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

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

The Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

Ghost Girl, by Ally Malinenko, at Book Den

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Second Sleep by Diane Stanley, at Original Content

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wind Child, by Gabriella Houston, at Book Craic


Authors and Interviews

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

Brian Farrey (The Counterclockwise Heart) at Publishers Weekly

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

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

Other Good Stuff

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

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

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

The Monster Missions, by Laura Martin

 

Here's another great middle grade sci fi book that read for the Cybils Awards --The Monster Missions, by Laura Martin (June 1, 2021, Harper Collins).  Lots of sea monster adventure goodness, underwater tech, friendship, and danger, with an appealing science-minded heroine!

The scrappy ship Atlas is the only home Berkeley and her best friend Garth have ever known.  Ever since the Tide Rising flooded the world, ships like this carry little pockets of humanity, trying to survive on very limited resources.  Berkeley and Garth work as scavengers, diving down into flooded cities, but when Berkeley ends one mission by pissing off a monstrous kraken, it ends up battering the poor Atlas badly.  To make up for the economic loss, the two kids are about to be sent off to a work boat (basically a floating prison of hard labor) when the Britannica, a state of the art sub swings by.  Her captain offers the two kids a place on the sub, and so they are off to new adventures, with no chance to say goodbye to their families, who are left to assume they are dead.

The Britannica is a monster hunter, prowling the seas in order to keep ships from being destroyed.  Berkeley loves this new life of training and learning and speculating about sea monsters (there are tanks of young ones in the ship's lab) alongside the two other kids already on board.  But it's dangerous--the sea monsters aren't the only predators, and when pirates take over the sub, and the four kids are the only free crew members, it's up to them to use all the sea monster skills and knowledge they've acquired to take back the ship!  (note--as an adult reader and parent, I'm glad that after all the excitement  Berkeley and Garth got to go on board Atlas again and see their families!)

There's lots of really good monster hunting and excitement (some if it rather icky, like when the Britannica actually gets swallowed by a sea monster), and a nice dose of monster study and speculation as well.  Berkeley isn't interested in just killing individual monsters attacking ships; she wants to learn how to keep the attacks from happening in the first place.  And she's a tinker-er, able to look at junk and see potential, a creativity that is key in the pirate struggle! The details of life in the sub are great, the kids are a good mix of different personalities and skills, and the flooded world with its monster filled oceans is a vivid backdrop for the story.

(My only quibble, as a scuba diver myself back in the day, was the wonderful visibility enjoyed by the scuba diving kids--it was harder to swallow than the sea monsters)

That being said, I can imagine this book being happily passed around a fifth grade classroom really easily!

disclaimer--review copy gratefully received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration, and now on its way to my local public library to win Laura Martin new fans!

Cover reveal--Spineless, by Samantha San Miguel!

Good morning, middle grade sci fi/fantasy fans!  Today it's an honor and pleasure to host the cover reveal for a book that I for one can't wait to read!

Spineless, by Samantha San Miguel, cover art by Jamie Green!

coming June 7 from Union Square Kids

This exciting middle-grade adventure is Hoot for the Gilded Age—with scientific discoveries, secret plots, and surprisingly enormous fauna.

 
When his asthma lands him at a health resort in the wilds of Gilded Age South Florida, twelve-year-old Algie Emsworth is over the moon. The scientific treasure trove of unexplored swamps may launch his dream career as a naturalist. But even Algie is startled when he happens upon a brand-new species and her brood in the karst springs surrounding the resort. Algie quickly realizes he must keep his discovery a secret: a famous collector of exotic animals is also staying at the hotel, and the new species is threatened by his very presence. An apparent curse has also descended upon the hotel, bringing with it a deadly red tide. But when the pool starts filling with ink and guests start getting mysterious, sucker-shaped wounds, Algie must pluck up his courage to find the truth about the goings-on at the Grand Hotel—and save the new species from destruction.

Samantha San Miguel grew up on the Treasure Coast of Florida. Living sandwiched between ocean and estuary gave her a wholehearted respect for wildlife, especially the kind that can eat you. She's spent countless hours scanning for sea monsters, but the only ones she's spotted so far have been in her imagination.

From Sam:

As a kid I loved books about sea monsters, but got frustrated when the cover promised super cool creatures while the story only delivered a few pages of creature screen time at the very end. When it came to writing my own story, I made sure to fill it with the many real and imaginary animals of my home state, Florida. I'm thrilled with the care that artist Jamie Green took to highlight that in the cover design for SPINELESS. I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, but in this case be my guest!

From me:  

What a great cover!  I love the Gilded Age details meets tentacle aesthetic, and am looking forward to this one lots!  I've just added it to my Goodreads tbr list

Preorder SPINELESS at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Bookshop

Your Life Has Been Delayed, by Michelle I. Mason, for Timeslip Tuesday

Your Life Has Been Delayed, by Michelle I. Mason (September 2021, Bloomsbury YA), is a really entertaining and thought-provoking YA time travel book.

Jenny gets on a plane in 1995, on her way home from visiting New York city, where her grandparents live and where she wants to go to college. But when her plane lands, it's the year 2020* and her family and friends have mourned for her for 25 years. All but one grandmother grew old and died, her little brother is grown-up with a family of her own, and so is her best friend.

Now she must struggle not just with the unfamiliar technology of her new life, but with trying to fit again into a family that has grown older.  And the heart-breaking horror of her best friend (one of those really really close best friends) being forty years old, married with kids.  It is a struggle, but Jenny faces the challenges bravely, and starts school again like she's supposed to, shepherded by her best friends teenaged son (who is very cute....)

