Villain School: Good Curses Evil, by Stephanie S. Sanders

Villain School: Good Curses Evil, by Stephanie S. Sanders (Bloomsbury, 2011, 240 pages)

Even fairy tale villains sometimes end up with children...and, naturally, expect their children to follow in their villainous footsteps. But some kids struggle to find their inner evil...and those chidren find themselves sent to the School for Wayward Villains. Young Rune Drexler hasn't exactly been good, but since his dad is the headmaster, he's a Wayward Villain student like everyone else, slowly working his way up in the ranks of evildoing, with many stops in detention.

But now his chance to show himself true villain has come! He's been assigned an Evil Plot! In one week, Rune and his friends, Big Bad Wolf Jr., and Countess Jezebel Dracula must find a henchman, steal a baby, kidnap a princess, and overthrow a kingdom.

Rather a lot to accomplish...especially when a rival gang of students is on a Plot of their own. Only one set of students will succeed, but things miraculously start falling into place for Rune and his companions. There's just one problem--far from hatching schemes of great evilness, Rune and co. are starting to look more and more like heroes!

The Quest occupies the bulk of the book, and proceeds nicely in entertaining fashion--encounters, dangers, rescues, and the like. Nothing surprising for the experienced reader, but an amusing and exiting quest experience, none the less, that should engross the young (and, even though I'm old and jaded and cynical, I rather enjoyed it myself!). Although the main character is a boy, there are two strong girl characters--one of whom, the princess, ends up having to rescue her would-be kidnappers.

I'd especially recommend this to the the eight or nine year old who's developing an appreciation for poking fun at established literary conventions--the sort that wants to be in the joke. It's fun to see old fairy tales friends, and plot elements, from a new perspective.

If you children have been reading the Sisters Grimm series, they are probably beyond this one. It's more similar in feel to Vivian French's Tales from the Five Kingdom series; fans of those books should enjoy this one too.

[I have left this around for my own eight year old to pick up. I think he will like it lots. He's read the description on the back of it a number of times already...and says he finds it funny....so why won't he just stop reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid et seq. for the umpteenth time and sit down and read this one for crying out loud???? Sometimes my children make me want to bang my head against the wall.]

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Centaur's Daughter, by Ellen Jensen Abbott

I read Ellen Jensen Abbott's first book, Watersmeet (2009, my review), at one of my son's first swimming lessons (nicely appropriate). And I finished its sequel, The Centaur's Daughter (Marshall Cavendish, September 28, 2011, upper middle grade/YA) yesterday at his fencing lesson (he knows how to swim now). Archery would have been more appropriate--many arrows are fired in the course of this book--but fencing would come in handy too....

Abisina thought Watersmeet, a place where all manner of folk (humans, dwarves, fauns, and centaurs) lived together in peace, would be her home forever. After a traumatic childhood as an outcast, despised for her dark skin and black hair by the cruel followers of Vran (blond and blue-eyed) who ruled the towns of the south, she had found refuge there, and helped her father win the war against a supernatural enemy who sought to crush Watersmeet.

But wining a war doesn't mean that peace follows. Hoards of monstrous beings--uberwolves, hags, and minotaurs--are besetting the folk of both north and south. The lands of the Vranians are in chaos, and the flood of refugees to Watersmeet (many still hostile to the diverse folk who live there) threatens to overwhelm it.

Abisina's father died in the war. She wants to do what she can to ensure that his vision of tolerance and peace is not lost, but the challenge seems insurmountable. With all the courage she can muster, she returns to the Vranian lands, with her closest companions--only two of whom are human. The journey is dangerous (the death count of uberwolves grows rapidly) but the real challenge is creating a new society, one in which folk of all kinds can work together.

The challenge is made greater by the fact that Abisina is truly her father's daughter--like him, she is a shapeshifter, who can become a centaur. And centaur's are, with good reason, the most loathed of all the non-human persons...

Me being me, my favorite part of the book was not the exciting fighting monsters aspect (those with a taste for adventure will find much to enjoy!), nor even Abisina's internal confusion about her shapeshifting abilities. What I liked was when Abisina and her companions arrive at the one town where there is hope that a new society can be built, and pitch in with tasks like wall-building and food-gathering....

Abbott's story-telling is direct and to the point. When someone appears trustworthy, they are, and Abisina--full of confusion and uncertainty, but determined withall--is an open book to the reader. In my mind, this makes The Centaur's Daughter an excellent one for the upper middle-school reader--in particular the eleven or twelve year old adventure-loving girls, for whom galloping in centaur form while firing arrows at uberwolves will seem wonderful! Those looking for Romance will find only its first beginnings here, although it seems clear there's more to come. The importance of tolerance and building trust between diverse peoples and cultures are themes that come through loud and clear, and are a welcome message.

So for the target audience, this series is spot on, although the lack of subtlety limits (but doesn't exclude!), I think, the cross-over appeal to adult readers.

Abisina is explicitly described as having dark skin and black hair, discriminated against/hated/distrusted by the majority of the blond, blue-eyed Vranians as a result. Since this prejudice, and intolerance of the other more generally, is important to both her character arc and to the larger story, I'm adding Watersmeet and The Centaur's Daughter to my list of multicultural sci fi/fantasy above.

And with regard to that--I'm feeling sad and cross that Abisina's hair has gotten lighter on the cover of The Centaur's Daughter. Although it's damp and untidy, and so hard to tell how light it would be if clean and washed, on both covers, it's clear that her hair as shown on the second book isn't black, or even dark. And, although skin color is more subjective, the girl on the covers doesn't look noticeably dark skinned to me....



By happy chance, there's a great new interview with Ellen Jensen Abbott over at The Enchanted Inkpot.

(review copy received from the publisher)

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, by Meg Wolitzer

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, by Meg Wolitzer (Dutton Juvenile, Sept. 20 2011, ages 9-12, 256 pages)

Life as a new middle school kid in Drilling's Falls was worse than joyless for Duncan Dorfman, aka Lunch Meat, a boy lower than a nobody in the middle school pecking order. When he can't stand it any longer, he breaks his word to his mother, and demonstrates the one thing he's sure makes him special.

Duncan can read with the fingertips of his left hand.

And soon he finds himself approprited by the uber cool head of the school scrabble team, a boy driven to win...and having a partner who can pick out any letter he wants from the scrabble tiles is a surefire way to triumph at the Youth Scrabble Tournament. Duncan has never played the game before, but the prize money would be a big help to his mom...and maybe he won't have to use his power in the end....

Across the country, other kids are preparing---April Blunt, determined to show her sports-mad family that Scrabble is a worthy competitive endeavor in its own right, and Nate, whose father (still devastated by his own loss in the final round of the YST years ago) has pulled him from school, to coach him obsessively in acceptable 2 letter words and other Scrabble skilz (which stinks for Nate, who misses skateboarding with his pals something fierce).

All these kids are consumed by Scrabble, and all are determined to win (even Duncan starts finding anagrams marching across his brain). And they are about to meet across Scrabble boards in a hotel in Florida....

Their story is about more than Scrabble (although details of competitive Scrabble playing pack its pages). It is, in essence, the archetypal middle grade story about finding who you are and what you might want to be.....and as such, it's an enjoyable story--bits of humor, interesting characters, and (for me, at any rate), an fascinating set-up. The dilemma faced by Duncan--would it be cheating to use his power, and how much is at stake if he doesn't--is also interesting, although it got somewhat overshadowed by the larger social dynamics of the group of kids, and in the end was almost a non-event. Enough so that, although he certainly has a magical gift, making the book "fantasy," it reads much more like realistic fiction.

It is a fact that a four page list of acceptable two letter scrabble words adds little narrative umph to a story. That being said, it is also a fact that a reader can skim such Scrabbilian esoterica. For those of us who enjoy minutiae, the scrabble details that Meg Wolitzer packs into her book add value. But one can't help but wonder what an actual 10 or 11 year old kid, who has maybe not played very much Scrabble, is going to make of it...One hopes that they just enjoy the story of three middle school kids, each with their own backstory, coming together for a short, intense burst of camaraderie, and returning home to lives changed by the experience.

(review copy received from the publisher)

Book Blogger Appreciation Week--How Do You Do Community?

Today's discussion topic over at BBAW is community--how do you find your place in the overwhelmingly large (and getting larger) world of book blogging?

The number of book blogs that have joined technorati is now up to 15, 216. That's about 6000 more than it was around a year and a half ago....Happily, within this seething morass of book blogging, it's possible to find a community. I blogged on Monday about the marvellous Kidlitosphere, my main community.

But even the Kidlitosphere is pretty darn big. Fortunately, there are niches. There's the Poetry niche, that comes to life on Poetry Friday, when bloggers share poems, or books of poetry. I know that the regular participants have become close as a direct result! There's Non-Fiction Monday, for those that tilt non-fiction-ward, and monthly carnivals--these too foster a sense of a cozy community. And other bloggers have taken the initiative and started themed days of their own, like Shannon Whitney Messenger's Marvellous Middle Grade Monday.

I myself wanted a community of bloggers passionately interested in middle grade (for ages 9-12) science fiction and fantasy. So I started gathering together each week all the posts I could find about mg sff books and authors, and posting a weekly round-up every Sunday (94 of them so far). I'm not sure that this has resulted in a "community" -- there's not a whole lot of direct interaction -- but I do like making the scattered posts I find into a little cluster where those of us who love mg sff can find them easily! Many of the same blogs show up in my round-ups on a regular basis, as well as new ones (always exciting) and so my mental map of my part of the book blogging world becomes brighter and clearer with every round-up (and someday I'll magically find the time to leave appreciative comments on all the posts I gather ha ha).

(If anyone writes about mg sff during the week, do feel free to email me your link directly (charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com)! I have a long long list of blogs I check, but I know I miss people all the time, even when they are on my list....)

All In Good Time, by Edward Ormondroyd, for Timeslip Tuesday

Today's time travel book, All In Good Time, by Edward Ormondroyd, is a sequel to one I reviewed a short while ago--Time At the Top. It's impossible to write about All In Good Time without spoiler for the first one, so consider yourself warned!

Spoiler space, just in case....

So. At the end of Time At the Top, Susan Shaw had dragged her father onto the time travelling elevator, planning to marry him off to the lovely lady she had met back in 1881. Said lady's children, a boy and a girl, were keen on the idea as well--after all, with nasty men like the despicable Mr. Sweeney keen on marrying her for her money, Susan's father seemed like a nice safe bet.

Except that, once Susan and her father arrive in 1881, he doesn't want stay and be married off. And that's not all that goes wrong. Mr. Sweeney is back, hatching more despicable schemes, the children's carefully acquired treasure goes missing, and, perhaps worst of all, dictatorial, opinionated, and thoroughly nasty Cousin Jane has arrived on the scene. In the face of all these obstacles, will Susan be able to make her dream come true?

The reader already knows, from reading the first book, that the answer is yes. But still--there is enough uncomfortableness here that I had to keep reminding myself of this! It wasn't quite the cozy read of domestic happiness I had hoped it would be....for which the blame must be split between Mr. Sweeney and Cousin Jane. I did, however, love the clever way in which those two baddies were properly sorted in the end!

The presence of the author, as an interested observer (busily reading Susan's 19th-century diary) and minor participant, back in the present, and the fate of the elevator (which is almost a character in itself) add interest. And the efforts of Susan and (somewhat half-heartedly at first) her father to fit in in the past made for good reading. So despite my own shallow desire for soothingness, it was a fun book, and finishes off the story begun in Time At the Top very nicely!

Give this series to your ten year-old self to read--she'll enjoy them lots! Purple House Press has recently released an omnibus reprint (shown at left) making them easy to find.

And good thing, too, given the Utter Hideousness of the original cover of this one!


(Ms. Yingling often posts time travel books on Tuesdays too--this week she looked at Always a Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough.

BBAW Interview Swap, featuring Zoe of Playing by the Book!

I was tickled pink to be paired with Zoe of Playing by the Book for the BBAW interview swap--I've been reading her blog for over a year with great enjoyment (her Reading Around Europe series, in particular, is delightful) and it was lovely to have the chance to get to know her better!
Question 1:
Me: What is the UK children's book blog scene like? Yours is the only UK blog that I know of that focus on books for younger children--are there others that you'd recommend?

Zoe: It has to be said that the UK children's book blog scene doesn't do justice to the brilliant children's books that come out of the UK - there are very few bloggers dedicated to reviewing children's literature and book illustration and I think this is partly because technology doesn't play the same role in UK families as I believe it does in the US. I know only a single parent who owns an iPad (and that's largely due to the fact that she is a librarian specializing in electronic book resources). Indeed families who don't even have a computer are much more common in my circle of friends and acquaintances.

I am a loyal follower of Library Mice and Fantastic Reads, two UK based children's literature blogs which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Me: I will definitely check these out! Thanks!

Question 2:
Me: Have you ever had a chance to get together in real life with other children's book bloggers?

Zoe: I have met up on a couple of occasions with Ali, who writes Fantastic Reads, but other than that, unfortunately not. I've met more children's authors and illustrators than I have bloggers! Every year I look at the Kidlitosphere conference and day dream about living a parallel life where I might attend it.

Me: I wanted to go to this year's conference so badly...but it just wasn't possible.

Zoe: I'm hoping that next year I'll find a way to attend the annual conference held by the Federation of Children's Book Groups. This isn't for bloggers, but it's a great place to meet other adults passionate about children's books.

Me: Meeting other adults passionate about children's books is one of the great pleasures in life! I hope you get to go.

Question 3:

Me: Has blogging changed your relationship with books for your kids?

Zoe: Blogging has enabled books to be almost the life blood in our family. Of course we've always loved books, but now we receive so many for review and I do all sorts of other book related activities, at least half linked to the blog (such as running Book Week at my daughters' school, or attending the Just So Festival [one of Zoe's pictures of this event is shown below] which has many authors and illustrators attending each year) books really are everywhere in our lives and this makes me very happy.

It gives us a very rich life.


Me: And just as a little side question to this--do your children know about the blogging part of your life? And another related question-- Do you think that as your children get older, the age level of books you review will also change?

Zoe: Yes, my eldest (who is 6) does know about the blogging. In fact it was very interesting to overhear her recently introducing our family to the family on the neighbouring allotment plot who we were meeting for the first time. My eldest said "My mummy reviews books. She writes a blog about books and then tweets and emails lots about them". I was quite taken aback by how succinctly she put it all! I'm not quite sure what our new neighbour made of it...

As to how Playing by the Book will evolve as my kids get older I can imagine that there will be more reviews of chapter books, but I can't ever imagine leaving the world of picture books behind. I love illustrated books, I love the art, the beauty they bring into our home. So it may be that my blog will stay primarily a place to celebrate picture books - come and visit me in a year or two years and we'll see how we're getting on!

Me: Will do!

Question 4. Me: I'm assuming you are the English half of your family, and your husband the Dutch half. Did you read Enid Blyton as a child? Are there any of her books that you'd actively offer to your own children? (I loved the school stories, myself....)

Zoe: Yes I'm the English half (though I'd never identify myself as English unless pushed, having been born in Zambia and lived a lot of my life in Scotland as well as elsewhere in the world).

Yep, I went through a stage of reading lots of Famous Five and Secret Seven, though looking back now I don't feel so especially fond of Blyton apart from the description of tables groaning with food. I'm sure I'll suggest them to my kids as I know how wonderful it feels to know there are lots and lots AND lots of books by the same author to read if you get hooked on that particular author (my eldest is currently going through a Steve Cole phase and it makes her so happy to know that there are many more books out there by him to read). I'm not worried about Blyton's books perhaps being a little "dated" (for want of a better word) - all books are written in a certain context they are bound to reflect, and learning about that is important. I don't think I'll be offering my kids the updated versions of Blyton - it doesn't seem right to me. Just this weekend we listened to a new audio version of Dahl's Matilda which had been updated to make references to Lady Gaga and so on [me--yoiks!] and in doing so I found it lost a lot of its charm and appropriate innocence. It was too "knowing" and "clever", definitely not an improvement or any more intelligible/accessible than the original version.

Me: And with regard to the Dutch side of things, have you read the Dikkie Dik books? We find them awfully charming!

Zoe: Aah Dikkie Dik. Yes, he's adored in this home, especially one story we have where he pees in a plant pot :-)

Me: I like that one too!

Zoe: I wish Dikkie Dik was as well known as those other Dutch characters, Miffy (Dick Bruna) and Frog (Max Velthuijs).

Me: Max Velthuijs seems to be pretty much out of print here, which is too bad. My favorite translated Dutch books are those of Toon Tellegen, illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg. I love them!

Question 5:
Me: Do you have a mental list of books your children must read before they are twelve? Have you ever put off reading them a book you love because you are anxious that they might not like it? (although your children are younger than mine, so there is still lots of time for you....)

Zoe: I don't have a very clear list, if I have one at all. There are of course books I enjoyed as a child which I hope to share with my children. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to read them as bedtime books (even as the children get older) and so the experience will be really one of sharing. These books include the Little House series, the Narnia books, and books by Ursula le Guin and Alan Garner. But I'm also aware there are so many books out there that I didn't read as a child, that I don't necessarily even know about yet so I'm very open to lots of new discoveries (for all of us). I'm continually learning more about great Dutch children's literature (of which there is a lot, but sadly a very small percentage is translated into English) and I know my husband has just as many books he wants to share with my kids as I do.

I guess I'm saying that in general I don't think there are any books my children "must" read before a certain age. I'm a great believer in free choice when it comes to reading for pleasure (although I'll certainly make sure opportunities to read brilliant books abound).

I don't think I'm worried about my girls having different preferences when it comes to favourite books (but I have yet to experience a situation where they do feel very differently about a book that I care about, so I reserve the right to change my mind!). What matters to me is that they become passionate readers, that they find books, authors, illustrators that they want to read and read again, whoever they are.

Question 6.
Me: I have two boys, you have two girls....any thoughts on gender stereotypes and children's books? Are they attracted to pink books?

Zoe: My eldest adores books about Greek Gods, Dinosaurs and Vikings so I don't think she's (yet) attracted to pink books. It's probably fair to say I have made a very conscious effort to avoid bringing them into the home (as I have with pink clothes) as I want don't want her to start feeling already at the age of 6 that she has to dress in a certain way or do certain things because she happens to be female. My youngest adores any book I'll read to her so she too seems to so far be escaping the worst of the pink curse. And I call it a pink curse as I don't want either of my daughters to start thinking that there are books for particular groups to the exclusion of others. Now my eldest is beginning to enjoy picking her own reading books I'm sure she'll stumble across pink books before too long, but I'll always make sure there's a good supply of other books to entice her too!

Although some of M's favourite topics aren't what you'd call girly, my eldest loves stories with really strong girl characters, such as Ronia in Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, or Quenelda in the books by Lucinda Hare. She'll spend days believing she is Ronia or Quenelda. If a story doesn't have a strong female lead (such as the Astrosaurs books she's currently devouring), then she just pretends she's the female twin of the lead character.

Question 7.
Me: What books did you read for pleasure when you were a teenager? I know quite a bit about early to mid 20th-centuryBritish school stories, and a decent amount about British children's books, but almost nothing about late 20th- century British "young adult" books.....

Zoe: (1) I have a terrible memory and (2) as a teenager I was keen on studying hard and these things combined mean I don't remember reading a great deal purely for pleasure as a teenager. I did lots of school projects (not related to English, but rather Geography or History) and played a lot of piano and flute but I was certainly not a book worm. What I do remember reading as a teenager is quite a few Jeffrey Archer books. A very shameful admission, but there you go!

Question 8.
Me: In your first post, you stated that your blog would focus on "kids’ activities based on our favourite children’s books. I intend to review the books we’re reading and then document the crazy stuff the books inspire us to do." You still do a lot of this--but how do you feel your blog changed since 2009, and what sort of posts do you most enjoy writing these days?

Zoe: As I've become more established I've made more links with authors, illustrators and publishers and this has enabled me to do more than simply review books on the blog - I now interview authors and illustrators quite regularly and share book related news. I hope it makes for a richer blog! I still see the core content of my blog being (picture) book reviews accompanied by play inspired by the book in question. These posts are the ones which give me the greatest pleasure, although each takes much longer to prepare and write than any of the other sorts of posts I do.

Question 9.
Me: If you could visit one book related place anywhere in this world (past or present) where would it be?

Zoe: Ooh Charlotte, how long have you got? Although I'm not religious I'd love tovisit the monks who made illuminated manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne gospels and watch them at work (if you and your kids don't know the wonderful film The Secret of Kells I can highly recommend it. I'd love to visit any ancient/historical society where writing was still something highly specialised and treasured - writing papyri in an Egyption court or carving runes in a viking settlement for example. These societies would still have had many great oral storytellers too and I'd love to have sat around fires listening to their stories.

In the modern world I'd love to visit and of the kidlit destinations in Sweden I described in this post of mine. I love Swedish children's literature and could have so much fun in Astrid Lindgren's World [shown at right] or Junibacken.

Three places that I might actually get to visit relatively soon are Seven Stories in Newcastle, this bookshop in Maastricht and the Children's literature museum in The Hague. In my dreams I work for Seven Stories, helping them create their exhibitions. As to the bookshop I could probably spend several days there if given half the chance, popping out just occasionally for a coffee and a sticky bun.

It's such a great question Charlotte! Where would you like to go?

Me: I think I would like to go to Moomin World in Finland!

Thanks so much, Zoe, for being my inteview buddy! Zoe's questions for me can be found at her blog, here.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week--Community!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) has arrived!

And the theme for today is: Community
"While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you."

For me, the words "blogging" and "community" means my kidlitosphere peeps. I wish so badly that I was going to be at Kidlitcon in Seattle next weekend... I can hardly think of anything I'd rather do than bask in the company of wonderful people who want to talk passionately and intelligently about children's books!

If I were to start listing all the children's book bloggers who have made a difference to my own blogging, it would go on forever. So I shall just give all my co-kidlitophere bloggers a collective "thanks so much for being such a great community!"

If you want to find out more about this thing called "the kidlitosphere," just click through! There is a Yahoo Group, where we ask each other blog questions and chat about our blogging lives, there's the annual conference--"kidlitcon", and a list of member blogs that cover every single aspect of children's books!

(when you look at that picture, does the circle have a crazed smile, which is what I see, or do you see the image as its creator intended--two people reading????)

This Sunday's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs

The first week of "child at new school" has mercifully ended, and we have great hopes that soon our new path habits* will be peacefully set in stone. In the meantime, there has been much reading and reviewing of middle grade science fiction and fantasy this week around the blogs, and it is, as always, a pleasure to gather it all together for your reading pleasure! When I say "all," it's with the recognition that I've probably missed lots, so let me know if I missed you post!

The Reviews:

Big City Otto, by Bill Slavin, at A Year of Reading

The Cheshire Cheese Cat, by Carmen Agra Deedy & Randall Wright, at Waking Brain Cells

The Chestnut King, by N.D. Wilson, at Read in a Single Sitting

The Dragon of Cripple Creek, by Troy Howell, at Maltby Reads!

The Dragon Princess, by E.D. Baker, at Library Chicken

Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, by Lynne Jonell, at Library Chicken

Fiendish Deeds (The Joy of Spooking, Book 1), by P. J. Bracegirdle, at Beyond Books

Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge, at By Singing Light

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg Fishbone, at Charlotte's Library

The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley, at Charlotte's Library

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Hazzardous Universe, by Julie Wright & Kevin Wasden, at LDS Women's Book Review

Hero, by Mike Lupica, at Donna St. Cyr

Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Last Council (Amulet Book 4), by Kazu Kibuishi, at A Year of Reading

The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen, at Madigan Reads

The Midnight Gate, by Helen Stringer, at Books & Other Thoughts

Muddle Earth Too, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, at The Book Zone (for boys)

Nurk, by Ursula Vernon, at Library Chicken

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at Stacked and Small Review

The Resisters, by Eric Nylund, at Maltby Reads!

Return to Exile, by E.J. Patten, at Reading Vacation

The Shadows (Books of Elsewhere 2), by Jacqueline West, at Mister K Reads

Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, by R.L. LaFevers, at Read in a Single Sitting

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevers, at Anita Silvey's Book a Day Almanac

There's No Such Thing as Ghosts, by Ursula Vernon, at Library Chicken

Trundle's Quest, by Allan Jones, at Geo Librarian

Under the Green Hill, by Laura L. Sullivan, at Beyond Books

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog and The Elliott Review

Warrior Sheep Go West, by Christine & Christopher Russell, at Wicked Awesome Books

Wisdom's Kiss, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, at Book Aunt (who's assured me it's a middle grade crossover)

The Wizard of Dark Street, by Shawn Thomas Odyssey, at Susan Dennard

At Pickled Bananas, you can find short looks at Bad Island and Ghostopolis, by Doug Tennapel. For more graphic novel goodness, here are the first two books of the Three Thieves series, Tower of Treasure and At the Sign of the Black Rock, by Scott Chandler, at A Year of Reading.

At Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, you can find three out of the ordinary fantasy books--A Dark Horn Blowing by Dahlov Ipcar, Seaward by Susan Cooper, and Geraldine McCaughrean’s The Stones Are Hatching.

Author and Interviews:
Adam Jay Epstein (The Familiars) at There's a Book
Andrew Jacobson (co author of The Familiars) also at There's a Book
And there's an interview with the two of them at Kid Lit Frenzy

Other Good Stuff:
Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, is slated to be made into a movie by the same folks who brought us Coraline (more at Bookyurt)

My college chum Els (hi Els!) has assembled a lovely list of sci fi/fantasy school stories over at Tor.

Sherwood Smith talks about "the problem of kids and science fiction" at Book View Cafe Blog

And finally, continuing the whole "back to school" thing--here is a bunny classroom of great disturbing-ness that I would love to see someday in real life (from the taxidermy work of Victorian eccentric Walter Potter, via io9, where you can see many more pictures of dressed up dead animals....)

Here's a close up. Really cute, until you think about it....










*nothing to do with mg sff, but here is my favorite piece of writing on path habits--Konrad Lorenz discussing water shrews.

The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley

Looking for a spooky read to offer an eleven or so year old girl? I just read one I'd recommend--The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley (Random House, 2011, ages 9-12, 192 pages).

For years the house on Hemlock Ave. stood empty and decaying. No-one managed to live there for long, and stories were told about green eyes that could sometimes be seen, looking out. Eleven year-old twins Anna and Hannah would have been happy to leave the house to its own devices forever. They had no desire to move into it, but move they must....an event welcomed by the ghost of a long dead girl with whom they share their new home.

Anna settles in nicely at school, but Hannah, in a different class from her sister for the first time ever, remains unhappy, and slowly the girls drift apart. Her unhappiness, and loneliness, makes her the prime target for the ghost, whose anger is as fresh as it was the day she died. But as Hannah unravels the mystery of what happened in the house on Hemlock Ave., the danger she is in grows, and so does the distance between herself and her twin...the ghost does not want to be left alone again.

I truly enjoyed the narrative device of this one. The reader is given both Hannah's point of view, and the perspective of the ghost....gradually and creepily, more and more clues are dropped, and more becomes clear. Because we have the ghost's point of view, it's not desperately scary--it's atmospherically spooky, but subtly so. It's a character-driven ghost story, more a psychosocial thriller rather than one that makes the reader jump with fright, which added to my personal enjoyment of it!

I always feel a tad uncertain reviewing books that have Mysteries in them, because I am both bad at figuring things out, and have a nasty habit of peeking at endings. So I can't speak to whether the mystery here was obvious to the meanest intelligence, or delightfully subtle and carefully constructed. All I can say is that I found it a page turner, and felt it all came together nicely!

(I'm adding this review to the round-up for the RIP IV (Readers Imbibing Peril) challenge, as I think it fits the bill very nicely indeed!)

A few things I find interetesting, and a cry for help

Here are a few things that together comprise a post of somewhat interesting things:

James Kennedy, he of the insane The Order of Odd-Fish (my review, which was great fun to write!), has, as many of you doubtless know, is organizing a 90 Second Newbery Film Festival. The Deadline has been extended to October 17th. Newbery Honor books are eligible too....

Now that back to school is over, more or less, it is time to start thinking about Holiday Gift Giving. And what better gift to give a ten or eleven year old boy than two books he'll love that you won in a giveaway? The Magnificent 12 books 1 and 2 giveaway ends tonight at 12 EST--head over here to find instructions and all the clues in one place, so you don't have to blog hop.

Speaking of back to school--I just got an email from Donors Choose full of requests from teachers in my state for basic things to make learning a hopeful thing for kids in impoverished areas. Hard not to chip in $10 to make sure the kids have paper, which one teacher requested.

And finally, a personal Cry for Help, because goodness knows I need it: I am transcribing my to-be-read list (the handwritten one that sits by the computer--sometimes it's faster to write than to open a new tab etc etc) and all was going well...until this:The Game of Tripls?????? The Gone of Tujds?????? Whah.

Yay! Tricia has solved it for me--it is The Game of Triumphs, by Laura Powell! Thanks so much!

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg. R. Fishbone

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg. R. Fishbone (Lee and Low Books, September 2011, ages 9-12, 352 pages).

There's a certain type of science fiction book for middle grade readers that is, perhaps, best described as "zany." These are the sort of books in which ordinary kids from earth find themselves plunged into intergalactic adventures that teeter between farce and light hearted humor-- like Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, or Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow. Galaxy Games: The Challengers is a truly fine example of this little genre, and it is easy as pie to imagine it delighting large numbers of young readers.

Tyler Sato--ordinary Japanese American kid. The "star" his aunt and uncle over in Japan bought him for his birthday (complete with genuine certificate!) is not so ordinary. In fact, "Ty Sato" isn't a star at all--it's an alien spacecraft piloted by a girl named M'Frozza (more tentacles than a squid, more slime than slug, but very friendly once you get to know her)!

M'Frozza didn't bring her spacecraft to Earth by chance (and she didn't tell her parents everything before she left home). Her arrival will enmesh Earth in a conflict on an unprecedented scale--The Galaxy Games, contests in which kids compete against each other to resolve inter-planetary conflicts.

And Ty, inextricably linked to the space craft by the wonders of the media, finds himself the leader of Earth's team of quirky kids of many lands. Before they have a chance to study the rule book, Ty and a bus load of his team-mates find themselves on the moon, playing for the future of Earth in a game of tic tac toe against hostile aliens who are messing with the rules something fierce....(literally fierce).

I'm thinking that one reason I enjoyed this one as much as I did is that the story takes its time before plunging into the wacky insanity of the Games themselves. We get to know Ty, and his Japanese cousin Daiki; we are introduced to M'Frozza and her crew well before they arrive at Earth. The players in the story become, as a result, interesting people, and the tension gets a chance to build nicely and loomingly (I like a nice looming tension, as long as the characters aren't actually unhappy, which these ones aren't).

Fishbone has a deft hand with humor, too--from taking the mickey out of talk-shows and advertising on the particular side of things to reveling in the absurdities of the larger situation he's created for poor old Ty (and all of us here on Earth). There are silliness-es, but the sense I got was that of the author enjoying himself, rather than forcing absurdity into the story to please a young audience (Michael Grant's Mysterious 12 series, for example, gives me the same impression).

If you want harder-core middle grade sci fi with aliens, try The Softwire series by PJ Haarsma (the first book of which is Virus on Orbis). But if you want light sci fi fun for the 6th grader, do consider this one! I am going to try really really hard to get my recalcitrant 11 year old son to at least try it....

(and, as an added bonus, there's an instructive author's note about Japan).

This is my first book review of an offering from Tu Books, an imprint of Lee and Low specializing in multicultural science fiction and fantasy for kids (who sent me my review copy). I'll look forward to more! I'll also find and bring home, as an offering to my eight year old, Fishbone's first book--Penguins of Doom.

Waiting on Wednesday-- The Green Man, by Michael Bedard

Today I have both (finally!) children back in school; two different ones now. I'll be glad when these first weeks of doing things for the first time are over, and we have our path habits in place...and I can get cracking on the mounting pile of books read but not reviewed, and repainting the dining room so as to move the tbr pile back into the dining room because I have a nervous (justifiably so, I'm afraid) feeling that BOOKS ARE CREEPING AWAY from the main piles and going off to live lives of their own in dark and hidden places and I will never find them. (The ARCs tend to clump together a bit more solidly than other books, which is one mercy).

But anyway. Since thinking about the books I actually have is making me feel anxious, the obvious thing to do is to look forward to a book I don't have. Today's book is The Green Man, by Michael Bedard, from Tundra Books. Like last week, I've boldened the bits that make me want it (sorry, no picture seems to be available yet...it's not out till April, 2012)

Teenaged O – never call her Ophelia – is about to spend the summer with her aunt Emily [my sister's name, which predisposes me in the book's favor]. Emily is a poet and the owner of an antiquarian book store [what's not to like], The Green Man [I'm fascinated by Green Man stories]. A proud, independent woman, Emily’s been made frail by a heart attack. O will be a help to her. Just how crucial that help will be unfolds as O first tackles Emily’s badly neglected home, then the chaotic shop [see comments on my own house, above. Clearly this is a wish fulfillment book for me]. But soon she discovers that there are mysteries and long-buried dark forces that she cannot sweep away, though they threaten to awaken once more. At once an exploration of poetry [poetry's nice], a story of family relationships [I'm happy to read about families], and an intriguing mystery, The Green Man is Michael Bedard at his finest.

As an added incentive for me personally, Michael Bedard has also written a book called Stained Glass, about which I know nothing and don't have time to check right this sec because my lunch break is almost over, but I like stained glass lots.

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Alice in Time, by Penelope Bush, for Timeslip Tuesday

Alice in Time, by Penelope Bush (Holiday House, 2011/2010 in the UK, younger YA, 196 pages)

Fourteen-year old Alice is not best pleased with her life. Even after seven years, she resents her mother for divorcing her father, leaving Alice to take much more responsibility for her little brother Rory than she thinks is fair. There's not much money, and her mum gets on her nerves. At school she's the target of the class queen-bee mean girl, Sasha. Even though she seems (maybe, she hopes) to be attracting the attention of a cute new boy, it doesn't look like she'll be able to get out of house (what with babysitting Rory while her mum works all hours) long enough to see for sure!

Then Alice falls hard from a merry-go-round in the park (this sort of merry-go-round, which sadly are deemed too dangerous for kids these days in the US, but boy were they fun). When Alice recovers, she finds to her amazement that she is seven years old again. Her parents are still together, and Rory has not yet been born (although it's clear he will be soon).

Obviously she must put things right, and keep her miserable 14-year old life from happening....So she makes a list:

1. Stop Sooty (Alice's beloved cat) from being run over
2. Stop Mum and Dad from splitting up
3. Find a way back to reality
4. Make Sasha's life hell

But 14-year-old Alice gradually realizes that her seven year old self wasn't exactly the best observer of human nature (being seven and all). And (thankfully, because Alice is more than a little self-centered), she realizes that the one thing she can really change is herself....(although she does (slight spoiler put in on behalf of cat lovers) save Sooty). Happily for Alice's mother and Rory, their lives are made rather better in the process of Alice-changing too!

It is not entirely Alice's fault that at fourteen, when we first meet her, she is not a deeply likable character. She is being asked to shoulder a lot of responsibility, which began when her mother suffered serious depression after Rory was born, and her mother, determined not to speak ill of her father, has let Alice continue in willful blindness about her father's shortcomings, and why they divorced. Likewise, the social minefield at school that happened when Alice was seven, and which led directly to Sasha's enmity was a tricky one for a kid to manage successfully.

Fortunately, seven-year old Alice, seeing things through older eyes, does a lot of growing up--instead of feeling sorry for herself, she learns to take action. Although the ending is rather dizzying, when Alice returns to her present to find many things changed, it's rather satisfying (especially for Alice's Mum and Rory).

I love the premise of this one, and thought Penelope Bush did a lovely job with the disorientation of a teenager back in her childhood body, having her hair washed for her, heading off to primary school, and being given back the loving relationship with her mother that her adolescent discontent had spoiled.
Despite the fact that Alice will never be a personal favorite character, and I thought it took too long for her fourteen-year-old self to get whacked on the head (it happens on page 83), this was a book I read in a single sitting, with great interest and enjoyment.

It's a younger YA book, inasmuch as Alice is just beginning the YAish romantic relationship thing--so I'd have no compunctions about giving this to an older middle grade kid (ie, an 11 year old). In fact, that younger reader would probably enjoy the book more--an older reader might be too cynical to believe the changes wrought by Alice's revelations about herself, her family, and her friends.

(side note for those irked by the Americanization of English books--I didn't notice much attempt to change the original UK text--it would have been an incredibly tricky job, what with pubs (Alice's father), and all the different school year terminology. However, I bet the playground merry-go-round was a roundabout!).

Other reviews at Ms. Yingling Reads and Becky's Book Reviews

Book Blogger Appreciation Week shortlists are up, and my blog is there (!)

Thanks so much to whoever nominated my blog as Best Kid Lit Blog for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards. Charlotte's Library reached the short list, in the fine company of The O.W.L. and There's a Book, and I feel honored and flattered (and somewhat taken aback) to be there!

Now until September 10th, you can log in to vote for the many categories of book blog awards at http://bbaw.heroku.com. You only need a Twitter id or a google id.

And the awards are by no means the be and end all for BBAW....there are lots of fun things planned for the week of September 12 -16th!

Hatch! by Roxie Munro, for Non-Fiction Monday

It says right up there on my header that I review science fiction and fantasy for kids, and I mostly do. But I also enjoy taking part in the Kidlitosphere's Non-Fiction Monday round-ups (in part because I regret having utterly ignored the non-fiction sections of all my childhood libraries, and in part because my own kids, happily, do not suffer from the same myopia). Today's round-up is at Playing By the Book.

This morning I offer Hatch! written and illustrated by Roxie Munro (Marshall Cavendish, 2011, 40 pages).

Before you have a bird, you have to have an egg. Hatch! introduces young readers to a multitude of bird species from around the world by first showing full page picture of their eggs--"Can you guess whose eggs these are?" A paragraph of clues follows...and then a double page spread showing the bird in its habitat. It's a very friendly, inviting design--the curiosity of the reader is piqued, and then clearly written, simple yet detailed, information is provided by words and pictures.

As well as introducing the birds qua birds, Munro also sets each one neatly into its habitat, explaining in words and pictures where they live, and the other creatures that share their world. And the very last page offers places where one can find out more about birds, and a list of fun bird words to learn.

Fascinating things I learned: when Baltimore orioles migrate, they fly mainly at night (possibly to beat the traffic???)

The eggs of the black-legged kittiwake come in all sorts of distinctive splotch patterns--so the the parents can tell their own nests from the hundreds and even thousands of other eggs in the same colony. (If I was a kittiwake, I would still feel nervous--I don't trust my splotch recognition skills). Owl eggs are white so their parents can find them in the dark (this I could cope with).

A cactus wren has two or three clutches a season, and sometimes an older sibling from the first brood will babysit (only one more year until the my own first brood, as it were, will be old enough to do the same for my second).

We enjoyed this one!

(review copy received from the publisher)

This Sunday's round up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs

Hi everyone! Here are the middle grade science fiction and fantasy blog postings I found this week---please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, at Heise Reads & Recommends

The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Earwig and the Witch, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Bart's Bookshelf

Floors, by Patrick Carman, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge, at By Singing Light

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne Valente, at Finding Wonderland

Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld, at Book Yurt and Bart's Bookshelf

Happenstance Found, by P.W. Catanese, at Abby the Librarian

The History Keepers: The Storm Begins, by Damian Dibben, at The Book Zone (For Boys)

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, at Bookalicious

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, at Challenging the Bookworm

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, by Nathan Bransford, at Musings of a Restless Mind

Janitors, by Ty Whitesides, at Elana Johnson

The Last Dragon, by Jane Yolen, at Bea's Book Nook

The Magnificent 12: The Call, and The Trap, by Michael Grant, at The Book Smugglers, and The Call at Book Dreaming

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, at Bookends

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier, at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog and Page in Training

Return to Exile, by E. J. Patten, at Other Stuff Exists

Sally's Bones, by MacKenzie Cadenhead, at Wicked Awesome Books

The Scarcrow and His Servant, by Philip Pullman, at Fantasy Literature

Small Persons With Wings, by Ellen Booraem, at Jean Little Library

The Silver Bowl, by Diane Stanley, at Sonderbooks

Smells Like Treasure, by Suzanne Selfors, at Donna St. Cyr

The Softwire, Books 1 and 2--Virus on Orbis, and Betrayal on Orbis, by P.J. Haarsma, at Books and Movies

Stinkbomb, by Rob Stevens, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann, at Steph Su Reads and Libri Dilectio

The Wikkeling, by Steven Arnston, at books4yourkids

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Figment

Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke, at Wandering Librarians

Authors and Interviews:

Julia Durango (Sea of the Dead--my review) at Following My Dreams -- she's currently working on a mg fantasy novel set in the Andean highlands in collaboration with Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I'm sold!

Sue Perkins (the forthcoming Spirit Stealer) at Rebecca Ryals Russell

Other things of interest:

Back to school time is here! Here's a post on sci fi books for kids with schools at Suite 101, and here's a post about education in fantasy books at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Tablet has a feature on "Going Golem" (not the Lord of the Rings Golem, but Jewish golems in children's books)

Here's my compilation of the new releases of mg sff for the beginning of September.

And don't forget, all you mg sff reading and reviewing folks, that the time to put your name in the ring for the Cybils Awards is Now! (lots more people volunteer to be panelists than there are slots for, and I know picture books and YA are always inundated, but I am really curious about what happens with mg sff. Is there a glut or a dearth of people making it their first choice?)

Finally-- two people contacted me who I could not help, and I was wondering if any of you all could!

Request the first: A teacher of 4th and 5th graders is doing unit on archetypal characters ala Joseph Campbell. She's seeking a sci fi/fantasy short story to illustrate the archetype of the Threshold Guardian-- "The threshold is the gateway to the new world the hero must enter to change and grow.

 The threshold guardian is usually not the story's antagonist. Only after this initial test has been surpassed will the hero face the true contest and the arch-villain."

She's also looking for stories illustrating the shapeshifter and the shadow characters.

Request the second: a blog reader is looking a time travel book at least ten year old, shelved near Katherine Paterson. She says: "The title that I "remember" was Inbetween Time, which apparently is non-existent in the book world. The book was part of a trilogy series and the main character was named Strauss and a girl. The basic story line was that a girl would travel back in time and she fell in love with Strauss. I think it was based in the 1800's when she did travel back. Basically, she had to decide rather to stay with him or come back to her own time because he could not travel with her."

Any thoughts?

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists

Nursery Rhyme Comics -- "fifty classic verses illustrated in comics form by today's greatest cartoonists!" (2011, First Second Books)

This is a extraordinarily entertaining book. Fifty great illustrators, including many familiar to me, such as Nick Bruel, Jules Feiffer, Eleanor Davis, David Macaulay, and Gene Luen Yang, to name just a few, offer interpretations of classic nursery rhymes in wonderfully entertaining graphic novel style. Some interpretations are Dark (the introduction of a hungry wolf family into This Little Piggie by Cyril Pedrosa makes for a marvelous little story--not all the pigs make it safely home....), some are lovely and evocative (Stephanie Yue makes Hickory Dickory Dock into a mouse world fantasy), and David Macaulay's London Bridge is Falling Down offers three pages of the wonderful detail one expects from him. Some are aimed at young readers of picture books, some seem created for older readers And some (like James Stern's take on Jack Be Nimble) use the graphic panel form to add snarky and amusing subtext to the original verse.

I could go on and on....but the short answer is--this is Great Fun! It is much like a gourmet box of mixed chocolates--lots of variety, with something for every taste (although of course not everyone will like everything, and there were a few that didn't appeal to me), and makes a great gift!

If you feel that your child has reached the advanced age of 11 or so without a sufficient familiarity with classic nursery rhymes--give them this book! Or leave it on your coffee table, and watch them pick it up over and over again....(mine did this...). (Any adult guest worth their salt will probably pick it up too).

If you want a fun book to share with students that opens up imaginative possibilities, maybe leading to a Nursery rhyme illustration project of their own, give them this book.

If you want something fun and different to share in exploratory delight with a younger child--this is the book!

If you want a book to give to an adult friend with a sense of humor who likes graphic novels, but are uncertain about what books they already have, this might well be a good choice!

Personally, I myself am especially fond of this book because it came on Monday last week, and we decided to go out to eat, forgetting that half our town had no electricity...the place was mobbed, and our order got lost in the shuffle...hours passed, but I had Nursery Rhyme Comics with me, and it proved invaluable in keeping my own boys happy. And then they gave us our meal for free. Had we not been so pleasant about it (thanks in large part to having had a book like this with us) this might not have happened.

Thanks, First Second Books, for the review copy!

The Kidlitosphere's Poetry Friday Round-Up is at The Miss Rumphius Effect today!