New Releases of fantasy and science fiction for children and teenagers-the beginning of October Edition

Most of these enticing books are elibigle for the Cybils this year--and they won't be next year! Could one of these be a winner???? Actually, two of them could be winners, because of sf/f being split into two age-groups. But the point is, they need to be read and, if they're good, nominated by October 15! There are lots more good books coming out the 13th and the 15th-I'll try to get everything sf/f into my next list. But do head over to the list at Teens Read Too (where I get my information) for the complete lists of new releases--it would be sad if the best books were overlooked.

Middle Grade:

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE KNIGHTS OF CRYSTALLIA by Brandon Sanderson. "When Alcatraz and Grandpa Smedry make a pilgrimage to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, the Smedry home base, Alcatraz is shocked to see that he is, in fact, a legend. When he was a baby he was stolen by the Evil Librarians, and his mother, a Librarian herself, was behind the whole scheme. Now, with his estranged father, who is acting indeed strange, Bastille, who has been stripped of her armor, and Grandpa Smedry, who is, as always, late to everything (that's his Talent), Alcatraz tries to save a city under siege. From who? Why, the Librarians of course!"

THE BIG BIG BOOK OF GIBBLEWORT THE GOBLIN by Victor Kelleher. "From the spiky outback to the ski slopes of the Snowy Mountains, Gibblewort the Goblin blunders and crawls his way through Australia's vast landscape in this collection of hilarious stories. Whether he's cuddled by a python in the rainforest, caged with a love-struck chimp in the Zoo, or strapped to a runaway snowboard in the Snowy Mountains, trouble sticks to Gibblewort. Wherever Gibblewort goes across the continent, he never can find any peace! Will he ever be able to get back home?"

THE BRAIN FINDS A LEG by Martin Chatterton "Something strange is happening in Farrago Bay and Sheldon McGlone is going to get to the bottom of it. The local wildlife is behaving strangely and so are some of the grown-ups, particularly his teacher, the weird and elusive Miss Fleming. It doesn't help that Sheldon is being relentlessly pursued by bullies--including his older brother! Just when things couldn't get much worse, a new kid turns up in Sheldon_s classroom. Theophilus Brain, aka _The Brain,_ has an excessive imagination and a lot of odd ideas about what is ailing Farrago Bay. With a missing human leg and a crocodile who likes to play fetch as clues, Sheldon and the Brain turn detective and uncover a web of evil that stretches across two continents."

DOGMAGIC by Holly Webb. "Eleven-year-old Lottie is enjoying life at her uncle's magical pet shop. Ariadne the witch is giving magic lessons to Lottie and her familar, Sofie the dachshund. Even school is becoming fun now that she has a new best friend, Ruby. But can Lottie trust Ruby? What would her new friend say if she knew Lottie had magical powers?"

THE DOOM MACHINE by Mark Teague. "When a spaceship lands in Vern Hollow, Jack's hometown, he and his no-account inventor-uncle Bud are busy trying to fix a car driven by Dr. Shumway and her daughter, Isadora. Although Uncle Bud secretly knows the aliens are after one of his inventions, everyone is surprised when the space aliens capture seven of Vern Hollow's residents and take them into outer space on a wild adventure. . . . (more) After a series of twists and turns, all of them are taken to Skreepia, the aliens' planet, where they have to defeat the Skreep queen before she can use Uncle Bud's invention to take over planet Earth."

THE FEATHERED CLOAK by Sean Dixon. "When 11-year-old Freya meets Morton — a peregrine falcon who has been stripped of his feathers — in the woods near her home, she has no idea what to make of him. What has happened to this poor creature, and what force has made him cross her path? Before long, Freya and Morton have embarked on an adventure that will take her far from her goatherd father’s small house. As the often bad-tempered girl and the once-majestic bird begin to form an unlikely bond, they find themselves at the center of a battlefield — one that pits old against new, god against mortal, peace against war, pagan against Christian, and brother against brother. Is this the end for the race of Norse gods and goddesses, and the Vikings who fight in their shadows?"

THE GHOST THAT FOLLOWED US HOME by Peg Kehret. "Enjoying the antique doll display at the museum, Kayo Benton and Rosie Saunders are amazed when they encounter a ghost with a tragic secret just before they are trapped among the exhibits by a pair of ruthless thieves."

THE LOST EMPIRE OF KOOMBA: SECRETS OF DROON by Tony Abbott. "Keeah, Julie, and Neal are determined to find a cure for the poison that transformed Eric into the evil Prince Ungast. Their quest takes them to a lost empire deep in the desert, where the mischievous Sand Children are hiding a magical elixir that may hold the secret to Eric's recovery. But the journey is filled with danger, for Gethwing is determined to stop them. And the Moon Dragon has a powerful new henchman at his disposal: Lord Sparr. . ."

MALICE by Chris Wooding. "Three kids get trapped in the world of a deadly comic book in this middle-grade thriller." (although Amazon has it as YA)

THE PHARAOH'S SECRET by Marissa Moss. "When Talibah and her younger brother, Adom, accompany their father, an academic, to his homeland of modern Egypt on his research assignment, they become involved in a mystery surrounding an ancient, lost pharaoh—a rare queen ruler. Someone has tried to wipe her from the record, to make it appear as if she never existed! She needs Talibah to help her and her high priest, Senenmut, reclaim their rightful place in history. Exotic locales, mysterious strangers, and a sinister archaeologist round out an adventure that is full of riddles, old tales, and, most surprisingly of all, a link to Talibah’s and Adom’s mother, who died mysteriously."

RIDDLE OF GREEN: LITTLE FUR by Isobelle Carmody. "When Little Fur loses touch with the flow of earth magic, she knows that she must regain it, whatever it takes. A visit to the prophetic Sett Owl makes it clear that Little Fur has to embark on the most dangerous of all her adventures and follow the dreams of a lemur. Accompanied by new companions including the lemur, a horde of lemmings, and a panther, Little Fur leaves the human city and sets out across the great salten sea. What Little Fur discovers about the past and the future on this most dangerous, yet most personal and rewarding journey, makes for an exciting and moving conclusion to this eco-fantasy quartet."

SECRETS OF DELTORA by Emily Rodda. "A book for old and new fans of the popular Deltora Quest series, this travel guide is told from the perspective of Doran the Dragonlover, the greatest Deltoran explorer ever and a friend of the dragons. Readers will travel with Doran through the seven gem territories, learning the secrets of Deltora-from its many dangers to its special places and magical creatures."

TOO AFRAID TO SCREAM: NIGHTTIME by Todd Strasser. "The third installment of the Nighttime series is packed with short scary stories sure to please young readers. A phantom text messenger, a skeleton on the hunt for his missing foot, and ghostly hitchhikers are a few of the topics in these spooky, contemporary tales."

THE WIZARD OF RONDO by Emily Rodda. "When Leo Zifkak inherited an antique music box from his stuffy great-aunt, he never expected that it might hide a wondrous secret. The music box is the portal to a new world, Rondo. Leo's first visit to Rondo was to rescue his cousin, Mimi, and he almost lost his life. On his second visit, something much more important is at stake - his soul. There's a wizard missing and an innocent young man accused of his death. If Leo and Mimi are to right this wrong, they're going to have to risk everything...

