Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, with an interview by author Ryan Calejo

No MG sci fi/fantasy round-up today, as I am on vacation.  But I'm thrilled to have author Ryan Calejo visiting me here today!

Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, by Ryan Calejo (September 13, Aladdin), is the third installment of the adventures of an ordinary kid who finds that all the many magical stories from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries his grandmother told him are true.  Not only that, but he has a starring role in an epic clash between order and malevolent chaos, he has the power to morph into animals, and he has no clue how to control his power or even, really, what he's supposed to be doing.  Happily, he has his friend Violet, a keen young journalist who more than pulls her weight figuring things out.  He also has the powerful witch Queen, Joanna of Castile (who you might know as Joanna the Mad), leader of the League of Shadows who try to keep the world from being overrun with monsters, on his side. 

If you enjoyed the wild ride of the first two books, full of mythical monsters that sent Charlie and Violet bouncing on perilous adventures, this one will not disappoint.   Its small, relatively mundane beginning in which Charlie is trapped by a skeletal girl begging for his help in the girl's bathroom of his middle school moves steadily on to its full blown mythologically murderous monster chaos of an ending, when Charlie and Violet must defeat a truly formidable foe in order to keep the border between life and death secure.  And all the while, in a rather endearingly clumsy middle school way, Charlie and Violet are falling for each other, Charlie's mother is going ballistic, and the reader gets a trip to Florida like no other!

Highly recommended to kids who enjoy mythological adventures, particularly because the myths and stories that come to life here I haven't seen in anywhere near so much detail and diversity in any other book series!

Not recommended to those traumatized by crocodilians....

And now it is my pleasure to welcome Ryan Calejo to my blog!

1. How did the idea for Charlie and his adventures first come to you?  Did you have any idea that this would be the start of a series, and if yes, how far into it could you see?

Folklore and legends have always fascinated me. I like to think of them as the original Latinx superheroes/supervillains. So that was where the inspiration came from. My idea for the series was basically to create a big superhero royal rumble—something like the Avengers movies. I wanted to bring together all the coolest legendary beings/creatures, and just let them run wild down here in South Florida, because I was really excited to see how a story like that would play out. And one of the main reasons the idea appealed so much to me is because most of these characters originated in different countries and at different periods in time, and almost all of them only appear in their own stories, meaning there’s hardly any crossover. So that crossover potential, the idea of these legendary characters running into other legendary characters and trying to one-up and outsmart one another, I thought would be a lot of fun. When the idea first came to me, I was very hopeful that it would be the start of a series. I knew there was just no way I could cram all these wonderful characters into a single book! I always had a loose outline in my mind of what the overall series might look like. But the more books I’ve written, the more concrete the ideas for the future books have become.

2. Did you yourself grow up, like Charlie, with stories of the folklore and legends of South and Central America and the Iberian peninsula? If yes, did you have a childhood favorite? Or one that terrified young you the most?

 As a matter of fact, I did! Growing up, my abuelitas (my grandmothers) taught me all the same stories that Charlie’s abuelita taught him. It was my grandmothers who helped cultivate in me a love of legends and folklore—and even of reading. See, back then I wasn’t exactly the most well-behaved kid on the planet. (I’m being generous here.) And the only way they could keep me from running wild was to entertain me by telling me stories—all these wonderful legends and folktales they’d heard as children. There were definitely some terrifying ones, like El Coco and La Llorona. But if I had to pick my absolute favorite, it would probably have to be El Cadejo. It’s a sort of guardian angel that takes the form of a huge dog. When I was little, one of my neighbors had this ginormous German Shepherd that my grandmothers managed to convince me was the actual legendary Cadejo. And the funniest part was that whenever I rode my bike around the neighborhood that dog would always follow after me like it was protecting me, which made it pretty difficult to argue against my grandmothers’ claim. 

3. Your descriptions are incredibly vivid, and I’m curious about how this ties in to your writing process--do you see it all in your mind's eye in advance?

Thank you so much! Yes, I do usually see the story playing out in my mind’s eye. I’ve always had a pretty vivid imagination. I was most definitely a day dreamer growing up! I can’t even begin to count how many times someone had to snap me out of a daydream in the middle of math class (math and me don’t really get along). But that’s always been a big part of the fun for me—seeing the characters and story in my imagination. 

4. Places that are the foci of legends and myths are immensely important in Charlie’s adventures.  I just paid an online visit to the ancient monastery where Charlie first meets up with the League of Shadows.  Was that near to where you grew up? Have you visited any other real world places that appear in your books?

 The monastery was kind of close to where I grew up. Maybe half an hour away. In fact, almost all the south Florida locations in the books are places I loved to visit or hang out at when I was about Charlie and Violet’s age. For example, in the latest book, Charlie, Violet, and a friend sneak into the Venetian pool, which is one of the coolest public pools on the entire planet, and one of my favorite local spots. I love it when I get a chance to include little bits of my childhood in my books. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to visit all the Latin American countries that appear in the series, but I definitely hope to!

 5. What are you working on now?  And will there be more stories about Charlie and Violet?

 I’m thrilled to say that there will be more stories! Simon Schuster’s Aladdin imprint has always been one of my favorite imprints, and my editor is absolutely WONDERFUL! I love working with her. So get ready for new adventures!

 I’m also working on ChupaCarter, which is a super fun series I’m co-authoring with the one and only George Lopez. The story follows the adventures of a spunky 12-year-old boy named Jorge who discovers a chupacabra living on his grandparent’s farm. I hope readers will enjoy that series as well!

Thank you so much, Ryan!  I will look forward to your next books!

Fenris and Mott, by Greg van Eekhout (with interview!)

