4/3/22
This week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (4/2/22)
today's mg sci fi/fantasy round up is delayed
blogloving is over capacity, and I can't get in to find all the posts I was saving for today.....will keep trying!
In the meantime, here's a cautionary tale--don't put books on radiators.
Today's example of "Why Charlotte can't accomplish anything because of always having to spend precious time solving problems of her own creation"-- I thought, as I placed the library book on top of the radiator--"sure hope this doesn't fall down the back of it!" It did. And the book was too wide to just be pulled out (and even my small, delicate (?) hands don't fit) so it had to be lifted up and out with a piece of random home-renovation wood that was conveniently close at hand...ten minutes of my life, gone just like that!
But the book has been recovered, so all is well in the end.....
3/29/22
Black Was the Ink, by Michelle Coles, for Timeslip Tuesday
3/27/22
this week's round-up of mg sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs 3/27/22
The Dream Spies (The Nightmare Thief #2) by Nicole Lesperance, at Say What?
S.T.E.A.L.T.H.: Access Denied, by Jason Rohan, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
3/22/22
Out of Time, by Peter Lerangis, for Timeslip Tuesday
This is the third book of a series about a kid from New York, Corey, who finds out he's a time traveler, like his grandfather (there are more time travelers around than one would think...), as told in Throwback. Corey turns out to be a one of a kind time traveler, though--he can alter the past. And so he does. In the second book of the series (The Chaos Loop), he traveled to Germany right at the end of WW II to save his great uncle...but in doing so, he changed the past by keeping his grandparents from meeting, and so he was never born. The Corey who time travelled makes it back to his own present day in New York....but changed into a wolf.
His best friend, Leila (another time-traveler), is the only one who remembers the Corey who no longer belongs in the current time line, and she's determined to help him figure out how to become himself again. They find help from a secret society of time travelers, who are able to take the gene that gives Corey his unique ability and transfer it to her. Now the two of them, wolf and girl, head back to the cold winter at the end of Nazi Germany, hoping to give Corey's grandparents their chance to meet, while still keeping his great-uncle alive....
It is tremendously tense! Wolf Corey's health is failing (a side effect of his situation), and Leila isn't certain she can change the past...but it all works out in the end, mostly thanks to Leila's bravery.
I didn't register it at the time of my reading, but the secret society of time travelers, which includes "trackers" who can tell when the past has been changed, shouldn't really want to be able to create other's with Corey's gift--they are creating for themselves the problem of altered realities that they are contending with (unless Corey and Leila are responsible for them all)....but no matter. The story at hand is well worth reading regardless!
Time travel-wise, not only to we get to go back to Nazi Germany, but we also get a solo trip by Leila to witness the building of Central Park, and learn a bit of its history, which was very interesting.
short answer--a solid series, that I can easily imagine middle grade kids loving!
3/21/22
Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms, by Jamar J. Perry
3/20/22
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (3/20/22)
A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow, at Charlotte's Library
Much Ado About Baseball, by Rajani LaRocca, at Sonderbooks
3/19/22
A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow
3/15/22
Thirty Talks Weird Love, by Alessandra Narváez Varela, for Timeslip Tuesday
3/13/22
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (3/13/22)
Good morning fellow US time travelers. I hate springing foreword, but here we are. And here's what I found this week. Let me know if I missed your post please!
The Reviews
The Boy in the Post, by Holly Rivers, at Book Craic
Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang, at Feed Your Fiction AddictionNew in the UK, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
8 books for mg D and D fans at Book Riot
Here are the finalists for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, glad to see two mg books I loved! (Thornwood and Root Magic)- Victories Greater Than Death, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan)
- Thornwood, Leah Cypess (Delacorte)
- Redemptor, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet; Hot Key)
- A Snake Falls to Earth, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
- Root Magic, Eden Royce (Walden Pond)
- Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao (Penguin Teen; Rock the Boat)
3/11/22
Secret Beneath the Sand (Unicorn Island #2), by Donna Galanti, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe
Sam now knows her uncle's big secret--he's the caretaker of a magical island off the coast that's shielded by magical mist to keep it safe from discovery. It's home to unicorns and other magical creatures, and Sam is gung-ho to pitch right in and help out! But her uncle hasn't shared all his secrets. When the magic of the island starts draining away, threating the unicorns, one of the darkest of his secrets proves to be responsible for a monstrous manifestation on the island must be confronted. And Sam is the one who has to lead the charge, even though it upends her world.
This is a perfect series to give to an elementary school kid who loves fantasy and who is still getting their reading feet firmly under them! The sparkly cover with its shiny stars and the pleasant interior illustrations add kid friendliness. Although I enjoyed reading this, and appreciated that there was some complexity to the plot involving family secrets, I think the story doesn't have quite enough heft for the older "middle grade" age range of 11-12, but younger readers may well love it! I would have devoured this joyfully when I was seven or so....so give it to the kid that's been binging Early Reader and young graphic novels about unicorns!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
3/6/22
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (3/6/22)
Kingston and the Echoes of Magic, by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi, at Proseandkahn
Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff, at Sonderbooks
Julian Randall (Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa) at Fuse #8
3/4/22
Girl Giant and the Jade War (Girl Giant and the Monkey King #2), by Van Hoang
So I was eager to rejoin Thom as she tries to stop the Monkey King in his tracks. It is a pretty difficult proposition--she has to find her way back into the Heavens, and figure out if there is any weakness she can use against the Monkey King. Much of the story involves a quest for allies. Accompanied by her dragon friend, Kha, and a fox demon who was once a fairy, Thom tries to find someone who will help her get back to the Heavens before the Monkey King and his demons take over...though she's not at all sure what she'll do when she gets there!
Interestingly, the more she thinks about what the Monkey King wants--respect, and a place for demons in the Heavens--the more she can understand his point of view, though she can't condone his approach. Adding to her confusion are visits from the Monkey King's magical doubles--she can remember trusting him (though memories of betrayal are sharper). Her friendship with Kha is strained, and when she gets to the Heavens, she has to get the person she herself betrayed most unforgivably, the daughter of the Jade Emperor, to believe she knows what's she doing.
There's all the cultural richness that filled the first book, and plenty of adventures, but it's a bit more thought-provoking, in a good way. An excellent series for middle grade readers who enjoy kids having their lives upended by magical figures of legend, and a nice addition of Vietnamese mythology to the "books for kids who love Rick Riordan" genre. Thom is a very relatable kid (though the universal "finding one's self" middle school ARC is of course complicated by being the child of a deity, and also complicated by Thom's feeling out of place as a Vietnamese American kid) and even her sometimes questionable choices make sense for someone her age, and work well within the framework of the story.
This second book closes everything nicely, but I wouldn't mind more....
3/1/22
Operation Do-over, by Gordon Korman, for Timeslip Tuesday
Mason and Ty were the best of friends, as close as it is possible for two twelve year old boys to be. But then new kid Ava arrives at their school, they both crush on her hard, and she unwittingly destroys their friendship when she picks Mason....even when they are 17, the wound is still raw, and leads to trouble that gets Mason expelled from school.
Then, bang. A car accident sends Mason back in time, and now he is 12 again, still remembering the original time-line. Knowing what went wrong last time, can he save his friendship with Ty? (and while he's at it, his dog from a fatal encounter with a Rotter-rooter truck, and his parents' marriage?)
It is not the deepest time-travel story in the world, but not without interest and entertainment. Mason #2 decides to shake his life up by joining the football team (and as one of the top geeky nerds of the school, the others being Ty and Clarisse, a girl whose been their third wheel for year). This is a shocker to everyone, and leads to some quite funny football bits). It hits one main bulls eye of the middle grade experience--friendships of childhood strained by adolescence, and the whole exploration of other possibilities and identities will ring true to the target audience.
I would have preferred it, I think, from a time travel perspective, if Mason had lived out the entirety of his new timeline; instead, he gets another blow to the head that shoots him back to being 17 again, and it's rather abrupt--17 the second time around is a mix of the original timeline and difference from his being 12 a second time, and the reader is presented with this rather abruptly. I would have liked more time exploring this, but I realize this isn't the point of the book....
In any event, it's fun, fast read, and its easy to imagine kids liking it lots, though as an adult, it mostly evokes even more reflections on what a do-over like this would involve for oneself....
2/27/22
This week's round up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (2/27/22)
Welcome to this week's gathering of posts of interest to us fans of MG sci fi and fantasy! Please let me know if I missed your post.
The Reviews
The Counter Clockwise Heart, by Brian Farrey, at Where the Lost Boys Met
Haven: A Small Cat's Big Adventure, by Megan Wagner Lloyd, at Bookworm for KidsIn The Red, by Christopher Swiedler, at Fistful of Wits
Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts, by Erika Lewis, at Log Cabin Library and A Dance With Books
The Midnight Unicorn, by Alice Hemming, at Charlotte's LibraryThe Ogress and the Orphans, by Kelly Barnhill, at The Winged Pen
Pax, Journey Home, by Sara Pennypacker, at Not Acting My Age
Revenge of the Beast (The Beast and the Bethany #2), by Jack Meggitt-Phillips, at Get Kids into Books
A Storm of Sisters, by Michelle Harrison, at Bellis Does BooksWillow Moss and the Vanished Kingdom, by Dominque Valente, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads
Two at Book Page-Kelly Barnhill's The Ogress and the Orphans and Ethan M. Aldridge's The Legend of Brightblade
Authors and Interviews
David Anthony Durham (The Shadow Prince) at The Brown Bookshelf
Pam Muñoz Ryan (Solimar), at SLJErika Lewis (Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts)-- "The Benefits for Kids in Reading Fantasy" at Teen Librarian Toolbox
Beth McMullen (Secret of The Storm), at From the Mixed Up FilesLisa Stringfellow (A Comb of Wishes) at The Horn Book
Other Good Stuff
"7 of the Most Anticipated Middle Grade Fantasy Retellings" at Book RiotA close examination of heroine super powers in Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls at kidlitcraft
2/26/22
The Midnight Unicorn, by Alice Hemming
Here's one that will please the younger end of middle grade fantasy who are capable of reading, skill-wise, just about anything, but whose imaginations are still best served by simpler, more fairy-tale stories than one finds moving up through middle grade towards young adult--The Midnight Unicorn, by Alice Hemming (Kane Miller, 2022). (If you read between the lines of the above, you will pick up that this does not describe me, and indeed it was not a book for me....which doesn't mean it isn't one that will make other readers happy!).
The story starts with two twin sisters being sent away in desperate haste by their mother, the Queen, when her wicked younger brother attacks to claim the crown for himself. One girl, Alette, is sent off with the Queen's sorcerer, and the other, Audrey, goes with their nurse. They have very different childhoods, with one raised in the wilds and learning magic, and the other raised in a peaceful village, learning baking. But each feels the lack of their twin...even though they don't know of each other's existence.
Then Alette learns the truth, and sets out, with her father figure, the sorcerer, to find her missing half...and fate indeed brings them together. Through the magic inherited from their mother, they can take the form of beautiful unicorns, which stands them in good steed on the fraught journey back to the city. There they find unexpected treachery, but are able to reclaim the throne, though only one can be queen....
Transforming into a unicorn is something sure to delight many young readers (and indeed I liked it too). And those readers will, I think, be more ready than I was to accept the unexpected magical encounters along the way (for adult me, one significant encounter presented me with much more magic than the world building thus far has led me to expect!). Young readers also won't be surprised by how easy it is in the end for the girls to take control of the court, which has a noticeable lack of power-hungry nobles, flunkies, and indeed, any semblance of people actually running the place!
I enjoyed seeing the sisters figuring out their relationship after being raised so differently. Fierce, wild, and magical Alette has trouble accepting Audrey, who has lots less flash and flamboyance, but strengths of her own. I always like a good sister story, and this did not disappoint in this regard.
Short answer--not necessarily one to read yourself if you are an adult fan of fantasy, but one that should delight the target audience. It is also the first book in a series, which is a plus if you have a unicorn loving bibliophile to find books for!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
2/22/22
The Amber Crane, by Malve von Hassell, for Timeslip Tuesday
In The Amber Crane, by Malve von Hassell (YA, Odyssey Books, June 2021), a boy from the 17th century and a girl from the 20th cross paths in a moving story of war and perseverance. (content warning--there is a rape in the book)
Peter was born in Pomerania (on the Baltic coast, an area now split between Poland and Germany) just a few years into the thirty years war. Now a teenager, apprenticed to a master amber worker, war is all he's ever known. The armies of both sides have left a land full of refugees and memories of the dead, including Peter's older brother. Peter feels he can't compete with the shadow of his dashing brother, and his home, where his merchant father is on the verge of bankruptcy and his younger sister, Effie, is not like other girls--she is nonverbal, and non-neurotypical. And, soon after the book begins, she is raped and retreats even further away from other people. Peter is distressed but feels powerless to fix anything, and so he visits home infrequently. In his master's house, he has a place dreaming of being a journeyman, and working to make beautiful things of amber...the amber that washes ashore on the beaches that the powerful Guildmaster's have closed so that no-one can gather amber for themselves.
But one day, Peter, discouraged by life, wanders out onto the beach and finds two pieces of amber that call to him. And in defiance of the laws, he claims them, and starts, in the dark of night, to work them. One becomes a heart for Effie to wear (the amber is known to have healing properties). In the other, he sees a crane, and starts to set it free.
Magically, mysteriously, the amber sends Peter forward in time, where he meets a girl, a bit older than him, caught in her own war, WW II. Lioba is desperately travelling west ahead of the advancing Russian army, trying to make it back to her parent's home. His visits don't last long, but they are frequent enough so that he becomes invested in her journey, and all the while he is working on the amber crane....
Lioba's story is, for the first two thirds of the book, much more interesting that Peter's, but when Effie is accosted at a rare outing by the man who raped her, Peter takes action and attacks her assailant. The amber heart Effie wears is revealed and makes her the object of suspicion. She's accused of being a witch, and Peter is held for assault, and it is just as interesting as Lioba's increasingly hopeless quest to escape to a place where she can follow her own dreams.
Time travel-wise, this is great. Peter's reactions to the future ring true, and despite the circumstances, make for diverting reading, and the amber crane is a satisfactory bridge between the two time periods. Character-wise it is harder to call great, because Peter is not a very charismatic lead; he's not a Doer, and he's rather self-absorbed, so it's hard at first to care much about him. He gets a romance, but it didn't feel quite earned. Lioba, seen only in brief vignettes, is appealing, but her story remains secondary.
Where the book felt weak to me was with regards to the historical setting. If you go into this book knowing very little about the Thirty Years War, you will leave it not knowing much more. Yes, it's in character for Peter not to be thinking much about the bigger picture, but I wanted more about the context for what was happening in his world. The root cause of it was a religious struggle--Catholic vs Protestant, but religion barely registers in Peter's pov. It made him feel kind of dead to the world. I also wanted more geography; I knew it was on the Baltic Coast, but it still felt unrooted in place. There is a glossary at the end that includes some background, I wish it had been integrated into the story.
By the halfway point, I was absorbed in the story, and closed it with a sense of having read a good book, and as someone who loves reading about the making of things, I very much appreciated the amber-working, but it still fell just a bit short of what I'd hoped it would be.
2/20/22
this week's round up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy (2/20/22)
A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key, by Estelle Grace Tudor, at a thought on each page
The Secret World of Polly Flint, by Helen Cresswell, at Charlotte's Library
Jake Burt ( The Ghoul of Windydown Vale), at From the Mixed Up Files
From CBC--25 Canadian middle-grade books to watch for in spring 2022 (include lots of enticing fantasy!)
Likewise, March releases over in Ireland from Book Craic...so many I want!
2/17/22
Dust & Grim, by Chuck Wendig
“Viv!" Dustin said, scandalized.
“Fine. The supernatural,” the woman corrected. To Molly, in a lower voice, she said: “Monster is a bit of no-no word. We prefer not to use it, and they certainly prefer us not to use it. But we need common ground here, and I hope it helps you to understand.”
“Monsters,” Molly said, repeating the no-no word.
“The supernatural,” Viv corrected again.
“The nonstandard citizens,” Dustin said sharply."
2/15/22
The Secret World of Polly Flint, by Helen Cresswell, for Timeslip Tuesday
Polly is an imaginative only child of a coal miner father who's sympathetic to her sense of magic in the world (he is a great father, playing rhyming games with her, and with a keen awareness of the importance of a mind that can fly free). Her mother is also a good mother, but much more practical. They are happy...till the accident down in the mines that leaves her dad unable to walk. The family must move to their aunt's house when he gets out of the hospital...and her aunt, stiff and set in her ways, is not fun to live with.
But her house is near a large park land with a beautiful lake. And Polly learns that there was once an older village, that slipped down and away through the net of time and was lost. As she explores the park and the margins of the lake, Polly hears children she cannot see, and on Sundays she can here the sound of the church bells rising up from the lost village below.
Finally, she meets some of the lost villagers ("time gypsies" as they call themselves)--a raggedy old woman, a man, a baby, and a boy about her own age (though centuries older, of course). The villagers out of time can visit, unseen to everyone one but Polly, and return through a tunnel across the lake to their own place. But something goes wrong, and the little group gets stuck in real world time. Polly has to help figure out how to getting home...without coming unstuck in time herself.
The book started just lovely, with its sensitive heroine attuned to wonder, and the haunting story of the lost village. (I also liked the quotidian moving to unsympathetic aunt's house too). But somehow as things progressed it lost its touch of numinous magic (possibly because "time gypsies" made me feel uncomfortable, possibly because there was a whole group of them and the old woman was unpleasant). Still, it was enjoyable reading all in all even if it's not a new favorite timeslip story.
2/14/22
Ferryman, by Claire McFall
I'm always a bit taken aback when I am able to post a review that's appropriate for a Special Day--today (with help from its publisher) I have an enjoyable YA fantasy romance for Valentine's Day--Ferryman, by Claire McFall (October 2021 by Walker Books US, 2013 in the UK) .
Dylan isn't the happiest teenaged girl in England--her best friend moved away, her relationship with her mother is currently prickly, and she has no great passions or interests in her life. She has, though, just reconnected with her father, who she hasn't seen since she was five, and is going to be going to see him up in Scotland. Fed up with a miserable day at school, she cuts out to take an earlier train than she'd planned on, and in so doing, changes her life (and death).
Inside a tunnel there's a terrible accident. And when Dylan becomes conscious, she's alone in the dark (she can't, mercifully, see what's around her, but there are no other living people....). She makes it out of the train, and walks down the tunnel, hoping to find help, but instead she finds herself in a wasteland. There is one other person--Tristan, a strangely unhelpful and uncommunicative boy her own age. Having no better choice, she follows his lead. As they walk on with no sign of civilization around them, warning bells start going off in her head, and at last she gets the truth out of Tristan--she is dead, and he is the ferryman tasked with taking her to her final destination.
As they journey from safe house to safe house through the wasteland, beset by ghastly beings that long to rip Dylan's soul from her, they both succumb to the irresistible attraction that is growing up between them. It is an attraction that stems more from circumstance than from any deep knowledge of each other, and so as a cynical adult I have to admit I rolled my eyes, but given that Dylan has no strong anchors to her past life, and no information about what's next, and given that Tristan has spent uncounted centuries ferrying the dead with no chance to develop close personal relationships, it's understandable. And so Dylan makes the one choice that she has--to reject what lies beyond, and try, desperately and dangerously, to go back to her old life, and take Tristan with her.
It's a fascinating set-up, and I enjoyed the journey through the wasteland very much. I read it in one afternoon, with enjoyment. And even though I had to not think too hard about the growing love between them, it was sweet, and even though there's not all that much character development, it was easy as a reader to fill that in given the bits given. The ending doesn't resolve everything, but it is satisfying, leaving what comes next to the reader's imagine in a way that that is just fine. That being said, there are two more books in the series...and those who took pleasure in this unusual love will want to seek them out quickly!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher