The Tomorrow Code, by Brian Falkner, for Timeslip Tuesday

Most timeslip stories are fantasy--the travel through time is left a mystery that science can not explain. Sometimes, though, scientific principles drive the passage of people, things, or messages from one time to another, and sometimes very good books are the result. One such book is The Tomorrow Code, by Brian Falkner (2008, Random House, 347 pp, upper middle grade/YA, an import from New Zealand).

"The end of the world started quietly enough for Tane Williams and Rebecca Richards, lying on their backs on a wooden platform on Lake Sunnyvale. Which wasn't really a lake at all." (page 3)

Tane and Rebecca have been friends forever, the sort of friends who spend an evening on the flooded playing field of their old elementary school, looking up at the night sky and arguing about time travel. Rebecca's super smart, logical mind rejects the idea, but Tane, thinking outside the box, wonders if it might not be possible to send messages back into the past....

It is possible. Soon, the two of them have received, as a gift from the future, winning lottery numbers. But there are strings attached--the messages they are getting (encoded in gamma ray bursts) are an SOS from their future selves. The Chimera project, whatever that is, must be stopped, and Tane and Rebecca must race to decode the instructions they are getting before humanity is destroyed.

The first step is to buy a state of the art submarine. The second, to break into a top secret biolab. The third, to stop the mysterious fog enshrouded horrors that were unleashed despite their plans, horrors that are steadily depopulating New Zealand.

And finally, Tane, Rebecca, and Tane's big brother ("Fatboy"), have to set up the device that will let their future selves change the past. Not easy to do, when death delivering fog surrounds the site where the machine must go...

This is a tremendously exciting story (as well as submarine fun and decoding mysterious messages, there is a great battle scene that made me sniff a little bit), and it hangs together very nicely plot-wise. A criticism I sometimes have of fast packed adventures is that charging around saving the world leaves little room for character development, but that is most emphatically not the case here. Even though they are involved in a desperate struggle, the three teenagers are still strongly individual, working out their relationships with each other and their thoughts about themselves, their families, and their world.

Added bonus features: diversity--Tane and his brother are Maori, and this is important to the story; environmentalism--the question of human impact on the world is central to the plot; gender balance--both girl and boys are important and have their own strengths to give to the group effort; and finally, good solid writing, without run-on sentences (I would never be caught dead writing run on sentences, she says ironically) or unnecessary latinate words.

In short, I think this is a pretty darn good book.

viz age range--it's perfectly suitable for middle grade readers in that there is no sex (although there are emotional attachments swirling around), drugs, 0r bad language, but people do die in large numbers (although not disgustingly), and there are pretty weighty issues addressed. I'll be giving this to my son when he's around 11, I think. It's even suitable for adult readers of science fiction (I'm feeling a tad sore, even after weeks have passed, about some very condescending reviews of YA science fiction/fantasy I happened to read).

I pretty much read whatever AFortis and Tanita over at Finding Wonderland tell me to, and, as usual, this one didn't disapoint--here's the review that added this one to my list.

Other reviews at Create Readers, where I found the New Zealand cover at right, which is described by Readplus (an Australian review site) as "bland." Although the book got a great review there too.

The book has a great website, where you can learn more about the science behind the book, Morse code, the geography and culture of New Zealand.

The winner of the Mythopoeic Award for best children's book is...

The winners of the Mythopoeic Awards have been announced! Here were the finalists in the Children's Category:

Graceling, Kristin Cashore (Harcourt Children's)
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins)
Savvy, Ingrid Law (Dial)
Nation, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)


And the winner is:



GRACELING! (which makes a nice change from The Graveyard Book*).

All five of these are excellent books, but it seems to me that the award committee would have had a fairly easy time picking the winner. They have very specific criteria, after all--from the awards' website: "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." I think Graceling falls much more squarely into that tradition than the other four.

Charles Butler's book, Four British Fantasists, won in the Myth and Fantasy Studies category. It is an excellent look at Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Penelope Lively, and Diana Wynne Jones, and therefore of great interest, I assume, to
anyone who reads my blog (except all the people that come here wanting to know
when the next Ricky Ricotta book comes out, for whom I have no help. If I knew, I'd share).






*And Gaiman already won in the adult category in 2006 for Anansi Boys. Jones, btw, won in 1999 for Dark Lord of Derkholm, a book I love (it is funny).

New releases of science fiction and fantasy for children and teenagers

Here are the new releases of fantasy and science fiction for children and teenagers, from July 14 to July 21 (although actually none of them look like science fiction...). I pretty much want to read them all. Such a good thing I have unlimited time and money and no other books at home waiting to be read (ha ha).

9-12 year olds:

The Bag of Bones: The Second Tale from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French. I loved The Robe of Skulls, so I'm very happy to see this! "The Tales from the Five Kingdoms series returns with the story of Trueheart (that is, very good person) Gracie Gillypot, identical twin princes, talking bats, and a slow but brave troll. The witches who tried to wreak havoc in the first tale (The Robe of Skulls, 2008) are back, and readers will also be introduced to a nasty orphanage overseer and a pack of friendly rats. Collins’ spidery black-and-white illustrations amplify characters’ inner traits as well as the tall-tale nature of the story."

The Hotel Under the Sand, by Kage Baker. This sounds very intriguing. "Nine-year-old Emma loses everything she has in a fearsome storm and finds herself alone in the wilderness of the Dunes—an area desolate since the mysterious disappearance of a resort known as the Grand Wenlocke. Finding a friend in Winston, the ghostly bellboy who wanders the Dunes, Emma learns that it has been more than 100 years since the hotel with an unsavory reputation vanished; but, unbeknownst to either of them, the long slumbering resort has just begun to stir. Allying herself with a motley crew of companions—the ghost bellboy, a kindhearted cook, a pirate with a heart of gold, and the imperious young heir to the Wenlocke fortune—Emma soon learns that things are not always as lost as they seem..."

Sea of the Dead, by Julia Durango. "Kehl has always known certain things about the world. First and foremost is the certainty that the Teshic Empire is its center, and that everything -- and everyone -- beyond the empire's borders has been created ultimately to be brought under Teshic dominion. Furthermore, because Kehl is being trained to follow in his father's warrior footsteps, he is all too aware of the expectations placed upon him to never show weakness or fear, to instead show an unwavering loyalty to the Teshic Empire and its often severe beliefs and demands. But when Kehl is abducted by a seafaring band of rebels and taken beyond the borders to the enigmatic Sea of the Dead, a whole new world begins to open up before him. A new world filled with challenging beliefs and dangerous ideas. A world where Kehl's future -- as well as his past -- may be linked to the renegade crew of a ship named Carillon's Revenge and the Fallen King who captains her."