When my kids were little, we would talk about little baby Fenwis [sic] and how what he really needed was a Mama who loved him very much and gave good scritches....so it was rather delightful to see that flight of fancy come to life in Greg van Eekhout's newest book, Fenris and Mott (August 2, 2022, Harper Collins).

When Mott finds a scared little pup mweeping sadly in a recycling bin, her heart melts...dog's aren't allowed in her new apartment, but she can't just leave him.  But it turns out this isn't a puppy, but a wolf cub, who will need to be taken to live in the wild.  

The cub does not want to be leashed and taken into the wild, breaks free, and starts to bring about Ragnarok, the destruction of the world in Norse mythology.  The little mweeper is in fact Fenris, the fabled wolf who is fated to devour the sun and the moon....

And suddenly Mott's life becomes filled with Norse gods wanting to encourage Fenris, because prophesies are meant to come true. Fenris can't help the fact that the rune of annihilation is in his gut, and starts devouring on a (relatively) small scale--bits of city infrastructure and a famous actor disappear down his bottomless maw....Fortunately Mott and Fenris are found by Trudi, a Valkarie who is Fenris's protector, and the two of them join forces to try to stave off Ragnarok and save little Fenris.

It's an exciting story full of mythological mayhem crashing into the real world, balanced by the more quotidian story of a middle school kid in a new town with an absent father who doesn't' keep his promises and a best friend far away who's moving on without her.  It's also a fable of climate change (things can get plenty bad without a rune of annihilation on the loose) and so is extremely topical. The ending packs a zinger of a punch leaving my mind racing.....(nb-Fenris is fine in the end, and one hopes the moon will survive being slightly gnawed....). It's also sweet and funny and has an adorable puppy, so should be a huge hit with young fans of cute animals!  It's easy to imagine this one getting lots of love from its target audience.

And now it's my pleasure to welcome Greg here to my blog! I've been a fan of his since his very first book for young readers, Kid Vs Squid, which I reviewed back in 2010....

 

How did the idea for Fenris and Mott first come to you?

I thought it'd be fun to write a story about a kid who has to take care of some kind of cute and destructive creature. I didn't know if the creature would be an ordinary pet or an alien or a dinosaur or some kind of genetically modified beast or something else, but that was one of the seeds of an idea I first came up with. 

Was there anything that surprised you in the writing of it?

I didn't know the book was going to be in part about climate change, but you can't write about Ragnarök without writing about extreme weather, and to write about extreme weather without writing about climate change would have been weird and dishonest. 

 

This is your second Ragnorak book, the first being Norse Code, written for adults and published back in 2009.  Very different books, very different audiences….but as you were writing Fenris and Mott, did you have intrusive Norse Code flashbacks?

Not really. Norse Code and Fenris & Mott are such different books that it really wasn't hard to keep them completely separate in my head. Even when they have characters in common, like Loki and Odin and Hermod, they're very different versions of those characters. 

 

Will there be a sequel?  I can’t stop thinking about what Mott might do with her own pocket Ragnorak—nuclear waste cleanup, perhaps…..and will little Fenris be a good domesticated pet?

Oh, I would love to write a sequel! I had so much fun writing Fenris & Mott, and it'd be a blast to visit those characters again. As for Fenris as a pet, he'd be destructive and disruptive and a little bit horrible, just like my dogs!

And finally, what are you working on now?

I'm putting the final touches on a new middle-grade, The Ghost Job. It's about a crew of ghosts who do heists, and it's scheduled to come out next year.

Thank you Greg!  I will now proceed to start looking forward to The Ghost Job!

 

Greg van Eekhout is also the author of Voyage of the Dogs, Cog, and Weird Kid. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he's ever actually liked. You can find more about Greg at his website: www.writingandsnacks.com.

 

Monsters in the Mist, by Juliana Brandt--review and interview

If you (or other young readers in your life) are looking to make spring spookier, Monsters in the Mist, by Juliana Brandt (May 3, 2022, SourcebooksKids, is just the book you need!  

Whenever Glennon's dad goes away for work, his mom moves him and his little sister out of the house.  They used to go stay with their grandma, but now she has died, and their mom has taken them to stay with a relative they've never met who's a lighthouse keeper on a remote island in Lake Superior.  Glennon counts the days till they get off the island.  

With just a few more days to go, the island is slammed by an early winter storm.  A ship wrecks on the nearby coast, and the three survivors shelter in the lighthouse.  And Glennon becomes convinced that something more than an ordinary Lake Superior tragedy has happened.  One of the survivors seems horribly...not right. 

This is right at the beginning of the book, so there is no build up of suspense--it is right there at the start!  But there is definitely build up of the creepy--things are more and more Wrong, and more impossible to explain away, until Glennon and his sister realize they are in mortal peril from supernatural forces, trapped on an island that will not let them leave.   And the gothic horror ratchets up even further to a tremendous climax with twists I didn't see coming!

As the supernatural horror builds, so does the readers understanding of the verbal abuse and anger Glennon's gotten all his life from his father; it's clear early on that he and his sister have PTSD, and that not all is well with their mother either.  Having to deal with an unbearably awful situation on the island, though, helps Glennon start to untangle himself from years of damaging undermining from his father, and this real-world positive progress is a welcome contrast to the gothic darkness crashing around the cursed island. (There's an author's note at the end, clarifying how Glennon's memories of his father's words that surface during the story are real abuse, discussing how this has affected him and his sister, and encouraging young readers in similar positions to seek help from trusted adults).

In good middle grade fashion, Glennon and his sister are the catalyst for their escape, but they couldn't have done it without grown-ups willing to put themselves at risk to make it happen.  Also as is the case with many good middle grade books, there's an intelligent cat who helps for a given value of cat-help. Both things I liked.  I also liked all the ghost ships (what a wide variety of obsolete vessels there are in the harbor these days! think the kids, more or less,  and yet no transport is available off the island....) and the nods to real maritime misfortunes of Lake Superior.  The awful undead rats swarming around the island, are, however, not likeable....

