Classics Reimagined: The Grace of Wild Things and Moongarden

Posted on November 25, 2023 by Katy K.

Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden were two books that I read and reread more times than I could count as a child. I was very happy to see these two fantasy retellings in my Cybils nominations pile this year. They are quite different from each other, but both work whether or not you’ve read the originals.

Cover of The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett
Cover of Moongarden: Plotting the Stars 1: by Michelle A. Barry

The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett. Balzer + Bray, 2023. ISBN 978-0063142626. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available from Libby.

Here is a magical reimagining of Anne of Green Gables.  Orphaned Grace has decided to give up on the orphanage – she’s been rejected by so many prospective families because her unsettling gaze makes it clear that she’s a witch.  Figuring that if she’s going to be labeled a witch, she might as well get some training, she walks a great distance to the house in the woods that’s rumored to belong to a witch and offers to be her apprentice.  The witch is suitably witchy, with a grandmotherly appearance and excellent baking skills, the better to lure children into her oven.  She doesn’t want an apprentice, but Grace sweet-talks her into letting Grace stay on, even though Grace’s familiar, a raven called Windweaver, isn’t allowed in the house.  

In short order, Grace meets an annoying fairy boy called Rum, swears eternal friendship with the neighbor girl, Sareena Khalil, and has to make her way at the village school. At the same time, she has just a year to work through all 100 spells in the witch’s spellbook to earn a full apprenticeship, trying to find increasingly impossible ingredients. 

There’s a darker edge to this story as the witch (who’s forgotten her real name) really does eat children, though no named children are harmed – sensitive readers be forewarned. “Matthew” is mostly out of the picture, so that his sweetness isn’t there to balance the witch’s tartness.  Still, Grace’s eternal optimism, big feelings, love of poetry, and belief that she can be a witch and use her powers for good carry the day.  Since you don’t need to know the original to understand this one, it’s an engrossing read both for lovers of Anne and those unfamiliar with her.  

Moongarden: Plotting the Stars 1: by Michelle A. Barry. Pixel+Ink, 2022. ISBN 978-1645951261. Read from a library copy.

In a future where plants have turned toxic and forced humans to escape Earth, 12-year-old Myra is a first year student at the Scientific Lunar Academy of Magic, S.L.A.M. for short.  She’s having a tough time – she’s in a room full of girls who don’t like her, had a fight with her best friend shortly before leaving, and is regularly skipping classes to escape the intense pressure she feels.  The pressure is because her parents are both famous Number Whisperers, whose magic focused around numbers.  Myra is good at math, sure, but she doesn’t have that critical magical ability that makes for a Creer.  Without that, she’ll be kicked out of the school and disappoint her parents forever.  

On a day when she’s exploring an abandoned part of the school, she finds a hidden laboratory, and with the help of a small and friendly robot, Bin-Ro, she’s able to open another secret door and find a secret garden.  A whole garden, when just having seeds is enough to condemn people to prison!  As she spends more time around the unfriendly director due to her school troubles, she learns that the food supply of the school and perhaps the solar system is at risk – but that she might have the forgotten skills to save them.  Along the way, Myra will have to make friends with people who can help her – Canter, a popular older boy, one of her roommates, and even one of the Reps, or cloned servants that she’s been taught to ignore.  

It took me a little while to see the Secret Garden parallels here – there is a secret garden, and Bin-ro is a cute substitute for the friendly robin in the original, but Myra isn’t an orphan and the other kid characters don’t align directly with those in the original.  The stakes are also a lot higher here, as Myra is trying to recover knowledge lost after being made illegal decades earlier.  It ends in a quite cliff-hangery way, so you might want to have book 2, Seagarden, on hand when reading this one.  It was released October 2023, and I definitely want to track it down once I’m done with my Cybils reading.  

For more middle grade classics remixed, try Breadcrumbs or The Real Boy by Anne Ursu or The Gilded Girl and The Tarnished Garden, both by Alyssa Colman.

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8 Baking Fantasy Books

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Katy K.

I love baking and reading about baking, so I’ve gradually put this list of baking-related fantasies together over the past seven years. It’s finally long enough to deserve its own list rather than just “if you like this, you may also enjoy…” at the bottom of the other posts. The books range from stand-alones to trilogies, from kingdom-changing historical to personal scale contemporary and lots in between. I hope you enjoy them – and are maybe inspired to bake something yourself!

Graphic of covers for the 8 middle grade fantasy books listed below. Text reads "Baking fantasy books for middle grade readers."

