This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (11/8/20)

Welcome to the first post-election round-up.  I for one am breathing a huge sigh of relief, and am hoping that now that I'm not staring at the NY Times homepage for most of the day I can get back to reading!  

Here's what I found this week.

The Reviews

The Barren Grounds (The Misewa Saga #1), by David Robertson, at Say What?

The Boy, The Wolf and The Stars, by Shivaun Plozza, at Glam Adelaide

Cinders & Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann, at Phoenix Book Company

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, at Suzanne Goulden

Geeks and the Holy Grail (The Camelot Code #2), by Mari Mancusi, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Genny Faces the Green Knight, by Darrel Gregory, at Foreward Reviews

The Ghost in Apartment 2R, by Denis Markell, at Charlotte's Library

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at Never Not Reading

Haunting at the Hotel (Case Closed #3) by Lauren Magaziner, at Pages Unbound

In the Red, by Christopher Swiedler, at Geo Librarian

The Midnight Guardians, by Ross Montgomery, at Book Lover Jo

The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1), by Soman Chainani, at Jill's Book Blog

Scritch Scratch, by Lindsay Currie, at Puss Reboots

Tristan Strong Destroys the World, by Kwame Mbalia, at alibrarymama

The Way to Rio Luna by Zoraida Cordova, at alibarymama

A Wish in the Dark, by Christina Soontornvat, at Geo Librarian and Redeemed Reader

Two at alibrarymama- When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller, and The Magic in Changing Your Stars, by Leah Henderson

Two more at alibrarymama- Water Bears, by Kim Baker, and The Girl Who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson

Authors and Interviews

Pam Muñoz Ryan (Mañanaland) at Kirkus

Bassem Youssef and Catherine Daly (The Magical Reality of Nadia) at WNDB

Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett (Gender Swapped Fairy Tales) at A little but a lot

Jeff Rosen (Caley Cross and the Hadeon Drop) at Middle Grade Minded

Catherine Gilbert Murdoc ( Da Vinci’s Cat), at Fuse #8

Ross Montgomery (The Midnight Guardians) at A little but a lot

Other Good Stuff

“A Second Rabadash” — C.S. Lewis and Dangerous Leaders" at Tor

There's a new podcast in town--Monster Books, Episode 1--Middle Grade Cosmic Horror

and not mg sff related, but I wanted to say happy book birthday to Serena Says, by Tanita Davis! (Tanita is the first, and so far only, internet friend I've invited to stay at my house (actually it was mother's house) without having met them.  It was a truly lovely visit.)

The Ghost in Apartment 2R, by Denis Markell

The Ghost in Apartment 2R, by Denis Markell (middle grade, Delacorte Press, November 2019), was the only book I finished these past five days of compulsive news watching.  I'm hoping now it's over nothing horrible and stressful will happen, and I'll rebound into a more normal book a day routine...But in any event, this middle grade Brooklyn ghost story was a fun read, despite the distractions!

Danny has always lived in the shadow of his smart big brother Jake, and he's always lived in a converted closet, while Jake has occupied the second bedroom of the Brooklyn apartment.  Now that  Jake's off to college (Cornell), Danny assumes his parents will make good on their promise that he can move out of the closet and into Jake's room.  But no.

Instead, his parents, anxious about financing Jake's education, decide to rent it as an Air Hotel room.  Danny's pretty bitter; it hurts to watch his parents spending money and time fixing up the room that should have been his.  Then the room situation becomes the least of his problems.  Spooky things start happening--a girl looking in through the window of Jake's room shows up in photographs, computer glitches make it hard for guests to rent the room, and the bed falls apart-- and though alone they could be attributed to rational explanations, a ghost seems more and more likely.

But when he hears an angry moaning, and a pale, angry face appears at the window, he can't pretend something scary isn't happening.

Danny shares his fears Gus and Nat (Natalie), but though they're supportive, and Nat immediately clears out the library's ghost section for research, they don't know what to do.  Then the ghost starts possessing the house guests, using them to ask Danny where her little boy is.  Danny tells his Bubbe Ruth what's been happening, and she is sure it's a dybbuk, a spirt who needs help before it can find peace.   So, spearheaded by Nat, the trio embark on historical research, and at the Brooklyn Historical Society they find out about a tragedy that occurred years ago in Jake's room, in which a little boy died.

After much argument, Nat is allowed to stay overnight so she can help communicate with ghost.  Gus shows up uninvited too, and when the ghost possess him, they're able to put the pieces together to figure out how to comfort the ghost.

