Blog Tour! HOMEBOUND by John David Anderson

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Katy K.

As you all might remember, I was really impressed with John David Anderson’s STOWAWAY. Today, I’m very pleased to be part of the blog tour for the sequel of this duology, HOMEBOUND! If you love thrilling space adventures and galactic war combined with found and real family and reflections on the meaning of life, read on! But before I get started, I’ll point out that HOMEBOUND is eligible to be nominated for this year’s Cybils Awards, so if you read it and love it, you could be the one to do so!

Cover of Homebound by John David Anderson.
Cover of Stowaway by John David Anderson.

About HOMEBOUND by John David Anderson

Leo Fender is no stranger to catastrophe, whether it’s the intergalactic war that took his mother’s life or the ongoing fight for his own. He’s seen his planet plundered, his ship attacked, his father kidnapped, and his brother go missing—and found himself stranded on a ship with a bunch of mercenary space pirates. Still, nothing could have prepared him for the moment he and the crew tried to save his father—and discovered a dark plot that could destroy hundreds of worlds in the blink of an eye.
Now, Leo is adrift. His father has sent him on a mission with nothing but a data chip and a name
of someone who could help, and Captain Bastian Black and the crew of the Icarus are determined to see this through to the end with Leo, to fulfill his father’s wish and prevent further conflict. But as Leo searches for answers, he can’t help but wonder what it would take to end the war, to track down his father and brother and return to whatever home they have left—and if the cost of doing so is one he would be able to pay.

John David Anderson returns with the conclusion to the epic coming-of-age adventure that began in Stowaway—a riveting and heartfelt search for hope and home, family and future, in a galaxy ravaged by war.

John David Anderson author photo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John David Anderson is the author of some of the most beloved and highly acclaimed books for kids in recent memory, including the New York Times Notable Book Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, Posted, Stowaway, Granted, Sidekicked, and The Dungeoneers. A dedicated root beer
connoisseur and chocolate fiend, he lives with his wonderful wife and two frawsome kids in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit him online at www.johndavidanderson.org.

My Take

Homebound by John David Anderson. Walden Pond Press, 2022. ISBN 978-0062986009. E-ARC provided by the publisher.
In STOWAWAY, our Leo was separated from his family for the first time, thrown in with a crew of pirates, and had to convince them to help him track down his father and hope for a way to find his brother.

Now, in HOMEBOUND, his family is still separated, and he has the additional mission of trying to stop a galactic-level war. For just a smidge more extra pressure, you know. There’s a new planet to visit and a non-human person who needs to be convinced to help them. Leo, who’s always been plagued with anxiety and relied on his parents or older brother, needs to identify his own power and, with less than ideal choices all around, figure out what his values are and what choices best align with them. The action in the present tense is interwoven with memories of his time on Earth, of picnics with his mother, games with his brother, and overheard adult conversations, all of which contribute to his actions in the present.

In addition to introspection, there is still the wild and wonderful found family of his pirate crew, as well as strange alien food, robot romance, loud rock music, and quite a few chase and battle scenes, together with a strong environmental message – because who can appreciate Earth more than people who’ve been living in a space ship? This books perfectly rounds out the story that began in STOWAWAY. If you enjoyed that, you’ll definitely want to pick up that. If you haven’t read it yet, now is the perfect time to binge read them.

HOMEWARD BLOG TOUR AUGUST 23-SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

August 23 Nerdy Book Club @nerdybookclub
August 26 A Library Mama @alibrarymama
August 30 Teachers Who Read @teachers_read
September 1 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers @grgenius
September 3 Maria’s Mélange @mariaselke

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How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Katy K.

I have been somewhat behind on my blog reading of late, so it wasn’t until recently that I saw Daisy May at Did You Ever Stop to Think? talking about the second book in her series coming out that I realized there was a first one.  Happily, that first one was right on the new book shelf at my library, so I checked it out right away. 

How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson US cover
How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson UK cover

How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson. Henry Holt, 2021. ISBN 978-1250796080 Read from library copy.

This series is a fresh take on the classic boarding school stories, such as the Chalet School series, which I confess I have never read, though Daisy May is far from the only of my blogging friends who is a fan.  

The story is first introduced to us as a story about people being brave, ducks, and footnotes, told to us by someone who is in the story but not either of our main characters. First, we are introduced to Elizabeth, now a doctor studying ducks, but who as a child, due to very unfortunate circumstances indeed, had to begin at a boarding school run by the Order of Good Sisters, where she rescued a rare duck (thus discovering her life’s passion), and made one very good friend and one enemy.  She was cared for by Good Sister June, taught light aircraft maintenance by Good Sister Honey, and fed rainbow sponge and chocolate custard by Good Sister Robin.  

Then the story skips ahead to the time when Elizabeth is an adult struggling to make a living with her knowledge of the rare Amazon duck without opening it up to exploitation, while her own daughter, Calla, is about the same age that Elizabeth was at the beginning of the book.  Times are hard indeed when Elizabeth receives what seems to be a life-changing offer to study the duck in the Amazon.  To make this possible, Calla must start at the same school Elizabeth once attended – where her mother’s old best friend is now Good Sister Christine, and her mother’s old enemy has recently taken over as headmistress.  Calla is mostly nervous about trying to make new friends when she notices that her mother has missed every one of their scheduled calls…

Calla has taken care of herself and her absent-minded mother her whole life, but now for the first time, she has friends.  Her roommates in the North Tower, Edie and Hanna, are already involved in the revolution against the new headmistress, and are eager to help when Calla finds herself directly under the line of fire.  There are many secrets to be revealed – the rooftop parties, hidden passageways, and cupboards filled with the results of illicit stress baking by the Good Sisters on the way to finding out just what has happened to Calla’s mother – and of course, deposing the evil headmistress.  The book itself is filled with delightful footnote asides from the narrator with thoughts such as

“Under normal circumstances you should not listen to somebody on the phone. Their business is not your business, even if they are talking about interesting and scandalous things.  However, …[this] was a most unusual circumstance, so Elizabeth decided that normal did not apply.” 

How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson p 10

and 

“Biscuits should form part of every plan, naturally.”

How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson p 135

This was a book about family, friendships, British baked goods, and bravery.  And it was so funny that I found myself reading far more bits aloud than usual to whichever of my hapless family members was nearby.  I will say that though the American cover is lovely, it makes the book look as if it is a peaceful book about spending time in nature with ducks, instead of an action-packed book set in a spirited boarding school.  I have therefore included the UK cover as well for comparison.  

The next book, How to Be True is out now in the UK and will be out September 27 in the US.

Posted in Books, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Katy K.

It looks like I never wrote a review of it, but I remember really enjoying Millicent Min, Girl Genius back when it was new, a good many years ago. And then Grace Lin was talking on her podcast about how much she likes her. I realized I hadn’t read any of her books since then (sorry, Lisa!) – but lucky me, she had a brand new book sitting on the shelf!

Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee Random House, 2022 ISBN 9781984830258 Read from library copy. Ebook and audiobook available on Libby.

Maizy has grown up with her single-by-choice mother in Los Angeles, where her grandparents (Oma and Opa) have never visited them.  But now, suddenly, she and her mom are spending the summer in Last Chance, Minnesota, where her grandparents run a Chinese restaurant called the Golden Palace. Maizy is less than thrilled to be leaving her best friend for the summer. Seeing the simmering tensions between her mother and grandparents doesn’t help, and neither does the open prejudice she experiences from several of the few other kids her age in town – she’s never been the only Asian American before.  But she still develops a special bond with her grandfather, who teaches her to play poker and tells her stories of how his great-great grandfather, Lucky, emigrated from China and ended his long journeys in Last Chance. 

 The tiny town is filled with interesting characters whom Maizy gets to know – Daisy, the Golden Palace’s assistant, terrible at cooking and serving but passionate about the environment. Lady Beth (or Macbeth), the richest person in town, who’s always sitting in the middle of the restaurant ordering more food than she can eat. Logan, the only kid her age who’ll talk to her.  Principal Holmes, who wears a different funny t-shirt about reading every day and who went to prom with her mother.  Mayor Whitlock, also the town’s public relations specialist.  Werner, who runs the German sausage restaurant in town and was once her Opa’s best friend.  And of course Bud, the giant wooden bear who stands guard outside the Golden Palace.

