The Voyage of Sam Singh, by Gita Ralleigh

 

I very much enjoyed The Destiny of Minou Moonshine, by Gita Ralleigh, and so was very happy to read her second middle-grade magical adventure set in an alternate colonial India, The Voyage of Sam Singh (July 2024, Zephyr).  It's not a straight sequel, but it's enough of a crossover to please those who've met Minou while not confusing those who haven't, and it was just as much fun to read!

Sam's older brother Moon has been imprisoned in the legendary Octopus prison on the Isle of Lost Voices by the colonial government and Sam is determined to save him.  But before he can even start figuring out how to do this, he's off on an adventure.

Sam found passage to the island by working for an anthropologist known as "the Collector" who is determined to venture into the island's crocodile infested jungle to gain fame as the "first man" to do so (the Collector is peak 19th-century anthropological explorer...and awfully, but historically accurately, collects human skulls).  Lola, daughter of the tribal leader and shaman, but educated in the island's colonial city, serves as the expedition's cultural liaison, and becomes Sam's friend.  When the Collector makes off with the skull of a revered tribal elder, Sam and Lola set off to get it back.

Which they do, escaping near death by crocodile with a whole suitcase of skulls and their unquiet spirits in tow... but their adventures aren't over yet.  The Princess of Moonlally (where Minou's story took place) is also visiting the island on her own Octopus prison mission, and her help could be just what Sam needs to save his brother....A wild maelstrom of prison escape ensues, facilitated by a steampunk-esque submarine, angry spirits, the ghost of the island's first colonial governor, and the bravery of Sam and Lola.  And it ends with a piratical reunion of Moon and Sam for still more excitement!  

And though this might seem a lot for one story, it all works beautifully (even for a reader like me for whom a little excitement often goes a long way).  The relationship between thoughtful Sam and firebrand Lola makes the book a pleasure, the thoughtful presentation of historical Colonialist wrongs within a story full of magic and adventure is great, and Gita Ralleigh's writing is wonderfully descriptive, making it all come to vivid life.  It's incredibly easy to imagine the 9-12 year old target audience enjoying it even more than I did!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author, and enjoyed lots by me.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll, illustrated by Lauren Child

 I read and reread Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales as a child, with more morbid fascination than true enjoyment, although I did appreciate how very good he was at making pictures in the mind.  The little match girl's frozen body, for instance, is still distressingly clear to me.  So it was somewhat cathartic to read Emma Carroll's re-imagining of the story, The Little Match Girl Stikes Back (Sept 2023 in the US, Candlewick), in which she isn't just a pathetic victim. 

Bridie comes close, though.  She is out in the snowy misery of 19th century London, desperately selling matches to help feed her little family (mother, herself, and her younger brother).  Her mother works at the match factory, which is its own hell of physical misery, pathetic wages, and phosphorous poisoning (not quite as bad as the poor radium girls, but close....).  And one day everything goes wrong for Bridie--hit by a carriage, all but three of her matches are ruined.  And one by one she lights them....and wishes.

The first match gives her a luxurious meal in a grand house, that leaves her no better off than before (the food not being real).  The second wish, though, is a catalyst for actual change.  She wishes "that rich people....didn't have everything while poor families like mine have nothing."  And magically, she meets in her dream a woman who is in real life a fierce advocate for the poor, and together they visit the match factory, where her mother is being fired.  The match fizzles out, but not the spark that has been lit, and the third match gives Bridie a vision of a possible future without desperate poverty and her mother's phosphorous poisoning that gives her hope that change is possible.

And so Bridie galvanizes the women of the factory to strike, and the advocate she met in her vision takes the cause up to a national level, and it succeeds. It's based on an actual strike, discussed in a non-fiction coda at the end of the book, and the mixing of this real and important history with the fantasy and reality of Bridie makes for an engrossing and memorable story.  The illustrations and decorations add beautifully to the fierceness and desperation of Bridie's life.

It's not your regular sort of fantasy--the magic is real, but, like the matches, burns only in flashes.  But they are very bright flashes.  And it's not your regular sort of straight historical fiction, because the story depends on the magic.  Offer it to young readers who like both, especially if they happen to be fascinated by labor horror stories of yesteryear, and love reading about kids who make change happen.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and has not yet been nominated.  Here's where you go if you want to show love for this one, or many of the others still waiting for their call....

The Destiny of Minou Moonshine, by Gita Ralleigh

I first heard about The Destiny of Minou Moonshine, by Gita Ralleigh, when I was compiling a list of debut middle grade fantasy books for 2023, and I immediately wanted to read this historical fantasy set in an alternate India!  I was fortunate to have that pleasure this weekend, and it was a lovely read!

Minou is a foundling who has lived for all her 13 years with her adopted grandmother in a ramshackle boathouse shelter in Moonlally, a queendom colonized by foreigners (the British Raj with different names, and slightly different culture and technology...).  Her grandmother has raised her to be fierce, smart, and respectful of the Dark Goddess who, despite the efforts of the colonizers, continues to be worshiped by the local people.  Thirteen years ago, the last Queen died, and now a wicked General rules by fear and force.

When her grandmother is killed in suspicious circumstances, Minou joins the rebels bent on overthrowing the General....and so her adventures begin, taking her into the secret heart of the old palace, the jungles beyond Moonlally, and even the skies above it in the general's own airship.  The Queen still lives, and can, perhaps, be found.  With true friends at her side, a marvelous mechanical elephant to help considerably with travel through the jungle, and only a few derailments when her kind and generous heart threatens the quest to find the Queen, Minou succeeds in her quest...only to find that she's also found her own unexpected path forward.

A great read for middle grade readers who love stories of plucky girls vs tyrants, with action that zips briskly along.  Sometimes the resolutions to dangers seemed too easy to me as an adult reader, but this I think actually adds to the appeal of the book to those of its target audience who are in the market for fun reads and not doorstoppers.  Even so I found the adventure part of the story to be lots of fun, especially the steampunk-esque elements, and Minou is certainly a character to cheer for.  

