Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge--Make some pages!

Yay for every one who took part in this challenge! Here's the list of page-makers as of Sunday afternoon.

It's Bloggiesta time, a wild and whacky marathon of blog improvement. Whether it's simply writing posts for the future, or doing major revamps of your layout, Bloggiesta is the time to make your blog better! Bloggiesta runs from March 30, 31 & April 1, and it's not too late to sign up!

One of the most enjoyable parts of Bloggiesta is taking part in mini-challenges--I know that I myself have found tips and tricks that never occured to me taking part in these in the past. This year I'm hosting my own mini-challenge, and, since the organizers have asked for links to be sent to the main site in advance of the weekend, I'm posting it now (I'll be adding a link to the challenge site when it's up).

Here's my challenge--Make Pages!

Pages are simply permentent posts that contain whatever information you want--the titles of your pages generally appear at the top of a blog, beneath the header. Lots of bloggers use pages for information about themselves and their review policies, which is fine, and clears the sidebar nicely. If you haven't done this, it's an easy and useful thing to do.

But I'm challenging you to put pages to an even better use!

If you are like me, you feel sad that so many great reviews are languishing in the depths of your blog, unvisited and unappreciated. You can use a permanent page to index your reviews, which is fine; however, this might not actually draw that many new readers. Instead, or in addition, why not have themed pages?

I myself have several of these. I have permanent pages in which I've organized links to all my time travel reviews, my multicultural sci fi/fantasy reviews, my fairy tale retelling posts, and my reviews of historical fantasy. Because these pages have titles that are search engine friendly ("time travel books"), they bring many more visitors to my blog than searches for specific books. I've also noticed that many more visitors click on my pages than on my labels--labels will pull up a thematic group of posts, but it's hard to skim a large number of reviews presented in their entirety.

My Time Travel page is the fourth most visited part of my blog, and it is awfully pleasing to see visitors click on multiple review links. At the top and bottom of this example pulled from yesterday's blogcounter log are examples of regular visitors; in the middle is someone who came to my blog, saw the time travel page, and stayed for almost 42 minutes to click through a gratifying number of the links (the bright pink box is the Time Travel page, the white boxes are mostly specific reviews. You can click on them for yourself, if you are very curious!):

ip98-163-107-32.dc.dc.cox.net [Srv]		Mar 27, 15:23:43	[0:00:00]
rrcs-64-183-221-202.sw.biz.rr.com [Srv]		Mar 27, 15:17:00	[0:41:58]
c-24-60-121-73.hsd1.ma.comcast.net [Srv]		Mar 27, 15:12:59	[0:00:00]

As a blog writer, this sort of visitor makes me feel like it's all worthwhile, and that I've created a Resource. As a blog reader, I'd love it if more people had thematic lists for me to peruse!

So here's how to make a page in blogger (you can have up to twenty):

click on new post
click on edit pages
click on new page
fill your new page with whatever you want it to have!
click publish

And here's how to do it in Wordpress:

Select the Administration > Pages > Add New option to begin writing a new Page.

The amount of information you put in your pages is of course up to you. I think the point is to make it easier for people to find books that interest them, and so whatever you think is useful should go into your list. Here's an example of a nice list at Ms Yingling Reads--the title of the page is "Adventure Books," and inside she's broken her list into various subcategories--outdoor adventures, spies, etc. She's also gone the extra step of short summaries.

So I challenge you--make a page! Make lots of pages! Use your labels as a starting point, perhaps. If you've reviewed lots of books about ghosts, or werewolves, or France, or hedgehogs--stick links to them all in a page on Sunday! Bring your old reviews out into the open again!

And just because challenges are more fun if there's a giveaway, anyone that makes a new page during Bloggiesta, and comes back to leave a link to it here (and I'll add all the links to this post) will be entered to win their choice of the following:

An ARC of Unbreak My Heart, by Melissa Walker (YA)

or

An ARC of Above, by Leah Bobet (YA)

Happy Bloggiesta! And many thanks to our hosts, Danielle of There's a Book, and Suey from It’s All About Books.

The Haunting of Nathaniel Wolfe, by Brian Keaney

The Haunting of Nathaniel Wolfe, by Brian Keaney (Hodder & Stoughton, April 1, 2012, middle grade, 240 pages).

On a smoky, foggy, fetid March evening in Victorian London, young Nathaniel is engaged in his usual occupation--selling tickets to his father's show, one that promises that the dead will speak from beyond the grave. The audience is desperate to receive news of their departed loved ones (or not so loved ones), but Nathaniel knows it's all trickery. But even though his father spends the bulk of the money drinking, at least it keeps a roof over their heads....