Outside of her personal struggle to find a place in her new present, there's a firestorm of media attention, conspiracy theories, intrusions into her personal life, including from governmental agencies.  It's all pretty toxic, and her parents, well-meaning but I think misguided, try to control her access to media (almost like they're still trying to keep her back in the 1990s....).  She does come across as pretty naïve, and young for 17 (possibly because her parents were overprotective back then), and I think more could have been made of her now falling into the company of  Zoomers, who are perhaps the least naïve generation ever.  The other high school kids are fairly generic "high school kids."

There's romance (how weird it is, though, to date your best friend's son...) and high school drama, and real danger from the world of the conspiracy theorists....what I liked best was the whole having to cope with a different time/technology/people.

It's an utterly fascinating premise, both fun and poignant, and though I thought the book could have been a little tighter, I enjoyed it lots.  

*the writing of the book predated the pandemic, and the author decided to leave it out.

This week's roundup of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (1/30/22)

 Greatings from snowy Rhode Island!  Here's what I found this week of interest to us fans of mg sci fi/fantsy; please let me know if I missed your post!

first, congratulations to The Last Cuentista for winning the Newberry Award and the Pura Belpré Award, and Too Bright to See, for its Newberry Honor! Also to Temple Alley Summer, for the Batchelder Award! MG sci fi/fantasy ftw! (here's the full list of ALA Youth Media Awards)

The Reviews

Beasts and Beauty, by Soman Chainani, at Sonderbooks

Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan, at Say What? and proseandkahn

The Gilded Girl, by Alyssa Colman, at Staircase Wit

The Girl in the Lake, by India Hill Brown, at Twirling Book Princess

Greta and the Ghost Hunters, by Sam Copeland, at alexsfictionaddiction

Hangman's Crossing (Embassy of the Dead #2), by Will Mabbitt, at Sally's Bookshelf

The Hideaway, by Pam Smy, at Ms. Yingling Reads

In the Red, by Christopher Swiedler, at Sonderbooks

Kingston and the Echoes of Magic, by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi, at Always in the Middle

The Keeper, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts, by Erika Lewis, at The Bookwyrm's Den

The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, at Book Nut and Of Maria Antonia

The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, at Charlotte's Library

People of the Sun (The Eye of Ra #3), by Ben Gartner, at Say What?

Ripped Away, by Shirley Reva Vernick, at Pamela Kramer

A Storm of Sisters, by Michelle Harrison, at Book Craic

The Supervillain's Guide to Being a Fat Kid, by Matt Wallace, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Tiger Honor, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Puss Reboots

The Tower at the End of Time, by Amy Sparkes, at Library Girl and Book Boy and Sifa Elizabeth Reads

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, by Anne Ursu, at Valinora Troy

This Last Adventure by Ryan Dalton, at  Say What?

The Unforgetable Logan Foster, by Shawn Peters, at Reading Middle Grade

The Weeping Tide, by Amanda Foody, at Bookworm for Kids

Welcome to Dweeb Club, by Betsy Uhrig, at Books YA Love

Authors and Interviews

Shawn Peters (The Unforgettable Logan Foster) at Literary Rambles

Brian Farrey (The Counter-Clockwise Heart), at Publishers Weekly

 

Other Good Stuff

"C.S. Lewis, Calormen, and How Fans Are Reclaiming the Fictionalized East," at Tor

Pixels of You, by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota (writers), and J.R. Doyle (Artist)

Pixels of You, by Ananth Hirsh  and Yuko Ota (writers), and J.R. Doyle (Artist): (February 8th 2022, Amulet Paperbacks) is, I think, the first graphic novel I've read in a year or maybe even longer.  Recognizing that my graphic novel reading skills, always a bit tenuous because of years reading text quickly and ignoring illustrations, were rusty, I was firm with myself and looked at the pictures as I read! (yay me). I was rewarded--sc fi sapphic romance with art students ftw!

This is the story of two girls in a not so far off future in which AI is a part of life, and AIs are a part of society.  Realistically, there are tensions and anger and fear.  Indira and Fawn are both photographers, and both have unpaid student internships at the same art gallery, but when they meet for the first time at Indira's exhibit opening, it's a disaster when Fawn (not knowing who she's talking to) offers an uncomfortably frank critique.  The gallery owner, not wanting the two of them messing up the peace of the gallery, decrees that instead of independent final shows, they must work together. And so they do.

Fawn is an AI in a human facsimile body, unlike her "parents" for whom nothing disguises the fact that they are robots.  Indira is on her own, struggling with chronic pain in her artificial eye, the result of a long-ago car accident, and she has reasons to distrust AIs.   But as the two work together, they start to communicate openly and vulnerably, and from there it leads (fairly obviously, but sweet nonetheless) to romance.

The art does a lot of heavy lifting in the story, and so I'm glad I paid attention! The panels really reward lots of looking. As well as helping the emotional beats of the story along, color, tone and small details all add to the individuality of each girl beautifully.  That being said, the writers do a good job in fairly limited text making each one a distinct person, and by the end of the book I carred for both of them lots!

Very much recommended, especially to younger teens who loved kids graphic novels and are now ready to move on to YA.  

disclaimer: review copy received from its publicist

The Genius Under the Table, by Eugene Yelchin

 

If you visit here regularly, you know that I mostly review middle grade sci fi and fantasy.  This does not mean this is all I read--today's book, The Genius Under the Table, by Eugene Yelchin (October 2021, Candlewick), is a mg autobiography (though one I think has lots of appeal for mg sci fi/fantasy fans, about which more later...).

Young Yevgeny grew up in the Soviet Union.  The Cold War still threatens to become hot, fear of the KGB is part of life (there is a KGB spy right there in his apartment complex), and keeping warm and fed is a constant struggle.  On top of this is the antisemitism of the USSR.  Yvegeny's older brother is a talented ice-skater, and on track for a life free of some of this struggle in a society that rewards its international stars, and his family hopes Yvegeny too might have some talent that will be his ticket into comfort and relative security.

So to please his mother, who works at a dance studio, he tries ballet...and although Barishnikov has burst onto the scene and a shining exemplar of what is possible (his mother even takes him backstage to see him dance), Yvegeny's talents don't lie in that direction.  Instead, he draws.  Mostly at bedtime, under the table where his cot is placed at night (there is no room for it anywhere else in their cramped space.  The underside of the table is his canvas, and he fills it with drawings. When his parents find his drawings, they know that art is his path forward, and they encourage him as best they can. 

It's not a full autobiography with facts about the author's life from birth to the present.  Instead, it's a slice of life in this particular time and place, quite often bitterly humorous, and just as often bitterly grim, though the child the author once was doesn't realize the grimness and fear of his family's life the way the reader might, and in this group of "readers" I include not just people my age, who remember that time, but even 9-12 year olds living in comfort in the US today.

And this vivid picture of a dystopia, in which a wonderful pair of jeans has to be kept secret, in which many records are banned, in which anyone can turn on you and report you to the authorities and all the adults in the family live in fear, will I think especially appeal to middle grade fantasy/science fiction fans! The book starts with a visit to see Lenin's corpse, a lovely horrific hook for that demographic!

So if you have such a kid in your life who you think needs a nudge to a different genre, or needs a biography to read for school, give them this book!  It's also the sort of book-- accessible, interesting, and despite all the differences, very relatable (there are lots and lots of kids out there, wanting to discover a talent that will make their parents proud!)-- that is lovely for teaching young readers history.  I wish for the sake of young readers that there was an introduction with time and place and a bit of context, but they know how to google/ask their parents for information.  

Lots of Yelchin's quirky drawings accompany the text, adding lots to the kid-appeal of the story.  And though the story ends with him still in the Soviet Union, it's very easy to follow on to one of his illustrated fiction books (I'd suggest The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge for the mg demographic) to see how his art developed!  I'd also show the young reader a clip of Barishnikov dancing (that being said, I just watch a few clips, and Simone Biles is more amazing so kids today might not be that impressed).

I myself have a brother-in-law who is an artist who grew up in Leningrad at around the same time as the author, which added a personal feeling to my reading of this fascinating, disturbing, and moving autobiography.  I am not sure he will want to revisit his own childhood as vividly as the book would make him, but I will offer it to him and see.

disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher

The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, for Timeslip Tuesday

 The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, is a surreal little gem of a middle grade timeslip story that enticed me, confused the heck out of me (not in a bad way though), and then made me cry at the end.  

The enticing part was the forest, where Charlie's friend Dizzy led her one day to see the strange patterns of sticks he'd seen there.  Charlie has recently moved from London, and so the woods are a new thing, and Dizzy, who has a limp leftover from polio (the first clue to the time period), and who is, along with new kid Charlie, on the sidelines of the games played by the other kids, seems to be a good guide.   

But the class bully, Johnny, follows them there to scare them by pretending to be Old Chrony, the wild man rumored to live there.  Scare them Johnny does, but then when the kids realize they are lost, the fear of the dark woods grows more and more palpable.  There seems to be no way out, and though the three kids start to work together as a team, they can't figure out how to get home.

And thing grow more scary still, and more confusing.  Reality shifts, and twists, and the dangerous visions that rise up in the night might or might not be real.  And on top of that, Old Chrony turns out to be real...and very powerful indeed.

At which point the reader gets confirmation that time has been slipping, and that for kids in England in 1933, the future isn't going to be a safe and comforting place.  Which leads to me crying at the end.* 

It also lead to me forgiving the story for ever confusing me.  It all makes sense in retrospect, and I want my own copy now so I can reread it in a year or too. It's not a book for readers who want things explained, or for there to be Reasons and all the backstory to be spelled out.  But it is a book for young (or not so young) readers who want to journey into a terrifying wood beyond the boundaries of what is real, where time slips, and the only way out is through.

personal note--the reader doesn't find out for a while that Charlie is a girl, which I think was a bit of a distraction; it felt a little like a trick trying to be clever, and it throws one out of the story to have a gender switch in the middle of things.  

further note on Charlie--she's a good character for girls who like to code and decipher things to read about!

final note on Charlie--I always hated that nickname for Charlotte, so if you ever meet me in real life, please don't use it!

note on Johnny--though he's a bully, he's not a terrible one, and it's believable that he's able to work with the other kids as things progress.  

note on the time travel side of things--this is one in which time slips, and the future is glossed over the present; there's no actual travel to different times.

* the thing that made me cry is a spoiler! turn back now!

I wasn't expecting Dunkirk, and Dunkirk makes me sob every single darn time.

this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci-fi from around the blogs and more (1/23/22)

Here's what I found this week!  Three new books for my tbr list!  please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Aviva vs. the Dybbuk, by Mari Lowe, at BookPage

The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo, at Sonderbooks

The Circus at the End of the Sea by Lori R. Snyder, at Pages Unbound 

Dog Squad (Dog Squad #1) by Chris Grabenstein, at Books Teacup and Reviews

Harley Hitch and the Missing Moon, by Vashti Hardy, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

The Insiders, by Mark Oshiro, at Charlotte's Library

Kingston and the Echoes of Magic, by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi, at Log Cabin Library

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts, by Erika Lewis, at Say What?

