New releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens--the second half of Feb., 2012

Here are the new releases of sci fi and fanstasy for kids and teens from the second half of February 2012; my information comes from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs are from Amazon. I myself cannot wait for The Humming Room!

Middle grade (ages 9-12 ish)

DEAD WOOD by Andy Croft "Holly's family move to the old house so her dad can do his job: bulldozing the ancient trees to make way for a housing estate. But there's something haunting the old house. Something old, and angry, that doesn't want the trees cut down. Something alive... Highly readable, exciting books that take the struggle out of reading, the Wired and Wired Up series encourage and support reading practice by providing gripping, age-appropriate stories at a manageable length and reading level."

THE HUMMING ROOM by Ellen Potter "Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret."

THE LEGEND OF DIAMOND LIL: A J.J. TULLY MYSTERY by Doreen Cronin "After his last run-in with Vince the Funnel and the mystery of the missing chicks, J.J. the search-and-rescue dog is ready for some much-needed R & R. But just when he thinks he has everything under control, there’s a new problem to worry about: Diamond Lil, a shiny new dog who’s taken up residence next door. Suddenly Moosh and her chicks are spending an awful lot of time with their fancy friend, talking about weird things like fluffy feathers and good posture. And Lil’s not the only new kid cramping J.J.’s style. There’s a possum loose, and it’s up to J.J. to keep everyone safe. But the questions keep piling up. Is Lil all that she seems? And how does the possum keep finding her way to the chicken coop?

In this hilarious follow-up to The Trouble with Chickens, the clues, plot twists, and one-liners add up to an unputdownable read."

SHIP OF SOULS by Zetta Elliott "When Dmitri, an eleven-year-old bird-watcher and math whiz, loses his mother to breast cancer, he is taken in by Mrs. Martin, an elderly white woman. Unaccustomed to the company of kids his own age, D struggles at school and feels like an outcast until a series of unexpected events changes the course of his life.

First, D is asked to tutor the school’s basketball star, Hakeem, who will get benched unless his grades improve. Against the odds, the two boys soon realize they have something in common: they are both taunted by kids at school, and they both have a crush on Nyla, a beautiful but fierce eighth-grade girl. Then Nyla adopts D and invites him to join her entourage of “freaks.” Finally, D discovers an injured bird and brings it home from the park.

D is stunned when the strange bird speaks to him and reveals that she is really a guiding spirit that has been held hostage by ghost soldiers who died in Brooklyn at the start of the American Revolution. As Nuru’s chosen host, D must carry her from Brooklyn to the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan, but the ghost soldiers won’t surrender their prize without a fight."

THE STAR SHARD by Frederic S. Durbin "This beautifully written fantasy tackles the issues of slavery and freedom. Twelve-year-old Cymbril is a slave on Thunder Rake, a gigantic wagon city that rolls from town to town carrying goods to be sold by its resident merchants. The Rake’s master purchases a new slave, a mysterious boy named Loric who is one of the magical Fey. Because he can see in the dark, Loric’s duty is to guide the Rake through the treacherous wilderness at night.Cymbril and Loric secretly join forces to plan their escape—soon the two friends thread their way through a series of increasing dangers, encountering an enchanted market and deadly monsters as their one chance for freedom draws nearer."

WHAT THE DOG SAID by Randi Reisfeld & H.B. Gilmour "Ever since her police officer father was killed a few months ago, Grace Abernathy hasn't wanted to do much of anything. She's pulled away from her friends, her grades are plummeting . . . it's a problem. The last thing Grace wants is to be dragged into her older sister Regan's plan to train a shelter dog as a service dog. But Grace has no idea how involved she'll get-especially when a mangy mutt named Rex starts talking to her. Has Grace gone off the deep end? Or might this dog be something really special-an angel? A spirit? Either way, he is exactly the therapy that Grace needs."

Young Adult:

ALLEGIANCE: THE LEGACY TRILOGY by Cayla Kluver
A BEAUTIFUL EVIL by Kelly Keaton
BZRK by Michael Grant
THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU AND ME by Jess Rothenberg
FAERY TALES & NIGHTMARES by Melissa Marr
FEVER: THE CHEMICAL GARDEN by Lauren DeStefano
FORGIVEN: A DEMON TRAPPERS NOVEL by Jana Oliver
FRIENDS WITH BOYS by Faith Erin Hicks
FUGITIVES: ESCAPE FROM FURNACE by Alexander Gordon Smith
THE HUNGER PAINS by Stefan Petrucha
PARTIALS by Dan Wells
A TOUCH MORBID by Leah Clifford
UNAFRAID: ARCHANGEL ACADEMY by Michael Griffo
WHEN THE SEA IS RISING RED by Cat Hellisen

Scarlet, by A.C. Gaughen

Scarlet, by A.C. Gaughen (Bloomsbury 2012, YA, 304 pages)

When Robin of Locksley returned from the crusades, he found his lands taken from him, and his people oppressed by the cruel taxes of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Determined to help them, he, along with the three companions that form his band of outlaws, poach and steal to feed the common folk, and rescue those who run afoul of the sheriff. One of these companions, the best thief of them all, and a crack hand with a knife, is the handsome Will Scarlet. But Scarlet is no boy--she's a girl running from a dark past, who has found, in Robin's somewhat quixotic mission, a way to atone for the guilt that oppresses her.

But Guy of Guisborne, the most feared thief taker in the land, has come to Nottingham. It is Scarlet, not Robin Hood, that he is most interested in. The danger to the people of Nottingham, meaningless pawns to the cruelty of the thief taker, grows daily. And Scarlet and Robin, himself burdened by guilt, find themselves drawn unwillingly to each other, while desperately waging a their war against injustice.

It's a swingingly fast story, with lots of interesting revelations doled out as things progress. Scarlet and Robin are both fascinating characters, and it was hard to put the book down, as I anxiously turned the pages, hoping that somehow there would be a happy ending. But sadly, even though I read it in virtually a single sitting, it didn't quite work for me.

As historical fiction, it required a very conscious effort on my part to suspend disbelief. There were some small, specific things (a character named Freddie, for instance, which is anachronistic), and a larger sense of not being in a convincing medieval England. I was particularly thrown by Scarlet's narration, which is in quasi olde English common-folk speak. The author's intent is to show her as a commoner, and so Scarlet eschews "was" in favour of "were," as in, "it were a long way" and "he were old," which makes me think of stereotypical Lancashire farmers, not the medieval commoners of central England. But I made an effort not to mind, and gradually came to accpet the fact that this is was a fictional England and I shouldn't try to read it as anything else.

It was harder for me to overcome my discomfort about the relationship between Scarlet and Robin. Both are damaged people, who think they are unworthy of love, and so they each do their best to make sure the other won't love them, by being cruel. "Hurting you," says Robin, "is the best way I know to punish myself." (page 285 of ARC), which bothered me all the more because of being part of the big reconciliation scene. It kind of took the fun out of the romance.

