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Mark of the Thief

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Katy K.

Like everyone else I know who read The False Prince (it won the Cybils Award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction award in 2012), I loved it, so of course I had to read Jennifer Nielsen’s new book. Bonus points for being set in ancient Rome!

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer Nielsen. Scholastic, 2015.
Nic insists that his full name is Nicolas Calva – because he will be more than a slave someday. He would have escaped the mines long ago, but planning an escape that includes his gentle sister Livia has been harder than he can manage. Then a clearly corrupt general comes to the mines, convinced that the magical bulla (a childhood amulet for boys) of Julius Caesar is hidden in the mine. After a string of older slaves fail to return, Nic is sent down. There he finds the bulla guarded by a griffin. Somehow, between the bulla and griffin, Nic gets magic for himself. But will this be a way to escape, or only another death trap for Nic and Livia? Along the way, Nic has to figure out who to trust, with a senator and his son and a tough street girl who’s made it her job to look out for as many of the street kids as she can. Not only is Nic now key to supporting or bringing down the emperor, but his beautiful griffin is much desired for fighting in the rings. Nic will have to use every one of his limited resources for both himself and the griffin to make it out alive…

This is another taut fantasy thriller from Nielsen, sure to appeal to kids turned onto ancient mythology by the Percy Jackson books. There are a few small flaws – I didn’t find the twists quite as shocking as those in The False Prince and I didn’t quite buy the villain’s motivation – he was going to extreme lengths over something that, while certainly upsetting, was after all fairly common in the time period. Nic himself was possessed of an unlikely amount of self-confidence considering he’d been raised a slave – but as that made him a much more sympathetic and enjoyable character, I didn’t mind it. I wished his sister Livia had had a little of his gumption, though her passiveness was balanced out by the street girl. There is a lot of pretty graphic violence towards children and animals, making it best for older and/or less sensitive readers. This is still a solid series opener, with strong characters and plenty of action and intrigue, and I’m feeling glad that I read it rather late this year as I now have just over a month to wait before book 2, Rise of the Wolf is published. It could pair well now with Diane Stanley’s The Chosen Prince.

This book has been nominated for the Cybils, but this is just my opinion, not that of the Cybils committee.

Posted in books | Tagged ancient Rome, historical fiction, youth fantasy | 2 Comments

The Hero and the Crown

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Katy K.

Thoughts on my third time reading this book aloud.

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. Greenwillow Books, 1985. Aeryn is the sol, or princess, but not heir to the throne because her mother was a foreigner distrusted by the kingdom. That combined with her complete lack of the magical talent royalty of Damar are supposed to have has led to her being massively shy and lacking in self-esteem. Instead of mingling with the court, she sneaks off to rehabilitate her father’s old lame warhorse, Talat, as well as doing chemistry experiments to make a working recipe for kenet, a dragon-fire-proof salve. Dragons are dog-sized nuisances, so she’s being useful but not glorious by finding a way she can get good at killing them off single-handedly.

Until her father’s army rides off try to thwart a rebellion and the big dragon comes back. The dragon so big it dwarfs a warhorse, and whose fire is as much poison as flame.

Here is where I have long, rambling thoughts on the book. Continue reading →

Posted in books | Tagged read-alouds, youth fantasy | 2 Comments

Princess Juniper of the Hourglass

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Katy K.

Sometimes you just want an old-fashioned story of a princess making it out of a tough situation by the strength of her wits and the loyalty of her friends.

Princess Juniper of the Hourglass by Ammi-Joan Paquette. Philomel, 2015.
13-year-old Princess Juniper schedules her life tightly, always trying to pack in more than will really fit so that she will be the perfect princess for her kingdom. Still, her thoughts are lighthearted when she asks her father for a kingdom of her own, just for the summer: it will be good practice for her, as well as fun to make a kingdom only of kids her age. She’s working on assembling the perfect crew, recruiting help from book-loving Erick in necessary job titles, and letting kids do what they feel drawn to even if it’s not what they’ve been trained to do, including letting girls work as guards.

Then the king sends them all out in the middle of the night, and includes Juniper’s snobby and bullying older cousin Cyril and a couple of his friends – definitely not what Juniper had in mind. The tiny “kingdom” is a hidden valley surrounded by mountains and reached through secret passageways. With a river, fruit trees and more, it’s everything Juniper could want. But Cyril has no intentions of letting Juniper be in charge, and no one else seems to find working fourteen-hour days as fulfilling as Juniper always has. And – why did the king send Juniper and the other kids away so very quickly and secretly?

Juniper’s good intentions may not get her as far as she’d like, but her willingness to learn from her mistakes and from others advice made her a character I wanted to succeed. Even though I have met very few kids with Juniper’s level of work addiction, the balance between work and play, and one’s own standards and others, is both tricky and valuable. It’s all wrapped up in a sparkling adventure woven through with darker threads. Mostly, this stays on a level that’s exciting without being too scary for elementary students able to read a full-length novel on their own. There’s appeal for older readers, too, but I’d peg this most solidly for third through sixth grade readers. I’m curious to find out what Princess Juniper does next!

This book has been nominated for the Cybils. This is my own opinion, not that of the committee.

Posted in books | Tagged youth fantasy | 1 Comment

State of the Book Basket – Late November

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Katy K.

I am have been doing almost nothing but Cybils reading this month and last, but here’s a brief rundown of the family’s reading anyway.

My daughter, aged six, is mostly still wanting to be read to, but yesterday morning at breakfast put The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley in a bookstand and proceeded to read it aloud to us, while mostly ignoring her breakfast. She’s also been enjoyed I Really like Slop! by Mo Willems. At bedtime, we’re reading some favorite picture books, some re-reading of El Deafo by Cece Bell and started on The Dragonsitter by Josh Lacey, which I picked up at Kidlitcon. We were partway through reading Fable Comics by Chris Duffy (editor) when we had to take it back to the library, though my son had already read it through. In the car, we’re continuing the Little House books with By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Happily, the necessarily discussions of racism in context are decreasing at this point in the series. It’s still one that both kids are enjoying.

The Blue Sword My son, newly 11, has reached an exciting milestone: he is reading a novel in print and not getting bogged down. As I mentioned when I reviewed the book, he’d asked for the audio version of The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, because we listened to book one in the car together. But it’s far too scary to subject his little sister to in the car, and as he needed a fantasy book for a school assignment, I brought it home from the library for him. Now he’s three-quarters of the way through, and reading happily. He’s listening to Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke on his own, and we’re re-listening to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin in the car. We’ve finished our reading of The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley and have moved on to Harry Crewe’s adventures in The Blue Sword, also by Robin McKinley.

galaxypirates My love is enjoying some middle grade fantasy himself – Galaxy Pirates: Hunt for the Pyxis by Zoë Ferraris. I think he’s listening to Carry on by Rainbow Rowell on audio, though I could be wrong… [Updated 12/2/15 to say] I was wrong. Carry On is up next, but he’s currently listening to The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher.

I am listening to Carry on in the car. MiNRs by Kevin Sylvester and The Wild Swans by Jackie Morris are my current Cybils nominees, and I have another 20 or so I’d like to read after that, which I won’t list here. The other library book waiting for me when I have a gap in the Cybils reading is Temple of Doubt by Anne Boles Levy.

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Grounded

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Katy K.

Grounded by Megan Morrison. Scholastic, 2015.
Rapunzel has grown up in a tower filled with everything she could ever want – beautiful dresses, a harp, books filled with stories about her and her beloved Witch. All the stories warn of the dangerousness of things on the ground, the evil of the princes who’d want to lure Rapunzel out of her tower. Rapunzel has never wanted to leave. But when a boy named Jack climbs up into her tower and claims that he’s met her before – that they talked just recently – she is confused. And when he says that the red fairies are trying to kill Witch, she decides she needs to investigate the situation on her own. Why would anyone not love Witch as much as she does?

It turns out that the fairy headwoman, Glyph, is dangerously ill because of something Rapunzel unwittingly did. Rapunzel doesn’t remember – but she has to admit that there’s a lot she doesn’t remember. Glyph’s husband, Rune, is outraged, but Glyph is inclined to be more forgiving. Rapunzel’s one chance to redeem herself to the fairies and earn a chance to save herself and Witch is to journey to the distant woods and meet the Woodmother. Jack will accompany her to keep her safe, although he has his own hidden mission. As Rapunzel sees more of life on the ground, she realizes that much of what Witch told her wasn’t true. What will happen when Rapunzel learns the truth about Witch, and why did Witch work so hard to keep Rapunzel happy and not wanting to get out of the tower?

