New Releases of Science Fiction and Fantasy for kids and teens, the second half of June, 2011 edition

Here are the new releases of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens from the second half of June1 There were so few I was able to include pictures, which is nice.

My information comes from Teens Read Too, and the blurbs are lifted from Amazon.

Middle Grade

THE BOY AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Greg van Eekhout "Fisher is the last boy on earth-and things are not looking good for the human race. Only Fisher made it out alive after the carefully crafted survival bunker where Fisher and dozens of other humans had been sleeping was destroyed.

Luckily, Fisher is not totally alone. He meets a broken robot he names Click, whose programmed purpose-to help Fisher "continue existing"-makes it act an awful lot like an overprotective parent. Together, Fisher and Click uncover evidence that there may be a second survival bunker far to the west. In prose that skips from hilarious to touching and back in a heartbeat, Greg van Eekhout brings us a thrilling story of survival that becomes a journey to a new hope-if Fisher can continue existing long enough to get there."

SCARY SCHOOL by Derek the Ghost "You think your school's scary? Get a load of these teachers:

Ms. Fang, an 850-year-old vampire
Dr. Dragonbreath, who just might eat you before recess
Mr. Snakeskin—science class is so much more fun when it's taught by someone who's half zombie
Mrs. T—break the rules and spend your detention with a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex!

Plus

Gargoyles, goblins, and Frankenstein's monster on the loose
The world's most frighteningly delicious school lunch

And

The narrator's an eleven-year-old ghost!

Join Charles "New Kid" Nukid as he makes some very Scary friends—including Petunia, Johnny, and Peter the Wolf—and figures out that Scary School can be just as funny as it is spooky!"

THE SECRET PRINCE: KNIGHTLEY ACADEMY by Violet Haberdasher "Knightley Academy is back in session, and Henry Grim is confident that nothing else can prevent him from earning his knighthood. But Henry and his friends quickly discover that their professors have made some troubling changes to the curriculum -- an old classroom filled with forgotten weapons. It is the discovery of this classroom that prompts Henry and Valmont to become the unlikely leaders of a secret battle society. But disaster strikes as Henry, Adam and Frankie find themselves stuck as Partisan School servants. Yet something is rotten in Partisan Keep. And when Henry is discovered by a secret society of outlaws with a sinister purpose, he must come to terms with a great sacrifice that will take him away from everything he has ever known and wanted. The stakes get higher and tension mounts in the second installment of Violet Haberdasher's fresh, fast-paced, and always surprising Knightley Academy books."

The Young Adult books:


THE ASCENSION: A SUPER HUMAN CLASH by Michael Carroll "They'd done it. Not only had Roz, Abby, Lance, and Thunder survived their first battle with a super villain, they'd defeated him. Krodin was dead, and they had saved the world. Now everything could go back to normal-good old, boring normal. School. Parents. Friends.

But three weeks later, the world suddenly changes. The United States is under martial law, the people are little more than drones, and where Central Park should be there now stands a massive glass-and-steel building, home to the all-powerful Chancellor.

In Michael Carroll's follow-up to the acclaimed Super Human, the world has been remade in the Chancellor's image, and it's about to get much much worse. Only this young band of heroes has a chance of stopping him, but can they return the world to what it was, or will they be stranded in this alternate world forever?"

BREATH OF ANGEL: THE ANGELEON CIRCLE by Karyn Henley "The stranger’s cloak had fallen back, and with it, a long, white, blood-stained wing.

When Melaia, a young priestess, witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger in the temple courtyard, age-old legends recited in song suddenly come to life. She discovers wings on the stranger, and the murderer takes the shape of both a hawk and a man.

Angels. Shape-shifters. Myths and stories—until now.

Melaia finds herself in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, stranding angels in the earthly realm. When Melaia becomes a target, she finds refuge with a band of angels attempting to restore the stairway. But the restoration is impossible without settling an ancient debt—the “breath of angel, blood of man,” a payment that involves Melaia’s heart, soul, and destiny."

DEAD RULES by Randy Russell
"Till death

Jana Webster and Michael Haynes were in love. They were destined to be together forever.

Do

But Jana's destiny was fatally flawed. And now she's in Dead School, where Mars Dreamcote lurks in the back of the classroom, with his beguiling blue eyes, mysterious smile, and irresistibly warm touch.

Us

Michael and Jana were incomplete without each other. There was no room for Mars in Jana's life—or death—story. Jana was sure Michael would rush to her side soon.

Part

But things aren't going according to Jana's plan. So Jana decides to do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true—no matter what rules she has to break."

ETERNITY: A FALLEN ANGEL NOVEL by Heather Terrell "As Ellie comes to grips with her destiny as the Elect One, her relationship with Michael grows tense. When she meets a mys­terious boy named Rafe, things get even more complicated.

Yet the time has come for the Elect One to stand against the group of evil fallen angels who are bent on destroying the world. In order to face the immeasurable malevolence heading her way, Ellie tries to put her personal life aside. But she soon learns that whoever holds her heart also holds the key to mankind’s salvation—or destruction. As the end days approach, Ellie is faced with an epic decision. Who does her heart really belong to? And is her love strong enough to save the world?"

FINS ARE FOREVER by Tera Lynn Childs "On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mergirl, true, but signing the renunciation will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being-human thing once and for all.

Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, the waves start to get rough. Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?

The seafoam on the raging surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up—Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her own dreams?"

