The Martian, by Andy Weir

The Martian, by Andy Weir (Random House 2014), was delightfully gripping.  The basic premise--Mark Watney is an astronaut abandoned on Mars after his spacesuit is punctured by a rouge antenna during a storm.  His crewmates, in a desperate hurry to leave the planet before it's too late for them all, are sure he is dead.  But he's not.

And now he is stuck on Mars, alone.  The next manned mission won't arrive for four years; he has food for only a few months.  He has no way to communicate with Earth.   But Watney is nothing if not resourceful, and he refuses to give in....

What follows is a harrowing survival story, in which human ingenuity is pitted against an environment where the smallest mistake can become deadly.    Basically, it's a grown-up version of My Side of the Mountain on Mars, and I enjoyed it very much.

Mostly it's told in Watney's log entries (in which he records all the various technical jury-rigging and repurposing projects that fill his days--don't try these at home), but when he finally manages to communicate with Earth, we get to see how NASA desperately does what it can to rescue him, and how the whole planet becomes riveted by what's happening out on Mars.   A lot of what concerns Watney is fairly technical, and I confess I read lightly over his engineering endeavours.  But I was riveted by his potato farming adventures--Watney is a biologist, as well as an engineer, and the 12 potatoes that flew to Mars for Thanksgiving turn out to be life-savers (composting for the win!).

I was sad this nearish-future vision of the scientific world hadn't made many strides with regard to the inclusion of women as full fledged geeks- true, the commander of the original mission is female, but NASA command is still pretty much all male.  And there were two gratuitous bits of nerd culture slamming that I wish hadn't been there (Watley wonders why one crew member is a nerd when she is so beautiful, and the PR woman at NASA sneers at colleagues who reference the Council of Elrond, which she's never heard of).  But I guess it's believable; attitudes take a while to change.

There's some strong language (the first sentence, for instance, is "I'm pretty much f***ed"), but I'd be comfortable giving it to my own eight-grader because there's really no point in pretending he doesn't know the f word at this point.

Anyway, I pretty much read it in a single sitting, and recommend it enthusiastically to anyone who enjoys harrowing survival stories that are chock full of science--instructive as well as entertaining.  And of course it could conceivably described as "a testament to the indomitable will of the human spirit" etc. etc. which is, you know, not a bad thing in thing to be reading in these difficult times when one's own spirit might be daunted by all there is to do at home and work.  At least I don't have to combine hydrogen and oxygen in the kitchen in order to wash the dishes.

Smasher, by Scott Bly

Smasher, by Scott Bly (Blue Sky Press, March, 2014, middle grade)

The future is in jeopardy--a madman who has managed to combine incredible technology with the psychic energies of nature (the Hum) is about to enslave mankind by with an infections cocktail of computer code and manipulated DNA. In the 16th century, a boy named Charlie can manipulate the hum even more wonderfully than the madman in the future.  And Charlie's ability to solve puzzles has been honed to a razors edge by his grandfather, and his survival instincts have been honed to a razors edge by fear of bullies and inquisitors....

Travelling between the two times is a girl named Geneva, a robot with miraculous powers of her own.   She comes to get Charlie, and take him to the future, where the two will stand together as last hope for humanity.  (There's a dog too, a very nice indeed puppy with enhancements of her own....there's also an enhanced gorilla, which you don't see that often, but he plays a relatively minor role).

And there's plenty of action, as the bad guy and his minions try to hunt down Charlie and Geneva, and they try to escape while foiling.

It was an enjoyable read, and it's a very good introduction to that fine speculative fiction question of how human a robot can be.  I liked Geneva very much!  Charlie was fine too, but with a relatively straightforward, what you see is what you get, character.  Geneva comes with Mysteries and Questions. 

This is one I'm happy to recommend to kids of ten and eleven or so, moving into sci fi action books.  It offers a nice serving of age-appropriate violence, which is to say there are deaths, and torture, but not disturbingly graphic, and balanced by a lot of sewer-related discomfort.   (Even if a kid's read The Hunger Games  and Ender's Game already, I don't think there's any reason to hurry toward ever more violence.)  However, there is considerable cruelty toward animals, which the bad guy is manipulating in  his lab of evil--this could well cause distress!

The action is balanced by dashes of (not tremendously subtle) philosophy about good vs evil, and by the friendship between Geneva and Charlie, which was a pleasure to read about.  And I think the time travel element will appeal to that audience as well--there's a friendliness to a protagonist who's plunked, like the reader, into a strange and alien landscape where much is confusing at first.

That being said, I myself found the time slip element unsatisfactory.  There's not a lot of time spent in the 16th century, and were it not for the fact that we are told the year is 1542, there's really no way to know.   Likewise, I felt Charlie's easy acceptance of the future somewhat unconvincing.  (It's also hard for me not to care about details like names--as I know the name Charles hadn't made it across the English Channel yet....and how can a boy living in a remote mountain village have three tutors, unless he's the aristocracy, which he doesn't seem to be?).

I also wasn't quite satisfied with the back story--when I'm told right at the beginning of the book that the protagonist's harsh grandfather has blood on his hands, and is apparently a murderer, I expect this to be explained, if not resolved, clearly and with conviction, and (even though I read fast I don't think I missed anything) the details stayed pretty murky.

But I don't think my two issues are the sort that will affect the reading pleasure of the target audience, especially the target audience for fast-paced sci-fi excitement.  Especially recommended for the computer geek kid-coding plays a bit part in the story!

Here's the Kirkus review.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Lost Children of the Far Islands, by Emily Raabe, with thoughts on how I judge "kids with destiny" stories

Lost Children of the Far Islands, by Emily Raabe (Knopf, April 2014), is a middle grade fantasy that takes the magical creatures of the oceans around the British Isles and transplants them to the coastal waters of Maine.   It's the story of three siblings who find themselves visited one night by a mysterious messenger, and taken out to sea to the island far off the coast where their grandmother lives....where they find that they are shapeshifters, able to take seal form.  And they find (much more disturbingly!) that their destiny is to take part in a age old battle against the darkest creature of them all--a destroyer who wants to ravage the oceans until there is no life left.

I found it a gripping, fast read that I was able to enjoy even in the midst of a frenzied, stressful week, and I appreciated the fact that it stands alone just fine (there's one unanswered question, but it doesn't materially affect this particular story).

When I read a book about children in our world facing off against ancient folkloric evil, I have a rubric (which I am putting into words for the first time here, so I might well be missing something obvious!) by which I judge it.  Here's how Lost Children of the Far Islands came out in my mind.

1.  Are the young protagonists distinct people, or simply child-shaped spaces?  The kids here are two almost 11-year-old twins, a girl (Gus) and a boy (Leo), and their little sister, Ila.  The story's told mostly from Gus's point of view, but the other two gets some page time as well.  Gus is a girl primary character of the sort whose gender is a non-issue-- if you want your random boy to read books with girls, this is one that won't present problems in that regard.

All three kids are all individuals, especially young Ila, who is tremendously vibrant (she can also shapeshift into fox form, and I have a fondness for young fox shifters).   There are tensions between the siblings that all of us who have siblings can relate to just fine.  The kids have interests and personality traits that set them apart which for the most part become clear organically in the story, as opposed to traits that appear blatantly pinned on the character by the authorial hand.

2.  Is there a reason for these particular kids being the ones that have to help save the world?   I like to have a clear sense that only these particular characters are in the position to do what needs to be done, and I like it when "specialness" is balanced by a dash of reality.  Harry Potter is convincing as a hero because he has so much support; likewise Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising couldn't have done squat alone.    I get especially nervous when a prophecy is involved (as is the case here), not just because so many fictional prophecies are truly tortured verse (this one was unobjectionable), but because there's often not a satisfying reason why a particular character is the Destined Child of Prophecy.  I think destiny is a fine thing, and can be a good source of character tension, but sometimes I can't help but feel that prophecies are window dressings.  And if I'm not clear that there's a reason it's these particular kids by about a third of the way through the story, it's hard for me to care.

Lost Children of the Far Islands passes this test just fine. The kids aren't simply plunked down into the middle of Destiny...it sneaks up on them with a nicely growing sense of danger, and they have to discover secrets about their mother, and their ancient grandmother, before realizing what exactly they are part of.  Likewise, the catalyst for confrontation comes not from the playing out of predestined roles, but because something goes wrong--there is a betrayal--which is more satisfying, I think.

3.  Are the mythological elements made into something fresh and convincing?  Does the fantasy make sense?   I think in metaphors, and I'm finding myself thinking of this question in Christmasy terms--the single tree, made beautiful, as opposed to the sensory overwhelmingness of Christmas-tree land box stores, too shiny-full for any coherent story to emerge.   This test is also passed just fine--  Emily Raabe doesn't try to bring every single last bit of Celtic mythology into the story--she sticks pretty much to the mythological creatures, and they fill the story just fine.

4.  (This one might be just a matter of personal taste)  Is there a reason for the places that are important in the story to be those places, and are the places described in such a way as to make clear pictures in my mind?  My favorite part of this book was the time spent on the mysterious far island where the magical grandmother lives--it is a lovely island, with lost mundane treasures and a library holding a far from mundane book.   It's not at all clear to me why all the magical opposition of good and evil should have ended up off the coast of Maine, instead of home in the British Isles, but this didn't bother me enough to be an actual objection.

So in short, Lost Children of the Far Island is a fine story, though best, I think, for those that don't already have tons and tons of fantasy under their belts already.  It's one I'll offer to my ten year old, who has yet to meet any seal folk in his reading, but I don't think it's appeal goes far beyond that target audience, which isn't a criticism, just a reality.  I think that to be a book for grown-ups to truly love, there has to be something of the numinous--the sort of magical beauty that leave the reader stunned--and that's a very rare thing indeed, so much so that I don't even include it in my list of mental criteria.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This Week's Round-up of Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction from around the blogs (4/13/14)

I myself have nothing to share in this week's round-up for the first time ever (it was a busy busy week), but happily I found lots of other posts.  Please let me know if I missed yours!)

The Reviews

The 13th Sign, by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb, at Lovin' los libros

Battle  of the Beasts, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Blue Sea Burning (Chronicles of Egg Book 3), by Geoff Rodkey, at Kid Lit Reviews

The Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson, at Librarian of Snark, Books and Movies, and Pages Unbound

Chase Tinker and the House of Magic, by Malia Ann Haberman, at Blog of a Bookaholic

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, at alibrarymama

Dark Days (Skulduggery Pleasant 4),  by Derek Landy, at Book Badger

Deadweather and Sunrise (Chronicles of Egg book 1), by Geoff Rodkey, at Books Beside My Bed

The Dragonlord's Heir, by Christina Kenway, at The Tale of an American Librarian

The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at Views From the Tesseract

Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends, by Shannon Hale, at mstamireads and Fantasy Literature

Faery Swap, by Susan Kaye Quinn, at This Kid Reviews Books

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, at Youth Literature Reviews

The Forbidden Library, by Django Wexler, at The BiblioSanctum

The Islands of Chaldea, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Lost Children of the Far Islands, by Emily Raabe, at Librarian of Snark

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jayleigh Johnson, at My Precious and On Starships and Dragonwings

Mixed Magics, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Tales of the Marvelous

The Nethergrim, by Matthew Jobin, at Ms. Yingling Reads, The Social Potato, and The Midnight Garden

Nightingale's Nest, by Nikki Loftin, at Waking Brain Cells

North of Nowhere, by Liz Kessler, at The Book Monsters

Rose and the Lost Princess, by Holly Webb, at A Backwards Story, Sharon the Librarian, and Word Spelunking (all giveaways)