Timescape (book four of the Dreamhouse Kings series) by Robert Liparulo. A mysterious house with time portals, and two boys trying to put a stop to an evil villain.

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. "Shortly after sixth-grader Miranda and her best friend Sal part ways, for some inexplicable reason her once familiar world turns upside down. Maybe it's because she's caught up in reading A Wrinkle in Time and trying to understand time travel, or perhaps it's because she's been receiving mysterious notes which accurately predict the future."

YA:

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors. "When Katrina spots a homeless guy sleeping in the alley behind her grandmother’s coffee shop, she decides to leave him a cup of coffee, a bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans, and some pastries to tide him over. Little does she know that this random act of kindness is about to turn her life upside down. Because this adorable vagrant, Malcolm, is really a guardian angel on a break between missions. And he won’t leave until he can reward Katrina’s selflessness by fulfilling her deepest desire. Now if only she could decide what that might be..."

The Hundred-Towered City, by Garry Kilworth. "When a stranger from the past arrives in the middle of the night with shocking news, Jack, Annie, and Davey are catapulted into the wildest adventure they've ever had. Their parents have been arrested on suspicion of being spies. Not only in a different country but in a different time—Prague, 1903. The children travel back in time and find themselves face to face with danger, mystery, and the magic of a strange place. Where are their parents and who has stolen the key to the time machine? Will our young heroes be in time to save their parents from siniser Karlstein Castle? And even if they do, how will they return to the present day without the key? Alchemists, mythical creatures, and a man with a hook for a hand hold the answers they’re looking for."

Second Skin, by Jessica Wollman. "Appearances can be deceiving. Sam Klein’s found that out firsthand. All she wanted was to be popular. But sometimes what we want is the absolute worst thing for us. Sam discovers that Kylie, It-girl of Woodlawn High, owes her popular status not to her expensive clothes, highlighted hair, and spot on the cheerleading squad but to a magical second skin. Nobody can actually see it—but they can feel it. And if you’re wearing the skin, you feel incredible. Invincible. Popularity is yours. So Sam stole the skin from Kylie. Now she’s the most popular girl at school, while Kylie’s social life takes a serious hit. Sam can barely recognize herself. Her old geek clique is history—but are her new friends really people she can count on? The skin is clinging tighter to her each day . . . can Sam get it off before it’s too late?

Sideshow, edited by Deborah Noyes. Ten stories of oddities and magic--my review.

Three Witches. by Paula Jolin. "Three seemingly ordinary girls, studying together in the same ordinary high school. All have their own reasons to summon Trevor Saunders after his car goes over a cliff. Aliya brings the mystical seances of Syria. Gillian contributes the voodoo arts from her native Trinidad. Miya shares the secret magic of ancient Japan. Will they be able use their powers to bring him back one more time? Should they?"

This Side of Magic, Keyholders Volume 1, in honor of my boy's ninth birthday

My boy turned nine today. This past year he has become a true reader--falling so hard into books that he is deaf to his mother's voice, reading in the car to the point of car sickness, walking to the library by himself and coming home with more books than he can comfortably carry (and not necessarily ones I'd have picked for him--James Watson and the Double Helix, for instance, is probably not going to get read, but if checking it out helps him define himself, more power to him). I was anxious for a while about his reading--he didn't read early, he didn't read books that challenged him, he was essentially unwilling to spread his wings. He still doesn't read long books, although he has the skills to do so, but I've decided to just let him go at his own pace, and to keep lots of easier books on hand for him--the sort of books that I think of as non-quite-middle grade, like Encyclopedia Brown and the A-Z mysteries.

My most recent spectacular book offering success was This Side of Magic, the first volume of a new fantasy series aimed at this reading bracket (May 2009, Tom Doherty Associates (Tor), 133 generously fonted pages). It's written by the same team that brought us the Bailey School Kids (which don't interest my son for reasons unknown to me)--Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. I brought it home from the bookstore, and a little more than an hour later he had finished it and was clamoring for the next volume (which his grandma got him for an early birthday present a few days later).

I've read it now too, and I was pleasantly surprised by how readable it is for an adult. I'd go as far as to say that I enjoyed it a lot myself. It tells of two ordinary kids, Penny and Luke, who find themselves charged with the awesome responsibility of guarding the border between our realm and the lands of magic. Dark forces are impinging on the border, and only one old man remains of the three former guardians, the Keyholders. Now Penny and Luke are this man's apprentices, with companion fantastical creatures to link them to the magic (a unicorn and a dragon, respectively). Then the third member of their trio is chosen--and much to their dismay, she is a spoiled and unpleasant child they have loathed all their lives. But boggarts are already making themselves felt around the town, and there are worse things to come....

This is similar in feel to the Spiderwick Chronicles, but a few degrees easier (I tried those on my son too, but he only got to halfway through book 3, again for reasons unknown to me). The writing is pleasant, and the story is interesting. I can imagine it being read to bits pretty quickly in a second or third grade classroom. And now I have to go read volume two, The Other Side of Magic. I want to know what happens next (or, of course, I could curl up with James Watson, and learn about DNA...).

Here's my son's very own review, from his blog, Pickled Bananas.

Diversity in speculative fiction-- three covers

Bi-weekly Ali at Worducopia and the folks at Color Online host a meme designed to encourage readers to broaden their reading habits--to add color and diversity. Today's assignment, posted at Color Online-- "Spotlight science fiction and fantasy titles where people of color are the leads, works by people of color in these genres or discuss your thoughts about race in these genres."

Mr. Linky is collecting people's responses. Here is mine.

One of Shannon Hale's most beloved stories is Book of a Thousand Days, a fantasy set in an alternate Mongolia, featuring a strong, loving, intelligent heroine by the name of Dashti. The original cover was gorgeous, but did nothing to convey that the heroine was non-European.

Over at her blog, Shannon has just unveiled the cover of the paperback edition. Viz adding diversity to the shelves of speculative fiction, I think it speaks for itself:



This is a book that will be face-out at the bookshelves, a book that many people are eager to buy. Much as I love the hardback cover, I am glad to see Dashti's face.

