Rebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Katy K.

This book was a 2016 Christmas gift from my love to my son and I.  We finished the book we were reading and then took several months reading it aloud together.

Rebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartinoRebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino. Roaring Brook Press, 2016.
Avatar: the Last Airbender screenwriter DiMartino turns his talents towards novel-writing in this first of a middle grade fantasy series set in world based on Renaissance Italy.

In this world, artists have literal geniuses, birds that are their companions and helpers, similar to the daemons of Lyra’s Oxford.  But the current ruler of Verenzia has outlawed both art and geniuses, capturing and killing all the geniuses in the kingdom and leaving the artists to wander as zombie-like Lost Souls.  Our hero, Giacomo, is living in sewers after his artist parents vanished.  His life changes forever when a genius of his own arrives, and he is found by a group of artist children who secretly live and train in the house of one of the Supreme Creator’s advisors.  As he gets to know the varied group of three children and the old, blind artist who trains them, Giacomo learns more about Sacred Geometry and the threats to their world presented by the Supreme Creator and the rogue artist who wants to bring her down and start his own despotic rule.  Soon, they are embarking on a quest to find the tools of the Creator, racing against enemies of many varieties.

DiMartino’s screenwriting background definitely shows here.  The book feels like it would translate well to the screen, and moments of tension are balanced nicely against times of character development and humor.  Giacomo’s story is interspersed with short chapters from the point of view of an eight-limbed human-like creature called a tulpa, created by the rogue artist, and there’s a lot of reflection on whether the tulpa, created as a tool, has the capacity for morality or self-determination.

This should have been one that I really enjoyed, but it didn’t quite work for me. My son liked it just fine, but I think for me it suffered greatly from being a book that I read aloud right after we’d been reading Diana Wynne Jones – DiMartino is good, but no one else is DWJ.  Also, it’s focused on a fast-moving plot, and that kind of book is both not my favorite and something that works better read quickly, not over half a year.  I know that Brandy over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile really liked it, so I think that this was just not the right time and way for me to read an otherwise fine book.  For those that haven’t read it yet, the sequel, Warrior Genius, is now out too.

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Beast & Crown by Joel Ross

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Katy K.

Beast & Crown by Joel RossBeast & Crown by Joel Ross. HarperCollins, 2017.
This most recent book by the author of the 2015 Cybils Middle Grade Speculative Fiction winner, The Fog Diver, features a similarly diverse cast, this time in a historical fantasy world. (I was very tickled to see that Cybils award mentioned in the author bio here.) Ji is a boot boy, his friend Sally a stable girl for a large noble household.  They’re also friends with Roz, the governess, who is trying to rescue her younger sister from a factory.  Ji’s almost friends with noble Brace, who’s fostered into the household, but shares interests with Ji and is bullied by his family.

In this world, the Summer Queen reigns for centuries and protects humans from ogres and from rebellion by the enslaved goblins.  The new ruler is selected by the mystical Diadem Rite, about which rumors abound and facts are scarce. When a stranger comes to Ji’s estate to prepare Brace to possibly take part in the Diadem Rite, Ji and his friends suddenly find themselves wrapped up in something bigger than they’d expected.

Like Holly Webb’s Rose, Beast & Crown centers its story around the servant class. But unlike Rose, Ji feels the injustice of the differences in station keenly and is working hard to escape.

This is on the longer side for a middle grade book, with 369 page.  But the plot stays interesting with lots of action as well as witty dialogue and a lot social commentary.  The thoughts on sacrifice – who makes it, who decides who makes it – reminded me of the (much sadder) Irish ballad “There were Roses” by Tommy Sands:

I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends
And those who give the orders are not the ones to die
It’s Scott and McDonald and the likes of you and I

There’s definitely room for a sequel, but unlike the ballad above, it’s shaping to be one in which our determined young people are going to make a difference in the world, despite the obstacles in their way.  I’ll be on the lookout for more!

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Dominion by Shane Arbuthnott

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Katy K.

My catching up with books I read for the Cybils continues…

Dominion by Shane ArbuthnottDominion by Shane Arbuthnott. Orca, 2017.
Twelve-year-old Molly Stout lives and works on her family’s airship, the Legerdemain, along with her father and two older brothers. Following the legacy of her famous ancestor Haviland Stout, who discovered the existence of “fonts” through which spirits enter from a different dimension, they look for fonts opening and capture the spirits, which are used to power engines of all sorts, including the ship.  It’s a life of adventure, made hard both by the risks of airship life and by the large company taking control of all fonts and making it harder for the Stouts to sell the spirits they catch.

But when Molly catches a spirit that talks to her and begs to be released, she starts to realize that the spirits aren’t the evil, primitive creatures she always thought they were.  She also comes to suspect that her ancestor’s words have been censored and distorted.  Even though she risks capture by authorities and being thought insane by her family, she works to find out the truth and to free the spirits.

This is a rare look at a fantasy/steampunk Canada.  It’s also a look at slavery separated from racial issues (I didn’t notice any people of color in the book), but mostly as an undercurrent to the adventure.  I’d recommend this especially to fans of steampunk and seafaring adventure.

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2018 Diversity Reading Challenge Update

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Katy K.

2018DRCLISTBLUE-768x958

This year I’m participating in the Diversity Reading Challenge hosted by Pam at an Unconventional Librarian.  It’s a really great way to help me make sure my reading is well-rounded!  Here’s what I’ve read so far this year:

  1. Written by or about a person of Hispanic origin:
  • Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older
  • Stella Díaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez
  • A Dash of Trouble. Love Sugar Magic #1 by Anna Meriano
  • The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya
  1. A book in which a character suffers from a mental illness:realfriends
  • Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (anxiety disorder)
  1. A book written by or about someone on the spectrum:
  • All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Thom Rivera
  • Watchdog by Will McIntosh
  1. A book with an African-American young woman as the main character:
  • Sky Full of Stars by Linda Williams Jackson
  • Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
  1. A book containing an Asian main character
  • Jasmine Toguchi: Super Sleuth by Debbi Michiko Florence
  • Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
  1. A book with an illustrator of colorcrownodefreshcut
  • Crown: an Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James
  1. A book with an LGBT main character
  • Spinning by Tillie Walden
  • The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, read by Christian Coulson
  1. A graphic novel
  • Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham
  • Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani
  • The Dam Keeper by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
  1. A book with a Muslim main character
  2. A book written by or for African-American young men
  • Crown: an Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James
  • Juba! by Walter Dean Myers (ok, I just started this today.)
  1. A book in which the author or narrator has a physical disability
  2. A book about children during the Holocaust.dollmakerofkrakow
  • The Dollmaker of Krakow by M. Romero

I’ve just put the latest Schneider Family Award winners on hold, so I’ll get the disability voice covered, and I can check out Amina’s Voice, which I’ve been wanting to read for a while now, for the Muslim narrator.  But the real challenge for me this year seems to be writing reviews!

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The Painting by Charis Cotter

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Katy K.

Here is another creepy, atmospheric story from the author of 2015 Cybils finalist The Swallow: a Ghost Story.

The Painting by Charis CotterThe Painting by Charis Cotter. Tundra Books, 2017.
In the present day, our heroine, Annie, is struggling with her mother being in a coma after an accident.  Hiding away in the attic, she discovers an old painting of a lighthouse.  Looking at it, she finds herself in that world.  There she meets Claire, a girl her own age living with her artist mother in remote Newfoundland.  Claire is convinced that Annie is her little sister Annie, who died in an accident at age four.  And Annie does indeed look just like the Annie she sees in the paintings of her that Claire’s mother has done.

Despite the creepiness, Annie and Claire form a friendship.  Annie must find multiple paintings by the same artist to be able to visit Claire.  They are quite different people in their personalities and preferred settings as well as their time period, but both are united by having conflicted relationships with their mothers.  Meanwhile, Annie is trying to figure out why she is able to travel through the paintings in this way and if there is any way to save her mother.

I was able to see at least half of the solution pretty early on, much earlier than Annie did.  But I read on, enjoying the complex relationships and seeing how the problems would be solved.  This is a good one for readers who like strong characters and a strong sense of place, with slowly building action.

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Brave Red, Smart Frog

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Katy K.

This week, I’m going to focus on reviewing Cybils books that I wasn’t able to write up during the rush of Cybils season.

Brave Red, Smart Frog by Emily JenkinsBrave Red, Smart Frog by Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason. Candlewick Press, 2017.

This volume of retold European traditional stories is bound together by the forests where many of the stories take place – one forest where it’s always winter, where stories like Hansel and Gretel are set, versus the summer forest inhabited by “bunnies and bluebirds.”  The language is poetic while keeping a sense of humor, and the heart of each story is looked for and often found in unusual places.

In the Frog Prince, Jenkins writes

“This princess, Crystal, was beautiful to most people’s way of thinking – except for those people who see beauty in character.”

In “Three Wishes,” a man numbed by the grief of losing his donkey and given three wishes makes one bad wish after another – with the unexpected ending that he and his wife are more grateful for what they have.  In Toads and Pearls (the version Toads and Diamonds was a childhood favorite of mine,) the focus is on the heroine being given the gift of independence and escape from cruelty, while in The Three Great Noodles, it’s that while the world is full of foolish people, compassion is rare and valuable.

I love reading fairy tales aloud, but I’ve found that many of my favorite retellings are too long for either for super-tired kids at bedtime or for holding the attention of larger groups.  This book’s shorter retellings lend themselves perfectly to reading aloud in these situations, though the small illustrations also reward the individual reader.  I’ll close with this quote from Hansel and Gretel after they get back home:

“It was not easy, but it was family. The little brick house…was once again a home.”

Here are some of my long time favorite books of fairy tales:

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Spindle by E.K. Johnston

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Katy K.

Spindle by E.K. JohnstonSpindle by E.K. Johnston. Hyperion, 2016.
Hundreds of years after the Storyteller Queen drove the demon out, as told in A Thousand Night, the demon has been slowly plotting its escape.  It has invented a curse on making and the skills that will turn the princess called Little Rose into the ideal host, which will allow him to crush the kingdoms that formed out the lands that first drove him out.

Our narrator Yashaa is the son of a Spinner of the kingdom of Kharuf, formerly held in high regard, but now forced to live as nomads between kingdoms because of the magical sickness that crushes them if they return to their home.  Yashaa and his fellow children of exile Tariq and Arwa, as well as Saoud from another nearby kingdom, decide to travel back to Kharuf to see if they can break the curse.

Sleeping Beauty is a much less obvious choice for retelling with a strong Middle Eastern setting, but (as always so far with E.K. Johnston for me), I loved it.  Zahrah, the Little Rose, is tough and clever as she ropes the teens and one younger girl into orchestrating her escape.  Women cover their hair and the preservation of reputations is at least attempted without the women feeling either like less important characters or that they are chafing at these parts of their cultures, a sensitivity I appreciated.

This is a beautiful tale.  It still has a mythic feel like that of A Thousand Nights, but with named characters and concrete struggles, feels much more real at the same time.

E.K. Johnston has seven books listed on her website, of which I’ve now read four, including The Story of Owen and its sequel Prairie Fire.  Still to read: Exit, Pursued by a Bear, Star Wars: Ahsoka and That Inevitable Victorian Thing.  Those interested in fairy tale retellings can also try Robin McKinley’s very different-feeling retelling Spindle’s End.

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When Dimple Met Rishi

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Katy K.

i’m still catching up on reviews – but in the meantime the Cybils winners have been announced! Head on over and take a look – I’m taking three of the winners home from the library today.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya MenonWhen Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. Read by Sneha Mathan and Vikas Adam. Dreamscape Media, 2017.

Dimple, newly graduated from high school, wants nothing more in life than to be a web developer.  Her overbearing mother wants her to start wearing make-up and proper, girly Indian clothes, so she can attract a good Indian husband.  Dimple is thrilled when her parents give her permission to attend nearby Insomnia Con, an intensive summer workshop in app development, with the promise of the winning app having a chance to be looked at by programming star Jenny Lindt.

Rishi is planning to leave California to attend MIT, as his parents wish.  But he hopes to have a family, and believes that compatibility, as ensured by a traditional arranged marriage, offers the best hope of long-term happiness.  His parents, after all, are still happily married.  He signs up for Insomnia Con as a way to meet Dimple and see if they are as compatible as their parents think they will be.

But as Dimple’s parents didn’t clue her in, or tell Rishi that she doesn’t know, things start off badly, with Dimple throwing her iced coffee in Rishi’s face.

The only flaw in this novel is that it presents “Is it possible for a woman to have a career and a family” as a serious dilemma – which I know it still is, but I would hope that enough women have been doing it for the past four decades or so that it should be less of an issue.  Regardless, I loved both focused Dimple and family-oriented Rishi.  I really appreciated that it wasn’t just “will Dimple see how awesome Rishi is?” but that Rishi had his own challenges in life that Dimple was able to help him see around.  Programming, sweet romance, friendship, and cheesy Bollywood dance moves blend in this delightful teen/new adult book that I’ve been recommending to all kinds of people since I read it.

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Yvain: the Knight of the Lion

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Katy K.

Yvain: the Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson and Andrea OffermannYvain: the Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson, based on the epic by Chrétien de Troyes. Illustrated by Andrea Offerman. Candlewick, 2017.

I enjoy a good medieval story, and M.T. Anderson always impresses with the sheer range of his writing, from the wacky middle-grade series that starts with Whales on Stilts to the darker, futuristic YA novel Feed. Here, he and artist Andrea Offerman adapt a genuine Arthurian romance into a graphic novel.  In the story, there is a pool with a bowl on a stone that causes storms.  This is defended by a knight whose side we’re somehow not on.  When he slays another knight, our hero Sir Yvain sets out to avenge him, only to fall for the original bad knight’s widow, Lady Laudine.  Not unreasonably, Lady Laudine isn’t too interested in marrying her husband’s killer, but her maid, Lunette, does like Yvain and helps him convince Lady Laudine to marry him.  There are also lots of side adventures where Yvain and sometimes Gawain fight to save the day, sometimes more justified than others.

The illustrations are well-researched, somehow looking medieval with a modern energy.  When the characters tell stories, they’re shown in tapestry-style illustrations.  Interesting notes from both the author and the illustrator comment on the hard work women do to be able to follow their own wills even a little in a society where they’re not supposed to have their own desires (Lunette only tries to keep Yvain close, not win him for herself.)  The men are thoughtlessly selfish, but the women are likely to exact revenge at some point.  The women’s clothes of the period, especially, seem designed to show off noblewomen’s lack of need to do anything, as they require one hand to hold the mantle in place at all times. This is a fascinating peek into the legends of another time that my son and I both enjoyed, with plenty of action and gore to keep things interesting.

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Want by Cindy Pon

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Katy K.

Confession time: I have a seven page document with notes of books that I’ve read and want to write full reviews of. I’m trying to post more frequent, quick reviews to catch up. This was one of my eagerly anticipated titles of 2017.

Want by Cindy PonWant by Cindy Pon. Simon Pulse, 2017.

In a futuristic, dystopian Taipei, the world is divided into the mei, the wants, and the you, the haves.  The mei are perpetually poor and at risk from the polluted air, while the you spend their days on pleasure in the safety of controlled environment suits.  Our heroes are a diverse gang of teens, including American-Taiwanese Jason Zhou, smooth Filipino Victor, science-y Arun, cybersecurity hacker Lingyi, and her girlfriend and spy/weapons expert Iris. When they discover a dastardly plot to keep the pollution and the profitable protection industry going, they develop a risky plan to expose it.  Naturally, this will involve Jason coming into close contact with the alluring Daiyu, daughter of the wicked businessman.  This was a little angsty and insta-love for me, but overall a lot of fun with a nice twist.  I think contemporary/futuristic settings are more popular especially with teens these days, though I still love the historical setting of Serpentine and Silver Phoenix. 

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