10/14/14

The Magic Mirror, by Zetta Elliott, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book is The Magic Mirror, by Zetta Elliott (Rosetta Press, August 2014, for younger elementary school-aged readers), and it makes me very happy that it's the first book I'm reviewing after taking part in all the discussions of diverse books at Kidlitcon, and meeting Zetta in person! 

Kamara goes to her grandmother's house sad and hurt by the words of a mean boy in her class...and her grandmother knows just what will help.   She sends Kamara up to the guest room at the end of the hall on the second floor to clean one of the family heirlooms--an old mirror.  And as Kamara starts to clean, she looks at her reflection and wonders if her grandmother is just being kind when she calls her beautiful....

And the mirror begins to show her girls and women from the past--taking her on a journey through history.  She sees a captured girl being forced onto a slave ship, and then an older girl (the same one?) planning to escape for freedom.  She sees a young teacher at the turn of the century saving her books and students from a school deliberately set on fire, and then she jumps twenty years on to a young poet in Harlem.  The next picture shows a woman facing prejudice in the factories of WW II, but doing her part regardless, and then two scenes from the Civil Rights era.  And finally, the mirror shows her something that warms her heart most of all--her own mother graduating from college, the first in the family to do so.

The strength and courage and beauty of these girls and women from the past fill Kamara's heart, and are balm to her spirit.

I can easily imagine this story being one that many young readers in Kamara's shoes today will also find heartening--Kamara's feelings and self-doubt might well mirror their own.  Books like this can also be windows, that let kids look past their own spaces into other lives--and so it shouldn't be one that's just given to only to young readers who look like Kamara.  Yes, it is a book with a Message, celebrating strong Black women and girls through history, and sometimes the message is stronger than the magic of the story, but it is written for young readers for whom the message might well be new, and it's one they deserve to hear.  Yes, it is didactic in that points are underlined with a firm hand, but anyone who spends time with young kids knows that underlining is helpful pretty much essential if you want them to hear you.

That all being said, my favorite part of Kamara's story is the fact that her grandmother lives in a big, old house with shut-up rooms full of family history.  Quick--how many books for elementary school readers have African American kids whose family homes are big old Victorian houses with glass doorknobs and so many rooms that some are never used?  Yay for this story, for adding such a home to the places where readers can imagine kids of color.   (And lots of bonus points for doorknobs, says I, because I really really appreciate authors who include details like this that ring so true to those of us wrestling with our own historic doors).

Continuing on this line of thought, I myself would have liked to have seen more unexpected scenes in the magic mirror than those it shows to Kamara--ones that challenge standard expectations.   I would love to read the story of a family like this one, adding color to our mental images of the Victorians and pushing against the common default to stories of slavery.



 But again, I'm not the intended audience, and the stories that Zetta Elliott tells here are important ones that all young readers, regardless of gender or ethnicity, need to make part of their mental storehouse of history.

(For time travel purists out there--this one counts as a timeslip because Kamara is not just a passive observer-the people she's seeing also see and acknowledge her).

disclaimer: review copy received from the author

10/13/14

Happy times at Kidlitcon

So I am finally back from Kidlitcon, and in as much as I have had only 2 hours of broken airplane sleep I should probably just go to bed, but first I wanted to remember some of the small moments that make me grin to remember them....

There was lots of passion and intensity of conversation, and that was good, and there were of course lots of new friends made, and old friends enjoyed, and that was very good too.

But I also loved these small things:

Me and Jewell Parker Rhodes trying to close the blinds of the conference room, and me saying "I think you pull that" and Jewell pulling and the whole thing breaking off in her hand and us cracking up. (We fixed it, with much help from David, Tanita's husband, who could reach the top of the window (the part where he was perched on the windowsill was scary, and everybody else in the room turned their backs so they wouldn't have to watch if it ended badly) and who was also a Godsend in the tech support side of things.)

Shannon Hale skyping us from her rocking chair, and as Giant Shannon on the screen rocked, I found myself rocking too, and others were as well, and it was just like that scene from Ice Age 2 where Sid the Sloth is being worshiped by the small volcano sloths.

And how happy Melissa was when Shannon Hale called her up (to talk about Skype technical difficulties, but still....)

And most of all, getting to say to Leila--"So, been Slanketing much these days?" (I love saying the word "Slanket."  Simple pleasures for simple minds.)

Come to Baltimore next fall for more good times!

(other people are writing more thoughtful round-up posts- like Hannah's, and I will too, post nap, and the hope is that they will all be rounded up over at the Cybils website)

10/12/14

A list of elementary and middle grade speculative fiction books that haven't been nominated for the Cybils yet

Looking for a book to nominate in the elementary/middle grade speculative fiction category of the Cbyils?  Here's a somewhat random list of books that haven't been nominated yet (with the disclaimer that I haven't read most of them, and the further disclaimer that some might actually belong in YA).

Something to think about -- diversity isn't one of the criteria by which we pick our shortlists, but of course the chances of the short list including diverse books are improved when lots of great diverse books are nominated. 

The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, by Kristy Murray

Dragon on Trial, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland

The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker, by E.D. Baker

The Demon Notebook, by Erika McGann

Sky Run, by Alex Shearer

The Carpet People, by Terry Pratchett

The Twin Powers, by Robert Lipsyte

The Broken Spell, by Erika McGann
 
The Doll People Set Sail, by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin
 
The Black Stars, by Dan Krokos

The Emerald Shore, by Barbara Mariconda

Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan

The Junkyard Bot, by C.J. Richards

Heap House, by Edward Carey

Fall of Heroes, by Jeramey Kratz
 

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction (10/12/14)

Greetings from Sacramento!  I am here for Kidlitcon, now over for another year, and have to check out of my hotel room in just a few minutes, so this is not as complete a list as I would have liked to offer....so let me know if I missed your post!

