6/21/21
Even and Odd, by Sarah Beth Durst
6/20/21
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (6/20/21)
"How Kiki’s Delivery Service Mixes the Magical and the Mundane" at Tor
13 Magical Middle Grade Mermaid Books, at Book Riot
6/17/21
The Seventh Raven, by David Elliott
A woodcutter and his wife have been blessed with seven sons.
And these are the sons
Of good Jack and good Jane
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn.
Robyn is not like his brothers, content with the hard labor of cutting wood. He is a dreamer, out of place in his family, pretty clearly coded as queer.
Why was I born into this family?
This body? This time? This land? This space?
Did nature play a joke or simply misplace
the instructions about who I was meant to be?
Jack and Jane aren't content with seven sons; they long for a daughter. But when she is born, it seems she will die. The boys scramble to fetch water so the priest can baptizer her. In the rush to fetch it the pail is lost...and the father, enraged, curses his sons.
While she lies here dying
Our daughter our prize
Our one consolation
these boys are a torment
no better than ravens
There are different poetic voices used for the characters--the parents, the older brothers, April, and Robyn. At its best, the words sing and make sharp pictures in the mind. It didn't quite work for me because I got hung up on something other readers might not give two hoots about--the woodcutter and his family quite often use words that don't seem appropriate for simple wood-cutting folk. I found it jarring. If it had just been Robyn the dreamer or April the questor I wouldn't have minded, but the brothers speaking of the wildwood's "strident harangue" or Jane contemplating a "rank maze of resentment and acrimony" and such gave me pause. It seemed to me that the poetry was being put ahead of characterization.
6/13/21
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (6/13/21)
Going Wild, by Lisa McMann, at Say What?
6/11/21
Hollow Chest, by Brita Sandstrom
When Theo went off to fight in the war, Charlie promised that he would take care of their mother and aging grandfather. He has been counting the days till Theo comes home from the war. But when he arrives home, injured and traumatized, he's not the big brother Charlie remembered. His warmth and love are missing.
And Charlie, troubled by his own nightmares and the horror of the blitz, which claimed his father's life, is determined to fix things.
But it's not easy. Theo has fallen victim to the war wolves, fell creatures who have eaten the hearts of humans since time began; he now has only a hollow where his heart should be. The wolves are prowling the streets of London, where the returning soldiers and war damaged civilians are easy prey. With the help of his brave cat, a strange, raggedy old lady and her pigeon flock, and his own determination not to give in, Charlie confronts the wolves, and finds out what they really are....
Just to be clear, these are real magical wolves (albeit allegorical wolves as well), and Charlie's journey through London to find them is a magical adventure. Both are very effective--it's gripping to see Charlie's understanding of the wolves grow along with his own maturity and insight, and the wolves are fierce and scary enough to provide enough tension and momentum to the story to keep things moving. And also just to be clear--there no magical healing of anybody's trauma at the end, though Charlie's bravery does give hope that healing will happen.
It's a great pick for kids who love emotional weight resting on real-world fantasy frameworks! The wolves, with names like Remorse, Hunger, and Anguish, will roam in the imagination long after the book is finished, and Charlie's hard-won understanding of the cost of war will also off much food for thought. The cat (a lovely cat!) and the pigeons (brave pigeons!) provide some light relief, while intermittent somber illustrations add haunting atmosphere. The fairy-tale feel of the story is further heightened by stories told by the characters, not long or intrusive enough to disrupt the flow, but serving to beautifully highlight emotional beats of Charlie's journey.
I personally had a slightly rocky start with the book, because it begins with Charlie lighting the family's woodstove, and woodstoves were not a thing in WW II London; it would have been a coal stove (possibly they would have burned salvaged wood from bombed building in it too, but still it wouldn't have been a "woodstove"). I was afraid that the American author would continue to get UK details wrong, but fortunately this was the only thing that really jumped out at me...
That aside, this is a really impressive, well-written debut by an author I'll be sure to watch out for!
Here are the other blog tour stops:
June 7 Nerdy Book Club @nerdybookclub
June 8 Bluestocking Thinking @bluesockgirl
June 9 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers @grgenius
June 10 Teachers Who Read @teachers_read
June 13 Storymamas @storymamas
June 14 A Library Mama @alibrarymama
June 15 Writer’s Rumpus @kirsticall
6/10/21
All Our Hidden Gifts, by Caroline O'Donoghue
All Our Hidden Gifts, by Caroline O'Donoghue (June 8th 2021, Walker Books US, YA), is a story of magic and growing up/friendship/love all twisted together with darkness....It is an excellent read!
Maeve is a rather difficult teenager. The youngest of a large Irish family, she feels that she's a failure--she's not particularly gifted, and isn't doing well at the small and expensive Catholic girls school she goes to, partly because academic work doesn't come easily, and partly because she's uncooperative. She's barely part of a medium- grade social level at school, and this she only achieved by cutting off, very cruelly, her best friend from childhood, Lily. Lily's eccentricities made her unacceptable to the other girls, and by extension, to Maeve as well (and indeed, the "licking strange things" game took weirdness to a level I'd have been uncomfortable with too when Lily, no longer a little kid but a young teenager, licked a boy's neck...).
The story begins with Maeve being punished by the school with the unpleasant task of cleaning out a basement storage room. There in the junk she finds something that changes her life--a deck of tarot cards. Maeve, intrigued, studies tarot, and finds she has a gift for seeing the connections and meanings in the cards. Soon all her classmates are hounding her for tarot readings. Fiona, a theater girl who Maeve had never given much thought to, takes an interest, and soon is acting as Maeve's booking agent and is becoming a real friend.
But when the other girls pressure Maeve into doing a reading for Lily, who doesn't actually want anything to do with it, things go terribly wrong. A truly disturbing card that shouldn't be in the deck, the Housekeeper, shows up. Lily demands Maeve tell her what it means, and when Maeve can't, the tension builds. "I wish I had never been friends with you," Maeve snaps. "Lily, I wish you would disappear."
And that is just what happens the next day.
Maeve, Fiona, and Lily's non-binary older sibling, Roe, set out to work through the dark magic at work and bring Lily back. But this isn't the only darkness that's entered their lives--a fundamentalist cult is at work in town, violently preaching a return to "values." And complicating things still further, Maeve and Roe are falling in love....while Maeve keeps from them all the cruelty she's dealt Lily over the past few years, and her final words.
As they plunge deeper in the the mystery of the Housekeeper card, and her own dark history, the truth of what they must do emerges, and it is terrible....
While all the while being a tremendously gripping read! There was much I enjoyed and appreciated. Maeve isn't exactly likeable, but she grew on me, and she and her friends are vividly real and engaging. The tarot cards and Maeve's readings were fascinating. The bigotry (Fiona is half Filipina, and this has presented challenges) and violent homophobia (not only impacting Roe, but also Maeve's lesbian older sister), though magically fueled, heighten the tension of their quest beautifully (and I appreciated that this realistic part of the story isn't magically fixed at the end). The hidden gifts referenced in the title didn't quite work for me, because they seemed unearned and to inexplicable, but they do set the stage for more about these four kids, and that's a good thing.
If you are a fan of teenaged girls in the real world acquiring magical powers and having to learn quickly how to use them in desperate circumstances, or a fan of girls who have been really, deeply unkind to people during dark young teen times and then work hard to make up for it, or a fan of kids who don't follow the neat path of parental/societal norms, and find each other, or a fan of love stories between difficult girls and beautiful non-binary musicians, or tarot cards, or all of the above, this is one for you!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
6/8/21
Blitzed, by Robert Swindells, for Timeslip Tuesday
Georgie is a normal boy of 2002, with a bit of an attitude, a fondness for "creeping" with his mates through the local back gardens in commando-style raids (which didn't endear him to me), and a keen interest in World War II. He's thrilled to go on a class trip to a former POW camp turned WW 2 museum, with 29 huts each showcasing a particular aspect of the war. The fifth hut, in which there's a replica of a bombed London street, is the most gripping. All the sounds and smells are there, and there's even a hand, reaching helpless out of the rubble. And suddenly Georgie is there too, seeing it all in real life, and running from the desperate hand, instead of trying to help.
