This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (7/26/20)

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

The Reviews

Bailey's Window, by Anne Lindbergh, at Charlotte's Library

The Blameless, by E.S. Christison, at Charlotte's Library

Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2), by Jen Calonita, at Say What?

Derek Hyde's Spooky Scavenger Hunt, by E. Michael Lunsford, at Jazzy Book Reviews and Rajiv's Reviews

Echo Quickthorn and the Great Beyond (Sky Pirates), by Alex English, at Fazila Reads

Fire in the Star, by Kamilla Benko, at Woodpecker Books

A Game of Fox and Squirrels, by Jenn Reese, at Fuse #8

Gargantis, by Thomas Taylor, at Chloe Twist

The Girl with the Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts, an interview with Alexandra Diaz at Dream Gardens (podcast)

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

The Impossible Boy,by Ben Brooks, at Arkham Reviews

Knights and Bikes: Wheels of Legend, by Gabrielle Kent, at Twirling Book Princess

The Mostly Invisible Boy, by AJ Vanderhorst, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

The Mulberry Tree, by Allison Rushby, at Lazy Day Literature and Cracking the Cover

The Mysterious Benedict Society & the Riddle of Ages, by Trenton Lee Stewart, at Of Maria Antonia

Mysterious Messenger, by Gilbert Ford, at Charlotte's Library

The Oddmire books 1 and 2 (The Changeling and The Unready Queen), by William Ritter, at Elizabeth Dulemba

The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate, at Sonderbooks

Part of Your Nightmare (Disney Chills, #1), by Vera Strange, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Race to the Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse, at Goodreads with Ronna

The Seth Seppi Mysteries by Nicki Thornton, at Read It, Daddy

Shuri, by Nic Stone, at The Neverending TBR

The Time of Green Magic, by Hilary McKay, at It's All About the Book

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, by Adrianna Cuevas at Las Musas

A Wish in the Dark, by Christina Soontornvat, at Semicolon

The Witches of Willow Cove, by Josh Roberts, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Two at alibrarymama--The Girl and the Witch’s Garden, by Erin Bowman, and Catalyst, by Sarah Beth Durst

Authors and Interviews

Adrianna Cuevas (The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez) at WNDB

Alex English (Sky Pirates) at A little but a lot and bookloverjo

Jess Redman (Quintessance) at Literary Rambles (giveaway) and Middle Grade Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Today!  at 3 pm--East City Bookshop welcomes Ellen Oh, Laura Ruby, & Anne Ursu for Magic & Mayhem, a discussion of middle grade fantasy and science-fiction

And if you missed it, here's a recap of Representation in Science Fiction and Fantasy Young Adult and Middle Grade Books with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, and Tracy Deonn

"Making the Most of the Magic of Oz Manuscript" at Oz and Ends

"Plotting Magic" (as in The Magic of Oz) at Oz and Ends

"Magical Middle School: 12 Speculative Fiction School Stories" at alibrarymama

"Saving the Lost: Quests, Signs, and Unclear Instructions in The Silver Chair" at Tor

"Graphic Novels for fantasy/D&D fans" at Mom Read It

And finally--if you want to kick your reading and thinking/chatting about books into high gear this fall, consider applying to be a panelist for the Cybils Awards!  Panelists read the books nominated in various categories from picture books to YA, and then come up with shortlists, which go to another set of panelists for choosing of the winner.  Anyone who write or talks about books on an online paltfrom (from personal blog to goodreads) is eligbile to be a panelist.  The call for panelists should be out sometime mid-August.  Middle grade speculative fiction in an especially fine category that is always lots of fun to be part of! (disclaimer--I'm the Cybils category organizer for mg spec fic, and I'd love to welcome new folks).  If you think you might be interested, pick the category that most appeals and make sure you have lots of reviews up.   And if you have any questions, please let me know (charlotteslibrary at gmail).

The Blameless, by E.S. Christison (Blog Tour)

I'm happy to be today's stop on the blog tour for The Blameless, by E.S. Christison  (Belle Isle Books, middle grade, July 22 2020) and also happy to be able to report that I enjoyed it lots, and think that it will be loved by many young readers!

Briana's world is shattered when she watches in horror as her parents, king and queen of Predonia, and her older brother, are killed in front of her eyes.  She barely escapes the castle, and flees into the city.  There she is found by three powerful men, Flinton, Derek, and Kove, who become her protectors.  They are members of the Blameless, a society of magic users, united by their commitment to using their gifts, and their very lives, unselfishly.   They take her to a stronghold of the Blameless up in the mountains, and there, surrounded by the welcoming kindness of Flinton's family, she begins to heal from her grief.

She begins as well to discover her own gifts for Blameless magic, and learns that she might be among the most powerful of the fellowship.  But the shadow of Vaylec, the evil man who has taken her kingdom and killed her family, haunts her.

Then she is kidnapped by members of the Blameless who are being magically controlled by Vaylec.  Back in the castle, a virtual prisoner, Briana tries to stretch her gifts so that she can escape, and join her protectors in defeating Vaylec.

This one hits lots of the sweet spots for middle grade readers--the plucky kid finding she's wonderfully talented at magic, a loving found family and two good friends her own age, who become companions in mischief.  There's a lovely horse, and lovely food, and then, after she's kidnapped, there's the fascinating struggle Briana goes through in the castle to outwit and escape her captor, while figuring out the limits of his strength.  The characters are all (except Vaylec, of course) endearing as all get out, and it's easy to cheer them on!

That being said, I was disappointed that the good guys seemed to falter a bit with regards to intelligent action.  Briana's three protectors, and the council of the Blameless, are very slow to take action against Vaylec and his plans, and when they do, it's almost to late.  Briana herself could have shown more brains and initiative during her captivity; why, for instance, does she not consider the possibility that she can learn the teleportation magic of one of the controlled Blameless who Vaylec has assigned to teach her to use her powers?  Why does she not summon the keys she needs (something she's capable of) to open locks, instead of wasting time and effort picking them by hand? Why does she not summon the personal property of her protectors, and return the objects again with notes on them to open a line of communication?  I was somewhat distracted by thinking of all these possibilities, and others, which never occur to her.  But I think younger readers will be more deeply immersed in the story, and less likely to question this sort of thing, and of course in Briana's defense she's a distressed kid in captivity still fairly new to magic, and I'm a much older, less distressed, armchair critic...

Despite that quibble, I found this to be a gripping and compelling story that I enjoyed lots.  It's very much a first installment--when it ends there are still unanswered questions, Vaylec is still in power, and Briana still has a way to go before mastering her magic.  I'm looking forward to the second book, because I am genuinely invested in Briana's adventures.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

About the Author, E.S. Christison

My very first job was as a scribe in a library.  I was raised by my father, and he passed a love of reading to me, especially fantasy.  I have passed this same love on to my seven children and, as a result, much of my adult life has been spent in the realms of their make-believe kingdoms, giving me firsthand experience with the whimsical workings of their young minds.  I’ve shared my own stories with them at bedtime, but never chose to write them down until an idea that I just couldn’t ignore blazed into my mind .  I live with my family in Ohio, and when I’m not busy navigating the seas of motherhood, working as a nurse, or castle-hopping and enjoying fine wine and chocolate with my husband, I can be found writing the sequel to The Blameless or dreaming up other tales.

Mysterious Messenger, by Gilbert Ford

If you think a treasure hunt in New York City with a ghost providing the clues sounds like fun for you and/or your kids, pick up Mysterious Messenger, written and illustrated by Gilbert Ford (July 2020, middle grade,  Henry Holt) right away!

Maria's life is constrained by her mother's profession as a fake psychic.  "Madame Destine" makes a living conning the gullible out of valuable possessions, and it's Maria's job to hid in a closet and make sound effects during the seances.  Mr. Fox, the apartment superintendent and more than friend to her mother, makes more sounds from the basement.  Maria doesn't go to school, she's not allowed friends, and her mother is manipulative and controlling (and just terrible at providing healthy meals, nurturing, support, etc.).   Maria's only escape is at the public library, and her only friend (a secret from her mother) is a ghost, Eddy, who can communicate by controlling her writing hand.

When Mrs. Fisher, an elderly widow who isn't well off, is conned out of her wedding ring, Eddy takes action.  Apparently there's a treasure hidden in Mrs. Fisher's apartment, and he starts giving Maria clues about how to find it.  The library's her first starting place, and there she meets a boy named Sebastian, who lives in her appartment building.  Though she's forbidden to talk to him, she can't shake him, and when he finds out that she's on a hunt for treasure, he becomes her comrade. Mrs. Fisher becomes a friend to Maria too, and over the next few weeks Eddy's messages bring all three closer, though no closer to the treasure....

But the librarian is concerned about Maria, and gets the neighborhood police officer to look into her living situation.  Madame Destine and Mr. Fox decide it's time to head out of town, but when they discover the treasure hunt, they want a piece of that action, and Maria, Sebastian, and Mrs. Fisher find themselves in danger.

The clues Eddy provides make this a rather unusual treasure hunt, sending the kids delving into the history of the Beat poets, artists, and musicians with whom Mrs. Fisher and her husband were friends  (a visit to the archives of the NY public library, for instance, and to one of the clubs where poets hung out).   This was fascinating to me, and I assume that smart kids, the sort that are used to picking up all sorts of random information online, will appreciate it too.

I did get frustrated that Eddy didn't provide clearer directions to the treasure, but then I (and Maria as well) realized the treasure wasn't everything.  Eddy turns out to have good reasons for wanting Maria to escape her horrible mother and find friends who can help her, and the journey toward the treasure is what makes this happen....that being said, there is a wonderful, bibliophile's dream of a treasure!

There's also a happy ending for Maria, but I was a little grumpy that once she found out who her father was, and found out Madame Destine was only her stepmother, no one made any effort to find her relatives.  Her dad's family is Puerto Rican, and possibly her mother's too, so it would have perhaps been challenging, but not impossible.

But in any event, this one's a winner for kids who enjoy found families, treasure hunts, books, ghosts, and kids with psychic  powers!  I also appreciated the educational side of things, and in fact have more appreciation for Jackson Pollock than I did last week...though I still am not interested in reading the Beat poets.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Bailey's Window, by Anne Lindbergh, illustrated by Kinuko Craft, for Timeslip Tuesday

Anne Lindbergh (daughter of the famous Charles) wrote a number of children's books, perhaps the best known of which is The People in Pineapple Place (my review).  That one, and several of her other books, like The Shadow on the Dial (my review) and Three Lives to Live (my review), are time travel.  The one's I've read aren't particularly outstanding, but they are for the most part pleasant enough reading, and so in my quest to read every single time travel book for children (excluding all the Magic Treehouse books), I requested Baily's Window (HMH Books 1984) from the library.

