Kids of color in the middle grade fantasy and science fiction books of October 2010 to October 2011

I have read around 130 middle grade fantasy and science fiction books published between October 16, 201o and October 15, 2011. 130 books were nominated for the Cybils, for which I am a first round panelist in mg sci fi/fantasy, and I've read all but 15 of them. When I add to that the books I've read that weren't nominated, I have a nice and fairly comprehensive database.

And one of the things that interests me is the extent to which kids who aren't white get shown and included in this particular genre.

These are the eight books I know of whose main characters are not of white, northern European descent, and who are shown as such on the cover. Darwen Arkwright is stretching it a bit, because he's a silhouette, but his buddy Alexandra is shown as the African American girl she is, so I let Darwen be part of this cluster.

I read two books which included non-white characters in supporting roles, and showed them on the cover.







And I read five books with non-white characters (all clearly of African ancestry, or described as having dark, or brown, skin), that showed them on the cover, but in a somewhat ambiguous way.



Edited to add: I had meant to include The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, in this category, but that picture got lost in my struggle with Blogger. Here's the author talking about the portrayal of the main character on the cover. Thanks for the reminder, Doret!

Additionally, there was one book, Zinnia's Zaniness, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, whose protagonist looked to me as though she could be Hispanic, although I didn't see any mention of ethnicity in the text.

I can think of only two other books (sadly not nominated for the Cybils...I hate it when the good ones don't make it!) that didn't have a Northern European protagonist-- Laurence Yep's City of Ice, and Jenny Nimo's The Secret Kingdom. And I cannot think of a single other important supporting character of color in a book not already mentioned, but I could easily have missed many....especially in books I was really enjoying.

It was, sadly, easy to pull this list together (apart from Blogger being difficult viz formatting). I was not tempted to say "oh goodness there are too many" and throw up my hands.

19 out of circa 130 books nominated.

Please tell me I missed lots????

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week, rounded up for your middle grade sci fi/fantasy reading pleasure! Let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews:

The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket (audio book review) at Good Books and Good Wine

Bigger Than a Breadbox, by Laurel Snyder, at Book-a-day Almanac

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Plot, by A.J. Hartley, at Charlotte's Library

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, at Classroom Talk

The Flint Heart, by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson, at Flunking Sainthood

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, at Library_Mama

The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Inquisitor's Apprentice, by Chris Moriarty, at Guys Lit Wire

Monster Hunters, by Dean Lorey, at Project Mayhem

The Moon Coin, by Richard Due, at whnbstihwsoft

Nicholas St. North, by William Joyce and Laura Geringer, at Great Books for Kids and Teens

Noah Zarc--Mammoth Trouble, by D. Robert Pease, at Book Addict

Poor Tom's Ghost, by Jane Louise Curry, at Charlotte's Library

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at Charlotte's Library

The Son of Nepture, by Rick Riordan, at Jason's Bookstack

Thresholds, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, at Books & Other Thoughts

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Writings, Workouts, and Were-Jaguars

Vampirates: Empire of Night, by Justin Somper, at Reading Tween

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at My Brain on Books

Zinnia's Zaniness, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, at Charlotte's Library

A collection of dinosaur fantasies for the young at Words and Pictures

And finally, Ms. Yingling takes a look at two time slip books--A Year Without Autumn, by Liz Kessler, and Through Her Eyes, by Jennifer Archer.

Authors and Interviews:

D. Robert Pease (Noah Zarc) at Susan Kaye Quinn

Rick Daley (The Man in the Cinder Clouds) at Writer's Ally

Victoria Simcox (The Magic Warble) at Manga Maniac Cafe

Other Good Stuff:

Why We Invented Monsters, by Paul A. Trout, at Slate

And here, to inspire those of us who have not yet begun our Festive Bakeing, a gingerbread Star Wars assult vehicle (which I found here, where you can also find this assortment of modern gingerbread houses, for those to whom the cottage has become passe):

The books my boys are getting for Christmas

Twice in one day I have hit publish post by mischance!!! Argh! So for all those who follow me on google reader (thanks) I am quickly covering up the most recent one, a sneak peak at tomorrow's mg sff round-up, with a post I meant to do later today on the books my boys are getting for Christmas. By way of background: my boys are 11 and 8. The 8 year old is currently reading Battle of the Labyrinth, the 11 year old is reading The Chamber of Secrets (he came late to Harry Potter; I'm not sure why). In a nutshell, they both like reading pretty well (not as well as their mama did when she was their ages); although they like fantasy, they read across genres. Their lists of book presents include very little regular fiction (1 out of 11). Our house is so full of middle grade sci fi/fantasy that they have enough of it to read (lucky children!), and I also find it very difficult to predict what they will actually pick up and read, let alone truly enjoy. So their book presents tend to be random grab bag of non-fiction and graphic novels. For the eleven year old: The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay (so beautiful!) The Dragon of Hong Kong (Yoko Tsuno book 5) by Roger Leloup (this will make him very happy) The Acme Catalog (Quality is Our #1 Dream) The Way We Work, by David McCauley The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins All of My Friends are Dead (he saw it in a store, and wants it really badly...I think the title is the funniest thing, and it goes downhill from there, but whatever.) For my eight year old: The Mythbusters science fair book A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle (I hope he likes it; I haven't read it myself yet, but he loves The Meanwhile Adventures et seq. so he should be pleased. Unless he's disappointed because it doesn't have Rover in it) Eric, by Shaun Tan (An expended story from Tales from Outer Suburbia. Eric is pictured at right) Gon, Vol. 4 My boy sees a lot of himself in Gon, the dinosaur that time forgot--both are loyal, determined, and very fierce. The Fog Mound book 1-- Travels of Thelonius (a post apocalyptic fantasy with mice that's part graphic novel. I picked this one up used, and haven't read it myself, but I tested it on his brother, and it was approved) If you were to be given one of these books, which would you like?

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell (HarperCollins 2011, mg, 336 pages), is two fairy tale retellings in one package--12 Dancing Princesses plus Beauty and the Beast, with a dash of mythology and history thrown in for good measure.

13-year old Reveka is the herbalist's apprentice at a castle in a eastern European kingdom precariously poised between the Ottoman Empire and larger principalities to the north. There is a curse on the castle--the prince has successfully fathered 12 daughters (the majority of whom are illegitimate, which I though was a very clever way to make them close in age, something that makes the story more believable), but efforts to marry them off are being thwarted by dark magic. The princesses dance their slippers to rags each night (metal slippers are tried, with horribly bloody results), and any attempt to remove them for the castle results in cataclysmic disaster. Those who try to spy out what happens each night fall into an enchanted sleep, from which they never awake.

Reveka doesn't care much for the princesses, but she does find the reward offered for breaking the curse most intriguing. It would allow her to buy her way into a nunnery, and become its herbalist. So she sets to work, using her knowledge of plants, and odd scraps of magic that come her way, to find a way to follow the princesses down to another realm....

And that is the first part of the book, generally good humoured (apart from bloody feet, and a hall full of sleepers, some of whom are slipping into death, and sundry hints of dark magic), lively retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses. But then, suddenly, the story becomes a dark and rather scary retelling of Beauty and the Beast!

Reveka finds out the secret of the princesses, and to save them, she agrees to marry the lord of the underworld. There she that the curse of the dancing princesses is only the tip of the iceberg--there are layers of dark magic that lie beneath it. If Reveka is to have any hope of happiness (and restore the balance of the worlds) she must embrace a strange and terrible fate....one that could threaten her immortal soul.

And this part got a little strange. Reveka is only 13, and a youngish thirteen at that, and she must play Beauty, as it were, to a very strange Beast indeed; their marriage strongly echoes that of Hades and Persephone. The stakes have become much, much higher, and the tone much darker. It disturbed me, somewhat, to find the thirteen year old girl I'd come to care suddenly thrust into a much more mature story--even though the marriage isn't consummated, she is married to an inhuman (literally) person much older than her with whom she has only a passing acquaintance. Sure, he's not a villain, but he is guilty of using pretty dubious tactics to achieve his goals.

I'm a fan of historical fantasy--stories that blend details appropriate to the time period (in this case, late Medieval Christianity) with fantasy elements. But in this case, I'm not sure that Haskell went deeply enough into this part of the story to make it convincing--references to Saint Hildegard, for instance, aren't quite enough to make me believe that Reveka's mindset is really that of a fifteenth-century Eastern European Christian. I think if you are going to pin your story down to such a specific place and time as this one is, you risk building up expectations for the reader that might prove tricky to meet. Especially if you then surprise the reader with a totally fantastical and non-Christian underworld....

A reviewer at Amazon was reminded of Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard and Clare Dunkle's The Hollow Kingdom; I agree, especially with regard to the later. I enjoyed it lots myself (and I do recommend it to those of you who read my blog looking for books for yourselves!) despite the fact that I couldn't help but feel I was reading two different books. I think I would have enjoyed if more if it had come right out and been a young adult book.

Despite the very young looking cover and the very "middle grade-ish" beginning, this is one I'd give to kids 11 and up--they'll be able to better appreciate the references to mythology and history, and the botanical details (I liked these lots, myself), as well as finding the second part of the book less disturbing.

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact, by A. J. Hartley

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact, by A.J. Hartley

Eleven-year old Darwen Arkwright is an unhappy transplant from northwest England to Georgia, come to live with his aunt after the death of his African American mother and English father, and sent to an ultra expensive boarding school where he is a fish out of water. But Darwen is confronted with something even stranger than an elite American middle school when he spots a strangely horrible flying creature in the local mall, and begins a journey that will take him to another world.

"There was one more shop, right at the end of the corridor beside the exit sign, a tiny ramshackle place that looked like it had been lifted out of an entirely different location and dropped in... It looked like a shop from another age. Above its door, suspended from two chains, was a faded wooden sign with gold lettering:

"Mr. Octavius Peregrine's Reflectory Emporium: Mirrors Priceless and Perilous

"Clinging bat-like to the sign, its head cocked in Darwen's direction, was the little winged beast. It blew a raspberry at him, then hopped onto the wall of the shop and through a half-broken diamond of leaded window glass.