But then the unexpected happens.

"Up there on the stage beside his father was a shadow, a shape, blurred at first but becoming clearer with every passing moment until finally he was looking at the figure of a woman, dressed in a long white robe. Her eyes were the palest blue and they were fixed directly on him. With every fibre of his being he knew her for what she was: a ghost."

And so Nathaniel finds himself unwilling drawn into a dark mystery as he tries to find out just what this ghost wants....and how she died.

He's not alone in his quest--a new friend named Lily, a plucky servant girl, has her own part to play in solving the mystery. But as Lily and Nathaniel come closer to figuring out what happened to the dead woman, their own lives become at risk. Murderers don't always stop at just one victim....

This was a very satisfying murder mystery for young readers--I guessed a key aspect of the plot early (because of having read the right Dorothy Sayers) but that didn't keep me from being enthralled by Nathaniel and Lily's adventures. Although my credulity was a tad stretched toward the end, when Queen Victoria made an appearance, the mystery itself unfolded very nicely, and I was quite anxious on behalf of Nathaniel and Lily. Nathaniel in particular is a character for whom I found it easy to care--his life is of neglect and poverty, yet he manages to keep going bravely (without being annoyingly Plucky) .

The book might perhaps be hard sell for young readers who aren't drawn to historical fiction, but once the ghost starts haunting Nathaniel in earnest, the pace picks up. I think it's one where the cover will do a good job of sorting out the readers who will like it from those that won't, in as much at it's a cover of historical, spooky atmosphere, as opposed to a cover of Exciting Adventure. It's certainly one to offer any kid looking for a good ghost story, and I'd recommend it in particular to fans of Avi's historical fiction, or perhaps, moving in the other direction, to readers of The Wolves of Whilloughby Chase, by Joan Aiken, who found the farcical fun of that book a bit over the top, but enjoyed the historical mystery.

Here's another review, at Serendipity Reviews

(disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher)

A Stitch in Time, by Penelope Lively, for Timeslip Tuesday

Penelope Lively began her career as a writer for children, with the publication of Astercote (my review) in 1970. She continued to write for children up to the end of the 20th century, before turning entirely to adult books in the 21st. This, to my mind, is a shame, because her children's books are awfully good! Not least among them is today's Timeslip Tuesday book, A Stitch in Time (1976).

Maria is the dreamy only child of distant parents who make little effort to truly engage with her. They aren't bad parents--after all, they are taking her on a seaside vacation away from London to a rented house in Dorset, near the famous fossil cliffs of Lyme Regis (where Mary Anning made her discoveries). But still, Maria is used to being alone with her thoughts.

The house where Maria is staying is a Victorian period piece, and the past seems particularly close to the present. She begins to hear things that aren't there--the creak of a swing, the barking of a dog. When she sees the sampler embroidered by a Victorian girl named Harriet whose home it was, she begins to wonder, and worry, about what happened to that long gone girl...until on an expedition to the cliffs past and present collide, to give Maria a glimpse of a day long ago, when tragedy struck...or maybe not.

And in the meantime, Maria grows fascinated with fossils, and makes her first real friend--the boy staying in the house next door, who becomes her companion in exploration. As the days pass, she grows in confidence, until even her parents are forced to re-evaluate her as a person in her own right. To a large extent, the book is a character study of this lonely, intelligent girl, and it was lovely to see her change as the story progressed.

Up until the climax, which lasts only a page or two, the timeslip element is somewhat understated--more echoes of the past, than traveling to and from it. Even the pivotal scene has a dream-like quality. But the past is present enough enough so as to make this an intriguing mystery--like Maria, the reader (me at least) becomes more and more anxious for Harriet....

This isn't one for those who like Exciting Plots, but I'd say it's pretty much a must read for quite, bookish, imaginative girls, who will enjoy it lots.

I myself enjoyed it quite a bit because I've actually been to the very beach Maria so enjoyed exploring. Here are the boys and I enjoying a beautiful March day--the fossil cliffs of mudstone are (sort of) visible on the right.


I wouldn't let the boys scramble on the cliffs, which are indeed very dangerous looking, but the beach was littered with bits of the fossil-bearing mudstone, which we happily cracked open, and we came home with a number of scrappy ammonite fossils, even though we failed to find our own ichthyosaur.

And even though the weather didn't cooperate that first day, we had a lovely time, and I would love to go back someday now they are older--sadly, they were too young to really remember it.