Next up is a book that came out this may that I predict will be read by thousands and thousands and thousands of 3rd grade kids--This Side of Magic, by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones, authors of the Bailey School Kids. I am in the middle of reading this myself, to review tonight for a (planned but not guaranteed)wrap-up post of the reading year of my just-turned-nine-today year old son. So I have it next to me as I type. There's no physical description of the kids, but the illustrator of the cover and interior has given us a girl who looks Hispanic. Good for them! I recently tried to walk into bookstore and buy books for a boy this age that had people of color on the covers, and found it virtually impossible. I find it ironic that I then bought this book last week without even registering that the girl on the cover was not white.

And my final cover is not from a new book, but it's a favorite of mine, and it's one of the most direct discussions that I know of in the speculative fiction genre--Four Ways to Forgiveness, by Ursula Le Guin (1995). It is four related novellas, set on twin planets where the light-skinned people were enslaved by the dark-skinned people, and the road to revolution and freedom, and its aftermath.

Le Guin has created many characters of color, but this book is her most overt fictional discussion of relationships variously forced, nuanced, and given depths of meaning by the skin color of the people involved. I don't much like the cover, though. Where are the relationships? What's with wind?

(Non-diversity in speculative fiction related postscript: I am especially fond of this book because I was reading it when I met my husband to be, and so was he. The next time I read it was just after my son was born--not good timing, because there is a sad, sad baby story and I was useless all day from sniffing. That being nine years ago, I am overdue for a re-read...)

And in an on-topic second postscript, I would like to recommend what Tanita at Finding Wonderland has to say about Malorie Blackman.

(I would also like, in a third postscript, off topic, to complain about blogger's strange ideas about spacing, which I fight with every time I have more than one picture).

Seeing Red, by Anne Louise MacDonald

I am reading five books at the moment. Five books that are just fine, but haven't quite done it for me. And so when I got home last night, I went to The Pile and took from it a book that I have wanted to read ever since I saw it reviewed at Finding Wonderland--Seeing Red, by Anne Louise Macdonald (Kids Can Press, 2009, 220pp, upper middle grade).

And it turned out to be just what I wanted, the sort of book that makes you forget you are reading. The sort of book that deafens you to the shrieks/complaints/polite requests of spouse, children, and cat. The sort of book that, when you close it, makes you sigh both for the pleasure of having read it, and the sadness that you won't get to enjoy it for the first time ever again.

9th-grader Frankie Uccello is normal. Soul-crushingly un-outstanding. He doesn't excel at anything--even skateboarding, which he loves, is something he has had to work hard at to be decent. There is one thing, though, that sets him apart--his dreams. Vivid, colored dreams that come true.

The book begins one stormy night, when Frankie dreams of flying on black wings. A vicious wind comes up and throws him toward the ground.

"Then I saw the riding ring. Soft sand. Yes! At the last second I saw the horse- a black horse with a rider dressed all in red.

"Look out!" I screamed. The black hose bolted sideways. The red rider fell. Down. Down. Head first. Thud. I screamed again- an empty, useless dream scream." (page 6).

When he wakes, his first thought is that his friend Tim, who rides a black horse, is in terrible danger. The frantic dash to school (skateboarding through storm debris, running late) is more frantic than usual. But when Tim comments that he won't be riding in that weekend's horse show after all, Frankie wonders if the dream means something else entirely.

The storm brought more than fallen branches. A grey lump of what looked like garbage, lying on the pavement, turns out to be a storm tossed bird, a petrel. All the other birds he's tried to save have died, but this one might be different--after all, he had just dreamt of flying. Because of the bird, he is thrown into the life of Weird Maura-Lee, whom he has avoided like the plague all his life since they were small children.

"She never giggled. She was quiet--and alone--breaking the biggest rule of all: "Never be seen standing alone." Maura-Lee was always by herself--in the schoolyard or cafeteria. She was Weird Maura-Lee. And kids said she could read minds." (page 41)

But Maura-Lee can get the petrel the fish it needs to stay alive.

Then Frankie is forced by his father to help out a therapeutic riding clinic, despite his terror of horses. And there he finds Maura-Lee, training her own horse to read her mind, and seemingly able to read Frankie like a book.

And his dream still hangs over his head, waiting...

This is a great story about friendship, with twang (zest, forward momentum, interest) provided by the understated supernatural gifts of two main characters. It reminds me a bit of The Wednesday Wars, in that it has the same sweetness of plot--a sensitive boy growing up in his way of understanding the people around him.

As well as recommending this in general to any introspective older middle grade reader, I'd also recommend it those looking for books with charming and happily married parents (rare), horses, friendships between boys and girls that are just friendships, and poignant bird sub-plots (I myself am a sucker for poignant bird sub-plots).

The official blurb for A Conspiracy of Kings!!!! Sophos with a peashooter!!!

Over at the YA YA YAs, Tricia spotted that the blurb of A Conspiracy of Kings (coming 3/23/10) has changed since its first incarnation. It is even more to squee for now. Here's what it says on its page in the HarperCollins catalogue:

"Sophos, heir to Sounis, doesn’t look like much of a prince. At least, according to those in power. At least, to those who do not know him or the size of his heart and the depth of his courage, loyalty, and love. But Helen, Queen of Eddis, knows him, and so does Gen, the queen’s Thief, who is now King of Attolia. Gen and the queen believe that Sophos is dead. But they also believe in hope, especially since a body was never found. So when Sophos is discovered in Attolia, climbing a lamppost, peashooter in hand, the obvious question becomes: where has Sophos been all this time?"

squee.

The cover has also changed. Sophos, with eye cropped off and beard added, looks much less elfin. You can see the first one here.

Update (7/22): Greenwillow, perhaps consternated by the wild speculation on Sounis (The Queen's Thief Livejournal community) regarding the peashooter and the lamppost, has removed this part of the blurb...

Waiting on Wednesday--Bitterblue has a release date (sort of)!

From an article at Publisher's Weekly:

"Cashore is currently working on a third book in the series, one that follows the story of Bitterblue, a character introduced in Graceling. Dawson is aiming for a 2011 release."
There were other words in the article, about the publication of Fire (a nice story about publishers playing nicely together), but the words I quoted are obviously of greatest importance. 2011 is less than 17 months away.

And actually, I still have Fire to look forward to...

The Battle for Duncragglin, by Andrew H. Vanderwal

This Tuesday's timeslip is a new arrival to the genre-- The Battle for Duncragglin, by Andrew H. Vanderwal (Tunda Books, 2009, 310pp, middle grade). I would have pounced on this as a child--time travel to medieval Scotland!--and, in fact, I was rather eager to read it as an adult.

