My Rotten Stepbrother Ruined Cinderella, by Jerry Mahoney

My Rotten Stepbrother Ruined Cinderella, by Jerry Mahoney (Capstone, August 2017) is a fun one for younger middle grade readers (9-10 year olds) who enjoy a fun fractured fairy tale.

Maddie is a big fan of Cinderella, and she's proud of the diorama she made of the story for school.  But her stepbrother Holden is not impressed with either, and points out the many logical flaws in the story; for instance, surely Cinderella isn't the only girl with that particular shoe size!  And soon Maddie's diorama has changed to something not in the real story, and all the book versions have gone horribly wrong too.  Holden's logic has broken Cinderella, and her happy ending is no more!

Holden and Maddie magically enter the story (not of their own volition; it just happens), and once there Madddie's determined to set things right.  Holden, though, is an uncertain ally at best, because he's more interested in things making sense, which isn't so useful when dealing with fairy tales. But the two of them manage to start tidying things up, starting with the stepsister who's now going to marry the prince; this wasn't her idea (she'd rather go to art school).  The stepmother is the villain of the piece, and getting her out of the way of Cinderella's happily ever after  turns out to be rather a tricky job. But once Cinderella and her stepsisters (one of whom is now Maddie, disguised by enchantment) put their past behind them and start working as a team, and once Holden and Maddie do the same, things fall into place.

It's a lot of fun, and interesting to visit a well known story through Holden's fresh, critical eyes.  The author also adds a rational explanation for the vexing question of why the prince needed the shoe fitting to recognize his true love again--he has face blindness.  The resulting story is quite a bit more interesting than the original, although happy ever after is once again achieved (I found myself cheering more enthusiastically from the emancipated stepsister, now free to pursue her own dreams, than I did for Cinderella, who's romance still remains founded on the flimsy foundation of insta love...).

There are many bits of very kid friendly humor, and the illustrations entertain as well. It's the sort of book you can start reading aloud to kids even younger than 9, and then leave lying around as bait for independent reading.  Kids who enjoy this sort of disrupted fairy tale will then be happy to read the other books in the series, in which Holden ruins other stories in similar fashion.  It is also a good teaching tool about thinking critically about plot, and learning to recognize plot holes; Holden makes many valid points!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (1/21/18)

Brightstorm, by Vashti Hardy, at Book Murmuration 

Children of Exile, and its sequel, Children of Refuge, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night, at CovertoCoverBlog

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, by Alexandra Bracken, at Always in the Middle

Engineerds, by Jarrett Lerner, at Librarian's Quest

Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford, at Life's an Art

How Oscar Indigo Broke the Universe (and Put it Back Together Again) by David Teague, at Time Travel Times Two and Charlotte's Library

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, at Leaf's Reviews

The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, at Boys Rule Boys Read

The List, by Patricia Forde, at That's Another Story

Love Sugar Magic: a Dash of Trouble, by Anna Meriano, at MG Book Village and Charlotte's Library

The Magpie King, by M.J. Fahy, at Red Headed Book Lover

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder, at Redeemed Reader and Heavy Medal

Rules for Thieves, by Alexandra Ott, at Semicolon

Shadow Weaver, by MarcyKate Connolly, at The Winged Pen

Sky Song, by Abi Elphinstone, at Minerva Reads

The Song From Somewhere Else, by A.F. Harrold, at Pages Unbound Reviews

Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar, at Log Cabin Library

The Unicorn in the Barn, by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, at Hidden in Pages

Winterhouse, by Ben Guterson,  at Puss Reboots

Two Middle Grade Castle fantasies--Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George, and The Castle Behind Thorns, by Merrie Haskell, at Falling Letters

Authors and Interviews

Nigel Quinlan (The Cloak of Feathers) at MG Book Village 

Anna Meriano (Love Sugar Magic) at Nerdy Book Club

Kara LaRue has been on a blog tour for The Uncanny Express, here are this week's stops:
1/15 Librarian's Quest

1/16 Storymamas

1/17 All The Wonders

1/18 Project Mayhem

1/21 Nerdy Book Club

Other Good Stuff

"The Gods and Spirits (and Totoros) of Miyazaki's Fantasy Worlds," at Tor

For those in the Boston area--a fantastic MG sci fi/fantasy afternoon at the Dedham Library, March 3

Waiting on Wednesday--The Sisters Mederos

I was just reminded the other day of  Waiting on Wednesday, a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.  Jill doesn't seem to be blogging any more, but it is a darn good meme, and so I will pick it up again!

My pick is The Sisters Mederos, by Patrice Sarath.

A pleasing sort of Georgette Heyer meet Scarlet Pimpernel vibe to the cover....

Here is the blurb from Goodreads, with my thoughts in red.

Two sisters ("sisters" always catches my eye; being a sister is a corner stone of my own identity) fight with manners (I'm reading "manners" as wit, intelligence, and snark, so yes), magic (always good), and mayhem (mayhem works less well for me.  I don't like beautiful things to be broken, which often happens during mayhems) to reclaim their family's name, in this captivating historical fantasy (always good) adventure. 