We stayed in Charmouth, right next to the beach, at a lovely bed and breakfast called Swansmead. Here's the view of the beach from our window.
Reading A Stitch in Time, with all its lovely references to the fossils (they ever are included in the Victorian sampler that give the book its title) brought it all back...

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

Happy Downfall of Sauron day, which subsequently was designated Tolkein Reading Day. In my own house, my younger son will find out tonight that Frodo, post-Shelob, is actually still alive...

And welcome to another round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs! Please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews ("C" continues to be the letter of choice--a fine letter, if I say so who shouldn't):

Artemis the Loyal (Goddess Girls 7) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Small Review

Bless This Mouse, by Lois Lowry, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbit, at books4yourkids

Castle of Shadows, by Ellen Renner, at Bookworm1858 and Charlotte's Library

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at Waking Brain Cells

Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitch Smith, at Book Moot and I Read Banned Books (giveaway)

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Guys Lit Wire

Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 1: The Night Things, by Ted Naifeh, at Finding Wonderland

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact, by A.J. Hartley, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Dragon Castle, by Joseph Bruchac, at Library Chicken

Drizzle, by Kathleen Van Cleve, at Pass the Chiclets

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens (audio book review) at Cool Kids Read

The Eyeball Collector, by F.E. Higgins, at Becky's Book Reviews

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Fuse #8 and Roots in Myth

Flidderbugs, by Jonathan Gould, at Books are Magic (plus interview)

Fly By Night, and Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge, at Musings from a Modern Bluestocking

Giants Beware! by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre, at Charlotte's Library (graphic novel)

How To Slay a Dragon, by Bill Allen, at Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, at Book Ends

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Fantasy Literature

Janitors, by Tylor Whitesides, at Charlotte's Library

Magical Mischief, by Anna Dale, at Ms. Yingling Reads

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Sonderbooks

Oddfellows Orphanage, by Emily Winfield Martin, at books4yourkids

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Waking Brain Cells

Peaceweaver, by Rebecca Barnhouse, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and The Book Smugglers

Project Jackalope, by Emily Ecton, at Middle Grade Mafioso

The Rock of Ivanore, by Laurisa White Reyes, at So Simply Sara (also an interview)

Space Lizards Stole My Brain, by Mark Griffiths, at The Book Zone

Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Time Snatchers, by Richard Ungar, at Charlotte's Library

Vikram and the Enchanted Seals, by Sanjiv Behera, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain, by Oldman Brook, at Review Haven

Wonder Show, by Hannah Barnaby, at A Patchwork of Books and Bookyurt

At Time Travel Times Two are The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks, and Dinosaur Habitat, by Helen Griffith

Authors and Interviews

Jenny Lundquist (Seeing Cinderella) at Literary Rambles (giveaway)

Jennifer Nielsen (Elliot and the Goblin War, The False Prince) at Project Mayhem

Greg Leitich Smith (Chronal Engines) at Cynsations and DEBtastic Reads (giveaway)

Jenn Reese (Above World) at A Thousand Wrongs

Derek the Ghost (Scary School) at Geo Librarian

Maryrose Wood (The Unseen Guest--Incorrigible Children of Aston Place book 3) at Kid Lit Frenzy

Charles London (We Dine with Cannibals--An Accidental Adventure #2), at The O.W.L.

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore), at So Simply Sara (also a review)

Jonathan Gould (Flidderbugs) at Books are Magic (also a review)

Other Interesting Stuff

At the Guardian, an article on the enduring appeal of Enid Blyton--her fantasy books did little for me at the time, but in retrospect have a certain charm

The Once Upon a Time VI Challenge is up and running at Stainless Steel Droppings--I've never participated because basically every book I read (72 so far this year, which is the first time I've ever managed to keep track) counts, so it's not exactly a challenge. But this year I plan to join the other children on the playground....in part because I love the magical fox mascot shown at right! (here's my list of favorite fantasy foxes).

Monica has the latest Fairy Tale News at Educating Alice, and I have a guest post up at the O.W.L. on Fantasy Classics.


And speaking of classics, here's a Narnia wardrobe in real life; if you click through, you can see the lovely Narnia playroom it leads too. (Found via 100 Scope Notes)

Janitors, by Tyler Whitesides

Janitors, by Tyler Whitesides (Shadow Mountain, 2011, middle grade, 288 pages), was nominated for the Cybils last fall...and a review copy came for me (thank you!)...and I read and enjoyed it...and am only now writing my review (hangs head). *

Here's the basic premise--schools across the world are invested by hideous, (though invisible to most eyes) supernatural beings known as Toxites that suck all goodness from the learning experience. Lethargy, indifference, distractedness--all caused by these monsters. But there is hope for the children! A brave band of magically empowered Janitors is using the ancient lore of their guild to fight the good fight against this horrible blight. At least, that the way the Janitors tell the story...

And Spencer, and ordinary boy, stumbles into this shadow world when an encounter with mysterious pink soap opens his eyes to what's really happening at school. Allied (slightly uneasily) with his goodhearted but guilable classmate Daisy, Spencer must decide if can trust Merv and the other janitors, or throw his lot in with the Beareau of Educational Maintence, the mysterious agency who seek to wrest the magic of the janitors away from them.

Things quickly escalate, and mayhem and danger ensue!

This was an interseting take on magic that felt fresh and fun, especially because the school setting is one not used very much. I appreciated the fact that the kids stumbled into things, and weren't Chosen Ones--it made it easy to relate to them and their strange situation. Spencer and Daisy never became quite fully alive to me, but I liked them well enough, and believed in them just fine. It was perhaps a tad too expository in places (lots of time is spent on explaintations), but that didn't keep me from enjoying it in a light-hearted sort of way.

Not really one I'd recommend to grown-up fans of mg fantasy, and I don't think I'll ever feel the need to re-read it myself, but with its zippy, whacky story it should appeal to young fantasy fans (I'd say fourth and fifth graders in particular) who want something with a contemporary, real-life feel to it. And if it leads to greater respect for school custodians, that's a nice added bonus!

Other reviews: Ms. Yingling Reads, ThomStratton.com, and Geo Librarian

This is just to say I have a guest post up at the O.W.L. on mg fantasy classics

Jill at the O.W.L. is having a whole month of middle grade fun. Yesterday I contribute a guest post in which I did my best to be Thoughtful on the subject of middle grade fantasy classics--here's the link.

Giants Beware! by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre

Giants Beware! by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre (First Second, April 10, 2012, ages 7 on up) is one of my favorite books of the year. It does absolutely everything that I think a graphic novel for kids should do. For starters, the day it arrived in my house both my boys (8 and 11) read and then re-read it, and have enjoyed it multiple times since then. And I myself can't think of a graphic novel for kids I've enjoyed more (yes, even more than Zita the Spacegirl).

The story starts when young Claudette learns why her small French town has a wall around it. The XXXIL Marquis de Mont Petit Pierre set out one day to kill the "Baby-Feet Eating Giant" who was terrorizing the town....but instead of slaying the giant, he came home and built the wall to keep everyone safe inside. Claudette is outraged, and, afire with heroic dreams, she decides to slay the giant herself!

She is not deterred by the fact that her father, the town's blacksmith, lost both legs and an arm in an encounter with a dragon, nor does she pay much attention to the wise words of her father's colleague, Zubair--"Most monsters can be reasoned with. They do not wish to die." (page 22). Nope, Claudette just wants to SLAY! and become a hero.

So Claudette convinces her best friend, Marie, the daughter of the current Marquis, who dreams of being a princess, and her little brother, Gaston, a rather timid child who aspires to twin careers as a sword maker and a master chef, to set out with her to find and slay the giant.

Their path to the giant's mountain is filled with magical obstacles--which are overcome thanks mainly to Marie and Gaston. But when they find that Claudette used some underhand rhetoric to convince them to come, they won't go any further. Claudette sets out through the dark and stormy night to defeat the giant alone. Until her own nerve breaks....and it's up to Marie and Gaston to convince her to take up the quest again.


And in the meantime, once the adults have realized the children are gone, they set out themselves (including Claudette and Gaston's dad, in his wheelchair). Amidst their somewhat bumbling incompetence, Zubair comes into his own as the only truly knowledgeable, powerful adult in the story.

And I'll stop summarizing right there, except to add one last little spoiler--Claudette gets the ending she wants!

The story was tremendously satisfying as a story--the introduction of the Danger, the Quest, the mischances along the way, and the final confrontation taking a pleasing twist. But what made me love this one is the characters, who defy the expectations and normative categorizations most beautifully.

Marie wants to be a princess, and Claudette, tomboy though she is, is a supportive friend, agreeing to be a lady-in-waiting. Being a princess, in this book, is a little bit about frivolous things, but Marie is not dismissed as vapid. Instead, she gets to use her intelligence to save the trio from a very sticky situation, and by the end of the book, she's considering become a diplomat. For girls who want to be heros, but like dresses, and know that sword-fighting is not a possibility, Marie is an empowering character.

