Mother Goose Picture Puzzles, by Will Hillenbrand, for Poetry Friday

For Poetry Friday, and also for Tidy Up Loose Books Day (which we actually celebrate every day in our house), I offer Mother Goose Picture Puzzles, by Will Hillenbrand (Marshall Cavendish, 2011, 40 pp).

My own children learned their Mother Goose rhymes with the same Richard Scarry book that I had when I was young, but if I had had on hand a copy of Mother Goose Picture Puzzles I would most definitely have read it to them early and often. Likewise, if I had a two- or three-year-old to buy a book gift for, this would be on my list.

Hillenbrand's version of Mother Goose incorporates rebus-es (rebi?) into twenty of the classic nursery rhymes (ie, there are pictures of "mouse" and "clock" instead of the words in Hickory Dickory Dock). The pictures are (for the most part) self-evident to even a little one, but what makes it fun is that the things pictured appear in the larger illustrations with word labels. This adds another interactive element to the book, as you try to find the word that goes with each picture, and is a nice way to acquire a bit of word recognition.

I would have loved it as a two-year old (I'm pretty sure), and I wish I had it when my own boys were two or three! I enjoy Hillenbrand's illustrations lots in general, and the ones in this book are particularly charming.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher, and it is off to be donated the library today, which will give me a sense of accomplishment all out of proportion to the actual progress made viz moving books off of temporary storage piles and into more permanent homes.

The Poetry Friday Round-up is at Check It Out today!

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman (FirstSecond, 2011, 176 pages), is a wild and wacky sci fi graphic novel for kids, that has much charm, wit, and even poignancy.

Astronaut Academy, a boarding school in space, is very strange. The Spanish teacher, for instance, is a panda, another teacher an elf, and another a bunny, and the curriculum includes dinosaur-driving lessons.

To this school comes Hakata Soy, a boy with a heroic past and attractive/messy hair (depending on who you ask). One of the downsides of having a heroic past (in this case, joining up with your pals to assume the form of Metador, a big robot transformer-like thing so as to more effectively defeat bad guys) is that the bad guys might want revenge...and so Hakata Soy all unwittingly is followed to Astronaut Academy by trouble.

The story jumps between the points of view of multiple students--the ultra rich bratty girl, the jock, the loner, and (my favorite character) Miyumi San, who's the girl I would want to be friends with--the outsider girl picked on by the rich brat and her sidekick. It took me a while to get in the swing of things, what with all the cast members (who seemed at first like a collection of stereotypes, but grew rapidly more interesting) and the strangeness of the set-up (which never became less strange), but it was well worth it.

The story qua story is diverting, and the characters (rich brat Maribelle excepted) engaging and more multifaceted than one might expect (even the rich brat), and (this is what made me enjoy the book most of all) the language Roman uses tickled my fancy considerably. He uses emphasis to great effect, and his characters have a tendency to use exaggeratedly performative speech, which was nicely mixed with more relaxed dialogue.

(pause while I comb the book looking for an example that makes clear what I was talking about and conveys why I find this very pleasing)

I wasn't able to find a perfect example, but maybe this will do:

Mirabelle: "Holy smokes! How come that laser didn't fry us into scattered ashes?"

Hikato: "My 3-in-1 jacket is CUSTOMIZED with a damage resistant nylon shell."

Hikato: "Like the rocket books, compliments of my best pal, Gadget Thompson (who I wish would return my phone calls and distress signals)."

Maribelle: I was gonna use Miyumi as a human shield, but I guess this works well enough. Oooh! And pretty soft too." (page 133)

Bother. I'm not sure that works to convey how charmingly stilted I found much of the prose. Would it convince you to try this book if I mentioned that the bad guys attack a planet of bunnies while wearing robotic bird costumes and saying "chirp chirp?" If I told you the dinosaur race scene was a masterpiece of absurd charm? Or how about if I told you that there were characters who really touched my heart with their uncertainty and loneliness (hugs one lonely boy in particular)? And they are a beautifully diverse lot of kids too, for those who want to read, as it were, in color.

I am not, in general, good at reading graphic novels, because I have a hard time pulling my eyes away from the words. My first try at this book, I did, in fact, put it down because I was getting confused. The second time, though, having some familiarity with the story, I loved it! And what is, perhaps, more to the point, so did my personal representative of the target audience. I brought this one home from Book Expo America, and within two days my 10-year-old had read it four times.

Ultraviolet, by R.J. Anderson (Waiting on Wednesday)

Stopping by my friend Chachic's blog yesterday, I read her thoughts on R.J. Anderson's forthcoming book, Ultraviolet. I'd enjoyed Anderson's fairy books (Knife et seq) and was curious about this one...and now, having read Chachic's post, I'm sold!

So today, for my Waiting on Wednesday book (this is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine), I am officially putting Ultraviolet on my to be acquired list! Here's the blurb, from the author's website:

ULTRAVIOLET (UK & US, June/September 2011)

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

And here's the part of Chachic's post that hooked me:

"At first, I thought it was going to be a straight up contemporary YA novel set in a mental institution for teens. I was worried that it would be too gritty or bleak for my taste but that didn’t happen. Instead, the novel transformed into something with hints of magic realism with maybe a bit of fantasy and to my surprise, science fiction was thrown into the mix."

Coming September, 2011, from Carolrhoda Books.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, June 2011, YA on up, 352 pages)

On an island off the coast of Wales, there was once a home for peculiar children, and one of the children who lived there was Jacob's grandfather. He told Jacob stories about the children-the girl who could fly, the boy who had bees living inside him, the brother and sister who could lift boulders...and showed him old black and white pictures of these friends from his past.

And he also told Jacob about monsters--the stuff of nightmares.

When Jacob was 16, he saw his first monster. And then he went to Wales, to the place where the peculiar children had lived long ago...

Here's the trailer. Watch it.



And that's all I'm going to say about the story, except for a spoiler coming up at the end of the post! But I could talk at great length about the delicious strangeness of the book--its odd combination of horror and enchantment, and its mesmerizing, creepy, beautiful, haunting, disturbing photographs....it's not a cozy comfort read. But boy, once things get going, it is a zinger!

I have never ever seen found photographs used to such great effect--these are all real pictures. That part of the book is brilliant, and makes this a book that is unforgettable. I wasn't convinced by all aspects of the plot, but that, I think, was because I was so mesmerized by the characters and their circumstances that "plot," with all its messy concomitant happenings and conflicts, seemed extraneous and felt a tad forced.

