No Passengers Beyond This Point, by Gennifer Choldenko

No Passengers Beyond This Point, by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial, 2011, middle grade, 256 pages)

The three children are appalled when their mother abruptly tells them that their house has been foreclosed on, and that they must leave the next day for their uncle's in Colorado, on their own. 12 year old Finn and his sisters, teenaged India and young Mouse, are packed onto an airplane, their future suddenly uncertain. And when their plane lands unexpectedly in a deserted airport, and they are met not by Uncle Red but by a boy driving a taxi that's covered with feathers, things become even stranger.

Their new destination is the town of Falling Bird, where they receive a welcome of incredible warmth, and each child is taken taken to a new home, perfectly tailored to their daydreams...a place where happily ever after seems to have come true. But memories of their mother, and their dead father, intrude, and the houses collapse around them after the first night. Like many places that seem too perfect to be real, Falling Bird soon shows, to Finn and Mouse in particuarl, a different, darker face.

Each child has been given a clock, that's ticking down the time until they must stay there forever. Each child has a piece of a puzzle that must be joined before they can leave. But to find the way out, clues must be deciphered, and obstacles overcome...or they will never be a family again.

Told in the alternating points of view of the three children, it's a complicated and twisty story where the stakes are high, and both the protagonists, and the reader, only gradually realize what is going on. Each of the children comes across clearly as an individual--not necessarily likable, all the time, especially prickly, self-centered India, but each quirkily distinct, and, in the end, someone to care about.

Falling Bird is a place of classic fairy tale ensnarement--a place where the unthinking can find themselves trapped, a limbo where a person can be lost forever. Fortunately for India, Finn, and the precocious Mouse, their will to find their way out proves stronger than its wiles and machinations. The place is never Explained, but it does become clear what has happened...and the ending, mercifully, is a happy one.

No Passengers Beyond This Point could be described as Heck meets Departure Time meets The Kneebone Boy....combining the surreal, very busy afterlife of the one with the wistful surreal melancholy of the other, with the siblings in confusing circumstances of the third. Despite the fantasy that underpins the story, and provides the basis of the action, it's primarily a character driven book, with lots of emotional turmoil. Those who don't like introspective stories might become impatient, and want the fantasy explained and explored in greater depth, but those who do like such stories, who are content to go along with the ride, and who like quirky kids, should enjoy this one lots.

I'm pretty sure I did like this one myself (I read it with fixed, engrossed, even thoughtful and absorbed attention, and I liked Choldenko's smoothly snappy writing lots)...but I can't be certain whether others will or not, because, I, um, read the ending quite soon after the kids arrived in Falling Bird. I was growing a tad vexed by the incomprehensible turns of events, and had to know if there was a point. Turns out there was, and it colored my reading experience rather dramatically...for the better, but so much so that I can't begin to comprehend what a reader who doesn't know what has happened will make of the story. (Incidentally, the clues are there pretty early on, for those who are good at clues, but I am not. For those who like clues, and don't mind possible spoilers, I have put the two most obvious ones at the end).

Other thoughts, that might well prove more useful than my own, can be found at Ms. Yingling Reads, Collecting Children's Books (scroll down quite far), and My Brain on Books.

Disclaimer: ARC received from the publisher.

Spoilerish clues:


(ample spoiler space)


(clues are in italics, to make them harder to read)


The place is called Falling Bird, and the kids have to find a black box.

The False Princess, by Eilis O'Neal

The False Princess, by Eilis O'Neal (Egmont 2011, upper middle grade/YA, 336 pages)

For sixteen years she was a princess, and then, with no warning, Nalia's identity was stripped from her. She was simply a substitute for the real princess, who had been hidden away for safekeeping. Her true name is Sinda, she's a commoner, and the people she thought were her parents don't seem to give a darn about her. Before she can register what's happened, she's whisked off to her aunt's village, to somehow make some sort of life for herself...

But Sinda is still tied by the magical spell cast on her when she was a baby to the fate of the true princess. With the help of her old friend Keirnan, and magical gifts she never knew she had, she uncovers a plot to put yet another false princess on the throne. The mastermind behind this plot has already killed to make sure it happens, and is ready to kill again...

In short, it's an entertaining tale in which magic and intrigue are spiced with a nice dash of romance.

There are books that seem tailor-made for the 11 or 12 year old girl just beginning to make their way into YA fantasy--books that provide very gratifying wish fulfillment (Keirnan is more than just a friend, and Sinda discovers she has untapped magical powers), and which aren't Dark, even though bad things might happen. This is a book that I'd give in a second to a girl who loved Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine, or Brightly Woven, by Alexandra Bracken. I bet that girl would find this riveting.

Although I myself enjoyed Sinda's story, and found found the plot fascinating, I'm not that eleven year old girl anymore, and it wasn't quite a book that I fell in love with. Partly this is because the things I wanted more of (Sinda's life with her aunt, a dyer and weaver in a small village, and her subsequent apprenticeship with a very eccentric old magician) weren't that important to the story O'Neal wanted to tell, which is no fault of the book's. And partly this is because I felt the Bad Character was Badder than really necessary, which strained my credulity--this is also a matter of personal taste, I think!

But these things would not have mattered if I hadn't been vaguely dissatisfied with Sinda's character. Sinda, narrating the story, constantly shares what is going on inside her head, but despite knowing her thought-processes in detail, I was never entirely convinced by her. Although she does grow as a character, become stronger and more self-confident as the book progresses, I didn't quite find the bravery and determination the plot required her to show toward the end believable. And introspection and self-doubt are fine, but she takes it too far-- an interior monologue with eight unanswerable questions on just one page (ie, "Was the king alive or dead?") is perhaps a bit much (p 248).

That being said, I'm going to pass this one on to the young reader to whom I gave my review copy of Brightly Woven (also from Egmont). She loved it, and asked for more...The False Princess should hit the spot very nicely!

Here's a sampling of other opinions: Bookyurt, WORD for Teens, and the Book Pixie

(ARC received from the publisher)

New releases of science fiction and fantasy for kids and teenagers--the first half of February, 2011

This is a really, really long list, with lots of books I want. I want Zita the Space Girl. I want The Floating Islands. I want the third of the Books of Umber. I could go on and on. I also very much want the time to read the three books on this list that I have in my possession, and that is why the YA books didn't get pictures this time around--I used up my alloted time.

disclaimer: since I haven't actually read all of these, I'm deciding they are sff based on their descriptions, except for Tall Story, which I'm putting in the list because it was nominated for the Cybils in mg sff (but I never got hold of a copy...). My information comes from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs (except, of course, the ones I couldn't find) come from Amazon and Goodreads.