And please keep nominating books for the Cybils!   There will be a round up of lists of un-nominated books at the Cybils site on Monday for your nominating convenience.
The Reviews

The Boundless, by Kenneth Oppel, at That's Another Story

The Fourteenth Goldfish, by Jennifer Holm, at alibrarymama and This Kid Reviews Books

Frostborn, by Lou Anders, at Reader Noir and Semicolon

Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, at Laurisa White Reyes

Gabriel Finely and the Raven's Riddle, by George Hagen, at Word Spelunking

The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile

He Laughed with His Other Mouths, by M.T. Anderson, at Semicolon

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at Book Nut and Ms. Yingling Reads

The Screaming Staircase (and also The Whispering Skull) by Jonathan Stroud at Librarian of Snark

Pennyroyal Academy, by M.A. Larson, at Effortlessly Reading (not yet nominated)

The School for Good and Evil (books 1 and 2) by Soman Chainani, at This Kid Reviews Books

Sky Jumpers, by Peggy Eddleman, at Becky's Book Reviews

Space Case, by Stuart Gibbs, at Book List (not yet nominated)

Sparkers, by Eleanor Glewwe, at Librarian of Snark (not yet nominated)

The Terror of the Southlands, by Caroline Carlson, at Project Mayhem (not yet nominated)

The Twin Powers, by Robert Lipsyte, at BooksForKidsBlog (not yet nominated)

The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud, at Bookyurt and Sonderbooks

The Zero Degree Zombie Zone, by Patrik Henry Bass, at This Kid Reviews Books


Authors and Interviews

Ellen Prager (Shark Whisperer) at The Children's Book Review

F.T. Bradley (the Double Vision series) at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

Sarwat Chadda (the Ash Mistry books) shares "My Multi-Colored Heroes" at Diversity in YA

Kit Grindstaff (The Flame in the Mist) at the SCBWI Blog



Other Good Stuff:

Lots of good stuff from Kidlitcon 2014, which I will write more about soon I hope; in the meantime, check out all the tweets at #kidlitcon.

A space-themed art interlude of covers from the 1940s and 50s at Views From the Tesseract

And also at Views from the Tesseract, a Tuesday 10 of Villainy!

Goodbye, Zilpha Keatley Snyder....Thank you for adding the world of Green Sky to my mental storehouse of lovely places.

10/7/14

Thinking about Blogging Voice, in preperation for Kidlitcon

It occurred to me today that really I had better do something about this talk that I am giving on Friday morning at Kidlitcon-- Finding Your Voice, Finding Your Passion- Blogging With Conviction.

And so I have no Timeslip Tuesday book to offer. 

But I welcome enthusiastically any thoughts you might have on what makes a good Blogging Voice!  Or examples of bloggers who you think have particular fine Voice(s)!

10/5/14

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (10/5/14)

Greetings from Lebanon, New Hampshire! I am here with my mother on a now-concluded Julian May pilgrimage (successful ascent of Mount Washington, successful appraisal of the Mount Washington hotel where Uncle Rogi worked, somewhat dreary appraisal of Dartmouth due to heavy rain, and visit to the intersection of Main and South where Uncle Rogi's bookstore was supposed to be).

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

The Reviews

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia and at Word Spelunking (with giveaway)

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at Geo Librarian

The Doll People Set Sail, by Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin, and Brett Helquist, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Eighth Day, by Dianne K. Salerni, at alibrarymama

Empire of Bones, by N.D. Wilson, at Semicolon

The Enchanted Castle, by E. Nesbit, at Leaf's Reviews

The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker, by E.D. Baker, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Forbidden Flats, by Peggy Eddleman, at Word Spelunking

The Fourteenth Goldfish, by Jennifer Holm, at Kid Lit Geek

Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle, by George Hagen, at Waking Brain Cells

The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove, at Semicolon

Hook's Revenge, by Heidi Shulz, at My Precious and Candace's Book Blog

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at By Singing Light and Charlotte's Library

The Island of Legends, by Lisa McMann, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill, by Otfried Preussler, at Children's Book-A-Day Almanac

The League of Seven, by Alan Gatz, at Mister K Reads

Magic Thief: Home, by Sarah Prineas, at Hidden in Pages (audiobook review)

Marianne Dreams, by Catherine Storr, at Marvelous Tales

The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood, at Never Ending Stories

The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier, at Book Nut

Nuts to You, by Lynne Rae Perkins, at Challenging the Bookworm

The Ogre of Oglefort, by Diana Wynne Jones, at Kid Lit Geek

The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda, at Twinja Book Reviews

The Scavengers, by Michael Perry, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Shouldn't You Be in School?, by Lemony Snickett, at Tor

Sidekicked, by John David Anderson, at Librarian of Snark

The Terror of the Southlands, by Caroline Carlson, at Carstairs Considers and Reader of Fictions

Thursdays with the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and Becky's Book Reviews

The Time of the Fireflys, by Kimberley Griffiths Little, at Time Travel Times Two

Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, at Bunbury in the Stacks (audiobook review)


Authors and Interviews

T.A. Barron (Atlantis Rising), at Geo Libraraian (with giveaway), and at Cynsations

Lou Anders (Frostborn), with cover analysis, at Project Mayhem

P.J. Hoover (Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life) at Cynsations

Dianne K. Salerni (The Eight Day) talks about the no-man's land between MG and YA at Project Mayhem

Eden Unger Bowditch (the Young Inventors Trilogy) at Project Mayhem

Roland Smith (Mutation) at Nerdy Book Club


Other Good Stuff:

At Oz and Ends, a look at a myth about Oz's "women in strong leadership roles."

There are two MG fantasy books on the Guardian's children's fiction award shortlist-- Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, and The Dark Wild, by Piers Torday (incidently, my 11 year old nominated the first Torday book, The Last Wild, for the Cybils....he would have picked The Dark Wild, but it'd not eligible yet).

