3/5/24

Anne Frank and Me, by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, for Timeslip Tuesday

Anne Frank and Me, by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld (1997), is this week's Timeslip Tuesday offering. It tells of a teenaged girl, Nicole, who's mind is full of stereotypical teen stuff, including pining over Jack.  Her diary thoughts of pining will perhaps be familiar to many readers who are, or once were, teenaged girls with their own hopeless crushes.  

At school, her history teacher is trying to explain the horrors of the holocaust, but it seems distant, and even Anne Frank's diary seems, according to the internet searches Nicole does, a possible fake....so she's not really interested in the class trip to the local "Anne Frank in the World" exhibit, except, of course, that Jack is going to, and maybe he'll want to sit with her on the bus...and he does!  but it turns out that he's actually interested in a friend of hers, and everything is horrible, and then there are gunshots, and everyone thinks is the strange goth-type boy shooting, and she falls and hits her head....

And comes to as a Jewish girl in German occupied Paris. 

She still is her American self at first, but very quickly she fades into the place of the girl whose life she is now living.  Things get worse and worse for the Jewish people of Paris, and she and her little sister end up in hiding.  But they are betrayed and sent on a hellish journey to a concentration camp.  Miraculously she actually meets Anne Frank, who tells her which way to go when they arrive, but the little sister goes the wrong way, Nicole follows, and they end up in a gas chamber.  And as she starts dying, she awakens in her own time again.

And it's not a shooting after all, it was a fireworks prank.

So this started off as a play, and I think this is why it doesn't quite work as novel.  Nicole's tone is very flatly matter-of-factly descriptive through all the horror she endures.  There's little emotion or introspection, and in general it's all told without much inner character development, which is possibly due to her not being herself anymore.  But still it's very gripping and impactful, and I stayed up late finishing it, and was moved by the hideous evil tragedy of it all...

,...with an extra coda of discomfort, not intended by the authors--this was written before the era of school shootings began in earnest with Columbine, and the fact that the shooting with which the time travel begins turns out to be a joke is pretty disturbing to a person reading it now.



 

3/3/24

This week's round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (3/3/24)

 Hi all, here's what I found this week!  Let me know if I missed anything.

The Reviews

Bumps in the Night, by Amalie Howard, at Ms. Yingling Reads

 Daughters of the Lamp, by Nedda Lewers, at Islamic School Librarian

Dread Wood: Creepy Creations, by Jennifer Killick, at Scope for Imagination

Dreamstalkers: The Night Train, by Sarah Driver, at Bellis Does Books and Books Up North

Fright Bite, by Jennifer Killick, at  Sifa Elizabeth Reads 

Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell, at Mark My Words

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, by Nina Varela, at Cannonball Read

Lia Park and the Missing Jewel, by Jenna Yoon, at Kiss the Book

Lili Gray and the World's Most Embarrassing Superpower, by Ada Loewe, at Mark My Words

Medusa by Katherine Marsh, at The Adventures of Library Girl

Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm, by Siobhan McDermott, at Courtney Reads Romance 

Pirates of Darksea, by Catherine Doyle, at Book Craic

The Princess Protection Program, by Alex London, at Baroness' Book Trove and Cannonball Read 

The Selkie's Daughter, by Linda Cotta Brennan, at Faith Elizabeth Hough

 Sona and the Golden Beasts, by Rajani LaRocca, at Steph's Story Space  

Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont, by Nick Brooks, at Charlotte's Library

The Unicorn Legacy-Tangled Magic, by Kamilla Benko, at Always in the Middle… 


Authors and Interviews

 Meredith Davis (Beneath the Swirling Sky) at Cynthia Leitich Smith


Other Good Stuff

 'Kiranmala And The Kingdom Beyond' To Be Adapted As Animated TV Show (deadline.com)

3/1/24

Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont, by Nick Brooks

I very much enjoyed meeting Ethan Fairmont and his friends, including the alien they call Cheese in his first outing (my review) so I dove into Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont, by Nick Brooks, (middle grade, November 2023, Union Square Kids), with pleasure, and was rewarded by a good read.

Ethan is happily planning interesting inventing and pleasant hanging out at the old industrial building now turned maker space where he met Cheese, and foiled the other hostile aliens hunting down Cheese and his people.  And he's happily looking forward to the start of sixth grade.  Less happily, he misses Cheese lots, and he and his family are still cooping from the trauma of the local police and the feds threatening the black community of Ferrous City and his family in particular.  And then school gets off to a rocky start, when a new girl, Fatima, threatens his self-worth with her own inventor smarts, and Ferrous City is experiencing a population boom that's raising real estate prices, and Ethan's parents, who are doing fine but aren't well off, are considering cashing in. On top of all this, the feds are back in town (and what are they up to?)

