The last middle grade fantasy and science fiction round-up of 2019!

Not surprisingly, I didn't find many reviews from this past week (there was nothing from me, for instance, because I was too busy playing reindeer games and eating cookies....).  But since I'm back home, and ready to commit to blogging more regularly, I didn't want this Sunday to pass without a round-up...As ever, let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The 12th Candle, by Kim Tomsic, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Casket of Time, by Andri Snaer Magnason, at Bookworm for Kids

The Forbidden Expediction (Polar Bear Explorers Club #2), by Alex Bell, at Pages Unbound

The Girl Who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson, at The Anxious Bookworm

If We Were Giants, by Dave Matthews, at Say What?

Minecraft: the End, by Catherynne M. Valente, at SFF Book Reviews

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker, at Jean Little Library

The Storm Keeper's Island, by Catherine Doyle, at A Kids Book a Day

Tunnel of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, at Bookishly Brittknee (audiobook review)

Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, at Completely Full Bookshelf

Two at The Book Search--Homerooms and Hall Passes, by Tom O'Donnell, and A Sprinkle of Spirits, by Anna Meriano

Three at Rose Quartz Reads--Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, Tunnel of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, and The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating today!  I hope you have lots of books waiting for you under the tree (many of our presents are enticingly book shaped) and lots of cookies (or whatever you like to eat) to go with them (but carefully; I was already careless with a book I'm giving and wanted to read first, and left it next to a cup of tea, which a kitten investigated, and now that book has a sort of blurry kitten tea paw print on it...fortunatly not a valuable first edition!)

Weird Little Robots, by Carolyn Crimi

I often find it annoying when people say they'd have loved a book when they were a kid themselves, mostly because they don't explain why and are just saying it as shorthand for "this book didn't work for me as an adult" which is fine, but why not just say that?   That being said, Weird Little Robots, by Carolyn Crimi (Candlewick, October 2019), is one I'd have really related to as a kid!

Penny Rose is new in town, and has no friends yet.  In the shed behind her house, she starts making little robots out of bits and pieces of salvaged stuff (trash to those with no vision), and to her delight, they come alive!  They can move and communicate of their own volition!

Then, after initial uncertainty, Penny Rose becomes friends with Lark, a neighbor girl.  Lark is an unusual girl, not just because she's an avid birdwatcher and birds bring her little gifts, and she too had no friends.  Penny Rose introduces Lark to the robots, and together the girls work to turn the shed into a magical world for them to play in.  And girls and robots are happy.

But then, Penny Rose is invited to join a secret science club.  The members are two cool popular girls, who seem really nice, and one boy, who doesn't.   Joining means leaving Lark behind....and putting her robots in danger (it's not a nice boy).  Fortunately Lark is able to forgive Penny Rose's unkind withdrawal from their friendship, and helps her save the robots.  And Penny Rose becomes a better friend, telling the science club girls that she won't join unless Lark is invited too.

So the appeal to young me comes from having a neighbor friend to build wildly and creatively with, which I did, though we had no magic robots.  That part of the story, before the invitation to the science club brought tension, was my favorite bit.  There's lots of detail about small found things (including bird gifts) being used to make other things, and it was delightful.

The strained friendship wasn't delightful, of course, and this thread of the story was less interesting and relatable to grown-up me (there are no cool girls I wish were my friends in my daily life, nor is there any friendship drama going on that I'm aware of).  A lot of the intended audience, though, are suffering through such things, and doubtless will relate, and perhaps even be heartened by Penny Rose's new-found maturity and loyalty.

The magic of the robots is never explained, it just is.  And this is something that, regardless of your age, will bother you, or not, depending on your personality.  It kind of bothered me a bit, but it would have changed the story too much to try to Explain things that couldn't be explained anyway, so I shrugged it off.

In any event--I'm an archaeologist, which means I'm trained to walk with my eyes on the ground and pick things up, and I have a box of found things in my barn that I was hoping my boys would turn into art, but that never happened.  So if you are a new kid to my neighborhood, you are welcome to come over and create with me!  Especially if you know how to solder.  Even more so if birds bring you cool small things on a regular basis.

An Encyclopedia of Tolkien, by David Day

An Encyclopedia of Tolkien: the History and Mythology that Inspired Tolkien's World, by David Day (Canterbury Classics, October 2019), is the latest in the author's guides to Middle Earth.  If you have a young bibliophile, who has just read Lord of the Rings and fallen hard for it, this is a perfect gift.  It is a tremendously attractive book, bound in soft leather with a green silk bookmark, the sort of book 12 year old me would have died to own, and one that would have inspired me to head down wonderful rabbit holes exploring myth and history.

Day produced an earlier encyclopedia, Tolkien: the  Illustrated Encyclopedia, back in 1991.  However, the focus of this particular effort sets it apart.  It is not meant as a guide just to the people, places, and events of Tolkien's world, but as a guide to the bits of history and legend that (maybe) Tolkien had in mind (unconsciously or not) when he created them.  (Day tends to ignore the "maybe" part of this, laying things out for readers to accept at face value). In his introduction, Day discusses Tolkien's metaphor for how stories are born from a "Pot of Soup" to which new bits are always being added.  Essentially, this book is a collection of bits from a soup of European history and mythology that Day has fished out and linked to Tolkien's mythos.

Sometimes Day is successful in this, making credible links between Tolkien's fiction and historical and legendary events.  An example is the comparison between Tolkien's Battle of the Field of Celebrant and a quote describing the real world fifth century battle of the Catalaunian Plains, one which had never occurred to me. I also enjoyed Day's etymological exploration of the name "Bilbo Baggins," and I could give many more examples of Day's interesting links between real world and Tolkien world story.  Unfortunately, in other instances Day seems to be trying too hard to make connections where none necessarily exist, or pushes his connections too far--for instance, his effort to link Beowulf and Beorn fell flat for me, and some entries, like those for "brownies" and "Puck," are so tenuously tied to hobbits that they seem almost like padding.  So it's a mixed bag, but one that was often fascinating reading.

Of course it's impossible for one book to contain everything.  But there's a lot more to Anglo-Saxon literature than Beowulf, and I wish Day had included more of it.  And I wish Day had pushed harder at the negative portrayal of the Easterlings, and the historical context beyond the "Barbarian Hordes from Asia" that went into forming Tolkien's derogatory attitude toward non-Westerners.

Still, the fun of seeing connections (and questioning them, and even fact-checking them) makes this a book many fans of Tolkien will enjoy.  The inclusion of brief retellings of three primary legends that served as sources for Tolkien’s creations—the Volsunga saga, the Nibelungenlied, and Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle add educational value.  There are also about 200 black and white pictures, of varying quality, mostly by men, that serve primarily to show how vividly real Tolkien's world can become to its readers.

In conclusion--a great gift for a young fan in particular, but not necessarily great for readers who are already familiar with a lot of Tolkien's source material, or those who are themselves trained in academia, which calls for stronger arguments than some that Day makes.  That being said, the point of the book, that these sorts of connections exist and can be explored, may well open wide joyful windows for many readers.  I myself wrote my college application essay* on how the Lord of the Rings inspired in me an interest in archaeology and Early Medieval history, and this book would have been fuel to that fire.

*I got in.  I don't have a copy, which is good, because probably it would make me squirm to read it.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publicist

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (12/15/19)

Welcome to another gathering of the middle grade fantasy and sci fi postings I found online!  Please let me know if I missed yours!

The Reviews

All the Colors of Magic, by Valija Zinck, at Charlotte's Library

Cog, by Greg van Eekhout, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Fowl Twins, by Eoin Colfer, at Redeemed Reader

The Hotel Between, by Sean Easley, at Say What?

Lalani of the Distant Sea, by Erin Entrada Kelly, at A Kids Book a Day

Lintang and the Pirate Queen, by Tamara Moss, at Hidden in Pages

The Maelstrom (The Tapestry #4), by Henry H. Neff, at Say What?

Master of the Phantom Isle (Dragonwatch #3), by Brandon Mull, at The Obsessive Bookseller

The Miraculous, by Jess Redman, at Always in the Middle

The Missing Barbegazi, by H.S. Norup, at BiteIntoBooks

Nevermore: the Trials of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, at Meg Bradley

Over the Moon, by Natalie Lloyd, at Imaginary Friends

The Princess Who Flew with Dragons, by Stephanie Burgis, at Charlotte's Library

Secrets of the Black Forest (Prince Dustin and Clara #2), by Daniel Lee Nicholson, at Bookworm for Kids

Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

Two at The Book Search--Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, and Sal and Gabi Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez

Another two at The Book Search--The Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity, by Nicole Valentine, and The Last Human, by Lee Bacon


Authors and Interviews

Kim Long (Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament) at Literary Rambles

Amy Ephron (The Other Side of the Wall) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books


Other Good Stuff

"What's the deal with all of these middle grade adaptations?" at Book Riot

The Princess Who Flew with Dragons, by Stephanie Burgis

I still am busily reading elementary/middle grade speculative fiction a in my roles as a judge for the Cybils Awards (mainly going back to re-read things I read early last year), but I am in good enough shape that I treated myself one dreary day last week to a shiny and new and much anticipated book--The Princess Who Flew with Dragons, by Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury, November 2019).

This is the third in the series that began with The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart (link to my review), and it's possibly the one I enjoyed most.  I certainly think it was the fastest read; it was a (more or less) single-sitting of about an hour read for me (when I like a book and need to know what's going to happen next, I read faster, and it was relatively short-- 216 pages).

Princess Sophia, who we met in Book 2, The Girl with a Dragon Heart, is the main character here, and when her story begins, she's being sent by her older sister, the ruling princess, to a distant city to attend a World's Fair type of extravaganza.   It's a three day journey in a basket carried by a flying dragon, and due to the sad consequence of basket swaying, not a pleasant one for Sophia, or her attendants.  Her arrival is also marred by unpleasant-ness, and as a result Sophia is not giving lodging at the palace, but sent off to a private house of her own.

Though this is a snub, she realizes that it's also a once in a life-time opportunity to be a person, and not a princess.  And so she goes to the university as an ordinary, to attend classes in philosophy (her passion), and makes friends with other students (an interesting group of girls--three goblins and a kobald).  This is the part of the book I liked the best (fantasy school stories! new friends and new experiences that might seem mundane but yet are interesting because they are so new to the pov character!).  I could have happily read another hundred pages or so more of this part of the book, but it was not to be, because Excitement!

And those readers who aren't me who were maybe wondering when something was actually going to happen were probably glad it did, in the form of angry ice giants, mass royal abduction, desperate dragonback journey by Sophia, and her use of philosophy to bring about a happy outcome.  There's more to this Happening section of the book, but it's the sort of thing that's more fun to read than to read about.

As well as enjoying the story (both pre-excitement and the excitement parts), I really enjoyed spending time with Sophia, who is a pretty self-reflective person; her growth, through both external experiences and through introspection, engaged me lots, and I think kids in the mg age range (9-12) will find her self-doubt and self-criticism, and the way she starts to see a path away from those feelings,  relatable.  I liked Sophia's university friends too.  There are no particularly dangling plot threads that need resolving, but a fourth book would be appreciated, especially if it picks up on the implications that Sophia's home town might get a university of its own....with dragon, goblin, kobald, and human students....

All the Colors of Magic, by Valija Zinck

If you are looking for a fun, comfy middle grade fantasy full of color and quirky details, try All the Colors of Magic, by Valija Zinck (Chicken House, December 3, 2019).  I enjoyed it lots.

10-year-old Penelope lives a mostly ordinary life with her mom and grandma.  The ordinary part is being looked after, going to school, and sometimes thinking about her dad, who vanished long ago.  There are less ordinary parts to her life though.  Her hair is gray, she has a whiff of fire smell around her, and it always rains on her birthday.  And she has a knack for hearing things in her head before her ears hear them.

When her mother has a bad traffic accident, leaving Penelope and her grandma on her own for several weeks while she's in the hospital, Penelope finds to her surprise that her hair isn't naturally gray--it's fiery red.  And she discovers her father is still alive, and still in (sporadic) touch with her mother.  With her hair red instead of gray from the paste her mom's been putting on it, her life gets more magical--for instance, she can hear, and converse, with the local road (which adds nice bits of humor to the story).   And now she knows her dad's alive, she wants to find him.

And so she sets out to do just that, on a path that leads both to discovery of her gifts, and to danger--power-hungry men would do almost anything for the opportunities her magic could give them....

There's enough plot and suspense to the story to keep one's attention, without one (me, that is), being made too anxious, and there's humor to further lighten things.  Penelope is a believable, appealing girl, and it's fun to see her magic blooming.  The risk she takes and the dangers she faces are substantive, but not exaggerated past the point where I rolled my eyes (not even close to that point, actually, and I wouldn't have minded a smidge more tension).   And the writing is full of color (literally), with vivid descriptions of the vivid world Penelope lives in (it's our world, but Penelope's family appreciates color....)

All the Colors of Magic was first published in Germany in 2017, making it even more interesting...it's always fun to read middle grade fantasy from other countries!  But it should feel right at home here in the US.  Offer it to young readers who love books of ordinary kids finding extraordinary, slightly whimsical, magic, like Natalie Lloyds A Snicker of Magic.

And now, for my own entertainment, I go to Kirkus to see if they agree with me (if they don't they're wrong, and if they do we are both righter....)  and they do! We both win! "The charming, comforting, and enjoyable tale of a magical girl discovering her (family and hair) roots."   

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (12/8/19)

Back with middle grad sci/fi fantasy round-uping; please let me know if I missed your post from this past week!  Thanks.

The Reviews

The Box of Delights, by John Masefield, at Semicolon

Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows, by Ryan Calejo, at Savings in Seconds (with giveaway), and books 1 and 2 of the series at Middle Grade Minded (with giveaway of both books)

The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Horwitz, at Imaginary Friends

Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Diamond of Aether, by Scott L. Collins, at BigAl's Books and Pals

The Fear Zone, by K.R. Alexander, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Fiend and the Forge (The Tapestry #3), by Henry H. Neff, at Say What?

Geeks and the Holy Grail (The Camelot Code #2), by Mari Mancusi, at Say What?

Hilda and the Hidden People, by Luke Pearson, at Twirling Book Princess

Legacy, by Shannon Messenger, at Pages Unbound

Legends of the Sky: Dragon Daughter, by Liz Flannagan, at Say What?

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Randomly Reading

The Miraculous, by Jess Redman, at Rosi Hollinbeck

The Mystwick School of Musicraft, by Jessica Khoury, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

The Polar Bear Explorers' Club, by Alex Bell, at Pages Unbound

Twinchantment, by Elise Allen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

A Wolf Called Wander, by Roseanne Perry, at Charlotte's Library

Authors and Interviews

Amy Ephron (The Other Side of the Wall) at Jungle Red Writers

Other Good Stuff

"Matrons, Monsters, Children: Femininity in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" at Tor

Here's Kirkus' list of best mg sci fi/fantasy of 2019

A Wolf Called Wander, by Roseanne Perry

I am still busily reading elementary/middle grade science fiction and fantasy for the Cybils Awards (the shortlists will be announced January 1, 2020, so the clock is ticking...), and although I do my darndest every year to read all the books in a timely fashion, there are still some that I didn't get to when they first came out.

A recent read I enjoyed lots is A Wolf Called Wander, by Roseanne Perry (Greenwillow, May 2019).  It's a story told from the point of view of a young wolf, Swift, whose happy pub-hood in the mountains tumbling around with his litter-mates comes to a horrible end when his pack is attacked by other wolves.  Injured and separated from his family, he sets out on his own to find a new place to call home.

It is a long and hungry journey.  A raven, working with him to find water and prey (this is something ravens really do, apparently), gives him some company, but Swift's longing for a pack is a constant ache.  Happily, after many hardships, he finds a female wolf, also on her own, and they begin a new life together.

Swift's story is based on the true story of a wolf who was tracked making the same epic journey (shown in a helpful map at the end of the book).  And Swift, though his thoughts are presented to the reader in human words, is very much a realistic wolf.  Not quite, though--there's just enough of "would a wolf really be thinking that" to push it just over the boarder from realistic to speculative fiction (side note--as a general rule of thumb, thinking animal books get put in Speculative Fiction in the Cybils Awards*).   The sense of Swift's character, and his keenly felt experiences, make it easy for the reader to journey right there with him, and as the pages turned my own fingers crossed tighter and tighter for a happy ending....

There's quite a bit of gore and violence that might be off-putting for the squeamish.  And there's one very sad wolf pup death.  But it's the sort of violence that does happen in the wild...

It will appeal to lovers of survival stories about kids on their own facing desperate circumstance (Hatchet, for instance), and any young (or even old) reader who loves stories of wild animals having realistic adventures will love it, and will appreciate the back matter about wolves as well.  If you have a young wolf lover in particular, pairing this book with the symbolic adoption of a real wolf, through the World Wildlife Fund, would be an excellent gift!

*more about thinking animals--almost all animal centered stories that come to my mind I'd put in fantasy, because they are from the pov of the animal, which requires the animal to be thinking coherently enough to propel a plot.  One exception is the original Lassie book (which I really recommend; there's no Timmy falling down a well); we are only in Lassie's head sporadically, and always from a slight remove, and her thoughts are instinct rather than human sort of reflection...What do you think?  Would you put, for instance, The One and Only Ivan in realistic fiction or speculative fiction?

The Trouble with Time Travel, by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Cornelia Li, for Timeslip Tuesday

Gee.  The past few weeks have been the longest I've ever gone without reviewing anything since my blog started over a decade ago.  But I got the pre-Thanksgiving home renovations that needed finishing finished (mostly), got the house clean (mostly) and had a lovely time with my dear extended family!  And now I'm back, easing myself in gently with a picture book review...

The Trouble with Time Travel, by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Cornelia Li (Owlkids, October 15, 2019), is a charming (though stressful) story of Max and her dog Boomer, and a too-enthusiastically thrown Frisbee that shatters a family heirloom, the one thing saved from the mysterious sinking of her many-times great-grandmother's houseboat.  Max decides that the only thing to do about the shattered vase is to build a time machine, and go back in time to smash the vase before it ended up in her living room.

Happily, building a time machine is but the work of minutes (a nice bit of girl engineering power), and off go Max and Boomer!  Controlling the machine, though, is tricky, and they bounce along the millennia from ancient Egypt to a robotic future, before reaching the houseboat....and causing it to sink (and the vase is, as it always has been, is saved...).

Faced with this disaster, Max decides confessing right at the beginning would have been a better course of action, and so she finds herself just before the fatal Frisbee is thrown, and delivers the important message.

Obviously, young readers will assume that "don't throw the Frisbee!" would be a great message.  But instead, Max gives herself a different warning--"do not build a time machine!"  And the book ends with the Frisbee about to begin its fatal flight....

It's a funny story, with attractively detailed illustrations adding lots to the text.  The plot, and the twist of the end, gives lots of room for discussion and contemplation, making this a very nice "my first contemplating the consequences and paradoxes of time travel" sort of book!  I myself would have liked more time bouncing around the past and future-there are only three spreads of time travel, and I think a bit more would have made it clear how difficult time travel can be, and heightened the tension.  And the picture of the houseboat being crashed into isn't as clear about what's happening as it could have been; the adult reading the book aloud might well  have to explain.  But still, lots of fun!

and again, no round-up this week

Last week I had no round-up because of home renovation pressure, and in what is a surprise to no one, this weekend I am still renovating, and the pressure is greater because the first family arrives tomorrow (just my oldest son, home from college, so not huge pressure on his account), but then my mother come on Tuesday, and I care more about making the house feel welcoming, and showing what a competent person I am, living my beautiful, happy life...it makes her feel better (at least, I imagine it would make her feel better if she ever thought this....).  No one arriving at the house today would think it a welcoming home, and indeed they would join me in questioning my choices.

But next Sunday it will be too late to do anything about anything, so come back then for your weekly fix of mg sci fi/fantasy goodness!

And in the meantime, registration for Kidlitcon 2020 is now open!  The program is still in progress, but is already looking great!  If' you're interested in being a panelist, do reach out to the organizers!

 

No middle grade round-up this week

I'm in the those of home renovation, which has to be finished before my mother comes for Thanksgiving, so don't have time for a round-up today.  I hope it will be done by next Sunday so the round-up can happen then!

I'm also going to an event today--a middle grade STEAM sci-fi panel, at An Unlikely Story just up the road from me (if you aren't from RI, otherwise practically a day trip) in Plainville MA.  It looks like lots of fun!

The Last Human, by Lee Bacon

The Last Human, by Lee Bacon (middle grade, Abrams, Oct 8, 2019), is set in a future in which robots exterminated humanity to save the earth from environmental destruction.  Now the robots live peaceful lives, carrying out their duties, and every day the President reminds them via its universally shared messages just how horrible humans were, and how good robots always do what they are supposed to do (which includes never keeping secrets).

12-year-old XR_935 is a good robot, working with his team-mates to install and maintain solar panels every day, then going home to their family units to recharge.  Each has a role--Ceeron is the brawn of the group, lifting and carrying, zippy little SkD is the electrical engineer, and XR-935 is the analytical one, making sure all the numbers work.  Then one day their peaceful lives are disrupted when an Unknown Lifeform comes into the solar field where they are working.

It is an unthinkable lifeform, a human girl called Emma.  Emma survived with a handful of other humans in an underground bunker, but was the only one to make it through a devastating sickness.  Now she is trying to do what her parents wanted, following a map to the place they wanted her to go.

The robots face a dilemma.  Emma doesn't seem like a monstrous world destroyer; she seems like someone who needs their help.  XR_935 crunches the numbers, and realizes that the probability of Emma making her way through a world full of enemy robots is almost nil.  A little bit of help for Emma at the beginning snowballs into the robotic threesome going AWOL, setting out with Emma and getting themselves into greater and greater trouble.   

The journey with the human girl forces XR_935 to question not just whether humanity was a horrible as it's been led to believe, but whether the President is in fact not being a good robot itself.  And indeed, the President has been keeping information from the robot community; information that can, and does, change everything (the ending offers the promise of human/robot co-existence).

It's a story told in short chunks, making it very friendly for readers daunted by large swaths of text.  XR_935, and his comrades, are also very engaging traveling companions, and it's delightful to see XR_935, the point of view robot, stretching its consciousness past acceptance of the status quo.  Ceeron and SKD are delightful in their own ways as well, bringing considerable humor to the tense adventures.

I thought at first this would be a dystopia from the human point of view--attempted extinction and a world ruled by hostile robots is fairly awful.  But it turns out that the robot society itself has dystopian elements, with knowledge controlled by a de facto dictator, and free will (these robots are so advanced that free will is possible for them) suppressed.   I also thought Emma's journey would be the center of things, but instead it's just as much as story of XR_935 growing from trusting kid robot to questioning thinker, taking responsibility for its own actions.   And so I found it much more interesting than I expected!

I enjoyed it lots, and I think it has tons of kid appeal. Definitely one to give to fans of The Wild Robot, or kids who love reading about plucky kids copying with unimaginable circumstances.

Bone Talk, by Candy Gourlay

Bone Talk, by Candy Courlay (middle grade, David Fickling Books, November 5 2019 in the US), is set in the mountains of the Philippines in 1899.  Samkad is ten, on the verge of become officially recognized as a man, and taking his place as a warrior of the Bontoc people, fighting their enemy, another mountain people,  on and off as they have for generations.  His best friend Luki also wants to be a warrior, but she's a girl, and that's not the role awaiting her.   The ancestors are close at hand, giving guidance and protection, the rice grows well, and the world seems to be working as it should.

Then the world changes.  An American arrives, with a boy originally from Samkad's village, who grew up in the lowlands.  The man is friendly, sharing knowledge of his strange country and its customs.   But other Americans have come to the Philippines too, bringing war, and they too come to the village.   They are not friends, and Samkad's passage from childhood to adulthood is the trauma he and his father must face together in the wake of the American war.

I did not know anything about the Philippine-American War before reading this book, though the general trajectory of violent invasion and clash of cultures didn't surprise me.  But the story isn't about the invasion so much as it is about Samkad's growing up, and coping with the dramatic disruption of his world.  He's a great, believable kid, anxious to prove himself, making impulsive decisions that sometimes aren't great, and ultimately come through everything true to himself.  There's enough about the war and the Americans to make things exciting, without that story decentering Samkad and his perspective as things fall apart around him.

The sights and sounds and even smells of Samkad's world are well described, making this place and its people vividly real, which in turn makes the story of invasion and cultural disruption even more powerful.  The story ends gently, with the horror softened by a reprieve for Samkad and the Bontoc people, and indeed, after finishing the book, I was relieved to find that the Bontoc are still living in their mountains (see link above).

So the book is two things--an excellent, and universally familiar story of growing up, and a great introduction to a culture very foreign to many US readers, and to the horror of "culture contact" and imperialism for young readers!  And it is, in fact, endorsed by Amnesty International:

"Amnesty International endorses Bone Talk because it upholds many human rights, including our rights to life, to equality, to have a religion, to enjoy our own culture. It also shows us what can happen when these are taken away from us."

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (11/10/19)

Welcome to this week's round-up, and please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Hidden in Pages

The Darkdeep, by Ally Condy and Brendan Reichs, at Hidden in Pages

A Dash of Trouble (Love Sugar Magic #1), by Anna Meriano, at Imaginary Friends

The Dragon Warrior, by Katy Zhao, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Edge of the World (Mightier than the Sword #2), by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction, A Garden of Books, and Always in the Middle

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, by Jaclyn Moriarty, at alibrarymama

The Forgotten Girl, by India Hill Brown, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Frostheart, by Jamie Littler, at Book Craic

The Griffins of Castle Cary, by Heather Shumaker, at Geo Librarian

Grimworld, by Avery Moray, at Becca Leighanne

The Hound of Rowan, by Henry Neff, at Say What?

The Lifters, by Dave Eggers, at The Comfort Table),

The Other Side of the Wall (Castle in the Mist #3) by Amy Ephron, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Over the Moon, by Natalie Lloyd, at Puss Reboots

The Piper's Apprentice, by Matthew Cody, at Fantasy Literature

Prince Dustin and Clara: Secrets of the Black Forest, by Daniel Lee Nicholson, at Log Cabin Library

The Princess who Flew with Dragons, by Stepahnie Burgis, at Foreward Reviews

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, at Broadway World Books

The Spirit of London (Spirits #2), by Rob Keeley, at Pages for Thoughts

Throwback, by Peter Lerangis, at Charlotte's Library

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at Player FM (audiobook)

Two at The Book Search--Spark, by Sarah Beth Durst, and Dragonfell, by Sarah Prineas


Authors and Interviews

Katharine Orton (Nevertell), also with review, at thereaderteacher

Matt Harry (Cryptozoology for Beginners) at Carpinello's Writing Pages

Rick Riodan at the B and N YA podcast

Ross MacKenzie (Evernight) at thereaderteacher


Other Good Stuff

What's new in the UK, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Five fractured fairy tales, at Scholastic Parents

Throwback, by Peter Lerangis, for Timeslip Tuesday

Throwback, by Peter Lerangis (HarperCollins, October 2019), is a riveting middle grade time travel story about a kid who can change the past.

Corey is used to being told he has an active imagination, and he used to noticing odd things, so when he sees an old picture in his friend Leila's house, and finds himself in what seems to be New York 100 years in the past, he thinks it's just part of the movie he knows is being filmed in his neighborhood.  Or possibly a hallucination.  It's not, though.   Corey's actually travelled though time.  And he is one of a very small group who can actually change things in the past.

His grandfather is also a time traveler, who can't change things.  He tells Corey how he's gone, over and over again, back to 9/11, to try to keep his wife from going to work in the World Trade Center that day.  And of course, when Corey's talent emerges, the possibility that he might be able to save her occurs to them both....the possibility that he might change other things, disrupt the timeline in ways they can't predict, also occurs to them, and the possibility that if news of his gift spreads in the time traveler circles, there are those who will want to control his use of it for their own purposes....

But Corey is determined to try to save his grandmother, and so he sets off to 9/11, with modern coins and his cell phone with him as anchors that will let him get home to his own time again.  It doesn't go well, and instead of getting home, he goes further back in time to 1862, and his phone and money are stolen. Fortunately, he makes a good friend, Quinn, a kid who also has secrets...and the two become urban railroad cowboys (riding on the track ahead of the train, to clear obstacles). Meanwhile, in the present, Leila learns secrets about her own family, and finds she too can travel in time, and heads down stream to 9/11 herself....
 
Full of lots of tense moments, vivid depictions of the past, interesting characters, and lots of time travel intrigue and danger, this is a gripping read!  The first half is full of the mystery of Corey discovering his gift, the second half is essentially dangers in past.  The time travel is as believable as it can be, and the implications of being able to change the past aren't complicated any more than they need to be (so my mind stayed as clear as it ever does--sometimes, even though I'm a veteran time travel reader, I get confused by multiple timelines, but that didn't happen here).  There's much that isn't fully and carefully explained, leaving room for other books to explore things further, and there's a lot of room for more character development of Corey and Leila now that their setup for adventures is established, and I hope there are more books, and that Quinn, in particular, is in them!

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (11/3/19)

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

The Reviews

The Thousand Year Old Boy, by Ross Welford, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander, at Say What?

The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup, at Say What?

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Abby the Librarian

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at A Garden of Books (audiobook review)

The Double Helix (Explorer Academy #3), by Trudy Truit, at Always in the Middle

The Dragon Thief, by Zetta Elliott, at Middle Grade Book Village and Charlotte's Library

The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao, at Hit or Miss Books

Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott, at Middle Grade Book Village

The Fire Keeper, by J.C. Cervantes, at Feed Your Fiction Additiction

The Ghouls of Howlfair, by Nick Tomlinson, at Book Craic

Grimworld, by Avery Moray, at Jazzy Book Reviews

The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper, at Mom Read It

The Impossible Boy, by Ben Brooks, at Book Craic

Music Boxes, by Tonja Drecker, at Defining Ways

The Mystwick School of Musicaft, by Jessica Khoury, at The Write Path

The Other Side of the Wall, by Amy Ephron, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

The Princess Who Flew With Dragons, by Stephanie Burgis, at Foreward Book Reviews

Rose Coffin, by M.P. Kozlowsky, at Charlotte's Library

Saving Fable (Talespinners), by Scott Reintgen, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Titans, by Kate O'Hearn, at The Never Ending TBR

The Tunnel of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, at Twirling Book Princess, The Zen Leaf and Imaginary Friends

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at Laughing Place

also seven new ones with blurbs by me at the B and N Kids Blog

Authors and Interviews

Thomas Taylor (Malamander) at Nerdy Book Club

Kara LaRue (Rise of the Zombert) at Middle Grade Book Village

K.G. Campbell (A Small Zombie Problem) and Laura Ellen Anderson (Amerlia Fang and the Barbaric Ball) at B and N Kids Blog

Other Good Stuff

A children's author and her son share their favorite middle grade fantasy fiction that features children of color, at embracerace blog

This year's Witch Week is off and running!

Publishers Weekly has announced its list of best kids books of 2019; not as much mg sff as I'd like, but still some good ones!

Rose Coffin, by M.P. Kozlowsky

Rose Coffin, by M.P. Kozlowsky (Scholastic October 2019), is a fun middle grade portal fantasy with a very interesting twist!

Rose is going through a tough patch.  An accident has left her twin brother is in a coma, and her parents have little time and energy to spend on her.  At school she's teased for her too-small clothes, and for blushing all the time, and so when the popular SallyAnn encourages her to audition as a singer for her band, Rose is thrilled.  But the "audition" is simply an excuse to get Rose off alone in the woods, to humiliate her utterly and record it all to share in school.

Rose can't make herself get on the school bus the next day.  Instead she takes off into the same woods, and her life is upended.  A walking tree person and a golden boy kidnap her, and take her into the magical realm of Eppersett, where she is hailed as the chosen one.  But don't role your eyes at this seeming cliché--in Rose's case, her bad luck continues, and being chosen one means she'll be the one who gets to be sacrificed to the Abomination, swapping her life for 10 abomination-free years for Eppersett.  (We readers find this out almost immediately, so it's not too severe a spoiler).

Rose, naturally, doesn't find this appealing, but she's not given a choice.  The only thing the Eppersettians are worried about is getting her into the maw of the Abomination alive.  So the golden boy, the tree person, two fierce dog-like beings and a fairy with no wings agree to try to get her there alive.

Dangers beset the travelers, and Rose discovers that she is not, in fact, helpless; she has an actual magical talent of her own (that makes her even more valuable as a sacrifice).  Fighting alongside her captors, and seeing the horror that the Abomination is bringing to Eppersett makes Rose feel some sympathy for them....and if it weren't for the fact that they were bent on sacrificing her, they would be her first true friends outside her family....

And then in the end, Rose has to decide what she will do to save not Eppersett so much as her own self.

So as a standard story of child from our world find a magic gift and a destiny in a magical land it is fine; the magical world and its characters and their backstories and motivations are interesting, the challenges formidable and inventive, with nicely high stakes , and the Abomination unquestionably abominable.  But the whole twist of Rose being a sacrifice gives it a most enjoyable edge of ethical dilemma, that is brought to a satisfying conclusion that makes Rose a victim neither of fate, or of Stockholm Syndrome, but still requires a satisfactorily high level of threat/sacrifice on her part.

It's a journey in which Rose moves from being isolated to being a member of a community, and though she didn't start the journey willingly, in the end she's glad she did (and so is the reader!)

Here's the Kirkus review, if you want another opinion that is basically the same as my opinion...

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Dragon Thief, by Zetta Elliott

In Dragons in a Bag (link to my review), Zetta Elliott introduced a  young boy named Jaxon, who was given a job to do by a magical old woman, Ma.  He had to return three baby dragons to the world of magic.  It didn't go as planned, not that Jaxon knew enough about what was going on to really "plan" anything, but he did his best.  It wasn't enough.  One of the babies was stolen by Kavita, the little sister of his best friend, Vik.

The Dragon Thief  (Random House, Oct 22 1019) picks up the story right where we left it.  Jaxon is worried about Ma, who has fallen into a strange sleep, and he's desperate to get the baby dragon to the magical world.  Kavita is worried about the baby dragon, which grows at an alarming rate when it gets fed.  When she realizes she can't keep it safe, her old aunty who lives with her family decides to help her get it home.

So on the one hand we have Jaxon and Vik, racing to find Kavita while figuring out how they can manage to open a door to the other realm, and on the other we have Kavita, an increasingly large dragonet, and her aunty on a journey to the same goal....

Jaxon's well aware he needs help, so when a mysterious man named Blue, covered with tattoos, offers assistance, Jaxon things this might be what he needs.  But the man is a trickster, with an agenda of his own...and the fate of the little dragon hangs (very tensly) in the balance!  (Blue's motivations and actions are ambiguous; I love a nice ambiguous "bad" guy, and I hope we meet him again in a future book so we can see if his point of view is in fact at all valid....)

It's a great story for younger middle grade readers (8-10 year olds).  There's a nice serving of ordinary story, including Jaxon and Vic becoming friends with a boy they'd steered clear of because of being intimidated by his large size, and Kavita finding out about her auntie's past in India (which offers an eye-opening bit of history).  The kids are very real characters, and one can easily imagine hanging out with them.  But the ordinary doesn't stay that way for long, as the boundaries between the magical and the real world collide, with the kids right smack in the middle of it!

It's lots of  fun, and I enjoyed it even more than I did book 1.  The only thing I can think of that would have made it even better would have been more dragon page time!

disclaimer:  the publisher sent review copies for Kidlitcon Providence 2019 last March, which came to my house, so of course I treated myself to one of the copies...and though I didn't get it read in time to pass on to another Kidlitcon attendee, I did find it a good home with a kid who loved it.

This weeks round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (10/27/19)

Here's what I found this week; please let me know if I missed your post (or a post about your book....)

The Reviews

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander, at Say What?

The Bookwanderers, by Anna James, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Book Nut

Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Geo Librarian and Books4YourKids

The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao, at Read Love

Ember and the Ice Dragons, by Heather Fawcett, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Iggy and Oz: the Plastic Dinos of Doom, by J.J. Johnson, at Reading, Writing, and Stitch Metric

Knock Three Times (Wizards of Once #3), by Cressida Cowell, at Twirling Book Princess

Lalani of the Distant Sea, by Erin Entrada Kelly, at Puss Reboots

Lintang and the Pirate Queen, by Tamara Moss, at Read Love

The Lost Girl, by Anne Ursu, at Not Acting My Age

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Milliebot Reads

The Poison Jungle, by Tui T. Sutherland, at Hidden in Pages

Rise of the Dragons, by Angie Sage, at Say What?

The Rubicus Prophecy, by Alane Adams, at Always in the Middle

The Runaway Princes, by Kate Coombs, at Leaf's Reviews

Sam Saves the Night, by Shari Simpson, at Nerdophiles

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia, at The New York Times

We're Not From Here, by Geoff Rodkey, at Imaginary Friends

Two at The Book Search--The Spinner of Dreams, by K.A. Reynolds, and A Wolf Called Wander, by Rosanne Perry

Authors and Interviews

Jacqueline West (A Storm of Wishes) at Spooky Middle Grade

Katie Zhao (The Dragon Warrior) at Nerdy Book Club and Literary Rambles

Anna James (The Bookwanderers) at Nerdy Book Club

Other good stuff

Middle grade ghosts of 2019, compiled by me at the B and N Kids Blog