Young Adult

BALLAD: A GATHERING OF FAERIE by Maggie Stiefvater. "James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul."

THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE: SACRED BOOKS by David Michael Slater. "The last few days have seemed like a lifetime for Dexter and Daphna Wax. Between the various attempts on their lives, the assault on their father, and the discovery that their deceased mother had been thousands of years old they've endured enough for several lifetimes. They barely have enough energy to stand, let alone to save the world. Unfortunately, they don't have a choice. If they work together, the twins might stand a chance of discovering the truth about The Book of Nonsense. But are they really working together?"

CITY OF SCREAMS by John Brindley. "All Phoenix really wants to do is fly - fly and be with Gabriel, the angel. But their world is a brutal one where accelerated evolution has fractured the city into factions that can barely coexist without killing one another. So it seems impossible for earthbound Phoenix to be with airborne Gabriel, one of the rare humans with wings.
Then the Adults come. Violent, fanatical, and "blessed" by evolution with armored flesh that makes them appear only barely human, the Adults are intent on stamping out anyone they see as a mutation - especially those with wings. Phoenix may be the only one who can save Gabriel, but in so doing, she just might start a war that kills everyone she loves - or possibly destroys the whole world."

DARK CALLING: THE DEMONATA by Darren Shan. "The Disciples are being manipulated by beings older than time. Only Kernel Fleck knows that something is wrong. But he is in the grip of a creature who cares nothing for the fate of humanity. Voices are calling to him from the darkness and he's powerless to resist. Kernel has already been to hell and back. Now he's about to go further..."

THE DOOMSDAY MASK by Simon Rose

FIRE by Kristin Cashore

THE HIGH ROAD: ELF REALM by Daniel Kirk. Although this doesn't sound YA to me... "Matt and his sister Becky must work with the elves and Tomtar the troll to save the Cord and the human and elf worlds. After forming an uneasy alliance, Matt, the elf Tuava-Li, and Tomtar set off to find the sick and dying tree at the northern pole, whose roots bind the worlds together through the Cords. The trio must restore the tree to bring well-being to all the realms. Meanwhile, Becky accompanies Asra to free Becky’s parents, held captive in the elfin kingdom of Helfratheim. To their horror, both groups discover that Brahja-Chi has begun kidnapping human children for a mass sacrifice to appease the goddess."

KITH: THE GOOD NEIGHBORS by Holly Black. "Rue Silver's life is not what it appears to be. Her mother is a faerie, and has been taken back to the faerie realm. As Rue goes to bring her back, she must travel deep into an inhuman world. At the same time, the faerie realm is venturing into our world too, and taking its toll on those Rue loves. When her grandfather's plans threaten Rue's city, she realizes that she's the only one who can stop him. But is Rue a human or a faerie? Where does she fit? How does she know the difference between love and enchantment?"

LIPS TOUCHby Laini Taylor. "Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse. (NEXT->)

Hatchling: Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?

ROUGH MAGIC by Caryl Cude Mullin. "Follow the interwoven stories of two girls and one woman, their lives all tied to the enigmatic figure of Caliban, the character first introduced by Shakespeare in The Tempest, his famous play of love, loyalty, and magic. Caliban is the strange, half-wild man Prospero and Miranda discovered on an island after being shipwrecked. Rough Magic forms both prequel and sequel, telling the stories of the sorceress Sycorax, Caliban's mother; Miranda's daughter Chiara, who becomes like a daughter to Caliban; and Calypso, a magical young woman with ties to them all. All three must fight against a world that sees magic as evil and uses women as political pawns. Finally, it is the island and its power that draws them all back, demanding amends from the humans who have exploited its natural wonders."

TALES OF A RELUCTANT PSYCHIC: THE FREAK, VISIONS, FAR by Carol Matas. "Since 1997, young readers have been enthralled by the story of Jade, a 15-year-old girl struggling to adapt to her unexpected gift of psychic ability. Now, all three titles in Carol Matas’ Freak series are available in one volume. When Jade wakes from a life-threatening illness and finds she can read her friend’s most personal thoughts and feelings, she faces social challenges she never could have expected. When she begins to have nightmares predicting local murders, she realizes she has to use her powers for good."

THE VAMPIRE IS JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU by Vlad Mezrich. "Are you in love with a vampire? Are you worried that you might not be his (blood) type? Do you wonder whether that cold stare means he isn’t interested . . . or if it’s because he’s been dead for three centuries (nothing personal)? Have you tried to coax him out of his crypt with a flash of your neck or a near-death situation that requires him to save you at the very last possible moment? Have you ever considered what it will be like to introduce him to your mother? Even though your vampire’s skin is transfixingly translucent, he can still be very hard to read. Sometimes he’s simply holding back his true feelings, resisting the urge to bite you in the chance that one day you will truly love him. And other times . . . well, he’s just not that into you.

How can you tell? Undead dating specialist Vlad Mezrich has all the answers, utilizing quizzes, Top Ten lists, language analysis, real-life (and real-death) testimonials, and fancy charts to show you what you need to do in order to get your vampire and keep him forever.

Lips Touch, by Laini Taylor

When lips meet in a kiss for the first time, it can be a magical moment. But it's never quite as magical in real life as it is in the three novellas contained in Laini Taylor's newly released anthology, Lips Touch (Scholastic, 2009, YA, 259 pp).

Three different kisses, three very different stories. And not short stories either, the kind that leave you wanting more, twitchy with unfulfilled plot desire. By letting her stories grow longer, almost (for two of them, at least) to book length, Taylor gives herself room to paint sumptuous word pictures with dizzying effect, and tell great stories.

Kiss the First: Goblin Fruit. "The Goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishfull girls" (page 13).

Girls like Kizzy, who falls under the spell of the beautiful boy who wants her so fiercely that the ache of her own wanting is all she can feel--ignoring all the warnings, ignoring all the magical stories she's grown up with, ignoring "her soul flattening itself back like the ears of a hissing cat" (page 54), craving his kiss....

More than just another demon lover story, Goblin Fruit is metaphor-rich explosion of sensuality.

Kiss the Second: Spicy Little Curses Such as These. "A cursed girl with lips still moist from her first kiss might feel suddenly wild, like a little monsoon. she might forget her curse just long enough to get careless and let it come true. She might kill everyone she loves.

She might, and she might not.

A particular demon in India rather hoped that she would" (p 67)

During the British raj, there is an old, and rather eccentric seeming woman who makes deals with a demon on a regular basis, bargaining for as many lives as she can save from his clutches. It's a tricky thing to make deals with a demon, and, in this story, "the spicy little curse" the demon gets to inflict on a baby English girl might make this the worse bargain she has ever struck.

Because the little girl's voice can kill, or so the demon says. And so she is silent all her life, all the words she has wanted to say locked behind her lips. Now she has fallen in love, and the dam that holds her words in place is breaking...

Of all these three stories, this is the one most familiar in tone and voice to Taylor's Dreamdark books--matter-of-factly fantastical, where the story takes the reader into remarkable places, and the reader gets to enjoy the ride (very much, in my case. This one was my favorite).

Kiss the Third: Hatchling. "Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turned from brown to blue.....

