This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (8/26/2012)

Good morning, and welcome to another Sunday morning round-up of all the posts I found in my blog reading of interest to fans of middle grade sci fi and fantasy. Please let me know if I missed yours!

Just a reminder-- the deadline for applying for a slot as a Cybils panelist (August 31) fast approaches! Here's what Sheila Ruth, the sci fi/fantasy organizer has to say: "I'm especially in need of people who are passionate and knowledgeable about middle grade for the Middle Grade SFF panel. We always get many more applications for YA SFF than for MG SFF, and while many of the YA applicants say that they'll be happy with middle grade, and I appreciate that, I'd love to fill the middle grade panel with judges who love middle grade and put it as their first choice." But if you are daunted by the number of books that will be getting nominated in mg sff (probably around 150), maybe graphic novels, or book apps, or the non-fiction categories (all of which are in need of panelists) would be a good fit for you.

The Reviews

3 Below (Floors #2), by Patrick Carman, at Sharon the Librarian

Amulet: Prince of Elves, by Kazu Kibuishi, at Wandering Librarians

Annie's Adventures (Sisters Eight) by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, at Read in a Single Sitting

The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, at Barbara Ann Watson

The Aviary, by Kathleen O’Dell, at Children's Books and Reviews

The Broken Lands, by Kate Milford, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile, The Book Smugglers, and Karissa's Reading Review

Caterpillar Hall, by Anne Barrett, at Charlotte's Library

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Sonderbooks

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel, at Book Nut and The Children's Book Review

The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley, at Books and Other Thoughts

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke, at Book Nut

How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell, at Karissa's Reading Review

Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time, by James Dashner, at The New York Times

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis, at The Book Smugglers

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Sash and Em--a Tale of Two Bookies

Kingdom of the Wicked (Skulduggery Pleasant), by Derek Landy, at The Book Zone

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at ShelfAwarness

Legends of Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at Charlotte's Library

The Lost Colony, by Eoin Colfer, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarvenaz Tash, at Geo Librarian

Muddle and Win, by John Dickinson, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Sonderbooks, the bookish mama, Squeaky Books, and Cracking the Cover

The Raging Fires, by T.A. Barron, at Fantasy Literature

The Scorpions of Zahir, by Christine Brodien-Jones, at Charlotte's Library

The Seventh Tower: The Fall, by Garth Nix, at Val Muller

Small Medium at Large, by Joanne Levy, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schiltz, at Charlotte's Library

The Time-Travelling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Madigan Reads

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at Books & Other Thoughts

The Unwanteds: Island of Silence, by Lisa McMann, at Shannon Messenger

The WondLa series, by Tony DiTerlizzi, at The Write Path

A two for one, at Ms. Yingling Reads Alex Van Helsing: The Triumph of Death, by Jason Henderson, and Zombie Tag, by Hannah Moskovitz

Writers, Illustrators, Interviews

Shaun Tan on his picture book,The Red Tree, at Books for Keeps--"The absurd surrealism of the giant fish hopefully discourages any rational assessment...." (some of us need little help in this regard...)

Shannon Hale (Palace of Stone) at Cracking the Cover and Squeaky Books

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Blogging for YA

Nikki Loftin )The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy) at The Book Cellar and at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Royce Buckingham (The Demonkeeper series) at A Thousand Wrongs and Literary Rambles (giveaway)

Stefan Bachmann (The Peculiar) at Smack Dab in the Middle

Other Good Stuff

The Enchanted Inkpot has a two part series (here and here) showcasing fall mg sff book covers--much to drool over (not that one should ever drool over books, at least in real life. They might get damaged).

Leslie Wilson talks about "The Bremen Town Musicians" at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

For those looking for fairy tale retellings with boy appeal, here's a great list at BellaOnBooks

And in the so awful its great (?) category, check out this faux 1980s cartoon -- "Space Stallions" over at Tor. Will Mother Mustang help our heroes save the multiverse?