Weave a Circle Round, by Kari Maaren, for Timeslip Tuesday

I highly, but cautiously, recommend this week's Timeslip Tuesday book--Weave a Circle Round, by Kari Maaren (which was supposed to be last week's book, but time went wrong..).  In case you don't have time to read a complicated plot synopsis, here's what you need to know.

Weave a Circle Round hits all of the best time travel notes--

--relatable main character caught in a fantastic, complicated, twisty nest of time slipped realities

--her lived experiences in the past are vivid and compelling; bordering on tourism time travel but advancing the plot and character development enough to have Point. 

--the plot and characterization are complicated enough to engage the mind without making said mind want to crawl into a corner and hid from it all

I highly recommend it to fans of Diana Wynne Jones, not because it is a DWJ read-alike, but because it has a similar chaos resolving into a mythically rooted central order/origin point.  You have to be able to tolerate chaos and not understanding things for much of the book to appreciate this one (Hexwood I am looking at you in particular).

Kirkus and I agree-- "A charming, extraordinarily relatable book with the potential to become a timeless classic."

The Kirkus review also says--"This debut novel could easily be pigeonholed as YA, and certainly those in that age group will gravitate to it, but adults shouldn't hesitate to dive in, too."  And indeed the book is marketed as YA.  Much to my surprise I found it felt much more upper middle grade in feel; the central character, a 14 year old girl,  is kicking against domestic life, and trying to fit in, and is still very much a child and not a Young Adult for much of the book.  There is nothing to cause a parent of an eleven or twelve year old concern unless that child has lived in a bubble (there is no romance, and no sex, but there is some violence).

Here is a somewhat negative review at Bibliosanctum. I don't often link to negative reviews in order to help people decide if a book is right for them, but in this case, I think that if in general you like all the things this reader doesn't, you will like this one!  

So now that you know if you will like the book or not, here's the plot (more or less).

Freddy, the main character, is 14, and trying hard to fly under the radar at high school.  Now that her little sister, brilliant and unabashed, and her stepbrother, nerdy, also unabashed, and deaf, have joined her, it's hard.  But then the new neighbor, Josiah, shows up as well, and he seems determined to latch on to her, pushing her social weirdness rating up many many notches; he freely shares his contempt for much of what he's experiencing at school, provoking conflict and disrupting the normal pattern of each day.  The woman Josiah lives with (Cuerva Lachance) is a loose cannon too; her mental state is on of constant non-sequitorish chaos. 

At this point, the reader and Freddy don't know what's happening, but it is clear that the new neighbors are odd and hiding something.  Freddy's brother is acting oddly too, trying to keep her and Josiah apart for reasons unknown.  

At the point right after this, things get weirder still, when Josiah and Freddy slip into the past.  The reader and Freddy are both taken aback to find themselves amongst Vikings, with Cuerva Lachance in the role of Loki.  It gradually is explained (over the course of much more timesliping from thousands of years in the past to hundreds of years in the future; the timeslipping isn't controllable) that Josiah and C.L. are two opposing forces, balanced by a third, constantly reincarnated person who is called upon to determine which of them will be dominant for that age. And it is further explained that in Freddy's time, this third person is supposed to be either her or one of her siblings.

Josiah, even though he's supposed to be the embodiment of order, isn't exactly trustworthy, and Freddy comes to realize that there is more to this business of the third party decider than he's letting on.  And by the time they finally get back to the present (three weeks before they leave, which is tricky for them, but after over a year spent in various other times) she's become pretty hostile to the whole business of a third party being compelled to make a choice. 

Which results in everything blowing up, thanks to Chuerva Lachance, into full blown insanity, and it requires all of Freddy's brother's experience as a role-playing gamer to bring the story into submission.  Which then makes the reader rethink the whole story, and plan to read it again.

Freddy isn't particularly likable, but her wild experiences bouncing through time give her plenty of life experience and moments for introspection, leading to welcome character growth and insight.  Because she's habitually honest with herself inside her head, even when she's not "likeable" she's very relatable.  

final though:  the plot is nuts, and the ending is played to a draw so if you want Answers, Resolution, and surety about whether what happened was Good or Bad, you'll be dismayed.

More final thought--I myself enjoyed it very much.

This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs

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

The Reviews

The 11:11 Wish, by Kim Tomsic, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction, A Backwards Story and Word Spelunking

Bad Mermaids Make Waves, by Sibeal Pounder, at PidginPea's Book Nook

The Book of Boy, by at Randomly Reading, Book Nut, and Charlotte's Library

The Gauntlet, by Karuna Riazi, at The Pirate Tree

Granted, by John David Anderson, at Book Nut (audiobook review)

The Left-Handed Fate, by Kate Milford, at Puss Reboots

Love Sugar Magic: a Dash of Trouble, by Anna Meriano, at Hopeful Reads

The Mapmaker Chronicles, by A.L. Tait, at This Kid Reviews Books (series review)

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Ms. Martin Teaches Media and
Fantasy Literature

The Unicorn Rescue Society, by Adam Gidwitz, at Books4YourKids.com

The Wild Robot Escapes, by Peter Brown, at Book Nut

Wizard for Hire, by Obert Skye, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Wizardmatch, by Lauren Magaziner, at Say What?