It's a creepy story, but not tremendously spooky.  For on thing, though the possession of various house guests is understandably scary for Danny when they come bursting into his room, the way it plays out is actually rather entertaining.  For another, there's no sense of impending danger; the ghost is angry, but doesn't seem malevolent.  The spooky parts are also considerably off-set by the warm reality of Danny's friends and the neighborhood they live in; details of all the epicurean delights sold in Nat's family's Middle Eastern deli, for instance, are so enticing that it's hard to remember the ghost (unless you're Danny....).  

So this one is a very good "first middle grade ghost story," just fine for the younger kids in the middle grade ranger (the nine year olds).  Those who have already read lots of mg ghost books might find it tame, but will still enjoy the humor and lively picture of Brooklyn, and story of the Air Hotel venture and the collection of guests it attracts.

It's also one I'm glad to recommend because there are very very few mg fantasy books with Jewish protagonists.  Danny's family aren't particularly observant, but it's still a central part of his family identity, and his Bubbe Ruth is a great Jewish grandma!  Nat, Middle Eastern, and Christian, adds diversity too.  On a more specific note, I really appreciated that Nat points out all the dead white men ornamenting the historical society!  Good job, Nat!

Glad it was nominated for the Cybils, which is why I read it!  

This week's round-up of mg fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (11/1/2020)

Welcome to the first round-up of November!  Only 2 more months of 2020 to go.  I don't have anything to contribute this week (the stress is killing my desire to blog), but fortunately other people talked about mg sff books (and I am determined to be one of those people next week)!

The Reviews

Bloom, by Kenneth Oppel, at Dead Houseplants 

The Box and The Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders, at Readaraptor

City of Ghosts, and Tunnel of Bones (Cassidy Blake, books 1 and 2) by Victoria Schwab, at The Bookwyrm's Den

Curse of the Night Witch, by Alex Aster, at alibrarymama 

The Day I Fell Into A Fairytale, by Ben Miller, at Library Girl and Book Boy

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Pages Unbound

Diana and the Island of No Return, by Aisha Saeed, at Not Acting My Age 

Embassy of the Dead, by Will Mabbitt, at Sally's Bookshelf

The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf, at Semicolon

Hide and Seeker, by Daka Hermon, at Falling Letters

Hollowpox (Morrigan Crow #3), by Jessica Townsend, at Nerdophiles, Log Cabin Library, and The Bookwyrm's Den

Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North, by Dan Bar-El, at Kid Lit Reviews

Kingston and the Magician's Lost and Found, by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Last Mirror on the Left, by Lamar Giles, at Rosi Hollinbeck

The Magician’s Key, by Matthew Cody, at Fantasy Literature

Mañanaland, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, at alibrarymama and Geo Librarian

Mulan -- Before the Sword, by Grace Lin, at Geo Librarian 

Never and Forever (Wizards of Once Book 4), by Cressida Cowell, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, by Tehlor Kay Mejia, at alibrarymama 

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Pages Unbound

The Smartest Kid in the Universe, by Chris Grabenstein, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Time Traveller and the Tiger, by Tania Unsworth, at Book Craic

The Timeless One (The Revenge of Magic #4),   by James Riley, at Carstairs Considers

When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller, at Say What?

Wishes and Wellingtons, by Julie Berry, at Cracking the Cover

6 capsule reviews at Semicolon--Quintessence by Jess Redman, Catalyst by Sarah Beth Durst, The Forest of Stars by Heather Kassner, Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie, The Copycat by Wendy McLeod MacKnight, Arcade and the Fiery Metal Tester (The Coin Slot Chronicles) by Rashad Jennings

8 spooky mg books at alibrarymama

Authors and Interviews

Ben Gartner (Sol Invictus) at MG Book Village 

Kory Merritt (No Place for Monsters) at Spooky MG

Other Good Stuff

Wicked Witches in Children's Fiction, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Mary: the Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter, by Breat Grant and Yishan Li

Mary: the Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter, by Breat Grant and Yishan Li (YA, Six Foot Press, October 2020), is a fun graphic novel, great for Halloween reading, or any time, really.

16 year old Mary Shelley has no interest in carrying on the family tradition of being a writer; living with a mother who's a famous author who puts her writing ahead of everything else has soured her on it.  But she can't escape her Shelly heritage.

The first sign of strangeness comes when the frog she's dissecting in biology class jerks to life.  Mary tries to explain it away.  But when a rather cute (though strangely pale) boy shows up, asking her to sew his foot back on,  Mary can't pretend things are normal.  When more monsters start showing up at her house, asking for medical care, she fights against her new calling as their doctor, though slowly she finds herself accepting and using her gift.  Then things get even more complicated when demons begin to object to her work, and come after her...(her mother's objections are a lot easier to dismiss).

Though I found the story telling a bit choppy at times, and even had check to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I enjoyed this (I'm not a great graphic novel reader, so I think experienced fans of the form might find it smoother sailing).  The plot was gripping, and I laughed out loud at some of the snappy dialogue and some of the especially amusing illustrations of the monsters (for instance, the ghost of Shirly Jackson is inhabiting a stuffed bunny rabbit).

Teens feeling pressured by familial expectations, trying to figure out what to do with their own lives, will relate strongly to Mary. Goth girls, especially, will love her.  The artwork was an intriguing mix of dark and bright scenes, adding nicely to the rhythm of the story.  

A strong start to the series, and the revel toward the end about Mary's real world best friend, Rhonda (who is black) makes me think it will get even better!

disclaimer: review copy received from its publicist

A quick open letter to authors re the Cybils awards

I am writing this surrounded by stacks of library books check out in late September and early October, all elementary/middle grade fantasy and science fiction, that I wanted to quickly read to help me make my choice of what to nominate for the Cybils Awards. (This is the category for which I'm the category organizer, btw).  Sadly I could only nominate one book, and many of the books I checked out are now looking at me sadly...  

We have lots of great books nominated, but still lots of great books didn't get a nod.  Folks were stuck at home, not able to browse libraries and bookstores, and I think this had an impact on what we got in our public nomination period.

All is not lost, though! We at the Cybils are currently welcoming nominations from publishers and authors to fill in some of the gaps.

Are you an author of a children's/YA book that came out in the US/Canada between October 16, 2019 and October 15, 2020 that didn't get nominated during the public part of Cybils Awards nominations? If by the end of the day tomorrow your publisher hasn't nominated it, you can nominate it yourself (and independently published books are welcome too!)  Your book will be judged just the same way as a public nomination, and it will get a bit of publicity from being on Cybils website's list of nominated books, and will quite possibly get reviewed by panelists.  And it might be one us first round readers fall in love with, and send on to the next round!

More information here at the Cybils website!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (10/25/20)

Welcome to this week's gathering of links; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Captive Kingdom, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, at Geo Librarian 

Carnival Catastrophe (The Problim Children #2) by Natalie Lloyd, at Geo Librarian

The Castle of Tangled Magic, by Sophie Anderson, at Book Craic

Curse of the Wish Eater, by Mike Ford, at Twirling Book Princess

Dragonspell (DragonKeeper Chronicles #1), by Donita K. Paul, at Say What?

Fiends on the Other Side, by Vera Strange, at Rajiv's Reviews

The Game Masters of Garden Place, by Denis Markell, at Puss Reboots

The Haunted Key (Frightville) by Mike Ford, at Twirling Book Princess

Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Waking Brain Cells

The Last Mirror on the Left, by Lamar Giles, at alibrarymama, proseandkahn,  Always in the Middle, and Ms. Yingling Reads

The Lost Wonderland Diaries, by J. Scott Savage, at Jill's Book Blog

Midnight Magic, by Michelle Harrison, at Book Craic

Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce, at Charlotte's Library

Part of your Nightmare, by Vera Strange, at Rajiv's Reviews

Rise of ZomBert, by Kara LaReau, at Sally's Bookshelf

The Shadow Cipher (York #1), by Laura Ruby, at Leaf's Reviews

Spindlefish and Stars, by Christiane M. Andrews, at Waking Brain Cells

The Ten Riddles of Earth Quicksmith, by Loris Owen, at Book Lover Jo

They Threw Us Away, by Daniel Kraus, at The Bibliosanctum

Thirteens, by Kate Alice Marshall, at Charlotte's Library

The Time of Green Magic, by Hilary McKay, at Library Lady

The Tower of Nero, by Rick Riordan, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Two at The Book Search-Tristan Strong Destroys the World, by Kwame Mbalia, and Fart Quest by Aaron Reynolds

Two at Bookends-The Puppet’s Payback and Other Chilling Tales, by Mary Downing Hahn, and Thirteens, by Kate Alice Marshall

Three at alibrarymama- Muse Squad: the Cassandra Curse by Chantel Acevedo, Weird Little Robots by Carolyn Crimi, and If We Were Giants by Dave Matthews and Clete Barrett Smith

Four at Feed Your Fiction Addiction--Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, The Dragon Thief by Zetta Elliott, The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

Authors and Interviews

agent Adria Goetz and author G.Z. Schmidt (No Ordinary Thing) at Literary Rambles

Tania del Rio, S.A. (Sheri) Larsen, Cynthia Reeg, and Lisa Schmid at Spooky MG

David Levithan  (The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) at Nerdy Book Club (though I'm not sure this is actually spec fic)

Robin Stevens Payes (Saving Time), at Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Other Good Stuff

Tor's reread of The Horse and His Boy continues

Tor shares the first trailer for Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon

Thirteens, by Kate Alice Marshall

I just read Thirteens, by Kate Alice Marshall (Viking, August 2020), in a one and a half hour single sitting (more or less); it was a lovely spooky mystery!  Because I'm going to have to spoil things in writing about the book (although the official blurb spoils everything) , I'll just quickly note that it's a good one if you like to read about kids in supernatural peril (of the bad bargain with fey folk kind), who find the clues to save themselves in old fairy tales and the town archives, and who have each other's backs beautifully, you'll like it lots!  

Elle has come to the idyllic little town of Eden Eld in Oregon, where she was born, to live with her aunt and uncle, after her house burned and her mother disappeared.  She is sad and scared to start with, determined to be Normal, to just get through each day. Normal is hard, though, when Elle begins seeing impossible, disturbing, even terrifying things, like a fearsome black dog with red eyes that no one else seems to see. Then she finds two kids at her school, Pip and Otto, who click with her and become friends before she can over-think it--and they can see these same very wrong things too.  They also share her birthday--all three will turn 13 on Halloween, a week away.  And they very quickly start figuring out that they aren't going to get festivities and parties.  Instead, they have to figure out how to save themselves from malevolent supernatural forces straight out of the fairy tale book Elle's mom read her over and over when she was little. 

And this is the spoilery part--

The three kids are going to be sacrificed in order for the town to prosper.  Ever since the town was founded back in the 19th, every thirteen years 3 kids born on Halloween are handed over to a supernatural, very wrong and creepy sort of being  to be taken by them out of our world.  In exchange, money magically flows into the town. And the grownups who are in charge of the town's end of the ritual bargain think it's still a good idea.

Elle, Pip, and Otto don't.  They think it stinks (especially since they are in mortal peril).  But they don't want to just save themselves; they want to make sure that future kids are safe too.

And this is something that I think make this book one that might speak to kids rather powerfully   (although I'm not sure the author in fact had this in mind or if I'm reading too much into it).  The grown-ups have made a horrible bargain.  Their comfortable, prosperous lives come at the expense of the unlucky kids who have no future, and Elle, Pip, and Otto are basically saying ok, Boomer, and not standing for it. (although after writing this, I realized to my horror that the bad grown-ups would be Gen X...like me. Parents sure are getting younger these days!)

I'm glad it was nominated for the Cybils awards, which is why I read it; the cover and the Goodreads synopsis don't suggest at all the strong fairy tale elements of rules and tricks and hidden clues that are central to the story!  I enjoyed it lots, and if you also like bizarre old houses, fairy tales, monstrous giant ash cats who have figured out how to bend the rules of the game, and good friends, do give it a try! 

(Otto is described, and shown on the cover, as brown-skinned, so I'll add this to my diverse fantasy list)

Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce, for Timeslip Tuesday

Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce (July 2020, Jolly Fish Press) is both a really fun and somewhat heart wrenchingly realistic upper- middle grade ground-hog day time slip story.

Eve, a military kid, is determined she'll make the most of her 8th grade trip to Paris.  She going to get over her inhibitions, and give a note to the boy she likes, Jace, telling him how she feels about him.  But before she screws up her courage to do so, she sees Jace and her best friend, Reggie, kissing in the Eiffel Tower.  Sure, Reggie challenged Jace with dare to do it, but as the day goes on, Eve watches in horrified jealous anger as they realize they really do like each other.  They even decide to put a lock on the famous bridge of love to seal the deal.  The rather mysterious old lady who sells them the lock gives Eve the key, and when Jace and Reggie aren't looking, she unlocks it and throws it into the river.

And then the next morning Eve wakes up to find she's living the same day over again!  It's another chance to tell Jace how she feels, and so she does her best to keep him and Reggie apart, but it doesn't work. She changes a few things to make her horrible day better, but the next morning, she repeating it all over again.  The old lady lets her know that the changes she needs to make are bigger than the small things....and Eve finds that ending one day by pushing Reggie into the river is not the change she needs to make!  When Reggie wakes up repeating the day alongside Eve, Eve has to come clean about how she really feels about Jace.  In the end she realizes that her friendship with Reggie is more important than her crush (which turns out to be unrequited in any event), and she becomes a braver, more open person, sharing her anger and sadness about her parents planned divorce, and realizing that she doesn't have to monopolize Reggie's friendship, making room in her mind to cultivate another friendship with a girl she's previously seen only as a rival for Reggie's attention.

Though it's the same day over and over, Eve's impressions of the sights of Paris change along with her feelings towards Reggie and Jace, and it doesn't get at all repetitive!  In fact, because Eve is becoming more thoughtful and mature, and more likeable and relatable as a result, it becomes more interesting every day (and also the suspense of Eve trying to figure out what she needs to change adds interest!).

The angst, the drama, and the growing up are all so typically, painfully middle grade that it's easy to imagine kids loving this one, especially older mg kids starting to get romance on their minds.  Paris is beautifully described too!  I really enjoyed it, and it made me happy when I marked it as read on Goodreads to see that is "Wish and Wander, book 1."  A teaser at the end points to Rome for the next book....I look forward to it!

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (10/18/20)

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

The Reviews

The Barren Grounds, by David A. Robertson, at Writer's Alley

The Beyonders Trilogy, by Brandon Mull, at Redeemed Reader

The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures, by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by Pham Quang Phuc, at Sharon the Librarian

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher, at Geo Librarian

Don’t Let The Doll In. by Mike Ford, at Twirling Book Princess

The Edge of Everywhen, by A.S. Mackey, at K.A. Cummins

The Endangered, by Philippe Cousteau and Austin Aslan, at Always in the Middle

Fiends on the Other Side, by Vera Strange, at The Bookwyrm's Den and Nerdophiles

The Fire Star: A Maven & Reeve Mystery, by A.L. Tait, at Children's Books Daily

Gobbledy, by Lis Anna-Langston, at Kids Lit Review

Midnight Magic, by Michelle Harrison, at Book Lover Jo and Library Girl and Book Boy

Molly Thompson and the Crypt of the Blue Moon, by Nick Tomlinson, at Book Craic

Mulan: Before the Sword, by Grace Lin, at Semicolon

Orion Lost, by Alastair Chisholm, at My Best Friends are Books

Rival Magic, by Deva Fagan, at Semicolon

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker, illustrated by Junyi Wu, at Pages Unbound 

The Silver Box, by Margi Preus, at The Muffin

The Sisters of Straygarden Place, by Hayley Chewins, at Waking Brain Cells, Our Thoughts Precisely, Cracking the Cover, and Read and Reviewed

Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, illustrated by Jon Klassen, at Redeemed Reader and books4yourkids

The Time of Green Magic, by Hilary McKay, at Redeemed Reader

The Time Thief (The Gideon Trilogy #2),  by Linda Buckley-Archer, at Say What?

Say What?

Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility (Tommy Black #2), by Jake Kerr, at S.W. Lothian

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at Emerald City Bookworm

Welcome To Superhero School, by Gracie Dix, at Book Briefs and Mermaid Reads

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin, at Never Not Reading

Witch Wars, by Alane Adams, at Always in the Middle

Two at alibrarymama--Shuri, by Nic Stone, and Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads-- Dragon Mountain (#1), by Katie Tsang, and Kevin Tsang, and The Fallen Hero (Dragon Warrior #2), by Katie Zhao

Four at Feed Your Fiction Addiction--A Wish in the Dark, Ghost Squad, Scritch Scratch, & Midnight at the Barclay Hotel

Authors and Interviews

William Ritter (Deepest, Darkest: the Oddmire #3) at MG Book Village

Amy Wilson (Owl and the Lost Boy) at Book Lover Jo

Christian McKay Heidicker (Scary Stories for Young Foxes) at Fuse #8 

Haley Chewins (The Sisters of Straygarden Place), at Nerdy Book Club

Sherry Ellis (Bubba and Squirt's Mayan Adventure) at Literary Rambles

Other Good Stuff

Bookslists-- 

Spooky middle grade at Book Riot and The Contented Reader 

Six MG and YA titles for Black SFF Month, at Brain Mill Press Voices

Goddesses, Queens, and Witches, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

The first-ever winners of the Ignyte Awards were announced at FIYAHCON 2020! FIYAH created the awards to “celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.”

Here are the middle grade books chosen:

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky – Kwame Mbalia (Disney Hyperion) (Winner) 
Just South of Home – Karen Strong (S&S BYR)* 
The Mystwick School of Musicraft – Jessica Khoury (Audible/HMH BYR)* ** 
Other Words for Home – Jasmine Warga (HarperCollins) 
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe – Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion)

*BYR: “Books for Young Readers” 

** audiobook released in 2019

And finally, the public nomination period for the Cybils has closed, and although 100s of great kids and YA books were nominated, there are still many excellent books that aren't.  Publishers and authors have until October 25th at 11:59 p.m. PDT to fll in the cracks- here's where you start with that.

Displacement, by Kiki Hughes, for Timeslip Tuesday

Displacement, by Kiki Hughes (First Second, August 2020), is a stunning graphic novel that tells of a girl travelling back to the internment camp where her Japanese great grandparents and their daughter, her grandmother, were imprisoned during WW II.  

The book opens in 2016, with sixteen-year-old Kiku being dragged around San Francisco by her mom, looking for the house where her family had lived before all people of Japanese descent on the West Coast were rounded-up and incarcerated during WW II.  Standing where the house had once stood, Kiku finds herself inside a sudden fog, and when it clears she's in the audience of a violin concert.  Her own grandmother, Ernestina, is the violinist. 

A second "displacement," as Kiku thinks of them, happens soon after.  This time she finds herself in a nightmarish line of Japanese people, herded along while Caucasian men with guns watch them. Meanwhile, on the tv in their hotel room, Kiku and her mother hear Donald Trump railing against Muslims entering the US.

Home again in Seattle, Kiku displaces once more, and this time she's gone so long in the past she thinks she might never get home again.   As Number 19106, she's one of many shunted first to a temporary internment camp, and then sent to the Utah desert where she spends the next year.  Many things are horrible.  The fear and uncertainty weigh heavily on all the Japanese Americans in the camp, and the living conditions are grim. Kiku find comfort in good freinds, which keeps her going.  And she can hear her grandmother's violin, traveling through the thin walls, though their paths don't cross, and Kiku feels reluctant to force a meeting.

When she finally tries to do so, the fog comes back, and she is home again, in time to see more xenophoic poison on tv. Her experience is too vivid to keep to herself, so she tells her mother, and it turns out she, too, had travelled back to the camp.  And the story wraps up with a bit more time slipping, with her mother, to see Ernestina as a grown-up, and finally closes with real world activism by Kiku and her mother, protesting the new versions of internment camps in Trump's America.

Her mother's theory is that the trauma of the experience has left a generational echo, but the time travel is much more physically real than an echo suggest--Kiku comes back from her second slip with a knee grazed by a fall in the past, and her life in the internment camp, a very real, very lived life, is much more than can be easily dismissed as unreal.  The months she spends in the camp, bored, and frightened, making friends (including one girl who I got the impression might, if things had been otherwise, been more than a friend) might be low on action and adventure, but it's tremendously evocative, and Kiku is a very real and believable teenager.  It was bleak, sad, and scary, but not depressing.

In any event, the time travel is a satisfying mechanism for Kiku, and the reader, to visit a dark piece of American's past.  In my own way of thinking about time travel books, I'd classify this as "time travel as educational experience for character and reader,", but it's also, just as much so, the story of a girl in horrible circumstances, making it though as best she can.  

Even though I'm graphic novel challenged (I have trouble making my eyes move from the words to the pictures when I read them), I had no problem following what was happening even though I wanted to read rather than look!  I was helped, I think, by Kiku's hair being lighter in color than everyone else's (her dad is white); it helped my eyes find her quickly in the pictures without focusing (everyone else looked distinct too, but not as immediately so).

I liked it lots!

We need diverse books! (to be nominated for the Elementary/Middle Grade Cybils)

Back when I was a panelist for the 2010 Cybils awards, I went through to see how many of the 130 nominated books had diverse protagonists shown on the covers of the books, and added a few more I knew of to the list.  It was not a long list.  10 years later, 18 of the 45 books nominated so far in EMG SF have black, indigenous, and Asian kids on their covers, and there are 4 other books by diverse authors with no kids on the cover.  This is really heartening; the years when we fretted over the lack of diversity on the EMG SF shortlist seem to be behind us.....

But!  There are still quite a few books with diverse kids by diverse authors that haven't been nominated yet in EMG SF! (please let me know if you can think of others I've missed)

Thunder Run. Dactyl Hill Squad Book 3 by Daniel José Older
The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond) by Sayantani DasGupta
Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor
Mixture of Mischief, by Anna Meriano
Muse Squad, by Chantel Acevedo
Gloom Town, by Ronald L. Smith
White Fox, by Chen Jiatong
Silverworld, by Diana Abu-Jaber
The Fallen Hero, by Katie Zhao
Treasures of the Twelve, by Cindy Lin

I can't think of any eligible EMG spec fic books that have disability rep. this year, which makes me sad.

LGBTQ rep is also lacking, although for the first time I know of, there an EMG spec fic with an intersex protagonist--Cattywampus, by Ash Van Otterloo

Here's where you go to nominate (Oct 15 is the last day!) And if you nominate a diverse book for the Cybils, you get a sticker!

(nb: diversity per se isn't a criteria the Cybils panelists use in picking the books to shortlist, but it can contribute to the two criteria of reader appeal and literary merit....)

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (10/11/2020)

Hi all,

Welcome to another collection of posts from the past week interesting to us fans of middle grade sci fi and fantasy!  (please let me know if I missed your post!) Books with asterixis are eligible for the Cybils Awards, and have not, at the time of writing this (5:58 am, EST) been nominated, and at the bottom of the round-up are links to various lists of the unnominated.  Anyone can nominate books in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction, and a variety of other categories of less personal interest to me!  But the deadline to nominate is October 15....so don't delay!  

The Reviews

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (Monsterstreet #1) by J.H. Reynolds, at Lazy Day Literature

*Cleo Porter and the Body Electric, by Jake Burt, at books4yourkids.com

*The Daring of Della Dupree, by Natasha Lowe, at Twirling Book Princess and Log Cabin Library

*The Deceivers (Greystone Secrets #2), by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Say What?

Dragon Slippers, by Jessica Day George, at Not Acting My Age

*Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts, by Dianne K. Salerni, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Twirling Book Princess

*The Fallen Hero, by Katie Zhao, at Krisha's Cozy Corner, Lyrical Reads, Latinx Magic, and Utopia State of Mind

Fuzzy Mud, by Louis Sachar, at Redeedmed Reader

*The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf, at Fuse#8

Ghost Squad, by Claribel A. Ortega, at Jill's Book Blog

The Griffin Gate, by Vashti Hardy, at Library Girl and Book Boy and Book Craic

*Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Charlotte's Library

Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-El, illustrated by Kelly Pousette, at Jean Little Library

Mañanaland, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, at Not Acting My Age

*The Mutant Mushroom Takeover, by Summer Rachel Short, at Redeemed Reader and Charlotte's Library

Of Salt and Shore, by Annet Schaap, at Always in the Middle

*Over the Woodward Wall, by A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire), at Tor

*Shadow Weaver, by MarcyKate Connolly, at Falling Letters

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Whimsy Pages

The Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1), by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Never Not Reading

Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility (Tommy Black #2), by Jake Kerr, at S.W. Lothian

Tristan Strong Destroys the World, by Kwame Mbalia, at The Bookwyrm's Den

Two at Feed Your Fiction Addiction--Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe, and Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron

Two at alibrarymama--*The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown, and *Thunder Run. Dactyl Hill Squad Book 3 by Daniel José Older

Three at Ms. Yingling Reads--*Cleo Porter and the Body Electric, by Jake Burt, *Heroes Level Up (Homerooms and Hall Passes #2) by Tom O'Donnell, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, by Kwame Mbalia

Authors and Interviews

Hayley Chewins (*The Sisters of Straygarden Place), at Middle Grade Ninja

Sheela Chari (*The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel), at Nerdy Book Club

Jennifer Nielsen (The Captive Kingdom), at Literary Rambles

Other Good Stuff

A list of 35 scary books at Pop Goes the Reader (with many eligible books that haven't gotten their Cybils nomination yet; sigh)

Lists of elementary/middle grade books not yet nominated for the Cybils can be found at 

Log Cabin Library

Semicolon

alibrarymama

Charlotte's Library

Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor

Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor (Penguin Random House August 2020) is a gripping fantasy set in modern Nigeria.  Anyone who likes stories of real-world kids dealing with extraordinary powers and the extraordinary responsibilities that come with them will love this one!

Nnamdi's father was the chief of police of the town of Kalaria, a man determined to rid the town of the criminals that were basically running the place.  When he is murdered, Nnamdi is sure the most powerful of the criminals, dubbed the Chief of Chiefs, is responsible.  Nnamdi wants justice for his father, but what can a 12 year old boy do?

Then his father's spirit appears to him, and hands him an Ikenga, a small statue full of power.  The Ikenga gives Nnamdi the chance to carry on his father's mission to end the crime wave destroying Kalaria, and  bring down the Chief of Chiefs.  When he is angry, the Ikenga transforms into a giant shadow man of tremendous strength, and the criminals give him many opportunities to be angry.  Soon several are behind bars, but the Man, as the shadow being is known, becomes himself the object of fear--Nnamdi as the Man is violent, and almost kills several criminals.  Nnamdi is horrified by this violence, and by what worse things his alter ego might do, but he has so much anger he doubts his ability to stay in control.

The stress of this situation drives a wedge between him and his best friend, Chioma, but fortunately, when he is honest with her, this heals, and she's able to help him in both confronting criminals, and solving the mystery of who killed his father. 

This is in large part a superhero story (Nnamdi is himself a big fan of comic book heroes, and compares the Man to the Incredible Hulk).  But Nnamdi is not just a superpowered fighter for justice.  He's a grieving and confused kid, struggling to do the right thing, and confronting injustice and corruption as best he can.  As a result, there's lots of emotional heft to the story, alongside the "ka-pow" action and adventure.

It's also a lovely visit to Nigeria, with lots of details about the town and daily life.

nb: Ikenga is eligible for the Cybils Awards, and has not yet been nominated!  (any one can nominate books in a range of childrens/YA categories, including Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction, where Ikenga belongs!)

The Mutant Mushroom Takeover, by Summer Rachel Short

The Mutant Mushroom Takeover, by Summer Rachel Short (Simon and Schuster, Sept. 22 2020) is a great one for kids who love science (especially real-world science taken into the realm of the speculative) mixed with mystery and danger!

Maggie has set her sights on winning the Junior Naturalist Merit Award offered by Vitaccina, the one big employer in the small southern town of Shady Pines.  If she wins, maybe she can convince Vitaccina to offer her dad a job again. An unfortunate occurrence of rats in a vat of Vitaccina soda (made with rainforest ingredients) led to his firing, and now he's miles away working for the Park service, while Maggie and her older brother Ezra live with their grandma in a trailer park.  

When her best friend Nate talks her into exploring a forbidden woods where weird "ghost lights" have been seen, Maggie agrees to trespass with him--maybe the lights are a natural phenomena she can photograph.  And indeed, they find a host of bioluminescent mushrooms.  Old Man Bell, the owner of the woods also finds them, but while he's threatening them with his dogs, he has a heart-attack and dies. Ezra, who joined the younger kids, tries to save the man, but ends up having weird glowing spores coughed all over him...

When Maggie figures out that the last word Old Man Bell tried to say was "ophiocordyceps," and looks it up, she becomes convinced the fungi are seriously strange, and quite possibly dangerous.  Ophiocordyceps is a real fungus that turns ants into zombies, driving them to infect their own nests. This is just what seems to be happening in Shady Pines--Ezra, his friends, and other townsfolk are acting like they are becoming zombified.  

Maggie and Nate can't find help anywhere--not from the heads of Vitaccina, though they do seem very interested in Maggie's research, and no from the CDC, who think they're pranksters.  But Maggie has a sharp mind, and knows how to use it...and though the fungus becomes an almost insurmountable adversary, with it's human puppets doing its will, she figures out how it came to Shady Pines, and how to defeat it.

It's a great to see Maggie putting her love for science and research to work, nice to see the teamwork and loyalty of the two kids, and grossly horrible to see people infected with nasty fungi!  The pace picks up dramatically as the spores spread and the pages turn, and the final confrontation is a cinematic whammy! And as a result it's easy to imagine lots of kids eating it up! There isn't an awful lot of mg science fiction with  kid doing actually research and investigation, and this is a good one.

(not a criticism-- I myself found it a bit too hot and sticky for this to be a really pleasant read--the spore-filled southern summer was really vividly described!  so perhaps a good one to read in January....)

NB:  The Mutant Mushroom Takeover is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards, and has yet to be nominated....the public nomination period closes October 15!

disclaimer: review copy gratefully received from the author