Twelve year old Alex has been raised by a reluctant uncle since the mysterious deaths of his parents. Now his uncle has decided to ship him off to an aunt in Scotland, who wants him even less. So little, in fact, that he never meets her--instead, he finds himself billeted at the home of a local farmer and his three children, two boys and a girl near his age. Like his own parents, their mother mysteriously disappeared.

The farm lies near a rocky coast, whose cliffs are guarded by the ruins of Duncragglin castle, the site of a bloody battle waged by the great Scottish rebel William Wallace. And beneath the castle, the stories say, are mysterious tunnels in the ground, from which no explorer returns. Naturally, the tunnels are forbidden, but the four children find the temptation irresistible, and one dark night they set off to see for themselves what secrets the underground labyrinth holds.

What they find is a mysterious chamber, covered with tangled carvings. Their exploration triggers a shift in the rocks, blocking the way they came, but creating a new passage. A passage that leads to 14th century Scotland.

There, in the past, Alex and his friends find themselves embroiled in the cause of William Wallace, fighting a brave campaign against the tyranny of the English. It is a grim past, full of the sad consequences of oppression and war. To continue his fight, Wallace must capture Duncragglin, and Alex realizes that the knowledge of the tunnels he and the others have brought from the future might be the key...and all the while, the children search the past for their lost parents.

This is the sort of timeslip where the past provides a colorful theatre for action and adventure. It is more a book for the battle-lover, whose heart races when the arrows start to fly, than it is for the romantic daydreamer (ie me), who likes best the timeslip stories that focus on character and intricate world building. Vanderwal's 14th-century Scotland remained somewhat two-dimensional to me (and I had a few quibbles, fact-wise--medieval Scottish peasants wouldn't have smoked pipes, for instance). I also had a hard time swallowing the time travel chamber, which exists without satisfactory explanation or context. It gave the whole time travel experience a slightly "choose your own adventure" feel, that I found unmagical.

But there is, as I said, plenty of action of a medieval kind:

"Alex crouched against the stone barrier of the elevated roadway with Annie and Katie. He knew they were still exposed to arrows from some of the archers, but hope they would be overlooked. Alex shielded Katie's body body with his. Annie lay beside him, her arms over her head and eyes squeezed tight.

It sounded like the end of the world. Screams, moans, and battle cries mingled; arrows clattered against the stones. Through the chaos, a soldier cried out from within one of the guard towers: "The gates! Open the gates! Sir James approaches with his men!" (p 264).

My favorite part, however, was toward the middle of the book, when the children are camped on their own by the shore. I like "children surviving outside alone" rather a lot as a plot line...and I wish there had been more of this!

In short, although this is not a book I loved myself, it's one I can imagine engaging young readers, happy to storm the castle along with Alex.

Fluorine for Non-Fiction Monday, and how a fictional chimp made me feel inadequate

For our recent train trip from Providence, RI to Washington D.C., I packed an enticing selection of books with which to entertain the boys. The winner, for most times read (coming and going) and depth of interest sustained, was Fluorine (Tom Jackson, 2004), one of a series called The Elements published by Benchmark Books (Marshall Cavendish). We poured over the diagram showing what happens when fluorine gas is added to uranium tetrafloride, were intrigued to learn that fluorine might become an ingrediant in artificial blood (sounds risky), and studied, as is our wont, the Periodic Table of Elements.

Being less scientifically minded than I might be, I posed challenging questions along the lines of "If you were an element, which element would you like to be?" I want to be one of the Nobel Gases, possibly Argon, in as much as I'm an introvert and don't react with others as much as more extroverted elements. Fluorine, for instance, is an incredibly pushy element--"It gets the girls," said my son, which led to a brisk discussion on the dangers of metaphors that incorporate gender stereotypes. And anyway, "Fluorine" sounds like a girl's name to me.

The Elements is a a fine series for non-fiction loving children, with human interest galore alongside the straight chemistry. It was not my idea to start checking them out, but my 8 year old has always had a passion for chemistry, and my 6 year old is happy to go along for the ride, so there we are (one of their most bitter public fights occurred at a library booksale, when they were 5 and 2, and both wanted a chemistry textbook--one because it was chemistry, the other because it was red). We are now reading Gold.

I feel very lucky to have children who like to learn, because it means I get to learn too, and no one is more aware of how much I don't know than I myself. The depth of my chemical ignorance was made clear to me when I first read The Uplift War, by David Brin, many years ago. In this book (an excellent story, incidentally), an "uplifted" female chimpanzee, who isn't considered especially intelligent or worthy of reproduction, manages to recognize the chemical formula for hemoglobin--C738H1166N812O203S2Fe--and saves the day. Not me. I can do H2O and CO2, but that's about it. I vaguely wonder if one reason I like fantasy better than science fiction is that it takes a lot more technological and scientific know-how to succeed as a science fiction character...Sigh. But if we keep on checking those element books out of the library, perhaps my children will be spared their mother's shame.

The Non-fiction Monday Roundup is at In Need of Chocolate today!

This week's new science fiction and fantasy for children and teenagers

Here are this week's (more or less) new releases of science fiction and fantasy for children and teenagers, taken, as ever, from Teens Read Too.

For 9-12 year olds:

Libyrinth, by Pearl North. "Haly is a Libyrarian, one of a group of people dedicated to preserving and protecting the knowledge passed down from the Ancients and stored in the endless maze of books known as the Libyrinth. But Haly has a secret: The books speak to her. When the threat of the rival Eradicants drives her from her home, Haly learns that things are not all she thinks they are. Taken prisoner by the Eradicants, who believe the written word to be evil, she sees the world through their eyes and comes to understand that they are not the book-burning monsters that she has known her entire life. The words of a young girl hiding in an attic—written hundreds of years before Haly’s birth—will spark the interest of her captors and begin the change necessary to end the conflict between the Eradicants and Libyrarians. With the help of her loyal companion Nod, a creature of the Libyrinth, Haly must mend the rift between the two groups before their war for knowledge destroys them all."

The Undrowned Child, by Michelle Lovric. "A captivating magical fantasy in a secret watery underworld, The Undrowned Child tells how eleven year old Teodora is swept into the storybook world of invisible children whose task is to save the dying city of Venice. Working alongside the mermaids Theodora's task is immense. Together can they save the city before the water destroys it?"

Young Adult:

Blue Moon: The Immortals, by Alyson Noel. Sequel to Evermore. "Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever’s powers are increasing, Damen’s are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life. Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen’s past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day..."

