7/6/16

Darkstalker, by Tui T. Sutherland

Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire books are deservedly wildly popular with their target middle grade audience (and me).  The books are set in a world full of warring clans of dragons, each clan with its own physiological and cultural differences.  The first series is about young dragons working to bring peace to their war torn world.  The second series introduces a new group of dragons, who meet at a dragon boarding school for intercultural understanding, and then go off and have adventures.  Though this story line (now at three books) is going to continue, Tui T. Sutherland found herself taking a break from it to go way back in time and write the story of Darkstalker, an enigmatic, incredibly powerful, and trapped dragon who the young boarding school dragonets come into contact with...and then have to decide if they want to free him from his horrible fate.

So Darkstalker, the first book of the Wings of Fire Legends series (Scholastic, June 28, 2016) can be read as a standalone book, the story of three young dragons caught in trap of magic.  Fathom is a young Seawing dragon who has the animus power of magic that turned his grandfather into a homicidal maniac ( a very appealing new character).  Clearsight is a Darkwing with an extraordinary prophetic gift.  And Darkstalker is the child of on an animus Icewing prince, now exiled, and a Darkwing, and he has all the gifts of magic possible, making him the most powerful dragon ever.  When he transfers his animus powers to an enchanted scroll, he avoids the trap of insanity that goes with that magic, and now there are no limits to what he can accomplish.  Except, perhaps, for Clearsight's prophecies and her love for him, and his for her.  But will that be enough to keep Darkstalker from being corrupted by all the power at his disposal, and keep him from using it to get the revenge he wants on those who have wronged him?

When we meet Darkstalker in Moon Rising, it's not at all clear if he is good or evil, or in-between...and this mystery adds tension to the book and its sequels.  So you shouldn't read Darkstalker first on its own, because then you will have a very clear idea of just what sort of dragon he is....and it isn't pretty.  Although if  you do read this one as your introduction to Wings of Fire, you might have hope that there will be a happy ending, fans of the series know already that that didn't work out.  There were good reasons why he ended up imprisoned.  In fact, one of the things he does is so very horrible that there doesn't seem to be much chance of redemption for him, and it's so horrible that sensitive readers will not want that image in their heads at all (forcing another dragon to eat himself alive).   The Wings of Fire books don't shy away from violence, but this is the most extreme example.

That being said, fans of the books will enjoy this one too (and already have, judging by the long string of five star reviews on Amazon)--the dragons are all well-characterized, and the experience is as immersive as ever.  Except that for the first time I was a tad bothered by a bit of the world building--there were some problems of scale, because if the dragons are so big that they keep humans (aka scavengers) as small pets in cages, why are they growing human-scale plants in window boxes?  But that will probably not trouble the many young fans at all.

And now I can continue to look forward to the next book in the main series, knowing that things are going to be very tense indeed....

Side note--the Wings of Fire website has lots of fun things to do, and a friendly fan community, and now origami has been added to the mix, which I had hoped my boys and I would try out in time for this review, but it was not to be....

7/5/16

The Time Travler's Handbook, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Time Traveler's Handbook, by Wyllie, Acton, and Goldblatt (Harper Design, May 2016) is designed to prepare the traveler for eighteen extraordinary trips back to the past.  It's not a fictional account of adventures there, but more a guidebook to where to find food, what to wear, how to get around, and more.  It reads very much like a good travel guide, throwing historical context into the mixed so that your experience of the past is informed by details of what's happening.   The time travel company offers a variety of trips-- you can join Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, see the premier of Julius Caesar at the Globe,  march on Versailles with the revolutionary women of Paris.  The trips are strongly Europe and the United States focused, but a trip with Captain Cook to Tahiti is offered, and one to the Xanadu of Kublai Khan.  In the cultural and sports side of things, you can go hang out at the Rumble in the Jungle at Kinshasa or see Charlie Parker at the birth of bebop or the Beatles in Hamburg....

This is a truly fun way to read about history; the framing device is present enough, and detailed enough, so that you can imagine actually being there, and it's fun knowing where you should stay and eat on your visit to Shakespeare's London!  It's not a book to read in one sitting, but it is a very good one to keep around and dip into, especially when there are other people in the room not doing anything important, so that you have someone with whom to share all the interesting tid-bits of information that you learn.  I enjoyed it very much. 

If you are teaching any of the periods covered, especially to middle school kids, you might want to check this out--the accounts are enging, easy to read, and full of information without being dry and didactic.  This is not a children's book per se, but if you are the parent of an information loving reader this might also be one to look out for.  I would have liked it from the age of eight on up if someone had given it to me (a big fan of history from an early age).  I would have liked the look and feel of it (fancy gold embossing), as well as the history within.


Here is seven year old me, re-reading for the umpteenth time my Ladybird biography of Nelson.  I sure do wish I have been given more non-fiction, because although I still have a pretty solid handle on Nelson, there are a gaps that could have been filled by the judiscious applicaton of other books at a young age.  I would have re-read my favorite bits of The Time Travellers Handbook (like the Berlin Wall coming down chapter, and the Shakespeare chapter) lots.


7/3/16

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

Reviews

The Art of Disney's Dragons by Tom Bancroft, at Small Review (not MG, but of interest)

The City of Thirst, by Carrie Ryan & John Parke David, at Got My Book (audiobook review)

A Clatter of Jars, by Lisa Graff, at Nerdy Book Club

Curse of the Were-Hyena (A Monstertown Mystery), by Bruce Hale, at The O.W.L.

Death Weavers, by Brandon Mull, at Say What?