Baker’s Magic by Diane Zahler. Ebook available through Hoopla. Standalone. Orphaned Bee learns she has baking magic as she starts an apprenticeship – only to find that’s what she has to defend the princess against a power-mad wizard.

A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby. First of a trilogy. Leo(nora) discovers that her family bakery sells magical baked goods and is determined to learn how herself, with hilariously disastrous results.

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby. First of a trilogy. Young dragon Aventurine sneaks out of her family’s cave, only to be turned into a human by a frightened wizard. What will save her is friendship – and her growing love of chocolate.

Just a Pinch of Magic by Alechia Dow. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby. I’m still waiting to read this 2023 Cybils nominee. I hear it involves a girl trying to save her family’s magical bakery by casting a spell that goes terribly wrong, in a story that involves making new friends and trying to set up single parents for romance.

Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca. Audiobook available through Libby and Hoopla. First of a duology. Youngest child Mimi feels like she’s lost in the crowd and tries to win a baking prize from a local bakery. Mayhem breaks loose, and she discovers that the new bakery is run by none other than Titania, Queen of Fairies.

A Taste of Magic by J. Elle. Book 2 due out 2024. Kyana finds out she has magic that she can channel through baking, but when her inner city magic school is at risk of closing due to lack of funds, she’ll have to use magic, baking, and her brains to come up with a solution to save it.

Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby. Book 2 of the trilogy is out now – book 3 is due out in 2024. Winnie only decides to open the family cookbook due to a school rivalry – but when she does, she’s able to see demons around her, and learns that her family’s traditional mooncakes can defeat them.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby. Standalone. Orphaned Mona, an apprentice baker with small baking magic, suddenly has to find out why all the magical people in the city are disappearing, before it happens to her, too. This is both quite dark for middle grade, and very funny.

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Cozy Middle Grade Fantasies: The Lost Library and the House of the Lost on the Cape

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Katy K.

Here are two lovely, cozy Cybils-nominated middle grade fantasy books that are perfect for reading aloud as well as solo. Remarkably, both of them achieve this while being set in the aftermath of significantly traumatic events – and both have cats who play important roles.

Cover of The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
over of the House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba. Translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa.

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. Feiwel & Friends, 2023. ISBN Feiwel & Friends. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available from Libby.

A boy, a cat, and maybe a ghost join to bring a small town’s library back in this sweet story.  Mortimer the cat has two jobs: keeping the mice away from the food in the Historical House, and watching over the cart of library books that are all that’s left of the collection since the library burned down. But when one of the secret residents of the Historical House, Al, builds a Little Free Library in front of the house and puts the old books on it, Mortimer decides to stand guard by the books instead.

Al, the former Assistant Librarian, spends her time in the house making applesauce, tea, and cheese trays to give to Ms. Scoggin, the ghostly librarian, and Mr. Brock, the other ghost, as well as remembering times in the old library both good and bad. 

Evan is the kid who first discovers the Little Free Library and works to solve the mystery of why the books in it are all stamped as having been returned to the library the very day of the fire, why one of them was checked out in the name of a bestselling author he doesn’t think is from their town, and why the site of the library has been allowed to go to weeds and never been rebuilt.  Also, why his father won’t answer questions about this topic.  

Despite the trauma of the fire, this is a sweet and cozy mystery, with partnerships developing between Mortimer the cat and the mice he’s formerly rerouted, Al learning more about herself, and Evan learning about his father and exploring with his friend, whose parents have kept him extremely sheltered until elementary school graduation, which happens during the book.  

The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwabe. Translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa. Illustrated by Yukiko Saito. Yonder, 2023. ISBN 978-1632063373.  First published as Misaki no Mayoiga by Kodansha, 2015. Read from a library copy.  Ebook available from Libby. Audiobook due out April 2024.

This story from the author of Temple Alley Summer (and many other beloved Japanese books that haven’t been translated) begins, as an opening note tells us, the day in March of 2011 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the area of Tōhoku in Japan.  In the chaos following, we focus on three people, all meeting in the same gym that’s being used as an emergency shelter. Kiwa is an elderly woman who was just preparing to move, of necessity, from living on her own to living in an eldercare home. Yui is a young woman who decided to use the chaos of the earthquake to run away from her abusive husband, while newly orphaned Hiyori (about 8) was being sent off to live with an uncle she’d never met.  Despite her fear of her husband, Yui takes charge of Hiyori when she’s separated from her social worker, and Kiwa claims them both as family at the shelter, saving them both from unwanted discovery.  Kiwa is quick to make friends and is able to find an empty traditional-style house overlooking the sea for them to fix up and live in. Yukiko Saito’s pencil illustrations are beautifully helpful here, showing the characters, the traditional tatami mat room with its square sunken fireplace, as well as scenes from the stories Kiwa tells Yui and Hiyori.

