This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (4/24/16)

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction gather in my blog reading!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians: The Scriveners Bones, by Brandon Sanderson, at Nerdophiles

Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey, at Leaf's Reviews

The Eye of Midnight, by Andrew Brumbach, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X. by Frank Beddor and Adrienne Kress, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Cracking the Cover

The Girl of Ink & Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester, at Pages Unbound

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar, at Randomly Reading

Hunters of Chaos, by Crystal Velasquez, at Puss Reboots

Infestation, by Timothy J. Bradley, at Jean Little Library

The Inquisitor's Mark, by Dianne Salerni, at Tales From the Raven

Jurassic Classics: The Prehistoric Masters of Literature by Saskia  Lacey, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Life With the Tribe

Key Hunters, books 1 and 2, by Eric Luper, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Monstrous, by MarcyKate Connolly, at Book Yabber

The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht, at Mom Read It

Pilfer Academy, by Lauren Magaziner, at Middle Grade Marioso (not sure it's fantasy, but it sure is improbable in real life!)

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at BN Kids Blog

Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs, at BN Kids Blog

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at Charlotte's Library, BN Kids Blog, and Sense and Sensibility and Stories

The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riodan, at Leaf's Reviews

Thursdays With the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature

The Tournament at Gorlan, by John Fanagan, at Log Cabin Library

Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature

Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, by Raymond Arroyo, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Authors and Interviews

Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester (The Screaming Statue) at This Kid Reviews Books and Literary Rambles

Brian Farrey The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse. at From The Mixed Up Files

Ted Sanders The Keepers: The Harp and the Ravenvine at The Children's Book Review

Liesl Shurtliff (Red: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood) at The Hiding Spot

Rick Riordan at The Guardian, and talking specifically about writing as Apollo in The Hidden Oracle at the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog

Other Good Stuff

Fairy Tale chapter book chat at School Library Journal

"Guess the dragon in children's literature" quiz at the Guardian

Thought on history and memory in the works of Diana Wynne Jones at The Book Wars

A list of "top ten middle grade fantasies that made me laugh out loud" at alibrarymama

and finally, NASA continues to be utterly cool with this new series of travel destination posters, incuding one for our very own planet "where the air is free and breathing is easy" (I meant to post this link last week, but it is even better for this Earth Day week)

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier

I don't usually post a review first thing Sunday morning, because my weekly round-up always comes then.  And it will come today...but I am tired of not having anything myself to contribute (the last few weeks have been brutally filled with other commitments) so I am quickly offering a review of Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier (Harry N. Abrams, April 2016), the sequel to Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. The first adventure of Peter Nimble was not quite to my personal taste; I didn't understand why so many people loved it so fervently.  Happily for me, I enjoyed this second book much more, partly because the main character, Sophie Quire, is tailor-made for bibliophiles.

Sophie is a book mender, working in her father's book shelf carefully and skillfully repairing books, a trade her murdered mother had taught her.  But the town she lives in has been overtaken by a movement led by Inquisitor Prigg to purge nonsense from daily life--and nonsense means all magic, and all books, because books of course are full of a magic of their own.  When Sophie is arrested for saving some books from the to-be-burned pile, she is saved by two unlikely heroes--Peter Nimble himself, and his friend Sir Tode (a knight transformed into a hooved catlike creature).  Peter Nimble is not there by chance.  He has come to deliver a very special book to Sophie, the Book of Who.  It is on of four magical books, each with their extraordinary ability to answer their own question--Who, What, When and Why.  Each book had a storyguard to keep it safe, and now Sophie finds herself the storyguard of the Book of Who.

Then she finds herself running for her life as she and Peter (and Sir Tode) set out to try to find the other three books, before Inquisitor Prigg, and other enemies as well, can get their hands on them!  The dangerous excitements of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes are here as well, and there is one hair raising adventure after another.  But there's more depth of character to Sophie's story.   Peter, for instance, finally shows weakness and self-doubt, making him more human and relatable.  His blindness is still magically compensated for, but the loss of his hand becomes a genuine handicap.  And Sophie herself is a fine character, one such as any book loving girl can relate to.  On the plus side, she is also a kid of color, a brown-skinned girl (like her foreign mother) in a world of white faces.

It's not just an adventure, but a testimony to the power of stories.  And though there's still a bit too much of the adventurous shenanigans for my own very personal taste, it's a fine read, and Auxier's any fans should enjoy it very much indeed. 

(by way of warning for sensitive younger readers--some of the adventures and characters are rather horrible--for instance, one character's mouth is sewed shut--memorable, and not gratuitous, but disturbing.  Lots of people and animals die.  Not all books are saved....)

disclaimer: review copy received at ALA.

The Mechanical Mind of John Croggin, by Elinor Teele--blog tour

Welcome to this stop on the blog tour for The Mechanical Mind of John Croggin, by Elinor Teele (Walden Pond Press, April 12, 2016).

This is a great book to offer kids who are fans of quirky characters caught in tensely amusing situations!  John Croggin is basically a slave to his aunt who runs the family coffin making business with an iron hand, and who plans to rope his little sister Page in as well.  His mechanically oriented mind has dreams that reach far beyond coffins.  So one day, when the opportunity comes in the form of a travelling circus, he and Page escape.  The circus offers only a temporary shelter, but a kindly baker offers hope of a more permanent home, until John comes up with a scheme for a chicken-poo powered oven that goes horribly wrong and they must take to the road once more....still hunted by their evil aunt!

Today for my blog tour stop Elinor Teele has provided a Q and A with Maria Persimmons, the kindly baker.  Thanks Elinor!  She's my favorite character.

The owner of the Rise and Shine Bakery, Maria Persimmons is a plump and generous woman who smells – I swear on my honor – exactly like cinnamon. For this interview, I met her after the breakfast rush in her kitchen.

 Q. It’s very good of you to spare me some time.

 A. Come in, come in! Come and be welcome! Oh, did I get flour on your fingers? And your suit? And up your nose? I’m so sorry. I seem to wear gluten like a badge of honor. Here, have a chocolate chip cookie.

Q. Thank you. Holy mother of… these are delicious!

A. Special recipe. A little trick or two that I learned from my Dad.  

Q. Does your father still help with the business?

 A. No, I’m afraid he’s passed away. But he was an engineer by trade, just like my friend John. He loved everything to do with cogs and gears and steam and fire. I still have the boat that he made for my bath. It blows bubbles while it turns dirty scum into building blocks.  

 Q. He sounds like a wonderful man.

A. Oh, he was. Quiet and kind. He was the one who encouraged me to start my own business.

At this juncture, Maria asked if we might continue the interview outside in the chicken coop. She needed to collect eggs from her prize-winning Henrietta hens. 

Q. Did you find baking difficult at the beginning?

A. Of course! Everyone does. Here, would you hold this basket for me? John and Page usually help, but they’re tinkering with a top-secret project. 

Baking is like writing a book – you don’t know what works until you’ve tried it. I spent years experimenting with weird recipes and techniques.

And most of my first creations were terrible. Dense, dull, overworked and underproofed. My attempts at cumin coriander custard went straight into the bin. It took me ten or more years to get a simple brown loaf right. 

Q. But you’re better now?

A. Perhaps, a little. But I’m still mucking up every day.

Please ignore Griselda’s expression. She always looks that way when someone is sticking a hand under her bum.  

Q. You don’t mind mucking up?

A. Oh, I mind! Especially when my customers tell me things taste dreadful. I hate creating work people find disgusting. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t mind.

Q. Yet you still keep at it.

 A. Because I love it. I love the moment when you open the oven door, and the room fills with memory, and you think to yourself: “today, I might have got it right.” I don’t think I’ll ever be a famous chef, but I hope to be a respectable baker.    

Thanks Elinor!

And thanks Walden for the review copy.  Just as a final note, Walden's prepared an Educational Activity Kit for parents and teachers that looks very helpful and interesting in a science meeting writing way, and which does not offer instructions for how to build your own chicken poo oven!

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/17/16)

Nothing from me this week--work and other life sucked me dry...but here's what other people posted!  (let me know if I missed yours).

The Reviews

The Adventures of Lettie Peppercorn by Sam Gayton, at Pages Unbound

The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards, at Leaf's Reviews

The Books of Ore series, by Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz , at Geo Librarian

Castle Hangail, and other Ursula Vernon appreciations, at Dead Houseplants

Charmed by Jen Calonita, at Cover2CoverBlog

Cogling by Jordan Elizabeth , at Books Beside My Bed

Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver, at Teen Librarian Toolbox

The Dragon Whistler, by Kimberly J. Smith, at Always in the Middle

The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

The Enchanted Egg (Magical Animal Adoption Agency 2) by Kallie George, at Jean Little Library and Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Genius Factor: How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, at Sharon the Librarian

Half Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Tales From the Raven

The Legend of Sam Miracle, by N.D. Wilson, at Random Musings of a Bibliophle

Lilliput, by Sam Gayton, at Jenni Enzor

My Diary from the Edge of the World, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, at That's Another Story

Once Upon the End, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Children's Book Review

The Palace of Glass, by Django Wexler, at The BibloSanctum

Perijee & Me by Ross Montgomery, at The Book Zone (for boys)

Red, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Pages Unbound

Rise of the Wolf (Mark of the Thief #2) by Jennifer A. Nielsen, at Log Cabin Library

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews

Wing and Claw, by Linda Sue Park, at Book Page

Three at School Library Journal-- The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez, by Robin Yardi, The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, and The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox. 

Authors and Interviews

Linday Eagar (Hour of the Bees) at Literary Rambles

Django Wexler (the Forbidden Library series) shares a few of his favorite libraries at Nerdy Book  Club

Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at Laurisa White Reyes

Lauren Oliver, with Max the Knife Thrower (Curiosity House series) at Kid Lit Reviews, and with H.C. Chester, at Read Now Sleep Later

Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz (The Books of Ore) at Novel Novice

Other Good Stuff

At the Guardian, Jackie Morris shares her selkie drawing process for her newest book

At alibrarymama, Katy shares her top 12 middle grade fantasies for diverse readers

This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (4/10/16)

Here's what I gathered this week; please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden, by Emma Trevayne, at Geo Librarian

Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson, at Log Cabin Library

Calling on Dragons, by Patricia Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews

The Caretaker's Guide to Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, at Sharon the Librarian

Charmed, by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian

A Colouring Book of Hours: Castle, by Marcia Overstrand and Angie Sage, at Read Till Dawn

Cuckoo Song by France Hardinge, at Leaf's Reviews

The Firefly Code, by Magen Frazer Blakemore, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Gallery of Wonders, by Marc Remus, at The Children's Book Review

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Tales of the Marvelous and SF Bluestocking

Hour of the Bees by Linsday Eagar, at Next Best Book

The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth  (series review) at Charlotte's Library

The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Cracking the Cover

The Iron Trial, by  Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Kitty Cat at the Library

The Mage of Trelian, by Michelle Knudsen, at Read Till Dawn

Magrit, by Lee Battersby, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Good Books and Good Wine, For the Love of Words, and Mother Daughter Book Club

The Paladin Prophecy, by Mark Frost, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, by Jennifer Maschari, at Always in the Middle

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Jean Little Library

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

Time Travelling With A Hamster, by Ross Welford, at Bart's Bookshelf

The Treehouse series, by Andy Griffiths, a post by me at Barnes and Noble Kids Blog

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at the New York Times

The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Bibliobrit

Authors and Interviews

Leila Sales (Once Was a Time) at The Book Cellar, Cracking the Cover, Good Books and Good Wine

John Claude Bemis (The Wooden Prince) at Tales From the Raven

Jonathan Auxier (Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard) at Nerdy Book Club

Peter Brown (The Wild Robot) at Barnes and Noble Kids

Other Good  Stuff

Folklore snippets about the River Man at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

How Terry Pratchett's truckers changed the life of writer Tom Nicholl, at The Guardian

The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth (series review)

The five books that make up The Impossible Quest series, by Austrailian author Kate Forsyth, are absolutly spot on for the eight or nine year old who loves fantasy, but who isn't quite ready for the middle grade big league--the sort of kid whose a really strong and eager reader, but not emotionally ready for truly harrowing violence or romance or, heaven forbid, cute little animals who die.  I don't often wish my now 12 year old was a 9 year old again, but after reading the books myself I did so wish I could send them back in time a few years for his third or fourth grade reading pleasure!

The story is fairly standard stuff--four kids (two boys, two girls) thrown together as unlikely allies when their homeland is invaded.  They are a young knight in training, the son of the castle cook, the witch's apprentice, and the daughter of the manor, and they have no clue what they are going to do about defeating their enemies.  They do, however, have a riddling prophesy to guide them on what seems at first to be an impossible quest...and so they set out on a journey that ends up making the impossible into reality.

Four mythical animals must be found--unicorn, gryphon, dragon, and sea serpent.  One is introduced in each book, and forms a special bond with one of the kids, and I think this aspect of the book in particular has just tons and tons of kid  appeal.  Each of the kids also has a magical item that they have to figure out how use properly, and each has special strengths that they bring to the group.  As dangers are overcome in each book, the kids are forced to make out of their four conflicting personalities and backgrounds a cohesive fighting force. And they actually come to genuinely like and care for each other, putting aside various preconceptions and old grudges.  The characters are each given turns as the primary point of view, which helps make each one unique and compelling; the adventure never overshadows the personalities, and worries, and hopes of the adventurers.

The adventures themselves are a fine introduction to fantasy questing, and Kate Forsyth does a very fine job at vivid descriptions.  The drowned city full of writhing sea serpents, for instance, was more than a bit memorable.  It is not a sweetness and light fantasy for the young, but it is written for young readers--there are things that are horrible (like the army of bog men, reanimated victims of past sacrifice), but the horror is not delved into so deeply or emotionally that it is distressing. 

In short, though this series doesn't add much in the way of diversity to the upper elementary fantasy available, and doesn't break wildly imaginative new ground, it is does fill a niche for younger readers wanting epic adventures. The books would also be fine for older middle grade kids who like fantasy but who aren't the strongest, most committed readers-- the short chapters, short overall length, and fairly rapid fire adventures will make the pages turn.

The books were released in Australia two years ago, and are now being published here in the US all at once by Kane Miller (which is very nice indeed from a parent's point of view, because if your kid likes book 1, you can trot out books 2-5 without waiting for ages between books!)

The books in the series are:
Escape from Wolfhaven Castle
Wolves of the Witchwood
The Beast of Blackmoor Bog
The Drowned Kingdom
Battle of the Heroes

(you won't find the US editions for sale on Amazon, as Kane Miller is a strong supporter of indie bookstores.  The links above go to Barnes and Noble; you can also get them through your independent bookstore in June).

disclaimer: review copies recieved from the publisher

Lizard Radio, by Pat Schmatz

When I saw that Lizard Radio, by Pat Schmatz (Candlewick, September 2015), had won the YA Tiptree Award, it was a natural next step to actually read the copy of it that has been in my TBR for months....I think I hadn't read it sooner because the cover reminds me of the 1970s tile in the bathroom of an old and dingy house I once lived in...and also because the blurb at the back references "a mysterious saurian race" and I am not a fan, in general, of saurian stories.  But now I have read it, and found it good!  It is off my TBR pile!  I can recommend it!  Yay!

Just by way of quick intro--it is almost our world, but with a dystopian fascist overlay, different slang, different drugs, and a nasty way of tucking all non-conforming people (political agitators, criminals, gay and gender ambiguous people) away forever in a prison city of their own.

Kivali was just a little baby, wearing a t-shirt with a lizard picture on it, when she was found by Sheila.  Sheila, being unpartnered, had to fight to keep the baby as her foster child, but she succeeded, and then raised her with the story that she is a little lizard child, dropped on earth by suarians, and though this wasn't Sheila's intention, Kivali has ended up believing this, and feels more lizard than human, listening to "lizard radio" when meditating.  In large part this is possible because Kivali is a "bender," with a gender score just barely tilted toward female, and she doesn't do human socialization very well (I found myself think of her as being on the autism spectrum, though this isn't explicit).

In Kivali's world, teens have to go to Crop Camps to get their hands dirty and to get indoctrinated before they can be Integrated into proper society.  Failing out of Crop Camp more than once means being stuck in the prison city.  And as the book begins, Sheila is making Kivali go and get it over with.  

Crop Camp is sort of like a religious youth group (lots of emphasis on everyone joining together to find the One) meeting agricultural work camp, and the heavy emphasis on community and belong is made more palatable for people like Kivali by the drugs the campers are given every evening.  For the first time, Kivali has friends, and is accepted, and nicknamed, in a friendly way, Lizard.  She finds passion for the first time in the kiss of a bright shinning fellow camper girl.   And she feels that she has stepped out of her lizard skin, and is actually a person.

But the ruler of Crop Camp wants to manipulate and control the kids, and freedom of thought is not tolerated.   Campers disappear.  Those who aren't conforming are confined.  Lizard cannot stay, but where can she go?  And how can she leave her friends?  What is a young lizard, who wants to be loved, to do?  For Lizard is still a little lizard, trying, as she herself puts it, to get her tail out from under the boot of the camp director.   Her answers come from her recognition that she doesn't have to choose between binary opposites, but can instead find power in being both and neither....

