Victricia Malicia, Book-Loving Buccaneer

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Katy K.

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Victricia Malicia, Book-Loving Buccaneer. Written by Carrie Clickard.  Illustrated by Mark Meyers. 

Victricia Malicia is a young pirate girl whose family members have all been pirates for generations.  Born on ship and taught pirate ways, everyone expects her to grow up to be a pirate.  But Victricia Malicia loves books and dry land.  Can she find a new life for herself and still keep the respect of her pirate parents and peers?  Only if she can show them that she’s still capable on board ship and find a way for her life on land to be relevant to them.  It’s just a little bit odd in concept, as the book looks like it’s meant for young pirate fans, who might wonder why Victricia would want to give up life as a pirate.  It’s still a funny story told in bouncy rhyme with bright, cartoony acrylic illustrations that will charm preschoolers and up. 

 

Other recent, fun picture books for pirate fans:

The Pirates Next Door: Starring the Jolley-Rogers by Jonny Duddle

 Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting

Charlotte Jane Battles Bedtime by Myra Wolfe

A Pirate’s Guide to First Grade by James Preller. 

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The Secret Chicken Society

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Katy K.

Thanks to fabulous librarian Ms. S. for this recommendation! Walking in from the school parking lot today, I was the only mother in a group of four who doesn’t own chickens. My boy wants them, too, after reading this book.

Secret Chicken SocietyThe Secret Chicken Society by Judy Cox. Illustrated by Amanda Haley.
Daniel, our third-grade hero, is the second oldest in a family of six, which also includes teen older brother Tyler, sisters Kelsey (7) and Emmy (4), as well as a nurse mom and stay-at-home blogger dad. One day, his beautiful teacher, Mrs. Lopez, announces that the class is going to try to hatch some eggs. No one in the class is more excited or devoted to the five chicks that hatch than Daniel. When the school year ends and it’s time for the chicks to find permanent homes, though nearly all the kids put their names in for a chick, he’s the only one whose parents actually say yes. His family is on board (mostly) with the five adorable chicks. The neighbors’ reactions are more mixed – sweet Mrs. Grafalo next door loves them, but her grouchy husband (nicknamed Mr. Gruffalo) is sure one of them will be a loud rooster, and that they’ll get into his yard and destroy the garden. And when it turns out that one of the sweet chicks might actually be an illegal rooster, the siblings form the Secret Chicken Society to protect Peepers. This is realistic and funny family fiction in early chapter book form, with enough details in the text and the appendix that would-be chicken owners could really get started. My son, the same who likes bloody epic fantasy, ate this up and begged for more chapters every night I read it to him.

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The Book of Three

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. Read by James Langton.

The Chronicles of Prydain were one of my favorites growing up.  I read and reread our paperback copies with their bright, folk-art inspired covers.  I found the zombie-like Cauldron Born terrifying as a child, so I asked my son if he thought the books might be too scary.  When I told him about deathless zombies and people being burned alive (in passing), he started panting and said the book sounded great.  I should stop listening to it just for myself and only listen with him.

As the book opens, our young hero, Taran, is bored of his life at peaceful Caer Dallben.  Taran and Coll manage the farm, while the ancient Dallben handles the important but tiring work of meditating.  When Taran says that he wants to be something, Coll gives him the title of Assistant Pig-Keeper, in charge of their oracular pig, Hen-Wen.  Then the usually peaceful Hen-Wen runs away, and Taran dashes off into the forest to catch her.  She was running from the approaching army of the Horned King, who goes about with a horned skull mask and a red cape.  (The Horned King is featured on most of the more recent book covers, and I think makes it look like just a boy book, though it isn’t really just for boys and the Horned King, while important, has only brief appearances in the book.)  He is the war leader for the evil Arawn, Lord of Annuvin, Land of the Dead, making a bid for world domination.  Taran, naturally, manages to miss Hen-Wen and catch the army.  After being sliced with a sword, he wakes up as he’s being cared for by a man with rough, sturdy clothes and a very nice sword.  He’s Gwydion, Prince of Don, in this first book startlingly similar to Aragorn.  Gwydion was also in search of Hen-Wen, and because of the danger of sending Taran back through the forest alone, ends up taking Taran with him, closely followed by the furry creature Gurgi.  Only, of course, until they are captured by the evil sorceress Queen Achren and Taran is thrown into her dungeon.  He and the other prisoner are rescued by the impetuous and talkative Eilonwy of the red-gold hair.  Not knowing what has happened to Gwydion, Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, and the bard Ffleuder Fflam set off together, now partly to find Hen Wen but mostly to warn the Sons of Don of the approaching armies, which they’ve seen gathering along their way, and which are not coincidentally also blocking their way to the castle of the Sons of Don.  It manages to be funny, serious and high action, all packed into a book that’s very short by modern standards – only four CDs. 

The characters are all very brightly drawn.  I loved them as a child, but found them cartoonish and flat as an older teen.  Now, as an adult – yes, they are drawing on archetypes, one could even say stereotypes.  But they are also, especially Taran, given the opportunity to grow.  I love Ffleuder Fflam, the bard, of course, who has some wisdom to share with Taran but more often provides a sense of humor as his magical harp (HARP!!) breaks a string or two when he embroiders the truth, as he so often does.  Gurgi – is just odd. He’s not sure himself whether he’s a monster or a cuddly and lovable sidekick.  Together, Ffleuder and Gurgi make sure that the book is nearly always funny despite the near-constant life-threatening danger.  Eilonwy and Taran’s relationship feels like it suffers a bit from the book having been written in the 1960s.  Eilonwy quite definitely wants to be part of the action, and she is brave, assertive, and in charge of herself.  But she’s also a chatterbox and reacts with old-style girl attitude of the “you have offended me and I won’t speak to you until you figure out what you did wrong” type, which I find very frustrating, as does Taran, who at least thinks he wants her to be the kind of girl who sits quietly at home and takes orders from boys.  He, of course, is such an idiot at first, that he makes mistakes that, while believable, made even my seven-year-old cringe.  Slowly, over the course of five books, he learns, but even by the end of this first book, he’s learned that actions are more important than looks in a hero, and to appreciate peace. 

All of the books are filled with references to Welsh mythology.  Alexander isn’t quite retelling the legends, but many characters are taken from the legends and reformed.  I think I was in high school when I read The Mabinogi, and it’s fun to go back with more knowledge of the source.  James Langton did an excellent job as reader, with voices for all the characters, most with Welsh accents.  His Gurgi sounded more like Chewbacca than the small creature I’d imagined, but I don’t think the text really makes it clear one way or the other.  My son and I very much enjoyed listening to this, and are now working on the next book in the series, The Black Cauldron.

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Katy K. | 5 Comments

Forever

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Katy K.

I’m several Maggie Stiefvater books behind still, but at least I finished the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. I read this on breaks at work at the same time as listening to Holly Black’s Black Heart in the car and finally reading The Hunger Game trilogy at home for an excess of dark teen books.

I realize as I write this that I’m writing up Forever, but not either of the other two books. I never used to write up sequels, and often didn’t even read them, on the theory that one gives you the feel for the series and if you, my reader, liked the first, you’d keep reading. But as we know, series books aren’t always the same and it isn’t always easy to keep up with new ones being published. Should I blog Black Heart, too? Should I not blog this one? I’d not planned to write anything about The Hunger Games trilogy, because really, you’ve all heard of it already, right? Plus it breaks some major rules for me about not reading books where kids getting killed turns the plot engines. Still, they are the kind of books that leave one full of things to say, which makes it very hard not to blog it. So if you have any thoughts on blogging sequels and/or over-discussed books, please share!

Forever
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
In the introduction, a new werewolf turns back into a confused girl, who is promptly killed by another wolf. Already, we know the story will not be sweetness and light, though we return to following our regular cast of characters. Sam is adrift, unable to sleep or think straight without knowing how Grace is doing. To make matters worse, Grace’s parents and the police suspect that Sam has either kidnapped or murdered her. When Grace does start shifting back to human form, it’s for period so short that she calls Sam to pick her up and shifts back to wolf form before he can get to her. Cole is making a hobby of leaving creative voice mails for Isabel, who refuses to talk to him, as well as using himself as a lab rat for medical means of triggering the shifts. Isabel’s decided that Cole is a dangerous addiction from which she’s going cold turkey. But when she learns that her father is organizing a helicopter hunt to shoot down the entire pack and Sam isn’t able to think clearly enough to help, she has no choice but to bring Cole into the discussions. The Problem, as my son would say for school, is how to get the wolves moved to a safe location, and how to find that location in the first place. But there’s still a lot on the relationship fronts here as well. Grace and Sam, in the brief moments when they are both human, still have their strong, beautiful partnership. Isabel is slowly learning that her problem with relationships stems from her experience of all relationships having one dominant and one submissive person, when she’s definitely not the submissive type. Between the romances, the ongoing issues with parents (Grace’s and Isabel’s), thoughts of future and college – this is a fantasy books with a whole lot of real, where even the fantasy bits are as close to real as they could be. Forever is a bittersweet treat to savor.

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The Humming Room

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Katy K.

There was a day, about two weeks ago, when I finished a book and had no new library books waiting for me to read. Not one. In a panic, I went to the new fiction shelves at the library and took several youth fantasy books. I paid special attention when reading my journals and blogs and put lots of titles on hold, because I had nothing at home.

I have plenty to read now. Definitely more than I can read before they’re all due. This was one of the ones I pulled off the new shelf, just based on how many times I saw the title come up in the weekly review summary at Charlotte’s Library.

The Humming RoomThe Humming Room by Ellen Potter
Here’s a book that says straight off that it’s inspired by The Secret Garden, one of my favorites. This made me nervous once I realized it, but it came off well – like a well-done fairy-tale re-telling, close enough to follow the plot, but different enough to have its own unique spin.

Roo Fanshaw is 12 when her drug-addicted, ne’er-do-well father gets himself murdered. Only when she’s being taken to him does she learn that she has an uncle. He lives on Cough Rock, a small island in a river in upstate New York just big enough for his former child tuberculosis sanatorium turned mansion. The part of the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, is played by the stylish but strict Ms. Valentine, while cheerful Martha’s role is taken by the friendly, jean-clad 20-year-old Violet. Roo has been moved around often enough to be distrustful and antisocial, but she quickly learns to love the river and is curious enough to explore the large building, even though she’s told which wing to avoid. Outside, she finds a tiny cave by the river bank, just big enough for her. It’s there that she meets a boy who introduces himself as Jack, paddling around the river in his kayak and considered just a legend by most of the native population. Inside, she hears a mysterious humming noise, and traces it to her cousin Phillip, who’s been in poor mental and physical health since the unexplained death of his mother four years earlier. Both children are initially afraid that the noises that they hear from the other are the ghosts of tuberculosis victims, and some time is given to the sad fate of those children. There is, of course, an abandoned garden for Roo to bring to life as well – this one a greenhouse Amazonian jungle. Roo has never gardened before, but, unlike Mary, has always had a habit of listening with her ear to the ground and being able to hear the earth and what it’s saying to itself. The characters, especially Roo and Phillip, feel well-rounded and believable, similar but not identical to their counterparts in the original. Fans of The Secret Garden are of course the natural audience for this, but the modern setting and the slightly enhanced mystical elements give this appeal to those who wouldn’t necessarily go for historical fiction. Like the original, there’s frequent mention of death, but no in-book violence or romance, making this just right for middle grade readers.

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Zita the Space Girl

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Katy K.

This is one I’d been meaning to read for a while, and only put an actual hold on it when I flipped through the newly published sequel on our backroom new book shelf. Zita the Space Girl
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke.