Gaston is timid, and starts at shadows, but is forced to be incredibly brave to save the others--fairly standard. What is less typical is his burning interest in haute cuisine, celebrated by the other characters, combined with a longing to learn the craft of sword making at his father's side.

And as for Claudette--she is, to a large extent, the stereotypical tom-boyish girl who wants to be a warrior, but that stereotype ends up being subverted--violence is not the answer to this particular problem.

It's all summed up rather nicely in this extra strip, from the book's website:


The character who most intrigued me, though, is Zubair. At first I thought he was simply the assistant to Claudette's blacksmith dad, but by the end of the book it became clear that not only was he incredibly strong--he carried Claudette's dad's wheelchair up a mountain-- he was incredibly wise, knew more about magic and monsters than anyone else in the book, and obviously had a whole tremendously interesting back-story. And although it strays perhaps too close to the cliche of the Mysterious Exotic Other, I was pleased to see that this most puissant of all the characters was black.

The creators, in subtitling their website The Chronicles of Claudette, do suggest the possibility of other books about Claudette and co.--and indeed, even though the threat of the giant is no longer an issue, if I lived in Claudette's town, I wouldn't be in a hurry to take the wall down. There are things out there that I would be very wary of indeed....

The pictures were tremendously appealing (apart from my own dislike of boys drawn with little hair, ala Gaston), and they were clearly drawn, and worked well with the story, such that even a reader who is somewhat graphic novel challenged (ie me, because I am use to reading fast fast fast which doesn't work with pictures) found it all pleasing and easy to follow. Here's a sample:And here's an inking demo from Rafael Rosado.

Anyway, I loved it and my boys love it and I bet just about any kid of upper elementary school age would enjoy it too. In my ordering of graphic novel readers by age of reader, I'd slot it just before Zita, which in turn goes just before the Bone series, with Ghostopolis coming next (my 11 year old, reading this over my shoulder, thinks Bone would go before Zita. I think he's wrong).

Other reviews: 100 Scope Notes, Paige in Training, Musings of a Librarian, and Indie Comic Review

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Waiting on Wednesday--Boneland, by Alan Garner

At the end of August, a book is coming out that is the most beautifully unexpected and unlooked for type of book--the continuation of a series after decades have past. Boneland, by Alan Garner, is the third book that began with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and continued with its sequel, The Moon of Gomrath.

These are powerful, beautiful fantasy books that tell the story of what happens when two ordinary siblings, Susan and Colin, become entangled with ancient magic. My husband pretty much worships Alan Garner, and these two books, with their strong sense of the old magic of a particular piece of England (Alderley Edge) are very dear to him. But I only read The Moon of Gomrath once, which means, inveterate re-reader that I am, that I didn't love it. Why? Because of the ending, which I shan't spoil, but which left me frustrated as all get out. Deeply, deeply, unforgivably so.

Now, at last, my frustration will be ended (unless this third book ends in way that frustrates me all over again!)

Alan Garner had felt at one point that there would be a third book, as he explains in this interview from 1989 (which is absolutely must reading for anyone interested in British fantasy. Really truly must reading).

"At one stage, before beginning The Moon of Gomrath, I thought it was a trilogy. By the time I'd finished The Moon of Gomrath, however, I knew it was time for me to be moving on. There was no need for me to write that third book. But there is, lurking within The Moon of Gomrath, the idea that something else is going to happen. And there is. There's a third book, which I shall never write. I couldn't write it now if I wanted to, because it wouldn't match. One changes."

And happily, he changed again.

Lifting shamelessly from the Guardian article that alerted me to this new book:

"In Boneland, Colin is a professor who spends his days at Jodrell Bank [shown at right] "using the radio telescope to look for his lost sister in the Pleiades. At night, he is on Alderley Edge, watching", said Garner's publisher. "At the same time, and in another time, the Watcher cuts the rock and blows bulls on the stone with his blood, and dances, to keep the sky above the earth and the stars flying."

The adult Colin can remember nothing from his life before the age of 13, and afterwards he remembers everything, from every minute of every hour of every day. "Colin can't remember; and he remembers too much," said Fourth Estate. "And then, finally, a new force enters his life, a therapist who might be able to unlock what happened to him when he was 12, what happened to his sister. But Colin will have to remember quickly, to find his sister. And the Watcher will have to find the Woman. Otherwise the skies will fall, and there will be only winter, wanderers and moon …"

I'm looking forward not only to this new book, but also to the required re-reading of the first two--I wonder what I will find in them, an older and wiser (?) reader. And I can't wait to find out what an older, and doubtless wiser, Alan Garner has in store for me now.

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