In short, though I personally would have liked a bit more about life on the island before it became a place of nightmares, to ground the story in reality before the reality explodes, Monsters in the Mist is a powerfully spooky and thought-provoking read, and one I appreciated lots, 

Monsters in the Mist is Juliana Brandt's third book, the first two being The Wolf of Cape Fen (2020) and A Wilder Magic (2021), both from SourcebooksKids.  As well as being an author, she's a kindergarten teacher with a passion for storytelling that guides her in both of her jobs. She lives in her childhood home of Minnesota, and her writing is heavily influenced by travels around the country and decade living in the South.

And now it is my pleasure to welcome her to my blog! (my questions are in bold)

What was the inspiration for Monsters in the Mist? (hopefully not a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior).

Goodness, the inspiration came from many places, although no, it definitely didn't come from a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior! I did find a lot of direct inspiration from Lake Superior itself, though, mostly from Split Rock Lighthouse - a lighthouse in Two Harbors, MN. I toured this lighthouse in October on a very blustery day. I knew immediately that I needed to use this setting for a book. I created my own version of that lighthouse and stuck it on an island that is a very real (and yet very fake!) island on Lake Superior. In the 1700s, a mapmaker drew an extra island on Lake Superior. Mapmakers kept inserting the same island on their own maps, even though no such island actually existed on the lake. It took a few decades before cartographers realized it wasn't real. I thought that history was fascinating, and it made me wonder what that island would be like if it were actually real.


What bit of the book do you hope your readers will love most, and/or perhaps be most horrified/scared about?

I hope readers love the spookiness of the story. I tried to create my own monsters for this book, and I hope they're both scary and fascinating. I wanted my monsters to be sympathetic; I wanted people to understand how they'd become so monstrous and why they'd chosen the path they had. And also that while we can be sympathetic toward the monsters, it doesn't mean that their behavior or their choices are excused. I would very much like readers to walk away with the message that the words we choose to use with one another matters deeply.

I appreciated that the town librarian specifically recommends Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, to the kids--an excellent choice. Was there a specific reason you picked this book?

Howl's Moving Castle is my absolute favorite book! It's one that's stuffed full of all the things I enjoy most about stories - magic and surprising twists and a wonderful monster. In the scene where the book is mentioned, the librarian is talking about reading what makes you happy, and for me, Howl's is a book that never fails to make me happy. I was so excited to include mention of it in my own book because of how much it's meant to me over the years.

Monsters is your first book since things are moving toward normal again, fingers crossed.... Your first book, The Wolf of Cape Fen, will always have a special place in my mind (Here's my review). Not only did I enjoy it lots, but when it came out, just a few weeks into the pandemic in the spring of 2020, it was the first book I picked to order from my local independent bookstore as a show of support for authors and indies, so I have powerful memories tied to it. What was it like, having your debut book come out at such a fraught time?

It certainly wasn't easy. The shift from planning in person events and making plans for trips and book tours to cancelling everything and switching to online events (before we really knew what online events could look like!) was a difficult transition. It certainly wasn't the experience I thought debuting would be. At the same time though, I was incredibly supported in the book community and by my friends and family. I truly felt like everyone rallied around me. It's also helped me truly appreciate everything I'm able to experience with Monsters in the mist, now that I'm able to schedule in person events again.

With your third book, are you able to get a chance to do more of the author-ish things that the pandemic shut down?

Yes! I have wonderful events planned throughout May and into the summer. This past week when Monsters in the Mist published, I was able to have my first in person book launch. It was everything I wanted to experience the first time around, and I'm so glad to have finally been able to have that! It's truly wonderful to be able to talk with people in person and celebrate books in an actual bookstore, instead of online. I have school visits and writing classes and bookstore events scheduled. It's all an absolute delight to be able to plan.  (here are her upcoming events)

and finally, what are you working on now?

Secret projects! I have a few manuscripts in the works, but as of now, they're all in the "in between" moment. Hopefully they'll become projects that I can announce publicly soon.

and even more finally, is there an interview question that you have a really good answer for that I haven't asked? 

At my bookstore event, I was asked a very good question that I've never been asked before. "How have my books changed me?" We talk about readers being changed by books, but books change authors too! I think that my books have helped me become a braver, more honest person. Writing a book is such an introspective process, for me, and with each one I write, I end up asking deep questions of myself, about who I am and who I want to be. It really can be a transformative experience.

thanks so much, Juliana!  And best of luck with your ongoing projects!  And now I shall go listen to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald--"The lake it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy..."

An interview with Katharine Orton (Nevertell) and a giveaway!

Back in the middle of April, I read Nevertell, by Katharine Orton (Walker Books US, April 14, 2020, with much enjoyment! It's a magical, chilly middle grade adventure about a brave girl finding her magic and confronting evil (here's my review).  So it's a pleasure to welcome Katharine here, and to offer a giveaway of this book courtesy of its publisher! Just leave a comment to be entered; closes in one week, at midnight on the 27th!

What was the inspiration for Nevertell? Did the whole story come to you clear in your mind, or did it arrive in bits?

Nevertell has been floating around inside my head in bits for years. Whether in the form of family stories – like the one about when my grandfather was part of a mutiny – or when I first started to learn about Siberian gulags in my school history lessons. I love fairy tales from all over the world and have always been interested in Russian history. And one day I was reading a book called Inside the Rainbow where I learned that at one point in the Soviet Union children weren’t supposed to be told fairy tales. I started to think about how fantasy and the real world intertwine… That’s when all those little bits finally came together, and the idea for Nevertell was born. 

What was the most challenging part of the story, either plot-wise or writing-wise? 

Well, from the very beginning the children are determined to reach Moscow to find Lina’s grandmother. But… that’s thousands upon thousands of miles from where they are in Siberia. So I found myself scratching my head along with the children quite a lot, trying to figure out just how I was going to help them along their journey! But from that challenge sprang much of the story, so I’m grateful for it.

 What are your own favorite Russian fairy tales? 

Oh, there are lots! There’s a brilliant one called The Stone Flower – part of a series I believe involving the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. And I love the character of Baba Yaga who turns up in a lot of folk and fairy tales such as Vasilisa the Beautiful. One of my all-time favourites is called The Soldier and Death, but it’s quite sad. 

This is a rather chilly book, being set in the Siberian winter; what's the coldest you yourself have ever been? 

I’ve been to some pretty cold places, like Scotland in winter and the French Alps – brr! But the answer is probably a lot sillier. I got stuck in Central London once with a friend. It was night, it was cold and I was shivering because I had no coat, and for one reason and another we had no obvious way to get home. My friend suggested we sleep on a bench and head off in the morning. Er – that wasn’t going to happen! Worried about my fingers – and the rest of me – turning to ice, I insisted, and we did manage to make our way back eventually. But our journey was quite the chaotic ‘adventure’ in itself. 

What will your next book be about? 

This time we’re visiting Dartmoor in England, a place steeped in its own mystery and folklore, just after World War Two. It follows an otherwise ordinary girl with a strange connection to the spirit world, who finds herself caught up in a dangerous, magical prophecy. I probably shouldn’t say too much more, but you can expect a sprawling, epic landscape, spirits (some good and some with wicked intent), more fairy and folk tale magic, and, most importantly of all, characters you can root for. But what is it really about? My best answer to that is: healing.

Thanks Katharine!  Your next book sounds right up my alley!

The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, by Ronald L. Smith (review and interview)

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ronald L. Smith at Kidlitcon back in 2015 (PSA--come to Kidlitcon 2020 in Ann Arbor next March!).  His first middle grade book, Hoodoo, a tale of supernatural horror in the south, had just been published, and I enjoyed it very much (my review).  I likewise enjoyed The Mesmerist (2017), about kids fighting evil in 19th century London (my review).  I never reviewed Black Panther: the Young Prince (2018)….someday I will.  So in any event, I was very excited about his most recent book, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away (Clarion Books, February 2019).

This is the story of an air force kid, Simon, son of a black mom and a white dad, who's obsessed with aliens.  He's convinced owl-like aliens have arrived, watching and experimenting on humans.  His family has no time or patience for aliens, so Simon is alone with his fears of the Grays, as he calls them.  When something very strange happens on a camping trip with his dad, Simon is convinced he was targeted by the aliens, and that a chip has been implanted in his stomach.

Are the aliens a projection of Simon's own anxieties (he feels his father is disappointed in his lack of athleticism, fondness for gaming, and his social insecurity), or are they a real threat, that no one else around him believes in?  His parents think his fears are psychological, and take him to a psychiatrist who medicates him, but Simon doesn't cooperate.   Readers must keep guessing; Simon's other obsession, the fantasy book he's writing, makes it clear that he's a tremendously imaginative, creative person, and are the Grays simply another story he's telling himself?

Whether or not the aliens are real, Simon's distress certainly is, and the scary tension keeps growing throughout the book!  Young fans of sci fi horror creeping into our world will love it, especially those who feel that the grown-ups don't take them seriously.

Here are some questions I had for Ronald L. Smith, that he graciously answered.

What inspired you to write Owls? 

Well, I have a lot of ideas brewing in my brain. I thought it would be cool to try something more contemporary than my other books. I have an unhealthy fascination with UFOs and aliens so I thought it would be a good subject. Also, the book is set on an Air Force base, which is where I spent my life growing up. There is a whole subculture around military bases that people don’t know about. It’s a certain way of life. Since I know it well I thought it would provide a good backdrop. Also, aliens and UFOs are a timeless subject.

Part of what makes Owls so interesting is the uncertainty about the whether the aliens are real or not.  When you started writing Owls, did you know which way you were going to go?

Yes. But the book also changed a little in edits. The big idea stayed true to what I envisioned. 

Likewise, although Owls is a middle grade book (9-12 year olds) it felt to me like it could easily have been born a Young Adult book....did you always think of it as middle grade, or were there times it wanted to be YA?  (would you like to write YA?)

I always thought of it as MG. That’s the category I like most. It would be a little different, though, if it were YA. My main character, Simon, would have had different hopes and fears. A younger protagonist allowed me to tap into the mind of a twelve-year-old and imagine how he would handle such a weird subject. As to writing YA, I have some ideas. Maybe one day!

(a question for those of us who have read the book...) Do you think the ending is entirely happy?  

Well, I’ll leave that one up to the reader. It’s hopeful but also kind of disturbing! 

Which of your books did you most enjoy writing, and what are you working on now?

Oh, wow. I’m sure you know the answer, as you’ve interviewed a lot of writers. I can’t really say which is my favorite. They all have their challenges and bright spots. I really enjoyed writing Owls. It was fun to write something contemporary but with one disturbing—albeit big—element to it. My next book is called GLOOMTOWN. It’s a fantasy novel about two kids named Rory and Isabella who live in a town called Gloom. The sun never shines there. But there’s a reason for that. There’s also a creepy mansion called Foxglove Manor, Black Sea mariners, a carnival and a scary group called Arcanus Creatura. It’s gonna be fun! 

Finally, any advice for young writers and/or young believers in aliens? 

For young writers, read a lot. Fiction. Nonfiction. Comics. Graphic novels. Memoirs and biographies. Newspapers. Just read. Reading is your best teacher. Share your work with like-minded friends and writers. Try to write a little each day, even if it’s just your own thoughts. And if you believe in aliens, you’re not alone! (See what I did there?) 

Thank you, Ronald!  I'll look forward to Gloomtown.  I love creepy mansions!

Flight of the Bluebird (Bland Sisters #3)--review and interview with Kara LaReau

Flight of the Bluebird, by Kara LaReau, illustrated with great charm by Jen Hill, is the third and final book of The unintentional Adventures of the Bland sisters (Abrams, January 8, 2019).  Kale and Jaundice, abandoned by their parents, lived a life of utmost blandness and boringness until adventure shattered their staid lives.  First they are kidnapped by pirates, in The Jolly Regina.  Next they whisked off by an unexpected aunt who's a famous magician, on a train ride full of mystery and excitement in The Uncanny Express (my review).  And now, in Flight of the Bluebird, they fly off to Egypt to face an unscrupulous illegal trader in antiquities (not a nice persona at all!) and, maybe, find their parents....

The titular Bluebird is the small airplane, piloted by daring aviatrix, Beatrix, sent by their parents to save them from some unknown danger.  But instead of taking them to safety, the Bluebird flies to Egypt, where they might solve the mystery surrounding the magical scarab Jaundice acquired in their previous adventure, and perhaps even find their long-lost parents...if danger doesn't find them first!  And there is plenty of danger, involving an evil archaeologist selling antiquities, kidnappings, and sundry other threats.  The sisters don't have the chance to peacefully be dull.

It makes for a fun read, and it's lovely to see Jaundice and Kale continue to emerge as three dimensional characters!  The magic of the scarab, and the wild adventures in Egypt, add a fantastical excitement to the story.  It's a fine conclusion to a saga that manages to be both wildly silly (for both grown ups and kids, with cleverness to delight the former and high jinks to delight the later), and at the same time thought-provoking.

And speaking of thought-provoking, it was a great pleasure to get to ask Kara LaReau some of the thoughts provoked in me!

By the time I read the end of Flight of the Bluebird, I realized that the Bland sisters were not Bland at all, and probably never had been; in this third book, when we finally learn why their parents left them, we get (or at least I got) a shock—they were incredibly brave and resilient from the get go (and though their lives and food were boring, this may well have been a coping mechanism rather than a reflection of their characters). So my question is—did the development of Jaundice and Kale into three dimensional characters, distinct from each other, and not at all bland, surprise you, or had you been realizing all along as you wrote them that this was going to happen?

Yes, I think their adherence to routine was a coping mechanism in their parents’ absence; their Blandness is a bit more inherent, though I think it became more extreme when they were left to their own devices.

In some ways, I wish Jaundice and Kale could have just stayed the same throughout the series, but I knew there had to be some character development in order to keep their story interesting. So I knew it was something I had to do, maybe not from the get-go, but gradually. In The Uncanny Express (Book 2), they do start using their brains and realize how much they can accomplish when they work together and apply themselves. So that kind of sets them up for Book 3.

And following from that, to make them over the top interesting and daring etc. wouldn’t have worked; did you have to work hard to keep the girls as bland as you could?

Making them bland was actually the easy part! I’m so in their heads that I just knew, for instance, that Kale’s first reaction to landing in Egypt was to note how much sand there was. (Her favorite color is brown, after all.)

There’s a point when they’re imprisoned in the tomb of Seti I where Jaundice and Kale get really angry, probably for the first time in their lives. That was a harder scene to write, because it was such a departure from their baseline, deadpan emotional state. 

This third book is also the most fantasy-ish of the trilogy, yet it the only one in a real place (and the one in which the girls are the most real, with real parents on hand….).   What made you decide to put in this actual fantasy twist of magical scarabs?

I knew that I wanted the final book to be an homage to Indiana Jones adventures, and there’s always a bit of magic in those stories, whether it’s the Ark or the Grail (let’s not talk about Temple of Doom or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, ahem). Since Jaundice is always pocketing random objects, it seemed natural that she would take something truly valuable at some point—and I thought that would be a nice twist to leave at the end of Book 2 and carry into Book 3. 

The Bland books don’t overtly offer kids ethical lessons (except the obvious one in this third book of don’t illegally sell antiquities!), but when you were writing them, were there any big issue things you wanted kids to pick up on? (other than “you can be an interesting person even if you wear “boring” colors” which is my main take away!).

There are “lessons,” however subtle, in the books. Book 1, The Jolly Regina, has a little subplot about standing up for yourself, as Jaundice and Kale help one of the pirates who’s being bullied by her shipmates. In The Uncanny Express, the Bland Sisters learn about the importance of using their eyes and ears and being present in the world, and that you can’t take anything (or anyone!) at face value. Flight of the Bluebird is about being brave and getting out of your comfort zone. But these aren’t “issues” books, of course. They’re meant to be romps, maybe with a little message peppered in.

Do you think you’ll ever write for older “middle grade” kids—the 11 to 13 year olds--yourself? (which isn’t of course to say that kids that age wouldn’t like the Bland sisters….) 

I don’t think about age range when I’m writing; I just let the story unfold and figure out who it’s for later. So you never know!

Final question—did you ever regret giving them such awful names (euphonious, but awful), or do you stand by that choice?  If you had to pick being named either Kale or Jaundice, which would it be?  

No regrets. I stand by my naming choices!

Of the two, I’d probably want to be named Kale; it’s the closest to my actual name, and it’s evidently gaining in popularity these days!

Thank you, Kara, both for the interview and for writing the very entertaining books!

Once Upon a Princess, by Christine Marciniak, review and interview

Today it's my pleasure to be a stop on the blog tour of Once Upon a Princess, by Christine Marciniak (CBAY Books, Middle Grade, April 1, 2018).