Complicating things further is the romantic subplot involving Little John, who wants Scarlet for himself. He pressures her considerably, deliberately taking her feelings of friendly camaraderie, and her loneliness, for an invitation that she's not giving. And Robin blames Scarlet for encouraging him, after assuming, based on circumstantial evidence, that they've been sleeping together. It's a horrible position for Scarlet to be in.

Not only does Robin blame Scarlet for the situation with Little John, toward the end of the book he seems to blame her for the whole situation with Guy of Gisborne, and, being hard on herself, Scarlet is ready to accept this.

I ended up being very annoyed with the lot of them, and not entirely convinced that they were making things any better for anyone in Nottingham.

Other thoughts: Dear Author, YA Muses, Book Harbinger, Angieville, and Pretty in Fiction

(disclaimer: ARC received from the publisher)

Magical Mischief, by Anna Dale

Here's a nice one about magic intruding into the ordinary world that makes a lovely followup to my post on Tuesday about Any Which Wall--Magical Mischief, by Anna Dale (Bloomsbury, 2010; published in the US in 2011, younger middle grade, 304 pages).

Mr. Hardbottle's bookstore has fallen on hard times, thanks to the magic that has crept in and taken over. Although many of its manifestations are friendly and diverting, there's no getting over the fact that the noxious odor that comes with the magic has driven away almost all the customers. And the rent has just gone up....

Then a young boy named Arthur, and a woman in her fourties (which is still very young, says I determinedly) named Miss Quint collide in the rain one afternoon outside the shop. When Mr. Hardbottle invites them in to dry off, they end up experiencing the magic for themselves, and become his allies in the quest to find it a new home. Somewhere atmospheric, but uninhabited....

But then Miss Quint, left to watch the bookshop along with Arthur while the search for the new domicile is underway, begins to wish for company while reading the books, and the magic listens. Before her common sense re-emerges, she's filled the bookstore with all manner of fictional characters. The first of these is such a small character in her own book (being simply "girl waiting for a turn at the swings") that she has no name (Miss Quint picks "Susan" for her), and as Susan gradually has a chance to experience more than her book offered, she becomes a good friend to Arthur.

The other characters, however, are more of a problem....and Arthur and Miss Quint have their hands full in trying to keep a grab bag of random characters under control in the modern world.

It's a lovely, light-hearted look at magic gotten out of hand. Susan is an especially endearing character, and it was very nice indeed to watch her become a real person (with an especially nice magical adventure of her own!). Highly recommended to fans of Edward Eager, although it's not so episodic--there's more emphasis on the story, and less on the characters--and also a tad reminiscent of the lighter side of Diana Wynne Jones. It made a perfect quick read for a wet winter evening after a trying week at work, and I imagine the right sort of child reader (ie, me as a child) would like it too.

The one thing that annoyed me is the American publisher making needless changes to the UK edition. Surely Harry Potter taught us that Americans can cope with British words, and indeed, want them kept British? Why, in this day and age, must pounds become dollars? It makes me feel all distrustful--what else have they changed that I missed?

Interestingly, they didn't change the cover--even though I don't think I've ever seen a birthday banner (in the yellow area over the books; pretty impossible to see in the online image) saying "many happy returns" over on this side of the pond.

Waiting on Wednesday--Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith

I am always on the look out for Time Travel books, and so I am planning on reading Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith, coming out March 20, 2012 from Clarion Books (ages 10 and up, 192 pages). It sounds like a fast, fun read--"kids sent to reclusive relative" and "day to day survival in challenging environment" both being things I like to read about! I've also had good luck with characters named Petra.

"When Max, Kyle, and Emma are sent to live with their reclusive grandfather, they think he’s crazy, especially when he tells them about his time machine. But after Emma is kidnapped at the exact time that her grandfather predicted, Max and Kyle are forced to believe his eccentric stories—even the one about the Chronal Engine in the basement.

Now, to save Emma, Max, Kyle, and their new friend Petra must pile into a VW Bug, and use the Chronal Engine to take the road trip of a lifetime—right back to the Cretaceous period. With dangers all around, the teens find themselves dodging car-crushing herbivores in addition to the terrifying T. rex. In this ancient environment, can three contemporary teens hunt down a kidnapper, forage for food, and survive long enough to return home?"

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

Any Which Wall, by Laurel Snyder (revisited for Timeslip Tuesday)

Although my first "Timeslip Tuesday" post was in June of 2008, and my review of Any Which Wall was written in May of 2009, for some reason it didn't occur to me to consider the book as a time travel story. I think I was too caught up in my pleasure at reading a homage to one of my favorite authors (Edward Eager) to think clearly (although it's possibly I just wasn't thinking clearly in general, which happens).

But at any event, having realized (thanks to this post that Laurel wrote at her own blog about her current time travel work in progress) that Any Which Wall was, in fact, a time travel story, I'm revisiting and revising my origional post for this week's Tuesday slot, and putting it neatly on my Time Travel list.

Fans of Edward Eager who might be reading this, run, don't walk, to get your hands on this book when it comes out on May 26, 2009, in both the US and the UK! Eager might have written his last book (Seven Day Magic) back in 1962, but Any Which Wall, by Laurel Snyder (Random House, 2009, 242pp, middle grade), continues Eager's tradition in really delightful way.

Since Eager, and before Snyder, there were hardly any books written about common, ordinary magic--books with normal, everyday children stumbling across magic in the everyday world, and gradually learning its rules, and taming it, and bending it to their wills...Laurel Snyder set out to pay homage to Eager by writing just such a book, and succeeds brilliantly.

Henry and his little sister Emma, Henry's best friend Roy and his big sister Susan (who has to "look after" the others) are not particularly looking forward to a long, hot, Iowa summer. Then they find the Wall, a wall in the middle of a cornfield, a wall that isn't walling anything...a wall that is magic, and will take them to any other wall that ever might have been. It is a splendiferously fun journey through time and space in the best Edward Eager tradition of great characterization, brisk writing, and snappy dialogue among the children.

Three of the journeys involve time travel--to fifth century Britain, where the children visit with Merlin and find themselves in a bit of hot water, to early 18-century America, where they meet the "worst" pirate of all, and finally, they take a trip to the 19th century prairie, where young Emma faces down a fearsome outlaw to save a poor dog from his cruelty.

The magic of the wall does not extend to outfitting the children in appropriate clothing; there's no chance for the children to pass themselves off as locals, and nor does the reader expect them to. This, I think, is just as it should be in this sort of adventure--it is not immersive time travel, with the characters stuck in the past for an extended period, but more the exciting tourist sort, where the past, for all its dangers, is treated in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek style.

I was reading the book so briskly that I skipped the illustrations, which are by LeUyen Pham. Like the words, the pictures are both contemporary, and slightly old-fashioned, and suit the story beautifully. Here's the picture of the kids meeting Merlin:

But there is more to this book than the fun of the magical adventure, and I'm not quite sure what kids will make of this other aspect. It is, for all intents and purposes, a moral.

Keen readers will notice that the oldest girl, who is "friends" with the beautiful girls of her middle school, and who disposed of her unicorn collection a while ago, is named Susan--shades of other fictional Susans who were also the older, less imaginative, and less fun girls (Narnia, Swallows and Amazons). Before the magic entered her life, this Susan was well on her way to becoming a boring, normative, and judgemental wearer of lipstick (like the Narnia Susan). In the course of the various adventures, she realizes that she can be, once again, an imaginative child, and that this might be a better thing to be. She is keenly aware of this transformation in herself, and Snyder, authoritatively, makes sure the reader is aware of it too.

An audience of folks in their forties (or so), with families and jobs who nonetheless love children's books, will cheer for Susan and think fondly of their own unicorn (or zombie?) collections. I dunno what a kid, unencumbered by any grownup-ness, would make of this. Will it knock them out of the story? Will they be oblivious? Will they say, Yes! Let me have fun, and believe, and enjoy life....I myself still had my unicorn collection until I was 15, so maybe I would have found this part of the book validating. I don't think, though, that I would have appreciated Snyder's somewhat intrusive authorial aside (several pages in italics) toward the end of the book, in which she extols the importance of plain old fun (even though I agree with what she says).

But that being said, it is so awfully nice to have books like this one, that are themselves good, plain fun (and smart and funny). And I hope it sells really really well so that the vague promise of more to come at the end (in the best tradition of this sort of book) becomes reality. Any middle grade kid, boy or girl, with a sense of humor and a sense of adventure should enjoy this lots.

Mini Author Interview (thanks Laurel!)

Me: Did you name Susan "Susan" on purpose?

Laurel: Yes, and no. Susan was named for my best friend, since the others were named for my own sibs. At the same time, I thought a lot about Lewis' Susan, and about how kids always have to "outgrow" magic. So I think the name actually affected the story...

Me, hopefully: Sequel????

Laurel: Sequel, yes, in the planning stages. I'm not really a sequel person, but I feel tempted to follow Susan and Roy (as their father gets a job) to Baltimore. If the sequel happens, it will be about how an older kid might "use" Common Magic, when confronting a more adult view of a new (problematic) place. It's (in my head) called "Anywhere Green" and hops around the parks of Baltimore City.

Me: Yes, please.

If anyone can think of any other fantasy books that are ordinary in the same sense, where the magic doesn't have anything to do with good and evil, or strange realms beyond our own, or children with magical gifts, do let me know. I want to read them).

Links:
Here's a link to an article that Snyder wrote about Jewish Kid's Lit, and her own last minute change to Any Which Wall that resulted from her thoughts on the matter.

Here's a link to an interview with Snyder from this week's Summer Blog Blast Tour, that tells how A.W.W. came to be written.

Here's another review of A.W.W. at Jen Robinson's Book Page, and another at Never Jam Today.

Disclosure: copy received from the publisher at the request of the author, who knew I was an Eager fan and therefore predisposed to like the book already--but I think I would have anyway!

And the Cybils Winners are.....

The Cybils Winners have been announced!!!

I was a panelist for middle grade sci fi/fantasy, and helped come up with this shortlist:

A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, by Patrick Ness
Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu
Dragon Castle, by Joseph Bruchac
Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale, by Carmen Agra Deedy
The Inquisitor's Apprentice, by Chris Moriarty
Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George

and the winner (with blurb lifted from the Cybils website) is:

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright; illustrations by Barry Moser
Peachtree
Nominated by: Monica Edinger

The Cheshire Cheese Cat slipped into our hearts like Skilley the alley cat sneaks into Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Much more than just a cute, talking animal fantasy (though it is that too), this book has a depth of theme and character and a richness of language that blew us away. Both animals and humans ring true to life and the unique alliance that develops between Skilley and Pip, an uncommonly well-educated mouse, matures and ripens like a tasty piece of cheese. The illustrations scattered through the text are warmly humorous and add dimension to the characters. Charles Dickens has an important supporting role and there are abundant literary allusions and though these may be lost on some younger readers, we believe they will remember and enjoy them again in later life. We feel that The Cheshire Cheese Cat has oodles of kid appeal and that readers will be as charmed as we were by this sweet and funny tale of an unlikely friendship overcoming the odds.

The winner in YA sci fi/fantasy (also lifted from the Cybils website) is

Blood Red Road
by Moira Young
Margaret K. McElderry
Nominated by: Leila Roy

Blood Red Road is one of those books that can be infinitely compared to other stories -- one panelist wrote that it “read like the Harlequin Romance version of Mad Max” -- while still having its own unique voice and style. We’re not sure where an Australian writer living in England learned an Ozark accent. Although we sometimes struggled with it, we admired the way the innovative use of language allows the reader to get into the head of the prickly but ultimately sympathetic protagonist.

Saba’s beloved twin brother Lugh has been kidnapped, and Saba knows it’s up to her to rescue him. This is no easy task in their post-apocalyptic world, where food is scarce and those who can’t fight are easy pickings. Luckily, Saba’s a survivor, and she finds some allies in her quest: a handsome man named Jack, a group of fierce warrior women, and even her own little sister Emmi.

Saba is a wonderfully dynamic character, growing from a sometimes cruel girl with a single-minded purpose into a more mature young woman sensitive to the feelings of those close to her, particularly Emmi. The violent wasteland Saba inhabits is well-drawn and terrifying in the best way. The romance can feel cheesy, but it’s interwoven in a way that doesn’t overpower the story. While the plot is sometimes predictable, we loved that this book takes risks, doesn't talk down to its audience, and takes us on a familiar journey in a style that we don't often see. The combination of voice, character, and fast-paced action make this an appealing book that will keep readers turning the pages.

The full list of winners can be found here; I was very pleased to see Zita the Space Girl winning in middle grade graphic novels!

For Valentine's Day--a look back in time to an interview with Sara Zarr about her first book, Sweethearts

Way back in 2008, Sara Zarr published her second novel, Sweethearts, am moving YA love story. At that point, I was still a generalist, reading and reviewing non-fantasy YA, and I was pleased to be part of the Sweethearts blog tour. In as much as Sara Zarr has gone on to win new fans with her subsequent books (and in as much as blog readership back in Feb. 2008 was not exactly robust), I thought for Valentine's Day it might be of interest to republish my interview with her about Sweethearts!

Here it is.

Today I have the great pleasure of hosting Sara Zarr (author of last year's Story of a Girl and this year's Sweethearts). Sweethearts is a very moving story about the love between two neglected children, Jennifer and Cameron, who are separated and then meet again in high school (my review is here).

Me: You write about the characters in Sweethearts with great compassion--it was clear you cared about them. Was it hard to write them into miserable circumstances? I'm thinking not so much about the more "traditional" abusiveness of Cameron's situation, but the neglect that Jennifer experienced. Her mother is a decent person, who loved her, but obviously for the purposes of your plot you couldn't make her realize what her daughter was going through. But were you tempted, in your own mind at least?

Sara: It's always hard to put characters you love through pain, but I have to say I was never tempted to do it differently. I have a lot of compassion for Jennifer's mom, too, who is caught up in this cycle of poverty and doing what she thinks is best and the necessity to get out of it as soon as possible. In doing what she truly thinks is best for Jennifer, she doesn't realize how much her daughter needs her. I think a lot of parents who sort of live on the edge of poverty have to make that choice and there's no good answer. The physical and practical needs are more immediate than the emotional ones. Your life becomes about paying the rent and figuring out how to get out of that cycle.

