My Second Impression of You, by Michelle I. Mason, for Timeslip Tuesay

My Second Impression of You, by Michelle I. Mason (Sept. 20th, Bloomsbury), is a fun YA romance (and even upper Middle Grade readers) fueled by a very interesting time slip plot.

16 year old Maggie is sure that her perfect boyfriend, Theo, is going to ask her to prom when he suggests meeting up at a coffee shop, but instead, he breaks up with her.  Stumbling back to her car, she falls and hurts her foot.  Theo does nothing to help, but his best friend, Carson, who Maggie has never liked, is there and drives her home.

Maggie turns out to have broken a foot bone, and needs surgery, and her life, which centers around drama and dances, crashes down to mingle with the loss of Theo.  She wallows in self-pity.  So when she gets a text offering her the chance to revisit the best day of her life, she can't revisit, and installs the app.  She'll go back to the wonderful, giddy, fairytale day when she and Theo first met.

But this time around, the app keeps intruding, showing her the day from other points of view.  Her best friend has a secret that might ruin the love and trust between them.  Theo is not exactly the romantic hero Maggie had thought.  Carson is more than just Theo's unwelcome wingman.  And so Maggie is forced to think about things that in her self-centered way had never occurred to her....All that she missed the first time around pushes her into being a better, more aware person, and gives her the gift of someone much better than Theo....

The app doesn't deliver it all in one day, so Maggie's real time life keeps getting knocked out of kilter by bits of new information, making her character growth more believable.  She has to work hard to process and act on what she learns, and though the reader might want to shake her (she's isn't very likeable for the first half of the book or so), she does get there in the end.

Michelle Mason is the author of Your Life Has Been Delayed, another fascinating and thought-provoking YA time slip/romance (my review), and I appreciated the interesting twist on time travel she's come with here too.  Maggie was really in the past, and the app had to poke her to keep her from changing things, so it was more than just watching a movie. The app isn't explained at all, and I can't help wonder why Maggie was the chosen one....

It's a really fun premise, well delivered, and the developing romance was sweet.  It was a fast and absorbing read, with the bonus of me wondering what I would do if I were Maggie, and what day I'd want to go back to if I were Maggie....and what I might learn.

This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (9/25/22)

The MG SFF round is back again; it was painful to go through my feeds when I got back from vacation to see all the posts I missed in the previous two weeks, but it was a nice and much needed vacation.  Please let me now if I missed your post from this past week!

The Reviews

*Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe. at Mom Read It

Amira and Hamza Series (Books 1 and *2), by Samira Ahmed, at The Bookwyrm's Den

The Battle of the Snake (The Adventures of Crimson and the Guardian #1) by Karen Cossey, at Say What?

*Children of Stardust, by Edudzi Adodo, at Say What?

*Darkroom, by K.R. Alexander, at Ms. Yingling Reads

*Dragon Destiny, by Kevin and Katie Tsang, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

*Frigg’s Journey to Anasgar (Chronicles of Nadavir #1) by Deb Cushman at Say What?

The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf, at By Singing Light

*The Girl in White, by Linday Currie, at Charlotte's Library

Green Ember series, by S.D. Smith (books 2-4) at Valinora Troy

*Healer and Witch, by Nancy Werlin, at Children's Books Heal

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll & Lauren Child, at Scope for Imagination

Little Women: Mermaid Edition, by Megan Lois Whitehill, at Independent Book Review

*Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Relativly Normal Secrets, by C.W. Allen, at Say What?

*Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting, by Roseanne A. Brown,  at  Nerdophiles, The Bookwyrm's Den, and Ms. Yingling Reads

*Shad Hadid and the Alchemists of Alexandria, by George Jreije, at Say What?

*The Sisters of Luna Island,by Stacy Hackney, at Lazy Day Literature

*Tall Tales (Once Upon Another Time, #2) by James Riley, at Bookworm for Kids

A Tangle of Spells (A Pinch of Magic #3) by Michelle Harrison, at Say What? 

*A Taste Of Magic (Park Row Magic Academy #1), by J. Elle, at Charlotte's Library

*The Tiltersmith, by Amy Herrick, at Always in the Middle

The Treekeepers,by Kieran Larwood, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

War of the Wind, by Victoria Williamson, at Book Craic

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher, at Hidden in Pages

Authors and Interviews

Margi Preus (*Windswept) at The Horn Book

L.T. Getty (The Mermaid and the Unicorns) at Jazzy Book Reviews

Sarah Allen (The Nightmare House) at MG Book Village

Mike DiCerto (A Nick of Time) at Nuttin' But Books

Other Good Stuff

The public nomination period for the Cybils Awards runs Oct 1-15, followed by a week for publishers and authors to fill in gaps.  As always, I want All the Books nominated, and so please start thinking about what books you want to show love for! I've put * next to the books in this round up that are eligible (published in the US or Canada from Oct 16 2021 to October 15 2022); as always, let me know if you see a mistake.  NB -- Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative fiction doesn't take books only available digitally.

A Taste Of Magic (Park Row Magic Academy #1), by J. Elle

This year has been absolutely stellar for magical middle grade school stories; each one I've read has surprised me with its twists of the genre!  And A Taste Of Magic (Park Row Magic Academy #1), by J. Elle (August 30th 2022, Bloomsbury) is no exception--it is a fresh, delightful read!

12-year-old Kyana is pretty happy with her life in her neighborhood of Park Row.  Sure, her mom has to work way to hard because money is tight, and she's under pressure to well at school, even at math...but she has her very dear best friend, Nae, to make school better, and her very dear grandma to love and cook with at home.  Then she discovers she has magic, and she has to spend every Saturday at Park Row Magic Academy, even though the first day of class there is Nae's birthday party....and she can't tell anyone about the magic.

Kyana is determined to excel at magic, especially the Charms part of it, which seems most likely to help her mom out financially.  But even as she gets better at magic, she gets deeper into a web of lies with Nae about where she is on Saturdays, pushing their friendship to the breaking point.  To add to her worries, her grandma's mind is slowly being swallowed by Alzheimer's.  And then the bomb drops--the Park Row magic school is going to be closed due to lack of funding.  The other city magic schools, in whiter and richer neighborhoods, will stay open, and if Kyana can come up with several thousand dollars, she can finish her initial training at one of them.  If she can't (and her mother can't work any harder than she does, so it seems impossible) she'll loose her magic, just as she's finding out what her own special gift is and overcoming her self-doubt.