The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, at Valinora Troy

The Lock-Eater, by Zack Loran Clark, at Cracking the Cover

The Namer of Spirits, by Todd Mitchell, at the L.A. Review of Books

Riley's Ghost, by John David Anderson, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Secrets of the Last Merfolk, by Lindsay Littleson, at Book Craic

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs, by  Pam Muñoz Ryan, at Kidlit Underground

The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst, by Jaclyn Moriarty, at cannonballread

  

Tiger Honor, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

The Unforgettable Logan Foster, by Shawn Peters, at Cracking the Cover, Pamela Kramer, and Charlotte's Library

The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Córdova, at Ms. Yingling Reads

two at A Library Mama- Nightingale by Deva Fagan and Eva Evergreen and the Cursed Witch by Julie Abe

Authors and Interviews

Shawn Peters at The Wandering Wordsmith

Alexandria Rogers (The Witch, the Sword, and the Cursed Knights) at  Nerdy Book Club 

Nicola Penfold (Between Sea and Sky) in conversation with Chitra Soundar (Sona Sharma Looking After Planet Earth, which isn't sci fi/fantasy but which sounds fun), at climate fiction writers league

Scott Southall (The Order of Time series) at Gina Rae Mitchell

Other Good Stuff

Congratulations to the 15th Class of 28 Days Later Honorees! - The Brown Bookshelf

and, like me, you might be wondering if a mg sci fi/fantasy book will take home the Newbery this year--here are my picks! 

Will a middle grade fantasy/sci fi book win the Newbery Award this year?

 Back in 2017, I successfully guessed the The Girl Who Drank the Moon had a good shot at the Newbery.  Last year's winner was also fantasy (or at least very fantasy adjacent)--When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller.  Will another fantasy/sci fi book win this year?  Here are some I think might have a chance.

The Raconteur's Commonplace Book, by Kate Milford (my review).  This is my top pick.  I think it is the strongest writing of any mg I've read this year.  Not only did I personally love it and find it entertaining, I think if the committee wants "literature" this might be it.

The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera (my review)  A strong contender primarily based on the incredibly powerful story.

Root Magic, by Eden Royce (my review) A powerful, moving, well-written story that is also important.

Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff (my review) ditto

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, by Anne Ursu (my review)  I think this is Anne Ursu's best book, which is saying a lot.  And the Newbery could use, I think, a bit of smashing the patriarchy.

Do you have any mg spec fic favorites in the running?

The Insiders, by Mark Oshiro

I still have a backlog of review to write for many excellent books read for this year's Cybils Awards; there were so many good ones that I read last fall but the reading was more important back than then the reviewing....and so this evening I offer The Insiders, by Mark Oshiro (September 2021, HarperCollins), is an affirmative portal fantasy that was pretty much a read-in-a-single-sitting for me.

Hector's family has moved to a new town from San Francisco, where he was happy and confident as a gay Mexican American theatre kid, with a tight group of friends and a taste for style and thrifting. Things go badly for him at his new school, when he's targeted by a truly cruel boy, Mike, and his crew of bullying lackies.  The school staff are no help, refusing to believe Mike is a problem.  Miserable and desperate to escape his tormentor, Hector finds a door in the school hallway that opens into a room that shouldn't be there.  It is retreat designed just for him, and though no time passes when he's inside, when the door opens again, the hallway is empty.

Soon he finds that two other kids, from schools in different states, have also found the room.  One is girl whose principal is about to tell her mother she is gay, the other a lonely non-binary kid. They too need an escape place, and the three become supportive friends.  But the room, though magical, is still a room, and Hector must come up with his own plan for exposing Mike and getting justice.

I have to say that the bullying part is hard reading.  It hurts to see Hector being treated so badly, and becoming sad and diminished, and this might well be painful reading for kids, especially gay kids, in similar circumstances (I am glad that although Mike's reasons for being such a homophobic monster are hinted at, we aren't given a redemption arc for him--that would have been too much to swallow).  The magical room part, and the friendships he builds both there, and, with a bit more effort, with other "misfit" kids at his own school, though, makes for warm and friendly reading.  And it's lovely to see Hector's supportive family (and maybe it's shallow of me, but I also appreciated the delicious Mexican food that was eaten along the way....)

It's great that a very gay magical-portal fantasy is out there in the world, and I hope that the kids (straight and queer) who need it find it, even if they can't get into the wonderful room.

disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Awards purposes.

The Unforgettable Logan Foster, by Shawn Peters

I don't remember any books about kids with superpowers in the comic book sense of the word back when I was an actual middle grade fiction reader (decades ago in the early 1980s....); lots of kids with preternatural gifts, but no young superheroes.  It's been fun over the past ten years to get a chance to read all the books in this subgenre, all with different twists, such as this new one--The Unforgettable Logan Foster, by Shawn Peters (January 18, 2022, Harper Collins).

Logan Foster is not a superhero.  He's a kid who's bounced in and out of foster homes, and now that he's twelve, his hopes of getting adopted are practically nil.  It's hard for him to imagine prospective parents who want a kid with an eidetic memory that pours information from his mouth in an unexpected, and often unwelcome, way, a kid whose social skills are non-existent.  But then Gil and Margie arrive, and maybe he has found a real home...

Except that Gil and Margie are seriously weird.  Logan's memory records every perplexing thing he notices, but the actual reason was not something he could have guessed--they are superheroes, whose adventures have been chronicled in the comic books Logan loves!  

Superheroes have been going missing, an earthquake-causing villain is terrorizing the west coast, and now Logan and his memory are pawns in a struggle to control his foster parents and the other superheroes who had dedicated their life to the common good.  And though Logan might not be traditionally super-powered, his gifts are key to saving the day!  (Helped by an new, actual friend--a neighborhood girl who is also more than she seems to be; she is a great character, btw).

It's a fun (also funny) and fast-paced, with mortal peril and considerable action once things really get going.  The reader is essentially told by Logan that he is unlikeable, but this is not the impression the reader, who sees from his point of view, gets (the reader, of course, doesn't actually hear a constant flood of whatever information is bubbling up in Logan's mind, which one can see would potentially be annoying). Instead, Logan, to me at least, was a neuro-divergent kid who desperately needed love, appreciation, and validation, and it was great to see him getting those from both his new foster parents and his new friend!  I hope we get another book--this one ends with some questions still unresolved.

In short, an excellent addition to the corpus of MG superhero stories!

disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher

this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (1/16/22)

Here's what I found this week; enjoy!  (and let me know if I missed your post)

The Reviews

Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch (Eva Evergreen #1) by Julie Abe, at Life of a Female Bibliophile

Hangman's Crossing by Will Mabbitt, at Cover2CoverBlog

Hilda's Book of Beasts and Spirits, by Emily Hibbs, at Twirling Book Princess

The Horror of Dunwick Farm by Dan Smith, illustrated by Chris King, at Scope for Imagination

Marco Swift and the Mirror of Souls, by D. E. Cunningham, at YA Books Central

Ophie's Ghosts by Justina Ireland, at Book Den

Pax: Journey Home, by Sara Pennypacker, at Sonderbooks

Pencilvania, by Stephanie Watson, at Charlotte's Library

Riley's Ghost, by John David Anderson, at Maria's Melange, Always in the Middle, and A Library Mama

The Silent Night trilogy, by R.L. Stine, at Tor

Steps Out of Time, by Eric Houghton, at Charlotte's Library

Tiger Honor, by Yoon Ha Lee, at The Bookwyrm's Den

Tilly and The Bookwanderers, by Anna James, at booksandscribbles

Twice Magic, by Cressida Cowell, at Fantasy Literature

The Unforgettable Logan Foster by Shawn Peters, at The Wandering Wordsmith

Authors and Interviews

 

John David Anderson (Riley's Ghost) at Nerdy Book Club

Pencilvania, by Stephanie Watson

 I still have lots of great books read for the first round of the Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction Cybils to review...and so I'm squeezing on in this morning to include in my regular EMG spec fic Sunday roundup.

Pencilvania, by Stephanie Watson (August 2021, Sourcebooks), illustrated by Sophia Moore, is a moving portal fantasy that will especially appeal to creative young readers.

Zara has been drawing all her life.  Encouraged by her mother, she fills sketchbook after sketchbook, and the walls of her house are covered with her drawings.  But then her mother gets cancer, and dies.  Zora and her little sister Frankie have to live with their grandmother, who is almost a stranger (in a basement apartment, in a different town). The spark of Zora's passion for art, so closely tied to her mother,  fizzles out.  Instead, in her anger and grief, she starts to furiously scribble over all her old drawings, destroying her old life.

But this destruction opens the way into the world of Pencilvania, and Zora and Frankie find themselves in a place where everything that Zora ever drew, including pictures of their mother, is alive.  Pencilvania is in danger, though--one angrily scribbled out horse, Viscardi, is determined to complete the ruination of Zora's art, and all the other scribbled out creatures she's drawn have fallen under his domination.

If Zora can find the mother she drew as a superhero, maybe she can save Pencilvania, and herself and Frankie, and make everything all right again.

And so their journey begins through a wildly magical world of art come to life, to the final realization that their mother can't, in fact, save them, and it's up to Zora.

Zora's grief is vividly real, and desperately sad.  But the story itself is not just about this sadness--Pencilvania is full of humor; many of its denizens are childhood scribbles (the blobby eeks for instance, and there's also many charming hamsters from the hamsters in pajamas series she drew.  A seven legged horse becomes her greatest helper, and he's a lovely character in his own right.  Sophia Moore's illustrations add to the charm.  The danger is very real, though, and Viscardi is a frightening villain....

It's encouraging to watch Zora grow in maturity during her adventures, and it's great that at the end she gets her creative spark back, and is willing to give her grandmother a chance.

In short, an engrossing read that offers an accessible look at  a difficult topic; best for younger middle grade readers.

(review copy received for Cybils Awards)

Steps Out of Time, by Eric Houghton, for Timeslip Tuesday

Steps Out of Time, by Eric Houghton (1979), is a rather nice time slip story I picked up in a used bookstore last month for $12, on the grounds that it looked old and I'd never heard of it...and I tend to like books with houses on the cover.  I am satisfied that I got my money's worth and can even say that I might well re-read it in future.

Jonathan and his father have just moved into a house of their own in a small English town (Jonathan's mother is dead).  The house needs lots of work to make it into a comfortable home, but both of them are optimistic about it.  Jonathan, shy and kind of social awkward, is a lot less optimistic about being the new kid as school, and indeed, quickly finds himself the butt of unkind jokes.  