Me: And related to my first question, when you write, do you feel that there is an inevitability about all the events that even you can't escape (which is the feeling that Story of a Girl, in particular, gave me) or do your characters surprise you and go off on paths you hadn't anticipated?

Sara: A lot of stuff happens in revision. Characters might do or say things that weren't part of my original plan, but ultimately those things to seem to end up serving that original, inevitable path. Which is interesting to think about, because in theory the author has the power to do anything she wants, while in reality I think you're right---sometimes even the author can't authentically alter the story's destiny.

Me: After Cameron disappears, Jennifer reinvents herself as Jenna, an attractive, popular high school student, very different from her plump, sad, childhood self. Did it help the writing process to have a character with two different names and identities, or did it add a confusing schizophrenia to it all? Is she Jenna or Jennifer or both to you?

Sara: I never had trouble separating (or joining) them in my own mind. To me, she's Jennifer, grown up, calling herself Jenna and having a different outside appearance but dealing with the same fears about herself and the world around her that were ingrained early on. She's Jennifer who has transformed her outward self, and now the inside self is catching up.

Me: Reading your book made me want to eat cookies. Like Jennifer, I found great comfort in childhood by curling up with a good book and lots and lots of cookies (although I didn't actually require comfort in the same way that Jennifer did--I just really liked books and cookies). The only reason I didn't eat cookies with your book is that I make a point of not keeping cookies in the house. Not that they would actually be in the house for long, but still. Was this a habit of yours as well, and do you have a favorite childhood cookie?

Sara: Jennifer's eating issues come straight from me. I ate for company and comfort and entertainment as a kid, and continued that habit well into adulthood, into a full-blown compulsive eating disorder. It was only when I had made some sort of peace with that and learned ways to manage it that I could write about it. So I don't keep cookies in the house very often, either! I do like a good homemade chocolate chip cookie now, but back in the day you could give me a package of Oreos or Nutter Butters and I'd be in cookie heaven. Or Fig Newtons. Or Lorna Doones. Or...sorry, what were we talking about?

Me: You and I were both teenagers in the 1980s, which is a longer time ago every year. I just had my first online chatting experience a few weeks ago, and goodness knows I have no clue about the trappings of today's popular culture (although I didn't back then either). Have you made an effort to study Modern Teenagers? Did you have to practice on line chatting and so forth, so as to get it right in the book, or have you kept up with the technology?

Sara: Oh, I've kept up with technology. I was chatting online back in the CompuServe era when you paid for Internet by the minute! I'm kind of a computer geek, and a gadget geek, with a not quite healthy attachment to my laptop.

Me: Story of a Girl was your 4th book, the first one to be published. What has happened with books 1, 2, and 3? Will we ever see them?

Sara: They are far, far away in drawers and on disks. I don't think we ever need to see them. In retrospect, they were "practice novels." Of course, at the time I didn't think so and would have been offended if anyone suggested that!

Me: Do you think you're going to stick with realistic teen fiction, which you are obviously good at, or are you tempted by other genres, or even by happier stories rather than sad (but hopeful) ones?

Sara: Realistic fiction is definitely my thing. I have nothing against happier stories, but whenever I try to write one something angsty and tragic happens so maybe it's not in my genes. I'm interested in writing for all kinds and all ages of audiences, though, and hope to try a lot of different things over the next thirty years.

Me: And finally, here you are on this blog tour, being asked innumerable questions. If it were me, I would have been preparing mental answers to possible questions weeks in advance. Is there any question that you've been hoping would be asked, but hasn't been yet?

Sara: I don't have enough perspective on the book yet to think up possible questions. Maybe in a couple of years I'll think of something I wish you'd asked, and I'll get in touch!

Me: Thanks very much Sara! I enjoyed Sweethearts (in a sad and anxious kind of way, of course, which is what the subject matter called for) very much, and I'm looking forward to your next book-- I hope it cooperates!

The Galahad Legacy, by Dom Testa

The Galahad Legacy, by Dom Testa (Tor, 2012, YA, 299 pages)

It's been a long and emotionally wrenching journey for the teenagers aboard the Galahad. The months since they left a dying earth, headed for a new home on a far away planet, have been filled with treachery, alien encounters, death, and danger (as well as some teenaged angst). And now, in the sixth and final book of the series, things get really exciting!!! This was the most page-turningly gripping of the lot, blending the science fiction and the human elements into a great read.

The Galahad's radiation shields are falling victim to cosmic perturbations caused by wormholes formed in space by an alien race--suddenly, the possibility that the crew will never make it to their new home seems all to real. An alien race offers a new opportunity....but will the price be too high to pay? And what of the emotional state of the crew, tested almost to the breaking point? (I, as a reader, almost reached my breaking point--my one quibble with the book was the final disaster, which arrives right as the end was in sight. I thought it was a bit much!)

I think one of the reasons why I liked this series is that the viewpoint of each book, and to some extent within the books, shifts between multiple characters. The psychology of it all becomes, as a result, more interesting, as they struggle, not just as individuals, but as crucial elements in an ensemble. It's a series that I think has broad appeal to readers who might not think they like sci fi--although the adventure in space is certainly front and center, there are elements of mystery, and elements of romance (these being teenagers), that add nuance.

I think it might have been more realistic to have played up the emotional entanglements even more than Testa does, and as I said, the unrelenting series of one crisis after another got to be a bit much for me. But that being said, I enjoyed the books--not with a passionate love, perhaps, but a considerable amount nonetheless!

Testa has taken his fascinating premise and brought it to a satisfying close. But I sure do hope there's another series in the works--I am not ready to say goodbye to the characters he created, and I do rather like a nice bit of planetary colonization....

Note on age: these are teenagers, falling in love with other and brooding about their feelings, but content-wise there is nothing to bring a blush to the check of a midde-grade reader. I'd be happy if my own eleven year old started the series.

Second note: the multicultural crew makes this a nice example of diversity in YA sci fi.

Third note: All of the teenagers are smart, though some are more obsessed with science than others. Great for the science-loving, geek-identifing teen, both boy and girl.

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

Welcome to another week's worth of the middle grade sci fi/fantasy posts etc I found in my blog reading! If I missed your post, please let me know, especially if you reviewed a book starting with J, V, or X. It is a dream of mine to someday have the whole alphabet represented in one round-up, and although I searched diligently (and found several letters I needed), and cheated a bit by making Dragonbreath my D, I couldn't find those three. So if you reviewed, for instance, Jake Ransom, Janitors, or Juniper Berry this past week, please let me know! The only V I can think of is Villain School: Good Curses Evil, and I can't think of a single X.