So wining a city wide baking contest with a sweet cash prize seems to be the obvious answer, and her grandma's recipes, which have a magic of their own, are perfect for it. But when Kyana inadvertently contaminates her first round entry of cupcakes with inadvertent magic, she creates a problem she can't fix alone.  She'll need every friend she has--old, new, and unexpected--and a bit of help from magical (and adorable) cat-like beings to fix things.  And she has to keep on baking, because she's not about to loose hope.

The various very relatable tensions in Kyana's life, with their real world echoes made me anxious at times.  But they are lightened beautifully by the wonder of her entry into a world of magic, by friendship and love, by delightful cooking, and of course magical "kittens."   And I was left feeling  warm and cozy, so excited by the #1 in the title -- I can't wait for more!

A sweet treat of a book!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The Girl in White, by Lindsay Currie

I am back from vacation--a week and a half in Montana, mostly spent volunteering with the Forest Service fixing up some old buildings at a history tree nursery, and less time visiting used bookstores.  In case anyone is interested, here is my haul (the books whose titles can't be read are Great Day in the Morning, by Florence Crannell Means, and Janine, by Robin McKown).

More books coming home than I took with me (8 ARCs, mostly mg fantasy), and I enjoyed reading them. The result is that I am now behind on reviews....so I hope to review lots in the coming week.

First up is The Girl in White, by Lindsay Currie (September 6th 2022 by Sourcebooks Young Readers), a nice ghost story with which to kick off the spooky season of Fall!

Mallory has been uprooted from Chicago to Eastport, MA--a quaint ocean town. There's a twist to the quaintness, though--the town capitalizes it reputation on being a spooky hotspot. Mallory's parents have plunged into the thick of the spooky stories, opening a restaurant in a building where a casket came tumbling out of a collapsing interior wall. The horror of it is embraced by her parents, and the restaurant is thriving, but Mallory is almost completely fed up with non-stop ghost stories all the time, and totally fed up with the town's fetishization of one legend in particular--that of Sweet Molly, whose brother Liam was lost at sea in the 19th century when the townsfolk forced him to set out on a fishing voyage (for economic reasons) in stormy weather. After he was quickly lost at sea, Molly swore she'd get revenge on the town, and now she's become one of its most popular (aka moneymaking) cursed legends.

The anniversary of Liam's death is approaching, the town is planning one of its biggest ever Sweet Molly extravagances, and Mallory, to her horror, is being haunted by Molly's ghost.  It stinks to be Mallory, sleep deprived, even less in control of her life than being uprooted, to the point where she literally is in danger (the ghost makes her sleep walk) and forced to endure all the Sweet Molly madness of the town.

Mallory can't explain away her terrifying encounters with Molly, and she has no idea how to get them to stop. Fortunately, she has good friends, one of them a earlier victim of Molly's harassment, and in a race against time, as strange and terrifying weather hits Eastport, and the climax of the festival approaches, they work together to find the true story of Molly and Liam....

The mix of very creepy ghost, local history gone out of control, and real world complexities of loyalty to family and friends make this one I'm sure will please its target audience lots! It's all woven together very well, with both the spookiness of Sweet Molly strong enough to satisfy young horror readers, and the new kid in town story satisfying those who aren't reading it for the scares.

As a grown-up reader, I appreciated that Mallory and her parents and friends were able to work through the wrinkles in their relationships with good faith and little drama. I respected the horror element of the plot; it was very vividly described in good mg horror fashion. That being said, I wondered, as I often do, why ghosts have to be so gosh darn mean when communicating with the living. If you are a ghost who can write messages in blood red paint etc. why not just be explicit? But I guess Molly's one weapon in her quest to change the narrative was her ability to terrorize....peaceful protest wasn't an option, which is an interesting thing to think about.

Which leads to what, to me, an even more interesting aspect of the book--at the heart of the plot is the need to question established narratives, and to revise accepted history. And even though this particular revision is not actually all that weighty, it does matter to Molly, and to the town. It's the sort of book that might well put thoughts into kids' heads that will lead them to become good critical thinkers as they get older, which is a good thing!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, with an interview by author Ryan Calejo

No MG sci fi/fantasy round-up today, as I am on vacation.  But I'm thrilled to have author Ryan Calejo visiting me here today!

Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, by Ryan Calejo (September 13, Aladdin), is the third installment of the adventures of an ordinary kid who finds that all the many magical stories from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries his grandmother told him are true.  Not only that, but he has a starring role in an epic clash between order and malevolent chaos, he has the power to morph into animals, and he has no clue how to control his power or even, really, what he's supposed to be doing.  Happily, he has his friend Violet, a keen young journalist who more than pulls her weight figuring things out.  He also has the powerful witch Queen, Joanna of Castile (who you might know as Joanna the Mad), leader of the League of Shadows who try to keep the world from being overrun with monsters, on his side. 

If you enjoyed the wild ride of the first two books, full of mythical monsters that sent Charlie and Violet bouncing on perilous adventures, this one will not disappoint.   Its small, relatively mundane beginning in which Charlie is trapped by a skeletal girl begging for his help in the girl's bathroom of his middle school moves steadily on to its full blown mythologically murderous monster chaos of an ending, when Charlie and Violet must defeat a truly formidable foe in order to keep the border between life and death secure.  And all the while, in a rather endearingly clumsy middle school way, Charlie and Violet are falling for each other, Charlie's mother is going ballistic, and the reader gets a trip to Florida like no other!

Highly recommended to kids who enjoy mythological adventures, particularly because the myths and stories that come to life here I haven't seen in anywhere near so much detail and diversity in any other book series!

Not recommended to those traumatized by crocodilians....

And now it is my pleasure to welcome Ryan Calejo to my blog!

1. How did the idea for Charlie and his adventures first come to you?  Did you have any idea that this would be the start of a series, and if yes, how far into it could you see?