House Mederos was once the wealthiest merchant family (merchant families are some of the most interesting to read about, I think).  in Port Saint Frey. Now the family is disgraced, impoverished, and humbled by the powerful Merchants Guild. Daughters Yvienne and Tesara Mederos are determined to uncover who was behind their family's downfall and get revenge. But Tesara has a secret - could it have been her wild magic that caused the storm that destroyed the family's merchant fleet? (I want to know more about her wild magic now)  The sisters' schemes quickly get out of hand - gambling is one thing (and not my favorite thing to read about), but robbing people is another...

Together the sisters must trust each another to keep their secrets and save their family.

April 3rd 2018 by Angry Robot

what are you waiting for?

How Oscar Indigo Broke the Universe (and Put It Back Together Again), by David Teague, for Timeslip Tuesday

How Oscar Indigo Broke the Universe (and Put It Back Together Again), by David Teague (HarperCollins Nov. 2017), is a fun new middle grade time travel book, just the thing if you enjoy tense baseball moments, friendship stories, and the odd pterodactyl appearing unexpectedly because the universe has been broken.  Broken by a boy named Oscar, who pressed a button on an old watch that stopped time for 19 seconds and let him hit his first home run, winning the game.

Those missing 19 seconds have seriously derailed the universe; pterodactyls are the least of it.  So Oscar has to somehow figure out how to set things right again...and he does.

In the meantime, he's making friends with his new team-mate Lourdes, going back in time to see Babe Ruth be struck out by another 12 year old girl (Oscar's octogenarian friend in the present, and the one who gave him the watch), and worrying about the precarious state of his mother's finances....and in the meantime there are rouge waves, a double sun, trees with tentacles, and 19 second flashes of other phenomena bursting out of their own time and into his....

It is fun and warm and a little silly but not too much so (and I'm very sensitive to too much silliness so you can trust me on this).  Oscar, benchwarmer and tireless team morale booster, is really a good person, and sort of infuses the book with his personality.  And if you like baseball, you'll enjoy it even more than I did!  It's the sort of book where you feel the author's really enjoying telling you the story--here, have 19 seconds of Carolina Parakeets! sort of fun.  And Oscar's struggle to redeem himself after cheating, and the rather melancholy passing of his elderly friend, adds emotional weight that gives the story point.

Kirkus and I are completely in agreement.  From their starred review:  "Teague weaves the tale with gentle expressions of teamwork, friendship, honesty, and compassion. Fantasy feels real, and it all works beautifully."

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble, by Anna Meriano

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble, by Anna Meriano (Walden/HarperCollins, January 2017), is a classic book of what happens when a kid stumbles into magic, tries to use it for good, and things go horrible wrong!  (I'm thinking classic as in Edward Eager here; his characters would enjoy this one very much).

Leonora Logroño's family owns a lovely bakery in Rose Hill, Texas, but eleven-year-old Leo is considered too young to help, even when the bakery's busiest day, the town's Dia de los Muertos festival, comes around.  Determined not to be left out again, she sneaks out of school and down to the bakery, where she learns what's really going on without her--her four older sisters, mother and aunt are brujas (Mexican magic users), who can imbue their baked goods with magic!  Leo is now even more determined to be part of things, and so when her best friend Caroline has a problem involving a close friend, a boy, who was unkind to her, Leo decides to see if she has the gift for magic too!

She does.  But of course she lacks any experience, guidance, or understanding of the implications of the spells she finds in the family's recipe book of magic baking.  And things go wrong in that special horrible embarrassing middle school way. More magical backed goods later, things are even more wrong, and now Caroline's friend is only a few inches high and hanging out in Leo's old doll house.

Leo has reached the point where can't fix things, but fortunately her family rallies around her, and with both understanding and forgiveness, helps her sort things out.

Full of humor, friendship, and strong, loving family ties, as well as delicious baked goods (recipes included), this is a total charmer!  The recipes that Leo finds are in Spanish, which aren't translated; Leo herself is not fluent in Spanish, and so her own efforts to understand them help the non-Spanish reading reader with no loss of momentum.  And not to worry if you don't know Spanish-three of the recipes (though without the magic) are given in English in the back of the book!

Give this one to young bakers, young readers who love the intrusion of magic into the everyday world, and those looking for windows or mirrors into the of a Mexican American family who are both ordinary and extraordinary!  Read it yourself if you love Edward Eager as a kid!

I was left with one unanswered burning question though--if you make flying pig cookies that really fly, do you eat them, or just let them fly around until they become crumbs?

Kirkus more or less agrees with me, giving this one a starred review.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (1/14/18)

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

The Reviews

Children of Exile, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Children of Refuge, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at The Write Path

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero, at Charlotte's Library

The Door in the Alley, by Adrienne Kress, at Me On Books

The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at Typewritered

Ember Falls, by S.D. Smith, at The Story Sanctuary

The Eternity Elixir, by Frank L. Cole, at ReadLove

A Far Away Magic, by Amy Wilson, at ink pots

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Forever Young Adult

Harriet the Invincible, by Ursula Vernon, at Hit or Miss Books

Nightshade City, by Hilary Wagner, at Say What?

