9/23/12

This week's mg sff round-up (Sept. 23,2012)

 Good morning.  Here's what I found this week, scouring the internet in search of middle grade sci fi/fantasy related posts--please let me know if I missed yours!

Next week's round-up might be delayed, as I will be on my way home from Kidlitcon in NY, and my plans for Sunday morning are more along the lines of "have brunch with sister" than "get mg sff round-up done."


Update:  registration for Kidlitcon has closed, having maxed out at 175 attendees.  Wow! So many new people to meet!

Nominations for the Cybils start Oct. 1.  Here are the mg sff panelists (which includes me).  Every year, there are more Young Adult books nominated (not that I'm competitive about pointless things or anything).   Every year, worthy MG books don't make it.  Although the nominating procedures have changed somewhat, giving publishers the opportunity to fill in gaps, nominations from the floor (ie, anyone reading this!) are the backbone of the Cybils (or something).  So please feel free to nominate!  

Back to our main program.

The Reviews:  (now with all the reviews that were in the draft post I forgot about...)

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Sonderbooks

Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, at Fantasy Literature

A Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox, at Charlotte's Library

Circus Maximus (History Keepers), by Damian Dibben, at The Book Zone

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at Shannon Messenger

The Grimm Legacy, by Polly Shulman, at The Guardian

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Becky's Book Reviews 

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, by Dale Basye, at Michelle Mason 

The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate, by Scott Nash, at Karissa's Reading Review

The Icarus Project, by Laura Quimby, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Liesl and Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Books and Other Thoughts and sprite writes

Malcolm at Midnight, by W.H. Beck, at Good Books and Good Wine

Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris, by Marissa Moss, at The Fourth Musketeer 

A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring Book 1), by James Dashner, at Charlotte's Library

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Bookishness 

The Peculiar, by Stephan Bachmann, at My Precious

Rewind, by William Sleator, at Time Travel Times Two

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lundquist, at Ms. Yingling Reads 

The Seven Tales of Trinket, by Shelley Moore Thomas, at Night Writer

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at Imaginary Reads, My Brain On Books, and Karrisa's Reading Review

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Sweetest Spell, by Suzanne Selfors, at The Write Path and Cracking the Cover

Sword Mountain, by Nancy Yi Fan, at Semicolon 

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at Semicolon 

What Came From the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Maria's Melange (second of a two part joint review with part 1 from last week at The Brain Lair), and at Faith Elizabeth Hough

Two mg horror stories from Ms. Yingling Reads-- Goosebumps Most Wanted: Planet of the Lawn Gnomes, by R.L. Stine,  and Professor Gargoyle: Tales From Lovecraft Middle School #1, by Charles Gilman.

And a brief look at  two great mg fantasy series--The Theodosia books, by R. L. LaFevers, and The Joy of Spooking series, by P.J. Pracegirldle, at Charlotte's Library

Authors and Interviews

Philip Pullman talks about rewriting Grimm at The Guardian

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at The O.W.L. 

Derek Taylor Kent (aka Derek the Ghost, author of Scary School) at Cracking the Cover 

Caitlen Rubino-Bradway (Ordinary Magic) at Chicklish

China Mieville is interviewed by a very smart 12 year old at The Guardian

And also via The Guardian is this podcast of Jacqueline Wilson reading from, and talking about, her new Nesbit homage/sequel, Four Children and It.

Other Good Stuff:

Of course, the best of the Good Stuff is the new Hobbit trailer

The short list for the Roal Dahl funny prize has been announced (here's The Guardian's discussion), with sff nicely represented

Terri Windling talks fairy tales at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Pottermore has new back to school content (via The Guardian)

Vintage ads for libraries and reading...if you want to become a scary robot looking girl, there's nothing like a book (the larger the picture gets, the scarier it looks--the expressionless face, the staring eyes...):


And finally, a random tip:  If you buy expensive art wallpaper, don't wipe it with a wet sponge.  You will wipe off the expensive art part.

7 comments:

  1. Charlotte, I wasn't aware that we were doing on-site registration for KidLitCon, but have an email in to Betsy to be sure. Meantime, I suggest that anyone who still wants to attend email Betsy asap to see if is still possible. (We closed registration a week early for, among other reasons, to have time to slot folks into the different sessions.)

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    1. Hi Monica- Betsy had mentioned in a post awile back that "If space is still available, onsite registration will be possible" so I was thinking it might be the case....

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    2. Then it may be indeed, but anyone considering it should email Betsy first to be sure.

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  2. Have fun at KidLitCon and with your sister Charlotte. Thanks for sharing all the great links.

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  3. Oh man I wanted to go to KidLitCon so much, but alas I had no place for my kids to go and my husband had this week off so couldn't take more days off. :(

    I reviewed The Icarus Project this week. I didn't put in on the lj blog because I was on vacation so you might not have seen it. I wanted to mention it because I haven't seen much talk about it and it was interesting.

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    1. Maybe next year! And yes, I just read the lj blog, so missed this one! Thanks.

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  4. Hi Charlotte! Thanks so much for this! And I am pleased to announce that we topped out our registration at 175. Alas, registration is indeed now closed. I wasn't sure we'd reach our goal so I was open to on-site registering. Doesn't look like reaching our goal was a problem after all. If you could update the blog post I would be forever in your debt. In the meantime, thank you for promoting the Con and I hope to see you at one soon!!

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