Her Royal Highness, Fredericka Elisabetta Teresa von Boden don Morh (Fritzi for short) is the 12-year-old younger daughter of the King and Queen of Colsteinburg, a tiny European principality, and life is good--in honor of her country's 800th anniversary, she's just attended her first ball.  But that night, there is a coup.  Anti-monarchists have taken over the government, and are storming the castle, and so Fritzi, her older sister the heir, and their mother, flee to the United States.  Her father stays behind, because to leave would be tantamount to abdication.  

The suburban American house loaned to them by a former US ambassador to Colsteinburg is a far cry from Fritzi's castle home, and the local middle school is likewise rather a change from her posh French boarding school.  No one can know she is a princess, but Fritzi is determined  never to forget, and so she finds herself taking on the queen bee girl and her followers.  The friendship dramas are of little importance, though, compared to her worry about her father and her country.  She decides to do her part to win back the hearts of her people through social media, recording short videos full of emotion and pride. Unfortunately, they are easily tracked, and the safe house is safe no longer.

And the anti-monarchists find them, and in the violent confrontation and kidnapping that ensues, Fritzi's pride and strength of character will be tested, and she will get the chance to show the world she is a true princess....

The princess having to become an ordinary girl is a fun anti-princess diary conceit, and Fritzi plays her part admirably.  Especially refreshing was her take on the school pecking order; she's oblivious to the nuances of navigating the existing hierarchy because she's so used to being, as a princess, at the top of it.  Though she's not the most introspective or sensitive 12 year old, she has an appealing toughness to her that give her enough umph to carry her story along well.   Princess-loving readers should enjoy this one lots!

and now, an interview with the author.

What was your favorite book as a child and what is the book you most frequently find yourself recommending to others?

I’d have to say one of my favorite books as a child was MANDY by Julie Andrews Edwards. It’s a charming book about an orphaned girl who finds a place for herself. When I first read it I did not realize that the author was the same woman who starred in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, As an adult I found the book again to re-read it, hoping it would stand the test of time, and it did. I found it as charming as I had when I was nine. Other books I read voraciously as a child were the Bobbsey Twin books. Those do not stand up quite as well to adult scrutiny.

What book do I frequently recommend to others? I have very eclectic reading tastes, so what I recommend is going to partly have to do with the interests of the person I’m talking to, and what I’ve recently read. For younger readers I would probably recommend The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards. I discovered that book when my daughter was young, and it quickly became one of her favorites. I think it is often overlooked when people discuss great books for children. For older readers I’ve found myself recommending Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford and The Secret Ministry of Ag and Fish by Noreen Roils. Like I said, I have eclectic tastes.

(me:  I love both those Julie Andrews Edwards books too!)

What were the main challenges you faced with setting a present day princess story that included technology?

I think the main challenge for any present day story – princess or not – is that the ubiquitous use of cell phones ruins a lot of plot points. Lost? Look it up on your GPS. Running late? Call the person to let them know. Need someone to come to your rescue, you’ve got help right at your fingertips. Sometimes author’s solve that by letting the character lose their phone, or being out of cell service, or the battery dying. I decided to let Fritzi use the internet in a way that would complicate things for her, not solve all her problems. The biggest problem there is keeping up with what is the latest social media forum that tweens are using these days.

Where did the idea for Once Upon a Princess originally come from?

It seemed to me that it is a fairly common to see stories about someone who is leading a rather ordinary life and suddenly they either find out they are royalty or they marry into royalty and it turns their life upside down. I thought, what if someone was royalty, and then wasn’t – kind of turning the convention on its head.

Going off that question, what's the strangest thing you've ever had to research for a book?

Horse Diving. I was setting a book in Atlantic City during the twenties and discovered that one of the main attractions at the time was a horse diving show where a woman would ride a horse as it dove from a platform into a tank of water. I actually bought and read a book by the premier horse diver of the time. A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Carver. The title is a bit hokey, but the story was fascinating. Other things I’ve found myself researching have been undergarments of the 19th century, the lay out of a scallop boat, the occupation of Bruges during World War I and when toilet paper was invented.

Can you tell us what you're working on next?

This summer I have an adult romance coming out, Emily’s Song, which is a time travel romance set at the beginning of the Civil War. Works in progress include a middle grade book set in Atlantic City during the twenties and another adult romance, also set in the twenties in New Jersey.

Did you have a playlist of music you listened to when you wrote OUAP?

I really don’t. If I listened to music when I was writing it was most likely going to be Jazz or Classical, because lyrics tend to get in the way of my thought process (harder to write when singing along).

Thank you, Christine!  I'll look forward to reading your future middle grade books.

Dragonfly Song, by Wendy Orr, with an interview

Today's the US release day for Dragonfly Song, by Wendy Orr (Pajama Press)-- a lovely middle grade historical fantasy about a girl who becomes a bull-leaper in Bronze Age Crete.

Aissa was born to play a special role in her community--she is the firstborn daughter of the priestess, and in the normal way of things she should have been trained to someday take her mother's place, listening to the scared snakes and maintain balance between the people and the world around them.  But Aissa is born with an extra thumb on each hand, and though these are easily cut off, she is still imperfect, making her unsuitable to follow her mother's footsteps.  So a story is told that she died at birth, and instead she's sent up into the hills to be raised by a humble but loving family, not knowing who she really is.

When that family is killed by raiders, Aissa takes deep to heart her mother's last words to her as she was hidden out of sight--that she shouldn't make a sound.  Mute and nameless, she becomes a drudge in the town where her birth mother is priestess.  Feared and despised, she sees one chance to change her future--to be chosen as tribute to Crete, and taken to perform the bull-dances of the Cretan bull-king.

When this chance comes, Aissa finally flies free....and finally she has a choice about what her future will hold.  

Written in alternating sections of verse and prose, this is an unforgettable story of an extraordinary girl touched by ancient magic, one that I enjoyed very much.

It's my pleasure today to welcome Wendy Orr to my blog, with an interview and pictures she shared.

1.       At what stage in the shaping of the story did Aissa's name come to mean dragonfly?  It's a perfect metaphor for her own lifecycle— the period of being flightless, underwater, unlovely, before emerging iridescently into the air. And how did the title come about?  I'm curious about that, because of course dragonflies don't sing, and neither did Aissa....

 Oh, I hadn’t seen all those metaphors! Thank you. The dragonfly theme started in a slightly surreal way, in that when I finally saw the shape for the story, it seemed to be enclosed in a beautiful blue bubble. The next day I saw a dragonfly, the exact same shade of blue, and felt that it was confirming the story. After that I consistently saw dragonflies whenever I worked out something significant about the story. I therefore had Kelya see dragonflies at the Source as a symbol that she was making the right decision, and then realized that Aissa’s name should mean dragonfly. I admit that by this stage it took a bit of self-talk to remind myself that I was the boss and since Aissa’s original island is fictitious, I could decide on the language! However it wasn’t till the book had gone to print that I learned that the dragonfly was a symbol of the Minoan goddess and/or her priestesses.

(One of the dragonflys that visited the author)

 My original title was the Snake Singer, which no one liked except me – kids I trialed it on reacted quite negatively, which was a pretty good reason to change it. I don’t remember who came up with Dragonflly Song – I’d like to think it was me, but suspect it was my editor. The song that bursts through Aissa’s mutism – a bit like the dragonfly breaking free of its chrysalis - is so significant that it definitely deserves to be in the title.

 2.         How did you decide where to switch between verse and prose?  Which was easier to write? Was this your first time writing fiction in verse form?  What were the pros and cons?

My original aim was to write the more internal thoughts in verse and background in prose, but it was a bit looser than that in practice. It’s the first time I’ve written fiction in free verse, but it’s how I usually ‘hear’ stories before I write them – it was just that this one refused to come to life when I tried it in prose, so I had to give in. The verse was therefore easier to write than the prose, and as deadlines approached I would write it all in verse and then transpose the most appropriate sections back into prose. Sometimes it would be just that my editors felt that it was time for a breath! 

The big con of verse for me is that it has to be written by hand, which is physically painful because of neck pain, and takes a lot of extra time as my writing is so bad that I have to type it into the computer the same day – of course I would fiddle with words that didn’t seem right as I typed, but there’s not enough time gap to actually edit. 

I also sometimes worried on my publisher’s behalf about all the extra paper because of the short lines! But of course the big fear was of how something different would be received.

The main pro was that I was absolutely convinced that was how it needed to be written. I was passionate about this story and wanted to know I had done my best for it.

3.       Your bulls seem very realistic; how much bull research did you have to do?  And how familiar with ancient Crete were you going into the writing?  

My husband and I had a dairy farm for fifteen years, so I learned a healthy respect for bulls, from our own animals and from neighbor’s experiences (such as the school girl tossed right over the fence into the road when she cut through the bull’s field on her way to the bus). My husband had grown up on a cattle ranch, so he had more experience of having several bulls together, and helped me work out the bull scenes.  

(the author's daughter, befriending a young bull)

 I’ve been reading about ancient Crete for years – probably ever since I read Mary Renault’s novels at twelve – and started researching and reading seriously about four years before I started writing. So much new research keeps appearing, as well as more academics and archaeologists uploading papers to public academic sites, that I kept researching and occasionally revising up to the last draft.

4.       What is your next project?

It’s set in the same world, but about 200 years earlier: a family fleeing to Crete from the volcanic eruption in Santorini in 1625 BCE. This time I was lucky enough to travel to Crete and Santorini for research; I had just finished the last edit of Dragonfly Song, and felt quite emotional to stand in places where she would have stood. (If she’d been real – I know she wasn’t. But on the other hand, real kids did stand there and face bulls…)

(the steps of Knossos, where Aissa would have stood)

5.       Is there a question I haven asked about Dragonfly Song that  you'd like to answer?  

One interviewer asked me about the number of disabled characters in Dragonfly Song. I was quite surprised because I hadn’t seen my characters as disabled, although obviously Aissa’s mutism is a handicap in life and makes her an object of bullying. The interviewer pointed out that the two bull trainers are disabled. I realized that I hadn’t seen them in that way because they were strong, capable people who happened to have physical problems. It’s a distinction that’s extremely important to me – as is the bullying-because-of-difference theme. Those are beliefs that I’ve always held and were probably central to my originally being an occupational therapist, but the depths of darkness I felt in writing some of Aissa’s verse makes me realize that much of these two themes came from my own years of being labeled disabled after a catastrophic car accident.

Thank you Wendy!

Wendy Orr was born in Edmonton, Canada, but grew up in various places across Canada, France, and the USA. She studied occupational therapy in the UK, married an Australian farmer, and moved to Australia. She’s the author of many award-winning books, including Nim’s Island, Nim at Sea, Rescue on Nim’s Island, Raven’s Mountain, and Peeling the Onion.

 More information about Dragonfly Song: http://pajamapress.ca/book/dragonfly_song/

More information about Wendy Orr: http://www.wendyorr.com/


Blog Tour Stops

Unleashing Readers, Activity Guide and Discussion Questions, 10/22 http://www.unleashingreaders.com/

YA and Kids Book Central, Book Playlist, 10/23 http://www.yabookscentral.com/blog/

Log Cabin Library, Guest Post, 10/24 http://logcabinlibrary.blogspot.com/

The Children’s Book Review, Character Interview, 10/25 https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/

Bluestocking Thinking, Review, 10/26 http://bluestockingthinking.blogspot.com/

A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust, Interview, 10/28 http://www.foodiebibliophile.com/

Writers’ Rumpus, Guest Post, 10/29 https://writersrumpus.com/

The Wolf Hour, by Sara Lewis Holmes, with a rather different sort of interview

The Wolf Hour, by Sara Lewis Holmes (Arthur A. Levine, middle grade, Sept. 2017), is a lovely book for those who like to venture into the dark woods of stories made horribly real (and who don't mind spiders, because there are lots of spiders....)

