This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (10/13/19)

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

The Reviews

The Bootlace Magician (Cicus Mirandus #2), by Cassie Beasley, at Randomly Reading

The Boy Who Was Fire, by Marcus Kahle McCann, at The Children's Book Review

City of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, at Pages Unbound

The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Howitz, at Sally's Bookshelf

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Charlotte's Library

Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Imaginary Friends

The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao, at Log Cabin Library, Forever and Everly, and Lost In Storyland

Ember: the Secret Book, by Jamie Smart, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper, at Charlotte's Library

Homerooms and Hall Passes, by Tom O'Donnell, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The International Yeti Collective, by Paul Mason, at Book Craic

The Little Broomstick, by Mary Stewart, at Fantasy Literature

Mightier than the Sword, by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Race to the Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse, at Imaginary Friends

The Red Fox Clan (Royal Ranger #2), by John Flanagan, at Say What?

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker, at Books4YourKids

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, a review revisited at Twirling Book Princess

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Geo Librarian

The Tyrant's Tomb, by Rick Riordan, at Say What?

The Wayward Witch and the Feelings Monster (Polly and Buster #1), by Sally Ripen, at Always in the Middle

Two at alibrarymama--Freedom Fire. Dactyl Hill Squad 2, by Daniel José Older, and Spark, by Sarah Beth Durst

Two at Falling Letters-- Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, and The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst

Two at The Book Search--We're Not From Here, by Geoff Rodkey, and Twinchantement, by Elise Allen

Authors and Interviews

Nick Tomlinson (The Ghouls of Howlfair) at A Little But a Lot

Daniel Kraus (The Teddies Saga) at Fuse#8

Paul Mason (The International Yeti Collective), at Thereaderteacher.com (also with review)

Liesl Shurtliff (The Obsidian Compass: Time Castaways series #2), at A Year of Reading.

Other Good Stuff

"Imagining Other Worlds in Diana Wynne Jones' Witch Week" at Tor

"25 Scary (and not-so-scary) books to get you in the Halloween spirit" at Pop Goes the Reader

And if you haven't nominated a book for the Cybils Awards in Elementary/middle grade speculative fiction, here is a list I made of books that haven't been nominated yet!

Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction books that haven't been nominated for the Cybils yet

Thanks everyone who nominated books during the public nomination period!  Now we give publishers and authors a chance to fill in the gaps (from today through October 25th).  So I'll leave this list up for now to show them I was thinking about their books.....

So here, in no particular order, is a list of some books that need nominators (and it's not all the eligible books, and I'm sure I'm missing some great ones...for which I apologize.  I haven't read all of these, so this isn't a list of personal endorsements (though I did love all the ones I did read!).

And here is where you go to start the nomination process.

Tin, by Padraig Kenny

Cogheart, by Peter Bunzl

Ghost and Bone, by Andrew Prentice

The Haunting of Henry Davis, by Kathryn Siebel

Legends of the Sky, by Liz Flannagan

The Twelve, by Cindy Lin

The Flight of the Bluebird, by Kara LaReau

The Fire Keeper, by J.C. Cervantes

The Bookwanderers (Pages and Co. #1) by Anna James

Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray, by Jess Keating

Ember and the Ice Dragons, by Heather Fawcett

Freedom Fire, by Daniel Jose Older

Anya and the Dragon, by Sofia Pasternack

Archimancy, by J.A. White

The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper

The Library of Ever, by Zeno Alexander

The Afterwards, by A.F. Harrold

Max and the Midknights, by Lincoln Peirce

Eventown, by Corey Ann Haydu

Daughters of Steel, by Naomi Cyprus

The Star Shepherd, by Dan Haring and Marcykate Connolly

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan

Thisby Thestoop and the Wretched Scrattle, by Zac Gorman

Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, by Henry Lien

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden (middle grade, G.P. Putnam's Sons, August 2019), is a delightfully spooky sequel to Small Spaces, perfect for a chilling read as winter draws closer!

Ollie, Coco, and Brian became close friends under somewhat trying circumstances last fall--the evil Smiling Man trying to turn them into scarecrows--and now winter has come, they're on their way to a fun weekend at a new ski lodge with Ollie's dad and Coco's mom.  They almost don't make it through the intense snowstorm, and when they arrive, they find themselves the only visitors.  The snow keeps falling, trapping them inside, and the power goes out.  And there are ghosts.

The day after they arrive another visiter makes it through the snow, a young reporter for a ghost hunting magazine.  The owners of the hotel aren't sure that publicity about the hotel's previous incarnation of an orphanage with a dark, sad, history is what they want, but the young man is keen to get ghost hunting, and can't leave in any event because of the snow.

Which keeps falling, as things inside the hotel get scarier and scarier, with the ghost of a frostbitten girl begging Ollie for help, and the reporter urging the kids to join in his hunt.  And there is a lot of matieral for him to work with.  There are forces of evil at play inside the hotel that might trap the kids forever with the dead orphans and their cruel caretaker, but the most deadly danger comes from outside....

It's a story full of lots and lots of details that add beautifully to the growing tension, from the many taxidermied animals that great the kids when they arrive to the  claustrophobia of being snowbound. There are multiple plot twists too, that I didn't see coming, but which make sense.   The kids rise to he occasion beautifully, working together really well, and Ollie's own reflections about the loss of her mother are a strong counterpoint to the tragedies of the hotel's past.

Apparently there will be two more books in the series, one in spring, and one in summer, and then I hope the kids get a rest from hair-raising horrible-ness!

The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper

If you are a fantasy fan who loves quirky small museums with collections of oddities, you will love The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper (first published in the UK in 2017, now out in the US from Candlewick, Oct 2019).

Ben's invitation to the Gee Museum was delivered by bees.  He'd never heard of the place before, but despite his mother's reservations about letting him go there on his own (reservations which seem, for reasons, to be a bit much, even taking into account the fact that Ben's only ten)  he went...There, in its rooms full of taxidermidied creatures, other natural history collections, a glass bee hive, and clocks and other treasures collected by the Gee family from around the world years ago, he found magic, and the truth about his father, who died many years ago while off on an expedition of his own.

Ben also found danger, one of my personal least favorite types of danger--the unscrupulous developer, in this case paired with the unscrupulous director of a larger, splashier museum.

With help from the creatures who make the Gee museum their home (including the titular hippo), Ben is determined to find a way to save the museum.  But not all the magic in the museum is necessarily friendly.....

The museum and its magic are lovely, and the danger is real and gripping, without making me squirmisly check the ending, Ben is a great character to cheer for, and even the grown-ups (his mother and the elderly director of the museum) have useful parts to play in saving the day.  Generously sprinkled with illustrations by the author, this is one of the best museum visits I've had in ages!  A delightful read, that reminds me lots of the classic middle grade British fantasy I loved as a child back in the 20th century.....

disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher.

(nb:  The Hippo at the End of the Hall is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards, but hasn't yet been nominated....so if you haven't made your elementary/middle grade speculative fiction pick yet, do keep it in mind!)

This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blog (10/6/19)

Bloglovin utterly failed me this week, so I doubtless missed many posts.  So let me know if I missed yours, and I'll add it!

The Reviews

Cog, by Greg Van Eekhout, at Charlotte's Library

Creep, by Eireann Corrigan, at Not Acting My Age

The Double Helix (Explorer Academy #3), by Trudi Truit, at Mom Read It

The Fairfield Curse, by Kaleb Nation, at Say What?

The Last Dragon (The Revenge of Magic #2), by James Riley, at The Write Path

Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament, by Kim Long, at A Garden of Books

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages, by Trenton Lee Stewart, at Puss Reboots

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying, by Kelley Armstrong, at Geo Librarian

Scourge: A Grim Doyle Adeventure, by David H. Burton, at Say What?

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at A Dance with Books

The Storm Runner, by J. C. Cervantes, at A Backwards Story

A Tale of Magic, by Chris Colfer, at Ms. Yingling Reads

A Time Traveller's Theory of Relativity, by Nicole Valentine, at Charlotte's Library and Always in the Middle

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at Brain Mill Press Voices

Zombies are People Too, by Tom Greenwald, at Say What?

Other Good Stuff

Seven series recommendations, with an Australian slant, at Emma Louise Hughes

A gathering of spooky middle grade at Some the Wiser

The nominations for this year's Cybils Awards are open!  Here's what's been nominated in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction so far, and here are a few eligible titles that are new this October that haven't ben nominated yet (this isn't a comprehensive list by any means, but a quick off the top of my head; I'll almost certainly be mentioning more eligible titles between now and when nominations close on Oct 15).  Anyone can nominate books first published between Oct 16 2018 and Oct 15 2019; you don't have to be in the US, or have a blog, or be a grown up (so get your kids to send love to their favorite books of the past year!)

Here's where you go to nominate.

Alien Superstar, by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler
Cog, by Greg Van Eekhout
Tristan Strong Punches  a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalai
The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao
Throwback, by Peter Lerangis
Ember and the Ice Dragons, by Heather Fawcett

Cog, by Greg Van Eekhout

Cog, by Greg Van Eekhout (HarperCollins, Oct 1 2019), is a charming, funny, smart middle grade sci fi story with tons of appeal for both kids and grown-ups!

Cog looks like an average 12-year-old boy.  He reminds me of one of my own boys at that age--driven to accumulate information and eager to share tidbits of learning to others, without stopping to gauge the recipient's interest in facts about the platypus, for instance (who I am I kidding--it's reminding me of me).  Still with a lot of practical life-lessons to learn, and with a loving adult on hand to help steer him toward independent thinking.  Cog, however, isn't an ordinary boy.  He is a robot, and the loving adult is Gina, his programmer; his brown skin matches hers.  She works for uniMIND, a big corporation of robot designers, but she's gone slightly rogue, and added programing to Cog that gives him control over his own choices (and more, but that's a spoiler).  She and Cog live alone, and the corporation doesn't know what she's up to.

But when Cog takes to heart Gina's lesson that making mistakes can lead to learning, and leaves home one morning on his own to learn in this way, his choice to save a dog from being runover lands him in the uniMIND labs, in the hands a roboticist who believes devoutly that robots are tools, and the financial bottom line is what's important.  And when Cog realizes, through observation and experience, the danger he's in, he knows he must escape and find Gina again.

So he does, with a trashbot, a robot dog, a robotic car, and ADA, Gina's previous robot child, designed to be tool for war. A desperate, often funny, often terribly tense road trip ensues, with uniMIND and the police on the hunt for the fugitives.  (Car is my favorite fictional car ever, btw, though it's possible the first sentient fictional car I've ever actually felt fond of). Happily, it ends well (though around page 120 I cracked and had to read the end to make sure).  

This is more than just boy/robot adventure/coming of age/found family story with lots of danger and humor, though.  It has a thought-provoking punch about the choices we make, and the dangers we face if we loose our freedom to think for ourselves.  "I may be a weapon," [ADA] says, "but I will decide for myself how I'm used."

short answer: I loved it.  It made me grin a lot, and even chuckle out loud, I was riveted (except for having to put it down a couple of times when things got too tense),and I appreciated that it was a relatively short, compact package of goodness, making it one to recommend to younger mg readers.

If you have a super curious, quirky kid of 9 or so who needs a book to read, offer this one. Then, if you are a smart, quirky grown-up, read it yourself.

(NB:  Cog is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards (in Speculative Fiction: elementary/middle grade, but still needs someone to nominate it!  Click the link above to find out how to nominate this and an other great kids and YA books in lots of different categories).

A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity, by Nicole Valentine for (this Wednesday's) Timeslip Tuesday

Sometimes time gets slippy, and even with the best intentions in the world, Tuesdays come to an end before one's post is written.  So here's the (very good) time travel book that was supposed to be up yesterday!

A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity, by Nicole Valentine (Carolrhoda, middle grade, Oct 1 2019) is indeed about time travel, but mostly it's about a boy, Finn.   Finn's twin sister drowned when they were three, and the hole in his family is still there, though Finn only remembers fragments of her.  Now Finn's mother has left home, with no message or explanation, leaving him with his absent-minded historian dad, who won't talk about it, and who then heads off on a research trip, leaving Finn with his grandmother.  Happily, his best friend Gabi lives nearby, and she has his back, and his grandma is loving, warm, and caring.  She also knows where his mother is, although she doesn't come out and tell him immediately...and when she does, it's hard to believe.

Finn comes from a family of time-travelling women, and his mother is trying to reshape the past.  But things have gone wrong.  In order to bring her home, and perhaps even bring Faith home to, Finn is going to have to trust his grandmother's cryptic instructions and travel through time himself.  Gabi refuses to let him go alone, and so they head off to find a portal up in the mountains....But there are those who want a different version of the past, who are determined to stop Finn and his mother.  And everything almost goes horrible wrong.....

That was me trying to avoid giving too much away.  There are lots and lots of twists and alternate timelines and lots of questionable actions and motives....but like I said at the beginning, it's mostly about Finn.  About 100 pages into the book (it's 339 pages long), I thought to myself something like "I am really enjoying the measured way in which the world of this book and its characters are being built up, and how it's been done so skillfully that my interest just keeps getting more and more piqued"  And indeed, the "action and adventure" part where the time travel goes wild doesn't really start until more than halfway through.  But that part of the book wouldn't have been nearly as interesting if I didn't already know Finn, and Gabi (she is great!), so well, and the chance to get used to the time travelling rather gradually made it easier to go with the flow when the flow got going.  

The pacing also gave Finn and Gabi a chance to think about and discuss what they were doing, adding thought-provoking-ness to the story that I appreciated.  Sometimes rushing around like kittens sort of books are fun, but I really appreciated reading one that felt more like a grown-up lap cat.

In short a really interesting, thoughtful, very likeable time travel/friendship/family secrets story that I highly recommend!

disclaimer: review copy.

The Disaster Days, by Rebecca Behrens

If Hannah had known what was going to happen, she would have told her dad, off on a business trip, that she loved him.

If she had known, she wouldn't have gotten into a fight with her best friend.

And if she had known, maybe she wouldn't have grumped at her mom's advise.

But she didn't. And now a devastating earthquake has stranded her and the two younger kids she's babysitting on an island.  There are no grown-ups.  No power.  No water.  No phone service.  Will they make it?

The Disaster Days, by Rebecca Behrens, is a gripping story of kids surviving on their own after an earthquake that will set your mind racing!  

It's  only Hannah's second time babysitting the neighbor's kids; she's not all that much older than them (she in 7th, Zoe's in 4th and Oscar is in 3rd  Her mother has fussed at her for not being responsible enough to look after anyone, but Hannah feels fairly confident, even if her mother won't be on the island where they live that evening either.  Both moms will be back in just a few hours.

But then an earthquake strikes the Northwest coast, and the hours turn into days.  Hannah does her best to keep a level head, but she's only a kid herself, and desperately worried.   There's an emergency radio at Zoe and Oscar's house, and the news is terrible.  The immediate situation is too. The house is a wreck, and is being rocked by aftershocks, but outside is cold and wet.  Food and water runs out, and a gas leak forces the kids outside.  Both Zoe and Oscar injure themselves badly, and Hannah blames herself (with some reason).  But though she herself is almost incapacitated by asthma, she carries on, even when things keep getting worse...

It's my favorite sort of survival book, with tons of  room for second guessing the characters!  Hannah did pretty well for a 7th grader, but would I have done better?  (not that I'm competitive with fictional characters or anything, but I've read more survival books....).  It's tense enough that it really seems possible one of the kids is going to die, if not all three of them, or at the very least the guinea pig (this is a middle grade book, so they don't all die), but it gets to this point so realistically and gradually that it doesn't seem contrived at all.

Very much recommended to anyone who loves kids surviving on their own stories!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science-fiction from around the blogs (9/29/19)

Welcome to this week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy blog postings!  Please let me know if I missed anything (anyone is welcome to send me posts during the week for the following Sunday's round-up, including authors and publiscists etc.).

The Reviews

Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack, at Read Love

The Battle, by Karuna Riazi, at Charlotte's Library

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Fantasy Literature and Treestand Book Reviews

The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Horwitz, at Log Cabin Library

Dragonfell, by Sarah Prineas, at Puss Reboots

The Green Children of Woolpit, by J. Anderson Coats, at Charlotte's Library

The Library of Ever, by Zeno Alexander, at Cover2CoverBlog

The Lost Girl, by Anne Ursu, at Imaginary Friends

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Marigold Star, by Elise Primavera, at Nayu's Reading Corner

The Red Rover: Origins, by C.E. Whitaker III, at The Write Path

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez, at Imaginary Friends

Small Spaces, by Katherine Young, at Puss Reboots

The Specter Key, by Kaleb Nation, at Say What?

The Switching Hour, by Damaris Young, at Book Craic

Tin, by Pádraig Kenny, at Book Craic

Trace, by Pat Cummings, at RaiseThemRighteous

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia,at Ms. Yingling Reads

Two Girls, a Clock, and a Crooked House, by Michael Poole, at Cracking the Cover

Authors and Interviews

Carolyn Crimi (Weird Little Robots) at The Children's Book Review

Other Good Stuff

For the B. and N. Kids Blog, I made a list of great middle grade island books, including lots of fantasy!

And don't forget to head over to the Cybils Awards to nominate your favorite middle grade speculative fiction book from the past year (the year being Oct 16, 2018-Oct 15, 2019).  And you can also nominate books in each of the other categories as well....

The Green Children of Woolpit, by J. Anderson Coats

Back in the 12th century, two green children were found in the English village of Woolpit.  The boy died, but the girl lived, and spoke of the twilight underground country they'd come from.  They became a legend.  And now J. Anderson Coats has made them the center of a magical middle grade story, The Green Children of Woolpit (Atheneum, September 2019).

Except that the center of her story is not actually the two green children, but Agnes, the peasant girl who finds them.  Agnes, whose mind wanders, who can see the wind, who isn't rushing toward growing up like her former best friend, Glory.  Agnes was the only one to hear the green children calling for help.  And because she went to their aid, her own life becomes a nightmare.

While the green girl tries to take her place in her family with guile and fairy glamor, Agnes is trapped in the underground halls of the malevolent and sadistic Good People.  To make things right, she must undo the bargain she became ensnared by, but it is a very tricky business to try to outsmart the fairies....

It's top notch historical fantasy, with lots of shuddery horror and magic.  It's not a swords and sorcery sort of fantasy, but a more personal journey, though one full of magical dangers.  Agnes, and the green girl too, both become very real for the reader, and I found their struggle to take back their lives from the Good People totally engrossing.

The Battle (The Gauntlet #2) by Karuna Riazi

The Battle, by Karuna Riazi (middle grade, Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster, August, 2019) has just as much exciting fun as its predecessor, The Gauntlet!

It's four years after Ahmad Mirza, his big sister Farah and two of her friends were sucked into a game that came to life, and Farah led the group to defeat the game's architect (as told in The Gauntlet).  Four years in which Ahmed has gotten into trouble, made no friends, and obsessively drawn the game's city setting, Paheli.  And now Ahmed is sitting in the principle's office, in trouble for sneaking the package his sister mailed to him at school from the school office.  Then Winnie, a "good kid," shows up to explain she was the one who snuck the package out.  And when Ahmed sets off home that day, she follows him.

He doesn't understand why, but can't help but hope that Winnie might be a friend....And so the two of them look at the high-tech video game that was in the package--The Battle-- and they begin to fiddle with the game.  Around them everyone freezes.  The game falls, and begins to ooze blackness, and the blackness swallow them and takes them back to the city of Ahmed's dreams, Paheli.

The Architect of The Gauntlet was a spoiled, entitled monster of a boy, and now he's been joined by a manipulative, entitled girl who styles herself the MasterMind, and she'd coding the Paheli into a techno-jazzed up version of its original self.  It's all a disorienting, crazy mess to Ahmed and Winnie, and the only way out is to beat the game by overcoming the challenges the MasterMind and the Architect have dreamed up for them.

It's a wild and crazy world they are in, full of marvelous, malevolent, magnificent settings, creatures, puzzles, and traps.  Ahmed and Winnie make a good team, and are able to get through their three challenges and expect to be sent home again....and just when the reader is wondering it was all too easy, the kids realize those challenges weren't the actual danger.  The game is more than the two manipulators who are its current tinkerers....there is ancient magic at its heart. (Basically, in good gaming style, there's a Big Boss who appears after the earlier challenges).

Paheli sure is a magnificent setting, and all its wonders and dangers are delightful vivid.  So vivid, and so full of many dangers, in fact, that the characters of Ahmed and Winnie don't really get a chance to develop much.  Their strengths play off each other to some extent, and they make progress towards trusting each other and being friends, but essentially they are pawns in a game, and they never quite made it to fully three-dimensional characters in my mind (especially Winnie).  (I really wanted to learn more about the MasterMind, too....).  And so I was a little disappointed.

Though this is an indirect sequel to The Gauntlet, it's not really necessary to have read that book first.  Ahmed doesn't truly remember having been in Paheli before, though it haunts his dreams, and though characters from The Gauntlet show up, I think they make sense on their own terms in this story.

For readers who delight in sparkly action, this won't be an issue, though, and many young gamers will find the kids' adventures (highjacking flying cars, fighting off zombie monkeys, escaping deadly traps, and more) entertaining reading!

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (922/19)

Welcome to 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

The 12th Candle, by Kim Tomsic, at Always in the Middle

All the Impossible Things, by Lindsay Lackey, at Charlotte's Library

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at The Zen Leaf

The Curse of Greg, by Chris Rylander, at Say What?

The Disaster Days, by Rebecca Behrens, at Bibliobrit

Frostfire, by Jamie Smith, at Fantasy Literature

Guardians of Magic (The Cloud Horse Chronicles #1), by Chris Riddell, at Books for Topics

The Girl Who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson, at A little but a lot

The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade, by Max Brallier, at J.R.'s Book Reviews

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at A Garden of Books (audiobook review)

Nico Bravo and the Hound of Hades by Mike Cavallaro, at Jean Little Library

Outlaws (Royal Academy Rebels) by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian

The Remarkables, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Simple Art of Flying, by Cory Leonardo, at Mad Scribraian

Squirrel in the Museum, by Vivien Vande Velde, at Bergers Book Reviews

Tilly and the Lost Fairy Tale, by Anna James, at Book Craic

Twice Magic, by Cressida Cowell, at proseandkahn

A Zombie Ate My Homework, by Tommy Greenwald, at Say What?

Authors and Interviews

S.A. Larsen (Motley Education), at Middle Grade Minded

This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, for Timeslip Tuesday

This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (July 2019, Gallery / Saga Pres), is an epistolary love story between two agents (Red and Blue) on either side of a time war that stretches millennia in both directions.  Red and Blue are skilled at manipulating the strings of time, braiding them into patterns that will result in the desired outcomes of the two very different futures that spawned them.

But when they begin a correspondence that starts as a taunting challenge, they find that they are braiding themselves together, tugging each other toward a future that seems impossible.

It's not a doorstopper of a book (198 pages), so I thought it would be a fast read, but it's not, because all the words deserve consideration, and it's so rich in literary allusions and historical details and epistolary conceits that it demands to be savored.  It' s a very complicated sort of time travel (constant back and forth manipulation of history can make my head spin), and I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my mental footing secure, but it's a very simple story of two lonely women learning to value, then trust, then love each other passionatly, and their two distinct selves kept me grounded.

In short, it's a very good, very strange, very sweet book.

It's written for grown-ups, but the theme of finding who one is amidst the trappings impossed on us by birth and rearing is one I imagine teens finding very appealing.

All the Impossible Things, by Lindsay Lackey

All the Impossible Things, by Lindsay Lackey (middle grade, Roaring Brook Press, September 2019), is a story about a magical girl finding love, and it's heartwarming and sad and sweet, and a very good read.

Eleven-year-old Red (her real name's Ruby, but she's always been Red to her mom) has been in and out of various foster homes since her grandma's death a few years earlier.  She's driven off to her newest placement with no particular hopes that it will be any better than anywhere else, and since she's counting down the days (about a year's worth) till her mom gets out of prison and they can be together again, she has no interest in actually finding a home.

But the Grooves, an older couple who run a small petting zoo, welcome her with love, and the promise of home.  And when Red finds out her mom, whose drug addition is what landed her in jail and left Red with her Grandma, is out early, she's torn by her burning wish to be a happy family with her mom, and the happy family with the Grooves she could be part of....both of which might end up being impossible things.

When Red is angry or agitate, wind kicks up, and when Red must face her moment of reckoning, it gets out of hand....

It was a lovely story, with bonus giant tortoise and a pack of rescue dogs (kittens don't arrive till the end, which is too bad but better than never), and full of small details that made it all very real, like the new foster mother having put a small stack of books she herself loved in Red's bedroom (at which point, all of us book lovers know that this will be a good home for Red).  The central tension of the story is whether Red's mother will ever be able/be willing to make a home for read, and the heartbreak of this situation is vividly real, without making Red's mother into a villain or the Grooves into magical saviors.

Though there is this magic of Red's wind, which she inherited from her mom, and though it serves beautifully to amplify Red's feelings for the reader and to create moments of danger, it isn't actually essential to the story.  This would be a warm, heartful story to treasure even without this magic, but it adds a nice something extra....for those that don't mind the unexplained fantastical.

Kids who enjoy home finding stories will love it.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (9/15/19)

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

The Reviews

The Age of Akra, by Vacen Taylor, at Jazzy Book Reviews

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows, by Ryan Calejo, at Nerdophiles and Nicole's Novel Reads

The Fire Keeper, by J. C. Cervantes, at B. and N. Kids Blog

The Frozen Sea, by Piers Torday, at Book Craic

The Girl Who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson, at Book Craic

The Green Children of Woolpit, by J. Anderson Coats, at Hidden in Pages

Guest: A Changling Tale, by Mary Downing Hahn, at BooksForKidsBlog

The Jumbie God's Revenge, by Tracey Baptiste, at Kid Lit Reviews

Lalani of the Distant Sea, by Erin Entrada Kelly, at Some the Wiser

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan, at Cover2Cover Blog

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Always in the Middle, BooksYALove, Twirling Book Princess, and Charlotte's Library

The Moon Over Crete, by Jyotsna Sreenivasan, at Charlotte's Library

Over the Moon, by Natalie Lloyd, at Pages Unbound

Polly and Buster: the Wayward Witch & the Feelings Monster, by Sally Rippin, at Log Cabin Library

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying, by Kelley Armstrong, at Puss Reboots

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez, at Locus (audiobook review)

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker, at Charlotte's Library

Snow and Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin, at Fantasy Literature

The Star Shepherd, by Dan Haring and Marcykate Connolly, at Pop Goes the Reader

The Three Hares: the Jade Dragonball, by Scott Lauder and David Ross, at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

The Time Travelers (Gideon #1), by Linda Buckley-Archer, at Say What?

Tunnel of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, at Rajiv's Reviews

Lots of new fantasy in this B and N Kids Blog post and this post at Imagination Soup


Authors and Interviews

John Claude Bemis (The Wooden Prince, etc.) at Middle Grade Ninja

Thomas Taylor (Malamander) at Middle Grade Book Village, and he also has recommendations of books on, under, or by the sea at the B. and N. Kids Blog

Trenton Lee Stewart (The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of the Ages) at B. and N. Kids Blog

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker

When my children were young, we would sometimes make a den of the bed, and they would be young foxes.  They wanted me to be the mother fox (which of course makes sense), but I very much wanted to be a baby fox too, because the dramatic tension and heart-wrenching anxiety of the baby foxes waiting for their mama to come back to them is so much more interesting than the "mother fox keeps her babies safe and nothing can hurt them" story.  Especially when you are stuck being the mother fox.

So the point of that little anecdote is that I was utterly primed to read Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker (Henry Holt, July 2019), in which mama foxes fail to protect their babies and no den is safe and warm.  It's a series of terrifying episodes in the lives of two young foxes, framed as stories being told to a litter of young fox kids who came to the storytellers cave looking for thrills...and found them!

Mia was a happy little fox kit with a mother fox who loved her and a wise vixen who was teaching her and her litter mates how to Fox.  But when Miss Vix and the other kits become infected with a terrifying sickness. Mia's mom whisks her far away from her home and her siblings, much to her confusion and dismay.

Uly, the second young fox, also had a mother who loved him, but his wasn't a happy childhood.  He has only three good legs, and his sisters bully him, and his father wants him dead.

Uly and Mia both find themselves alone, with no mothers to look after them, and lots of horrifying experiences in front of them.  There are dangers, both the quotidian dangers of life in the wild, and the particular dangers posed by adversaries.  Never, for instance, has Beatrix Potter seemed so utterly monstrous, and Uly's father is utterly terrifing, sort of a cross between the father in The Shinning and the worst abusive father/husband/cult leader you can imagine.

The descriptions, both of the horrible things and the natural world, are incredibly vivid, and beautifully fox-point-of-view.   Seeing Mia and Uly forging a relationship of mutual trust and respect is lovely too.  Uly has been bullied by his sisters all his life, and his mother was somewhat overprotective, and I liked seeing Mia just  matter-of-factly expecting him to do things, like swim and hunt, that he had no idea he was capable of, and him gradually developing more confidence.  I was a little fussed by a book having Beatrix Potter, badgers, alligators, and what seemed to be rabies all in the same place, but I got over it.

The book is comprised of episodes in the horrible adventures of Mia and Uly, separated by the framing device of quick peeks at the young kits listening to the stories, but they flow smoothly from one to the next, so the ultimate effect is of  a single story (with a mercifully happy ending).  And though the things that happen to the young foxes are very scary indeed, they keep surviving them, building up confidence on the reader's part that they will make it through. And so once you make it to then end, there's no feeling of terror anymore, just some residual sadness, and a sense of resliance and life going on (as is found in many nature documentaries...).

So though it's scary, it's middle grade scary, an especially good read for kids in safe dens of their own.

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor (Walker Books/Candlewick), just came ashore Tuesday in the US, after winning many fans on the other side of the pond in the UK.

Herbie Lemon, is, to the best of his knowledge, an orphan, taken in by Mrs, Kraken, the proprietor of the Grand Nautilus hotel in the town of Eerie-on-Sea, and installed as the keeper of its Lost and Found office.  In summer, the town is Cheerie-on-Sea, full of happy seaside visitors, but in winter the visitors leave, and the c and h loose their luster as the snow falls...and the residents murmur of the Malamander, the legendary monster who haunts the cold grey ocean...

It's one such winter when a girl named Violet shows up lost at the hotel, and Herbie takes her in.  Violet too is an orphan (also to the best of her belief); her parents vanished on the town's beach long ago and were never seen again.  She's come back to Eerie-on-Sea to try to solve this mystery, and finds her parents story is entangled with the legends of the Malamander.

And before Herbie is really sure what's happening, he and Violet are caught up in a struggle to find and claim the Malamender's (possibly) magical egg, before the Malamender is hunted down and its egg captured by a sinister enemy.

If you enjoy middle-grade seaside gothic, with a town that's slightly askew and a whole bunch of eccentric inhabitants, orphan children being plucky and loyal comrades, following clues, and facing down sinister adults, and sea monster stories, you'll love this one!  If you enjoy cheering for hunted monsters, you'll love it even more!  It's fast paced and fun, a little silly at times, more than a little scary and suspenseful at others, and would almost certainly make an excellent read-aloud!

(personal note--for the past several weeks, my brain, delighted to have discovered that "malamander" and "salamander" rhyme, has been repeating ad nauseum a little Malamander song it came up with and I hope that now I've written this I can find peace again....my family hopes so too.)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

NB:  Malamander is one of many fine books that will be eligible for the Cybils Awards in the Elementary/Middle Grade category!  If you think that spending lots of time reading and discussing such books with really smart, nice people sounds fun, apply to be a Cybils panelist; the deadline is this Friday, the 13th....I'd love to welcome more new folks to the EMG SF fun, so please don't be shy!

The Moon Over Crete, by Jyotsna Sreenivasan, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Moon Over Crete, by Jyotsna Sreenivasan (1996, Smooth Stone Press), is a slightly older children's time travel story, interesting for several reasons.

It's the story of a modern girl, 11-year-old Lily, whose mom is Indian American, and whose dad is European American.  Lily is finding it difficult being a girl--her best friend is interested in dressing to impress boys, a boy in her class is sexually harassing her and no one is doing anything about it, her mother isn't letting her do things (like go exploring off in the woods) that she'd be allowed to do if she were a boy.  Lily's flute teacher, Mrs. Zinn, is the only one who seems to understand Lily's growing resentment.

And happily for Lily, Mrs. Zinn is a time-traveler, fond of visiting ancient Crete, where (in this fictional world) there is almost utopian gender equality.  Mrs. Zinn offers Lily the chance to go to ancient Crete with her for a few weeks,  and Lily accepts.  Having an experienced adult guide on hand, who has a host family ready and willing, who speaks the language, and who can reliably get you home again, is really unusual in middle grade time traveling, and it sure does make Lily's trip to the past a lot easier than most!

Lily, who is introduced as Lebanese to explain her dark hair and complexation (which I found a bit odd, because the Creteans weren't exactly blond and blue eyed themselves)  finds herself quite taken with ancient Crete.  She notes that even women who are unattractive to her modern eyes have men who find them desirable.  It's hard to tell the prepubescent boys from the girls, as clothing and hairstyles aren't particularly gendered.  Women and men do the same work.  The community shares resources equitably.  Women have power, both in the mundane and in the religious sphere. Basically, it's utopian as all get out.

She can't help but be bothered, though, by her knowledge that ancient Crete is about to fall victim to both a devastating earthquake and to an invasion and hostile takeover by a society that isn't as enlightened.  Can she tell the Queen what's going to happen, and save this society that values women and men equally?

No she can't; they already know through prophetic dreams what's going to happen.  The best Lily can do is take back to her own time the knowledge that it doesn't have to be the case that men call all the  shots.  And the point of the book is to teach this to the reader.

It's not subtle.  And though of course it's not a bad concept, and lord knows smashing the patriarchy is an appealing idea, it gives the book such a tight focus on this one thing that other things that make a story good (like strong character development, interesting plot elements involving risk and uncertainty, and, for time travel in particular, cultural dislocation more generally) are lacking.  The inclusion of Mrs. Zinn as mentor and travel guide made it all too easy for Lily, who also was able to pick up enough Cretian to talk comfortably with the locals in about two weeks.  Ancient Crete was such a magical fairytale place that it had no depth to it.  It was too much, sort of a candy-land utopia, and so not very interesting.

It wasn't a bad read, and certainly well-intentioned, and I agree with the message, but I wanted more from it than it delivered.  Give it to girls fascinated by goddess societies and magic, who may well love it....

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (9/8/19)

Here's what I found this week in my on-line reading of interest to us mg fantasy and sci fi fans! Please let me know of anything I missed.

First--
You have until Friday the 13 to apply to be a Cybils judge!  Please do; we'd love to welcome new folks to the wild reading and discussing fun that is the Cybils, and I, in particular, would love love love to welcome new folks to the category I'm responsible, Elementary Middle Grade Speculative Fiction.


The Reviews
Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, by John August, at Imaginary Friends

Briar and Rose and Jack, by Katherine Coville, at Cracking the Cover

Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows, by Ryan Calejo, at Eli to the nth

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Rajiv's Reviews

Dragon Slippers, by Jessica Day George, at Middle Grade Book Village

The Girl who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Hunters for Hire (Monster Club #1), by Gavin Brown, at Say What?

Jagger Jones and the Mummy's Ankh, by Malayna Evans, at Reading, Writing, and Stitch-Metic

The Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste, at Rajiv's Reviews

Lalani of the Distant Sea, by Erin Entrada Kelly, at Some the Wiser

Legacy and the Queen, by Annie Matthew, at Always in the Middle

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan, at Charlotte's Library

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Log Cabin Library

Princess BMX, by Marie Basting, at Storgy Kids

The Runaway Princess, by Kate Coombs, at Not Acting My Age

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Rajiv's Reviews and Fantasy Literature

The Train to Impossible Place, by P.G. Bell, at Puss Reboots

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Battle, by Karuna Riazi, and The Jumbie God's Revenge, by Tracey Baptiste

Authors and Interviews

Lindsay Lackey (All the Impossible Things) at Nerdy Book Club and Fuse #8

Other Good Stuff

Check out the trailer for The Last Kids on Earth via Waking Brain Cells

An Ursula Le Guin approved tv version of Earthsea is coming! (more at Tor)

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan (Candlewick, Sept 3 2019), is the sequel to Begone the Raggedy Witches, which if you enjoy middle grade fantasy and haven't read yet, I strongly recommend you do!  Preferably before you read The Little Grey Girl, which picks up right after Raggedy Witches.

Mup's mother defeated her own mother, leader of the Raggedy Witches who exercised brutal dominion over a magical land.  Now Mup's family is moving to that land.  Her mother doesn't want to pick up where the old queen left off, though her magical power is just as great.  She'd much prefer to be part of a consensus building sort of leadership.  But there are those who feel strong authority is the only way to guard against the return of the old queen and the power of the Ragged Witches who are still around...

The castle that is now Mup's home is rather cold and dreary, and sits atop the dungeons where the old queen had tortured many prisoners, including Mup's father.  Though Mup's best friend, a shapeshifting boy named Crow, is there to keep her company, their friendship is strained by Mup's own magic, which is that of a Raggedy Witch, and by his torn feelings between wanting to stay and be settled and move past the grief of his own great losses (which Mup is encouraging) and being free and wild.  And then the snow begins to fall (is it a curse sent by the old queen?) and Mup sees a little grey girl, a ghost child, whose darkly magical drawings begin to fill the castle with overwhelming grief.

The ghost child seems to hate Mup, but Mup and Crow persist in trying to understand what she wants, and how to stop her drawings from trapping them all in despair.  Once they realize what she is doing, Mup knows how to help, without inflicting more violence on anyone.

Begone the Raggedy Witches was an exciting adventure fantasy in which wickedness I conquered.  This sequel is about the huge grief and anger that stays after the wickedness has been driven away, and how the act of remembering can't make things all better, but can be a way forward.  It's a moving and thought provoking story, and there's enough fantasy flavor to it all, with ghosts and magic and shapeshifting, to keep it from being all grim.  A great one for thoughtful young readers, and sadly all too relevant.

The Little Grey Girl is eligible for the Cybils Awards this year in Middle Grade Speculative Fiction; if you love reading this sub-genre, and want to spend a few months immersed in reading and talking about it, apply to be a Cybils judge today!  I'm the chair of that category, and I'd really love to have a few new folks!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.