Straw into Gold: Fairy Tales Re-Spun, by Hilary McKay, at Books YA Love
Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend (Winnie Zheng #1) by Katie Zhao, at Charlotte's Library
Winnie is anxious about starting middle school, and is dismayed when her nemesis, David, shows up in her class. Nemesis is perhaps too strong a word; David is just utterly obnoxious, has beaten her in recent piano competitions, and is her arch rival at Chinese school. Winnie's also dealing with a lot of pressure to succeed from her parents, and is sad that her big sister has pulled away from her. She feels that she's never good enough, and it's eating at her. At least she still has her mother's tasty Chinese food (although the other kids at school don't react kindly to her lunches...).
When Winnie finds her grandmother's old cook book and follows the recipe for mooncakes, all her other problems fade when her grandmother's spirit shows up and possesses her pet rabbit. Her grandmother is a spirit hunter, and is about to take Winnie on as an apprentice shaman. The first malevolent spirit that shows up is easily vanquished with the mooncakes she unwittingly made with magic baked in, but mooncakes aren't a match for more powerful demons. And then it turns out that David is also a shaman in training too, and is (of course) more advanced than she is, and utterly obnoxious about it all. But teaming up with him is the only way to keep her town safe.
Of course it's cool to be part of a magical organization, with legends coming to life around you. Winnie isn't at all sure, though, that this is what she wants her life to be....
It is super fun! The real world and the magical world balance each other beautifully, and Winnie is such a believable, relatable heroine! (Especially the part where she questions whether "heroine" is what she really wants to be...). I liked how the sister relationship played out--communication between the two girls improves, and helps them tighten their bond again. The food was great too--I now want to try red bean paste brownies, which I've never had (Winnie makes them for the class bake sale, and it's touch and go for a while before suspicious kids realize how tasty they are!).
A great "kid discovering she's part of a line of mythological heroes" story that's more firmly tied to the real world and the day to day challenges of being a middle school kid than the Rick Riordan Presents line of books. Also weaponized mooncakes ftw!
I'm looking forward to seeing what Winnie (and David) do next!
Let the Monster Out, by Chad Lucas at Teen Librarian Toolbox
The Marvellers, by Dhonielle Clayton, at The Washington Post
The Nightsilver Promise, by Annaliese Avery, at Page UnboundAtop the unfinished cathedral of the town of Odierne sit its gargoyles, themselves unfinished. All but one spend the days gossiping about what they see below; the outlier stares out like the others, but has no patience for ideal chatter. He is full of frustration; gargoyles are supposed to protect, but he is a lump of stone who was unable to save a woman who jumped from his perch long ago to escape arrest. She and the baby she carried were swept away, leaving the gargoyle to bitter musings.
The baby was fished from the river by a gang of kid thieves, lead by a fiercely intelligent and fiercely lawless boy named Gnat. Little Duck, as they called her, is the youngest of the group, and it's not till the gang's roamings bring them to Odierne, making the cathedral ruins their home, that she's trusted to take on a direct heist on her own. She must pass a false coin at the baker's, and if she fails to bring back bread, she's sure she'll be cast out.
And she is successful, winning a more secure place in her young family of thieves. But then Gnat comes up with his most cunning plan yet--if Duck is apprenticed to the baker, she'll be in a lovely position to syphon off bread and coin to her family....But when Duck is welcomed by the baker, Griselde, and given a room of her own, and given trust as well, she starts down of a path of divided loyalties that almost breaks her. Over the next year, the pulling on her heart intensifies, and at last she is forced to chose who she will betray...the family of kids who raised her, or the woman who is willing to give her love and safety and a living doing what she loves. All the while the gargoyle watches, and finally is able to fulfil his destiny as a protector.