I wasn’t actually sure I needed another Rapunzel retelling – Zel by Donna Jo Napoli and Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale are both so good. I should remember that there’s always room for another retelling of the classics. This started off feeling like a fun, light romp, but got much deeper along the way as Rapunzel herself went from a superficial to a much more nuanced understanding of the world. The underlying message read to me as the importance of compassion over innocence. Just beautiful – thoughtful without feeling weighed down. There’s plenty to laugh at, too, including Rapunzel’s struggles with lugging her massive amounts of hair around. The world of Tyme, with its multiple countries named after colors, is also fun to explore. At first, I thought it was an odd choice. Then I looked more closely at the color names – more than a rainbow, including colors like Crimson, Brown and Lilac – and realized that the countries are named after Andrew and Leonora Lang’s groundbreaking Fairy Books, all named after colors and now available as free ebooks from Project Gutenberg. Rapunzel fans can also check out my Rapunzel Round-up post focused on picture book retellings.

This title has been nominated for the Cybils. This review is my own opinion, not that of the committee.

Posted in books | Tagged fairy tales, Rapunzel, youth fantasy | Leave a comment

Continuing Epics – The Copper Gauntlet, The Hollow Boy, Nightborn

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Katy K.

On with the Cybils reading… this time, I have three sequels, all books whose earlier entries were also Cybils nominees.

Copper Gauntlet. Magisterium Book 2. by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. Penguin Random House, 2015.
Callum Hunt is home for the summer following his first year at the Magesterium (described in The Iron Trial.) But his father’s objections to him learning to use his magic have only grown stronger, and he’s especially unfond of Callum’s pet chaos wolf, Havoc. Things are awkward to start with, but when Callum discovers a secret hidden in the basement, he no longer trusts his father at all. Even as he’s increasingly relying on his friends in a world where dangers are increasing on every side, he still isn’t able to tell them that he is himself the evil overlord. This knowledge, delivered at the end of the last book, seemed like it was going to be crushing. And it is – but it’s also fodder for humor through the story, as Call makes lists in his head of things that he does that are or aren’t evil overlord-worthy – mostly trying for not evil overlord, but occasionally deciding the situation calls for it. I’d been somewhat ambivalent about the first book, because of the evil overlord business and because it felt so very derivative. Now the story is coming into its own, both the characters and the world developing well. I enjoyed this one lots. And I’m happy to say that after I decided that it was far too gruesome for my 6-year-old to listen in on, my 11-year-old (who listened to the first with me), is now reading it on his own, making good progress and enjoying it. That’s very high praise coming from a kid who never chooses to read prose fiction in print.

Hollow Boy. Lockwood & Co. 3 by Jonathan Stroud. Read by Emily Bevan. Listening Library, 2015.
Back to the world where the spirits of the dead are back with a vengeance, and only kids can see them to defeat them. In book 3 of the series, we start off knowing that something bad is going to happen to Lockwood & Co. As Lucy describes a recent case where she, Lockwood, and George took on a house with multiple hauntings, she says that she didn’t know how good she had it until it was over. Certainly one negative factor is the addition of polished new employee Holly Munro, who sets Lucy on edge. Lucy’s talent for listening to ghosts is also developing – sometimes helping her solve the case at hand, but also putting her in danger as she must lower her defense. She wants to develop it more; Lockwood is against it. Meanwhile, the hauntings Lockwood & Co. is called to work on get bigger and more dangerous than ever. The Screaming Staircase won the Cybils award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction in 2013, and The Whispering Skull was nominated last year. I could see why that book won – but I fell in love with this one. (I’m sure Emily Bevan’s reading helped with this, her voice accented with just the right mix of London and English Country.) I cried at the end and am so looking forward to the next book. Write faster, Jonathan Stroud!

Nightborn. Thrones and Bones Book 2 by Lou Anders. Crown Books, 2015.
Board games come to life with dangerous results in this second Norse-inspired fantasy, following last year’s Frostborn. Our hero, Karn, hasn’t seen his best friend, the half-giant Thianna, in months, when his peaceful farm life is turned upside-down. There are dangerous-looking dark elves looking for him. When he runs away from them, he is snatched by a wyvern, who takes him back to the dragon Orm. It turns out that the dangerous magical horn that Orm destroyed in the last book was not the only one. Thianna went off looking for another one, to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, and hasn’t come back. Karn is really full of pity for whoever might be trying to keep Thianna a captive – but he’s certainly not going to stand by without trying to help her. Part of the story is told from the point of view of Desstra, one of the dark elves trying to find the horn. She failed to graduate from the Dark Elf academy because she wasn’t ruthless enough, and struggles between her old dreams of graduating with honors and seeing first-hand some benefits of mercy and friendship as she watches Karn and Thianna. Although I wish that Desstra wasn’t the sole sympathetic member of an entire species, I did appreciate both her journey and the fact that the Dark Elves, living in the dark, had milky pale skin, while the wood elves had skin a range of woody browns. The board game behind this book is Charioteers, inspired by the race track of the Hippodrome. This series is so much fun, with good characters, cinematic adventures, and sparkling wordplay. I will keep reading this series, as well as recommending it to Rick Riordan fans in search of mythology-inspired adventure.

Posted in books | Tagged audiobooks, youth fantasy | 4 Comments

Two animal fantasies: Escape from Baxter’s Barn and Brilliant

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Katy K.

This is the time of year when I’m reading much, much faster than I can write about all the books I’m reading. Here are two Cybils-nominated fantasies about animals.

Escape from Baxters’ Barn by Rebecca Bond. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.
When the animals of the Baxter brothers’ farm catch wind that the brothers are giving up on the farm, maybe even burning down the barn, there is panic. All the animals decide to work as a team to try to escape – including one-eyed Burdock, the barn cat, the only one of the crew who could leave on his own. The barnyard setting and gentle plot make this a fit for younger readers, helped along with great line illustrations of the animals Nanny and Tick, Fluff, Mrs. Brown, Figgy, Tug and Pull. It seems best to me for family read-alouds or advanced younger reader, as it has several potentially confusing elements including flashbacks and the idea of burning a building for insurance money, as well as some zesty vocabulary that might be confusing for young readers on their own. This has a cozy, old-fashioned feel, and the distinct animal personalities and teamwork are appealing.

Brilliant by Roddy Doyle. Illustrated by Emily Hughes. U.S. publication by Harry N. Abrams, 2015.
Here’s another book with an old-fashioned feel – in this case, also distinctively Irish. Raymond “Rayzer” and his younger sister Gloria were thrilled when their Uncle Ben first came to live with them. They quickly discover that the reason he’s there is not so good – he’s suffering from depression, too weighted down to joke and play with them as he used to. While hiding under the kitchen table listening their parents and grandmother talk, they learn that Dublin is under the influence of the black dog of depression, which has stolen Dublin’s funny bone. While the adults mean it as a metaphor, the children believe it to be real and set out at night to find and defeat the black dog. They are helped by their teenage neighbor Ernie, who admits that he has recently taken a job as a vampire. (Why a vampire? Because vampires are cool, of course! Ernie jokes about drinking blood in a non-fatal to the drinkee way, but doesn’t do so at all during the story.) All the animals of the city are able to see the black dog and give clues to the children, and Raymond and Gloria are joined by crowds of other children whose family members have been affected by depression. Their only weapons are their determination and the word “brilliant.” This is a quirky book, including things like the random vampire and illustrations of the children’s imaginings such as a sleeping giant under the stairs that groans when they step on the wrong spot. It’s one that I quite enjoyed, but is definitely for readers who are in the right place for an adventure that’s half metaphor and half real fantasy adventure.

As always, this is my opinion, not that of the Cybils committee.

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The Wrinkled Crown

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Katy K.

Anne Nesbet is another author I discovered through the Cybils, before I was a judge. Her latest book is out this month and will be eligible for next year’s Cybils.

by Anne Nesbet. HarperCollins, 2015.

In the Wrinkled Hills is a town named Lourka, famous for a lute-like instrument also called a lourka. The town is in the Wrinkled Hills, where things that seem straightforward will suddenly “wrinkle” and go magical. In that town lives 12-year-old Linny, tethered to another girl her age since she was tiny, because Linny’s personal wrinkly talents tend towards music, which is decidedly dangerous. Naturally they’re best friends by now – but when Linny’s impulsiveness and desire to have a forbidden lourka puts her friend in danger instead of herself, she sets out on a quest to save her friend.

What at first seemed straightforward if challenging gets more complicated. Once out of the Wrinkled Hills, Linny discovers that she looks exactly like a girl of prophecy. One side wants to lock her up and the other to make her be the girl of prophecy – either of which will prevent Linny from rescuing her friend. She’s accompanied on the way by an annoying admirer – of the friend, not of Linny – and a cat which is part-living, part-machine.

The sweet cover might lead one to think that this is a sweet and straightforward tale. Sweet it is, but underneath that, Nesbet is tackling a number of thorny issues touching balance – balance between science and magic, between honoring tradition and finding what really works in the present, as well as balance in gender and its roles. As my son noted when looking at the cover, Linny is a very nice person to spend time with as well, and the deep thoughts are underlying an adventure with plenty of narrow and failed escapes, as well as mental and physical puzzles. This is a delight through and through.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC through Edelweiss.

Posted in books | Tagged musical fantasy, youth fantasy | 3 Comments

School for Sidekicks

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Katy K.

Can you have too many middle grade superhero novels? Not if they’re well done!

School for Sidekicks. The Academy of Metahuman Operatives #1 by Kelly McCullough. Feiwel and Friends, 2015.

Years ago, the Hero Bomb went off in St.Paul/Minneapolis, killing many and giving others superpowers. Now the Twin Cities are called just Heropolis, protected from the evil Hoods by the good Masks. 12-year-old Evan Quick is the biggest fan of the Mask’s most prominent hero, Captain Commanding. He plays the video games, drinks the MaskerAde soda, and had his birthday in the 3-D Mask simulation. But on one odd trip to the theme park, he experiences a strange tingling in costume-fitting machine and receives a real hero ring. And on his next school trip to the Mask Museum, he ends up saving Captain Commanding from his arch-nemesis, Spartanicus.

Before he knows what’s happened – literally, he’s unconscious – Evan is whisked away to Academy of Metahuman Operatives, where he meets a bunch of other superpowered teens. But as fast as he can decide he wants to be there, the life he’s always wanted loses its shine: his parents are completely opposed to him being there. Captain Commanding hates his guts. The only mask who will accept him as a sidekick-in-training is the washed-up recovering alcoholic Foxman. It’s also quite the downer to learn that Evan, like all the other recent students, only has sidekick level powers and will never be a full-fledged Mask. There are a lot of secrets to discover, and all the students will have to work together if they want to get anything done.

Cybils season is when I’m reading as fast as I can. So when I have a book that I’m still thinking about several books later, it’s a good sign. This is a book that in many ways follows the formula of being welcomed into the coveted secret organization, only to discover that many of the secrets aren’t happy ones. But McCullough still made me believe in Evan and his school. I appreciated the diversity of Evan’s team at school, even if, as Charlotte pointed out in her review, some of the diversity seems randomly assigned in “rainbow sprinkle” fashion, without backing it up with, say, related powers and background. I also approved of Foxman trying to be a good mentor to Evan despite having mostly given up the Mask business years earlier. The explanation for the constant battles between Masks and Hoods and the Hoods constant and easy escape from prison so often seen in comic books was quite clever. I really enjoyed seeing the teamwork between Evan and his new friends, though (perhaps going along with the complaint from earlier) I would have liked to have their characters fleshed out a little more.

This is a solid story, recommended to superhero fans middle grade and up. Try also Sidekicked by John David Anderson and Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities by Mike Jung.

As always, this is my personal opinion, not the Official Cybils Opinion.

Posted in books | Tagged superheroes, youth fantasy | 1 Comment

Scratch9: Cat of Nine Worlds

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Katy K.

Taking a quick break from my own middle grade speculative fiction Cybils reading to talk about the book I nominated for the elementary/middle grade graphic novel category.

Scratch9: Cat of Nine Worlds by Rob M. Worley and Joshua Buchanan. Hermes Press, 2015.
Scratch9 is a fun indy series that my family discovered at Kids Read Comics, the great little kids-and-teens con that’s in Ann Arbor every year. I was really happy when a new volume appeared in our house this fall! (Thanks, love!) In case you weren’t able to find volume one, The Pet Project, when I recommended it a couple of years ago, here’s a quick refresher: Scratch is a cat who has met all 8 of his other lives, very cool felines living in different times and places around the world. The evil and of course nefarious Dr. Schrödinger would like nothing better than to harness Scratch’s power for himself, which usually involves great danger for both Scratch and his beloved owner, Penelope.

In this volume, Scratch has snuck himself into Penelope’s suitcase as she’s off to Camp Robo. Penny is really smart and good with programming and robots, so this should be right up her alley – except that it turns out to be an elaborate trap set up by none other than Dr. Schrödinger. (Cue the scary music.) This time he has even more on his side – bigger computers, smart robots, and Strick, a cat much like Scratch who is out to make Dr. Schrödinger’s evil dreams come true. Scratch is blasted to the time of one of his other selves, and must make it through to all of his other lives, collecting the powerful 9-stones on the way, before he can get back to Penelope and stop Dr. S. Penny, though, far from waiting helplessly for Scratch to come back for her, is doing everything she can to turn Dr. Schrödinger’s robots against him and lead the way for Scratch to get back to her.

This is still a super-fun adventure series with broad appeal. The complication comes mostly from the time-travel, but even that is pretty straightforward. Mostly this is just fun with a big helping of pet friendship and loyalty, as Scratch and Penelope overcome all obstacles to get back together. The art is a classic crisp and clear cartoon style, full of energy and in full color. Buy it now – or ask your library to buy it now – as I’m afraid it will go out of print as quickly as its predecessor.

Posted in books | Tagged adventure, cats, youth graphic novels | 5 Comments