The first few days of being lost, scared, and starving are terrible ones, but then his luck gets better. He finds a group of kids living furtively in a bombed out pub, surviving under the leadership of Ma, who lets Georgie join them.
Ma isn't a grown-up herself, though; she is only 14. By dint of shear force of will she's able to keep the kids reasonably clean and fed (though poorly) with her wages from a work at a dingy second-hand clothing shop. And Georgie takes his place in the group, and starts helping her in the shop (when the proprietor is away). It is all horrible (and one of the kid's is killed by a bomb), and rather boring for the people living through it at the same time time.
But things heat up story-wise when Georgie finds evidence that the shop keeper is a spy, and Ma and the kids help find more evidence. Georgie gets a real war time adventure, and then finds himself home again....and finds Ma again too.
Georgie tells his story in short first person chapters, giving it an immediacy and intimacy that draws the reader in (and making it a good one for emergent middle grade readers). His traumatized reactions (throwing up more than once, collapsing into tears) ring true. Yet it's not all doom and gloom; Georgie is a smart-alek, and though I didn't like this in his 21st century self, it added humor to his time in the past, as did the 21st century colloquialisms and slips that he makes as a time-traveler.6/6/21
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (6/6/21)
Curse of the Phoenix, by Aimee Carter, at The Bookwyrm's Den
When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller, at Completely Full Bookshelf
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher, has won the 2020 Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (and it's a very fun book that I recommend highly!) Here at Tor are all the Nebula shortlists and winners
6/1/21
Da Vinci's Cat, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, for Timeslip Tuesday
Da Vinci's Cat, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (May 25th 2021, Greenwillow Books), is a real treat for those of us who love time travel, cats, and the splendors and intrigues of Renaissance Italy!
Frederico is just an ordinary boy in 16th-century Rome (he's not extraordinary among heirs to wealthy and powerful noble families, and it's not that odd for a kid be held as a hostage by the Pope to keep those families in check). But his life becomes most extraordinary when a cat comes out of a large and strangely decorated wooden wardrobe. Frederico is lonely--games of checkers with the Pope, chats with Raphael, busy and distracted by his art, and annoying tutors are the extent of his social life--and he welcomes the companionship of the cat.
The strange man coming out of the wardrobe soon after is at first less welcome. Herbert has arrived a strange place, New Jersey, far in the future, and offers chocolate, peanuts, and conversation (all welcomed) and all he wants from Frederico are sketches by the resident artists (as well as Raphael, Michelangelo is there, busily painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel). Turns out the wardrobe was made by Leonardo Da Vinci, and Herbert is taking advantage of it to collect art to sell in the 21st century.
Herbert desperately wants Frederico to help him get Raphael to sign a sketch for him to take home....but things get complicated, and Herbert's visits stop. Instead, a 21st century girl arrives through the wardrobe instead. Bee has found herself tangled in Herbert's unfinished business....and she needs Frederico's help if she is going to finally get the Raphael sketch signed.
And so a lovely cross-culture exchange happens, with Frederico moving from hostility and suspicion to friendship, and Bee moves from babbling about Narnia to accepting she's 500 years in the past....But the sketch signing becomes more complicated than expected, and one thing leads to another until Michelangelo's completion of the Sistine Chapel, and Frederico's own life, are in danger...
I really enjoyed this one lots. Not one, perhaps, for lovers of wild excitement, though there was tension throughout, mounting toward the end. As well as checking the basic boxes of my personal taste--Renaissance Italy, art, cat, friendship, and of course time travel, it's a very character rich story, rich as well in descriptions of beautiful and interesting things, the sort of story which I personally like more than wild adventures. I also liked Bee very much and really enjoyed her interactions with "Fred."
It's neat time travel too, not explained much but given a magical credibility by the Da Vinci having made the wardrobe. Mostly we see Frederico's time through Bee's eyes, which was very relatable, but his reactions to the strangeness of her came up a lot too, and were often amusing.
And it has the added bonus of being educational--I myself learned more history through reading children's books than I ever did in school, and this one would have filled a gap very nicely indeed (I can't remember any fiction about the Italian Renaissance from when I was kid (1970s, early 80s....)
(side note, for those looking for normalization of same sex parents--Bee has two great moms. Frederico's reaction--which one had the larger dowry?).
5/30/21
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (5/30/21)
Here's what I found this week; nothing from me, because I have had back to back houseguest weekends (and since I haven't had houseguests for ages of course there was much housecleaning to be done....sigh) interspersed with plasterers (which entailed more post plaster housecleaning). Please let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
The Crackledawn Dragon, by Abi Elphinstone, at Bellis Does BooksFrom Spare Oom to War Drobe: Travels in Narnia with my nine-year-old self, by Katherine Langrish, at The Daily Mail
Jungle Drop, by Abi Elphinstone, at Book Craic
The Last Fallen Star, by Graci Kim, at Eli to the nth and Rajiv's Reviews
The Last Shadow Warrior, by Sam Subity, at Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.by Sarwat Chadda
At Tor-"Worlds Beyond: How The Chronicles of Narnia Introduced Us to Other Authors We Love"
The 2021 Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlists have been announced
Dwarfs, Pixies and the “Little Dark People” at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
5/23/21
This week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (5/23/21)
5/18/21
Glitch, by Laura Martin, for Timeslip Tuesday
I really enjoyed Glitch, by Laura Martin (Harper Collins, June 2020)--not only was there fun time travel, but it was also a school story with an enemies into friends twist, so it was right up my alley!
Regan and Elliot both have the gene that lets them time travel, and both are students at the Academy which trains kids like them to be Glitchers, going back in time on missions to keep history safe from interference by those who would alter what actually happened. They don't have a choice about this--all kids with this gene are gathered in by the Academy as infants. Regan's mom happens to be the director, but Elliot has no memories of his family.
The two of them dislike each other lots--Elliot thinks Regan is a spoiled princess, and Regan thinks Elliot is a know-it-all jerk. Neither is entirely wrong. But fate throws them together when Regan finds a note left to her by someone from the future, and Elliot intercepts it. It's a crypt note warning of things to come and things that must be done, and both kids are appalled to find themselves entangled in one of the very butterfly effects they are supposed to be working to stop.
Not content with implicating the two kids in an illegal manipulation of time, fate throws another wrench in their lives. Competing in a stimulated mission challenge, they unwittingly demonstrate that to the Academy staff that they make a great team. And so, with no say in the matter, they are shipped off to an even more secret campus of the Academy to train together. For the rest of their lives as Glitchers (which won't be that long, because time travel burns a person out, forcing adults to retire early), they will have to work together.
But to do that, they will have to figure out how to get along, and figure out the clues given them from the future in order to save the Academy and the Glitchers from a threat to its very existence by their enemies who want to change the past.
It beautifully vivid time travel to a variety of periods (mostly simulations sending them into pivotal moments of American history, like Gettysburg and Lincoln's assassination). The task in each mission is to identify and foil the person trying to change the past. Regan has almost preternatural intuition when it comes to identifying that person, and Elliot has a wealth of knowledge and a respect of the rules, so they do actually complement each other.
The time travel is brisk and to the point; the kids can't interact with the past for fear of changing it themselves, so it's more a matter of observation, survival, and capturing the enemy. There's enough consideration about the ethics of the whole set-up to give the Glitchers the moral high ground, while being thought provoking. And it was a fun story in its own right, with the threat to the Academy giving the story dramatic forward progress while still leaving lots of room for the more personal story of Elliot and Regan figuring things out.
(there was only thing that bothered me--as an adult, I was rather distressed about kids being taken in as babies, and how little the Academy does to be a warm and nurturing place, which explains a lot about poor Elliot!)
But in any event, I would definitely read another book about the Glitchers!
(Elliot is described as dark-skinned, and shown on the cover thus, and so I'm counting this as one for more list of diverse middle grade sci fi/fantasy).
5/16/21
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (5/16/21)
Sea of Kings, by Melissa Hope, at Always in the Middle
Tangara, by Nan Chauncy, at Charlotte's Library
A Test of Courage (A Star Wars Junior Novel) by Justina Ireland, at megsbookrackThe Untimely Journey of Veronica T. Boone: Part 1 - Laurentide, by D.M. Sears, at N.N. Lights Book Heaven
Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Last Gate of Emperor, by Kwame Mbalia and Prince JOel Makonnen, and The Last Fallen Star, by Graci Kim
Alane Adams (Legends of Olympus-Medusa Quest) at Middle Grade Ninja
Tim Tilley (Harklights) at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Sarah Prineas (Trouble in the Stars) at Fuse #8
Ross Mackenzie (Feast of the Evernight) at Scope for Imagination5/15/21
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, by Kaela Rivera
5/11/21
Tangara, by Nan Chauncy, for Timeslip Tuesday
This is the story of Lexie, a white girl in 1950s Tasmania, who travels back in time to the 19th century where she is befriended by Merrina, an aboriginal Tasmanian girl. A halcyon time ensues, with the white girl learning some of the language and culture of her new friend (rather magically, and Lexie takes it rather for granted that they can talk to each other), with much laughter and joy. It is lovely reading. The Aboriginal culture is exoticized, yes, but through the eyes of a child for whom it is more fascinated interest than colonialist superiority; the Aboriginal culture is not less than or worse than the European culture. There's a bit when Lexie eats a live grub, and manages to appreciate the taste. The cross cultural exploration goes both ways--Merrina thinks Lexie smells awful, finds clothes, and in particular the peeling off of stockings, hilarious, and makes fun of Lexie's pathetic attempts to move silently through the bush.
But then there is a massacre, and Lexie is there when two white men gun down Merrina's people, who are trapped in the deep cleft in the earth that has been hiding them from the genocidal invaders.Gradually, Merrina fades in Lexie's memory, and her life becomes one of school, girl guides, and ordinary friends. But Merrina is still there in the ravine, and when Lexie's older brother finds himself injured and alone in that very ravine, she saves his life, and Lexie sees her again, with much love and sadness mixed.
So the note of caution--this book was written in 1960. The everyday terminology used when discussing Aboriginal people is offensive to the modern reader. Off-setting this is that Lexie and her extended family find the past genocide appalling in no uncertain terms, at least once correct someone being blatantly disparaging about the Aboriginal Tasmanians, and strongly condemn past practices, like putting people's bones in museums. So though I was worried this would be so horrifyingly racist and patronizing I wouldn't be able to read it, I was in fact able to.
And I ended up being tremendously moved by it, to the point of tears. And then I went and read up on Tasmanian history, and learned lots (since I was starting basically at zero, this was not hard.). One thing I learned was that Nan Chauncy, being a person of her time, saw no reason not to doubt the myth of Aborignal extinction in Tasmania.
In conclusion, this is the sort of time travel I love best--with the time travel giving just huge emotional weight to the story because of the deep friendship between the two girls, while educating and entertaining and horrifying me along the way. And as an added bonus, the landscape and its flora and fauna came alive to me as well.
5/9/21
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (5/9/21)
Other Good Stuff
Congratulations to Amari and the Night Brothers, by B.B. Alston, for being the winner in the Young Readers category of the first Barnes and Noble children's and YA book awards!
5/6/21
Last Gate of the Emperor, by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen
5/4/21
Pigsticks and Harold Lost in Time! by Alex Milway
For this week's Timeslip Tuesday, one for younger readers--Pigsticks and Harold Lost in Time! by Alex Milway (Candlewick, 2017). This was the first time I met this pig and hamster duo, and I enjoyed the fun of their adventures in time!