If you feel stuck in a reading rut, whether your rut of choice be lighthearted fantasy for the young, scary stories or steamy paranormal fantasy for the somewhat older, do give this a try! I didn't take it to my heart in a warm and snuggly way, but it was one of the most memorable books I've read in ages, and I couldn't put it down!

Here's another review, relatively spoiler-free, at Stainless Steel Droppings, that's worth checking out if I haven't already convinced you.

And now for the spoiler.

spoiler space!



more spoiler space!

Here's the spoiler:

This is a time travel book (that's why I'm reviewing it this Tuesday, as is my time travellish wont!). So not only does the reader get peculiar orphans (almost always a plus as far as I'm concerned), she gets orphans suspended in WW II. Their home has been inserted into an endless loop of one repeated day, a loop into which Jacob plunges, stirring things up on every level, creating paradoxes, emotional conflicts, and bringing Danger to the idyllic (or is it?) world of the peculiar children.

You can almost hear creepy music playing while you read....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine (Harper Collins, 2011, middle grade, 226 pages)

12-year-old Elodie's heart is set on become a mansioner--an actress--in the city of Two Castles. But when she gets off the boat that had brought her from her home, she is dismayed to find that she is too poor to pay the fee to become an apprentice. In a stroke of good luck (although Elodie isn't sure of this at first), she is instead taken under the wing of the town's resident dragon.

Meenore, the dragon, is the town's detective (self-appointed), as well as a prosaic seller of toasted cheese in the market, and IT (the gender of dragons is a private matter) wants Elodie as an assistant. IT is all set to hone her powers of observation and deduction. But before Elodie can be accustomed to life in the dragon's lair, a full-blown mystery erupts.

Count Jonty Um, the kindly (but feared) ogre who lives in one of the two castles, asks for Meenore's assistance in finding his missing dog. But the dog is just the tip of the iceberg--soon Jonty Um becomes the victim of attempted murder, and, transformed into a mouse by the power of cat persuasion (shades of Puss in Boots), goes missing. And then, when a poisoner strikes the greedy king, Elodie (a handy scapegoat) finds herself the chief suspect....

It will take all her intelligence and all her skills as an actress (and considerable help from the dragon) to solve the mystery.

It's rare to see a fantasy novel that centers around an engaging mystery, and this focus made A Tale of Two Castles fresh and engaging. It's clever, and it's fun, and the characters (especially the dragon) are interesting as all get out! I can't speak to the quality of the mystery qua mystery--I'm bad at Clues, and I (blushes) read the ending half-way through. I did, however, think that the Badness of the main Bad character was too unforshadowed and unexplained. Not a lot of depth there.

But I do rather like the message that Levine's story sends. The distrust the townsfolk feel for the ogre is a serious matter that in large part drives the plot, but this issue is left for the reader to reflect on without it being heavily underlined. And Elodie's own initial feelings for both ogre and dragon are full of the fear of the unknown and different; by the end, they have both become her firm friends. (My mind kept reading the ogre's name, Jonty Um, as gentilhomme, so I felt friendly toward him from the beginning--I wonder if Levine had that in mind!)

This is a lovely sort of book to give the younger middle grade reader (there's no romance, just a crush Elodie has on a handsome roguish type), but, as I said, I enjoyed it just fine myself. It doesn't back a big emotional punch, but it was fun. Fans of fairy tale re-imaginings will enjoy the elements of Puss in Boots that Levine incorporates--it's not exactly a retelling of that story, but considerable bits of it can be found here.

This Sunday's Round-Up of Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy from around the blogs

Another Sunday, another round-up! Let me know if I missed your post, please!

The Reviews:

11 Books, by Wendy Mass, at Anita Silvey's Children's Book-a-day Almanac

The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl), by Eoin Colfer, at Storytelling & Me

Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld, at The Compulsive Reader

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, at Charlotte's Library

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, by Dale E. Bayse, at Sony the Book Lover

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bradsford, at Geo Librarian

The Midnight Gate, by Helen Stringer, at Bookworming in the 21st Century

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh, at Charlotte's Library

Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper, at Tor

The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Stella Matutina

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Remarkable and Very True Story of Lucy and Snowcap, by H.M. Bouwman, at Novel and Nouveau

Runemarks, by Joanne Harris, at Book Nut

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley, at Charlotte's Library

Spellbound (Books of Elsewhere 2), by Jacqueline West, at Beyond Books

A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, at Ex Libris

The Tartan Magic series, by Jane Yolen, at Books Kids Like

Troubletwisters, by Garth Nix and Sean Williams, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at the Ya Ya Yas

A Year Without Autumn, by Liz Kessler, at Reading, Writing, and Ribaldry

Other things of interest:

Here's an interview I missed last week--Laura Sullivan (Under the Green Hill) at Candace's Book Blog

Kathrine Langrish hosts Terri Windling in a reprise of her Fairy Tale Reflections series at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

You can find some great discussion questions for Harry Potter at Challenging the Bookworm

And finally, a bit of monster art goodness--all of Lovecraft's monsters beautifully portrayed, via Galleycat. Here's an example from the artist's website (Yog-Blogsoth)

YAKITH LIZARD
"So T’yog wrote his protective formula on a scroll of pthagon membrane (according to von Junzt, the inner skin of the extinct yakith-lizard) and enclosed it in a carven cylinder of lagh metal—the metal brought by the Elder Ones from Yuggoth, and found in no mine of earth. This charm, carried in his robe, would make him proof against the menace of Ghatanothoa—it would even restore the Dark God’s petrified victims if that monstrous entity should ever emerge and begin its devastation."
H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, Out Of the Aeons

Cleaning the books out of the bathtub

Today I cleaned out the books that had accumulated in my bathtub. Not many people get to say this.

Not many people end up carting home 12 boxes of donations for their library's book sale, 4 boxes of which turn out to be ex-library German scholarly works from the 1950s. That book sale had a lot of books, I didn't think they'd sell, I was tired--so what better place than the downstairs bathtub? (There's another bathroom upstairs, with only one book in it; a much nicer, more salubrious bathroom).

But the books in the bathtub have been getting on my nerves, and it occured to me that if I put a plank across the tub (longways), I could have a bookshelf, which would be much tidier. So I made progress today, and moved piles of German prose et cet. into the kitchen, where there was a nice bit of floor that no one was using. (There's another library book sale coming weekend after next, and for those books that really have no future, it's recycling night in my town tomorrow).

