Ordinary Farm, by Tad Williams and Deborah Beale, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Storm Makers, by Jennifer E. Smith, at The Blog on the Hill

Twice Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Shannon Messenger

A World Without Heroes, by Brandon Mull (part 1) at The Brain Lair

Authors and Interviews:

Christopher Healy (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom) at Literary Asylum and Kid Lit Frenzy

Sarvenaz Tash (The Mapmaker and the Ghost) at Bookyurt

James Kennedy (The Order of Odd-Fish) at Neverendingsearch (a post on author visits)

Other Good Stuff:

Those who, like Guardian columnist Tim Lott, want to escape from the cliche of pinkness in girls book, should check out this list at Fantastic Reads

The movie rights to The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom have been picked up by Fox Animation

Kate Coombs talks Ogres and Trolls at The Enchanted Inkpot (and also shares her own Diana Wynne Jones tribute at her blog).

Here are the YA books in the running for the Locus Awards, which include the older middle grade/YA Akata Witch:

• Planesrunner, Ian McDonald (Pyr)
• Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends)
• Goliath, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

I've never been entirely sure what I think about Le Petit Prince (mainly because the logistics of the prince's life on his his tiny planet seemed undeveloped to me), but it's still interesting that two pages that didn't make it into the final version have been discovered (sadly, neither of them are concerned with planetary logistics).

And finally, next Saturday my boys and I will be going (d.v.) to the Watch City Seampunk Festival, in Waltham, MA. It is the first steampunk festival for us. Here's one event that I'm looking forward to:

M.T. Anderson, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link read from their stories in Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (children’s & young adult event). 3:30 PM at Back Pages Books, 289 Moody Street, Waltham, MA.
http://www.backpagesbooks.com/steampunkanthology

So if you see me, with my two impeccably dressed (ha ha) and well-mannered (more likely) boys in tow, do say hi!