This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (10/28/18)

Another week, another round-up!  let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, at Milliebot Reads

Black Panther: the Young Prince, by Ronald L. Smith, at alibrarymama

Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at From the Biblio Files

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Fictionologyst

Curse of the Werewolf Boy, by Chris Priestly, at Charlotte's Library

Dactyl Hill Squad, by  Daniel José Older, at Always in the Middle

Dragon Daughter, by Liz Flanagan, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret, by Trudi Trueit, at That's Another Story

The Ghosts in the Castle, by Zetta Elliott, at @homelibrarian

The Girl with the Dragon Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at From the Biblio Files

The Ice Witch, by Joel Ross, at Puss Reboots

Inkblot, by Kenneth Oppel, at Falling Letters

The Long-Lost Home, by Maryrose Wood, at Kid Lit Geek.

The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings, by Sarah Prineas, at alibrarymama

Race to the Bottom of the Sea, by Linday Eager, at Bibliobrit.

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, at Book Nut

The Truth Pixie, by Matt Haig, at alittlebutalot

An Unexpected Adventure, by Kandi J. Wyatt, at Bookworm for Kids

Witch Watch, by Sibéal Pounder, at Pages Unbound

The Wrath of the Dragon King, by Brandon Mull, at Mom Read It and Getting Your Read On

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads-Forgotten City, by Michael Ford, and The Wrath of the Dragon King, by Brandon Mull

Four at Semicolon--Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, Thisby Thestoop and the Black Mountain by Zac Gorman, The Turnaway Girls by Haley Chewin.

Authors and Interviews

Kate DiCamillo at The Frederick News-Post

Charis Cotter (The Ghost Road), at Vanessa Shields

Caroline Carlson (The Door at the End of the World) at Stefanie Hohl

Other Good Stuff
Seven scary middle grade books at Abby the Librarian

Curse of the Werewolf Boy, by Chris Priestley, for Timeslip Tuesday

Despite the implications of its title, Curse of the Werewolf Boy, by Chris Priestley, isn't really about a werewolf boy.  It is instead a time travel story set in a miserable boy's boarding school, Maudlin Towers, in the north of England, where two of the young students,  Mildew and Sponge, tumble into a mystery.  At the heart of the mystery is the time travel device invented by a now deceased teacher of physics.  At the periphery are swirling plot threads-- a Roman lady, brought from the past whose now teaching Latin, a bunch of Vikings back in the past with werewolf concerns, the theft of the School Spoon, an irreplaceable heirloom, and the usual discomforts and difficulties of life in an English boarding school with inadequate food and incompetent staff.

Mildew and Sponge aren't, perhaps, the brightest or bravest boys ever, but they have enough instinctual desire to subvert the rules of their blighted existence to stagger their way through time and back to unravel the mystery.  There are no pesky worries about paradoxes and temporal contradictions here; the trusty time machine delivers the boys, sometimes more than once, to the times they are shooting for (once they get the hang of it), and, in a very satisfying way, the time travel is what makes all the plot elements coalesce into a whole in the end.

If you have young readers on hand who like their fiction humorously exaggerated, and not taking itself seriously at all, offer this book! The many fun illustrations will add to their pleasure.  If you find the names Mildew and Sponge off-putting, you will probably not find this a new favorite read for yourself.  It's very diverting, though, for any reader--lots of zigging back and forth through time, with revelations and surprises galore, and lots of witty dialogue.

The Magic of Melwick Orchard, by Rebecca Caprara

The Magic of Melwick Orchard, by Rebecca Caprara, is her debut middle grade real-world fantasy, and it is a good one!

The sapling in the old apple orchard, and its magic, appeared in Isa's life just when she needed it most.  With her little sister June dangerously sick from cancer, her parents seem to have lost the will or the ability to pay any attention to her.  She needs parents too, not just to share her own sadness and worry with, but to take care of the mundane things of life--lunch money, clothes, food.  And she has no friends to turn to. Her father's job has taken them from place to place, so she decided to quit trying to have friends--her sister is enough, and together they enjoyed their new home at Melwick Orchard, where the trees have grown no apples for years, until June got sick.

So Isa is at a very low point when she finds a most unusual sapling in the orchard; it seems almost magical.  When a squirrel decides to dig a hole just the right size to bury her warn out, too small sneakers, Isa throws them in.  But come the next morning, she has no other shoes to wear, and so revisits the sapling.  Much to her surprise, it's grown considerably, and even more surprisingly, there are new shoes in its seed pods (not just ordinary sneaker, but, very thoughtfully, softball cleats and rain boots).  It really is magic.

Heartened by the magic of the tree, Isa finds the strength to say yes to overtures of friendship from another girl in her class, and the courage to tell her about the tree's magic.  But will the magic be able to help June, and help Isa's family cope with the mounting bills that might force them from the magical orchard?  In the end, it's science that helps June, but the magic, once Isa's learned to be careful what she wishes for, that save her home.

There's a very good balance here between the magic of the tree and the realistic story lines of Isa's life.  The magic doesn't solve all the real issues--Isa has to decide to be a friend, and her parents have to realize that Isa is being neglected, and the doctors have to help June...the tree perhaps oils the wheels a bit, but doesn't make miracles happens.  What the tree's magic does is provide a lovely magical counterpart of joy to the sadness Isa is going through, giving her the strength and hope to keep going.

I read it in as much of a single sitting as my day allowed (work gets in the way of so many things...) and enjoyed it very much.  The fantasy was beautifully vivid, and avoided being cloying, the sick sister was touching, without being too sad to bear.

(ARC received at Book Expo)

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (10/21/18)

Nothing from me this week...but happily lots from others!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Across the Dark Water (Riders of the Realm 1), by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, at Say What?

Begone the Raggedy Witches, by Celine Kirnan, at Cover2Cover, Whispering Stories, and Read Till Dawn

Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at Redeemed Reader

Charlie Hernadez and the League of Shadows, by Ryan Calejo, at Take Me Away

City of Islands, by Kali Wallace, at alibrarymama

The Collectors, by Jacqueliene West, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older, at The Winged Pen

A Dash of Trouble (Love Sugar Magic 1), by Anna Meriano, at Hidden in Pages

A Dasterdly Plot, by Christopher Healy, at Carstairs Considers

The Door to the Lost by Jaleigh Johnson, at alibrarymama

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, by Alexandra Bracken, at Heather's Reading Hideaway

Father Christmas and Me, by Matt Haig, at Lili's Blissful Pages

The Girl with the Lost Smile, by Miranda Hart, at The Infinity Words

The Golden Tower (Magisterium 5), by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Hidden in Pages

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Say What?

The Last Chance Hotel, by Nicki Thornton, at Howling for Books


Paradox in Oz, by Edward Einhorn and Eric Shanower, at Puss Reboots

The Royal Rabbits of London, by Santa and Simon Sebag Montefiore, at Semicolon

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy, at Always in the Middle

The Transparency Tonic, by Frank Cole, at From the Biblio Files

The Truth About Martians, by Melissa Savage, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Twelve Minutes to Midnight, by Christopher Edge, at Say What?

The Unicorn in the Barn, by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, at The O.W.L.

Wrath of the Dragon King, by Brandon Mull, at Bookworm for Kids

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yeti! (Nothing to See Here Hotel), by Steven Butler and Steven Lenton, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Darkdeep, by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, and Sven Carter and the Android Army, by Rob Vlock

At Library Chicken, lots of middle grade speculative fiction mini reivews from her Cybils reading

Authors and Interviews

Patrick Samphire on the Languge of Fantasy

Lois Lowry, at Cynsations

Other Good Stuff

An appreciation of Rick Riordan Presents at Educating Alice

"Wisdom, Proverbs, and Aphorisms from Middle Grade Speculative Fiction 2017" at Semicolon

Snails in dollhouses!  (via Reading the End).  I would like to try this, but I myself have no snails, only slugs, and somehow I feel that would be less photogenic.

 Via @aleia on Instagram

The Echo Room, by Parker Peevyhouse, for Timeslip Tuesday

So I'm busily reading YA Speculative Fiction for the first round of the Cybils Awards, which is a fun change from my regular middle grade reading, and which, as an added bonus this week, led me too a really cool new YA book for Timeslip Tuesday--The Echo Room, by Parker Peevyhouse (Tor Teen, September 2018).  It is not a spoiler to say that timeslipping happens, because that becomes pretty clear early in the book, but I'm not going into much detail, because the particulars are best discovered alongside the poor, confused characters!

There are two of these confused characters, but it is Rett who is the main pov.  He wakes, inside a room he doesn't recognize, his head strangely scarred and throbbing with pain, wearing a bloodstained jumpsuit.  The blood is not his.  This room leads into others, and in one he meets a girl, Bryn, with a scar matching his own.  They find they are trapped in these rooms, and must puzzle out what has happened to them, and what they should do next.  But can they trust each other?  And what horrors (yes there are horrors) await beyond their strange shared space?

And then there's a reset, and Rett wakes in a strange room....and the day begins again (this is the time-slip part...the details make it clear immediately that he's back at the beginning, and helpfully, the sections are earmarked with the time of day, to keep you, the reader, grounded....)

So basically this is a sci fi/horror-ish Escape Room story...if you liked The Maze Runner, you'll especially appreciate the character with no memory of how he got there trying to figure out what to do and how to survive, and if you enjoy closely following a character searching for answers, with the reader deeply invested in the search, you'll love it!  It's also very much a survival story, where scrounging for supplies is important, and I like that too.

There's a lot more to the story (not just plot-wise, but character-wise, as Bryn and Rett unravel the clues about each other and themselves), but it's best discovered as the clock keeps resetting and the pages keep turning.....

It can be a bit frustrating at times, and some questions remain, but it sure is gripping!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (10/14/18)

Welcome to another week of middle grade fantasy and sci fi goodness!

First--nominations for the Cybils Awards close tomorrow, Oct. 15--so represent for Team Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction today!  I've put asterixis next to books included in this round-up that haven't been nominated yet, but there are lots more waiting for the call.  Here's where you go to nominate books published between Oct 16 2017 and Oct 15 2018.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin at Middle Grade Ninja

Beginnings, by Chris Hoffmann, at Red Headed Book Lover

Brave Red, Smart Frog: A New Book of Old Tales by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason, at Randomly Reading

Castle Hangnail, by Ursula Vernon, at Reading the End

*The Collectors, by Jacqueline West, at Teen Librairan Toolbox

Creature of the Pines, by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly, at alibrarymama

Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at Semicolon

The Girl With the Dragon Heart, by Stephanie Burgis, at Moon light and dreams

The Nest, by Kenneth Oppel, at The O.W.L.

The Rose Legacy, by Jessica Day George, at Semicolon

Snow and Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin, at Not Acting My Age

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Semicolon

*The Thorn Queen, by Elise Holland, at Forever Lost in Literature

*Tilly and the Bookwanderers (Pages and Co.) by Anna James, at Kelly's Rambles

The Turnaway Girls, by Hayley Chewins, at Mom Read It

*Twice Magic (The Wizards of Once 2), by Cressida Cowell, at Charlotte's Library

The Way Past Winter, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

*The Wishmakers, by Tyler Whitesides, at Imaginary Friends

Three at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Hotel Between, by Sean Easley, *The Land of Neverendings, by Kate Saunders, and *Den of the Forever Frost, by Kathryn Laksy

and a long list of mini-reviews from her Cybils reading at Library Chicken

Authors and Interviews

M.T. Anderson (The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge) at Middle Grade Ninja

Jacqueline West (The Collectors) at Teen Librarian Toolbox

Ryan Calejo (Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows), at From the Mixed Up Files

A spooky roundtable with five authors at From the Mixed Up Files


ps--If you haven't nominated a book for the YA Speculative Fiction category of the Cybils, I made a list of possibilities
https://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/2018/10/ya-speculative-fiction-books-not-yet.html

YA speculative fiction books not yet nominated for the Cybils Awards

There are lots and lots of great young adult speculative fiction books still waiting hopefully to be nominated.  I'm a panelist in this category this year, and I want us to have all the best books from which to chose our shortlist of seven! Here's a sample (there are lots of others....); you have until October 15th to nominate books in this and many other categories (nb--I'm not the category organizer for YA spec fic, so though I believe these all are eligible, I haven't inspected them with the eagle-eyes Pam Margolis will apply)

Here's where you go to nominate!

Isle of Blood and Stone (Tower of Winds #1), by Makiia Lucier

Beasts Made of Night, by Tochi Onyebuchi

Your One and Only, by Adrianne Finlay

The White Hare, by Michael Fishwick

Where Dragonwoofs Sleep and the Fading Creeps, by AJ Massey

Out of the Blue, by Sophie Cameron

Sky in the Deep, by Adrienne Young

Flight, by Jae Waller

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim

Half-Witch, by John Schoffstall

And the Ocean Was Our Sky, by Patrick Ness now nomianted

Night Flights, by Philip Reeve

The Lonliest Girl in the Universe, by Lauren James

Storm-Wake, by Lucy Christopher

The Speaker, by Traci Chee

Brightly Burning, by Alexa Donne

Dry, by Neal Schusterman and Jarrod Schusterman now nominated

Strange Grace, by Tessa Graton

Two Dark Reigns, by Kendare Blake

Reign the Earth by AC Gaughen

Reflection (Twisted Tales #4), by Elizabeth Lim now nominated

The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic, by Cressida Cowell

The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic, written and illustrated by Cressida Cowell (Little Brown, middle grade, October 9 2018), is now out here in the US, so anyone who wants to continue the wild magical fun of the first book should be very happy!

The three young teens (13 years old, so still kids) of the first book are off on another adventure--Wizard Xar (headstrong as ever, with the stain of witch magic spreading through him) and Warrior Wish (still not sure of how strong her magic is, still hoping to please her mother, the fearsome Warrior Queen), and the hapless sidekick bodyguard, Bodkin (who has no magic, and as yet little role in the plot....).

Riding on an enchanted door, accompanied by magical utensils, sprites, and sundry other magical creatures and persons, the kids are off to collect the ingredients for a spell that will eradicate the witches.  Wizards and Warriors might be enemies, but they both agree that the witches are an enemy!  Especially now that the Kingwitch has been freed from its prison....

Their quest takes them to a ruined castle, and an old, sad story, and into a maelstrom of magical and warrior-ly chaos!  It's fun adventure, with lots of light humor and a smidge of deeper heart (more so than was present in the first book, and it might well grow into more than a smidge as the series progresses, in the same way her Dragon series did...).    And it goes down awfully nice and easy--good escapist magical entertainment!  Since I was reading an ARC, I didn't get all the pictures....but the ones that I did see added to the sense that Cowell was enjoying herself tremendously.

Not recommended, though, for grown-ups who don't already know they enjoy middle grade fantasy--the light-hearted bopping around of the story (though the quest runs in a straight line I still felt it bopped) requires a relaxation of grown-up expectations.

ps:  Spoon is my current favorite magical utensil.  The fact that I can't think of any others off the top of my head is irrelevant.

this week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (8/7/18)

Here's what I found this week!  I hope you enjoy.  Let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Bigfoot Files, by Lindsay Eager, at Mom Read It

Black Panther: the Young Prince, by Ronald L. Smith, at proseandkahn (audiobook review)

Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford, at The Fairview Review and Charlotte's Library

Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at alibrarymama and Rajiv's Reviews

The Bone Thief, by Alyson Noel, at Sharon the Librarian 

Cats vs Robots: This is War, by Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson, at Always in the Middle

Children of Jubilee, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Mom Read It

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Rajiv's Reviews

Del Toro Moon, by Darby Karchut, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Daughter, by Liz Flannagan, at Read It, Daddy!

Garbage Island, by Fred Koehler, at Miss Marple's Musings

Inkling, by Kenneth Oppel, at Reading Rumpus

The Language of Spells, by Garret Weyr, at Semicolon

The Last (Endling #1), by Katherine Applegate, at Semicolon

Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City, by Will Mabbitt and Ross Collins, at Puss Reboots

Mice of the Round Table: Merlin's Last Quest, by Julie Leung, at Middle Grade Mafia

Secrets of Hopelight, by Eva Blackstone, at Say What?

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Booklist Reader

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Hidden in Pages

The Storm Runner, by J. C. Cervantes, at Say What?

The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery, by Allison Rushby, at Bibliobrit 

Unwritten, by Tara Gilboy, at A Dance With Books

Willa of the Wood, by Robert Beatty, at Semicolon

(4 new books reviewed) "Kids' Fantasy Novels that Make Heroes Out of Underdogs" by Christopher Healey at the NY Times

Authors and Interviews

Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs (The Deepdark) at Publishers Weekly and Nerdy Book Club

Darby Karchut (Del Toro Moon) at Middle Grade Ninja

July Jeung (Mice of the Roundtable) at Middle Grade Mafia

Other Good Stuff

Cybils Nominations are open until October 15, but those of us involved in the Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction sure wish lots of people would nominate sooner rather than later, so we can stop worrying about all the great books that haven't been nominated yet!  Here's a list of unnominated books at Semicolon.And here are a few more off the top of my head--Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford, The Train to Impossible Places, by P.G. Bell, Wicked Nix, by Lena Coakely, The Bottle Imp of Brighthouse, by Tom Llewellyn, The Collectors, by Jacqueline West, A Festival of Ghosts, by William Alexander, and the Lost Continent, by Tui T. Sutherland (and many, many more--check to see what you were reading last fall!  Books from October 16 2017-October 15 2018 are eligible, and I worry about those late 2017 titles....)

Netflix is adapting Narnia....(and many of us sigh, because why not something new?)

Distinguishing between MG and YA fantasy--a gathering of thoughts at SFWA

and now back to bingwatching Season of 2 of Stranger Things with my son who's home from college for the weekend!

Diverse YA speculative fiction books not yet nominated for the Cybils Awards

The Cybils Awards are chosen by panels of book reviewers in a variety of children's and YA book categories, based on two criteria--quality of writing, and reader appeal.  Diversity isn't a criteria, but we at the Cybils love it when diverse books are well represented in the pool from which we choose our shortlisted books--we can't have diverse finalists if the diverse books aren't there to begin with.

So in the hope that the pool of YA speculative fiction books, in which I'm a first round panelist this year, is as diverse as can be, here's a list of books that haven't been nominated yet.  Some obvious books aren't on this list, because they've been nominated.  You can see the whole list of what's been nominated here.  

Eligible books are those published for teens from October 16 2017 to October 15 2018 in the US and Canada, and easily available.  This category accepts ebook only publications (not all do).

Disclaimers
--I haven't read most of these books, so I can't vouch for how good they are.
--I did a cursory check to make sure they were eligible, but not with the attention the category organizer will pay in making the call, so I could be wrong
--I don't know most of the authors, so I was going by names and pictures and could well have made mistakes

Please let me know if I missed any!  I went through the Goodreads list of 1000 or so YA books of 2018, but I lack the time to try to find the fall 2017 books, so if you know of any, please add them in the comments!

Blanca and Roja, by Anna- Marie McLemore (now nominated!)

Smoke in the Sun (Flame in the Mist #2), by Renee Ahdieh

Shadowsong (Wintersong #2) by S. Jae-Jones

Inferno (Talon #5), by Julie Kagawa

The Astonishing Color of After, by Emily X.R. Pan  (now nominated!)

Chainbreaker (Timekeeper #2), by Tara Sim  (LGBTQ)

The Timingila, by Shon Mehta

Isle of Blood and Stone (Tower of Winds #1), by Makiia Lucier

Djinn, by Sang Kromah

Reflection (Twisted Tales #4), by Elizabeth Lim  now nominated

The Initiation, by Chris Babu

Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1), by Julie Kagawa now nominated

Wildcard (Warcross #2), by Marie Lu (now nominated!)

Inkmistress (Of Fire and Stars #0.5), by Audrey Colthurst (LGBTQ)

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, by Ellen Oh

Alpha (The Infinity Divistion #3), by Jus Accardo

The Beast Player, by Nahoko Uehashi

Restore Me (Shatter Me, #4) by Tahereh Mafi

Fighting Fate (Joining of Souls #2), by Shaila Patel

A Blade So Black, by LL McKinney (now nominated!)

Please nominate these and any other great YA speculative fiction books you've read in the past year!

Here's where you go to nominate.

Public nominations close October 15, 2018.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Del Toro Moon, by Darby Karchut

If "Spanish knights with their magnificent horse companions fighting monsters in the American south-west" sounds at all appealing, Del Toro Moon, by Darby Karchut (Owl Hollow Press, middle grade, October 2018)  is for you!

Back in 17th-century Spain, brave knights cleared the land of its monsters, and sealed them in magical caskets.  But they didn't want the caskets kicking around at home (to risky) so they sent them off to the Americas.  Because some of the knights actually had consiences, they went too, accompanied by magnificient, talking, Andalusian horses, to guard the hiding places of the monsters and smite any who escaped the caskets....

And now a 12-year-old kid named Matt is up on top of one of those horses, El Cid, with his mace in hand, riding across a Colorado Wilderness Area, ready (not really) to take up the family job of smiting…His father is legendary in the rather exclusive circle of monster-hunting caballeros...and Matt has been trained well.  But he's still only a kid....(a lonely kid, who's best friend is his talking horse).

The wards keeping the monsters safely confined don't seem to be working quite as well as they should, and Matt's family is worried.  Their worry grows when a group of paleontologists arrives for a dig in the wilderness area, and though they are warned and told stories of past vicious attacks by strange creatures, they are determined to have their academic fun in the sun.   The daughter of one of the scientists is Matt's age, and despite the tension, the two become friends (which allows us to see more of  uncertain, adolescent Matt than just his monster-hunting, "can I keep up with my family?" side).

And then the monsters arrive.  It is not good, and there is sadness.

This one if perfect for horse-loving kids who like a bit of monster slaying!  There's enough of the family dynamic side of things so that it's not all monsters (the father-son dynamic is especially important to the story) which I appreciated, and likewise I appreciated that Matt has no extraordinary gifts; he does no better than any kid, rigorously trained atop a very experienced and brave horse might do, and he's a likeable and believable character.

There's no Native presence in the book; this is very much descendants of Spanish colonizers coping with a dump of problems caused by their ancestors.  But at least they are trying to do something about the problem....Girls are a bit off on the sidelines--there are women who are monster slayers, but Matt's family is just himself, his brother, and his dad.   There is one female horse character, who represents "girl power" very nicely, though.

So in short, a good fun read (with beautiful horses, each of whom has their own personality and place in the family circle).

Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford, for Timeslip Tuesday

I was not expecting Bluecrowne, by Kate Milford (Clarion Books, Oct. 2 2018), to be a Timeslip Tuesday book....though I was expecting to love this journey back to the world of Nagspeake and Greenglass House, and I did.

Bluecrowne takes place just a bit before The Left-Handed Fate, and considerably before the Greenglass House books.  It also connects to all the other books Kate Milford has written too, in complicated ways that you will understand if you've read them, but if you haven't, are better left to discover yourself!  It is also one that can be read a stand-alone, if you're willing to plunge in to a reality that's strangely twisted, in which sinister travelers walk through time with the help of a magically complex mechanism.

Two such travelers have travelled through time and space to the coastal town of Nagspeake, seeking to find a conflagrationeer (a person with preternatural gifts for gunpowder and fire), to offer to their dark master.  And they find that the one they are searching for is Liao, Lucy Bluecrowne's little brother.

Lucy and Liao's father is captain of the Left-Handed Fate, a magnificent privateer, but he has decided the days of his children sailing the seas must come to an end--it is too dangerous.  So he has had a house built for them and Liao's mother, Xiaoming, on the cliffs of Nagspeake, a house of lovely stained glass windows and echoes of past homes that  might help Lucy accept life on land.  But her heart belongs to her ship, and she is hurting something fierce.

And then the two travelers hone in on Liao....and he is gone.

And that's enough plot to go on with here!  It is a beautiful, extravagantly visual story that I loved.  Lucy and Liao are great characters, and it is so heartwarming to see young Greenglass House and to know what the future holds for it (this book is almost like time travel itself for us Gg House fans...).  One of my favorite things about Kate Milford's books is the attention to small things that doesn't necessarily Advance the Story, but which make the world real and the characters people to care about.  Here one of my favorite parts were those in which Lucy gets a small boat of her own, and works to make it ship-shape; I have a great fondness for reading about people doing crafty things like this, and although it doesn't get a huge amount of page time, it was lovely reading.

The time travel is a mechanism in service of the story, not a point in and of itself; it's simply one more complicated point in this gorgeously complicated world of tangled threads of story and fate. Though it might seem daunting to readers new to these books, the joy of all the interconnections is that I want to go back now to the beginning (The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands) and read it all all over again, which should see me going back to Gg House in time for Christmas, which is perfect since those are such delightfully Christmas time books!

Kirkus and I march in step on this one--in their starred review, they say "A tale to sweep new and confirmed fans into the author’s distinctively imagined blend of history, magic, mythology, chemistry, and nautical lore."

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (9/30/18)

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

big thing--tomorrow nominations for the Cybils Awards open, and will remain so until October 15.  Show your favorite books love, and nominate them!  Last year c. 150 books were nominated in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction...let's make sure all the really great books published from October 16, 2017- to October 15, 2018 make it onto the list this year!

The Reviews

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, at Mom Read It

The Collectors, by Jacqueline West, at Log Cabin Library

Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel Jose Older, at Waking Brain Cells

The Darkdeep, by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, at Book Nut

Falling In, by Frances O'Rourke, at Tales from the Raven

The Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford, at Leaf's Reviews

The Girl with the Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts, at alibrarymama

La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust 1), by Philip Pullman, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Nightbooks, by J.A. White, at Imaginary Friends

Otherwood, by Pete Hautman, at Mom Read It

The Shadow Thieves, by Alexandra Ott, at Say What?

Skyborn (Thrones and Bones 3), by Lou Anders, at Say What?

Small Spaces, by Catherine Arden, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Abby the Librarian

Spirit Hunters, by Ellen Oh, at Millibot Reads

The Storm Runner, by Jennifer Cervantes, at A Backwards Story

The Third Mushroom, by Jennifer L. Holm, at Jen Robinson's Book Page and Middle Grade Mafioso

Toaff's Way, by Cynthia Voigt, at Redeemed Reader

The Train to Impossible Places, by P.G. Bell, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Upside-Down Magic, by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins, at The Write Path

Authors and Interviews

Andy Briggs (Drone Racer) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

M.T. Anderson (The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge) at Cynsations

Jonathan Auxier (Sweep) at Nerdy Book Club

My Plain Jane, by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

I never liked Jane Eyre, the character--I thought she was a bit of a drip.  I bravely re-read the book several times though as a teenager (at least it was better than Wuthering Heights....).  So the idea of a reinvention of Jane's story with ghosts and humor, both of which were lacking in the original, appealed.  My Plain Jane, by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (Harper Teen, June 2018), improves on the original by adding those elements, and also by not making Jane the central heroine.  

Instead, the honor goes to a girl equally small, plain, and susceptible to romance--Charlotte Bronte, a school friend of Jane Eyre.  The destinies of the two school friends become entangled when Jane choose to become a governess in Mr. Rochester's household instead of a professional ghost hunter, and Charlotte, who'd love to hunt ghosts but can't see them, follows her there.  She's determined to persuade Jane to change her mind at the behest of the book's hero, the young and attractive (though neither tall, dark, or conventionally handsome) Mr. Blackwood.   Charlotte is busily writing Jane Eyre, the gothic romance, in scattered moments of peace between alarms and excursions, while Jane is falling hard for Mr. Rochester....and in the meantime there's a Sinister Plot afoot that involves the safety of the whole kingdom....

It is a lot more fun than the original, but fans of that book won't, I think, mind the gentle fun poked at it.  And it stands alone rather nicely as historical fiction with ghosts and authorial asides to liven things up.  Charlotte is a strong enough character that the book is able to power through its (slightly one note) premise, and this Jane is less of a drip than the original.  The ghosts are good plot elements, and the evil plan that must be foiled is a perfectly adequate plot point.

So basically, I didn't personally love it, but I did enjoy it lots; it diverted me very nicely!

The Black God's Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark

The Black God's Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor, August 2018), is the story of a 14-year-old girl who calls herself Creeper (her real name is Jacqueline, in case you are doubtful about heroines named Creeper), because she creeps through the night of an alternate New Orleans, surviving as best she can....

It is a few years after the Civil War ground to a stalemate; New Orleans is a free city, but there are still slave states in the south.  One night Creeper hears information that changes her life, information that she can trade, she hopes, for passage on a Haitian airship, the Midnight Robber.  Captain Ann-Marie is appalled to hear the news--a terrible weapon, the Black God's Drum, built a few years back in Haiti, is about to fall into the hands of men who will use it to bring the end they wanted to the Civil War, possibly destroying the whole country (literally) in the process.  Reluctantly, the Captain takes Creeper on the mission to recover the weapon, the scientist who was coerced into handing it over, and his kidnapped daughter....They are outnumbered, and the weapon is being primed for use, but the two women have remarkable allies--each is giving house space to a  powerful West African orisha (goddess), ready to unleash their rage....

I was impressed as all get out.  It is a cracking good story, which was nice, but not a remarkable feat.  What was remarkable is that in only 122 pages the reader gets a detailed alternate history with rich world building, plenty of backstory for the main character, plenty of mythological magic and almost magical spookiness, a soupcon of steampunk, magical tough as nails black nuns (I loved the nuns!), and quite a bit of smart alecky humor tossed in.  The beginning made me a bit doubtful, as it seemed gritty--dark urban decay-ish, with someone named Creeper as the main character--but it turns out not to be gritty in that way at all, and I really liked it and I sure do hope she gets another story!

This isn't marketed as a Young Adult book as far as I can tell, which means it isn't eligible for the Cybils Awards, which is too bad because it absolutely is YA by any measure other than how it was published.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy (9/23/18)

Here's this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (please let me know if I missed your post!)

The Reviews

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, at Charlotte's Library

The Apprentice Witch, by James Nicol, at The Biblio Life

Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshini Chokshi, at prosenkahn

Bad Mermaids Make Waves, by Sibéal Pounder, at Pages Unbound

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Charlotte's Library

Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older, at The Book Wars and Shelf Awareness

A Hint of Hydra, by Heidi Land and Kati Bartowski, at Pages Unbound

How I Became a Ghost, by Tim Tingle, at From the Mixed Up Files

The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond, by Max Brailler, at The O.W.L. and Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

The Nebula Secret (Explorer Academy 1) by Trudi Trueit, at Mom Read It

The Once and Future Geek (Camelot Code 1), by Mari Mancusi, at Rajiv's Reviews

The Phantom Files: Twain's Treasurem by William B. Wolfe, at Locus

The Pool of Fire, by John Cristopher, at Leaf's Reviews

Rules for Thieves, by Alexandra Ott, at Say What?

The Snow Witch, by Rosie Boyes, at Log Cabin Library

The Storm Runner, by Jennifer Cervantes, at Mom Read It and Owl Always Be Reading

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, at Waking Brain Cells and Fantasy Literature

Thrones and Bones (Nightborn 2), by Lou Anders, at Say What?

An Unexpected Adventure, by Kandi J. Wyatt, at Kitty Cat at the Library

Wizardmatch, by Lauren Magaziner, at Semicolon

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Storm Runner and The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond

Authors and Interviews

Daniel José Older (Dactyl Hill Squad) at Publishers Weekly

Rob Vlock (Sven Carter and the Android Army) at Middle Grade Book Village

Jennifer Cervantes (The Storm Runner) at The Children's Book Review

Other Good Stuff

Here's a look at "The Luck of Edenhall" which sounds like something you'd find in a mg fantasy...

And for Lego enthusiasts, here's the most amazing Helm's Deep that probably will never be surpassed; 1700 mini figures....(via Rachel Neumeier)

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab (Scholastic, August 2018) is a fun middle grade ghost hunting story, not desperately original but full of spooky atmosphere with an engaging heroine.

Cassidy Blake's parents are famous ghost hunters, and they've been offered a TV show that will take them around the world searching out hauntings.  What they don't know is that ever since her nearly fatal drowning, Cassidy herself can see ghost, and in fact her best friend, Jacob, who saved her life that day, is a ghost himself.

When the Blake's arrive in Edinburgh to film the first episode of the show, Cassidy is overwhelmed.  She can cross the veil that separates the living from the dead, in in Edinburgh, there are lots and lots of ghosts, dragging her into the supernatural realm.  In her experience, ghosts are uninterested in the living, but here in Scotland she meets a formidable ghost, who is very interested in the living indeed--dragging living children into her supernatural realm.  And she also meets another girl who can cross the veil, and who does so in order to put ghosts down, which Cassidy finds disturbing, because of her loyalty to ghostly Jacob.  But the immediate threat of the murdering ghost takes precedence, and Cassidy, with help from Jacob, must find a way to put this evil ghost to rest, or loose her own life, for real.

The spooky atmosphere of Edinburgh is wonderfully done, and the ghost stories are interesting and deliciously macabre.  There's nothing particularly fresh about it, but it's a fine fast read for kids who like ghosts!

(I myself was a little creeped out by Jacob; I wouldn't want my own adolescent daughter being constantly haunted by an adolescent boy who isn't great at privacy boundaries).

minor note--the family brings their cat from the US to Scotland, and I was all "but what about rabies quarantine?" and felt distrust towards the whole book as a result, until I looked up current law and found the quarantine regulations have been relaxed.  So don't worry about that!

If this is the sort of story you like, try the Suddenly Supernatural books by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel (daughter of a medium starts seeing ghosts and lays them to rest) and Michelle Schusterman's Kat Sinclair series (dad has ghost hunting tv series, daughter gets involved in spooky mysteries).  And if you like your ghost hunting really spooky, try Ellen Oh's Spirit Hunter books.

Gregory and the Gargoyles, by Denis-Pierre Filippi, for Timeslip Tuesday

Today's Timeslip Tuesday offering is a French import-- Gregory and the Gargoyles, by Denis-Pierre Filippi, illustrated by J Etienne and Silvio Camoni, translated by Anna Provitola (Humanoids, August 2017).  It's a must-read for young graphic novel fans of fun fantasy! (which isn't always me....).

Gregory is put out as all get out when his father moves his family to a new city.  He doesn't want to make new friends and start at a new school.  But that night, he finds a medallion on which is a drawing of the church next door, and so he decides to go exploring.....when he reaches the top of the church, the medallion begins to shine brightly, and Gregory is hurled back in time to the 17th century!

