This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (5/4/2014)

Yay!  It is sunny and it is May.  And here's what I found in my blog reading this week of interest to us fans of middle grade speculative fiction.  Let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews:

The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, at Views From the Tesseract

The Cryptid Files: The Loch Ness Monster, by Jean Flitcroft, at Finding Wonderland

Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Fantasy Review Barn

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at Ciara Reads Books

The Dyerville Tales, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Charlotte's Library

Half Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Tales of the Marvelous

Horizon, by Jenn Reese, at The Book Smugglers

House of Secrets, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at Readaraptor

How to Catch a Bogle, by Catherine Jinx, at Good Books and Good Wine (audiobook review)

In the Keep of Time, by Margaret J. Anderson, at Charlotte's Library

The Interupted Tale, by Maryrose Wood, at alibrarymama

The Kindling, by Braden Bell, at Always in the Middle

The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan, at Puss Reboots

Masterpiece, by Elise Broach, at Dead Houseplants

The Monster in the Mudball, by S.P. Gates, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Operation Bunny, by Sally Garnder, at Booklist Online

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at The Reading Hedgehog

Project Xcaliber, by Greg Pace, at Middle Grade Mafioso

Red Riding Hood Gets Lost, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Candace's Book Blog

The Ride of Your Life (Creepover #18), by P.J. Night, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer, at For Those About to Mock

Rose and the Lost Princess, by Holly Webb, at In Bed With Books

The Sceaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Hidden in Pages

Seven Wild Sisters, by Charles de Lint, at The Book Monsters

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Librarian of Snark

When Did You See Her Last?, by Lemony Snicket, at Semicolon and Sonderbooks

A World Without Princess, by Soman Chainani, at A Reader of Fictions (audiobook review)

A passel of books at Ms. Yingling Reads-- The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw, The Forbidden Library, The Ninja Librarians and the Accidental Keyhand, and The Islands of Chaldea

Authors and Interviews

Marisa de los Santos and David Teague (Saving Lucas Biggs) at The Write Stuff with giveaway

Dianne Salernie (The Eighth Day) at Literary Rambles, with giveaway

Holly Webb (Rose and the Lost Princess) at Literary Rambles, with giveaway

Anne Ursu gave a great keynote speech at the year's Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference, which you can read here at The Loft .  Here's a teaser:  "This is the age where the world gets a little bigger every day, when your mind is still taking in everything it can, when adults stop shielding the hard things from you. Books are a small place to explore a big world. They are personal—for the first time, they are yours—and they are profound. They reflect and assure, they project and excite. And kids love them for it. They love them with their whole being. "  

Claire Legrand (Year of Shadows) at The Book Cellar

Jaleigh Johnson (Mark of the Dragonfly) at SFFWorld

Jennifer Nielsen (The Ascendance Trilogy) at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Dyerville Tours, by M.P. Kozlowsky, kicked off its tour this week--the full schedule is here, and  includes guest posts at Word Spelunking and The Book Smugglers

And Jonathan Auxier's After the Book Deal tour continues:
WEEK TWO: Your Book Launch
April 28 - “Can I have Your Autograph?” @ Haunted Orchid
April 29 –  “Cinderella at the Ball” @ The O.W.L.
May 1 – “Being Heard in the Crowd” @ The Misbehavin’ Librarian
May 2 - “The Loneliest Writer in the World” @ Shelf Employed


Other Good Stuff:

Akossiwa Ketoglo is hosting a Marvellous May Middle Grade Readathon

A list of Rick Riordan readalikes at alibrarymama

Lots on diversity this week, most notably the WeNeedDiverseBooks  campaign.

I wish I could offer a nice list of Diverse Middle Grade Speculative Fiction coming out this summer, but I can't--there's Infinity Ring Book 8: Eternity, by Matt de la Peña, and there's Spirit Animals Book 4: Fire and Ice, by Shannon Hale and that's all I can think of.  ARE THERE ANY MORE? Please tell me there are more. 

The Diversity Issue of SLG is up--click through for lots of good stuff, and heres a list of one ten-year-old's recommendations of fantasy and science fiction with diverse characters at Charlotte's Library

I am thinking I might be going to The Maine Comics Arts Festival on May 18th in Portland--when I told the boys that Ben Hatke and Kazu Kibuishi will be there they expressed fanchild interest, which I think should be encouraged.  Not that I myself have any interest in fangirling Ben Hatke (sarcasm font).

And speaking of comics, since yesterday was Free Comics Day, I offer (humbly) another episode in my own *exciting* series about the adventures of two Castaway Blobs, hastily drawn in the last five minutes because planning ahead is hard.

Castaway Blobs! Number 4

Because time has been short, I have no review today. Instead, I offer another episode of Castaway Blobs!, a cartoon series that started life in the mind of my 12 year old, and became a family project. Today's episode is based on one of my husband's ideas; he feels his original version was better, but since we can't find it, here's my adaptation of it (sorry Patrick). Click to enlarge...

Castaway Blobs #3

This particular adventure of the Castaway Blobs! is rather appealing on this horribly hot evening....(feel free to click to enlarge).

Just to fill in the empty space, more Castaway Blobs!

Still not entirely back from vacation, in terms of having reviews written and ready to go, so here, to pass the time, is another thrilling episode of Castaway Blobs!

My BEA books, and 2 other nice things that came home recently

So the sad remains of my 48 hour book challenge stack have been cleared away, and now I can use the wood stove as a handy place for my BEA books! Here they are, in all their glory, minus The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which I read on the train home and have already passed on the library:


Thank you, publishers--I look forward to reading them!

And just because I feel like sharing, here are two things that came home at the end of school that pleased me very much.

My eleven year old has his first published comic strip in the school literary magazine. By way of explanation, about a year ago he started drawing a strip called "Castaway Blobs!"-- the story of two blobs adrift in a boat. The other three of us joined in the fun, and we have a nice little collection of Castaway Blobs...Here's the basic image, as drawn by me: For the literary magazine, my son drew on the computer, so some of the charm is lost...but it still tickled me:


My younger son's portfolio of school work included many nice bits of writing, but what struck me most was his response to the following assignment: write as short a piece of fiction as you can that combines the themes of "war" and "friendship."

"Jack? He's, he's...dead."

Pretty darn good use of an ellipsis for an eight year old, if you ask me.

So there you go....

(there are many more Castaway Blobs! in the world, and I could share them if there was interest....)

(and just so as to guard my son's rights: Castaway Blobs! is copyrighted and may not be used without the permission its creator, B.H.)