As Maizy gets more comfortable with Last Chance, she starts typing custom fortunes for the fortune cookies at the restaurant, sometimes just more fun than the commercially printed ones, sometimes targeted directly at the people who are getting them, such as “You can do better” for a teen girl on a date with an overbearing boy.  All the time, she can see her grandfather fading.  And then Bud the bear goes missing, with a racist ransom note left behind, and it’s up to Maizy and Logan to track him down.  

This has a lot of different strands woven together, from the classic city kid in a small town to the large and small effects of racism, a look at healing frayed relationships, and the strength of learning one’s past.  I found myself thinking about Maizy even when I wasn’t reading it, and closed the book with a sigh of satisfaction.  I might have to go catch up on some of Lisa’s backlist now.

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Pepper’s Rules for Secret Sleuthing by Briana McDonald

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Katy K.

As I recently mentioned, it’s very rare for my daughter to read print books.  This is one that she first borrowed from a friend (whose recommendations are of course more reliable than my own) and then asked to buy because she loved it so much.  

Pepper's Rules for Secret Sleuthing by Briana McDonald

Pepper’s Rules
for Secret Sleuthing  
by Briana McDonald

Simon & Schuster, 2020

ISBN 978-1534453432

Read from purchased copy. 

Pepper and her father are visiting her Great-Aunt Florence’s mansion for the first time only now that she’s dead.  Despite an old mansion being a perfect place for “summertime sleuthing,” her father has made her promise not to start searching for foul play. It is, after all, perfectly normal for old ladies to die.  Pepper isn’t impressed with her bossy and cold Aunt Wendy (who wants to straighten her hair) and her openly hostile cousin Andrew, so she instead befriends the boy down the street, Jacob, who turns out to be trans. (All characters read as white.)  Jacob’s fears of his parents having a baby sister to replace the girl they thought he was resonate with Pepper’s worries about her (so far disastrous) crush on another girl in her class at school.  But with a yard maintenance guy hanging out around the mansion in his black van way more than he ought to need to, an owl-obsessed old lady across the street who might just have dementia but might also have clues, and Andrew’s tutor openly flirting with Pepper’s dad, Pepper can’t help using her mother’s old detective notebook just to make sure everything is as it should be.  Andrew is increasingly angry at Pepper for suspecting his mother, but as the kids keep digging, more and more things come to light, putting the kids in more and more danger…

This has something of the feel of a classic children’s mystery series, but with a modern sensibility.  Spoiler: Great-Aunt Florence was murdered, but as it has already happened when the story begins and Pepper has no emotional attachment to the victim, there is no gore or horror attached to it.  Pepper’s sleuthing is about her connection to her own dead mother and her desire for adventure and justice, and these are certainly delivered.  The relationships between the kids develop nicely over the course of the story, and I appreciated that the villain turns out not to be as wholly villainous as Pepper at first thinks.  

Although it feels like a series, I don’t see that any more have been written.  McDonald does have another solo mystery book coming out in October, The Secrets of Stone Creek. 

Posted in Books, Middle Grade, Mystery, Print | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Katy K.

Sophie Anderson previously brought us The House with Chicken Legs and The Girl Who Speaks Bear, so of course I was excited to see her come out with a new book. (Those of you in the UK can also keep an eye out for The Thief who Sang Storms, which appears not to have made it to the US yet.)

Cover of Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson

Castle of Tangled Magic
by Sophie Anderson

Scholastic, 2022

ISBN 978-1338746211

Read from library copy. 
Ebook available on Libby.

Castle Mila is a beautiful castle built of golden logs with 33 domes.  12-year-old Olia is proud to live in the beautiful castle with her parents, her beloved Babusya, and her baby sister Rosa.  Their family was once royal, but now that the village is a democracy, they just work to maintain the historic building, using its great halls for community events.  Olia and her friends especially delight in searching for the hidden staircases that lead to the attics inside the domes, which often contain forgotten treasures.  Babusya often tells Olia that she would see the magic around her if she only looked with her heart, but Olia’s efforts have so far been in vain. 

Then enormous storms start hitting just the castle, not the village.  Suddenly Olia can see the castle’s domovoi, a fox spirit named Feliks. Babusya sends Feliks and Olia to travel to the pocket world from which the storms are coming, the world where the castle’s founder, Princess Ludmila, exiled nearly all of the magic creatures of Olia’s world.  Somehow, magic is leaking in the form of storms that are tearing the beautiful castle apart. 

The magical realm is full of surprises, and Olia and Feliks befriend new magical beings in each of its various habitat domes, including the grouchy cat named Koshka who used to be a witch shown on the cover, a rusalka, a tree spirit, and a giant.  And at the very end, a connection to The House with Chicken Legs is revealed.  

The book has many appealing elements, including the magical castle, Olia’s contemporary-feeling, energetic voice, Feliks and Koshka for the fox- and cat-lovers, and of course the exploration of a magical world.  I enjoyed all of these elements, but what really made the book shine was the meditation on reparations.  All the human characters are white, so we’re looking without the complicating factor of race at the essential question, “What do we owe to people who are still being harmed by the actions our ancestors took well before our own lifetimes?”   

On a side note, this book has so many elements that I believe my own daughter would love – she also read The House with Chicken Legs in class and loved it enough to make her own 3D model of it, she still re-reads Tuesdays at the Castle regularly, and it has a cat.  But she took one look at the cover, decided it was creepy, and even though she liked the UK cover (at right ) better, flat out refused to try this one.  

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Fenris and Mott by Greg van Eekhout

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Katy K.

I’m very excited to bring to you a contemporary middle grade fantasy combing Norse mythology with magical puppy mayhem. It’s coming from Greg van Eekhout’s, whose book Voyage of the Dogs was one my whole family enjoyed listening to together.

Cover of Fenris and Mott by Greg van Eekhout

Fenris and Mott
by Greg van Eekhout

HarperCollins, 2022

ISBN 978-0062970633

Review copy kindly provided by the publisher. 

Mott (short for Martha) has been having a tough time since she and her mom moved from the east coast to California.  She’s no longer able to do video root beer reviews with her best friend, and they had to move into an apartment that doesn’t allow dogs, after her mother had promised her a puppy with the move.  So when she finds an adorable puppy in an alley recycling bin, she promises to keep it safe.  This rapidly gets much more difficult than she anticipated. 

First, she finds out that the puppy is a wolf, not suitable for home life or even the local animal shelter.  Secondly, as the puppy and therefore she are tracked by people wearing furs with big weapons, she learns that the adorable floof ball is Fenris, son of Loki, prophesied to kick off Ragnarok.  Meanwhile, Fenris proves that he can eat astonishing things when provoked – like people and cars.  Luckily, among the ancient Norse people that have suddenly shown up in California is Thrudi, a Valkyrie around her own age, the two of them teaming up for fun and cross-cultural translations.  Because Mott made a promise to Fenris, and she’s determined to find a way to save the world and him.  

At the very beginning of the book, Mott’s problems are pretty typical for her age – her mother’s job instability, a father who’s constantly breaking his promises to her, and a friendship that’s under strain from separation and economic disparity.  They’re heavy problems, to be sure, but the tone is kept light by the frequent root beer references and Fenris’s adorable yet over-the-top antics.  

Things get into deeper territory, though, as Mott realizes that the signs that foretell Ragnarok are all around her- things like men forgetting the bonds of kinship, rising sea levels (climate change or the Midgard serpent?) and raging fires (again, flame-wielding Surtur or climate change?), as well as different-colored roosters crowing.  Mott has had so many promises ignored that’s determined to keep her word, whatever it takes, a very tricky ethical dilemma.  It’s fast-moving, funny, and thoughtful, and comes in at just under 200 pages, great for younger or struggling readers.  My own daughter, whose ADHD leads her to prefer graphic novels and audiobooks, sat down and read the whole thing in one day, a high compliment. 

Greg van Eekhout is the author of several novels for young readers, including Weird Kid (“A heartfelt, pitch-perfect middle grade novel”—Publishers Weekly, starred review); Cog; and Voyage of the Dogs. He lives in San Diego, California, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice-cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he’s ever actually liked. You can find more about Greg at his website: www.writingandsnacks.com and on Twitter and Instagram: @gregvaneekhout

I’m now on the hunt for more fast-paced middle grade with adorable animals for my daughter (age 12.) I’ve just checked out How to Catch an Invisible Cat by Paul Tobin, Elvis and the World as it Stands by Lisa Frenkel Riddiough, and Pie by Sarah Weeks. That last one she listened to the audiobook on repeat one summer when she was small, but it’s been long enough that I’m hoping it will feel fresh again. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

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Those Kids from Fawn Creek, Answers in the Pages, and Zia Erases the World

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Katy K.

I’m now done with all but one of the books I set out to read for the 48-Hour #MGReadathon two weeks ago. Here are some more shorter reviews – lots of good books here! And thanks again to Ms. Yingling for organizing the readathon and prompting me to track down more good books.

Cover of Those Kids from Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly
Cover of Answers in the Pages by David Levithan
Cover of Zia Erases the World by Bree Barton

Those Kids from Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly. HarperCollins, 2022. ISBN 9780062970350. Read from library copy. 

The small middle school in the rural Southern factory town of Fawn Creek is split into tight cliques, where everybody knows what everyone else will say or do before they do so.  (All characters except one teacher read as white.) This is shaken up when a new girl, Orchid, shows up, taking the desk of the meanest and most popular girl in seventh grade after she moves to the next biggest town.  We mostly see things through the eyes of outcasts Greyson, whose interest in fashion and lack of interest in sports and hunting code him as gay, and his friend Dorothy, with occasional views through the eyes of Janie, who used to be Renni’s best friend.  Orchid has a pretty strong manic pixie dream girl vibe which rapidly attracts a lot of attention.  But who is she really?  

It took me a little while to get into this book – the plot and the characters felt just a little too predictable.  But it grew on me over time, as the characters developed more nuance and Orchid herself pointed out the universality of the school’s cliques.  This is a great one for fans of middle school social politics.

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan. Knopf, 2022. ISBN 978-0593484685. Read from library copy. 

This highly relevant story packs three different narratives into a compact 170 pages.  In the first storyline, our narrator, whose name we eventually learn is Donovan, shares with us the last line of a book, telling us it’s the last time we’ll have a chance to make up our own minds about what it means.  The book is one that he was assigned to read for his fifth-grade class, and which his mother then decides to protest because of “inappropriate content for his age.” Next, we read a chapter from the book – an action/adventure story starring two boys and a girl.  Finally, we read about the slow blossoming of a relationship between two boys in the same school with a different teacher.  All three combine to make a stirring and thought-provoking story of kids battling for their own freedom – emotional, intellectual, and of course from man-eating alligators.  

Zia Erases the World by Bree Barton. Viking, 2022. ISBN 9780593350997. Read from library copy. 

Ever since her friend’s birthday party, Zia has been caught up with what she calls the “Shadoom” – a feeling of intense dread that won’t let her participate in her own life as she used to.  She’s no longer able to talk with her two best friends or share what’s going on in her life with her mother.  As she and her mother help her grandmother, her Yiayia, move out of her house and into their tiny one-bedroom apartment, Zia discovers a beautiful dictionary in her Yiayia’s attic.  It’s complete with an eraser shaped like a mataki, the evil eye pendant – and whatever word Zia erases disappears in real life.  Only the new girl, Alice Pham, who’s inexplicably trying to make friends with her, seems to even remember that the things existed.  In between chapters are dictionary definitions both of real words like  “xenium” – a gift from a friend or stranger and ones that Zia has made up herself like  “potado”  – “a whirling vortex of violently rotating tubers.” This kind of humor and warm family relationships balance out the clear hardships in Zia’s life and her struggling to figure out what to do about the Shadoom, which is clearly depression to the adult eye.  

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Posted in Middle Grade | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Every Bird a Prince by Jenn Reese

Posted on July 27, 2022 by Katy K.

The shifting landscape of seventh grade combines with the unseen magical battles in the nearby woods.  

Cover of Every Bird a Prince by Jen Reese

Every Bird a Prince
by Jenn Reese

Henry Holt, 2022

ISBN 978-1250783448

Read from library copy. Ebook and audiobook available on Libby.

Eren Evers loves riding her bike through the woods near her house, finding it the best way to clear her head.  Especially lately, when her two best friends have decided they’ll declare their crushes to each other.  Eren doesn’t have or want a crush, but she does want to keep the friends who have been her anchor for years, so she decides to say that she has a crush on Alex Ruiz based on an analysis of all the boys in class.  

When she’s struck by a partly-frozen bird during her ride, she’s drawn into an age-old struggle between the animals and the evil wolf-like beasts made of ice known as the Frostfangs.  Normally, the battle against them is carried out without human knowledge, but now, the bird kingdom is the last one standing.  The bird, who introduces themself as Prince Oriti-ti, asks Eren to be a champion for all the birds against the Frostfangs. 

Soon, Alex is involved, too – her analysis having been correct in finding they’d have a lot in common, even if there are still no feelings.  But as they train their strengths to fight the Frostfangs, they find that the frost of self-doubt is spreading throughout the community to their parents and teachers, visible only to the two of them because of their work with the birds.  They were only supposed to have to save the birds – but now, Eren and Alex will have to find a way to keep them away from their friends and family as well.  This grows increasingly difficult, as one of the main effects of the Frostfangs’ self-doubt on adults is to make them more authoritarian and punitive.  And if Eren keeps blowing off her friends to spend time with the birds, will she still have friends to go back to? 

This is a satisfying adventure  with cute and spirited birds and terrifying monsters, blended perfectly with the ever-present friendship struggles of middle school, as romance becomes more of an issue.  Here, part of the battle is both Eren and Alex figuring out that what they want for themselves isn’t something they’ve been able to be honest with either with themselves or their friends – a sensitive and age-appropriate exploration of non-hetero sexualities.  

There are still not nearly enough middle grade fantasies out there from these perspectives, and this has more than enough to appeal to kids looking either for epic contemporary fantasy or middle school relationship issues.  

Here are a few more recommendations for contemporary middle grade fantasy with LGBTQ protagonists:

Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

Witch Boy  by Molly Knox Ostertag

And more books by Jenn Reese I’ve enjoyed:

A Game of Fox and Squirrels

The Above World Trilogy

Posted in Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

#MGReadathon Finish Line

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Katy K.

Okay, so the finish line was last night, and I was exhausted and trying to squeeze in the last bit of reading I could and put off reporting on it until today. I read about 3 hours on Saturday and 6 or 7 hours on Sunday (I was keeping track as carefully then.) Here’s what I finished:

Cover of It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds

It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit
by Justin A. Reynolds

Scholastic, 2022

ISBN 9781338740226

Read from library copy. 

Eddie Holloway, age 12, has promised his mom he’ll be a responsible kid this summer, including taking care of his laundry. He thinks that strategically wearing all his clothes so that he only has to do laundry once is a genius idea, even if he’ll end up doing laundry in his swim trunks. . His mom disagrees. That’s how he ends up home alone in the dark, creepy basement while the rest of his family – and most of the neighborhood – is at the Beach Bash on Lake Erie.

Fortunately, when power and cell phone reception cut out across the neighborhood, there are a few other kids left at home – his best friends Xavier and Sonia, as well as middle school basketball star Trey and his little sister Sage. Together, the kids entertain themselves, scrounge for snack food, learn more about themselves, and try to figure out when might be the right time to start worrying about their grown-ups.

It might sound ironic to say that this is a fast-moving book where very little happens, but that’s just the way it is. Eddie is a fast-talking kid with ADHD whose brain races all over the place, sometimes hilariously listing the reasons why laundry should be considered criminal, other times explaining why his stepdad can never replace his deceased father, and others imagining completely over-the-top dialogues between the Universe and the Universe Itself about how fun it is to find ways to torment Eddie.

We’re over 100 pages in before the power outage that the kids are considering the end of the world takes place, yet I was too busy laughing at Eddie to be bored. And underneath all the humor is real feeling, acceptance of difference, and character exploration. I will definitely need to read the next book to find out what happens next! This would be a great one to hand to fans of The Last Last Day of Summer by Lamar Giles.

Cover of Valentina Salazar is NOT a Monster Hunter by Zoraida Cordova. Read by Ana Osario

Valentina Salazar is NOT a Monster Hunter
by Zoraida Cordova.
Read by Ana Osario

Scholastic Audio, 2022

ASIN B09VCW6L85

Listened to audiobook on Hoopla

I just realized that both of these books have a kids processing the death of their father as a major theme…

In this book, the titular Valentina, age 11, has grown up traveling with her family in a wonderful souped-up camper van named the Scourge, homeschooling and looking for magical creatures to send back to the magical realm of Finisterra where they belong. That all ended when her father was eaten by an oropuma they were trying to rescue. Now they’ve moved into his deceased Aunt Ersilia’s house in Missing Mountain, New York, where Valentina is just not able to give up looking for new cases, as her family has made her promise to do. She’s not fitting in at school, trying to hide the orphaned and talking magical creature she’s kept as a companion, and frustrated that her once-close family has split off into individual bubbles.

But when she sees a video livestream of an oropuma egg waiting to hatch – attracting more and more viewers by the hour – she’s determined to find a way to rescue it before its secret is spread to the world. She’ll have to escape her uncle’s side of the family – the side that hunts magical creatures down rather than protecting and rescuing them. But she’ll also grow closer to her family, and meet both lots of magical creatures and many of her on-line friends from her kids’ magical creature group. This is a fantastically fun adventure, with thoughts about finding your circle of care and standing up for your beliefs, even against those more powerful than yourself. It’s a great one for fans of other magical animal books, like the Unicorn Rescue Society series.

I also got halfway through Those Kids from Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly, and started The Last Fallen Moon by Graci Kim on audio. I didn’t break any records, but I had fun reading and seeing what everyone else was reading. Let’s do another one next year!

Posted in Audiobook, Books, Challenges, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Starting Line – #MGReadathon

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Katy K.

It’s been quite a while since Mother Reader hosted her beloved 48-Hour Readathons, so I’m very excited that Karen at Ms. Yingling Reads is hosting one this weekend! Naturally, even though I worked Friday and have a baby shower on the other side of the state on Saturday , I had to sign up. I don’t expect to break any records, just have a lot of fun.

Here’s what I have lined up to read:

I first heard about It’s the End of the World and I’m in my Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds from Betsy Bird at a Fuse #8 Production. I had to wait a while to get it from the library, but it’s a perfect time of year to read it!

Just being by Erin Entrada Kelly is reason enough to read Those Kids from Fawn Creek.

“Inner-city magic school” was enough for me to say “Yes, please!” to an ARC of A Taste of Magic by J. Elle, coming out in August.

I read about this book in Bookpage and purchased it for the school media center based on that review. Now I want to read Answers in the Pages by David Levithan for myself!

I don’t honestly know much about Zia Erases the World by Bree Barton apart from seeing it pop up regularly in the weekly round-ups at Charlotte’s Library, but it was on the shelf at the library when I did a mad dash checking out books in case I might not have enough to fill the weekend. I can be optimistic, right?

And just because I needed even more to read, and heard good things about it from Your Tita Kate, I checked out Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan from Libby.

I’m currently listening to Valentina Salazar is NOT a Monster Hunter by Zoraida Cordova on Hoopla based on Charlotte’s review.

And finally, my next-in-line audiobook is The Last Fallen Moon by Graci Kim, sequel to The Last Fallen Star.

I’m sending good reading vibes to everyone else participating! And there’s still time to join up if you’re interested.

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