Eyes Like Stars: Theatre Illuminata, Act I, by Lisa Mantchev. "Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known."




The Glittering Eye, by L.J. Adlington. "Shabti wakes in a barley field with nothing but a hoe in his hand and a head full of fragmented memories. A vicious master torments his days, working in the fields with no way of escape, until a hole suspended in mid-air, leads him to a room. Two shiny gold eyes glitter back at him. Questions. Who is he? And to where does this room lead? Amy arrives in Egypt to join her archaeologist father on an excavation. All around her tombs are unearthed, opened, entered. Left to her own devices, Amy discovers a rock. But not just any rock. A great tawny cat stares back at her from its smooth surface, its shiny gold eyes glittering. Questions. Where did it come from? And what should she do now? When past, present and future collide, it's clear that some things are best left buried..."

Monster's Proof, by Richard Lewis. "Livey Ell is the only normal person in a family of geniuses. She's a cheerleader with an absentminded professor father and a math genius of a little brother, and she's sure that life couldn't get any weirder than it already is. But when her little brother, Darby, brings his childhood imaginary friend Bob to life through a mathematical proof, things start to get really strange. Bob, a creature of pure math, hates chaos and disorder in any form. And as his power grows stronger, he becomes determined to fix our disorderly world in any way possible. But that's not the only danger. People know that Bob is in our world -- including a top-secret government organization that wants to control him, and a cult of Pythagoreans who worship him."

Resurrection (Wicked), by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié. "The Cahors witches must come together and find Jer and Eli as both the Deveraux and the Cahors family lines face eradication. All the secrets of the Cahors will be revealed, forcing them to overcome their greatest weaknesses in order to achieve their most powerful strengths. And only united do they have any chance at victory. Before the end, sacrifices will be made, alliances forged, and old friends lost forever."



And here's one that's not fantasy or science fiction, but it sounds like it is absolutely up my alley (anyone else out there read Marion's Angels, the final book of K.M. Peyton's Pennington series? It's a book I love, and this plot summary reminds me of it).

Waterslain Angel, by Kevin Crossley-Holland. "In the village of Waterslain in Norfolk, in the 1950s, a fragment from a carved angel's wing is discovered. Maybe the wooden angels that once supported the church roof were not, after all, destroyed centuries ago, but spirited away to safety. Two children decide to find them. There are few clues, but a strange inscription on the church wall leads them into terrifying places - up to the top of the church tower, down a tunnel where they are nearly drowned. Annie dreams of the man who was sent in by Cromwell to smash up the church, and of angels flying and falling. For Sandy, whose father, an American airman, was recently killed, the angels bring comfort. The whereabouts of the angels become clear to them - but then they discover that other people are hunting for them, and are determined to stop the children at all costs. The friendship between the boy adjusting to a new life in his mother's village, and the girl whose family have always lived on their remote farm, the haunting atmosphere of the Norfolk saltmarshes, and the strong sense of the past still present, give richness to a tense and fast-paced story of detection for younger readers."

Misc fantasy/sci fi stuff with an international flavor, including one item of particular interest to fans of Diana Wynne Jones

Here's an account from the Guardian Book Blog of the first Diana Wynne Jones Conference held last weekend over in Bristol. But, great sadness--DWJ could not be there herself, as she has just been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Moving beyond the UK, there's a fascinating two part look at international science fiction at SFSignal (Part 1 and Part 2).

And going up to Canada, here are the Young Adult novels shortlisted for the 2009 Sunburst Award, which honors Canadian writers of speculative fiction:

The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)
Dingo, Charles de Lint (Viking)
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
Wild Talent, Eileen Kernaghan (Thistledown Press) (my review)
Night Runner, Max Turner (HarperTrophy)

The first four are friends from my Cybils reading last fall, and the fifth arrived in ARC form in my mail today. I am not at all sure which of the four I've read I'd pick. They are so very different from each other...

Keeping the international theme going with a German word, a festschrift celebrating Ursula Le Guin's 80th birthday is in the works--the call for contributions is here.

For those who like Manga, here are two cards from the Taiwanese Eastern Tarot Deck. Yes, the one on the right is "The Clonk." Very strange. I don't know Manga at all--is she supposed to look evil?

(from The Artwork of Modern Tarot, via Children's/Fantasy Illustrations).


Finally, and with no pretense of thematic cohesion, I'd like to thank JuJu, who just began to blog at Tales of Whimsy, for honoring me with The Kreativ Blogger Award.

The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams

If you are looking for a terrifying dystopia, yet are leery of science fiction, or, conversely, if you are a fan of science fiction dystopias who enjoys strong characterization and meticulously detailed world making, who is leery of "young adult" books, I enthusiastically recommend The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams (2009, St. Martin's Griffin, 213 pp, YA).

Thirteen year old Kyra grew up taking for granted the circumstances of her life--her father's three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters, the rules of life and belief in the Compound, dictated by the Prophet and his inner circle. When she was little, the rules were less strict. Books were permitted, as were visits into town. But now the son of the first Prophet is closing his fist ever tighter around the residents of the Compound. When this new Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her sixty-year-old uncle (a nasty, lecherous man with six wives already), her spirit revolts. In the Compound, revolt means punishment, not just for Kyra, but for her beloved family, for Joshua, the boy she loves, and for the brave driver of the mobile library, whose books (surreptitiously gulped down in hiding) have sustained her over the years.

After gradually building up the horror that is life in the Compound, Williams brings Kyra's desperate situation to a head in a tremendously riveting chain of events. This is edge of the seat stuff.

While it is clear that the beliefs and dictatorship of the Prophet are grotesque, Williams manages to skillfully show how ordinary people, good and loving people, can stand be part of such a society. The bonds between Kyra, her mothers and father, and her female siblings (her brothers are ominously shadowy--young men are not valued here) are tight and loving. The original spiritual beliefs that brought the community together were not as distorted and evil as they later became. The progression of a planned religious utopia to a dystopia of truly dystopic proportions is fascinating and heartbreaking.

From page 151:

"Sit down," Father says. He puts his arm around my shoulder, pulls me close. I can smell leftover aftershave on him. I close my eyes and breathe deep the smell of my father. I'm leaning against his shoulder, just resting, just loving him, just wishing he could save me when he says, "Do you remember what happened to Brother Alex Delango?"

The smell of sage breezes past. "Yes," I say.

"Do you remember how he lost everything because he dared to contradict Prophet Childs?"

We sit for a moment, the quiet and cool night air between us.

"They took his children and wives and gave them to two other of the brethren. They made him leave, along with Brother Olsen and Brother Adamson. The three of them were run off, all of them losing their families because they crossed the Prophet. Do you remember?"

I nod. "Yes sir."

"Do you remember how those fathers were to those new wives and children?"

Again, I nod.

The night sky is full of stars. They look close enough to reach. If I didn't hurt so much, I bet I could touch one."

Having become rather deeply invested in Kyra (it's hard not to--she's an incredibly sympathetic, intelligent, and loving narrator), I would like a sequel (although it doesn't look as though that's in the works--see Lu Ann's Book Review interview, linked below). Williams has given her readers credit by not insulting them with a Happy Ending with all problems resolved...and I am still rather worried about Kyra.

There are scores of other blog reviews and reactions around; here is a sample: The Shelf Elf, The Compulsive Reader, Sara Zarr, Carrie's YA Bookshelf, and Jen Robinson's Book Page. Of particular interest is Melissa's reaction over at Here in the Bonny Glen, in as much as Melissa wonders how reading it as ebook changed her experience of the story...

And here's an interview with Carol Lynch Williams over at Cynsations, and another at Lu Ann's Book Review,

Incidentally, Patrick, the mobile librarian, is my nominee for Fictional Librarian of the Year.

A Wish After Midnight, for this Wednesday's Timeslip Tuesday

To misquote Churchy LaFemme, Timeslip Tuesday falls on a Wednesday this week. I'm thinking that next Tuesday might not be any better than the past few Tuesdays have been, and the books are piling up...so here it is.

A Wish After Midnight, by Zetta Elliott (2008, YA, 230pp).

Genna's Brooklyn is a hellish place to live. In her world of drug deals, cramped living space, and grime, there are two places of refuge--the library, and a private garden (free to the public on Tuesdays). In the library, Genna works to make her dream of college come true. In the peace of the garden, she tosses pennies into the fountain, making as many wishes as she has coins.

There in the garden one wish comes true, when she becomes friends, then more than friends, with Judah. To him, she is beautiful and strong, and he values her sharp mind and passionate intensity. But one night, the garden becomes a places of ghosts, and Genna makes a desperate wish that sends her careening back in time, to Brooklyn during the Civil War, just weeks before the Emancipation Proclamation.

It is not a good time to be a young black girl in New York City.

Her wish has dragged Judah into the past as well, into the last gasp of slavery, and its long aftermath. And then the New York City Draft Riots send the flames of racial hatred sky high, and the city burns...

This is powerful stuff. I would love to discuss this book with someone, to argue about which of the characters are most convincing, and which fall short (somewhat ironically, I'm not sure that the white couple who hire Genna to care for their child are as well characterized as they might have been). Í want to think more about the colonization of Liberia, touched on here. I want to discuss why I cared more for Genna in the present than in the past--I felt so distracted by the setting, the drama, and the action that occurred in the past, over quite a long period of time, that the person within it, whom I had gotten to know so slowly and with so much love in the first part of the book, was somewhat obscured.

And especially I'd like to argue about the ways in which modern Genna, with her knowledge of ghetto life in the present of 2001 and her achingly realizable ambitions (it is hard not to believe she can make it to college, heartbreaking to see her and her family struggle), copes with the much more overt racism (and the sexism) she encounters back in the 19th century.

This last point--the plot line of a modern girl, facing a hostile past--is part of what makes the time slip genre so interesting. Time travel can be used by writers who want to the adventure the past provides, or the chance to educate readers about a particular period of history. It can do both, while focusing on the central character's dislocation--the degree to which the history is made a central interest is fairly flexible. Unlike historical fiction, whose writers must, I imagine, always be looking anxiously over their shoulders for anachronisms, time travel writers are free to have a modern point of view. They can ask, essentially, "what does the past look like to us? What, back then, is alien to our sensibilities, but is, at the same time, bound up in how we got to where we are?"

That is what Elliott does here, in her page turning and heart wrenching portrayal of a girl's struggle to survive in two dangerous worlds.

You won't find this book in your local bookstore (unless it is a very unusual bookstore), because A Wish After Midnight never found a home with a publisher, and the author brought it out herself. A sequel, Judah's Tale, is in the works--as of June 26, there were twenty chapters, and Elliott is airing some as the book progresses at her blog.

Here are other reviews, at A Striped Armchair, Wands and Worlds, The HappyNappyBookseller, and Bookslut. At Cynsations, you can read an interview with Elliott, and see trailers for both this book and her picture book, Bird.

Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund

Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund (Speak, 2009, 259 pp).

At an ultra prestigious and ultra exclusive boarding school (only 50 students admitted a year, of whom only half get to stay the next), two paths cross. Dane is the son of privilege and power, and for him entering Academy 7 is an act of defiance against his abusively controlling father. For Aerin, the Academy offers hope that, after a desperate escape from the miserable existence she endured after her father's death, she will have a future.

Aerin and Dean are the two brightest students at Academy 7, challenging each other, and the assumptions that underlie their lives. By the end of the year, a relationship that began in competition has turned into much more, and they discover the secrets held at the top of the dark tower that looms over the school....

....a tower that can only be reached by space ship. Because Academy 7 is not an ordinary school, nor are Dane and Aerin typical American teenagers. Although plotwise, there's not a lot here to set the book apart from a standard girl meets boy at school story, Academy 7 isn't on earth. It's set in an interplanetary future, with a back story, geographic details, and technical tidbits that make it science fiction.

However, because the science fiction elements are essentially extraneous to the plot, Academy 7 might have more appeal for fans of the teen romantic fiction, who might find it an enjoyable change of setting. This is perhaps a good thing, because it seems to be marketed toward that audience, as there's absolutely nothing on the cover (either in the picture, or, more surprisingly, in the blurb on the back) to let the browser know that this story does not take place on earth. It is easy to imagine readers being rather surprised when they find themselves, in the first paragraph, on board a crippled spacecraft struggling to survive.

On the other hand, now that the characters have been introduced and the stage is set, there is most definitely room for more books in this world, and lots of scope for Aerin and Caleb to adventure out in the vastness of space....I would like that. Although, being a sucker for boarding school stories, I would be sad to say goodbye to the Academy and its intriguing headmistress just yet. At least one more book should be set there!

Other reviews at YA Book Nerd and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

This week's new releases of science fiction and fantasy for kids and teenagers

Here's what's come out in the past few days (taken, as ever, from the handy list at Teens Read Too).