Turns out, though, that Fatima is just the new team member Ethan needs to re-establish communication with Cheese.  And Fatima is even more needed when the evil aliens renew hostilities....

It's not a comfort read; as the title suggests, too many interesting (and not very joyous) things are going on in Ethan's life.  But it's a gripping read, and a thought-provoking one, and I enjoyed it. The young characters are believable and very relatable, as is Ethan's growing maturity about teamwork and living in the moment instead of what if-ing, the tension builds at a nice pace, and the ending is satisfactory!  The social justice theme of the first book is here as well, as is an age-appropriate romance.  And of course a lovely alien friendship! 

If there is a third book, I'm there for it!


2/25/24

this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (2/25/24)

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

The Reviews

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander, at Semicolon 

Bumps in the Night, by Amalie Howard, at Jenjenreviews

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher, at Pages Unbound

Crystal Shadows: Gripping New Blood, by R.J. Parker, at Pages and Paws

Daughters of the Lamp, by Nedda Lewers, at Cracking the Cover

The Doll Twin, by Janine Beacham, at Valinora Troy

Elf Dog and Owl Head, by M.T. Anderson, at Sonderbooks

Ferris, by Kate DiCamillo, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Fox Snare (Thousand Worlds #3), by Yoon Ha Lee, at Charlotte's Library

Haunted Holiday, by Kiersten White, at Puss Reboots 

Lei And The Fire Goddess, by Malia Maunakea, at Kiss the Book

The Lightcasters (Umbra Tales 1), by Janelle McCurdy, at Mark My Words 

Medusa, by Katherine Marsh, at Cracking the Cover

The Princess Protection Program, by Alex London, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic, by Kamilla Benko, at  The Story Sanctuary

The World Beyond the Door, by Pari Thomson, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads

Two at The Book Search--The Princess Protection Program, by Alex London, and The Five Impossible Tasks of Eden Smith, by Tom Llewellyn


Other Good Stuff

Check out the middle grade category of the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot for great mg horror recs!



Fox Snare (Thousand Worlds #3), by Yoon Ha Lee

Another very busy week for me, with none of the reviews I wanted to write being written...so here once more is a quick one before I post today's round up.

Fox Snare (Thousand Worlds #3), by Yoon Ha Lee, is the third installment of great space adventure for upper middle grade readers on up (but do read the first two books in the series first).

Min, the fox spirt who was the central character of Dragon Pearl, is now the keeper of that titular pearl, which can magically terraform in hospitable planets.  Before this, terraforming relied on Dragon magic, and now the Dragons are unhappy that they now outclassed.  Haneuol, a young dragon, was once Min's friend, and when she arrives on the vessel where Min is currently in residence as part of the Dragon delegation to important diplomatic negations with the leader of the Sun Clan nations, Min hopes they can rekindle their relationship, but it doesn't go well. Sebin, the non-binary tiger spirit who was the central character of Tiger Honor, is a cadet on this same ship, and finds themselves drawn into the diplomatic tensions as well.

The leaders of the Thousand Worlds want to use Min and the pearl to terraform a planet that lies at a crucial junction between the two hostile factions...but it's not just location that makes this planet a prize both sides want--long ago an immensely powerful war ships crashed there, and whichever side can recover it will have a huge military advantage.

Then the space station where the negotiations are being held explodes.  Min, Haneuol, and Sabin crash land on the contested planet, along with a fox spirit woman who is clearly a suspicious character, and whose own agenda is occluded by her fox gift of charm.  Travelling across this alien world to the site of the crashed warship, Min is troubled by the conflict between her loyalty to the Thousand Worlds and her desire to trust another Fox, Sabin is torn between strict adherence to duty and critical examination of what is happening, and Haneul must wrestle with familial expectations and her own wishes.

And then they reach the ship, and things get enormously more tense as the threesome realizes the truth about why it was never recovered, and just what the Fox spirit woman has planned.

Told in alternating points of view by Min and Sebin, this is a gripping read in which the character's personal conflicts and the external dangers are beautifully balanced, and the magical abilities of the shape shifters, and some unexpected supernatural elements, make for lovely reading.  This installment is more direct than the previous book in identifying the Thousand Worlds as being of Korean descent, and the Sun Clans as being Japanese, making it an even more thought-provoking read. 

My only worry is that this seems to be the final book about these characters and their universe, and that thought makes me sad.  On the other hand, I can look forward to a nice re-read....