BONGO FISHING by Thacher Hurd "Jason has a pretty normal life: he lives with his mom, he goes to school, he does his homework. But when he meets a short, bluish alien named Sam, his life begins to seem much less normal and a lot more...well, alien. Sam takes Jason bongo fishing in space, and a whole new world opens up. But when Jason's cat, Sputnik, disappears, things start to get a little weird. Interstellar travel isn't just fun and games, after all! Is the evil Dr. Zimburger involved? Or are there even more sinister forces at work?"

BRASS MONKEYS by Terry Caszatt "Bumbling, cowardly Eugene is forced to transfer to a new school in northern Michigan - in the middle of the year, and in the middle of a blizzard. Eugene is used to weird things happening in his life, but this feels really bad. He has no idea how bad it's going to get until he meets his English teacher, "Ming ther Merciless." To save his classmates from a fatal graduation from Ming's School of the Brass Monkeys, Eugene must deliver an unfinished book to a legendary teacher named McGinty, who is hiding in the underworld. With the help of some renegade teachers and his new friends, he begins an epic journey to find McGinty. Will Eugene survive the Cliffs of Notes and the Sea of Hot Lunches?"

THE CASE OF THE GLASGOW GHOUL: A SLIGHTLY JONES MYSTERY by Joan Lennon

LICENCE TO FISH: AGENT ALFIE by Justin Richards "SPUD—Secret Partners for Undertaking Destruction—has set up a secret base under the school pond and is using radio-controlled duck-cameras to gather information. But the chief SPUD agent has made the mistake of having his weekly edition of SPUD's Nasty Newsletter redirected to his new base—by Alfie's dad, the local postman! It doesn't take long for the gang to work out what SPUD are up to. Can Alfie and his friends find a way of turning the SPUD infiltration to their advantage? Of course they can—and soon the school is teaching the pupils using even more bizarre methods than usual, all for SPUD's benefit. Will the evil organization really believe in assassination by daffodil? Or that trained hamsters are used to infiltrate their bases? Of course they will!"

THE MASK WEARER: AMOS DARAGON by Bryan Perro "Amos Daragon's life changes forever the day a mermaid gives him a mask capable of harnessing the strength of the wind—and appoints Amos as the new Mask Wearer. His task: to find the masks for the other elements, earth, fire, and water. Only then will Amos be fully empowered to battle the evil forces that threaten to destroy the balance of nature and plunge the world into darkness.
To fulfill his destiny, Amos must make his way to the mysterious woods of Tarkasis. But a wicked sorcerer is terrorizing the land, searching for a skull pendant that was stolen from him—a pendant that conceals a secret weapon. What will Amos do when the pendant falls into his hands? Will Beorf, a boy who can morph into a bear, and Medusa, a snake-haired gorgon, turn out to be friend or foe? And will Amos master any of his newfound skills as Mask Wearer in time to face a formidable enemy? His chanllenges are great . . . and they're just beginning."

MIDNIGHT HOWL by Clare Hutton "Marisol and her mom move from the city to rural Montana for a few months, and stay with family friends and their twin children, Jack and Hailey. Marisol loves looking at the stars so far away from city lights, but she feels creeped out by the woods right by their house. She's even more scared when her new friend Lily warns her about the wolves there -- wolves that are most dangerous around the full moon. When she notices Hailey disappear several times late at night, Marisol starts to wonder...could she be friends with a werewolf?"

NO PASSENGERS BEYOND THIS POINT by Gennifer Choldenko "Three siblings - India, Finn, and Mouse - have less than forty-eight hours to pack up all their belongings and fly, without Mom, to their uncle Red's in Colorado, after they lose their house to foreclosure. But when they land, a mysterious driver meets them at the airport, and he's never heard of Uncle Red. Like Dorothy in Oz, they find themselves in a place they've never heard of, with no idea of how to get home, and time is running out."

OWL NINJA: SAMURAI KIDS by Sandy Fussell
"Across the valley, a drumbeat echoes. For ten days, the drum will call the mountain ryus to war, including the samurai kids from the Cockroach Ryu. Only Japan’s feudal emperor can stop the war, so Niya and Sensei Ki-Yaga set off on a grueling journey with all the Cockroaches, whose firm friendship and unusual skills must be put to the test in order to beg the Emperor to maintain peace. Sensei Ki-Yaga is respected and wise, but unfortunately, the last time he encountered the Emperor, the Emperor threatened to cut off his head. All seems hopeless until Ki-Yaga guides the Cockroaches to meet with the Owl Ninja clan. Samurai and ninja are supposed to be enemies, but can these two groups somehow work together to save the sensei and stop the battle in time?"

PANDORA GETS ANGRY: MYTHIC MISS-ADVENTURES by Carolyn Hennesy "Pandora and her friends are off to Persia to track the fifth evil: Rage. They have camels to help them cross the desert, but mysterious sandstorms and frightening strangers keep them from moving quickly. Luckily, help arrives in the form of a cute Persian boy who helps Pandy and her friends search for Persia's secret Garden of the Jin. In the garden, where genies hide their treasure, there is a lamp that was once used to imprison an angry genie. So Pandy & Co. just have to figure out how to capture one of the most enraged genies of all time. Easy, right?"

QUEST FOR THE SPARK: BONE by Tom Sniegoski Twelve-year-old Tom Elm is just an ordinary turnip farmer from the Valley, but he's always felt destined for something bigger. So when he discovers everyone in his village is asleep and plagued by nightmares, he assembles a band of unlikely heroes. They must fight to preserve the Spark--a divine light born at the core of a vast, dark nothingness called the Nacht. The Nacht is trying to permeate the Waking World with nightmares of the Dreaming, and it's Tom's mission to defeat the Nacht and its most loyal follower, the Constable. If he fails, his family--and everyone--might never wake up again.

THE QUEST OF THE WARRIOR SHEEP by Christine & Christopher Russell "When Sal the sheep is bonked on the head by an unidentified falling object, it can only mean one thing: Lord Aries, the Sheep of all Sheepdom is in trouble, and the sheep posse must save him.

Little do the sheep know that the mysterious object is actually a cell phone dropped by a couple of baaaaad bank robbers who will do anything to get it back. And a couple of woolbags aren't going to stand in their way!