Walking home from school, he takes comfort from the thick mist that gathers along the river at twilight... but then, walking through it back to his home, he opens the door to find a strange house, with strangers living in it.  He tries to believe it's just a confusion from the mist, but it happens again, and he's forced to accept that sometimes he walks into a different reality.  The oddest thing is that in that reality he is a boy named Peter, with Peter's words flowing naturally out of this mouth, and Peter's body doing things Jonathan couldn't do--rowing and climbing and drawing and painting brilliantly.  Lots of things are different in this reality--landmarks in the town have changed, and there is strange technology.  It is, in fact, the future.

Jonathan's time spent living as Peter, with Peter's family, especially his sister Helen, changes Jonathan; even back in his own body he retains some of Peter's muscle memory, and his art wins him the admiration of his peers and becomes a bridge leading to group acceptance.  And whatever magic drew him into Peter's time comes to an end.  There are lots of bits I liked about Jonathan figuring out he can draw and paint--full of good detail about shading and perspective and light, etc.  

If this sounds like a somewhat slight plot, that's because it is.  But it is very atmospheric and fascinating. I ended the book thinking the author was not very good at future tech, and indeed those bits of the book were often awkward reading, but then I did the math.  I was about the same age as Jonathan in 1979, and it is now about the same age as the fictional future time.  I wouldn't have had any trouble with the portrayal of the future if I'd read the book when it first came out, so it's not a fair criticism!  

One place where I am still very sure the author faltered is with regards to Peter's mother in the future.  Jonathan has lost his own mother, and is periodically embodied as another boy with a loving mother--this should have elicited strong and poignant emotion, but didn't.  A lost opportunity, which weakened the book.

But in any event, I think I would have loved it as a child* --and even as an adult, I find myself replaying it in my mind's eye, seeing the images from the story vividly, and filling in emotional weight that isn't in the original.  I was impressed enough by the book to see what else Eric Houghton wrote, and am   disappointed that most of his books seem to be for younger children than me (or about Sparticus).  I have added Gates of Glass to my tbr list, though.

*every summer my sisters and I went back to the United States to stay with our grandparents, and I tried to read all the books in the children's section of the Arlington VA Central Library.  Some summers I started at A. others at Z, but never in the middle, and so 1970s authors from about H to N are often new to me.

The Forgotten Memories of Vera Glass, by Anna Priemaza

The Forgotten Memories of Vera Glass, by Anna Priemaza (November,2021 by Harry N. Abrams), is a moving YA real-world fantasy, that is both a mystery and a meditation on loss.

In Vera's version of the real world, everyone is born with a magical knack of some sort--Vera can open locks, her older brother has light magic, and her younger brother can change the colors of anything he wants to.  These are all standard gifts, but others have powers that are beyond ordinary...and don't always use them ethically.

Vera is happy with her family and her tight group of friends, until she's suddenly struck by the sense that's she's lost something important.  There's a sink-hole in her heart, and she's not alone.  At first she tries to shrug it off, going on with her ordinary life--school, hanging out with her friends, getting ready for Halloween, her church's youth-group--but the sense of loss just keeps building, and she realizes she's not alone in feeling this way.

So she sets out to solve the mystery....before all that's left is the ache of unremembered loss.  Is the cause of the empty places in her heart supernatural? aliens? science gone askew?  witchcraft? But when you don't know what you've lost, it's hard to find it again...

I won't tell anything more about the details of the story, because that would spoil the fun of following the clues building up to a climax, an ending that presents a very satisfactory, and magically intriguing, moral dilemma. (nb--I read the ending partway through, which I regretted, because of wanting to know if everything worked out all right, and it did, so now you don't have to).

It's YA in that it's about high school kids, with dating moving towards real romance, but it's a fine read for older middle grade kids too.  These are high school kids still on the younger end of things, still dressing up for Halloween, still just starting out.  There's some familiar school drama--some misunderstandings, some strains in friendships--that is not quite the high stakes of books that are firmly young adult.  

One thing that sets this book apart from most magical mg/ya books is that Vera is a committed Christian--her belief in God and her church community are foundations of her life, and this is conveyed in a matter-of fact way that will, I think, ring true to lots of readers with similar, every-day beliefs who don't often see themselves in teen fiction.

The sense of loss that Vera and others around are feeling is, in this case, tied to a very specific set of circumstances, but it feels universal too--so much of growing up involves moving on from people, places, and things that once brought joy, without necessarily realizing this is happening. But the most memorable thing about the book is, hands-down, the very intriguing mystery of the forgotten memories of the title!  It's a good read, of the sort that feels both quick and immersive.

disclaimer-review copy received from its publicist

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (1/9/21)

Welcome to this week's gathering of mg sci fi/fantasy posts!  Please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews

Amari and the Night Brothers, by B.B. Alston, at Raise Them Righteous and Herding Cats

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo, at proseandkahn

The Captive Kingdom, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Pages Unbound

Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Delivery to the Lost City, by P.G. Bell, at Twirling Book Princess

The Dreaded Cliff, by Terry Nichols, at Thin Air

The Ghoul Next Door, by Cullen Bunn, at The Wandering  Wordsmith

The House on Hoarder Hill, by Mikki Lish, Mikki and Kelly Ngai, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Josephine Against the Sea, by Shakirah Bourne, at Kidlit Underground

Kingston and the Magician’s Lost and Found, by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi, at Raise Them Righteous

Mort the Meek and the Monstrous Quest, by Rachel Delahaye, at Book Craic 

No Humans Allowed (Dungeons and Dragons Academy) by Maleleine Roux, at Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub

The Ship of Cloud and Stars, by Amy Raphael, at Library Girl and Book Boy

Silverworld, by Diana Abu-Jaber, at Colorful Book Reviews

Relativly Normal Secrets, by C.W. Allen, at Bri's Book Review and Charlotte's Library

Riley's Ghost, by John David Amderson, at Say What?