Of Mice and Magic, by Ursula Vernon, at Hit or Miss Books

Red: the True Story of Little Red Riding Hood, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Hit or Miss Books

Shadow Weaver, by MarcyKate Connolly, at Cracking the Cover and Me On Books

Sky Song, by Abi Elphinstone, at Alittlebutalot and The Guardian

The Slithers, by Philip Caveney, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Spirit Hunters, by Ellen Oh, at Jean Little Library

Straw Into Gold, by Gary D. Schmidt, at Hope is the Word

Superfail, by Max Brunner, at Always in the Middle

Tumble & Blue, by Cassie Beasley, at Redeemed Reader

Winterhouse, by Ben Guterson, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Wolf Hour, by Sara Lewis Holmes, at Book Nut (audiobook review)


Authors and Interviews

Kevin Crossley-Holland on Not Being a Reader at Nerdy Book Club

Other Good Stuff

"How Fantasy Candy Kingdoms Have Evolved Over the Past 200 Years" at Tor

Sherry at Semicolon shares her ten mg spec fic favorites, and Katy at alibrarymama shares 9 Cybils nominations she loved that didn't make the shortlist

Books for kids who crave acton and adventure at B. and N. Kids Blog

Robot books for young readers at the B. and N. Kids Blog

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero

The Dollmaker of Krakow, by R.M. Romero (Delacorte, middle grade, Sept. 2017) is a haunting historical fantasy set in WW II that has just been recognized as a 2018 Notable Book of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards.

In the Land of the Dolls, Karolina was a seamstress, living at peace with her friends.  But then the rats came, and peace was no more.  At the lowest point in her life, the rats having wrecked everything, a strange wind whisks her away, and she finds herself in the shop of a lonely toymaker in Krakow, Poland.  He is making a dollhouse that is truly a thing of beauty, and he made the body Karolina now inhabits to live there.  But Karolina isn't just any doll; she still is herself, able to talk and think, and the lonely man and the exiled doll become good companions.

The dollhouse is being made for a little girl named Rena, and when the Dollmaker delivers it, Karolina goes too, and reveals her secret.  The Trzmiel family takes this in stride, and become friends.   But then the Nazis invade Poland, and life becomes very difficult, especially for Jewish families like the Trzmiels.  The Dollmaker was originally a German, and registers as such with the Nazis (though he gets vilified by his neighbors for this)  to get extra food to share with the Trzmiels, but as things get worse and worse for the Jews of Krakow, it becomes clear that Rena and the other children now suffering in the ghetto, must somehow be saved.

The Dollmaker, inspired by the living doll Karolina, uses his skill to find a strange and wonderful solution that is truly magical.  Rena and a handful of other children are saved, but her father, and the Dollmaker, are lost.

Though the evil of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, from the mundane hatred to the buildup of the Holocaust, is not sugar coated, and the historical details are vivid, and the sadness heart-wrenching, the fairytale element of Karolina acts as a buffer between reader and horror, making this a good one for sensitive readers.  It's also a good one for readers who find historical fiction is more appealing when mixed with fantasy.  And so it succeeds in this regard, and the characters are memorable and the story moving.  That being said, the fairy tale part, especially the flashbacks of Katrina remembering the war with the rats in her own land, ended up diminishing the power of the book for me, with the real horror folded into a framework of the clearly fantastical that never happened.  Except that in the end I was crying just fine, despite the fantasy elements.

It's a tricky book, though, for the adult to try to see through the eyes of a child reader, because of course adults know so much of the history already.  And the Dollmaker, badly scarred in mind and body by the first world war, is a character who I think is more interesting to an adult reader than a child one.  I loved the Dollmaker--the lonely ordinary person, badly hurt in the past but holding strong to decency despite everything, is one of my favorite types of character.  But I did love the dollhouse, and Karolina, just as much as I would have as a child (the dollhouse especially).


disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration.

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim, for Timeslip Tuesday

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim (Sky Pony Press, Jan. 2 2018), is the sequel to 2016's Timekeeper (my review), which was also a Timeslip Tuesday book.  These aren't time-slip stories of a traditional sort, with people slipping between different times, but instead are set in a Victorian world where time itself can literally slip out of whack, causing repercussions ranging from the trivial to the profound for the people in the vicinity.  To keep time under control, clock towers were built, each with a resident clock spirit, which are maintained by skilled workers.  17 year old Danny is one such mechanic, and in the first book he fell in love with the spirit of the clock he was maintaining, a boy named Colton (very forbidden both for the same sex part and the spirit/human part).  He also helped solve a crime against the smooth running of time,  surviving exploding clockwork in the process.

Because of his experience with clocks going wrong, Danny is sent to India when clock towers there start being attacked and destroyed.  With him goes a former rival from his days an apprentice, Daphne.  Both are perturbed by the mystery of what's happening to the clock towers in India (where Victoria is about to be proclaimed Empress);  Danny's perturbed to be leaving Colton, and Daphne's perturbed about going to her father's country; he was half Indian, half English.  Their level of mutual perturbation is naturally deepened when their airship is attacked en route, and nothing that happens in India ends up calming them one little bit.