GRIFFIN RISING by Darby Karchut "For centuries, rumors have abounded of a lowly caste of supernatural beings known as the Terrae Angeli. Armed with the power to control Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water, these warriors secretly serve as guardians for mortals in danger. But for one young angel-in-training, Griffin, life is hell as a cruel master makes his apprenticeship a nightmare. On the verge of failing, a new mentor, Basil, enters his life and changes it forever. Taking on the identity of father and son, Griffin and Basil forge a special bond where honesty and trust go hand in hand to secure Griffin's destiny as a Terrae Angeli. Griffin's belief in himself and the love of a mortal girl are the perfect combination in overcoming the darkest days of his life. But will it be enough for him to succeed? For Griffin, it's time to angel up."

HAUNTING VIOLET by Alyxandra Harvey "Violet Willoughby doesn't believe in ghosts. But they believe in her. After spending years participating in her mother's elaborate ruse as a fraudulent medium, Violet is about as skeptical as they come in all matters supernatural. Now that she is being visited by a very persistent ghost, one who suffered a violent death, Violet can no longer ignore her unique ability. She must figure out what this ghost is trying to communicate, and quickly because the killer is still on the loose.

Afraid of ruining her chance to escape her mother's scheming through an advantageous marriage, Violet must keep her ability secret. The only person who can help her is Colin, a friend she's known since childhood, and whom she has grown to love. He understands the true Violet, but helping her on this path means they might never be together. Can Violet find a way to help this ghost without ruining her own chance at a future free of lies?"

LUMINOUS by Dawn Metcalf "As reality slips and time stands still, Consuela finds herself thrust into the world of the Flow. Removed from all she loves into this shifting world overlapping our own, Consuela quickly discovers she has the power to step out of her earthly skin and cloak herself in new ones-skins made from the world around her, crafted from water, fire, air. She is joined by other teens with extraordinary abilities, bound together to safeguard a world they can affect, but where they no longer belong.

When murder threatens to undo the Flow, the Watcher charges Consuela and elusive, attractive V to stop the killer. But the psychopath who threatens her new world may also hold the only key to Consuela's way home."

A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL by Suzanne Young "We all want to be remembered. Charlotte's destiny is to be forgotten.

Charlotte's best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she's cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what's really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become—her mark on this earth, her very existence—is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.

Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny—no matter how dark the consequences?"

SHADOWCRY: THE SECRETS OF WINTERCRAFT by Jenna Burtenshaw "The Night of Souls—when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest—is only days away. Albion is at war . . . and losing. The wardens have descended, kidnapping innocent citizens for their army, but looking for one in particular.

And fifteen-year-old Kate Winters has just raised a blackbird from the dead.

As her home is torn apart by the wardens, Kate's discovery that she is one of the Skilled—the rare people who can cross the veil between life and death—makes her the most hunted person in all of Albion. Only she can unlock the secrets of Wintercraft, the ancient book of dangerous knowledge. Captured and taken to the graveyard city of Fume—with its secret tunnels and underground villages, and where her own parents met their deaths ten years ago—Kate must harness her extraordinary powers to save herself, her country, and the two men she cares for most. And she'll make a pact with a murderer to do it.

Those who wish to see the dark, be ready to pay your price."

THE SLICE: KILLER PIZZA by Greg Taylor "Four months after they discover that their new place of employment, Killer Pizza, was a front for an underground Monster Hunting Organization, Toby and his fellow rookie Monster Combat Officers, Annabel and Strobe, have been invited to New York City to tour KP Headquarters. But the exclusive tour is cut short when a monster emergency sends the trio off on a secret mission delivering Calanthe, a beautiful 14-year-old, defecting monster with serpent-like abilities, into the Monster Protection Program. It seems like an easy assignment until the teens realize Calanthe is the sacrificial offering in a ceremony set to happen in a few days and her people will stop at nothing to get her back!"

SPELLBOUND by Cara Lynn Shultz "What's a girl to do when meeting The One means she's cursed to die a horrible death?

Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Conner, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.

But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else."

SONG OF THE OVULUM: CHILDREN OF THE BARD by Bryan Davis "It has been fifteen years since Billy and Bonnie Bannister helped repel the demonic assault on Heaven. Now they and Ashley Foley sit in a maximum security prison where the authorities conduct experiments on them to learn the secrets of long life. Earlier, the world’s acceptance of dragonkind crumbled, and the Enforcers took the infant twins born to Billy and Bonnie and stole Excalibur, hoping to develop a weapon to battle the dragons that are sure to try to rescue their allies. All the while, a great secret from the past is being revealed to Bonnie through a dream. Joran and Selah, teenaged children of Methuselah, have been trapped in a strange world for centuries, yet still able to manipulate certain events in our world during that time.

Walter Foley finds the Bannisters’ son and hopes to use his dragon traits to help him rescue the prisoners. In the meantime, an ancient demon locates the Bannisters’ daughter and plans to use her to help him discover the hiding place of the most powerful ovulum in the world and squelch its protective song. With that ovulum in his possession, he will be able to conquer and control both Earth and Second Eden.

The fate of two worlds now rests on the Bannisters’ two teenagers who must use their dragon traits and their innate courage to battle demons, a sorceress, and soldiers in a military compound in order to rescue parents they don’t even know."


TORN by Erica O'Rourke "Everyone has secrets. Even best friends.

Swirling black descends like ravens, large enough to block the glow of the streetlights. A dull roar starts like a train on the ‘L', a far-away rumbling that grows louder as it pulls closer, until it's directly overhead and you feel it in your chest, except this doesn't pass you by. Verity, white-faced and eyes blazing, shouts through the din, "Run, Mo!"

Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo--quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo--will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys--protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?"

Update on the Spring into Summer Read-a-thon and me

The nice thing about participating in a read-a-thon, like the one I am doing currently (hosted over at Squeaky Books) is that it encourages me to read the low priority books. So yesterday evening and today I made my way through three books borrowed from the library discards, and (yay!) I get them out of house and back to the library booksale closet on Monday.

They were

Trapped on the Golden Flyer, by Susan Fleming, 1978 (boy trapped on a train stuck in snow; readable, but not as exciting a survival story as I'd hoped, so no need to rush out and get this one yourself). 123 pages

Secret of the Unicorn, by Robin Gottlieb, 1965 (utterly implausible premise of 12 year old girl never having heard of unicorns, and the believing they might be real so she can find one and use its magic to cure her father. The treasure hunt that ensues isn't bad, but isn't enough. Look for this one if you are collecting books about the Cloisters in NY, otherwise not). 115 pages

The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett, 2003 (enjoyed this one, which I'd never read before, but wasn't quite as blown away by it as I had hoped. Probably because the idea of being surrounded by so many wee free men is not appealing). 263 pages

Bringing me to a grand total of 1029 pages for the read-a-thon!

And now back to my book in progress--The School of Emerys End (1944), about two English girls in WW II who enroll in their (recently deceased) great uncle's orphanage as orphans, so as to fulfil a bizarre provision of his will. This one wasn't an ex-library discard, but rather on loan from my sister, so it too can expect to move on out of the house soon.

The current mini challenge is to anagram-ize our names--Charlotte's Library becomes SCHOLARLY, BRATTIER, which isn't bad...try it yourself here

Karma, by Cathy Ostlere

Today and tomorrow I'm taking part in the Spring into Summer readathon, over at Squeaky Books. Today is my first day of summer vacation, but sadly, unlike the happy summers of childhood, there's more than just reading and eating cookies--I have to go into work for a few hours this afternoon.

But still. One reads as much as one can. This morning I began the read-a-thon with Karma, by Cathy Osteler, and have just finished, and my heart is heavy and my eyes a bit teary.

Do not be deceived by the pink cover with the romantic profiles of the boy and girl. This is a dark and heavy book, but mercifully, even in the darkness there is beauty and hope.

Karma is the story of Maya, child of a Hindu mother and a Sikh father, who immigrated to Canada after their forbidden marriage. When her mother commits suicide, she and her father take the urn of ashes back to India, and arrive just in time for the October, 1984, assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the retaliatory killings of thousands of Sikhs. She is separated by her father, and thrown into a nightmare of chaos and death.

But Maya is fated to live. She is taken in by a family in the desert town to which she had randomly fled, and Sandeep, the 17 year old adopted son of that family (a boy who has still not been able to face, or even fully remember, the past horror of his own life), becomes her friend....

Told in the form of diary entries (first by Maya, then by Sandeep, and finally by Maya again), in a free verse form, this is a stunningly, achingly powerful story. It is not for the faint of heart. The brief, lyrical description of the castration of little boys during the bloodbath in New Delhi, for instance, is horrible (and will stick in my mind forever), and it is but one of many horrors.

But the light that Ostlere's beautiful and moving writing brings to this story makes the book worth reading. Hard questions are asked, and sad stories are told, and it is good and important that these things be done, and the stories not be forgotten, and that people think, and care, and try to do better. Ostlere has no easy answers, but the reader is left hopeful that healing is possible.

Side note--in general, I don't care for stories written in free verse format--my eyes skittle too fast over the pages. Here, possibly because the "free verse" was in the form of diary entries, I found it easy to loose myself in the story.

I won this book in a give-away from Niki at Wicked Awesome Books -- here's her review. (Thanks Niki!)

Mother Goose Picture Puzzles, by Will Hillenbrand, for Poetry Friday

For Poetry Friday, and also for Tidy Up Loose Books Day (which we actually celebrate every day in our house), I offer Mother Goose Picture Puzzles, by Will Hillenbrand (Marshall Cavendish, 2011, 40 pp).

My own children learned their Mother Goose rhymes with the same Richard Scarry book that I had when I was young, but if I had had on hand a copy of Mother Goose Picture Puzzles I would most definitely have read it to them early and often. Likewise, if I had a two- or three-year-old to buy a book gift for, this would be on my list.

Hillenbrand's version of Mother Goose incorporates rebus-es (rebi?) into twenty of the classic nursery rhymes (ie, there are pictures of "mouse" and "clock" instead of the words in Hickory Dickory Dock). The pictures are (for the most part) self-evident to even a little one, but what makes it fun is that the things pictured appear in the larger illustrations with word labels. This adds another interactive element to the book, as you try to find the word that goes with each picture, and is a nice way to acquire a bit of word recognition.

I would have loved it as a two-year old (I'm pretty sure), and I wish I had it when my own boys were two or three! I enjoy Hillenbrand's illustrations lots in general, and the ones in this book are particularly charming.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher, and it is off to be donated the library today, which will give me a sense of accomplishment all out of proportion to the actual progress made viz moving books off of temporary storage piles and into more permanent homes.

The Poetry Friday Round-up is at Check It Out today!

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman (FirstSecond, 2011, 176 pages), is a wild and wacky sci fi graphic novel for kids, that has much charm, wit, and even poignancy.

Astronaut Academy, a boarding school in space, is very strange. The Spanish teacher, for instance, is a panda, another teacher an elf, and another a bunny, and the curriculum includes dinosaur-driving lessons.