The Tower at the End of Time, by Amy Sparkes, at Alex's Fiction Addiction

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at Bri's Book Review

The Unforgettable Logan Foster, by Shawn Peters, at Always in the Middle and Log Cabin Library

Authors and Interviews

Laurie J. Edwards (Unicorns of the Secret Stable series), at From the Mixed Up Files

Other Good Stuff

Gods, Spirits, and Totoros: Exploring Miyazaki’s Fantasy World, at Tor

Valinora Troy (a first round Elementary/MG speculative fiction Cybils panelist this past fall) shares some book she loves that didn't advance to the next round

Relatively Normal Secrets, by C. W. Allen

One of the fun things about being a panelist for the Cybils Awards is getting review copies of books you've been wanting to read, and also books you've never heard of. In December reading is foremost, but now that's it's January, I am determined to turn my attention to my elementary/middle grade speculative fiction review copy backlog! (it is not, frankly, going well, but I am always hopeful that someday there will not be urgent things sucking all of my energy away.....I could have done without the sewage pipe catastrophe, for instance.....)

But in any even, I have a review today gosh darn it! Relatively Normal Secrets, by C. W. Allen (September 2021, Cinnabar Moth Publishing), is a fun portal fantasy/science fiction story.

Zed and his sister Tuesday know that their parents are odd, and Tuesday in particular is determined to discover the secrets she's sure they are hiding. When their parents leave on a last minute "business trip," leaving behind Nyx, their mother's huge guard dog who has never left her side before, the kids decide to search the house for anything that might shed light on their strange parents. But this search is cut short when thuggish intruders, armed with magical, shapeshifting weapons, show up.  And Nyx the dog bursts into flames and attacks them. The two kids run from the house into the woods, and their day gets even weirder when a portal opens, transporting them to the world of Falinnheim, where Nyx is mysteriously there with them.

Falinnheim is a strange mix of sci fi modern and medieval fantasy, and Tuesday and Zed are totally at sea.  All they have is Nyx, who keeps displaying other unusual talents, and coded clues in fragments of nursery rhymes that keep turning up in unexpected places.  The enforcers of the despotic régime start trying to arrest them, and it's not until their captured by bandits working to overthrow the despot that they start figuring out that the secrets their parents were keeping from them were vastly more remarkable than they'd ever imagined.

It's a fun story--the sci fi aspects of Falinnheim's text freshens this alternate world, and the fact that Tuesday and Zed aren't chosen ones with a mission, but simply two kids hoping to find their parents and stay alive, is also a nice change from standard portal fantasy.  And Nyx is a great dog; it was fun to see him manifesting his powers!  Recommend for readers who enjoy mystery mixed with their speculative fiction, and want an enjoyable escape to an alternate world.

It ends with a huge reveal setting up a sequel, which I'm looking forward to!

Thanks, Cinnabar Moth, for sending us panelists hard copies of the book!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (1/2/22)

Here's the first round-up of 2022--may we all have a great year ahead, in which all books are page turners and our library holds come in gradually and not ten or so all on the same day.

Nothing from me this week, but this will change; there are lots and lots of great books I've read but haven't reviewed yet. If I missed your post, please let me know!

The Reviews

The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo, at Not Acting My Age

Jadie in Five Dimensions, by Dianne K. Salerni, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Honest June, by Tina Wells, at Cindy's Love of Books and Nine Bookish Lives

The Lost Amulet,  by Mary Farrugia, at Tinted Edges

Pony, by R. J. Palacio, at Sonderbooks (audiobook review)

A Wish in the Dark, by Christina Soontornvat, at proseandkahn (audiobook review)

two at A Library Mama--The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, and The Monster Missions, by Laura Martin

Authors and Interviews

Sasha Thomas (The Slug Queen Chronicles) at Storyteller Station (podcast)

Other Good Stuff

The Nerdie Awards for MG fiction include some great sci fi/fantasy books

The finalists for the Cybils Awards have been announced; here's the elementary/middle grade speculative fiction list!  (and of course it wasn't possible to shortlist every great books...Here's panelist Valinora Troy on some others she loved)

This year's EMG Spec fic Cybils Shortlist!

 

And here they are, this year's Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Finalists!!!

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• Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1) by B.B. Alston
• Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls (Cece Rios #1) by Kaela Rivera
• Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom by Sangu Mandanna
• The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
• Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland
• Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
• The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

Here are the blurbs for each of these, over at the Cybils website (where you can find all the other category's short-lists).

This is the most diverse group of EMG SF Cybils finalists ever, and it turned out that way just because these were the books the seven 1st round panelists agreed (after much struggle, gnashing of teeth, wailing etc, because there were So Many really good books that we loved) best fit the two criteria of literary merit and kid appeal.  

Thanks so much to the first round team, and good luck to the second round folks who have to pick just one of these to be the winner!

And please do consider applying to be a panelist yourself next year!  look for the announcement next August!  If you're interested, feel free to ask my questions and feel free to start reading now! There are lots of great books published and publishing between Oct 16 2021 and Oct15 2022, and it will be just as hard/rewarding to pick just seven next year!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (12/19/21)

A very light week....perhaps all the other folks who usual blog about middle grade are just as slammed and anxious as I am (currently quarantined and anxious as heck about whether family Christmas will happen, one kid who will be coming home from a semester in Ireland (travel in covid times is very chancy so I am worried) with a bunch of renovation projects to be completed ASAP, lots of work for my actual job to finish up, and a sick cat.)  But in any event, here's what I found!