Someday there will be a new downstairs bathroom, and the current one will go back to its original incarnation of pantry and there will be a bookshelf for every book. But until then....

Spring into Summer readathoning

Just to say that I'll be throwing my hat into the ring for the Spring into Summer Read-a-thon being held over at Squeaky Books! Goodness knows I have enough books that need reading, so why not readathon as many as I can????

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley (Harper Collins, YA/middle grade, 320 pages) is one of those very pleasant fantasy books that is tailor-made for the 11 or 12 year old girl looking for an engrossing escape from the real world. It's set in a medieval not-quite Europe, and tells how a 7-year-old pot scrubber in the castle kitchen grew up to become a brave girl, with a magical gift that helps her break the sinister magical curse that has brought death to her country's royal family.

Young Molly's pot scrubbing skills were so great that she was promoted to polishing the royal silver. The most precious thing she was assigned was the great silver bowl in which the royal hands were washed. But as she polishes, she sees visions...and through these visions she learns of a dark curse that is threatening the lives of the royal family. When magical wolves break into the castle, savagely attacking the queen and her children, Molly and her stable-boy friend, Tobias, save the life of Prince Alaric (beautiful, but, not unnaturally, a snob). But keeping him alive means breaking the curse once and for all....and to do that, Molly must figure out the secrets held by the silver bowl, and her own family's role in the magic it contains.

The plot is clearly based on a substantial amount of magic, but the magic is kept, as it were, in its proper place. It's certainly enough to lend enchantment to the view, but it doesn't overwhelm the day to day actions of the characters. It's these quotidian details that most pleased me about this book, but that being said, I love the way in which Molly's gift is tied to the silversmithing heritage of her family, craft magic being a great favorite of mine!

The mystery of the silver bowl is intriguing, the characters are engaging, and the development of the relationships between Molly, Tobias, and Alaric is a pleasure to read about. Although things are, perhaps, a bit slow to get going (for those who don't enjoy silver polishing), once things start happening, it all moves along with a nice briskness.

I have one very minor reservation about The Silver Bowl-occasionally the prose that Molly uses in her first person narration felt a tad stiff, as if Stanley were aiming for a more "medievally" feel, with little phrases, like "I could scarce believe it" and "I grew ever more anxious." Some readers might find this adds to the medieval world-building, others might find a bit forced. And likewise, given that Molly has had no formal education at all, and has spent her childhood in the kitchen scrubbing pots, she has a surprisingly erudite vocabulary.

This is marketed as YA, but it has a very middle-grade feel. There's a bit of violence (but not too terrible) and although romance is in the air, it isn't happening quite yet... Happily, there will be a chance for that in the future--from Diane Stanley's website comes this news: "I have recently finished book two, THE RAVEN OF HARROWSGODE, in which Molly explores the source and nature of her ever-changing magical gift." Goodie!

The Silver Bowl is included in Booklist's Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth, the full list is here, in their May 15, 2011 issue, a list on which it stands out for being a relatively gentle fantasy, good for middle grade readers. Here's another review at Book Aunt.

Highly recommended to fans of Jessica Day George, Gail Carson Levine, and Shannon Hale.

Flip, by Martyn Bedford

Flip, by Martyn Bedford (Wendy Lamb Books, 2011, YA, 272 pages).

14-year-old Alex is an asthmatic, clarinet-playing, fairly normal London boy. But then one morning he wakes up in a strange bed, in a strange house in the north of England, and worst of all, in a strange body. It's the middle of June, and six months have somehow passed overnight. Suddenly he must take up a whole new life as Flip (short for Philip)--complete with a new family, a new school, and not one, but two, girlfriends...

Then he learns that his own body has been lying in a coma in a London hospital for all the missing months. What follows is Alex's struggle to figure out what has happened to him, and to somehow keep himself, Alex, alive inside Flip's body until he can go home again...if that's even possible. And, in addition, there are the struggles of daily life--to get out of having to play cricket, to eat foods Flip liked but Alex didn't, and to cope with Flip's girlfriends, while slowly building his own relationship with loner, musical girl Flip had ignored.

The central premise of the book is speculative fiction (neither sci fi nor fantasy), but Alex's struggle to keep his own identity in the difficult circumstances both of his particular situation, and the difficult circumstances of being a 14 year old boy in general, make for a story that is so rooted in the particulars of the real world that this should appeal strongly to readers who generally avoid spec fic books.* "Psychological thriller" is a phrase used by several other reviewers to describe it; not a genre I read (as far as I know), so I'm not sure how accurate it is!

But in addition to that, this book thoughtfully raises both metaphysical questions--what is the soul? what makes one person different from another? --as well as questions of what if? nature. What if you were still alive, in a different body, and your parents no longer recognized you? Could you make a new life for your own self, and still be your own self in the ways that mattered, in someone else's body?

Although the basic premise is certainly compelling, what made the book work for me were the characters. Bedford does a great job not only with Alex, but with supporting cast (with the possible exception of the absent Flip, who we only see as a collection of traits that Alex doesn't share. We never get to hear poor Flip's side of things, and he comes off as rather unlikable--the sort of boy 14-year old me would have wanted nothing to do with, and vice versa!)

In short, Flip is a fascinating page-turner with broad appeal. Although the premise might seem darkish, the reader (well, me at any rate) is left with a warm and fuzzy desire to go hug their own family.

Other reviews at Midnight Bloom Reads, Feeling Fictional, The Crazy Bookworm, and Our Time in June.

*This is one of my favorite YA reads of the year, and so I'm thinking ahead to the Cybils awards, and wondering if I will nominate it. It's tricky, though, because I while I think it would be more at home in the non-sci fi/fantasy YA section, the central premise of soul-transfer seems to argue against that. Up at the top is the American cover, to the right the UK one--I think the difference between these covers illustrates the dual nature of the book rather nicely--ordinary dude (albeit upside down) vs scary sci-fi looking giant-face-in-his-torso dude.

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury, 2011, middle grade, 224 pages), begins thus:

"This is what he knew.
His name was Fisher.
The world was dangerous.
He was alone.
And that was all."

