This week's roundup of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (2/6/22)

As always, please join me in adding more books to your tbr pile (5 for me this week!), and let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Beast of Buckingham Palace, by David Walliams, at Say What?

The Bird Singers, by Eve Wersocki Morris, at Scope for Imagination

A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow, at The Wandering Wordsmith

The Counterclockwise Heart, by Brian Farrey, at A Bookish Way of Life, Amy Imogen Reads, and More Books Please!

The Garden Bone, by Maria Magliano, at The Children's Book Review 

Ghost Girl, by Ally Malinenko, at Book Den

Greencoats, by Kate Innes, at Nicki's Book Blog

The Horn's Hoax, by Hector Cantu Kalifa, at The Very Bookish

The Hungry Ghost, by H. S . Norup, at Valinora Troy

The Lock-Eater, by Zack Loran Clark, at Pamela Kramer

Midnight In Everwood by M. A. Kuzniar, at A Bookish Way of Life

The Monster Missions, by Laura Martin, at Charlotte's Library

Revenge of the Beast (The Beast and the Bethany), by Jack Meggitt-Phillips, at Book Craic and Paperbacks and Pinot

The School for Whatnots by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Say What?

Second Sleep by Diane Stanley, at Original Content

The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust 2) by Philip Pullman, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Secret of Haven Point, by Lisette Auton, at Library Girl and Book Boy

Spellbound (Black Panther The Young Prince) by Ronald L. Smith, at Rajiv's Reviews

The Toymaker’s Apprentice, by Sherri L. Smith, at Books With Bunny

The Visitors, by Greg Howard, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Weeping Tide (Wildlore #2), by Amanda Foody, at Cracking the Cover and The Bookwyrm's Den

The Wind Child, by Gabriella Houston, at Book Craic


Authors and Interviews

Lisa Stringfellow (A Comb of Wishes) at The Brown Bookshelf

Brian Farrey (The Counterclockwise Heart) at Publishers Weekly

Amanda Foody (Wildore series) at What to Read Next podcast

India Hill Brown (The Girl in the Lake) at The Brown Bookshelf

Other Good Stuff

At Pragmatic Mom, Lisa Stringfellow shares five recent middle grade fantasy titles featuring Black girls as protagonists

Peter S. Beagle Has a Live-Action Movie and Stage Musical of The Last Unicorn “In The Works” (via Tor)

And finally, I don't generaly share cover reveal posts, but I hosted one this week so am making an exception--check out this lovely cover for Spineless, by Samantha San Miguel, cover art by Jamie Green!

The Bone Maker, by Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst has been a favorite author for ages, and is among the select few whose books get a place on my bookshelf of favorite contemporary sci fi/fantasy. Here is the relevant shelf, as well as a less relevant one, with several more not shown at all:

As you can see, I have enough room on the shelf for one more of her books before I have to re-arrange.*  And that book will be The Bone Maker (Harper Voyager, March 9, 2021), her newest adult fantasy.

Kreya was the leader of a small group of heroes that defeated the evil bone maker Eklor, who had used bone magic to animate an army of murderous constructs in a bid for power.  Kreya's husband Jentt was killed in that battle.  25 years later, Kreya is desperately practicing her own bone magic in an isolated tower, following Eklor's forbidden path of using human bones to bring Jentt back to life.  The only thing holding her back is the difficulty in acquiring those bones (people in this country are cremated)--Eklor murdered and killed, but Kreya won't, and the bones she's gotten ahold of have only been enough for a few days of Jentt's life at a time.  She knows, though, where a lot of unburned bones can be found--the battleground where Eklor was defeated.  A forbidden place, guarded by soldiers, located within a deadly jungle.  

It's not a journey she can make alone, so Kreya enlists the help of one of her old companions, Zera, who has gotten fabulously wealthy from her gift of making bone talismans (which briefly grant the user gifts such as speed, strength, stealth, etc.)  What they find at the battlefield (after a difficult journey) appalls them--a new army of killer constructs.  Eklor, it seemed, wasn't defeated.  So the original group is all regathered (with Jentt brought fully back to life, at a great cost to Kreya), and they revisit the battlefield to confirm that Eklor's back.  They barely escape with their lives.

None of them have any interest in being heroes again.  

At this point, about halfway through the book, I was afraid they were going to just revisit what they did the first time, but happily the plot twisted.  And instead of being a story about fighting, it became a story in which the group have to solve a mystery.  Since I prefer to read about people thinking more than I enjoy people fighting, this made me happy!  One reason for this preference is that when people are thinking, there's also a lot more opportunity for recognition of ambiguous moral choices and interesting reflections about grief, friendship, and mindfully choosing what you want from your one wild and precious life.  Which isn't to say that there wasn't a lot happening--after all, with a mass murder megalomaniac trying for his second chance at world domination, there's a lot that happens, not much of it pleasant.

Kreya is a great, really solidly developed, character, who carries the book.  Hers is the primary pov, and the supporting cast pretty much orbits around her  (Zera gradually becomes more three dimensional, in step with her and Kreya rebuilding their friendship, which makes for nice reading, the other three guys are not as deeply explored).  The magic of bone working wins second place in book carrying--it is really nifty!  My only hesitation about the book was my unassuaged feeling of anthropological uncertainty about how the society functioned, coupled with some geographical uncertainty.   This was also the first book I've read in ages that was this long (496 pages), which is a different type of reading than I mostly do (middle grade, and old comfort reads).  But though it could perhaps have been a bit shorter for my personal taste, I was so invested in the story that nothing else was really important and I was sad to have finished.

Recommended in particular to those no longer in their first flush of youthful heroics, and fans of older women friendships that make it possible to save the day.  Fans of T. Kingfisher's books set in her fantasy world (like Clockwork Boys, and Paladin's Grace) should enjoy this one lots, as similar themes are explored.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

*back to my bookshelf--perhaps the best solution will be to move all of Pratchett to their own shelf, with lots of room to grow, because I want all the Discworld books in hardcover, and move Diana Wynne Jones to her own appropriately sized bookshelf....and that will free up a lot of space, which is good, because all the other authors (Kate Milford, Stephanie Burgis, Leah Cypess, Sage Blackwood, Rachel Neumeier, and more) are still writing new books.....(except that Sarah Crowe, the author of Bone Jack just to the right of the SBD books hasn't written anything since, sigh) and also I am slowly working on replacing ARCs with hardcopies, while keeping many of the ARCs, so there is a clear need to plan for future growth  (I hope to use part of my anticipated stimulus money on a couple of additional lally columns in the basement, to ensure that this book growth isn't too much for the poor old house...)

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (8/9/20)

Welcome to this week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Blue Witch by Alane Adams, illustrated by Jonathan Stroh , at Log Cabin Library

Cattywampus, by Ash Van Otterloo, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dream Team (books 1 and 2), by  Tom Percival, at bookloverjo

Dream Team-A Case of Jitters, by Tom Percival, at Library Girl and Book Boy

Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch, by Julie Abe, at The Quiet Pond

The Forest of Stars, by Heather Kassner, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

Heart of the Moors, by Holly Black, at Charlotte's Library

Just South of Home, by Karen Strong, at alibrarymama 

Kiki MacAdoo and the Graveyard Ballerinas, by Colette Sewall, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed. and A Garden of Books

The Last Lie, by Patricia Forde, at Cracking the Cover

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, by Fleur Bradley, at Always in the Middle

Moonchild: Voyage of the Lost and Found, by Aisha Bushby, illustrated by Rachael Dean, at bookloverjo

My Headteacher is an Evil Genius, by Jack Noel, at A Little But a Lot

Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, at Woodpecker Books

Over the Moon, by Natalie Lloyd, at Completely Full Bookshelf 

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Paola Santiago #1),by Tehlor Kay Mejia, at The Bookwyrm's Den

The Problem Child, by Michael Buckley (Sisters Grimm #3), at Say What? 

Race to the Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse, at Locus

Return to Roar, by Jenny McLachlan, illustrated by Ben Mantle. at Library Girl and Book Boy

Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death (Ronan Boyle, #2), by Thomas Lennon, at YA Books Central

Two by Heather Kassner at Scarlet Readz and Runz-The Forest of Stars and The Bone Garden

Authors and Interviews

Aisha Bushby (Moonchild – Voyage of the Lost and Found) at A little but a lot and Library Girl and Book Boy (both with reviews)

Julie Abe (Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch) at WNDB

Lorelei Savaryn (The Circus of Stolen Dreams), at MG Book Village 

Fran Wilde (The Ship of Stolen Words) at MG Book Village

Other Good Stuff

A black mg magic list at From the Mixed Up Files

New in Ireland this September, at Book Craic

A retrospective look at ten of my favorites from the past decade for this week's Timeslip Tuesday

For the past 10 years I've been posting reviews of kids and YA time travel and time slip books on (most) Tuesdays (413 of them to date), and I thought it would be fun on this last Tuesday of 2019 that is also the decade's last day do go through the c 250 time travel books I've reviewed in these past 10 years and pick ten favorites published between Jan.1 2010 and today.

It was indeed fun to remember all the books, and it was fun in a nostalgic way to be reminded of the close-knit blogisphere I was part of back in the day (we all linked to each other's reviews, for instance...), but boy is it excruciating to be confronted with my poorly edited prose!  I dash off my posts and hit send before I can change my mind, and it shows.  I am sorry.  

It was hard to choose just ten, and I really wanted to include one from 2009 too (The Hotel Under the Sand, by Kage Baker), but I managed...The links are to my reviews.  I will try to come back tomorrow morning to add pictures (and almost certainly fix mistakes); it has gotten too late for me to do anything more right now.

Happy New Year to us all, and may the next decade bring lots more good time travel books (I have a vague sense, having read 413 time travel books, that there are more published under left leaning govenments; someday I'll crunch the numbers and find out if this is really true!) and may we fix our problems before time travelers from the future have to come interfere!

Here are my ten favorites:

The Opposite of Always, by Justin A. Reynolds (2019) YA

A suspenseful time-loop YA romance, with great characters who are excellent at lively banter.  I enjoyed it very much, and though it's well over 400 pages long, it only took a few hours to read it because the pages were turning so fast (and of course at one point they turned very quickly indeed to the end, because I had to make sure it turned out all right.  Which it does).

Time Sight, by Lynne Jonell (2019) MG

An American kid taken to his ancestors' home in Scotland finds he can travel through time...and many adventures ensue.  It has a very classic mid-20th century feel to it, in my mind, and since the best of the mid 20th century is just about my favorite sort of book, I enjoyed it lots!

Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford (2018) MG

Time travel drives the plot of this story about Greenglass House when it was young, and the two kids who lived there.  It's a beautifully visual story, with lots of tangle threads of fate and story and imagined history that get tangled-er by the time travel.

Weave a Circle Round, by Kari Maaren (2017)  billed as YA, but  upper MG to my mind

This story of a 14 year old girl getting swept up in a time-travel filled struggle between the forces of order and chaos won't be to everyone's taste; as I said in my review "the plot is nuts."  I also said "I highly recommend it to fans of Diana Wynne Jones, not because it is a DWJ read-alike, but because it has a similar chaos resolving into a mythically rooted central order/origin point.  You have to be able to tolerate chaos and not understanding things for much of the book to appreciate this one."

The Girl with the Red Balloon, by Katherine Locke (2017) YA

This one uses time travel brilliantly to make a particular piece of the past come alive (Berlin in 1988), and also to set the stage for forbidden love and a gruesome mystery!

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe (2014 in the UK, 2017 in the US) upper MG/YA

I loved this book!  There aren't people hoping back and forth in time; it's more a matter of old stories manifesting in the present, so it's a slippage in time, not time travel...the darkness of the present calls to the past, stirring up old, deadly patterns from centuries ago.  Someday I must get a copy of the UK addition (the US edition is Americanized. Why?)