"Darwen ran to the door but hesitated as he put his hand on the tarnished brass handle. There was something odd about this place. He could feel it. The window displays were dusty, full of antique mirrors in ornate frames, many of them faded, speckled, and scratched, some with obvious cracks.

And how, he wondered, could mirrors be "priceless and perilous"?" (pp 11-12 of ARC)

Darwen is about to find out. The owner of the shop, Mr. Peregrine, gives him a small mirror. And much to his amazement, Darwen finds that he can travel through it, to Silbrica, a magical and beautiful place filled with wonders, and populated by strange and magical creatures.

Unfortunately, not all of them are friendly. Some are so unfriendly, in fact, that they are seeking to take over our world...and destroying Silbrica in order to do so.

With two new friends, Rich, an aspiring archaeologist, and Alexandra, whose irrepressible spirit the heavy weight of their school can't squelch, Darwen must solve the mystery of the mirror world creatures, and figure out how to foil their evil plans.

Darwen's magical mirror is no wardrobe leading to Narnia. Although he does pass through, what happens to him there is only a minor part of the story. The important events take place in the real world, with Darwen's life at school and at home getting the bulk of the page time. His grief and loneliness gradually become ameliorated by his somewhat unlikely friends and the shared challenge before them, and this is as crucial to the book as the actual confrontation with the evil bad guys coming through from the mirror world.

It's a somewhat slow moving book--there is not one pivotal moment where the Adventure Begins, and then never lets up. Instead, the tension increases gradually, mirroring the tension inside Darwen as he lets himself hope that somehow the fantasy realm and the dangers it poses was related to the death of his parents--making their deaths more than just a random accident.

It's not a book for those seeking escapist fantasy--the problems of the real world are too much in the center of things for that! And it wasn't one that I personally loved--the juxtaposition of the real world and the fantasy realm felt jarring, with aspects of the later not quite as well developed as I would have liked, and I found it rather hard to read about Darwen's loneliness and grief, and his wretched time at school. But those who want real-world emotional resonance mixed with their fantastical creatures, and who are willing to spend time in a truly unpleasant school along with poor Darwen, should find it a rewarding read.

A note on age--this one felt at the upper end of middle grade (11 to 12 year olds) to me, not because of the content (there's no sex or bad language, that I noticed--"Chuffin' 'eck!" is as strong as it gets), but because it is a somewhat weighty book, that requires patience from the reader.

Explore the world of Darwen Arkwright further at the book's website, which includes an illustrated bestiary of its mysterious creatures of Silbrica.

Zinnia's Zaniness, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Anyone looking for a fun, age-appropriate fantasy series for a girl in third or fourth grade should seriously consider the Sisters 8 books, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (with Greg Logsted and Jacki Logsted). I can't make that "definitely consider", because Zinnia's Zaniness, the eighth, and penultimate, book of the series (Sandpiper, 2011, 128 pages), is the only one I've read. It was nominated for the Cybils Awards in middle grade sci fi/fantasy, for which I am a panelist. New to the series though I was, I found Zinnia's story to be a pleasantly diverting read.

The Sisters Eight are eight-year-old octuplets, each of whom develops in turn a magical power, and receives a special gift. But there's a catch. Their parents are missing--and until each girl gets her power and her gift, they won't know what's happened to their mom and dad. Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, and Rebecca have all had their turn. Poor Annie, the oldest, has the gift of being able to think like an adult, but the other sisters have more interesting powers--freezing people, invisibility, super speed, etc. Now the girls are waiting for the youngest and the smallest sister, Zinnia, to manifest her own power.

And in the meantime, kindly neighbors are taking the family on a seaside vacation. There, in a somewhat dingy vacation cottage (hotels aren't an option, since not only are they are rather large group, they've brought their kittens with them), they'll bicker, play, worry, and meet a mysterious boy....and Zinnia will reveal her own special gift.

The adventures and the magic aren't all that Exciting--it's the relationships between the sisters that gets the most page time (which is fine with me, sisterly relationships being something I have my own considerable experience with!). That being said, the characterization of the sisters in general isn't all that deep--each has a few trademarks that are brought forward in turn; enough so that they can be distinguished, but not so as to make them come alive to a new reader of the series. But Zinnia, in this, her own book, had the spotlight shown on her, and became quite real to me--probably this happens to the other sisters in their own books.

This isn't a series I'd recommend to the grown-up readers of my blog, but for eight year old (or so) girls who love mysteries and magic and kittens, I think it's a pretty safe bet.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils consideration.

Waiting on Wednesday--Peaceweaver, by Rebecca Barnhouse

When I reviewed Rebecca Barnhouse's retelling of the story of Beowulf and the dragon last December here, I tried to make clear just how much I appreciated this well-told historical fantasy full of fascinating characters. One of these characters was introduced right at the end--a girl named Hild, sent to Beowulf's kingdom to marry his heir and become a Peaceweaver between her people and his. It was clear, even though she made only a brief appearance, that there was a lot more to Hild and her story then we were shown here. And so I am as pleased as all get out to have a whole book about Hild to look forward to!