When we meet Zita, she’s running through the woods being chased by her friend Joseph, whose notebook she’s stolen. Then something falls from the sky and crashes. She climbs into the small crater it left – it’s a large silver disc with a big red button. The timid Joseph urges her to leave it alone, but Zita is not the cautious type. She pushes the red button, which opens up a portal to a different planet. The terrified Joseph is sucked in immediately, and after some hesitation, Zita jumps in afterwards to rescue him. She finds herself in a crowded alien marketplace, with no sign of her friend. She is bright and friendly, so though this is clearly not a safe place for unattended children, she befriends a large porter, a giant mechanical mouse, and a somewhat shifty minstrel named Piper. It turns out that the planet they are on is going to be destroyed by a large asteroid in the near future. Everyone who can get out, is, while the aliens who own the planet believe that Joseph is the child of prophecy who is key to stopping the destruction. Even as Piper tells her that the castle where Joseph is being held is too far and the aliens too fierce for one girl to possibly make a difference, Zita sets out. Can she save both Joseph and the planet??? While Zita’s got courage in spades, it’s her kindness and friendliness that will win the day in the end. While you already know there are sequels (one just out, one due next fall), the story arc wraps up nicely in this book, even as it leaves room for Zita to still be the Spacegirl. Hatke both writes and illustrates this full color graphic novel. Zita and her friends are simply adorable, while the alien planet is populated by a wide array of aliens and robots that range from also adorable to adorably creepy. There are some short Zita webcomics up at for you to get a feel for it. This is the kind of wonderful all-ages story that’s perfect for both boys and girls, with action and character enough to satisfy a broad range of ages. Try Giants Beware for another scrappy girl hero and her friends in a fast-paced graphic novel adventure, or Korgi for slightly sweeter adventurous fare. I’m expecting Zita to end up on our permanent book shelf.

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The Storm Makers

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Katy K.

Storm MakersThe Storm Makers by Jennifer E. Smith

Ruby and Simon are twelve-year-old twins who have recently moved from Chicago to a farm house in Wisconsin. Their parents are supposed to be supporting the family by farming while waiting for their Creative Pursuits to take off, but the crops are doing poorly due to a drought and the creative ventures aren’t going so well, either. Ruby, a budding scientist who loves helping their inventor father, hasn’t made friends here in the country, while Simon fits right in with the baseball crowd. This leaves Ruby feeling isolated from her twin for the first time. Such is the scene when Simon gets a fever that coincides with an enormous thunderstorm. Even when he recovers, he starts shorting out appliances and cars just by touching them. While Simon’s in the hospital with the fever, a kind-looking man with a battered hat named Otis introduces himself. He says that he, like Simon, is a Storm Maker, and he is here to help Simon, coming into his powers unusually young, learn to control them. He gives Ruby a tiny barometer whose dial shows events on the way rather than weather. But by the time Simon is awake, Otis is gone, and another Storm Maker comes to their rendezvous instead. His name is Rupert London. He tells Simon that he has the potential to be the most powerful Storm Maker ever, and invites Simon to come back to Chicago with him for training at the official secret Storm Maker headquarters. Simon is flattered by his attention, but Ruby takes an immediate dislike to him when he burns down a farmer’s field as a demonstration of his power. Meanwhile, the twins have taken a summer job together helping out the local mechanic, Daisy, who also turns out to be a Storm Maker. Will Simon and Ruby find out who to believe – and how to control Simon’s powers – before it’s too late?!

This was a pleasant read, though it didn’t knock my socks off. It was nice to see Ruby and Simon get closer to each other again over the course of the book. It was of course obvious from the beginning who the bad guy was, and Simon makes and Ruby allows a quite dangerous decisions fairly early on. Kids of the intended age will likely enjoy it just fine, especially if they are interested in weather and mechanical science.

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Runemarks

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Katy K.

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Runemarks by Joanne Harris. Read by Sile Birmingham.

Once upon a time the Aesir ruled the Nine Worlds from their home in Asgard.  After Ragnarok, though, both the Aesir and their fellow gods the Vanir disappeared from the worlds.  500 years later, a girl named Maddy is growing up in the country, far from civilization but still not free from the influence of the Order.  The Order teaches that all the “Seer-folk” were wicked demons, and that people or animals born with their evil “ruin marks” on their skin should be killed.  Also, everyone should avoid dreaming to keep from being taken over by demons while they sleep.  Luckily for her, Maddy’s ruin-mark only makes her an outcast in her village.  Her only friend is the old traveling man who calls himself One-Eye.  He tells her that her “ruin mark” is actually a rune, an ancient sign of power.  He tells her the old forbidden stories of the gods, and teaches her to make and throw runes of power with her hands, as well as cantrips and charms.  As the village is invaded by more and more goblins, he tells her that war is coming.  Someone, for very unclear reasons, wants to destroy what’s left of the gods and any magic left in the world.  Maddy is the only one who can take the gateway under the large horse carved into the hillside, to travel to World Below and bring him back the ancient oracle known as the Whisperer.  There, Maddy meets a charming red-haired boy who calls himself Lucky. 

I listened to this book with my son, who could not be convinced that Maddy was dealing with Odin and Loki.  It seems like it must be taking place in the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, but Maddy has quite modern sensibilities.  It seems that my Norse mythology was not quite as solid as I’d realized, because I was unaware of the difference between the Vanir and the Aesir, and trying to form a new alliance between gods I’d always thought of as part of the same pantheon takes a lot of time in the book.  Prophecy plays a major role, with the Whisperer telling the same prophecy different ways to different people, and other people putting yet different spins on it.  The book didn’t entirely work for me.  Bits that were mentioned briefly at the beginning and never came up again turned out to have major significance at the end.  The difference between runes, cantrips and charms wasn’t explained so I could understand it, though it felt like it would have been helpful to understand it.  Sile Bermingham read in an array of lilting British and Irish accents, which was lovely but a bit puzzling for a book about Norse people.  And while I enjoy character-driven stories, the whole thing felt like it was moving too slowly. It was 14 discs long, and things did not really start to heat up until the last two or three.  However, the premise was interesting and Maddy a likably sturdy and free-thinking girl, and my son really enjoyed it.  It’s rated for teens, probably for the length and a small amount of foul language (nearly all from Loki.)  The violence is certainly no more than in books like the Percy Jackson series.  Fans of those books who are interested in other books about forgotten gods in a more modern setting and don’t need the breakneck pace should enjoy this as well. 

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Shadow and Bone

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Katy K.

The year I lived in Germany, I thought I’d try to learn a language that I couldn’t learn back home in the states.  I picked Czech.  (I’ve since regretted not taking Mittelhochdeutsch, or medieval German, which would have been useful for my early music performing.)  I didn’t make much headway with Czech, though I made some of my best friends there in that class and enjoyed our field trip to Prague.  I remember a handful of things: that the nouns have four genders; that “r” is considered a vowel; the lovely onomotopic word “sprcha,” which means “shower” and sounds like it; and how to introduce myself.  I learned that the suffix “ova” is added to the end of every female’s last name, even mine as a foreigner.  And while Czech isn’t Russian, I’m fairly sure that the same holds true for Russian.  That’s why it bothered me every time I read the name “Alina Starkov” in this book.  Clearly, Bardugo did a lot of research on Russian history and culture, and it isn’t really supposed be Russia, but a similar fantasy nation, so I feel a little bad about harping on this one thing.  And yet, it threw me out of the story every time I encountered it, even as I mentally renamed our heroine “Alina Starkova”. 

ImageShadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Our story takes us to the realm of Ravka, which feels like late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century Russia (without Russian folk tale motives).  It’s a world that’s been at war for decades.  Not only is it threatened by the neighboring kingdoms, but there is the large area of permanent magical darkness known as the Fold.  What used to be rich farmland is now barren desert filled with man-eating monsters that make it very dangerous to cross.  Our heroine, Alina Starkov, was orphaned in the war and taken in by a wealthy landowner.  Her best friend since then is Mal.  Now they are in the army together – Alina working as a (not very good) cartographer, while Mal is the Best Tracker Ever, and popular with the opposite sex to boot.  On their way through the Fold, they are attacked by Volcra.  They are about to rip Mal away when Alina, desperately trying to cover him with her body, summons a sun-bright flare of light that drives the Volcra off.  Mal and the rest of the people on board the land ship are saved, but Alina’s life is about to become much more complicated.  She’d always been wary of the magic-users, or Grisha, who form their own separate division of the military, headed by the truly frightening Darkling.  Now she is summoned to meet with the Darkling in person.  He tells her that she is a Sun Summoner, whose powers when trained could destroy the darkness of the Fold.  She’s rushed to the capital to train with other Grisha, where she’s both envied for her closeness to the Darkling and despised for her difficulty using her powers, since all the other Grisha have been training since childhood.  And while the Darkling is making every effort to smooth her way and to make himself likeable, it’s also clear that he’s an experienced politician as well as a powerful magician, willing and able to do whatever it takes to keep the Tsar under his control and the Grisha the most powerful force in the nation.  There is a creepy Apparat, some kind of high priest, who distrusts the Grisha and keeps following Alina around trying to give her warnings, but she never listened to enough of these for me as a reader to know whether she should have listened more or less.  The story went along, went along, and then suddenly – flip, flip, flip – it was all wrapped up and done and looking completely different as a finished story than it had along the way, like Elizabeth Zimmerman’s famous Baby Surprise Jacket.  I could see the plot going either of two ways – which I can’t really elaborate on without complete spoilerage – and it zipped off in a third direction, leaving me feeling a little stunned with the speed of it all.  I’m not sure if something about the book didn’t quite work for me, or if it would work for me if I read it again and thought about it some more.  However, I quite liked both the setting and Alina as a character.  For teens and up who like somewhat historical fantasy, this is a good choice. 

 

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Drama

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Katy K.

“Did you want to read this?” I asked my love, waving this as part of a stack of library books I was done with. I of course was on the hold list as soon as it was in the library catalog system, because I am in love with Raina Telgemeier, as I’ve mentioned before.
“No,” he said. “I was a band geek, not a drama nerd. Besides, that cover looks like a love triangle.” Then he picked it up and read the first couple of pages while scrambling our breakfast eggs. “I changed my mind,” he said. Over breakfast and after dinner that day, I heard him chuckling over it. He was done before breakfast the next day.

Drama
Drama by Raina Telgemeier.
Raina Telgemeier is back after 2010’s Smile. Where that was autobiographical, Drama takes us to a fictional middle school inspired by Telgemeier’s experiences. Eighth grade Callie, a winsome lass with long purple hair, loves musicals, and is thrilled to hear that her school will be putting on “Moon over Mississippi.” She doesn’t aspire to the stage – she knows she has a terrible voice. She and her group of nicely ethnically diverse friends, including best friend Liz, work backstage. Now that she’s in eighth grade, she’s put in charge of set design. She has grand dreams, the biggest of which is building a real exploding canon for the stage. But there’s plenty of drama of the middle school romance type as well. Her longtime crush Greg was has long been dating a snotty girl, but kisses Callie after they break up. Then Callie is crushed when he immediately starts avoiding her at school. Disappointment is short-lived, though, when two cute twins join the drama group. Outgoing and talented Justin tries out for a major role in the musical, but is up-front with Callie: he’s gay, so while he likes hanging out with her, he’s never going to be interested in her that way. Callie’s never met anyone gay in person before, so this takes a little mental adjusting. Shy Jesse, however, might still be available. He joins Callie in the backstage crew and bonds with her over beautiful books about the golden age of musicals. It’s a great balance of deep thoughts and laugh-out-loud funny moments. Even when lovesick, Callie throws herself wholeheartedly into the theater project, falling asleep over her canon experiments in the garage. On top of those two major themes, she still has to deal with regular homework and an overly curious little brother. Telgemeier presents serious topics in an engaging, light-hearted but never flippant way. Her drawings are a nice mix of Western and Japanese style, expressive and easy to follow. There is nothing more explicit than a little kissing, making this perfect for older middle grade students and up.

I thought really hard about readalikes for this and came up with a blank. Novels that address homosexuality for teens, sure – but middle schoolers are I think still not supposed to have any sexual feelings at all, straight or gay. That’s too bad, because I have vivid memories of some intense crushes at that age, but the more explicit teen romances would have been too much. If any of you, dear readers, can think of a book that would be a good fit, please let me know.

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