Timekeeper, by Tara Sim (2016) YA

A mystery set in an alternate world where time is actually controllable, with the help of clocktower spirits. Do try this one if you are looking for a sweet but fraught romance (especially if you're looking for an LGBTQ one).  Do try this if you think that the main character spending lots of time cleaning and repairing clockwork with the clock tower spirit helping, and falling in love while doing so, sounds interesting. 

The Devil's Intern, by Donna Hosie (2014) YA

Time travel from Hell (literally).  The premise is riveting, the characters are great and nicely snarky when snark is called for, the writing is crisp and tight (it's under 300 pages), and the time travel is really cool.

The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, by Kirsty Murray (2013 in Australia, 2014 in the US) MG

I'm not alone in thinking this gentle time travel story, in which the past helps a young girl come to peace with her present is lovely; it was an Aurealis Award winner.  If you are at all a fan of Tom's Midnight Garden, you must read it.  If you are a fan of intergenerational friendships, read it.  if you like lovely descriptions of beautiful places, and kids being kids, read it.

Tilly's Moonlight Garden, by Julia Green (The Moonlight Fox in the UK) (2012) MG

This one drives home the point that this is a list of  what I enjoyed most, and not of "the best" by however you want to define best.  It's a dreamy sort of story of a girl finding distraction from her real life worries in time-slipping into a moonlight garden where she meets a strange girl who becomes her friend.

This week's roundup of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (8/4/19)

Welcome to another week of my blog reading, hunting for mg speculative fiction reviews and news!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball, by Laura Ellen Anderson, at Always in the Middle and Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Aru Shan and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi, at Rajiv's Reviews

The Bone Garden, by Heather Kassner, at Charlotte's Libary

The Book of the King (The Wormling #1) by Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry, at Say What?

Briar and Rose and Jack, by Katherine Coville, at Pages Unbound

Fire Girl, Forest Boy, by Chloe Daykin, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Book Craic

Lair of the Beast (Snared #2)., by Adam Jay Epstein, at Say What?

The Lost Tide Warriors, by Catherine Doyle, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Love Sugar Magic series review, by Anna Meriano, at Falling Letters

Moonlocket (Cogheart #2), by Peter Bunzl, at A Dance With Books

A Small Zombie Problem, by K.G. Campbell, at Geo Librarian

The Sword of the Wormling (The Wormling #2), by Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry, at Say What?

Authors and Interviews

Jess Redman (The Miraculous) at Middle Grade Book Village

Heidi Land and Kati Bartkowski (A Pinch of Phoenix, Magical Cooking Chronicles #3) at Middle Grade Book Village

Other Good Stuff

What's new in the UK, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

"Middle Grade and YA fantasties to read based on your Hogwarts House" at Pages Unbound

The Kidlitcon 2020 website is up and running!  Check it out, and make your plans to come to Ann Arbor next March for a great time with kindred spirits!  And if you're interested in being on the program, let the organizers know!  Thanks to the generosity of the Ann Arbor library, there's no registration fee this year.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (2/24/19)

Here's what I found this week; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Beanstalker And Other Hilarious Scarytales,, by Kiersten White, at Reading Books with Coffee

Bone Hollow, by Kim Ventrella, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The  Crimson Skew, by S.E. Grove, at The Crimson Skew

Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Fantasy Literature and Puss Reboots

Endling: The Last by Katherine Applegate, at proseandkahn (audiobook review)

Freya and Zoose, by Emily Butler, at Book Nut

The Girl with the Whispering Shadow (The Crowns of Croswald #2) by D.E. Night, at Log Cabin Library

Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 and #2, by Johnny Marciano, Emily Raymond, Emily, and Robb Mommaets (illustrations), at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Light Jar, by Lisa Thompson,  at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Mona Lisa Key (Time Castaways #1), by Liesl Surtliff, at Charlotte's Library

The Mysterious World of Cosentino: The Missing Ace, by Cosentino with Jack Heath, at Mom Read It

Nest of Serpents (Wereworld #4), by Curtis Jobling, at Say What?