That being said, what I enjoyed most were the pictures the words made for me.  It was a lovely trip to an alternate India!  

Out now in hardcover in the UK from Zephyr, an imprint of Bloomsbury, available also as an ebook in the US.  

Elsetime, by Eve McDonnell, for Timeslip Tuesday

Elsetime, by Eve McDonnell (June 2020, Everything With Words), is a must read for time travel fans (and a very good read for middle grade fantasy fans, mg historical fiction fans, and so on....). Though it has, to the best of my knowledge, not been published yet here in the US, it's well worth getting your hands on (says one who did so!). I do have a slight caveat though--it's a book that will be most enjoyed by those able to wrap their minds tightly around the sort of twists and turns that so often happen with time travel, and if, like me, you have a tendency to gallop through good stories, you might suddenly find yourself a bit confused...I think I will enjoy it more when I reread it in two or three years!

In London in 1928, 12 year old Glory has lied about here age to get a job in a jewelry shop. She designs beautiful things, but the fact that one of her hands is wooden prosthetic means she can't always bring her creations to fruition. The rather nasty woman she works for is not sympathetic, paying Glory a pittance while profiting off her designs.

In 1864, Needle is desperately trying to keep himself and his mother fed, following in the footsteps of his father who mysteriously disappeared by scrounging in the mud of the Thames for bits and pieces to turn into saleable ornaments. Like his father, Nettle has a magical gift--he can feel the stories of the things he finds. When he finds some metal fragments from 1928, with the names of victims of a horrible flood, he travels in time to that year, determined to give a warning.

There he meets Glory, and their stories intersect. The clock is ticking, and Glory herself might be one of those who will drown...but the two kids are up against villainous characters, and the problems that come with time travel. Fortunately, a very clever crow named Magpie, Nettle's helper from his own time, is a fellow time-traveler, and gives them just the assistance they need to add to their own determination and cleverness. And though Nettle, in the end, returns to his own time, he's changed both his life and Glory's for the better, in a lovely way (and not just by saving Glory's life...).

It's a truly engrossing story of friendship and hardship and creativity, given great tension by the threat of the devastating flood to come (a real event). McDonnell paints vivid pictures and brings her characters beautifully to life. And though the twist at the end didn't quite work for me (see caveat above), because I though one of the characters was perfectly capable of being more helpful earlier on, it was still one I enjoyed lots. Since I love to read about making things, I especially loved the crafting parts of the story, of which there were a generous plenty!

Healer and Witch, by Nancy Werlin

I just gave five stars on Goodreads to Healer and Witch, by Nancy Werlin (mg* Candlewick, April 12, 2022).  I am chary with my stars--only 6 out of the 92 books I've read so far this year have gotten 5 of them--all books that not only are very good books, but very good reads that make reality vanish and remind me why I love reading!  Such as Healer and Witch.

Sylvie is a girl learning healing from her mother and grandmother in Renaissance France.  Her mother's skill as a healer is based on knowledge and understanding, but her grandmother can do more, to the point of being magical.  When Sylvie gets her first period, her own gifts blossom, and like her grandmother there a magical twist to them--she can enter peoples minds, and tweak their memories.  When her grandmother dies, Sylie can't stand to see her mother suffering in a morass of grief, and so tries to help with a bit of memory removing.  It goes horribly wrong, and her mother doesn't remember her own mother, or even Sylvie.

So Sylvie sets out alone into the world to try to find another wise woman who can teach her how to use her gifts, so that she can fix what she broke, and never make such a mistake again.  She is both healer and witch...and the later is a dangerous thing to be when suspicions of witchcraft can lead to death.  A much younger boy, the blacksmith's son whose always getting into trouble, follows her out of their village, and refuses to be sent home, and proves to be an important part of her journey (and a nice part of the story!).  A meeting with a wise woman in the nearest town sets her off to the city of Lyon, as part of a wealthy young merchant's caravan.  

But neither the wise woman or the young merchant are exactly who they seem, and Sylvie's gifts place her in great danger.  She must fight fiercely for her right to use her powers as healer/witch as she sees fit, figuring out how to use them ethically, and making sure she is making decisions for herself in a time and place that's often unkind to young women.  There's a nice romance too-- the powerful young merchant offers to protect her by marrying her, and she declines (and figures out how to protect herself), but in the course of travelling together they start trusting each other enough to share their darkest secrets.  It's a slow romance, but a sweet one.  

It's not a swirling fast-paced book full of Things Happening, and indeed a lot of what happens takes place in Sylvie's head, which was fine with me!  Sylvie is beautifully thoughtful and intelligent, and I appreciated her lots. There is trauma (in the young merchant's past too, from his desperate childhood as a thief "and worse") and of course in Sylvie's life--her love for her mother is unchanged though her mother doesn't know who she is.  But there is healing too, and (slight spoiler) I appreciated that magic isn't the answer for this.

It's good historical fiction too, with enough of the history part (especially social and economic history) to be interesting without info dumping on the reader. My only gripe is that the blurb says this is medieval France.  Not.  Clearly it's Renaissance- Henry VIII is on the throne in England, and the Medici family is busily doing their Medici thing down in Italy....

short answer--I really liked it!  

*note about target audience--recently there was a lot of chat on twitter from folks wanting more books for the 12-14 year old kids who are leaving middle grade (9-12 years old) but who aren't the target audience just yet for much of Young Adult. This is a book for those in-betweenish sort of readers, who want a bit of romance, who want books about independent young women (the heroine here is 15) figuring out what sort of person they want to be.  This isn't a book that I'd give to a 9 or 10 year old, but I'd give it in a flash to 11-13 year old me and other dreamy kids who aren't quite ready to grow up but are enjoying starting to think about it from the safe perspective of fantasy....and I think the cover does a great job at targeting this group of readers!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Root Magic, by Eden Royce

Root Magic, by Eden Royce (Walden Pond, January 2021), is a must-read middle grade fantasy book of 2021! It's a gripping mix of historical fiction (1963 South Carolina), magic that's a part of the author's culture, and family joy (mixed with sorrow and worry).  But what it is most of all is the story of a girl growing up, realizing her power and recognizing where where it comes from and the responsibilities it brings.

Jez and her twin brother, Jay, have had a mostly happy childhood, playing in the marshes and fields around their home in the Carolina low country. But just before they turn 11, their beloved grandmother dies. She was a cornerstone of the Gullah Geechee community, a practitioner of Root Magic that had been passed down from ancestors captured in Africa. The kids' uncle, Doc, is also a practitioner, and begins to teach Jez and Jay.

Rootwork has protected Jez's community for generations, and she's excited to be part of it. They need protection as much as they ever have--the Sheriff's deputy is a nasty piece of work, terrorizing her family. Jez has a great gift for Root, but will it be enough to keep her family safe?

Throw in some ghosts, a witch, some red wolves (in true fairytale fashion, Jez saves a trapped wolf, who later helps her when she needs it most), and then add more ordinary school troubles (Jez is the target of mean girls, and this is the first year she's every made a good school friend, a friendship that brings its own complications), and some sibling tension (Jay is not as skilled at Root or at school as Jez, and worries he's being left behind, while Jez in turn feels he's turning away from family in favor of friends) and you have a great book!

Jez is a great character, sad and anxious at times, but full of joy at others. Though there is trauma and tension, her family is warm and loving, and those who are tired of dead or absent mothers will love Jez's mother! Her father is missing, and the kids don't know what became of him, and this small piece of the plot comes in at the end, part of the closure after the nasty Deputy comes to terrorize the family one last time.

The idea of a kid learning her family's magic is a solid middle grade fantasy plotline, but this is not ordinary fantasy. Eden Royce drew on her family's tradition of Rootwork, and their experiences in the 1960s, in writing the story, and though some things read as fantastical fantasy (like the witch), mostly this reads as real world magic, and her writing makes it all come to vivid life.


A lovely book! (for what it is worth, Kirkus agrees with me...which isn't always the case....)

Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, by Dianne K. Salerni

The good thing about being a Cybils panelist is reading lots and lot of great new books; the bad thing (if you are me, which I am) is not having enough time to review as you go because you are reading! So there are a bunch of books I'd like to review at some point....and for one I liked very much indeed, that time is now.

Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, by Dianne K. Salerni (Holiday House, 2020), is a truly delightful historical fantasy, about young Eleanor Roosevelt, her cousin Alice, and some assorted ghosts. Young Eleanor is a lonely child, whose strict grandmother is giving her no chance to flower into the strong, smart woman she's destined to be. Alice isn't lonely, but she's ticked off that her father, Teddy Roosevelt, has sent her to New York to stay with an aunt and uncle.

This isn't quite our own New York--in the world of the book, ghosts are very real, and there are lots of them, with concomitant established ways of dealing with them. Some are harmless, and considered Friendly, but some are deadly. Eleanor's grandmother doesn't like her associating with the Roosevelts, but Eleanor and Alice, uncertain of their friendship at first, and very different in character, manage to become allies when a ghost pops up in the aunt and uncle's house. It seems friendly....but when the girls start investigating it, they find more than they bargained for. There are dark secrets in Alice's family; the house her parents lived in is now closed up because it is infested by the most dangerous type of ghost there is, a Vengeful. But both girls are curious and brave, and for Alice, in particular, danger means little.

What starts as a lighthearted investigation becomes something more dreadful and serious, and it almost all ends up going horribly wrong in a really heart wrenching way.

If you liked the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud, do give this a try! Lockwood is perhaps grimmer in details, and this is a story more focused on the two girls and their feelings, but there's a similar ghost hunting vibe (although it's slightly more scientific here--Tesla, for instance, has come up with a ghost hunting invention). The characters are great; not just the two main girls but a large supporting cast of Roosevelt cousins. Though it's a fantastic late 19th century New York, the social details are accurate, and it might well get young readers interest in the real history of Eleanor and Alice and co.


It is lots of fun, with considerable suspense and emotional wrenching towards the end, and I am so glad it got its Cybils nomination so that I ended up reading it!

Anya and the Nightingale, by Sofiya Pasternack

In Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack (2019), we were introduced to an alternate medieval Russia where magic is real, and saw young Anya befriend and protect Hakon, the last dragon, from a vicious agent of the Tsar who was determined to kill him.

In her second story, Anya and the Nightingale (November 2020, Versify) Anya, traumatized by the horrific confrontation in her first adventure, is still keeping Hakon a secret from her family and the townsfolk, aided and abetted by her friend Ivan. She has been expecting her father to return from the war in which he was unlawfully conscripted--as a Jew, he should not have been sent to join the army. 

At last she decides she can wait no longer, and so sets off to find him and bring him back. Ivan and Hakon insist on joining her. Fortunately, this somewhat foolish endeavor is given a chance of success when a friendly, magic-using ghost comes to their aid. She transforms Hakon into human form, gives Anya and Ivan each a gift in true fairy-tale style, and magically transports the three of them to the outskirts of Kiev, landing them on a forbidden road.

Anyone who travels that road is attacked by the mysterious Nightingale, whose sonic magic has foiled all attempts of the Tsar's forces to capture him.  And Anya and her friends are powerless against him as well.  They are rescued by the Princess Vasilisa and her cohort, and make a deal with her--if they can capture the Nightingale alive, she will recall Anya's father.  But of course they have no idea how they can do this, and the court of the Tsar is not a safe space, especially for Hakon, awkwardly adjusting to his human form--the Tsar would love to capture the last dragon.  And when Anya is sets out to meet the Nightingale face to face, she learns that though he is strange and magical, he is also a boy named Alfhercht trying to save his brother, imprisoned in the caves below the Tsar's castle, guarded by a tremendously evil and powerful monster.

Anya is faced with a choice--sacrifice the Nightingale to save her father, or help him save his brother. Guided by her father's moral precepts, she chooses the later, and she and her friends plunge into danger.

It takes a while for the story to reach that point of excitement, but the journey is worth it.  Along the way, Hakon struggles with his human shape, and with the loneliness of being the last dragon, living a life of hiding.  Anya meets a Jewish boy in the court of the Tsar, the first Jew outside her family she's ever met, and though the stress of her situation never is forgotten, the chance to visit with his family and experience their richly religious life is a joy and comfort (though somewhat awkward as well, what with the matchmaking pestering of little sisters...).  A sweet bit of lightness comes also from Ivan's romantic heart--he and Alfhercht fall hard in crush with each other. Alfhercht is deaf; this is matter-of-factly portrayed, and no obstacle to young love... 

Russian folklore, Jewish life lived under the shadow of persecution, as it was in history, magical beings, and faithful friends, and a heroine with a strong moral compass make this a lovely book. Though this story reaches a happy ending point, there's the clear possibility of a third adventure, and at this point I look forward to that possibility evenmore than I looked forward to this current book after reading the first!

Wishes and Wellingtons, by Julie Berry

Wishes and Wellingtons, by Julie Berry (Sourcebooks, October 2020, first published as an Audible Original in 2018), is a middle grade fantasy in the tradition of E. Nesbit that will delight anyone who loves reading about feisty girls finding magic and struggling to control it!

Maeve wants to be a world-famous cricket player, or perhaps an explorer, or both, but Victorian England isn't offering her many opportunities for either.  For the moment she stuck at a boarding school for "Upright Young Ladies," and when the book begins, she's being made to sort through the trash as punishment for her latest transgression against the rules of upright young lady-ship.  

But fortune smiles on her (perhaps) when she finds a sardine tin in which a djinni has been trapped.  The power of magical wishes is hers...but she only has three of them, and the djinni isn't going to help her make the best use of them.  On the contrary...

Though Maeve wastes her first wish on a silly bit of revenge against another girl, she is fortunate to have two more level headed allies--an orphan boy from the adjacent charitable home (who hopes to get his own chance with the sardine tin), and her best friend Alice, a girl from a wealthy family who's quieter personality makes her good foil for Maeve.

The three of them use Maeve's second wish to take them on an adventure in search of treasure--and they find themselves in the ancestral home of the djinni himself!  It's a place of curses and angry spirits, and needless to say it doesn't make them rich.  With only one wish left, how will Maeve foil the plotting of a powerful business man who's found out about the sardine tin djinn, and make a better future for herself and her friends?

It's touch and go, but she does it, and I was happy to cheer her own!

I myself am a big fan of Nesbit (The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet in particular, despite the discomfort of some racist and classist elements typical of their time), and of Edward Eager, who follows in her footsteps with stories of kids finding magic (with much less for modern readers to object to), and then figuring out its rules.  Maeve obviously hasn't read these books, and it takes her a while to really think things through.  The evil business man, who threatens Maeve's family, gives her a worthwhile foe, and it's lots of fun to watch him getting his comeuppance!  I was a bit disappointed that the djinni didn't get more of a redemption arc, but you can't have everything.

A great read if you are in the mood for a light  historical fantasy romp that's lots of fun!  I dunno if kids these days ever read Nesbit and Eager, but this would conceivable be a great gateway to her books, and so I endorse it wholeheartedly for that reason as well as for its own sake!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher, is the sort of mg fantasy I think I love best!  The lucky folks in the UK got to read this in October of 2018; it will be published here in the US on September 8, 2020 (Walker Books).  It's the story of an orphaned Victorian girl, sent one cold winter to live with the godfather she's never met, in a big old house in Wales, who finds not the warm welcome she'd hoped for, but a perilous, fantastical mystery!

Seren Rhys is travelling alone to her new home when a very perturbed  man hands her a package.   "If They get me, whatever happens, don't leave it here alone. Promise me?" And then he is gone, and she is left not knowing what to do.  The train carries her on, and he does not return, and so she keeps hold of it.  So when she arrives, she finds she has come with a clockwork crow, in pieces.

Her godfather and his wife aren't home.  Nor is Tomos, their son, who has been missing a year and a day, and is a subject not to be spoken of.  Instead, there's an unfriendly housekeeper, lots of unused rooms, and no answers about what happened to the boy,  Gradually Seren unravels the story of his disappearance.  And when she reassembles the clockwork crow, and finds that he is a creature with his own thoughts, considerable knowledge, and a rather acerbic personality, she gains a companion in figuring out how to find the lost boy again.

So, in a strong echo of Tam Lin, Seren and the crow venture down below the house to a place that shouldn't be there to bring Tomos back from those who have stolen him away.

What a magical, cold and snowy and mysterious story!  This is an outstanding addition to the "plucky orphans braving the magic of the fair folk" subgenre of children's fantasy, and I loved every minute of it!  The old, snow-bound house, the unravelling of the mysteries, and the journey into the land of Them, full of deception and trickery, would have been enough, but the clockwork crow made it even better.  He is a wonderful character, providing not only comic relief but a mystery of his own, one that's not totally resolved here.  And he manages to overcome his egotistical self-interest to rise to the occasion when Seren needs him most, adding considerably to his likeability quotient.

The story ends with Tomos and his parents all home again, and a wonderful Christmas (I'm so happy to have a new addition to my "mg fantasy Christmas" reading--The Dark is Rising and Greenglass House being the only two reliably read every year...). But this is just the first book in the series, so the happy ending is undercut by ominous whispers of danger to come....I might have to order the next two books from the UK!

But on the other hand, I didn't notice any glaring American English changes, and I like the US cover  better, so I might wait and get the matched US set...here's the UK cover, also attractive, but not as closely tied to the story:

Just as an aside:  in the publisher's description, it says- "Evoking the classic fantasy adventures of Joan Aiken..." and I guess Aiken has become shorthand for saying "this book has at least one orphan and lots of snow and is set one to three centuries ago and really strange things happen."  Turns out it didn't evoke anything else Aiken-esque for me.  It all made sense, for one thing, and  has magic in a classic fantasy sense (the Fair Folk as antagonists), which you don't actually see in Aiken (except in her Armitage family stories).  Which isn't to disparage Aiken, but it made me stop and ponder, and wonder if invoking Aiken actually entice people to try books...since I'll read anything with orphan(s), snow, and strange things, it works for me.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Mulan: Before the Sword, by Grace Lin

Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a beloved classic, a story of a brave girl on a heroic quest that's sign-posted by stories.  Mulan: Before the Sword, her newest middle grade novel (Disney-Hyperion Februaru 2020), is another adventure in China of long ago, with another brave girl, on an adventure full of mythology and story and magical danger that is just as enchanting!

Mulan, clumsy and awkward, knows she's not a model daughter, like her sister Xia. But this hasn't made them any less fond of each other.  And so when Xia is bitten by a venomous spider, Mulan is willing to do whatever it takes to save her.  The Jade Rabbit of the Moon, the great healer of the immortals, just so happens to be in the nearby village in the guise of a man*, but the spider's poison is so strong that even he cannot save Xia without certain ingredients, including a flower that grows in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West.  But before the Rabbit can make the journey, two foxes (one white and one red) attack him, and he is poisoned by their bites, and cannot travel in his usual celestial way.  Mulan has a beautiful black horse, though, and volunteers to ride to the Queen Mother's garden with him.

And so they set off, but the white fox is no ordinary creature.  The reader learns about her twisted past and twisted schemes in the present both from the stories Rabbit tells as they travel, and through chapters from the perspective of the red fox, who is the white fox's unwilling servant.  The white fox, for reasons rooted in her dark past, wants Mulan's sister to die, and throws magical obstacles and dangers in the way of Mulan and the Rabbit.

Though in many ways it's a harrowing journey, and the White Fox is a conniving and sadistic antagonist, when I reached the end and considered it as a whole, it seemed to me a joyful book.  All the characters from the side stories are slotted into place, her sister is saved, the grown-up characters (Rabbit and another helpful divinity) are both supportive in a really nice way, and Mulan realizes that she has a great purpose in life.  I was a tad worried about this being a Disney tie-in, but Grace Lin has done a wonderful job making a new and heart-warming story.

Highly recommended!  I even enjoyed it more than the Mountain Meets the Moon books, although I did miss the beautiful illustrations in those books.

*because Mulan meets the Rabbit as a man, she genders them as "he", though they also can appear as as a woman; Rabbit does not object to this, and so I will also use "he/him."

Nevertell, by Katharine Orton

Nevertell, by Katharine Orton (Walker Books US, April 14, 2020), is a rare example of middle grade historical fantasy, something I'm surprised there's not more of (I wish there were more of it!).  It's a magical, chilly read about a brave girl finding her magic and confronting evil.

"Never tell children about things they cannot see." This was one of the unbreakable rules in the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Lina's grandfather broke it. That, and speaking against the government, got him and his daughter sent to a labor camp in the pitiless wilds of Siberia, and it was there that Lina was born.

The camp is the only world she's ever known. Her life there is better than that of the other prisoners; she works in the greenhouse instead of in the mines, she has a friend, Bogdan, a boy near her own age, and her mother's skill at card games has won small favors that have helped, a little, make it bearable. But when there's a chance for Lina to escape, she must take it, though it means leaving her mother behind.

Bogdan inserts himself into the escape as well, and though the two tough men who have masterminded it don't want him, he can't be sent back to betray them. They don't actually want Lina along either; her mother had promised that if they brought her to her grandmother's house in Moscow, they'd be rewarded, but in the snowy wilderness outside the camp, the unlikely promise of the reward is of less value than her a share of the meager provisions. Lina and Bogdan barely manage to escape being murdered.

In the freezing night, a new danger comes--shadow wolves are out hunting. The men are attacked, but somehow the wolves are unable to harm the two children. This in turn draws the attention of the wolves' mistress, the terrifying sorceress Svetlana, who hates all humans with an unreasonable passion. Lina and Bogdan must now escape from her before they join her ranks of shadow slaves, and must find their own way to Moscow, an impossible journey they have no choice but to take.

With a little shadow girl who's escaped the witch's clutches to join them, they set out through the snow...and Lina's growing sense of her own magic, and some very good luck, keeps them alive. But Svetlana is still hunting them, Lina's mother is still imprisoned, and they are miles and miles away from Moscow....

It's a gripping journey. Lina, brave and scared and confused, and realizing she has powers of her own, is a great character, but I personally liked Bogdan, mapmaker and loyal comrade, even more. The best part, though, in my mind was the way the real-world horrors of Stalin's iron rule make a satisfying counterpoint to the magical danger of Svetlana. Both are constant dangers. There's enough about life in the Stalinist Soviet Union (though not much history of events) to make this a great one to accompany more formal education, something I wholeheartedly recommend; my own sense of the past owes almost as much to reading historical fiction like this as it does to classroom time! (There's a teacher's guide available).

Unlike Stalinism, Svetlana turns out to be more than just an evil antagonist. I wasn't satisfied by her character development, which was more than a bit abrupt, and this diminished my personal enjoyment of the book. But in middle grade fiction, I'm amenable to sacrificing some nuance if it means a more exciting story, as is the case here. Incidentally, we don't learn the specifics of Svetlana's origins; she not native to the human world, and came to Siberia from warmer lands, so though there are echos of Russian folktales like Baba Yaga, I was content to think of her as some sort of djinn.

In any event, I don't think the lack of time spent filing in all the blanks is something kids will be bothered by. They'll be too engrossed in the whirlwind of adventures both magical and more mundane!

This is Katharine Orton's debut novel, and I look forward to reading what she writes next!

The UK cover is at the right; it is also lovely, but in this case I think I am more drawn to the US version, which I think does a better job of linking the fantasy side of things to the real world. Which do you like better?)




disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Book of Secrets, and The Book of Answers, by A.L. Tait

The Book of Secrets, and The Book of Answers, by A.L. Tait (together comprising the Ateban Cipher duology, Kane Miller, 2019 in the US), tell of a mysterious book and the boy who becomes its protector.  If you like reading about the high.jinks of the plucky medieval kids thwarting bad guys, you'll enjoy these two books lots.

Gabe, the main character, is not the sort of reader who enjoys books about plucky kids thwarting bad guys (although he's never read any).  Growing up in the monastery where he was left as a foundling, he loves the books in the monastic library, and has never thought about living elsewhere. But then an old monk is attacked, and badly injured, and is barely able to hand Gabe a precious book, with an enigmatic command--"take it to Aiden."  When Gabe rushes to find help for Brother Benedict, he finds instead that there's a conspiracy at foot in his monastery, and it's no longer a safe place for him or the book.

Woefully unprepared for life on the outside, Gabe is fortunate to be taken under the wing of a band of brigands.  These aren't ordinary outlaws, though; instead, they are four girls who for various reasons have chosen to live outside the law.  Two are sisters, hoping to save their father from the dungeon of the local stronghold, one is escaping an arranged marriage, and one is a girl whose parents have been killed.

It soon becomes clear that dangerous and powerful men are searching for Gabe and the book, and that these men are plotting against the kingdom.  They've replaced the king's son with a puppet, and now the real prince has joined the band, hoping they can help him get back to his rightful place. Tons of adventures and perils await as Gabe and his new friends race to find the secrets of the book, and set wrongs right.

If you love medieval adventures, you'll enjoy these two books greatly!  Gabe and co. are great characters, and the girls in particular are tons of fun!  Gabe's progression from innocent babe in the wood to someone able to step up to the plate is especially pleasing.  Their escapades strain credulity a bit, but without being over the top unbelievable.  I'm categorizing this as fantasy, although there's no actual magic, because it's set in an alternate version of our world (mostly indicated by the politics--a king who isn't a real historical figure, but also one where paper books existed earlier than our ours), and because the book does seem to have the promise of real alchemy in it.

There's some violence, but nothing horrific, so I'd be happy offering this to readers as young as 8 or 9, the age at which I myself would have especially enjoyed them!  Especially recommended to younger Ranger's Apprentice fans.

disclaimer: review copies received from the publisher

The 48, by Donna Hosie

The 48, by Donna Hosie (Holiday House, October 2018) is a fun time-travel story that will especially appeal to fans of Tudor England!  I was pleased to see it nominated for the YA Speculative Fiction Cybils, for which I was a panelist, because I very much enjoyed her Devil's Intern series, and though I didn't like this quite as much, it was still a good read.

Some time in the future, twin brothers Charlie and Alex are young members of the 48, a secretive, almost paramilitary group that uses time travel to shape events in such a way that the influence of religion on the course of history is pruned back.  The twins are thrilled to get their first assignment--travelling back to the court of Henry VIII to make sure he doesn't marry Jane Seymour (I'm not exactly sure what difference this would have made, and Charlie and Alex don't seem to be sure either, not that they give it much thought.  But I was willing to play along).

The 48 (the organization, not the book) doesn't pull its punches--if the marriage can't be avoided by a deft social and political manipulation, they are expected to eliminate Jane directly.  But they aren't killers.  Nor are they well prepared for the cut-throat  machinations of Henry's court.  They scramble to find their feet, though their feet, once found, keep getting swept out from under them.  The court is not the only place where backstabbing and treachery is rampant.  Alice, a fellow trainee and ex of one of the twins has travelled back in time too, an event that makes no sense at first, but which is tied to a rebellion to the organization.

Charlie and Alex are pretty much failures at their mission. And since they finding themselves liking Jane lots, the thought of killing her doesn't appeal.  Will they survive threats against their lives from the Tudor court, and the anger of their superiors if they fail at their task? Are their careers as time-travelling manipulators over before they can complete even one mission?

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Charlie, Alex, and young Lady Margaret, one of Queen Anne's ladies-in-waiting.  Margaret's is the first voice, and I was a little disappointed to see her fading to somewhat peripheral, one-note character, and I would have liked Alice's point of view too! She struck me as being much smarter than the boys! That being said, the boys were engaging narrators, and I found it interesting to watch them grow up and start thinking about what they were being asked to do (and there is a sweet gay romance for one of them, which was fun).

The details of the past are vivid, and lavishly applied, and in good time travel style, there's a lot of observation of all the things that are different, but there's not so much of this that it slows down the story.  The plot relies on social tensions (like treachery and attempted murder) more than on major events (until close to the end), so if you like sweeping Happenings, you might find it a bit slow (I don't have this problem).

If you like the Tudors, you'll probably enjoy this (unless you are a Tudor expert, which I am not, in which case you might disagree with the minutiae of the history...although Hosie seems to have done her research pretty thoroughly!)

disclaimer: review copy received for Cybils consideration.

Dactyl HIll Squad, by Daniel José Older

There is a special fun that comes when reading a book in which it's clear the author enjoyed the books nifty premise immensely (or at least gives that impression). The premise of Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older (Arthur A. Levine, MG, Sept. 2018), is that instead of horses, 19th-century USA relied on dinosaurs and pterosaurs for transportation. 

 The story takes place in New York City, around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg. Magdalys Roca, an insignificant resident of the Colored Orphan Asylum, is away from the Asylum for a treat with her friends, when the Daft Riots break out, and New York City becomes a battleground.  Richard Riker, an evil magistrate of the city, has his greedy eyes set on the orphans, who can be shipped out of the city as human cargo.  The orphanage is burned down, the 100 plus kids there are missing.  But Magdalys and her friends escape, and flee to Brooklyn.

There they find a group of men and women dedicated to stopping Riker and his ilk, Magdalys and the other kids determined to rescue their fellow orphans, now captives.  And it turns out that Magdalys is just the secret weapon that's needed for the job.  She has a rare ability to communicate mind to mind with the dinos and pterosaurs...and the determination to do what ever it takes to win!

It's a bright book (in the sense of bright as not dull)--it makes clear pictures in the reader's mind, it's, fast-paced, and the dino-wrangling is enjoyable mind candy.  There's a serious depth to it though--though it's all good fun, the wrongs that are being fought against really happened.   Kids wanting dinosaur fantasy fun and fighting won't be disappointed, but they'll also learn something.  There's good back matter, with historical information, dino information, and a note on "weapons and words."  Shakespearean dramatics also are part of the background, with the plays being embraced and played w by a famous African American actor who was part of Magdalys' escape to Brooklyn (it's nice to see Shakespear included as something fun and friendly).  I myself especially appreciated the thought given to how each type of dinosaur would be useful, both in battle and in daily life.

Short answer--I enjoyed it, and would recommend it in a sec to kids who enjoy historical fiction, gun fights, and dinosaurs!

The Book of Boy, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I did not know, going into it, that The Book of Boy, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Greenwillow, middle grade, Feb. 2018) is in fact not straight medieval historical fiction, but fantasy.  And it was rather lovely to watch the fantasy element unfold (those who have read the book--please appreciate what I did just there!), so this is a tricky review to write, because if you haven't read it, you will likewise enjoy it more not knowing anything about this.  I will do my best to entice you (because I liked the book) without spoiling it.

A child, called Boy, has been tormented and bullied most of his grimy and impoverished medieval life, mostly because he has a hunched back.  His only true friends are the animals that love and trust him, and though in the past there were two adults who cared about him, he doesn't really have any hope or expectation that the future holds much.

But then a strange man comes to town, and he needs a boy to travel with him on a quest through Europe to recover the scattered relics of Saint Peter (a toe here, a rib there).  He is not a kind man, this strange pilgrim, but he is not unkind either; he is not a good man, and is in fact stealing the relics, but he is not maliciously evil (in short, he's a lovely complicated character with an interesting back story that explains why he's stealing the relics and the reader (me) is in doubt for a long time about him, which makes for very good reading!).  Boy is in doubt about him too, but Boy also learns things during their journey together that expand his own world rather awesomely.  Saints are real, and so are miracles, and so is damnation to hell.....and so is chance kindness, and past sorrow.

So basically what you get is a medieval heist book with a lot of historical detail, interesting characters, vivid descriptions, and considerable emotional involvement. If you love animals, you will appreciate the many animal friends Boy finds along the way.  It's a beautifully immersive experience, and there was nothing in the historical fiction part of it that annoyed me.

Kirkus gave it a star, saying "Along with a story that unravels to reveal that not everything in the world is as it appears, Murdock delivers a wickedly fun-filled quest that twists and turns with lyrical fire. Boy ponders: “Pilgrim he might be but this man has sin stitched into his soul.” The story is, among other things, an exploration of religion, Secundus’ thieving quest for relics a counterpoint to Boy’s stalwart faith." I would like to quibble gently with this, pointing out that fear of eternal damnation, such as Secundus suffers from, is in fact a sign of pretty strong faith....and Secundus is more a counterpart to Boy in terms of dark past vs innocence.....But the fact that one can have this sort of discussion about the book shows that there is a lot to it.

The Book of Boy is already getting Newbery buzz, and it's deserved.

The Tombs, by Deborah Schaumberg

The Tombs, by Deborah Schaumberg (Harper Teen, Feb 20 2018), is a tense and atmospheric story set in an alternate 19th-century New York, where zepplins are common-place, but conditions for workers in the factories are much as they were in real life (which is to say, bad).  Avery is one of those workers; she's a welder, a skill picked up from her mechanical genius father, and despite the fact that she's a girl, her skill has gotten her a job (with miserable hours and working conditions, but still desperately needed).  Her father came back from the Civil War pretty broken, and though he found love, set up a shop selling clocks and mechanicals, and things went while for a bit, he was broken once more when his wife was taken from him.  The crow-masked goons working for the insane asylum in the basement of the Tombs, the city's notorious prison, came for her a few years before the story begins, and Avery hasn't seen her since.

But now the Crows seem to have set their sights on Avery, just as she is beginning to manifest the same psychic gifts that drew their attention to her mother.  Questioning her own sanity, she finds reassurance from the Gypsy community living outside the city.  (NB:  yes, Gypsy is the word used.  The author explains this by saying that this is the word 19th-century New Yorkers would have used.  But since they call themselves Romany, it doesn't seem like it would have taken much effort to have them explain to Avery that Gypsy is offensive, so that she and the author could have quit using it).  With the help of the Romany, Avery begins to understand her gifts, and begins to think that she can rescue her mother from the Tombs.

But the task in front of her gets more monumental when she finds out what the whole sinister purpose of the "mental asylum" actually is.  Horrible experiments are being carried out there, that could jeopardize the hopes of the working classes for a better life.... And when Avery herself is captured, and turned into a lab rat herself, her hope that she can be a rescuer dims even more.

Fortunately, even in dark prisons, there are friends...

So if you enjoy dark urban YA with a generous dollup of romance (two very worthy and helpful young men are present as love interests), a sprinkle of steampunk (incidental mechanicals as well as zeppelins), in which there's lots of atmospheric buildup before thing really get going in the last 200 pages, and if you appreciate a book where the female protagonist is a brilliant welder, has a hawk, and can do cool things with auras and life forces, and most importantly, if you can over look the grating, incessant use of an offensive descriptor, you will enjoy this.  I personally found it very readable, though not exactly my preferred cup of tea (dark and urban isn't my preferred thing), and though it was slow at times, a tad too New Age during the exploration of psychic gifts when Avery is first with the Romeny, and I was grated to the limits of my endurance by the use of "gypsy".  Seriosuly, it wouldn't have been hard to just switch to Romany, or better still, Romani.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero (Delacorte, middle grade, Sept. 2017) is a haunting historical fantasy set in WW II that has just been recognized as a 2018 Notable Book of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards.

In the Land of the Dolls, Karolina was a seamstress, living at peace with her friends.  But then the rats came, and peace was no more.  At the lowest point in her life, the rats having wrecked everything, a strange wind whisks her away, and she finds herself in the shop of a lonely toymaker in Krakow, Poland.  He is making a dollhouse that is truly a thing of beauty, and he made the body Karolina now inhabits to live there.  But Karolina isn't just any doll; she still is herself, able to talk and think, and the lonely man and the exiled doll become good companions.

The dollhouse is being made for a little girl named Rena, and when the Dollmaker delivers it, Karolina goes too, and reveals her secret.  The Trzmiel family takes this in stride, and become friends.   But then the Nazis invade Poland, and life becomes very difficult, especially for Jewish families like the Trzmiels.  The Dollmaker was originally a German, and registers as such with the Nazis (though he gets vilified by his neighbors for this)  to get extra food to share with the Trzmiels, but as things get worse and worse for the Jews of Krakow, it becomes clear that Rena and the other children now suffering in the ghetto, must somehow be saved.

The Dollmaker, inspired by the living doll Karolina, uses his skill to find a strange and wonderful solution that is truly magical.  Rena and a handful of other children are saved, but her father, and the Dollmaker, are lost.

Though the evil of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, from the mundane hatred to the buildup of the Holocaust, is not sugar coated, and the historical details are vivid, and the sadness heart-wrenching, the fairytale element of Karolina acts as a buffer between reader and horror, making this a good one for sensitive readers.  It's also a good one for readers who find historical fiction is more appealing when mixed with fantasy.  And so it succeeds in this regard, and the characters are memorable and the story moving.  That being said, the fairy tale part, especially the flashbacks of Katrina remembering the war with the rats in her own land, ended up diminishing the power of the book for me, with the real horror folded into a framework of the clearly fantastical that never happened.  Except that in the end I was crying just fine, despite the fantasy elements.

It's a tricky book, though, for the adult to try to see through the eyes of a child reader, because of course adults know so much of the history already.  And the Dollmaker, badly scarred in mind and body by the first world war, is a character who I think is more interesting to an adult reader than a child one.  I loved the Dollmaker--the lonely ordinary person, badly hurt in the past but holding strong to decency despite everything, is one of my favorite types of character.  But I did love the dollhouse, and Karolina, just as much as I would have as a child (the dollhouse especially).


disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration.

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim, for Timeslip Tuesday

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim (Sky Pony Press, Jan. 2 2018), is the sequel to 2016's Timekeeper (my review), which was also a Timeslip Tuesday book.  These aren't time-slip stories of a traditional sort, with people slipping between different times, but instead are set in a Victorian world where time itself can literally slip out of whack, causing repercussions ranging from the trivial to the profound for the people in the vicinity.  To keep time under control, clock towers were built, each with a resident clock spirit, which are maintained by skilled workers.  17 year old Danny is one such mechanic, and in the first book he fell in love with the spirit of the clock he was maintaining, a boy named Colton (very forbidden both for the same sex part and the spirit/human part).  He also helped solve a crime against the smooth running of time,  surviving exploding clockwork in the process.

Because of his experience with clocks going wrong, Danny is sent to India when clock towers there start being attacked and destroyed.  With him goes a former rival from his days an apprentice, Daphne.  Both are perturbed by the mystery of what's happening to the clock towers in India (where Victoria is about to be proclaimed Empress);  Danny's perturbed to be leaving Colton, and Daphne's perturbed about going to her father's country; he was half Indian, half English.  Their level of mutual perturbation is naturally deepened when their airship is attacked en route, and nothing that happens in India ends up calming them one little bit.

There are plots, both related to the clock towers and their control of time, and related to growing rebellion against the English.  There are romantic involvements and transgressions against the norms of British society during the Raj.  There's the arrival in India of Colton, totally at sea away from his clock tower (which has itself been attacked), desperately looking for Danny.  There are several more attacks and kidnappings, along with spying steampunk spiders.  And all of this has a busy, vivid portrayal of India at a tumultuous time in its history for a backdrop.  But memorable though these things are, what's most memorable of all is the backstory of how the clock towers came to be in the first place.  Part of the book is from Colton's point of view, and he has begun to dream about his past...and what happened is horrifying and sad, and arguably a parallel metaphor to the British Raj....

So there's more action and more steampunk in this second book than there was in the first, so if that was something you found wanting in the first book, you'll enjoy this one more!  I did not find it wanting in the first book, which I enjoyed very much indeed, but I enjoyed this one too because though more Happens, the characters are still the central driving force of the story.  Also Chainbreaker is historical fiction (though of course with a fantastical overlay), and I like historical fiction (though I don't know enough about this particular part of history to be a critical reader of it).

As the number of pages left to turn decreased, I wondered how on earth Tara Sim would manage to get everything wrapped up.....and lo.  She doesn't.  It's a killer of a cliff hanger.  If you wait to read this one till the third book is published, you'll definitely want to keep on going, but it's also fun in a tense, strained way to not yet know, and have the pleasure of resolution to look forward to!  As well as having the expected concern for the characters, who I have come to care about; here's what I am now especially curious about--having seen clock towers in the UK and in India, I want to know what is time up to in the rest of the world.

I also of course want Danny and Colton to get a happily ever after.  They are both so sweet!

This is an own voices story, Tara Sims is both biracial (her mother's family is from India) and bisexual (here's an interview with her at Reading (As)(I)an  (Am)Erica  for more on the writing of Chainbreaker).

Short answer:  These book are really good reading!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

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/