The Secret of the Stone Frog, by David Nytra

The Secret of the Stone Frog, by David Nytra (Toon Books, September 11, 2012, 79 pages), is the first Toon graphic novel.  The premise of Toon, for those who aren't familiar with this great line of easy readers, is to combine comic book/graphic novel style illustrations with easy to read stories.   It's a wonderful idea, that resulted in some truly child-friendly books with appeal to reluctant readers and more confident ones alike.

With The Secret of the Stone Frog, Toon is moving up in age.  This is a more sophisticated story than the earlier books (both word-wise and picture-wise), and it's in black and white.  It's also a little scary. It tells the story of two children, Leah and Alan, who wake one night to find themselves in an enchanted forest, their beds nestled among the roots of an enormous tree.  But the stone frog they meet reassure them that there is, in fact, a path home...but they must stay on it.  Being children in a fantasy world, it's only to be expected that they don't.  And soon they are in danger from a sinister women and her flock of enormous bees...(Ack!  The woman's head is horribly, disproportionately large!)


But all is not lost. There are more stone frogs (or perhaps the same one, reappearing), and not all inhabitants of this strange land are hostile.   For instance, giant rabbits give rides to the children for part of their journey, which is fun!  However, the peaceful rabbit leaping doesn't last long, and the last two adventures--a train ride with passengers who look like deep sea creatures/monsters, and a turn of the century-like city of nightmarishness--were too much for my easily alarmed young mind.

So this is one that will appeal most to readers able to appreciate the somewhat dark surreal, and so I'd hesitate to give this to a younger child.   The seven, eight or nine year old, though, who is busy drawing his or her own surreal pictures of dark imaginings (my own is fixated on zombie teddy bears engaged in brutal conflicts right now) might well appreciate it, especially if they are the sort to enjoy patiently exploring detailed illustrations (the flip side of which is that those who look at it and immediately want color won't make it through the book).   It's not book candy for the reluctant, easily distracted reader (it's more like, perhaps, sushi for the young book gourmand), but I think that there will be child readers who will be utterly fascinated.  And it has lots of cross-over, grown-up appeal too (especially for grown ups who don't want to run and hide from disproportionately large heads and scary cities).

Though the lack of color might off-put some readers. The drawings, with their intricate, fine-lined detail, are things of beauty.  Anyone looking for inspiration on how to draw with pencils should study this book. 

Other reviews at Waking Brain Cells, Fuse #8, and books4yourkids

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox

Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox (Dial, April, 2012, upper middle grade), is the story of an orphaned Chinese girl, 13 year old Suyin. Her father died, and her mother disappeared when she was little, and her paternal grandfather was so angry at this that he forbid any of the women in the village to teach Suyin any of the embroidery for which her mother was famous. So she has grown up passed from one family to another, and deprived of the heritage of her Miao ancestors--the women from this minority group define themselves in large part by their skill with the needle.

But Suyin is blessed with a preternatural skill for languages. And so, when a clearly untrustworthy human trafficker offers passage to America for one of the villagers--at a steep price--Suyin, who speaks English, is chosen to go. The expectation is that American dollars will flow back to the village, paying of the dept and bringing prosperity.

Suyin does not want to go. How can she leave her beloved cranes, the birds with whom she feels a strange kinship, birds that she has actually visited and spoken with in their own dream-like land? They had promised that someday she might be one of them--a crane woman, able to fly--but how can this dream come true in America?

The voyage is hellish--children packed for weeks in the hold of a derelict vessel. And instead of being the promised Golden Land, New York is a land of sweatshops and virtual slavery for the children, a place where brutal enforcers deal with any attempt to rebel, or escape. Suyin, who cannot sew, earns only a pittance in the garment making sweatshop, and her future seems bleak indeed.

But the cranes have not abandoned her. Indeed, they are pinning their own hopes on her. For the Queen of the Cranes was Suyin's mother, who disappeared years ago, and without her, there is no future for the clan. If Suyin can prove herself worthy (and if she can learn to sew, for the cranes, like the Miao women, pass down wisdom and beauty through their stitchery), there is hope.

Except that it is hard to be worthy when being ground down by the miseries of a life of brutal labor.

But cranes teach her embroidery, and messages written in the secret language of women, passed down through the generations, and hidden in plain sight in the stitches, brings comfort and wisdom. And finally Suyin finds the courage to speak up in public about the plight of the garment workers....and it all resolves to a happy ending.

Circle of Cranes is two stories. There is the realistic story, of the horrible working conditions faced by illegal immigrants--they work in fear of the government, in fear of their bosses, and with little hope. Prostitution is the only clear alternative for these young girls. Then there is the fantasy story, a reimagining of the story of the Crane Wife (the story of a woman torn between life as a bird and her human family is Japanese, not so much Chinese, but the author's endnote says has "roots in many Asian cultures"). Each is vivid and compelling in its own right, with the realistic elements being a grippingly eye-opening story, and the fantasy elements making a magical counterpoint.

It didn't, however, work perfectly for me. Though I was fascinated, especially by the details of the embroidery, the contrast between the two aspects of the book was great, so much so that I was not always convinced by the magical reality of it as a whole! I have to confess that a personal prejudice of my own came into play--I really get creeped out when a human person starts to sprout feathers (Suyin only has one feather, and it falls out quickly, but still). But that is just me. And the tidy resolution, in which the human identities of the crane women were revealed, seemed a bit much (all the important women in Suyin's life seem to be crane women...).

But in any event, this is one I'd give to the young (11 to 13 year old) lover of fairy tale retellings, for whom the magic of the cranes might well ring true, and whose heart might be deeply moved by Suyin's horrible experience in New York. It might especially appeal to those who want a lovely, magical daydream to lift them out of quotidian, possibly unpleasant, reality....

Final though: I think this is my favorite cover of the year so far. Isn't it beautiful?

Infinity Ring Book One: A Mutiny in Time, for Timeslip Tuesday

Infinity Ring Book One: A Mutiny in Time, by James Dashner is the start of a seven book series, to be written by six different authors (ala the 39 Clues series). The premise of the 39 Clues was a treasure hunt; the premise of this series is a time hunt!

Dak and Sera are best friends, leading more or less ordinary lives at Benedict Arnold Middle School. Except that they aren't exactly ordinary themselves--Dak has an over-the-top fondness for historical information, and Sera is rather brilliant when it comes to physics....And there's the fact that their world is rather different from ours--it's a somewhat dystopian version of reality, with the sinister SQ controlling things, and odd moments of dissonance, known as Remnants--strange sensations of missing someone or something. And finally, there's the fact that Dak's parents have almost completed a time machine, and Sera is able to finish the job.

Before the fact of time travel can sink in, Dak's parents have whisked them off for a jaunt to Revolutionary War America (and geez, if I were time travelling, I think I would try to go somewhere where there wasn't a war going on. Like the middle of an Iowa cornfield in 1950. I'd work up to war gradually). But in any event, it goes wrong, the parents get left behind, and Suddenly! Dak and Sera are being introduced to a secret cabral of Hystorians, who are most keenly interested indeed in the time machine.

Because, you see, the time machine is necessary to fix history. The Bad Guys have broken the past, disrupting the natural flow of events (did you pick up on the Benedict Arnold middle school, for instance?). And because Dak and Sera are the only ones tuned into the time machine, they have to become agents of the Hystorians, travel back to the broken bits, and fix them, and if things aren't fixed, the present is going to go even further down the drain.

There are some things that will make the time mission easier--technology solves the language problem, and the prep. work of the Hystorians over the centuries (agents from the past, waiting in their time period for time travellers to come) provides some guidance once they get there. But just as the explanations are winding down in the Hystorian Headquarters, there's an attack from the SQ bad guys, and the kids must quickly travel into the past to start their work. Chance pushes one of the Hystorians, Riq, into their journey--he's an older kid, and not at all warm and fuzzy.

So there Dak, Sera, and Riq are back in 1492. Columbus is about to set sail, and the famous mutiny that displaces him from his destiny as "discoverer of America" is about to take place....And that, I think, is enough summary!

Well. It is interesting, and exciting, and with lots of middle grade appeal (for, perhaps, the ten year olds, give or take, in particular. The adult reader might find the characters annoying at times (Dak and Riq both grated on my own nerves, with their know-it-all, antagonistic jockeying for relative status), and might be thrown out of the book occasionally with questions about temporal paradox and historical accuracy. But of course, this isn't for the older reader. The history seemed to me accurate enough (though, of course, accuracy is tricky here, cause of history have been warped) that I had no burning issues with it, and the characters might well be more warmly embraced, or at least better tolerated, by the younger reader....

This was one of those time travel books when it is all made easier than it would be if you were time travelling in real life. Technology and insider helpers are key to the kids' success, and they are able to pass successfully as ship's urchins. The result is that this is more of an adventure story, propelled by time travel, than a time travel story, propelled by adventure. Which is fine--the former category almost certainly has broader kid appeal than the more introspective, character-reaction focused, type of story.

To add to the enjoyment of the target audience, there's an online game component. I tried it out, and didn't get very far, and don't actually have a useful frame of reference with which to form an opinion. It seems fun, and not without educational value...I was worried that each physical book granted access for just one user--there's a map tucked into the book that has an access code, but there is a way for multiple users of the book to set up accounts. Librarians might want to black out the access code on the map, and perhaps write a little note where the map goes saying that if you go to the web site, you will find a way to access the game by referencing particular pages of the book.

Note on divesity: The game shows images of the characters--Dak white, Sera Asian, and Rak as clearly black (he is described in the book as dark of hair and skin). I am going to have to go back to see if there is textual description of Sera (hmm, long dark hair was all I found; will keep checking); Rak is still a secondary character in this book, so I'm not putting this on my list of multicultural sci fi/fantasy just because of him...maybe in later books, he'll move to primary status!



Final note: it is a bit ironic, at first glance, that Columbus not discovering America is something broken that needs fixing, because of course there were many, many unfortunate consequences to that discovery. However, in the alternate history it gets discovered anyway by the same ships, just with different guys (who are not any more altruistic) in charge.

The Age of MIracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, has a fascinating premise. What if the rotation of the earth gradually began to slow? What effects would this have on the environment, on the social and economic fabric of society, and, most particularly, on the life of one eleven year old girl, Julia?

Short answer: nothing good. Before the slowing began, Julia led an uncomplicated life of California suburban-ness. But the disruption of the slowing, with its cascade of catastrophes, destroys the old normal irrevocably. Through Julia's eyes we see the birds falling from the sky...onwards to near total environmental collapse. In this new abnormal, Julia's personal life and hope of happiness is stretched gossamer thin--her's is a pretty hellacious version of seventh grade.

The Age of Miracles is tremendously gripping. At the start of the book, I was so wrapped up in the beginning of the catastrophe that it was hard not to turn on the news myself, and sit riveted while scientist after scientist explained that they had no explanation. It's clear from the beginning that the story is narrated by a future Julia---it's full of dark premonitions ("we didn't know then that...."). And along with Julia, caught up in her life, we see these premonitions come to pass.

Though the heroine is a child, this isn't a children's book; it was written for the adult market. And it reads as such--there is a cold adult overlay over Julia's experience. Children's books have an immediacy of emotion to them, and the child character almost invariably has agency. The intrusion of the adult Julia into the story is a distancing, and I never felt truly privy to the depths of her feelings. And the poor girl has almost no agency whatsoever. She is like an oil-slicked bird, with a life that goes on, but senselessly darkened by circumstance over which she has no control whatsoever. So for me personally, inveterate reader of children's books that I am, it's a book I enjoyed, but didn't take to my heart.

But boy, is it riveting as all get out. I read it in two hours straight through, unable to put it down, and now I've passed it on to my husband, who, when given the choice, would rather read a book for grown-ups than a book for children, and he is enjoying it lots.

So if you, or a teen for whom you procure books, are looking for a dystopian read with no paranormal elements, where teen romance isn't a major plot point (although there is a bit of it), where the sci fi premise is the driving force of the story, and a block of time to spare (because of the strong possibility of not being able to put it down), give it try. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this ended up getting attention from the Alex Award committee (books written for adults that have teen appeal). This is the author's debut novel--I will be very interested indeed to see what she writes next!

Thoughts on the title--the perky Paul Simon song ran through my head as a sound track to the book, an ironic contrast to Julia's life. And the title itself read as ironic to me--adolescence is (if you chose to look at it in an optimistic way), supposed to be a miraculous time of becoming adult, with first love, unlimited possibility, and hope for the future front and center; here the miracles are those of end times, not beginning times.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Hocus Pocus Hotel, by Michael Dahl

If you have a young reader (say, 9 or 10) kicking around who loved the Encyclopedia Brown stories, and who also is intrigued by magic (of the stage kind, not the fantasy kind) give that reader Hocus Pocus Hotel, by Michael Dahl (Stone Arch Books, Aug. 2012, middle grade, 216 pages). You can, of course, give it to other readers as well. I certainly don't fit that description, but still I read the two mystery stories that comprise this book so quickly and happily that I finished it a long time before my bus got home...

It all starts when young Charlie Hitchcock, a brainiac geek type gifted with a photographic memory, gets a note from the school tough guy, Tyler Yu, saying to meet him after school. Charlie is convinced the end is nigh, but actually Ty just wants Charlie's help. Ty's mother is the manager of an old hotel, the Abracadabra (which also serves as a retirement community for former magicians), and Ty, who works for her, is afraid he's going to take the fall for the mysterious happenings around the hotel...because one of the magicians has disappeared (before paying his rent)!

So Charlie and Ty set out to crack the case of the missing magician. No sooner is that case solve, however, when more trouble strikes. Why, wonder the two boys, would anyone want to steal shower curtains??? But the other things begin to vanish...and Charlie and Ty are off in pursuit of the culprit.

There are secrets galore in the Abracadabra Hotel--and Dahl has lots of fun incorporating magic tricks into his story, complete with explanatory diagrams (great for the geekish child, or curious adult). I liked the premise of a hotel full of elderly magicians lots--much more fun than Encyclopedia Brown's crime- ridden, but boring, town. The reader might guess that there's magic behind the mysteries...but still there's room for plain old logic and deductive reasoning.

The characters--two very different boys who become friends and colleagues--are also appealing. Although Dahl makes no effort to underline the point in a Lessony way, it's in large part the story of two very different types of kid, who hadn't said a word to each other at school, seeing beyond stereotypes. I must say that Ty is much more interesting (why is he a bully at school, but hardworking and thoughtful when he's at home?); Charlie doesn't get much deeper as the story progresses. In any event, I'll be curious to see how their friendship develops in the next book of the series!

(and speaking of stereotypes, it was somewhat refreshing that the Asian kid wasn't the smart, geeky member of the team!)

In short: Great for the mystery loving 4th grader (or thereabouts. The confidently reading 3rd grader, or the less confidently reading older kid might well enjoy it too). Fun for those who aren't kids as well, but it's not one I'd actively recommend to adult readers of 4th grade books (which isn't a criticism--some books just happen to work better for their target audience than they do for grown ups!)

And yay! I actually have a post to send off to Marvellous Middle Grade Monday!

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (9/16/2012)

Welcome to another week in which I round up all the blog posts I could find which I would like to have read in someone else's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy, if it weren't for the fact that I am the rounder upper....Please let me know if I missed your post!

And isn't that a lovely origami Smaug? (found at Tor).

The Reviews:

Any Which Wall, by Laurel Snyder, at Time Travel Times Two

Bigger Than a Breadbox, by Laurel Snyder, at There's a Book

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander, review by Bit, bibliophile in training, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Sonderbooks

Claws, by Mike and Rachel Grinti, at My Precious

The Crowfield Curse, by Pat Walsh, at books4yourkids

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Sharon the Librarian (giveaway--extended from original date)

Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey, at The Book Monsters

Ely Plot (The Wickit Chronicles, book 1) by Joan Lennon, at A Thousand Wrongs

Half Magic, by Edward Eager, at Tor

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Book Nut

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at Waking Brain Cells

Invisible World, by Suzanne Weyn, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Island of Silence (Unwanteds, book 2), by Lisa McMann, at Heise Reads & Recommends

Lily's Ghosts, by Laura Ruby, at Read in a Single Sitting

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Book Nut and Becky's Book Reviews

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at Literary Rambles (giveaway)

The Prince Who Fell From the Sky, by John Claude Bemis, at Ex Libris

Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, at Books Together and Becky's Book Reviews

Princess Academy, and Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Slatebreakers

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lundquist, at The Children's Book Review

The Serpent's Ring, by H.B. Bolton, at Candace's Book Blog

Seven Tales of Tinket, by Shelley Moore Thomas, at Book Aunt

Spellbound (the Books of Elsewhere 2), by Jacqueline West, at Jean Little Library

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schiltz, at Good Books and Good Wine

The Sweetest Spell, by Suzanne Selfors, at Book Aunt (note: this is one of those marketed as YA that seem upper mg appropriate)

The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons, by Barbara Mariconda, at Book Aunt

What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Book Nut, Librarian's Quest, and a joint review/conversation at The Brain Lair and Maria's Melange.

Wooden Bones, by Scott William Carter, at Charlotte's Library

Monica of Educating Alice reviews Splendors and Glooms, and The Peculiar, in today's NY Times.