There he meets the church gargoyles, come to life, and finds that they defend of the city and its magical creatures against dark magicians, and they need his help. Gregory's life in the 17th century parallels his real one--same annoying sister, same getting into trouble at school, same parents trying to corral him, same horrible Aunt Agatha.  But there's a big difference--Gregory discovers he has magical talents, and that his Aunt Agatha isn't just annoying--she's the leader of the bad guys!

In a swirl of magical adventures and encounters with magical creatures, including meeting up with a girl who's gifted with magic as well, Gregory tries to help the gargoyles....but the end of this particular mission is ambiguous, setting the stage for more to come. I've said before that I'm not a great graphic novel reader; I have trouble slowing down to look at the pictures, and have a hard time not skimming speech bubbles.  And I was even more confused than usual here-it really is a brightly colored, madcap swirl of adventure and I had trouble keeping the story straight.

But I was still entertained, and feel confident that graphic novel/fantasy/magical creature fans (with younger eyes and more tolerance for intense visual stimulation) will love it! It's fun time travel-wise--I really liked Gregory's plunge into his 17th century alternate reality.  That part I understood perfectly, and thought it was very well done.  There are other time travel hops later in the book, but they are more bubbles of adventure and less integral to the plot.

The target audience really will enjoy this one lots, and will be glad that the 2nd and 3rd books are already out there in English and  ready to read!

In case, like me, you were not familiar with Humanoids, here's a recentish article from Publishers Weekly about their kids/YA graphic novel imprint.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin (Candlewick, September 25, 2018, middle grade/YA), is something of a tour de force.  It is a spy story/revolution/cross-cultural misunderstanding/what is history? fantasy, that keeps readers, and the main characters, on their toes and happy (the readers at least) to be there.

Brangwain Spurge, a scholar in Elfland (aka The Weed to his old classmate, now the Elfland's spymaster) is chosen to deliver a magnificent gift to the goblin king.  He will be the first Elf diplomat to travel to the Goblin realm in centuries; for a thousand years the two lands have been at war, with many atrocities and casualties.   His goblin host is Werfel, an archivist who does his best to offer magnificent hospitality and show off the best of goblin culture.

Things don't go well.  Brangwain Spurge is a horrible guest, and is blinded by his prejudices against the goblins; he sees them as the savage creatures he had in his mind before he met them, totally ignoring the bedside chocolates Werfel has set out with such care (jerk).  And he's more interested in spying then he is in having the historical conversations Werfel had looked forward too with innocent pleasure, which in any event would have been tricky, because goblins and elves have such very different ideas about the "truth" of their past hostilities.

And then Brangwain betrays Werfel's hospitality utterly, and the two become targets of the goblin secret police, and must flee for their lives, and Werfel's lovely, lonely home (his fiancé was a warrior, killed a while back), full of small items of great personal meaning, is destroyed (and my despising-ness of Brangwain, and sadness for Werfel was great).   However, as is so often the case, fleeing for your life is a great way to get things out in the open, and talk more openly, and in this case, come to appreciate prejudice for what it is and start moving past it (good!), and they finally have interesting discussions about history (good!).  However, as is also often the case, fleeing for your life means that people are trying to kill you (bad.).

Final however--this being a fantasy book for young readers, it doesn't end badly, and instead there is hope for cross-cultural reconciliation, and new stories, shared by both kingdoms (very good!).

This is a fine plot, very thought-provoking and emotionally involving (Werfel....so poignant!).  Those who like somewhat whacky espionage stories, and those who like thinking about conflicting histories and those who like goblin archivists with endearing tentacled pets of great loyalty (such as Werfel has)  who do their best, damn it, to give difficult guests a good time (with bedside chocolates), will enjoy it lots.

What lifts it to the tour de force level is the way the story is told.  There are black and white picture sequences, many pictures, that show Brangwain's spy mission point of view.  They are complicated, detailed, and make more sense after you read the book (this could be my own particular problem, since when I'm reading I have trouble stopping for picture looking....).

There is Werfel's third person narration of his point of view.   And there are letters from the elven spymaster to his king, giving us a whole nother story brewing under the main adventure.....and it all works to make a cohesive, gripping whole!

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge is on the National Book Award Young Readers long list, the only fantasy there this year.  It is indeed a book for young readers, but it is not a book for every young reader.  10 and up into YA..., I guess, but if pressed I'd put it more in Middle Grade than YA, because the adventure and intrigue has that pure immersive excitement of MG adventure (or something), and even though it might seem that YA readers would be more likely to appreciate the Weighty Themes, MG readers should not be underestimated....

Kirkus liked the book lots too...

but gee, nothing gets me more than good people trying to do the best they can in all the small things because that's what needs to be done and really trying and it all going to hell and all the personal things that reminded them of their dead beloved being trashed.  Werfel and Brangwain are friends at the end, but still.  The adorable tentacled pet makes it safely to the end too, thank goodness.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher