This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi (2/24/2013)

Welcome to this week's (wet and cold) round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction book reviews, author interviews, and interesting (d.v.) miscellanea from around the blogs!

In case you wonder how I find the links, here's how.   I follow about 500 blogs on google reader (which doesn't mean I read them.  Just the post titles, mostly.  So it doesn't actually take too long).  On Sunday morning, I do a blog search on "middle grade fantasy."  I have been known to go through the books recently reviewed on Kirkus, so I can do some specific title searches, and I search for books I myself know about.  Occasionally people send me links.

Which leads gracefully to my next point--more people are welcome to send links directly! (charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com). This includes authors and publicists.  That being said, I do reserve the right to decline to link to posts I don't find valuable.  People are also welcome to leave links in the comments. 

Onward.

The Reviews:

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, at books4yourkids

The Book of Doom, by Barry Hutchison, at The Book Zone

Case File 13: Zombie Kid, by J. Scott Savage, at Book Nut 

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at Lust for Stories

Demonkeeper, by Royce Buckingham, at Known to Read

Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham, at BooksYALove 

Drizzle, by Kathleen Van Cleve, at GreenBeanTeenQueen 

Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun, by Liz Kessler, at theawseomeadventuresoflulu

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Kristen Evey

The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson, at Charlotte's Library

Freaks, by Kieran Larwood, at Finding Wonderland

Herbert's Wormhole, by Peter Nelson, at Maria's Melange

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at Karissa's Reading Review 

The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire) by Tui T. Sutherland, at Ms. Yingling Reads 

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave, by Candace Fleming, at Log Cabin Books

The Runnaway King, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Stacked and Bookshelvers Anonymous

The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere), by Jacqueline West, at Middle Grade Ninja

The Space Between, by Kiki Thorpe, at Sharon the Librarian

Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner, at Charlotte's Library

The Strangers (Books of Elsewhere 4), by Jacqueline West, at Log Cabin Library 

A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, at Bookalicious and Literacious, and as an audiobook, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Time Paradox, by Eoin Colfer, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Time-Travelling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Time Travel Times Two

Authors and Interviews

Jennifer Nielsen (The Runaway King) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Mike Yung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Anna Staniszewski (My Very UnFairy Tale Life) at Readatouille

Jasmine Richards (The Book of Wonders) at The Brown Bookshelf (as part of the wonderful 28 Days Later series)

The middle grade members of the Lucky 13s (debut authors of 2013), many of whom have written sff books, share their thoughts on why they write middle grade fiction.

Other Good Stuff

Shortlists!  The Andre Norton Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and the Diagram Prize (for quirkiest book title).  Here are this year's contestants for that one:

Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne
Was Hitler Ill? by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

I think I like the peaceful simplicity of "How to Sharpen Pencils" the best.  What I'd really like, though, is a book on how to keep pencil erasers fresh, or at least, how to restore them to eraserability.

Children's Book Week (May 13-19, 2013) is on its way, and this year's bookmark is nicely mg sff!  Plus it has a hidden letters challenge.

Two awesome shortlists--the Andre Norton Award, and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize

The list of the books in the running for the 2013 Andre Norton Award have been announced-- here's what's in the running:

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)
Black Heart, Holly Black (S&S/McElderry; Gollancz)
Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)
Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (S&S/McElderry)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
Every Day, David Levithan (Alice A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)
Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)


A lovely, lovely list!  I've read all but three, and even though I didn't myself like every single one of the books, there's a nicely diverse tasty-ness to the ensemble.

Here's the full list of Nebula shortlists.


I take a keen interest in the shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, given over across the pond to new and emerging talent in three categories--picture books, fiction for ages 5-12, and teen books.   I like to have new UK authors to track down.  So I was a tad disappointed that the sci fi/fantasy side of this year's short list is a tad heavy on books I already knew...but I am rather intrigued by The Wolf Princess....

I figured the Norton books didn't need much introducing, but I copied the pictures and links for this list from the Waterstones site, because of some of them being ones I'd never heard of.

For Ages 5-12:

The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Barry Loser: I am Not a Loser by Barry Loser

Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray

 

Teen Books:

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid, et al.

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind... by Andy Robb

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

This Week's Round-Up of Middle Grade Sci Fi and Fantasy (Dec. 9, 2012)

I found a rather nice bunch of reviews and other good stuff this week--please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident, by Eoin Colfer, at So Many Books, So Little Time

The Aviary, by Kathleen O'Dell,  at Good Books and Good Wine

The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan, at Sonderbooks

The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop, at Time Travel Times Two 

Chase Tinker and the House of Magic, by Malia Ann Haberman, at YA Book Season

The Cloak Society, by Jeramey Kraatz, at Maria's Melange

Deadly Pink, by Vivien Vande Velde, at Semicolon

Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey, at Sonderbooks

Divide and Conquer (Infinity Ring 2), by Carrie Ryan, at Cracking the Cover

Eye of the Storm, by Kate Messner, at That's Another Story

The Fire Chronicle, by John Stephens, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Freakling, by Lara Krumwiede, at Semicolon

In a Glass Grimmly, by Adam Gidwitz, at The Book Smugglers

Ivy and the Meanstalk, by Dawn Lairamore, at 300 Pages

Liesl and Po, by Lauren Oliver, at Challenging the Bookworm

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire, by Polly Horvath, at Crunchings and Munchings

Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan, by R. A. Spratt, at Book Nut 

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at Heavy Medal

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda, at Semicolon

Small Medium at Large, by Joanne Levy, at Book Nut

The Tale of Timewarp Tuesday, by Leslie A. Susskind, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Time-Travelling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette, by Bianca Turetsky, at Charlotte's Library

Under My Hat, edited by Jonathan Strahan, at Book Nut 

Under Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Guys Lit Wire 

Unlocking the Spell, by E.D. Baker, at Geo Librarian

The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons, by Barbara Mariconda, at Semicolon

Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket, at Charlotte's Library,  Kid Lit Geek and Crunchings and Munchings

Wings of Fire-The Dragonet Prophecy, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Book Nut and Challenging the Bookworm

Winter of Enchantment, by Victoria Walker, at Tor  

A look at the Tunnels series, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams,  at Guys Lit Wire

Authors and Inverviews:

Rick Riordan talks about myths at The Guardian

Other Good Stuff:

If you want to try Diana Wynne Jones, here's a great guide from Andrea K. Höst at The Book Smugglers

I did not know that Harrison Ford has a major role in the Ender's Game movie!  My already considerable interest now much greater.

For those tired of stew, other foods in children's fantasy, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Overlapping onto YA territory, the Andre Norton Award (which includes middle grade books) is being promoted in a blog tour during which great authors talk about their favorite boos of the year (and other good stuff)

 At The Mary Sue, the cast of the Hobbit meet their lego selves:

and in the random but almost sci fi category--catfish = pigeon killers

This Week's Round-Up of Middle Grade Sci fi/Fantasy (Dec 2, 2012 edition)

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week. It was a stickier week than usual, so apologies if I missed your post, and please let me know about it!

The Reviews:

Caught, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Book Nut and Charlotte's Library

The Dead Gentleman, by Matthew Cody, at Semicolon 

Dragon Slippers, by Jessica Day George, at The Book Smugglers

Finally, by Wendy Mass, at The O.W.L.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung, at Sonderbooks 

The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Books Beside My Bed

The Golden Door, by Emily Rodda, at Cracking the Cover 

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Great Imaginations

Kenny and the Dragon, by Tony DiTerlizzi, at Fantasy Literature

The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi, at Sonderbooks

Signed by Zelda, by Kate Feiffer, at Book Nut and Semicolon

The Sisters Grimm, by Michael Buckley, at KimberlyLynKane.com

The Secret History of Hobgoblins, by Ari Berk, at books4yourkids

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, at Bunbury in the Stacks

A Squire's Tale, by Gerald Morris, at Tales of the Marvelous

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin, at alibrarymama and Kid Lit Geek

Tilly's Moonlight Garden, by Julia Green, at Semicolon

The Wednesdays, by Julie Bourbeau, at Book Nut

Wings of Fire: the Dragonet Prophecy, by Tui Sutherland, at Semicolon

A look at the Heroes in Training series, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Books Beside My Bed  and another at A Thousand Wrongs

A look at the Demigod Diaries and The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, at Boys Rule Boys Read 

2 books with bad black cats (Behind the Bookcase, and Escape from Hat) at Charlotte's Library

Other Good Stuff:

Sherwood Smith, who was there at its beginning, looks back at the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (nb:  middle grade books are also eligible)

The NY Times lists its notable children's books of 2012

Gift recommendation lists are popping up these days--here's a nice one at Book Aunt, that features some mg sff.

And for those wanting gifts of a bookish sort, check out YA for NJ--a Hurricane Sandy fundraiser in which YA authors are auctioning signed books, critiques, and visits at ebay (through Dec. 7)

At Scribble City Central, W is for Weres, with Curtis Jobling

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy has joined the Encyclopedia of Sci Fi on-line

And for those contemplating colleges, here are the top picks for Harry Potter fans.

Fortunately Totoro is roomy enough so that one can snuggle inside him (hat tip to Tanita, who hat tipped The Mary Sue)

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (8/19/2012)

Here's what I learned this week: wall paper is not easier than plastering and painting. Unless your house is new. This is why I am late getting this up.

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week--please let me know if I missed your post or the posts of your loved ones!

The Reviews:

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders, at Fantastic Reads

The Brixen Witch, by Stacy DeKeyser, at Charlotte's Library

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at A Thousand Wrongs

Claws, by Mike and Rachel Grinti, at Charlotte's Library

Deadweather and Sunrise (The Chronicles of Egg, book 1), by Geoff Rodkey, at Mister K Reads

The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire, book 1) by Tui T. Sutherland, at Charlotte's Library

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at library_mama

Gods and Warriors, by Michelle Paiva, at The Book Smugglers

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy, at Sonderbooks

Invisible Fiends: The Beast, by Barry Hutchison, at Bart's Bookshelf

The Lost Conspiracy aka Gullstruck Island, by Frances Hardinge, at The Book Smugglers

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile, Reading Everywhere, A Patchwork of Books, Ms. Yingling Reads (and probably lots of other blogs, but time is too short for me to look for them today....)

Project Jackalope, by Emily Ecton, at Charlotte's Library

The Second Spy (Chronicles of Elsewhere, 3), by Jacqueline West, at Beyond Books

A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, at Confessions of a Bibliovore and Gina Carey

The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brockett, by John Boyne, at So Many Books, So Little Time

The Wednesdays, by Julie Bourbeau, at My Precious

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer, at Beyond Books

Authors and Interviews

Alan Garner at The Guardian (including his hilarious first attempt to end The Moon of Gomrath!)

Greg Leitich Smith (Chronal Engine) at From the Mixed-Up Files (giveaway)

Margaret Peterson Haddix at Cynsations (giveaway)

Other Good Things:

A plethora of Peter Pans, at Read in a Single Sitting

Juliet Marillier talks Beauty and the Beast, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Because I love Zita the Space Girl, I'm passing on this Jolly Raffle link.

A fascinating interview with an Andre Norton Award Juror, at the Intergalactic Academy -- do read it!

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (5/20/2012)

Welcome to this Sunday's round-up of the middle grade fantasy/sci fi related blog postings (at least, those that I, in my week of blog reading, found and remembered to save the links to after finding). Please send me links I missed! And also, since the point of this whole round-up business is to make it easier for us mg sff fans to find reviews (I myself started doing this because I wanted someone else to have already started doing it), feel free to spread the word that these round-ups exist (thank you those who already have!)

Biggest news of the week: The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman, has won the Andre Norton Award! (Nebula for YA sci fi/fantasy), and the novel winner is Among Others, by Jo Walton. (Here's the whole list). And City of Lies, by Lian Tanner, has won the Aurealis Award for Children's Fiction (Australian sci fi/fantasy)

The Reviews

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Bibliofile

Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, at Wondrous Reads

Beware the Ninja Weenies, by David Lubar, at Intergalactic Academy

The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Book Nut

The Dragon's Eye, by Kaza Kingsley, at Fantasy Literature

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, edited by Kazu Kibuishi, at Book Aunt

A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge, at Fantastic Reads

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at My Brain on Books

Flora's Fury, by Ysabeau S. Wilce, at TheHappyNappyBookseller

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rodaso, at Book Aunt

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, at Wandering Librarians

Grimalkin the Witch Assassin, by Joseph Delaney, at Karrissa's Reading Review

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Chris Healy, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Into the Dream, by William Sleator, at Back to Books

The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

Medusa the Mean (Goddess Girls 8) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Small Review

Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway, at Popcorn Reads, Known to Read, and Steph Su Reads

Project Jackalope, by Emily Ecton, at BooksYALove

Return to Exile, by E.J. Patten, at Gamila's Review

The Rock of Ivanore, by Laurisa White Reyes, at The Book Cellar and The Write Path

The Saga of Rex, by Michel Gagne, at Karissa's Reading Review

Seeing Cinderella, by Jenny Lundquist, at Shannon Messenger

The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan, at The Brain Lair

Swipe, by Evan Angler, at artsy musings of a bibliophile

Talee and the Fallen Object, by Jacquitta A. McManus, at The Children's Book Review

The War at Ellsmere, by Faith Erin Hicks, at Book Aunt

A Well-Timed Enchantment, by Vivian Vande Velde, at Charlotte's Library

The Whisper, by Emma Clayton, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Small Review

A three for one post at Ms. Yingling Reads-- 13 Hangmen, by Art Corriveau, Sir Seth Thislethwaite Seeks the Truth of Betty the Yeti, by Richard Thake, and Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee,

Authors and Interviews

Jasmine Richards (The Book of Wonders) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Danika Dinsmore (The Ruins of Noe) at Just Deb

Stephanie Burgis (Renegade Magic) at Smack Dab in the Middle and distraction no. 99

Laurisa White Reyes (The Rock of Ivanore) at Cynsations and The Children's Book Review

Barry Wolverton (Neversink) at Jean BookNerd

Other Good Stuff:

A celebration of dragons at Scribble City Central

From Flavorwire (via 100 Scope Notes) comes 10 of the Weirdest Children's Book Authors of All Time

Neil Gaiman gives the commencement address at Univeristy of the Arts

And finally, for those of us who miss our dollhouses, the most beautiful miniature food I've ever seen (more pictures here, at Jules; found via Light Reading)

Gender bias, my blog, and sci fi/fantasy books for kids

So I was reading an article about gender bias in book journalism over at The Guardian today, and shaking my head sadly about the fact that the the bulk of the book reviewers are men, and the majority of the books reviewed are by men.

And then I quite naturally wondered about the gender balance here on my blog. Obviously, 100% of the reviews are written by a female. But it turns out that I have a strong bias towards books by women. In the past year (Feb 2011-2012) I reviewed 131 books by women, 64 books by men, and 4 books jointly authored by one of each. Hmm. This is actually an improvement from the state of things when I asked myself the same question back in this post from June of 2010, when I concluded that I reviewed one male author for every four female ones.

Just as was the case in 2010, in 2011 almost all my reading has been science fiction and fantasy for kids. In that 2010 post, I tried to get a sense of whether my female bias was a result simply of the abundance of women writers in this genre, and I found some support for this in looking over a sample of my lists of new releases.

However, 2012 is a different story! It is the year in which men achieve publishing equity in mg sff! In my past five lists, 34 new middle grade sci fi/fantasy books by women, 40 by men. (maybe...I like my data, but am not wedded to it, and sometimes it's hard to know the gender of initials, and sometimes I count wrong. However, anyone who wants to count for themselves, please do! Let me know what numbers you get! I am almost tempted to do more counting, but will resist).

So I'm currently working on the assumption that I read more books by women because women tend to write more books that appeal to me. And since I do, after all, want to read books I like, the gender imbalance on my blog will probably continue. But I maybe will try to make it a little bit less unbalanced by this time next year...because I want my lists and such to be useful resources to all readers, not just Charlotte-reader-alikes.

Postscript:
7 of the 8 authors shortlisted for this year's Andre Norton Award are women. Last year was the first in which there was gender equity (4 and 4), and I am very glad that Terry Pratchett won. If it hadn't been for that year, I would be wondering if those whose votes result in the shortlist are guilty of unconsciously equating women's writing with children/younger readers, which is an awful thought.

The Andre Norton Award Shortlist has been announced!

The Nebula Awards short lists have been announced! The Nebulas are awards voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Here's the short list of books in the running for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, and isn't it a nice one!

• Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Juvenile)
• Chime, Franny Billingsley (Dial Books; Bloomsbury)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• The Boy at the End of the World, Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson (Greenwillow Books)
• Ultraviolet, R.J. Anderson (Orchard Books; Carolrhoda Books)

The first Andre Norton Award was given in 2005, to Valiant, by Holly Black. Here's a fasinating post by Sherwood Smith at Tor about Andre Norton, and how the award began.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente (2011, Feiwel and Friends, middle grade/young adult, 256 pages).

In this lovely fairy tale, a twelve-year old girl named September is whisked off from Omaha, Nebraska to Fairyland by the Green Wind. Accompanied by a most charming Wyverary (child of a library father and a Wyvern mother), September journeys in classic fairyland adventure style from one wondrous encounter to the next (the herd of wild velocipedes, the marvellous baths of the heartbroken soap golem, the land where it is always autumn, and much more).

But as she travels, things get darker. This fairyland is a place where things have gone badly awry under the rule of the Marquess, she of the fabulous hat and seemingly absolute power. The Wyverary's wings, and those of all flying creatures, have been chained, and this is just one of the Marquess' oppressive edicts.

Each choice September makes leads her deeper and deeper into an adventure with Consequences. She is not a Chosen One, but when, toward, the end of the book, she is offered the chance to simply say goodbye to the story she's become part of (a story that's going not well at all), she has to decide if she will choose to stay, to fight for her friends, and for fairyland itself...

This is a lovely book for those who love words, who love pictures made in their minds of wonderful things. Those who crave the toothsome joy of thought-provoking escapism will find themselves well satisfied.

"...September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying." (page 51) And this makes September, the titular Girl of this story, the ideal reader for her own adventure, for this is what Valente's words do, as she tells a story that is at once as simple as can be, but which has a tremendous sweetness of depth and caring.

On the other hand, those who find intrusive narrators vexing might well be a bit put-off, because such intrusions do happen here, and they do underline the fact that one is Reading a Story. This makes the experience one of engaged consciousness, as opposed to one of unbroken readerly immersion (does that make sense?). I didn't have a problem with it here, although with other books I've found it annoying.

The Girl Who... is evocative (as others have pointed out) of other classic journeys in fairyland (Alice, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Wizard of Oz); I think it might be closest in feel to The Neverending Story (but I like this one lots more--it has much more zest). It is being marketed as YA, but for no particular reason that I can think of, other than that Valente is known for her adult books, and those readers might balk at being asked to read a children's book.

There are illustrations at the start of each chapter by Ana Juan, but I think they are scary. I don't like oversized heads. You can look at the art in more detail via Macmillan, where there's lots of bonus material.


And finally, here's a particular small thing I appreciated: September's mother (who works in a WW II airplane factory, while her father is fighting in Europe) is very much present in her daughter's thoughts (not excessively, but enough to make her part of September's story). Even though we don't meet her till the very end, she became very dear to me--I can't find the exact quote, but there's one brief mention of the very brave and cheerful face she puts on to friends and neighbors, so brave, despite how tired she is, that they do not offer casseroles. I find this immensely piquant.

Thanks to the publishers and to Zeitghost Media, I have the opportunity to give away a copy of this book-- please leave a comment by noon EST on June 30 (North America only). Do enter to win (here and at all the other blogs giving it away this week) --it is really a lovely book.

It is also the only book to win the Andre Norton Award (the young readers version of the Nebula) before it was published--Valente wrote it first as an on-line book, which was then picked up by its current publisher.

Fantasy and Science Fiction for Kids--this Sunday's round-up of posts from around the blogs

Another week, another round-up! This one has Exciting Awards News down at the bottom, and lots of other good stuff from you, the blogging community. Please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunder, by Michael Townsend, at Great Kid Books

Astrosaurs: The Sabre Tooth Secret, by Steve Cole, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, at Fuse #8

Casper Candlewacks in Death by Pigeon, by Ivan Brett, at The Book Zone (for boys)

Cinderella, Ninja Warrior, by Maureen McGowan, at The O.W.L. and Books at Midnight, where you can also find Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer.

The Dark City (Relic Master Book 1) at The Book Smugglers and Charlotte's Library (where I'm giving away two copies; ends Monday)

The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, at Mudie Kids, Bewitched Bookworms, and at Books and Movies

The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, by Catherine Webb, at Bart's Bookshelf.

Fantasy Baseball, by Alan Gratz, at TheHappyNappyBookseller

Foundling, by D.M. Cornish, at Just Booking Around

The Gates, by John Connolly, at Books From Mars

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente, at Book Aunt and Ex Libris

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford, at Musings of a Book Addict

Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Kid Lit Frenzy

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis, at books4yourkids

The Midnight Gate, by Helen Stringer, at Book Aunt and Charlotte's Library

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, at Book Nut (audiobook review)

The Resisters, by Eric Nylund, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless, by Alan Woodrow, at Just Deb

Scary School, by Derek the Ghost, at Books Kids Like

The Shadow Hunt, by Katherine Langrish, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Silver Door, by Holly Lisle, at Books and Movies

Spellbinder, by Helen Stringer, at Wicked Awesome Books

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

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

The Underland Chronicles books 3-5, by Suzanne Collins, at Just Booking Around

Webster's Leap, by Eileen Dunlop, at Charlotte's Library

A World Without Heros (The Beyonders, Book 1), by Brandon Mull, at Karissa's Reading Review

Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at Books & Other Thoughts

Authors and Interviews

Anne Ursu (Breadcrumbs) talks about her childhood reading at There's a Book

Sherwood Smith (Crown Duel) talks about the Harry Potter phenomena at Book View Cafe

M.P. Kozlowsky (Juniper Berry) at Mundie Kids

Maureen McGowan (Cinderella, Ninja Warrior) at The O.W.L.

Clete Barrett Smith (Aliens on Vacation) at Cynsations

Other good stuff:

Stacy Whitman, of Tu Books (a Lee and Low Imprint) talks about diversity in sci fi and fantasy for young readers in a not-to-be-missed three part series that begins here.

At The Enchanted Inkpot, there's a discussion of Tween books (with fantasy books, natch, being the ones discussed!)

The Lost Years of Merlin, by T.A. Barron, might be coming to the big screen

Lots of award news:

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett, wins the Andre Norton Award (the YA Nebula). Here are the books it was up against:

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
White Cat by Holly Black (McElderry)
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
The Boy from Ilysies by Pearl North (Tor Teen)
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

And here's the full list of winners.

The 2010 Aurealis Awards (which recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writer) have also been announced:

• BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL: Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
• BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY: "A Thousand Flowers" by Margo Lanagan
• BEST CHILDREN'S FICTION(told primarily through pictures): The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator)
• BEST CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through words): The Keepers, Lian Tanner

And continuing on with awards--

The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature "honors books for younger readers (from “Young Adults” to picture books for beginning readers), in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia."

Here's this year's shortlist:

• Catherine Fisher, Incarceron and Sapphique (Dial)
• Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight (HarperCollins)
• Polly Shulman, The Grimm Legacy (Putnam Juvenile)
• Heather Tomlinson, Toads and Diamonds (Henry Holt)
• Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen’s Thief series, consisting of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings (Greenwillow Books)

End of awards section.

Just a reminder that I post lists of new releases in sci fi/fantasy for kids twice a month--here's the second half of May edition.

And finally, The Spectacle is closing up its shop. I've very much enjoyed their two and half year's worth of postings--so thank you, very much, Spectacle Bloggers, and good luck in all your ventures!

Here's the list of nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

The lists of nominees for the Nebula Awards have been announced; here are the books in contention for the Andre Norton Award, given for "young adult" books:

• Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
• White Cat, Holly Black (McElderry)
• Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
• Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
• The Boy from Ilysies, Pearl North (Tor Teen)
• I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)
• A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)
• Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

What a list! What awesome books! What a nice mix!

The Boy from Ilysies is the only one I haven't read, but I quickly hurried over to Amazon where it was sitting in my shopping cart to place my order....

And here, just for the heck of it, are the "adult" titles:

• The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
• Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
• Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

I find it interesting that they are considering the Connie Willis books as a single entity. This is the only one I've read from this list, although several of the others are on my hideously engorged TBR list....

This Sunday's Round-Up of Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy

Happy New Year, all readers and writers of middle grade science fiction and fantasy, and welcome to the first mgsff round-up of 2011. If I missed your post, or that of your best friend, or anything you happened to see, please let me know! And thank you, all of you in the past year who have mentioned on your own blogs that I am doing these round-ups--I appreciate it, and you are welcome to do it again, not because I want the visitors qua visitors so much, but for the Sake of the Books, because the whole point of these round-ups is to bring attention to them.

What mg sff book are you most looking forward to in 2011? I, myself, am having trouble immagining a world beyond January, so I'll go with Small Persons With Wings, by Ellen Booraem.

First, the big/already probably old news:



What do these books have in common?
A. I like them all lots
B. Little pink was used in the cover art, and as far as I know, there are no sparkles*
C. Good writing and tons of kid appeal
D. They all include vampire yetis
E. All of the above

*I haven't seen the finished cover of the Shadows. Are there sparkles???

Answer: (mostly) E. They are the finalists in the Elementary Middle Grade Science Fiction/Fantasy category of the Cybils Awards (for which I was a panelist), and they show beautifully the range of mg sff today. They include horror, humor, reimagined fairy tales, tragedy, wondrous inventions, ghosts, evil, magic...They are girl books and boy books, books perfect for younger readers, and books perfect for grown-ups! I wish we could have shortlisted more books--there are several I'm still very wistful about...

I think my favorite cover is The Dead Boys--the Evil Tree tickles my fancy lots. But I can't decide which is my favorite book, and I pity the judges of the next round who have to pick just one winner!

This week's reviews:

Beauty, by Robin McKinley, at Nayu's Reading Corner. If I were to pick just one book to give to an eleven year old girl, this would be it. Beauty, incidentally, just got a very new and sharp looking cover over in the UK, shown on the far right. My own version, read in the 1980s, looking very 1980s indeed, leads the parade:







Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld, at Boys Rule Boys Read

The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau, at Reading Vacation

The Good Little Devil, by Ann Lawrence, at Charlotte's Library

Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London, by Keith Mansfield, at Charlotte's Library

The Jumper Chronicles--Quest for Merlin's Map, by W.C. Peever, at Eating Y.A. Books

A Matter of Magic, by Patricia C. Wrede, at The Book Smugglers

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at books4yourkids

Shadow, by Jenny Moss, at Reading Vacation

The Shadow Hunt, by Katherine Langrish, at Eva's Book Addiction

Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, by R.L. Lafevers, at TheHappyNappyBookseller

Melina at Reading Vaction takes a look at the Suddenly Supernatural series -- Book 2--Scaredy Kat, and Book 3--Unhappy Medium

and Gregory Breen takes a look at the Artemis Fowl series at Suite 101.

Interviews:

Greg Van Eekhout (Kid vs Squid) at Spookycyn

Susan Fletcher (Ancient, Strange, and Lovely--Book 4 of the Dragon Chronicles) at Euphoria

Other Stuff:

I thought it would be but the work of minutes to pull together a list of all the mg and ya dragon books published in 2010. It wasn't. You can find the long long list that resulted here!

The Nebula Awards have a category (the Andre Norton Awards) for YA books, and now the Hugo Award folks are thinking of doing the same, with an award for YA books including "those for younger children" (read more at Cheryl's Mewsings)

And finally, for the little bon mote I like to offer at the end of these round-ups, here is a selection of "Ancient Robots and Victorian Androids" at Dark Roasted Blend. Really cool stuff! I am something of a fan of Marie Rutkoski's books (The Cabinet of Wonders and The Celestial Globe), and so was immensely tickled to learn that John Dee, Elizabethan Alchemist, devised a wooden beetle that could fly:

This Sunday's Middle Grade Sci fi/Fantasy round-up

A little late today, because of house guests come not just to visit but to help us repair various elements of our home and garden (it will never be finished. Never. But the house did just get listed on the National Register of Historic places, which is cool), here is today's round-up of middle grade science fiction/fantasy stuff from around the blogs. Middle grade being books for 9-12, kind of fuzzy at the top end....

Please let me know if I missed your post, or the posts of your loved ones!

The reviews:

Candleman, by Glen Dakin, at Nayu's Reading Corner.

Hunter Brown and the Consuming Fire, by Christopher and Allen Miller, at Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction.

Ivy's Ever After, by Dawn Lairamore, at Welcome to my Tweendom.

Knights of the Sea, by Paul Marlowe, at Fantasy Literature.

Magic Below Stairs, by Caroline Stevermer, at Kids Lit.

Many Waters, by Madeline L'Engle, at Guys Lit Wire.

Middleworld, by J. and P. Voelkel, at GreenBeanTeenQueen.

Peter and the Sword of Mercy, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, at Becky's Book Reviews.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L'Engle, at Charlotte's Library.

Seven Spells to Sunday, by Andre Norton and Phyllis Miller, at Randomize ME.

Smells Like Dog, by Suzanne Selfors, at Jean Little Library.

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevres, at Becky's Book Reviews; Becky also reviews Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris here.

The things that aren't reviews:

M. T. Anderson has created a tourist guide to deepest, darkest Delaware, the setting for the third book in his Pals in Peril series, Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware (the series begins with Whales on Stilts).

It's Steamboyz Week at vvb32 reads, and although "SteamBoyz = YA steampunk stories with YA male protagonists," there's some middle grade crossover in the books included.

Katherine Langrish continues her series on Other Worlds at her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.

And here's one I missed when it came out--an article from Daily Finance about the publishing history of the Percy Jackson books.

Gender and Writers of Middle Grade and Young Adult Fantasy/Science Fiction

A gender imbalance exists in science fiction and fantasy--male authors get anthologized more, get more awards, and get picked for lists more, as discussed in this article by Alisa Krasnostein--The Invisibility of Women in Science Fiction. Stella Matutina picked up on this issue today, and has vowed to spend the next 14 weeks highlighting great women writers of fantasy.

In composing a response to that post, it struck me that there exists the opposite gender imbalance (men getting noticeably less attention) in the genre I care most about--middle grade and YA fantasy and science fiction. I see it in my own reviewing--out of the last twenty books I reviewed, only three have been by men. This seems fairly typical of my blog. Looking through all my posts, I seem to review about 4 sff books by women for every 1 book by a man. To see if this bias was unique to me, I went through the last five of my middle-grade science fiction/fantasy roundups, to get data--female writers are reviewed or interviewed 63 times, male writers 37 times. That's just middle grade--I don't have any data for YA, but my impression is that YA bloggers are giving an even greater percentage of their attention to female writers.

Now, one could argue that this bias is because the book blogging community has a similarly disproportionate gender imbalance (I don't think I'm simply unaware of the 100s of teenaged boys blogging about sff books). I myself (female) find middle grade speculative fiction that features non-stop, sometimes icky, slapsticky violence, and/or overt grossness, unappealing, although I have reviewed some such books, and try to be fair to them (even if they aren't the sort of book I love myself). And many of these books are written by guys, for guys, and that is just fine. But it does mean that I won't be seeking them out all that eagerly. I haven't, for instance, been tempted by Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger, by Kevin Bolger.

Turning, however, beyond the day-to-day life of blogs to the awards, one sees the same gender imbalance. Out of the 14 books shortlisted for the Cybils in sff in 2009, only one was by a man (and he was Neil Gaiman). Out of the 8 books shortlisted for this year's Andre Norton Award (the Nebula for children's/YA books), 6 were by women; last year, 4 out of 5 were women, the year before, 5 out of 7. No man has ever won this award. Of the four fantasy books in contention for this year's Guardian's Children's Book Award, 3 are by women.

I looked at my last five posts on new releases of science fiction and fantasy for children and teens, to see if more women were being published. They are--there are 57 books by men, 102 by women. If I were writing this as an academic article, I'd also look at the sales data (NY Times bestseller list, books on display at bookstores), but life is too short...Still, even without that piece of the picture, it seems clear that middle grade/YA fantasy and science fiction is a female-dominated genre.

I thought it would be interesting to throw out all the reasons I could think of (whether I believe in them or not--so please don't assume I do!), under two main categories:

The Gender of the Readers:

Is this because girls ostensibly read more than boys, and, since women more often write girl-friendly books than boys, more women are being published (and more girls then want to read the books, continuing the cycle)? The gender imbalance in published books is more pronounced in YA--are boys moving more quickly into the adult section (for whatever reason), where there are more male authors? Is it the case that grown-up women (like me!) are more likely to "read down" than grown-up men, and publishers are thinking of this demographic (women with credit cards) when they make their decisions?

Larger Social Expectations/Gender Stereotypes

Are there larger social issues at play? Are women, for instance, (I write with tongue in cheek), subtly conditioned to take on the role of those who look after children, and thus choose to write for children? Or are there factors of ego at play? One can argue (although I wouldn't) that writing for children is less "prestigious" than writing for adults. Are women more comfortable with writing for children, because they are more accustomed to being told that what they do is not important? Or because they give less of a hoot about what other people think?

Or, more insidiously, is it because the publishers are suggesting to female authors that they write younger than they had originally wanted to, while marketing male-written sff as adult? An unconscious patronizing attitude, that may be coming into play in the Andre Norton Awards, that writing for children is the province of women.

I have a huge respect for books written for children and teens--those are the books I enjoy the most myself, and I think many of them are gorgeously written, incredibly creative, and all around excellent. I don't mind at all that so many talented women are writing just the sort of book I want to read. But I do mind the possibility that men might be having a harder time getting their mg/ya fantasy/science fiction published than women (if this is in fact, the case), and then getting attention for their books.

And I mind very much indeed that I, myself, have such a glaring gender imbalance on my blog, because I do care very much about boys reading (since boys is what I have at home), and I want my blog to be a useful resource to those looking for books for boys. Moreover, since it's absurd to think that "men write books for boys, and only boys," I would hate to think that I was unconsciously overlooking books by men that I (and other girl-type people) would like lots. So I will try to be mindful of that, when I am at ALA next weekend and pouncing on books. I will try to pounce with gender equity and an open mind.