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

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade (ages 9-12, ish) blog posts that I found in my reading this week! Please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews:

Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith, at Charlotte's Library

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, at Strange and Random Happenstance

The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Gina Carey

A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle, at books4yourkids

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Good Books and Good Wine and The Book Smugglers

How the Camel Got its Hump, and How the Leopard Got its Spots, by Rudyard Kipling (graphic novel editions) at Back to Books here and here

Inkheart and Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke, at Adventures of a Book Wyrm here and here

Keeper, by Kathi Appelt, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

Magyk, by Angie Sage (audiobook review) at Wandering Librarians

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at That's Another Story

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Popcorn Reads

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley, at My Brain on Books

The Sixty-eight Rooms, by Marianne Malone, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Storybound, by Marissa Burt, at library_mama

A Tale of Time City, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Finding Wonderland

Time Snatchers, by Richard Ungar, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Geo Librarian

The Wrath of Zozimos (Stickman Odyssey) by Christopher Ford, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Eight Days of Luke, and Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones at The Book Smugglers

From the New York Times Book Review--The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, and The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

Giveaways:

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente at Tor (ends midnight, May 15)

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Alison's Book Marks

Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street, by Barry Dickins at Read In a Single Sitting (Aussie only)

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Small Review (May 19)

Authors and Interviews:

Caitlen Rubino-Bradway (Ordinary Magic) at My Precious, Yearning to Read, and Small Review

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore) at The Book Cellar

Danika Dinsmore (The Ruins of Noe) at Dead Houseplants

Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland) at Tor

Anne Ursu (Breadcrumbs) at StorySnoops

Marissa Burt (Storybound) at Cynsations

Jonathan Auxier (Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes) at From the Mixed Up Files...

Christopher Healy (The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom) at The Book Smugglers

Other Good Stuff:

City of Lies, by Lian Tanner, has won the Aurelis Award (Australian spec. fiction) for children's fiction told primarily through words

A list of fantasy cat books at Charlotte's Library

Seth Adam Smith is working on a documentary about Lloyd Alexander; you can watch the preview at his website

Maurice Sendak (as you doubtless know) died this week. I am wondering how many writers of fantasy for children were inspired (directly or not) by Max's journey to the land of the wild things--it was probably the first book I ever read in with the ordinary was transformed into a portal to a fantasy realm, and this was the part of the book I myself loved best: "That very night in Max’s room a forest grew and grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around...."