And so the quest of the Warrior Sheep begins.
The bravest sheep in the universe are in for a wild ride!"

SECRETS AND SHADOWS: THE SECRET ZOO by Bryan Chick "Only weeks after their return from the Secret Zoo, Noah and his friends must go back—and face their biggest challenge yet. With monstrous sasquatches freely attacking the denizens of the zoo and the evil Shadowist at large, the fate of the world is at stake. As Crossers, Noah, Megan, Richie, and Ella would help protect the zoo from these dangers. But do they have what it takes to complete their training? And what other secrets are hiding in the shadows?"

SPIRITS IN THE STARS: SEEKERS by Erin Hunter "United once again, Toklo, Lusa, Kallik, and Ujurak continue across the ice. Conditions are harsh and especially treacherous for the black bear and grizzly bears who are not used to the brutal cold, never-ending snow, and limited food. But the bears are certain now that they're on the right course, and with the stars still guiding them, they push forward. When they reach land at last, the group is overjoyed, but something is not right. The bears who live here are ill. What's wrong with them? What can the foursome do to help? Is aiding these strangers the ultimate goal of their quest? Ujurak just might hold the key to their mission in his paws, yet it's Lusa the new bears are especially interested in.

Three young cubs, each from different backgrounds, and their mysterious shape-shifting companion have grown up together in their long and dangerous journey to save the wild. Now, when their task appears more difficult than ever, the bears must make a critical decision . . . and for one bear the path ends here."

STING THE SCORPION MAN: BEAST QUEST, THE DARK REALM by Adam Blade "Step into the Dark Realm--home to the most dangerous Beasts yet! The good Beasts of Avantia have been imprisoned in the kingdom of Malvel the evil wizard. Tom has already fought five terrible Beasts and is nearing the end of his Quest. But in order to achieve victory, Tom must navigate through the tunnels under Malvel's castle, where Sting the Scorpion Man is waiting."

TALL STORY by Candy Gourlay "Andi is short. And she has lots of wishes. She wishes she could play on the school basketball team, she wishes for her own bedroom, but most of all she wishes that her long-lost half-brother, Bernardo, could come and live in London where he belongs.

Then Andi's biggest wish comes true and she's minutes away from becoming someone's little sister. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she hopes he'll turn out to be tall and just as crazy as she is about basketball. When he finally arrives, he's tall all right. Eight feet tall, in fact—plagued by condition called Gigantism and troubled by secrets that he believes led to his phenomenal growth."

A TRUE PRINCESS by Diane Zahler "Twelve-year-old Lilia is not a very good servant. In fact, she's terrible! She daydreams, she breaks dishes, and her cooking is awful. Still, she hardly deserves to be sold off to the mean-spirited miller and his family. Refusing to accept that dreadful fate, she decides to flee. With her best friend, Kai, and his sister, Karina, beside her, Lilia heads north to find the family she's never known. But danger awaits. . . .

As their quest leads the threesome through the mysterious and sinister Bitra Forest, they suddenly realize they are lost in the elves' domain. To Lilia's horror, Kai falls under an enchantment cast by the Elf King's beautiful daughter. The only way for Lilia to break the spell and save Kai is to find a jewel of ancient power that lies somewhere in the North Kingdoms. Yet the jewel will not be easy to find. The castle where it is hidden has been overrun with princess hopefuls trying to pass a magical test that will determine the prince's new bride. Lilia has only a few days to search every inch of the castle and find the jewel—or Kai will be lost to her forever."

THE WAY OF THE DRAGON: YOUNG SAMURAI by Chris Bradford "Japan is threatened with war and Jack Fletcher is facing his greatest battle yet. Samurai are taking sides and, as the blood begins to flow, Jack’s warrior training is put to the ultimate test. His survival – and that of his friends – depends upon him mastering the Two Heavens, the secret sword technique of the legendary samurai Masamoto Takeshi. But first Jack must recover his father’s prize possession from the deadly ninja Dragon Eye. Can Jack defeat his ruthless enemy? Or will the ninja complete his mission to kill the young samurai..."

ZITA THE SPACEGIRL by Ben Hatke "When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita leaps to the rescue and finds herself a stranger on a strange planet. Humanoid chickens and neurotic robots are shocking enough as new experiences go, but Zita is even more surprised to find herself taking on the role of intergalactic hero. Before long, aliens in all shapes and sizes don’t even phase her. Neither do ancient prophecies, doomed planets, or even a friendly con man who takes a mysterious interest in Zita’s quest."

YOUNG ADULT

ANGEL: A MAXIMUM RIDE NOVEL by James Patterson In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it.

Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little Angel.

ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allison Moulton
First there are nightmares.

Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her. Then come the memories.

When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Now she must hunt.

Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember.

THE AUTUMN PALACE: ONDINE by Ebony McKenna "One boy, one girl, one plot to be foiled! Hamish the gorgeous man (and part time ferret) has a new job with the Duke as a spy in his Autumn Palace. So Ondine goes with him. She imagines a hugely romantic escapade together that involves lots of kissing. What she hadn't imagined was having to do endless laundry, go to school and keep Hamish the man a secret. All the while trying to find out who is plotting to kill the Duke. And if that weren't bad enough, it seems that Hamish is more interested in getting the Duke's attention than hers. Plus he's always in ferret form. Things can't go on like this! Can Ondine foil the would-be assassin, save the Duke and get her man back in gorgeous human form? It's going to take a little bit of magic, a lot of stolen kisses and some ferreting around..."

CLOAKED by Alex Flinn "I'm not your average hero. I actually wasn't your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all. It all started with a curse. And a frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn't a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I've ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Everglades. Don't believe me? I didn't believe it either. But you'll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got cloaked."

CLOSER: TUNNELS by Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams "Closer to victory...or closer to death? An army of darkness is on the march: Who won't escape with their life? The fourth book in the New York Times Bestselling TUNNELS series!

At long last reunited with his dad, Will now spends his days exploring the "land of the second sun," decoding the cryptic glyphs carved into its three mysterious temples--or eyeing the wild animals with renegade girl Elliott. Chester, meanwhile, has finally returned Topsoil, where his homecoming is rapidly becoming a horror show. But an army of darkness is on the march. And the ruthless Rebeccas have once more cheated death. With a corps of cold-blooded Limiters at their command, they're determined to hunt Will to the bitter innards of the earth. This time, who WON'T escape with their life?"

