This week's round-up of middle grade speculative fiction from around the blogs (1/13/13)

Here's this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

13 Hangmen, by Art Corriveau, at Time Travel Times Two

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at Sonderbooks 

The Dragonet Prophecy, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Good Books and Good Wine

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Sonderbooks

The Girl Who Cirumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Fantasy Literature

Gobin Secrets, by William Alexander, at Night Writer

In a Blink, by Kiki Thorpe, at Sharon the Librarian

The Lost Heir, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Charlotte's Library

Lovecraft Middle School--Professor Gargoyle, and The Slither Sisters, by Charles Gilman, at Mr. Ripleys Enchanted Books

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, by William Joyce, at Wondrous Reads

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at The Book Smugglers

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at Reads for Keeps

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at Fantasy Literature and Good Books and Good Wine

Spirit Fighter, and Fire Prophet, by Jerel Law, at Bookworm Dreams

The Tell-Tale Start, by Gordon McAlpine, at The Book Cellar

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket, by John Boyne, at Bunbury in the Stacks

Z-Apocalypse, by Steve Cole, at Ms. Yingling Reads


Other Good Stuff:

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, is being made into a movie.

The People (at least34, 435 of them) have petitioned the Obama administration to build a Death Star.  Here's the Official Response, from Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

"The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?"

Thanks to the Fourth Annual Blog Comment Challenge I found myself visiting Sarah Albee's blog, where I found a lovely post on WW II carrier pigeons that includes this extraordinarily helpful piece of information.  Being unable to wrap anything neatly, I shudder to think how bad I would be at this (although I think I could cope with Item 8, which appears to be "open box").