This week's Middle Grade Fantasy and Sci Fi round-up (Oct. 6, 2013)

Welcome to the 198th round up of Middle Grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs.   I had the idea for it at Kidlitcon four years and a month ago...and it has become a cornerstone of my blog.  The point of this is that Kidlitcon is a great place to go and get ideas and come back all enthusiastic, it really is, and I am going, and I would like lots to see you all there too!

As ever, please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

The Abominables, by Eva Ibbotson, at Sharon the Librarian

Cave of Wonders (Infinity Ring), by Matthew J. Kirby, at Charlotte's Library

Curse of the Thirteenth Fey, by Jane Yolen, at Don't Forget the Avocados

Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Children's Books and Reviews

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at Middle Grade Mafioso and Tales of the Marvelous

Eight Days of Luke, by Diana Wynne Jones, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Evertaster: The Buttersmith's Gold, by Adam Glendon Sidwell, at S.A. Larsen

Exile, by Shannon Messenger, at In Bed With Books 
and YA Book Queen

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, at Waking Brain Cells

Fortunately, the Milk, by Neil Gaiman, at Manga Maniac Cafe 

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Fyrefly's Book Blog 

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Sturdy for Common Things

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman, at The Reader's Patch

How to Catch a Bogle, by Catherine Jinks, at Charlotte's Library

The Misadventures of the Magician's Dog, by Frances Sackett, at I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

North of Nowhere, by Liz Kessler, at Becky's Book Reviews

Odessa, Again, by Dana Reinhardt, at Time Travel Times Two 

Other Worlds (Guys Read), edited by Jon Scieszka, at Views from the Tesseract
and The Write Path

The Planet Thieves, by Dan Krokos, at Nerdophiles 

A Question of Magic, by E.D. Baker, at On Starships and Dragonwings and Books of Wonder and Wisdom

The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu, at Maria's Melange, The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow, Lynne's Book Notes, and There's a Book

Rose, by Holly Webb, at Wands and Worlds

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Sonderbooks

The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, by Nikki Loftin, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Skyjumpers, by Peggy Eddleman, at In Bed With Books

Starbounders, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobsen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Time Fetch, by Amy Herrick, at Puss Reboots

What Came From the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at CSL Children's Department Blog

Wild Born (Spirit Animals), by Brandon Mull, at Getting Kids Reading

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paolo Bacigalupi, at Teen Librarian's Toolbox

An abundance of books, Part 2, including The Borrowers and Tuck Everlasting, at Things Mean a Lot 

Authors and Interviews 

(if you're a publicist or author with a relevant book tour, feel free to send me the link to a page with the list of all the stops!)

Artwork reveal and giveaway for The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu, at  Bunbury in the Stacks and an interview/review at Word Spelunking

L.J. Clarkson (The Silver Strand) at SA Larsen

Frances Sackett (The Misadventures of the Magician's Dog) at Kid Lit Frenzy

Other Good Stuff

The Enchanted Inkpot offers one of its wonderful galleries of cover art featuring fall middle grade books here and here.

At Views from the Tesseract. a Tuesday Ten of Unicorns

The True Meaning of Smekday, one of the first crop of Cybils finalists, is coming to the big screen

Keilin Huang, Marketing & Publicity Assistant, and Hannah Ehrlich, Marketing & Publicity Manager at Lee and Low are over at  DiversifYA  in a two part interview (here's part 1)

And speaking of which, A More Diverse Universe blog celebration returns November 15-17--head to this post at Book Lust for more information, and to sign up.

Here are the Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction books nominated for the Cybils so far.  If you haven't nominated yet, you could visit my lists of EMG SF books reviewed in Kirkus and SLJ during the eligibility period (Oct 16, 2013 through Oct 15, 2013), where you will fine many fine, at yet un-nominated, books.

And finally, here's what my son wants to be for Halloween--a Venetian plague doctor.  If anyone has any beak advice I'd welcome it--I'm thinking chicken wire and paper mache, but want to make sure I end up with a beak that has Wearability, because there's a costume contest at school...