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Secret in Stone (Unicorn Quest #2), by Kamilla Benko, at Charlotte's Library and Pamela Kramer

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at A Backwards Story

The Song From Somewhere Else by A F Harrold and Levi Pinfold, at Acorn Books

The Star-Spun Web, by Sinead O'Hart, at A Little But a Lot

Storm Hound, by Claire Fayers, at Book Murmuration

The Transparency Tonic (Potion Masters #2), by Frank L. Cole, at Geo Librarian

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, at Log Cabin Library

Authors and Interviews

Anne Ursu (The Lost Girl) at B. and N. Kids Blog

Claire Fayers (Storm Hound) at Mr. Ripleys Enchanted Books

Kamilla Benko (The Unicorn Quest series) at Geo Librarian

Carlos Hernandez (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe) at Rick Riordan Presents

Caldric Blackwell (The Sacred Artifact) at Books Direct

M. G. Velasco (Cardslinger) at MG Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Monica Edinger has a great review collection in the NY  Times Book Review

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book have been announced. and two are middle grade:

Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi (Rick Riordan Presents)
Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, Henry Lien (Henry Holt)

This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (7/29/18)

Welcome to this week's round-up; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Across the Dark Water (Riders of the Realm 1), by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, at Dogpatch Press

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, at Booklist Reader

Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at Geo Librarian

The Boggart Fights Back, by Susan Cooper, at The Booklist Reader

A Chase in Time, by Sally Nicholls, at Minerva Reads

The Door to Time (Ulysses Moore 1), by Pierdomenico Baccalario, at Say What?

Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott, at Say What?

Ends of the Earth (School for Spies 3), by Bruce Hale, at Say What?

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm, at Pages Unbound

The Girl With the Dragon Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at Family Bookworms

Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at Books My Kids Read

The Lost Continent (Wings of Fire 11), by Tui T. Sutherland, at Hidden in Pages and Charlotte's Library

Night Flights, by Philip Reeve, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt, at The Book Smugglers

The Secret War (Jack Blank 2) by Matt Myklusch, at Say What?

The Turning, by Emily Whitman, at Charlotte's Library

The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery by Allison Rushby, at The Children's War

TwoSpells, by Matt Morrison, at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

The Very Little Princess, by Marion Dane Bauer, at Tales from the Raven

Two Han Solo books, at Boys Rule Boys Read

Authors and Interviews

Armand Baltazar (Timeless – Diego And The Rangers Of The Vastlantic) at The Geekiverse

Kim Ventrella (Bone Hollow) at Watch.Connect.Read.

K.A. Reynolds (The Land of Yesterday) at Literary Rambles

Other Good Stuff

Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain Tells a Fresh Story with Old Tropes at Tor

It is almost August, and that means the call for Cybils Judges is right around the corner!  If you want to be part of a really great reading experience, get ready to apply!   That means making sure you have reviews up on your reviewing platform of choice for the category you're interested in (like, for instance, middle grade speculative fiction, the category that I'll be chairing again this year).  Here's an older post I wrote about why you should apply, and you can learn more at the Cybils website.  You're also welcome to ask me questions directly!

My top books of 2017

In 2017, I took part for the first time in the Goodreads reading challenge, setting myself a goal of 500 books.  My previous top total in the five years I've kept track was 324, so it was ambitious, but I wanted to be pushed to get some of the tbr shelves actually read.  I ended up having read 466, of which 6 were picture books that I didn't count for the challenge.  And I only read about ten from the tbr shelves, so it was pointless in that regard.  So the only thing to do, of course, is to read 501 books in 2018.

Here are the books I read for the first time that I liked best.  My criteria for "liking best" is a book that I can imagine re-reading (links go to my reviews).  The books are in the order in which I read them.

Realm Breaker (Last Dragon Charmer 3), by Laurie McKay.  I hope there are more to come in this very fun series, and I can imagine starting at the beginning in preparation for book 4...fingers crossed!

Thick as Thieves, by Megan Whalen Turner, because she repays re-reading awfully much.

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, I don't feel an immediate need to re-read, because it is all still so clear and vivid in my mind.  But I will want to someday, I'm sure.