Authors and Interviews

Sayantani DasGupta (The Serpent's Secret) at CBC Diversity

Paul North (How to Sell Your Family to Aliens) at Nerdy Book Club

Keira Gillett (Zaria Fierce series) talks self-publishing at Log Cabin Library

Other Good Stuff

Stop the Hogwarts House Hate, at Tor (very interesting)

At Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books, what's new in the UK

The Book of Boy, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I did not know, going into it, that The Book of Boy, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Greenwillow, middle grade, Feb. 2018) is in fact not straight medieval historical fiction, but fantasy.  And it was rather lovely to watch the fantasy element unfold (those who have read the book--please appreciate what I did just there!), so this is a tricky review to write, because if you haven't read it, you will likewise enjoy it more not knowing anything about this.  I will do my best to entice you (because I liked the book) without spoiling it.

A child, called Boy, has been tormented and bullied most of his grimy and impoverished medieval life, mostly because he has a hunched back.  His only true friends are the animals that love and trust him, and though in the past there were two adults who cared about him, he doesn't really have any hope or expectation that the future holds much.

But then a strange man comes to town, and he needs a boy to travel with him on a quest through Europe to recover the scattered relics of Saint Peter (a toe here, a rib there).  He is not a kind man, this strange pilgrim, but he is not unkind either; he is not a good man, and is in fact stealing the relics, but he is not maliciously evil (in short, he's a lovely complicated character with an interesting back story that explains why he's stealing the relics and the reader (me) is in doubt for a long time about him, which makes for very good reading!).  Boy is in doubt about him too, but Boy also learns things during their journey together that expand his own world rather awesomely.  Saints are real, and so are miracles, and so is damnation to hell.....and so is chance kindness, and past sorrow.

So basically what you get is a medieval heist book with a lot of historical detail, interesting characters, vivid descriptions, and considerable emotional involvement. If you love animals, you will appreciate the many animal friends Boy finds along the way.  It's a beautifully immersive experience, and there was nothing in the historical fiction part of it that annoyed me.

Kirkus gave it a star, saying "Along with a story that unravels to reveal that not everything in the world is as it appears, Murdock delivers a wickedly fun-filled quest that twists and turns with lyrical fire. Boy ponders: “Pilgrim he might be but this man has sin stitched into his soul.” The story is, among other things, an exploration of religion, Secundus’ thieving quest for relics a counterpoint to Boy’s stalwart faith." I would like to quibble gently with this, pointing out that fear of eternal damnation, such as Secundus suffers from, is in fact a sign of pretty strong faith....and Secundus is more a counterpart to Boy in terms of dark past vs innocence.....But the fact that one can have this sort of discussion about the book shows that there is a lot to it.

The Book of Boy is already getting Newbery buzz, and it's deserved.

no middle grade round up this week becuase I just accidently deleted it.

whah!

Once Upon a Princess, by Christine Marciniak, review and interview

Today it's my pleasure to be a stop on the blog tour of Once Upon a Princess, by Christine Marciniak (CBAY Books, Middle Grade, April 1, 2018).

Her Royal Highness, Fredericka Elisabetta Teresa von Boden don Morh (Fritzi for short) is the 12-year-old younger daughter of the King and Queen of Colsteinburg, a tiny European principality, and life is good--in honor of her country's 800th anniversary, she's just attended her first ball.  But that night, there is a coup.  Anti-monarchists have taken over the government, and are storming the castle, and so Fritzi, her older sister the heir, and their mother, flee to the United States.  Her father stays behind, because to leave would be tantamount to abdication.  

The suburban American house loaned to them by a former US ambassador to Colsteinburg is a far cry from Fritzi's castle home, and the local middle school is likewise rather a change from her posh French boarding school.  No one can know she is a princess, but Fritzi is determined  never to forget, and so she finds herself taking on the queen bee girl and her followers.  The friendship dramas are of little importance, though, compared to her worry about her father and her country.  She decides to do her part to win back the hearts of her people through social media, recording short videos full of emotion and pride. Unfortunately, they are easily tracked, and the safe house is safe no longer.

And the anti-monarchists find them, and in the violent confrontation and kidnapping that ensues, Fritzi's pride and strength of character will be tested, and she will get the chance to show the world she is a true princess....

The princess having to become an ordinary girl is a fun anti-princess diary conceit, and Fritzi plays her part admirably.  Especially refreshing was her take on the school pecking order; she's oblivious to the nuances of navigating the existing hierarchy because she's so used to being, as a princess, at the top of it.  Though she's not the most introspective or sensitive 12 year old, she has an appealing toughness to her that give her enough umph to carry her story along well.   Princess-loving readers should enjoy this one lots!

and now, an interview with the author.

What was your favorite book as a child and what is the book you most frequently find yourself recommending to others?

I’d have to say one of my favorite books as a child was MANDY by Julie Andrews Edwards. It’s a charming book about an orphaned girl who finds a place for herself. When I first read it I did not realize that the author was the same woman who starred in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, As an adult I found the book again to re-read it, hoping it would stand the test of time, and it did. I found it as charming as I had when I was nine. Other books I read voraciously as a child were the Bobbsey Twin books. Those do not stand up quite as well to adult scrutiny.

What book do I frequently recommend to others? I have very eclectic reading tastes, so what I recommend is going to partly have to do with the interests of the person I’m talking to, and what I’ve recently read. For younger readers I would probably recommend The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards. I discovered that book when my daughter was young, and it quickly became one of her favorites. I think it is often overlooked when people discuss great books for children. For older readers I’ve found myself recommending Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford and The Secret Ministry of Ag and Fish by Noreen Roils. Like I said, I have eclectic tastes.

(me:  I love both those Julie Andrews Edwards books too!)

What were the main challenges you faced with setting a present day princess story that included technology?

I think the main challenge for any present day story – princess or not – is that the ubiquitous use of cell phones ruins a lot of plot points. Lost? Look it up on your GPS. Running late? Call the person to let them know. Need someone to come to your rescue, you’ve got help right at your fingertips. Sometimes author’s solve that by letting the character lose their phone, or being out of cell service, or the battery dying. I decided to let Fritzi use the internet in a way that would complicate things for her, not solve all her problems. The biggest problem there is keeping up with what is the latest social media forum that tweens are using these days.

Where did the idea for Once Upon a Princess originally come from?

It seemed to me that it is a fairly common to see stories about someone who is leading a rather ordinary life and suddenly they either find out they are royalty or they marry into royalty and it turns their life upside down. I thought, what if someone was royalty, and then wasn’t – kind of turning the convention on its head.

Going off that question, what's the strangest thing you've ever had to research for a book?

Horse Diving. I was setting a book in Atlantic City during the twenties and discovered that one of the main attractions at the time was a horse diving show where a woman would ride a horse as it dove from a platform into a tank of water. I actually bought and read a book by the premier horse diver of the time. A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Carver. The title is a bit hokey, but the story was fascinating. Other things I’ve found myself researching have been undergarments of the 19th century, the lay out of a scallop boat, the occupation of Bruges during World War I and when toilet paper was invented.

Can you tell us what you're working on next?

This summer I have an adult romance coming out, Emily’s Song, which is a time travel romance set at the beginning of the Civil War. Works in progress include a middle grade book set in Atlantic City during the twenties and another adult romance, also set in the twenties in New Jersey.

Did you have a playlist of music you listened to when you wrote OUAP?

I really don’t. If I listened to music when I was writing it was most likely going to be Jazz or Classical, because lyrics tend to get in the way of my thought process (harder to write when singing along).

Thank you, Christine!  I'll look forward to reading your future middle grade books.

The Clay Lion, by Amalie Jahn, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Clay Lion, by Amalie Jahn (BermLord, YA, 2013) is set in a present day world that is ours but with a twist--time travel is possible, though carefully regulated.  Each person gets one trip back in time, but because of the way time travel works, they can only revisit a point in their own past life, and they are not supposed to change anything in their timeline.

Brooke was a senior in high school when her brother died of lung disease.  A bit over a year later, stuck in a fog of depression, she decides that she will use her time travel ticket to go back and save him by keeping him from whatever it was that triggered his immune system to go haywire.   It doesn't work, so she tries a second time, with her mother's trip.  That doesn't work either, so she gets a black-market trip for a third try....which also fails to save her brother.

But in the process of visiting her past and her brother's life, and death, Brooke comes to terms with the fact that some things just have to happen, and the only thing to do is make her own life something her brother would approve of.   She has in fact made changes to her life and the relationships she retouched that will help her, and her family, move forward instead of being trapped in their sadness.

One such relationship was with a cute boy, Charlie, who she loved and who loved her back in life number 2.  But this love was bent out of kilter by the time travelling, and she thought she could never get it back.  Though this was a loss, she gained immensely from having travelled back in time, and was able to shape a present for herself that wasn't overshadowed by depression...in a world, of course, where Charlie still existed, even if they hadn't in fact met yet....

It wasn't until about two thirds of the way through the book that I started actively enjoying it.  If I hadn't needed a book for Timeslip Tuesday, I would have put it down after Past Visit 1 for two reasons.  The first is that the author's prose is often stilted; she has a habit of filling Brooke's narration with latinate vocabulary that seemed unnatural and contrived to me, like using "departed" instead of "left."  The other thing that made feel uninvested in the story was that I never shared Brooke's obsession with saving her brother. Of course I sympathized and felt bad, but it ruled her life (except for her love affair in Visit 2) and made her pretty one dimensional.  However, once she started accepting that she couldn't be her brother's savior, I warmed to her and was interested to watch her began to heal from a death that hadn't even happened yet in the timeline of Visit 3.

And now I'm a bit surprised to find that that I want to read the next three books in the series, to see other folks from this story using their own time travel experiences.  Will Brooke's experiences of having almost made things even worse have taught them anything?  Probably not....

Nb: most other readers found this a beautiful tear-jerker, and loved it.  It didn't make me teary at all, even though I usually sob with the best of them...

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst

The Stone Girl's Story is Sarah Beth Durst's most recent middle grade fantasy (Clarion Books, April 3, 2018), and it's the one that I like best.  In order to say why I like it, I have to tell the whole plot, so if you like books I like, you could just read the next two paragraphs and the last two paragraphs and not have everything spoiled by the middle ones.  Or not.

It's the story of Mayka, a girl who has lived with her family of stone animals in the home up on a mountain her father made for them.  Her father was a master stone worker, carving into each creature glyphs that magically imbued the stone with the power to live, to fly (or swim, or run), and to love.  Mayka was his last work, and now her father is dead, she and her family have no one to refresh the carved marks that make them who they are.  Turtle has stopped moving, the stone fish no longer speak, and Mayka wonders who will be lost next....

Clearly a stonemason is needed.  So Mayka, who has never left home, sets off down the mountain to find one.  Accompanying her are two stone birds, one level headed, the other an imp of impulsive action.  And going with her as well are all the stories her father told her.

Down among flesh and blood people, Mayka learns that there were stories she'd never been told. The stories told by a small beautiful stone dragon who joins her and the two birds, about her life as a decoration with no purpose other than to be a possession. And darker stories of unscrupulous stonemasons who used their art for power and control, forcing stone creatures to obey their will.  And though since those days stonemasons have been themselves corralled and controlled, there is one man who wants to bring back that old power, in the name of progress and universal good.

But just because someone thinks they are doing what is right doesn't make it so.  Mayka is appalled to see marks of blind obedience carved onto stone creatures, cutting though the marks that tell their real stories.  And Mayka's own personal story, given to her by the glyphs her father her father carved on her, is that she is a person who can see stories and tell them....and so she begins to rewrite what they was done and carve stories of freedom.

I do so love stories about stories being reshaped and told and interpreted and lived!  In my mind this book is a parable about a girl who realizes that she herself is the master of her own life story, that she has the power to accept what her parents had to give her, and then shape her own story.  The fact that this point is made within the context of wonderful magic, beautifully described marvels of stone art, and flashes of humor from Mayka's companions makes it all the better.  The fact that her choices are made from a place of love and goodness of heart, and that one result is that she feels more secure in the knowledge her own father loved her, makes it more better still.

An excellent one for the elementary school reader who wants to read bigger books, as well as middle grade readers who aren't ready for full on gore or splashes of romantic love. Mayka is innocent and trusting (though much less naïve by the end of things), so the perfect reader is the kid who isn't a cynical smart aleck, but the one who is still a child themselves though they are in sixth grade. Some might find it a little slow to get going, but as the secrets of what is happening start unfolding, the tension builds nicely, and there's a climax of Adventure and Action, with destruction and violence, that only lasted long enough to be satisfactory with out being so long that I had to nervously read the end of the book to make sure things will be ok.  And with equal thought to my reading pleasure, the ending ties everything up very comfortably with lots of love.

So basically, I really really liked it.   And now I check Kirkus because it's fun to see if we are in agreement.....

and yes!  We have a winner!

Kirkus:  (starred review) "Thoughtful, colorful, strengthening, and understatedly tender."

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (3/25/18)

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs! Let me know if I missed your post.

The Reviews:

The Art of the Swap, by Kristine Asselin and Jen Malone, at Charlotte's Library

Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi, at This Kid Reviews Books, Book Nut, Fantasy Literature,  Mom Read It

Buttheads from Outer Space, by Jerry Mahoney, at Ms. Yingling Reads

Cat Between Two Worlds, by Lesley Renton, at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers 

The Crowns of Croswald, by D.E. Night, at Log Cabin Library

Curse of the Ancients (Infinity Ring Book Four), by Matt de la Peña, at Time Travel Times Two

The Downward Spiral by Ridley Pearson, at This Kid Reviews Books

Fever Crumb, by Philip Reeve, at Proseandkahn

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing (Mo and Dale Mysteries #2), by Sheila Turnage, at The Story Sanctuary.

The House With Chicken Legs, by Sophie Anderson, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books

How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens, by Paul North, at The Reading Nook Reviews

Marabel and the Book of Fate, by Tracy Barrett, at Cover2Cover

A Problematic Paradox, by Eliot Sappingfield, at Ms. Yingling Reads and  Say What?

The Problim Children, by Natalie Lloyd, at Mom Read It

The Serpent's Secret, by Sayantani DasGupta, at Charlotte's Library

Simon Thorne and the Shark's Cave, by Aimee Carter, at Say What?

The Stone Girl's Story, by Sarah Beth Durst, at Say What?

The Tale of Angelino Brown by David Almond, at Waking Brain Cells

Thornhill, by Pam Smy, at Strange and Random Happenstance

The Unicorn Quest, by Kamilla Benko, at Jean Little Library

A Witch Alone, by James Nichol, at Library Girl and Book Boy


Authors and Interviews

Roshani Chokshi (Aru Sha and the End of Time), at The Book Smugglers

Jonathan Rosen (From Sunset Till Sunrise), at Middle Grade Book Village

Other Good Stuff

Five classic scarry mg stories at the Barnes and Noble Kids Blog

A post at the Nerdy Book Club that's about mysteries, not fantasy, but still interesting and applicable--Writing Mysteries for Girls by Sheela Chari; likewise, The Fallacy of the Strong Female Character, at Erin Dionne

Check out the on-going Tolkien Extravaganza at Pages Unbound

Toys R Us, my father, The Black Cauldron, and re-reading--a story from my reading childhood, at Charlotte's Library

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman (Random House, YA, Feb. 2018), is the third book about an almost Europe with dragons (Seraphina, 2012, and Shadow Scale, 2015 being the first two). It is my favorite of the series.

Tess has always known she was flawed and bad; her mother made sure of this.  But she didn't mean to be.  Her twin, Jeanne, is the good girl, and her older sister, Seraphina, is the one who was seemingly immune to societal pressures, who managed to escape the limitations of expectations.  Tess is bad, and almost brought scandal to the family when she got pregnant as a young teen (averted by sending her away to distant family).  When the book begins, Tessa and Jeanne, now 17, are handmaidens to a noble lady at the court (thanks to Seraphina's string pulling) and Jeanne has found the perfect rich and lordly husband.  With that out of the way, Tess begins to think of escape from a life she cannot stand, no matter how much she drinks.

And then Seraphina gives her a pair of boots, beautiful, glossy, perfect boots for the adventures little Tess had imagined as a child.  And with nothing to loose, almost despite herself Tess walks out the door.

The voices in head, both the criticisms of others, the harsh scriptures her mother hammered her with, and her own memories of guilt and grief, go with her.  But she keeps going, barely.

"Walking on now," Tess told Mama-in-her-head, kicking dirt on last night's ashes.  "I think I'll live one more day."

(aside--typing that quote I am struck by the lovely metaphor, because kicking dirt, in this case the physical work of walking, and later hard labor, on memory ashes is exactly what Tess is doing.)

Then she meets Pathka, the reptilian Quigutl whose life she saved as a child, and Pathka's quest to find a the giant serpents integral to Quigutl cosmology becomes her own, and Pathka's company and support give her further impetus to keep going, and other stories to play through her head.  (It's fun for the reader, too, to spend time with a Quigutl as a main character...they are fascinating!)

It's not a grand adventure, but the encounters along the road give Tess a chance to rethink and recast both her past decisions and the things that were no fault of her own.   It's not always easy to keep her thoughts company, but if you like being challenged to introspection about culpability, the shaming of girls, horrible parenting, and religious brainwashing (not a slamming of religion qua religion, but repressively sexist scripture is one tool Tess's mother has beaten her horribly with),  it is totally worth it, and in the end, Tess does not have to question if she will keep going.  And as Tess and Pathka get closer to the great serpent of Pathka's dreaming, the canvas expands to let the numinous in, and compassion in, and the possibility that Tess's own dreams of discovery and adventure will come true.

Tess's backstory is told in flashbacks, continuing right to the end, as she faces her worst memories.  One of those memories is rape, a part of her story she is finally able to revisit when she finds a beautifully sex-positive relationship with one of Seraphina's old friends, who does not shame her, manipulate her, or hold her back from following her own path.

If you are looking for Dragons!  Excitement! Magic!  and the stereotypical kick-ass heroine, look elsewhere.   But if you want a thought-provoking, empowering, bittersweet story that will stick with you and leave you wanting the next book very badly that's filled with enough of the strange and fantastical to add considerable wonder,  I recommend this one lots.  Also if you are a fan of Seraphina, who's not a central character but who shows up quite a bit, you'll be interested in what she looks like to her little sister

Kirkus and I are in agreement:  "Like Tess’ journey, surprising, rewarding, and enlightening, both a fantasy adventure and a meta discourse on consent, shame, and female empowerment."

Toys R Us, my father, The Black Cauldron, and re-reading--a story from my reading childhood

When we were living overseas (my father was in the Foreign Service), every summer my sisters and I were taken to stay with our grandparents in Arlington, Va.  My mother came for a bit too, but most summers my father stayed at work.  A treat every year was a visit to Toys R Us, but I don't really remember the particulars, except for one special visit.*  My father was there for a bit the summer I was ten, and on a whim he took me (I think just me) there, and said he would buy me a book.  It is the only time I remember him ever buying me a book (he wasn't especially interested in taking us shopping, nor was he especially interested in doing things that didn't interest him), so it was a Special Thing.  I stood in front of all the richness on display in the back right corner of the Bailey's Crossroads Toys R Us, and couldn't choose.  Growing impatient, he plucked one from the shelf, and I acquiesced, not wanting him to be annoyed.  The book was The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander, and I found the cover unappealing (I still do).  I bet the oddness of it was what attracted my father.

That afternoon, during the time slot when my sisters and I were all told to stay quietly in our rooms to rest (I had an old fashioned childhood), I began to read.  I'm the one in the top bunk.  The Black Cauldron starts with a huge number of characters all gathering together to start an adventure, and I had no clue who any of them were, and I was confused and dubious.  But I kept going, journeying with Taran and co. through the marshes and on to the horror and tragedy of the ending....and my mind was set on fire.  It was unlike anything I'd ever read.

Of course I then hungered for the other books in the series, and they came my way eventually.  But because I wanted them and knew they existed, they weren't as special.  Though The Black Cauldron ended up being only my third favorite (after Taran Wanderer and The High King), the power of that reading experience was unrivaled.  I can still watch the book unfold in my mind's eye, and feel again the emotions each part of it called out of me.  And because the book made such an impact, the memory of my father taking the time to buy it for me (probably he just wanted a reason to get out of the house, but one takes what one gets) is still crystal clear as well.

And that's one of the joys of re-reading- not only do you get the story again, but you get to revisit the self you were when you first read the book.  Because the grown-ups never bought me nearly as many books as I would have liked, I can remember almost all the book gifts of my childhood, and each takes me back to a particular part of my life, with a palimpsest of memories overlaying the actual story.  I'm awfully glad to have all the many books I have now, but when they aren't miracles, coming unexpected and unasked for, with unappealing covers by authors you've never heard of, and which then turn out to be brilliant, it's not quite the same.

So I'm very grateful to Toys R Us for stocking books, and to my father for taking me to buy one, and to my grandmother who insisted on the rest period after lunch, and of course to Lloyd Alexander and all the other authors who all combined to make that a lovely summer.  My grandparents house was sold and demolished, and now the store is gone too, and I feel a little sad about that. 

My first copy of The Black Cauldron must have been read to death, because I now have a modern paperback, but I still have my old copies of the other four. I don't remember the particulars of getting them, because I think I had read library copies, so getting my own copies wasn't as memorable.  It's interesting to see that I got them all at different times, and that there was a period of tremendous book inflation in the late 1970s that clearly shows the order in which I got them.  They are all Dell Yearlings.  The Book of Three was 1.25, The High King was 1.50, Taran Wanderer was 1.75, and then there's a big jump to 3.25 for The Castle of Llyr.

This June, the last summer of being able to plan my older son's life (he goes to college this fall) we are going to Wales, which I have always wanted to visit since reading the books, and so I should probably re-read them all again.....

*This is not actually true.  Thinking it over, I also remember the specific little Beyer horses I got on multiple occasions, in particular Native Dancer, a beautiful grey one (the little horse section was about three rows in from the left hand wall of the store).  We would scrunch up a particular area rug in the living room to make an island with caves for all our little horses, and it was a lovely game....inspired by other books I was reading at the time, all of the Black Stallion series and all of Marguerite Henry....all of which I still have even though goodness knows if I will ever want to re-read all the Black Stallion books ever again.

Two fun new upper elementary fantasies by Vivian French

Two fun new upper elementary fantasies by Vivian French are now available here in the US! UK author Vivian French has written many enjoyable books for kids 8-10, and she really deserves to be better known here in the states.  The Adventures of Alfie Onion and The Cherry Pie Princess (both from Kane Miller) are top notch fantasies that are satisfyingly rich in plot and detail, but not so long as to intimidate elementary school readers who aren't ready for Harry Potter.

The Adventures of Alfie Onion

Alfie Onion's mum wanted a fairy tale ever after, but since there was no handy prince to marry, she settled for a seventh son, thinking her own seventh son was sure to be a hero and win wealth enough to keep her in style!  So she pinned all her hopes on her seventh son, Magnifico, and son number eight, little Alfie, got short shrift.  And when Magnifico, spoiled and lumpish, turns 14, his mother sends him off to find his fortune.  Alfie gets sent along too, to carry the luggage.

Magnifico is ill-equipped, both by temperament and physique, to be a hero.  It's a good thing that Alife is along to save the day and defeat the ogres outside the castle holding the enchanted princess!  And it's a good thing for Alfie that he has the help of a bevy of talking animals--a horse, two mice and two magpies, and the help as well from the trolls the ogres have been oppressing, and even from the ogre daughter, who is sick of the abuse her dad and brother have been inflicting on her.

The reader knows right away that Alfie's the hero, and it's a treat to follow along on his adventures, cheering for him and wondering just how pathetic Magnifico is going to be next.

The Cherry Pie Princess

Peony is the youngest of seven princesses, and unlike her sisters, she doesn't find being a princess particularly satisfying.  She wants to do things, like bake (cherry pies are her specialty) and check out books from the town's library, that are forbidden.  When she borrows a cookbook from the library, the king has the librarian arrested for "speaking out of turn."  And when she speaks up to her father about this, she herself lands in the castle prison, a place she never knew existed.

In the meantime, her baby brother's christening is approaching; three good fairies have been invited, and one bad one has not.  With the help of her fellow prisoners, Peony escapes, just in time to foil the bad fairy's enchantments with the help of a talking cat, and her father has a change of heart about her activities...only partly  because she bakes such delicious cherry pies!

It's a pleasant book, good for kids who enjoy baking in particular.  The king is perhaps a bit too much of a jerk for his change of heart to be believable, but Peony is a great heroine with enough integrity and strength of will to make up for her father!

It's a testament to Vivian French's way with words that I enjoyed reading these myself, in a quick, lighthearted way, and the target audience should be even more pleased.  There's nothing too scary for an even younger reader than 8....I would happily give them to my 7 year old ex-self!

disclaimer: review copies received from the publisher

The Art of the Swap, by Kristine Asselin and Jen Malone, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Art of the Swap, by Kristine Asselin and Jen Malone (Aladdin, Feb 2018), is equal parts time travel story, art heist and concomitant mystery to be solved, a visit to Gilded Age Newport, with a touch of a feminist message. It was a fun read.

Hannah's the daughter of the caretaker of one of Newport's many mansions (the Elms, which is a nice one!).  Having grown up amongst the antiques and opulence, she has a somewhat proprietary interest in the bygone inhabitants of the mansion, particularly Maggie Dunlap.  Maggie was another 12 year old who lived briefly at the Elms, and her portrait has made her real to Hannah.  But the painting is just a reproduction of the original painted by Mary Cassatt, which was stolen the day it was to be unveiled in 1905.

And then one day the portrait becomes a portal through which the two girls swap places in time.  Hannah, back in the past just a few days before the heist will occur, is determined to stop it, and Maggie is willing to give her a bit of time to do so.  But Maggie is tremendously ill-equipped to cope with the sweaty life of a modern girl (will Hannah ever be allowed to play on her soccer team again?) and Hannah is tremendously ill-suited to the role of proper young lady.

Using the portrait portal to communicate, the girls work together to save the painting...but first Hannah must figure out who did it, set up a plan to keep it safe for the future, and keep the young servant boy accused of the crime out of danger.  The clock is ticking--in our time, Hannah's father has planned a trip that will keep the girls from swapping back for weeks...and neither is doing a good job leading the other's life!

And this is the part that made it a bit hard for me to truly enjoy the book.  Neither puts particular effort into adopting the idioms and manners of their new time, though Maggie gets more points for this than Hannah.  This surprised me, because Hannah is supposed to be gung ho about the past of her home; she should have been a better impersonator! But she never gets any better.

But I did very much enjoy the experience each girl had of seeing their familiar home changed- this was really magical.  Plus the relationship between the two girls is solid though fleeting, and the lessons that they learn in each other's times (social history for Hannah and feminism for Maggie) are both valuable and believable, and the opulence of the Elms, both past and present, is very nicely made real.  And I think young readers are more likely than me to find the problems each experienced in the other's time funny!

So give this to a young reader who likes to daydream about fancy balls of the past while getting ready for soccer practice!

And if you come to Kidlitcon 2019 (next March in Providence RI) I can help you get down to Newport if you want to see the Elms for yourself!

The Serpent's Secret, by Sayantani DasGupta

The Serpent's Secret, by Sayantani DasGupta (Scholastic, Feb. 2018), is a wild ride through a fantasy world full of demons, snakes, moon magic, flying horses, and a baby star nursery presided over by Albert Einstein (yep!).  It's starts in fine swinging style.  It's Kiranmala's 12th birthday, and Halloween in Parsippany, New Jersey is about to get underway....and everything seems ordinary. But Kiran's parents have vanished when she gets home from school, leaving a cryptic note, and a demon invades her home, trashing the place and trying to eat her alive.  The timely arrival of two crush worthy boys on winged horses helps her escape the demon, and take her off with them...and that's just the beginning of her problems.

Turns out, all times Kiran's parents told her she was an Indian princess, and all the fantastical stories they told, had a lot of truth in them.  Whisked away to another dimension, full of magic and wonders (and demons) by the two princes, Kiran is determined to keep her focus on finding her demon-kidnapped parents.  And when the nicer of the two princes gets trapped in a spell, he has to be saved as well.

So Kiran is left with Neel (the grouchier prince, who has a complicated family backstory of his own) to go with her on a journey to the impossible place her parents are trapped, guided by riddles and a map of lands that randomly move from place to place.   Dangers and unexpected helpers await, and to her surprise, Kiran finds herself become friends with Neel....

Kiran is a great character who wants to be competent and not need rescuing, and she's well on her way to being that person, but she is (totally understandably, being only just turned 12) a bit out of her depth in this magical dimension in which she has found herself.  The bravest thing she does, in all sincerity, is to keep her head when confronted with the impossible.  The hardest thing she has to do, also in all sincerity, is not to scream in frustration at Neel, who is really not an open, helpful explainer of what the heck has happened (I'm sore at Neel, for blaming Kiran for something that isn't her fault, and I would have screamed at him like crazy if I'd been there....).

The adventures are exciting, without being overplayed, and the strange-nesses, likewise, are not so over emphasized and overwrought that they become tedious.  There are funny elements (funnier if you think demon snot is amusing, which I don't...), disturbing elements involving way too many snakes, and bits that make you think about quantum physics.  Plus winged horses whose voices Kiran can hear, that will delight young magical animal fans.  So something for everyone!

The Author's Note at the end explains how the story is based on the traditional folktales of West Bengal, India, that the author learned from her own family.  Reading this made me mentally add a certain gravitas to my impression of the book, as it is not just a fun story but an own-voices one that is new to the table of American middle grade fantasy.  I look forward to Kiran's next adventure!

Here's the Kirkus review, which hits many of the same notes....

This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and sci fi from around the blogs (3/18/18)

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

The Reviews

Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? by Kelly Jones, at The Reading Nook Reviews

The Book of Bad Things, by Dan Poblocki, at Dark Fairie Tales

Buttheads from Outer Space, by Jerry Mahoney, at This Kid Reviews Books

The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo, by Stephen Bramucci, at Semicolon

Embers of Destruction (Mysteries of Cove, Book 3) by J. Scott Savage, at Hidden in Pages

Frogkisser, by Garth Nix, at You Book Me All Night Long

The Ghost of Thomas Kemp, by Penelope Lively, at The Emerald City Book Review

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, at The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow and as an audiobook at Hidden In Pages

Harriet the Invincible, by Ursula Vernon, at Geo Librarian

Krikkit's Shoes, by Jessie L. Best, at Red Headed Booklover Blog

The Lost Rainforest: Mez’s Magic, by Eliot Schrefer, at Mom Read It

The Marvelwood Magicians, by Diane Zahler, at alibrarymama

The Misadventure of Bolingbroke Manor by Ellie Firestone, at LILbooKLovers

The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende, at Leaf's Reviews

The Nothing to See Here Hotel, by Steven Butler, at Alittlebutalot

Ranger in Time: D-Day: Battle on the Beach by Kate Messner, at The Children's War

Space Runners: The Moon Platoon, by Jeramey Kraatz, at Charlotte's Library

The Seventh Wish, by Kate Messner, at Pages Unbound

Switched, by Jen Calonita, at Cracking the Cover

The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution by Jonathan Stokes, at Redeemed Reader

The Train of Lost Things, by Ammi-Joan Paquette, at Nerdy Book Club

Watchdog, by Will McIntosh, at alibrarymama

Wizard for Hire, by Obert Skye, at The Readathon

Two at Ms. Yingling Reads:  A Bad Night for Bullies, by Gary Ghislain, and Skeleton Tree, by Kim Ventrella

Two at Boys Rule Boys Read:  Guardians of the Grypon's Claw, by Todd Calgi Gallicano, and The Winged Girl of Knossos, by Erick Berry

Authors and Interviews

Liz Kessler (Emily Windsnap) at B and N Kids Blog

Stephanie Burgis (The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart) at The Cybils

Zetta Elliott (Dragons in a Bag) at Elizabeth Dulemba

Other Good Stuff

Have you been checking out the facebook posts of KidlitWomen?  Lots interesting and motivating reading.

Rhianna Pratchett talks about her Moomin infused childhood at The Guardian

And do you  know that the next KidLitCon will be in Providence RI in March of 2019?  Check out the fantastic list of folks who are already planning to come!

Monsters Beware! by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado

Monsters Beware! is the third book of the Chronicles of Claudette, written by Jorge Aguirre and illustrated by Rafael Rosado, with John Novak. This is a great graphic novel series for elementary and middle grade kids that will delight all young adventurers, and this third installment keeps the fun and excitement going very nicely indeed.

Claudette's home town is playing host to the Warrior Games, in which three children from each participating kingdom compete to slay monsters.  Claudette, being Claudette, wants desperately for the chance to slay, and manipulates the other kids so that's she's chosen, along with her little brother, Gaston, and best friend, Marie. But Marie's father, the lord of the town, doesn't want anything bad to happen to her, so instead of monsters, the competitions feature domestic and agrarian tasks!  When the trio of kids start to win competition after competition, with other kids mysteriously disappearing during each event, Claudette throws off her disappointment viz lack of monsters to through herself fiercely into the fray of truffle hunting, plowing, etc.

But there actually are monsters--the Sea Kingdom kids are not what they seem to be, and they want more than just victory in the Games.  When their monstrous true nature is finally revealed for all to see (though the reader, Maria and Gaston realized this much earlier in the story), Claudette finally gets to attack.  But though her sword work is fierce, it's Gaston's magical cooking skills and Marie's ability to stall through polite small talk that really save the day!

And the ending is happier than readers could have guessed.

It is tremendously fun, and funny, and this third volume only reaffirms my opinion that the series is one that belongs on the shelves of every young fantasy fan.  The pictures are bright and vibrant and easy to understand, helping moving the story along in beautiful synchronicity with the words (I'm not the best graphic novel reader because I tend to focus on words, and so I appreciate books like this where I can absorb the picture information at the same time).

Here's are my review of the first book--Giants Beware!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Space Runners: The Moon Platoon, by Jeramey Kraatz

Though I do my darndest to read All the Books (specifically, all the middle grade science and fantasy books), sometimes I miss them when they come out, and then the sequel appears and I must play catch-up.  That's the case with Space Runners: The Moon Platoon, by Jeramey Kraatz, that came out in May 2017 (HarperCollins) whose sequel, Dark Side of the Moon, came out last month...and since I enjoyed Kraatz's earlier Cloak Society series, and since there's so little exoplanetary mg sci fi that each new series is exciting, I pushed Moon Platoon up on my reading list....and had a nice afternoon of excitement on the moon as my reward!

Benny Love has spent his twelve years in the drylands that cover most of western North America fifty years or so in the future, years he's spent help his dad find food and water for their caravan, helping look after his little brothers, and always dreaming of a way out.  Now the way out has come--Benny has been chosen to go to the moon.  Elijah West, genius inventor and eccentric, has chosen him to be one of 100 scholarship kids who will go spend two weeks at the Lunar Taj, his  luxury resort playground on the moon.  Benny and the other kids, who come from all around the globe, are thrilled at the chance to pilot Space Runners, tinker with cool technology, and compete to earn West's favor (and maybe get to stay on the moon and work for him).

But almost immediately there are signs (not very subtle ones; mechanical exploding asteroids are not subtle) that something is very wrong on the moon.  Benny and the kids in his new cohort soon find themselves breaking rule after rule to find out what's really happening. And then, once they do, it's up to them to do something about it, because there's no-one on earth who can save the day.

If you are a reader who thinks drag-racing in space sounds awesome, you are the perfect reader for this book.  If you are a reader who enjoys cool technology and a mystery plot, with kids saving the day in the end, you are an excellent reader for it.  If you enjoy sci fi mysteries with a lot of page time spent on kids in a boarding school-like situation, where friendship formation is as important as the technology to both saving the world and moving the plot along, you are a very good reader for it.  This would be me.

Except....

Though I enjoyed it as light entertainment, and very much wanted to see what was going to happen, it wasn't as emotionally powerful as I like my fraught adventures to be.  Benny is just too darn good to be true.  In fairness, his nobility is what got him the scholarship, but still.  He is an angel teen, very likeable and sympathetic, but a bit much, and so the reader is being more told to feel certain emotions in response to him rather than be overcome from behind by them (as it were).  The supporting kids were less angelic, but not desperately nuanced either. So if you demand fully-three dimensional characters who are more than their primary attribute (coder girl, jock girl, bratty rich boy sort of thing), you won't love this one.  The author adds some character depth with backstory, but backstory can only take you so far.  

So it is best to simply power up your space runner and go along for the ride....and since I still want to know what happens next (and since the second book has gotten more favorable reviews ) the best part of having taken a while to get to this one is that I can add the sequel to my library holds list right away!