Fisher, born from a pod full of bubbling gel, comes to consciousness in a future world where he is the only living human. The pods around him, full of other people who should have been awakened when the world was ready to be populated again, have been destroyed. He is not entirely alone, however--one maintenance robot, programed to help humanity "continue existing," survived the mysterious catastrophe that struck the ark where Fisher had been preserved. And thanks to the robot, Fisher learns that there was a southern ark prepared as well...one that might still have its people inside it.

The only problem, in Fisher's mind, is how to get to it. He doesn't know that the journey will be easy, compared to surviving what they find there....

Fisher has been programed to be, well, a fisher (the robot who woke him had to make a quick choice of skill sets for him). So he knows all about fish and how to catch them, which is certainly useful when you're headed south down a river in the post-apocalyptic United States with only a maintenance robot (and a random pygmy mammoth) for company. It's enough to keep him alive, barely. Much of the story is, in fact, concerned with the mechanics of survival in the wilderness (after writing this, I went back and read Betsy's thoughts over at Fuse #8--we are in agreement that there is a Hatchet-like vibe to this one).

This being Greg van Eekhout (author of the bizarre but entertaining Kid vs Squid), and this being a post-human world in which evolution has merrily gone on its wondrous way, Fisher encounters strange creatures on his journey. Some, like the giant killer parrots, are fascinating and easy to accept. One of them, the young pygmy mammoth mentioned above, becomes a companion (although I'm not quite sure why....)

But there are also creatures who are rather, um, strange? surreal? in a what the heck, am I going to be able to swallow their presence in the story? kind of way (creatures that Gary Paulson would never put into a story). I shall say no more. You must meet them, and judge for yourself--for me, their presence changed the whole flavor of the story. Like biting through the chocolate (bleak post-apocalyptic journey) and hitting the cherry (bizarre encounter that suddenly fills the book with new characters and ends up being tremendously important).

Fisher's a protagonist one can empathize with--he has no character at the beginning of the story, being just born, with no memories, but as he journeys, he makes for himself a story of determination and loneliness that carries the reader along. The robot fills the role of "side-kick to hero" as best as an over-protective maintenance robot can; the pygmy mammoth provides a dash of comic relief.

The "child in strange new world with robot companion" story is reminiscent of Tony DiTerlizzi recent book, The Search for WondLa. But the two are very different in feel--Wondla is less bleak (not being as grimly focused on survival), and rather more full of diverting characters for the main character to journey with. This is not to say that The Boy at the End of the World is depressing--the reader, like Fisher, is tense and anxious, and full of apprehension and curiosity as to where the journey will lead, but in true Adventure Story fashion, perils are overcome and hope continues.

Highly recommended for the 10 to 12 year old looking for a book that is full of mystery and excitement; for the young reader who might be impatient with Magic but who wants a book to spark his or her imagination. The intrepid 9 year old, even, might enjoy it--there are some toe-curling bits of horrifying Squirm, and tense bits of imminent death, but not so as to be unrelentingly Dark. That being said, there's enough thoughtful weight to the writing to make this one teens might enjoy too.

The Boy at the End of the World will be released June 21. As well as Betsy's review linked to above, others can be found at Suburban (in)Sanity and Buxton's Fantasy Novels.

Edited to add: when reading this, I missed the descriptive bits that mark Fisher as a kid of color. Here's Greg van Eekhout talking about his character: "When I look at Fisher on the cover, I see someone who could have been me when I was twelve. As a brown, multiracial person, I’m really happy about that."

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

A Timeslip Tuesday Bonus Giveaway! Enter to win Ruby Red!

Timeslip Tuesday bonus: enter to win a copy of the much-heralded time travel book, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier!

I'm breaking a self-imposed rule here--normally, before I offer a giveaway of a book, whether from me or through the publishers, I'll read it first and offer a few thoughts on it. Today, however, I'm just offering the giveaway--I have been wanting to read Ruby Red for absolutely ages (Time travel! A sophisticated, beautiful Charlotte (who seems to move off stage early on, but still, I'll take what I can get). Here's the publisher's blurb:

"Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust."

Working on the assumption that many of you who read my blog might also want a copy of Ruby Red, leave a comment with a way to reach you by 11:59 on the 15th of June and you may win one (lots of other people are doing this giveaway too, and lots of people who aren't me have already read it, so the odds of you winning seem good). Sorry, but it's US/Canada only.

Lots of the people who have read it like it a lot--you can see bits of their thoughts, and read an excerpt of the book, here at its Macmillan page.

And here is the trailer for the book:

Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, by Patricia Polacco, for Timeslip Tuesday

Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, by Patricia Polacco (a picture book from Putnam Juvenile, 2011)

Michael and Derek are dismayed when their grandmother confiscates their stash of electronic divertissements on the train to Washington, D.C. The chance to meet an expert on the Civil War at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, does not seem like an exciting exchange, and indeed, they find his collection of Civil War photographs, taken by Mathew Brady on the battlefields of the war. However, dressing up in authentic Union uniforms is not without its appeal, as the war is not entirely without interest to the boys:

"Hey, I had a video game about the battle of Gettysburg," Derek chirped. "I blew away four hundred soldiers all by myself. I think I set a record."

So when the museum director offers them a chance to play a Civil War game, involving a visit to Antietam (the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War) just after the battle, the boys are keen to go. Dressed in their uniforms, they pass through a door....and are back in the past.

There they find themselves taking the roles of Mathew Brady's assistants, as he prepares to photograph Abraham Lincoln meeting General McClellan on the battlefield. And there, on the battlefield, still littered with corpses, they learn that war is not a game.

Abraham Lincoln is there with them, deeply saddened by the carnage. Michael cannot restrain himself, and comforts Lincoln by telling him the North will win the war, the country will remain united, and that a black man will become president, and as proof, in one of the more powerful moments of the book, shows Lincoln a 2007 penny.

But the boys must get back to Harper's Ferry before their time in the past runs out....and there are still enemy troops in the area....

This is the only example I know of that combines picture-book format with time travel to offer a historical lesson. The lesson aspect felt to me a tad heavy-handed, but this is not unexpected, given the limited amount of text one can put in a picture book. Likewise, there's a bit of stiffness in the framing device used--the reader, like the boys, is not sure for the first part of the story if things are going to get interesting.

Once things get going, it does become tremendously gripping.

"But then the photographer moaned, "Oh, my God! Over here." Through a small woods, he'd come upon a low hill with a shed on it. Then Michael saw what the photographer saw. Behind the shed were three soldiers, one sitting, one on his side as if he were swimming, stiff and not moving. Two wore blue, one wore gray."

They are, of course, dead, and this is when the two boys realize that this is no game. The two double-page, wordless illustrations of the battlefield, littered with corpses, literally made my eight year old's jaw drop with horror--here's one of them, from the author's website:
Clearly, this isn't a bedtime picture book for the very young child, but for the older reader (around 8) it is an excellent introduction to the Civil War, and to the horror of war in general. I think, both because of the rather slow start and because of the disturbing subject matter, this is one that works best read aloud.

Here are other reviews, at The Fourth Musketeer and Page in Training

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh, is an immensely satisfying adventure, of the sort that has tons of appeal both for the young reader and for those of us adults who still turn to children's books for our own reading pleasure! It was published in 2010 in the UK (David Fickling Books), and is coming out here in the US on June 14.

In the seaside town of Wellow, the Gentry had once plied their trade as smugglers--they were the stuff of legend. To young Verity Gallant, they are merely an old tale, not much spoken of, and certainly no part of her uninspired life as a lonely outsider.

But one day, in the town's library, Verity's life changes when she meets a mysterious stranger. "The storm is coming," he says,* and hands her an old book...a book that tells of the Mistress of the Storm, an ancient goddess who has become maddened by her lust for power and possessions.

Then the legendary ship of the old gentry arrives and anchors in Wellow's harbor. Its presence revives the greedy dreams of those who had turned to the evil trade of wrecking ships for their cargos when the Gentry disbanded. Verity's "grandmother" also arrives--and only Verity can see that she is evil and twisted (one of the first things she does is throw Verity's carefully amassed collection of second-hand books away! EVIL!)

And now Verity is caught in an age old story of violence and death told over and over by the Mistress of the Storm herself, and it is up to her to become the heroine of a new story...this time, one with a happy ending. Fortunately she makes, for the first time in her life, friends with two other children who become her stalwart companions (both in adventure, and during research at the town library--yay for libraries!) and even more fortunately, she finds in herself the courage she needs to do what must be done.

There's a lovely, old-fashioned feel to this book. It's set neither firmly in the past, or in the present--there's no technology, but Verity "feels" like a modern child. The setting has a lovely solidness to it--it's a slightly not quite real place, but real in the story sense, and many of the characters are likewise reminiscent of people one might have met in other stories long ago--in an evocative, rather than an imitative, way (if that makes sense?). Verity is a classic example of the bookish outsider making good, and as such many of us will empathize with her, and cheer her on.

The story itself is a beautiful swirl of legends becoming real, of old evil told of in whispers coming back, horribly, into everyday life, of stories that have truth in them, made manifest in the real world. The Mistress of the Storm is a formidable enemy, and Verity is a small heroine, but on her side she has friends, fortitude, a love of books (and the help of the town's librarian), and an unexpected talent for sailing....

Highly recommended. If you love both old-fashioned-ish English children's books and contemporary children's fantasy, you will enjoy this one.

This is a satisfying book as a stand-alone, but it was even more satisfying to me to learn that this was the first in four part series; the next book, Heart of Stone, comes out in January 2012 (in the UK). There's lots more information about the book and its writer here at the author's website.

* Viz "The storm is coming"-- I love this sort of thrilling one liner, like "The wolves are running" (The Box of Delights, by John Masefield) and "The Dark is rising" (Susan Cooper).

(nb: this was sent all the way from England to me by the author, for which I am very grateful).

Ursula Le Guin speaks about YA fantasy

Just found this interesting article by Ursula Le Guin, which includes a discussion YA fantasy. That section begins with this provocative anecdote:

"A friend of mine submitted his young adult fantasy novel to a publisher. After initial encouragement, the editor had the kind of talk with the author that authors don’t want to have with an editor. This is how my friend reports what the editor said:

“Your book does not meet reader expectation for a YA fantasy. YA readers expect fantasy to be plot-driven, not character-driven. They expect the protagonist to be self-confident, to meet distrust only from other people. They expect the magic in the book to be overt and direct, not subtle or metaphorical. They expect no moral ambiguity: all characters or magic powers should be clearly good or clearly evil. They expect the story to move very quickly with no slowing down at any time. A novel that does not meet reader expectation will not sell.”

The editor’s final reason for rejecting the book: “Your book isn’t fantasy, because it’s open to interpretation. It’s literary." (end of quote)

Well now. My mind is sputtering. And I want to read this author's book very very badly--it sounds like just what I look for in YA fantasy!

(Have any of you who read my reviews noticed that when I don't personally care for a book I call it "plot-driven?" edited to add: well, no, you wouldn't have noticed, because I never actually seem to have used that phrase. But I think I do come across as preferring characters and gradual development to action and plot. I tend to skim sections that have too much Action, because it's not as interesting to me as the small events).

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

Here's what I found this week from around the blogs...as ever, let me know if I missed any posts of mg sff relevance!

The Reviews:

Bad Island, by Doug TenNapel, at Fuse #8

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander, at Bookie Woogie

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, at Suburban (in)Sanity

The Dark City, by Catherine Fisher, at One Librarian's Book Reviews (I gave my own ARC of this away to a 12 year old boy I know, who liked it so much that he made (or at least started to make) his own recording of it so that his mother could listen to it on her commute to work)

Dr. Proctor's Fart Powder--Time Travel Bath Bomb, by Jo Nesbo, at Wondrous Reads

Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente, at Fuse #8

The Green Book, by Jill Paton Walsh, at Just Booking Around

Half-Magic, by Edward Eager, at Anita Silvey's Book-a-day Almanac

Human.4, by Mike Lancaster, at Charlotte's Library (one of those "YA" books that works for 11, even 10 year olds. My 10 year old is enjoying it, at any rate).

The Memory Bank, by Carolyn Coman, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Scumble, by Ingrid Law, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Spellbinder, by Helen Stringer at Kid Lit Frenzy

Three Lives to Live, by Anne Lindburgh, at Charlotte's Library

The Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan, at Libri Dilectio

Tom's Midnight Garden, by at Anita Silvey's Children's Book-a-Day Almanac

Truth or Dare, by P.J. Night, at It's all about books

The Wikkeling, by Steven Arntson, at Candace's Book Blog

Other Good Stuff:

Helen Stringer (The Midnight Gate) at Wicked Awesome Books, Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books, and Kid Lit Frenzy

Here's the 2011 Guardian Children's Fiction long list, nicely presented at Waking Brain Cells.