What Goes Up, by Katie Kennedy It was both funny and tense, and in a re-read the tense is less so and you get to enjoy the fun more!

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I hadn't read any of her books before this year, and I loved this one in particular!  I'll probably be reading it again sooner rather than later, because I listened to it, and want to experience it as text as well.

The Emperor of Mars, by Patrick Samphire.  Another I'll want to re-read to prepare myself for a much hoped for book 3!

The Reluctant Queen, by Sarah Beth Durst.  ditto!

Winter of Ice and Iron, by Rachel Neumeier.  I already want to go back to this world and read it again and it's only been a few months.  I also want to read it in finished hardcover form, because the printing of the ARC I read was mangled in places (whole paragraphs with no spaces between the words), and I think I will enjoy it unmangled even more. Also I know the ending now, which is so much more relaxing.

It was a slightly odd reading year for me in that a lot of the books I read I didn't pick because I thought I'd like them--I wrote quite a few list posts for the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog, which meant basically trying to read all the middle grade fiction of 2017.  I read a lot of middle grade and YA fantasy and science fiction for my own enjoyment, and lots of those books were very good, but there were surprisingly few that I will give shelf space to. I hope my 2018 list of to be re-reads is longer! 

And just as a postscript, here's the most interesting non-fiction book I read in 2017--The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh  It didn't have much competition, because I didn't read much interesting non-fiction, but I'm glad I read this one! I picked it up because Thick as Thieves made me think of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and I realized I didn't actually know that much about Gilgamesh.  And now that I do, I have another reason for wanting to re-read T. as T....

Halfway through my reading year

On Sunday I made it halfway through my reading year when I hit 250 books read (not counting picture books).  My goal is to read 500 books this year to try to make a dent in the backlog; clearly I'm going to have to pick up the pace.  It is also clear that re-reading the Betsy-Tacy books and all the books of L.M. Montgomery short stories don't help my immediate problem of tbr piles, though I enjoyed  them (especially Emily of Deep Valley, which I Love), and they were fast so added nicely to my tally.

Here's a bit of a look at some of my favorite reading thus far:

There were quite a few books in series that I was so happy to get and read--the newest Wings of Fire book, Darkness of Dragons, Emperor of Mars, by Patrick Samphire (my review),  Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble, by Ursula Vernon, Realm Breaker, by Laurie McKay, and The Reluctant Queen, by Sarah Beth Durst.  No disappointments here!

I don't often give five star reviews on Goodreads, and I mostly don't give any starts at all because of suffering existential meltdowns when thinking too hard about it.  When I give a book five stars, it's because I had no doubt--

Bone Jack, by Sarah Crowe
Train I Ride, by Paul Mosier
The Someday Birds, by Sally Pla (partly because the birdwatching made me think of my mother, so I was thinking loving thoughts all through the book...)
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis
All Birds Have Anxiety(it spoke to me)

The downside of the busy reading is that I have reviewed less this year than in years past.  And since only 28 of the 250 were off the tbr pile, there is no appreciable difference in the backlog.  But at least I am trying. 

Action plan:

Sensible and doable:

-stop requesting books from the library during breaks at work.
-pick up and start at least one tbr pile book every two days, to see if it is worth keeping.
-take the bus to work more often so I can read instead of drive (I listen to audiobooks, but that doesn't help much with my tally or my tbr problem).  Bus to work and back time--1 hour, so one book, especially if it is a good book and I go past my stop.

do-able but not sensible:

-when I leave my desk at work, take book and read it while walking to my in-work destination (my co-workers already sense I am Different, so they wouldn't bat an eyelash, but it would make me walk slower which is not fair to the People of Rhode Island who pay my salary and expect a modicum of efficiency in return).
-read while grocery shopping (this is a bad idea because while grocery shopping I look for loose change, so it would involve Financial Hardship (over $10 found this year!)
-read faster (I read fast enough; I could read faster if I tried but it would be less fun)

Not doable, but boy it would free up time:
-quit job
-give up on weeding/home renovation/cooking/communicating with my family

I am now at 257.  I can make it to 500.  There will still be piles of books, but at least the dust will have been stirred.

This week's roundup of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/19/17)

Welcome to another week of links; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelly, at A Backwards Story

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Librarys

The Celestial Globe, by Marie Rutkoski, at Say What?

The Crooked Sixpence, by Jennifer Bell, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Word Spelunking

Dragonwatch: Revolt of the Dragons, by Brandon Mull, at Fantasy Literature and Cracking the Coverhttps://www.crackingthecover.com/13296/brandon-mull-dragonwatch/

The Evil Wizard Smallbone, by Delia Sherman, at Jean Little Library

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Geo Librarian

The Forgotten Sisters, by Shannon Hale, at Leaf's Reviews

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Sonderbooks

Magyc, by Angie Sage, at Say What?

The Night Spinner, by Abi Elphinstone, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Return Fire, by Christina Diaz, at On Starships and Dragonwings

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill, by Megan Shepherd, at Hidden in Pages

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at the Shannon Messenger Fan Club

The Wizard's Dilemma, by Diane Duane, at Fantasy Faction

Authors and Interviews

Eric Kahn Gale (The Wizard's Dog) at Word Spelunking

Joshuan Kahn (Shadow Magic) at Cybils

Laurel Snyder (Orphan Island) at Word Spelunking

Kandi Wyatt (Dragon's Future) at Word Spelunking

Other Good Stuff

Anne Nesbet "On Fiction, History, and Wishing the World Were Otherwise" with particular mention of A Crack in the Sea and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at Project Mayhem

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, for Timeslip Tuesday

I just gave Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe (Philomel Books, Feb. 2017, April 2014 in the UK)  five stars over at Goodreads, something I almost never do, not because I think it was an absolutely perfect book, but because it did what it set out to do very well indeed, and because it was a book I would have been so happy to find when I was the age of the target audience-11 -14 years old..  I loved  books in which the old stories and legends of the British Isles slipped through into the present day, with dark and dangerous consequences (books like The Owl Service, and A String in the Harp). (I still do, but a less naïvely romantic way....).  If I didn't already know better, I'd believe that Bone Jack was written back in the 1960s or 70s; it has very much the feel of so many excellent British children's books of that era. 

13 year-old Ash has won the competition to be this year's Stag Boy in a race that is now a quaint folkloric custom n his village in the north of England, but which  has dark roots--the other local boys, playing the hounds, are not expected these days to hunt the stag to his death in a ritual to renew the land,  but in the past.....It is a hard time for Ash's bit of the world--foot-and-mouth disease has wiped out the sheep, and a draught is drying up the land.  His best friend Mark's father killed himself after his sheep were slaughtered, and Ash's own father has come home from fighting in the Near East with PTSD.  

The darkness of the present calls to the past, and stirs up the old pattern.  Ash sees the ghosts of a past Stag Boy hunted till he falls from the cliff at Stag's Leap by merciless boys playing the hounds.  Bone Jack is walking the hills again, and the boundary between the past and present is slipping.  Mark, Ash's friend, will be a hound in this year's chase, but for Mark, who's now living wild in the hills, the Stag Chase has become a chance to bring his father back.  For that to happen, the Stag Boy must die.

So the story is filled with things inexplicable at first falling into an ancient grove, and the tension grows very nicely as Ash realizes that what had seemed a simple way of pleasing his father by running as the Stag Boy is turning into something that might end up with Mark trying to kill him.  He considers backing out, but he can't bring himself to do so....

It is not all mythos and ancient darkness--there are side notes of human relationships, giving Ash the opportunity for character growth, that I found moving and convincing--Ash and his mother hoping that Ash's father can come back to them, Ash's feeling of guilt from having pulled back from Mark after Mark's tragedy, Mark's little sister coping as best she can with the tragedy and now with the madness, that has overtaken her life.

I'm counting this as a time slip not because any of the main characters travel through time, but because the Past, embodied in a sense in Bone Jack, has very much awoken in the present.  The boys of the Stag Hunt long ago are perhaps ghosts, or time slipped echoes, but there is a wolf who has slipped from the past in true corporeal form, and that's good enough for me.