Folklore and legends have always fascinated me. I like to think of them as the original Latinx superheroes/supervillains. So that was where the inspiration came from. My idea for the series was basically to create a big superhero royal rumble—something like the Avengers movies. I wanted to bring together all the coolest legendary beings/creatures, and just let them run wild down here in South Florida, because I was really excited to see how a story like that would play out. And one of the main reasons the idea appealed so much to me is because most of these characters originated in different countries and at different periods in time, and almost all of them only appear in their own stories, meaning there’s hardly any crossover. So that crossover potential, the idea of these legendary characters running into other legendary characters and trying to one-up and outsmart one another, I thought would be a lot of fun. When the idea first came to me, I was very hopeful that it would be the start of a series. I knew there was just no way I could cram all these wonderful characters into a single book! I always had a loose outline in my mind of what the overall series might look like. But the more books I’ve written, the more concrete the ideas for the future books have become.

2. Did you yourself grow up, like Charlie, with stories of the folklore and legends of South and Central America and the Iberian peninsula? If yes, did you have a childhood favorite? Or one that terrified young you the most?

 As a matter of fact, I did! Growing up, my abuelitas (my grandmothers) taught me all the same stories that Charlie’s abuelita taught him. It was my grandmothers who helped cultivate in me a love of legends and folklore—and even of reading. See, back then I wasn’t exactly the most well-behaved kid on the planet. (I’m being generous here.) And the only way they could keep me from running wild was to entertain me by telling me stories—all these wonderful legends and folktales they’d heard as children. There were definitely some terrifying ones, like El Coco and La Llorona. But if I had to pick my absolute favorite, it would probably have to be El Cadejo. It’s a sort of guardian angel that takes the form of a huge dog. When I was little, one of my neighbors had this ginormous German Shepherd that my grandmothers managed to convince me was the actual legendary Cadejo. And the funniest part was that whenever I rode my bike around the neighborhood that dog would always follow after me like it was protecting me, which made it pretty difficult to argue against my grandmothers’ claim. 

3. Your descriptions are incredibly vivid, and I’m curious about how this ties in to your writing process--do you see it all in your mind's eye in advance?

Thank you so much! Yes, I do usually see the story playing out in my mind’s eye. I’ve always had a pretty vivid imagination. I was most definitely a day dreamer growing up! I can’t even begin to count how many times someone had to snap me out of a daydream in the middle of math class (math and me don’t really get along). But that’s always been a big part of the fun for me—seeing the characters and story in my imagination. 

4. Places that are the foci of legends and myths are immensely important in Charlie’s adventures.  I just paid an online visit to the ancient monastery where Charlie first meets up with the League of Shadows.  Was that near to where you grew up? Have you visited any other real world places that appear in your books?

 The monastery was kind of close to where I grew up. Maybe half an hour away. In fact, almost all the south Florida locations in the books are places I loved to visit or hang out at when I was about Charlie and Violet’s age. For example, in the latest book, Charlie, Violet, and a friend sneak into the Venetian pool, which is one of the coolest public pools on the entire planet, and one of my favorite local spots. I love it when I get a chance to include little bits of my childhood in my books. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to visit all the Latin American countries that appear in the series, but I definitely hope to!

 5. What are you working on now?  And will there be more stories about Charlie and Violet?

 I’m thrilled to say that there will be more stories! Simon Schuster’s Aladdin imprint has always been one of my favorite imprints, and my editor is absolutely WONDERFUL! I love working with her. So get ready for new adventures!

 I’m also working on ChupaCarter, which is a super fun series I’m co-authoring with the one and only George Lopez. The story follows the adventures of a spunky 12-year-old boy named Jorge who discovers a chupacabra living on his grandparent’s farm. I hope readers will enjoy that series as well!

Thank you so much, Ryan!  I will look forward to your next books!

Lark and the Wild Hunt, by Jennifer Adam, for Timeslip Tuesday

I am always very appreciative when fate works in my favor, and I'm happily reading a middle grade fantasy I'd been looking forward to and it turns out to be a timeslip book and I finish it on a Tuesday! So today for Timeslip Tuesday I offer  Lark and the Wild Hunt, by Jennifer Adam (July 2022, HarperCollins).

Lark has grown up along the border of the Fae world, helping her mother raise strange, part Fae, shadowy horses that carry the human riders who are brave enough to join the Wild Hunt each year.  She's watched her brother, her sister, and her mother ride off  in the grand company of the Winter King of the Fae, following the White Stag along the boundary between worlds and driving back Fae who are trespassing on the human side.  But one hunt goes horrible wrong, and Lark's brother doesn't come back.

Lark is determined to bring her brother home.  First she must trust the Fae boy and his raven, who set her to work assembling a mysterious silver timepiece, while the border starts to fray and the land of the Fae falls under the rule of the malignant Briar King.  And then she must cross into the land of the Fae herself, pitting her wits against the entrapments and entanglements the King throws her way, to save not just her brother, but balance between the realms...

It is a good story, but a long one--480 pages, and I feel it could have been condensed somewhat, with a tighter focus on getting from one plot point to the next.  That being said, although I didn't read it in a single sitting, and it took a week of dipping in to it to finish, there were always beats to the story that kept my interest going, the atmosphere and growing tension were great, and the final obstacle that Lark has to overcome was excellent.  All the details hang together, many vivid descriptions stick in my mind, and I was also, of course, interested in the silver timepiece.  

It turns out that the flow of time doesn't work in the land of the Fae, and only time slipping in from the human world allows change to happen there.  Which would have been time slippish enough for my Tuesday purposes, but Lark also is able to use the device at a key moment in the story to actually go back in time.  I was pleased.

Give this to dreamy kids already hooked on fantasy....10 year old me, untrammeled by the outside world, would probably have loved it.

This week's roundup of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (9/4/22)

 Here's what I found this week!  As ever, please let me know if I missed your post.

first--the deadline to apply to be a Cybils panelist is September 9th at 11:59 p.m. EDT.  If you are worried about the reading load being too much, Graphic novels or Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books might be your thing! And if you want to learn a lot this fall--High School non-fiction is such an important category, which badly needs applicants

The Reviews

Amari and the Great Game, by B.B. Alston, at Ms. Yingling Reads

ChupaCarter, by George Lopez and Ryan Calejo, at Say What?