9-12 year olds:

Fairypedia, by DK Publishing. "From England to Iceland to your back yard, did you know that hidden fairies are everywhere? You just need to know where to look! They come in every shape, size, and temperament, from the common mischievous Pixie to the ugly, grumpy Orculli."



Night Wings, by Joseph Bruchac. "Paul has always believed in the power of dreams. He knows that they are often warnings. Warnings that should be taken very seriously. Now his nightmare visions of a predatory winged creature are becoming all too real. And though Paul has always depended on the wisdom of his Abenaki ancestors' stories to guide his footsteps, no monster tale could have prepared him for what he is about to encounter, alone, at the top of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world."

The Search for Truth: Erec Rex, Book 3, by Kaza Kingsley. "Not only does the latest contest to become king appear to be a suicide mission, but it means more than just winning the crown of Alypium; if Erec doesn't succeed, then Upper Earth could disappear forever. So Erec must set out to retrieve the five Awen from their mystical hiding places and unite them, a herculean undertaking that has laid waste to all those who have attempted it. Before this can be completed, Erec will have to put a great friend in mortal danger and decide if that friend's life is worth the survival of Upper Earth. To succeed, he must face inner battles, passions, friendships, deadly missions, and daring risks in this breathtaking adventure.

THREE'S A KROWD: MEET THE KREEPS, by Kiki Thorpe. "When Polly brags to her snooty classmate, Denise, that she and her new stepfamily live in a castle, she doesn't expect Denise to invite herself over--and she doesn't know how to hide the fact that the castle is more like a haunted mansion! If Denise discovers how strange the Kreeps are, Polly's life at school is sure to be ruined!"



Young Adult:

Damsel, by S.E. Connolly. "The dragon roared and the clearing filled with shining whiteness. The flames burned with the pure deadly brightness that can only come from dragon fire. Annie closed her eyes but the scene imprinted on her vision; The knight tall and proud with his sword raised high and the dragon on her haunches, wings spread wide above them. When she opened her eyes all that was left of him was red hot armor glowing on the ground and a skittish grey mare neighing in panic. Can a damsel ever be the one to do the rescuing? Annie Brave thinks so. Her father, one of the most famous heroes of them all, is missing, presumed eaten. With no heroes available to rescue him from the clutches of the evil wizard, Greenlott, Annie takes his book "How to Slay Dragons - and Other Advice for the Hero in Training" and sets off on a rescue mission.

Ghost Town by Richard W. Jennings. "Spencer Honesty and his mom are the last people left in Paisley, except for Chief Leopard Frog, Spence’s imaginary friend. One lonely day, Chief Leopard Frog’s carved rabbit talisman tells Spence to take his photo, so Spence digs up his late father’s camera and starts shooting photographs all around his ghost town. When the photos come back developed, he does not expect to see his old neighbor Maureen Balderson in her bedroom. Or Ma Puttering clearing weeds in her yard. They aren’t in Paisley anymore. Yet there they are."

Full Moon (Dark Guardian #2) by Rachel Hawthorne. "Lindsey is wild and reckless, a natural rebel—maybe because her entire life was laid out for her even before she was born. Her parents are among the most powerful members of the Dark Guardians, an ancient tribe of werewolves, and they arranged Lindsey's betrothal to Connor long ago. The next full moon is coming all too soon, and then her commitment to Connor will be final—no turning back. She should be happy . . . so why can't she stop thinking about gorgeous, brooding Rafe? When a dangerous threat on the pack escalates, so do tensions between Connor and Rafe. A fight over Lindsey is imminent, but will it be to the death?"

Homecoming--Ghostgirl, by Tonya Hurley. "Charlotte Usher discovers that the afterlife isn't quite what she pictured when she's forced to intern at a hotline for troubled teens. Before she can officially cross over, she'll have to be a source of guidance for one such teen. The problem is she doesn't have much advice to offer since dying hasn't exactly boosted her confidence level. But when Hawthorne High's leading, love-to-hate cheerleader Petula and her gothic little sis' Scarlet find themselves suddenly resting-in-peace in comas, Charlotte's opportunity to save them will prove to be the risk of a lifetime-for all of them."

Laughing Wolf, by Nicholas Maes. "It is the year 2213. Fifteen-year-old Felix Taylor is the last person on Earth who can speak and read Latin. In a world where technology has defeated war, crime, poverty, and famine, and time travel exists as a distinct possibility, Felix's language skills and knowledge seem out of place and irrelevant. But are they? A mysterious plague has broken out. Scientists can't stop its advance, and humanity is suddenly poised on the brink of eradication. The only possible cure is Lupus Ridens, or Laughing Wolf, a flower once common in ancient Rome but extinct for more than 2,000 years. Felix must project back to Roman times circa 71 BC and retrieve the flower. But Can he navigate through the dangers and challenges of the world of Spartacus, Pompey, Cicero? And will he find the Laughing Wolf in time to save his how family and everyone else from the Plague of Plagues?"

The Quest for the Lance: Spy Goddess, by Michael P. Spradlin. "Fresh from pounding the streets of Tokyo in her designer boots, spy goddess Rachel Buchanan is called to yet another corner of the world. When a Mithrian artifact is pinpointed deep in the thick, sticky, dark, and endangered Brazilian rainforest, Rachel packs a bikini and heads for Latin America with her spy-school friends. Of course, it being the season of Carnival in Rio, the rest of the team might have a tough time dragging her away from the greatest party ever . . . or at least long enough to beat her archrival, Simon Blankenship, to the prize."

Demigods and Monsters, edited and introduced by Rick Riordan

Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, edited and with an original introduction by Rick Riordan (Benbella Books, 2009, 196pp).

There's a sadness, a melancholy not unlike a vegetable garden in October, when a favorite series comes to an end. Such a sadness is doubtless being felt by the many fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series who have just read the last page of the recently released The Last Olympian.

In this anthology of entertaining essays, authors of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teenagers (including two favorites of mine, Elizabeth E. Wein and Sarah Beth Durst) give readers a chance to revisit the series in a friendly, thought-provoking way, and tackle the tough questions that so many of us (?) have been asking.

From the back of the book:

"How are the Greek gods like your middle school principal?
Would you want to be one of Artemis’s Hunters?
Why do so many monsters go into retail—and why are they never selling anything a demigod really wants?

Find out:

· The pros and cons of having a god as a parent
· Why Dionysus might actually be the best director Camp Half-Blood could have
· How to tell a monster when you see one
· Why even if we aren’t facing manticores and minotaurs, reading myths can still help us deal with the scary things in our own lives"

There's also a glossary that provides a handy guide to the people, places and things of Greek mythology.