So the vibe I got from this reminded me somewhat of The Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow--the kids forced together under adult control, with threats keeping them corralled, and a protagonist who hasn't been in the habit of reaching out to other people.   This one, though, is an almost totally character driven spec fic story; the world around Lizard is bad and difficult, but the point is how she as an individual is going to make it through.   Lizard is a brave and hurting and seeking protagonist, one to be held in the heart of the reader.  And though there's no firm ending, there's a bit of hope she'll find hope, somewhere.  Not a book if you want dramatic action with bombs and stuff, but more a book if you want a person trying to be a good lizard, or good person, in difficult and painful circumstances occasioned by a tangly plot full of mysteries.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (4/3/16)

Here's this week's round-up; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Ambassador, and its sequel, Nomad, by William Alexander, at Dead Houesplants

The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Puss Reboots

Chase Tinker and the House of Mist, by Malia Ann Haberman, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at The Children's War

Cuckoo Song, by Frances Hardinge, at The Cover Wars

Fridays With the Wizards, by Jessica Day George, at Read Till Dawn

Grounded, by Megan Morrison, at The Daily Prophecy

The Night Parade, by Kathryn Tanquary, at Randomly Reading

Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince, by John Claude Bemis, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels and Tales from the Raven

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater, at Next Best Book

Rules for Stealing Stars, by Corey Ann Haydu, at Children's Books Heal

Searching for Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews

The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson, at Fantasy Literature

Secrets of the Ancient Gods: Thor Speaks, by Vicky Alvear Shecter, at Jean Little Library

Secrets of Valhalla, by Jasmine Richards, at Views from the Tesseract

Under Plum Lake, by Lionel Davidson, at Views from the Tesseract

Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung, at Not Acting My Age

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at The Book Smugglers

The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, at Fantasy Literature

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Final Kingdom, by Michael Northrup, and The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder

Authors and Interviews

Jaleigh Johnson (Secrets of Solace) at The Hiding Spot

Other Good Stuff

A Tueday 10 of sci fi gateway books (the fifth post in a series) at Views from the Tesseract

A horse-lovers guide to The Blue Sword, at Tor

When is a small thing big enough to make you walk away from a book?

There are lots of valid reasons not to finish a book.  There are big ones, like when a book is offensive to your beliefs, or has opinions and perpetuates stereotypes that you find toxic.  There are practical ones, like the book falling behind a bookshelf and you feeling too weak to move all the books so you can move the shelf and rescue it, or it falling behind the radiator of a little used room causing you to wander the house sadly and hopeless not finding it.  And then there are the very small reasons, that make you wonder if should keep giving the book a chance, even though you know it will probably not work out well.

For instance, I have just put down a book at the start of the third chapter for the following small reason--

A character is sitting under an old, dying oak tree, and he remembers how he used to climb it as a boy (me--wonders if climbing oak trees is something that other people are able to do, because they haven't, in my experience, struck me as climbable, but I'm willing to give the character the benefit of the doubt, especially because I just looked at pictures of oak trees and found one even I could climb, shown at right), but then he remembers eating its fruit (and he's not thinking about acorns!).

This might be a deal breaker for me.  It seems to me that the author wasn't really thinking of her tree as an oak tree after all.  And if the author can't keep a tree straight, and if the copy editor didn't catch it, what other inconsistences and wrong details will there be in the rest of the book?  I can no longer trust the author to smoothly deliver quality world building, and I am not inclined to keep going.

And if the species of tree doesn't matter, why is the author bothering to put it in?  If Megan Whalen Turner, for instance, has a character thinking about an oak tree, I can be sure that there is a point to its oak tree-ness; maybe, I might think, it is a reference to an oak tree/character relationship in a Rosemary Sutcliff book.  Maybe she is alluding to Philip of Macedon's oak tree diadem.  Maybe there will more oak tree metaphorical-ness further along in the book.  These things are fun to think about, but are only possible when you trust the author to build the book world with care and attention.

If the oak tree really seems meant to have been an apple tree, I'm not sure it's worth going on.

Am I being too picky?  The book was ok otherwise; not great, but reasonably interesting....

The Wild Swans, by Jackie Morris

I was pleased as all get out last fall when The Wild Swans, by Jackie Morris (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, October 2015) , a beautifully illustrated retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales, was nominated for the Cybils in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction, the category for which I was reading.  (NB- It ended up in the MG section of the Cybils, but more because it wasn't a book "for teens" than because it is really a book for 9-12 year olds.  It is really an all ages older than 7 book).  I very much appreciated her 2013 retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon (my review), and I was not disappointed by this one.

(And of course I meant to write about last fall when I read it for the first time, but didn't...and it surfaced yesterday when I was tiding up Book Pile #34 (the books on top of the DVD/CD shelf) and so here it is now....)

So this is the story of the princess (named Eliza) whose bothers (11 of them in this case) get turned into swans by their evil stepmother, and she has to spin shirts of nettles for them, all the while not saying a word, to turn them back.  And a prince falls in love with her, and takes her back to his castle, where she ends up being accused of witchcraft, but can't defend herself (because of the no talking rule) and just as she's about to be burned alive her swan brothers come and she throws the shirts over them.  And one is unfinished, leaving a brother still with a swan wing...

All this is here in Morris' retelling, but with a lovely detailed richness that a good-lengthed book (173 pages) and lovely pictures can afford that an anthologized 10 page version can't.  Morris adds two things of her own to the story, that I appreciated very much. The stepmother does a Bad Thing, but she has reasons that make sense and are emotionally convincing--not just greed or ambition for her own kids but reasons that come from her relationship with the king, and her past before she became queen.  And it's not just the prince falling in love with Eliza, but her falling in love with him too, not just because he's a pretty face but because he gives her space to do what she needs to do. 

It's a lovely book, beautifully produced, with exquisite illustrations, and if you like fairy tale retellings, go for it!  And now I get to go upstairs and put it neatly on the shelf of fairy tales where I will look fondly on it and Book Pile #34 has one less book in it yay me!

edited to add--Thwarted! The fairy tale shelves are full with books sidewise on top and so I will have to expand fairy tales onto the shelf above them which means lot of rearranging.  Nothing is as easy as it seems it should be...

The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig (Greenwillow, February 2016) is a young woman named Nix Song, who travels on her father's ship from one time to the next as they sail from map to map.  Her father is able to navigate into any place accurately mapped, even if the place is imaginary or mythological (though there's only one shot per map) but the one place he hasn't been able to visit is the year in mid-19th century Hawaii when Nix's mother died while he was off sailing (to get money for their future together that didn't happen).   Nix is not at all sure she wants her father to find a map back to that particular time, because it might well change the whole course of her existence to be raised by both mother and father....But Nix doesn't really have any plans of her own, so she goes along with it.

A map that promises it is off Hawaii at the right time takes them there...but several years too late for Nix's mother.   What follows is a lot of Nix appreciating Hawaii, intermingled with wondering what  the point of her life is (I too wondered) and just getting started wondering if she likes Kashmir (a shipmate from the Persia of the Arabian Nights) more than just as a friend (I wondered about this too--it seemed a lot more like a case of proximity than romance).  Alongside this is a heist plot (Nix's father makes a deal to steal all the money from the royal treasury, undermining the monarchy, in exchange for another map that really does seem to be the one that will reunite him with his lost love).

None of this is really all that interesting, primarily because I did not find Nix to be an interesting, thoughtful, person.  And not much was actually Happening either in terms of plot development or character development.  For instance, another possible love interest for Nix is thrown into the mix, but it is more a convinent happenstance than a gripping drama.  On the other hand,  the book showcases Hawaii's natural beauty, with bonus bits of mythology and history; on the other other hand, that isn't really what I wanted from a ship bearing mythological treasures sailing through time from map to map. 

Things pick up dramatically toward the end, with a visit to the Emperor Qin's tomb (the little pearl eating sea dragon who seemed just a random add on gets to be part of  the action).  There are twisty revelations revealed that make the whole story more interesting, and the heist goes very wrong in interesting ways.  The last fifty pages or so were very good reading! But they came too late to redeem the book as a whole for me. 

Small thoughts-- I thought it was great that the crew included lesbian cattle herders from Africa, and I enjoyed the brief bits of page time they got.  Kashmir, the Persian love interest and handy thief, got on my nerves because he was pretty one note (or two--love interest + thief).  He was clearly suffering from the hots for Nix pretty badly but never demonstrated any depth of personality. (Also I had trouble buying "Kashmir" as a Persian name, but maybe it's more plausible than I found it to be). 

Final thought--although I myself was not engaged by this one, lots of people were.  Kirkus, for instance, said "it’s a skillful mashup of science fiction and eclectic mythology, enlivened by vivid sensory detail and moments of emotional and philosophical depth that briefly resonate before dissolving into the next swashbuckling adventure.

A nonstop time-travel romp."

Kirkus clearly got more romping out of it than I did.   Oh well. At least I romped in the last action filled part of the book (I really did like the visit to Emperor Qin's necropolis).

Here's another review, at the Book Smugglers.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/27/16)

Welcome to this week's round-up, and happy Easter to all who are celebrating. 

Clearly eggs were bigger back in the 19th century; perhaps there were a few Gastornises still kicking around England, which would explain a lot (?)

The Reviews

The 39-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, at Sharon the Librarian

The After-Room by Maile Meloy, at Read Till Dawn

Audie the Angel & The Afterworld (The Angel Archives Volume Three), by Erika Kathryn, at This Kid Reviews Books

Beyond the Kingdoms, by Chris Colfer, at Reading Violet

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Library

Confessions of an Imaginary Friend, by Michelle Cuevas, at The Children's Book Review

The Copper Gauntlet, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Leaf's Reviews

A Curious Tale of the In-Between, by Lauren DeStefano, at The Children's Book Review

Disney Lands by Ridley Pearson, at Carstairs Considers

Eden's Wish, by M. Tara Crowl, at Word Spelunking

The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

Golden Mane by SJB Gilmour, at The Write Path

Hour of the Bees, by Linday Eagar, at So Many Books, So Little Time, Becky's Book Reviews, Book Nut, and Charlotte's Library

How to Catch an Invisible Cat, by Paul Tobin, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen, at Me On Books and Great Imaginations

The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd, at Next Best Book

The Last Kids on Earth, by Max Braillier, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Masterminds, by Gordon Korman, at That's Another Story

Neverseen, by Shannon Messenger, at A Reader of Fictions

Of Mice and Magic (Harriet Hamster Princess book 2), by Ursula Vernon, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at The Reading Nook Reviews

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Kitty Cat at the Library

Secrets of Bearhaven, by K.E. Rocha, at Ms.Yingling Reads

Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, by Patrick Samphire, at Geo Librarian

The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson, at books4yourkids

Twice Upon a Time, by James Riley, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones (Mabel Jones #1), by Will Mabbitt, at Word Spelunking

Witherwood Reform School, by Obert Skye, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads:  Fortune Falls, by Jenny Goebel, and The Inn Between, by Marina Cohen

Authors and Interviews

Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon et al.) at The Guardian

Janet Fox at Middle Grade Mafioso and Pop Goes the Reader

Other Good Stuff

Here's a lovely post on House Spirits at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

The Aurealis Awards have been announced; here's the Children's list:

Best Children’s Fiction

• Winner: A Single Stone, Meg McKinlay (Walker Books Australia)
• A Week Without Tuesday, Angelica Banks (Allen & Unwin)
• The Cut-Out, Jack Heath (Allen & Unwin)
• Bella and the Wandering House, Meg McKinlay (Fremantle Press)
• The Mapmaker Chronicles: Prisoner of the Black Hawk, A.L. Tait (Hachette Australia)

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox (Viking Books for Young Readers, March 15, 2016, middle grade), went on my tbr list the moment I laid eyes on its description--siblings evacuated from WW II London to a castle in Scotland where there is sinister magic afoot.  It sounded perfect for me! Alas, although there were things I appreciated, and I am happy to recommend it to middle grade readers who like slow burn horror, and although lots of other people really like and it's gotten lots of stars and rave reviews, it fell short for me.

The sinister magic was plenty sinister.  It is clear from the get go, both to the reader and to the central protagonist, Kat, the oldest of the London siblings, that all is not wholesome sunshine and light at Rookskill Castle, and that the lady of the castle is clearly not a Good Thing.  In a series of flashbacks taking us back into the past of the lady of the castle, the reader is told of the horrible bargains that Lady Eleanor has made over the years.  And it is indeed darkly horrible, and really creepy and fascinating.  But the result is that the reader knows many things long before the characters do, and as the pages turned and the number of child victims of dark magic rose, I became frustrated there was nothing actually being done about it.  It's not until around 280 pages into the book that Kat begins to actively confront Lady Eleanor, and instead of being as tense as I could have been, I was mostly just relieved that Kat was finally using her own magical talismans and actually doing something for crying out loud.

I also really did not feel as though the whole German spy subplot was necessary (I rarely feel German spy subplots add all that much), and indeed, frustrated as I was that it was taking Kat so long to stop thinking that she should "keep calm and carry on" (as her father had told her to do), the fact that she was dragged into decoding cyphers didn't seem to be to the point.  Nor did it seem at all necessary for the anti-German-spy folks to actually be trying to use magic to counter the Germans.  I'm not against using magic against the Nazis, but I think it has to be worked into a story more naturally than it is here, where it is basically just stated.  Although it's not an uninteresting story in its own right, it detracts and distracts from the specialness of Kat's magic, and Lady Eleanor's magic, and does not do much to further the plot.

So in short I didn't like this book as much as I'd hoped I would--it took too long for the main character to become an active protagonist, and the insertion of German spy magic subplot was pretty much a WTF for me instead of a positive addition.  Oh well.  You can go read the Kirkus review now, for a different opinion!

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar (Candlewick, March 2016), is the story of a magic-infused summer in which a young girl works through family tensions, past and present. And yes, the magic is real, but yet still this is one I'd give to a fan of realist fiction before I'd give it to a fan of fantasy (because the fantasy fan might be disappointed that there isn't More magic, and be all blasé, but the reader of realistic fiction might actually be stunned when the magic comes to fruition!).  NB--I tried to figure out before reading this one whether it was "magical realism" of a sort where the magic isn't actually real, and couldn't, so I'll say flat out that I was sure at the end that real magic had happened.

Carol does not want to be spending the summer on a dry as bone and hot as heck dingy, rundown ranch in the middle of southwestern no-where.  She doesn't particularly want to get to know Serge, the Mexican grandfather she's never met (her dad took off from the ranch as soon as he could and never looked back) and she doesn't like him calling her by her Spanish name,  Carolina.  She wants pool parties and sleepovers, not rail-thin sheep and rattlesnakes.  But she and her family (Dad, Mom, big half-sister, little brother) are stuck there for the summer, because Serge is suffering from dementia, and the ranch house must be cleaned out and sold.

But being stuck somewhere means you have a chance to get to know a place and its people, and that's what happens for Carolina.  Gradually she becomes drawn into her grandfather's stories of the magical tree that once grew in his village, that kept all the villagers from harm, and kept them there, all together, safe and long-lived.  And how her own grandmother couldn't stand being stuck, and left, with a bracelet of the tree's bark to keep her safe.  Off she went on wild adventures, coming home between times, and seeing her living life this way, the other villages decided to follow her lead, taking pieces of the tree away, until there was no tree left.  With no tree, the bees left too, taking with them all the water in the village's lake.

So Carolina's grandfather tells her the stories, and how the bees will one day come to bring the water back, and in the meantime her parents work to close down his life.  But the magic that fills Serge's stories spills over into reality, and Carolina sets in motion the return of the bees, and the water.   When Serge is at last installed (unwilling and sedated) in a nursing home, the drought breaks, and Carolina, wanting to hear from him the end of the story, and wanting to bring his life full circle, risks her life to take him home again (nb--she makes Bad Choices involving her sister's car.  But she really has no other choice....her parents aren't listening to her).

It's a very moving story, and one with lots of appeal for those who like intergenerational relationships.  Not much Happens (until the Bad Choice toward the end), but the pages are full of interest for those who like small things made vividly real.  Carolina is likeable, and is enough a normal middle school kid to be generally relatable, even as her circumstances stray further and further from the non-magical norm, and she starts to make independent choice towards being her own person.  Her decision to reclaim her roots, now that she has found where her roots lie, is heartwarming.

It's also nice to see a family that includes both a loving father and a loving mother, although the big sister is perhaps exaggeratedly unpleasant.

I don't think this will be every kid's cup of tea as a book to read for their own pleasure (it's not light reading, and I think the understated cover will do a good job fending off readers who really wouldn't like it), but I do think there will be readers (introspective, dreamy ones) who will like it lots. 

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Devil on the Road, by Robert Westall, for Timeslip Tuesday

Squeaking in just under the gun for Timeslip Tuesday with The Devil on the Road, by Robert Westall (1978)--a good one for fans of older UK books about teens caught in time travel predicaments involving 17th century witch trials, with a nice dose of motorcycles, a charming cat, and a vividly real English rural setting.   It's a good story, the sort that might well make a huge impression if you read it young, and it's certainly memorable even if you read it old!   I'm going to be spoiling it, so be warned!

John Webster sets of on spring break from university in London on his motorbike, happy to follow fate where she leads him.  He ends up sheltering from a storm in an old barn way off in the middle of nowhere, which is just what fate wanted.  The landowner finds him there, and offers him the use of the barn as long as he wants it, so he stays, and gradually the landowner works to make it more of a home.  John saves a little kitten, and enjoys puttering around...but things get weird.  The villagers are weird around him, calling him "Cunning."  The landowner is rather too anxious to make the barn a home, and indeed it was once a manor house.  John discovers a hidden room with old furnishings.  And then the kitten, grown into a cat strangy quickly, leads him back in time to the 17th century.

There he meets a girl his own age, Johanna, the daughter of the old manor's lord.  He follows the cat back and forth in time for a few visits, interesting but not terribly disturbing (except with regard to 17th century hygene).  But then things take a dark turn when the most notorious witchunter of all 17th century England arrives. 

Matthew Hopkins, the Witch Finder General, was real, and he was awful.  He was in the witch hunting business purely for the money-the more women he killed as witches, the more he made.  And now he is targeting the women of Johanna's village, and she is determined to save him, even at risk of being found guilty of witchcraft herself. Which is what happens, and it is very vivid and tense indeed.

But John steps in to save her, and comes back to the 17th century armed and dangerous, the Devil on the Road of the title.  And save her he does, and they travel together back to the old barn/restored manor house along with all the other accused women (who conveniently, and confusingly, vanish from the scene). 

If this were a modern YA book, John and Johanna would fall in love and it would be all nice and romantic.  But it isn't.  Johanna does want John to stay with her, but she turns out to actually be a witch, and 17th century witches, even if they are good witches, helping others, tend to try to get their own way.  John  doesn't love her, and doesn't want to spend the rest of his life buried in the green and verdant country healing villagers....and he barely escapes.

Here's what frustrated me--Johanna doesn't make any effort at meaningful communication, relying instead on her magic to try to get John to stay with her.  It makes her rather two dimensional and unsympathetic.  There she is in the 20th century, and she wants to keep playing by her own rules. John, on the other hand, is a very sympathetic character--kind to kittens. 

If you are at all interested in fiction about the 17th century, it's well worth a read--a truly memorable story.  It's one of the few time travel books in which the time travel is aided and abetted by locals who might or might not know what is happening, who manipulate the protagonist so that he cooperates, which makes it interesting. 

This is the first Robert Westall book I've read, but he does seem to be on of the great UK children's writers of the last three decades of the 20th century, winner of two Carnegie Medals, the Smarties Prize, and the Guardian Prize.  I'll be on the look out for more of his books.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (3/20/16)

Here's this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Charmed by Jen Calonita, at The Write Path and The Reading Nook Reviews

Chase Tinker and the House of Magic, by Malia Ann Haberman, at Always in the Middle

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at The Book Wars, Word Spelunking, Fantasy Literature, and Waking Brain Cells

Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Leaf's Reviews

A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder, at Word Spelunking

The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker by E.D. Baker at Read Till Dawn

Flunked, by Jen Calonita, at Cover2Cover

The Fog Diver, by Joel Ross, at Finding Wonderland and Challenging the Bookworm

Fortune Falls by Jenny Goebel, at Read Till Dawn

Hour of the Bees, by Linday Eager, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Scobberlotch

The Morrigan's Curse, by Dianne K. Salerni, at Middle Grade Mafioso

One Wish, by Michelle Harrison, at Great Imaginations

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff, at Hidden in Pages and The Book Cellar

Rise of the Ragged Clover (Luck Uglies #3), by Paul Durham, at Kid Lit Reviews

Tuck Everlasting, by Natilie Babbitt, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at The Book Nut

The Wild Swans, by Jackie Morris, at Leaf's Reviews

Four short ones at Random Musings of a Bibliophile--Bayou Magic, Fridays with the Wizards, The Hollow Boy, and The Jumbies

Authors and Interviews

Anna Staniszewski (Finders Reapers) at Teen Librarian Toolbox

Janet Fox (The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle) at Great Imaginations, Cynsations, My Brain on Books, and The Book Wars

Other Good Stuff

From The Guardian: My Brother is a Superhero, by David Solomons, "a debut novel about a comics-obsessed 11-year-old who is annoyed when his older brother is given powers by an alien to help save two universes has won the £5,000 Waterstones prize."

The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway shortlists have been announced, with a smattering of fantasy included

The movie of The Little Prince has been picked up by Netflix, via Tor

And from the department of truly odd creatures--a fossil monster has at last been identified (it's the "dorsal eye ridge" that really makes this one stand out, I think).

Anna and the Swallow Man, by Gavriel Savit

Anna and the Swallow Man, by Gavriel Savit, (Knopf Books for Young Readers, January 2016), is a story set in WW II Poland about a little girl who has lost her home and father to the Germans, and finds, in an enigmatic stranger who can call birds to his finger, a father who is in need of a child,  The two, little girl and Swallow Man, off to walk through the years of war, because to stay in one place is to risk being found, and the hints gradually build that the Swallow Man has very good reason for not wanting to be found and used to as a weapon.   Together they beg and pilfer and scavenge, keeping to themselves and slipping through the dangerous days and cold nights, until Anna meets a young Jewish Musician, who in his joy and zest for life shows her a way of being in the world that the Swallow Man cannot (nb--friends, not romance--Anna is still a child), and he joins them in their peregrinations of survival until he no longer can.

And then Anna must turn into the caretaker of the Swallow Man when he runs out of the medicine that keeps him sane, leading to her being asked by a pharmacist to offer her naked body in exchange for more of the drug.  Anna is still naïve, and the horror of this incident is that it is a transaction that she doesn't, and cannot, question, if she wants her Swallow Man back.  

The ending, separating the two of them by the Swallow Man's choice, neither promises or denies the possibility of future happiness, and instead adds to the dream-like, surreal, quality of the whole book.  (the ending would have seemed less surreal to me if I had known more clearly what the heck was happening...but I didn't).  It's a dark story de facto, but the Swallow Man manages in his care of Anna to keep alive beauty and wonder; perhaps not hope, for she doesn't know, I think, what she might hope for.

It is very much a story that is like a picture seen from a distance, told neither from Anna's or the Swallow Man's point of view.  And so I never felt at any visceral level that I understood them; it is more an intellectual excursion, heart touching but not immersively emotional.  It seemed to me a story that relied on a combination of hints that one needed to use to deduce things on one's own, combined with narratorial pronouncements, as opposed to a story flowing naturally from inside the characters themselves.  It would be a fine book for teens or adults to read and discuss, but it's not a kid's book, despite Anna's age.  That is, I guess it would be a fine book for discussion, but if I were part of that chat, I'd mostly be asking sort of cynical questions of doubtfulness, as opposed to expressing great appreciation.  Like--was the Swallow Man selfish in not trying to find Anna a more stable home?

Short Answer:  not really my cup of tea, but lots of other people seem to love it, so it's probably a matter of personal taste.  Here's the NY Times book review, which I generally agree with (though that reviewer, Elizabeth Wein, liked the book more than me!).

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher at BEA last summer.

The Keeper of the Mist, by Rachel Neumeier, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Keeper of the Mist, by Rachel Neumeier (Knopf, March 8 2016) isn't a time travel book, but there is an important part of the story that involves magical time tweaking that essential for making everything work out ok, and I decided that this time slippage is enough to count for my Timeslip Tuesday purposes.

The basic plot of The Keeper of the Mist is one that many fantasy readers will find familiar--a young person unexpectedly becoming the next ruler of their land, and having to cope with problems ranging from the internal ordering of household/court affairs to the dealing with dangerous external  threats of predatory neighboring kingdoms and the like.  In this case, Keri knew she was the bastard daughter of the lord of Nimmira, and she had let herself daydream from time to time about ending up the heir.   But in the meantime, she had her bakery to keep going after her mother's death, and lots of beautiful cakes to make (good cake descriptions!).

Then the Timekeeper of the old Lord comes to tell her that her father is dead, and that Nimmira has chosen her to be its Lady, and Keri isn't given a chance to say no.  Nimmira needs her to keep stable the curtain of magical mist that shields it from the sight, and the minds, the two neighboring kingdoms, both of whom would love to swallow it up.  The Timekeeper is one of three positions, imbued with magic, that support Nimmira's rulers, and the roles of Gatekeeper and Bookkeeper fall, through the magic of the land, to two of Keri's childhood friends, so at least she is not alone in figuring out the magic and responsibilities of her new position.

But the mist that protects Nimmira is becoming dangerously thin; thin enough so that men from each of the two neighboring countries has made their hungry way into its fertile, magic-filled valleys.  Keri isn't given much time to get used to her new position, and the various nasty legacies of her father, before she has to come up with a plan to restore the mist and get rid of the enemies, in the face of formidable enemy magic, and it is all very tense.

The Keeper of the Mist is one I think I will enjoy more the second time around. This first time through, right inside of the thick of the tenseness along with Keri, it was awfully hard to be relaxed and happy and delight in the fascinating magic (the Bookkeeper's helpful magic is the best--whenever she needs a particular book she just happens to find it, and she never looses her pen, but the Gatekeeper's magic is awfully fascinating too, and the Timekeepers, and Keri's own connection with the land is rather nice as well).  So anyway, even though I peeked at the end, it still wasn't enough to keep me from being tense.  Because most of the time Keri is desperately trying to figure out what she should be doing in rather difficult, potentially life ending, situations, and she has to save not just herself, but her whole country.

And then the Timekeeper's magic comes into play, giving Keri and her companions the time they need...and there is a happy ending, although, much as I appreciate a good understated romance, I wouldn't have minded a bit more...

So if you don't have patience for books that are really close third person, when that person does not have a clear grasp of things, and is thinking about them rather frantically for much of the book, this might not be your cup of tea.  But it's one I'd unhesitatingly recommend to fans of Robin McKinley (at times I though  bit of The Blue Sword, at times a bit of Chalice).  And one I'd recommend to fans of strange magics that don't flash in pyrotechnics but are old and intricate and surprising.  And one I'd recommend to readers wanting strong friendships between young women that are truly supportive.

It's not my personal favorite of Rahcek Neumeier's books (that would be House of Shadows--which I reviewed here, more enthusiascially just about than I have ever reviewed any book ever) but it's one I liked lots and plan to keep on hand for the day when I read all 400 books on my tbr and can become a rereader again...

I'm not sure I've done a good job here, so here's Maureen's take on the book at By Singing Light.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the author

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (3/13/16)

Here's what I found this week; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson, at Fantasy Literature

Beetle Boy, by M.G. Leonard, at Mom Read It

Charmed, by Jen Calonita, at Cracking the Cover

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at Great Imaginations and Book Nut

City of Thirst, by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis, at Charlotte's Library

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby, at Read Till Dawn

Criminal Destiny, Gordon Korman, at Read Till Dawn

Forest of Wonders, by Linda Sue Park, at the NYT Book Review

Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel, by Megan Morrison, at Snuggly Oranges

The Island of Dr. Libris, by Chris Grabenstein, at Cindy Reads A Lot

Island of Graves, by Lisa McMann, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

The Letter for the King, by Tonke Dragt, at Semicolon

Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, by Ellen MacGregor, at Views from the Tesseract

The Night Parade, by Kathryn Tanquary, at Word Spelunking

A Pocket Full of Murder, by R.J. Anderson, at Semicolon

Red, by Liesl Shurtiff, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Secrets of Valhalla, by Jasmine Richards, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Serafina and the Black Cloak, by Robert Beatty, at Kitty Cat at the Library

Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters, by James Riley, at Buxton's Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels

The Thickety, by J.A White, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle (and scroll down for The Diary of Anna, the Girl Witch, by Max Candee)

A World Without Heroes, by Brandon Mull, at The Fictional Reader

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Lockdown (Urban Outlaws #3), by Peter Jay Black, and The Trouble with Fuzzwonker Fizz, by Patrick Carman


Authors and Interviews

Elise Stephens (Guardian of the Gold Breathers) at Word Spelunking

Keira Gillet (the Zaria Fierce Trilogy) at Mother Daughter Book Reviews

Other Good Stuff

At American Indians in Children's Literature there's a round up of Native People's response to J.K. Rowling's "History of Magic in North America" stories.