Magia has lived all life at the edge of a vast Polish forest, the Puszcza, a dark and magical place.  Her father is a woodcutter, and Magia wants to follow in his footsteps, though he warns her against this because those steps lead into the heart of the forest.   And in the Puszcza stories have become real, played out over and over again, with deadly consequences.  When Magia is forced to follow into the forest, she finds herself caught in the web of an evil enchantment that threatens not just her own future but that of her whole family.  With young girls vanishing into the forest, and her father lost there as well,  accusations of witchcraft leveled at her, and her mother and siblings fallen into a magical sleep, Magia must find the strength to confront the woman controlling the threads of the stories and break those threads once and for all.  Her only ally is a wolf, Martin, who fell afoul of his own story when he failed to grasp that he was supposed to be eating the three little pigs (he'd rather be snug in a good library reading, as is the case with so many of us....). But Magia, with her red hood, is bound by her own story to be a wolf-killer....

It is a haunting story, that leads the reader along with Magia into a web of alternate realities.  It not a fairy tell retelling, but more a twisting and re-use of familiar stories, used to excellent effect to create the challenges that lie within the Puszcza.  The occasionally intrusion of the narrator (which I sometimes find annoying, but didn't here) worked to great effect, keeping readers thinking and aware of Stories and Storytelling.  

Magia is one of the most lonely heroines I've read this year, and it was easy to sympathize and mentally encourage her as she pressed onward.  Not only does she have fight an evil, magical antagonist, she has to resist the expectations of ordinary human folk, making her very relatable.  Martin the wolf, with his penchant for a good book, and failed efforts to break the story of the three little pigs (not because he knew that's what he was doing, but because he simply was not interested in being a vicious killer), is one of my favorite wolf characters ever, and possibly even more relatable!  His efforts to communicate with the pigs never work; he never found the right words to get them to listen (which was, within the framework of the story they're trapped in, not possible in any event, but I felt for him as he tried his best).

The Wolf Hour doesn't fit neatly into standard "this is a middle grade" book categorization (for ages 9-12) , though that's where I'd put it.  It really is an all ages book, one that encourages and rewards thoughtful reading. When I enjoy a book, I generally don't think about it much, but I found myself doing so here, and it enhanced my pleasure and let me relate in a deeper way to Magia as we both tried to unravel the enchantments of the forest.  In fact, I was thinking so much that I actually underlined bits of the book that struck me as breadcrumbs on the trail into the story and dogeared the pages to come back to.  (I was reading an ARC.  I would never do this to a finished copy).

I then offered some of these passages to Sara Lewis Holmes for her thoughts on them!

And so, a rather different sort of interview:

"You must learn the paths of the forest, and how to find the direction of the sun when there's no light overhead.  You must be so certain of your true story that you always end up where you want to be."

Tata gives Magia this advice early in the novel, and I know he believes it, and is trying to pass on his wisdom to her.  Ironically, though, it’s Tata who ends up where he doesn’t want to be and Magia who has to straighten out the “true story.” 

In writing The Wolf Hour, I was interested in how stories both fool and guide us. Other people love to plug us into their narratives, and assign us roles to play. That’s why Magia’s path to her “true story” is so twisty and difficult—-because she’s fighting against the world’s notion of who she should be… or not be. And I wanted readers to know that twisty and difficult is okay.

"Better she'd not come back, then," Pani Wolburska said, her voice breathless.  "Some lost things should stay lost.”

Oh, this is a hard one.  I had to include this awful line because this is what some people believe about some human beings.  That you can lose your way so badly that you can never come home.  But I don’t believe that. (Even my wolves can be heroes.) 

Of course, it helps to have friends who will believe the best of you, instead of the worst, as Pani Wolburska does. And to have wise books and kind teachers, too—-and yet, those things are often “lost” in budgets. Honestly, I think the only thing that deserves to stay lost is that sixth grade picture of me in a Bay City Rollers costume. 

"A wolf is everything we give it to swallow.  We kill it and it comes back. We fight it and it never dies.  We humans write stories to kill it, to defeat it. to boil it alive, to slice open its bell, but none of that works."

Her voice grew teeth.

"Because you can't truly kill a wolf.  He's the wildness without which the world would be a pale shadow of itself.  He makes us feel alive.  He reminds us of the magic in our tame and failing human bones!"

One of the irritating things about my antagonist, Miss Grand, is that she often tells the truth about the world: that it is hard; that people will take things from you; that Story is the way to fight back.  And here, too, she is right about Wolves—-that we invest them with wily power, and then try with all our might to kill them so that we can be safe. 

And yet—-is being safe the only thing to strive for? What about being fully alive? What about finding the magic in our own bones? What about being brave and finding our own way? 

I believe wildness is necessary in my own life—-I love being outdoors whenever I can—- and I know it’s necessary in my creative life, too—-for I can’t write true story without being somewhat uncivilized. By that, I mean:  I don’t always get out of my pajamas when I should.  I don’t always write drafts that make sense the first time, or the third time, or the fifth. (Ask my editor!)  And I don’t always let my antagonists lie. Even if I wish a wolf would just gobble her up. 

(Back to me, Charlotte)

Thank you Sara, both for expanding on the quotations and for writing this lovely, magical book!

This post is part of a blog tour for The Wolf Hour, the first stop is here at Finding Wonderland, where you'll find an interview and a review, and here's another review at By Singing Light.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher