Misc. pieces of paper, and other things

I have lost my most recent to be read list. I ran out of room on my previous one (here it is, the last time I scanned it, but more got added since):
and started a new one, tidy-like, with titles marching down the side of the page. Gone. So this morning I bravely started a new one, on the back of an envelope (First entry -- The Golden Age, by John Wright. Apparently very good sci fi). The envelope already had a picture of a rabbit, some things that look like lampshades, etc. and, curiously, a small note from myself: "Let's ask ourselves if this is something else." I didn't mean the bunny.

Probably it is something to do with the archaeology of place, about which I have been writing for the past few days. I give the envelope three days before I absentmindedly put it in the recycling bin. Here's another piece of paper from my desk, a 19th-century engraving (very romanticized) of the Native American fort I'm writing about.

But it doesn't matter, exactly, losing lists of books I might have loved, because I already have enough books to last for the several months of uninterrupted leisure that are not going to happen any time soon (my eight year old is now reading more every day than I am. This is not right, and obviously he needs more Chores). I have, however, begun to sort out an assemblage of books for Mother Reader's Annual 48 Hour Reading Challenge (for which I like to have about 25 books on hand, all of the light, tasty snack variety). It's coming up June 5-7, and is a lot of fun, with great prizes (although of course being a pious child I realize that it is the Love of Books and Friend etc etc that really matters.....perhaps). It would also be a prize in and of itself to move some of the books from my house to the library.

In other, more weighty, news, there's an online auction going on (of lovely things, bookish and otherwise) to raise funds to help a children's librarian and fellow blogger, Bridget Zinn.

And in other, non-weighty news, I got a blog award a little while ago, from Ashley at PikeAlicious Books, an award given to new blogs and blogging friends. Thanks Ashley!

So I am happy to pass it on to Kate, aka The Book Aunt, whose blog I have been meaning to put in my blog list for ages and I will go do that right now....

May 4th/5th new releases of childrens and YA fantasy/sci fi

Here are the new releases for May 4th and 5th. I continue to be stunned that so many of the books being published are science fiction or fantasy, mainly the latter (and if you want to see for yourself, the list from which I draw my own can be found here, at Teens Read Too).

I asked a little while ago if these lists were being enjoyed, and it seemed they were. But one faithful reader, my sister, has let me know she finds them boring, and that she prefers blogs that act as filters, recommending what is best instead of throwing the whole mass of books out there. And I know that I have not been filtering much, but this time of year I spend just about every free minute (all thirty six of them on an average weekday) working in the garden. Once everything is planted, I will be reviewing more. (In the meantime, I will make a random recommendation of The Hollow Kingdom, by Clare Dunkle, which isn't new (2003) but which is very good, and which I think my sister might like).

And now, the new releases, which I have decided to split by reader age.

9-12 Year Olds:

Dormia, by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski. "Alfonso Perplexon is an unusual sleeper. He climbs trees, raises falcons, even shoots deadly accurate arrows, all in his sleep..."




Freaky Monday, by Mary Rodgers and Heather Hatch. A student and her teacher switch places ala Freaky Friday.


Herbert's Wormhole, by Peter Nelson, illustrated by Rohitash Rao. A novel in cartoons. "This is a really cool story about our trip to the future. You're gonna love it because we're in it and it's got aliens and it's awesome." Going by the great review at Welcome to My Tweendom, I'm putting it on my eight year old's list.



Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart (The Knights of Arrethtrae), by Chuck Black.

YA:

Ghost Huntress Book 1: The Awakening, by Marley Gibson.

Cathy's Ring, by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman. Book three of the IF FOUND CALL 650-266-8202 series.

Dead Is So Last Year, by Marlene Perez. "Something very strange starts happening in Nightshade the summer that the eldest Giordano sister, Rose, gets a job working at Dr. Franken's research laboratory..."




Dragon's Heart: The Pit Dragon Chronicles, Volume Four, by Jane Yolen. Has anyone reading this read 1,2, or 3? Are they worth reading? Would I, or possibly my sister, like them?????

The Faerie Path #4: The Immortal Realm, by Frewin Jones. "...when a Faerie baby suddenly falls ill, followed by more and more Faeries—including her own sister Cordelia—Tania knows that something is terribly wrong. Ditto regarding vols. 1-3.

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5), by Rick Riordan.

The Plague, by Joanne Dahme. Historical fiction (medieval), but with a plot that I think, many fantasy readers might find appealing: "With the aid and protection of a quirky band of friends—a Spanish minstrel, a monk, a gravedigger, a band of merchants—Nell must evade not only the Black Prince, a practitioner of the dark arts, but the plague as well, as she fights to return to the King and country."


Wings, by Aprilynne Pike. "Fifteen-year-old Laurel has led a sheltered, homeschooled life in a very small town, so when her parents decide to move and enroll her in high school, she has trouble getting used to her new life. A life, as it turns out, that’s not at all like those of other kids. One clear sign is a winglike blossom that blooms on her back. Oh, and her new best friend, the scientifically minded David, reveals under a microscope that her cells are more plant than animal. But it takes an encounter at her old home with the handsome but decidedly different Tamani to convince her that she is a faerie." I'm looking forward to this one!

Edited to add:

Here's another, that I have seen called YA: Starfinder: Book One of the Skylords, by John Marco: "Steam trains and electricity are rapidly changing the world. Moth of Calio is obsessed with the airships developed by his friend Fiona’s grandfather Rendor, and dreams of taking to the air one day like his heroes, the Skyknights.But not everyone is happy to see humans reach the skies. For thousands of years, the mysterious and powerful race known as the Skylords have jealously guarded their heavenly domain. But Moth and Fiona are about to breach the magical boundary between the world of humans and the world of the Skylords."


The next lot comes out on May 12.

Gratification re The Magic Thief

So for several months I have been telling our children's librarian that she should read The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas. At last she did, and she loved it! She then chose it for next month's Share a Story book club (4th and 5th graders), and recommended it to the principal of our local elementary school. Who called her to say that she read it in one night, and loved it too! I am pleased.

So much so that I shall give the library the copy of Magic Thief: Lost that Harper Collins gave me, because come May 14th (the day after the book club meeting), there will be a lot of 4th and 5th graders in my corner of RI looking for it....and I feel a bit of an obligation to them.

My son has already decided that The Magic Thief will be the first book he reads when he turns nine. I think it will be just right for him. It is amazing to look back to last year, when I was worrying about his reading...today he has read of his own volition for two and a half hours, and he is reading more as I type. Now I have decided to be anxious about him not playing outside enough.

New science fiction/fantasy releases, May 1st edition

Another busy day today for science fiction and fantasy.

Arachnid: the Spider King (Beast Quest, No. 11), by Adam Blade. I've never read any Beast Quest books...perhaps when my eight-year old turns nine this summer, I'll get him book one.

Or perhaps this one:

Bella Balistica and the Forgotten Kingdom, Adam Guillain "A race for a map, a lost tomb, and tablets that could awake the forces of the gods take fiery spirit Bella Balistica on an exciting expedition to Turkey in this fast-paced, multicultural adventure." (It says May 1st at Amazon, but not yet available, so I dunno if this actually comes out today or not...). Sequel to Bella Balistica and the Temple of Tikal.

Beyond Corista (Shadowside Trilogy, The), by Robert Elmer.
"Oriannon, a very human-looking girl, has a very special gift: the ability to record what she sees and experiences like the hard drive of a computer." The third in a trilogy.

The Chronicles of Faerie: The Book of Dreams, by O.R. Melling "Dana Faolan, the spunky half-faerie heroine of The Light-Bearer’s Daughter, the third book in The Chronicles, has been using her access to the land of Faerie to escape the troubles of being a teenager in a new town. But a dark, mysterious enemy is determined to sever the two worlds forever, thus dooming both." Set in Canada, which adds interest, but there are several books that come before this one.

The Broken Thread, by Linda Smith. "Fifteen-year-old Alina comes from a long line of women who have gone to serve on the Isle of the Weavers, and she has always dreamed of doing the same." Based on the rest of the Amazon blurb, this one has gone on my list.



Cat Magic, by Holly Webb. "Lottie is happy to spend her time talking to the animals in the shop. Then one day, to her surprise, the animals start to talk back! Suddenly Lottie's summer is better than she could have dreamed - it's purr-fectly magical!"

The Dark Garden (Dark Man), by Peter Lancett "The Dark Garden" is part of an award-winning fiction series for young adults with a reading age as low as 5-7. Each book features Dark Man, a shadowy, brooding loner who has been recruited to play a part in a secret, cataclysmic struggle between good and evil.In "The Dark Garden", the Dark Man has been captured by the Shadow Masters. He hangs from a tree in a mysterious garden, his power drained. There is nothing he can do to break free. But in the moonlight, something moves. It is Claire. She has the power to turn moonlight into sunshine and bring the garden to life." Sounds intriguing. But what do they mean by that reading level bit? Fifth grader? Five year old?

Several books are coming out today in a series by Bill Myers called The Elijah Project, for 9-12 year olds.
On the Run (Elijah Project, The) Book 1. "Zach and his sister Piper are on the run, searching for their parents while protecting their little brother Elijah. Although he never speaks, there is something pure and supernatural about the boy that the powers of heaven want to protect and the powers of darkness want to destroy."
The Enemy Closes In (Book 2)
Trapped by Shadows (Book 3)
The Chamber of Lies (Book 4)

Crown Of Wizards (Secrets Of Droon Special Edition), by Tony Abbott. (9-12 year olds make out very well today). "Has Eric gone bad for good? The young wizard has joined forces with the villainous Moon Dragon, Gethwing, to seek out a magical artifact that will give them untold power." Never read any Droon books, no comment.

The Dark Planet (Atherton, Book 3), by Patrick Carman. I have heard very good things about this series, and intend, in my copious free time, to read them....

The Sisters Grimm: Book Seven: The Everafter War (Bk. 7), by Michael Buckley.

Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass, by Erica Kirov. For 9-12 year olds. "What would you do for an hourglass that stopped time?"

Guardian Of The Darkness (Moribito), by Nahoko Uehashi. Sequel to Gaurdian of the Spirit. "Balsa returns to her native Kanbal to clear the name of Jiguro, her dear mentor, who saved her life when she was six years old. But what should be a visit of truth and reconciliation becomes a fight for her life when she learns that Jiguro had been a member of King Rogsam's personal bodyguard. After Jiguro fled Kanbal with her, Rogsam sent the other bodyguards after them one by one--Jiguro's best friends, whom he had to kill to protect Balsa. Now, with the help of two Kanbalese children, Balsa must unwind the conspiracy surrounding Jiguro and the mystery of the Guardians of the Dark."

Memory's Gate (Time Thriller Trilogy), by Paul McCusker. The final episode of a YA trilogy.

Nightmare's Edge (Echoes from the Edge), by Bryan Davis. "Nathan Shepherd, in the company of his restored mother and two mysterious beings called supplicants, searches for his father in the land of dreams. With the collapse of the entire cosmos at hand, only his father holds the answers to what Nathan must do to save billions of lives."

The Princess Plot, by Kristen Boie. Perhaps not strictly speaking a fantasy, but close: "Jenna has just won the starring role in a film about a princess--sweet! In the wink of an eye, she's whisked off to a remote, romantic kingdom for the "shoot." But something's amiss: First, she finds out she bears an uncanny resemblance to the real princess, who has run away following the death of her father, the king. Then she learns that the conniving regent plans to use her to take control of the country, now being fought over by rebels. As the plot twists and turns, Jenna discovers just what she's made of--and just why she resembles the missing princess so much!"

Vamped, by Lucieene Diver. Vampire highschool fun!

The Demonata #8: Wolf Island, by Darren Shan.

Come back on May 4th for more!

Another release from April 28--Once a Princess, by Sherwood Smith

I am so sold:

Once a Princess (Sasharia En Garde)"contains a kick-butt mother-daughter team, a wicked king, a witty pirate with an unfortunate taste for neon colors, inept resistance fighters, a dreamy prince who gallops earnestly hither and yon, and a kick-butt princess in waiting."

I just discovered Sherwood Smith last fall, and am so happy to have done so. Jo Walton over at Tor has an interview up with her today, which is where I saw Once a Princess. It is a fascinating interview, by the way, with lots about world building, and writing, and publishing, and all those good things.

But that cover. I do not like that cover. I so deeply do not like that cover. If it weren't for the cover I would seriously consider buying this on spec as a mother's day gift (reading it myself first, of course, so as to be sure).

On May 1st, which would be tomorrow, the sequel comes out! Twice a Prince, it's called, and I do not think it is fair that he gets to keep his tummy covered. Although why bother to wear a shirt at all if you are going to expose that much chest.

Wonderous Strange, by Lesley Livingston

Just a quick commenting, not a real review, because this has already been out a while (and it has been waiting for me to review it for a while, and although it deserves reviews just as much as anyone else, time is short in spring. The crops need planting, etc.).

I'd already read Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely) when I approached Wondrous Strange, by Lesley Livingston (2008, HarperTeen, 327 pp), and as a result, I was uncertain. The plot sounded pretty similar--girl finds faerie destiny in urban setting with some bad faerie types trying to thwart her and her faerie/human romance. I was pleased to find that, plot aside, the two books very different in feel and texture, and that Wondrous Strange was a rather satisfying read in its own right. In fact, I would highly recommend this book to the 13 or so year old who hasn't yet begun reading paranormal romance/urban fantasy--I think this is a perfect introduction to those sub-genres. It is light-hearted and quite funny in places, which makes a nice change (I would like more bits of humor please, modern writers of YA fantasy), and it is not as Dark and Urban as many other books are. I liked the backdrop of the theatre, I liked the characters, and I liked the writing in a pleasant read kind of way.

Except that the male love interest is named Sonny. Why? Why was a child taken as a changeling by the Winter King named Sonny? Is it ironic, in that Sonny had no chance to be his parents' son? Also ironically, the name makes me think sun-burned farm boy (as unwintery as you can get in a name), and this is not right. I mean, Frosty would be wrong too, but what about something like "Seth?"

Other reviews can be found at The Book Zombie, Teen Book Reviews, and The Dreamer Reader.

New science fiction and fantasy releases of April 28

I'm a day late with these new releases, but what a day it was. There are several that I want very badly, several that seem to have a lot of appeal for the young teenage boy, and several that I think my own eight year old might enjoy lots. Incidentally, is anyone enjoying these lists that I have been putting up? I'd like to know, because it takes a while to do them...and please, if anyone knows of any I missed, or got wrong, or what have you, let me know!

(nb: blurbs lifted shamelessly from Amazon because I have not read a single one of these yet).

The Awakening (Darkest Powers, Book 2), by Kelley Armstrong. This is the sequel to The Summoning, a truly gripping story. I can't wait to read this one.

Council of Evil (Villain.net), by Andy Briggs. Jake clicked on "a mysterious Web site, Villain.net, that let him download powers like radioactivity and laser vision. Now he’s a superpowered global fugitive wanted for theft, kidnapping, blackmail . . . and the pending destruction of the planet. Not bad for a fourteen-year-old."

The Eternal Smile: Three Stories, by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Derek Kirk Kim. Three graphic short stories, that intertwine: "In the first, a comic-fantasy adventure, a plucky young knight vanquishes monsters to win the princess’s love. In the second, a wacky cartoon spoof on Uncle Scrooge, a tycoon frog’s latest wealth-grabbing scheme leads him to create an entire religion around a mysterious smile in the sky. In the last, a lonely peon trapped in a humdrum working world falls prey to e-mail fraud." I haven't seen any buzz about this. Has there been any? It seems like it might be rather wonderful.

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow, by James Rollins. "When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady, are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents—on the expedition from which they never returned—leads Jake and Kady to a strange world inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a world that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance."

Keyholders #2: The Other Side of Magic, by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. Sequel to This Side of Magic, this book (by the author of the Bailey School Kids series) is set in Morgantown, a town on the border between the real world and the magical world. "Natalie is surprised to learn from her neighbor, Mr. Leery, that her classmates Penny and Luke are apprentice Keyholders. A Keyholder’s job is to guard the border between the real world and the magical world. Natalie is even more surprised when she finds out that she could be a Keyholder too—if she forms a “link” with a rat named Buttercup. "

This looks like a series I might try on my eight-year old.


A Kiss in Time, by Alex Flinn, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, from the prince's point of view--only the "prince" is a modern teenager...





The Princess and the Bear, by Mette Ivie Harrison. I am very eager to read this one, the sequel to The Princess and the Hound.






Radiant Darkness, by Emily Whitman. A re-telling of the story of Persephone, with a twist. I want it!






Rise of the Heroes (Hero.com), by Andy Briggs (two books in one day!). "Toby, Pete, Lorna, and Emily are just average kids—until they stumble upon a Web site called Hero.com and download powers that turn them into superheroes. At first, flying, teleporting, and shooting lasers from their eyes seems like nothing but fun. But when the supervillain Doc Tempest kidnaps Toby and Lorna’s mom, things take a darker turn. "

Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies (Awfully Beastly Business), by David Sinden, Matthew Morgan, and Guy Macdonald. "When a sea monster arrives at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Beasts, Ulf the werewolf must risk his life to save it. But the evil Baron Marackai is back -- and beasts are on the menu! Can Ulf stop the cruel Beast Feast before he ends up as a tasty dessert himself?" Another I might try on my son.

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia, by Cindy Pon. "No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved—despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family—to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger's subservient bride banished to the inner quarters. But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn't only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined." Another that's on my list.

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter, by R. J. Anderson, yet another one I want-- "one young faery—Knife—is determined to find out where her people's magic has gone and try to get it back. Unlike her sisters, Knife is fierce and independent. She's not afraid of anything—not the vicious crows, the strict Faery Queen, or the fascinating humans living nearby. But when Knife disobeys the Faery Queen and befriends a human named Paul, her quest becomes more dangerous than she realizes. Can Knife trust Paul to help, or has she brought the faeries even closer to the brink of destruction?"

The Last Apprentice: The Spook's Tale: And Other Horrors, by James Delaney. Another series for 9-12 year olds, that "follows the terrifying adventures of the Spook's apprentice, Thomas Ward." I think I might read this series before putting them into my eight-year old's tender hands...sounds scary!

Which Ursula Le Guin to read first, plus "Another Story" by Le Guin, for Timeslip Tuesday

So Ursula Le Guin (perhaps my favorite author of all) has won the Nebula again, for Powers, and a commenter on my post about that asked which Le Guin would be a good one to start with. My husband and I talked about this on our way to work (he is also a fiercly loyal fan) and came up with two suggestions (if you have your own recommendation, please leave a comment!)

First would have to be A Wizard of Earthsea. This is as important a YA fantasy as they come, I think, the first book I know of to explore what happens when a boy goes off to wizarding school. Ged comes to the wizards' school on the island of Roke untrained and unlettered, but full of talent and eager to prove himself. Showing off his power one night, he unleashes a dark being stronger than his magic can contain, and is pursued by it through the archipelagos of Earthsea, until he decides to turn and be the pursuer himself. It is incredibly rich in details of character, place, and magic, and a cracking good read.

The cover at right is that on the first edition. Ged was written as being from a dark skinned people, and it has been a constant annoyance to Le Guin that this has never come across in any of covers or in the movie version (which has nothing much to do with the story in the book. Here's her take on it: A Whitewashed Earthsea: How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books).

Anyway, a Wizard of Earthsea is also a good place to start because it is the first of a series, and there are lots of very nice books that come after it.

My second recommendation would be The Dispossessed (1974), which won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards in 1975. It explores the life of Shevek, a brilliant mathematician on a planet colonized by idealists who have eschewed all personal property. Shevek's discovery of a way in which communications can pass through space instantaneously puts him at odds with factions of on his own planet, who are afraid of change, and takes him back to the planet from which his ancestors fled. There he must negotiate a society of property and inequality that wants desperately to possess what he has to give. This is an extraordinary book. It is a brilliant portrayal of communal life in a would-be utopian society (the book is subtitled An Ambiguous Utopia), on a planet with a marginal atmosphere, and Shevek is an unforgettable character--the ultimate idealist/intellectual/loner/dreamer/husband/father. I think I have made it sound kind of unexciting, but it is a gripping read and I love it dearly and I think everyone should read it.

And now here is an Ursula Le Guin story of time travel--"Another Story," published in 1994 in an anthology entitled A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.

On the planet of O, Deo grows up listening to his mother tell stories from her childhood on Earth. His favorite is the story of the fisherman, who leaves his family for the sea king's daughter. After one night, maybe more, he leaves her to return to land, only to find that many years have passed, and everyone he loved has died. Growing up, he reliazes that this is her own story- her family on Earth grew old while she traveled away from home, through light years of space.

He himself chooses to follow the same path, leaving his beloved family to study on Hain, a planet not quite so far away. It is, in fact, close enough that when, after a few years, he returns for a visit, only a decade has passed, and those he loves, including his dearest friend Sidi, are still themselves. They are older, Sidi is married, their lives have gone on much further than his.

But back on Hain, Deo and his teachers are coming close to a technology that will allow travel through space without time displacement, and Deo volunteers to try to use it to journey home. He does, and he doesn't make it back. Instead of arriving when he left Hain, he slips back through time to his first journey away from home, and his life, and Sidi's, become another story.

It's a lovely story. It is full of the anthropology that Le Guin does so well (on O, every marriage involves four people); in fact, some might find that there is a bit too much on the customs of that place, and not enough Action. But I myself like the carefully constructed world that is the backdrop for Deo's emotionally intense journey. The resonance of paths that we could have taken, the chance to go back and take them again, makes this one of my favorite of Le Guin's stories.

Nebula Awards Announced--Powers by Le Guin wins!

Oh my gosh. I am stunned by the news that Powers (Annals of the Western Shore), by Ursula Le Guin--a YA novel, character driven and gently paced--has won the Nebula. My money was on The Name of the Wind all the way, which was on the longer list for the Nebula this year, but not the final ballot. *


Is this the first time a YA book has won the best novel award? I'm very pleased, because I love Le Guin in general, and am happy every time she gets recognition, but since I think that the second book in this series, Voices, is much better, I'm a little mmph-ish.

The Andre Norton Award, which specifically is awarded for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, went to Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room), by Ysabeau Wilce.

*edited to add--here is what Le Guin said about The Name of the Wind: "It is a rare and great pleasure to find a fantasist writing not only with the kind of accuracy of language absolutely essential to fantasy-making, but with real music in the words as well. Wherever Pat Rothfuss goes with the big story that begins with The Name of the Wind, he'll carry us with him as a good singer carries us through a song."

The Magic Thief: Lost

The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas (Harper Collins), was one of my favorite books of 2008. It was one of the first books I read for the Cybils last fall, and it stayed firmly in the small group of books I was determined to push onto our final shortlist. Happily, no pushing was required.

Here's the blurb I wrote for the Cybils website:

"This fast-paced, fun, and engrossing story tells of a young thief who has survived on the strange streets of Wellmet alone, thanks to his quick hands and quick wits. But when Conn picks the pocket of the wizard Nevery, and pulls out the stone that is the locus of Nevery's magic, his life changes. As the wizard's new apprentice, Conn has only thirty days to find his own locus magicalicus, or lose his new status. Much worse is the fact that someone, or something, is sucking the magic out of Wellmet, and Conn has to use every bit of his quickness, and every bit of his new-found magic, to defeat the Magic Thief. A great adventure, with great characters!"

And so when book number two, The Magic Thief: Lost(coming May 12), arrived at my door courtesy of Harper Collins (thanks!), I felt delight, and a tinge of trepidation. Would I enjoy it as much? Would Conn's utterly engaging voice still be there? Would the really swell cast of supporting characters continue to delight?

So I started reading....and enjoyed it no end.

At the end of Book 1, Conn's new-found locus magicalicus went up in smoke, so he's back to a nebulous status--still Nevery's apprentice, but no longer welcome at the school of magic. But Conn is convinced that he can still reach the magic of Wellmet, if only he can find exactly the right combination of magically explosive ingredients. What with the creepy dark shadows turning people to stone in the night, and his own feeling that the magic needs him, he can't stop his incendiary experiments just because he might blow the house up and be exiled from Wellmet...

I will stop there, so as not to be spoilerish.

As I read, I would occasionally stick my head out of the book to ask myself why I was enjoying it so much. The brisk pace? The engaging characters, who are interesting because of what they say and do, without Prineas ever going into much authorial detail about their inner lives? The insertion of letters and journal entries from points of view of characters other than Conn, which I enjoyed very much? It's not the plot, qua plot, that hooks me, although I have no quarrel with it. I'm thinking that it is mainly because of Prineas' writing.

Here's an example, found just now by opening the book at random:

"His spell book was fat, held closed with a lock because it was bursting with paper markers and dried leaves and interesting bits of maps."

I find it charmingly immediate, while being full of backstory that we'll never know about (why the leaves? I try hard, myself, to keep organic matter out of my favorite books). It's friendly writing, if you know what I mean, without fancy-pants latinate vocabulary words, or overuse of adjectives and adverbs, or epically run-on descriptive sentences.

And so it's hard for me to imagine the fantasy-reading middle schooler who would not enjoy this series, and it makes great escapist pleasure reading for older readers too.

Disclaimer: Book 3 of the series (Magic Thief: Found) has been written and is in the works, and book 4 is coming along well, which is very nice. However, I was dismayed to read at Sarah Prineas' blog that Harper Collins has not yet agreed to publish book 4--they are waiting and seeing. Obviously, I want to read Book 4, and so want Book 2 to sell just as many copies as it can. But I am as certain as can be that I would have written the same review even if I hadn't known this.

Incidentally, the paperback of The Magic Thief has just been released, and includes Extras!

Appendix for those who have read Book 1:

Perhaps, like me, one of your favorite characters is Benet, the taciturn knitting henchman who bakes a mean biscuit. Here is a teaser from the second book:

"I caught a look at Benet's face. It was gray, and his lips were darker gray, and he was still as stone. He was stone. Nevery kept saying the spell, and I laid blankets over Benet." (page 81)

This was a very worrying part.

Shortlist for the 2009 Carnegie Awards

The press release for the Carnegie Awards calls these "seven outstanding ‘rites of passage’ novels." In all seven, the main characters are boys.

COSMIC, , by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan, age range 8+
BLACK RABBIT SUMMER, by Kevin Brooks (Puffin, age range 14+)
AIRMAN Eoin Colfer (Puffin, age range 9+)
BOG CHILD Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling Books, age range 12+)
OSTRICH BOYS Keith Gray (Definitions, age range 12+)
THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO Patrick Ness (Walker, age range 14+)
CREATURE OF THE NIGHT Kate Thompson (Bodley Head, age range: 14+)

I am particularly happy to see Airman on the list--this was one that impressed all of us on the Nominating Committee for the Cybils so much that it made our shortlist for that award, and it hasn't yet gotten the attention it deserves.

Here's the blurb that my co-panelist Amanda Feller, who blogs at the Shady Glade, wrote for the Cybils website:

"Conor Broekhart love of flying started when he was born in a falling hot air balloon at the 1878 Paris World Fair. Conor dreams of inventing the world's first airplane, a dream that is interrupted when he is accused and jailed for a crime he didn't commit. But Conor's not about to let the person truly responsible get away with it. A rousing adventure story with a sensible hero, with a dash of Jules Verne and The Count of Monte Cristo, Eoin Colfer's Airman will satisfy readers young and old alike."

Black Rabbit Summer and Ostrich Boys I have never heard of...

Here's the Guardian's take on it.

11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass for Timeslip Tuesday

11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass (Scholastic Press, 2009, 267pp, middle grade).

Amanda and Leo were born on the same day, in the same hospital. Their parents didn't know each other, and didn't particularly want to, but fate, helped by a mysterious old woman who's lived in their town for longer than anyone can remember, throws the children together. And Leo and Amanda spend birthday after birthday together, best friends.

The tenth birthday, however, was different. After it was over, Leo and Amanda weren't on speaking terms anymore. Now the eleventh birthday has come, the first where each kid is having a separate party. Amanda can't wait for it to be over with.

There's just one problem. The next day it's her eleventh birthday all over again.

Trapped in a daily time shift, Amanda slowly starts to push at the borders of temporal inevitability--at first reluctant to change anything, she gradually grows more confident in her daily exploration of her eleventh birthday. When she realizes that Leo too is repeating that particular day, together they set out to mend their friendship, and decide to push the boundaries of what they can do (Amanda, for instance, auditions as a drummer for a local rock band, Leo reads poetry at the open mic event at the local senior center). With every night washing out the consequences of the day before, life is whatever they want to make of it. But even the best birthday grows old, and so they set out to find the strange old woman who they suspect might have the solution to the time trap they have fallen into.

This is a beautifully realistic book, with the angsts of eleven-year old life front and center, but it is also a beautifully magical book, a what-if story of the nicest sort, that leaves the reader with lots to day-dream about. This dualistic nature might annoy the middle grade reader set on reading Fantasy (the consequences of the fantasy are explored much more fully than the magic itself), or the one fixed on Realistic Fiction (who might find the magic an irritant), but I think it more likely that it would make a fun change for either. To borrow the criteria of one of the judges in the School Library Journal Battle of the Books, I think my child self would have enjoyed it quite a bit. My adult self found it a very pleasant book to read while recovering from the flu (except that I kept imagining reliving day after day of recovering from flu....)

Some other reviews can be found at Teen Lit Review, Welcome to my Tweendom, and A Year of Reading.

At the Guadian Book Blog, a new look at The Death of Grass

I've never read The Death of Grass, by John Christopher, which has just been re-issued. At the Guardian Book Blog, Sam Jordison, who did read it as a child, re-visits it, and finds it much, much scarier now that he's a grown up.

"As a boy, I read it primarily as an unusually dark, but highly unlikely imaginary game. Safe in my schoolroom, knowing that the cold war was winding down and blissfully unaware of the approaching recession of the early 1990s, Christopher's threats about A-bombs and food shortages seemed remote, even quaint. Now I have a family of my own and the cold winds of financial meltdown are beginning to bite, the desperation in The Death of Grass seems far closer."

I tended to avoid things that were disturbing as a child, but now, as an adult reading the slew of distopian, cataclysmically awful (plot, not writing) books that are so easy to find in the YA section, it's pretty easy to be anxious about the future.

Sci fi/fantasy releases on the 20th and 21st of April

The 20th has just one book The Reformed Vampire Support Group, by Catherine Jenks. Booklist described the cast of characters as "barely likable whiners and pathetic hand-wringers" but went on to praise the book's humor. I myself don't mind whining, but I do prefer likable whiners (my children come to mind)...so I might pass for the moment on this one (but see the enthusiastic recommendation in the comments).


The 21st, on the other hand, brings with it several books:

Bad Girls Don't Die, by Katie Alender. A spooky sounding story of ghostly possession--I want it!

Warriors: Power of Three #6: Sunrise, by Erin Hunter

Vampire Kisses: The Beginning, by Ellen Schreiber

And then, of course, there's Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely), by Melissa Marr. Many of us are looking forward to this. But did you know that she has begun a new series of graphic novels, set in the same universe, also releasing today?

Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales, Volume 1: Sanctuary, by Melissa Marr, illustrated by the Xian Nu Studio. From the Amazon blurb:

"The desert is far away from the schemes of the Faerie Courts—and that's how Rika likes it. Once a mortal and now a faery, Rika seeks isolation and revels in her ability to appear invisible to humans. Then, she meets him. Artistic and kind, Jayce is the last person Rika wants to hide from.

But change is coming, challenging Rika's freedom and her new romance, as her past pursues her, even into the heart of the desert. . . ."

The Shirley Jackson Awards short list

The Shirley Jackson Awards honor outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. While I agree that "The Lottery" is an utter triumph of a short story, and The Haunting of Hill House is very scary, my favorites of Jackson's books are the two about her family (Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons), and if you are a parent and haven't read these yet, you should. As is true for the lives of so many of us with small children, there is suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic in plenty. They are very funny (even for those who don't have children).

I am not sure that can be said for any of the books on the awards shortlist:

• Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead Hardcover)


• The Man on the Ceiling, Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries)


• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)


• The Resurrectionist, Jack O’Connell (Algonquin Books)


• The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)


• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)

I am happy to see Tender Morsels getting another nod (which is the main reason I'm posting this), because I liked it very much, even though it is not, um, funny.

The awards will be presented on Sunday, July 12th 2009, at Readercon 20, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Another award presented at Readercon is the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award. From the Science Fiction Awards Watch website:

Winner receives

Recognition at last.

Submissions method

None, but it helps to have been forgotten.

Slob, by Ellen Potter

Slob, by Ellen Potter (May 14, 2009, Philomel Books, 197 pp)

Every day, 12-year old Owen gets three oreo cookies in his lunch. They give him a moment of bliss, no matter how bad the school day. Even though he would rather eat a whole package, he's smart enough (with an IQ just shy of genius), to know that he's plenty fat already. It's hard for him to forget, what with the constant reminders from his sadistic gym teacher and sundry classmates. But his cookies comfort him.

At home, more comfort comes from his work on Nemesis, a mass of tangled wire coils and hardware that Owen and his little sister have scavenged from demolition sites. Nemesis, if successful, will let him watch what was shown on television on a certain night two years ago. When he wasn't fat.

Then one day someone takes the oreos from his lunch box. And it happens again, and again. The obvious suspect is the new kid, the one with the scary scar, rumored to have a switchblade in his sock. Owen decides it is time to take action...

Although Owen, an engrossing and sympathetic narrator, is front and center, his little sister, Jeremy, has an engrossing and powerful sub-plot of her own. She is, in fact, one of the most engaging fictional little sisters I've encountered for a while, and her presence in the book adds a lot.

Slob isn't "a story about a fat boy," although Owen is fat. Nor it is about the misery of middle school, although that is there too. It is much more, and Potter does an incredibly skillful job moving delicately from the mystery of the cookies to larger story arcs of love and loss and growing up. (It made me cry a bit at the end).

Other reviews can be found at Kids Lit and Bookshelves of Doom.

Today's science fiction and fantasy releases for kids and teenagers

I am rather glad that I have this rather mechanical post to write. I do not think it would be wise for me to try to write a review at this point in my sickly and sleep-deprived life.

Here are the science fiction and fantasy books for kids and teenagers being released today (from the calender at Teens Read Too).

The Eternal Tomb (Oliver Nocturne) by Kevin Emerson. Latest in a series about a teenaged vampire, for ages 9-12.
Grim Hill: The Forgotten Secret by Linda DeMeulemeester. The third in another series for 9-12 year olds, perfect for soccer-loving girls who like magic (I've read the second book in the series, so I can say this in all honesty).
Last Battle Of The Icemark (Icemark Chronicles), by Stuart Hill. The third book in a series for, yes you guessed it, 9-12 year olds. Magic. Battles. Parents fighting against their daughter.
The Mad Scientist (Meet The Kreeps), by Kiki Thorpe. This is the fourth book in yet another series for 9-12 year olds, but looks younger than those above. I'm not sure if its really science fiction, although it's about science experiments, and the series is described as "spooky."
Necropolis (The Gatekeepers), by Anthony Horowitz. The fourth in a series for 9-12 year olds. I am having trouble believing this one. It looks and sounds older. Has Amazon gone mad?
The Silver Door (Moon & Sun), by Holly Lisle. Sequel to The Ruby Key, for 9-12 year olds. I believe this one.

And finally, a stand-alone (I'm guessing here) YA book!

Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic Book), by Patricia Wrede, which looks rather good--here's the Amazon blurb:
"Eff was born a thirteenth child. Her twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son. This means he's supposed to possess amazing talent -- and she's supposed to bring only bad things to her family and her town. Undeterred, her family moves to the frontier, where her father will be a professor of magic at a school perilously close to the magical divide that separates settlers from the beasts of the wild."

This would be my pick from today's new releases. I do, however, suspect it of being the first in a new series for 9-12 year olds.

Tomorrow there's only one release, so I'm sticking it here:

Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; an anthology of fairy tale retellings.

More to come on the 20th.

And now, neglecting the piles of new exciting books I really want to have the time and energy to read, I shall fall back on the soothing comfort of The Four Graces, by D.E. Stevenson. I don't mind, exactly, being home from work, but I do object to being home from work too sick to read new books.

Today's science fiction/fantasy release for kids and teens

I have been having a rather pleasant time browsing the release date calender at Teens Read Too, and thought it would be fun to share the science fiction and fantasy books being released today! Mostly I haven't read them, so the descriptions are gleaned rather than guaranteed. If time permits, I'd like to do this on a regular basis...so I've penciled in more to come tomorrow.

The Amulet of Amun Ra by Leslie Carmichael. Time travel to ancient Egypt for middle grade readers.
The Battle for Duncragglin by Andrew H. Vanderwal. Time travel to 13th century Scotland.
Bloodhound (The Legend of Beka Cooper, Book 2) by Tamora Pierce. Sequel to Terrier.
Discordia: The Eleventh Dimension by Dena K. Salmon. An online fantasy game becomes real.
Fortune's Folly by Deva Fagan. A very charming quest to fulfill a made up prophecy, my review.
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates by Philip Caveney. Pirates and magic.
The Softwire: Wormhole Pirates on Orbis 3 by PJ Haarsma. Third in an action packed space adventure series.

I'm pleased to see there are two timeslip books in this lot, that being one of my favorite sub-genres (and later this evening I will I hope be publishing today's Timeslip Tuesday entry...but who knows. We are all sick).

Edited to add: Here's another--The Dragon of Trelian, by Michelle Knudson.

The day before Easter

I went out in the snow (snow. so spring-like. not.) with the snipers to cut forsythia (which is not actually blooming qua blooming, but there is the suggestion that it might be about to) so that we would have something on which to hang our little egg ornaments, (the tender perennial tree we had been using in years past objected to not being watered while we were away at Christmas, and still hasn't grown any new leaves, although I am still hopeful) and while I was outside I decided to go see if the chickens had laid any eggs, which they hadn't done for the last few days. But today they had--two of them, beautiful brown eggs, so seasonally appropriate-- so I carefully put them in my coat pocket and then cut the forsythia and went inside, totally forgetting I had raw eggs in my pocket, and sat down before taking my coat off. Sigh.

And then I read a very soothing ya book about a young nursing student in New York, imaginatively titled Young Nurse in New York, by Diane Seidner (1967) while my coat dried in front of the wood stove.

Crazed vegetables, Elizabeth Enright's mother, and gardening in times of war

It was strangely appropriate that, while I was reading Bones of Faerie, which features crazed vegetables fighting their planters, I should receive an invitation to a war gardening event* bearing this picture:



Curious to know who the creator of such demonic potatoes was, I looked further, and found another war gardening poster, in which the vegetables are even more insane:

The artist is Maginel Wright Enright Barney, a children's book illustrator from the first half of the twentieth century who was the sister of Frank Lloyd Wright and mother of Elizabeth Enright.

Enright is one of my favorite children's book authors, and features a World War II victory garden in one of her books, Then There Were Five. The children in that book decide to do help the war effort, in part part by expanding the vegetable garden. While Rush and Randy head off in the surrey to collect scrap, poor little Oliver is left behind to weed the massive garden: "Weeds....He knew plenty about them by now. There was one called purslane, with a lot of fat, pink tentacles, that grew up overnight in countless numbers. There was quack grass, coarse and hardy, its roots stretching under the earth in endless nets. There were yellow dock, and lamb's quarters, and velvetleaf...such stubborn boring little enemies."

I am fascinated by Victory Gardens, and the Women's Land Army. On my list of books to read is Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War (aka WW I), by Elaine Weiss. I think this would make a great basis for a YA book--a young girl in her first year, at, say, Bryn Mawr leaves college to head off to the war gardens of California to become a farmerette.

The only YA fiction book I know of that focuses on the Women's Land Army is A Strange Enchantment, by Mabel Esther Allan. It's about an English girl in WW II who signs up, goes through the rigorous training, and heads out to farm...it's very good, one of my favorite books in fact. Although this is a UK book, it was also published in the US, and was bought by many US libraries, so do check to see if your system still has it!

*for anyone in the Greater Providence RI area who might be interested, "Green Zones: From the War Garden to Your Garden" will take place Tuesday, May 5th, at 5:30, at Firehouse 13, 41 Central Street, Providence. More information can be found here: http://www.greenzonegarden.wordpress.com/

Updated to add: "The tomatoes, they come out of nowhere, or just in weird places," Liu said. Read more about the future of robotic gardening here.