To this school comes Hakata Soy, a boy with a heroic past and attractive/messy hair (depending on who you ask). One of the downsides of having a heroic past (in this case, joining up with your pals to assume the form of Metador, a big robot transformer-like thing so as to more effectively defeat bad guys) is that the bad guys might want revenge...and so Hakata Soy all unwittingly is followed to Astronaut Academy by trouble.

The story jumps between the points of view of multiple students--the ultra rich bratty girl, the jock, the loner, and (my favorite character) Miyumi San, who's the girl I would want to be friends with--the outsider girl picked on by the rich brat and her sidekick. It took me a while to get in the swing of things, what with all the cast members (who seemed at first like a collection of stereotypes, but grew rapidly more interesting) and the strangeness of the set-up (which never became less strange), but it was well worth it.

The story qua story is diverting, and the characters (rich brat Maribelle excepted) engaging and more multifaceted than one might expect (even the rich brat), and (this is what made me enjoy the book most of all) the language Roman uses tickled my fancy considerably. He uses emphasis to great effect, and his characters have a tendency to use exaggeratedly performative speech, which was nicely mixed with more relaxed dialogue.

(pause while I comb the book looking for an example that makes clear what I was talking about and conveys why I find this very pleasing)

I wasn't able to find a perfect example, but maybe this will do:

Mirabelle: "Holy smokes! How come that laser didn't fry us into scattered ashes?"

Hikato: "My 3-in-1 jacket is CUSTOMIZED with a damage resistant nylon shell."

Hikato: "Like the rocket books, compliments of my best pal, Gadget Thompson (who I wish would return my phone calls and distress signals)."

Maribelle: I was gonna use Miyumi as a human shield, but I guess this works well enough. Oooh! And pretty soft too." (page 133)

Bother. I'm not sure that works to convey how charmingly stilted I found much of the prose. Would it convince you to try this book if I mentioned that the bad guys attack a planet of bunnies while wearing robotic bird costumes and saying "chirp chirp?" If I told you the dinosaur race scene was a masterpiece of absurd charm? Or how about if I told you that there were characters who really touched my heart with their uncertainty and loneliness (hugs one lonely boy in particular)? And they are a beautifully diverse lot of kids too, for those who want to read, as it were, in color.

I am not, in general, good at reading graphic novels, because I have a hard time pulling my eyes away from the words. My first try at this book, I did, in fact, put it down because I was getting confused. The second time, though, having some familiarity with the story, I loved it! And what is, perhaps, more to the point, so did my personal representative of the target audience. I brought this one home from Book Expo America, and within two days my 10-year-old had read it four times.

Ultraviolet, by R.J. Anderson (Waiting on Wednesday)

Stopping by my friend Chachic's blog yesterday, I read her thoughts on R.J. Anderson's forthcoming book, Ultraviolet. I'd enjoyed Anderson's fairy books (Knife et seq) and was curious about this one...and now, having read Chachic's post, I'm sold!

So today, for my Waiting on Wednesday book (this is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine), I am officially putting Ultraviolet on my to be acquired list! Here's the blurb, from the author's website:

ULTRAVIOLET (UK & US, June/September 2011)

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

And here's the part of Chachic's post that hooked me:

"At first, I thought it was going to be a straight up contemporary YA novel set in a mental institution for teens. I was worried that it would be too gritty or bleak for my taste but that didn’t happen. Instead, the novel transformed into something with hints of magic realism with maybe a bit of fantasy and to my surprise, science fiction was thrown into the mix."

Coming September, 2011, from Carolrhoda Books.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, June 2011, YA on up, 352 pages)

On an island off the coast of Wales, there was once a home for peculiar children, and one of the children who lived there was Jacob's grandfather. He told Jacob stories about the children-the girl who could fly, the boy who had bees living inside him, the brother and sister who could lift boulders...and showed him old black and white pictures of these friends from his past.

And he also told Jacob about monsters--the stuff of nightmares.

When Jacob was 16, he saw his first monster. And then he went to Wales, to the place where the peculiar children had lived long ago...

Here's the trailer. Watch it.



And that's all I'm going to say about the story, except for a spoiler coming up at the end of the post! But I could talk at great length about the delicious strangeness of the book--its odd combination of horror and enchantment, and its mesmerizing, creepy, beautiful, haunting, disturbing photographs....it's not a cozy comfort read. But boy, once things get going, it is a zinger!

I have never ever seen found photographs used to such great effect--these are all real pictures. That part of the book is brilliant, and makes this a book that is unforgettable. I wasn't convinced by all aspects of the plot, but that, I think, was because I was so mesmerized by the characters and their circumstances that "plot," with all its messy concomitant happenings and conflicts, seemed extraneous and felt a tad forced.

If you feel stuck in a reading rut, whether your rut of choice be lighthearted fantasy for the young, scary stories or steamy paranormal fantasy for the somewhat older, do give this a try! I didn't take it to my heart in a warm and snuggly way, but it was one of the most memorable books I've read in ages, and I couldn't put it down!

Here's another review, relatively spoiler-free, at Stainless Steel Droppings, that's worth checking out if I haven't already convinced you.

And now for the spoiler.

spoiler space!



more spoiler space!

Here's the spoiler:

This is a time travel book (that's why I'm reviewing it this Tuesday, as is my time travellish wont!). So not only does the reader get peculiar orphans (almost always a plus as far as I'm concerned), she gets orphans suspended in WW II. Their home has been inserted into an endless loop of one repeated day, a loop into which Jacob plunges, stirring things up on every level, creating paradoxes, emotional conflicts, and bringing Danger to the idyllic (or is it?) world of the peculiar children.

You can almost hear creepy music playing while you read....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine

A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine (Harper Collins, 2011, middle grade, 226 pages)

12-year-old Elodie's heart is set on become a mansioner--an actress--in the city of Two Castles. But when she gets off the boat that had brought her from her home, she is dismayed to find that she is too poor to pay the fee to become an apprentice. In a stroke of good luck (although Elodie isn't sure of this at first), she is instead taken under the wing of the town's resident dragon.

Meenore, the dragon, is the town's detective (self-appointed), as well as a prosaic seller of toasted cheese in the market, and IT (the gender of dragons is a private matter) wants Elodie as an assistant. IT is all set to hone her powers of observation and deduction. But before Elodie can be accustomed to life in the dragon's lair, a full-blown mystery erupts.

Count Jonty Um, the kindly (but feared) ogre who lives in one of the two castles, asks for Meenore's assistance in finding his missing dog. But the dog is just the tip of the iceberg--soon Jonty Um becomes the victim of attempted murder, and, transformed into a mouse by the power of cat persuasion (shades of Puss in Boots), goes missing. And then, when a poisoner strikes the greedy king, Elodie (a handy scapegoat) finds herself the chief suspect....

It will take all her intelligence and all her skills as an actress (and considerable help from the dragon) to solve the mystery.

It's rare to see a fantasy novel that centers around an engaging mystery, and this focus made A Tale of Two Castles fresh and engaging. It's clever, and it's fun, and the characters (especially the dragon) are interesting as all get out! I can't speak to the quality of the mystery qua mystery--I'm bad at Clues, and I (blushes) read the ending half-way through. I did, however, think that the Badness of the main Bad character was too unforshadowed and unexplained. Not a lot of depth there.

But I do rather like the message that Levine's story sends. The distrust the townsfolk feel for the ogre is a serious matter that in large part drives the plot, but this issue is left for the reader to reflect on without it being heavily underlined. And Elodie's own initial feelings for both ogre and dragon are full of the fear of the unknown and different; by the end, they have both become her firm friends. (My mind kept reading the ogre's name, Jonty Um, as gentilhomme, so I felt friendly toward him from the beginning--I wonder if Levine had that in mind!)

This is a lovely sort of book to give the younger middle grade reader (there's no romance, just a crush Elodie has on a handsome roguish type), but, as I said, I enjoyed it just fine myself. It doesn't back a big emotional punch, but it was fun. Fans of fairy tale re-imaginings will enjoy the elements of Puss in Boots that Levine incorporates--it's not exactly a retelling of that story, but considerable bits of it can be found here.

This Sunday's Round-Up of Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy from around the blogs

Another Sunday, another round-up! Let me know if I missed your post, please!

The Reviews:

11 Books, by Wendy Mass, at Anita Silvey's Children's Book-a-day Almanac

The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl), by Eoin Colfer, at Storytelling & Me

Behemoth, by Scott Westerfeld, at The Compulsive Reader

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout, at Charlotte's Library

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go, by Dale E. Bayse, at Sony the Book Lover

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bradsford, at Geo Librarian

The Midnight Gate, by Helen Stringer, at Bookworming in the 21st Century

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh, at Charlotte's Library

Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper, at Tor

The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Stella Matutina

Reckless, by Cornelia Funke, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

The Remarkable and Very True Story of Lucy and Snowcap, by H.M. Bouwman, at Novel and Nouveau

Runemarks, by Joanne Harris, at Book Nut

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley, at Charlotte's Library

Spellbound (Books of Elsewhere 2), by Jacqueline West, at Beyond Books

A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, at Ex Libris

The Tartan Magic series, by Jane Yolen, at Books Kids Like

Troubletwisters, by Garth Nix and Sean Williams, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at the Ya Ya Yas

A Year Without Autumn, by Liz Kessler, at Reading, Writing, and Ribaldry

Other things of interest:

Here's an interview I missed last week--Laura Sullivan (Under the Green Hill) at Candace's Book Blog

Kathrine Langrish hosts Terri Windling in a reprise of her Fairy Tale Reflections series at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

You can find some great discussion questions for Harry Potter at Challenging the Bookworm

And finally, a bit of monster art goodness--all of Lovecraft's monsters beautifully portrayed, via Galleycat. Here's an example from the artist's website (Yog-Blogsoth)

YAKITH LIZARD
"So T’yog wrote his protective formula on a scroll of pthagon membrane (according to von Junzt, the inner skin of the extinct yakith-lizard) and enclosed it in a carven cylinder of lagh metal—the metal brought by the Elder Ones from Yuggoth, and found in no mine of earth. This charm, carried in his robe, would make him proof against the menace of Ghatanothoa—it would even restore the Dark God’s petrified victims if that monstrous entity should ever emerge and begin its devastation."
H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, Out Of the Aeons

Cleaning the books out of the bathtub

Today I cleaned out the books that had accumulated in my bathtub. Not many people get to say this.

Not many people end up carting home 12 boxes of donations for their library's book sale, 4 boxes of which turn out to be ex-library German scholarly works from the 1950s. That book sale had a lot of books, I didn't think they'd sell, I was tired--so what better place than the downstairs bathtub? (There's another bathroom upstairs, with only one book in it; a much nicer, more salubrious bathroom).

But the books in the bathtub have been getting on my nerves, and it occured to me that if I put a plank across the tub (longways), I could have a bookshelf, which would be much tidier. So I made progress today, and moved piles of German prose et cet. into the kitchen, where there was a nice bit of floor that no one was using. (There's another library book sale coming weekend after next, and for those books that really have no future, it's recycling night in my town tomorrow).

Someday there will be a new downstairs bathroom, and the current one will go back to its original incarnation of pantry and there will be a bookshelf for every book. But until then....

Spring into Summer readathoning

Just to say that I'll be throwing my hat into the ring for the Spring into Summer Read-a-thon being held over at Squeaky Books! Goodness knows I have enough books that need reading, so why not readathon as many as I can????

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley (Harper Collins, YA/middle grade, 320 pages) is one of those very pleasant fantasy books that is tailor-made for the 11 or 12 year old girl looking for an engrossing escape from the real world. It's set in a medieval not-quite Europe, and tells how a 7-year-old pot scrubber in the castle kitchen grew up to become a brave girl, with a magical gift that helps her break the sinister magical curse that has brought death to her country's royal family.

Young Molly's pot scrubbing skills were so great that she was promoted to polishing the royal silver. The most precious thing she was assigned was the great silver bowl in which the royal hands were washed. But as she polishes, she sees visions...and through these visions she learns of a dark curse that is threatening the lives of the royal family. When magical wolves break into the castle, savagely attacking the queen and her children, Molly and her stable-boy friend, Tobias, save the life of Prince Alaric (beautiful, but, not unnaturally, a snob). But keeping him alive means breaking the curse once and for all....and to do that, Molly must figure out the secrets held by the silver bowl, and her own family's role in the magic it contains.

The plot is clearly based on a substantial amount of magic, but the magic is kept, as it were, in its proper place. It's certainly enough to lend enchantment to the view, but it doesn't overwhelm the day to day actions of the characters. It's these quotidian details that most pleased me about this book, but that being said, I love the way in which Molly's gift is tied to the silversmithing heritage of her family, craft magic being a great favorite of mine!

The mystery of the silver bowl is intriguing, the characters are engaging, and the development of the relationships between Molly, Tobias, and Alaric is a pleasure to read about. Although things are, perhaps, a bit slow to get going (for those who don't enjoy silver polishing), once things start happening, it all moves along with a nice briskness.

I have one very minor reservation about The Silver Bowl-occasionally the prose that Molly uses in her first person narration felt a tad stiff, as if Stanley were aiming for a more "medievally" feel, with little phrases, like "I could scarce believe it" and "I grew ever more anxious." Some readers might find this adds to the medieval world-building, others might find a bit forced. And likewise, given that Molly has had no formal education at all, and has spent her childhood in the kitchen scrubbing pots, she has a surprisingly erudite vocabulary.

This is marketed as YA, but it has a very middle-grade feel. There's a bit of violence (but not too terrible) and although romance is in the air, it isn't happening quite yet... Happily, there will be a chance for that in the future--from Diane Stanley's website comes this news: "I have recently finished book two, THE RAVEN OF HARROWSGODE, in which Molly explores the source and nature of her ever-changing magical gift." Goodie!

The Silver Bowl is included in Booklist's Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth, the full list is here, in their May 15, 2011 issue, a list on which it stands out for being a relatively gentle fantasy, good for middle grade readers. Here's another review at Book Aunt.

Highly recommended to fans of Jessica Day George, Gail Carson Levine, and Shannon Hale.

Flip, by Martyn Bedford

Flip, by Martyn Bedford (Wendy Lamb Books, 2011, YA, 272 pages).

14-year-old Alex is an asthmatic, clarinet-playing, fairly normal London boy. But then one morning he wakes up in a strange bed, in a strange house in the north of England, and worst of all, in a strange body. It's the middle of June, and six months have somehow passed overnight. Suddenly he must take up a whole new life as Flip (short for Philip)--complete with a new family, a new school, and not one, but two, girlfriends...

Then he learns that his own body has been lying in a coma in a London hospital for all the missing months. What follows is Alex's struggle to figure out what has happened to him, and to somehow keep himself, Alex, alive inside Flip's body until he can go home again...if that's even possible. And, in addition, there are the struggles of daily life--to get out of having to play cricket, to eat foods Flip liked but Alex didn't, and to cope with Flip's girlfriends, while slowly building his own relationship with loner, musical girl Flip had ignored.

The central premise of the book is speculative fiction (neither sci fi nor fantasy), but Alex's struggle to keep his own identity in the difficult circumstances both of his particular situation, and the difficult circumstances of being a 14 year old boy in general, make for a story that is so rooted in the particulars of the real world that this should appeal strongly to readers who generally avoid spec fic books.* "Psychological thriller" is a phrase used by several other reviewers to describe it; not a genre I read (as far as I know), so I'm not sure how accurate it is!

But in addition to that, this book thoughtfully raises both metaphysical questions--what is the soul? what makes one person different from another? --as well as questions of what if? nature. What if you were still alive, in a different body, and your parents no longer recognized you? Could you make a new life for your own self, and still be your own self in the ways that mattered, in someone else's body?

Although the basic premise is certainly compelling, what made the book work for me were the characters. Bedford does a great job not only with Alex, but with supporting cast (with the possible exception of the absent Flip, who we only see as a collection of traits that Alex doesn't share. We never get to hear poor Flip's side of things, and he comes off as rather unlikable--the sort of boy 14-year old me would have wanted nothing to do with, and vice versa!)

In short, Flip is a fascinating page-turner with broad appeal. Although the premise might seem darkish, the reader (well, me at any rate) is left with a warm and fuzzy desire to go hug their own family.

Other reviews at Midnight Bloom Reads, Feeling Fictional, The Crazy Bookworm, and Our Time in June.

*This is one of my favorite YA reads of the year, and so I'm thinking ahead to the Cybils awards, and wondering if I will nominate it. It's tricky, though, because I while I think it would be more at home in the non-sci fi/fantasy YA section, the central premise of soul-transfer seems to argue against that. Up at the top is the American cover, to the right the UK one--I think the difference between these covers illustrates the dual nature of the book rather nicely--ordinary dude (albeit upside down) vs scary sci-fi looking giant-face-in-his-torso dude.

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

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury, 2011, middle grade, 224 pages), begins thus:

"This is what he knew.
His name was Fisher.
The world was dangerous.
He was alone.
And that was all."

Fisher, born from a pod full of bubbling gel, comes to consciousness in a future world where he is the only living human. The pods around him, full of other people who should have been awakened when the world was ready to be populated again, have been destroyed. He is not entirely alone, however--one maintenance robot, programed to help humanity "continue existing," survived the mysterious catastrophe that struck the ark where Fisher had been preserved. And thanks to the robot, Fisher learns that there was a southern ark prepared as well...one that might still have its people inside it.

The only problem, in Fisher's mind, is how to get to it. He doesn't know that the journey will be easy, compared to surviving what they find there....

Fisher has been programed to be, well, a fisher (the robot who woke him had to make a quick choice of skill sets for him). So he knows all about fish and how to catch them, which is certainly useful when you're headed south down a river in the post-apocalyptic United States with only a maintenance robot (and a random pygmy mammoth) for company. It's enough to keep him alive, barely. Much of the story is, in fact, concerned with the mechanics of survival in the wilderness (after writing this, I went back and read Betsy's thoughts over at Fuse #8--we are in agreement that there is a Hatchet-like vibe to this one).

This being Greg van Eekhout (author of the bizarre but entertaining Kid vs Squid), and this being a post-human world in which evolution has merrily gone on its wondrous way, Fisher encounters strange creatures on his journey. Some, like the giant killer parrots, are fascinating and easy to accept. One of them, the young pygmy mammoth mentioned above, becomes a companion (although I'm not quite sure why....)

But there are also creatures who are rather, um, strange? surreal? in a what the heck, am I going to be able to swallow their presence in the story? kind of way (creatures that Gary Paulson would never put into a story). I shall say no more. You must meet them, and judge for yourself--for me, their presence changed the whole flavor of the story. Like biting through the chocolate (bleak post-apocalyptic journey) and hitting the cherry (bizarre encounter that suddenly fills the book with new characters and ends up being tremendously important).

Fisher's a protagonist one can empathize with--he has no character at the beginning of the story, being just born, with no memories, but as he journeys, he makes for himself a story of determination and loneliness that carries the reader along. The robot fills the role of "side-kick to hero" as best as an over-protective maintenance robot can; the pygmy mammoth provides a dash of comic relief.

The "child in strange new world with robot companion" story is reminiscent of Tony DiTerlizzi recent book, The Search for WondLa. But the two are very different in feel--Wondla is less bleak (not being as grimly focused on survival), and rather more full of diverting characters for the main character to journey with. This is not to say that The Boy at the End of the World is depressing--the reader, like Fisher, is tense and anxious, and full of apprehension and curiosity as to where the journey will lead, but in true Adventure Story fashion, perils are overcome and hope continues.

Highly recommended for the 10 to 12 year old looking for a book that is full of mystery and excitement; for the young reader who might be impatient with Magic but who wants a book to spark his or her imagination. The intrepid 9 year old, even, might enjoy it--there are some toe-curling bits of horrifying Squirm, and tense bits of imminent death, but not so as to be unrelentingly Dark. That being said, there's enough thoughtful weight to the writing to make this one teens might enjoy too.

The Boy at the End of the World will be released June 21. As well as Betsy's review linked to above, others can be found at Suburban (in)Sanity and Buxton's Fantasy Novels.

Edited to add: when reading this, I missed the descriptive bits that mark Fisher as a kid of color. Here's Greg van Eekhout talking about his character: "When I look at Fisher on the cover, I see someone who could have been me when I was twelve. As a brown, multiracial person, I’m really happy about that."

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

A Timeslip Tuesday Bonus Giveaway! Enter to win Ruby Red!

Timeslip Tuesday bonus: enter to win a copy of the much-heralded time travel book, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier!

I'm breaking a self-imposed rule here--normally, before I offer a giveaway of a book, whether from me or through the publishers, I'll read it first and offer a few thoughts on it. Today, however, I'm just offering the giveaway--I have been wanting to read Ruby Red for absolutely ages (Time travel! A sophisticated, beautiful Charlotte (who seems to move off stage early on, but still, I'll take what I can get). Here's the publisher's blurb:

"Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust."

Working on the assumption that many of you who read my blog might also want a copy of Ruby Red, leave a comment with a way to reach you by 11:59 on the 15th of June and you may win one (lots of other people are doing this giveaway too, and lots of people who aren't me have already read it, so the odds of you winning seem good). Sorry, but it's US/Canada only.

Lots of the people who have read it like it a lot--you can see bits of their thoughts, and read an excerpt of the book, here at its Macmillan page.

And here is the trailer for the book:

Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, by Patricia Polacco, for Timeslip Tuesday

Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, by Patricia Polacco (a picture book from Putnam Juvenile, 2011)

Michael and Derek are dismayed when their grandmother confiscates their stash of electronic divertissements on the train to Washington, D.C. The chance to meet an expert on the Civil War at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, does not seem like an exciting exchange, and indeed, they find his collection of Civil War photographs, taken by Mathew Brady on the battlefields of the war. However, dressing up in authentic Union uniforms is not without its appeal, as the war is not entirely without interest to the boys:

"Hey, I had a video game about the battle of Gettysburg," Derek chirped. "I blew away four hundred soldiers all by myself. I think I set a record."

So when the museum director offers them a chance to play a Civil War game, involving a visit to Antietam (the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War) just after the battle, the boys are keen to go. Dressed in their uniforms, they pass through a door....and are back in the past.

There they find themselves taking the roles of Mathew Brady's assistants, as he prepares to photograph Abraham Lincoln meeting General McClellan on the battlefield. And there, on the battlefield, still littered with corpses, they learn that war is not a game.

Abraham Lincoln is there with them, deeply saddened by the carnage. Michael cannot restrain himself, and comforts Lincoln by telling him the North will win the war, the country will remain united, and that a black man will become president, and as proof, in one of the more powerful moments of the book, shows Lincoln a 2007 penny.

But the boys must get back to Harper's Ferry before their time in the past runs out....and there are still enemy troops in the area....

This is the only example I know of that combines picture-book format with time travel to offer a historical lesson. The lesson aspect felt to me a tad heavy-handed, but this is not unexpected, given the limited amount of text one can put in a picture book. Likewise, there's a bit of stiffness in the framing device used--the reader, like the boys, is not sure for the first part of the story if things are going to get interesting.

Once things get going, it does become tremendously gripping.

"But then the photographer moaned, "Oh, my God! Over here." Through a small woods, he'd come upon a low hill with a shed on it. Then Michael saw what the photographer saw. Behind the shed were three soldiers, one sitting, one on his side as if he were swimming, stiff and not moving. Two wore blue, one wore gray."

They are, of course, dead, and this is when the two boys realize that this is no game. The two double-page, wordless illustrations of the battlefield, littered with corpses, literally made my eight year old's jaw drop with horror--here's one of them, from the author's website:
Clearly, this isn't a bedtime picture book for the very young child, but for the older reader (around 8) it is an excellent introduction to the Civil War, and to the horror of war in general. I think, both because of the rather slow start and because of the disturbing subject matter, this is one that works best read aloud.

Here are other reviews, at The Fourth Musketeer and Page in Training

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh

Mistress of the Storm, by M.L. Welsh, is an immensely satisfying adventure, of the sort that has tons of appeal both for the young reader and for those of us adults who still turn to children's books for our own reading pleasure! It was published in 2010 in the UK (David Fickling Books), and is coming out here in the US on June 14.

In the seaside town of Wellow, the Gentry had once plied their trade as smugglers--they were the stuff of legend. To young Verity Gallant, they are merely an old tale, not much spoken of, and certainly no part of her uninspired life as a lonely outsider.

But one day, in the town's library, Verity's life changes when she meets a mysterious stranger. "The storm is coming," he says,* and hands her an old book...a book that tells of the Mistress of the Storm, an ancient goddess who has become maddened by her lust for power and possessions.

Then the legendary ship of the old gentry arrives and anchors in Wellow's harbor. Its presence revives the greedy dreams of those who had turned to the evil trade of wrecking ships for their cargos when the Gentry disbanded. Verity's "grandmother" also arrives--and only Verity can see that she is evil and twisted (one of the first things she does is throw Verity's carefully amassed collection of second-hand books away! EVIL!)

And now Verity is caught in an age old story of violence and death told over and over by the Mistress of the Storm herself, and it is up to her to become the heroine of a new story...this time, one with a happy ending. Fortunately she makes, for the first time in her life, friends with two other children who become her stalwart companions (both in adventure, and during research at the town library--yay for libraries!) and even more fortunately, she finds in herself the courage she needs to do what must be done.

There's a lovely, old-fashioned feel to this book. It's set neither firmly in the past, or in the present--there's no technology, but Verity "feels" like a modern child. The setting has a lovely solidness to it--it's a slightly not quite real place, but real in the story sense, and many of the characters are likewise reminiscent of people one might have met in other stories long ago--in an evocative, rather than an imitative, way (if that makes sense?). Verity is a classic example of the bookish outsider making good, and as such many of us will empathize with her, and cheer her on.

The story itself is a beautiful swirl of legends becoming real, of old evil told of in whispers coming back, horribly, into everyday life, of stories that have truth in them, made manifest in the real world. The Mistress of the Storm is a formidable enemy, and Verity is a small heroine, but on her side she has friends, fortitude, a love of books (and the help of the town's librarian), and an unexpected talent for sailing....

Highly recommended. If you love both old-fashioned-ish English children's books and contemporary children's fantasy, you will enjoy this one.

This is a satisfying book as a stand-alone, but it was even more satisfying to me to learn that this was the first in four part series; the next book, Heart of Stone, comes out in January 2012 (in the UK). There's lots more information about the book and its writer here at the author's website.

* Viz "The storm is coming"-- I love this sort of thrilling one liner, like "The wolves are running" (The Box of Delights, by John Masefield) and "The Dark is rising" (Susan Cooper).

(nb: this was sent all the way from England to me by the author, for which I am very grateful).