"It was no trick of the light. Her eye was an eerie white-blue, the color of ancient ice in a lace that never thaws, and as startling as it was, there was something profoundly familiar about it too. Esme's blood quickened as a shock of memories pulsed through her: a world of snow and spires; a milky mirror framed in jewels; the touch of warm lips on hers." (p 139)

Esme's mother has a past--a terrible, magical, ice-bound, cruel, otherworldly past. And it is chasing them.

This one is a fantastical mystery, with dark edges and much tension. And that's all I'll say, for fear of spoiling.

So, three very different kisses, three very different stories...all magical. A lot of bang for your book-buying buck. But wait, there's more! You also get illustrations by Jim Bartolo! Beautiful ones! Enter now (before Sunday night) at Grow Wings, Taylor's website, for a chance to try this one for yourself.

(ARC received from the publisher)

A post for Cybils sf/f geeks--the 2006 long list

Ok. I am a Cybils Geek. Not a Cybils nerd, or, so help me, a Cybils dork, but a Geek. Obsessivly, intelligently (?) interested....as this post demonstates.

I just came across a list that Jocelyn put together back in December, 2006, of all the science fiction and fantasy books nominated for the Cybils in its first year...

Two things struck me:
1: It is much shorter than our lists now, and they didn't split it up into age groups back then.
2: I t is, on the one hand, rather neat to see so many books and authors I love, and familiar series that are still going strong (whose books have been nominated again this year!), back when they were new and shiny....and, on the other hand, it is a little melancholy to see books that have faded like flowers of the spring...

Here are the books:

Abadazad: The Road to Inconceivable by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Ploog. Hyperion
Agent Boo: The Littlest Agent by Alex De Campi; illustrated by Edo Fuijkschot. TokyoPop
Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher, The by Bill Harley. Peachtree Publishers
Anatopsis by Chris Abouzeid. Penguin: Dutton
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer. Hyperion: Miramax
AutumnQuest by Terie Garrison. Flux
Avielle of Rhia by Dia Calhoun. Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books
Beast of Noor, The by Janet Lee CareySimon & Schuster: Atheneum
Beasts of Clawstone Castle, The by Eva Ibbotson. Penguin: Dutton
Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce. Random House
Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley. HarperCollins
Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz. Hyperion
Book of Story Beginnings, The by Kristin Kladstrup. Candlewick
Braced2Bite by Serena Robar. Penguin: Berkley
Changeling by Delia Sherman. Penguin: Viking Juvenile
Charlie Bone And The Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo. Scholastic
Corbenic by Catherine Fisher. HarperCollins. Greenwillow
Darkling Plain, A by Philip Reeve . HarperCollins. Eos
Death of a Ghost by Charles Butler. HarperCollins
Devilish by Maureen Johnson. Penguin: Razorbill
Dream Spinner by Bonnie Dobkin. Flux
Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton. RandomHouse: Delacorte
Enemies by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore. Penguin: Razorbill
Erec Rex: The Dragon’s Eye by Kaza Kingsley. Firelight Press
Evil Star by Anthony Horowitz. Scholastic
Eye Pocket: The Fantastic Society of Peculiar Adventurers, The by E.J. Crow. DNA Press
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. Shadow Mountain
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. HarperCollins
Fetch, The by Chris Humphreys. RandomHouse: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Floating Island, The by Elizabeth Haydon. Tor: Starscape
Gideon: The Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer. Simon & Schuster
Gilda Joyce, and the Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison. Penguin: Dutton
Golden by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. RandomHouse: Delacorte
Good Fairies of New York, The by Martin Millar. Soft Skull
Gossamer by Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin: Walter Lorraine Books
Hellbent by Anthony McGowan. Simon & Schuster
Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow. Simon & Schuster: Atheneum
Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen. Simon & Schuster
High School Bites: The Lucy Chronicles by Liza Conrad. NAL Trade
Homefree by Nina Wright. Flux
Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson. Houghton Mifflin
Horse Passages by Jennifer Macaire. Medallion Press
Into the Woods by Lyn Gardner. David Fickling Books
King of Attolia, The by Megan Whalen Turner. HarperCollins: Greenwillow
Larklight by Philip Reeve. Bloomsbury
Last Days, The by Scott Westerfield. Penguin: Razorbill
Last Dragon, The by Silvana de Mari. Hyperion: Miramax
Last of the Wilds by Trudi Canavan. HarperCollins: Eos
Legend of Zoey, The by Candie Moonshower. RandomHouse: Delacorte
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Harcourt Children’s Books
London Calling by Edward Bloor. RandomHouse: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Looking Glass Wars, The by Frank Beddor. Penguin: Dial
Lurkers, The by Charles Butler. Usborne Publishing Ltd
Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier. Penguin: Razorbill
Monster Blood Tattoo: The Foundling by DM Cornish. Penguin: Putnam
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Little, Brown (Hachette)
Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean. Simon & Schuster: Margaret K. McElderry
Pinhoe Egg, The by Diana Wynne Jones. HarperCollins: Greenwillow
Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner. RandomHouse: Bantam Dell
Prophet of Yonwood, The by Jeanne Duprau. Random House
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud. Hyperion: Miramax
Pucker by Melanie Gideon. Penguin: Razorbill
Quest of the Dragon Stone by Ami Blackford. Red Cygnet Press
Ranger’s Apprentice: The Burning Bridge, The. by John FlanaganPenguin: Philomel
River Secrets by Shannon Hale. Bloomsbury
Samurai by Jason Hightman. HarperCollins: Eos
Sea of Monsters, The by Rick Riordan. Hyperion: Miramax
Septimus Heap #2: Flyte by Angie Sage. HarperCollins: Katherine Tegen Books
Shadow in the Deep by L.B. Graham. P & R Publishing
Shadow Thieves, The by Anne Ursu. Simon & Schuster: Atheneum
Silver City by Cliff McNish. Carolrhoda Books
Sir Thursday by Garth Nix. Scholastic
Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child by Michael Buckley. Amulet
Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1, The by PJ Haarsma. Candlewick
Stones of Abraxas by K Osborn . SullivanMedallion
Summer King, The by O.R. Melling. Amulet Books
Sword of Anton by Gene Del Vecchio. Pelican Publishing Company
Temping Fate by Esther Friesner. Penguin: Dutton
Tide Knot, The by Helen Dunmore. HarperCollins
Travels of Thelonious by Susan Schade and Jon Buller. Simon & Schuster: Simon & Schuster
Undine by Penni Russon. HarperCollins: Greenwillow
Voices by Ursula Le Guin. Harcourt Children’s Books
Wabi by Joseph Bruchac. Penguin: Dial
Wall and the Wing, The by Laura Ruby. HarperCollins: Eos
Wintersmith by Terry PratchettHarperTeen
Wolfproof by Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Idylls Press
Wuthering High by Cara Lockwood. MTV


Here's what made it to the 2006 shortlist: Ptolomey's Gate, Silver City, Beka Cooper: Terrier, The Last Dragon, and Pucker. Hmmm. I've read exactly one of these. Pathetic.

For me, King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner, and Voices, by Ursula Le Guin, stand out. But I haven't read enough of these 2006 titles to come up with a shortlist of five, and I'm not sure if either of these two that I love have the Kid Appeal that would make them truly Cybilian (which I guess the 2006 panelists decided as well).

Which would you have picked?

The Cybils!

Nominations are coming in fast and furious over at the Cybils website. Lists of the books nominated are updated minute by minute, and getting beautifully long...

I am honored to be part of the Cybils this year, on the nominating panel for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy.* Hooray for MG sf/f! This subgenre is my favorite--it's here that you find the best stories. Lovely, fun, imaginative, wacky, subversive, scary--that's MG sf/f.

So please go and give us a good one to read!!!! Spread the word! Ask handy fifth graders to send in their favorites of the past year (published from 16 October 2008- 15 October 2009). Let us know what books are so good they zip from hand to hand...


Here are my co-panelists:

Anamaria Anderson, bookstogether
Cindy Hannikman, Fantasy Book Critic
Brian Jung, Critique de Mr. Chompchomp
Eva Mitnick, Eva's Book Addiction


For the next three months, we will be emailing like crazy as we pick our shortlist of the books nominated. Fun!

*Middle Grade and YA have parted ways, because c. 161 books (the number nominated last year for both categories) is really too many for one person to read in 3 months, and there will be more this year. So although you only get to nominate one sci fi/fantasy book, there are two groups of readers...

Flawed Dogs, by Berkeley Breathed

Flawed Dogs, by Berkeley Breathed (Philomel/Penguin, 2009, middle grade, 240pp).

Holly and Sam. An orphaned girl who's never been loved, and a small pure-bred dachshund puppy, who's escaped from his airplane crate and found happiness in her arms.

Cassius. A nasty piece of work under his beautifully trimmed poodle fur. He wants to be the only top show dog in the house, and he'll do anything to oust Sam. Even framing him for child endangerment.

Cassius' evil plot works, and Sam spends several years of misery away from Holly, including a hellish stint of being tortured in a science lab (which mercifully happens off-stage).

Now Sam, scarred and with a soup-ladle tied on in place of his missing leg, and a bunch of misfit canine companions are going to take on the Westminster Dog Show, and strike a blow for flawed dogs everywhere. And bring Cassius down.

This is a story that will hit the hearts of dog lovers hard. Sam is such a good little dog, and he suffers so much. So be warned, young dog lover readers! You'll be rooting for him, aching for him (perhaps even shedding a tear), and finally cheering as, at last, he gets a happy ending.

It's not for the faint of heart, and indeed, I found it rather uncomfortable reading. But there is humor (of a somewhat farcical variety), to lighten the story (this is the wonderfully absurd Berkeley Breathed, of Opus fame, after all), and, as I said, we get a happy ending.


From the Flawed Dogs Website: "Flawed Dogs" was inspired by the staggering pet overpopulation problem, highlighting it with a bit of humor. But the underlying message is clear: millions of healthy, adoptable pets languish and die in our animal shelters every year. National figures indicate that about half of all shelter pets must be euthanized for want of loving homes."From the Flawed Dogs website:"Flawed Dogs" was inspired by the staggering pet overpopulation problem, highlighting it with a bit of humor. But the underlying message is clear: millions of healthy, adoptable pets languish and die in our animal shelters every year. National figures indicate that about half of all shelter pets must be euthanized for want of loving homes.

New Releases of Fantasy and Science for Children and Teenagers, the Cybils Eve edition!

Tomorrow the 2009 Cybils begin!

The Cybils are book awards given by the children's and young adult book blogging community. Everyone (blogger or not) is invited to nominate the books of the past year they love best in a number of categories, including Science Fiction and Fantasy. From these nominations, a panel of readers selects a shortlist, which then goes on to a group of judges. Any book in English published from October 16th 2008 to October 15, 2009 is eligible--this includes books published this past year in the US that might have already been published in their home country, but have not yet been nominated for the Cybils. There will be more details about how to nominate books on the Cybils Website tomorrow. Please spread the word!

Science fiction and fantasy are divided into two age groups (M.G. and Y.A.), and I am fortunate to be on the nominating committee for the younger group. I hope that lots of great books end up on our list! Last year there were c. 60 middle grade books, and c. 100 YA books; I bet there are many more than that this year....

I hope that my lists of new releases prove helpful to people like myself who have trouble remembering books they read in the past year. I only started doing this in April, though, so I have only the faintest idea what books were published from October, 2008, through March, 2009...

So, that being said, and much more about the Cybils to come, here are the new releases of science fiction and fantasy books for children and teenagers from the end of September, taken from the list at Teens Read Too, with help from Amazon.

THE APOCRYPHON: FABULOUS TERRIBLE by Sophie Talbot. "In your first year as a student at Trumbull Woodhouse school for girls, your secret psychic gifts have led you into the depths of a mythic side of the school known only to a select few. The elite school has a powerful history that has been kept secret for the past 125 years. Warring factions, strained alliances, and a hidden magic all lurk beneath the posh surface of your exclusive school. At the center of the mystery lies The Apocryphon, a book of secret texts and prophecies written by school founder Emma Woodhouse. The Apocryphonshifts the tide of power between Lionhead, a group of adults who claim you are “The One”: the girl who was prophesied in the book, someone who will change the future with her unprecedented abilities and powers. Lionhead has controlled The Apocryphon for decades- but if you can locate it and unify the two factions, your school will change forever. You've always been ambivalent about your psychic powers. But what if they are the key to making you an insider for the first time in your life?"

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: NATHANIEL FLUDD, BEASTOLOGIST by R. L. LaFevers. "Nathaniel Fludd’s life has taken a turn for the worst. With his parents lost at sea, he lands on the doorstep of a distant cousin—the world’s last remaining beastologist. Soon Nate is whisked off on his first expedition, to Arabia, where the world’s only phoenix prepares to lay its new egg. When disaster strikes, Nate quickly finds himself all alone. Will he be able to see the phoenix safely hatched, keep his accidental pet gremlin out of trouble, and rescue his guardian from the Bedouin? If he fails, nothing will stand between the world’s mythical creatures and extinction. Too bad Nate’s not the sort of boy who enjoys adventure . . .yet."

LEVEN THUMPS AND THE RUINS OF ALDERby Obert Skye

SPELLBINDER by Helen Stringer. "Belladonna Johnson can see ghosts. It’s a trait she’s inherited from her mother’s side of the family, like blue eyes or straight hair. And it’s a trait she could do without, because what twelve-year-old wants to be caught talking to someone invisible. It is convenient, though, after Belladonna’s parents are killed in a car accident. They can live with her the same as always, watching the same old TV shows in their same old house. Nothing has changed . . . until everything changes. One night, with no warning, they vanish into thin air—along with every other ghost in the world. It’s what some people think ghosts are supposed to do, but Belladonna knows it’s all wrong. They may not be living, but they’re not supposed to be gone. With the help of her classmate Steve, a master of sneaking and spying, Belladonna is left to uncover what’s become of the spirits and to navigate a whole world her parents have kept well-hidden. If she can’t find her way, she’ll lose them again—this time for good."

SYREN: SEPTIMUS HEAP by Angie Sage. "In this fifth book in the Magykal series, Septimus ends up on a captivatingly beautiful island, one of seven set in a sparkling sea. He's stranded there with his badly injured dragon, Spit Fyre, along with Jenna and Beetle. There are some strange things about the island, including a Magykal girl named Syrah, a cat-shaped lighthouse that has lost its Light, and an eerie presence that sings to Septimus—can he escape the persistent call? Trouble is also brewing for Lucy and Wolf Boy, who have become entangled with some nefarious sailors at sea, and for Milo Banda, Jenna's father, who is harboring a mysterious treasure chest in his ship's hold."

THE SEED OF HOPE by Quinton Wall. "Growing up in Devon Grove, kids are used to magic talents. After all, magic grows on trees --- literally. One bite of the magical apples, and your wildest dreams could come true. Turning invisible, flying, and even talking to animals are all just part of everyday life. Like any kid in Devon Grove, thirteen-year-old Charlie Parker has been waiting for his talent apple his entire life, but he has even more at stake: his father is the caretaker of the Talent Tree, the source of the town's magic, and someday Charlie will inherit the responsibility, whether he wants to or not. But when Charlie's apple is stolen from him and the great Talent Tree falls, killing his father, Charlie and his five companions must embark on a quest to find the mythical Bag of Brakka. The Bag, said to foretell the future, holds the key to Charlie discovering who stole his talent, and why his father died. Friendship, loyalties, and magical abilities are put to the test when the companions discover they are in the center of a plot that threatens to destroy the world they live in."

Young Adult

RAPTURE OF THE DEEP: BLOODY JACK ADVENTURES by Louis A. MeyerOn the very day that Jacky Faber is to wed her true love, she is kidnapped by British Naval Intelligence and forced to embark on yet another daring mission—this time to search for sunken Spanish gold. But when Jacky is involved, things don't always go as planned. Jacky has survived battles on the high seas, the stifling propriety of a Boston finishing school, and even confinement in a dank French prison. But no adventure has quite matched her opportunistic street-urchin desires—until now."

THE SQUIRE'S QUEST: THE SQUIRE'S TALES by Gerald Morris. "And why is it, after all of these years, that Terence is still just a squire, offering advice on how best to scrub the rust spots from armor? But Squire Terence has more to worry about than his place on the social scale. For all the peace and prosperity that has made England famous across Europe, Terence is uneasy. After nearly six months without contact with the World of the Faeries – not even from his old friend, the mischievous sprite Robin – Terence is sure something is rotten in King Arthur's court."

BETRAYING SEASON by Marissa Doyle. "Penelope (Pen) Leland has come to Ireland to study magic and prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister, Persy. But when the dashing Niall Keating begins to pay her court, she can’t help being distracted from her studies. Little does Pen know, Niall is acting upon orders from his sorceress mother. And although it starts as a sham, Niall actually falls deeply in love with Pen, and she with him. But even if he halts his mother’s evil plan, will Pen be able to forgive him for trying to seduce her into a plot? And what of Pen’s magic, which seems to be increasingly powerful?"

BLOOD RELATIVES VOL. III: VAMPIRES KISSES by Ellen Schreiber. "Raven's romance with her dreamy vampire boyfriend, Alexander, has been complicated once again by Alexander's menacing half-vamp cousin. Now that Claude and his fearless gang have been tricked out of the blood-filled vials that can turn them into full vampires, Claude will stop at nothing to find the real vials. Raven's family and friends could be in danger. When Claude teams up with Raven's longtime nemesis, Trevor, invitations soon go out for a vampire-themed masquerade party. Could Claude be scheming to turn all of the students at Dullsville High into vampires if he doesn't get what he wants? Raven and Alexander must try to stop Claude—but also ask themselves what really matters most in the end."

DEMON PRINCESS: REIGN OR SHINE by Michelle Rowen. "As if trying to fit in at a new school isn't stressful enough, sixteen-year-old Nikki Donovan just found out that her long-lost father is, in fact, the demon king of the Shadowlands—the world that separates and protects us from the Underworld. When she is brought there by the mysterious—and surprisingly cute—messenger Michael, she learns that her father is dying, and he wants her to assume the throne. To complicate matters, a war is brewing between the Shadowlands and the Underworld, her half-demon qualities are manifesting, and her growing feelings for Michael are completely forbidden. Ruling a kingdom, navigating a secret crush, and still making it home by curfew—what's a teenage demon princess to do?"

DREAMS OF THE DEAD: THE WAKING by Thomas Randall. "Sixteen-year-old Kara Foster is an outsider in Japan, but is doing her best to fit at the private school where her father is teaching English for the year. Fortunately she’s befriended by Sakura, a fellow outsider struggling to make sense of her sister’s unsolved murder some months ago. No one seems to care about the beautiful girl who was so brutally murdered, and the other students go on as if nothing has happened. Unfortunately, the calm doesn’t last for long. Kara begins to have nightmares, and soon other students in the school turn up dead, viciously attacked by someone . . . or something. Is Sakura getting back at those she thinks are responsible for her sister’s death? Or has her dead sister come back to take revenge for herself?"

DUPLIKATE by Cherry Cheva. "By the time Kate Larson accidentally fell asleep at three a.m., she'd already done more work in one night than the average high school senior does in a week. Getting into Yale has been her dream for years—and being generally overworked and totally under-rested is the price of admission. But when she opens her eyes the next day, she comes face-to-face with, well, her face—which is attached to her body, which is standing across the room. Wait, what? Meet Kate's computer-generated twin. Kate doesn't know why she's here or how to put her back where she belongs, but she's real. And she's the last thing Kate has time to deal with right now. Unless . . ."

THE EVERAFTER by Amy Huntley. "Madison Stanton doesn't know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this—she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience—and sometimes even change—moments from her life."

THE LOST TRAIN OF THOUGHT: THE SEEMS by John Hulme & Michael Wexler. "Fixer Becker Drane never thought things could get so bad: he's in deep trouble with The Seems for breaking so many rules, he never gets to see his girlfriend, and it looks like his days as a Fixer may be numbered. So when a train carrying a load of Thought destined for The World disappears, Becker reluctantly agrees to join a crew of fixers to solve the mystery—in The Middle of Nowhere. The mission leads Becker into a scenario more terrifying and dangerous than he could have ever prepared for. Getting the Train of Thought back on track is just a temporary Fix. Becker's real mission may prove to be saving The World from ending—forever."

NEVER BITE A BOY ON THE FIRST DATE by Tamara Summers

1. I've got a few issues:
2. I'm a vampire now.
3. One of my classmates was found dead, with telltale fang marks.
4. I didn't do it! (really!)
5. Nobody believes me, so . . .
6. I'm going to have to find the real killer. I've already got three suspects. (three very cute suspects.)
7. One more problem: I am seriously falling for one of them . . . but what if he's the killer?

PASTWORLD by Ian Beck. "What if all of London were really an amusement park—a whole city returned to Victorian times to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? That's the wildly original premise of Ian Beck's Pastworld, a high-stakes mystery set in a simulated past. Eve is a lifelong resident of Pastworld who doesn’t know she’s living in a theme park until a mysterious threat forces her to leave home. Caleb is a visiting tourist who finds the lawlessness of the past thrilling—until he suddenly becomes a fugitive from an antiquated justice system. And in the midst of it all, in the thick London fog a dark and deadly figure prowls, claiming victim after victim."

The Lost Key, a Mystery with Whole Numbers

From the Graphic Universe line of Lerner books comes the "Manga Math Mysteries"-- books that combine elementary math with graphic-novelish, elementary-level, mystery stories.

The first of the series is The Lost Key, by Melinda Theilbar, illustrated by Tintin Pantoja (Lerner, 2009). In this story, a group of kids from a Kung Fu School must confront older bullies who have stolen the key to school and used it to make off with some of the school's gear. "If kung fu makes you so smart," reads the note they left behind, "maybe you can figure out where we hid your stuff." The kids must track down the lost items, using very simple math to make sure everything is there, and recover the lost key. (I thought, based on the title, that it might be fantasy-ish, but it is just really and truly about a lost key).

Both as a read aloud for my six-year old and an independent read for my nine-year old, this book worked just fine, and they both enjoyed it. I'd be very happy for more books in the series to throw their way. My older boy is a picky reader, but graphic stories of this level are something he eats up like candy (if he enjoyed eating candy, which he doesn't).

I'm not sure, however, that the deliberate insertion of math into the text quite works. The math was much more basic than I expected, at least a year or two, if not more, below the level of the text. Although the math was used by the kids to make progress in solving their mystery, they seemed to old to have to be actually counting out loud...I think, though, that the level of math involved gets higher in later books in the series, which would make sense.

What made this book really stand out in my mind, however, was this:

Isn't she a kick-ass karate teacher? The kids are a pretty multicultural lot too.

Here's another review, at Comics Worth Reading.

(review copy received from Lerner)

Ask Charlotte

Welcome to this week's edition of Ask Charlotte, in which I answer the questions typed into search engines by the masses of desperate people seeking help, and finding my blog instead.

This week's questioner appears to be a would-be author, looking for inspiration, a cool plot that hasn't been taken, or possibly just searching for a void in the literary world that needs filling.

He or she is looking for "books to write." Google gives you 17,700,000 hits on this, but there is no specific list available.

From perusing my stats, I know of two books that lots of people would like to see written: "why didn't make ricky ricotta neptune"? and while we're at it, why didn't ricky ricotta pluto, either?

If anyone does, in fact, know if these last two Ricky Ricotta books ever will be written, over a thousand people have tried to find out by reading my blog, and we'd all appreciate an answer...

Kindred, by Octavia Butler, for Timeslip Tuesday

Kindred, by Octavia Butler (1979, adult fiction/fantasy).

What if you found yourself whisked away from your world of 1976, from your husband, to a slave plantation in early 19th-century, and the horror of slavery became real? What would it mean, to be black, to be a woman, to be a person used to having choices, to be a person trying to defend your Self, and to be pulled into in a world where those in power own your body, and would own your soul, if they could?

This is what happens to Dana, drawn through time whenever death threatens her white ancestor, Rufus. With each of his brushes with death--as a boy, and as a man--Dana is compelled to save him, so that his daughter, the child of one of the slaves on his family's plantation, can be born.

Saving Rufus from death is relatively straightforward. Spending months at a time there is not. Rufus is alternately charming and vicious, loving and hateful, not entirely blameless, but guilty as sin. Just as he holds the power of life and death over Dana, for a black woman can be killed or sold with ease, so she holds it over him, each time she is pulled back to save him. Dana tries to use this power do what she can to influence Rufus so that he breaks at least a little from the patterns of injustice that have been the norm for his family, while struggling with the brutal and hideous facts of life on a slave plantation.

One of the most powerful uses of the timeslip in fiction is to let people from the present describe the horrors of the past. Seeing the past from the framework of the present, the time travelling character is a removed observer, an anthropologist bringing back stories of the other, and the author doesn't have to worry about pesky anachronisms. Things that are horrible are seen as such by the character from the future, without any gloss of familiarity.

In a 2003 (I think) interview at Writers and Books, Butler says this herself: "It’s one thing to read about it and cringe that something horrible is happening. I sent somebody into it who is a person of now, of today, and that means I kind of take the reader along and expose them in a way that the average historic novel doesn’t intend to, can’t."

Butler takes the potential of this situation and uses it to heart-rending effect in her portrayal of early 19th-century slavery. It is a stunner of a portrayal, making the book difficult reading, and I highly recommend Kindred on this account alone.

But this is only part of the story. For me, the larger interest lay in the character of Dana, black, yet "whiter" in behaviour, speech, and education, than the slaves in Rufus' household. She is there at least partly through her own choice (she can return to her own time, anytime she wants to try to kill herself), taking punishment and pain and degradation, but never acting strongly to affect change. She is conflicted in her feelings about Rufus--wanting to save him, wanting to simply hate him.

The story asks what a person would be will to do to save themselves, provided they have an idea who that "self" might be. It asks how much a person might push against an intolerable situation, or how they might come to tolerate what was unimaginable. At the end, Dana must choose which she will do, and be forced, at last, to act.

Postscript re timetravel, science fiction, and serious subjects:

Here's more from the same interview I quoted above:

Butler: When I first wrote the book, I got a little bit of criticism for trivializing slavery. You know, writing what they thought of as a science fiction novel about it.

W&B: Do you consider yourself a science fiction writer?

Butler: I consider myself a writer. As you probably are aware, it’s unbelievably boring to have people continually trying to get you to define, oh, are you writing speculative fiction or science fiction or… You know, is it a good story? And if so, then accept it as that.

W&B: You don’t consider that just the use of time travel makes a book science fiction?

Butler: It would be science fiction if I had presented a mechanism, maybe some phony physics. But no, I didn’t do any of that—it’s a grim fantasy.

Three Writing Contests

Via Finding Wonderland, via Yat Yee, comes news of the "2009 Genre Wars Fiction Writing Contest! We invite fiction writers to submit your 1 to 2,000-word short stories to us. The contest deadline is December 1, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST, and we plan to announce the winners on January 7, 2010, which marks the Literary Lab's 1st anniversary. Multiple submissions allowed."

Over at The Spectacle, we've been challenged to "Write the beginning of a spooky/scary/suspenseful story (up to three sentences). Make it original, make it surprising, make us want to read more." The cool part about this one is that us blog readers get to vote on the winner.

And there's a Flash Fiction competition at New Scientist: "Send us your stories set one hundred years into the future, and a panel of judges headed by acclaimed science fiction writer Stephen Baxter will pick the best to be published in a future issue of New Scientist. We'll publish a selection of the most entertaining and thought-provoking online.
Your story should be no more than 350 words in length.... The closing date is 15 October 2009."

Ballad, by Maggie Stiefvater

Ballad, by Maggie Stiefvater (Flux 2009, YA, 352pp), picks up where Lament (2008) left off. Dierdre and James, having survived an emotionally wrenching, and in James' case, physically damaging, encounter with the Faerie, are now at a boarding school for the musically prodigious. In this second book, the story focuses on James--the smart aleck, eccentric, funny, loving bagpiper that I wanted more of in Lament. This change of focus makes Ballad work as a stand-alone; Dee, the central character of Lament, is mostly off-stage.

And this is breaking James' heart, because he loves Dee, and she, still caught up in the tangle of her love for the souless fairy assassin of Lament, seems to be shunning him. Or using him. Or both.

Into James' life comes Nuala, the Leanan Sidhe, who inspires supernatural heights of creativity in the men whose lives she uses to feed her own. But James says no to her offer of unlimited inspiration (and added bonuses), and sets their relationship down a path that will change both of them forever.

And the hills outside the school are echoing with the sound of faerie revels, and the song of the King of the Dead....and Dierdre, James, and Nuala are drawn into a darker story then they had ever dreamt of.

Gosh, I did so enjoy this one! Nuala is, hands down, my favorite fictional faerie lover. She's uncertain, smart, conflicted--just beautifully three-dimensional. James is a most excellently drawn character too, and their relationship is fascinating.

So much so that it's hard for me to think critically about this book. If I had stopped occasionally while reading to look closely at the plot elements of the faerie side of things, I have a feeling that I might have unresolved questions. But I wasn't at all in the mood for nit-picking as I read, and, frankly, I wasn't that interested in that part of the story. I just wanted to find out what happened with James and Nuala.

Because, you see, Nuala has only a few weeks to go before she must burn alive in a bonfire in order to come back to life, a cycle she has been enduring for centuries. So the question of her relationship with James is rather a, um, burning one.

"If you know you're going to die in a bonfire on Halloween, why not just lock yourself in a room somewhere? Then when they light the fires and ask you to come out, just tell them they can put their matches where the sun don't shine."

Nuala gave me the most scathing look in the history of scathing looks. "What a clever idea I've never thought of that. And I'm sure all the previous versions of myself never did either. Idiot."

"Okay, okay. Point taken. This will probably earn me another scathing look, but are you sure?"

"Sure about what? You being an idiot?" Nuala laughed, but her fingers were trembling in mine; I held her fingers tight to still them." (page 225).

A fantastic, fun read, told in the alternating viewpoints of Nuala and James, interspersed with text messages from Dee that she never sends...Even if you think the faerie thing has been done to death, this might well change your mind.

Here at Maggie Stiefvater's blog you can find both the playlist for Ballad, and an amazing contest...

At Angieville, you can enter to win a copy of Ballad (ends October 1). Here is Angie's review, and another review at In Bed With Books.

(review copy received from the publisher)

Flowers for Algernon, for Banned Books Week

I wasn't surprised to see Slaughterhouse Five show up when I did a google search for banned or challenged science fiction and fantasy books. But I was pretty stunned to learn that Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (published as a novel in 1966), was number 43 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999.

Flowers for Algernon tells the story of a young man of very low intelligence whose IQ is raised to genius level through a miracle of modern medicine. And that's all I'll say, not wanting to spoil any of the rest of it.

Apparently, the parts of the book where Charlie struggles to understand himself as a sexual person are troubling. In January 1970, for instance, two school boards in Canada banned Flowers for Algernon from their ninth-grade curricula and the school library, after a parent complained that it was "filthy and immoral". From Wikipedia: "The president of the BC Teachers' Federation criticized the action. Flowers for Algernon was part of the BC Department of Education list of approved books for grade nine and was recommended by the BC Secondary Association of Teachers of English. A month later, the board reconsidered and returned the book to the library; they did not, however, lift its ban from the curriculum."

I was in eighth grade when I read it the first time. I don't remember the "filthy and immoral" bits.*

I remember how much I cried.

I remember how my arrogant attitude that intelligence was the standard by which to judge people received a powerful and much needed kick in the tail.

I remember crying more.

Why anyone would want to keep their kids from reading this lesson in compassion is beyond me. They probably hadn't read it.


* Ant this is not because I was hardened and jaded--my mind was still very much that of a pure and innocent child. I think. It was, after all, not until ninth grade that I read Clan of the Cave Bear et al., by Jean M. Auel (frequently challenged) and Forever, by Judy Blume (which of course is so challenged as to not be worth mentioning).

The Mammoth Academy in Trouble

Last year my children fell hard for The Mammoth Academy, by Neal Layton. It is a perfect book for the young reader venturing into "real" books-- simple but substantial text, lots of pictures, and a fun story involving a school for mammoths and other prehistoric creatures and their encounter with primitive humans.

So there were excited noises from both of them when I presented them with The Mammoth Academy in Trouble (Henry Holt, 2007 in the UK, 2009 here, early middle grade, 141 pp). In this sequel, we meet again the young mammoths Oscar and Arabella as they arrive at the Academy for a new semester, looking forward to taking part in the Founder's Fiesta! But their spirits are damped by the sinister graffiti on the school walls--"We is gonna git you!!"

The humans are back, and closing in on the school. Inside, preparations for the Fiesta move on apace, but outside winter blizzards are brewing. The students are trapped inside by the fierce snows, and the humans are preparing to attack....

Will Arabella's smarts and Oscar's ingenuity be enough to save the pupils of the Academy from the bellies of the hungry savages?

I love the Mammoth Academy. Here's their science lesson:

"And now, start mixing things in test tubes..."

Fox's test tube turned brown.

Oscar's test tube turned orange.

But Arabella's test tube started to fizz and spit little silver sparks all over the place, finally going POOF! in a cloud of thick green smoke.

"Fascinating!" said Dr. Van Der Graph. "I think you have just made a scientific discovery!" (page 35)

And I love the dance class, where the mammoths are told to "imagine you are tiny feathers floating on the breeze...." (page 37)

Adventure, humor, funny and engrossing drawings, and charming characters...what's not to like. I recommend them very, very, enthusiastically to the five or six year old who loves the Ice Age movies, and the parent reading this out loud, or the older kid just becoming an independent reader of longer books.

There are two more chapter books out in the UK--they would make such lovely Christmas presents for my six year old that I might not be able for them to come out over here. I am also very tempted by another of his books, The Story of Everything...

New Releases of Science Fiction and Fantasy for Children and Teenagers--the almost the end of September edition

Here are the its-almost-but-not-quite-the-end of September new releases of science fiction and fantasy for children and teenagers. And boy, it is Staggering how this genre outnumbers realistic fiction--it was about six to one. Part of this, though, is that the Teens Read Too website list from whence I get my information doesn't seem to have middle grade fiction other than fantasy, so it's skewed. But still.

THESE ARE ALL ELIGIBLE FOR THE CYBILS AWARDS! Someone must quickly read them, to see if they are worth nominating! Nominations for the Cybils begin October 1, and end October 15.

9-12 year olds

THE DRAGON IN THE DRIVEWAY: DRAGON KEEPERS by Kate Klimo. "It's been raining for days, and dragon keepers Jesse and Daisy have been stuck inside with their dragon, Emmy. As soon as the rain stops, they are out of the house in a flash. First on their list of things to do? To find out what the villainous Dr. St. George—a dragon slayer in disguise—is up to. But Dr. St. George isn’t in his office at the college, and all of his stuff is gone! Jesse, Daisy, and Emmy quickly discover St. George’s latest evil plan: to take over the forest and find the magic golden ax that is buried there. To make matters worse, he has also enslaved the mythical beings that are returning to Goldmine City. Can the two dragon keepers and their dragon free the hobgoblins and dryads under St. George’s power and return the forest to right?"

HAWKSMAID: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN by Kathryn Lasky

LEAVING THE BELLWEATHERS by Kristin Venuti. (not really fantasy, but a long way from reality). "The young Bellweathers–fourteen-year-old Spider, thirteen-year-old Ninda, and the ten-year-old triplets, Brick, Spike, and Sassy–and their equally peculiar parents have brought constant chaos to the once-peaceful village of Eel-Smack-by-the-Bay. Still, no one has suffered more than their loyal butler, Benway, who has finally had enough. He is secretly writing his tell-all memoirs, packing his bags, and planning his move to a tropical location, Far, Far Away.
But when the siblings discover Benway is preparing to leave their lighthouse home, they band together to prove how much he’s needed, as only Bellweathers can. . . ."

THE MONSTEROLOGY HANDBOOK: A PRACTICAL COURSE IN MONSTERS edited by Dugald A. Steer. "Is it true that a humble stone can summon a sea serpent to your aid?
Do you know the best way to remedy a cyclops’s "lazy eye"? What bison-like creature burns its enemies with venomous dung (and must be approached from the front)? How does one reliably tell true beasts from false, and what do stitches and glue have to do with it? Even monsterologists who know their bigfoots from their bakus can be stymied by the unexpected, and here is a no-nonsense source brimming with fun hands-on lessons guaranteed to leave the reader confident and prepared."

ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS by Neil Gaimann. "In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he's had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy.Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle—three creatures with a strange story to tell. Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined—a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it. It's going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter. Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever . . .Someone just like Odd "

THE SOCIETY OF UNRELENTING VIGILANCE: THE CANDLE MAN by Glenn Dakin. "Murder, mystery, and adventure aren’t your typical birthday presents . . .But for Theo, anything that breaks up his ordinary routine is the perfect gift. A mysterious “illness” and Theo’s guardians force him into a life indoors, where gloves must be worn and daily medical treatments are the norm. When Theo discovers a suspicious package on his birthday, one person from the past will unlock the secret behind Theo’s “illness” and change his life forever."

THE UNFINISHED ANGEL by Sharon Creech. "In the ancient stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember. Until Zola arrives, a determined American girl who wears three skirts all at once. For neighbors who have been longtime enemies, children who have been lost, and villagers who have been sleepily living their lives: hold on. Zola and the angel are about to collide. Figs start flying, dogs start arfing, and the whole village begins to wake up. Zola is a girl with a mission. And our angel has been without one—till now."

Z. REX: THE HUNTING by Steve Cole. "You’re 14 and find yourself on your own. Your father, who has developed the world’s cutting edge research on virtual electronic game-playing, has been missing for weeks. And suddenly you’re being hunted by men with guns, your picture is on the news, and, worst of all, something seemingly impossible is chasing you—a savage, man-eating dinosaur. How can that be? Why is everyone trying to capture you? And what is your strange connection with this 21st-century prehistoric monster?"

Young Adult

CANDOR by Pam Bachorz. "In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town’s founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause. But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar’s built a business sabotaging his father’s scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they’re turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks? Then he meets Nia, the girl he can’t stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more."

DEVOURED by Amanda Marrone.

GOING BOVINE by Libba Bray. "All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most."

THE HUNCHBACK ASSIGNMENTS by Arthur Slade. "The mysterious Mr. Socrates rescues Modo, a child in a traveling freak show. Modo is a hunchback with an amazing ability to transform his appearance, and Mr. Socrates raises him in isolation as an agent for the Permanent Association, a spy agency behind Brittania’s efforts to rule the empire. At 14, Modo is left on the streets of London to fend for himself. When he encounters Octavia Milkweed, another Association agent, the two uncover a plot by the Clockword Guild behind the murders of important men. Furthermore, a mad scientist is turning orphan children into automatons to further the goals of the Guild. Modo and Octavia journey deep into the tunnels under London and discover a terrifying plot against the British government. It’s up to them to save their country."

LEGACY: THE BECOMING by Dew Platt.

THE LONG WAIT FOR TOMORROW by Joaquin Dorfman. "What if, in a Freaky Friday moment, a wise and humble 40-year-old man woke one morning to find himself transported back in time, into his body more than 20 years before, when he was the popular, entitled, and arrogant quarterback of the school football team? Could the man do anything to stop a tragedy initiated by the cruel actions of the boy, or is fate too strong a force?"

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST by Rick Yancey. Will Henry is the "orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore War throp, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet."

PRETTY DEAD by Francesca Lia Block. "Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of Los Angeles, it consumes her from the inside out. But whether it is her eternal loneliness, the memory of her brother, the return of her first love, or the brooding, magnetic Jared—she cannot say. What if it's something more... Something to do with the sudden tear in her perfect nails. The heat she feels when she's with Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins. For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her."

THE PRICKER BOY by Reade Scott Whinnem. "He was human once, or so they say. The son of a fur trapper, he was taunted by his peers and tricked into one of his own father’s traps. By the time anybody found it, the trap’s vicious teeth were empty, pried open and overgrown. It was said the brambles themselves had reached out and taken pity on that boy; that his skin had hardened to bark as thorns grew over every inch of his body. Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t. But anyone who knows anything stays out of the woods beyond the Widow’s Stone. That used to be enough. But this is the summer everything changes, as Stucks Cumberland and his friends find a mysterious package containing mementos of their childhood: baseball cards, a worn paperback, a locket. Offerings left behind in the woods years ago, meant to keep the Pricker Boy at bay. Offerings that have been rejected."

VOICES IN THE DARK: THE LAST DESCENDANTS by Catherine Banner. "Anselm Andros has clearly defined roles in his family and they are roles he plays very well—he is confidante to his mother, Maria. He is the confessor to his stepfather, Leo, a man haunted by the secrets of his past. And Anselm is also the patient, caring brother to his precocious sister, Jasmine. When the political landscape of Malonia starts to shift, this unassuming family begins to unravel. Even though they’ve spent the past fifteen years leading a quiet life, Maria and Leo’s actions are forever linked to the turbulent history of Malonia and its parallel world, modern-day England. With so much uncertainty at home and in his world, it is more important than ever for Anselm to put all the pieces of the past together. He must listen to his own voice and acknowledge his fears and desires—whatever the cost."

THE WELL by A.J. Whitten. "If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner. His mother’s normally sunny demeanor has turned into something—homicidal. And what’s worse, she has help in her hunt for Cooper: A ravenous monster living at the bottom of the old well in the woods behind their house. She’s determined to deliver her 14-year-old son straight into the creature’s eager clutches. Cooper turns to his girlfriend, Megan, for help, but then, to his horror, the creature takes her prisoner. Now, it’s up to Cooper to fend off his murderous mother, finish his Hamlet paper, and enter the putrid lair at the bottom of the well to rescue Megan. And when he confronts the creature, Cooper must make the toughest decision of his life: kill, or be killed. Inspired by Hamlet, THE WELL puts a terrifying twist on the Shakespearean classic."

WISH YOU WERE DEAD by Todd Strasser. "The day after anonymous blogger Str-S-d wishes the popular girl would die, Lucy vanishes. The students of Soundview High are scared and worried. Especially frightened and wracked with guilt is Madison Archer, Lucy’s friend and the last person to see her the night she disappeared. As days pass with no sign of the missing girl, even the attention of Tyler, an attractive new student, is not enough to distract Madison from her growing sense of foreboding. When two more popular students disappear after their names are mentioned on Str-S-d’s blog, the residents of Soundview panic. Meanwhile, Madison receives anonymous notes warning that she could be next. Desperate to solve the mystery before anyone else disappears, Madison turns to Tyler, but can she trust him when it becomes clear that he knows more than he’s sharing? The clock is ticking. Madison must uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances . . . before her name appears in Str-S-d’s blog."