Eden's Wish, by M. Tarra Crowl, at Reading Violet

The Fire Thief, by Terry Deary, at Time Travel Times Two

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, at The Book Wars

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, at Diary of a Reading Addict

Island of Dragons (The Unwanteds, Book 7) by Lisa McMann, at Hidden in Pages

The Knights of Crystallia, by Brandon Sanderson, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Night Parade, by Kathryn Tanquary, at Log Cabin Library

The Other Alice, by Michelle Harrison, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

School of the Dead, by Avi, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Ferry, at Charlotte's Library

Serafina and the Twisted Staff, by Robert Beatty, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy, by M.A. Larson, at B.and N. Kids Blog

Space Case, by Stuart Gibbs, at Kitty Cat at the Library

Sword in the Stacks (Ninja Librarians book 2), by Jen Swann Downey, at Always in the Middle

The Thief and the Beanstalk, by P.W. Catanese, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

The Tick-Tock Man (Gadgets and Gears), by Kirsten Hamilton, at BooksForKidsBlog

Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper's Golden Shoes, by Keira Gillett, at Log Cabin Library


Authors and Interviews

Liesl Shurtliff (Red) at 100 Scope Notes

James Nicol (The Apprentice Witch) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

Giveaways

Both Serafina books, by Robert Beatty, at Nerdophiles, and Serafina and the Twisted Staff at Nerdophiles

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey (Algonquin Young Readers, April 2016), is a fine dark-underbelly-of-utopia fantasy for younger middle grade readers. The Monarchy is a Happy place--negative emotions like sadness and fear vanish from peoples minds before they can take root, and so everyone is happy 24/7.  Even when their loved ones die, it all is just water off a duck's back.  In all the Monarchy, there are only three people who can experience sadness--the Queen, her daughter and heir Jeniah, and a small town girl named Aon.

Aon has grown up in the shadow of the one dark patch on the landscape of the Monarchy--Dreadwillow Carse, and when her sadness (which in large part stems from the loss of her mother) gets too much for her to bear, she finds the heavy, almost intolerable, physic darkness of the foul place gives her some relief.  Princess Jeniah learns of Dreadwillow Carse only when her dying mother takes her to the top of the highest tower of the palace (a standard part of the succession process), and tells her never, never to go there, or else the Monarchy will be destroyed. 

Jeniah doesn't want to just passively accept this dictate, and channels her grief and frustration about her mother into trying to figure out just what the secret of Dreadwill Carse is.  Her search leads her to Aon, who becomes Jeniah's eyes and ears on the ground of the Carse.  And together they find the secret, and Jeniah must make the hardest decision of her life as she figures out just what sort of queen, ruling just what sort of country, she wants to be.

The secret is fairly easy to figure out in general terms for experienced fantasy readers, which diminished the emotional power of the story for me, but the 9 or 10 year old reader might not pick up on the clues as quickly as I did.  And so though the ending lacked some emotional impact for me, because I was expecting it, the horror may well pack a strong punch for younger readers.  It is a pretty horrible horror, which I will describe so that those picking books for sensitive kids can assess nightmare risk-

spoiler

Aon's father, and other inhabitants of the Monarchy, are planted in Dreadwillow Carse and root their, forced to absorb all the sad and negative emotions of everyone else, and because they only slowly loose their humanity, they suffer horribly.  This is the second parent transformed into tree story I've read recently (Grayling's Song, by Karen Cushman), one more and I'll call it a trend....

Despite this horror, I think the book will most appeal to younger MG readers; it is about friendship, and starting to grow up and take on responsibilities while not yet moving into older concerns of full individual autonomy and relationships.  And the story felt to me rather straightforward and undemanding, such as I would have enjoyed lots when I myself was nine.  There are lots of lovely descriptive bits, making it easy to imagine the setting, and I'm always a sucker for glassblowing, which is Aon's craft.

Jeniah is described as having dark skin; so if you are looking for beautiful and intelligent dark-skinned princess stories, this is a good one!

6/26/16

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (6/16/16)

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week.  Please let me know if I missed your post!  And please feel free to send me links (to your own posts or other people's posts) at any time during the week.

The Reviews

Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief, by Gabrielle Kent, at The Book Zone (for boys)

Circus Mirandus, by Cassie Beasley, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

A Clatter of Jars, by Lisa Graff, at The O.W.L., and Mother Daughter Book Reviews

The Crooked Sixpence by Jennifer Bell, at The Book Zone (for boys)

The Crystal Run, by Sheila O’Flanagan, at The Cosy Dragon

Echo, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, at alibrarymamap and books4yourkids.com

Grayling's Song, by Karen Cushman, at The Book Wars

The High King, by Lloyd Alexander, at For Those About To Mock

The Magic Mirror: Concerning a Lonely Princess, a Foundling Girl, a Scheming King, and a Pickpocket Squirrel, by Susan Hill Long, at Redeemed Reader

The Ministry of Ghosts, by Alex Shearer, at Mom Read It

Mutation, by Roland Smith, at Read Till Dawn

The Nest, by Kenneth Oppel, at Guys Lit Wire

The Nethergrim, by Matthew Jobin, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

The Nethergrim, and its sequel, The Skeleth, by Matthew Jobin, at This Kid Reviews Books

Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman, at Tales from the Raven

Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley, Pages Unbound Reviews

Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan, at Sharon the Librarian

The Shadowhand Covenant, by Brian Farrey, at Leaf's Reviews

Space Hostages, by Sophia McDougall, at alibrarymama

The Sword and the Flame, by Stephen R. Lawhead, at Say What?

Time Stoppers, by Carrie Jones, at Say What?

Waybound (Ore book 2), by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, at This Kid Reviews Books

Authors and Interviews

"Visions Of Ore" by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, at Middle Grade Ninja

Giveaways

A Clatter of Jars and three other Lisa Graff books at Finding Magic (ends Monday), and A Clatter of Jars at Mother Daughter Book Reviews (11 days left)

Other Good Stuff

Quentin Blake shares a slew of unpublished illustrations from the BFG, and talks about his collaboration with Dahl, at the Guardian

Chris Riddell is the first triple winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway medal for his illustrations in Neil Gaiman’s retelling of Sleeping Beauty--The Sleeper and the Spindle (via The Guardian)

Not middle grade, but still of interest--the Locus Award Winners have been announced

and finally, if you like hidden fantasy folk, check out this utterly cool interactive map of Iceland!




6/21/16

23 Minutes, by Vivian Vande Velde, for Timeslip Tuesday

23 Minutes, by Vivian Vande Velde (Boyds Mills Press, April 2016), is most definitely a time slip book, but there's no need to worry about cultural difficulties caused by time travel here...

Zoe has an odd gift--she can do-over 23 minute sections of the past (with limits-only ten times per 23 minutes, and she can't let time go on past the 23rd minute or it gets locked in place).  So when she takes sheter from a rain storm in a bank, and a bank robber comes in with a gun, and it ends with a charismatic young man having his brains blown out because he was protecting her, and other people dying as well, she most definitely wants a do-over.  But she can't seem to make anything better.  Different people, sometimes more people, die when she changes the past. 

She decides to call on the man who saved her to see if he can help figure out how to change things, but since his memories reset each time, it's tricky.  And when it turns out he and the robber know each other, that makes things trickier.  But Zoe keeps trying. 

So it's primarily a sort of logic game--what can be changed to make better outcomes happen?  It's also a close psychological study of what's going on in Zoe's mind as she sees the shootings time after time, and gets increasingly desperate.  She has demons of her own to confront, and she's had to get used to taking care of herself after being placed in foster care, and now she must trust this stranger to help her...a stranger who's able to trust her even when she can't quite trust herself. Even though the focus is on these particular minutes, Zoe gets plenty of time to reflect and remember her own life, and so she becomes real and important to the reader.

I really like Vivian Vande Velde's writing.  Her characters are always briskly and a tad smart-aleckly real and relatable and her stories are quick moving and full of zest.   This one was especially fun, because the reader is allowed lots of room along with Zoe to try to figure out what little things to change to get a better outcome! 

6/20/16

Mister Cleghorn's Seal, by Judith Kerr

Mister Cleghorn's Seal (HarperCollins, June 2016) is Judith Kerr's first children's novel in 37 years!  It is a charmer, a book that is especially lovely for reading out loud with a 5 or 6 year old, because it's the sort of story with shifts in direction at just the right sort of places to stop for the night, and because it has friendly, sweet illustrations (lots of the titular baby seal) that are great for sharing with a child.

Mister Cleghorn is bored and at loose ends after selling the store he ran for years and years.  So for the first time he says yes to an invitation to visit family by the ocean.  And there he meets a baby seal, who one of the family's kids has been visiting regularly.  They watch as its mother comes to feed and tend it...but then one day the mother seal doesn't come.  The fishermen have been shooting seals, who they see as competition for the fish.  And without a mother, the baby seal will starve.

So Mister Cleghorn decides to take it back to town with him, and find a home for it in the local zoo.

Travelling with the seal goes surprisingly well, but of course the zoo is closed when they get to town.  So Mister Cleghorn brings the seal home, and installs it in the bathtub, with the water dripping to keep it happy...and this results in him meeting the neighbor downstairs, when the tub floods! 

She's a very nice person, and fond of animals, and becomes his ally in seal keeping.  And he needs an  ally, for the zoo has fallen on bad times, with shiftless, careless owners, and it's no place for a young seal.  Mister Cleghorn's apartment isn't great either...especially since the caretaker forbids any animals at all.

Happily, a solution is found that makes everyone happy.  It's a really nice ending that solves the problem of the zoo as well, and includes Mister Cleghorn and his neighbor falling in love.  So it's a good story, nicely told, with just enough tension to keep it going, and without so much emphasis on the death of the seal mother to upset the sensitive young (although they might be, a little).

One reason I'm happy to recommend it is that I think it's good for kids to see old folks in stories having interesting lives, and trying new things, and starting new adventures, and falling in love.  It makes a refreshing counter-narrative to the stereotypes of old age!  Because it is about an "old" man, it might not appeal immediately to the independent reader, but if that reader is an animal fan, the charming seal drawings will suck them in....

So all in all, a pleasure!


disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher


6/19/16

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (6/19/16)

Here's what I found this week.  Please let me know if I missed your post, and if you are the author of a mg sci fi/fantasy book, please don't be shy about emailing me links to reviews at any time (charlotteslibrary at gmail dot com)!  I follow about 500 blogs, winnowing out the MG sci fi/fantasy, but 500 blogs is but a drop in the bucket, and I do so miss Google Blog Search (for a while the work-around way to do it worked, but it doesn't seem to anymore).  I also am quite capable of deleting links by accident, not knowing a book is mg sci fi/fantasy, etc. 


The Reviews

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at Randomly Reading

A Clatter of Jars, by Lisa Graff, at Word Spelunking (scroll down for review)

The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker by E. D. Baker, at Pages Unbound Reviews

The Goblin’s Puzzle by Andrew S. Chilton, at Redeemed Reader

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at Redeemed Reader

The Inn Between by Marina Cohen, at Pages Unbound Reviews

The Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson, at Geo Librarian

Searching for Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede, at Lunar Rainbows

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at On Starships and Dragonwings

The Sword in the Stacks, by Jen Swann Downey, at Charlotte's Library

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Under Their Skin, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, at Say What?

The Whatnot (The Peculiar #2) by Stefan Bachmann, at The Book Wars

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at That's Another Story

Withering-by-Sea, by Judith Rossell, at Charlotte's Library

Authors and Interviews

Jen Swann Downey (Sword in the Stacks) at The Reading Nook Reviews and From the Mixed-Up Files

Kate Messner (The Seventh Wish) at Bookriot  (and more about Kate Messner and The Seventh Wish and being dis-invited to a school event here at School Library Journal and at Kate Messners own bloghttp://www.katemessner.com/blog/

Giveaways (New feature--please email me if you are running a giveaway of a MG Spec fic book)

Sword in the Stacks at Fangirlnation (through June 30)

The Ministry of Ghosts at Fangirlnation (through June 19)

Lisa Graff book bundle at Word Spelunking (through June 24)

Other Good Stuff

Here's a new trailer and release date for The Little Prince movie

Make lego shaped gummies! (via io9)



6/14/16

The Sword in the Stacks (Ninja Librarians Book 2) by Jen Swann Downey, for Timeslip Tuesday

Imagine of all the lost libraries of history all ended up in a sanctuary for persecuted libraries in a space outside of ordinary time, and imagine if those libraries (complete with their own gardens, weather, and of course books/scrolls/clay tablets/potsherds with writing on them etc.) were home to a brave society of champions of the written word, "Lybrarians" flinging themselves through time to save books and book writers in danger.  This is the setting for Jen Swann Downey's Ninja Librarian series, the second book of which, The Sword in the Stacks (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, June 2016) has just been released, and just been read by me with much enjoyment (here's my review of the first book, which I also enjoyed).

Dorrie and her brother Marcus stumbled into this collection of libraries by accident in book 1, and found that they had the ability to open the doors between different times, something the Lybrarians naturally value highly.  After a brief visit at home in the real world, the two are back for more training and more adventures.  There's a threat to the Lybrarians' work--a counter-movement of those who would restrict books, and reading, and public dissemination of words and ideas to a very few, and the chief work of the Lybrarians is to foil their efforts.   The leader of this movement has been captured by the Lybrarians, but the threat to the history of books and writers has by no means been neutralized, and there is much tension and adventure and time-travelling and clue finding as Dorrie and her fellow trainees try to help set things right.

And in the meantime there's time travel back to ancient Greece to argue with Aristotle, time travel to early 20th century London where Dorrie and her best friend Ebba get involved with both suffragettes and anit-suffragettes, and time travel including uncomfortable camel riding to Timbuktu as part of the bad-guy foiling.  Even more in the meantime, there's Lybrarian training for the young apprentices--sword fighting (with Cyrano de Bergeraces), codes and cyphers, sailing, near-drowning, and more. And there's also exploration of the whole complex of libraries, the consumption of tasty snacks, the care and keeping of a deadly lizard, and a cute baby seal.

More mundanly, Dorrie is also plagued by guilt (for what happened in the first book) and self-doubt (is she really Lybrarian material?) and there is a mean girl who (as is just about always the case) has a backstory of reasons why she is mean.

So this is a book just jam packed with lots and lots of story, and it is all tremendously interesting!  It might seem like there's so much here that it's too frenetic to enjoy, but it all hangs together around the central character of Dorrie, who is relatable enough and introspective enough to keep things centered. Though Dorrie and Marcus are not identified as anything other than white, the cast of characters around them (reflecting the diversity of the world's libraries) is very diverse. Dorrie's friend Ebba, who is the next main character in terms of page time, is from Mali, for instance.

Happily, Sword in the Stacks starts with a nice explanation of the whole set up given to Dorrie and Marcus' parents, so even if your memories of the first book are fuzzy, you will soon find your feet again and be ready to follow along as the world is saved (or at least, progress made on saving) from book burners!

For fans of time travel, I think this one offers more than the first did in terms of actual contemplation of difference--not just bouncing in and out, but reflection and exploration (this is particularly true of Dorrie and Ebba's adventures with women's suffrage, which is good Time Travel qua Time Travel reading.  For fans of books and history, there are just tons of literary reference to enjoy, and there's a nice glossary of people and places mentioned in the back.  This aspect of the book is a nice treat for established or budding intellectuals!

So in short a wildly entertaining, fun, fast read with food for the mind as well.

Disclaimer: copy of the book gratefully received from the author.


6/13/16

Withering-by-Sea, by Judith Rossell


If you like oppressed orphans, over-the-top adult oppressors who make said orphans sew samplers and balance books on their heads*, secrets that lead to murder in the night in a vast hotel, crashing waves around a crumbling tower,  bottled magical monsters panting to be free, and a villain determined to get his hands on said bottle, Withering-by-Sea, by Judith Rossell (Atheneum March 2016) is a book for you!

The Hotel Majestic might be big and grand, but its curative sulfurous waters hold no charms for young orphan Stella, and it offers few escapes from the unpleasant eyes of her three aunts.   Her only refuge is a tattered Atlas of the World, and one morning, while she is hiding behind ferns in the hotel conservatory, sneaking a bit of forbidden book time in, she sees a man hiding something in one of the plant pots....

And the thing he is hiding is wanted very badly by a nasty man whose repertoire of nasty incudes magical enslavement, murder, and kidnapping.  And when he learns through magical means that Stella has the thing that was hidden, which she promised its dying former guardian she would protect, Stella's dull and horrid life becomes one that is horrid in a much, much more interesting way!

This isn't grand epic fantasy of questy-ness and overthrowing dark lords etc.  It's a much more personal sort of adventure, tightly focused on Stella though with two other interesting kids thrown into the mix as well.   The settings (hotel, theatre, and crumbling tower) are all vividly made real, and the dangers Stella faces makes for riveting reading, once they get going.  Give this one to the 6th grader who enjoys fantasy that has a Victorianish feel, like Maryrose Woods' The Incorrigible
Children of Ashton Place series, or Lemony Snicket, or to any kids around  (though I don't know how likely this is) who are Joan Aiken fans.....

Withering-by-sea won tons of awards and honors in its Native Australia (deservedly so), and I just found out it's the start of a series, which makes me happy! That's the Australian cover at right; not sure why the US publishers decided to disguise the dashes in the hotel's name as curly thingies (it reads to me like a verb clause without clear dashes...)

*incidentally, book balancing is not in and of itself evil.  My sisters and I went through a brief phase of choosing to walk around with books on our heads.  We had obstacle courses and other challenges, and enjoyed it very much. I was also taught embroidery and my father read Silas Marner out loud while we (voluntarily) sewed.....but of course if these things are foced on you by harsh aunts it's a different story.

6/12/16

This week's round up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (6/12/16)

As ever, let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Arctic Code, by Matthew Kirby, at The Write Path

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, at Tales of the Marvelous

Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School Book 2) by Jen Calonita, at Fantasy Book Critic

Demigods & Magicians, by Rick Riordan, at Jean Little Library

The Dragon Lantern (League of Seven Book 2), by Alan Gratz, at Say What?

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George, at Leaf's Reviews

Emma and the Banderwigh, by Matthew S. Cox, at Let's Read Till We Drop

The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Mom Read It

Grayling's Song, by Karen Cushman, at Barnes and Noble Kids Blog

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, by Maryrose Wood (Book 1--The Mysterious Howling, through Book 5; one post per book, so move up the blog to get them) at Redeemed Reader

The Knights of Crystallia (Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, Book 3) by Brandon Sanderson, at Skye's Scribblings

The Night Parade, by Kathryne Tanquary, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, by Jackson Pearce & Maggie Stiefvater, at Me On Books

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George, at Fantasy Literature

Rise of the Ragged Clover, by Paul Durham, at Views From the Tesseract

Seven Wild Sisters, by Charles De Lint, at The Book Wars

The Seventh Wish, by Kate Messner, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Time Stoppers by Carrie Jones, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle

The Whispers of Wilderwood Hall, Karen McCombie, at So Many Books, So Little Time

Wishing Day, by Lauren Myracle, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Withering by Sea, by Judith Rossell, at Waking Brain Cells


Authors and Interviews

Joshua Kahn (Shadow Magic) at Red House Books

Other Good Stuff

A Tuesday Ten of spec fic with spectacles at Views From the Tesseract

An interview with a young Rick Riordan reader at A Year of Reading

From Tor, where you can see an example of the art:
"The Folio Society is publishing a new edition of Terry Pratchett’s Mort, a classic Discworld tale of Death and his young inept apprentice. For this special edition, award-winning artist Omar Rayyan has provided 7 color illustrations that capture the humor and vibrancy of Pratchett’s remarkable work."

6/9/16

Scarlett: A Star on the Run, by Susan Schade and Jon Buller

Scarlett: A Star on the Run, by Susan Schade and Jon Buller (Papercutz, November 2015), is a graphic novel/text story hybrid of great charm, that I have been meaning to write about for ages (I got a copy at last fall's Kidlitcon down in Baltimore courtesy of the publisher, and enjoyed it very much).

Scarlett is a cat who is a movie star.  Her success on the big screen is not just because she's a good actress, but is the result of experimental animal tinkering.  She and her co-star animals can talk, and think, and be bored by reality tv shows.  They are also prisoners, shut up every night.  But one cold snowy evening a window blows open, and Scarlett heads out to explore for the first time.  Fortunately for Scarlett, before she freezes to death she finds shelter in the cabin of a grumpy old man.   And there she makes a new home for herself.  Soon she's joined by one of her co-stars, a friendly dog, and together they enjoy being just ordinary folks.

But the movie producer, who engineered Scarlett and co., of course wants them back.  And another co-star, the dog who plays the villains in the movies, shows up and makes things unpleasant. And on top of that, the old man falls ill, and it's up to Scarlett to keep up the appearance that everything is just fine in his shack so that no one bothers them.  That means using his credit cards to pay the grocery bills, and Scarlett, being a fastidious cat, takes it upon herself to clean and refurbish the whole house.

But fortunately an ally is close at hand. Erin, the girl next door, has been observing the animals, and figures out their secrets.  She's able to help them find a happy ending, where they no longer are hunted fugitives worried about being dragged back to a movie-production prison....

It's a charming story, and I enjoyed it lots (quite possibly because one of my own favorite things to read about is old houses being cleaned out and fixed up, and seeing a cat and a dog working together to do so was very entertaining).  The art is charming too, as is the relationship that builds between the animals and the grumpy man.

Part of the story is told in graphic novel panels, and a somewhat larger part is straight narrative from Scarlett's point of view.  As a result, I think this is one that would be great for an adult to read alongside an emergent reader child--the child could read the short bits of text in the graphic panels, and the adult could tackle that smaller fonted narration, which is not aimed particularly at young readers.  That makes it also good for middle grade and up readers (especially animal lovers), who enjoy fun graphic heavy stories to read on their own!

6/7/16

Loop, by Karen Akins, for Timeslip Tuesday

Loop, by Karen Akins (St. Martin's Griffin, Oct. 2014), is a fine YA time travel book of the sort where in the future time travel is an organized, government controlled thing.  The heroine, Bree, is at a school for young time travelers, and things are not going well for her.  Her mother, also a time traveler, ended up in a coma after a mission to the past gone wonky, and Bree is desperate to find some way of getting her the best care possible, which means money, which she doesn't have.  Bree is also skating on thin ice academically. 

So things start off bad for Bree, and ever chapter the tension and difficulty of her life grows and grows until I was all like enough already, because it was making me tense.  The difficulties include a boy from the past, Finn, who says that Bree loves him, but not this Bree.  There is a future Bree who knew him a bit before (in his own time), but in a little bit to come (in Bree's time).  So he's all expecting Bree to love him, and she's all, What?  And then of course by the end she does love him (having achieved the future point at which he knew her, when she travelled back to his time). 

And it turns out that future Bree was doing more than just falling in love with a boy from the past.  She was also engaged in a dangerous endeavor to reform the very nature of time travelling in her time, with people working hard to stop her.  And present Bree is desperately trying to figure out just what the heck is happening, before its too late for her mother, for Finn, and for herself.

It was the sort of time travel book where I found myself wishing I had the author on speed dial, so I could check to make sure my fragile understanding of the temporal bouncing back and forth was accurate.  It was also the sort of time travel where the passage between times as an exploration of difference wasn't the point.  The point of the time travel was to set up the heroine vs. those in power thriller plot, and also set up the rather interesting romance of Boy knowing Girl loves him, but Girl not knowing him yet.   So kind of weird relationship-wise, but it works out in the end.  And I wouldn't call the book a romance, because Finn and Bree do fall for each other, but in a context of rather more absorbing events, like foiling nefarious plots and getting Finn back to his own time.

So if you like romantic thriller type time travel with lots of questions that are utterly answered for most of the book, you will like this one lots!  If you are me, you will find it very readable, but you will have to read it in smallish bits because it was not Restful.  I just read the Amazon reviews, and several people found it very funny (Bree as snarky narrator); I guess I was too busy feeling stressed to appreciate that aspect of the book....

hmm.  I also see that there is a sequel, Twist.  I am tempted, although I think I will save it for a time when I have nothing else to worry about.  Possibly the second to last week of August. 

6/5/16

This week's roundup of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (6/5/16)

Welcome to this week's roundup; please let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

The Box and the Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Demigod Diaries, by Rick Riodan, at Lunar Rainbows

The Drake Equation, by Bart King, at Charlotte's Library

Escape the Vortex, by Jeanne DuPrau (Voyagers #5) at Say What?

The Eye of the Warlock, by P.W. Catanese, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow

Grayling's Song,  by Karen Cushman, at Kid Lit Geek, BooksForKidsBlog, Next Best Book, and Mom Read It

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at Kid Lit Geek

Infinity Riders, by Kekla Magoon (Voyagers #4), at Say What?

Knightley Academy by Violet Haberdasher, at Leaf's Reviews

The League of Seven, by Allan Gratz,  at Say What?

The Ninja Librarians: The Acccidental Keyhand, by Jen Swann Downey, at Reviews With Lilah, and its sequel, Sword in the Stacks, also at Reviews With Lilah

Now You See It… by Vivian Vande Velde, at The Book Wars (with particular attention to elves)

Omega Rising, by Patrick Carman (Voyagers #3), at Say What?

So You Want to be a Wizard (Young Wizards, Book 1) by Diane Duane, at Hidden in Pages

Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs, at Charlotte's Library

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at Fuse #8

Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes, by Keira Gillett, at Mom Read It

Authors and Interviews

Tracey Hecht (The Nocturnals) at Middle Grade Ninja

Other Good Stuff

The 2016 Mythopoeic Award finalists  have been announced, with a nice Children's Literature section.

And just for kicks, here's a door from Denmark


6/4/16

Spaced Out, by Stuart Gibbs

I very much enjoyed Stuart Gibbs' first Moon Base Alpha book, Space Case, a middle grade murder mystery set in a small moon base, and was happy to find myself enjoying the second, Spaced Out ( Simon & Schuster, April 2016) too; perhaps not quite as much because of it lacking the first fine freshness of the first, but still it provided perfectly adequate reading pleasure.   My thoughts will contain a spoiler for the first book, so don't read anymore if you haven't read Space Case (you can go read my review of it here instead).

So life on Moon Base Alpha continues to be an introvert's nightmare (not a lot of space to get away from it all) with bonus bullies in the form of the two nasty kids of a the rich family of moon tourists.  Spaced Out opens with those two kids attacking the protagonist, Dashiell, who gets the best of them with a clever/desperate counterattack with suction plumbing.  It's no surprise to Dash that the commander of the moon base, Nina, wants to talk to him about this incident (NASA needs the space tourist bucks), but is a surprise when she fails to follow through with his punishment.  And then he finds out he was the last person to see her before she disappeared without a trace.

Nina can't be found anywhere inside the very small, hiding-place free base or on the nearby lunar surface.  Suspicions flair and tempers are strained.  A murder had been committed not long before (the sort of thing that sets peoples nerves on edge), and when evidence incriminating Nina of NASA rule breaking is found, things get even tenser.  Dash once again puts his mind to solving a lunar mystery, and once again he finds his own life is in danger.

And in the meantime, there's a subplot going on involving Dash's communications with an alien emissary, who's learning about humanity from him.  "She" hints at dire things awaiting humanity but is frustratingly unforthcoming about specifics, which adds to Dash's tension....

So it's more of the same sort of story that we had in the first book--a mystery in a closed, confined space with few suspects.  I thought it was a perfectly fine mystery.  But since a lot of the fun of the first book was seeing the moon base and reading the promotional literature from NASA sprinkled into the narrative, this one isn't quite as fun.  I think though that I enjoyed the mystery story of this one more, and am happy to look forward to the next book, since it looks like Dash's adventures are going to really get going!

Dash, like most people on the moon base (the only exceptions being the nasty rich family) is a mixed race kid, so it counts as a diverse read.



6/1/16

Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke

The arrival of a new book by Ben Hatke is always a happy thing in my house.  Even though my boys are several years beyond the ostensible target audience age for picture books, and I am too, we all enthusiastically read his latest offering, Nobody Likes a Goblin (First Second, June 7, 2016), and enjoyed it very much.  There's something just so friendly and pleasing about his art, and when paired with a good story, it's all just as nice a read (and look) as all get out.

A goblin lives a peaceful subterranean life in a dungeon with his best friend, a skeleton, not doing any harm to anyone.  Then adventures invade, in true Adventuring style, and plunder, while the poor goblin hides under his bed. When he emerges he finds all the dungeons' treasure is gone, but much much worse, the adventurers have taken Skeleton too!  So Goblin sets off to find his friend, and to find the "honk honk" stolen from his troll neighbor, despite the troll's warning that "nobody likes a goblin."

And he finds that this is indeed the case.  Chased by a farmer, an innkeeper, a band of elves, and the original adventurers, Goblin finds shelter in a cave, where he finds that there are those who like goblins lots--other goblins! 

And now its the adventurers et al. who are on the run, and Goblin brings all his new friends (including a young woman the adventurers had tied up in their spoil heap) and his old friend Skeleton back to the dungeon for happily ever after.

The goblins are portrayed in  suitably non-human ways, in various permutations of the monstrous, but still manage to have just tons of appeal, some being downright adorable.  The party of adventurers, on the other hand, are pretty much the clichĂ©s one expects, and it's nice to see them losing!   It was good to see the young woman who was tied up as part of the loot getting a bit of retaliatory smiting in once the goblins had surged out of their cave to attack.  (The troll's goose gets to attack too, which I also appreciated).

It's a rather inspiring story, not just for the obvious inspiration of finding the courage to save a friend part.  There also the message that even if you feel alone, and people are mean to you for no good reason, there's a good chance that somewhere there's a tribe of friends for you (yay for finding "your people"), and (one can hope) a good chance that the jerks will cease to matter. 

Here's the Kirkus review, in case you want independent confirmation that this is a good book.

disclaimer: review copy gratefully received from the publisher


5/30/16

The Drake Equation, by Bart King


The Drake Equation, by Bart King (Disney-Hyperion, May 10, 2016) is an excellent choice for middle school kids (10-11 year olds in particular) who are still liking their science fiction a tad on the whacky side, but who are well into reading solid stories that offer more than silliness. 

Noah's a bird watcher, a rather lonely hobby for a middle school kid, but one that he's passionate about.   Checking on wood duck nesting boxes in a woods near his home, he finds something much rarer--a family of black swifts.  And even rarer still, he finds a strange device--a sort of swirly-colored round thingy.  When he investigates the device with the help of his two best friends, twins Jason and Jenny, he discovers that it can bestow upon him a range of incredible powers, like shooting freeze rays from his hands.  But there are complications--the menu of the device doesn't come with much in the way of explanations; the kid who's been bullying Noah doesn't appreciate having been basically turned into a sac of protoplasm (even though it was temporary), and Noah, being the trusting sort, perhaps made a mistake in showing the device to his science teacher.  Almost certainly, using it to halt construction on a subdivision threatening the black swifts was the right thing to do, except that it ended up with his parent's getting arrested...

And then Noah finds out who (or possibly what) is on the other end of the device, and why it was created, and learns that the stakes are much higher than just keeping  the device from falling into the wrong hands, or saving the swifts....(here's a hint, without spoiling it too much--the titular Drake Equation, in Noah's mind, refers to wood-duck nesting boxes; for most people, it gives an estimate of the number of extraterrestrial civilizations that might be out there).

I don't know if kids these days ever read Edward Eager (I did, and am a big fan!).  This is a similar sort of story--ordinary kids having their lives thrown into turmoil when they find a magical device (although this story is science fiction with regard to its fundamental premise, the device functions like magic), and having to master the magic, and figure out its rules, while coping with the consequence of things going wrong before they've finished the figuring out.   And then the particular adventure ends, and the magic is put away, but with lots of room left for more to come....

As is the case with Eager's kids, the characters here are interesting, relatable, and well-rounded, with some cute little kids getting involved as well (I think this will appeal to the target audience-- many middle school kids, now they are the big ones, feel a nostalgic fondness for third and fourth graders).  There are plenty of amusing bits, but while it's not a serious, entirely straight-faced story, it never gets farcical. 

Though I enjoyed the book, it didn't quite work perfectly for me; I think the action felt a tad jerky, careening around more than is to my personal taste, especially with regard to the arrival of the big confrontation at the end.   But readers younger than me who like humorous stories about ordinary kids having extraordinary things happen to them will probably find it very much to their taste.

I personally liked very the bird-watchers way in which Noah views the people around him, and I am all in favor of protecting black swift habitat!

For those interested in diversity--Noah's friend Jenny (a strong secondary character) uses a wheelchair (and there are not many wheelchair-using kids in middle grade speculative fiction, especially ones where I don't find things that bother me with regard to "wheel-chair not being an issue" when necessary for the plot.  The only other wheelchair using kid I can think off in a recent MG fantasy got swept over a waterfall and spent the night in a tree, all in his wheelchair.  I spent a lot of time brooding on the waterfall in particular).

Disclaimer:  An ARC of The Drake Equation was originally picked up happily at ALA, then taken from me when my car was stolen (the car came back with the addition of some beer bottles, but minus severall (though by no means all) of the books that were in it, and Bart King generously sent me a copy so I could finish reading it (thanks!).

5/29/16

This week's round-up of midde grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (5/29/16)

As ever, let me know if I missed your post!

The Reviews

A Most Magical Girl, by Karen Foxlee, at Kid Lit Geek

The Box and the Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders, at Orange Juice Edits

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox, at Log Cabin Library

The City of Gold and Lead, by John Christopher, at Fantasy Literature

The Dragon in the Driveway (Dragon Keepers #2), by Kate Klimo, at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

The Dragon Whistler by Kimberly J. Smith, at This Kid Reviews Books

Fortune Falls, by Jenny Goebel, at Jen Robinson's Book Page

The Girl in the Tower, by Lisa Schroeder, at Becky's Book Reviews

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home, by Catherynne M. Valente, at Leaf's Reviews

The Haunting of Falcon House, by Eugene Yelchin, at Kid Lit Geek

How to Capture an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, at Jean Little Library

The Iron Trial, by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, at Got My Book (audiobook review)

The Legend of Sam Miracle, by N.D. Wilson, at Semicolon

The Many Worlds of Albie Bright, by Christopher Edge, at The Bookshelf Gargoyle

The Ministry of Ghosts,  by Alex Shearer, at Charlotte's Library

Once Was a Time, by Leila Sales, at Lunar Rainbows

The Secret of Deadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey, at Say What?

Shadow Magic, by Joshua Khan, at On Starships and Dragonwings

Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand, at Ms. Yingling Reads and On Starships and Dragonwings

Wishing Day, by Lauren Myracle, at books4yourkids

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads--Lucky, by Chris Hill, and The Palace of Glass, by Djano Wexler



Authors and Interviews

Anne Ursu (The Real Boy) at Karen Cushman's blog

A look at the studio of Ursula Vernon at The Children's Book Review

Liesl Shurtliff (Red) at The Book Wars

Darryl Womack (Tales of Westerford: Dragons, Knights and Kings), at The Write Path


Other Good Stuff

The New York Historical Society has given its 2015 Children's History Book Prize to Pam
Muñoz Ryan for Echo (via Fuse #8)









5/23/16

The Ministry of Ghosts, by Alex Shearer

The titular ministry of The Ministry of Ghosts, by Alex Shearer (Sky Pony Press, May 2016;  2014 in the UK), is a dusty old backwater left behind by the forward march of government bureaucracy, and its four (and a cat) employees are utterly and completely failing in their mandate to produce tangible evidence that ghosts are real.  This failure has come to the attention of a government auditor who gives the ministry three months to produce a ghost, or it will be shut down for good.   In desperation, the four ministry workers break out of their hardened ruts of inactivity and hire two local children to be their ghost hunters...and the results are rather more dramatic than they could ever have hoped for!

I mysef liked it just fine, but I think that the person I would most enthusiastically press it on would be a college student who enjoyed MG fantasy a lot back in the day and who is in the middle of exam week and who wants something pleasingly diverting that, though it has interesting twists, is not terribly complicated with regard to fantasy world building and difficult names, and which, although good and interesting and amusing, isn't so rapid in its forward momentum that you have to stay up all night reading it (this is a Bad Thing during exam week!).  It also ends with a Heartwarming tie up of the story line, the sort of ending that is a Comfort in times of Stress.  I think it would be just about perfect for that reader.  It's also a very good one for a grown-up reader of mg fantasy to read in less than ideal circumstances (like in the dentist's office, or other places where you need a book that will hold your interest without making demands).

I am less certain that the target audience of 9-12 year old kids will persevere long enough to get to the actually ghostly adventures.  The development of the story is not typical of today's standard kids starring in fantasy adventure--the first large chunk is a poke at slacker government workers and the keen government inspectors hunting them down.   Generally in MG fantasy, the reader meets the kids in medias res, with the kids battling wolves or being prophesized about or eaten by trolls or all of the above at once, and then the author pulls back from the slavering jaws/bad rhymes and gives us backstory.  Here it is not until page 75 that the Girl Protagonist, Tuppence, appears, and the Boy Protagonist, Tim, arrives in the next chapter.  And although they do go ghost hunting together, it is the sort of ghost hunting where after one failure in a cemetery, the next two and half months pass in a page of nothing happening.

But it is interesting, in its small tasty details of place and character (both of kids and ministry empoyees) and the trail of clues leading to the ghostly extravaganza of the ending was lots of fun to follow!  I'm just not sure young readers will stick with it long enough to appreciate it.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

5/22/16

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (May 22, 2016)

Welcome to this week's round-up.  Please let me know if I missed your post, and I'll put it in!

The Reviews

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, at Geo Librarian

Basil of Baker Street, by Eve Titus, at Ms. Yingling Reads

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, by Janet Fox, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Death Weavers (The Five Kingdoms Book 4), by Brandon Mull, at Hidden in Pages

Diary of Anna the Girl Witch: Foundling Witch by Max Candee, at Sharon the Librarian

The Dragon Lantern (League of Seven, 2) by Alan Gratz, at The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

The Drake Equation, by Bart King, at This Kid Reviews Books

Everland, by Wendy Spinale, at Cracking the Cover

The Firefly Code, by Megan Frazer Blakemore, at Charlotte's Library

The Foundry's Edge, by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, at This Kid Reviews Books

Handbook for Dragon Slayers, by Merrie Haskell, at Pages Unbound

Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X., by Frank Beddor, at Always in the Middle

The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan, at The Book Smugglers

The Inn Between, by Marina Chohen, at Sharon the Librarian

The Lost Compass, by Joel Ross, at Akossiwa Ketoglo

The Nethergrim, and its sequel, the Skeleth, by Matthew Jobing, at The Reading Nook Reviews

A Plague of Bogles, by Catherine Jinks, at alibrarymama

Red, by Liesl Shurtliff, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Some Kind of Happiness, by Claire Legrand, at Cracking the Cover

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier, at On Starships and Dragonwings and Bibliobrit

The Storyteller, by Aaron Starmer, at Tales of the Marvelous

A Taste for Monsters, by Matthew J. Kirby, at Bibliobrit

The Thickety, and its sequels, by J. A. White, at Abby the Librarian

The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown, at Next Best Book

two at Ms. Yingling Reads--The Skeleth, by Matthew Jobin, and  The Ghost Faces, by John Flanagan


Authors and Interviews

Claire Legrand (Some Kind of Happiness) at Teen Librarian Toolbox


Other Good Stuff

A look at tiny fairies (not just a Victorian conceit) at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

A nice list of books for young fairy tale lovers at A Year of Reading

Designing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in pictures, at The Guardian

I don't often post links to YouTube videos, and this is an old one, but this salmon cannon really spoke to me at a deep personal level...."Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Salmon Cannon"




Free Blog Counter

Button styles