This week's round-up of middle grade sci and fantasy from around the blogs (1/12/14)

Another week, another round-up!  Let me know if  I missed your post!

The Reviews

Back to Blackbrick, by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, at The Book Monsters

Bliss, by Kathryn Littlewood, at A Reader of Fictions

The Bridge to Never Land, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, at Carstairs Considers

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Beyond Books

The Creature Department, by Robert Paul Weston, at Reading is Fun Again

The Dragon's Boy, by Jane Yolen, at Sharon the Librarian

The Drowned Vault, by N.D. Wilson, at 300 Pages

Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, at Book Nut

Falling In, by Frances O'Roark Dowell, at Book Banshee Reviews

Ghost Hawk, by Susan Cooper, at So I'm Fifty

The Grimm Conclusion, by Adam Gidwitz, at One Great Book

How To Catch a Bogle, by Catherine Jinks, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Jinx's Magic, by Sage Blackwood, at Waking Brain Cells and Charlotte's Library

The Lives of Christopher Chant, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Tales of the Marvelous

Magic Marks the Spot, by Caroline Carson, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Misadventures of the Magician's Dog, by Frances Sackett, at Charlotte's Library

North of Nowhere, by Liz Kessler, at The Ninja Librarian

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Karen Foxlee, at The Reading Nook Reviews

The Path of Names, by Ari B. Goelman, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Peaceweaver, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at Not Acting My Age

Rose, by Holly Webb, at Geo Librarian

Secrets of the Terra Cotta Soldier, by Ying Chang Compestine and Vinsonat Compestine, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Skellig, by David Almond, at Bookshelves of Doom

The Storm Makers, by Jennifer E. Smith, at Mister K Reads

Taylor Davis and the Clash of Kingdoms, by Michelle Isenhoff, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Third Door, by Emily Rodda, at Charlotte's Library

Whatever After: Fairest of All, by Sarah Mlynowski, at The Reader's Perch

When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snickett, at The Book Monsters

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin, at Here There Be Books


Authors and Interviews

Karen Foxlee (Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy) at The Reading Nook Reviews


Other Good Stuff

Project Mayhem pays tribute to Eva Ibbotson

EMG SF Cybils panelists reflect on books they loved that didn't end up on the shortlist, at Views from the Tesseract,

Anyone who wants to add to their list of MG fantasy and sci fi to look forward to is advised to check out this list at Views From the Tesseract.

And a quick shout out to Mother Daughter Book Reviews, where there's a new weekly round-up of kidlit, where I found several of the links above.

Not middle grade, but I want to put the link where I might find it again:
Last year I vowed to read more sci fi/fantasy for grown-ups....and that kind of turned into reading all of Discworld and not much else.  This year I will try again, with the help of the List of Awesome from Io9 of "All the Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming in 2014."

A lot of us wring our hands about diversity in sci fi/fantasy books and fandoms; author and director Balogun is doing something about it.  He's organizing a symposium this spring in Atlanta --"a full day of Black speculative fiction workshops, performances, art, games, contests and vending – all for our youth." More (somewhat preliminary) information here at Chronicles of Harriet.

Finally--Story Time from Space!
"Story Time From Space, with support from CASIS, will send children’s books & demonstrations to the International Space Station.
While in space, astronauts will videotape themselves reading books to the children of Earth.
The videos will be edited and placed in the Story Time From Space library. The library will be housed here on the Story Time From Space website.
Astronauts on the ISS will also conduct and videotape educational demonstrations to complement the science concepts in the Story Time From Space books."