I loved all the details of being apprenticed to a baker (I am a big fan of books in which there is lots of making and crafting), and such a lovely baker too! Griselde is really the one of the best mother figures in any middle grade book I've read for ages, and I really liked that she needs Duck in her life to love just as much as Duck needs her. But the overall situation was so tense and discomfiting this was not at all a comfort read...the tension is strung out from beginning to end, tightening to a breaking point where I had to start skimming a bit (reading the end didn't help, because I knew, it being middle grade, things would almost certainly work out, but the process of things working out was very stressful for me the reader!)
It's not action-packed, but more character driven, so don't go into it expecting lots of middle grade fantasy high jinx! It is fantasy, in as much as it's an alternate world, with the sentient gargoyle providing a depressed gargoyle's point of view (in alternate perspectives with Duck's story), but it's not full of magic. Just found family and bread, and worry....lots of love, and, indeed, the happy ending I was hoping for (although it comes with some interesting twists, and a high cost).
Short answer--one I can easily imaging wanting to re-read in a year or so, and I'll enjoy it even more the second time around (this is why I like re-reading....)
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.
Hi all, here's what I found this week; let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
Kevin Emerson (Drifters) at Nerdy Book Club
Julie C. Dao (Team Chu and the Battle of Blackwood Arena) at MacKids Spotlight
Jenna Yoon (Lia Park and the Missing Jewel) at Kidlit 411 and Middle Grade Ninja
Bridget Hodder (The Button Box), at Middle Grade Minded
Other Good Stuff
I always enjoy the look at new UK books at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
The small town of Far Haven is barely hanging on. There was a nuclear accident a few years ago, and people who could afford to get out did. Now a large part of its population is the team from the accident remediation and monitoring company (who are very intrusive and increasingly creepy). And for one girl, Jovie, the town became even smaller when her best friend Micah disappeared. It's only been a few months, but everyone but Jovie, feeling lost and alone, has forgotten her...
Which they have (except for her parents...who have given up on the search).
Searching for Micah leads Jovie down a path of every increasing strangeness and mystery. She meets a very peculaiar boy, Mason, who gives her a spyglass that lets her see the community of lost and forgotten people living on the beach. They are invisible and untied from ordinary life, drifting toward the pull of a mysterious vortex of light that periodically manifests off the coast, bringing storms and disasters to the town (which like the drifting people, fade from memory....). When Jovie realizes that Micah has probably become a drifter, she becomes determined to bring her back.
With a new friend Sylvan, a younger and also lonely boy, Jovie starts to uncover the strange and shattering truth about the vortex and its potential to bring disaster not just to her town, but possibly the whole world. Dodging the workers of the "clean-up" crew, who are determined not to let her get to close to the truth as they know it, trying to figure out what Mason really knows, trying to find clues in the town's history, she presses on, with the town's history, pockmarked with disasters, leading her to the remarkable truth.About the Author
Kevin Emerson is the author of Last Day on Mars and The
Oceans Between Stars, as well as The Fellowship for Alien
Detection, the Exile series, the Atlanteans series, the Oliver
Nocturne series, and Carlos Is Gonna Get It. Kevin lives with his
family in Seattle. You can visit him online at www.kevinemerson.net.
DRIFTERS
Blog Tour
5/9/22
Nerdy Book Club @nerdybookclub
5/10/22
Bluestocking
Thinking
@bluesockgirl
5/11/22
Charlotte's
Library
@charlotteslibrary
5/13/22
Maria's Mélange @mariaselke
5/16/22
Teachers Who Read @teachers_read
Catherine Bakewell (We are the Song) at Teen Librarian Toolbox
Sci-Fi for Kids Is a Missed Publishing Opportunity, at Publishers Weekly
Nicki Jay has won Lee and Low's New Visions Award for her middle grade fantasy-- The Marassa: Birth*Life*Death Book I. "The Marassa, this year’s winning manuscript, is a middle-grade high fantasy novel about four 12-year-old African-American sorcerers who discover a 500-year-old prophecy that names them as the future destroyers of their sorcerers’ community. The Marassa is destined to stand in their way." Coming in 2024.