Peaceweaver comes out from Random House, March 27th, 2012 (for ages 10 and up). Here's the Amazon blurb:

"Sixteen-year-old Hild has always been a favorite of her uncle, king of the Shylfings. So when she protects her cousin the crown prince from a murderous traitor, she expects the king to be grateful. Instead, she is unjustly accused of treachery herself.

As punishment, her uncle sends Hild far away to the heir of the enemy king, Beowulf, to try to weave peace between the two kingdoms. She must leave her home and everyone she loves. On the long and perilous journey, Hild soon discovers that fatigue and rough terrain are the least of her worries. Something is following her and her small band of guards—some kind of foul creature that tales say lurks in the fens. Will Hild have to face the monster? Or does it offer her the perfect chance to escape the destiny she never chose?"

I'm hoping that, as well as Hild's own adventures, we get to see how she settles into her new home...I want to see my old friends from Coming of the Dragon again!

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Poor Tom's Ghost, by Jane Louise Curry, for Timeslip Tuesday

Poor Tom's Ghost, by Jane Louise Curry (Atheneum, 1977, 178 pages)

Thirteen year old Roger pinned great hopes on the old house near London his Aunt Deb left his father. He imagined that it would actually be a home--for years his life has been full of uncertain strain, as his actor father Tony moved restlessly from place to place. Roger hopes that having a house of their own will make his stepmother Jo, his little step-sister, Pippa, Tony, and himself, into a safe, secure, family with a place to belong. But when they see that Aunt Deb's house is a stuccoed monstrosity that's barely habitable, his hopes fade.

Then the family set to work, ripping off strips of sagging wallpaper, tearing out moldering paneling...and gradually they unveil the Elizabethan house that had had been hidden for years. And other, darker, secrets begin to surface too.

Roger is awakened on his first night by the wild grief of restless ghost. Tom Garland, an actor at the Globe Theatre, haunts the house...and as the days pass, his spirit begins to merge with Roger's father, Tony. Tony's performance of Hamlet reach a new level of wonderful authenticity, but the dark side of Tom Garland's story threatens to shatter Roger's hopes for peace in the present.

Gradually Roger himself finds himself drawn into the past, to 1603, living within Tom's younger brother as a centuries-old tragedy is played out in plague stricken London. Unless Tom can set things right in the past, Tom Garland's ghost will never rest.

This is just quite simply a lovely time travel story. The past comes gradually into the story like an incoming tide...slowly pulling the characters in the present back into time. The ghost story aspects of the present and Roger's experiences back in 1603 are both delightfully spooky and full of tension.

I love just about any old house fixing-up story, and this part of the book was a real treat, but what makes this book stand out is the finely drawn characterization of young Roger. He's a lonely, tense, and apprehensive boy, desperately hoping for peace and stability, and Curry does an excellent job using the events of the past to push Roger (and his family) into a new, safer place.

In short, this is one of those lovely books that I not only would have loved as a child, but enjoyed very much reading for the first time as a grown-up! Although it was written 35 years ago, it doesn't feel dated--Roger's emotions are timeless, and, since the old house has no modern conveniences anyway, they wouldn't have been able to go online and look up its history anyway. Instead they have to look through the parish registry by hand, as it were. (Which makes me wonder how many Elizabethan parish registries are available online....which in turn leads me to wonder if anyone has written a time travel book in which google searches are important).

And now I must go back and re-read The Black Canary, which was a prequel, written several years later, to this one.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Hi, and welcome to this compilation of what I found in my blog read of interest to fellow fans of middle grade sci fi/fantasy. Please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

Aliens on Vacation, by Clete Barrett Smith, at Good Books and Good Wine

The Aviary, by Kathleen O'Dell, at King County Library System Book Talk

Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor, at Misfit Salon

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

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Slatebreakers

The Cheerleaders of Doom, by Michael Buckley, at Charlotte's Library

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburger et al., at The Compulsive Reader

Dark Eden, by Patrick Carmen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Shannon Whitney Messenger

The End of Time, by P.W. Catanese, at Diary of a Text Addict

The Fiend and the Forge, by Henry Neff, at J. Keller Ford

Liesl & Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Book Nut and My Books. My Life. (audio book review)

The Mostly True Story of Jack, by Kelly Barnhill, at Good Books and Good Wine

The Ogre of Oglefort, by Eva Ibbotson, at Cracking the Cover

Princess of Glass, by Jessica Day George, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

The Quest for the Scorpion's Jewel and its sequel, Escape from Riddler's Pass, by Amy Green, at Geo Librarian

A String in the Harp, by Nancy Bond, at Things Mean a Lot

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex, at Abby the Librarian (audio book review) and Books & Other Thoughts

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Challenging the Bookworm
Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Girls in the Stacks (audio book review) and Dreaming in Books

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Karissa's Reading Review

The Animorphs re-read continues at Intergalactic Academy
Authors and Interviews:

Suzanne Williams and Joan Holub (Godess Girls: Artemis the Loyal) at Reading Tween

Kai Srand (The Weaver) at Mayra's Secret Bookcase

And a moving account of author Edward Ormondroyd's (David and the Phoenix) surprise school visit.

Other Good Stuff:

At io9, you can find a handy chart detailing the Rules of Magic according to the greatest fantasy sagas of all time. Although "greatest" is subjective, and I would have included Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books.

And also from io9 comes the ultimate futuristic gift guide for 2011, with many not to be missed things you didn't know you wanted (or not). Like this:

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins

Sometimes, even though one has overdue library books and a pile of Cybils books and a (small but substantial) pile of ARCs, not to mention books received as Christmas presents last year, waiting to be read....one finds oneself in the bookstore buying a new book. A book that promises to be utterly untaxing, different in genre and subject from one's usual fare.

This happened to me on Wednesday, and so tonight, with a sigh of relief that a difficult week was over (thank goodness older son's two week study of sheep and wool, which required extensive essay writing and journal keeping, which in turn required substantial parental enforcing, is over), I settled down in front of the fire and read Anna and the French Kiss cover to cover.

And though Anna's nervousness at starting her senior year at a boarding school in Paris made for a gripping beginning (I'm being sincere--I'm a fan of boarding school stories), it was, not unexpectedly, it was the growing romantic tension and sweetly taut frisson of her relationship with her hot classmate Etienne that kept the pages turning rapidly. I could, though, have done without all the part in the final third of the book when things not going smoothly, and skimmed many bits of unhappiness. A book entirely comprised of sweet frisson might not be quite substantial enough in the long run, but it would have been more soothing.

My own particular mental state aside, it was good reading, but it wasn't a perfect book. It requires a certain suspension of disbelief, not just in regard to the relationship between Anna and Etienne. The Mean Girl, for instance, was an almost ridiculous stereotype--I couldn't believe in her. And on a very minor note, how could Anna, film aficionado that she was, have arrived in Paris ignorant of its cinema scene? Wouldn't she, as I just did, have googled it before getting on the plane? (in three seconds ,I found this: "With over 300 films playing per week around the city, Paris is the place to be for film lovers. You'll find everything from arty retrospectives in intimate old theaters to blockbusters with surround-sound in ultramodern multiplexes. Here's a guide to the city's best spots for the seventh art.")

Still. Anna and the French Kiss kept me nicely occupied, and I am sure I'll be impulse buying its companion novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door, next time I find myself in a similar mood! (I could, of course, order it from the library....but the problem with that is that then it would be Demanding Attention. Not the same feel at all).

The Cheerleaders of Doom, by Michael Buckley

N.E.R.D.S: The Cheerleaders of Doom, by Michael Buckley (Amulet Books, 2011, upper elementary/middle grade, 288 pages)

The N.E.R.D.S are a band of technologically enhanced kids, agents of a secret organization that has taken each members nerdy weakness, and made it into a super super power. In this third installment of the NERDS series, asthmatic Matilda, aka Wheezer, gets a chance to shine when a new disaster threatens to destroy not just the earth, but the whole multiverse. But Matilda isn't being asked to put her mad fighting skills and arsenal of super inhalers to work. Something much worse is in store for her--she has to become a cheerleader, infiltrate a crack cheering squad, and find the rouge NERDS agent responsible for the impending disaster...a girl named Gertie, once known as "Mathlete."

Gertie, desperate for the money she needs to create a new, beautiful, cheerleading self, has invented a device that allows her to travel to alternate versions of earth, and pilfer them at will. Now she is no longer a homely nerd; she is that wonderful, beautiful, bubbly thing--a top notch cheerleader. For Matilda to infiltrate the cheerleading squad, and crack Gertie's disguise, she's going to have to do the hardest thing she's ever done in her live--shuck her tough, grungy persona to become a smiling, perky, pompomed girl who whoops.

But in the meantime, there's another young mastermind at work--a criminal one. Former NERD Heathcliff "Choppers" Hodges doesn't really want to live the rest of his life in a mental institution for the criminally insane. He wants to take over the world (in an evil way)...and Gertie's invention might be just what he needs.

This is the first NERD adventure I've read, and I found myself nodding in agreement as I remembered all the reviews of the series recommending the books highly for the 8-10 crowd. There's humor, action, suspense, delivered in snappy style; there are cool gadgets and neat technology, such as would delight even young readers who aren't nerds themselves, and best of all, there are actually interesting characters giving weight to the somewhat goofy story.

In this case, Matilda is forced to confront questions of identity--the process of becoming a cheerleader requires her to consider why she had created her own tough girl identity, and challenges her preconceptions of cheerleaders. The result is a more tolerant, self-aware (but still tough) Matilda! It's a subtle enough message so that it doesn't grate on the reader's nerves, but it's enough to make this more than just fun fluff.

As an added bonus, the kids who comprise the N.E.R.D.S are, as you can see from the cover, a diverse bunch. Matilda, for instance, is Korean-American.

Here's what I'm wondering--the first two books were told from the point of view of boy team members, and seem to be popular with boys. Now we have a girl central character, and Cheerleaders, no less! The (very doubtful) assumption that boys are reluctant to read about girls is all too prevalent...but I think the wacky zest of the series will have successfully captured it's young male readers, making that issue irrelevant in this case.

Here's another review at TheHappyNappyBookseller.

Thanks very much to the publisher, Abrams, for sending me a review copy for my Cybils middle grade fantasy/sci fi reading! There were so many holds on this one at my library that it might have proved difficult for me to get my own hands on it otherwise!

The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (Razorbill, 2011, YA, 356 pages).

Back in 1996, Emma gets her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM. She goes on-line...and finds her Facebook account from fifteen years in the future. Suddenly she has a window on what life has in store for her--who her friends will be, where she'll live, and who she'll marry. And her first reaction is to share this strange and mysterious phenomenon with her childhood best friend, Josh.

But a while back, Josh had shown Emma that he wanted to be more than friends, and things grew strange between them. His facebook page is right there online too--showing him an alternative to Emma he'd never considered.

Now Josh and Emma find themselves in a dance with their futures. Every small choice they make in the present changes their facebook lives...and Emma, in particular, is determined to try to improve what she sees on the screen. And their choices not only effect their future selves, but their relationship in the present.

It's a fascinating premise! Facebook, as Emma finds, is a strange thing, with its members' lives shown in short sentences, full of subtext; with old friends appearing to comment, or, sometimes, not being on your list of friends at all. Flipping between the viewpoints of Josh and Emma, the reader watches the ripple effects of decisions the protaganists make in the present...and the ramifications of how all of this effects their real lives in the here and now.

It was gripping reading, full of food for thought for the modern user of social media (perhaps especially the historical fiction of it all, in as much as it takes the reader back to the time when the brave new world of the Internet was still young....).

The premise, and the rather voyeuristic pleasure I took in exploring Emma's future selves along with her, were the best part of the of the book. The present day story line was less engrossing for me because I never found Emma all that likeable. She is certainly a believable character, busily experimenting with relationships, and learning, the hard way, the difference between attraction and friendship, but she has a lot of growing up to do! Which is one of the points of the book, but still, I wanted to shake her on at least one occasion. Josh, on the other hand, is a sweetheart, and I hope Emma keeps growing up enough to be worthy of him....

I found it interesting to see the paradox of time travel played out in this way--generally, people in time travel books worry about traveling backwards, and effecting the present in unintended ways. Because their futures haven't, of course, happened, Emma and Josh can play with tweaking future events to their hearts content, without worrying about creating circumstances in which they were never born!

I myself have no desire to take a look at my facebook page fifteen years hence. I found it rather poignant, in a somewhat disturbing way, to see the future children of Josh and Emma drifting in and out of existence, and I wouldn't want to see that happen to my unborn grandchildren (Gah. A scary thought).

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Welcome to another Sunday round-up of all the blog posts I managed to find of interest to us fans of middle grade fantasy and science fiction! Please do let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews:

The Aviary, by Kathleen O'Dell, at Charlotte's Library

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at pipedreaming

The Evil Elves, by Bruce Coville, at Fantasy Literature

The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman, at Watercolor Moods

Guys Read: Thriller, by Jon Scieszka et al., at Project Mayhem (plus giveaway ending tomorrow)

The Hollow Beetle (Poisons of Caux), by Susannah Appelbaum, at Okbo Lover

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow, by James Rollins, at Fiction Addict

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper FForde, at The Written World

The Lost Farm, by Jane Louise Curry, at Oz and Ends

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at books4yourkids and Great Kid Books

The Orphan of Awkward Falls, by Keith Graves, at Once Upon a Bookshelf

The Quest of the Warrior Sheep, by Christine and Christopher Russell, at Reads For Keeps

A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, at Good Books and Good Wine

The Time Travellers, by Linda Buckley-Archer, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

The Time-Traveling Cat and the Great Victorian Stink by Julia Jarmon, plus Time Cat, by Lloyd Alexander, at Time Travel Times Two

The Time-Traveling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Good Books and Good Wine

A True Princess, by Diane Zahler, at Good Books and Good Wine

Tom's Midnight Garden, by Phillipa Pierce, with bonus looks at The History Keepers, by Damian Dibben, and City of Masks, by Mary Hoffman, at Fantastic Reads

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at A Patchwork of Books

The Unicorn's Tale, by R.L. LaFevers, at Good Books and Good Wine

Authors and Illustrators:

Joseph Bruchac is interviewed on Dragon Castle, his Slovakian fantasy, at Kirkus.

Kai Strand (The Weaver) at TheWriteGame

Other Good Stuff:

Adam Gopnick shares his thoughts on high fantasy for young adults at The New Yorker

Monica Edinger, at Educating Alice, writes about third person omniscient narration and the opinionated narrator (who shows up in a number of this years mg sff books!)

The Storm in the Barn, a graphic novel by Matt Phelan, has begun its journey to the silver screen (the picture at right shows the Storm...).

NPR has picked Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, for its December Kids' Book Club! Click through to read their description of the book.

At Kidliterate, you'll find a lovely list of mg sff books that make great presents.

School Library Journal has its best of 2011 list up, with a smattering of mg sff included.

And finally, just a random bit of Life Experience I have recently acquired:

If you buy the Lego Star Wars Advent Calender for your kids (the picture shown below taken from this review), they really will get out of bed in the morning in a more prompt and vigorous fashion than usual. However, they will still be late for school, because in opening the little plastic bags, invariably a piece will fly across the room, resulting in desperate, time-consuming scrambling.

Welcome to my stop on the 2011 Virtual Advent Tour

I'm taking part in this year's Virtual Advent Tour, a community sharing of holiday goodness-es of various kinds, including traditions. So today I'm sharing one of the things I do every December that makes me wonder if I am in fact sane.

My house is generally rather full of projects and stacks of things and little clusters of disaster, but this time of year even more so than usual. For five years now, the boys and I have been assembling holiday mugs and baskets, to sell as a library fundraiser. So this is what the upstairs hall looks like:

And here are some of the finished products:

The mugs sell for $5, the baskets for $10, and the profit margin is pitifully small....we'll maybe raise $100, if we're lucky. But we don't do much holiday decorating, since we spend the Christmas at my mother's, so it's nice to have something festive to do, and it's nice to know we are doing it to help our dear library!

I suggested not doing it this year, but my older son in particular was appalled by the thought of losing such an important tradition. They both help--gathering pine cones out in the wild, to fill the baskets with, and filling the mugs with candy (most of which is carefully chosen varieties they don't like).

(This year someone donated about 30 soy candles that smell of apple pie. Strongly of apple pie. Horribly so, even through their packaging. I had to zip them in a plastic blanket bag and stick it in the clothes hamper, removing each one as needed as quickly as possible. Mess is one thing, but I draw the line at smells....)

So here we are again, surrendering part of the house to chaos for a good cause! I think, as soon as I have used up all the plastic mug bags I have on hand, I'll call it quits though--I hate to add to the world's trash burden. I am wondering how my husband would feel if I went into African violet breeding....they would make holiday fundraising items, if attractively potted. Any other ideas for earth friendly holiday items we could whip up at home would be much appreciated!

Here are today's other stops:

Chris @ Chrisbookarama

Alex @ The Sleepless Reader

Amy @ Amy Reads

Angel Cruz @ Mermaid Vision Books

Enjoy!

New releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens--the first half of December, 2011 edition

Here are the new releases of science fiction and fantasy for kids and teenagers from the first half of December. There are a number of bloggers these days who feature the new YA releases, so those are just listed. My information, as ever, comes from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs are all from Amazon this time around.

Elementary/Middle Grade

ARTEMIS THE LOYAL: GODDESS GIRLS by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams It's time for the annual Olympic Games, and the four goddessgirls are not happy--especially Artemis. Even though she's better at sports than most of the godboys, she can't compete because rules say the Games are boys-only. No fair!

Led by Artemis, Athena, Persphone and Aphrodite, the ladies of Mount Olympus hatch a plan to get Zeus to open up the games to everyone. Will they succeed--or end up watching from the sidelines again?

These classic myths from the Greek pantheon are given a modern twist that contemporary tweens can relate to, from dealing with bullies like Medusa to a first crush on an unlikely boy. Goddess Girls follows four goddesses-in-training - Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite, and Artemis - as they navigate the ins and outs of divine social life at Mount Olympus Academy, where the most priviledged gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.

BATTLE FOR EARTH: JOHNNY MACKINTOSH by Keith Mansfield People in London are being taken away in unmarked police vans, never to be seen again. While trying to keep up with his school studies and ensuring his football team stays top of the league, it's Johnny's job to safeguard planet Earth. Suspicious of the strange occurrences, Johnny investigates to find that alien enemies are feeding humans to their Queen on a nearby planet. He then discovers a more terrifying secret: the aliens are planning a devastating invasion of Earth. The battle for Earth will take all of Johnny's and his friends' strength and resolve. Can they win, and if they do, what price will they pay to save the world?

THE BATTLE OF RIPTIDE: A SHARK WARS NOVEL by EJ Altbacker Ever since Gray, Barkley, and their friends defeated Goblin, an infamous great white, at Tuna Run, life in the Big Blue has become murkier than ever for this young shiver of sharks. Food is scarce. Enemies lurk in every shadow. And Gray still doesn't know what has become of his family - of his mother, Sandy, and the rest of his Coral Reef shiver. Everywhere they swim, currents seem to whisper of a growing threat . . . of a shark who will stop at nothing until he has seized control of the entire ocean.

Now Gray must train with Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom, a wise and mysterious fighting fish who has promised to teach his young apprentice the ways of the ocean and the secret of what it means to be a great warrior. That is, if Gray can learn to believe in himself, find the courage to trust his heart, and grow big enough to fight back!

BEFORE CARD-JITSU - THE NINJA QUEST: CLUB PENGUIN by Tracey West In a time when ninjas were still a myth on Club Penguin, Sensei chose the top penguins to go on a journey with him through the mountains. You have the power to discover the Dojo. This 80-page book features Sensei, one of the most popular characters on Club Penguin, and how he developed the ninja experience.




BESWITCHED by Kate Saunders A magic spell has spun Flora into the past. She's mysteriously swapped lives with a schoolgirl in 1935! No iPod? No cell phone? No hair products? How will she survive?
Now Flora's a new girl at St. Winifred's, where she has to speak French at breakfast, wear hideous baggy bloomers, and sleep in a freezing dormitory.
But lots of adventures in the past are amazing even if they are not forever. How will she find her way back to the 21st century?



THE FUTURE DOOR: NO PLACE LIKE HOLMES by Jason Lethcoe A mystery is afoot at 221 Baker Street, but will Griffin Sharpe be able to figure out the clues before the future catches up with the past?

When Sherlock Holmes moves out of Baker Street, a new tenant moves in-a mysterious woman named Elizabeth who has long been a fan of Holmes. When she discovers that Griffin and his uncle are also detectives, she becomes very friendly. So when Elizabeth goes missing along with a special invention, Griffin sets out to rescue her. But finding Elizabeth will take them on a race against the clock that bends time itself!

A KING'S RANSOM: THE 39 CLUES, CAHILLS VS. VESPERS by Jude Watson Amy and Dan are in a race for their lives . . . and the enemy may be even closer than they think.

When seven members of their family were kidnapped by a sinister organization known as the Vespers, thirteen-year-old Dan Cahill and his older sister, Amy, vowed they'd stop at nothing to bring the hostages home. But then the ransom comes in and the Vespers demand the impossible. Amy and Dan have just days to track down and steal an ancient map. The only catch? No one has seen the map for half a century.

Now Amy and Dan are on a desperate search that will lead them to the Nazis, spies, a mad king and some of history's dirtiest secrets. It's the race of their lives . . . and one misstep will mean certain death for the hostages.

PRIZE PROBLEMS: THE PONY WHISPERER by Janet Rising Being able to talk to ponies isn't all that it's cracked up to be!

Pia never thought anyone actually one magazine contests. So when her friend Beans wins a riding vacation for two, she's totally excited to go with her. A whole wonderful week riding new ponies and making fabulous new friends. But when things start to go missing around the ranch, Pia turns to the ponies to see what they have to say-and is shocked at what she hears!

Can Pia and her new pony pals solve the mystery before their vacation gallops to an end?

STORM WARNING: DOG WHISPERER by Nicholas Edwards Emily and her dog, Zack, have a special bond. But it’s more than that—they can read each other’s minds. Even more surprising, Zack knows when people are in trouble. Now, Emily and Zack are able to use their powers to save lives, though Emily is endangering hers in the process and making her parents worry. When a hurricane warning is issued, everyone in town starts preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. What are the odds of a hurricane actually hitting a small town in Maine? Emily and Zack can’t see into the future, so they don’t know what’s going to happen, but if the hurricane does come and the worst does happen, are a girl and her dog enough to save a town from the destructive power of Mother Nature?


Young Adult

CLOCKWORK PRINCE: THE INFERNAL DEVICES by Cassandra Clare
CRY OF THE GHOST WOLF: A FORGOTTEN REALMS NOVEL by Mark Sehestedt
DEADLY LITTLE VOICES: A TOUCH NOVEL by Laurie Faria Stolarz
THE FIRE: WITCH & WIZARD by James Patterson & Jill Dembowski
ILLUMINATED by Erica Orloff
MELODY BURNING by Whitley Strieber
PLANESRUNNER: EVERNESS by Ian McDonald
SHATTERED DREAMS: A MIDNIGHT DRAGONFLY NOVEL by Ellie James
SHATTERED SOULS by Mary Lindsey
SISTERS OF ISIS VOL. 1 by Lynne Ewing
SURRENDER: HAUNTING EMMA by Lee Nichols
TRIPLE RIPPLE: A FABULOUS FAIRYTALE by Brigid Lowry
THE WATCH KEEPER by Reese Haller
WINDFALL: PHANTOM ISLAND by Krissi Dallas
WINGING IT: THE DRAGON DIARIES by Deborah Cooke

"I'm busy reading"

I was tickled just now to see that the most recent google search that led to my blog was someone typing in: "I'm busy reading." I'm the fourth result that comes up.

And it's true--I am busy reading. I have almost finished reading all the books I can get a hold of that have been nominated for the Cybils in my category of middle grade science fiction/fantasy (131 of them), but the problem with having read lots of them starting way back last October means I have to go back and read a number of them again--we are about to enter the difficult Winnowing of the Shortlists period, when the (many) books beloved to various of the seven of us panelists have to be shaken down to seven....

And then there's the small issue of Christmas presents. Not this year's, but the books I got for Christmas last year that I still haven't read. The sadness of this is a Heavy Weight on my spirit; however, since these are books that I'm still looking forward to very much, it's not as bad as it could be....

And then there's the small issue of wanting to use the down stairs bathtub (not salubrious enough to be used for bathing, at this point in our home restoration) for the storage of kindling. At the moment, it's storage for unread books.

And then there's the problem with the round table in the window of the living room, whereon many unread books are (naturally--it's a flat surface) piled. Our Christmas tree goes on that table, and soon the books, like mice in a hay field being mown, must scatter, and find new homes....preferably after being read.

So yes, indeed, I'm busy reading!