City of the Plague God, by Sarwat Chadda, at Kiss the Book

The Clackity, by Lora Senf, at The Zen Leaf

Cress Watercress, by Gregory Maguire, at Not Acting My Age

The Curse on Spectacle Key, by Chantal Acevdeo, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Dangerous Life of Ophelia Bottom, by Susie Bower, at Scope for Imagination

Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur T. Bradley, at Log Cabin Library and From The Mixed Up Files

Double O Stephen And The Ghostly Realm, by Angela Ahn, at Falling Letters

Empty Smiles, by Katherine Arden, at Pages Unbound

The Ink of Elspet (The Inkwell Chronicles #1), by J.D. Peabody, at Say What?

The Land of Fake Believe, by Laurel Solorzano, at Bookworm for Kids and Valinora Troy

THE LOST GIRL KING by Catherine Doyle, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

The Marvelous Land of Snergs, by Veronica Cossanteli based on the original story by E. A. Wyke-Smith, at Book Nut

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun, by Tọlá Okogwu, at Book Craic

Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson, at The Bookwyrm's Den and Charlotte's Library

Relatively Normal Secrets, by C.W. Allen, Narrated by Ivy Tara Blair, at Sharon the Librarian (audiobook review)

Secrets of the Looking Glass (The Lost Wonderland Diaries #2), by J. Scott Savage, at Log Cabin Library

A Taste of Magic by J. Elle, at alibrarymama and Ms. Yingling Reads

A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity, by Nicole Valentine, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Treekeepers, by Kieran Larwood, at Book Craic and Books Up North

Which Way to Anywhere, by Cressida Cowell, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Two at alibrarymama--Wildseed Witch, by Marti Dumas, and Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun, by Tọlá Okogwu

Authors and Interviews

Angie Thomas (Nic Blake and the Remarkables) at Publishers Weekly

Other Good Stuff

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

A nice list of magic school books as Miss Print

Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson

Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson (September 6th 2022 by Delacorte Press), was a truly delightful read, reminding me strongly why I really really like middle grade fantasy!  Rather than do my usual plot summary followed by thoughts, here are all the things that made me a happy reader:

The titular Ravenfall, run as a guest house, but primarily a home, is a magical house with tons of personality, always paying attention to its residents.  I love place centered stories, and this delivered!  

It is protected by a guardian jabberwocky, who mostly takes the shape of a cat, who also has tons of personality.

And it is home to a magical family.  Anna is the youngest child, and her gift has just manifested--when she touches someone, she shares their memories of deaths they have witnessed.  I loved how she compares her magic to the various gifts of the rest of the family, and feels disappointed and less than, but grows to realize that it is actually much more of a gift than she thought it was.  Very relatable.

Another kid, Colin, arrives at Ravenfall alone, in terrible trouble.  I loved how he is welcomed and how his grief isn't played down, and is still there even as he finds comfort and a sense of belonging (and his own magic).  

It was great shifting between Anna's insider pov and Colin's newcomer pov; it really made the place, the people and the magic three-dimensional.

And I loved how the central antagonist, and the growing threat he brings to Ravenfall, is huge and awful, but not exaggerated to the point where it seems impossible that the two kids can play a central role in defeating it....

But they are totally and unconditionally not just backed up but directed by all the grown-ups and older sisters, because the kids couldn't have done everything alone.  This made the plot very solid and satisfying to grown-up me. And yet even the grown-ups make mistakes...figuring out what to do requires teamwork, admitting mistakes, 

And finally I liked very much (though this is a smallish thing that the target audience might not appreciate as much as me), is that Anna's mother doesn't actually want to have been stuck running Ravenfall, but does it with good grace.  A nice bit of real world grown-up-ness that was another thing that made everything feel really solid.

Even more finally, I liked (lots) how, after I read the satisfying, closure providing ending, I saw there would be a second book!

So in short, a lovely immersive read that I highly recommend!

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs (8/28/2022)

Good morning, all, and welcome to the last round-up of Summer 2022.  It was a summer in which I learned how to replace rotten siding on my house (sigh), among other never ending historic house ownership work, and I did not read nearly as many books as I wanted to!  Fall is much better for reading (kids are back at college and it gets too cold to work outside) which is why being a Cybils panelist in elementary/middle grade fiction (or another category) is a lovely thing!  The deadline to apply is September 9th. 

as always, please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dark Waters (The Small Spaces Quartet, Book 3) by Katherine Arden, narrated by Renee Dorian, at 

Hidden in Pages

A Dragon Used to Live Here, by Annette LeBlanc Cate, at Rosi Hollinbeck

Dread Wood, by Jennifer Killick, at Valinora Troy

Fear Ground, by Jennifer Killick, at Scope for Imagination

Fenris and Mott, by Greg Van Eekhout, at proseandkahn

The Fire Star (A Maven & Reeve Mystery) by A.L. Tait, at Log Cabin Library

Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Ghostcloud, by Michael Mann, at Say What?

Ghostlight, by Kenneth Oppel, at  Say What?

Homebound, by John David Anderson, at alibrarymama

The Polter-Ghost Problem, by Betsy Uhrig, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Room of Shadows, by Ronald Kidd, at Intotheheartwyld 

Space Blasters-Suzie Saves the Universe, by Katie and Kevin Tsang, at  alittlebutalot

The Tale of Truthwater Lake, by Emma Carroll, at Scope for Imagination

A Taste of Magic, by J. Elle, at Cracking the Cover and Nerds & Beyond

The Time-Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile (The Time-Traveling Fashionista #3) by Bianca Turetsky, at Charlotte's Library

Trex, by Christyne Morrell, at Sifa Eliabeth Reads

The Vampire Slayer’s Survival Guide, by Katy Birchall, at Book Craic

Authors and Interviews

Susie Bower (The Dangerous LIfe of Ophelia Bottom), at Library Girl and Book Boy

Erin Petti (Thelma Bee In Toil And Treble) at From the Mixed Up Files 

Landra Jennings (The Whispering Fog), at From the Mixed Up Files

Fleur Bradley (Daybreak on Raven Island) at (teenlibrariantoolbox.com)

John David Anderson (Homebound) at Nerdy Book Club

Christyne Morrell (Trex), at  Middle Grade Minded and Literary Rambles

Greg Van Eekhout (Fenris and Mott), at Middle Grade Ninja

Juliana Brandt (Monsters in the Mist) at Flip Your Script 

Refe Tuma (Frances and the Monster) at  Teen Librarian Toolbox.