2/18/24

this week's round-up of middle-grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (2/18/24)

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

The Reviews

The Bellwoods Game, by Celia Krampien, at Mark My Words

Billy and the Giant Adventure, by Jamie Oliver, at Bookworm for Kids

 A Bite Above the Rest, by Christine Virnig, at Mark My Words

The Bravest Warrior in Nefaria, by Adi Alsaid, at   PBC's Book Reviews 

Conjure Island, by Eden Royce, at Mark My Words

The Demon Sword Asperides, by Sarah Jean Horwitz, at Mark My Words

Dread Detention, by Jennifer Killick, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Elf Dog & Owl Head, by M.T. Anderson, at Kiss the Book

Fair Bay, by Eleanor Frances Lattimore, at Charlotte's Library

Fairy vs. Wizard, by Jenny McLachlan, at V'sViewfromtheBookshelves 

The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett, at Mark My Words

Island of Fire (Unwanteds #3), by Lisa McMann, at J.R.'s Book Reviews  

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, by Nina Varela, at Mark My Words

The Last Saxon King, by Andrew Varga, at Pages Unbound

The Lovely Dark, by Matthew Fox, at Charlotte's Library

Monster Bite Back (Monster Hunting #2) by Ian Mark, at Twirling Book Princess

No Flying in the House, by Betty Brock, at Semicolon 

Not Quite a Ghost, by Anne Ursu, at Puss Reboots

Princess Protection Program. by Alex London, at Cracking the Cover and Log Cabin Library 

The Rhythm of Time, by Questlove and S.A. Crosby, at Mark My Words: 

The Secret of the Moonshard, by Struan Murray, at Book Craic

Shadow Fox, by Carlie Sorosiak, at Scope for Imagination

Shock the Monkey (The N.O.A.H. Files 2) by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman, at Mark My Words

The Song of the Swan, by Karah Sutton, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Time Travellers: Adventure Calling, by Sufiya Ahmed, at Scope for Imagination

The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found, by Jordan Lees, at Valinora Troy

Worst Broommate Ever (Middle School and Other Disasters 1) by Wanda Coven, at Mark My Words


Authors and Interviews

Talking Freedom Fire: A New Imprint Discussion with Kwame Mbalia, Tracey Baptiste, and Leah Johnson, at Fuse #8


Other Good Stuff

The winners of this year's Cybils Awards have been announced! Congratulations to The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett, this year's Cybils Awards winner for Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction!


Congratulations to all the shortlisted books too--they are all wonderful.

The Bellwoods Game, by Celia Krampien

Conjure Island, by Eden Royce

The Demon Sword Asperides, by Sarah Jean Horwitz

The House of the Lost on the Cape, by Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Yukiko Saito, Avery Fischer Udagawa (Translator)

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, by Nina Varela

The Rhythm of Time, by Questlove and S. A. Cosby

The Lovely Dark, by Matthew Fox

I loved Matthew Fox's first book, The Sky Over Rebecca, so much that I ordered The Lovely Dark (July  2023 in the UK, Hodder Children's Books) from Blackwells (free shipping from the UK!) and read it pretty much in a single sitting yesterday. I meant to review it, but it felt too raw to do so immediately, so I'm squeezing it in before today's round-up post.

The Lovely Dark is a middle grade reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a dash of Sleeping Beauty. It begins with sadness, when Ellie's grandmother dies alone of Covid during the height of the pandemic. and it quickly becomes fantasy, when her grandmother's ghost pays Ellie a cryptic visit. As covid restrictions lift, Ellie becomes great friends with Justin, who's just moved in across the street. Justin takes her to see a newly discovered mosaic of the Orpheus story, found deep underground....and disaster strikes when the walls around the excavation give way, and the two children are trapped by the inrushing water.

They find themselves in the underworld, determined to stick together and find a way home. But they each have a different path to follow, and are forced to split up. Ellie's path takes her to Eventide, a sort of school (but with no lessons) filled with other children, with tasty food, pleasant grounds, and secrets. The other children are all dimly content there, despite having died, but Ellie is determined to find Justin again. In her explorations, she finds that in the locked library another girl named Ash is hiding in a secret room behind the books, which are themselves somewhat haunted--fairytales in particular keep being pushed off their shelves.

(This is where the Sleeping Beauty part enters into it--Ash and Ellie agree to give themselves permission to kiss each other if they ever need to be awakened from a cursed sleep, and this is an important plot point later).

Ellie keeps exploring, and finds much that discomfits her, and then she and Justin make contact again, and he helps her go home. And Justin, unlike Orpheus, doesn't look back and I wept.

Slight spoiler--Ellie's experiences could all be written off as a dream, but I am so glad Matthew Fox doesn't throw this in our (tear-streaked) faces. And since the ghost grandmother can't be explained way, the story gets to stay fantasy.

In short, Matthew Fox is now firmly an auto-buy (as expenses allow) author for me.  And I am determined that next time I won't peak at the ending halfway through, concerned though I may be for the fate of characters I am deeply invested in!

2/14/24

Congratulations to this year's Cybils Awards winners!

The winners of this year's Cybils Awards have been announced! Congratulations to The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett, this year's Cybils Awards winner for Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction! 


And congratulations to all the shortlisted books too--they are all wonderful. 

The Bellwoods Game, by Celia Krampien

Conjure Island, by Eden Royce

The Demon Sword Asperides, by Sarah Jean Horwitz

The House of the Lost on the Cape, by Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Yukiko Saito, Avery Fischer Udagawa (Translator)

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, by Nina Varela

The Rhythm of Time, by Questlove and S. A. Cosby


(Elementary/middle grade speculative fiction is the category I've chaired for several years...If you think it would be fun to spend next fall engrossed in books like these, do look out for the call for panelists coming in August!).

2/13/24

Fair Bay, by Eleanor Frances Lattimore, for Timeslip Tuesday

 

A vintage time travel book this week-- Fair Bay, by Eleanor Frances Lattimore (1958).  All her life Trudy's grandmother has told her stories of Fair Bay, the South Carolina island where she spent her summers.  When Trudy goes to stay with her great aunt Gertrude at the family plantation house, she asks about the island, hoping to visit, but is told that it was washed away in a storm, leaving only a strip of sand with a few palmetto trees.  Her grandmother had told her of the storm, but wanted to talk more about happier times.  Millicent, the cook, who was also a  little girl on the island when the storm came, tells her how her great aunt Christina was almost lost to the storm when she went back to the house to look for her precious music box, but won't tell her much else about it, and Aunt Gertrude doesn't want to talk about it either.   

Though Fair Bay is still much in her mind, Trudy spends her days happily exploring on horseback (this is pleasant reading in a not very exciting way).  Then one day she wakes up early and decides to go riding before breakfast, and her horse gets a mind of her own and her down an old road she'd never seen before.

The road leads to the old causeway to Fair Bay, and the tide is low....so Trudy succumbs to temptation and crosses over.  Wandering the strip of beach, she finds the old music box, and slips through time.  The island is whole, with all its houses and its church, and the children are playing on the beach.  And Trudy watches the day unfold, seeing her aunts and other children playing on the beach (rather horrible, a group of them are digging up a turtle's nest) knowing what's going to happen to them in a few hours.

Though Trudy feels perfectly corporeally present, she can't be seen or heard.  This inability to interact with anyone back in the past dims the emotional intensity of the experience.  She's just a passive on looker, and though it's not uninteresting, it's also not nearly as interesting as it could have been.  I felt from the way the survivors won't talk much about the horror of the storm that there must have been some tragedy involved, but Trudy discovered nothing new, and I felt a bit cheated. In fairness, it's only 123 pages of generous font, written for younger children than me, but still.

I wish the date of the hurricane was made clear; I think it might well have been inspired by the Great Storm of 1893 which hit the islands of South Carolina coast hard, but it doesn't match exactly--that storm hit at night, and the coastal islands hit hardest were homes mostly to black families, not rich white ones....And reading about the Great Storm and its horrors, I'm even more disappointed about the cop out on Lattimore's part that no one in Trudy's time wants to talk about it.  It could have been a much more powerful book than it was.  Oh well.

In short, though I didn't mind reading it at all, and quite possibly would have loved it when I was a seven or eight year old horse loving Charlotte, it didn't hit hard for me reading it today.

Eleanor Frances Lattimore is best known for her Little Pear books, about a Chinese boy, written for younger children, which don't really seem like something I'd love. That beings said, and although this one didn't quite make me desperately want to read others of her books, I will certainly pick up any that come my way.  She is very good at describing, which I like, and I may well revisit Fairy Bay in memory (especially whenever I read about sea turtle conservation efforts....to their credit, the girls involved wanted to rebury the eggs so they could hatch, but the boys wanted to take them home, and of course these particular eggs were doomed anyway, but still).

2/11/24

this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (2/11/24)

This week's roundup has a higher percentage of books in the first third of the alphabet than any other that I can recall.  Go abcdefgh for what it's worth.  And let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews

Abeni's Song, by P Djèlí Clark, at Garik16's SciFi/Fantasy Reviews and Other Thoughts

Adventure Calling (Time Travellers #1), by Sufiya Ahmed, at Book Craic

Awake, by Christopher Krovatin, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Cameron and the Shadow Wraiths, by Mark Cheverton, at Bookworm for Kids

The Clockwork Conspiracy, by Sam Sedgman, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads and Book Craic

The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, by Mary Averling, at Charlotte's Library

Dangerous Allies (The Forgotten Five 4), by Lisa McMann, at Mark My Words

Evie's Ghost, by Helen Peters, at Charlotte's Library

The Eyes & The Impossible, by Dave Eggers, at Kiss the Book

 Fight for the Cursed Unicorn (Tiger Warrior #5), by Maisie Chan, at Book Craic

 Fox Snare, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Garik16's SciFi/Fantasy Reviews and Other Thoughts

Galaxy Gladiators: A Stellar Cadets novel, by C.M. Bilson, at Mark My Words

The Gatekeeper of Pericael, by Hayley Reese Chow, at Literary Titan

The House on the Hill, by Eileen Dunlop, at Staircase Wit

The Last Fallen Realm, by Graci Kim, at Kiss the Book

Rebel Undercover (The Forgotten Five 3), by Lisa McMann, at Mark My Words

The Secret of the Moonshard, by Struan Murray, at Scope for Imagination

Secrets of the Snakestone, by Piu DasGupta, at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

The Umbrella Maker’s Son, by Katrina Leno, at Pages Unbound


Authors and Interviews

Deke Moulton (Don't Want to be Your Monster) at Fuse #8

Katherine Marsh (Medusa: The Myth of Monsters) at Watch Connect Read 

Nedda Lewers (Daughters of the Lamp), at MG Book Village

Siobhan McDermott (Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm) at Library Girl and Book Boy

Bob Doyle (The Fifth Hero: Escape Plastic Island) at From The Mixed Up Files


Other Good Stuff

The Best Children's Book Picks Feb 2024 UK Post - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books 

The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, by Mary Averling


My first debut middle grade fantasy of 2024--The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, by Mary Averling (Jan 2, 2024, Razorbill)! And it was a good one.

Kess's life is focused on keeping the family's Museum of Unnatural History afloat until her parents return from their expedition investigating unnatural creatures in Antarctica.  It's falling to bits around her, and no-one visits, and her older brother Oliver spends all his time shut in the library, not helping.  Her only friend is a sunken head in a jar, one that actually talks to her; otherwise, she's on her own, desperately hoping that she can make some grand discovery that will revitalize the museum at the edge of the magical, and completely forbidden, Eelgrass Bog, home to witches, demons, and more. It's not much of a life for a 12 year old.

Then a visitor comes to the museum-- Lilou, a girl who's just moved to town.  Lilou's grandfather has left her a cryptic note--

    Beware the witches.
    Break the curse.
    Save the society.

And Lilou enlists Kess's help.  The two girls decide to venture into Eelgrass Bog....and there they do indeed find strange and twisted magic, and clues that start them on a journey to the dark depths of this dangerously warped place.  But the curse isn't what either of them expected, and what they discover upends Kess's world.

It's pretty clear from the get-go that things are Not Ok for Kess, and as the story progresses, Kess herself becomes increasingly trouble by the sense that she's forgetting something, something bad (she isn't wrong).  And though it takes a while for the secrets to all unfold, Kess's hunt for answers, and her journey towards her first friendship (or more than friendship) make for good reading leading up to a satisfying conclusion.

I love books that make pictures in my mind of strange and magical things, and this does not disappoint!  I also was glad to have another book to add to my LGBTQ middle grade list--Kess and Lilou are clearly on their way to a relationship, and Lilou has two dads.  

Give this one to the young reader who loves fantasy mysteries, secret societies, and neglected protagonists ending the book un-neglected.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Mary Averling writes next.


2/6/24

Evie's Ghost, by Helen Peters, for Timeslip Tuesday

Evie's Ghost, by Helen Peters (2017, Nosy Crow), is a lovely English timeslip story, and it is firmly in the tradition of mid twentieth century British time travel, so if you, like me, who loves books like Charlotte Sometimes, Tom's Midnight Garden, and A Traveller in Time, you will enjoy it lots too and wish you'd had it as a child.  And if you are a child, there's no reason why you wouldn't find it magical and wonderful.

The story starts with Evie, very grumpy and sorry for herself, being packed off to stay with an old friend of her mother's, while her mother goes off on her honeymoon.  The old friend lives in an apartment carved from a once stately home, and it's a mess and there's no food, and Evie's mood does not improve.  But carved on the window glass of her small room is a message from the past:

Sophia Fane Imprisoned here 1814.

That night a ghostly girl appears outside the window, desperate for help, and Evie, reaching out to her, finds herself falling back in time.  Evie is now a lowly servant in Sophia's grand home, struggling with the hard and painful domestic labors required of her.  She knows she's there to help Sophia, who's about to be married off to a loathsome old, but very rich, man, and she's pretty sure she won't make it back to the present until she succeeds.  The big challenge of figuring out what to do and the pressing challenges of the drudgery of her life keep her occupied, and the reader gets a beautifully detailed slice of life for working children in the early 19th century that isn't a pretty picture.  And in the end Evie comes up with a brave and clever way out for Sophia, that's a risky gamble for herself.

It's not a story that gave me any flashes of numinous wonder, but it did absolutely keep me riveted. It's interesting historical fiction lived by a modern child, believably culture shocked, and with lots of tension both from the larger plot and in the specifics of Evie's life as a servant.   And it was a surprise treat at the end, when Evie arrives at her own home before her mother does and sets to work applying her hard-won domestic knowledge to getting the place ready to welcome her mother and stepmother home.  I feel it's rare for time travel to have such practical maturing effects on the young travelers, and found this refreshing.  And it was also lovely to see Evie back in the present finding the ending to Sophia's story, and her own personal connection to it.

So, in short, highly recommended, and I will keep a look out for more books by the author.


2/4/24

no round-up this week

 Instead of making a nice round-up, I'm at my mother's house with a laptop that just died, failing to remove toilet seat bolts, and failing to figure out how to install her new printer.  Sigh.

2/3/24

Nightspark, by Michael Mann


I very much enjoyed Ghostcloud, by Michael Mann, the first book in the duology (? maybe there are more adventures to come) that now continues with Nightspark (Peachtree 2023). Luke has been reunited with his family after foiling the evil plots of Tabitha, who used enslaved children, such as Luke and his best friend Ravi, as well as captured ghosts for her power station in an alternate England. He even has the job as a junior detective he always wanted.  

But he can't settle into ordinary life.  For starters, Tabitha has started on a new evil plan over on the continent, and his best friend Ravi is still her prisoner.  On top of that, Luke is a half ghost, and though he tries to enlist the aid of the Ghost Council, they are hostile to him and think he'd make a better 100% ghost.  But Luke is nothing if not determined, and so with a mixed lot of reluctant helpers and friends, including his best ghost friend, a mission to rescue Ravi and foil Tabitha is launched. 

It seems hopeless, but a string of daring adventures takes the little band across the English Channel...where things get even more dangerously exciting. It's not just extravagant adventure though; sprinkled into the story are thought-provoking moments where the characters have to make hard choices--like an encounter with an overloaded boat of refugees in the Channel, and the question of whether someone who has done horrible things can become trustworthy....

If you like action-packed adventure with supernatural shenanigans, dystopian settings, and brave kids full of heart triumphing over horrible circumstances, you will love Nightspark! But it is essential to read Ghostcloud first (and since I liked that one even more than its sequel, I'm sure you won't mind at all). 


1/30/24

Magic of the Black Mirror, by Ruth Chew, for Timeslip Tuesday

Someday I will have read every juvenile time travel book of the 20th century (except the Magic Tree house books).  I won't necessarily have enjoyed them all (I feel that the ones that were really good rose to the top and stayed in print) but they will be read.  And it was in this completionist spirit that I just read Magic of the Black Mirror, by Ruth Chew (1990).  It was not a dislike of Chew's books that made me reluctant; they are fine fantasy of yesteryear.  It is that this particular one is time travel back to the precontact period Northwest Coast, and the experienced reader of vintage fiction knows that at best this will be uncomfortable, and at worst horribly racist and colonialist.  Fortunately for me, this turned out to be the former.

Amanda and Will are in a museum exhibit of Northwest coast art, when they see themselves in a strange black mirror.  Next thing they know, they've arrived in a Native village.  Happily, a Native boy, Fox-of-the-water, who befriends them.  Lots of time travel tourism ensues.  Amanda and Will are very interested in everything, are bothered by the enslaved workers captured from other tribes, are warm, comfortable and well-fed, and are a little anxious about getting home again.  They get home again.

It is a reasonable description of a generic Northwest coast community, superficial but not deprecating.  The one bit that I found interesting was the kids' interaction with the community's medicine man, who is set apart from everyone else because of his calling, and lonely as a result.  Though this is somewhat questionable, it was just about the only emotionally resonant bit of the time travel experience.  And I appreciated it that Chew did not treat the medicine man's work with contempt, but described it at face value.  

So I guess as an introduction to Northwest coast culture for younger readers written from an outsider perspective it's not terrible, but it's really not an interesting story.  Straight up time travel as tourism/educational opportunity. That being said, there is a slightly though-provoking time travel twist--the black mirror is an obsidian slab polished by the medicine man after he hears how the kids got there; and if he hadn't made it, they never would have come....

1/28/24

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (1/28/24)

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

The Reviews

The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom: Attack of the Vampire Sheep, by Emily-Jane Clark, illustrated by Jeff Crowther, at Bellis Does Books  

The Beast of Skull Rock (Monsterious 4), by Matt McMann, at Mark My Words

Beastlands: Race to Frostfall Mountain, by Jess French, at Book Craic

The Boy Who Fell From the Sky, by Benjamin Dean, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads 

Cameron and the Shadow-wraiths: A Battle of Anxiety vs. Trust, by Mark Cheverton, at Mark My Words

A Council of Ghosts, by Ryan Harper Jones, at Dan's Sci Fi and Fantasy Blog

Emma and the Love Spell, by Meredith Ireland, at Ms. Yingling Reads and Always in the Middle… 

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie, by Radhika Sanghani, at Scope for Imagination

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door, by Pari Thomson, at Pages Unbound

 Hag Storm, by Victoria Williamson, at Valinora Troy

Not Quite a Ghost, by Anne Ursu, at Ms. Yingling ReadsBlue Stocking Thinking, and A Foodie Bibilophile In Wanderlust

The School for Invisible Boys, by Shaun David Hutchinson, at Biblio Nerd Reflections

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, by Esme Symes-Smith, at Youth Services Book Review 

The Thirteenth Circle, by MarcyKate Connelly and Kathryn Holmes, at Ms. Yingling Reads 

Time after Time (Best Wishes #3), by Sarah Mlynowski and Christina Soontornvat, at Charlotte's Library

The War of the Heavenly Horses, by Roland Chambers, at Scope for Imagination

Wicked Marigold, by Caroline Carlson, at Mark My Words


Authors and Interviews

Anne Ursu (Not Quite a Ghost), at ReadWonder

Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester (Night of the Living Zed), at MG Book Village

Shaun David Hutchinson (The School for Invisible Boys) at From The Mixed Up Files

MarcyKate Connolly and Kathryn Holmes (The Thirteenth Circle), at The Nerd Daily


Other Good Stuff

a fascinating look at how little MG sci fi is coming out in the first half of 2024, and many other very interesting things--Middle Grade Fiction by the Numbers for the First Half of 2024 (teenlibrariantoolbox.com)

1/23/24

Time after Time (Best Wishes #3) by Sarah Mlynowski and Christina Soontornvat for Timeslip Tuesday

 

If you are in the mood for a fun middle school ground-hog day timeslip, Time after Time (Best Wishes #3) by Sarah Mlynowski and Christina Soontornvat (November 2023, Scholastic) is a great pick!  This series is built around a magic bracelet, passed on from girl to girl, and it arrives at Lucy's house in Fort Worth, Texas, on the day she most needs a magic wish!

Lucy's life (before this day) has been fine--she loves the days she spends with her mom and stepdad and the two little babies, but she also loves going to the calm of her dad's house, where she can count on every thing to be in its place (she likes order and control very much).  And she's really excited for her class field trip to the Natural History Museum, where her dad works. The first shadow comes when Ms. Brock, the school librarian, turns out to be a chaperone--she's dating Lucy's dad, and always seems to be harder on Lucy than she is on anyone else.  That shadow darkens when another kid pukes on her, and  Grace, her best friend and science fair partner, gets angry at her during the museum scavenger hunt (extra credit to the winners!) and Lucy can't see why she would be. 

And then the real storm hits when her dad proposes to Ms. Brock in front of her whole class, and she runs from the museum....

When the police find her and bring her home, the bracelet has come in the mail with a letter of explanation from the girl who had it before, who had made a wish on it that came true.  And Lucy is thrilled to make her own wish, to live this terrible day again but this time to do it right.  But she doesn't, and the magic sends her back day after day, with things not improving.  Lucy has to do some hard thinking about herself before the bracelet lets her day stick, but finally, with help from the two girls who had their own complications from the magic in the first two books, it does.

Some of the repeats are entertaining (especially for the target audience), like the struggle to avoid puke, and some are thought provoking, like the reasons for Grace to be angry with her, and her feelings about her father marrying again.  The clues she picks up each time around let these bigger issue get resolved realistically and though I wanted to shake Lucy a bit, the time travel was doing that for me so that was ok and it was good to see her take a hard look at herself!

It doesn't break any new ground for those of us who have read hundreds of time travel books, but it should be a hit with those who love the first two books, and especially for readers who love the idea of getting second (or third or fourth) chances to do things over.  And I might well pick up book #4--there's a mysterious antagonist trying to get a hold of the bracelet for herself, and I'm curious about her....


1/22/24

Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings

If you are looking for lovely fantastical short stories, such as a perfect for savoring on a cold winter night (or hot summer day if you are antipodal), I enthusiastically recommend Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings (Small Beer Press, January 23, 2024).

Reviews of short story collections are hard to write.  I want to speak of each story individually, but that would take ages and spoil the lovely twists of them.  I could generalize, and say that the writing is lyrical and lovely, except that this is trite, and "lyrical" is, I feel, an overused and rather meaningless way to say that the words paint pictures in the mind, and call feelings from the heart and thoughts from the mind.  I could say in equal fairness that there's a very pleasing range of story collected here, ranging from fairy tale-esque to horror-esque, and I was never bored (though this is a boring sentence).

But I am an INFP, and the book through which I learned this says of me and my ilk that "metaphors come easily but may be forced" or words to that effect.  And so here's a metaphor that captures how I feel about these stories.

Some collections of stories are like eating cookies I enjoy, one after another, rather mindlessly, in a single sitting, and when I get the bottom of the bag of double chocolate milanos aka the end of the last story, I feel full but not deeply appreciative.

Others are like a collection of artisanal cupcakes, each a distinct flavor, some weird, some familiar, each beautifully ornamented so that one must stop and appreciate each before biting into it.  And each so rich and full in its own right that binge eating/reading is not possible.  Kindling is a box of such cupcakes.  I read no more than one story in a single sitting, because that was enough.  

As is the case with a box of mixed artisanal cupcakes, some were more to my taste than others.  The first story was the one I liked least, as I felt the writing got slightly in the way of the story, but all the rest of them I enjoyed lots and I am happy to have them in my mind's library now to revisit at my leisure.  

And I will keep the ARC on my shelf, for when all I need is one really good short story.  And when I have paid for my new roof and can buy new books again, I will see this ARC and replace it with the finished copy, and hope for more books from Kathleen Jennings. (I have shelved it between Kelly Link's books and Ursula Le Guin's books, as sown below, where I think it is happy.  Except that there is now no more room on that shelf, and though there are sadly no other Le Guin's to buy, there will be more Kelly Link, and hopefully more Kathleen Jennings, and so I guess I will have to move Connie Willis, which is ok because I'm not sure how well she plays with Le Guin.......)



In any event, thanks very much to Small Beer Press for the review copy!


1/21/24

no round-up today

 instead, I get to drive my kid back to college.....see you next week!

1/18/24

Not Quite a Ghost, by Anne Ursu (blog tour)

It's a pleasure to be a stop on the blog tour for Not Quite a Ghost, by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press)!  I have been a keen looker-forward-to-er of her books ever since we met at Kidlitcon years ago when it was in Minnesota (2010), and she told me about the book she was working on at that time, Breadcrumbs, which sounded like (and proved to be) right up my alley.  And Not Quite a Ghost is even more up my alley, what with the old house part.

Violet is not opposed to moving to a larger house, where she can have a room of her own instead of sharing one with her big sister who has become an unfriendly teenager.  But the room that Violet gets is up in the attic, and it smells musty, and it has horrible wallpaper of tangled vines with berries that look like eyes.  And Violet wasn't opposed to starting middle school, but her two best friends, her pod from covid times, aren't in her classes, and without a cell phone, it's easy to feel like her bond with them might be in danger.  And Violet didn't mind staying home sick one day, but when the being sick part last and lasted, she minded very much indeed.

Violet's post-viral body goes into failure mode, and just can't cope with exertion.  The doctor's think it's all in her head, and even one of her best friends doesn't believe she really isn't well.  Fortunately, her mother and stepfather take it as seriously as she deserves, and fortunately as well the miserable friendship part of her life works out in the end, with new friendships begun.  

But barely able to leave her bed, Violet is stuck in the attic of malignant wallpaper, and it really is malignant--there is a terrifying, hungry, presence trapped inside the vines, and it wants to get out and consumer her.  

I found this a very gripping read.  The realistic part, focused on Violet's illness, is great, and the supernatural part allows the story to come to a climax and then satisfactory conclusion--after figuring out how to thwart the evil being, Violet's attic becomes a safe place, and even the horrible wallpaper is bearable.  Though there is (as is the case for many in real life) no happy end to Violet's post viral chronic fatigue, she at least has friends and a room that isn't trying to attack her.  I also appreciated how Violet's underlying worry that her biological father abandoned the family because of her, was also resolved.   I do wish the supernatural part had been fleshed out a bit more, tied to some story in the past, perhaps, and more strongly linked to Violet's sickness, but it was still beautifully tense and horrible!  

I think it has lots of appeal for young readers of both realistic middle school fiction and haunted houses. The writing is lovely, and I was solidly hooked through my reading, and in the end I closed the book with that happy feeling of time having passed like a blink in the real world! 


Anne Ursu is the author of acclaimed novels The Troubled Girls of Dragomir AcademyThe Lost GirlBreadcrumbsand The Real Boy, among others. Her work has been selected as a National Book Award nominee, a Kirkus Prize finalist, and as a best book of the year by Parents MagazinePublishers Weekly, Amazon.com, and School Library Journal. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and an unruly herd of cats. Find Anne online at anneursu.com.


BLOG TOUR STOPS

January 16 Nerdy Book Club @nerdybookclub

January 17 A Library Mama (@librarymama)

January 18 Charlotte’s Library (@charlotteslibrary)

January 21 Teachers Who Read (@teachers_read)

January 22 Bluestocking Thinking (@bluesockgirl)

        ReadWonder (@patrickontwit)

January 23 A Foodie Bibliophile In Wanderlust (@bethshaum)

January 25 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers (@grgenius)



And just as personal coda--my own old house was troubled last night--the shower came on briefly all by itself, and the thermostat somehow got shut off, so it is 47 degrees inside this morning as I type this.  I removed the most terrifying wallpaper the house came with, which graced the old nursery, years ago, so it's not that...though this girl, repeating through the pattern, is still a disturbing memory...







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