Whenever Glennon's dad goes away for work, his mom moves him and his little sister out of the house. They used to go stay with their grandma, but now she has died, and their mom has taken them to stay with a relative they've never met who's a lighthouse keeper on a remote island in Lake Superior. Glennon counts the days till they get off the island.
With just a few more days to go, the island is slammed by an early winter storm. A ship wrecks on the nearby coast, and the three survivors shelter in the lighthouse. And Glennon becomes convinced that something more than an ordinary Lake Superior tragedy has happened. One of the survivors seems horribly...not right.
This is right at the beginning of the book, so there is no build up of suspense--it is right there at the start! But there is definitely build up of the creepy--things are more and more Wrong, and more impossible to explain away, until Glennon and his sister realize they are in mortal peril from supernatural forces, trapped on an island that will not let them leave. And the gothic horror ratchets up even further to a tremendous climax with twists I didn't see coming!
As the supernatural horror builds, so does the readers understanding of the verbal abuse and anger Glennon's gotten all his life from his father; it's clear early on that he and his sister have PTSD, and that not all is well with their mother either. Having to deal with an unbearably awful situation on the island, though, helps Glennon start to untangle himself from years of damaging undermining from his father, and this real-world positive progress is a welcome contrast to the gothic darkness crashing around the cursed island. (There's an author's note at the end, clarifying how Glennon's memories of his father's words that surface during the story are real abuse, discussing how this has affected him and his sister, and encouraging young readers in similar positions to seek help from trusted adults).
In good middle grade fashion, Glennon and his sister are the catalyst for their escape, but they couldn't have done it without grown-ups willing to put themselves at risk to make it happen. Also as is the case with many good middle grade books, there's an intelligent cat who helps for a given value of cat-help. Both things I liked. I also liked all the ghost ships (what a wide variety of obsolete vessels there are in the harbor these days! think the kids, more or less, and yet no transport is available off the island....) and the nods to real maritime misfortunes of Lake Superior. The awful undead rats swarming around the island, are, however, not likeable....
In short, though I personally would have liked a bit more about life on the island before it became a place of nightmares, to ground the story in reality before the reality explodes, Monsters in the Mist is a powerfully spooky and thought-provoking read, and one I appreciated lots,
Monsters in the Mist is Juliana Brandt's third book, the first two being The Wolf of Cape Fen (2020) and A Wilder Magic (2021), both from SourcebooksKids. As well as being an author, she's a kindergarten teacher with a passion for storytelling that guides her in both of her jobs. She lives in her childhood home of Minnesota, and her writing is heavily influenced by travels around the country and decade living in the South.
And now it is my pleasure to welcome her to my blog! (my questions are in bold)
What was the inspiration for Monsters in the Mist? (hopefully not a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior).
Goodness, the inspiration came from many places, although no, it definitely didn't come from a disastrous boat trip on Lake Superior! I did find a lot of direct inspiration from Lake Superior itself, though, mostly from Split Rock Lighthouse - a lighthouse in Two Harbors, MN. I toured this lighthouse in October on a very blustery day. I knew immediately that I needed to use this setting for a book. I created my own version of that lighthouse and stuck it on an island that is a very real (and yet very fake!) island on Lake Superior. In the 1700s, a mapmaker drew an extra island on Lake Superior. Mapmakers kept inserting the same island on their own maps, even though no such island actually existed on the lake. It took a few decades before cartographers realized it wasn't real. I thought that history was fascinating, and it made me wonder what that island would be like if it were actually real.
What bit of the book do you hope your readers will love most, and/or perhaps be most horrified/scared about?
I hope readers love the spookiness of the story. I tried to create my own monsters for this book, and I hope they're both scary and fascinating. I wanted my monsters to be sympathetic; I wanted people to understand how they'd become so monstrous and why they'd chosen the path they had. And also that while we can be sympathetic toward the monsters, it doesn't mean that their behavior or their choices are excused. I would very much like readers to walk away with the message that the words we choose to use with one another matters deeply.
I appreciated that the town librarian specifically recommends Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, to the kids--an excellent choice. Was there a specific reason you picked this book?
Howl's Moving Castle is my absolute favorite book! It's one that's stuffed full of all the things I enjoy most about stories - magic and surprising twists and a wonderful monster. In the scene where the book is mentioned, the librarian is talking about reading what makes you happy, and for me, Howl's is a book that never fails to make me happy. I was so excited to include mention of it in my own book because of how much it's meant to me over the years.
Monsters is your first book since things are moving toward normal again, fingers crossed.... Your first book, The Wolf of Cape Fen, will always have a special place in my mind (Here's my review). Not only did I enjoy it lots, but when it came out, just a few weeks into the pandemic in the spring of 2020, it was the first book I picked to order from my local independent bookstore as a show of support for authors and indies, so I have powerful memories tied to it. What was it like, having your debut book come out at such a fraught time?
It certainly wasn't easy. The shift from planning in person events and making plans for trips and book tours to cancelling everything and switching to online events (before we really knew what online events could look like!) was a difficult transition. It certainly wasn't the experience I thought debuting would be. At the same time though, I was incredibly supported in the book community and by my friends and family. I truly felt like everyone rallied around me. It's also helped me truly appreciate everything I'm able to experience with Monsters in the mist, now that I'm able to schedule in person events again.
With your third book, are you able to get a chance to do more of the author-ish things that the pandemic shut down?
Yes! I have wonderful events planned throughout May and into the summer. This past week when Monsters in the Mist published, I was able to have my first in person book launch. It was everything I wanted to experience the first time around, and I'm so glad to have finally been able to have that! It's truly wonderful to be able to talk with people in person and celebrate books in an actual bookstore, instead of online. I have school visits and writing classes and bookstore events scheduled. It's all an absolute delight to be able to plan. (here are her upcoming events)
and finally, what are you working on now?
Secret projects! I have a few manuscripts in the works, but as of now, they're all in the "in between" moment. Hopefully they'll become projects that I can announce publicly soon.
and even more finally, is there an interview question that you have a really good answer for that I haven't asked?
At my bookstore event, I was asked a very good question that I've never been asked before. "How have my books changed me?" We talk about readers being changed by books, but books change authors too! I think that my books have helped me become a braver, more honest person. Writing a book is such an introspective process, for me, and with each one I write, I end up asking deep questions of myself, about who I am and who I want to be. It really can be a transformative experience.
thanks so much, Juliana! And best of luck with your ongoing projects! And now I shall go listen to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald--"The lake it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy..."
In any event, it was a lovely surprise to find myself reading a really good new to me book!
Rose is an orphaned girl, raised, for a very paltry value of raised, by her grandmother. She's never been friends with any children, and has never been shown any affection. When her grandmother dies, she's sent off to live with her aunt and uncle, and their four boys, in an old house in Canada. The aunt and uncle are well meaning, but they don't have the time and energy to help Rose start healing from her years of neglect, and Rose doesn't feel wanted, and doesn't want to be there. Then she finds the old root cellar that turns into a gateway to the past.
Back in the 1860s, Rose feels strangely happy. She's able to make friends with two kids there--Will, the son of the house, and Susan, a servant girl. Time in the present doesn't pass while she's in the past, but Will and Susan are older when she next visits them. The Civil War is raging, and Will decides to go off and fight. When Rose goes back in time again, Will hasn't come home. So she persuades Susan that they must go look for him, and so ensues a long and arduous journey to the crowded hospitals of Washington D.C., full of the horrors of war....
And that journey helps Rose grow emotionally, can find a place in her own time, with her own family.
It's an engrossing story, and a fascinating one! Really quality time travel, and a must read for anyone who enjoys stories of children coming to grips with what it means to be a person amongst other people. Good Civil War history too.
(Home renovation-wise, I'm a bit appalled by the state of the aunt and uncle's house; I would have been almost as horrified as Rose was and I like old houses! They need to get the walls fixed before winter comes!)
Ikenna was ready to give up on her ambition to become one of the elite Praetorian Guard after her grandfather's death throws her into acute depression. But when she finds out she was murdered, she becomes fueled by rage and determination to find the killer, and becoming one of the Guard will help her do that. The trials the would-be guard members, the best and brightest of the military recruits, are put through are brutal, and often fatal (which seemed really wasteful as a military strategy; this thought kept distracting me). Ikenna gives and gets horrible injuries, the body count is in the hundreds, and things seem pretty hopeless for her at many points in the story.
Ikenna, having inherited the dark skin of her grandfather's family, faces awful racism, is a woman in a misogynist society, and is often self-sabotaged by her lack of emotional control born from anger and grief, but she has a secret advantage--she has a blood gift, from the old gods...one that her country's greatest enemy uses as a terrible weapon. She can't risk having it discovered, but she can't help but uses it when needed, to ferret out secrets and heal herself from the many injuries the trials inflict on her.
In the course of the trials, surrounded by people she cannot trust, many of whom hate her (even without knowing about her blood gift) more death and guilt add to her burden, and a night of forbidden passion doesn't help. But she perseveres, leaving a blood-stained wake, until, like opening a series of nesting dolls, she realizes at the end of the book that the fight she's undertaken for justice, and her own right to exist, is much greater than she'd imagined.
Ikenna's strong emotions are perfectly understandable, but don't leave much room in her headspace for the reader to get to know other dimensions of her personality. (I would have liked more intelligence, and less emotional response....). And the pretty much non-stop violence of the trials, and the hate she gets thrown, and the betrayals she endures, don't make for easy reading; it was all a bit much for me. I didn't actually enjoy it much, though I never considered not finishing the book, because of wanting to know what happened. But having reached the end of the book, with the stakes becoming increasingly higher, Ikenna at last has reached a point where she has people on her side, and no longer has to hide who she is, so I'm pretty willing to give the second book at try.
So not a book for me, but if you look at the Goodreads reviews, plenty of people loved it.....
disclaimer: review copy received from the publicist.
Wyrd and Wonder is a month long celebration of the fantastic (now in its fifth year) and I decided I needed to do something fresh here at my blog, and so I'm joining in with the read a longs and discussion prompts, and some vigorous reading from my tbr pile.
I had a fun time shopping in that huge pile for books to read this month along side my regular middle grade and time travel reading, and here's what I came up with.
Some of these have been on the pile for years-I have a bad habit of buying books I really want to read, and then once I've secured them, somehow the potential to read them takes the place of actually doing so.
Because I can't take good pictures, here are the books--
A Castle of Tangled Magic, by Sophie Anderson
Prophesies, Libels & Dreams, by Ysabeau Wilce
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, by K.I. Parker
Nikoles, by Rachel Neumeier
The Bird and the Blade, by Megan Bannon
Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo
The Story of Owen, Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, by E.K, Johnston
A Psalm for the Wild Build, by Becky Chambers
A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
Foxheart, by Claire Legrand
Interworld, by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Stealing Death, by Janet Lee Carey
Kingfisher, by Patricia McKillip
The House of Mountfathom, by Nigel McDowell
The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner
Look for my wrap-up review post on May 31! (d.v.)
Here's what I found this week! Enjoy, and let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
The Art of Magic, by Hannah Voskuil, at Say What?Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker, at Proseandkahn (audiobook review)
Wilder Than Midnight, by Cerrie Burnell, at Book Craic
Wind, by Ellen Dee Davidson, at Dragonfly.ecoKali Wallace (Hunters of the Lost City), at Whatever
Rochelle Hassan (The Prince of Nowhere) at Kidlit 411Dread Wood, by Jennifer Killick, at A Tale of Two Pages, The Book Dutchesses, And On She Reads, Rebbie Reviews, ForBooksSake, Book Craic, Herding Cats, Sifa Elizabeth Reads, and Gina Rae Mitchell
Freddie vs. The Family Curse, by Tracy Badua, at Say What?