The Patron Thief of Bread, by Lindsay Eager

The Patron Thief of Bread, by Lindsay Eager (May 17th 2022, Candlewick) is a heart-warming and heart-wrenching story of a orphan girl's journey towards a safe place in the world.

Atop the unfinished cathedral of the town of Odierne sit its gargoyles, themselves unfinished.  All but one spend the days gossiping about what they see below; the outlier stares out like the others, but has no patience for ideal chatter.  He is full of frustration; gargoyles are supposed to protect, but he is a lump of stone who was unable to save a woman who jumped from his perch long ago to escape arrest.  She and the baby she carried were swept away, leaving the gargoyle to bitter musings.

The baby was fished from the river by a gang of kid thieves, lead by a fiercely intelligent and fiercely lawless boy named Gnat. Little Duck, as they called her, is the youngest of the group, and it's not till the gang's roamings bring them to Odierne, making the cathedral ruins their home, that she's trusted to take on a direct heist on her own.  She must pass a false coin at the baker's, and if she fails to bring back bread, she's sure she'll be cast out.  

And she is successful, winning a more secure place in her young family of thieves.  But then Gnat comes up with his most cunning plan yet--if Duck is apprenticed to the baker, she'll be in a lovely position to syphon off bread and coin to her family....But when Duck is welcomed by the baker, Griselde, and given a room of her own, and given trust as well, she starts down of a path of divided loyalties that almost breaks her.  Over the next year, the pulling on her heart intensifies, and at last she is forced to chose who she will betray...the family of kids who raised her, or the woman who is willing to give her love and safety and a living doing what she loves.  All the while the gargoyle watches, and finally is able to fulfil his destiny as a protector.

I loved all the details of being apprenticed to a baker (I am a big fan of books in which there is lots of making and crafting), and such a lovely baker too! Griselde is really the one of the best mother figures in any middle grade book I've read for ages, and I really liked that she needs Duck in her life to love just as much as Duck needs her. But the overall situation was so tense and discomfiting this was not at all a comfort read...the tension is strung out from beginning to end, tightening to a breaking point where I had to start skimming a bit (reading the end didn't help, because I knew, it being middle grade, things would almost certainly work out, but the process of things working out was very stressful for me the reader!)

It's not action-packed, but more character driven, so don't go into it expecting lots of middle grade fantasy high jinx! It is fantasy, in as much as it's an alternate world, with the sentient gargoyle providing a depressed gargoyle's point of view (in alternate perspectives with Duck's story), but it's not full of magic. Just found family and bread, and worry....lots of love, and, indeed, the happy ending I was hoping for (although it comes with some interesting twists, and a high cost).

Short answer--one I can easily imaging wanting to re-read in a year or so, and I'll enjoy it even more the second time around (this is why I like re-reading....)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Gabriel's Clock, by Hilton Pashley

Gabriel's Clock, by Hilton Pashley, is a middle grade fantasy published in the UK back in 2013; all the reviews on Amazon UK are five stars, and when it was published here in the states this October, it got good reviews as well.  And indeed, there were many parts that were lovely and magical, and I can imagine many young reader being entranced.  But two things are keeping me from a wholehearted recommendation--a nasty bit of torture, and the absence of God (not something that usual bothers me in middle grade fantasy (because if it did, I wouldn't have much middle grade fantasy to read), but in this particular case I was troubled).

Jonathan is not an ordinary boy--he is half angel, half demon.  His grandfather is the Archangel Gabriel, who fell from heaven years ago (for reasons), imbuing one small English village with his heavenly magic and making it a sanctuary for those of goodwill in need of refuge.  And Jonathan is badly in need of refugee--as the only half angel/half demon in existence, he will have incredible power...and the demon Belial is determined to find him and seize that power for himself.  Jonathan's parents kept him safe and hidden for years, but as the story starts, agents of darkness destroy his home, and capture his father.

So his mother sends him, still ignorant of  his true nature, to the village of his grandfather Gabriel.

All the residents of Hobbes End know Gabriel is an angel and that he has made their village a magical place.  Along with Jonathan, it's a delight to meet the people and beings that inhabit it--the gargoyles, the talking cat, the young daughter of a werewolf, Cay, who becomes Jonathan's friend.   This part of the story I loved unreservedly (great gargoyles always delight me, as do smart-aleck cats).

But the agents of Belial have found a way to by-pass the safeguards of the village....and they come with their horrible violence to seize Jonathan, causing his powers to abruptly awaken.   And though the villagers (gargoyles and all) fight fiercely, Gabriel is kidnapped, and tortured, and Cay too is held hostage.  Belial demands that Jonathan surrender himself, and bring with him the back-door key to heaven that his grandfather made-the clock of the title.  Or else.

And there is exciting action and action-filled excitement, and it is very easy to see the fantasy-loving young reader enjoying things very much.

But with all this war in heaven, and the archangels being real characters, and Lucifer being real, I just couldn't help wonder -- where was God?  It just didn't make sense to me, not because I am a stickler for doctrine, but because the internal logic of it felt off; if you are going to have the Archangels, surely God has to be there somewhere....If there'd been just a smidge of an explanation about divine non-interference or some such, it would have felt more satisfactory. 

I also do not like graphic torture.  Gabriel's wings are ripped from him, and his eyes are gouged out and sent to the vicar with whom Jonathan is living.  And though this happens off-stage, we see the bloody bandage and the fallen feathers, and when the box arrives, though the reader is not told what it holds, it's clear.   Rather strong stuff, and though there's not much of it, it would make me hesitate to offer this one to a sensitive younger reader.

But the village of Hobbes End is lovely, and I adored its inhabitants (there's a rather English quirkiness to the whole ensemble I appreciated), Jonathan is a character to cheer for, and the story is brisk and engrossing.    So I guess my short answer is recommended, with personal reservations.

Note:  that is a dragon on the cover, and it is a very cool dragon who ends up playing cricket with the villagers, but she doesn't get quite enough page time (coming in at the end as she does) to make this a dragon fantasy.

Note 2:  I appreciate that little or no meddling seems to have occurred with the Englishness of the original; it's nice to read an English book that really does feel English!  And moving further down that line of thought--at one point the talking cat is only just stopped in time while reciting a rude limerick about "a young man from Venus, who had an unusual...."  I don't think you'd be able to get away with this in a book first published in the States, prudes that we are...

Disclaimer: review copy sent by the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for Cybils Award consideration.

A Box of Gargoyles, by Anne Nesbet

When A Box of Gargoyles, by Anne Nesbet (HarperCollins, May 2013), opens, its young heroine, Maya, is finally enjoying life--her evil ancestor has been defeated (as was told in last year's The Cabinet of Earths), her mother's health is improving, and she has ten days of vacation from school in which to enjoy Paris in the company of her Bulgarian friend, Valko.  But her peace of mind is shattered when she is plunged into a new adventure of magical mayhem.  Unfortunatly, the evil ancestor is not as thoroughly defeated as one might like, and is manipulating Maya with his sorcerous skills into bringing him back to unnatural life. 

The ripple effects of the magic are spreading throughout Paris, and the two gargoyles that have taken up residence on Maya's fire escape are the least of it.   Maya and Volko, with the help of a new character,  Pauline (younger, but prodigiously intelligent), must figure out just what is going on in the midst of all the insanity that is overcoming Paris (starting with the strange affair of the stone wall around the Bulgarian embassy....which has the uniquly fascinting effect of Bulgarianizing the magic that ripples through the city).

And the most interesting, important question of all (to me, at least)-- is the beautiful, fascinating egg the gargoyles give to Maya for safekeeping good or bad? 

The egg was my favorite part of the book, but I enjoyed the book as a whole considerably-- following along with Maya and Valko as they picked their way through a torturous web of magic, wondering if Maya would be able to find choices that could make a difference in the face of a fate that seems almost inescapable.

Real-world storylines--the worrying health of Maya's mother, and the threat that Valko might be taken back to Bulgaria--add further interest to an already rich plot. The relationship between Maya and Valko is a lovely boy/girl friendship, that might develope into something more, but which is very nicely taking its time.

You don't necessarily have to have read The Cabinet of Earths to enjoy this one, but it wouldn't hurt.

In a nutshell-- if you enjoy smart kids, trying to use logic to defeat evil magic, and if you want to visit a Paris in the grip of enchantment, this is a good one.

Here's what Kirkus said, and a meaty blog review at A Wrinkle in the Pages