So if you like Celtic infused fantasy in which there isn't a Prophecy or a Chosen One or an epic struggle against a power hungry Dark Lord, but in which the tension comes from old stories manifesting in the present, you will like this one!  It might look like YA, but it isn't quite; it's being marketed as 10 and up (in the grades 4-6 slot at School Library Journal, and ages 11-13 at Kirkus), which is as it should be.  I don't know how many young Celtophiles/Anglophies there are today, but it's also a good one for kids who like horror.

My one real, strong, substantial objection to the American edition of Bone Jack is that they Americanized it, most obviously substituting "Mom" for "Mum."  Which subverts the whole point of the book being rooted in its particular, very non-American place.  And which also makes me wonder, in a suspicious and vaguely hostile way, what other changes were made for the American edition...

But in any event, Sara Crowe is now an auto-buy author for me (I think I will go with her UK editions, although I strongly prefer the American cover of this one; the UK cover is at right), and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Here's the Kirkuk Review, which more or less comes to the same conclusion as I do.

This week's Middle Grade fantasy/sci fi round-up (6/30/13)

This is the last round-up I will pull together from Google Reader (waily waily).   After doing this 185 times using Google Reader, I have it down to an efficient system, and I am very worried about trying to do it with Bloglovin.   But hope on, hope ever...and let me know if my efficient system failed to find your post this week!

The Reviews

The 13 Clocks, by James Thurber, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett, at Charlotte's Library

The Apprentices, by Maile Meloy, at Waking Brain Cells

The Borrowers Afloat, by Mary Norton, at Tor

The Cloak Society, by Jeramey Kraatz, at Project Mayhem (giveaway)

The Cypher (Guardians, Inc. 1), by Julian Rosado-Machin at The Write Path

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at Sonderbooks

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, at Deb A. Marshall

The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle, by Christopher Healy, at Kid Lit Geek

Hollow Earth, and Hollow Earth: Bone Quill, by John and Carole E. Barrowman, at Nerdophiles

Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy, by Jeff Gunhus, at Mother Daughter Son Book Reviews

Lair of the Serpent, by T. Lynn Adams, at Geo Librarian

The Last Synapsid, by Timothy Mason, at Time Travel Times Two

The Magician's Tower, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey, at Geo Librarian

The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, by Richard Peck, at Becky's Book Reviews

Odessa Again, by Dana Reinhardt, at Becky's Book Reviews and Charlotte's Library

Pegasus--The Flame of Olympus, by Kate O'Hearn, at My Precious

Pi in the Sky, by Wendy Mass, at Abby the Librarian and Charlotte's Library

Playing with Fired, by Bruce Hale, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley, at Secrets & Sharing Soda

Rules for Ghosting, by A.J. Paquette, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Sidekicked, by John David Anderson, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, at A Backwards Story (giveaway)

The Summer of Moonlight Secerts, by Danette Haworth, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Waking Brain Cells and The Book Smugglers

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Candace's Book Blog

The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop, by Kate Saunders, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

And three short reviews (Thrice Upon a Marrigold, The Menagerie, and The Fellowship for Alien Detection) at In Bed With Books

Authors and Interviews

Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil) at A Backwards Story


Other Good Stuff

I put up a call for help last Friday--I would very much like to know how one can keep current with MG and YA fantasy/Sci Fi releases in the UK, and indeed in all countries where books in English are published.    Here's the post with the useful links I know of so far....more are welcome!

Top ten horror stories for junior high readers, at The Nerdy Book Club

And a beautiful (mostly) middle grade fantasy giveaway at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Even though I don't actually love McDonalds, per se, I am tickled to pieces by this Hello Kitty meets Fairy Tales promotion (which happened in Singapore, and is now over...). This is Hello Kitty meets "The Singing Bone."

Read more at Once Upon a Blog

(not middle grade, but I have an ARC of Proxy, by Alex London, to giveaway courtesy of the publisher here, just in case anyone's interested....)