Summerkin, by Sarah Prineas, at The Book Monsters

Wildwood Imperium, by Colin Meloy, at Fangirl Chelle

Wonder Light: Unicorns of the Mist, by R.R. Russell, at Geo Librarian

A World Without Heroes, by Brandon Mull, at Log Cabin Library

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paulo  Bacigalupi, at Kazumi Reads

Two by Ruth Chew at Becky's Book Reviews--Magic In the Park and The Trouble With Magic

Three at Ms. Yingling Reads--Aviary Wonders (fantasy?), In the Stone Circle, by Elizabeth Cody Kimmell, and Listening for Lucca, by Suzanne Lafleur

Authors and Interviews

"Living Up to Your Character" by Jennifer Swann Downey (Ninja Librarians) at Nerdy Book Club

Suzanne de Montigny (Shadow of the Unicorn) at Katie L. Carroll

Other Good Stuff

Project Mayhem's series on Heroes and Villains in Middle Grade Literature continues with editor and author Harrison Demchick talking about how villains are people too.

At The Book Zone (For Boys) thoughts on focusing on a specifically gendered audience, and a nice list of (mostly speculative fiction) books starring girls with appeal to boys.

Visit Views From the Tesseract for a sampler of poetry in stories

Yes, there is someone whose hobby is carving bananas; you can find more on the craft of Keisuke Yamada here (via Rachel Neumeier)

Moldylocks and the Three Beards, by Noah Z. Jones

Some weeks life is busy, and there just isn't time to read and write lots, and so the blogging is slow.  And it's been even slower for me because most of the books I have managed to finish recently didn't move me to write about them, mostly because of me not having the mental energy to figure out and express eloquently why they hadn't worked for me.

So last night I turned to a book from a series (Scholastic's Branches) that promises to build "reading confidence and stamina," both of which I feel I need right about now.

Moldylocks and the Three Beards, written and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones (Scholastic, published in paperback in Jan 2014, and in a hardcover library edition April 29) is the first book in a series--"Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe."   My eyes rolled when I read the words "Princess Pink," but not so much so that I was unable to look at the cover more closely.  And lo, Princess Pink seemed pretty cool. 

So I tried it last night, and rather enjoyed it, and can happily recommend it.  If you are a young reader who enjoys the absurd. and who is looking for something fun and easy, this is what you get here.

Princess Pink is not a princess; after seven boys, her mother wanted a one, and so that's what she was named.  She hates pink.  She turned her pink fairy dress into a cowboy caveman outfit.   (Perhaps her hatred of pink, and her taste in dirty sneakers and bugs is a tad polarizing--does the cheesy pizza she enjoys really have to look so gross?  And one can enjoy the outdoors without one's shoes stinking.  But this is not a book that aims for subtly, so I shall let it pass).

And in any event, Princess Pink opens her fridge one night, and falls (literally) into a the Land of Fake-Believe, where she visits the home of three beards (not nice) in the company of a girl named Moldylocks.   The whole beard premise was rather effective, and I enjoyed it.

Recommended for those who don't mind negative portrayals of pink princess stuff.  

Not particularly recommended for those who don't like whimsical stories whose primary point is to make learning to read entertaining.  Also not recommended for those who loath spiders.  There are too many spiders for those readers to take.

Not really recommended to their adults for their own reading pleasure, although it was kind of exactly right for my tired brain last night...........and I might well find myself picking up Little Red Quaking Hood when it comes out in August.

Note:  Princess Pink's family looks to be African-American--pretty darn rare in easy-reader fantasy books!  (quick--name another girl character of color in an easy reader fantasy book.............those dots are me not being able to).

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/6/14)

Another week, another collection of links!  Let me know if I missed yours.

The Reviews

Aunt Maria, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Leaf's Reviews

Beyond the Door, by Maureen Doyle McQuerry, at SciFiChick

Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire book 5), by Tui T. Sutherland, at Charlotte's Library

By the Grace of Todd, by Louise Galveston, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Children of the King, by Sonya Hartnett, at Waking Brain Cells and Charlotte's Library

Dreamwood, by Heather Mackey, at Views From the Tesseract

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, at Librarian of Snark and Ex Libris

Game World, by Chrisopher John Farley, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Girl Who Cirumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Speculating on Spec Fic

Horizen, by Jenn Reese, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Hunt for the Hydra, by Jason Fry, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Guys Lit Wire

Luminescence, by Braden Bell, at The Write Path

The Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Marvelous Tales

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jayleigh Johnson, at books4yourkids and The Hiding Spot

The Ninja Librarians: the Accidental Keyhand, by Jennifer Swann Downey, at Sharon the Librarian and The Reading Nook

Rose and the Lost Princess, by Holly Webb, at The Book Monsters, A Backwards Story, and Geo Librarian (all with giveaways)

The Seer of Shadows, by Avi, at Fantasy Literature

The Serpent's Ring, by H.B. Bolton, at Log Cabin Library

A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Song of the Quark Beast, by Jasper Fforde, at Claire M. Caterer

Switched at Birthday, by Natalie Standiford, at Becky's Book Reviews

Tesla's Attic, by Neil Shusterman and Eric Elfman, at Booklady's Booknotes

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, by Kathi Appelt, at Bunbury in the Stacks (audiobook review)

West of the Moon, by Margi Preus, at Educating Alice

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket, at Sonderbooks

 Wonder Light, by R.R. Russell, at The Book Monsters

Ms. Yingling celebrates the reissuing of two Ruth Chew books--The Trouble With Magic, and Magic in the Park.