CONSUMED by Kate Cann "The thrilling sequel to POSSESSED finds 16-year-old Rayne still entwined in the creepy history of Morton's Keep -- and about to discover that she's the only one who can stop the evil lurking there. Rayne's countryside escape has proven to be anything but -- the remote mansion house where she lives and works holds terrible secrets, and she feels trapped there. And when a new manager shows up, things take an even more sinister turn. Rayne doesn't know who to trust -- even the ghosts of Morton's Keep seem to be warning her. It's up to Rayne to overcome the ancient evil lurking here -- but how?"

CRYER'S CROSS by Lisa McMann "The small town of Cryer’s Cross is rocked by tragedy when an unassuming freshman disappears without a trace. Kendall Fletcher wasn’t that friendly with the missing girl, but the angst wreaks havoc on her OCD-addled brain.

When a second student goes missing—someone close to Kendall’s heart—the community is in an uproar. Caught in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety, Kendall’s not sure she can hold it together. When she starts hearing the voices of the missing, calling out to her and pleading for help, she fears she’s losing her grip on reality. But when she finds messages scratched in a desk at school—messages that could only be from the missing student who used to sit there—Kendall decides that crazy or not, she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t act on her suspicions.

Something’s not right in Cryer’s Cross—and Kendall’s about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried."

CYBORG: CLONE CODES by The McKissacks "In the next Clone Codes installment, Houston, a cyborg, tells his story. Set in the year 2130, The World Federation of Nations determines through laws and regulations that all enhanced persons with three or more synthetic body or organ replacements are classified as three-fifths of a human being. As such, Houston is considered less than human and must fight to overcome the rules of his strange universe. Drawing on parallels to slavery, terrorism, caste system oppression, and war, readers confront the troubling and complex moral questions probed throughout history.

If the government learns of Houston’s cyborg status it could cost him his life--and change the course of history forever. With the help of Leanna, his friend, Houston is in a race with time, and he’s in a fight against the oppressive ways of The Cyborg Act of 2130...."

DARK MOON: WERELING by Steve Feasey "A few short months ago, Trey Laporte learned the news that would change him forever: He is a werewolf, and the evil vampire Caliban wants him dead. The threat becomes real when Caliban attacks Trey’s mentor, Lucien Charron, and leaves him fighting for his life.

Gwendolin, a wicked sorceress, holds the only key to saving Lucien. Together, Trey and Lucien’s beautiful daughter, Alexa, must enter the Netherworld to defeat her. The pressure for Trey is great—Alexa is counting on him to save her father. But when Trey and Alexa find themselves trapped and surrounded by demons, can Trey use his werewolf strength to save them both?"

DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver "Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't."

THE DEMON TRAPPER'S DAUGHTER by Jana Oliver "Seventeen-year-old Riley, the only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper, Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps. The good news is, with human society seriously disrupted by economic upheaval and Lucifer increasing the number of demons in all major cities, Atlanta’s local Trappers’ Guild needs all the help they can get – even from a girl. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing crush on fellow apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving distressed citizens from foul-mouthed little devils – Grade One Hellspawn only, of course, per the strict rules of the Guild. Life’s about as normal as can be for the average demon-trapping teen.

But then a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, sudden tragedy strikes the Trappers’ Guild, spinning Riley down a more dangerous path than she ever could have imagined. As her whole world crashes down around her, who can Riley trust with her heart – and her life?"

DESIRES OF THE DEAD by Kimberly Derting "The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found.

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger."

THE END OF TIME: THE BOOKS OF UMBER by P. W. Catanese The third book in P.W. Catanese's Books of Umber trilogy concludes the imaginative, page-turning adventures of Umber and Hap.

THE FLOATING ISLANDS by Rachel Neumeier "When Trei loses his family in a tragic disaster, he must search out distant relatives in a new land. The Floating Islands are unlike anything Trei has ever seen: stunning, majestic, and graced with kajurai, men who soar the skies with wings. Trei is instantly sky-mad, and desperate to be a kajurai himself. The only one who fully understands his passion is Araene, his newfound cousin. Prickly, sarcastic, and gifted, Araene has a secret of her own . . . a dream a girl cannot attain.

Trei and Araene quickly become conspirators as they pursue their individual paths. But neither suspects that their lives will be deeply entwined, and that the fate of the Floating Islands will lie in their hands. . . ."

GALLOWS AT TWILIGHT: WITCHFINDER by William Hussey "Eight pale hands - some with fingers stripped down to the bone - rose out of the earth. Slimy with rain, the rat-gnawed heads of four soldiers loomed into view. They moaned at the sky and their cry moulded itself into a word: 'FLLLLLLEEESSSSSSSSHHHHH!' The Demon Father has escaped from hell and walks among us, his trident symbol branded into the earth in countries all over the world. A scorching beacon. A call to arms. A sign that war is coming. Jake is struggling to harness his powers and live up to his reputation of the boy who closed the demon door. But now he must push all doubt aside. To stop the Demon Father Jake must change the course of history - embark on a treacherous journey deep into the past and into another dimension, filled with horror and pain. A place where innocent people are tried and tortured. A place where the law of the Witchfinder rules. Let the rushes be lit for there will be gallows at twilight."

HAUNTED by Joy Preble "Anne Michaelson is trying to forget everything that happened last year. But it's hard to do when her heart aches for Ethan and there's a wild-haired woman stalking her...

Ethan Kosinsky is embracing his newfound mortality. But something is drawing him back to the girl he left behind-back to Anne and back to the magic...

A mysterious stranger is hunting Anne wherever she goes. No one sees her but Anne. When she searches for the woman's identity, Anne exposes secrets about her own life- things that will change her life forever. And when the gorgeous Ethan returns, her life gets a lot more complicated. Anne thought her journey with the Romanov family had ended, but it was just the beginning..."

THE HORN OF MORAN: ADVENTURERS WANTED by M. L. Forman "The land of Norsland is on the brink of war as two men have each claimed the throne. Only the true king can sound the Horn of Moran and prove his nobility. But the horn has been lost for years. If it is not found and soon it could mean the destruction of an entire nation. Young Alexander Taylor joins a band of seasoned adventurers who have been called up to retrieve the legendary Horn of Moran. Their journey to the mysterious Tower of the Moon will take them through an enchanted forest, into battle against a goblin army, past the watchful eyes of griffin guards, and face-to-face with a sphinx and her deadly riddles. With his sword, Moon Slayer, and the wise counsel from his wizard mentor, Whalen Vankin, Alex must use all his wizard and warrior skills to slay a darkness that may consume them all. Sequel to the bestselling Slathbog's Gold."

HOW TO BE A WEREWOLF: THE CLAWS-ON GUIDE FOR THE MODERN LYCANTHROPE by Serena Valentino. "Celebrate your inner beast —and harness that newfound animal magnetism! — with this essential guide to the lycanthropic lifestyle.

Are you subject to savage moods, extreme and unexplained buffness, and cravings for meat on the rare side? Do you long for super speed and reflexes, along with rapid healing and maybe a talent for telepathy? Welcome to the pack — and get ready to howl — as you sink your claws into this guide to everything life as a werewolf has to offer."

KINDRED by Tammar Stein "Miriam is an unassuming college freshman stuck on campus after her spring break plans fall through. She's not a religious girl--when pressed she admits reluctantly to believing in a higher power. Truth be told, she's about as comfortable speaking about her faith as she is about her love life, which is to say, not at all. And then the archangel Raphael pays Miriam a visit, and she finds herself on a desperate mission to save two of her contemporaries. To top it all off, her twin brother, Mo, has also had a visitation, but from the opposite end of the good-evil spectrum, which leaves Miriam to wonder--has she been blessed and her brother cursed or vice versa? And what is the real purpose behind her mission?"

THE IRON WITCH by Karen Mahoney "When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed Donna Underwood’s father and drove her mother mad. Her own nearly fatal injuries were fixed by alchemy—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. Now seventeen, Donna feels like a freak, doomed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. Only her relationship with her best friend, Navin, is keeping her sane.

But when vicious wood elves abduct Navin, Donna is forced to accept her role in the centuries-old war between human alchemists and these darkest outcasts of Faerie. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous guy with faery blood running through his veins and secrets of his own, Donna races to save Navin—even if it means betraying everything her parents fought to the death to protect."

LEX TRENT FIGHTING WITH FIRE by Alex Bell "Lex Trent is reigning champion of The Games contested between fickle Gods using human playing pieces. He has it all: Fame. Glory. Wealth. An enormous ego. But The Games are about to begin again and the Goddess of Luck wants Lex to defend their title. A challenge he can't resist, despite the risk of death, because the final round will take place in the Wild West, giving Lex the chance to claim the legendary Sword of Life (who wouldn't want that?). With Lex's mix of skill, quick wittedness and no small amount of outright cheating, he can't lose! Can he? Luck may usually be a lady to Lex...but in the Wild West they play by their own rules...and Lex has never been that good with rules."

THE LOCKET by Stacey Jay "On her seventeenth birthday, Katie discovers a locket and decides to wear it for good luck. But when her boyfriend Isaac finds out she cheated on him- with their mutual best friend Mitch, no less-he dumps her, leaving her devastated.

And then a miracle happens. The locket burns on Katie's chest and she feels herself going back two weeks in time, to the night she cheated with Mitch. At first, Kate is delighted to be a better girlfriend to Isaac this time around. But as other aspects of her life become inexplicably altered, she realizes that changing the past may have had a dangerous effect on her present.

Can she make things right before the locket destroys everything-and everyone-she loves?"

MIND GAP by Marina Cohen "Fourteen-year-old Jake MacRae's life is spinning out of control. He's making all the wrong choices; gambling, drinking, hanging around gang members; and now he's been asked to make a special delivery. What should he do? Jake knows either way that his decision will seal his fate, but what he doesn't realize is that this choice might not only destroy his life but the lives of those close to him.

Before Jake has a chance to make up his mind, he receives a mysterious text message inviting him to a flash party on a midnight subway train. As Jake steps off the platform and onto the ghostly 1950s-style Gloucester car, he has no idea he has just boarded a train bound for his worst nightmare. And what's more; he can't get off!"

ONE HUNDRED CANDLES: PAST MIDNIGHT by Mara Purnhagen
It's taken a long time for me to feel like a normal teenager. But now that I'm settled in a new school, where people know me as more than Charlotte Silver of the infamous Silver family paranormal investigators, it feels like everything is falling into place. And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with a popular football star like Harris Abbott? After all, it's not as if Noah is anything more than a friend….

But my new life takes a disturbing turn when Harris brings me to a party and we play a game called One Hundred Candles. It seems like harmless, ghostly fun. Until spirits unleashed by the game start showing up at school. Now my friends and family are in very real danger, and the door that I've opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

OUTSIDE IN by Maria V. Snyder "Me? A leader? Okay, I did prove that there's more to Inside than we knew. That a whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion—between worker scrubs like me and the snobby uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we're free. I thought that meant I was off the hook, and could go off on my own again—while still touching base with Riley, of course. He's the one upper I think I can trust. But then we learned that there's outside and then there is Outside.

And something from Outside wants In."

RANCOUR by James McCann "Alix of Fillmore High is depressed about the prospect of finding a date for the prom. Boys who understand her — or whom she understands — are few and far between. But soon Alix’s life takes a turn that makes finding a prom date the least of her worries. She finds herself in the middle of a feud that’s been going on for a millennium. The combatants? A vampire and a werewolf! Werewolf Rancour has spent centuries trying to rid the world of vampires, while vampire Shay has been there to thwart his efforts at every turn. Alix gets more deeply involved when she learns that she was Rancour’s wife in a previous life. As the bodies continue to pile up, Rancour and Shay find themselves forced into an alliance by a new enemy stalking them. Author James McCann expertly blends the typical concerns of teens — love, football, parties, fitting in, racial tensions — with a chilling story of the supernatural."

RED MOON RISING by Peter Moore "Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing. Ever since the development of synthetic blood – SynHeme – vamps have become society’s elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it’s best to pretend his wulf half doesn’t even exist. But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms -- fantastic night vision; a keener-than-usual sense of smell; and headaches, right around the full moon. Even though it's easy to be in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next few moon, and Danny's time is running out."

SECRETS AND SHADOWS: 13 TO LIFEby Shannon Delany "Nothing's simple when you run with werewolves. Jess Gillmansen thinks she's seen it all but her eyes are about to be opened to even more danger and a reality far more paranormal than she's suspected. With Jess' realization that the Rusakovas' mother is still alive and imprisoned, the group's choices become harder and trust more important. Lines are drawn and relationships change as the broken Rusakova family struggles to reunite to free their mother - and those who Jess thought to be normal people show themselves to be much, much more..."

SHADOW WALKERS by Brent Hartinger "Zach lives with his grandparents on a remote island in Puget Sound in Washington State. With only his little brother, Gilbert, to keep him company, Zach feels cut off from the world. But when Gilbert is kidnapped, Zach tries the only thing he can think of to find him: astral projection. Soon, his spirit is soaring through the strange and boundless astral realm—a shadow place. While searching for his brother, Zach meets a boy named Emory, another astral traveler who's intriguing (and cute).

As Zach and Emory track the kidnappers from the astral realm, their bond grows—but each moment could be Gilbert's last. Even worse, there's a menacing, centuries-old creature in their midst that devours souls and possesses physical bodies. And it's hungry for Zach."

TORN FROM TROY: ODYSSEY OF A SLAVE by Patrick Bowman “You heard what the little filth said to me,” Ury growled. “He’ll be trouble. I say trench him now.” The other man spoke, his voice low and even. “I heard him, Ury. His mind is quick, and his Greek is good.” He knelt down beside my head. “Your choice, boy. Decide now.”

Alexi’s city is still burning when the Greeks catch him and give him a brutal choice: slavery or death. With his sister dead and his home destroyed, Alexi, a 15-year-old orphan from the streets of Troy, grits his teeth and chooses the life of a captive. He and the other Trojan survivors are forced aboard a ship bound for faraway Ithaca, under the command of the Greek warrior Odysseus. But none could foresee the perils of the cursed voyage to come: a brutal raid on the Cicones, a visit to the bewitching Lotus Eaters and a grisly encounter with a Cyclops all take a gruesome toll. Alexi has no idea how much worse his life is about to get.

WATERFALL: RIVER OF TIME by Lisa T. Bergren "In Book One, American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in sixteenth-century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties.

Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds… until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves in the sixteenth-century—and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another."

WITCH BREED: HELL'S UNDERGROUND by Alan Gibbons

WORD OF HONOUR: THE LAWS OF MAGIC by Michael Pryor "Magical genius Aubrey Fitzwilliam, along with his loyal friend George, is trying to immerse himself in his new life at college. But for Aubrey life is never straightforward. When Aubrey's father, the Prime Minister, invites them to take a ride on a top-secret submersible, Aubrey and George can't resist. But a sudden magical attack threatens to send them to the bottom of the ocean and begins a whirlwind series of events—a plot to rob Albion's largest bank, strange underground disturbances, and an opera singer who bears an uncanny resemblance to Aubrey's nemesis, Dr. Tremaine."

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction

Here's another week of my gleanings, from around the blogs, of posts about middle grade (readers 9-12, ish) fantasy and science fiction! Please let me know if I missed your post, or the posts of your loved ones.

The Reviews:

Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld, at Book Nut

Dragons of the Valley, by Donita K. Paul, at Christian Fantasy Review (where you can find a full list of other stops on this book's blog tour).

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch, at Lucy Was Robbed

Keeper, by Kathi Applet, at Book Nut

My Sparkling Misfortune, by Laura Lond, at Brizmus Blogs Books

Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings, by Héléne Boudreau, at Bookworm Readers

Runaways, by Joe Layburn, at Nayu's Reading Corner

Savvy, by Ingrid Law, at Alison's Bookmarks

Scumble, by Ingrid Law, at Alison's Bookmarks (I find it rather pleasing that the series is thus far in alphabetical order)

Starcrossed, by Elizabeth Bunce, at Charlotte's Library (another of those books marketed as YA, but just fine for a 12 year old....)

The Thirteenth Princess, by Diane Zahler, at Library Chicken

A True Princess, by Diane Zahler, at Bookscopes (the alphabetical thing is happening here too)

Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at Penny Candy and Shady Characters (this is a graphic novel, and I don't always include them, but sometimes I do when I feel like it. Today I felt like it because this sounds like a cool book and it is a long time since I had a mg sff title that started with z).

Book Infinity revisits the Molly Moon series.

The Other Good Stuff:

Michelle Harrison (13 Treasure et seq.) has a guest post up at The Book Smugglers.

Just for fun, I made a list of favorite fantasy foxes.

Someday I will get my cat list up...it's a work in progress. One of the books on it is The Tygrine Cat, whose author, Inbali Iserles, is the Fairytale Reflections guest at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.

The School Library Journal Battle of the Books approaches, and here are the contenders:

* AS EASY AS FALLING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH by Lynn Rae Perkins
* THE CARDTURNER by Louis Sachar
* A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS by Megan Whalen Turner
* COUNTDOWN by Deborah Wiles
* THE DREAMER by Pam Munoz Ryan
* THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BARBIE by Tanya Lee Stone
* HEREVILLE: HOW MIRKA GOT HER SWORD by Barry Deutsch
* KEEPER by Kathi Appelt
* THE ODYSSEY by Gareth Hinds
* ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia
* THE RING OF SOLOMON by Jonathan Stroud
* SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
* A TALE DARK AND GRIMM by Adam Gidwitz
* THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE K.K.K. by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
* TRASH by Andy Mulligan
* WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan

The middle grade sff books (Dark and Grimm, Mirka, and Keeper) are all fine books, but I'm going to root for The Ring of Solomon. Go, Bartimaeus!

Foxes in fantasy books--a list of my favorites

For the last time in my life, I am blogging from my family home in Arlington, Va (it's been sold, which had to happen, but is still sad, and I'm down here for just two nights to frantically load a Uhaul full of things I want to take from it, both the useful and the sentimental). Outside the enormous window is a beautiful, snow-covered, woodsy garden, and, as often happens early in the morning, a fox just trotted by. I love watching foxes--they combine keen-ness and cuteness so perfectly, as they pad along briskly with pricked ears and bushy tales...(the fox above is someone else's picture, but it's very close to my own fox).

So in honor of all the fox sightings I've had from this window, here's a celebration of foxes in fantasy.

My favorite fantastic fox might well be Loki in fox form, in Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman (my review). Sharp, witty, snappish, smart--Gaiman's imagining of Loki as fox is just brilliant.

I loved the fox and the rat who are the proprietors of the derelict hotel in Departure Time, by Truus Matti (my review). In particular, it was a joy to watch the fox's cooking improve!

The character I cared most about in Reckless, by Cornelia Funke (my review), is a girl who spends most of her time in fox form. I so very much want for her to have a happy ending...

My foxophilia manifested again with Thief Eyes, by Janni Lee Simner (my review)--my favorite character was the talking fox, who plays a pivotal role in this story of two teenagers faced with the reality of one of the grimmest of the Icelandic sagas.

I picked up The Old Country, by Mordicai Gerstein (my review) purly because of its lovely fox cover! It's an evocative, fairy-tale-esque story of a girl shapeshifted into fox form, and (to a lesser extent) what happens to the fox shapeshifted into girl form.

Another girl in fox form story is Wild Magic, by Cat Wetherill (my review). Turned by Pied Piper into a fox, Marianna can see no way to become a girl again...unless her brother Jakob can find his way in to the land beyond, to save all the children of Hamlen town, and the piper himself...This is a rather good book, that never got much buzz.

In Sylvie and the Songman, by Tim Binding (my review) two children escaping from some very fantastical villains are taken under the paw of a friendly fox. I didn't care all that much for the book, but I did, as usual, like the fox very much!

The Daring Adventures of Penhaligun Brush is a fox fantasy I haven't read myself, but it's a favorite book of my older son's, and here's his review at his own blog. And just to be fair, when I asked my youngest if he could think of a fantastic fox, he suggested Reddy from the Old Mother West Wind books, a series he loves.

I suppose I have to mention Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl, even though I don't much like it...but I only read it once, and that was long ago....

And some day I will reivew a book I love, The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter Beagle, which has a magnificent fox character....

Any other great foxes of fantasy that I've missed? They don't have to be kids books.

Mad Love, by Suzanne Selfors

Suzanne Selfors has written fantasy for both kids (the very quirky Fortune's Magic Farm and even more quirky Smells Like Dog) and teens (Saving Juliet and Coffee House Angel). "Humor and charm" are pretty good adjectives to describe her writing. They certainly apply to her newest book for teens, Mad Love (Bloomsbury, 2011, YA, 320pp) but here the subject matter is more serious than in her past books.

Alice's mother is the best-selling Queen of Romance. At least, her mom was the Queen of Romance until she stopped writing and fell into a chronic depression, and had to be hospitalized. Now sixteen-year old Alice is on her own, trying to pretend to the world, and most importantly her mother's publisher, that everything is just fine. Happily there are two caring friends of the family to help her out, but still she's essentially alone. And when the letter from the publisher arrives, asking for repayment of her mother's last advance, Alice is afraid she reached the end of the line, unless a miracle happens.

So she decides to whip out her mother's new book in the next few months. How hard can it be, for one who has grown up breathing in the tropes of the romance novel? Answer--pretty impossible. So when she meets Errol, who asks her to write the romance story he lived, she agrees (after much very understandable hesitation) to give it a shot.

Errol's story is much more interesting than Alice dreamed. He's the one and only Cupid from mythology, and he doesn't have much time left on Earth in which to get the true version of his romance with Psyche down on paper. He'll do anything to get Alice to work with him--and he has arrows of passion that he isn't afraid to use...

Alice wants her mom back, and her life back, especially now that she's met the very cute and very likable Tony, who likes her back. But Cupid can be very persuasive....and when she starts hearing his voice inside her head, Alice wonders if she, like her mother, has gone mad...

In short, Mad Love combines realistic situations, and believable romance (Alice and Tony, just to be clear), with a whumph of the fantastic. This can be a tricky mix to pull off well--too much of the fantastical, and there's the danger of farce, too much of the realistic, and the reader wonders why the author bothered to have a Greek god in the book at all. Selfors blends her humor and her discussion of serious issues very well, I thought (although the clam juice wavered on the edge of farce, as clam juice so often does....), but still, the two sides of the story (the real and the fantastic) weren't strengethened by their juxtaposition as much as I had hoped they would be.

Despite that nagging feeling, I did enjoy this one lots--I really liked Alice and enjoyed her foray into the world of romance writing very much.

(disclaimer: ARC received from the publisher)

Starcrossed, by Elizabeth Bunce

Starcrossed, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (2010, Scholastic, YA, 351 pages)

"Well, we're stuck with each other now, it seems," said Lord Cardom, accepting a goblet of wine from Eptin Cwalo. "It'll take weeks to dig that out."

"Weeks?" I echoed, my voice a strained squeak. I turned to Lord Antoch. "But won't it melt, or something?"

"The folk of Breijardarl are no strangers to avalanche," Antoch said....."This looks like it's shaping up to be a hell of a snowfall, though." (page 101)

It is snowing quite hard as I write this, school is already cancelled for tomorrow, and snow is forecast until Saturday. But it probably won't take weeks for us to be free...unlike the rather desperate narrator above.

Digger (who goes by Celyn, a generic religious name, when she's consorting with lords) hadn't planned on going to a remote keep in the middle of winter, as a maid to the daughter of the house, a lovely girl named Marista. But she hadn't planned on getting a knife wound either, when the robbery she was part of went awry, and having to flee for her life through the streets of her city, just one step ahead of the Inquisitor's enforcers. Her path took her onto a boat crewed by four wealthy teenagers were out on a pleasure trip, and one thing led to another...

Now this young thief can steal from the rich all she pleases, but she can't escape. And when she's caught in the act by a ruthless man with an agenda of his own, she finds herself blackmailed into spying on Lord Antoch's family--people who have offered her nothing but kindness. But they too have secrets. Gathered into the snowbound keep are all the major allies from an old attempt at rebellion against the king and his Inquisitor, and they are plotting again. It is their hope that someday the working of magic would no longer be punishable by death, a hope given urgency by the fact that Marista has the gift of magic....

Digger has secrets of her own (which are rather teasingly held back from the reader) to which the secrets of those around her accrete. The tension builds, as she works her way through a chess game of ambiguous motives, and an all too clear build-up to treason....

I enjoyed this one lots. It's a complicated and tricksy plot, that unfolds slowly and subtly; a mind game, more that a fast-paced thriller, although there is Action and Violence toward the end, for those that like blood in the snow. With the claustrophobic walls of the keep, the destiny of Digger's country is being determined...and she is right there in the thick of it.

My main complaint as a reader was that Digger was not a reliable narrator--it was clear that there were many things she wasn't letting on right from the beginning. The big thing about her past was revelled toward the end, but I still never felt as though I had a clear handle on her life before I met her. I think I will like the sequel (yay! it's called Liar's Moon) better in this regard, because I will not be harboring slightly unfriendly feelings toward the main character for not telling me her secrets from the get go.

I also couldn't help but feel that Digger was not behaving as I wished her too, with regard to stealing from her hosts and spying on them...and because her background is only fitfully revealed, I didn't feel like I had enough sense of her character to decide how harshly to judge her. Happily, this feeling had faded by about halfway through the book, at which point I rooting for her, regardless of my own scruples.

Playing Beatie Bow, by Ruth Park, for Timeslip Tuesday

Playing Beatie Bow, by Ruth Park (1980). By happy chance, I am writing about this Australian classic on Australia Day, it being already the 26th there (I'm pretty sure... time is a slippery thing).

"It's Beatie Bow," shrieked Mudda in a voice of horror, "risen from the dead!" (page 10). And all the children ran screaming away from the girl covered in a white cloth.

It was just a playground game, scary, but fun. But what the children didn't know was that Beatie Bow was a real person, a 19th-century Australian girl whose family had immigrated from the Orkney Islands, bringing with them their family Gift of preternatural powers.

Even teenaged Abigail, watching the children play, finds the game strangely compelling. But when she meets the real Beatie, pulled forward in time by the sound of her name, and follows her back into the 19th-century, it's no longer any fun at all. Beatie's family takes her in, and treats her well, but still she is frightened--unsure what has happened to her, and even more terrified by the prospect that she will never go home again. The last time she had seen her mother, they were in the middle of horrible conflict--Abigail's father, who left when she was ten, wants them to try to be family again, a prospect that makes her furious (and she's a prickly, stubborn sort of person to begin with). It's not till she faces the prospect of never seeing her parents again that she realizes just how much their happiness means to her.

Abigail's journey into the past isn't random--she been called back to help Beatie's family pass on their Gift to the next generation...and until she does that, the way home is closed to her. But no one can tell her what she must do. And so the days in the past move along, bringing strange clothes and customs, and a growing closeness to Judah, a boy only a few years older then herself. But Judah is intended for another girl--kind, gentle Dovey. And sharp-tongued Beatie won't let Abigail forget it....

Park creates an incredibly detailed and evocative picture of the 19th-century life of a respectable but poor working family, and the book's worth reading for that historically pleasurable side of things alone. But it's the dynamics between all the disparate characters, seen through Abigail's eyes as she becomes less self-centered, and the rather tense mystery of what she needs to do to make it home, that make the book truly excellent.

Although the happy ending is, perhaps, a bit hard to swallow (three years later, an all grown up and much nicer Abigail finds love), I'm glad the author made sure we find out what exactly happened to everyone! In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I see why it won the Children's Book Council of Australia Award for Book of the Year in 1981.

Ruth Park died this December; here is her obituary from the New York Times. This was the first book of hers I've read, but happily my library system has others....I think I'll try My Sister Sif next; its an ecological fantasy with merpeople.

(Note on age: this isn't a book for younger kids- Abigail is most definitely teen-aged-ish in her preocupations and concerns, and there's a description of a brothel that isn't for the faint of heart).

A movie version was made of this, back in the 1980s. Here's an excerpt. It was a bad time hair-wise, the 1980s, both for Abigail, apparently, and for me...I had the same hair cut. Sigh.

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum, by Jessie Hartland, for Nonfiction Monday

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum, by Jessie Hartland (2010, Blue Apple Books)

I love a picture book that I can leave lying around the house, certain that my ten year old will pick it up and enjoy it! Which happened as planned, and so I was predisposed to like this one. And there's the fact that I'm an archaeologist, and I've worked in museums, and done some conservation work...so this one seemed an obvious choice for me!

Hartland starts with specific question--how did the battered and broken sphinx of the Pharaoh Hatsheput get from a pit in Egypt to the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Her answer mirrors the story of "This is the house that Jack built," taking the sphinx from its beginning back in 1470 BC, when the Pharaoh ordered it, all the way to the museum.

Along the way we meet the cast of characters who played parts in its life story, starting with the ones that aren't a great surprise--the sculptor, the stepson who destroyed it, and the archaeologist who found it. But then things get really interesting, when we meet all the people who worked in the background -- the representative of the Egyptian Dept. of Antiquities, the art movers, the curator and conservators...and other staff members of the museum that the public seldom get to meet.

As the list of all the people involves grows, Hartland keeps things interesting with her discussion of each one's role in the process. The cumulative list is, by nature, repetitive, but it's spiced up by using different words to describe everyone's role each time the come around (and it seemed to amuse my children). The the illustrations, detailed but with a simple friendliness, help move the sphinx along nicely. And the sphinx's story is a fascinating one, not just for the fateful life of the sphinx itself, but because its journey required so many people bringing their particular areas of expertise to its journey from Egypt.

A perfect book to read to the young child who you think might do well later in life working museum (I liked the nice gender balance--the curators, for instance, are split fifty/fifty), or anyone with an interest in museums and Egyptology (a section with "more history" at the end will add to the book's appeal for this later audience). This is definitely one to read to your child before your first visit to see Antiquities, but it might well be enjoyed lots by any random kid who likes a swinging story with real life people.

The Non-Fiction Monday round-up this week is at Great Kid Books.

My main Bloggiesta task completed--a spruced-up list of multicultural sci fi/fantasy

I've achieved my main goal for Bloggiesta--to tidy up the list I'm keeping of my reviews of multicultural science fiction and fantasy for kids and teenagers.* I'm up to 53 books, plus three books for adults that I think have cross-over teen potential.

One of the things I did was put the year of publication in, which makes for interesting reading-- 2010 has 21 books, more than the 15 from 2009. But that's not a number that's all that meaningful, because I started the list in 2010...and there are egregious gaps from earlier years. Like Silver Phoenix, by Cindy Pon, which I read back when everyone was raving about it on their own blogs--I didn't feel as though I could contribute a fresh perspective, and so never reviewed it myself. And I don't know why I never read Bleeding Violet, by Dia Reeves; I've wanted to since it came out. I know there are a number of older books I need to add as well, but I'd love to see what recommendations you might have for me! I just found this great list of multicultural sff, compiled by Marie Brennan, that has lots of books I haven't read....

One of the things I tried to do today was to add some pictures, and I ran into a mess with Blogger. There doesn't seem to be a way to manipulate the sizes of the picture much, and I would really like them to be smaller.

My next problem I struggled through--I'm now able to put in the pictures I want! (thanks for the help, commentors!). I am pretty happy with the cover pictures I have up now, but I think I'll change them when I put new books up, so the pictures show the most current reviews.

*I've tried a few times to define "multi-cultural," and gotten into some sticky semantics trying to clarify to myself what I mean. And I toyed with the idea of avoiding an all-encompasing definition by explaining the multicultural-ness of each particular book, and things got even stickier. So the books will have to speak for themselves....