This week's round-up of middle grade speculative fiction from around the blogs (6/29/14)

A little late today, here's this week's round-up--please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Blood Ties (Spirit Animals 3) at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Boundless, by Kenneth Oppel, at Charlotte's Library 

The Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson, at Semicolon

The Catacombs of Vanaheim, by Richard Denning, at The Write Path 

Deadwood, by Kell Andrews, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at Dark Faerie Tales

Eye of the Storm, by Kate Messner, at Michelle I. Mason

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Lunar Rainbows

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, at Great Imaginations and Librarian of Snark

Loot, by Jude Watson, at Alison's Book Marks and Ms. Yingling Reads

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jaleigh Johnson, at Semicolon

Minion, by John David Anderson, at The Book Smugglers

Mouseheart, by Lisa Fiedler, at Log Cabin Library  and Semicolon

The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier, at Semicolon

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at Kid Lit Geek

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer, at Guys Lit Wire

The School is Alive, by Jack Chabert, at The Book Monsters 

Sidekicked, by John David Anderson, at Shae has Left the Room

Snow in Summer, by Jane Yolen, at Good Books and Good Wine

Still Life, by Jacqueline West, at Charlotte's Library

Tesla's Attic, by Neal Schusterman and Eric Elfman, at The Reading Nook Reviews

The Time of the Fireflys, by Kimberley Griffiths Little, at Not Acting My Age

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce, at Tor

V is For Villain, by Peter Moore, at Ms. Yingling Read

The Vanishing of Billy Buckle, by Sally Gardner, at Wondrous Reads


Authors and Interviews

Jacqueline West (Still Life) at Tor

Dianne K. Salerni (The Eighth Day) with part 6 of Heros and Villains at Project Mayhem

John David Anderson (Minion) at Next Best Book

Greg van Eekhout (The Boy at the End of the World) on how writing middle grade is different from writing for older audiences at Locus Roundtable

John David Anderson (Minion) shares tips for young writers (plus a review) at Word Spelunking


Other Good Stuff

A booklist of cyriptids and mythological monsters at Views From the Tesseract

At Pass the Chiclets, a look at how the movie version of The True Meaning of Smekday is shapping up.