Bailey is sent to stay with his two cousins, Carl and Anna, in rural New York for the summer.  They and their friend Ingrid aren't at all happy with this, Bailey having been a pill on his previous visit the previous year.  And unfortunately, just before he leaves home, Bailey hears part of a phone conversation in which Anna loudly makes it clear just how unwanted he is.  So when Bailey arrives he's sore and angry, and determined to be mean.

And mean he is.  The things he does are really rotten, not only getting his cousins into trouble, but damaging property.  It gets to the point where even Carl and Anna's parents don't want him anymore.  In a typical Bailey move, he pilfers Anna's beloved paint set, and paints a window opening up onto a winter scene on to the bare wall of the room he shares with Carl.  Magically, the window opens, and Bailey steps out of August into the snow.

The magic is too wonderful not to share, and so Bailey draws other windows for all the kids to travel through.  When they learn that Bailey's beloved dog, Fox, had recently gotton lost, finding him becomes the impetus for their travels, taking them twice to New York city.  In all the window places, there's a mysterious man who keeps abjuring Bailey to use his head, and when Bailey finally does,  Fox is found and the magic ends.

But by that point the four kids are friends, and all is well.

On the plus side, the real world life in the country of New York is nicely done (although the city is shown in a very negative light--only country is good here). I liked that the girls aren't treated any differently from the boys; I don't remember any gender stereotyping. There is no explanation of how and why the magic works, or why on earth the mysterious man who seems behind it would have carried enough about Bailey and Fox to make it happen. But it's rather cool magic, which, as in Edgar Eager's wonderful books, has to be thought through carefully, or things go wrong....That being said, this isn't anywhere near as clever and funny as Eager's books, but it's pretty entertaining.

Except. There is a really stereotypical visit to cannibals who capture the kids, and I would have thought that by the 1980s books were moving away from stereotypical savages, but no. Since the author was raised by fascist racists, I guess it's not surprising that she'd go down that road. The New York kids are proud of their Scandinavian descent, and dub themselves the Vikings, which in itself isn't awful, but with the context of Lindbergh's family, and the cannibals (even though it is but one magical event of many), it feels really gross to someone reading the book at this particular moment in time (at least it does to me). It occurs to me that Eager also has savages tying the kids up on a desert island in Magic by the Lake, but he's a few decades earlier (1950s), so I expect less; this was already my least favorite book of his so I don't mind liking it even less now I'm thinking back on it more critically.

So basically this seems modeled on Eager, but not as good. The cannibals, coupled with the fact that Bailey is actively unkind and destructive for much of the book, made this one miss the mark for me. I have, I think, three more Lindbergh time travel books to read...I will put them off for a bit.

The cover of the book I read is the 1991 edition, and for a bit extra time travel, here it is in all its dated glory:

This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (7/19/20)

Welcome to this week's round-up!  It's been a while since I explained how I find what I find, so in the interests of transparency--I follow tons of blogs on bloglovin, do google searches for the past week for middle grade fantasy, and middle grade science fiction, and search twitter.  Almost certainly I miss lots of posts every week, so do let me know about your blog if you read and review lots of mg sff! And always, let me know if I missed your post, or if you're an author, reviews of your book.

The Reviews

44 Tiny Secrets, by Sylvia Bishop, illustrated by Ashley King, at Book Craic

The Class from the Black Lagoon, by Mike Thaler, at BooksForKidsBlog

Diana and the Island of No Return by Aisha Saeed, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed. and The Neverending TBR

The Door Within, by Wayne Thomas Batson, at Wanderer's Pen

The Egyptian Mirror, by Michael Bedard, at Mom Read It

Gargantis, by Thomas Taylor, at PidginPea's Book Nook

Ghost Squad, by Claribel A. Ortega, at Ambivert Words

The Golden Orchard, by Flora Ahn, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Guardians of Magic, by Chris Riddell, at Twirling Book Princess

Hatch, by Kenneth Oppel, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

Into the Tall, Tall Grass, by Loriel Ryon, at Mom Read It

The Mulberry Tree, by Alison Rushby, at Charlotte's Library

The Mysterious Messenger, by Gilbert Ford, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate, at Waking Brain Cells and Redeemed Reader, and the audiobook at proseandkahn

Rise of ZomBert, by Kara LaReau, at Charlotte's Library

The Ship of Shadows, by Maria Kuzniar, at The Bookwyrm's Den
The Strangeworlds Travel Agency, by L.D. Lapinski, at Arkham Reviews

Tanglewreck, by Jeanette Winterson, at Charlotte's Library

The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Córdova, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

A Wolf Called Wander, by Rosanne Parry, at Never Not Reading

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads-- Paris on Repeat, by Amy Bearce, and The Mulberry Tree, by Allison Rushby

Authors and Interviews

Kristiana Sfirlea (Legend of the Storm Sneezer) at Stephanie Burgis

Kara LaReau (Rise of Zombert) at  Nerdy Book Club

The Mulberry Tree, by Alison Rushby

The Mulberry Tree, by Alison Rushby (Candlewick, middle grade, July 14 2020) is the sort of middle grade book I find most pleasantly escapist--set in the real world, in an English village, but with ominous supernatural forces at play, in this case, in the form of a sinister tree.

"Do naught wrong by the mulberry tree, or she'll take your daughters ... one, two, three."

It begins with ten-year-old Immy's family house-hunting in England. They moved from New Zealand, partly because her mother has a good new job in a hospital, and partly to give her dad a fresh perspective on life; problems with a patient of his back in New Zealand sent him into a spiral of depression. After many false starts, they find what seems to be the perfect home--a little cottage, with an ancient mulberry tree in its garden, in a charming village. But when the realtor finds out Immy's turning 11 soon, she abruptly tries to dissuade them from renting it. 

Two other girls who lived in the house mysteriously disappeared on their own 11th birthdays. And the village is convinced it was the doing of the mulberry tree. Immy and her family think this is nonsense. But the locals believe, and Immy has a hard time making friends with her new classmates as a result. But soon she starts to suspect there's truth to it. She starts to hear the creepy local rhyme about the tree playing in her head, and starts to feel that she has attracted the tree's attention. The kind old lady next door tells Immy about her own best friend, Elizabeth, one of the vanished girls (she and Immy also look after a family of hedgehogs, which is a lovely bonus!).

Immy's mother refuses to believe, and antagonizes the locals, while her father continues to struggle with depression. Immy herself becomes determined to not to let the tree win, but to figure out just what is happening and put an end to it. And she does, uncovering a forgotten piece of the past that lets her give the tree what it wants...and in the end, now at peace, the mulberry tree sets everything to rights.

If you like creepy mg fantasy in English villages, and stories of new kids plunged into the stress of making friends while having to cope with potentially fatal magical threats, you'll enjoy this one as much as I did! I loved the cottage, and Immy was an appealing protagonist; it was easy to empathize with her struggles (and with those of her parents as well, although when I was a mg reader I wouldn't have bothered to think much about the parents...) I got a bit hung up by the ending, which stretched my personal boundaries of what I'm willing to accept a magical tree can do to the breaking point/ I'd have been more satisfied if the tree had been more deeply rooted in a wider magical context, instead of just been a single very cross tree.

That being said, I did like the book as a whole very much!




And now I'm thinking of a post on magical mg trees (Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky, The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier, and (nice trees for a change!), The Magic of Melwick Orchard, by Rebecca Caprara, and I guess Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree series (though those are for younger readers...). Huh. That's all I'm coming up with. What magical trees am I missing?




disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Rise of ZomBert, by Kara LaReau

Rise of ZomBert, by Kara LaReau, illustrated by Ryan Andrews (Candlewick, July 14 2020), is an excellent light horror story for 8-9 year-olds (although it's not actually horror unless you are a small woodland creature). It fits nicely into that slice of reading confidence development that falls between early chapter books and full throttle middle grade, with plenty of illustrations, but plenty of text as well.

In a cold, dark laboratory, a cat, Y-91 escapes its cage and makes it to the freedom of the world outside. Weak and starving, the cat finds shelter in a dumpster outside the YummCo Foods factory. The Big Boss of the lab is furious, and demands the cat be found.

The cat is found, but not by the lab assistants. Two nine-year old kids, Mellie and her best friend Danny, are using the factory as the setting for one of the horror movies Danny likes to make. Mellie's heart goes out to the poor animal when she see him in the dumpster, and she names him Bert and takes him home, even though her parents probably won't let her keep him. If she bothers to ask them, that is. So she doesn't, counting on them to be so wrapped up in their food and family blog, which stars her little twin siblings, that they don't even notice.

Mellie, a responsible new pet owner, hits the books to find out how to care for cats, and buys high quality cat food. Bert will have none of it, but demands to be let outside. He is a hunter, and the next day Mellie finds the distressing evidence of his prowess--headless corpses. Bert trusts her, though, and returns to her room to rest. And though Mellie is disturbed by the corpses Bert tries to share with her (his fondness for brains is rather zombie-like, and extends to the decapitation of her stash of stuffed animals), she loves him.

But the Big Boss and his minions are looking for Bert, and it's clear from the chapters told from the cat's point of view that he is not an ordinary animal. The lab is a place where bad things happen, the Big Boss is not nice at all, and Bert is in danger....

The story is delightfully creepy and full of dark mystery, and also full of friendship and family life. Mellie's relationship with her parents, strained by their obsession with creating food and family moments to document for the blog, improves; though they seem not to be paying much attention to her, they actually are better parents than she's giving them credit for. Her partnership with Danny is top notch, and it's his horror movie fixation that sets their minds turning to zombies...Bert is a character in his own right (though he stays always and clearly a cat, and never seems to be a thinking human person in cat form, which I appreciated). I also appreciated that as a result the reader is left not knowing just who or what he is...

The possibility that Bert's a zombie is creepy, but it quickly becomes obvious that the real horror is what's happening in the lab. Part of me wants to recommend the book to animal lovers, who will be right there with Mellie looking out for Bert, but sensitive animal lovers might be distressed by the all too real nastiness of experiments on lab animals (hinted at, though not explicitly described).

It was an abrupt shock to reach the end of this book only to find that we don't get the answers yet! I myself am suspicious of YummCo Foods, and their economic hold on the town....The sudden stop makes me want to read the next book, but it also was very harsh to be just left there with all the questions. This might annoy some young readers greatly.

But that being said, it's really easy to imagine lots of third grade kids loving Zombert, and I will be right there with them grabbing his next book!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Tanglewreck, by Jeanette Winterson, for Timeslip Tuesday

I almost never say what I really think about books I don't like, unless there are really useful reasons not to like them (like hateful content). Mostly I get around this, if I feel I Have to review a book, by saying something like "readers who adore love-sick slugs will find these slimy antics delightful." It made a rather fun change of pace to write this....although I did finish it, without being forced to, and didn't complain to my loved ones vociferously while reading it, so it's more that it didn't work at all for me, I think. Readers with a higher tolerance than me for time and space travelling whimsical high jinxs where the stakes are so high as to be almost meaningless will doubtless find it delightful.

Tanglewreck, by Jeanette Winterson, a middle grade (ages 9-12) timeslip story, got great reviews when it came out in 2006:

"The sheer exhilaration of the adventure and the many fascinating historical and scientific allusions will keep readers engrossed through to the satisfying conclusion." -Publishers Weekly

"An appealing read for fantasy and science- fiction fans alike...Well-developed main characters add liveliness and suspense to the story, while secondary characters (a pair of inept thugs, the original Schrödinger's cat) add touches of humor to a basically sober story. The climax is chaotic and exciting; the resolution is realistic, bittersweet." -Kirkus Reviews

And more, which you can see gathered together in the Goodreads listing linked above.

So I was expecting great things. It started off really well, with time tornadoes wrecking havoc in London, stirring up bits of the past and making bits of the present vanish, and with an orphaned girl, Silver, living in a lonely old house (that has a mind of its own) with her unpleasant guardian. But then Silver gets tangled up in a huge plot involving the control of time and space through a device that just happens to be a family heirloom of hers, and in the course of figuring out what this device does, she realizes she is the chosen one of prophecy (I was never exactly clear on the whole prophecy business, but whether that was the fault of the book or of my muddled brain, I'm not sure).

In any event, there's lots of thwarting of bad guys, travel to a future planet with three moons that's also the afterlife (?), happy time (for Silver) spent under London with a culture of "Throwbacks," who escaped Bedlam (the insane asylum) many many years ago, and many more twists and tangles spawned by a marriage (a forcibly arranged sort of marriage) of physics and whimsy. There's also bits that "tug on the heartstrings" and when I read them I thought "my heartstrings are being tugged on." Mostly my emotions were left unstirred, though, and I never cared all that much about Silver and the friends she made along the way. I was pretty busy being confused. The time tornadoes, which I found interesting, stopped being important to the story (the planet of three suns far in the future that is also possibly the afterlife has no time tornadoes, and though there is a black hole it doesn't spit out 100 year old books so what's the point.)

So you may have gathered I didn't care for it, and the more I read, the more I felt like Tanglewreck was an excellent title for the book (my brain kept suggesting Time Tangle Wreck as an even more apt title....). But then again, I have a Very Strong Aversion to secret underground societies of "throwback" humans, especially ones with underground ponies. It doesn't work for me even in The Whispering Mountain, by Joan Aiken, who is a brilliant writer, and here it felt weird and rascist-esque (mainly because they were called throwbacks even though they were survivors, not actually throwbacks), but also they had spade-like hands of mole-ish (or spade foot toad-like) digging, which I found distrubing, and so after the time spend with them and one of the Throwback kids becoming Silver's new best friend for life I stopped caring much even though he's a perfectly nice character....






That I didn't care for the book, of course, doesn't mean that other people won't, which is why I started this with the quotes. (although, n.b. if you read the Kirkus quote--Schrödinger's cat is more an aside than a secondary character, so don't get your hopes up on that account). That being said, The Battle of the Sun (Tanglewreck 2, apparently) seems to have nothing to do with the planet of three suns, and my friend Maureen's goodreads review is very positive, so I will probably try it at some point...

This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (7/12/20)

Good morning! Here's what I found this week of interest to us fans of middle grade (9-12 years old) fantasy and sci fi.  Please let me know if I missed your post!  (nothing from me this week...sigh. Work got in the way of reviewing.)

The Reviews

Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon. by John August, at Twirling Book Princess

Britfield & The Lost Crown by C.R. Stewart, at Rajiv's Reviews

Heirloom (Seed Savers, Book 3), by Sandra Smith, at Children's Books Heal

The House in Poplar Wood by K.E. Ormsbee, at Puss Reboots

The House of One Hundred Clocks, by A.M. Howell, at Library Girl and Book Boy

Into the Tall, Tall, Grass by Loriel Ryon, at Waking Brain Cells

Kiki’s Delivery Service, by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri, at Fantasy Literature

Mañanaland. by Pam Muñoz Ryan, at Always in the Middle

The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray, by B.A. Williamson, at Middle Grade Minded

Midsummer's Mayhem, by Rajani LaRocca, at The Winged Pen

Scare Me, by K.R. Alexander, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Serpent's Secret, by Sayantani DasGupta, at Ahtiya on Instagram

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier, at Never Not Reading

Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria(The Elandrian Chronicles #2), by J.M. Bergen, at J.R.'s Book Reviews

The Vanishing Trick, by Jenni Spangler, at Arkham Reviews

Authors and Interviews

Ash Van Otterloo (Cattywampus) at Literary Rambles

Chantel Acevedo (The Muse Squad) at Las Musas

Amanda Foody (The Accidental Apprentice) at Book Page

Jess Redman (Quintessence) at Teachers who read

Christina Soontornvat (A Wish in the Dark) at The TeachingBooks Blog

Other Good Stuff

'The fascists were upset': radical Austrian fairytales published in English for first time, at The Guardian

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

"Philip Pullman’s New Novella Serpentine Follows a Teenage Lyra Belacqua" at Tor

"How J. K. Rowling Became Voldemort The backlash against the Harry Potter creator is a growing pain of her fandom." at The Atlantic

The trailer for the One and Only Ivan is out, via Scope Notes

The Last of Terry Pratchett’s Early Stories Will Come Out in September, at Tor

"House spirits to keep you company" at Fantasy-Faction

Katherine Langrish continues her look at strong fairy tale heroines with Maola Chilobain at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

"Crime-fighting Australian pigeons take flight to Hollywood with help from James Corden" at The Guardian
Who We Fight Against: The Silver Chair and Knowing Your Enemies, at Tor

A nice list of diverse mg fantasy, at Feminist Books For Kids

How a Wrinkle in Time changed sci fi forever, at Mental Floss 

Stay safe everyone; be like RI's big blue bug, and wear a mask!

This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs

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

The Reviews

Dragon Kiss, by E.D. Baker, at Puss Reboots

Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott, at BooksYALove

Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch, by Julie Abe, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

The Future King (The Revenge of Magic #3), by James Riley, at Say What?

The Girl and the Witch's Garden, by Erin Bowman, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Grimworld, by Avery Moray, at Motif by Tanya

The Littlest Voyageur, by Margi Preus, at Redeemed Reader

The Lost Soul Atlas, by Zana Fraillon, at Noveltea Corner

The Magic in Changing Your Stars, by Leah Henderson, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Magnificent Monsters of Cedar Street, by Lauren Oliver, at Geo Librarian

The Map of Stars (York #3), by Laura Ruby, at Charlotte's Library

The Mostly Invisible Boy, by A.J. Vanderhorst, at Always in the Middle

North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson, at Woodpecker Books

Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things, by Matilda Woods, at Charlotte's Library

Rise of ZomBert, by Kara LaReau, at Log Cabin Library

Thieves of Wierdwood, by William Shivering (aka Christian McKay Heidicker), at Charlotte's Library

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows, by J.M. Bergen, at A Garden of Books

The Time of Green Magic, by Hilary McKay, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Twilight Hauntings, by Angie Sage, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

Wayside School: Beneath the Cloud of Doom, by Louis Sacher, at Of Maria Antonia

The Witches of Willow Cove, by Josh Roberts, at Evelyn Reads

Two at alibrarymama--The Jumbie God's Revenge, by Tracey Baptiste, and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez

Three at Random Musings of a Bibliophile--Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack, R is for Rebel by J. Anderson Coats, and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia

Authors and Interviews

Malayna Evans (Aria Jones and the Guardian's Wedja) at MG Book Village

Jarrett Lerner (The Engineerds Strike Back) at MG Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Congratulations to Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee, for winning the YA Locus Award this year (nb--it's more an upper MG book than a YA)

Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things, by Matilda Woods

Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things, by Matilda Woods (Philomel Books, June 2020) , is a magical story that I think would make a great read aloud for 8-10 year olds.  If you enjoyed Woods' first two books--The Boy, the Bird, and the Coffin Maker, and The Girl Who Sailed the Stars, you'll enjoy this one too.  It has much of the same dream-like quality I think those two have, and it is my personal favorite of the three!

Otto and his mother arrive in the cold, grey town of Hodorf, where his mother plans to make and sell coats.  Otto is doubtful, and when she leaves the inn where they are staying to run errands, and doesn't come back, doubt is replaced by dread.  Hodorf is a place full of young thieves who call themselves the Tattercoats-- raged children who sleep curled up next to the town's chimneys, sometimes freezing to death, and always hungry. Two of these kids target Otto on his first solo expedition to look for his mother.  One, Nim, takes his money, and another, Blink, takes his coat.

Nim is kind-hearted, and returns almost all of his money...but it's not nearly enough to keep paying for a room.  So when another girl speaks kindly to him, and promises to lead him to a place where he'll be warm and looked after, he goes with her. This "sanctuary," though, is a terrible shoe-polish factory, whose cruel owner enslaves children in classically evil gothic child-worker style.

Nim, though, can't shake a feeling of responsibility toward Otto, and so she and her pet rat manage to get him out.  Now he too becomes a Tattercoat, but is no closer to finding his mother...And at this point the story swings toward the truly fantastic, when Nim, Otto, and Blink set out into the woods outside the town, which are full of dangerous magic that's full of echoes of familiar fairy tales.  Giants, dragons, witches and enchantments await....

If you like plucky kids on their own, in both mundane and magical peril, being fiercely loyal to each other, and banding together against a cruel world, this is a book for you!  Otto is a protagonist without particular agency, but Nim and Nibble, the rat, have enough for the both of them, and Blink is a solid contributor to the party, with an interesting bit of back-story. As I said, I think it would make a lovely read-aloud; though there's danger and unhappiness, the familiar fairy tale echoes and the good-heartedness of many of the characters give it a cozy feel--Otto's mother is found and the greedy bad guys get their just come-uppance!  I agree with Kirkus on this one--"Both charming and wise."

The Map of Stars (York #3), by Laura Ruby, for Timeslip Tuesday

If you are new to Laura Ruby's York series, it's a bit of a spoiler to see this third volume labeled a time travel book. If, however, you've reached the end of the second, you'll recall that in the course of following the mysterious clues of the Morningstar Cipher, that has sent them diving into New York's past, and into danger, twins Tess and Theo found a picture of their older selves from the 19th century....and have no clue how that happened.

This is where The Map of Stars begins (Walden Pond Press, May 2020). Tess, Theo, and their good friend Jaime have made considerable progress unravelling the cipher, and have "borrowed" the many tangible bits and pieces of strange and interesting stuff they've found along the way. The path ends with a set of plans, and all the things they need to build it...All along the way, greedy and powerful men and women have been working against them, and strange and unexpected allies, both living and dead, human and not, have come to their aid.

This third book has just as much tension as the first two, but ratcheted up a notch. As well as the physical dangers of their antagonists, there are glimpses into another timeline, in which the twins, now older, live in our own world a few years in the future, and is a sad and scary place....So yes, there is time travel, in this case as a fixing mechanism that creates a new timeline. I was able to make sense of it all, once I figured out what was happening. It's more time travel in the function of plot than time travel that shows the past, or shows the characters coping with it, but that's fine. The plot and the great characters and wonders of the alternate New York are plenty!

The books are long (this one is 514 pages), and very detailed, and having read them over the course of several years as they came out, I found my memory spotty, which was a nuisance, though Ruby does a solid job making sure the important events/clues/characters, etc. are reintroduced. Not all middle grade kids will have the reading stamina to make it to the end. But for strong readers (of all ages) who love books with smart kids and treasure hunts, this series is a treat! There's humor and lots of bright and sparkly stuff, entertaining interactions between characters, and strong messages of social justice that make the pages turn quickly.

Thieves of Weirdwood, by Christian McKay Heidicker

If you've read Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker (a 2020 Newbery Honor book) you will, perhaps, approach his new middle grade fantasy, Thieves of Weirdwood (written under the name of William Shivering), with both caution and curiosity.  Will this more traditional mg fantasy story be as horrifying and as vividly real? you might ask (or at least, I did), and you will be eager to dive into it to find out (at least, I was, and was not disappointed!)

Wally and Arthur are 12-year-old thieves (as shown on the cover, Wally is black and Arthur white), young members of the Black Feathers gang that terrorizes their city of Kingsport.  All their takings are owed to the gang leader, the Crow, who holds them fast in his fearful talons.  But Wally needs money to cover the hospital costs for his older brother in the city insane asylum, and Arthur needs money to cover his father's debts, so a big heist is needed by both!  

When Arthur finds wealthy strangers making themselves at home in what seemed to be an abandoned mansion, he drags Wally along for a break in.  The two boys find more than they bargained for--the mansion is now the temporary home of Weirdwood Manor, the travelling headquarters of an order dedicated to maintaining the border between the real and the magical words.  The border has weakened in Kingsport, and nightmarish magic is leaking through (nightmare #1--a porcelain doll that sucks the life out of its victims, leaving them china husks).

Wally and Arthur are stunned by the bizarre and fantastical wonders within Weirdwood Manor, and though Arthur makes it out, he leaves Wally behind.  Wally isn't alone, though--he meets a ghost girl, Breeth, who only he can hear, whose spirit can posses anything organic, and who desperately wants his help to revenge herself on her murderer.  Arthur, full of dreams of being a gentleman thief, like the hero of his favorite adventure books, steels himself to go back for Wally....and so the two boys become, for the moment, part of the Weirdwood team.

And it's a team that needs all the help it can.  The instigator of the attacks through the boarder between real and unreal is incredibly powerful, and can shape stories that terrorize Kingsport.  Wally and Arthur must harness their own stories to fight back.  With help from Breeth and her skills of ghostly possession (helped less by her penchant for puns), from the gentleman thief of Arthur's books and his merry skeleton crew, and from the Weirdwood agents (a young dragon boy and a fierce swordswinging girl), they defend their city from deadly nightmares....

So in answer to the question I posed above--yes, there's horror (if you have a strong aversion to tentacles and crows, you might think twice about this one), and yes, it's very vivid indeed (in many place, like bad dreams that stay shockingly real when you wake up).  But it is also a story of full of friendship, and loyalty, and good heartedness, and bravery, and lots of magic that's not always scary!  Wally, Arthur, and Breeth are great characters, perhaps the most memorable I've read about so far this year.  Though Wally is perhaps the more sympathetic of the two boys, Arthur overshadows him a bit; he's more flawed and more flamboyant).  And the story, which seems fairly simple at first, moves from simmer to full on boil with great aplomb!

It ends at an ending, but there's lots of scope for more, and I hope more comes sooner rather than later!

Short answer: a cracking read.  Particularly recommended for mg horror fans who are starting to play D. and D. and reading more traditional fantasy.

(note to those looking for it--the RI library system is shelving this under S for Shivering, even though Heidicker's name is clearly on the cover...I'm not sure how universal this choice of shelving name is....)

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (6/28/20)

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

The Reviews

Bob's Saucer Repair, by Jerry Boyd, at A Garden of Books

Catalyst, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Creature of the Pines (Unicorn Rescue Society #1), by Adam Gidwitz, at Twirling Book Princess

Dragon Detective: School’s Out, by Gareth P Jones, at Readaraptor

Esme’s Gift, by Elizabeth Foster, at Mai's Musings
The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key, at Semicolon

Friend or Fiction, by Abby Cooper, at Rajiv's Reviews

The Girl and the Witch's Garden by Erin Bowman, at Girl Who Reads

Guest, by Mary Downing Hahn, at Books in the Middle

Hollow Dolls by MarcyKate Connolly, at The Literary Maven

Mañanaland, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, at Books4YourKids

Misadventures of a Magician's Son, by Laurie Smollett Kutscera, at Kid Lit Reviews

The Mysterious Woods of Whistle Root, by Christopher Pennell, at Woodpecker Books

Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez, at Mom Read It

Spell & Spindle, by Michelle Schusterman, at Puss Reboots

The Stone Cage, by Nicholas Stuart Gray, guest post by Kate Forsyth at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows, by J.M. Bergen, at The Geekish Brunette

Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria, by J.M. Bergen, at Always in the Middle

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, by Adrianna Cuevas, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.

Twighlight Hauntings, by Angie Sage, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Unready Queen (Oddmire #2), by William Ritter, at J.R.'s Book Reviews, Evelyn Reads, Jill's Book Blog, The Reading Chemist, Motif by Tanya, and Read Love

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Catalyst, by Sarah Beth Durst and  Artemis Fowl: How to be a LEPrecon, by Matthew K. Manning

Authors and Interviews

Maria Kuzniar (The Ship of Shadows) at Stephanie Burgis

Henry Clark (What We Found in the Corn Maze and How It Saved a Dragon) talks about world building at diy MFA podcast

Laura Stegman (Summer of L.U.C.K.) at MG Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Tor's rereading of The Silver Chair continues

Hunted by the Sky, by Tanaz Bhathena

Hunted by the Sky (The Wrath of Ambar #1) by Tanaz Bhathena (June 23rd 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux) has magic, secrets and intrigue, powerful and amoral antagonists, class struggles, gender struggles, nascent romance, and a vivid background based on Vedic and Medival India!

Twenty years ago, vicious King Lohar ascended the throne of Ambar, and his priests prophesied that a magic-wielding girl, marked with a star, would be his downfall.  So of course he began hunting all girls with star-shaped birthmarks, draining their magic, and killing them

Gul was such a girl, born with magic (though not able to do much with it) and with a star-shaped mark on her arm.  When King Lohar's ruthless soldiers get word of her existence, and kill her parents, she barely escapes.  She vows vengeance, but even though her magic becomes focused enough to let her communicate with animals (including a lovely horse!), she has no idea how she'll kill the king.

Then she's taken in by the Sisters of the Golden Lotus, women plotting to overthrow the tyrant.  They train her in warrior magic, and her potential begins to emerge, explosively and powerfully.  But they can't get her into the castle to kill the king....and their leader, being far wiser than a traumatized teenaged girl, knows that killing one specific tyrant won't help in the grand scheme of things...

Cavas is a teenaged boy who works in the king's stables, spending everything he earns on medicine for his father, dying of the illness common in the poverty stricken tenements of the city.  He has no magic, and so the magial elite despise him as a dirt-licker.   He does not love the king (why would he?), but he is not a rebel at heart.  But when his path crosses with Gul in the city's bazaar, sparks fly,  and their lives are twisted together.

Which is to say there's a lot more story about what happens when Cavas gets Gul into the castle.  We get to see lots more of the magic of this world and how it works, secrets about people's identities are revealed, and there's violence and death....

This is where I started really enjoying the story, about halfway through.  Before then, it was fine, but I wasn't hooked--thinking about it, both of the point of view characters aren't really interacting with other people; both are somewhat isolated. And this didn't make it easy to connect with them.  When they connect with each other,  the reader finally gets to see them from another person's eyes, and gets to see them getting to know each other in prickly, difficult circumstances.   The scale of the magical world enlarges, too, once the action moves to the castle.  Details about other nations, magical beings, history and stories, small household magics and bigger ones made Gul and Cavas' personal struggles more meaningful, and the setting more vivid.

There are a lot of books about girls of destiny who become queens (though in this first book of the series we are left in the middle of the story, before she actually becomes queen), and some are better than others.  I see no reason why YA readers of that genre won't love this series; it has all the right elements including a potential love triangle--there's a third character one could certainly ship Gul with instead of Cavas….).  The Indian background of the story, the grappling with how to effect change, and the secrets the two main characters discover about themselves make this one stand out in a somewhat crowded field.

I ended up definitely sold on this, and look forward to the second book, coming next year!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher