Showing posts with label middle grade reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle grade reviews. Show all posts

3/1/24

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

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

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

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

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

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


2/18/24

The Lovely Dark, by Matthew Fox

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11/9/23

Field of Screams, by Wendy Parris

If you are looking for a middle grade ghost story that's spooky and scary but not so horrifying as to be disturbing, Field of Screams, by Wendy Parris (August 2023 by Delacorte Press), is a great pick!

Rebecca is a would-be ghost hunter who hasn't yet managed to actually see a ghost.  When her mother decides the two of them are going to spend the summer with her deceased dad's family on a farm in Iowa, the only comfort her best friend (who she was hoping to go to camp with) can offer is that an old house in the middle of nowhere sounds like a great place for ghosts.

And indeed, this proves to be the case.  The mundane world of family time, including reminiscences about her dad that make her feel closer to him (he too believed in ghosts, for instance), is disturbed by creepy happenings.  They are small at first, and possible to for Rebecca dismiss with intense logical thought, and certainly nothing anyone else takes seriously.  Not even Nick, the cute boy who is willing to at least consider the possibility that ghosts are real, is convinced at first.  But the creepiness turns into a genuine haunting that can't be dismissed.  

Rebecca, now certain there is a real ghost, struggles to keep investigating like a good paranormal researcher while becoming increasingly frightened.  The ghost is getting stronger and more terrifying every day.  It becomes a race to find the clues to who the ghost is and what they want, before a tragedy from long ago strikes again.

The mystery is a satisfying one, leading down an interesting path of Rebecca's family history to a really great abandoned (and haunted) house (I liked the abandoned house exploring bits lots!).  The haunting is also satisfying, and the ghost makes sense--there's a reason they are still around.  The writing is very vivid; it is easy to feel Rebecca's fright and admire her determination to keep going.  Real world tensions (is Rebecca's mom falling in love with Kelsie's dad?  And why is Kelsie so awful to Rebecca?) play on Rebecca's nerves alongside the strain of being haunted, adding to general discomfort that's looming like an approaching storm.

And then when then the storm breaks, all the pieces come together very nicely indeed in a tense and moving climax.

Don't expect, though, all the jump scares and bloody horror the title might conjure up; there's actually no running-while-screaming through a corn field, and the field is only a minor part of the haunting.

But you can expect to be gripped and entertained by the supernatural mystery, that touches on themes of loss and change that are very relatable to the target audience!


10/18/23

Ways to Build Dreams, by Renée Watson

Though I mostly review middle grade sci fi/fantasy here, I do actually read other genres too! And Ways to Build Dreams, by Renée Watson, illustrated by Niña Mata (October 17th 2023, Bloomsbury), was just the right heartwarming read for this difficult week.

This is the fourth story about Ryan Hart, and in this outing she is on the cusp of change.  Starting middle school next year, quite possibly without her best friend at her side, is a daunting prospect.  And it feels like she's being pushed to figure out not just who her future self will become, but how she will make change for good in the world.

The story is full of lots of small moments in ordinary life; there's nothing dramatic, but it's all interesting, and there's enough going on, and enough food for thought, to invest the reader in Ryan's world. 

But most of all the story is full of love --from her parents, from her friends (with empathy even coming from a boy she hadn't before been able to quite trust), from her teacher, and from herself--not just love back to all those people, but loving herself, and believing, as the title promises, that she will keep on building dreams. Though the honor of being her class valedictorian comes with the horror of public speaking, Ryan rises to the challenge.  And her speech, which brings this part of her life, and the book, to a close, says something many of us need to be reminded of--

"So, instead of telling you to dream big and change the world, I want to say, go change your world--your family, your neighborhood, your community.  I've learned that it's not only important to dream of doing big, big, big, things, it's also important to dream of simple, everyday things we can do to make the world a better place."

Yes. I needed to hear that.

disclaimer--review copy received from the publisher.




10/6/23

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll, illustrated by Lauren Child

 I read and reread Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales as a child, with more morbid fascination than true enjoyment, although I did appreciate how very good he was at making pictures in the mind.  The little match girl's frozen body, for instance, is still distressingly clear to me.  So it was somewhat cathartic to read Emma Carroll's re-imagining of the story, The Little Match Girl Stikes Back (Sept 2023 in the US, Candlewick), in which she isn't just a pathetic victim. 

Bridie comes close, though.  She is out in the snowy misery of 19th century London, desperately selling matches to help feed her little family (mother, herself, and her younger brother).  Her mother works at the match factory, which is its own hell of physical misery, pathetic wages, and phosphorous poisoning (not quite as bad as the poor radium girls, but close....).  And one day everything goes wrong for Bridie--hit by a carriage, all but three of her matches are ruined.  And one by one she lights them....and wishes.

The first match gives her a luxurious meal in a grand house, that leaves her no better off than before (the food not being real).  The second wish, though, is a catalyst for actual change.  She wishes "that rich people....didn't have everything while poor families like mine have nothing."  And magically, she meets in her dream a woman who is in real life a fierce advocate for the poor, and together they visit the match factory, where her mother is being fired.  The match fizzles out, but not the spark that has been lit, and the third match gives Bridie a vision of a possible future without desperate poverty and her mother's phosphorous poisoning that gives her hope that change is possible.

And so Bridie galvanizes the women of the factory to strike, and the advocate she met in her vision takes the cause up to a national level, and it succeeds. It's based on an actual strike, discussed in a non-fiction coda at the end of the book, and the mixing of this real and important history with the fantasy and reality of Bridie makes for an engrossing and memorable story.  The illustrations and decorations add beautifully to the fierceness and desperation of Bridie's life.

It's not your regular sort of fantasy--the magic is real, but, like the matches, burns only in flashes.  But they are very bright flashes.  And it's not your regular sort of straight historical fiction, because the story depends on the magic.  Offer it to young readers who like both, especially if they happen to be fascinated by labor horror stories of yesteryear, and love reading about kids who make change happen.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and has not yet been nominated.  Here's where you go if you want to show love for this one, or many of the others still waiting for their call....

10/5/23

The Ghost Job, by Greg Van Eekhout (with interview!)

Greg Van Eekhout is one of the authors who gets shelf space in my much beloved, still new and shiny, built-in bookshelf of which this is only a small section:


(Although this post is supposed to be a book review with bonus interview, I'd like to take the time to note the pleasing progression from Kelly Barnhill to William Alexander to Greg's books....Stephanie Burgis is perhaps not the right continuation, though, and I may have to tweak...and of course all of these authors are still writing (yay!) and I need to go back and buy the ones I don't already have when funds allow (built in bookshelves aren't cheap) so in a few years someone will have to be moved in any event...I can imagine, for instance, a whole Stephanie Burgis shelf which would take care of the question about who should go next to her.)

In any event, the newest arrival in the very choice Greg Van Eekhout section is The Ghost Job (Sept 26, 2023, HarperCollins), which I enjoyed very much!  It's the story of Zenith and her three best friends who fall victim to a freak middle school science lab accident.  Although being dead stinks, at least they have each other. 

 But when they hear of a machine that might be able to bring them back to life, they are determined to steal it from the unscrupulous necromancer using it for his own financial gain.  But not only is the machine well-guarded, they soon realize the necromancer wants to bottle their own ghostly essences for his stockpile of spirits....

Each of the kids has their own particular ghostly ability that makes them a great time to carry out this heist of a death-time.  Zenith can move physical things, Nicholas can make himself heard by the living, Vanessa can send her vision into the eyes of paintings and photographs from outside of buildings, and Eddie, who already had an affinity for the mechanical, now feels electric currents and the like in his ghostly body.  But even with these helpful heist advantages, it's touch and go....

There is great ghost action and adventure here, but there's a thoughtful, heart-tugging side of it too.  The kids, after all, are ghosts, and though they have each other, it is fundamentally a sad situation.  Ethical and moral questions are raised as well, giving the reader interesting food for thought.  All in all, an excellent read!

I got to ask Greg some questions about the book, which was nice for me.

How did the premise of Ghost Job come to you?

I was hard at work lying on the couch with my eyes closed, trying to decide if I wanted to write about heists or ghosts, and then the first line of the book came to me: "Ghosts are great thieves" and it was like boom, there's the book. Then I started working even harder and an hour later I woke up and had a glass of milk.

These are your first middle grade ghosts, and I'm wondering if the ghostly part apparated in your mind more or less intact, or if it required deep thought about things ghosts can make and do. And speaking of what ghosts can do, each character has a unique skill, with Zenith, the pov character, having poltergeist powers. It's essential for the plot that this is her skill, and I'm curious about whether you had to do a lot of making power fit plot, or vice versa, or if you knew from the start that Zenith would need to be able to do what she does? (and if you were a middle school ghost, which of the skills would you pick as your own?)

Ghost powers are pretty straightforward -- being invisible, walking through walls, etc. But stories about thieves who pull complicated heists generally feature specialists. You need a mastermind, you need muscle, you need a tech nerd, and so on. So I chose the specialities my ghost crew needed, assigned each character one of those roles, and then crafted their personalities to fit.

The main character, Zenith, is the muscle. She's a poltergeist who can move objects in the physical world. If I were a middle school ghost I'd want Zenith's powers just because there's so much potential to help people lift heavy objects, plus pranks.

One of the things that doesn't get a lot of explicit page time is the crushing grief of being sundered from family, though it's clearly something Zenith is feeling. Was the process of grief titration (enough so that it's there, not so much that readers get bogged down in a morass of sadness) tricky for you?

The grief and loss were the trickiest parts to write. I wanted to write a fun story about ghosts who steal stuff, but I couldn't ignore that a ghost is someone who's died, and death is horribly sad for those left behind, and if there is such a thing as a ghost, it must be sad for them too. So I aimed to find the right mix of jokes and adventure and hijinks while also respecting the emotional consequences of the concept.

There are so many themes and metaphors and messages that can be found in the story....do you have any such thing in particular that you hope young readers can take away?

Nobody gets through life without some hardship and loss, and I know of nothing that alleviates pain better than friends and love and laughter. Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends. Just like the REM song.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Do I believe in spectral presences that visit us and speak to us and interact with our physical environment? No. But do I believe our bodies and minds and the environments around us can combine in ways that make us feel like there are ghosts messing around with us? Absolutely. Unless it's Halloween. On Halloween I totally believe in ghosts. Especially when I'm alone. In the dark. In a graveyard...

Thanks Greg!

nb--The Ghost Job is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards, and hasn't been nominated yet.  Here's where you can go nominate this one or many other fine books still awaiting their nod!  Cybils nominations are a great way to show love for your favorite books and authors!

disclaimer: review copy recieved from the publishers 

9/26/23

Rewind, by Lisa Graff, for Timeslip Tuesday

Despite not having finished preparing the talk I'm giving tomorrow (on shipwrecks and archaeology, which I've done before but it needs work), I'm here with a Timeslip Tuesday both again!   And it's a fun one--Rewind, by Lisa Graff (August 22, 2023 by Philomel Books).  

An annual highlight in 12-year-old McKinley's hometown is the Time Hop--everyone dresses up in clothes from the chosen year, and parties to that year's music.  It's about to be Time Hop 1993, and McKinley works hard on her outfit.  But the happiness of the day is spoiled when her father tells he she has to stay home to look after her grandma, who had a stroke a while back.  She sneaks out anyway to join her best friend Meg, but they have a falling out.  And then her father shows up in the middle of the party to drag her home.  But that's not all--McKinely, devastated, rushes away...and travels back in time to the real 1993!

It's the same town, and she's quickly befriended by Meg's mom.  Her grandmother hasn't yet had her stroke, and her dad and Meg's dad are two utterly obnoxious pests.  She and Meg's mom join forces to try to figure out how to get McKinley home--does she have to change something?    Like, perhaps, make the two dads less obnoxious so that Meg stands a chance of being born, and McKinley's own home life is more pleasant?  And some research in the library (microfiche ftw) results in the two girls learning that others in the town have travelled back in time as well- adding an interesting twist to the puzzle of getting back to the present.

(Meg's mom is just the sort of new friend one wants to make when time traveling!  She accepts the situation, is tremendously helpful, and very practical, keeping McKinley safe and fed).

It's fun, and I'm sure the target audience will love all the details of 1993, and be taken aback, as McKinley is, at some of the cultural nuances of that long ago time  (including more overt misogyny and racism than kids today maybe, I hope, experience).  There's some food for thought gently folded in, like this quote-“Not mentioning the bad stuff, doesn’t make it go away,” McKinley had explained. “It just makes it so kids like us don’t know what really happened. And talking about the awful stuff doesn’t mean you can’t talk about the good stuff that happened that year, too.” (pp 150-151).  And there's a subtle but strong message that changing other people isn't the way to solve problems.

It wasn't quite a book for me, as I have no interest in the 1990s, and didn't much like the characters (especially the two boys, who I found unbelievably horrid), but still I read it with enjoyment.

7/23/23

The Destiny of Minou Moonshine, by Gita Ralleigh

I first heard about The Destiny of Minou Moonshine, by Gita Ralleigh, when I was compiling a list of debut middle grade fantasy books for 2023, and I immediately wanted to read this historical fantasy set in an alternate India!  I was fortunate to have that pleasure this weekend, and it was a lovely read!

Minou is a foundling who has lived for all her 13 years with her adopted grandmother in a ramshackle boathouse shelter in Moonlally, a queendom colonized by foreigners (the British Raj with different names, and slightly different culture and technology...).  Her grandmother has raised her to be fierce, smart, and respectful of the Dark Goddess who, despite the efforts of the colonizers, continues to be worshiped by the local people.  Thirteen years ago, the last Queen died, and now a wicked General rules by fear and force.

When her grandmother is killed in suspicious circumstances, Minou joins the rebels bent on overthrowing the General....and so her adventures begin, taking her into the secret heart of the old palace, the jungles beyond Moonlally, and even the skies above it in the general's own airship.  The Queen still lives, and can, perhaps, be found.  With true friends at her side, a marvelous mechanical elephant to help considerable with travel through the jungle, and only a few derailments when her kind and generous heart threatens the quest to find the Queen, Minou succeeds in her quest...only to find that she's also found her own unexpected path forward.

A great read for middle grade readers who love stories of plucky girls vs tyrants, with action that zips briskly along.  Sometimes the resolutions to dangers seemed too easy to me as an adult reader, but this I think actually adds to the appeal of the book to those of its target audience who are in the market for fun reads and not doorstoppers.  Even so I found the adventure part of the story to be lots of fun, especially the steampunk-esque elements, and Minou is certainly a character to cheer for.  

That being said, what I enjoyed most were the pictures the words made for me.  It was a lovely trip to an alternate India!  

Out now in hardcover in the UK from Zephyr, an imprint of Bloomsbury, available also as an ebook in the US.  



5/30/23

Ravencave, by Marcus Sedgwick, for Timeslip Tuesday

I am determined to get back into the swing of blogging now that both kids are back from college and I have a long month ahead with no particular busyness planned.  That being said, Ravencave, by Marcus Sedgwick (March 2023, Barrington Stock), although a really good book, and perhaps the last children's/YA book of his to be published (he sadly died in the fall of 2022 at a much too young age) is a slightly questionable Timeslip Tuesday book.  It is actually a ghost story, but there is, toward the end, enough timeslipping that I am going ahead and using it today.

The story takes place in a single day, though it is a day is suffused with memories.  Jamie and his family (two parents, older brother) are on a rather miserable family holiday in Yorkshire.  The main point of the trip is to scatter his grandmother's ashes in the region where she was born, and the father is also keen to visit places where his ancestors lived and worked.  But the weather has been awful, the father has lost his job, and the mother, a published author, is suffering from writer's block.  No one is paying any attention to Jamie, not even his brother, though they used to get along really well.

And then Jamie sees a ghost, a girl who wants his help.  She's not just any ghost, but a family member from a hundred odd years ago, and she leads him away from his family, underground where a terrible tragedy occurred.  In the shock of what Jamie learns, his spirit briefly slips through time, visiting his long ago family in the places important to their lives.  It's no more than a few pages, but it serves to connect Jamie to the land and its history, and learn how he fits into it, in a way that's very meaningful, and rather comforting.

Sedgwick did a top notch job of building the suspense of the story.  It's not just a story of the supernatural, but a story of a hurting family and their relationships to each other.  And its the story too of the injustices experienced by the ancestral family--there's a thread of socialism that will appeal to progressive young readers (it's an 11-14 year old book, I think) without being too heavy handed to disrupt the flow of the story.

Knowing that the author was facing death while writing this incredibly poignant story makes it even more powerful.  One of the most memorable of the 100 books I've read so far this year.  It's only out in the UK at the moment, but if it sounds at all appealing, it's worth heading over to Blackwells and ordering a copy (with free shipping to the US and a favorable exchange rate), which was what I did, very soon after reading this review at Magic Fiction Since Potter.


5/8/23

The Golden Frog Games (Witchlings #2), by Claribel A. Ortega

The Golden Frog Games (Witchlings #2), by Claribel A. Ortega (May 2, 2023, Scholastic), begins soon after the tumultuous events of the first book. Seven and her two best friends, Valley and Thorn, are still well aware that they are "spares"--young witches not chosen for one of the covens,  looked down on by most, and held in utmost contempt by too many- but they are not letting that stop them from living their own magical lives. 

There's lots of stress for all three. Seven, who has found herself an Uncle (in charge of her town's magical relationship with and care of magical creatures), is terribly worried about her magic--it isn't considered right for an Uncle to communicate with monstrous creatures as well as ordinary ones, but that's what Seven is doing.  Valley's coping with the fallout from the collapse of father's reputation, and is embarking on a very sweet relationship with another girl witch.  Thorn has put her shy self out front and center, competing in the Golden Frog Games, where witches from all the twelve towns compete for glory.  It's almost unheard of for a Spare to be a strong contender, but Thorn's skill with magical clothing is hard to beat.

And then the tension gets worse when someone starts using forbidden, archaic magic to attack Thorn.  It's only chance that the magic attacks harm others nearby...and since they aren't stopping, and no one in authority is able to figure out who is behind them, Thorn is in grave danger.

Seven is determined to solve the mystery.  In order to do so, she'll have to embrace the part of her magic that scares her most, and she'll need her friends.  But their tight bond is in danger of breaking.  And the dreadful Nightbeast of the first book calls to her from its magical prison....

This is a book that starts with a focus on magical extravaganza--the Golden Frog Games are lavish and lushly described, and will hook young readers who love to read of marvels.   The friendship tension, and Seven's anxiety that her magic is wrong, make it relatable.  But as the danger grows (and it gets very real and close to home), the tension of the mystery takes center stage.  There's still plenty of neat magical detail, and Seven's ability to communicate with animals adds lots of delightful moments, but the plot really starts boiling. 

I (a non-target audience reader, in case you didn't know that), liked the last third of the book best (I prefer reading about people figuring things out than about people being anxious)...and enjoyed it even more than I did the first one.  I continue to be a bit uncertain about the world building-- what lies beyond the twelve towns? How does their economy function?  but again--not the target audience.  And I continue to cheer for the struggle of the three Witchlings against prejudice, and am happy to cheer for the LGBTQ inclusion.

The book ends at a reasonable point, I guess, but also no it is not reasonable because there's a very big tense thing unresolved and there's clearly lots and lots more of the story to come.  It looks like there will be plenty of more dangerous and twisty plot to look forward to and of course big tense thing had better not stay that way!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher




4/25/23

The McNeills at Rathcapple, by Meta Mayne Reid, for Timeslip Tuesday

The McNeills at Rathcapple, by Meta Mayne Reid (1959), is a lovely vintage time travel book set in Ireland, and I wish I'd had it to read as a kid (although I still enjoyed it as a grownup).

When we meet Sandy and Richard, they are living in rented rooms in a city in Northern Ireland without their beloved dog and their slightly less beloved cat while their father searches for a new job (he's a historian) and recovers from being ill.   They have an uncle, holed up in the family's ancestral home, Rathcapple, but there was family unpleasantness, and they've never met him.  But the uncle is getting old, and their mother decides that they shall foist themselves on him, and live in a few rooms of to the side, until their father is better and has a solid job.  The uncle is not welcoming, but doesn't forbid this, as long as his work on his book about local history and nature isn't disturbed.

Sandy and Richard are delighted to be in the country, with their pets.  The old, ruined fortification, the rath that the house is named for, is a thrilling place, and there they meet a young horseman, Angus, who seems almost magical.  They are determined to make their uncle want them to stay by helping him find the last bits of information he needs for the book--the story of the fiddler who played a role in a long-ago Irish rising against the English, and the story of a young nursemaid to the McNeills accused of stealing a family treasure.  

And this is where the time travel comes in (if you don't want spoilers, skip to the next paragraph) --Richard visits the fiddler, and inhabits the Mcneill boy his own age fleeing for his life, and Sandy in her turn lives the crucial day of the young nursemaid's life.  But though they know what really truly happened, they have to find proof, and their quest to find corroborating evidence through material remains and historical documents was as interesting to me as the time travel itself.  They are encouraged in their efforts by the horseman, Angus, who is himself unmoored in time and who I assume is the instigator of their time slipping...

There are more quotidian doings and happenings of the sort you'd expect from two kids moved to an old house in the country, and this was very enjoyable as well.  There is, for instance, a lovely pageant that is quite amusing, jam making, exploration of the countryside, and shenanigans with a local boy who becomes their friend (one such episode is shown on the cover, which I find an odd choice, when the illustrator had the big old house and the ruined rath and the heroic figure of Angus on his magnificent horse on hand; perhaps "boy riding cattle, seen from behind" seemed more Exciting and Likely to Appeal to Boys....).

It didn't quite reach the numinous heights I wished it would have, possibly because there wasn't quite enough emotional tension, but it came close, and I am pleased that there is a second book about the family for me to look forward to.




4/8/23

Speculation, by Nisi Shawl

My recent middle grade fantasy reading has been mostly mythology infused quests, and although it's great to have such a wealth of diversity, it was refreshing to read Speculation, by Nisi Shawl (Feb 2023, Tu Books), set firmly in our own world, albeit back in 1962.

I fell hard for Winna, the young heroine, who when we first meet her is reading Edward Eager, a favorite fantasy author of my own youth, and dreaming of magic.  I  thought how very nice but odd it was to see a contemporary character reading vintage books, and it wasn't until it was spelled out for the reader that this was 1962 that I realized I was reading a historical fantasy.  Indeed I also had been struck by Winna's grandfather using the term "colored" in relation to the family, who are Black, but being engrossed I didn't stop to think about it.  But in any event, I knew I'd enjoy spending time with her, and I did.  

Winna and her little sister are at their grandparent's house while their mother is in the hospital.  When her sister breaks her glasses (by accident), Winna is crushed; new glasses are both expensive and inaccessible.  So her grandfather gives her a pair that belonged to her great aunt Estelle. The glasses make her vision even sharper than her old ones, and there's a glimmer to what she sees...and so on the off chance that it's magic, she speculates-what if they show her ghosts?  And they do.  Generations of ghosts, including Estelle, haunt the family cemetery.  

Winna learns from Estelle's ghost about the curse on her family.  Winona, Estelle's mother, escaped slavery and while still moving toward freedom, gave birth to a baby boy, Key.  But Key vanished, or was taken from her, and Winona's grief stayed with her all her life.  So much so that when dying she unintentionally cursed her family, a curse that can only be broken if she and Key can be reunited.

Winna is sure her mother, getting worse in the hospital, is a victim of the curse.  So joining forces with a boy cousin she can't stand, she sets out to solve the mystery of what happened to Key.....and if he's still alive, to bring him back to the family. 

It's a great story, full of dualities that balance each other beautifully-- past and present, magic and reality, the loving family and the racist world.  I loved the historical and genealogical research that Winna and her cousin undertake, I loved how the magic wasn't just seeing ghosts with magical glasses but was aided and abetted by Winna's grandfather's affinity for African infused magic (for lack of a better word) of his own.  And of course I hated the racism that Winna and her family face, and hated too that this part of the book didn't read as much like historical fiction as it should.

Spoiler-- Key was raised as white, with a white family.  And so one of the horrors of chattel slavery, rape, is there in the story, not explicitly discussed by name but an unavoidable fact of what happened.  I'm all in favor of fiction that kids to think about the painful parts of the past and how they affect the present, and sure do hope this one gets to stay on the shelves....




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3/30/23

Unicorn Island: Beyond the Portal, by Donna Galanti

Unicorn Island: Beyond the Portal, by Donna Galanti, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe (April 4, 2023 by Andrews McMeel Publishing), is the third and final book in one of the strongest new fantasy series for the younger range of middle grade (8-10 year olds, or even 7 year old voracious readers like young me).  That being said, there aren't, actually, all that many books for this demographic compared to all the series for kids 10-14, which means these books really feel a felt need, and kids who loved all the magical vet books like the Pip Bartlett series, the Imaginary Veterinary Series and the like will find the Unicorn Island a good place to continue their fantasy reading! Here are my reviews for Unicorn Island and Secret Beneath the Sand, the first two books- the series really needs to be read in order both to understand what's happening and appreciate the steadily deepening plot.

Discovering Unicorn Island, a sanctuary for magical creatures, and learning the father she'd never met before was its caretaker was just the start of Sam's adventures.  In this final book, she's determined to find her biological mom, who vanished through a portal into the land that was the unicorns original home, a place where they were hunted almost to extinction.   Her best friends, Tuck, and a young unicorn, Barloc, go with her.  They have only a narrow window to find Sam's mother....and when they discover, to their horror, that unicorn hunting is still being practiced, and Barloc is captured, things become very tense indeed!  And then Sam finds that her mother is the community unicorn hunter, who takes their horns from them, and all her hopes for bringing this stranger back into her life are upended.

But things aren't black and white.  The community needs the magic of the unicorn horns to survive; they aren't just hunting them for fun.  She can't let Barloc be robbed of his magic, but she wants to help the townsfolk too....fortunately, with a little luck, lots of determination, and unicorn magic, she and her friends find a way to save not only the town but the de-horned unicorns.

It's not a deeply complex story, as expected, but it is a satisfying and memorable one, full of unicorn goodness, an interesting ethical dilemma, and the mending of a family.  The full color illustrations add to the charm.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher


3/22/23

The Extraordinary Curiosities of Ixworth and Maddox, by J.D. Grolic


I am mostly saying no to review copies from independently published authors these days, because of feeling overwhelmed by books and life, but I'm really glad I took a chance on The Extraordinary Curiosities of Ixworth and Maddox, by J.D. Grolic!  I enjoyed it lots.

Chloe is sad--her busy parents are neglecting her, and her best friend is growing up faster than she is and has started leaving her behind.  Then one rainy London afternoon, walking home from school through a curious little London street, she tries to shelter in a shop doorway.  The rain comes down harder, and though the shop isn't open for business yet, she tries the door in desperation, and enters "The Extraordinary Curiosities of Ixworth and Maddox."  

There she finds magic, for Ixworth and Maddox aren't just ordinary sellers of curious things.  They are London magicians, creating, with the help of their resident brownies, magical marvels to sell to others such as themselves...and surprisingly, they welcome Chloe; after all, the door opened for her.  She finds herself spending more and more time with them, and the two kindly magicians encourage her own potential for magic.  

When Ixworth disappears with no warning or reason, Chloe is determined to help Maddox find him.  They set off on a journey that takes Chloe deep into magical London, where dark and ancient magic is being worked in a struggle for power.  It's not just Ixworth who needs saving (if saving him is even possible).....

Like I said, I enjoyed this.  I very much like interesting fantasy shops, and though some readers might find the first half of the book slow, I loved being introduced gently, with lots of details, to what the shop was selling and the workings of the magical city.  And then when things got going plot wise, and there was a mystery to solve and bad people and dangerous magic to foil, I enjoyed that too. Chloe has both believable agency and believable emotional reactions.  

In short, it doesn't break any particularly new ground, but it is does what it sets out to do very satisfactorily.  And if, like me, you like middle grade fantasy shop keeping, it's a must!  I hope there is a sequel.


3/14/23

Thunderbird: Book Two, by Sonia Nimr, for Timeslipe Tuesday

In the first Thunderbird book, which I reviewed last fall) by Sonia Nimr we met Noor, an orphaned Palestinian girl who finds she must save the world from a collapsing chaos of demonic intrusion into our world by finding four phoenix feathers.  The catch is that the phoenix only sheds one feather per immolation, and immolations only happen once every 500 years or so, so she must travel back through time with the help of a djinn in cat form to find them.  The first book was good, but the second book (November 22, 2022 by University of Texas Press) is even better.  With all the set up in place, the reader is plunged into a  really gripping time travel back to Jerusalem of the Crusades.  

Noor arrives outside of the 12th century Jerusalem dazed and confused.  Almost immediately she is captured and taken, blindfolded, to the secret home of  the resistance to the Crusaders who have seized the city, who think she might be a spy.  Fortunately they believe her story when she finally brings herself to try to tell the truth (made more convincing by her talking cat comrade).  Her own quest of the phoenix feather gets slightly derailed when she throws herself into the plans of the resistance to humiliate the crusader overlord, and save the precious library that he plans to burn.

It is a lovely mix of the magical (the boundaries between our world and the supernatural world are starting to slip....) and the historical; very satisfying both as middle grade time travel and as plucky girl adventure!  It's a fairly short, tightly written book, with humor alongside of tension and heartfelt emotion, and it's a vivid portrayal of this particular moment in time. Of course "let's save the precious library!" is a plot I am always there for, and fortunately I wasn't kept in too much desperate tension....

I am very much looking forward to volume 3, which sadly isn't out right now.....

3/7/23

The Dollhouse, by Caris Cotter, for Timeslip Tuesday


This week's Timeslip Tuesday is The Dollhouse: A Ghost Story, by Caris Cotter...and I havered a bit about whether this was timeslip or, as the title would suggest, a ghost story, but I decided it counted as the former...

It's the story of Alice, a girl who's life is upended where her mother decides to leave her father after he once again puts work before family.  So instead of the long anticipated summer vacation together, Alice is dragged off by her mother to a remote mansion, where her mother will be the live in nurse for the old lady who recently bought the place who just had an accident, and Alice will be at loose ends.  The journey is inauspicious--their train has an accident, and Alice is left with a mild concussion.  And when they arrive at Blackwood house, grand and beautiful, Lily, the housekeeper's daughter who though 16 has the mind of a much younger child, shows Alice the bedroom she'll stay in, and confides that it is haunted.  

And indeed, when Alice wakes up the next morning, there in bed with her is a red headed girl.  Their brief meeting ends when Alice (not unnaturally) starts screaming her head off...and the girl is gone, and Alice's concussion is blamed for the experience.  Alice and Lily explore the house together, and a hidden stairway takes them up to the attic, where they find a marvelous miniature replica of Blackwood House.  One of the dolls looks just like the red headed girl...because she is (sort of).

This girl, Fizz, lived in the house back in the 1920s, and over the next few weeks Alice finds herself going back and forth from the present into Fizz's life, where only Fizz, and her old sister, Bubble (who is also developmentally delayed).  But it is not straight time travel--the dollhouse acts a conduit to the past, and when Alice changes things in the dollhouse, they change in reality.  The secrets and tensions of the past overlap with Alice's own worries, and Fizz's instance that Alice is in fact the dead ghost do nothing to sooth anybody's nerves...

And then tragedy upends Fizz's life, and that too is mirrored in what happens to Alice...

I really don't think there any actual ghosts, despite the title, just the ghostly memories of the past....unless you count the dollhouse, as a menacing ghostly power from the past, or perhaps Fizz showing up in Alice's time, waking up in the bedroom that used to be hers long ago....but Fizz never sticks around to do any actual haunting....so readers who go in expecting ghosts might be confused and disappointed. 

The one thing I didn't care for was the two girls, one in the past and one in the present, with developmental delays, described as being like "little girls"--they were too much like each other, sweet, innocent, happy, and un-three-dimensional, and that jarred a bit.  They seemed to be in the book to provide foils for Fizz's sharpness and Alice's vivid imagination (I guess), but while just one of them I could have accepted, having two felt forced.

(I have to be a bit spoilery to talk about the time travel, so if you are intrigued at this point, you can stop reading this now and go get ahold of the book--it is very good, full of mystery and emotion and tension, and the dollhouse and its wonderful miniatures is fascinatingly horrific to read about!)

This reminded me, timeslip wise, of Tom's Midnight Garden.  As is the case with that book, in which an old woman's memories are what creates the young boy's time travel, Alice is caught in Fizz's memories, tied strongly to the anchor of the dollhouse.  In both, time travel is a sort of tourism to the past; Alice doesn't affect any real change in Fizz's life, but I found it very satisfactory to read about. 




2/21/23

The Carrefour Curse, by Dianne K. Salerni, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book is The Carrefour Curse, by Dianne K. Salerni (middle grade, January 31, 2023, Holiday House), and it's a great one!

Take an old family house, full of secrets, most of them disturbing, some downright horrific.

Populate this house with an extended family who have elemental magic gifts, some powerful, some pleasant, and (again) some horrific.  (lots of twists and turns to appreciate!)

Send a girl, Garnet, to the house, who has never been there before, as her mother wanted to raise her away from all the trauma she herself had experienced there.

Trap Garnet, along with all the other family members, inside this magic filled house, until the house choses which of them should be the new head of the family.

And then add time travel, and journey along with Garnet through the whole magical, twisted story of the Carrefours past and present as she not only discovers hidden truths, but sets things right that had gone horribly wrong...with the help of time travelling....

The result is a beautifully gripping middle grade fantasy, full of memorable characters, mysteries, and intriguing magic!

The time travelling came as a pleasant surprise, and provided Garnet with key pieces of information that she was able to piece together to figure out how choices made in the past had shaped the confusing and dangerous present she found herself in.  She goes both to her own mother's past as a teenager, but further back down her family's history as well.  Almost trapped in a hideous magical work of an ancestor a few generations back, she's able, with help from another time travelling ancestor, to break the abominable magical working and set the house and its family on a more wholesome track.  It all builds gradually and inexorably up to a final climax that turns into a very satisfactory ending!

Highly recommended--there's enough horror for the young horror fans, enough fantastical detail for the fantasy lovers, and enough non-fantastical family dynamics and mystery for readers who aren't quite either of the above.



2/14/23

Midwinter Burning, by Tanya Landman, for Timeslip Tuesday

This week's Timeslip Tuesday book,,Midwinter Burning, by Tanya Landman (November 2022 in the UK, Walker Books), was brought to my attention by this review at Magic Fiction Since Potter.  Ever since I discovered this blog I've been buying books from the UK recommended here as briskly as funds allow from  Blackwells (free shipping that doesn't involve Amazon).  This story, promising much that I enjoy in English fantasy, was my most recent purchase, and although my hopes were perhaps a bit too high, I read it in a single sitting with much enjoyment.

Alfie, evacuated from London in World War II, arrives at a safe haven not just from the threat of war, but from his unloving mother. Welcomed at a small farm in southwest England, he can hardly fathom the kindness with which the motherly woman of the farm showers him.  Even having one of the bullies from his school in London end up in the same village isn't enough to squash the happiness he finds in the animals, the country side, the marvelous ocean, and his growing confidence that he is settling into a peaceful grove at the farm.  

All he is missing is a friend...and then, out of the corner of his eye, a boy appears; another lonely one like himself (the reader has met this boy already in the preface of the book set in prehistoric England, so knows what's happening...).  They speak different languages, but manage to communicate nonetheless, and Smidge becomes the best friend Alfie could have imagined.

But always the standing stones overlooking the ocean pull at him disquietly, and stories of the midwinter burning that has been a community tradition even in recent times disquiet the reader...The land is old, and the stones have a dark history.  

And when time slips more directly, Alfie and Smidge hit that darkness head on.  In the present Alfie, still wearing his angel wings from the village nativity play (not a successful production....) and desperate to save Smidge from an evil fate back in his own time, is beset by bullies, pursued by them over a landscape where past and present are colliding, until he slips back into Smidge's time himself.

This is a fantastic part of the book, beautifully strange and evocative, and although the book as a whole didn't quite reach the heights of numinous terror with the darkness of past and present colliding that  I think it could have, it came awfully close.  There was one thing in particular that struck a false note for me.  I felt slightly cheated when it was revealed quite a ways into the book that time had always been a slippery thing for Alfie--even in London he'd seen the past playing out in the present.  This was something of a casual aside, and I felt it badly weakened the power of this particular place and this particular story, making Alfie the special thing and not the land and the memories of ancient darkness it held.

Still, come for a pleasant WW II evacuee story, stay for the threat of human sacrifice....highly recommended,

1/31/23

Elsewhere Girls, by Emily Gale and Nova Weetman, for Timeslip Tuesday

For the first time in ages, after a few weeks of silence while I did home renovations tasks and moved hundreds of books, I actually have a review for Timeslip Tuesday! 

Elsewhere Girls, by Emily Gale and Nova Weetman  (May 4th 2021 by Text Publishing), is a switching places time travel story.  Fanny and Cat are both Australian girls who are competitive swimmers, but Fanny is swimming in 1908 (salt water, uncomfortable bathing costume, no goggles) and Cat in the present day (healthy diet, clean water, with a trainer).  Fanny is fiercely competitive, determined to win; Cat, with a swimming scholarship to a private school her parents can afford her to use, feels burned out.  

Then comes a day when the two girls time themselves with the same stopwatch....and swap places.  Both are bewildered, both want to keep swimming.  And both want badly to be home with their own families. Cat really does not like all the hard domestic labor of Fanny's life and the lack of modern conveniences.  Not even swimming swaps well--Fanny's best stroke, the trudgeon, is not one Cat knows...or that Cat's coach appreciates).  Fanny, on the other hand, appreciates many aspects of modernity, but misses her family, especially her sister, dreadfully.  

It's really good time travel, with both girls struggling to pass as each other and cope with the situation.  Happily, each finds in the other's little sister a friend and ally, and they don't mess thing up too badly for each other, though there are some close calls. When the inevitable happens and they switch back, they bring with them new perspectives and insights--it's not just time travel as tourism, but a growing up experience for both, with plenty of thought provoking depth alongside the fun of temporal culture shock.

But though it's an excellent pick for any time travel fan, it's especially, wonderfully (and obviously) good for time travel readers who are also swimmers!  Fanny is based on a real person--Fanny Durack, the first Australian woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics, and realizing that this is the future in store for her is lovely.


1/5/23

The Lost Ryū, by Emi Watanabe Cohen

What with the hectic rush of family Christmas at my mother's house, and the frantic rush to deal with all the piles of paper that accumulated at work while I was gone, it's been hard to actually sit at the computer and write a review (this is my first review since mid-December...).  But the books aren't going to review themselves, and I have a couple I got review copies of for the Cybils Awards that I liked lots, so here I am.

The Lost Ryū by Emi Watanabe Cohen (middle grade, June 2022,  Levine Querido) is about dragons-the ryū of the title.  There were once massive dragons flying over Japan, but after WWII those dragons vanished and only little companion dragons remain. Ten year old Kohei has a little dragon, Yuharu, whom he loves; the new neighbor girl, half Japanese, half Russian Isolde, who has just moved from the US, has a Yiddish speaking dragon named Cheshire.  These dragons are charming. 

It is about much more than charming dragons, though, and more also than the story of the friendship that develops between the two kids (though Isolde's uncomfortable life experience of never belonging and how she deals with it was a great part of the book).  At its heart is a story of intergenerational trauma, tied to dragon magic and the challenges of belonging, to make for very moving reading.

Kohei's family (him, his mother, and his maternal grandfather) has secrets.  He barely remembers his father, who died when he was three, but he does have a memory of seeing one of the last of the great dragons.  Following a trail of snippets of information and considerable intuition, he sets out with Isolde to find the ryū his grandfather loved and lost, to dispel the miasma of past trauma hanging over his family. 

It is a magical journey of impossible wonder--the realism (with small dragons) of the first part of the book becomes lovely, full-blown fantasy.  For Kohei the quest is a bright flare of refusal to accept his mother's creed of  ‘shikata ga nai’ (“there’s nothing to be done --just keep existing without fighting) and his grandfather's drinking and anger.  It is his father's words, words that he treasures, that keep him going--

Do not quit. You must keep trying to make things better, Kohei, because there are always good things you can do.’

And gee but that is a message that so many of us need to remember, and if we can be reminded while reading about lovely ryū in Japan, adventuring with two brave kids, so much the better.

short answer--come for the smart, funny, loyal little dragons, stay for big dragons and big heart!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration

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