Authors and Interivews

Maureen Doyle McQuerry (Beyond the Door) at Literary Rambles

Geoff Rodkey talkes about Blue Sea Burning, the final instalment of The Chronicles of Egg series, at Whatever

Jennifer Swann Downey (Ninja Librarians) at The Reading Nook (giveaway)

Marissa Burt (Storybound and Story's End) at From the Mixed Up Files (giveaway)

Other Good Stuff

At Views From the Tesseract, a Tuesday Ten of girls disguised as boys

Kathrine Langrish talks about the colours in fairy tales at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

The winners of the 2013 Aurealis Awards (recognizing Australian sci fi, fantasy, and horror) have been announced (click through for the full list):

Best Children's Book
The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, by Kirsty Murray

Best Young Adult Short Fiction 
By Bone-light, by Juliet Marillier

Best Young Adult Novel (Tie)
These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
&
Fairytales for Wilde Girls, by Allyse Near
 

The Children of the King, by Sonya Hartnett

Sometimes I read a book and am stunned by its kid appeal, and other times I read a book and want to urge other grown-ups to read it, and this is not a judgment of book goodness or lack thereof, but simply how the story feels to me.   Falling firmly into this later category is The Children of the King, by Sonya Hartnett (Candlewick, March 2014 in the US).

One the face of it, it seems like a book young me would have loved, back in the day (for starters, the cover art is total eye candy for the romantic young girl).  Cecily, her older brother Jeremy, and their mother leave London during WW II, retreating to the old family home deep in the countryside of northern England.  There is a bonus additional child, an interesting little girl, taken in along the way.  There is the crumbling old castle on the edge of the estate, that holds secrets of a mysterious past; Uncle Peregrine tells the children its story, which involves Richard III, and does so most grippingly.  There is a strong element of fantasy, lifting it all out of the ordinary.  And the writing is lovely, with pleasing descriptions of food and bedrooms and the books in the library (three things I like to read about).

But yet it felt more like a book for adults, and I'm not at all sure young me would have found it entirely pleasing.

For one thing, Cecily, whose point of view we share, is ostensibly a twelve year old, but she acts much younger, and is thoughtless, somewhat unintelligent, and not really a kindred spirit.  The way she behaves is all part of a convincingly drawn character, but it is not an appealing one.   May, the younger evacuee, is much more interesting, but she is off at a distance from the reader.   I think young readers expect to like the central character; Cecily felt to me like a character in a book for grown-ups, where there is no such expectation.  Likewise, the dynamics among the family (and May), strained by the war, involve lots of undercurrents of tension that are complicated and disturbing.

For another thing, and this gets a tad spoilery, it is clear pretty early on that the two boys Cecily and May meet in the ruined castle are from another time, and what with the title being what it is, anyone who knows the story of Richard III can put the pieces together (it will, of course, take longer for the child reader who has No Clue).   But these two boys aren't directly players in the story taking place in the present, nor does the fact of their existence bring about obvious change.  They are more like ghost metaphors or something and the book would have a coherent story (though a less lovely one) without them, and so they disappointed me.  These sorts of ghost aren't  exactly what I expect in a book for children, but I'd love to talk to a grown-up about them!  And this ties in with a more general feeling I had, that I was being expected to Think Deeply and Make Connections, and I almost feel that I should now be writing an essay on "Power and Metaphor in The Children of the King."

So, the upshot of my reading experience was that I appreciated the book just fine, but wasn't able to love it with the part of mind that is still, for all intents and purposes, eleven years old. 

Here are other reviews, rather more enthusiastic:

The Children's War
Waking Brain Cells
The Fourth Musketeer

I've reviewed one other book by Sonya Hartnett --The Silver Donkey (it was one of my very early reviews, back in 2007).  I seem to have appreciated that one more, but it amused me that I had something of the same reaction to the stories within the story:  "I'm not a great fan of interjected stories in general, because I resent having the narrative flow broken, and also because I feel challenged by them. The author must have put them in for Deep Reasons, I think, and will I be clever enough to figure out what they were?"

Echo, by Alicia Wright Brewster, for Timeslip Tuesday

I love the premise of Echo, by Alicia Wright Brewster (Dragonfairy Press, YA, April 2013).  On an alien planet, settled by two waves of colonization from Earth, the apocalypse has been foretold.   But the council, whose members can control the elements with their minds, is determined to prevent it.  And they are willing to keep trying, even when things don't work out--they simply turn back the clock, rewinding time to give themselves another chance.

When Echo begins, it is the fifth rewind.  The council has tried four times already to avert a disaster whose very nature they were at first uncertain of--and with each rewind, they've gained more information.   And they've determined that what they need this time around is a teenaged girl named Ashara Vine.  This comes as something of a huge, mind-blowing surprise to Ashara, who had no idea that she was one of the very few with the ability to manipulate the ether itself.   And it comes as an additional surprise that the man chosen by the council to train her and a small cohort of other young manipulators is her ex-boyfriend, Loken.

Tension builds as Ashara learns about her powers, and the nature of the threat menacing her planet...and builds as she and Loken rekindle their relationship....and builds still more as information from the previous rewinds is revealed, and plots and machinations within the council, and within her world's society, make it more than somewhat uncertain if this time around, the world will be saved.

Do not, however, expect that because this story takes place on an alien world, it is truly science fiction.  The world building is not such that I felt I was on a different planet, despite the two suns, and the powers of the elemental manipulators read like fantasy. 

Do expect that the romance between Ashara and Loken will sometimes overshadow the end-of-the-world plot, sometimes so much so that I was annoyed (there are times when passionate is appropriate, and times when it is really not to the point).   I would recommend this one to those who like romance books that happen to be speculative fiction, rather than to speculative fiction fans who happen to like a bit of romance.

If you enjoy reading about groups of teenagers being trained together to fight with magical powers, you will enjoy that part of the book.  However, if your mind follows more or less the same trains of thought as mine, you too might find it odd that the fact that there's a coming apocalypse is broadcast to all and sundry, causing rather pointless stress (there's no escaping the countdown clocks).  And you might agree with me that the nature of the threat is ultimately rather unconvincing. 

All in all, it's not possible for me to recommend the book wholeheartedly.  However, I did truly like the premise of time travel being used to figure out how to avert catastrophe, and the interesting ramifications thereof!  And your millage may totally vary; here are some other reviews:

Kirkus
Apocalypse Mama
All In One Place
The Urban Paranormal Book Blog

Final note:  this is one for my multicultural book list--Ashara's father is of African descent, which is made beautifully clear in the front cover picture of Ashara! 

Wings of Fire, Book 5: The Brightest Night, by Tui T. Sutherland

Yesterday my ten-year-old and I headed up to Boston, for the launch party of Wings of Fire, Book 5: The Brightest Night.  We enjoyed listening to Tui talking about the series, and enjoyed meeting her when we got our copy signed, and we enjoyed reading the book very much!  I won by a nose, with a clever rear-guard action (getting up first).   And happily, The Brightest Night (Scholastic, March 25) turned out to be my favorite book of the series.

The basic premise of the books is that five dragonets from different dragon tribes were raised together in isolation, told that they were destined to end the war between the three Sand Wing sisters fighting to become the next queen of those dragons.  It's a bloody struggle that drew all the other dragon tribes in as well (except the Rain Wings).  Each book was told from the point of view of one of the dragons, and this is Sunny's story.

Sunny is the sweet one, the cute one, the Sand Wing who isn't exactly all a Sand Wing should be (she's missing the barbed poisonous tale, for one thing), the one who's kind of dismissed by the others.   But inside Sunny is much more than sweet and cute.  She is smart, determined, and brave, and she manages to do more than any of the others for the cause of peace.  

And that's all I'll say about the plot.  Except that it has "scavengers" aka humans in it, playing actual roles, which was a fascinating new development!  And it also has more magical artifacts in it than the other books.  And we meet Sunny's family.  And there's some dragon romance.  But that's really all I'll say....

 Sunny is my favorite heroine of the year.   Any one who's ever been told they are sweet,  and patted on the head, when really they are smart and brave and tough, will relate to her.  She is a truly excellent role model--it would have been easy for her to give up, and stay just the sweet one of the lot, but it is her conviction that peace is possible that makes her  a truly strong force to be reckoned with.

I could spend a lot more words on how great Sunny is, though the other dragonets all have their good points too, and I'm fond of them all. 

I'm very glad that Tui T. Sutherland is going to be bringing us five more dragon books!  There are so many fine young dragons in these books whose stories I want to know more about that this makes me very happy.

Give this series to any nine or ten year old you have on hand who likes dragons (or who you think might like dragons).   They have just tremendous kid appeal, and the larger themes are truly appealing.  The first book and the fourth are a tad violent (just in case you have a truly sensitive reader), but the point of the series is that violence doesn't solve a thing--friendship and loyalty and understanding and appreciating difference are what is important.

Here are my reviews of the previous books:

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Lost Heir

The Hidden Kingdom

The Dark Secret

This week's round-up of Middle Grade Sci Fi and Fantasy from around the blogs (March 30, 2014)

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week; please let me know if I missed your link!

The Reviews

Back To Blackbrick, by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, at Time Travel Times Two

Battle of the Beasts, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Blood Ties (Spirit Animals Book 3), by Garth Nix and Sean Williams, at Resistance is Futile

The Cheshire Cheese Cat, by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright at Tales of the Marvelous

Children of the Dragon, by Rose Estes, at Views From the Tesseract

Children of the King, by Sonya Hartnett, at Sonderbooks

Cinderella Stays Late (Grimmtastic Girls Book 1) by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams at The Book Monsters

Dragon on Trial (The Menagerie, Book 2), by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland, at Charlotte's Library

A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Flame of Olympus, by Kate O'Hearn, at Eastern Sunset Reads

The Green Futures of Tycho, by William Sleator, at Views From the Tesseract

Grimmtastic Girls, books 1 and 2, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, at Small Review

House of Secrets, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia and School Library Journal

The Interrupted Tale, by Maryrose Wood, at The Book Monsters

Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Michelle I. Mason

The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde, at Claire M. Caterer

The Last Wild, by Piers Torday, at Good Books and Good Wine

The Lost Planet, by Rachel Searles, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jaleigh Johnson, at Pass the Chicklets, Book Nut, Fantasy Literature, In Bed With Books, The Geek Girl Project, and Bookyurt

The Nethergrim, by Matthew Jobin, at Scott Reads It

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Karen Foxlee, at Hidden in Pages, Bookends, and The A P Book Club

The People In Pineapple Place, by Anne Lindburgh, at Charlotte's Library

The Race for Polldovia, by James Rochfort, at Charlotte's Library

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer, at Great Imaginations, Charlotte's Library, and Queen Ella Bee Reads

Rose and the Magician's Mask, by Holly Webb, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier, by Ying Chang Compestine and Vinston Compestine, at Views from the Tesseract

Seven Wild Sisters, by Charles de Lint, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Shadow Throne, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, at Sonderbooks

Sidekicked, by John David Anderson, at The Book Monsters

Smasher, by Scott Bly, at fanboynation

The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, at Librarian of Snark (audiobook review)

Wish You Weren't, by Sherrie Petersen, at Middle Grade Ninja

Two at Guys Lit Wire-- Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, and Ludo and the Star Horse, by Mary Stewart


Authors and Interviews

Heather Mackey (Dreamwood) at OneFour Kidlit

Aaron Starmer (The Riverman) at Word Spelunking (also a review)

M.P. Kozlowsky (The Dyerville Tales) at Word Spelunking (also a review)

Scott Bly (Smasher) at The Enchanted Inkpot

Natalie Lloyd (A Snicker of Magic) at The Hiding Spot

Jaleigh Johnson (The Mark of the Dragonfly) at The Children's Book Review, Suvudo, and The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia

Claudia White (Aesop's Secret) at Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books

Amie Borst (Cinderskella) at Middle Grade March


Other Good Stuff

Steph at Views From the Tesseract looks back at her youth and shares Confessions of a Speculative Fiction Reader

And also at Views From the Tessearct you can find ten books with Dangerous Vegetation

Nahoko Uehashi, Japanese writer of fantasy, has won the 2014 Hans Christian Anderson Award (basically the Nobel Prize for children's fiction).   Two of the books in her Moribito series have been translated; I've read the first book, Guardian of the Spirit, and went and bought the second lo these many years ago, but sadly, as is the case with most of the books I actually buy, I haven't read it yet.

Kate Milford (author of  The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands, and the much-anticipated-by-me Greenglass House (late summer) is running a kickstarter for  Bluecrowne--a self-published  novel set "in and around" the world of those books, in which "two peddlers arrive in the city of Nagspeake seeking a pyrotechnical prodigy and a knife shaped like an albatross."  More info. here.  

Random aside--I have come to realize that I will find any book whose blurb includes the word "albatross" strangely appealing.   And apparently albatrosses have no idea where they are going, which makes them even more appealing.

The Menagerie: Dragon on Trial, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland

In my review of The Menagerie, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland, I said, "You want a book that hits the sweet spot for the nine-year old mythical creature lover?  This is what you are looking for."  The second book in the series, Dragon on Trial (HarperCollins, March 2014), has strengthened my conviction.

The menagerie in question is home to all manner of creatures, from unicorns and griffins and dragons to a goose that lays golden eggs.   And it is the apparent murder of this goose that is the catalyst for this adventure.  All the evidence points to a dragon named Scratch--and if Scratch is found guilty, he'll be exterminated.

Zoe and Logan, two middle school kids who are part of the Menagerie team, are convinced Scratch has been framed.  But unless they can find who really committed the dastardly deed of goose murder (if murder it was), disaster won't befall Scratch alone--the whole menagerie might be shut down by those in Authority.  Together with a new friend, a were-rooster named Marcus (a great addition to the cast, who provides comic relief that offsets the tension nicely), they set off on a detective hunt to find the answers they desperately need.

What makes this series a stand-out in kid appeal is that it beautifully combines the angsts of middle school life with a truly wonderful ménage of magical creatures.   The characters and the set-up are so convincing that the  menagerie almost seems possible.  It's clear that the authors are truly enjoying themselves--so many fun details about the creatures!--and this enjoyment carries over into the reading experience. 

Although the case of the missing goose is successfully resolved, bigger questions remain--someone is trying to sabotage the menagerie, and the disappearance of Logan's mom (whom he found out in the first book was a tracker of mythical creatures) remains a mystery.  My young one and I cannot wait till book three comes out!

I didn't see anything in this book that made it clear, but I know from the first book that Logan happens to be African American--I hope it's might slightly more obvious in book 3, because it would be nice for readers to be able to pick up on it!

The above-mentioned young one and I are going up to Boston tomorrow to meet Tui T. Sutherland, at the release party for The Brightest Night, the fifth book in her Wings of Fire series!  So exciting.  We are taking this one for her to sign too if possible....

The Race for Polldovia, by James Rochfort

The Race for Polldovia, by James Rochfort (Book Guild, 2014--published in the UK, but also available in Kindle form)

In our world, a little girl named Sophia daydreams about Polly, a sweet and brave princess of a lovely land called Polldovia.  Polly, on the verge of being a grown-up, is just the sort of princess to daydream about--the sort who rescues wounded animals, can speak to horses, and who is beloved by everyone.  For Sophia, the vivid stories of Polly she daydreams are almost as real as ordinary occurrences (going to school, going swimming) and her ordinary, loving parents.

But one day, Sophia's daydreams stop being harmless pastimes.  Polly is in trouble--dangerous, dark trouble, and Sophia's finds herself drawn into Polly's world.   There Sophia must be braver than she had ever imagined she could be, and help Polly save her kingdom from the evil forces that want to conquer it.  With the help of a brave horse whose speed is unmatched, the two girls might be able to find the magical flower high in the hills that will save the kingdom....if they can win the race for Polldovia.

The Race for Polldovia is very much a wish-fulfillment fantasy for a young girl reader (especially one who loves horses!).    The plot is a straightforward quest, with the evil and the good being clearly demarcated--a story line best appreciated by a reader who is new to fantasy.  And I think that the beautiful goodness that is Polly, and the brave goodness that is Sophia, are likewise best appreciated by those who aren't yet cynically leaving behind the days when they too could dream of saving wounded forest creatures (goodness knows that's how I pictured myself back in the day.....).   If you wince at the thought of a beautiful princess saving wounded forest animals, and tenderly kissing the younger child, this is probably not a book for you. 

However, if you have a child who would find that thought enchanting, they might well enjoy it, especially if read aloud.   It is the sort of story that is clearly being told--the authorial voice is right there, and I never forgot that I was reading a book.   Reading aloud would also allow for breaking up some of the disconcertingly long paragraphs (I couldn't help but feel that a stronger editorial hand could have come into play).

In short, a nice story for younger readers that blends a fairy tale feel with a heroine firmly rooted in our world.
.
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Bloggiesta Spring 2014

Happily the next few days, d.v., are going to be unfrantic, and so I'm going to take part in this Spring's Bloggiesta.

Here's my to-do-list:

1.  organize my t.b.r. pile, and make sure the review copies are not scattered to the winds of heaven.  I have a nagging feeling that some of them  have crept off into Dark Corners and are being nibbled by dust bunnies, so I shall mount a reconnaissance and rescue mission (side benefit:  house cleaning)

2.  write enough reviews so that I never have to go dark for a single day ever again.  Or at least enough reviews so that I have two or three in waiting.  (side benefit--allows for shelving/returning/deaccessiong books = house cleaning)

3.  do another six or so months worth of indexing.  I have been indexing for a long time, because I have reviewed a lot of books.  (there  is no side benefit to this that I can think of)

4.  enjoy taking part in the mini-challenges and camaraderie (side benefit--will help me tackle house cleaning more cheerfully?)  
         3/27 at 6:41 Have taken part in three.  Have also cheerfully washed some dishes.

and that, I think, is plenty!

Miscellaneous other things:

3/27 7:20  have backed up my blog.  Here's how on Blogger--go to "settings" then "other" then "export."

Waiting on Wednesday for Smek for President and Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull

Today I am sharing my anticipation for two books in a single post--both are from the same publisher, Disney-Hyperion, both are coming out this fall, and both are sequels to past winners in the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction category of the Cybils Awards (in 2007 and 2013), and, unless their publication dates change, they are eligible for winning themselves in 2014!

Smek for President! by Adam Rex (October 14)

"In this much anticipated sequel to The True Meaning of Smekday, Tip and J.Lo are back for another hilarious intergalactic adventure. And this time (and last time, and maybe next time), they want to make things right with the Boov.

After Tip and J.Lo banished the Gorg from Earth in a scheme involving the cloning of many, many cats, the pair is notorious-but not for their heroics. Instead, human Dan Landry has taken credit for conquering the Gorg, and the Boov blame J.Lo for ruining their colonization of the planet. Determined to clear his name, J.Lo and Tip pack into Slushious, a Chevy that J.Lo has engineered into a fairly operational spaceship, and head to New Boovworld, the aliens' new home on one of Saturn's moons.

But their welcome isn't quite as warm as Tip and J.Lo would have liked. J.Lo is dubbed Public Enemy Number One, and Captain Smek knows that capturing the alien is the only way he'll stand a chance in the Boovs' first-ever presidential election.

With the help of a friendly flying billboard named Bill, a journey through various garbage chutes, a bit of time travel, and a slew of hilarious Boovish accents, Tip and J.Lo must fight to set the record straight-and return home in once piece."

 Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud (September 16th)

In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper.

Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom.

Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood's annoyance. Bickerstaff's coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found.


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

The People In Pineapple Place, by Anne Lindbergh, for Timeslip Tuesday

The People In Pineapple Place, by Anne Lindbergh (1982)

Ten year old August did not want to move with his mother from the countryside of Vermont to Georgetown in Washington, D.C.  He did not want his parents to get divorced, and his mother to work full time.  And he does not want to wait for the college kid looking after him to get off the phone so as to take him outside.

So off he goes, sad and angry, into the streets, and finds a cobblestone alley called Pineapple Place, where six old house are home to a bunch of kids who seem like they could be new friends for him.   But though the kids, especially April, do become his friends, it quickly becomes apparent that Pineapple Place is rather...unusual.

It is not a spoiler to explain why, because it comes up quite close to the beginning of the story, and is the whole basic point of the point.

Back in the 1930s, a Pineapple Place resident decided that Baltimore was not the best place to be, and started moving all six houses around the country.  And although the residents can leave their homes and venture into the new places they visit, only one of them can be seen and heard by the locals.  And none of them have aged a day since Pineapple Place started its hopping.

Strangely, August can see them all....and the last days of his summer vacation become a bit of a mad-hatter series of excursions around the city- playing with invisible kids leads to wacky situations.    And this is fun to read about, although it's a tad stressful that August's mother thinks for much of the book that he's making it all up.

But the fact that the Pineapple Place folk don't age gradually started casting a pall of horror over it all...especially when April's mother talks of how she had hoped to go back to college, and not spend her days pie-making (which is now her fate for eternity....).   It reminded me very much of Tuck Everlasting, but without the clear acknowledgement  on the author's part that immortality is a bitter fate.  Especially when you can't even interact with new people anymore because of being invisible.

However, the invisibility is alleviated somewhat by the fact that Pineapple Place revisits the 1930s on a regular basis to allow for grocery shopping, as  the residents can be seen in their time of origin.  At one point, they take August with him, and he gets to sight see in the past.  This is the part that makes it time travel.

The book must be read with enough grains of salt to kill a thousand slugs.  Why, for instance, must they scrounge around in trash cans for bits and bobs to use in the present when they are regularly going back to the 1930s for groceries?  How are they paying for their groceries?  Why are they putting up with the dictator of Pineapple Place who started moving them around in the first place?  It really makes little sense.    I am very keen now to read the sequel, The Prisoner of Pineapple Place-- will they escape the madness?

Putting that issue aside, though, it's a fun and rather heart-warming story.  The friendship between August and April is nice, the adventures fun, and the premise certainly is thought provoking.  I imagine that the target audience of 8-10 year olds will be a lot less bothered by it than me, and will probably find it truly magical.

(They will probably all have read Wonder, too, and so the name "August" will be like an old friend. I wonder if we will see an uptick in its popularity 15 years from now...).

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, upper MG leaning YA-ward, March 2014)

Alistair and Fiona were friends, back when they were little kids, then they drifted apart.  But now, years later in middle school, Fiona shows up at Alistair's door, and asks him to write her biography.

"To sell a book, you need a description on the back. So here's mine: My name is Fiona Loomis. I was born on August 11, 1977. I am recording this message on the morning of October 13, 1989. Today I am thirteen years old. Not a day older. Not a day younger."

Which is of course impossible.

Fiona has spent days of her life far away from upstate New York in a magical universe called Aquavania.  There she reveled in the creation of her own small world, and there she met other kids, living in the worlds of their own imaginings--bright, extravagant places where to wish is to make things manifest.   But Aquavania is not safe- kids, many of them Fiona's friends, are vanishing.  Their stories, their worlds, themselves are falling prey to the sinister Riverman.

And Fiona is afraid she might be next.

Slowly, as Fiona tells the story of Aquavania, and the shadow of the Riverman falls across its wonders, Alistair comes to believe that there is indeed a darkness haunting his friend...But is it a darkness in our world, or is the magic real?  And what can one ordinary boy do?

Alistair is the single point of view character, and the reader learns and thinks and wonders right along with him.  His fears for Fiona are pretty much those that the reader might have, and his difficulty accepting Aquavania perfectly understandable.   Like Alistair, I found myself dismissive of Aquavania at first, but then, dragged inexorably into a story whose reality was undeniable, I read faster and faster, with sparks of metaphoric connections going off in my mind like crazy.  I grew to have genuine delight in the manifestations of imagination that is Aquavania (accompanied by considerable unease as to the addictive nature of these imaginings), and genuine concern for both kids. And I also developed a really (justifiable) conviction that things weren't going to end up all rainbow-unicorny.

This is the first book of a series, but though the ending isn't neatly resolved, I've read stand-alone books that offered less in the way of closure, and so I did not feel deeply bothered (though I am immensely curious to see what happens next). 

So, yes, I liked The Riverman, and now I am thinking hard about what sort of  reader I would give it too.  I think the older middle school kid, the eighth grader who might be a bit of an outlier, who isn't deeply into more traditional fantasy (there are no dragons, swords, or spells), who doesn't mind being puzzled, might well like it very much indeed.   As well as relating to Alistair, who is a character along those lines himself,  there's much that would appeal--Fiona is a character with spark and zing, the mystery is mysterious, and the reader is not forced to believe, if they don't feel like it, in the magical world, which might appeal to young rationalists.

I would be hesitant to give it to the younger reader who is deeply invested in "story" as a source of emotional comfort, because the whole  point of the book (I think maybe) is stories (beloved imaginings as well as the stories people are living) getting twisted out of true.  There's also mature content--the possibility that Fiona is being abused in real life, and some rather disturbing violence--that makes this not one to automatically hand to the ten year old who loves "fantasy worlds."

Though I am glad The Riverman is getting lots of positive buzz for its own sake, I'm hoping that it will lead more people to Aaron Starmer's first book, The Only Ones (my review, with a white-ed out spoiler at the bottom, so be warned).  I enjoyed The Only Ones lots myself (and it has stuck in my mind just beautifully, always a good sign), but I am particularly fond of it because it is one of the very few books that my hideously picky uncooperative-with-regard-to-reading eighth-grader has truly enjoyed.   So far he is resisting this one, which is deeply annoying, since he fits the description above to a tee.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

 

This week's round-up of middle grade speculative fiction from around the blogs (3/23/14)

I myself have little to contribute to this week's round-up, since I have been visiting my mama.  But there is plenty without me, and please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews:

Almost Super, by Marion Jensen, at The Book Monsters

The Art of Flying, by Judy Hoffman, at Charlotte's Library

The Blood Guard, by Roy Carter, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson, at Good Books and Good Wine

Dark Lord: School's Out, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at A Backwards Story

Dragonborn, by Toby Forward, at By Singing Light

Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities book 2), by Shannon Messenger, at Oh, the Books!

Game of Clones, by M.E. Castle, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, at Fantasy Book Critic

The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw, by Christopher Healy, at Word Spelunking

Hunt for the Hydra, by at By Singing Light

The Islands of Chaldea, by Diana Wynne Jones, at SJ O'Hart

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood (with the UK cover!), at Wondrous Reads

The Last Wild, by Scott Torday, at Guys Lit Wire and Bookpeople's Blog

The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge, at Things Mean a Lot

Loki's Wolves, by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Lost Children of the Far Islands, by Emily Raabe, at Word Spelunking

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jayleigh Johnson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and Galivanting Girl Books

Mary Poppins Comes Back, by P.L. Travers, at Tor

Moonkind, by Sarah Prineas, at Karissa's Reading Review

Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, at Mom Read It

O.M.G. ...Am I a Witch?, by Talia Aikens-Nunez, at alibrarymama

The Race for Polldovia, by James Rochfort, at A Fantastical Librarian

The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson, at Challenging the Bookworm

The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer, at The Book Monsters, Roro is Reading, and Alice, Marvels

Seven Stories Up, by Laurel Snyder, at Jean Little Library

Silver, by Chris Wooding, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Sky Raiders, by Brandon Mull, at Book Nut

Stolen Magic, by Stephanie Burgis, at alibrarymama

Smasher, by Scott Bly, at The Write Path and Candace's Book Blog

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazier Blakemore, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Two at Tales of the Marvelous--Any Which Wall, by Laurel Snyder, and Magical Mischief, by Anna Dale.

300 Pages has taken a look at Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series -- Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Daja's Book, Briar's Book

Ten Irish fantasy books for kids at Views From the Tesseract

Authors and Interviews

Aaron Starmer (The Riverman) and Laurel Snyder (Seven Stories Up) interview each other at Nerdy Book Club

Aaron Starmer at Great Imaginations and Maria's Melange

Peggy Eddleman (Sky Jumpers) at Kidit, Fantasy, & Sci Fi

Audrey Kane (The Purple Girl) at Thebookshelfgargoyle

Mary Sutton (Power Play) at Word Spelunking

Maureen McQuerry (Beyond the Door) at Word Spelunking

Susan Kaye Quinn (Faery Swap) at Literary Rambles

A. B. Harmes (Bewildered) at Through the Wormhole

Other Good Stuff

The winter issue of Goblin Fruit, a fantastical poetry journal, is out (read more at Once Upon a Blog)

Not specifically middle grade spec fic related, but of interest to those looking for multicultural books--here's the shortlist for the Burt Award for YA literature in the Caribbean, found at Caribbean Children's Fiction

Cake toppers of awesome (from The Mary Sue):