Other Good Stuff

On Science Fiction (Part II) – Children's Book Council 

When I saw "11 Middle Grade Series Updates for Eager Fans"  at SLJ, I thought I was getting continuations of Edward Eager stories...and was very surprised, but pleased...I am not, but there are still lots I'm looking forward too.

The Time-Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, by Bianca Turetsky, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Time-Traveling Fashionista and Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile (The Time-Traveling Fashionista #3) by Bianca Turetsky (2013), fell victim to the fate that many books I actually buy--once I own a book I paid for, it's so easy for me to feel no urgency to actually read it.  But now I have (yay!) and it can go join the first to books in this fun middle grade series on my time travel bookshelf.

Louise, a young fashionista, has already travelled back twice in time, thanks to the mysterious Traveling Fashionista Vintage Sale (by invitation only).  She's tried on two dresses, one which took her to the Titanic and one which took her to the court of Marie Antoinette.  This time she slips into a lavender Grecian gown, and is plunged into the life of Cleopatra--with a twist.  She's now a worker in the costume crew for the epic Hollywood movie, staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton!  But then she finds a necklace with a gorgeous pearl, and illicitly tries it on....and travels back in time again.

Now she's in the court of the real Cleopatra, a young woman fighting for power...and for her life.  Threats are everywhere, and soon Louise, now one of Cleopatra's handmaids, is wondering if she herself will make it home alive.  This isn't a time period I know all that much about, so I found nothing in the history to nitpick, and learned more about it in that graceful, pleasant way one learns history from reading fiction!

This is fairly easy time travel--Louise has an identity to fill in each different time, so language isn't an issue,  and although she has to keep her wits about her so as not to display her ignorance, she manages to muddle along well enough for her secret to be safe. 

It's a good story, with the magic of the time travel balanced by Louise's pragmatic thoughts. There's a touch of middle school angst in her real time that makes Louise seem very real and relatable...perhaps the bravest thing she does is to wear her vintage fashions to school.  

Something that really make these book stand out are the lovely illustrations by Sandra Suy-lovely dresses in particular!  And  of course the audience who will love this series most are the girls like Louise whose creativity uses fashion to flourish. This would not be me, but still I enjoyed them, and if there had been a fourth I would happily read it!

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this week's roundup of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (8/21/22)

Good morning and welcome to this week's round-up (this week with help from bloglovin for the first time in ages).  Please let me know if I missed your post!

First--the call for Cybils judges has gone out!  You have till the end of the day on September 9th.  It really is lots of fun, so do consider it!  Let me know if you have any questions. (I've put * next to the books included this week that are eligible for this year's Elementary/Middle Grade Cybils, which is books published in the US or Canada October 16, 2021 and October 15, 2022, to entice you to apply, and/or make a mental note that they can be nominated--anyone can nominate a book in each category starting in October.  Some are tricky because they are already out in the UK but not the US--as always, let me know if I've made mistakes!)

The Reviews 

*12 to 22: POV You Wake Up in the Future! by Jen Calonita, at Cracking the Cover

*Amari and the Great Game (Supernatural Investigations #2), by B.B. Alston, at Say What?

Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack, at Sonderbooks

*The Black Slide, by J.W. Ocker, at Ms. Yingling Reads

*Eden's Everdark, by Karen Strong, at Bookworm for Kids

*Fenris and Mott, by Greg van Eekhout, at Mom Read It

*Frances and the Monster, by Refe Tuma, at Say What?

*Goblin Market, by Diane Zahler, at A Backwards Story and Eli to the nth

Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, at Colorful Book Reviews 

The Glen Beyond the Door, by Meta Mayne Reid, at Charlotte's Library

*Gravebooks (Nightbooks #2), by J.A. White, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Hatmakers, by Tamzin Merchant, at Leaf's Reviews

The Lost Girl King, by Catherine Doyle, at Book Craic

*The Lost Ryu, by Emi Watanabe Cohen, at Jean Little Library

Mia and the Lightcasters (*?), by Janelle McCurdy, at Book Craic

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud, at Rapunzel Reads

*Paola Santiago and the Sanctuary of Shadows by Tehlor Kay Mejia, at The Bookwyrm's Den 

*The Patron Thief of Bread, by Lindsay Eagar, at Pages Unbound 

*Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson, at Say What?

*The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (The Falinnheim Chronicles #2), by C.W. Allen, at Eye-rolling Demigod's Book Blog

*Secret of the Shadow Beasts, by Diane Magras, at Charlotte's Library

*Stinetinglers, by R,K, Stine, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Thirteen Secrets, by Michelle Harrison, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

*This Appearing House, by Ally Malinenko, Ms. Yingling Reads

The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #1), by Jessica Townsend, at Simone and Her Books

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex, at proseandkahn

*Wildseed Witch, by Marti Dumas, at Cracking the Cover

Wolfbane, by Michelle Paver, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

The Worlds We Leave Behind, by A.F. Harrold, illusrrated by Levi Pinfold, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

4 mini reviews at A Cat, a Book, and a Cup of Tea--Orla and the Wild Hunt by Anna Hoghton, The House of Shells by Efua Traoré, A Beginner’s Guide to Ruling the Galaxy by David Solomons, and  Mouse Heart by Fleur Hitchcock

Authors and Interviews

Greg van Eekhout (*Fenris and Mott) at Charlotte's Library

Rebecca King (Ember Shadows and the Fates of Mount Never), at Library Girl and Book Boy

Erin Petti (*Thelma Bee in Toil and Treble) at MG Book Village

J. Elle (*A Taste of Magic) at Middle Grade Ninja

Dan Poblocki  (*Tales to Keep You Up at Night) at From the Mixed Up Files and Ms. Yingling Reads

The Dragon Flyers | Chapter Book | ARC – A Dance With Books (wordpress.com)

Diane Zahler (*Goblin Market) at Teen Librarian Toolbox

Kate Gilby Smith (Olive Jones and the Memory Thief), at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Marlo Berliner (agent) and Refe Tuma (author) (*Frances and the Monster), at Literary Rambles

Other News (not good stuff this week)

Barnes and Noble is cutting back hard on the number of hardcover mg books they'll have in stock, which is a blow to authors, especially debut authors. Here's a summary at Book Riot.  So now is a good time to order a book(s)....You can find lots (but not all) 2022 debuts here.

Fenris and Mott, by Greg van Eekhout (with interview!)

When my kids were little, we would talk about little baby Fenwis [sic] and how what he really needed was a Mama who loved him very much and gave good scritches....so it was rather delightful to see that flight of fancy come to life in Greg van Eekhout's newest book, Fenris and Mott (August 2, 2022, Harper Collins).

When Mott finds a scared little pup mweeping sadly in a recycling bin, her heart melts...dog's aren't allowed in her new apartment, but she can't just leave him.  But it turns out this isn't a puppy, but a wolf cub, who will need to be taken to live in the wild.  

The cub does not want to be leashed and taken into the wild, breaks free, and starts to bring about Ragnarok, the destruction of the world in Norse mythology.  The little mweeper is in fact Fenris, the fabled wolf who is fated to devour the sun and the moon....

And suddenly Mott's life becomes filled with Norse gods wanting to encourage Fenris, because prophesies are meant to come true. Fenris can't help the fact that the rune of annihilation is in his gut, and starts devouring on a (relatively) small scale--bits of city infrastructure and a famous actor disappear down his bottomless maw....Fortunately Mott and Fenris are found by Trudi, a Valkarie who is Fenris's protector, and the two of them join forces to try to stave off Ragnarok and save little Fenris.

It's an exciting story full of mythological mayhem crashing into the real world, balanced by the more quotidian story of a middle school kid in a new town with an absent father who doesn't' keep his promises and a best friend far away who's moving on without her.  It's also a fable of climate change (things can get plenty bad without a rune of annihilation on the loose) and so is extremely topical. The ending packs a zinger of a punch leaving my mind racing.....(nb-Fenris is fine in the end, and one hopes the moon will survive being slightly gnawed....). It's also sweet and funny and has an adorable puppy, so should be a huge hit with young fans of cute animals!  It's easy to imagine this one getting lots of love from its target audience.

And now it's my pleasure to welcome Greg here to my blog! I've been a fan of his since his very first book for young readers, Kid Vs Squid, which I reviewed back in 2010....

 

How did the idea for Fenris and Mott first come to you?

I thought it'd be fun to write a story about a kid who has to take care of some kind of cute and destructive creature. I didn't know if the creature would be an ordinary pet or an alien or a dinosaur or some kind of genetically modified beast or something else, but that was one of the seeds of an idea I first came up with. 

Was there anything that surprised you in the writing of it?

I didn't know the book was going to be in part about climate change, but you can't write about Ragnarök without writing about extreme weather, and to write about extreme weather without writing about climate change would have been weird and dishonest. 

 

This is your second Ragnorak book, the first being Norse Code, written for adults and published back in 2009.  Very different books, very different audiences….but as you were writing Fenris and Mott, did you have intrusive Norse Code flashbacks?

Not really. Norse Code and Fenris & Mott are such different books that it really wasn't hard to keep them completely separate in my head. Even when they have characters in common, like Loki and Odin and Hermod, they're very different versions of those characters. 

 

Will there be a sequel?  I can’t stop thinking about what Mott might do with her own pocket Ragnorak—nuclear waste cleanup, perhaps…..and will little Fenris be a good domesticated pet?

Oh, I would love to write a sequel! I had so much fun writing Fenris & Mott, and it'd be a blast to visit those characters again. As for Fenris as a pet, he'd be destructive and disruptive and a little bit horrible, just like my dogs!

And finally, what are you working on now?

I'm putting the final touches on a new middle-grade, The Ghost Job. It's about a crew of ghosts who do heists, and it's scheduled to come out next year.

Thank you Greg!  I will now proceed to start looking forward to The Ghost Job!

 

Greg van Eekhout is also the author of Voyage of the Dogs, Cog, and Weird Kid. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he's ever actually liked. You can find more about Greg at his website: www.writingandsnacks.com.

 

The Glen Beyond the Door, by Meta Mayne Reid, for Timeslip Tuesday

A few weeks ago I joined a new Goodreads Group--"Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished!" and Meta Mayne Reid was one of the authors mentioned.  I'd never heard of her, and when I saw she wrote at least one time travel book, I was intrigued.  Fortunately I'd just earned an Amazon gift card with gas points (yay (?) for the high price of gas) that covered the cost of The Glen Beyond the Door (1968), and I was very excited to read it.  

Lisa's parents have just moved from Belfast to her grandfather's old home after his death.  She's recovering from polio, which has left her with a weak leg.  Soon her cousin Andrew comes to stay--his parents are off in America, and he's basically been dumped on them.  She's thrilled by the idea of having an almost brother, but Andrew is miserable.  Then, up in the attic of the house, where one wall is wood that burned in a fire centuries ago, the two kids find time travel magic.  

Together they explore the history of their family home, from the Stone Age up to the arrival of the Planters from Scotland, who took the Irish land for their own.  Each visit to the past gives them not just food for thought and wonder, but strengthening gifts--literally a stronger leg for Lisa, and a dog for Andrew, but Andrew is also helped make it through the bewildering mix of sadness and anger he's feeling.  And they are left with a tight connection to their family's home, where Planters and native Irish blended their lives together, and Andrew becomes officially welcomed into Lisa's family.

The time travel is the somewhat distant sort, in which the modern kids are mostly spectators, overlapping into kids from the past, but not changing what happened.  This made it feel more like a history lessons than part of a whole story (and I much prefer time travelers with independent volition), but it was not without interest.  Both the events of the past and the reactions of Lisa and Andrew were good (though not great) reading.  Andrew's present day emotional turmoil take center stage more forcefully than the past does, and although this too was good reading I was a little disappointed that Lisa becomes a secondary character.  

What I really liked was the layered past of this bit of Northern Ireland--there was a lovely sense of place.

So although I read it happily, and have added another of Reid's more affordable books, The McNeils at Rathcapple) to my Amazon cart, it might be a while before I use my hard won gas rewards points, Bing rewards, and Swagbucks gift cards for it.  I can actually afford to buy myself books with real grown-up money (and use this for new books), but I try not spend my wages on vintage books, because if it is too easy to buy them, I might well start buying too many.....and that way lies madness and penury.

Secret of the Shadow Beasts, by Diane Magras

I've read lots and lots of good books so far this year, but this past week, for the first  time in ages, I started one after supper (Secret of the Shadow Beasts, by Diane Magras), and read and read and then had an oh no moment when I realized it was almost midnight (usually I'm safely in bed at ten, and wake up around five thirty) and I hadn't quite finished the book yet....a terrible dilemma.  I finished it though because there really wasn't a choice, but sadly did not quite give the people of Rhode Island, for whom I work, my absolute shiny and alert best the next day.....(happily I have lots to do that isn't rocket science on which lives are depending, so it's ok, and I have no regrets).

This (very good, very gripping) book is set in a world where nightfall brings forth venomous shadow beasts, and everyone with sense huddles inside protected buildings.  The shadow beasts are slower to attack kids and some kids are immune, and these kids are taken from their families when they are little and trained to be beast fighters.  Nora could have been one of them, but her father wouldn't let her be taken. Now he has been killed by a shadow beast, Nora decides for herself that she will put the last few years of her childhood immunity to work keeping other people from the same fate.

And she goes off to get to trained, but there are far too few kids, and far too many shadow beasts, so when she shows unusual aptitude, she's quickly slotted into the Hawks, one of the fighting brigades comprised of handful of children, and sent off on her first two week mission.  Even immune kids can be killed by shadow beasts, if they are attacked enough times, and the Hawks just suffered the loss of one of their crew, Lucy. Nora is taking her place.  The Hawks are also kids taken from their families when they were seven or so, and so they have become a tight knit found family; it takes a while for Nora to be fully part of the group.  So things aren't exactly happy triumphant monster slaying.  

And the number of shadow beasts keeps growing....there's a sinister reason behind it (the titular secret), and Nora and her fellow Hawks might be the only ones able to survive the incredibly dangerous, almost insane, mission to set the balance right again.  (lots of interesting bits of plot here, that I shan't talk about for reasons).

bonus points for:

comfort reading for the characters!  there's one bit where the kids have some down time, and visit a bookstore to load themselves up with escapist material, and I loved seeing the different genres they liked.

an adult who adults!  The Hawks, and other brigades, don't go out alone; there's a grown-up with them to do the driving, help with game plans and emergencies,  and keep morale up. This grown-up, rather disturbingly, also acts as beast bait (kids being less likely to be attacked).  In any event, the Hawks grown-up is a good one, and I was really glad they had him.

trauma that was not splashed all over the place but dealt with in a moving, slow burn sort of way--these kids have been dealt a rotten hand, and are working through tough things, and Nora is something of a catalyst that helps with this.

NB--Secret of the Shadow Beasts (June 14th 2022, Dial Books), is eligible for this years Cybils Awards (in Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction).  Starting this Wednesday, the 17th, you can apply to be a panelist on for this category, or one of the others....here's a blog post of mine with more info.

this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy (8/14/22)

Good morning all!  Here's what I found this week; let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

The Blackthorn Branch, by Elen Caldecott, at Scope for Imagination

Castle of Tangled Magic, by Sophie Anderson, at alibrarymama

City of Speed (Battle Dragons #2), by Alex London, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Dark Days (Skulduggery Pleasant #4), by Derek Landy, at One Reading Nurse

David Massie and the Hidden Underworld, by Andrew M. Nehring, at Log Cabin Library

Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley, at Say What?

Dead Voices (Small Spaces # 2) by Katherine Arden, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Duet, by Elise Broach, at Reading Middle Grade

Fenris & Mott, by Greg Van Eekhout, at Log Cabin Library

The Green Ember, by S.D. Smith, at Valinora Troy

Lloyd, Natalie. Hummingbird, by Natalie Lloyd, at Ms. Yingling Reads, and Cracking the Cover

The Left-Handed Fate, by Kate Milford, at Colorful Book Reviews

Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson, at Log Cabin Library

A Reluctant Witch’s Guide to Magic, by Shivaun Plozza, at Glam Adelaide

The Tarnished Garden, by Alyssa Colman, at Charlotte's Library

The Thirteen Curses, by Michelle Harrison, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

Witchlings, by Claribel A. Ortega, at Lazy Day Literature

Authors and Interviews

Ally Malinenko (This Appearing House), at Middle Grade Ninja 

Shawn K. Stout (The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle), at MG Book Village

Oanis Rawbone (Whippoorwill Lane), at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Polly Holyoke (Skyriders) at MG Book Village

Andrew M. Nehring (David Massie and the Hidden Underworld) "Inspiring Kids Through Science Fiction" at Smack Dab in the Middle and Chapter Break

A.L. Tait (The Mapmaker Chronicles, Maven & Reeve Series and Ateban Cipher) at Log Cabin Library

Katherine Arden (Small Spaces series) at Publishers Weekly

Claribel A. Ortega (Witchlings) at Rapunzel Reads

 

Other Good Stuff

NEW MG & YA SCI-FI AND FANTASY, at Book Riot

Heather Kassner (The Plentiful Darkness) picks five  "magical middle grade novels woven with darkness and heart" at Shepherd

25 Books Starring Dragon-Loving Mighty Girls, at a mighty GIRL

and a reminder that starting August 17, you'll be able to apply to be a Cybils panelist! Here's why I think being a Cybils judge is a wonderful thing.

The Tarnished Garden, by Alyssa Colman

 

Here's my Goodreads review for The Tarnished Garden, by Alyssa Colman--"checks lots of my boxes--sisters, a garden, school story, magic, kittens......I enjoyed it very much!"  And indeed though I enjoyed the first book in the series, The Gilded Girl, lots, this was more to my taste, because of it having the garden and magical kittens!

Maeve has been reunited with her big sister, Izzy, after a traumatic stint of being a farmed out orphan out west.  The two are now pupils at a new school for magic in New York city; it is the Gilded Age, but with magic.  But Maeve and Izzy are having trouble reconnecting, Maeve's magic is wild and uncontrolled, there are those who think magic should be the exclusive purview of the privileged (with the sisters are most definitely not), and disaster is striking one magically built building after another, extinguishing the magic holding them together.  And on top of this, house dragons (basically cats with magic) are going missing.  In order to save their school, and the right of poor kids to spark their magic and learn to use it, the girls must figure out what is going on and put a stop to it.

So that's a fine plot, but what I really loved was how Maeve finds a secret magical garden, and makes it grow and come alive again with her magic, learning how to use just as much as she needs without it getting carried away.  And in the garden there are three little house dragon kittens, who are adorable, who's mother left them there under magical protection.....and a boy shut up in an apartment overlooking it, who's mother won't let him out lest he gains magic too.

A really delightful story, with the charming magic given weight by the sibling relationship and by the inequality of the society in which they live.  My enjoyment was heighted by my familiarity with The Secret Garden--there were lots of echoes that I loved.

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (8/7/22)

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

First-- one of the things that most gladdens my middle grade speculative fiction loving heart is being part of the Cybils Awards, and spending my fall doing a deep dive (even deeper than usual) into all the elementary/middle grade books published in the past year (which for the Cybils is Oct 16-Oct 15).  You can be part of this too!  (in categories other than EMG spec fic too!).  Here's why I think being a Cybils judge is a wonderful thing, and new folks are enthusiastically welcomed. 

Call for Judges: 17 August thru 9 September. (I'll be sharing the link when it goes live)

Announcement of Judges: 21 September
Public Nomination period: 1 October thru 15 October.
Publisher/Author submission period: 17 October thru 26 October.
Finalists announced Jan 1, winners announced Feb 14.

The Reviews

Alex Neptune, Dragon Thief, by David Owen, at  Book Craic

Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe, at The erudite labyrinth, A Cat, a Book, and a Cup of Tea, and Charlotte's Library

Beast of Stone, by Linda Sue Park, at Colorful Book Reviews 

The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo, at goodreadswithronna

The Blackthorn Branch, by Ellen Caldecott, at Magic Fiction Since Potter

David Massie and the Hidden Underworld, by Andrew M. Nehring, at Say What?

The Devouring Wolf, by Natalie C. Parker, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Fenris and Mott, by Greg van Eekhout, at Cracking the Cover,  alibrarymama, and Ms. Yingling Reads

Freddie vs the Family Curse, by Tracy Badua, at Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog 

The Girl, the Ghost and the Lost Name, by Reece Carter, at Scope for Imagination

A Girl's Guide to Love and Magic, by Debbie Rigaud, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Gravebooks, by J.A. White, at Say What?

Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation, by Sylvia Liu, at Say What?

I, Cosmo, by Carlie Sorosiak, at  Rosi Hollinbeck

The Monster in the Lake, by Louie Stowell, at Valinora Troy

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud, at Miss Print

Pilar Ramirez and the Curse of San Zenon (Pilar Ramirez Duology #2), by Julian Randall, at Say What?

Race to Fire Mountain (Future Hero #1), by Remy Blackwood, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Spark, by M.G. Leonard, at Scope for Imagination

The Treekeepers, by Kieran Larwood, at The Firebird's Bookshelf

The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Cordova, at Colorful Book Reviews

What Lives in the Woods, by Linday Currie, at The Bookwyrm's Den

The Wizard in the Wood (The Dragon in the Library #3) by Louie Stowell, at Say What?

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by T. Kingfisher, at The Book Nut

Authors and Interviews

Tom Huddleston (Flood World Trilogy) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Other Good Stuff

New in the UK, from Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

10 MAGICAL WITCH BOOKS FOR MIDDLE GRADERS, at Book Riot

Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe

Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe (August 2, 2022, Little Brown), is a prequel to the utterly delightful Eva Evergreen series.  Though I very much enjoyed Alliana's adventures, I can't quite call it delightful--it's a Japanese-infused Cinderella story, and it was hard for me to read about Alliana being tormented by her stepmother and stepbrother.  They are truly awful to her, and she is trapped by debts she'll never be able to pay off, no matter how hard she works in the family inn.  Her one hope is to be chosen for the Royal Academy, but her stepmother will stop at nothing to keep her from leaving....

Alliana does have one person who loves her--the grandmother who lives up at the top of the inn, sewing tapestries and always ready with stories of myths and legends.  When the grandmother dies, Alliana's life seems even more hopeless, but magic is real in her world, and so are dragons....

Gathering plants as far as she can get from her stepmother, Alliana saves a baby nightdragon, and they form a strong and loving bond, though she can't possibly take it home with her.  And chance also brings her the friendship of a young witch, Nela.  And then chance pushes even harder at Alliana's life, forcing her to confront a magical danger that is threatening even the most powerful witches of the land.  She realizes, with the help of her friends, that she's a person of value, and is instrumental (along with the dragon) in setting things right.

Great for young readers who:

like kids in unhappy circumstances who not only get magical endings (this isn't a Cinderella story where the girl marries the prince, but the beautiful dress problem, which I always appreciated as a kid, is here!) but who also survive trauma and end the book starting to heal with the help of people who love them.

like stories of kids loving and caring for magical creatures

want to be friends with a witch their own age who will give them broomstick rides!

loved Eva Evergreen! (which I now want to reread* possibly then moving on to re-reading this one, which I will enjoy more than the first time around because of not being sad and anxious for Alliana. )

*I'm glad to have a solid tbr pile because there were dark years when I didn't have enough to read, but I also miss the re-reading I did back then.....

Disclaimer: review copy received at ALA