This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi (5/3/15)

Yay!  It is May and presumably will be warm and lovely any moment now...

Kicking off with an announcement-  Kidlitcon 2015 has a place and a date!  Baltimore, October 9th and 10th.  Kidlitcon is the BEST, and I hope you all can come! 

(as ever, please let me know if I missed anything! thanks.)

The Reviews

Alistair Grim's Oddituorium, by Gregory Funaro, at Fantasy Book Critic

The Arctic Code, by Matthew Kirby, at books4yourkids

Beneath, by Roland Smith, at Semicolon

Castle Hangnail, by Ursula Vernon, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Spear, by Jessica Day George, at Becky's Book Reviews

Fork-Tongue Charmers, by Paul Durham, at Librarian of Snark

The Great Timelock Disaster, by C. Lee McKenzie, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

House of Secrets, by Ned Vizzini and Chris Columbus, at The Paige Turner

The Island of Dr. Libris, by Chris Grabenstein, at Book Nut

Jack: The True Story of Jack & the Beanstalk, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Big Hair and Books

The Jumbies, by Tracy Baptiste, at Fuse #8 and  Ms. Yingling Reads

The Lost Track of Time, by Paige Britt, at Charlotte's Library
 
The Map to Everywhere, by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis, at Pages Unbound

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Laurisa White Reyes

Nightbird, by Alice Hoffman, at My Brain on Books

Omega City, by Diana Peterfreund, at Librarian of Snark and Ms. Yingling Reads

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce, at Nerdophiles

The Return: Disney Lands, by Ridley Pearson, at Book Nut

The Scorpian's Claw, by Tony Abbott, at Boys Rule Boys Read

The Thirteenth Princess, by Diane Zahler, at Leaf's Reviews

Thursdays With the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Leaf's Reviews

Truckers, by Terry Pratchett, at Fluttering Butterflies

The Water and the Wild, by K.E. Ormsbee, at Beauty and the Bookshelf

The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud, at Readaraptor


Authors and Interviews

Tracy Baptiste (The Jumbies) at The Brown Bookshelf

K.E. Ormsbee (The Water and the Wild) at The Book Wars

Django Wexler (The Mad Apprentice) at The Book Zone (for boys) and Word Spelunking

Sarah McGuire (Valiant) at Cynsations (giveaway)


Other Good Stuff

"Where Does the Magic Come From?" at Redeemed Reader

A Tuesday Ten of Blue at Views from the Tesseract

Top ten books for Harry Potter Fans, at Nerdy Book Club

A photographer teams up with Haitian artists to recreate the classic Tarot Deck as the Ghetto Tarot and the results are absolutely and utterly stunning.  You can see more images here, and at  the Indigogo campaign page.