And finally, the winners of last week's mg sff giveaway (which was a thank you from me to all of you who read these round-ups!):

Kerry wins an ARC of Orphan of Awkward Falls, Stephanie wins an ARC of Jewel of the Kalderash, and Heidi (aka Geo Librarian) gets an ARC of The Unwanteds! (I'll be emailing you all later to ask for your addresses!)

48HRC Wrap-up Post

(note--to those looking for the mg sff roundup, it won't be up till later this evening....I've been too busy reading to do other crucial household tasks, and must do those first....)

I have just finished 48 hours of not reading as much as I would have liked to, but which brought me great reading pleasure none the less.

Since I last posted, I have read

The Chalet at Saint-Marc, by Suzanne Butler (1968, 114 pages), which was just about the most unexciting children trapped alone by heavy snow story that I have ever read. They never run out of food or fuel; although someone falls ill, it is a random neighbor; the rescue mission to bring said neighbor help is easy as all get out; and to top it off the rescue helicopter makes an utterly uneventful round-trip. Hmph.

Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, by Fannie Flagg (359 pages). Although I was moved to tears (literally) by this touching story, and read it avidly, at the end of it I was feeling that the central character (an old woman of great folksy charm, wisdom, virtue, loved by all who know her, friend of the small animals and bringer of happiness to all living things she encounters) maybe was a bit too good to be true. But I enjoyed it.

The Sunny Side, short stories and poems by A.A. Milne (312 pages). I very much enjoy Milne's essays, and hoped I'd like these stories, but didn't, quite, although I did chuckle now and then.

Plus "Broomsticks and Sardines," by Joan Aiken, out loud to children (10 pages of hideously tiny type, difficult for one who has become accustomed to the swollen fonts of contemporary children's books to read in a dark room. The copy I was reading from was my own from when I was 10).

plus 98 pages of Hawksbill Station, by Robert Silverberg (haven't finished it yet, but it's very good), and 253 pages of Mistress of the Storm,by M.L. Welsh, that I also haven't finished but intend to later today because it is really good, and I will be writing about it tomorrow.

Final Stats:

Pages Read: 2963 (less than the past two years, but I was alone with the kids, and goodness knows they'd be in trouble if they were the ones stuck in a snow-buried chalet without parents)

Time Spent Reading and Blogging: 15 hours and ten minutes time spent reading, plus 2 hours and forty minutes of social media time, for a grand total of 17 hours and 50 minutes

Number of Books No Longer on my TBR Pile: 13
Effect this has had on my TBR pile: negligible
Number of tbr books discovered in a box in the hallway after photo of tbr pile was taken: 11; Number of tbr books I forgot were in a secluded pile in the spare room: 7. Overall feeling that progress has been made--some, because I did read some books that I've had for ages.

Number of Books that Made Me Cry: 3 out of 13. Not bad.

What made this 48HRC different from previous ones: I DID NOT MISPLACE A SINGLE BOOK! No time wasted wandering around cursing!

Thanks so much, Pam, for hosting this again!

Just to say that I'm busy reading...plus pictures of a garden mistake

This is not an official updating of my 48 hour reading challenge stats--when I finish at least one of the three books I have going I'll update.

But I did want to quickly say that if you are looking for this week's middle grade science fiction and fantasy round-up, please come back around 3--I stop reading at 2, so it should be up by then....

And, just because, here's a rose that is bringing me very little pleasure. You will notice that it is very Pink, and this was taken on very cloudy day--the effect is even more so in sunlight. It's right next to the back step, where I sit every morning to drink my coffee....and its pinkness really truly gets on my nerves, which aren't at their best then anyway.

It was not supposed to be this pink. Here is what we thought we were getting when we ordered Madam Gregoire Staechelin. Much nicer. Sigh.

48 hour reading challege update--Anansi Boys, The Last Dragon, and The Boy at the End of the World

4 hours and 46 minutes more of reading since I last checked in....I'm on my own with the Dear Boys this weekend, and there were things they had to do.

But boy, I just read a great book (one that caused me to almost, but not quite, burn the children's supper--isn't it handy how pasta starts to spit noisily when all the water's boiled away?). Said book being Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaimen. In particular, I appreciated the lime. The lime is now my favorite fictional citrus fruit (does anyone else have one?)--it was so utterly random, but so full of quiet power, in a lime sort of way.

But the rest was pretty darn good too, and I am awfully pleased to have this one in my mental library (when I'm out in the garden, weeding, my mind plays books back to me quite often....)

I also read The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, which was good too! I'll be writting this one up nice and proper like since it's a review copy.

So what I didn't have in quantity, I made up for in quality.

Edited to add: Yoiks! I actually spent another hour and ten minutes reading The Last Dragon this morning...I wasn't sure I was going to like this one (annoying child elf as main character? no thanks) but in the end I did, mainly because there were two stories, one a sequel to the other, and in the sequel the elf was much less annoying, and there were orphans (who ate eggs raw, which reminded me of Bonnie and Sylvia, for any Joan Aiken fans), and it made me cry rather broken heartedly for the pity of it at the end, which took me by surprise.

Stats:

Pages: 963 more pages. Bothering realization that I haven't been writing down page numbers for other books read, and will have to re-find them.
Hours: 10 hours and 25 minutes reading
Blogging: Two hours and 33 minutes blogging and commenting
Books read: seven completed, two abandoned, and one still in progress.
Number of books that have made me cry: 2

Hospital Summer, by Margaret Egan (48 Hour Reading Challenge)

Ever since I met Sue Barton, Student Nurse more than thirty years ago, I've had a penchant for hospital books. So when my local public library discarded Hospital Summer, by Margeret Egan (1968), I naturally took it home with me....and just spent a satisfying 50 minutes in the dated but diverting world of the 18-year-old nurse's aide, watching young Kathy learning valuable lessons about Life and Love.

This bit (about a girl being reuinted with her dying father) actually made me cry, which I wasn't expecting.

"My God!" His voice hurt with its harshness. "My God. Janet."

She was paralyzed, frozen; and then she broke like glass. "Daddy!" She lunged from the chair. "It's my daddy." (page 185).

sniff.

50 more minutes read. 5 more minutes of blogging.
Totals: 5 hours and 40 minutes reading. Two hours and 13 minutes blogging and commenting.

