This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (9/9/2012)

Here we are again. Please feel free to enjoy these middle grade sci fi/fantasy links that I collected during my week of blog reading, and please let me now if I missed yours!

The Reviews:

The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated, by Gerald Morris, at Oops....Wrong Cookie

The Adventures of Stanley Delacourt (Hartlandia 1), by Ilana Waters, at Readingjuky's Reading Roost

Beyond, by Graham McNamee, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Blue Fire (The Healing Wars 2) by Janice Hardy, at nom nom tasty books

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand, at The Book Smugglers

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at Charlotte's Library

The Doom Machine, by Mark Teague, at Maria's Melange (scroll down a tad)

Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Gods and Warriors, by Michelle Paver, at Hooked on Books

Horten's Incredible Illusions, by Lissa Evans, at Cracking the Cover

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, at Charlotte's Library

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

The Last Dogs--the Vanishing, by Christopher Holt, at The Book on the Hill

The Last Guardian, by Eoin Colfer, at Fantasy Literature

Legends of Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at books4yourkids

Lightmasters: Number 13, by M.G. Wells, at Sharon the Librarian

Malcolm at Midnight, by W.H. Beck, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

Messenger, by Lois Lowry, at Fantasy Literature

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, at That Blog Belongs to Emily Brown and Faith E. Hough

St. Viper's School for Super Villains, by Kim Donovan, at Sharon the Librarian

The Tale of Emily Windsnap, by Liz Kessler, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Time Garden, by Edward Eager, at Time Travel Times Two

The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette, by Bianca Turetsky, at The Fourth Musketeer

Victory, by Susan Cooper, at Ms. Yingling Reads

What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Sonderbooks

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, at Emily's Reading Room

Authors and Interviews:

Claire Legrand (The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls) talks mg heroines at The Book Smugglers, and also guest posting at Project Mayhem

Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson (The Familiars--Circle of Heros) at The O.W.L.

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Whatever, Stephanie Burgis, and at Jim C. Hines

Other Good Stuff:

Here's a fascinating dissection of all the clues tucked into the first two chapters of The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, at Deirdre's Book Blog

The Trilogy that begins with The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, has been optioned for the movies

Reading The Giver as an adult, from The Atlantic

Liz Kessler presents M is for Mermaid today at Scribble City Central

National Buy a Book Day is today! Why not support diversity? (Mg/YA sci fi/fantasy shopping guide included)

Today is National Buy a Book Day. To the basic challenge (not so difficult) of buying a book, I suggested adding another goal--buy a book that shows a main character who isn't white.

Way back in 2009, I made a conscious choice to add more diversity to the books on my children's bookshelves (here's that post). I wanted them to take for granted that the characters they saw on book covers, and read about inside, might well not be white. It proved hard to do. It is very, very difficult to walk into Barnes and Nobel and come out with a middle grade fantasy book that shows a kid of color on the cover. Especially if you have successfully done it once or twice already in a particular year.

But as bookseller Elizabeth Bluemie discussed in her post at CBC Diveristy*--"Who will create the new normal?"-- "If there’s one thing I have learned from my time in the handselling trenches, it’s how readily the public accept what we tell them is worth reading, what we stand behind and put our resources into. The more diversity there is on book covers, the more normalized those images become, and the more people will see beyond skin color on book covers into the stories themselves."

Those of us who aren't writer or booksellers or publishers have perhaps the most valuable resource of all--purchasing power. So today, for National Buy a Book Day, why not put that purchasing power to work for the cause of increasing diversity in children's and YA books?

For those looking for suggestions for fantasy and science fiction for kids and teenagers (since you might not be able to stroll into your local bookstore and pick one up that you haven't bought already), here are some covers showing people who aren't white (although with at least two of them, the person shown looks whiter than described inside). There are other books with non-white characters, but these are the only cover pictures I found (please tell me there are many I missed!!!)

Middle Grade sci fi/fantasy:

Monster Matsuri (Takeshita Demons 3), by Cristy Burne
The Stones of Ravenglass, by Jenny Nimmo
Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel
The Magnificent 12: The Key, by Michael Grant
Circle of Cranes, by Annette LeBox
The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, by Nathan Bransford























Possibly The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan, shows one of the non-white characters in that series, but squintching at the cover image on line proved ineffective in determining if this is the case.

And here are the YA covers that I found:

Shadows on the Moon, by Zoe Marriott
Cat Girl's Day Off, by Kimberly Pauley
Transcendence, by C.J.Omololu
Poison Tree, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner
The Chaos, by Nalo Hopkinson
Magic Under Stone, by Jaclyn Dolamore
The Friday Society, by Adrienne Kress
The Galahad Legacy, by Dom Testa
Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff (note: apparently this might not be a good example of diversity in YA, despite the beautiful cover--a commenter has noted that the author seems to have not had great respect for the culture in which he set the book. Any thoughts?)






























For those who want more suggestions, here's my list of the c. 100 multicultural sci fi/fantasy books that I've reviewed.

*CBC Diversity hosted a great series of posts on diversity in book covers this month--check it out.

Awesome mg and ya event in Boston, Sept 18, 2012

Boston GLOW, an organization that "aims to foster opportunities for women of all ages to become empowered community leaders and active, engaged world citizens" is hosting an event that sounds absolutely brilliant!

FIGHT LIKE A GIRL


I am going to go. Even though it's Boston--59 minutes away... and I get lost in Boston...but presumably the drive home would be easier, because I would be empowered.

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes (Margaret K. McElderry Books, middle grade, August 28, 2012), is a book that you can judge by its lovely cover. At least, I myself was completely taken with it--the strong stance of the girl, the raven poised to fly, the hint of danger in the falling feathers....And I bet that any ten or eleven year old (or so) girl who's a fantasy reader will feel the same way.* Happily, the story inside lives up to its cover beautifully!

Keara has lived with her raven Caw since she was a baby--sharing all her thoughts and dreams with him, and hearing his voice in return. He is her darkbeast, able to take all her faults and failings away from her when she tells them to him. Every child has a darkbeast, often a toad, or a snake, or a lizard, bound to them until their twelfth birthday, but not every one's darkbeast is their beloved friend (it is, perhaps, easier to be friends with a raven than with a snake, but regardless, Caw has tons of personality, and Keara loves him).

But the thing is, when you turn twelve in Keara's world, you are too old to have a darkbeast anymore, and are supposed to grow up and conquer your own faults. And so your darkbeast must die, in a ritual enforced by the Inquisitors.

When Keara turns 12, she cannot kill Caw. And so she must flee her village, and the Inquisitors she's offended (they are not nice people, those Inquisitors). Fortunately, she finds refuge with a band of travelling actors, and begins to make a new life for herself and Caw, pretending to still be a child. The fear of being found out is always with her, and the actors themselves are in danger for sheltering her. The Inquisitors are hunting her...and they will not rest until Caw is dead, and Keara punished.

It's a very good book. The constant danger Keara's in keeps the tension humming, the relationships among the characters (and their darkbeasts) are very nicely done, and the world building, which includes a panoply of gods, is sufficiently detailed to interest, without going overboard in dotting every socio-political i.

It's a story that I think will be taken straight to the heart of girls reluctant to grow up (like me when I was eleven). The crisis of emotion that Keara, and every other child, to some degree, must face when they turn 12 is the center of the book, and it packs a powerful punch. And I must say that I really really appreciated a book in which the central girl character, though strong and determined enough, is an ordinary girl. She's not, for instance, a theatrical wonderkind, stepping into the lead roles in the plays her new community performs, though she does make a useful place for herself. She never grabs a sword to start whacking inquisitors. No handsome dude falls for her (she's still a kid). There's wish fulfillment in plenty--Keara's relationship with Caw is something that I bet many girls will envy**--but Keara is always someone who it's easy for a young girl to imagine being.

That all being said, even if you are not suffering from the angst and loneliness of adolescence, you might still really like it. Like I said, it's a good book. And even if you are a boy, you should still try it.

*I have little data to back up my feeling about the cover--just one reaction, from my grown-up friend Anamaria, of Books Together, who came over for a visit and spotted it first thing amongst the books I had out to talk to her about...And the fact that my boys, despite it being left enticingly face out for days, don't seem to have noticed it.

**hands up anyone like me who was eleven in the early eighties who really wanted a fire lizard

disclaimer: review copy very happily received from the publisher

Castaway Blobs! Number 4

Because time has been short, I have no review today. Instead, I offer another episode of Castaway Blobs!, a cartoon series that started life in the mind of my 12 year old, and became a family project. Today's episode is based on one of my husband's ideas; he feels his original version was better, but since we can't find it, here's my adaptation of it (sorry Patrick). Click to enlarge...

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans, for Timeslip Tuesday

Sometimes to say a book has an element of time travel in it is to spoil it...sometimes less, sometimes more. But in my quest to review every time travel book for children ever written, I forge on ahead, regardless. Sorry for any inconvenience.

So today's Timeslip Tuesday book is Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans (Sterling Children's Books, April 3, 2012, middle grade, 272 pages). It starts with a very small boy, Stuart Horton (aka S. Horton, which is unfortunate), being forcibly moved by his parents from the town of his youth to his father's childhood home. He is not happy. The snoopy triplet girls next door (April, May, and June), don't help.

What does help, however, in a life-change, adventure-filled way, is Stuart's discovery that his great-uncle Tony was a great magician (of the stage variety sort), who disappeared shortly after World War II. His workshop, with all the miraculous mechanisms of the title, was never found.

But his uncle left a string of clues to its whereabouts...and Stuart begins to follow them, with the help of triplet April...and it's a hunt that takes the two of them deep into the town's history, and pits them against an opponent desperate to claim Uncle Tony's magic for her own.

And (this is the spoilery time travel part), there's time travel at the end, involving a quick glimpse of 19th-century stage magic. But I won't say anything else about that. It is a plot device, an interesting and exciting one that Zings with great Zing, but it is not Deep time travel, of the sort where the time travel is the gateway to much development of story and character.

Up until the time travel bit, there's nothing that couldn't happen in real life (although mostly it doesn't). It's the sort of fun, puzzle-solving mystery/adventure that is diverting as all get out to read about (in particular, I really appreciated how place dependent it was--it's the sort of book with a Useful black and white map on its boards), and the growing friendship between Stuart and April was very nicely done.


Three of us enjoyed it (both my 12 year old and my husband read and liked it lots), and I recommend it without reservation (especially to any kid fascinated by magic). My youngest son (9 years old) was the only one not taken with it--he stopped reading halfway through, because he had just read Hugo Cabret, and thought that this one "didn't reveal itself" the way Hugo did--meaning that in Horten's story, Horten can't gradually reveal things the way Hugo, who knows things the reader doesn't, can. So the straightforward progression of the mystery seemed unsatisfactory. Each to his own.

The sequel, Horten's Incredible Illusions, just came out...it is waiting for me downstairs, and I am looking forward to it!

Digger, by Ursula Vernon, wins graphic story Hugo Award

The Hugo Awards don't generally offer much for readers of middle grade sci fi/fantasy, but this year I was awfully pleased to see that Ursula Vernon, of Dragonbreath fame, won the "Best Graphic Story" award for Digger. I've been meaning to try Digger for ages; here's the blurb for Vol. 1:

"Digger is a story about a wombat. More specifically, it is a story about a particularly no-nonsense wombat who finds herself stuck on the wrong end of a one-way tunnel in a strange land where nonsense seems to be the specialty. Now with the help of a talking statue of a god, an outcast hyena, a shadow-being of indeterminate origin, and an oracular slug she seeks to find out where she is and how to go about getting back to her Warren."

The best novel Hugo award went to Among Others, by Jo Walton, which is a book that struck me as one I should love, but I didn't.

You can find the whole list of winners here at Tor.

Welcome to the first middle grade science fiction and fantasy round-up of September! Here are all the posts I found this week; please let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews

Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee, at Charlotte's Library

Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes, at Not Acting My Age

The Demon Notebook, by Erica McGann, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire, 1), by Tui T. Sutherland, at Fantasy Literature

Eye of the Storm, by Kate Messner, at Presenting Lenore

The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen, at Cracking the Cover

The Ghost of Graylock, by Dan Poblocki, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Ghost of Opalina, by Peggy Bacon, at Charlotte's Library

Gods and Warriors, by Michelle Paver, at Bookyurt

Gustav Gloom and the People Taker, by Adam-Troy Castro, at Carina's Books

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

The Kindling, by Brayden Bell, at My Precious

The Month of Zephram Mondays, by Leslie A. Susskind, at Nayu's Reading Corner

Mutiny in Time, by James Dashner, at Cracking the Cover

The Prarie Thief, by Melissa Wiley, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, by John Claude Bemis, at Carina's Books

The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell, at Tales of the Marvelous

Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, at The Book Smugglers

The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, by Jennifer Tracton, at books4yourkids

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schiltz, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin, at Stacked and Abby the Librarian

What Came from the Stars, by Gary Schmidt, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer, at Read in a Single Sitting

Writers and Interviews:

Jennifer Nielsen (The False Prince) at Emily's Reading Room

James Dashner (Mutiny in Time) at Cracking the Cover

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Jill Archer and An Exchange of Words

Other Good Stuff:

BBC Three will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publications of Grimm's Fairy Tales with interviews and readings from "poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse, John Agard, the poet and playwright, Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, and the writer of comic fantasy stories, Sir Terry Pratchett." For more info, here's the Guardian article. [Which is correct--Grimm's Tales, as the Guardian has it, or Grimms' Tales, since there were two brothers????]

Not related to mg sff at all, but these reviews are Utterly Funny (thanks to This is Not the Six World Novel)

Of Bloggish interest:
The schedule for Kitlitcon 2012 is up! And it looks great. This is the most fun conference ever (if, of course, you are a children's book blogger. If you are a dairy farm, perhaps, not so much).

Sign ups are now ongoing for the A More Diverse Universe blog tour, which will happen Sept 23rd to Sept. 29th. "To participate, you need only read and review one book in the speculative fiction genre that was written by a person of color."

Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming Sept. 10-14 (with no awards this year, which I think is for the best).

This week's round-up brought to you by the Poodle Moth, coming soon to a backyard near you:

The Ghost of Opalina, or Nine Lives, by Peggy Bacon

The Ghost of Opalina, or Nine Lives, by Peggy Bacon (1967), is an utterly charming cat ghost fantasy story.

It starts in my most favorite way: "Phillip, Ellen, and Jeb Finley lived in the city until young Jeb was five years old. Then their parents bought a house near the village of Heatherfield, and, in late August, they all went to live in the country.

The house was large, rambling, and very old, set down on thick soft lawns like green fur, with wads of moss under the big old trees. There were old barns, old gardens full of box, a lily pool, old-fashioned flowers and shrubs."

I love books about children moving to old houses with lovely gardens, so I was predisposed in the book's favor from the get go.

And then I met Opalina--an cat whose opinion of herself is worthy of an E. Nespit magical creature. She is the ghost of a cat who met an untimely end in the 18th century, and she manifests to the children, who are delighted to make her acquaintance. She regales them with tales of her various lives spent living in the old house, keeping a keen eye on its inhabitants, and haunting when necessary.

The book is episodic, in that each of Opalina's stories is its own self-contained unit of historical fiction, but that being said, the story of the house through time as told to its new inhabitants (who have their own difficulties to face fitting in to their new schools) makes a satisfying whole. Something of the same sort as happens, for instance, in The Sherwood Ring, by Elizabeth Marie Pope.

In addition, I was charmed (unexpectedly, cause often I don't notice these things) by the illustrations (which are the author's own). This one, in particular, tickles me tremendously:

That's Opalina, haunting the dog that killed her in comet-like form.

I highly recommend it to any reader of children's books who is both a cat lover and old house lover! I'm awfully glad it was still in my state's library system (too expensively out of print to buy--$800 on Amazon!), and thank you, those commentors who recommend it to me when I reviewed Caterpillar Hall!

Hilda and the Midnight Giant, by Luke Pearson

Hilda and the Midnight Giant, by Luke Pearson (Nobrow Press, April 17, 2012, ages eight and up, 40 pages) is another fine addition to the growing body of graphic novels with boy appeal that feature a strong girl. Yay!

Hilda and her mother live in an isolated house, high up the in the hills...but it's not as isolated as they seem. Tiny notes have begun appearing, telling them to vacate the premises immediately...and it turns out that their house was built smack dab in the middle of an town of invisible elves!

After filling out the requisite paperwork with the help of a sympathetic elf, Hilda's eyes are opened to the dense settlement around her...but will she be able to convince the elves in power to let her and her mother stay in their home without further trouble?

Complicating things is the mysterious giant who begins to appear outside, keeping a rendezvous agreed on four thousand years ago. Hilda's pluck and determination, and an unintended consequence of the gigantic visitation, bring things to a satisfactory conclusion.

Hilda's is a fantastical world--though the elves might be invisible, other strange beings are not. There's no violent action or stirring adventure--just a journey into the magical shared with the reader, involving a bit of a struggle with elvish bureaucracy, as well as the more tense encounters of with the giant, and the mystery of his purpose. The muted tones of the illustrations (most of the action happens at night) give a dream-like quality to Hilda's encounters with the magic around her.

There's nothing here not suitable for the younger reader, although thematically the upper elementary kid, even on into middle school, might appreciate it more. It captured the interest of my own older reader (and my own interest) just fine (even though I think that Hilda is not drawn as engagingly, as, say, Zita the Space Girl; but then,who is?)

Other thoughts at Jean Little Library, The Comics Journal (although the second page spread shown is from Hildafolk, Luke Pearson's first book, which looks lovely), the Islington Comic Forum ("this is a children's book for children and there's not much to be found within it's pages for anyone over the age of 12. Yeah - that sounds harsh." To which I say, "harsh" isn't how it sounds to me. More like irrelevant.)

Waiting on Wednesday--Freakling, by Lana Krumwiede

Perhaps, like me, you have a twelve-year old boy kicking around the house who is a picky reader of frustrating randomness, and you are always looking for books that might, just possibly, appeal (and books with gears on the cover seem especially hopeful). Perhaps, like me, you like stories in which children are exiled to rural communities for fantastical/science fictional reasons. Perhaps (yes, like me again), you enjoy dystopias, but are tired of the obligatory romance element.

If you answered yes to the above, I am confident that you, like me (last time I'm saying that) will look forward to Freakling, by Lana Krumwiede, coming in early October from Candlewick.

From Goodreads:

"A thrilling, fast-paced dystopian novel about the dangers of unchecked power and the dilemmas facing a boy torn between two ways of life.

In twelve-year-old Taemon’s city, everyone has a power called psi—the ability to move and manipulate objects with their minds. When Taemon loses his psi in a traumatic accident, he must hide his lack of power by any means possible. But a humiliating incident at a sports tournament exposes his disability, and Taemon is exiled to the powerless colony.

The "dud farm" is not what Taemon expected, though: people are kind and open, and they actually seem to enjoy using their hands to work and play and even comfort their children. Taemon adjusts to his new life quickly, making friends and finding unconditional acceptance.

But gradually he discovers that for all its openness, there are mysteries at the colony, too—dangerous secrets that would give unchecked power to psi wielders if discovered.

When Taemon unwittingly leaks one of these secrets, will he have the courage to repair the damage—even if it means returning to the city and facing the very people who exiled him?"

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

Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee, for Timeslip Tuesday

So this morning I had an actual time travel experience--I woke up and it was already eight thirty and we had missed the school bus, but then I really work up and had travelled back in time and it was only quarter to six. Sometimes time travel is a good thing.

For instance, as is the case in Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends, May 2012, middle grade, 304 pages), time travel may be just what you need to help you cope with your parents' divorce, especially if you get to go hang out with Mark Twain in the past. This is what happens to best friends Joan Lee and Lee Jones. The coincidence of their names is just the tip of the iceberg of their close (non-romantic--they're in middle school still) friendship. And one horrible day another coincidence strikes--both their sets of parents announce they are splitting up.

The next school day just happens to be the class field trip, and Joan and Lee resign themselves to the boredom of yet another trip to the San Fransisco fort they'd seen a bazillion times already. But this time, they find themselves travelling back in time to 1864. Not a good year for being unauthorized visitors in a military fortification. Fortunately, the first person they meet is another person who has come unstuck in time--a friendly man named Sam Clemens (known, in the future, as Mark Twain), who gives them sanctuary.

Unfortunately, even Sam, helpful though he is, can't do anything about the violent racism against the Chinese inhabitants of old San Fransisco, and in fact there are a number of individuals who want to damage Sam in particular for his journalist work in exposing this racism. Joan, being Chinese, is in constant danger...

And on a more personal level, both Joan and Lee are deeply conflicted about going home--neither wants to go back to houses where the word "divorce" is still echoing in the air.

But unless they can fix their minds on sticking back in their own time, they'll be unstuck--passing through a multitude of various San Fransiscos (including a rather exaggeratedly beautiful Native American version). Fortunately, they each get to encounter their older selves, and are comforted thereby. But Sam is another problem--he is busily having a crisis of self-confidence, denying the future he's seen for himself as Mark Twain...

This one falls into two of my roughly delineated time travel categories--the Didactic Experience, and the Mechanism for Personal Growth. At first, what with all the attention paid to "this is San Fransisco in 1864" I found it hard to be deeply involved in the story, and was not sure I liked Joan and Lee (I got tired of the meaningful LOOKS (caps in the original) they kept exchanging). When they unstuck from 1864, the level of excitement picked up as they bounced through time, and the pages turned somewhat faster.

There's some humor, and a bit of mystery (just who is that mysterious man in black, and why is he following Sam around? Why isn't the author making more of him?), and a few mentions of pizza, enough to add a splash of middle grade reader appeal (although, perhaps, not quite enough to carry the book). And it might well resonate deeply with middle grade readers who are themselves feeling unstuck in their lives, particularly those whose parents, like Lee and Joan's, are splitting up.

If I were requiring seventh grade kids to read a historical fiction book, or if I were teaching about racism in the 19th century, I would probably put this one on the reading list. It's also the only time travel book I can think of in with a Chinese American protagonist, and I felt that Joan's experience in the past was nicely done. It's not one, though, that I'd strongly urge adult readers of time slip stories to try--it's just fine, but not desperately magical.

And having typed that, I realize that I have slipped through time again, and it is now almost seven, the bus leaves in 14 minutes, and my child is still asleep. Sigh.

Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future

Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future, by Kathy Ceceri (with 20 projects) (Nomad Press, August 2012, 128 pages) is a book that made me want to rip a greeting card apart (I've never gotten to say that before!). The ripping would be to get the little soundy thingy inside it, of course, to use in making my own rolling ball tilt sensor (another thing I never wanted to do before reading this book). And I want to take my sons to the dollar store, to buy small electronic devices to demolish, to the junk store to buy more things to demolish, and perhaps even to the hobby store, to buy things fresh and ready to use...

And the fact that it made me want to do these things is, I think, a testament to the interest in robotics that this book inspires.*

Opening Robotics and beginning to read, I was pretty much a blank slate, much more so than the ten or eleven year old, science-minded kid who is the target audience. I appreciated the introduction to the development of robots, was a tad overwhelmed by the many details in subsequent chapters on the nuts and bolts of robotics--the housing, the actuators, the effectors, the sensors, the controllers--but appreciated the many interesting sidebars (I liked seeing the binary alphabet, for instance). And, social scientist that I am, I loved the last chapter on "AI, Social Robots, and the Future of Robotics."

The projects seem fairly straightforward, and the sort of thing that a good parent would leap to assist the younger child in carrying out. The older child (ie my 12 year old) would probably be assisting me...

In short, this seems to me a pretty excellent next step for the kid whose just dipping their toes in the world of lego robotics, who might want to try their own hand at constructing their own robotic devices.

*Confession: I have never tinkered with anything involving electricity. My mother told me electricity was dangerous, and I, being a Good Child, dutifully feared it, and continue being deeply leery of it (does anyone else imagine house fires starting when electricity from faulty wiring somehow leaks into the walls??? Of course I know it doesn't, but still I look at the old, old walls of my house and wonder...)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This post is part of Non-fiction Monday, a recurring event in the Kidlitopshere. The host today is Simply Science.

I've labeled my dragon book posts--and they are few in number. I ask why, and don't come up with an answer.

I just went through all 1927 of my posts to label ones about dragons as "dragons." So if anyone wants some nice dragon books (and there are some good ones!) they can be found. But there are only 33 of them...which seems wrong (on many, many counts), though that being said, some of the posts are lists.

But still, I wonder-- have I been avoiding dragons???? I know I tend to avoid mermaids and vampires and zombies (though there are good books about all three)...but I thought I liked dragons.

This Sunday's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (8/26/2012)

Good morning, and welcome to another Sunday morning round-up of all the posts I found in my blog reading of interest to fans of middle grade sci fi and fantasy. Please let me know if I missed yours!

Just a reminder-- the deadline for applying for a slot as a Cybils panelist (August 31) fast approaches! Here's what Sheila Ruth, the sci fi/fantasy organizer has to say: "I'm especially in need of people who are passionate and knowledgeable about middle grade for the Middle Grade SFF panel. We always get many more applications for YA SFF than for MG SFF, and while many of the YA applicants say that they'll be happy with middle grade, and I appreciate that, I'd love to fill the middle grade panel with judges who love middle grade and put it as their first choice." But if you are daunted by the number of books that will be getting nominated in mg sff (probably around 150), maybe graphic novels, or book apps, or the non-fiction categories (all of which are in need of panelists) would be a good fit for you.

The Reviews

3 Below (Floors #2), by Patrick Carman, at Sharon the Librarian

Amulet: Prince of Elves, by Kazu Kibuishi, at Wandering Librarians

Annie's Adventures (Sisters Eight) by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, at Read in a Single Sitting

The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, at Barbara Ann Watson

The Aviary, by Kathleen O’Dell, at Children's Books and Reviews

The Broken Lands, by Kate Milford, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile, The Book Smugglers, and Karissa's Reading Review

Caterpillar Hall, by Anne Barrett, at Charlotte's Library

Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, at Sonderbooks

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel, at Book Nut and The Children's Book Review

The Girl Behind the Glass, by Jane Kelley, at Books and Other Thoughts

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke, at Book Nut

How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell, at Karissa's Reading Review

Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time, by James Dashner, at The New York Times

Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis, at The Book Smugglers

Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger, at Sash and Em--a Tale of Two Bookies

Kingdom of the Wicked (Skulduggery Pleasant), by Derek Landy, at The Book Zone

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at ShelfAwarness

Legends of Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke, at Charlotte's Library

The Lost Colony, by Eoin Colfer, at Fyrefly's Book Blog

The Mapmaker and the Ghost, by Sarvenaz Tash, at Geo Librarian

Muddle and Win, by John Dickinson, at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, at Sonderbooks, the bookish mama, Squeaky Books, and Cracking the Cover

The Raging Fires, by T.A. Barron, at Fantasy Literature

The Scorpions of Zahir, by Christine Brodien-Jones, at Charlotte's Library

The Seventh Tower: The Fall, by Garth Nix, at Val Muller

Small Medium at Large, by Joanne Levy, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schiltz, at Charlotte's Library

The Time-Travelling Fashionista, by Bianca Turetsky, at Madigan Reads

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at Books & Other Thoughts

The Unwanteds: Island of Silence, by Lisa McMann, at Shannon Messenger

The WondLa series, by Tony DiTerlizzi, at The Write Path

A two for one, at Ms. Yingling Reads Alex Van Helsing: The Triumph of Death, by Jason Henderson, and Zombie Tag, by Hannah Moskovitz

Writers, Illustrators, Interviews

Shaun Tan on his picture book,The Red Tree, at Books for Keeps--"The absurd surrealism of the giant fish hopefully discourages any rational assessment...." (some of us need little help in this regard...)

Shannon Hale (Palace of Stone) at Cracking the Cover and Squeaky Books

Morgan Keyes (Darkbeast) at Blogging for YA

Nikki Loftin )The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy) at The Book Cellar and at The Enchanted Inkpot.

Royce Buckingham (The Demonkeeper series) at A Thousand Wrongs and Literary Rambles (giveaway)

Stefan Bachmann (The Peculiar) at Smack Dab in the Middle

Other Good Stuff

The Enchanted Inkpot has a two part series (here and here) showcasing fall mg sff book covers--much to drool over (not that one should ever drool over books, at least in real life. They might get damaged).

Leslie Wilson talks about "The Bremen Town Musicians" at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

For those looking for fairy tale retellings with boy appeal, here's a great list at BellaOnBooks

And in the so awful its great (?) category, check out this faux 1980s cartoon -- "Space Stallions" over at Tor. Will Mother Mustang help our heroes save the multiverse?

The Scorpions of Zahir, by Christine Brodien-Jones

The Scorpions of Zahir, by Christine Brodien-Jones (Delacorte, July 2012, middle grade)

Eleven year old Zagora Pym is named for a town in Morocco...and dreams of one day following in the footsteps of her epigrapher father, travelling across the desert and making great archaeological discoveries. When a letter arrives from a famous archaeologist with whom her father used to work, a man believed to have died in the desert, Zagora's chance arrives. Her destination--the lost city of Zahir, abandoned and overrun by scorpions centuries ago, when a thief stole the fabulous Oryx stone from its blue pyramid.

Though her older brother Duncan (a chubby computer geek for whom Zagora has little use) is reluctant, Zagora is thrilled to be part of her father's journey to the lost city. But there is much danger waiting in Morocco. Zagora's father has the lost Oryx stone in his possession--and there are people who would kill for it. More catastrophic danger also looms (literally) large in the sky. The theft of the stone triggered a change in the orbit of a rouge planet, and it's now heading straight for earth. Then there are the prosaic, but very real, dangers of crossing the desert. And finally, once Zahir is reached, there's the little problem (not) of giant, mutant scorpions.

Exciting sounding, yes? And it is, although I must say that it requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief, both in terms of the practicalities (why the heck is Zagora's father taking them on a poorly planned desert crossing to begin with?), and in terms of the story--the rouge planet was a hard one for me to accept. I think that this issue of belief might well prove prohibitive for the older reader (it did for me), though the target audience of younger readers will doubtless be more accepting.

Slightly more problematic to me was a creeping element of the "white saviour" trope, in which outsiders to the indigenous culture come and save the day. Zagora happens to be gifted with desert sight (she sees ghosts of oryxes past), and ends up having the lead role to play in the predestined return of the stone. A tribal girl gets to help. More prosaically, her father has to translate the scared glyphs of the lost tribe of wise desert sages to them, because they have forgotten how to interpret them themselves.

Zagora, however, should appeal to adventure-loving girls, who might well enjoy her fantastical desert adventures. Anyone who is bothered by scorpions, however, should be warned--there are many of them. And they are very big.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publicist.

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke (First Second, September 4, 2012, ages 8 and up) is the sequel to the utterly charming Zita the Spacegirl (my review), which won the Cybils Award for younger Graphic Novel last year.


If you want your boys to read books about girls, girls who are brave, and determined, and basically people with feelings (as opposed to aliens with cooties), you can't really go wrong with the growing number of great graphic novels out there with that type of girl front and center. And at the top of the list (along with Giants Beware!) is Zita the Spacegirl. The charm with which she is drawn, the science fictional adventures in which she is a reluctant but capable participant, and the engaging supporting cast of aliens, makes this a winner for readers of any gender.

In this second story, Zita finds that she has become a hero. Pestered by fans, she is at first relieved when a robot, determined to impersonate her, shows up. But the robot is too eager to take Zita's places, and blasts off on an interstellar rescue mission--leaving Zita and her friend, Mouse, marooned.

Help comes along in the form of an intergalactic circus, and soon Zita and Mouse are on their way to face an alien danger of epic proportions. But the path that they've taken has brought them afoul of the law, and the police are chasing them across the galaxy...defeating the alien danger requires a terrible sacrifice...and what Zita really wants is to go home to her family again.

And then there's a cliffhanger. Argh! The alien danger part is resolved, but that's it. So me and my boys will have to wait eagerly for Zita Three to come out. Sigh.

But in any event, Hatke's wild and wacky illustrations--detailed yet not overwhelming--make me smile while reading, I love Zita, both as a drawing and a person, and I can't wait to see what happens next! (And this is partly because Piper, who those of you who read book 1 will remember, now has some backstory. With romance. I do like romantic backstory...Also there is now a cat. I like cats. I like Mouse too, but cats more.).

A generous preview is available here at the publishers.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher, and read instantly.

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick, August 28, 2012, middle grade)

In late 19th century London, a lonely rich girl named Clara Wintermute begs her father to let her have a puppet show for her birthday. For years, her birthday's have been full of Gothic horror--the only surviving child of a once substantial family, her grief-crazed mother carefully gives her gifts from all her dead siblings, and they spend a happy time at the mausoleum visiting them. But this year she begs for the puppets. She had stolen a glimpse of Gaspare Grisini's masterful marionette performance on the street, but even more than the show itself (remarkable though it was), it was her brief encounter with the red haired girl who was one of the trio of puppeteers that entranced her. And her father obliges.

That red-haird girl is Lizzie Rose, orphaned daughter of an actor. She and a former street urchin, a younger boy named Parsifal, have toiled for Gaspare (a cruel and miserly master) for years, making theatrical magic. He loves the puppets; she loves him like a sister. And lonely Clara wants to be their friend.

But Clara vanishes the night after her birthday performance, and suspicion falls on Gaspare (rightly so). Gaspare disappears from London, and Lizzie and Parse must fend for themselves. They have found Clara, but cannot save her--there is dark and creepy magic involved--Gaspare was much more than a master of puppets. When a letter arrives inviting them to a mysterious mansion in the north of England, they accept this somewhat dubious refuge--only to find that they are now part of an even larger story, filled with even more deadly magic. For the mansion is home to a dying witch, desperate to rid herself of a curse...and the three children are now players in an story that began long before they were born.

It is a gripping read, very nicely told indeed, I thought. I was fascinated by the characters and their situations -- there's not much Action and Adventure here (although there is some). Rather, the focus of the book is on whether the children will survive, on a day to day level, the vicissitudes of poverty (for Lizzie and Parse in the beginning), a truly dysfunctional, though wealthy life (for Clara), and then whether they will survive enchantment and life-threatening magical plots.

As an adult reader, I enjoyed it. I appreciated the rich characterization of the three children, the details of the historical setting, the descriptions of the marionettes, and the spooky old house full of ancient magic. The Villain is Villainous, Lizzie Rose in particular is heroic, and there is lots of poignant back story to make it all nicely three dimensional. So it's one I'd recommend to adult readers of children's historical fantasy with no hestitation.

However, I do wonder about its child reader appeal --are there many young readers of darkly magical historical fiction that isn't steampunkish? If you know such a reader, give them this one.

The UK title of this one is Fire Spell, and that's the cover on the right. I think it has more young reader appeal, because it is much prettier and promises more magic.

Splendors and Glooms is definitely on the upper end of the middle grade age range, because of the manner of its telling--it's a book that takes reading, rather than light zipping. What happens to Clara is rather disturbing, but not made horrible by writerly twisting of psychological screws, so that shouldn't be a problem (not like The Toymaker, by Jeremy de Quidt (my review), which has some similarities and which bothered the pants off me).

Caterpillar Hall, by Anne Barrett, for Timeslip Tuesday

Back in the spring, a friend of mine reviewed Caterpillar Hall, by Anne Barrett (1950) on her blog, Staircase Wit, and I was intrigued as all get out. Kindly, she made a copy for me...and I have now read it, with great enjoyment.

Penelope lives a lonely life in London, cared for by her governess, Miss Pink, and her distant uncle, while her father is off in Persia trying to restore the family fortunes enough so that they can move back to their ancestral home (pause while I look up Persia, to see when it became Iran--1935. The book is set a few years after WW II, so I guess it's ok for a girl of that time to still say "Persia."). One day her father (who seems to be having some success) sends Penelope five whole pounds to spend as she pleases, and Penelope decides on an umbrella. Not a dull black one, but a lovely one, to be used in all the imaginative ways one might need shelter--a tent roof, a palmy oasis, a parachute....

And so Miss Pink, after some protestation, takes Penelope umbrella shopping. And Penelope comes home with a beautiful parrot handled umbrella....

On her first outing with her new friend, a gust of wind hurtles him up and into a walled garden. Penelope of course hurries after....and finds herself in the garden of a bombed house. All that remains is the glass vestibule, that once reached from the door to the street, like a glass caterpillar. But someone is living there in "Caterpillar Hall"--a lovely young lady, who becomes Penelope's dear friend. She tells Penelope that her umbrella is magic, an indeed it is.

The magic takes Penelope as a spectator back in time, watching the moments in the lives of those around her--Miss Pink, her uncle, and the older couple that look after the house--when they too were young, wishing for something as much as Penelope had wished for her own umbrella. It's a very passive type of time travel, but just gorgeously generous in its visual descriptions, and emotionally pleasing, in that Penelope learns to see the adults around her as three dimensional people, with dreams of their own. They want small things, for the most part--a beautiful hat, a ship in a bottle, a copper kettle, but there's one thing that's very large indeed.

And so, with what is left from her five pounds, and the help of her new friend, Penelope sets out to find them what they want.

This is pretty much a perfect Charlotte book. I would have swooned with adoration for it as an eight year old, and managed to love it even as a hardened adult. It has:

--beautiful descriptions of lovely things and places
--an engaging young heroine, with whom I would like to play
--enough time travel magic to be interesting, without being stressful
--a very happy ending

Utterly charming. My only regret is that it is out of print and expensive, so probably you won't be able to read it...

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

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

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

The Reviews:

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders, at Fantastic Reads

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wednesdays, by Julie Bourbeau, at My Precious

The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer, at Beyond Books

Authors and Interviews

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

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

Margaret Peterson Haddix at Cynsations (giveaway)

Other Good Things:

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

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

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

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