At the beginning, this appears to be entirely realistic fiction, punctuated by Kiwa’s stories about the legends of the area.  As time goes on, though, it becomes clear that Kiwa has personal connections to the spirits of the area – and that the earthquake or the subsequent tsunami have let something dangerous loose.  It will take all three of them working together to stop whatever it is – and Yui and Hiyori will need to face their personal demons to do this. Hiyori’s trauma has expressed itself in her being unable to speak, which makes this especially challenging.  Though Yui’s abuse all happened before the story begins and we never get any graphic scenes of it even in flashbacks, I feel like it’s a rare and important acknowledgment that intimate partner violence can happen, and that escape and healing are possible.  It’s also rare in having an adult character like Yui who needs to grow herself- though I see that the movie adaptation made her a teen.  Hiyori also goes from being a very passive character in the beginning to being able to take personal initiative as the story progresses. Even before I knew about the adaptation, the book felt to me like a Miyazaki film, with its wonderful found family, a strong sense of place with lots of nature, and magic slowly seeping through into everyday life. ‘Even before I knew about the adaptation, the book felt to me like a Miyazaki film, with its wonderful found family, a strong sense of place with lots of nature, and magic slowly seeping through into everyday life. 

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Dog Stories: Elf Dog and Owl Head and The Eyes and the Impossible

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Katy K.

Continuing on with my Cybils reading, I have two beautifully illustrated stories of dogs, both great for reading aloud as well as independent reading. I confess I’m more of a cat person myself, but these doggos still won me over.

Cover of Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson
Cover of The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers

Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson. Illustrated by Junyi Wu. Candlewick, 2023. ISBN 9781536222814. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available from Libby.

Under the Mountain, the Elves hunt with their magical dogs for the giant Wyrm… but outside the mountain, Clay knows nothing of this and is just trying to survive quarantine, with the unbearable pressure of being too close to his family and their troubles – sibling fights, lost income, not enough computer access for school, not able to see even his best friend.  When the strange white dog with even stranger ears appears, everything gets better.  Elf Dog* is always  filled with joy and leads him on trails to places Clay has never seen before in all his exploring, including to a town of owl-headed people who dress as if it were still the 1600s.  Making friends with an owl-headed boy improves his life even more.  But when the Folk under the Mountain realize that Elf Dog has escaped, and the Owl Headed-people realize that their child is breaking their rules, the two boys have to work together to save Elf Dog while staying safe themselves.

M.T. Anderson’s books often combine familiar elements in original and very unexpected ways – his Pals in Peril series being a favorite example.  This is also original and yet completely different from his previous books.  It is that perfect speculative fiction combination of the recognizable fairy tale elements with the struggle of the pandemic, the joy of dogs, the out-of-the-blue owl-headed people – an engaging plot arc with a resonant emotional truth.  Junyi Wu’s stippled black-and-white illustrations are the perfect complement. You can read more about the history behind the book in an interview with M.T. Anderson at a Fuse #8 Production.
*I am sure that Elf Dog had a name, but sadly, I returned the book before taking notes and can no longer remember it.

The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. Illustrated by Shawn Harris. Knopf, 2023. ISBN 978-1524764203.  Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available from Libby.

Johannes is a free dog who lives in a great park, running all over as the Eyes for the Bison, the wisest creatures in the park, who live in an enclosure.  The philosophical seagull Bertrand, shy squirrel Sonja, clumsy pelican Yolanda, and the raccoon Angus act as Assistant Eyes, working together to keep up with the happenings of the park to keep everything safe for its animal residents.  Their peaceful way of life is put at risk as Johannes is first kidnapped by some Trouble Travelers, as the animals call them, and then accidentally brings himself to the attention of the park guards, who are very concerned about the stray dog loose in the park.  These experiences, though, encourage Johannes to come up with a dangerous and selfless plan to help his friends. 

It takes a lot to do an animal story well – it’s very easy for the animals to feel too much like people, or for the story to verge too much towards either violence or sugary sweetness.  Here, the animals feel like animals, and the book feels epic without magic because of  Johannes’ poetic voice:

“I run like a rocket. I run like a laser. You have never seen speed like mine. When I run I pull at the earth and make it turn. Have you seen me? You have not seen me. Not possible. You are mistaken. No one has seen me running because when I run human eyes are blind to me. I run like light. Have you seen the movement of light? Have you?”

The Eyes and the Impossible by David Egger p 12

Johannes is very sure of himself and his important place in his world, but this confidence is broken down over the course of the story, as the learns how much bigger the world is than he thought, and that he is not truly invincible, as he’d always believed.  With meditations on freedom, community, and art alongside the adventures, I feel like this would make a good read-aloud.  I’d still want the print book on hand, though, for the gorgeous illustrations – classical landscape oil paintings to which artist Shawn Harris has added Johannes, matching the style of each one.  It’s also just been named one of Publisher’s Weekly best children’s books of 2023. This is one to be savored. 

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Monsters and Murder: Between Monsters and Marvels and Don’t Want to Be Your Monster

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Katy K.

Today I have for you two stories of monsters that, while taking readers along on adventures to solve murders, also ask them to question who the real monsters are.

Cover of Between Monsters and Marvels by Alyssa Wishingrad
Cover of Don't Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton

Between Monsters and Marvels by Alyssa Wishingrad. HarperCollins, 2023. ISBN 978-0063244870.  Read from a library copy. 10/15/23

Everyone on the island of Barrow’s Bay seemed to love Dare Coats’ mild-mannered father as much as they hate Dare herself.   Her father, the official monster hunter, never pushes back against those who argue that since no monsters have been seen in a century, they no longer need a monster hunter.  Dare, of course, picks fights with anyone who says he’s useless – until he dies under highly suspicious circumstances that could be either human or monster. Her mother quickly remarries the wealthy town mayor, who promptly burns all of Dare’s father’s papers.  And when Dare insists on investigating, she is shipped off to the dirty city on the mainland to live with her aunt, who lives in the  formerly popular theater she once starred in.  Once there, a still determined Dare finds herself struggling to know who to trust and where to look for more answers to her questions.  Can she trust her aunt’s loyal servant? The street urchin who turns up to help whenever she’s lost?  Or the owner of the rival theater across town who says he was friends with her father?  

This book contains a wonderfully dark Edwardian atmosphere, complete with a secret society, an old sailor with a mysterious background, striking factory workers, a child theater star, an adorable and cuddly animal of indeterminate breed and origin, a murder mystery, and a prickly heroine who is set on figuring things out for herself, no matter what anyone tells her.  It has larger themes of the power of stories to shape beliefs, and what happens when traditional stories are challenged.  

Don’t Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton. Read by Davin Babulal and Noah Beemer. Tundra Books, 2023. ISBN 978-1774880494. Listened to audiobook on Libby.

Mom and Mama try to keep life as normal as possible for 10-year-old Adam, his 14-year-old brother Victor, and their college-age older sib.  But things are not really normal for a family that is awake only at night, keeping windows tightly shuttered and the driveway concealed with branches during the day. Adam enjoys their homeschooling lessons and knows the stories of all their siblings, but is still frightened by the possibility of vampire hunters.  Victor, on the other hand, feels overly confined and wants to spend more time learning the “cool vampire stuff” their moms aren’t teaching them.  Even their meals come home in plastic tubes, carefully selected and siphoned by Mom, a phlebotomist. (Mama, a healer in times when vampires were more accepted, now works as an astronomer at the university.)

The two boys used to get along, but lately things have been rough.  One night, Victor sneaks Adam out to see a late-night showing of the “classic” (I feel old now) vampire movie “The Lost Boys”, conflict breaks out.  Victor wants to practice his skills by convincing the ticket vendor they’re old enough to get in; Adam is worried about the exposure.  Then, on the way home, they pass a bloody murder scene – and then learn that it’s part of a string of killings.  Adam is horrified and wants to help; Victor, with significant trauma around the mortals from his own past, doesn’t think the mortals deserve it.  But Adam feels strongly enough that he’s willing to sneak out, and in doing so, meets some mortal kids his own age who also want to find the murderer.  He might be able to help them – if he can do so without revealing his secret to them, and while keeping them a secret from his family.  

This is on the surface an homage to the campy vampire horror films of the past, and has plenty of fun scenes of the kids jumping through trees, but there’s a lot of nuance underneath. It ties the hatred of vampires in with antisemitism and other blind prejudice, subtly at first, but with growing strength, while still telling a taut and character-centered story.  This was so good, y’all!  My own kid isn’t into scary books enough to want to read it, but I passed the audiobook on to my love, who’s also enjoying it. 