Reading a book like this is a great way to assuage the pain of the end of the series, showing, as it does, that good books make for good conversations, long after the last page is read and the cover is closed.

Waiting on Wednesday--Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones

As Anne of Green Gables said, when she had become Anne of the House of Dreams, "Oh Gilbert, I can't wait for spring," or something like that (she was going to have a baby).

I, too, am looking forward to spring, for very different reasons. Not only is Megan Whalen Turner's new book coming out, but Diana Wynne Jones will also have a new one, and it sounds lovely.

Lifted from her agent's page:

When the magician Jocelyn Brandon Hope died he bequeathed Melstone House to his grandson Andrew. He also left his ‘field of care’: an area of strangeness surrounding the land around the house, whose boundary Andrew must walk in order to preserve its power.

Andrew had always loved the house, but he finds owning it a lot more complicated, aside from all the magic. There is Mrs Stock, the tyrannical housekeeper who won’t let him move the furniture and punishes him with her terrible cooking. Just as bad is the obsessive gardener who will only grow giant inedible vegetables. To add to his troubles, twelve year old orphan Aidan Cain suddenly arrives on the doorstep begging protection from magical stalkers, and Andrew’s sinister rich neighbour, Mr Brown, begins to encroach on the ‘field of care’. The one compensation is the gardener’s beautiful niece, Stashe. Things become stranger and stranger until all is made clear with the help of the enchanted glass itself.

Coming April of 2010 from Harper Collins/Greenwillow (as is the MWT book).

Nothing But Ghosts, by Beth Kephart

Nothing But Ghosts, by Beth Kephart (HarperTeen, YA, 288pp).

Behind the varnish of the painting Katie's father is restoring lies one man's vision of regret; alone, working late into the night, her father finds the figments of the painting, reading them through the shadows. In a beautiful garden, another man has hired a crew of diggers to chip through the rock hard earth, excavating a long ago story that Katie, one of the group working in the hot summer sun to make the hole deeper, doesn't yet know. And Katie is looking to the past herself, to the days when she had a mother who made each day a more beautiful thing.

Her mother died. The owner of the garden, Miss Martine, locked herself away in it years ago. The rainbow shadows of her mother's glass bottles dance on the walls of a closed-off bedroom, and Katie doesn't know how to find the line between darkness and sunlight, the line between the ghosts of the past and her lonely life in the present.

As the hole deepens, so does Katie's compulsion to find Miss Martine's story. If she can understand how a beautiful teenager, with everything to live for, chose to leave life, maybe she can understand her own mother's absence. Seven boxes of Local Lore, unsorted and unasked for, sit at the library, and give Katie her own path to solving the mystery that is haunting her summer.

So. That's the basic plot. But you have to read it in Beth Kephart's own writing; I can't do it justice. It is so deeply imbued with metaphor, so rich in imagery, that re-reading (which I just did, after a six month gap) is a great pleasure. It is so unconcerned with Things Happening that the characters have space to be themselves, so concerned with the small things happening (pancakes being made, rain falling, the hard squeeze of a child's hand) that they have a real place in which to live. And it is sad, and powerful, and hopeful. My one quibble is that the resolution to the mystery felt a bit hurried at the end, and the central figure in that part of the plot never quite, in my mind, became a real person.

Despite that (very small) reservation, Nothing But Ghosts is a lovely YA book to read if you are perhaps satiated with plot-driven teen romance, and want a book whose emotional power comes from the deeply-felt interior world of the central character. Although there is a cute boy thrown in for good measure...

House of Dance is still my favorite of Beth Kephart's books, but this is possibly because the story of that one--the loss of a grandfather--is one I have lived through myself.

Tonight (June 30) My Friend Amy is hosting a party to celebrate the release of Nothing But Ghosts: "We will have a reading from Beth and at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST Beth will be here live chatting on the blog! So you'll get a chance to talk to the woman herself and what a special woman she is. Additionally, you may have a chance to win an autographed copy of Nothing But Ghosts."

As part of the party, Amy has organized a book drive to promote the book, with a goal of 200 copies sold by 9:00 EST tonight (and prizes!) If you'd like to be one of the 200, head here to find more information, and the link through which to buy.

Here's another review and interview at Presenting Lenore, and more reviews at From My Bookshelf, Em's Bookshelf, and The Compulsive Reader.

(ARC received from the author)

"Then, the bunnies show up" -- Books within Books

Books within books have always fascinated me. Does anyone else remember Dorothy Gilman's The Maze in the Heart of the Castle? It was an important part of her earlier book, Tightrope Walker, that she then wrote on its own account a few years later. I don't remember either book that well, but I do remember how believable the unreal book was, and how disconcerting I found it later when I was actually reading it myself. I had no interest, however, in reading any of the Harry Potter books from the books made real.

There seems to be a trend-let at the moment in giving unreal books life on line. There's The Girl who Cirumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and now, at Grasping For the Wind, you can read an extract from The World in the Walls, by Christopher Plover. This is the first book of the Fillory and Further series, with which the main character of Lev Grossman's The Magicians: A Novel (Viking Adult, August 11, 2009), is obsessed.

From the website of the Fillory series:

"Hi Everybody. This website is a place for fans of Fillory and Further to share their love of the books and the characters and the world they're set in. These books have meant a lot to me when I was growing up and they still do now. If you've ever wished you were one of the Chatwin kids, or that magic was real, or that you could go to Fillory, this site is for you.

This site is also to introduce people who have never read the books to what Fillory and Further is all about. The Fillory books were published in England in the 1930's by a man named Christopher Plover. They are about the five Chatwin children-Martin, Fiona, Rupert, Helen and Jane-and their adventres in a magical land called Fillory. Even though they are kids the Chatwins are treated like kings and queens, and they have many adventures there, and they keep the people and animals of Fillory safe from danger. Their main enemy is the Watcherwoman. This site is a guide to what Fillory is all about. "

And the non-existent author has a website, another place where you can read the first chapter, and also blurbs for the books....

I was right there, all bright eyed and believing, until I got to the synopsis of book 5, The Wandering Dune:

"The last in the series. Helen and Jane find a mysterious sand dune blowing through Fillory. It carries them out into the desert, where they discuss morality. Then, the bunnies show up."

Which in turn reminds me of a quote from Love Is Hell, by Matt Groening: "And at night, the ice-weasels come."

But still, I am rather eager to seek out The Magicians...

(I've closed the comments on this post--it was being spammed).