this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Hi all, on a chilly gray spring day in southern New England (why is it that the only warm sunny weekends this spring are those on which I have things to do?  The garden is a disaster...).  But in any event, here's what I found in my blog reading, and do let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Ocorafor, at Fantasy Literature

Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at Book Nut

The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker by Matilda Woods, illustrated by Anuska Allepuz, at Books4yourkids

Burning Magic, by Joshua Kahn, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Carbonel King of Cats by Barbara Sleigh, at Hidden In Pages

Charlotte, Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, at alibrarymama

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero, at The Book Wars

The Empty Grave, by Jonathan Stroud, at Leaf's Reviews

A Friendly Town That's Almost Always By the Ocean, by Kir Fox and M. Shelley Coats, at This Kid Reviews Books and Charlotte's Library

Grump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Carries Book Reviews

Hoodoo, by Ronald L. SMith, at ProseandKahn

The Marvelwood Magicians, by Diane Zahler, at Challenging the Bookworm

The Mad Apprentice, by Django Wexler, at Puss Reboots

The Map to Everywhere #1 by Carrie Ryan and John Park Davis, at Say What?

The Night Garden, by Polly Horvath, at Puss Reboots

Outwalkers, by Fiona Shaw, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Rose Legacy, by Jessica Day George, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Thief Queen's Daughter, by Elizabeth Haydon, at Purple People Readers

The Third Kind of Magic by Elizabeth Forest, at Cover2Cover

Unicorn Rescue Society: Creature of the Pines, by Adam Gidwitz, at Great Kid Books

The Unicorn Quest, by Kamilla Benko, at Pages Unbound

9 new mg books at the B. and N. Kids Blog

Authors and Interviews

Bren MacDibble (How to Bee) at Minerva Reads

Ruth Lauren (Seeker of the Crown) at With Love for Books

Kathi Appelt (The Underneath, The Wishtree), at Janet Fox

A.M. Morgan (The Inventors at No. 8) at From the Mixed Up Files

Other Good Stuff

An interesting article about mg fantasy and student activism at The Boston Globe--"On Feb 14, a gunman killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Trying to make sense of what had happened, the survivors turned to Harry Potter."

Tor asks a question that I've thought a lot about--Why Would Any Parent Send Their Kids to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

New books in the UK, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books