At Black and White, you'll find a look at three lovely read aloud fantasies for the younger set--The Robe of Skulls, by Vivian French, The Serial Garden, by Joan Aiken, and Mr. and Mrs. Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire, by Polly Horvath

Authors and Interviews:

Liz Kessler (Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun) at Nayu's Reading Corner

Lisa McMann (The Unwanteds) describes an inspiring school visit at the Nerdy Book Club

Morgan Keyes discusses the rituals of Darkbeast at Stiching Words, One Thread at a Time

Other Good Stuff:

It's Roald Dahl's birthday week, and The Guardian has rounded up a lovely set of "links, articles and teaching resources to help you celebrate in class."

Lots of book to movie news: Dragonlogy, A Tale Dark and Grimm, and The True Meaning of Smekday are all on their way to the big screen.

M is for Merrow at Scribble City Central

At the Nerdy Book Club, you can find a list of the top ten middle grade graphic novels (and in a comment you can find more suggestions from me....).

For those looking for mg sff ebooks, visit Fantasy Books for Kids, where every Friday five such ebooks are showcased.

Megan Whalen Turner talks about the Provensen book of fairy tales (and its scary pictures) at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.

And finally, a lovely picture from the Etsy story of artist Elly MacKay, and boy was it hard to chose just one picture. I might very well ask for one of her pictures for my birthday...and maybe even try my own hand at doing something similar--if I do it with boys, it becomes Educational and process will matter more than (lack) of beautiful product. (Thanks to Chasing Ray for the introduction).

Magic Under Stone, by Jaclyn Dolamore

I quite enjoyed Magic Under Glass, by Jaclyn Dolamore (my thoughts), which told the story of how Nimira, a dancing girl with dreams of a better future, rescues Erris, a fairy prince, from a clockwork prison (he is the star of a clockwork tableau, forced to play a mechanical piano with mechanical hands when wound up). Unfortunately for both Nimira and Erris, the rescuing that took place in that first book only did half the job.

In Magic Under Stone (Bloomsbury, 2012), Erris may have been restored to autonomous life, but he's still trapped in a clockwork body. And Nimira loves him, and is sad that a. he's still a machine who needs to be wound up every morning and b. is distracted by his situation, and the unresolved issue of who did it to him (and is therefore not focusing on being in love with her).

Solving those two problems is the matter with which book 2 deals, with the pleasant addition of a djinn, bound to serve the current fairy ruling family. Nim and Erris have travelled to the remote home of sorcerer that they hope can help them, only to find that he is not at home. His daughter, however, and the young chatelaine of the house, are still in residence...and the daughter, in particular, has her own role to play in the machinations of fairy politics (especially with regard to the mission on which the djinn is sent).

It's a rather peaceful, slow, character-rich book, for all the intrigue and danger lurking in the fairy realm, and dangers from the human side of things as well. And that was fine with me--I'm happy to read about interesting people stuck together in a remote house, learning magic and trying to figure out what to do about their problems! And I liked the djinn, who was perhaps the most zesty of the characters, with problems of his own (of the sort related to magical servitude). The romance aspect of this book was a tad frustrating (for Nim as well as the reader), though the resurgence of the love triangle from book three did give it some energy. And the ending packed on a hefty dose of active adventuring and excitement, which was a nice contrast to the slower beginning.

So all in all, a satisfying read--not one I'd say was a must-read, but still one I was perfectly content to spend time with. And I'm pleased that it's another for my list of multicultural sci fi/fantasy, what with Nim being from a South Asian-equivalent country (as she is shown on the lovely cover).

Wooden Bones, by Scott William Carter

So at the end of the original story of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet is a truly alive little boy, living happily ever after with his kindly father, Gepetto. Or perhaps not.

In Wooden Bones (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, August,2012) Scott William Carter tells the story of what happens to Pino next. Happy ever after doesn't happen quite yet....

Pino wants to be a normal boy, but, almost as if he were autistic, he struggles to understand the nuance of human emotion and social mores. But he making progress...though his effort to bring back Gepetto's lost wife as a animate wooden puppet ends up creating a monster. And then there are those in the village desperate to have their own lost loved ones given new form in living wood...and Gepetto and Pino are forced to flee into the dark forest to escape their anger when their wishes aren't granted.

As Pino and Gepetto travel, they meet others who would use Pino's gift to make their dreams come true--the paralyzed young priestess of a tree dwelling community, and a singer whose face was horribly disfigured by her husband. But though Pino reluctantly works his magic, happy endings are hard to come by. And as Pino works to make wood come alive for others, he watches as his own body turns slowly back into wood...

It's not until Pino uses his gift for himself, to save Gepetto out of a panic of love and fear, that he becomes once more fully human.

(At which point, I wonder if I missed the point, because what I was left with is the moral "coerced gifts make the giver less human," and that seems quite possibly true, but rather unexpected.)

But in any event, I read this slim book in a single sitting, not entirely convinced by the oddness of Pinocchio's sojourn with the tree dwellers and their magically gifted priestess (this was not what I expected in a historic Italian setting), but still very interested none the less in how Pino's story would turn out.

It's the sort of book that reads as a fairy tale for grown ups (it's complex enough to have adult appeal), as much as it does as a straight children's book, and so it's tricky to recommend to any particular demographic. It's straightforward enough (some people's confusion about the moral aside) for a child to read it and enjoy it, though the motivations of the characters who want Pino's gift to make them happy are perhaps rather adult--bring back dead children, be free of a life spent helplessly serving a community that demands too much, to return to the stage and be an adored star again). The child reader might well have more tolerance for the somewhat episodic arc of the story, and might also find the tree-dwellers more appealing than I did! And working strongly in the book's favor is that Pino is a very likable, even loveable, character, whose easy to empathize with.

So if you are interested in books that expand old stories, and take them new or strange places, this might well appeal, and there are doubtless child readers that will find it magical as well, though it might be a hard sell.

Variant, by Robison Wells

Variant, by Robison Wells (HarperTeen, YA, October, 2011) is a lovely example of dystopia writ small, all the more intense for the claustrophobia of its nightmarish setting.