There are plots, both related to the clock towers and their control of time, and related to growing rebellion against the English.  There are romantic involvements and transgressions against the norms of British society during the Raj.  There's the arrival in India of Colton, totally at sea away from his clock tower (which has itself been attacked), desperately looking for Danny.  There are several more attacks and kidnappings, along with spying steampunk spiders.  And all of this has a busy, vivid portrayal of India at a tumultuous time in its history for a backdrop.  But memorable though these things are, what's most memorable of all is the backstory of how the clock towers came to be in the first place.  Part of the book is from Colton's point of view, and he has begun to dream about his past...and what happened is horrifying and sad, and arguably a parallel metaphor to the British Raj....

So there's more action and more steampunk in this second book than there was in the first, so if that was something you found wanting in the first book, you'll enjoy this one more!  I did not find it wanting in the first book, which I enjoyed very much indeed, but I enjoyed this one too because though more Happens, the characters are still the central driving force of the story.  Also Chainbreaker is historical fiction (though of course with a fantastical overlay), and I like historical fiction (though I don't know enough about this particular part of history to be a critical reader of it).

As the number of pages left to turn decreased, I wondered how on earth Tara Sim would manage to get everything wrapped up.....and lo.  She doesn't.  It's a killer of a cliff hanger.  If you wait to read this one till the third book is published, you'll definitely want to keep on going, but it's also fun in a tense, strained way to not yet know, and have the pleasure of resolution to look forward to!  As well as having the expected concern for the characters, who I have come to care about; here's what I am now especially curious about--having seen clock towers in the UK and in India, I want to know what is time up to in the rest of the world.

I also of course want Danny and Colton to get a happily ever after.  They are both so sweet!

This is an own voices story, Tara Sims is both biracial (her mother's family is from India) and bisexual (here's an interview with her at Reading (As)(I)an  (Am)Erica  for more on the writing of Chainbreaker).

Short answer:  These book are really good reading!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (1/7/18)

Not many reviews, as is to be expected this early in the year, when lots of us are still looking back to last year, or trying to get our blogging energy going again after end of year vacations!  But a solid assortment of links; let me know if I missed yours!

The Reviews

The Adventurers Guild, by Zack Loran and Nick Eliopulos, at Charlotte's Library

Battle with the Britons (Julius Zebra 2), by Gary Northfield, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Black Panther: The Young Prince, by Ronald Smith, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Eternity Elixir, by Frank L. Cole, at Cracking the Cover

Flower Moon, by Gina Linko, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Girl with the Ghost Machine by Lauren DeStefano, at Sharon the Librarian

The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson, at The Reader Teacher

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Magic Mystery by Mary Laine Dyksterhouse, at books4yourkids.com

Prisoner of Ice and Snow, by Ruth Lauren, at Pages Unbound Reviews

The Shepherd of Weeds, by Susannah Appelbaum, at Leaf's Reviews

Sky Chasers, by Emma Carroll, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, at Great Kid Books

Authors and Interviews

Adam Shaughness (The Unbelievable FIB book II--Over the Underworld) at From the Mixed Up 

Sinéad O'Hart (The Eye of the North) at MG Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Two great lists of middle grade books --the 2017 Nerdies and the Cybils  Elementary/Middle Grade Shortlists
http://www.cybils.com/2017-elementary-middle-grade-speculative-fiction-finalists
A peek at some MG fantasy coming out in the UK this month, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Raven and the Reindeer, by T. Kingfisher

The Raven and the Reindeer, by T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Tea Co., Feb. 2016), is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen," and if you have read any other of T. Kingfisher's books (she's also Ursula Vernon) you can imagine that it is a very nice read indeed, and perfect for reading on a cold day under lots of blankets in front of the fire.  I'm going to spoil a major plot point in the next few paragraphs, but it's one that needs spoiling to help some readers who will love the book to find it!

So "The Snow Queen" is the one about the boy who gets the shard of ice stuck in his eye, and is swept off by the beautiful Snow Queen, and the girl who sets off to find her playmate/love and bring him home.  Kingfisher sticks closely to the events in the original story, but twists them to make something new.

Kay and Gerta grow up together in a northern land where Christianity and old stories and magical beings coexist,  She loves him, but he's not a great friend to her, though she tells herself he is.  The reader quickly comes not to care all that much for Kay; Gerta clearly deserves someone who values her more.  But when Kay is kidnapped (and the arrival o.f the Snow Queen is gloriously descriptive, with her sleigh drawn by flying white otters (!)) Gerta sets off to find him because she is a good, loyal person.  Along the way she befriends a raven with whom she can communicate, which ends up sprinkling humor into the story, and she finds herself in the home of a group of brigands.  The bandit girl, Janna, keeps her from being harmed, and kisses her.

And then Janna sets of with Gerta, who has been given a magical reindeer skin that transforms her into a reindeer herself, to the stronghold of the Snow Queen, to rescue Kay.  And they rescue Kay in an exciting interesting rescue that was good fun to read, making good use of all the disparate things that Greta learned in her journey.

But back to Janna and Gerta.  I was taken aback by that sudden first kiss.  I had nothing against the idea of a Janna/Greta relationship, but the fact remained that Janna had power of life and death over Greta at that point, and she didn't ask before kissing her, rather passionately.  If it had been a young man doing that it would have bothered me a lot, and it bothered me as it was.   But fortunately, after the initial shock ,Greta lets herself acknowledge that she returns Janna's attraction, and things develop between them at a measured pace during the course of their adventure together (making it less an insta love thing than I'd worried it was at first).  It is a rather nice romance, when all is said and done, and Kay basically gets dropped of at home like a parcel of laundry at the end and Janna and Greta set off together for new adventures.

Throughout the story, the power of old women. and the stories and knowledge they keep, is essential to the success of Gerta's mission.  Her strength as a heroine is her persistence, which is close to being an innate goodness--she recognizes what must be done and does it, and she needs the spark of external wisdom and magic the four old women she meets can contribute (even though one of them is horrible, and one imprisons her) to make things work.  And likewise, she needs the spark of Janna's kiss to start really shaking her free of Kay.  I'm still a little worried that's she's not entirely grown into her own self by the end of the book, but she's still young....

Short answer--lots of twists and additions to the original story, and beautiful descriptions, make this a very fun fairy tale retelling.  I would have liked it to push a bit harder at characterization and thematic depth, but it is entertaining as all get out as is!

The Adventurers Guild, by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

The Cybils Awards* shortlist for Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction has been announced, and though we are proud of the lovely books we chose, there were many others that were excellent as well, and which I am behind on reviewing (my long Christmas break from blogging has created a backlog). One of the books I most enjoyed reading was The Adventurers Guild, by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos (Disney-Hyperion, October 2017).  As well as being a fun fast read for me, it is a true treat for the young reader who enjoys magic monster slaying adventure in a fantasy realm!  In particular, if you have a young Dungeons and Dragons player of 11 or 12, offer them this book right away.

It's set in a world overrun with monsters.  A few beleaguered cities, walled and warded by magic, are all that remain.  Around them are monster-infested forests.  Two kids, Zed and Brock, are about to come of age in one of these cities, and it's time for them to be chosen by one of the city's guilds (if all goes well).  Brock's a shoe-in for the Merchants Guild (thanks to his father's position there), but Zed's future is more uncertain.  As a half-elf, the only one in the city, he's always been an outsider, but he hopes desperately the Mage's Guild will take him.  Neither wants to be chosen by the Adventurers Guild, whose men and women go hunting for monsters outside the city walls, and who don't live awfully long.  But it's the Adventures Guild that picks Zed, and Brock, in a moment of when loyalty to his friend overrides sense, volunteers to join them too.  With them is Liza, a girl from the leading family of the city, who, though brought up with privilege, is tough as nails, and Jett, a dwarf boy who dreams of being a great craftsman.  Though the main characters are boys, Liza gives girls who want to slay monsters a place to hang their hats very nicely too!

The four immediately start their monster hunter training, and just as quickly, things start to go wrong.  There are dangers afoot more subtle than the deadly monsters outside the walls, and the four kids are soon trying to figure out just what these are and how to save their city from falling.  This is me cleverly avoiding specific plot spoilers--the basic point is that the plot gets more complex and interesting than just slaying techniques and dangers.

It is a bright sort of book, very sensory, with clear sharp pictures in the mind, and characters each with their own flavor, and like I said, I enjoyed it lots.  It doesn't exactly break new ground, or take great risks in story or narrative style, which actually added to my enjoyment--I wasn't challenged to do more than just briskly turn the pages, and sometimes that's what I need and want most as a reader!  Which is not to say there weren't unexpected twists to the story, and there's interesting backstory of characters and world that provides substance.  I am looking forward very much to the next book!

And now I go to read the Kirkus review......and see their review liked it even more than I did!  "A dazzling adventure sure to become a classic...."

thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy for Cybils Award consideration.

*being a Cybils judge is something you can be too if you review books on line!  Please consider joining the fun next year--we welcome new folks!  Look for the call for panelists next August.

The Cybils shortlists are here!

The Cybils Awards shortlisted books in a wide variety of children's and YA categories have been announced!  Congratulations especially to the finalists in the category I organize, Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction!

Congratulatons also to the graphic novel finalists in Elementary/Middle Grade and YA!  My son was one of the first round panelists who helped pick these great books (and also the only Cybils judge this year still in High School), and it was fun for me to see the book packages arrive for him, and watching him read enthusiastically.  His blog (with pithy, to the point, and dubiously proof read reviews) is A Goblin Reviews Graphic Novels.

The Adventures of Madalene and Louisa

My first book read in 2018 is truly a delight.  Madalene and Louisa were two real Victorian girls who were fascinated by entomology, who spent their teenaged years pretty much running wild and capturing insects.  Happily, between the ages of 12 and 16, they recorded their insect hunts in a notebook of watercolor  illustrations showing themselves pursuing, and being menaced by, amusingly oversized but accurately drawn insects of all sorts.  Their great-great- nephew selected pages from their notebooks and published them as The Adventures of Madalene and Louisa(Random House, 1980).  It is very funny, and a charming bit of social history as well.

"When we were young my sister Madalene and I preferred chasing beetles and butterflies to lessons in the schoolroom. We explained to a series of daily governesses that we would rather study ENTOMOLOGY than ARITHMETIC--but none of them was interested in beetles and all of them persisted in setting us sums."

The two girls (image above from The Library of 19th Century Photography) nevertheless persisted, sneaking out at night to hunt, and making the most of every family outdoor outing, bringing home their prey with determination and conviction.

Madaline was also the author and illustrator of A Selection of British Butterflies and Moths

Sadly, two other books, "Our Pets" and "Rocks pools and their inhabitants" don't seem to have survived.  I would like to read "Our Pets" very much!

My top books of 2017

In 2017, I took part for the first time in the Goodreads reading challenge, setting myself a goal of 500 books.  My previous top total in the five years I've kept track was 324, so it was ambitious, but I wanted to be pushed to get some of the tbr shelves actually read.  I ended up having read 466, of which 6 were picture books that I didn't count for the challenge.  And I only read about ten from the tbr shelves, so it was pointless in that regard.  So the only thing to do, of course, is to read 501 books in 2018.

Here are the books I read for the first time that I liked best.  My criteria for "liking best" is a book that I can imagine re-reading (links go to my reviews).  The books are in the order in which I read them.

Realm Breaker (Last Dragon Charmer 3), by Laurie McKay.  I hope there are more to come in this very fun series, and I can imagine starting at the beginning in preparation for book 4...fingers crossed!

Thick as Thieves, by Megan Whalen Turner, because she repays re-reading awfully much.

Bone Jack, by Sara Crowe, I don't feel an immediate need to re-read, because it is all still so clear and vivid in my mind.  But I will want to someday, I'm sure.

What Goes Up, by Katie Kennedy It was both funny and tense, and in a re-read the tense is less so and you get to enjoy the fun more!

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I hadn't read any of her books before this year, and I loved this one in particular!  I'll probably be reading it again sooner rather than later, because I listened to it, and want to experience it as text as well.

The Emperor of Mars, by Patrick Samphire.  Another I'll want to re-read to prepare myself for a much hoped for book 3!

The Reluctant Queen, by Sarah Beth Durst.  ditto!

Winter of Ice and Iron, by Rachel Neumeier.  I already want to go back to this world and read it again and it's only been a few months.  I also want to read it in finished hardcover form, because the printing of the ARC I read was mangled in places (whole paragraphs with no spaces between the words), and I think I will enjoy it unmangled even more. Also I know the ending now, which is so much more relaxing.

It was a slightly odd reading year for me in that a lot of the books I read I didn't pick because I thought I'd like them--I wrote quite a few list posts for the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog, which meant basically trying to read all the middle grade fiction of 2017.  I read a lot of middle grade and YA fantasy and science fiction for my own enjoyment, and lots of those books were very good, but there were surprisingly few that I will give shelf space to. I hope my 2018 list of to be re-reads is longer! 

And just as a postscript, here's the most interesting non-fiction book I read in 2017--The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh  It didn't have much competition, because I didn't read much interesting non-fiction, but I'm glad I read this one! I picked it up because Thick as Thieves made me think of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and I realized I didn't actually know that much about Gilgamesh.  And now that I do, I have another reason for wanting to re-read T. as T....

This week's roundup of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs

Welcome to another week's worth of what I found online of interest to us fans of middle grade spec. fic.! As always, let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Beast and Crown, by Joel Ross, at Puss Reboots

Beyond the Doors, by David Neilsen, at Project Mayhem

Children of Refuge, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Middle Grade Mafioso

The Eye of the North, by Sinéad O’Hart, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove, at The Book Wars

The Ice Sea Pirates, by Frida Nilsson, at Charlotte's Library

The Lost Kingdom of Bamere, by Gail Carson Levine, at Puss Reboots

The Lost Property Office. Section 13 Book 1 by James R. Hannibal, at alibrarymama

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris, at Log Cabin Library

The Night Garden by Polly Horvath, at The Children's War

The Nutcracker Mice, by Kristin Kladstrup, at Becky's Book Reveiws

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder, at Puss Reboots

Penelope March is Melting, by Jeff Michael Ruby, at Book Nut

The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu, at Say What?

The Science of Science Fiction, by Matthew Brenden, at Charlotte's Library

The Scourge, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Pages Unbound

The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta, at proseandkahn 

The Shadow Cipher, by Laura Ruby, at Great Imaginations

The Silver Mask by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Superfail, by Max Brunner and Dustin Mackay, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Winterhouse, by Ben Gutterson, at Book Nut

The Wizard of Once, by Cressida Cowell, at Say What?

Wormwood Mire by Judith Rossell, at The Write Path

Authors and Interviews

Joan Aiken talks about reading John Masefield's classic fantasy books The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and how they influenced her writing, at a website (The Wonderful World of Joan Aiken) (originally written years ago for  The Journal of the John Masefield Society)

Adam Gidwitz, on how The Unicorn Rescue Society was born, at Nerdy Book Club
Other Good Stuff

Lisa Bunker (Felix Yz) at Cynsations

Other Good Stuff

This is what happened when a bot was fed the Harry Potter books, and asked to generate its own chapter. It is the funniest thing I've read all year.  And here's the Guardian article where I found it.

a top ten list of adventure stories, with lots of fantasy, at Nerdy Book Club

The Ice Sea Pirates, by Frida Nilsson

The Ice Sea Pirates, by Frida Nilsson, is a Swedish middle grade fantasy from Gecko Press (August 2017)  that will appeal to those who enjoy stories about plucky girls setting off alone on worthy quests.  It has tons of atmosphere, memorable characters and encounters, and is thought provoking to boot!

Ten-year-old Siri and her little sister Miki live with their old and somewhat ineffectual, though kind, father on a remote island far up in the North Atlantic. Even on their island they've heard of Captain Whitehead, the most dreaded pirate of them all, who steals children to work in his diamond mine.  But Siri isn't thinking about the pirate when she lets her sister pick snowberries alone....and the Miki is kidnapped.  Blaming herself, Siri knows she can't rest until her sister is home again and there is no one else able or willing to do the job.

Of course, Siri might be willing, but the able part is questionable.  There's the matter of finding the island with the mine on it  (involving perilous journeys through an icy sea, a diversion when she finds herself alone on an island looking after a mer-child, and almost freezing to death on several occasions.  And then once she finds the mine, there are of course challenges to overthrowing the control of Captain Whitehead and saving everybody.  She could never have done it alone, but fortunately she finds help in unexpected places...

What made this one rather refreshing is that Siri is not so plucky as to be unbelievable.  She is allowed to cry, and does so with good reason fairly often.  You don't often see kids off on heroic quests thinking about how awful everything is and breaking down.  And I don't think it makes her a weaker character at all, just a realistic ten year old n dire straits.  Another interesting thing is that several of the people she meets along the way are neither good nor bad, but with both entwined--"goodness" often has a smattering of cruelty to it, and questions of responsibility are raised in a somewhat more overt way than I'm used to.  Even Captain Whitebeard didn't set up his diamond mine for evil purposes....though of course it became evil in the end.

There are bits that made me chuckle, and bits that made beautifully clear pictures in my mind's eye.  I'm not personally a fan of pirate adventures in frozen waters, but I enjoyed this one. It is perhaps slow to start, and there's not sustained action following hard on action, so it might not be to the taste of those who want excitement on just about every page, which could be I myself enjoyed it....It's the first contemporary Swedish middle grade fantasy I think I've ever read....I'd like to read more!

Here's something a New Zealand reviewer said about this book that I never would -- "The smell of fish is ever present in the written text...."  Although the review meant well, it just not fair to the book.  Though there are a lot of dead fish what with one thing and another, I did not smell any.  That being said, I do not in general read with my nose, unless there is chocolate...

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration.

The Science of Science Fiction, by Matthew Brenden Wood

The Science of Science Fiction, by Matthew Brenden Wood, from Nomad Press' Inquire and Investigate series (Feb. 2017) is a really fascinating and well-done look at the science that lies behind science fiction stories, and in front of us in the real world.  It covers six main topics--cloning, robotics, living on Mars, alien, faster than light travel, and time travel. 

The real life science of each topic makes up the bulk of the book, and I found it very interesting, even though I was familiar with some of the material. It was good, clear explanation and description of some pretty complicated concepts.   Lots of little side bar note, pictures, and QR codes dot the pages, adding to the material presented (although I could not check out the QR codes because I have not embraced today's technology*). Basically the sci fi tie-in is fun lead into actually science, and it's done very well--explaining without patronizing.

The part of the book that makes it really stand out, though, are the experiments.  I am not a hands on person myself, but I find myself strangely tempted to do some of them myself; there's one about putting a bar of chocolate in the microwave to measure the speed of light, for instance, which looks really cool (and the chocolate is not horribly harmed, and can be eaten afterwards).

So if you have a STEM loving kid around, or a twelve year old who read the Martian, and liked the first part of it lots, give them this book!  It's also good for classroom use; there are, for instance, thought-provoking questions to pose for discussion and writing prompts, which would work better in the classroom than swinging a bucket of water around your head to gain familiarity with centrifugal force, or the lack thereof....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

*I had to ask my kid what those little boxes are called. He says everyone with a phone (except me) is able to use them, so perhaps my feeling that including this tech. reliant part of the book excludes kids who don't have all the resources is misplaced....

This week's roundup of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (12/10/17)

Welcome to this week's round-up!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Adventurers Guild, by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos, at Nerdophiles

The Apprentice Witch, by James Nicol, at alibrarymama

The Cladera, by John Flanagan, at Say What?

Death and Douglas, by J.W. Ocker, at Mom Read It

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at Book Nut

Emily Windsnap and the Falls of Forgotten Island, by Liz Kessler, at Say What?

The Empty Grave, by Jonathan Stroud, at Charlotte's Library

EngiNerds, by Jarrett Lerner, at Log Cabin Library

The Eye of the North, by Sinead O'Hart, at Charlotte's Library

The Glass Town Game, by Catherynne Valente, at Pages Unbound

Ivy, by Katherine Coville, at Jean Little Library

The Land of Stories, by Chris Colfer, at proseandkahn

Max Tilt: Fire in the Depths, by Peter Lerangis, at Ms. Yinglng Reads

Rise of the Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste, at Book Nut

The Search for the Lost Prophecy, by William Meyer, at Always in the Middle

Sword of Light (Pendragon Legacy 1), by Katherine Roberts, at Say What?

The Trials of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, at Ms. Yingling Reads (scroll down)

Voices for All: The Legend of ZoaBrio by Scott Vincent, at Log Cabin Library

The Wee Free Men (Tiffany Aching, Book 1) by Terry Pratchett, at Hidden in Pages

The World's Greatest Adventure Machine & The Afterlife Academy by Frank Cole, at Geo Librarian

York: the Shadow Cipher, by Laura Ruby at Book Nut

Three at The Book Search--The Crooked Sixpence, The Unicorn in the Barn, and Dragon's Green

Other Good Stuff

Help raise $1,000,000 for Heifer International by helping the Worldbuilders meet a challenge goal.

The Eye of the North, by Sinead O'Hart

Here's a fun action-packed fantasy for all you readers who want to hie yourselves away to Greenland to come face to beak (?) with a giant Kraken!  Emmeline, the young heroine of The Eye of the North, by Sinead O'Hart (Knopf, middle grade, August 2017), is the sort of child with ZERO interest in doing this.  She is paranoid, distrustful, and set in her ways, and most of this is a result of her booby-trapped (literally) childhood--her parents (when they weren't off having adventures) spent no effort on making her feel safe; indeed, the opposite is more like it.  So one day, when her parents are off somewhere, a letter arrives for her...and her first step is to check it for poison.

It's not poisoned, but it does bring the news that she is now an orphan, and must  immediately travel to France to stay with a woman she's never met. So she's bundled on to a ship, clutching her trusty satchel of things that might keep her safe.

She is not safe.  From the moment she steps onto the ship to the last few pages of the book, she joins the whole world in being threatened as all get out. The world was threatened first-the ice of Greenland is melting, and under the ice is a giant Broken of tremendous power, and whoever wakes the Kraken can gain control of it.  Emmeline gets personally threatened as a result of this--a bad guy thinks she has learned something from her parents (whose adventures took them on rather unusual excursions...) about Kraken control. She's kidnapped and hauled off the ship and taken off to Greenland.

But before she was kidnapped, she met a boy, who calls himself "Thing."  He throws his lot in with hers, partly at first because he's board, and partly, later on, because he's awfully lonely.  And though Thing can't, quite, save her from being kidnapped, when he himself leaves the ship  its in the company of a man and woman determined to stop the bad guy from awakening the Kraken.

So moving on more quickly, Thing and the two adults with  him are pursued, and they would be rescue attempt goes south, ending up with Thing flying off to Greenland in an airship he has no idea how to control.   Emmeline, well trained in escaping traps, does so to great effect, and heads out over the ice of Greenland, populated by magical creatures, to find her parents, who may still be alive.

And moving on even more quickly, because Too Much that's very exciting happens to tell it all, and it would spoil everything, there are other bad guys interested in the Kraken, including one magical villain, an evil ice queen..  Much foiling of bad guys is required, but Emmeline and Thing are up for the task and triumph.

So if you like excitements, you'll enjoy this lots.  As the adventure gets going, the story starts being told in the alternate viewpoints of Emmeline and Thing, layered on top of each other in the same chapter, which worked very well to keep the tension nicely ratcheted up.  My favorite part of the book, though, was Emmeline's ingenuity in the face of adversity; she wins this year's award for Foiling Villain with Pilfered Spoon. Thing is very appealing too; his backstory is a sad one, but he has come through it as a genuinely lovable character.  His bad asthma, something you don't see much in a mg fantasy novel, adds interest.

I wasn't quite convinced that I understood the actions of some of the bad guys; kidnapping Emmeline didn't seem to matter enough to have been worth the trouble of doing so.  But I was happy to go along for the ride.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration.

The Empty Grave, by Jonathan Stroud

Way back in September of 2013, a few days before it was released, I finished The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, the first book in the Lockwood and Co. series about an alternate Britain plagued by malevolent spirits and a pluck team of young ghost hunters who fight against them (here's my review).  I wrote: 

"great characters, great premise, exciting ghosts and I Cannot Wait till the next book, when more about the very charming Anthony Lockwood, and more about the geekily appealing George, might be revealed! We already know Lucy pretty well, but I'm curious about how her relationships with the boys might change..."

And now I have just finished the fifth and presumably final book in the series, The Empty Grave (Disney-Hyperion, Sept. 2017), and I have all the answers, and an ending has being reached, and all is well (though "the Problem" of the ghost is still troublesome).  So from that point of view, The Empty Grave is a very satisfying book, and I was delighted to read it.  Unusually for me, I find the exciting bits of these books more interesting than the character building bits, perhaps because the exciting bits (hunting ghosts), contain mysteries and team dynamics as well as just the adventures. 

From a more critical point of view, it's not the best in the series--it's a bit bogged down by the gang siting around trying to figure out what to do, as opposed to actually doing things.  It wasn't until about 2/3 of the way through that it became the page turner I was expecting it to be.  And I got really fed up with George's overweight physique being presented as something to laugh at; it's the sort of body shaming that makes me not want to recommend the books to any plumpish geeky boys, because it will make them (I imagine) feel bad.  It is also not a diverse bunch of characters, although it is strongly suggested by the end that one of the main characters is gay.   But though it's not perfect, I continue to recommend the series with  conviction--give these books to the 11-13 year old "reluctant reader" and they will be read.  I speak from personal experience here; my own son, who is now 17, is getting this for Christmas and will be very happy.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Awards consideration