Speaking of the Cybils, now is the time to nominate your favorite books of the past year (Oct 16, 2013- Oct 15, 2014)!  Here's what's been nominated in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction so far...and there are still lots of worthy books out there that aren't on the list yet (and I have just made a list of some of these, lifted from Kirkus).

And once again this year, Amy at Hope is the Word is organizing an Armchair Cybils so you can play along even if you aren't a panelist.http://www.cybils.com/2014/10/2014-nominations-elementarymiddle-grade-speculative-fiction.html

Forthcoming books eligible for the Elementary/Middle Grade category of the Cybils

I'm currently working on this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi/fantasy from around the blogs, and got to the point where I'm talking about nominations for the Cybils being currently open, and how I am always anxious on behalf of the books that are published in the last few days before nominations close (what if they are excellent but no one has had a chance to fall in love with them yet???? This has happened in the past, and it was painful to read a book I could have worked to shortlist if only it had it been nominated).  And so I wanted, in my round-up post, to link to a list of these very new/forthcoming books, and so I have now created one, with help from Kirkus (and doubtless there were worthy books not reviewed by Kirkus, so this is not a be all and end all list):
 
 
 
 

10/2/14

Little Red Quaking Hood (Princess Pink and the Land of Fake Believe #2), by Noah Z. Jones

I am a fan of  Princess Pink (Princess being her first name, Pink her last) an un- girly-girl of color who travels through her fridge to a land of fractured fairy tales.  So I was very happy when Little Red Quacking Hood (Scholastic, August 2014) appeared in my mail last August, and I read it very quickly so I could pass it on the same day to a young friend, another girl of color who loved the first book to pieces.  And  I wrote some thoughts down then and there, and saved that post, thinking, for No Good Reason at all, that the book was coming out in October....
 
It is now October, and I see that the book came out in August.  I am Ashamed that I did not more successfully help promote a book I think fills a pretty empty niche--easy reader books that are subversive fairy-tale fantasy adventures starring a girl of color who subverts dominant paradigms of girly girls.
 
In this episode, Princess and her friend Moldylocks help Scaredy Pants Wolf stop Little Red Quaking Hood from stealing the pies from his bakery.  But Little Red is not acting alone--it is Grandmother Quaking Hood who is the mastermind behind the pie thefts!   And when she gets her wings on Princess, things get rather tense....
 
It is funny, silly, and smart--great for emergent readers.  And I personally really really appreciated the illustrations of Princess and Moldylocks and the Wolf dressed as ducks.  And I shall go make up for my Reviewing Fail by nominating it for the Cybils.
 
Here is my review of Book 1 (Moldylocks and the Three Beards).
 
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

9/30/14

Cybils Eve, my upcoming Julian May pilgrimage with my Mama, and my bathroom door

Tonight is Cybils Eve--tomorrow those of us on the East Coast who are desperate for good excuses to distract ourselves from bathroom door troubles  passionate Cybils fans will be waking up to see what books the late nighters of the Pacific have already nominated, and quickly nominate our own favorite books!  Or possibly we will wait and see what holes need to be filled in at the end (October 15).  Either way, it's lots of fun.

This week is also fun for me, because my mother and I (with boys in tow) are doing something we have wanted to do for years.  We are going to New Hampshire, and we'll go to the top of Mount Washington, and then to Dartmouth.  The two are linked by being key places in The Galactic Milieu series of Julian May, and both of us have read our copies almost to pieces.  And this trip is a lovely prospect, and I would be able to look forward to it with much happiness, if it weren't for the fact that....

The downstairs bathroom door is still not on its hinges.  It has made it inside from the barn, and I hope to get it primed tonight....but that only leaves tomorrow to get it all the way painted and up....and Whah!  It is not the door that was in the doorframe before, because the doorframe was occupied until last year by a built-in towel closet that stuck a foot out into the dinning room, and the door we are putting there is a door of randomness that happened to be in the barn.   So door frame extensions will have to be added (fortunately I have a competent spouse, or at least a confident one, which is half the battle), and it is all very Difficult and I curse the previous owners of the house (three random doors in the barn, and none of them the right one....sigh).

With some visitors, I don't really care that there is no door to the bathroom; there's an upstairs bathroom with a perfectly fine door.  But my mother does not think highly of my housekeeping, and the door would really add to my pathetic efforts to achieve Gracious Living.....

And then when the door is done, I'll weed the gravel driveway.

The Devil's Intern, by Donna Hosie, for Timeslip Tuesday, with giveaway!

So yesterday afternoon I was desperately sanding the downstairs bathroom door out in the barn; my mother is coming to visit on Thursday, and she likes bathroom doors (as do many of us).  All the while I was sanding, The Devil's Intern, by Donna Hosie (Holiday House 2014, YA), which I had promised to review today, was sitting forlorn and unopened in the living room.   And I was really hoping it would be the sort of book that one reads in a fast-paced frenzy of single-sitting reading of pleasurable commitment. 

Yay!!! It was!  (It helped that it is a nicely manageable 229 pages, just the right amount for a single-sitting read).

Mitchell has been in Hell for four years, working as the Devil's Intern.   Hell is horribly over-crowded (Heaven isn't taking its fair share, and decent people, like Mitchell, end up damned), and Mitchell, understandably, resents having died at 17 and resents being in Hell.  So when the chance comes to illicitly use Hell's secret time-travelling device, Mitchell takes it, hoping to go back in time to keep himself from being hit by the Greyhound bus that killed him. 

His three best friends, people who make Hell almost worthwhile, go with him--they will visit each death in turn.  First the death of Alfarin, a16 year-old Viking marauder killed in battle.  Then Elinor, who died in the Great Fire of London.  Then the death of Melissa, aka Medusa because of her wild hair, back in the 1960s in San Francisco.  And then his own.   So the foursome leave Hell with considerable funds appropriated from its coffers, and hole up in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, which they'll use as their base of operations.

But changing one's death isn't as easy as it seems...and the years the four have spent in Hell have not been as entirely hellish as one might think.   To live again is to loose those years, and the love that was part of them....

Mitchell and Medusa hadn't quite gotten to the point of being a couple, nor had Elinor and Alfarin.  But they were part of each other's (dead) lives....and in the course of their time-travelling adventures, full of absolutely nail-biting tension, secrets reveled, and hearts wrung, Mitchell has to figure out if he can give up all that makes up his present death for the chance to live again....

Yep, read in a single sitting.  Absolutely riveting premise, great characters, many bits of humor to liven the darkness, nicely crisp writing, really cool time-travelling....(first time travel book I've read in which the dead get to time travel via device).   It got a starred review at Kirkus with particular mention of "the snarky comedy and suspense."

But what really made it work for me is the relationships between the characters.   They are four people who truly care about each other, who are looking out for each other, stuck in a crappy situation but still going on, and I do very much like to spend my reading time with people I too can care about! 

Note on age:  this is definitely YA and up-- even though there is violence in lots of books, the violence here, especially what happened at Elinor's death, is so close and personal to the reader that it will stick in the mind, and quite possibly distress younger readers.   Also, the characters are teenagers, thinking about sex, etc., although not actually going all the way.  (not one I'd give to my 11 year old, who does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief, understand what "third base" means).

For those worried about the religious aspect--the folks up in Heaven are not being altogether loving and charitable (good people shouldn't go to Hell, after all), so there are salvation issues that might make some readers uncomfortable.   Likewise, Satan is more capricious bullying tyrant than truly malevolent force of evil (although really bad people do get eternal torment).

Final thought--I am seriously thinking this might well be my Cybils nomination in YA Spec. Fic. 

GIVEAWAY!  Courtesy of the publisher, I can offer one lucky commenter (US only) a finished copy of this excellent book!  Just leave a comment by midnight next Tuesday, October 6.

Here are the other blog tour stops:
Tuesday, Sept. 23: I am a Reader (guest post by author with bound book giveaway)
Wednesday, Sept. 24: Ellie Garratt (guest post by author with bound book giveaway)
Thursday, Sept. 25: Sharp Read (interview with author)
Friday, Sept. 26: Weaving a Tale or Two (interview with author)
Monday, Sept. 29: YA Book Nerd (interview with author with bound book giveaway)
Wednesday, Oct. 1: Musings of a Penniless Writer (post by the author on her own blog)


disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

9/29/14

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare (Scholastic, September 2014, upper middle grade), follows a familiar pattern, but includes sufficient depths of worldbuilding and  imagination and  twistiness to make it work very nicely indeed as its own thing.

Familiar pattern 1:  a boy (a smart-aleck misfit) finds he has magical powers, and is chosen to attend a special school for magic, run by mages in a collective known as the Magisterium.

Differeneces:  Callum Hunt, the boy in question, did not want to be chosen, and wants to fail.  If he fails, his father will be happy, and he won't have to worry about being subsumed into the warped underground world of the Magisterium that his father has warned him about (the elemental mages are based in a cave system modeled on Lurray Caverns in Virginia, a truly magical place that I love).    He is not a golden boy of obvious specialness--he is prickly, uncooperative at school, and a smart aleck.  And he has a bad leg--multiple surgeries haven't been able to fix his limp.   (And this isn't just a handicap-as-accessory-- Callum can't forget about it, and the authors make sure the reader realizes this, and magical healing isn't an option).

 Familiar pattern 2:  The boy has great magical potential, and is taken in by the number 1 mage teacher as one of his three apprentices.  The reader (ie, me) wonders if he is a Chosen One of Specialness, and is grateful not to have to read a rhyming prophecy of distressing scansion.

Differences:   Well, maybe Callum is special--there's certainly things about him that the reader (and Callum) wonder about.  For one thing, Callum's dying mother wanted his father to kill him when he was an infant (we learn this right at the beginning, so it's not a spoiler).  For another thing, there's the whole business of why Callum's father is so determined that he not learn magic.  But I shan't say if he is Chosen or not....it is a twisty journey that leads to the answers,  and better left unspoiled.

Familiar pattern 3:  At magic school, he makes two good friends, a boy and a girl, and the girl is smart and determined, and the boy is a truly nice sort, ready to be friends even though Callum is all prickly.  There is a mean boy who wants to be better at magic than Callum.

Differences:  They aren't named Hermione and Ron and Draco.  They are different in other ways, as well...........

Familiar pattern 4:  There is a bad magic dude, who caused a war that decimated the previous generation of not bad magic users.   The Magisterium  is worried that the bad dude and his chaos-warped minions are going to rise again and fight more.  But before we get to that point, we have lots of time to read about the threesome at school, learning a. magic and b. to trust each other.

Differences:  Trust me on this one.  Riveting twists!  (if twists can rivet).  Riveting questioning of what makes a person who they are!

So the whole ensemble is a really satisfying story, full of lots of lovely small mundane details and larger, un-mundane details about learning magic, and even larger details describing various adventures and confrontations, building up to the big plot happening.  

It's one I can imagine wanting to re-read (if the number of books in my tbr pile ever diminishes sob sob).  And that is pretty much the best compliment I can pay a book.

I will also pay it the compliment of not handing my review copy on to the library, but instead handing it to my handy member of the target audience, pretty sure he will enjoy it lots too (he is currently reading The Witch's Boy, by Kelly Barnhill, and has told me he will hand that one over to me when he's done, pretty sure I will enjoy it lots too right back at me).

Bonus:  illicit wolf puppy of great cuteness kept secretly by Callum and his two friends in their underground rooms. 

Final answer: very good indeed.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

9/28/14

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (9/28/14)

Welcome to another round-up of reviews and other posts of interest to us fans of MG SFF!  Please let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews:

13 Curses, by Michelle Harrison, at Reader Noir

Archie Green and the Magician's Secret, by D.D. Everest, at Wondrous Reads

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander, at Manga Maniac Café and Bunbury in the Stacks (with giveaways)

Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones, at The Emerald City Book Review

Dreamwood, by Heather Mackey, at Semicolon

Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities 2), by Shannon Messenger, at Annie McMahon

The Fires of Calderon, by Lindsay Cummings, at Librarian of Snark

The Fourteenth Goldfish, by Jennifer L. Holm, at 100 Scope Notes

Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle, by George Hagen, at Jen Robinson's Book Page and Kid Lit Geek

The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove, at Redeemed Reader and Pages Unbound

Greenglass House, by Kate Milford, at Story Time Secrets and Semicolon

Hook's Revenge, by Heidi Schulz, at Ms. Yingling Reads, Log Cabin Library, and Justin's Book Blog

The Luck Uglies, by Paul Durham, at Jean Little Library

Lycanthor the Werewolf, by Aiden Storm, at The Ninja Librarians

Magic Thief: Found, by Sarah Prineas, at Hidden In Pages (audiobook review)

The Mark of the Dragonfly, by Jaleigh Johnson, at The Wanderer

The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald, at Stray Thoughts

Rose, by Holly Webb, at Librarian of Snark

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud, at Justin's Book Blog

The Shadow Lantern, by Teresa Flavin, at Charlotte's Library

A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd, at That's Another Story

Space Case, by Stuart Gibbs, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Still Life (The Books of Elsewhere 5), by Jacqueline West, at Log Cabin Library

Thursdays with the Crown, by Jessica Day George, at Good Books and Good Wine

Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life, by P.J. Hoover, at Charlotte's Library

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Pages Unbound

The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud, at Ms. Yingling Reads, Bibliobrit, and Reader Noir

Three from Kate Milford (The Boneshaker, The Kairos Mechanism, and The Broken Lands, which is YA) at alibrarymama


Authors and Interviews

Michelle Paver (most recently The Eye of the Falcon)  talks about her inspiration at The Guardian

William Alexander (The Ambassador) shares his Big Idea at Whatever

Heidi Schulz (Hook's Revenge) along with its illustrator and editor, at Supernatural Snark


Other Good Stuff:

Princess Academy and Palace of Stone are getting new paperback covers to coincide with the release of the third book in the series (The Forgotton Sisters) this coming March.  See them at Squeetus.  (me--I with they had made them a bit more boy friendly....oh well.)

A Diverse Mythical Creatures Round Table at the Book Smugglers-- Part 1 and Part 2

A nice YA Steampunk Genre Guide at The Hub-- I wonder if there are enough MG titles to do one for that group?

A Tuesday Ten of Challenged and Banned Sci Fi/Fantasy books for kids at Views From the Tesseract

And finally, don't forget that nominations for the Cybils open October 1st!  What Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction books will you all nominate???? 

9/24/14

Waiting on Wednesday (or at least till Kidlitcon 2014) for Bayou Magic, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

So my life was brightened considerably today by an email from Little, Brown, that said, in essence, "how many ARCs of Bayou Magic, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, should we send to Kidlitcon?"  And I was all !!!! because I did not know of this book, and I went and looked, and here it is, a lovely sounding middle grade magical story:



"If only Maddy sees the mermaid, can it be real? 

It's Maddy's turn to have a bayou summer. At first she misses life back home in the city, but soon she grows to love everything about her new surroundings -- the glimmering fireflies, the glorious landscape, and something else, deep within the water, that only Maddy sees. Could it be a mermaid? As her grandmother shares wisdom about sayings and signs, Maddy realizes she may be only the sibling to carry on her family's magical legacy. And when a disastrous oil leak threatens the bayou, she knows she may also be the only one who can help. Does she have what it takes to be a hero? A coming-of-age tale rich with folk magic, set in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, Bayou Magic celebrates hope, friendship, and family, and captures the wonder of life in the Deep South."  Coming May, 2015....

Of course upon reading this I was filled with Book Want (girl goes to country and magical legacy both, in general, make my eyes light up).   And so I wrote back to Little, Brown with a carefully thought out number that should be enough for other middle grade fans plus me....and since Jewell Parker Rhodes will be at Kidlitcon herself (!!!; I feel shy) I am going to get it signed.....

And if you come to Kidlitcon (registration closes Friday) you can get one too!  (And I know that not everyone can make it (rats), and I am thinking if there are things not pounced on, they may well come home with me to be given away, because that is nice too).

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Reality Shock!

This is not a review, but more a note to say that there's a new Ripley's Believe it or Not out in the world -- Reality Shock! (September 9, 2014)  which I received the publishers.  Like all the Ripley's books, it's a mix of the educational, the gross, and the intriguing.



Something I appreciated:

A nice two page spread on the Shackleton expedition, illustrated with actual photographs.  Educational!

Something fascinating, in a horrific way:

An advertisement for electric corsets!

An interesting story that would make a fascinating book in its own right:

Conjoined twins Millie and Christine McKay were born as slaves in North Carolina in 1851.  The girls were sold to a showman while still toddlers, kidnapped and taken to England, and kidnapped once more.  The American show manager, and the girls' mother (I'm glad she managed to stay with them, at least until the kidnapping--this is my favorite part of the story) managed to track them down four years later.   The girls then performed as "the Two-headed Nightingale."  After emancipation, they used the money they earned to support schools for black children back in North Carolina.

Interesting thing I learned:

"Indigenous peoples of Paraguay account for only about five percent of the population, by their Guarani language is spoken by about 90 percent of the people. This makes Paraguay the only country in the Americas where an indigenous language is spoken by a majority of the population."  Cool!

Something I didn't need to know:

A dude in Louisiana has been saving all his nail clippings since 1978.

Something I wish hadn't been included:

Can we please not have pictures of white guys (Mr. Ripley himself in this case) posing next to a man from Fiji identified as a "human cannibal" because without cultural context I think it's just sensationalist neo-colonialism.

9/23/14

The Shadow Lantern, by Teresa Flavin, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Shadow Lantern, by Teresa Flavin (Templar July 2014, upper middle grade, moving YA-ward), is the third book about two young teenagers, Sunni and Blaise, who slip into the pasts shown in the magical paintings of the Renaissance artist Fausto Corvo.   In this book, a travelling showman comes to town, with a shadow lantern--an antique slide projector-- and three glass slides hand-painted by Corvo himself.   Like Corvo's other paintings, the slides are magical portals through which Sunni and Blaise can pass, and long as the oil lamp illuminating the images stays lit, they can explore at their leisure.  At first it seems safe enough--simple sight-seeing trips to Venice, Prague, and Amsterdam of four hundred and a bit years ago. But it turns out that the slides hold the clues that lead to the most magical of Corvo's paintings....paintings that his old enemy, Sorenzo, trapped in the world of the paintings, is still determined to find.
 
Now Sorenzo has a hostage--Sunni and Blaise's art teacher could not resist passing through one of the slides himself.   And to make matters worse, the showman cannot resist projecting one of the magical slides onto Corvo's huge masterwork painting, The Mariner's Return to Arcadia, the one that started the two kids' adventures....a painting whose layers hold monsters....

Sunni and Blaise, inside the slide, watch in horror as Amsterdam goes mad around them, subsumed by the chaos of the larger painting.   And there is Sorenzo, drawing every closer to claiming Corvo's lost paintings for himself....

I enjoyed the first two books just fine (here's my review of The Crimson Shard, the second book), and this third one also.  They're good reading for those who like fantasy and magic that's tasty for the mind--it's not fantasy with swords and spells and epicness of all sorts, but more an intellectually pleasing expedition that intrigues through the true strangeness of the vistas it offers (not sure that made much sense....).  The rich and detailed descriptions of the strange lands inside the paintings are incredibly vivid, and the books are worth reading for that part of the journey alone.   And although Sunni and Blaise don't actually Do a whole heck of a lot (especially in this third book), they are perfectly reasonable companions for the reader, and it was nice to see their relationships develop.

The time travel in The Shadow Lantern is primarily tourism to the past...but because Fausto Corvo created the slides as a pathway to finding his pictures, there's a bit more point to it.  That being said, once the slide of Amsterdam becomes subsumed by The Mariner's Return, it really reads more like a portal fantasy than time travel. 

Time travel through paintings isn't as common a plot device as one might think (or I'm just reading the wrong books).   Apart from this series, the only example I can think of is the Mary Poppins story (in Mary Poppins Comes Back, I think) where Jane goes into the world painted on a china plate....It's a lovely, enchanting premis--portal fantasy mixed with time travel!-- and I'd love to know of more examples.

9/22/14

Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life, by P.J. Hoover

Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life, by P.J. Hoover (Starscape, Sept 2014, upper middle grade), takes as its starting point the premise that Tutankhamen did not, in fact, die.  Instead, during his evil uncle's attempt to dispose of him and claim the throne, Tut became immortal--14 years old forever.   Now he's living in Washington, D.C., under the protection of an 18 year old immortal Gilgamesh, and Gil is making him go to eighth grade.  Again.  But that's not the worst of it-- his uncle also became an immortal, and now is raising the power of Set, god of chaos and destruction. to take over the world.

And for Tut, this seems like the perfect opportunity to finally revenge himself on the man who murdered his family.   To kill an immortal, though, requires a special weapon, and hidden in the city is the one god-created knife that will do the job.  But can Tut find it in time?  

On his side is his little army of faithful Shabti (small figures placed in one's tomb to serve in the afterlife--the Shabti are absolutely awesome and provide both comic relief and the most heart-rending moment of the story) and a fellow eighth-grader of a geeky sort (still mourning Pluto's lost planetary status, for instance) who through sheer persistence becomes Tut's friend.   Horus, sharing Tut and Gil's apartment in cat form, is an uncertain ally, and Gil himself has no intention of letting Tut find the knife, if he can stop it.

And meanwhile, the sinister worshippers of Set are growing in strength, and calamity is nigh! Can Tut figure out what to do in time, or will it be (with many apologies to P.J. Hoover) game, Set, and match?
So in essence this is a heist story mixed with mythological mayhem--find the hidden treasure and thwart the bad guys, while running around a city full of ancient gods and magic.   There's a nice balance of Egyptian mythology and contemporary life that makes for interesting and fun reading.  Although Rick Riordan fans would be obvious readers, I'd actually lean more toward the heist fans on this one--it's not really the same "kids finding powers" of Riordan's books, but rather kids tearing around a city fighting, and sometimes causing, mayhem.   It's also one for those who like magic intruding into in the very ordinary world--it doesn't offer the marvelous possibility to the reader that he or she might get that letter from Hogwarts, or find out their mom was Athena, but it is fun to imagine that one of your classmates might be immortal, or to consider the possibility that three Egyptian deities are guarding a secret chamber in the Library of Congress.

It takes a some effort to accept the premise that even after millennia of life Tut is still very much a fourteen-year-old (and he does indeed come across very much like an ordinary adolescent--self-centered, still uncertain about girls, impulsive, etc.).  That being said, it is entirely possible the target audience, who have never been older than 14 either, will have little problem with it (not knowing as I do (ha ha) what it is to be truly grown-up).  Because of this, it's a book I'd recommend much more strongly to kids much more strongly than I would to grown-ups.

Here are other reviews, at Jen Robinson's Book Page and Ms. Yingling Reads

disclaimer: review copy received courtesy of the author

(Another one for my multicultural sci fi/fantasy list, as Tut is a North African protagonist, shown believably as such on the cover....)

9/21/14

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (9/21/14)

Before I get to the round-up, I want to share the fact that the registration deadline for Kidlitcon 2014 (Sacramento, Oct. 10th and 11th) has been extended to September 26!  And if both days are too much, there's the option of registering for just Friday or Saturday....If you are a lover of kids books, even if you aren't a blogger yourself, do consider coming!  It is the most kindred spirit filled conference possible for us introverted children's book readers.  Plus there will be great authors to meet, and lots of books to go home with -- Chronicle Books just wrote in asking "how many of each title should we send...."  And there will be tasty eats and drinks (thank you, Lee and Low, for sponsoring refreshments for Friday afternoon's Author Meet and Mingle!).

Now on to the round-up; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Accidental Keyhand (Ninja Librarians 1), by Jen Swann Downey, at Fantasy Book Critic

The Book of Kindly Deaths, by Eldritch Black, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Centaur Rising, by Jane Yolen, at Sharon the Librarian

Doll Bones, by Holly Black, at YA Book Bridges

Evil Fairies Love Hair, by Mary G. Thompson, at Charlotte's Library

The Forbidden Flats, by Peggy Eddleman, at The League of Extraordinary Writers

The Fourteenth Goldfish, by Jennifer L. Holm, at BooksForKidsBlog and Views From the Tesseract

Frostborn, by Lou Anders, at Smitten Over Books

Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle, by George Hagen, at My Precious

The Hero's Guide to Being and Outlaw, by Christopher Healy, at Semicolon

Home (Magic Thief 4), by Sarah Prineas, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Hook's Revenge, by Heidi Schulz,  at A Reader of Fictions, Pop! Goes the Reader, and Manga Maniac Café

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, at She Reads She Blogs and The Midnight Book Girl

Jacob, King of Portalia, by Casey Clubb, at Bitches n Prose  (with giveaway and interview)

Janitors, by Tyler Whitesides, at Batch of Books

The Last Present, by Wendy Mass, at Time Travel Times Two

The League of Seven, by Alan Gratz, at The Book Monsters

Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn, by Greg Leitich Smith, at Guys Lit Wire

Loot, by Jude Watson, at Proseandkahn

Maddigan's Fantasia, by Margaret Mahy, at Fantasy Literature

Magic in the Mix, by Annie Barrows, at books4yourkids and Charlotte's Library

Nanny X, by Madelyn Rosenberg, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Nethergrim, by Matthew Jobin, at Good Books and Good Wine (audiobook review)

The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, at The Ninja Librarian

Pennyroyal Academy, by M.A. Larsen, at Snuggly Oranges

The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu, at Pages Unbound

Rose and the Magician's Mask, by Holly Webb, at Word Spelunking (giveaway)

Rump, by Leisl Shurtliff, at The Children's Book Review

The Secret of the Key, by Marianne Malone, at Fantasy Literature

Secrets at Sea, by Richard Peck, at The Book Monsters

Strike of the Sweepers (Janitors Book 4), by Tyler Whitesides, at LDS Women's Book Review

The Time Smugglers, by Rosie Morgan, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud, at In Bed With Books

The Witch's Boy, by Kelly Barnhill, at alibrarymama, Librarian of Snark, and In Bed With Books

Authors and Interviews

Peggy Eddleman (The Forbidden Flats) at The League of Extraordinary Writers

P.J. Hoover (Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life) at Literary Rambles (giveaway)

Cassandra Clare and Holly Black (The Iron Trial) at Tor

J.B. Cantwell (Aster Wood and the Lost Maps of Almara) talks about "Publishing Middle Grade in the Indie Age" at Middle Grade Ninja

Edith Cohn (Spirit's Key) at Smack Dab in the Middle

Other Good Stuff

A nice look back at  the Middle Grade/Elementary spec. fic. shortlist from last year's Cybils at Library Chicken (and don't forget to nominate for this year starting Oct. 1!)

Another nice Tuesday Ten at Views From the Tesseract; this week it's Scientists and Inventors Wanted.

A look at Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory, by Lucy Mangan, at Books Together

The Medical Journal of Australia offers a new reason why Tolkien's bad guys really lost in The Hobbit--an Unexpected Deficency.  Here's the abstract:

"Objective: Vitamin D has been proposed to have beneficial effects in a wide range of contexts. We investigate the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency, caused by both aversion to sunlight and unwholesome diet, could also be a significant contributor to the triumph of good over evil in fantasy literature."
(via Fantasy Faction)

And from io9, a look at the real inspiration behind Disney's Robin Hood.

And the world of Harry Potter in absolutely dazzling miniatures.

RIP IX (Readers Imbibing Peril) is up and running through Oct. 31 (this is a reading challenge for books spooky and mysterious....)

And finally, it's time for A More Diverse Universe! Check out the links thus far, and add your own!

9/17/14

This year's Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Cybils Panelists!

For the past few weeks, I've been making hard choices--twice as many people applied to be Cybils panelists as I had places to offer (and that's not even including folks who put EMG SF as their second or third choices....).    Picking panelists requires carefully balancing experienced and newer panelists,  creating a mix of librarians, parents, teachers, readers, and booksellers, and making sure to pick people who clearly will enjoy reading over 100 EMG SF books this fall!  (I did not have to worry about gender diversity, because no men put EMG SF first....).    If you didn't get picked this year, or didn't apply, but think you want to do EMG SF next year, your best bet (but no guarantees) is to read and review lots of EMG SF books!

But in any event, I think I assembled two brilliant panels.  (You can see all the lists over at the Cybils Blog).

The EMG SF First Rounders:

Rana Bardisi
Reader Noir
@readernoirblog

Sherry Early
Semicolon@semicolonblog

Maureen Eichner
By Singing Light
@elvenjaneite

Cindy Hannikman
Fantasy Book Critic 

Katy Kramp
A Library Mama
@alibrarymama

Brandy Painter
Random Musings of a Bibliophile
@brandymuses

Charlotte Taylor
Charlotte’s Library
@charlotteslib

The EMG SF Second Rounders:

Hayley Beale
Bibliobrit

Melissa Fox
Book Nut
@book_nut

Sarah Potvin
Librarian of Snark
@librarianosnark

Tasha Saecker
Waking Brain Cells
@tashrow

Stephanie Whalen
Views from the Tesseract
@TesseractViews


Such lovely panelists, even if I say so who shouldn't.

(And don't forget to nominate your favorite books of the year, starting Oct 1!  In terms of  publishing eligibility--don't forget the Cybils year runs from Oct 16, 2013 to Oct 15, 2014)

9/16/14

Magic In the Mix, by Annie Barrows, for Timeslip Tuesday

Magic In the Mix, by Annie Barrows (Bloomsbury, Sept 16, 2014, middle grade), was a truly enjoyable book, one I'd have read in a single sitting if my bus ride to work this morning had been 20 minutes longer!

It continues the story begun in The Magic Half, in which a girl named Miri travelled back into the past of her old house, and came home again with a twin sister, Molly, from that earlier era.  In this book, Miri and Molly travel back in time together....first to the 1920s, when Molly's mother was still a teenager, and then, this time with their older twin brothers, to the time of the Civil War. 

Each of these time journeys is almost a separate story, though they are connected.  The fist is a story of family and belonging, dealing with Molly's situation as a refugee in time--her birth caused her mother's death, and seeing her mother young, beautiful, and alive makes her question whether she has any right to her happy existence far in the future.   And Miri can't stand the thought of giving up her sister.

The second is more a standard time travel adventure--the two twin boys find themselves prisoners of the Conferderates, and Molly and Miri have to save them.   To do so means outwitting a sadistic monster of a Confederate soldier, and it is rather exciting.

So here's what made it work for me-- 

The relationship between sisters is always something I like to read about, and this was no exception.  What makes this relationship interesting is that both girls can remember their lives when they weren't sisters, alongside their time-travel related lives as sisters since birth, and it is something they can't just take for granted, especially once Molly sees her mother.  This plot, though good reading, wouldn't have been enough to sustain a whole book, so it is good that.....

The journey back to the Civil War broadens the story.   It was Good Civil War time travel, too, in a sense of "Civil War such that appeals to Charlotte."  Which is to say, not much battlefield activity, but rather two girls observing casual sideline violence, and reacting to it, and saving their brothers from it.   I though this part was really well done--nice and tight, with some bouncing between past and present via the old house to add zest.  Never before has a Civil War story made me want to read non-fiction about it, until now--Mosby, of Mosby's Rangers fame, sounds fascinating!  I find it amusing that one of the twin brothers in the book, previously a reluctant student of history, had exactly the same reaction.
And the two strands of story are connected enough that it makes sense that they should be in the same book.

It's a stronger book than it's predecessor, I think, and perhaps a more thought-provoking one.   There's enough backstory gently provided that it can be read on its own, if necessary.  The Magic Half came out ages ago, in 2008; there's definitely room in Miri and Molly's old house for more adventures, which I will happily read if given the chance.

Added bonus-es (boni?)
-- nice parents who care for their children appropriately. 
--a really nice bedroom for the girls (I like well-described attractive bedrooms in old houses!)
--a time-travelling kitten!
--I am also personally interested in the story of home renovation (being myself engaged in that constant struggle).  Miri and Molly's house, as I said, is old, and the impetus for this episode of time travel is repairs to its porch....and I'd like to see how the work on the house progresses....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher


9/15/14

Evil Fairies Love Hair, by Mary G. Thompson

Evil Fairies Love Hair, by Mary G. Thompson (Clarion Books, August 2014, middle grade).

On the face of it, the instructions seemed simple enough--raise a flock of tiny fairies, feeding them on human hair, pass a starter flock on to another kid, and get a wish once that flock has been grown as well.  Ali is sure she'll be able to do it....but the instructions were not written to be what one might call as helpful as they might be.   And the fairies are not in the business of granting wishes just to be friendly.

In fact, they are evil fairies! (as the title indicates).   And from a relatively simple struggle to find enough hair (that's not her own) to feed her voracious flock, Ali finds herself in a very complicated struggle indeed to foil the nasty plot of the fairy mastermind, who's determined to give her fairy kin a new lease on life.  A lease on human life, to be more exact.

Tangled snarl after tangled snarl complicates Ali's efforts to save friends and family for the greedy little hands of the fairies, and it becomes a wild ride indeed, with things getting worse and worse and worse and more and more complicated....

In the interests of full disclosure, I have never read a Goosebumps book.  That does not stop me, though, from recommending this one to the young reader who has, and who is ready for something a step beyond.   In short, Evil Fairies Love Hair is a horror book of magic going horribly wrong sort, with real world consequences, in which the creep factor grows from the simple consumption of human hair (icky) to the insanity of nightmare fairies taking over the characters home town. 

The character of Ali, bravely holding it together while she tries to use her brains to outwit the fairies (who aren't the brightest little hamsters in the litter) holds things together in a more or less coherent story, and there are interesting bits of subplot involving her friendships, which evolve as events progress.  (Just for the record--one of these characters is a smoker, who evolves into a non-smoker, and a more sympathetic character than he first appears.  It's odd to find kids who smoke in middle grade books, but at least here it's presented in negative way, as something that makes him repellent).

And even though this book wasn't really to my personal taste, I couldn't help but be rather fascinated by the magical train wreck of it all.  It's not exactly a funny book, but the insane grotesquerie of it all may well amuse readers with a fondness for wacky creepy mayhem!  It's the sort of book whose cover, I think, will do a good job selecting its audience.

That being said, its not one I'd leap to give the reader who actually loves fantasy for the sake of its magical escape from reality!

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