Imagine an isolated boarding school. One where there are no teachers, where directives are issued electronically. One where breaking the rules means that you might disappear. One that where something is very, very wrong, and very scary.

This is the school where a foster kid named Benson is deposited one day, after winning a scholarship that he hopes will give him a chance at a new life. It is not the school he had had in mind.

The students have organized themselves into factions--those who are cooperating with a grim, self-righteous intensity (a gang of crisply dressed, stiff backed self-righteous rule under-liners), those who favor anarchy whenever possible (featuring self-drawn tattoos and as much bad ass attitude as circumstances allow), and the Variants--those who go against the grain, those who most often think of escape.

For Benson, the choice to throw his lot in with the Variants is easy. Escape from this insane school is clearly desirable. Unfortunately, it's also impossible. As the days pass, the depths of its dark wrongness become ever more apparent. Benson gradually discovers answers...but knowledge can be deadly. And there are no loving adults to come and rescue these trapped children...most, like Benson, have no family to care about their fate.

Boy did the plot twist in ways I didn't see coming! Obviously there was some Evil Scheme at work--the students themselves figured they were being tested in some way, for some unknown purposes. But they didn't have a clue what was going on...and neither did I! This one has all the tension of, say, The Maze Runner, but the surreal school setting, at once familiar and cozy, but also horribly wrong, made it all more subtly disturbing. It's a story of teenage orphans in psychological hell, but it's a hell made almost bearable by the rewards and treats bestowed from on high (tasty food, cool clothes, exciting games of combat style paint-ball), and by the friendships formed among the kids.

I devoured it in a fugue state of page-turning, slack-jawed enjoyment, and recommend it with great enthusiasm.

The sequel, Feedback, is coming out on October 2nd...I'm a little worried that now I have answers, and now that the action will be taking place on a a larger canvas, I won't quite enjoy things as much. But Wells did such a good job on this one that I am more than willing to chance it.

Note on age: If a kid is old enough for The Hunger Games, he or she is old enough for this one. I'd happily give it to a twelve year old.

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, for Timeslip Tuesday

Much to my surprise (although I should know by know to expect the unexpected from Dav Pilkey), Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers (Scholastic, August 28, 2012) is a time travel book!

When last we saw our heroes, George and Harold, they were on their way to jail...but then Tippy Tinkletrousers, in his gigantic pair of robotic, death-dealing pants (or at least, mega freeze powered pants) appeared out of nowhere...and the cops got iced.

But. Tippy T. wasn't supposed to have shown up just then. He wasn't supposed to have traveled backwards through time...and he wasn't supposed to have set in motion a chain of events that led to the destruction of the whole planet (!!!). Instead, Harold and George were supposed to end up in juvenile detention, and their principal, Mr. Krupp, was supposed to end up in jail. And the train of events was then going to lead to Tippy T. creating his Robo-Pants, facing off with Captain Underpants, and then fleeing back into the past....

But. Before we pick up that story, we are taken back by the author to an even earlier time--Kindergarten. And in a lovely long backstory that occupies most of the book, we get to see George and Harold becoming friends, and taking down the nasty bullies of the school with their super deluxe inventiveness and penchant for pranksterish schemes (I liked this bit. It was a good story, and there were no poop jokes).

But. The Happy Ending is disrupted by Tippy T. traveling back in time, arriving just at the point where George and Harold were about to savor their victory....bang goes the victory...but worse than that, because of this time travelling, Captain Underpants is never brought to super heroic life! All those bad guys in the earlier books get to wreck their evil havoc unopposed! The World Ends!

Can this really truly be it?

No. There's another book on its way.

This is perhaps my favorite of the Capt. Underpants books, which might not be saying a lot, cause goodness knows I am not the target audience. I did sincerely enjoy this one, though-I'm always a sucker for a good bit of backstory to characters I've already gotten a chance to know. And it wasn't as reliant on bathroom humor as other books I could name in the series.

And my boys devoured it repeatedly, as children all across our country doubtless will as well....unless, of course, a time travelling accident changes the writerly course of Dav Pilkey's past, and he decides that what he really wants to do instead of writing this one is to finish Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot series....

Edited to add: It occurs to me that George (whose hair, by the way, was an exuberant afro when he was young; we get to see him have his first really short haircut, courtesy of Harold), puts this one on my list of diverse fantasy and sci fi. Good.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week--interview swap with Liviania of In Bed With Books

I signed up at something of the last minute for this year's BBAW Interview Swap...and ended up being very pleased indeed to have been paired with a blogger on my Reader list, who's also a frequent commentor here!

Liviania blogs at In Bed With Books, where she reviews widely and well, and she includes a generous enough amount of middle grade and YA sci fi/fantasy to keep me reading her blog eagerly.

Here are my questions, and Liviania's answers:

You've been blogging a long time-since the fall of 2008. What keeps you going, blog-wise? Has your approach to blogging changed over the years? I guess your blogging energy is going strong right now (215 posts this year!), but have you ever felt overwhelmed and tempted to quit?

I think what keeps me going is the joy of talking about books. When I read something I love, I want to shout about it to the rooftops. (I read all the interview questions first, so I'll hold back for a second on my hosannas.) And blogging helps me find more of those books. It's a win-win situation. And that gels with my approach, which is to have fun. Every once in a while I'll go through an analytic period, but having fun is always the first priority.

As for this year, I'm not sure what's up with that. I have a lot of time on my hands due to the whole unemployed situation, and I spend a lot of that spare time reading. I've mostly been more dedicated to reviewing more of the books that I read. I've never been tempted to quit, but I did have a long hiatus recently. Ending it was tough because I felt guilty about all the things I meant to write during that period that I never would write. But I eventually girded my loins and got back to it. I'm going on a long trip starting on the 15^th, so my posting rate may start suffering once I run out of prescheduled weeks. We'll see.

Me: I once had a prescheduled day....I hope the trip goes well, and you don't run out of things to read!

Have you always been a reader? Are you a re-reader?

I was immediately voracious about reading, unsurprising since I come from a family of readers. I'm a big re-reader – I don't feel like I've truly read a book until I've gone over it at least five times and found all the nuances I missed the first time. Nowadays I have so much to read it is hard to get back to old favorites.

Me: Isn't it the truth! I used to re-read voraciously, and I do miss it....

Do you still have your favorite books from childhood (and what are they?)

My favorite books from childhood include WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams, the Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate, the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD by Diane Duane, ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede, anything by John Peel, AFTERNOON OF THE ELVES by Janet Taylor Lisle, anything by Mary Downing Hahn (especially THE GENTLEMAN OUTLAW AND ME, ELI), the Chronicles of Pyrdain by Lloyd Alexander, KIDNAPPED by Robert Louis Stevenson, anything by Roald Dahl, and THE GIRL WITH THE SILVER EYES by Willo Davis Roberts. And a quick shout-out to three favorite books I first read in late childhood (age thirteen or so): THE CHINA GARDEN by Liz Berry, THE THIEF by Megan Whalen Turner, and MARTYN PIG by Kevin Brooks. I'm pretty sure that covers the important ones. (I am not stingy with my book love.)

Texas seems to have a really vibrant book community. Do you live close enough to the action to get to go to all the cool events I seem to be reading about constantly? Have you met lots of Texas authors and bloggers? And following from that, who's the one author you would most like to meet (for real conversation) in real life?

It really does. I'm lucky in that I have places I can stay in most of the major cities, meaning I can attend a wide range of events if I want. This will be the first year I'm unable to attend the Austin Teen Book Festival, which I'm pretty sad about. I have met lots of Texas authors and bloggers at those events, though only briefly. I don't always introduce myself as a blogger, because I get super shy when someone goes, "I've heard of In Bed With Books!" I assume there are other people out there who are the same and thus I've probably met them without meeting them.

As for who I would like to meet for real conversation, Sarah Rees Brennan currently tops the list. When I thought I was going to ATBF, I set up an interview with her, but I had to break that engagement. I think she'd be just as fun in person as she is online. If it could be any author living or dead, I'd like to spend time with Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have a thing for his prose.

I am terribly behind on my YA reading, since I mainly read middle grade these days. Are there any particular Must Read YA sci fi/fantasy books that you'd recommend?

HAHAHAHAHA, ARE THERE ANY YA SFF BOOKS I'D RECOMMEND. ARE THERE ANY I WOULDN'T?

EVERY DAY by David Levithan – This one isn't neatly science fiction or fantasy, but it's definitely in the speculative fiction wheelhouse. Every day A wakes up as a different person. It's a love story and an exploration of identity and Levithan's writing is more polished than ever.

THE GIRL WITH BORROWED WINGS by Rinsai Rossetti – Another pic that fits more under the spec fic title. Rossetti's prose is so polished and lovely that's it's hard to believe she wrote this novel at eighteen. It's girl meets boy-with-wings, lushly told.

UNSPOKEN by Sarah Rees Brennan – This one comes out today and I can't pimp it enough. It's a modernized Gothic filled with magic, danger, intrepid girl reporters. It's funny and saucy.

SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman – Hartman's debut brings traditional fantasy back. It's a bit slow for some readers, but I love her mix of politics and dragons.

THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater – Stiefvater takes myth from the British Isles, dumps it in the American sticks, and makes it work. This one is about a group of beautiful boys and a beautiful girl who are walking straight into disaster because they want. I'm still getting shivers over it.

INSIGNIA by S. J. Kincaid – ENDER'S GAME meets Red Dawn is my best description of this book. I feel like science fiction is having a bit of a resurgence in the YA market right now, and books like this are leading the way.

LOSERS IN SPACE by John Barnes – This one took a bit of time to get into, but paid off in spades. It's cynical and funny with at least one scene that's still sticking with me, emotionally, three months later.

A CONFUSION OF PRINCES by Garth Nix – Basically anything Nix writes is fantastic, and his latest is no exception. It's been growing on me since the first time I read it. Perfect for any space opera fans.

And, because I can't resist, I'm going to throw in a bonus middle grade book. I adored 13 HANGMEN by Art Corriveau. It's exactly the sort of book I read and loved in elementary and it still appealed to me.

Me: Thanks!!!! That should keep me going for a while....I want Unspoken in particular rather badly...

Reading your About Me section, I saw that you have years of ballet in your past. Do you seek out ballet books? Are there any you would recommend, or any that bothered you because of not getting details right? I enjoy ballet books lots myself, even though my own lessons were intermittent!

I don't really seek out any specific kinds of books. I'm a bit too enthusiastic about everything. But I do enjoy reading about ballet and I've had the good luck to come across novels that get it right. Some recent ones I'd recommend are THE CRANES DANCE by Meg Howrey, a darkly comedic adult novel about an injured ballerina, and AUDITION by Stasia Ward Kehoe, a YA novel in verse about a girl choosing between professional ballet and writing. And I still have all of my Noel Streatfeild's, including a copy of SKATING SHOES my mom bought from ebay when it was out of print.

Liviania spent some time studying at Oxford a while ago, and so my natural question is--Did you get much chance to go book shopping? Did you discover any new to you UK authors?

I went to all the bookshops I could find. Most of the books I bought were by authors I first heard of in the States. Some, like RJ Anderson's KNIFE (FAERY REBELS in the US), I bought because I preferred the UK cover. One of the few absolutely new-to-me authors I found was Sophie McKenzie. Her YA thrillers have won several awards but aren't available in the US. When I took advantage of a three-day weekend to go to Germany, Lenore (http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com) introduced me to Sarah Waters. Sadly, I had to leave several books I bought behind because there wasn't room for them in my luggage.

Me: Sad!

Thanks so much, Liviania, for being my blog interview partner!

Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull

Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull (Dutton Juvenile, October 2, 2012, middle grade, 384 pages)

Summer and Bird are two sisters, 12 and 9, whose parents leave them one cold night. When they wake to find themselves alone,they find a single clue--a picture message from their mother, that leads them to the gate she made to mark the entrance to the woods...but when they pass through it, reality disappears and they find themselves in the world of Down.

Down is a world of talking birds, and strange magic. In the world of Down, each sister must make her way through a maze of old stories, to find the truth about their parents, about the magic of the birds, and about who they, themselves, might become. But there is someone who wants to keep them in ignorance--a woman so crazed with her desire to become a bird herself that she has set herself as Queen over the world of Down, and in so doing caused the way to the paradise of the birds--the Green Home, to be closed.

When Summer and Bird find the long-lost true Queen of the Birds, all the answers are theirs...but after all that they have undergone--the secrets kept from each other, the betrayals (intentional and not), the lonely ordeals--will they still be true sisters?

My own question, the one that I end every book with--did I like it?-- is somewhat hard to answer. On the plus side, the world that the book explores is full of wonderful images and stories, and the themes of identity and sibling bonds are appealingly presented. I liked the dark fairy tale feel of the story--the danger is to a large extent psychological, and there are no fantasy monsters to kill. Rather, the two sisters must make their separate ways through a threatening landscape of great strangeness, with Bird going alone to the heart of th darkness that overshadows the land of the birds...And she is only nine years old, and behaves very much as a young child might, which I appreciated.

But this is a story that is strongly conscious of itself, and this is not my personal favorite type of book. The narrator is intrusive, in the sort of underlining that the characters are Characters in a Story way, as opposed to addressing the reader way. For instance:

"Is it really so easy for Bird? Can she walk away from her family with only a little sadness?

Perhaps she is walking away from something else as well. Perhaps she is walking away from something she did--something that she doesn't want to think about.

Perhaps she feels a little guilty. Or more than a little." (page 105 of ARC).

And while most of the book is written in straightforward third person past tense, there are sections in first person present that likewise underline the point that this is a Story:

"Air rushes around the girl, waterfall falling up. No: she is falling.

The summer girl opens her eyes to blue. She is falling through an immense sky, a huge and cloudless empty blue. Her ears are full of rushing silence." (page 141 of ARC).

Fortunately for my own reading pleasure, these two aspects of the book diminish after around the half-way point, and I was able to lose myself in the thrill of the story and enjoy it, instead of putting the book down forever, as I was half tempted to do. And looking back on it, I feel much more favorably toward it than I did when I was actually reading it...I imagine that it is one my mind will replay to me while reading, for instance, the way ones mind does with things that have made a big impression.

Viz child appeal: I think there are a number of young readers who will be willing to accept more openly than I was the way the story was told; I also think there are many who will find it jarring. And the same, I think, goes for adult readers. If I had to recommend it as a read alike, I think I'd go with Wildwood, by Colin Meloy...though that has more immediate Action and the dangers are more physically present.

Review copy received from the publisher.

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (9/9/2012)

Here we are again. Please feel free to enjoy these middle grade sci fi/fantasy links that I collected during my week of blog reading, and please let me now if I missed yours!

The Reviews:

The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated, by Gerald Morris, at Oops....Wrong Cookie

The Adventures of Stanley Delacourt (Hartlandia 1), by Ilana Waters, at Readingjuky's Reading Roost

Beyond, by Graham McNamee, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Blue Fire (The Healing Wars 2) by Janice Hardy, at nom nom tasty books

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at The Book Smugglers

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at Charlotte's Library

The Doom Machine, by Mark Teague, at Maria's Melange (scroll down a tad)

Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Gods and Warriors, by Michelle Paver, at Hooked on Books

Horten's Incredible Illusions, by Lissa Evans, at Cracking the Cover

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, at Charlotte's Library

Invisible Fiends: The Darkest Corners, by Barry Hutchison, at Bart's Bookshelf

The Last Dogs--the Vanishing, by Christopher Holt, at The Book on the Hill

The Last Guardian, by Eoin Colfer, at Fantasy Literature

Legends of Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at books4yourkids

Lightmasters: Number 13, by M.G. Wells, at Sharon the Librarian

Malcolm at Midnight, by W.H. Beck, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Messenger, by Lois Lowry, at Fantasy Literature

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, at That Blog Belongs to Emily Brown and Faith E. Hough

St. Viper's School for Super Villains, by Kim Donovan, at Sharon the Librarian

The Tale of Emily Windsnap, by Liz Kessler, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Time Garden, by Edward Eager, at Time Travel Times Two

The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette, by Bianca Turetsky, at The Fourth Musketeer

Victory, by Susan Cooper, at Ms. Yingling Reads

What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Sonderbooks

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Emily's Reading Room

Authors and Interviews:

Claire Legrand (The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls) talks mg heroines at The Book Smugglers, and also guest posting at Project Mayhem

Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson (The Familiars--Circle of Heros) at The O.W.L.

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Whatever, Stephanie Burgis, and at Jim C. Hines

Other Good Stuff:

Here's a fascinating dissection of all the clues tucked into the first two chapters of The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, at Deirdre's Book Blog

The Trilogy that begins with The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, has been optioned for the movies

Reading The Giver as an adult, from The Atlantic

Liz Kessler presents M is for Mermaid today at Scribble City Central

National Buy a Book Day is today! Why not support diversity? (Mg/YA sci fi/fantasy shopping guide included)

Today is National Buy a Book Day. To the basic challenge (not so difficult) of buying a book, I suggested adding another goal--buy a book that shows a main character who isn't white.

Way back in 2009, I made a conscious choice to add more diversity to the books on my children's bookshelves (here's that post). I wanted them to take for granted that the characters they saw on book covers, and read about inside, might well not be white. It proved hard to do. It is very, very difficult to walk into Barnes and Nobel and come out with a middle grade fantasy book that shows a kid of color on the cover. Especially if you have successfully done it once or twice already in a particular year.

But as bookseller Elizabeth Bluemie discussed in her post at CBC Diveristy*--"Who will create the new normal?"-- "If there’s one thing I have learned from my time in the handselling trenches, it’s how readily the public accept what we tell them is worth reading, what we stand behind and put our resources into. The more diversity there is on book covers, the more normalized those images become, and the more people will see beyond skin color on book covers into the stories themselves."

Those of us who aren't writer or booksellers or publishers have perhaps the most valuable resource of all--purchasing power. So today, for National Buy a Book Day, why not put that purchasing power to work for the cause of increasing diversity in children's and YA books?

For those looking for suggestions for fantasy and science fiction for kids and teenagers (since you might not be able to stroll into your local bookstore and pick one up that you haven't bought already), here are some covers showing people who aren't white (although with at least two of them, the person shown looks whiter than described inside). There are other books with non-white characters, but these are the only cover pictures I found (please tell me there are many I missed!!!)

Middle Grade sci fi/fantasy:

Monster Matsuri (Takeshita Demons 3), by Cristy Burne
The Stones of Ravenglass, by Jenny Nimmo
Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel
The Magnificent 12: The Key, by Michael Grant
Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox
The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, by Nathan Bransford























Possibly The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, shows one of the non-white characters in that series, but squintching at the cover image on line proved ineffective in determining if this is the case.

And here are the YA covers that I found:

Shadows on the Moon, by Zoe Marriott
Cat Girl's Day Off, by Kimberly Pauley
Transcendence, by C.J.Omololu
Poison Tree, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner
The Chaos, by Nalo Hopkinson
Magic Under Stone, by Jaclyn Dolamore
The Friday Society, by Adrienne Kress
The Galahad Legacy, by Dom Testa
Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff (note: apparently this might not be a good example of diversity in YA, despite the beautiful cover--a commenter has noted that the author seems to have not had great respect for the culture in which he set the book. Any thoughts?)






























For those who want more suggestions, here's my list of the c. 100 multicultural sci fi/fantasy books that I've reviewed.

*CBC Diversity hosted a great series of posts on diversity in book covers this month--check it out.

Awesome mg and ya event in Boston, Sept 18, 2012

Boston GLOW, an organization that "aims to foster opportunities for women of all ages to become empowered community leaders and active, engaged world citizens" is hosting an event that sounds absolutely brilliant!

FIGHT LIKE A GIRL


I am going to go. Even though it's Boston--59 minutes away... and I get lost in Boston...but presumably the drive home would be easier, because I would be empowered.

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes (Margaret K. McElderry Books, middle grade, August 28, 2012), is a book that you can judge by its lovely cover. At least, I myself was completely taken with it--the strong stance of the girl, the raven poised to fly, the hint of danger in the falling feathers....And I bet that any ten or eleven year old (or so) girl who's a fantasy reader will feel the same way.* Happily, the story inside lives up to its cover beautifully!

Keara has lived with her raven Caw since she was a baby--sharing all her thoughts and dreams with him, and hearing his voice in return. He is her darkbeast, able to take all her faults and failings away from her when she tells them to him. Every child has a darkbeast, often a toad, or a snake, or a lizard, bound to them until their twelfth birthday, but not every one's darkbeast is their beloved friend (it is, perhaps, easier to be friends with a raven than with a snake, but regardless, Caw has tons of personality, and Keara loves him).

But the thing is, when you turn twelve in Keara's world, you are too old to have a darkbeast anymore, and are supposed to grow up and conquer your own faults. And so your darkbeast must die, in a ritual enforced by the Inquisitors.

When Keara turns 12, she cannot kill Caw. And so she must flee her village, and the Inquisitors she's offended (they are not nice people, those Inquisitors). Fortunately, she finds refuge with a band of travelling actors, and begins to make a new life for herself and Caw, pretending to still be a child. The fear of being found out is always with her, and the actors themselves are in danger for sheltering her. The Inquisitors are hunting her...and they will not rest until Caw is dead, and Keara punished.

It's a very good book. The constant danger Keara's in keeps the tension humming, the relationships among the characters (and their darkbeasts) are very nicely done, and the world building, which includes a panoply of gods, is sufficiently detailed to interest, without going overboard in dotting every socio-political i.

It's a story that I think will be taken straight to the heart of girls reluctant to grow up (like me when I was eleven). The crisis of emotion that Keara, and every other child, to some degree, must face when they turn 12 is the center of the book, and it packs a powerful punch. And I must say that I really really appreciated a book in which the central girl character, though strong and determined enough, is an ordinary girl. She's not, for instance, a theatrical wonderkind, stepping into the lead roles in the plays her new community performs, though she does make a useful place for herself. She never grabs a sword to start whacking inquisitors. No handsome dude falls for her (she's still a kid). There's wish fulfillment in plenty--Keara's relationship with Caw is something that I bet many girls will envy**--but Keara is always someone who it's easy for a young girl to imagine being.

That all being said, even if you are not suffering from the angst and loneliness of adolescence, you might still really like it. Like I said, it's a good book. And even if you are a boy, you should still try it.

*I have little data to back up my feeling about the cover--just one reaction, from my grown-up friend Anamaria, of Books Together, who came over for a visit and spotted it first thing amongst the books I had out to talk to her about...And the fact that my boys, despite it being left enticingly face out for days, don't seem to have noticed it.

**hands up anyone like me who was eleven in the early eighties who really wanted a fire lizard

disclaimer: review copy very happily received from the publisher

Castaway Blobs! Number 4

Because time has been short, I have no review today. Instead, I offer another episode of Castaway Blobs!, a cartoon series that started life in the mind of my 12 year old, and became a family project. Today's episode is based on one of my husband's ideas; he feels his original version was better, but since we can't find it, here's my adaptation of it (sorry Patrick). Click to enlarge...