Shelter from the Wind, by Marion Dane Bauer (48 reading challenge)

I've been letting my 8-year-old pick which book I will read next from the Stack...and his choice yesterday evening was a book called Shelter From the Wind, by Marion Dane Bauer (older middle grade/YA, 106 pages). This is a 2010 reissue of a book originally published in 1976, and I recently (I think it was recent, at any event) received a review copy from Marshall Cavendish.

Stacy's mom took off when she was young, and it was just her and her dad, being good company for each other. But when she was eleven, her father married again, and now, a year later, her stepmother is going to be having a baby. Stacy is angry and sore--and one day her feelings come to a head and she runs out of town, into the wilds of the Oklahoma panhandle, with no water, food, or any sort of logical thought. She's saved from certain death when she's found by two dogs, who take her home to their mistress--Ella, an old woman on an old homestead, living alone with her memories....

Listening to Ella gradually share her own painful past, forced to become more practical in the mechanics of living, and confronted with the hard facts of life (in the form of a puppy born with a cleft palate, who must be drowned, and the tragedies of Ella's life), Stacy grows from an utterly self-absorbed, unsympathetic adolescent to an adolescent who at least has the decency to go home, even if she remains unsympathetic (yep, Stacy didn't do much for me, although I do sympathize with her circumstances).

Ella, however, is a great character--I was fascinated by what she shared about her hard life on the Oklahoma prairie, and the pages flew by.

Interestingly, although this was written in the 1970s, it didn't strike me as dated (although the modern young reader might, I guess, disagree...., and one thing that is obviously different is that this is only 106 pages, tremendously short by today's standards). The original cover, with its 1970s color palate,* does look old-fashioned...although I don't, myself, care for the hat Stacy wears on the current cover. Wearing a hat implies she had some of her wits about her when she tore off from home, and she didn't.

Added bonus--nice introduction to the history of the Dust Bowl.

48 hour stats: 35 minutes on this one (plus a hour and 5 minutes reading a Grown Up (!) time travel book, about which more later). Another hour and ten minutes of blogging and blog reading.

Total time read: 4 hours and 50 minutes. Two hours and 8 minutes blogging and commenting. Note to self: read books, not blogs. (For the purposes of the challenge, you get an hour of blogging time for every five hours of reading time....)

* Bonus feature: the colors of the 1970s

Two I did not finish for the 48 hour reading challenge

I spent an hour and five minutes listening to The Birchbark House, by Louise Eldritch (which I've never read) while driving to the car repair place in rush hour traffic to get my car, only to find that when I said "please put new tires on my car," which they said were needed six months ago, they heard me say "see if you think you need knew tires on your car," so there were no new tires and I went home again in the loaner car. Sigh. I did not like the narrator, who was Too Fond of many individual words...giving them strange Stress....and...pauses. She relaxed a bit by the end of the hour, though, just as the cd began to skip horribly. Sigh.

And then I came home and had to throw myself into the morass of getting the children to swim class, but they left, eventually, and I sat down to read again.

The Tower Room, by Adele Geras (2005), is a book I'm happy to recommend to those who take a prurient interest in the sexual longings of girls at boarding school (in this case, heterosexual). I found the central story of a girl and a male lab assistant falling in love boring, and gave up on page 91, although I did read about ten pages of the ending (the repressed sexual desires of the spinster teacher were featured. It was not interesting). It is also, incidentally, a reimagining of Rapunzel, for what that's worth--I thought it a nice touch that the sex crazed teacher/witch smashes the lab assistant's glasses at the end (as opposed to him having his eyes put out by thorns).

Onward.

Stats: additional hours read: 1 hour, 35 minutes additional blogging/commenting: 35.

My first two books of the 48 hours--One Crazy Summer and Midnight Blue

I just spent two hours and ten minutes reading two very fine books.

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia (2010) has probably already been read by many of you, so I won't say much about it, other than that I Loved it, it's one of the best books about sisters I've read, it's great history, and I just loved Delphine's narrative voice so much! I knew I would love it when she described her mother as "mammal birth giver" on page 14. Which might seem odd, but it tickled me. Thank you, very much, Harper Collins representative who gave it to me at BEA! I'll try to find it a good library home.



The other book I read has probably been sitting on TBR shelf 1 for three years now...judging by the dust. Sigh. Midnight Blue, by Pauline Fisk (2005), is a British fantasy type book of the sort that involves standing stones, things sliding between the cracks of what is real (as well as travel to an alternate version of "reality", ie, not to a fantasy land), and a plot that was more than a bit creepily, magically exciting. I will be looking out for more of her books, just as soon as I read the next 149 in my tbr pile (note: this number includes the ARCs that are not pictured in my Picture of Doom).

Stats: reading--2 hours and 10 minutes blogging--18 minutes feeding children, self, and chickens, etc--22 minutes

My 48 Hours of Reading begins!

I am about to commence Mother Reader's 48 Hour Reading Challenge. I won't be able, probably, to read as much as I'd like to...life is tricky this weekend. But I will do my darndest to make a dent in my tbr pile of doom:

With a few exceptions, this is my personally acquired pile of books. I'm going to focus on these books for the weekend, in as much as my to-be-reviewed pile, which is mercifully smaller, gets priority the rest of the time!

It was both fun and disturbing to go around the house last night, gathering up all the mini tbr piles from the tops of various surfaces....

The Disunited States of America, by Harry Turtledove

Fans of alternate history and YA dystopias, this book is for you. The Disunited States of America, by Harry Turtledove (2006, but just reprinted by Tor in 2011, YA, 288 pages), is based on the premise that a huge range of alternate histories exist, which are accessed by travellers from one technologically advanced time line. Justin and his mother are two such travellers, visiting an America where the Revolutionary War failed to give birth to a union of the states. Instead, various states and territories became independent countries--some, like California, peaceful and (relatively) enlightened with regard to social justice, others, like Virginia, troubled by boarder wars and a place where the Civil Rights movement never happened.

It to this alternate Virginia, a place where black people are treated as less than human, that Justin and his mom have travelled. There Justin meets a girl named Becky, dragged from California to Virginia by her grandmother's desire to see her family there. For both these teenagers, their visit soon becomes a nightmare when Ohio launches a bioengineered disease on Virginia, the two "states" go to war, and Virgina is shaken from within by a desperate rebellion of its African American population.

Turtledove takes his time here, spending considerable time making his alternative history clear to the reader. Much of this exposition is presented as the thoughts of the two main protagonists, and their rather abstract musings keep the reader from becoming immediately engaged. It's interesting stuff, and thought-provoking, but it makes for a somewhat slow start to the book. It's not till the war breaks out, and Becky and Justin find themselves trapped by disease in a small town near the Ohio boarder, that it becomes a gripping, even nail-biting at times, story.

This book made an interesting change from many current YA. Turtledove is much more interested in his world building than in his characters, and so Justin and Becky's relationship isn't the driving force of the plot. They do not fall into one another's arms by day three, drawn to each other by an overpowering attraction. Instead, Turtledove develops their growing attraction slowly and believably. It is a relationship somewhat pressure-cooked by their circumstances--they are two foreigners trapped together--but one that is constrained by Becky's realization that Justin is hiding things from her, and by his recognition of the fact that he cannot tell her what his secrets are. For Justin, the hardest part of being stuck in this alternate reality is that he must pretend to be a Virginian, espousing the despicable beliefs of his "home" state, which Becky finds repellent. For both, the fear of never getting home haunts them.

The story alternates between the perspectives of the two protagonists, giving the reader both Becky's insights into the disfunctionality of her time, and Justin's broader perspective on the horrors of war and racism. The result is a thought-provoking, even haunting look at what might have happened to our country if things had happened just a little differently back at its beginnings. It's perhaps a tad too didactic at times, but not so much so as to put me off.

Note on readership age: this book is part of series written for young adults, and it is clear the Turtledove held back with regard to profanity and racial epithets--he mentions when characters are using these, but doesn't spell them out. I don't particularly want to read lots of curses and hideous racial epithets, but Turtledove's (very) pointed avoidance of these was distracting. For example:

"Those miserable people are still making trouble in Charlestown. We're going in to make sure they stop."

He didn't really say people. The word he used was one nobody in the U.S.A. in the home timeline could say without proving he was a disgusting racist." (pp 201-202)

I think I would have preferred asterisks.

Becky and Justin's relationship only just barely squeaks into the realm of the physical, so it's a "clean" read in that regard. However, there is some horrifying violence toward the end, and this, plus the disturbing nature of this dystopia (and the fact that the protagonists are older teenagers), makes it firmly YA on up.

There's a study guide included at the end, which raises some interesting questions and discussion points.

Here's the whole Crosstime Traffic series--

• Gunpowder Empire (2003)
• Curious Notions (2004)
• In High Places (2006)
• The Disunited States of America (2006, reissued in 2011 by Tor)
  
• The Gladiator (2007)
• The Valley-Westside War (2008)

Just as soon as I read the 151 books in my tbr (gives merry (or possibly hysterical) laugh), I will look out for these....

nb: review copy of The Disunited States received from the publisher.

Three fantasy pop-up books of great gorgeousness

I got a lovely surprise the week before last, when a box arrived containing three extraordinary pop-up books from Candlewick's Encyclopedia Mythologica series--Dragons & Monsters, Gods and Heroes, and Fairies and Magical Creatures, written and illustrated by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda (of Encyclopedia Prehistorica fame). To call these "pop-up books" does them injustice--rather they are books in which intricate paper art springs (very impressively! small exclamations were elicited!) into lovely three-dimensional wonderful-ness!


It is the paper art that dominates these books--I found it hard to take my eyes from the central creations. And there are numerous side flaps to open as well, making for much fun and excitement. But once I focused on the text, I was pleased to find it crisp and interesting.

These books include myths and fabulous creatures from around the world--like the lovely Chinese dragon on the cover of Dragons and Monsters (although still weighted a tad too much for my taste towards Europe). In Gods and Heroes, for instance, you get one double spread on Egypt, one on the classical pantheon, one on "mortal champions of the old world", one on "mighty Eastern Dynasties," and one on "Great Spirits of the New World."

Even though much of the ground covered is familiar territory, Reinhart includes enough things I had never heard of to make it interesting to the reader who's already read lots about gods, monsters, and fairies.

For instance, from Dragons and Monsters, I learned of the "Leech of Doom"--"According to Algonquian belief, bloodthirsty, horned leeches known as weewilmekq lurk below raging river rapids and at the foot of crashing waterfalls." And on the same page, I learned about the monster in Russia's Lake Brosno, that rose up from the waters to devour a 13th century Mongol army (page 8).

Fascinating!

Even more so than most pop-up books, these need to be handled with care. My boys (ten and eight) were able to gently and safely unfold and close again all the lovely pictures; I, myself, am paper-folding-challenged, and ran into a bit of trouble turning the page on the Yeti. I had to get my son to do it. So I don't thing you would want to give this to a young child (say, younger than 5), to look at alone.

That being said, there is nothing better than sharing a book, such as these are, that makes you squeak with excitement when you turn the page, and find, for instance, the Argo of Greek legend coming right out at you! And it's much more fun to look at a three-dimensional Alfheim in company. So although this is a great book for an older kid (or grown-up) to enjoy on their own, I think that any of these books would be a perfect grandparent gift of the sort that guarantees quality sofa time together!

For the younger child, Fairies and Magical Creatures might be best:
Dragons and Monsters is a bit scary....here's a picture that made me squeak:
But on the other hand, that's the only really scary one, and I do like the dragon very much (the picture doesn't do it justice. I can say, with conviction, that it is the most gorgeous pop-up dragon I've ever seen in a book).

Waiting on Wednesday-- The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen

I have so many reviews waiting to be written that it makes me squeak, but alas, there hasn't been time. But here is a lovely book for Waiting on Wednesday (a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine)-- The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen. This was just about the loveliest book I saw at Book Expo America. I looked at it in company with Pam (Mother Reader) and Anamaria (Books Together) and we created a pretty chorus of oohs and awes.

Sadly, they had no review copies, but that matters little, because I will most certainly be buying it new at any event (it just squeaks under the wire for the Cybils deadline, coming out as it does on October 4th, so it is important that it be bought and read by someone....so why not me).

The Last Dragon is a graphic novel, illustrated by Rebecca Guay. "Two hundred years ago, humans drove the dragons from the islands of May. Now, the last of the dragons rises to reak havoc anew--with only a healer's daughter and a kite-flying would-be hero standing in its way."

The story sounds just fine (but I haven't read it, so can't say much more), but the illustrations I saw, and they are lovely. The flowing lines looked to me somewhat Rackham-esque, and they are "fully painted," according to the promotional material, which means (to me) that they are beautifully colorful and lush.