The Reviews:

Above World, by Jenn Reese, at Hooked on Books

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okarafor, at A Rogue Librarian's Reading List

The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, at BooksYALove

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Book Nut

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg et al., at Sonderbooks

The Crowfield Curse, by Pat Walsh, at Fantasy Literature

Dragonbreath 5--No Such Thing as Ghosts, by Ursula Vernon, at Back to Books

Escape from Planet Yastol, by Pamela Service, at Charlotte's Library

The Flint Heart, by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson, at Back to Books

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, at The Book Jotter

Hal Junior: The Secret Signal, by Simon Hayes, at Charlotte's Library

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Karissa's Reading Review

The Invisible Tower, by Nils Johnson-Shelton, at Natasha's Shelf

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis, at Amused by Books

Lawn Mower Magic, by Lynne Jonell, at Geo Librarian

The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan, at Mister K Reads

M is for Mama's Boy (Nerds, book 2), by Michael Buckley, at Mister K Reads

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Squeaky Books

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at Book Love

On the Bright Side, by S.R. Johannes, at The O.W.L.

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Abby the Librarian and books4yourkids

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (graphic novel) at Fantasy Book Review

Quest for the Secret Keeper, by Victoria Laurie, at Just Deb

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, at Adventures of a Book Wyrm

Sidekicks, by Dan Santat, at Books Beside My Bed

Sun Slower, Sun Faster, by Meriol Trevor, at Charlotte's Library

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at The Broke and the Bookish

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Caroline Thinks

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton, at Charlotte's Library

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Lady With Books and Ms. Yingling Reads

You Have to Stop This, by Pseudonymous Bosch, at Literary Review

Zombie Tag, by Hannah Moskowitz, at Trdyffrin Kids

Two time travel books--The Magic Half by Annie Barrows, and Voices After Midnight, by Richard Peck, at time travel times two

Authors and Interviews

Dawn Larimore (Ivy and the Meanstalk) at Cracking the Cover

S.R. Johannes (On the Bright Side) at The O.W.L.

Jenn Reese (Above World) at So I'm Fifty

At Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, Delia Sherman (The Freedom Maze) reflects on the story of the Snow Child.

Kate Bernheimer, editor of The Fairy Tale Review, is interviewed at flyway

And at the Enchanted Inkpot there's a stirring (or at least very interesting) discussion of tropes

Other Good Stuff


(found via The Lemme Library, with a funny dig at poor Peta). I wouldn't have minded them at all, actually, for my doll house playing when I was young. There was a shortage of male dolls of appropriate height.

It's Peep Time at the Washington Post! If I were a Washington D.C. area resident, I'd be tempted to do The Hunger Peeps (starring The Peep Who Was on Fire).

My fascination with the competitive world of rabbit jumping continues (thanks to Jenny Davidson)

This rabbit is pretty good, but this one here is still my favorite.

The fourteenth is International Book Giving Day. My husband's Valentine present (a signed copy of Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes), has already been opened, but I'll be giving a book each to the boys, and giving some to their schools. And I'll be getting, if the mail cooperates, and my husband got me what I hope he would, a copy of The Crowfield Demon.

John Christopher, great sci fi writer for teens, has died; here's his obituary in The Guardian.

I couldn't resist including this image from the childhood artwork of one of Charles Darwin's sons (found at Oz and Ends). It pleases me very much. (The one on left is apparently riding an eggplant).

I hope all of you have safe and happy Valentine's Days, and thanks for coming by!

Two fun science fiction books for younger readers

Here's a quick look at two science fiction books, both great for the younger middle grade set (ages 8-10), that were nominated for the Cybils this past fall.

Hal Junior: The Secret Signal, by Simon Hayes (Bowman Press, 2011, 186 pages). Young Hal is living a somewhat humdrum life about a space station, enlivened only by his efforts to push the boundaries of the mischief and adventure a boy can find in such a constrained environment. But then a sinister plot begins to unfold--the space station's children, and Hal's mother, are kidnapped and held for ransom. Fortunately Hal manages to escape, and, with the help of the friendly ship's computer and his own quick wits, defies the dangers of outer space and foils the plot.

It's a light, humorous story, with little illustrations that made me chuckle. It's not, however (and I don't think the author meant it to be) a convincingly realistic look at life aboard a space station (little details like Hal's shoelaces, which, in my mind, have no place in space, and the unlikely filing cabinet used as a weapon (why would a space station have filing cabinet?), make this clear). This made me doubtful at first, but once I realized that I should be reading it somewhat tongue in check, I was able to relax and enjoy the fun adventure for the amusing diversion that it is. Probably the intended audience won't suffer from my hesitation!

In a similar vein, although much more straight up in its telling, Pamela F. Service takes on the science fiction trope of alien encounters in Escape From Planet Yastol (Darby Creek, 2011, 102 pages). Young Josh is, in one sense, living a writers dream--his fictional characters are real, and he gets to met them! But it's more of a nightmare, in as much as his characters are sinister blue aliens. When Josh and his little sister Maggie find themselves transported to planet Yastol, and thrown into sinister plot, Josh must use all of his authorial knowledge to get them home again. (He also has to learn to appreciate his little sister more--she turns out to be a key player in her own right).

Again, this is one the intended audience should enjoy lots. There's some ickiness viz the aliens and the alien planet, some humor, and the concept of exploring one's own created world with all it's strange beings should be fascinating to young authors.

(disclaimer: Hal Junior was received from the author in advance of the Cybils, and Escape from Planet Yastol was received from the publisher for Cybils consideration).

Long Way Home, by Michael Morpurgo

After a somewhat trying day at work, I needed a soothing break. After sawing some kindling in seasonally appropriate way (storm's a coming, and we were running low on the small stuff), I picked up almost at random a small paperback that has been on one of the several downstairs piles for ages--Long Way Home, by Michael Morpugo (of War Horse fame). It was rather nice to read a book that I didn't feel any obligation to review, and just the pleasing escape I was in the mood for. (Note--the cover of my copy has smiling children haying in the sun, not a dark and ominous storm).

12 year old George has been sent out to a number of foster families, but always ended up back at the children's Home. He doesn't expect this summer, spent on a farm out in the middle of the English countryside, to be any different--awkward social interactions, uncomfortablness becoming intolerableness, then running away back to the Home.

Tom wasn't looking forward to having George either. He was tired of his family fostering new kids every summer, making trouble and extra work. But when George arrives, and sets to work on the farm with a will, Tom's opinion begins to change rapidly. His little sister, Storme (her name was the only thing I found jarring in the book) took to George from the start, and George begins to feel at home. Everything seemed to promise that the summer would be a good one....

Then an unlucky chance destroyed all hope of that. George was forced to leave the farm...and the one foster family with whom he would have been willing to stay.

Nice family, nice farm, nice story. It was just the sort of soothing quick (only 116 pages) comfort read I wanted (I didn't even have to look at the end to be sure it would all work out just fine). Lots of good details, making the pictures of the farm and the countryside clear in my mind, lots of interesting bits of characterization, building clear pictures of the people too! If you like orphan-on-English-farm stories with happy endings, you will probably like this too.

(uh, having typed that, I can't think of any others, except a few WW II evacuation stories, which I don't count as comfort reading. Any recommendations????)

Long Way Home was published back in 1975, but didn't feel dated to me (then again, I don't have a cell phone, and (mostly) heat my house with a wood burning stove). This is my second Michael Morpurgo book (the other being The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, which I also found to be a nice comfort read!). I am wary of War Horse, but browsing around his extensive back list I found one which looks good: Dear Olly, which I think will be my next one of his. Anyone read it?

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize--a sff perspective

The Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlists have been announced, and, as is my sci fi/fantasy driven wont, I went through them to see what sff books were included. It's often the case that this list includes books published in the UK but not here yet, which makes for interesting browsing, and this year, at least for the ages 5-12 set of books, is no exception.

Claude in the City, by Alex T. Smith. "Claude is no ordinary dog - he leads an extraordinary life! When Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes set off for work, Claude decides what adventure he wants to have that day. Today he and Sir Bobblysock go to the city for the very first time. The have tea in a cafe, go shopping and visit a museum. It is all very normal until...Claude accidentally foils a robbery and becomes the local hero!"

Muncle Trogg, by Janet Foxley "Giants live on top of Mount Grumble, hidden from humans below. But not all of them are big. Muncle Trogg is so small that he's laughed at by the others for being human-sized. Fed up, he decides to take a look at the 'Smallings' that he's meant to look like. But what he discovers is very surprising indeed...Winner of The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2010, "Muncle Trogg" is the charming upside down fairytale about a tiny giant who saves the day."

The Windvale Sprites, by MacKenzie Crook. "When a storm sweeps through the country, Asa wakes up the next day to find that his town is almost unrecognisable - trees have fallen down, roofs have collapsed and debris lies everywhere. But amongst the debris in his back garden Asa makes an astounding discovery - the body of a small winged creature. A creature that looks very like a fairy. Do fairies really exist? Asa embarks on a mission to find out. A mission that leads him to the lost journals of local eccentric Benjamin Tooth who, two hundred years earlier, claimed to have discovered the existence of fairies. What Asa reads in those journals takes him on a secret trip to Windvale Moor, where he discovers much more than he'd hoped to..."

Sky Hawk, by Gill Lewis (which looked like a possible fantasy, and even sounded like one in the blurb) is the UK title of Wild Wings. Which isn't.

The other two books in this age bracket are Milo and the Restart Button, and The Brilliant World of Tom Gates.

There's only one sff book in the teenaged books, which is too bad-- Divergent, by Veronica Roth, a US export. There's the UK cover at right--very different. I love the crows/ravens, but can't remember them from the book (but I only read the first 2/3, so maybe they swoop down toward the end?)

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for past shortlists...it's interesting to see which books travel from the UK to the US, and vice versa (and probaby from Austalia as well, but I didn't see any on the list that I recognized as such).

Forgotten, by Cat Patrick

Forgotten, by Cat Patrick (Little Brown, 2011, YA, 288 pages) is a fascinating thought-experiment and a gripping read. London Lane might appear to be an ordinary sixteen-year old girl, going about her normal high school life...but her mind works in a rather unusual way. She can only remember forward--every night, her memory of the day she just lived vanishes, and she can only remember tomorrow. London copes by taking extensive notes about her life, and muddles through well enough.

But well-enough is about to change. Unhappy with the futures London sees for her friends and classmates, she starts to wonder if she can change the future. Even more disturbing for London is the arrival of a new boy, with whom she makes an instant connection--but she doesn't "remember" him from her future. And her sleep is increasingly troubled by a horrible nightmare--showing an event she doesn't remember either.

It turns out that there are things in London's past that she has forgotten...in particular, an event that changed the course of her life. Part mystery, part teen romance, and a fascinating look at a very different way of being in the world, this was a page turner.

I was so distracted, however, by the intricacies of London's memory (what would I do differently? How would I react in each particular situation?), and it is so strangely alien, that it was a bit hard for me to truly loose myself in the story--others might have a different experience. In particular, I couldn't help wondering just how one could sustain a romantic relationship with someone you only knew through your journal entries of past days--every day, London would meet her boyfriend for the first time. That being said, it was an entertaining read, and I don't mind, now and again, reading a book that kicks me out of the story here and there to make me think!

I hope there's a sequel--even though London's story reaches a fine stopping place, I would love to see what happens next (and maybe more about the things that happened back then in the unremembered past).

(note--obviously, this is not realistic fiction. But I think that it is just as good a fit for fans of the realistic teenage romance/mystery as it for sff fantasy fans. That being said, it's definitly speculative fiction, but is neither fantasy, nor really sci fi, which makes sticking a label on it bothersome. So I shall put both on...uncomfortably).

Waiting on Wednesday--Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox

What I'm really waiting for, on this, as on every Wednesday, is for a. the homework fairy to come and bestow gifts of fortitude on my pencil dropping young b. the dishwashing fairy to come and do the obvious c. the time fairy to magically make these few precious last minutes of morning before the Awakenings begin last for hours....

But failing that, I have found yet another book to wait for:

Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox, coming 12 April from Dial.

Here is the blurb [with my thoughts in brackets]

"Thirteen-year-old Suyin is a poor orphan [Team Orphan!] who has a strange gift with languages [that sounds good--languages rarely play a large part in mg/YA fantasy] and a mysterious connection to the cranes [birds are nice] in her small Chinese village [yay for diversity!]. When a shady human trafficker [bad] arrives promising luxury and riches beyond belief in America [ha], the villagers elect Suyin - whom they consider lucky - to go as their benefactress [there are very few Immigration Fantasies. I am intrigued]. But instead of luxury, Suyin is forced to work in a sweatshop in New York City's Chinatown [very bad]. Suyin's future seems hopeless, until her beloved cranes arrive [yay cranes!] and reveal that she is no ordinary girl - instead, she is the daughter of the Crane Queen [hmmm--somewhat familiar ground here, although this sounds like it could be a fresh twist]. Now her mother's life [ack! save the mother! says one who is one] is in danger, and Suyin must prove herself worthy of her position as the Crane Princess, in order to save her mother [mothers so rarely have Agency. Sigh.] and the entire clan of cranes [go Suyin! go Cranes!]."

Anyway. It sounds good.

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

Just a few hours left of Team Heifer--and P. Rothfuss has done something very brave that should be rewarded

Patrick Rothfuss has organized an utterly stunning fundraiser of awesome for Heifer International--every donation of ten dollars made through this page is an entry into a world of fabulous prizes.

I donated back in December. But today I donated again, because Patrick Rothfuss did something really, really, really brave and beautifully grown-up.

In this blog post, he describes how he'd carefully planned to share, as part of his fundraising promotion-ness, a video of himself, reading the story of Beatrice's Goat, to his son, Little Oot. But then he watched the final take. And was appalled. And, as he put it, he sissied out.

But today, the last day of the fundraiser, he did something that is just an utterly excellent example to all of us who stay quite because we are afraid of embarrassing ourselves. He posted the video. And it is just fine, and Oot is a darling child.

So I threw in another bit of money, and maybe enough other people will too, before it all ends at midnight CST, today, February 7th, to push this fundraiser over the $300,000 mark. The prizes really are awesome, and Heifer does great things!!!!!

Here's the page again

Sun Slower, Sun Faster, by Meriol Trevor, for Timeslip Tuesday

Sun Slower, Sun Faster, by Meriol Trevor (first puslished in 1955, republished by Bethleham Books in 2004, middle grade, 288 pages) is the story of two English cousins, just post WW II, sent by their respective parents/guardians to live with an elderly old uncle in a beautiful historic old house near Bristol. Happily for Cecil (aka Cecelia) and Rickie (aka Richard), what could be a picturesque but somewhat tedious stay is enlivened by time travel.

The two children, sometimes accompanied by their older cousin, Dominic (Rickie's tutor) find themselves travelling back in time to various moments in the history of the Catholic church in the south west of England. The vignettes of the past feature intersting characters and events, and are vividly described--Saxons burning Romano-Celtic Bath, an Elizabethan Catholic priest needing to be rescued, unrest regarding James II--not bad time travel reading at all, and it was nice to read about events that don't get all that much attention in children's historical fiction. And even though this is time travel made easy (the children appear in the past wearing period cloths, and are greeted as visiting cousins, so no nasty issues about customs, language, etc. here), they have enough of a reaction to the differentness of the past to make their travels satisfying.

But the force of the story is weakened as each successive time travel incident becomes more and more a vehicle for teaching Cecil and Rickie, and through them the reader, about not only the history of Catholisim, but about the religion itself. I really do like learning about history through fiction, but the religious elements were so determinidly forced into the narrative that I found them increasingly unpalatable. There were characters, for instance, who seemed to exist only so they could deliver little homilies about various aspects of Christianity. Not subtle.

However, for those looking for Christian fiction of a historical educative sort, with characters who are rather engaging and whose adventures are interesting, this is certainly one to seek out. I think that if I had read this as a child, the dogmaticness of the religious education would have washed more gently over my head....and I would have been able to appreciate, and enjoy greatly, the time travel adventures! Meriol Trevor wrote a number of other books for children, and I enjoyed the non-dogmatic parts of this one enough so that I would be pleased to have a chance to read them.

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton

Two years ago, I reviewed The Roar, by Emma Clayon--a fine example of that rare thing, a solidly middle-grade science fiction/dystopia, that I recommended in particular to "boys who love video games that involve blowing up space ships, who also care about the environment." It ended with much of the larger story still untold, and judging from the number of people who visited my blog wondering when the sequel, there will be lots of readers eagerly pouncing on The Whisper, which was just released (Chicken House, Feb 1, 2012, 320 pages). The Whisper picks up right where The Roar ended, and shouldn't be read as a stand-alone.

The basic premise of the books is that humanity has been divided into billions of have-nots, crammed into flooded cities of misery behind a high-tech wall, while a very few enjoy the natural beauties of a rehabilitated earth that those in the city have no idea even exists. But from those cities, a greedy manipulator named Mal Gorman assembled an army of children, including some with mutant powers, planning to use them to claim the unspoiled regions of the world for himself (or at least, a nice piece of it). And his two most prized mutant children are the telepathic twins, Mika and Ellie.

He underestimates them. Little does Gorman know that Mika and Ellie are planning to lead his army to free those imprisoned in the cities, and bring about more equitable age. And little does he know that this army is united telepathically by the Whisper...allowing them unprecentend cooperation and coordination. With the help of lots of cool technology, and their mutant powers (along with the various powers of their mutant cohort), Mika and Ellie begin to fight back.

The Whisper should please fans of the first book--the action and tension (and cool sci fi elements) of that one are here as well. Although the struggle seemed to me at times to be too easy for Mika, Ellie, and co., it still made for interesting. and even, at times, thought-provoking reading. There's room for a sequel--how to deal with the logistical nightmare of resettling billions of people--but by the end of The Whisper,things have reached a satisfactory stopping point.

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend these to adult fans of sci fi distopias (I didn't find them complex enough for that, though there the details of the plot and the world-building were interesting, especially the descriptions of the drowned city, with high-rises built over flooded rivers), but for middle grade readers, I think they make an excellent introduction to the genre.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

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

Here you go! Let me know if I missed anything. I always finding things I missed (like this January review of The Crowfield Demon, by Pat Walsh, at Sci Fi Chick), and it makes me Sad.

The Reviews:

Above World, by Jenn Reese, at BookYurt (Bookyurt?), and Live to Read

Ancient, Strange, and Lovely, by Susan Fletcher, at Library Chicken

The Bloomswell Diaries, by Louis L. Buitendag, at BooksYALove

The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards, at Wicked Awesome Books and Book Review Blog for Caroline Hooton

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at My Brain on Books and Great Imaginations

The Clockwork Three, by Matthew Kirby, at Back to Books

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Book Aunt and More Than True

The Coming of the Dragon, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at My Favorite Books

The Dragon of Cripple Creek, by Troy Howell, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Book Aunt

The Flint Heart, by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson, at Karin's Book Nook

Flyte, by Angie Sage, at Challenging the Bookworm (audio book review)

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Journey of a Bookseller and Great Imaginations

The Inquisitor's Apprentice, by Chris Moriarty, at Confessions of a Bibliovore

Ivy and the Meanstalk, by Dawn Lairamore, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Liesl and Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Books Beside My Bed

The Midnight Zoo, by Sonya Hartnett, at Back to Books

A Monser Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Squeaky Books

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, by William Joyce, at Back to Books

On the Bright Side, by Shelli Johannes, at Project Mayhem

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Stephanie Burgis

Pandemonium, by Chis Wooding and Cassandra Diaz, at Book Aunt

The Puzzle Ring, by Kate Forsyth, at Read in a Single Sitting

The Shadows (Book of Elsewhere 1), by Jaqueline West, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L'Engle, at Tor

Villian School: Good Curses Evil, by Stephanie S. Saunders, at Kristen Evey

Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, at Just Booking Around

The Wishing Ring, by Shellie Neumier, at Novel Teen

At books4yourkids there's much praise for the Mega Mash Ups books.


Authors and Interviews

Sarah Prineas (Winterling) at From the Mixed Up Files

Liz Kessler (A Year Without Autumn) video interview at Cynsations

Other Good (?) Stuff:

Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit, is being re-written by Jaqueline Wilson--there's the Guardian's take. I don't think this is a good or necessary thing, mainly because I liked Nesbit just fine from the age of 8 on up.

I wrote a lenthy article, with all main points supported with direct quotes, on "parents" in A Wrinkle in Time.

Tending a bit YA-ward: Here's Lenore's round-up of the first week of her Dystopian February, and if there were more "middle grade" science fiction books, this survey of themes in YA sci fi, compiled by Margo Berendsen, would allow interesting comparisons to be made.

I like the looks of the Lord of the Ring legos very much:


But not as much as I like Dumbleworf:

Dragonswood, Janet Lee Carey

Dragonswood, by Janet Lee Carey (Dial, 2012, YA/upper middle grade, 403 pages)

When the main character gets tortured in the first thirty pages of a book, I become doubtful (waves to Queen of Attolia). When, for the first fifty or so pages, things continue to be anxious, I become increasingly unconvinced that the book that will provide the pleasant escape I seek on a Saturday morning when late afternoon company is coming and the house is a disaster (I would not want to read, say, Finnekin of the Rock while planning a large dinner party).

Happily for me, I had read enough reviews of Dragonswood to know that it wasn't a dark and grim and bloody story. And I read the end (which didn't spoil much, and was reassuring). At any event, here I am, with Dragonswood having been read and enjoyed, and a small fraction of the house tidying completed during breaks.

Brief synopsis: In a medievally almost-Britain, a girl named Tess is accused of witchcraft, and tortured. She and the two girls whose names were wrung for her by the inquisitor take refugee in Dragonswood--the forbidden sanctuary for dragons and the Fey established by the old queen and king. But it isn't at all clear how Tess and her friends will find a true sanctuary for themselves on an island where witch hunting runs amok, a twisted regent has control of the kingdom, and human people are starting to look hungrily at the protect lands of the forest...

Meg longs for her husband and child. Poppy longs for someone to love her for herself, not her beauty. And Tess, abused all her life by her father (so much so that one ear, boxed more times than she can remember, is deaf) longs for a chance to live her life according to her own desires--drawing, riding, climbing trees, and answering whatever it is that calls her to cross into the forbidden world of Dragonswood. With, perhaps, the added bonus of a partner in life who will respect her as an equal.

Little does Tess know that she might well get her happy ending (this is me being cunningly unspoilerish), thanks to the intervention of the mysterious folk who have found sanctuary in the heart of Dragonswood...

This is a book I would give in a heartbeat to a twelve or thirteen year old girl. Once past that the graphic violence, witch-torturing-wise, it has a very pleasant fairy tale feel to it, with lots of magical happenings and adventurings--nothing too twisted and convoluted, but interesting enough to keep my attention. The love between Tess and the character with whom she ends up is romantic, fairy-tale love (all they get to do on page (as in "on stage") is a bit of kissing near the end).

Some weight is given the story by the fact that Tess has been damaged, both emotionally and mentally, by the abuse that she has suffered, and a significant part of the story arc deals with her resultant fears and uncertainties; however, this too is fairy tale-ish in its conclusion, when her validation comes (primarily) from her romantic other (although she does get some validation from her interactions with various dragons, which was nice).

Even though I'm in favor of things working out just fine, my one substantive quibble with the book is how easily this is accomplished in the end...it was a bit hard to swallow an unpleasant character's change of heart. My other reservation is that the change of mood and pace, from the first dark part of the book (Tess in mortal peril from the witch-hunters) to the second (Tess's journey shaped in mostly pleasant ways by others, although she does exercise some brave agency in true fantasy heroine-style) is a bit jarring. That being said, I'm glad, for purely selfish reasons relating to my own need for pleasant escapism, that the mood did change!

Recommended in particular for fans of Jessica Day George--it has a very similar feel to both her dragon series and to her fairy tale retellings. And now I must find Dragon's Keep, the 2008 companion novel to this one (set a few generations before this one)...

p.s. Regarding historical fantasy--I'm not adding Dragonswood to my list of Historical Fantasy. Even though it is set in an alternate Britain at the time of the Crusades, it felt too much like a fantasy realm, taking place, as it does, in an imaginary kingdom with nothing more solid to make it historically situated than a few mentions of real people (Richard the Lionheart and his brother John).

Luminous, by Dawn Metcalf

Luminous, by Dawn Metcalf (Dutton, 2011, YA 367 pages)

Consuela is a normal teenager--until the day she isn't. With a vengeance. Because Consuela is about to leave her body behind and enter a strange alternate world, one where she is no ordinary girl. It is one of the oddest fantastical transformation I've seen in my recent reading:

"Almost without thinking, Consuela slipped her skin over her head like a sweater. She pulled her arms out of their long gloves and stepped gently out of the warm, wet suit left puddled at the bottom of the bathtub. Keeping her eyes on her feet, Consuela stared at the collection of thin, tiny bones suspended in a sort of liquid shadow holding them together, surreal against the peach bath mat. She looked up into the full-length mirror and saw herself.

Consuela was a skeleton." (page 14)

I was taken aback (and somewhat disturbed), but intrigued. And my interest continued as Consuela leaves normal life behind, and enters into the world of the "flow," where reality plays by different rules, and a small group of teenagers (each as freakishly strange as Consuela now is) is charged with saving people who teeter at the brink of death.

But the Flow is under threat from within--someone, or something, wants it destroyed. And so the deaths of the teenagers within the flow begins...and Consuela's struggles to come to terms with her new existence pale in comparison to the new challenge of staying "alive" in a realm where "life" is already a strange thing indeed.

Consuela's new powers are fascinating, the Flow is fascinating, and so are the people she meets there--including one boy with whom romance blossoms (just in case you wondered: Consuela doesn't stay a skeleton for the whole book, which is good, because the romance would have been weird if she had). Unfortunately for the reader, many of these characters die before Consuela gets to know them well (if at all), which was disappointing. However, on the plus side, I found Consuela's reactions and emotional challenges convincing and gripping (I especially liked that she missed her family!), and I read eagerly to the end, waiting for everything to fall into place.

But in the end, things don't, quite, hold together to make a convincing alternate reality. I had to keep squashing my questions firmly, and suspend my critical facilities (which proved quite easy, in as much as I was thoroughly enjoying Consuela and her new found powers). Just for starters, why are there so few teenagers in the Flow? Why does there seem to be so little demand for their services? Why, since so big deal is made of the fact that Consuela enters the Flow in an unprecedented way, does it have no particular consequences as far as I could tell? Who the heck is the mysterious Native American shape-changer, Joseph Crow? Even the veterans of the Flow have no certain answers.

Consuela herself is aware of all these unanswered questions; toward the end of the book, she asks herself a whole long paragraph of them, wanting rather desperately (with good reason!) "to know more about life, about death, and most of all, about the Flow." But her conclusion seems to be identical to the one reached by the author:

"[She] knew none of the answers would make one bit of difference. She had to go. Right now. She had to live, or die now. Her choice." (page 290)

And so the answers are never forthcoming, and Luminous never moved beyond "interesting diversion and very pleasant read" into book I fell hard for. I loved the pictures made in my mind, but the story itself never quite coalesced into a real, solid thing. That being said, I never once wanted to put it down...

I'd be curious to know what any of you who have read this one think! Here's what The Book Smugglers thought....

Note for those wanting to read diverse sff: Consuela is a Mexican American, and is shown as such (beautifully!) on the cover.

Note on religion: Given that the Flow is essentially a surreal fantastical limbo, I was curious about how religion would play out in the characters' conceptions of it all. From a few brief invocations of the Divine, Consuela might well have a genuine belief in Christianity (at one point, she says a mental "Sorry, Jesus" (page 49)--that sort of small, infrequent reference), but the whole relationship of the Flow to any religion is left unclear. Given my feeling that Consuela would consider herself Christian, it was a little bothersome, not because of my own feelings about religion, but because I found it to be a disconcerting gap between character-building and world-building. While on the subject of religion---Consuela's key decision at the end of the book might not sit well with readers for whom the concept of "the right to die" is anathema.