The Reviews

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston, at Geo Librarian

The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams, by Mindy Thompson, at Charlotte's Library 

The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve, by Eoin Colfer, at Say What?

Kill the Farm Boy, by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, at Puss Reboots

The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, at Not Acting My Age 

Long Lost, by Jacqueline West, at Valinora Troy

The Mermaid in the Millpond, by Lucy Strange, at Book Craic

Orphans of the Tide, by Struan Murray, at Cracking the Cover

Two at The Booksearch--The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, by Anne Ursu, and The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera

There will be no mg sci fi/fantasy round up next weekend end; see you in 2022!  And I hope all of you stay happy and healthy.....

The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams, by Mindy Thompson

Yay me! I have a Timeslip Tuesday post! I also have a house that is slowly becoming habitable after a home renovation project, which involved moving the washer/dryer from a small back room to the pantry, freeing up the whole ex-laundry room for books. The floor of this room has now been varnished, the walls (mostly) painted, and bookshelves are back in place. The books in this room are all stock for my retirement plan (a new and used children's bookstore), though there are shelves of stock in many other rooms and in all the closets too, and on the top shelves in the kitchen that are too high for me to reach. So basically I am living in a used bookstore, a bookstore of dust (thanks to the floor sanding) and dreams, just like the title of today's book--The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams, by Mindy Thompson (middle grade, Oct 21, 2021, Viking Books)

Poppy also lives in a bookstore, named Rhyme and Reason. It is the heart of her world. It is also magical--its doors open to any place and time where there is someone who needs the respite a bookstore can offer. The year of the story is 1944, the place is Sutton, New York, and young men are starting to return from war. Poppy's big brother, Al, didn't go to war because of his asthma, but his best friend Carl did. When Carl is killed, Al is crushed not just by grief but by a huge sense of wrongness....and becomes determiend to use the bookstore's time travelling magic to save his friend, even though this is utterly forbidden by the Council that governs the world's magical bookstores.

When Al starts pushing the magic towards his goal, it has dark and dire consequences. The bookstore magic is a beacon of light against a terrible darkness, but now the darkness starts to find a way in. Things go wrong in the shop, and Poppy's father becomes very ill. Al isn't interested in the store anymore, and Poppy is basically the only person keeping it going. As Al becomes almost entirely a creature of darkness, Poppy struggles to pull him back from the abyss before it is too late...not just for her brother, but for the magical bookstores.

And she does set things right, with the help of two friends she makes in the magical bookstore world during this crisis, and with a time travelling trip of her own to a battlefield in Europe, the one in which Carl is killed. But it is a bittersweet ending....

The bookstore is of course a wonderful setting for a story, and the stress and anxiety Poppy goes through makes the story gripping (especially for those of us who like stories of kids desperately trying to keep the family business going, a niche subgenre I am fond of)! Lonely kids will relate, kids with older siblings going down dark roads will have the heartstrings pulled hard, as will kids who are forced to take on the work of grownups before they are ready for it. That being said, the playful magic of the bookstore never quite becomes overshadowed by the threat of the Darkness, although it came close (I found the threat of the darkness the least interesting part of the book, actually; existential magical threats aren't as interesting to me as small details of daily life).  

(I'm a bit surprised by the bit I remember most clearly--two characters from different time periods both like to sit in the same chair, and get into fierce arguments about it. Finally, Poppy gets fed up with their bickering, and instead of just getting annoyed as she usually does, she asks each of them why that particular chair, and when she knows their reasons, she's able to solve the conflict for good. A useful little life lesson that I appreciated!)

short answer--give this to any 9-11 year old  who loves bookstores and/or time travel!

this week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (12/12/21)

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

The Reviews

Calculating Christmas (Lily Sparrow Chronicles #2), by Kristee Ravan, at Andi's Middle Grade & Chapter Books

The Cinderella Theorem (Lily Sparrow Chronicles #1) by Kristee Ravan, at Andi's Middle Grade & Chapter Books

Diary of an Accidental Witch, by Perdita Cargill, at Twirling Book Princess

The Dragon's Blood (Explorer Academy #6), by Trudi Trueitt, at Say What? and Sally's Bookshelf

Escape Room, by Christopher Edge, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, at Charlotte's Library

Minecraft: The Haven Trials, by Suyi Davies, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Ophie’s Ghosts, by Justina Ireland, at Valinora Troy

RISE OF THE WORLD EATER by Jamie Littler, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

Ronan Boyle and the Strangeplace (Ronan Boyle #3) by Thomas Lennon, at Say What?

The Sherwood Proof (Lily Sparrow Chronicles #3) by Kristee Ravan, at Andi's Middle Grade & Chapter Books

Two at Locus--Even and Odd, by Sarah Beth Durst, and Better Together, by Christine Riccio

Three at alibrarymama--Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate, The Beatryce Prophecy. by Kate DiCamillo, and Robber Girl, by Franny Billingsley

Three at alittlebutalot - Greta and the Ghost Hunters, by Sam Copeland, Stuntboy, In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds, and Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City, by Rob Biddulph 

Authors and Interviews

Seanan McGuire (The Up-and-Under series) at Middle Grade Ninja

Harriet Muncaster (Victoria Stitch series) at The Great British Book Off

Other Good Stuff

Here's Kirkus' list of the best mg sci fi fantasy of the year.