The Nov. 3 Round-up of what I found in my blog reading of interest to fans of middle grade sci fi/fantasy

 Happy Daylight Savings Time, fellow USians! May today's extra hour bring you joy (or whatever).   Here's are the middle grade sci fi/fantasy book related posts I found this week (middle grade being roughly 9-12 years old); please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

13 Hangmen, by Art Corroveau, at Semicolon

The Bad Apple, by T.R. Burns, at Secrets & Sharing Soda

Benjamin Franklinstein Meets Thomas Deadison, by Matthew McElligott and Larry Tuxbury, at Semicolon

Beauty and the Beast: the Only One Who Didn't Run Away, by Wendy Mass, at Charlotte's Library

Dead City, by James Ponti, at Book Sake

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, at Madigan Reads 

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at Book Nut

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Pass the Chiclets

Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Book Nut
and Fuse #8

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, at Challenging the Bookworm

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at Book Nut

The Jewel of the Kalderash, by Marie Rutkoski, at alibrarymama

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Michelle Mason

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at Sonderbooks 

The Legend of Ghost Dog, by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarvenas Tash, at Semicolon 

The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, at Lit Princess, Zezee's Link, Consuming Books Bloggery!,  mylittlechateau,  Girl With a Straight Face, (and lots more....)

The Mythical 9th Division: Operation Robot Storm, by Alex Milway, at Jean Little Library 

Neversink, by Barry Wolverton, at Semicolon

Once Upon a Toad, by Heather Vogel Frederick, at Sonderbooks

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Semicolon

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at vikki vansickle

The River of No Return (Jaguar Stones Book 3), by J & P Voelkel, at Charlotte's Library

The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda, at The Enchanted Inkpot

The Secret Prophecy, by Herbie Brennan, at Julie DeGuia  (giveaway)

Seven-Day Magic, by Edward Eager, at Tor

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, at Ex Libris

The Spy Princess, by Sherwood Smith, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and Semicolon

Storybound, by Marissa Burt, at Geo Librarian

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at That's Another Story

A Warlock in Whitby, by Robin Jarvis, at Fantastic Reads

What Came From the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Semicolon 

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer, at Lit Princess

The Wide-Awake Princess, by E.D. Baker, at Geo Librarian

Ana at The Book Smugglers looks at three classic mg horror stories


Authors

Catherynne M. Valente talking fairytales at BookYurt

Adam Gidwitz on fairytales (dark and grimm) at BookYurt

And continuing the theme, Marie Brennan talks about what makes a folk tale at Book View Cafe

Lana Krumwiede (Freakling) at Cynsations

Marissa Moss (Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris) at The Elliott Review (giveaway)

More Good Stuff

Ursula Le Guin is always Good Stuff-here's a review of her two just published short story anthologies at Slate -- lots of interesting thoughts on genre

Kid-Lit Cares--an auction to help those affected by Sandy (of particular interest to aspiring writers)

Tony DiTerlizzi's Top 10 Books for creeping out kids at Wire
and at Project Mayhem, scary stories for the non-horror reading kid.

At Scribble City Central, it's "S is for Slaugh" with Lucy Coats.

Something to keep in mind as we eat left-over Halloween candy--chocolate makes snails smarter 

 But the best thing of all that I saw this week has to be the WW II message capsule found on the leg of a long-deceased homing pigeon (here's my take on it)