For more monstrous middle grade reads, try Let the Monster Out by Chad Lucas, Secret of the Shadow Beasts by Diane Magras, The Monsters of Rookhaven by Pádraig Kenny, and The Magnificent Monsters of Cedar Street by Lauren Oliver.

These books have been nominated for the Cybils award.  These reviews reflect my opinion, not that of the Cybils committee.

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Haunted Houses: Finch House and Nightmare House

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Katy K.

Here are two stories of kids standing up to haunted houses and the horrors behind them – one more action-oriented and the other more introspective. Both of these books have been nominated for the Cybils Award, and these reviews reflect my personal opinion, not that of the full panel.

Cover of Finch House by Ciera Burch
Cover of Nightmare House by Sarah Allen.

Finch House by Ciera Burch. Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2023. ISBN 978-1665930543. Listened to audiobook on Libby. 10/18/23

11-year-old Micah is feeling melancholy over the last days of winter break, as her mother prepares to move them away from Micah’s beloved Poppop, with whom Micah is very close.  One of their favorite hobbies is “networking”- cruising around richer neighborhoods to salvage their cast-offs.  The only place they never go is a cul-de-sac with an abandoned Victorian house at the end of it – a house whose faded walls and turret have always intrigued Micah, especially when she learns that it was originally built by a Black entrepreneur, before being absorbed by a whites-only neighborhood.

On a day of exploring on her bike, Micah finds Finch House fixed up and a white boy her own age, Theo, sitting in the snow. Eventually, they go in for cocoa, and Micah feels like her grandfather’s warnings were overblown.  Until the next day, when her Poppop goes missing, his truck left parked outside Finch House…

Now the creepiness that Micah and Theo wanted to pretend wasn’t there returns in full force, as they can both hear whispers behind the wall and have found multiple stories of children going missing in Finch House over the years… including Micah’s own great-aunt.  Will Micah be able to rescue her Poppop and keep Theo and herself from being trapped in Finch House themselves?

This was a wonderfully exciting and creepy story, beautifully read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, whose expressive voice I recognized immediately.  While it does mention the racism of redlining in passing, most of the story focuses on secrets both within Micah’s family and in Finch House’s past to solve the mystery behind its hauntings and disappearances.  Micah, in turn, gains confidence that will help her in her near future.  

Nightmare House by Sarah Allen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. ISBN 978-0374390952.  Read from a library copy. 10/18/23

11-year-old Penny was fearless until the Halloween when she was 7.  Then, she thought it would be nice to give the monster under her bed a candy, and she ate the candy apple it gave her back.  Since then, with a bitter apple seed lodged inside her, she’s had trouble sleeping because the Fear Maker with his too-pale skin and red eyes is always lurking in her dreams, showing her the progress of the house he’s building in the woods and making subtle threats.  She’s seen the house in the waking world, which was bad enough.  But now that her beloved poet grandmother has had to move to a nursing home, now that her parents are so worried about money that she can’t talk to them – now she’s starting to see people with blank eyes that mean the Fear Maker has taken their souls.  The Fear Maker tells her he’s getting closer and that she’s too stupid to do anything to stop him.  The one hope Penny has is the magical garden she finds from time to time, where giant sunflowers and blue skies give her space to breathe easily.  And better, the boy her own age, Aarush,  who likes to hang out with her grandmother while his mother works at her home is sympathetic, if only she can trust him with her truth.  

First-person chapters are interspersed with poems on black pages describing Penny’s fears. The poetry is in a range of styles and Penny discusses some of the techniques she uses making them tiny literary studies as well as tools that Penny and her grandmother use to fight back against their monsters. I would personally rather have had the garden without the kindly bearded Gardener who shows up to give Penny wise advice from time to time, but the story was still absolutely chilling, despite or perhaps because of its very small focus on the people right around Penny.   I would not have been able to read this as a child, and even now, it was hard for me to read at bedtime. 

For more books for the season, see my lists of 8 Spooky Middle Grade Books and 8 Eerie Middle Grade Books.

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Nominate Me for the Cybils 2023!

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Katy K.

Dear readers – it’s Cybils time! Being a panelist always brings with it the joy of stacks of books to read – and the fear that those stacks will be missing important titles. Here are some of the books that I love that haven’t yet been nominated, as well as several that I’d really like to read and would love for you to nominate so I *have* to read them. Just as a reminder, anyone can nominate one – and only one – book in each of the Cybils categories, so this works best with lots of support from lots of people!

Books I’ve read

Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction

Middle Grade Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

  • Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball by Jason June

Books I Want to Read

  • Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy
  • The Dark Lord’s Daughter by Patricia C. Wrede
  • Eagle Drums by Nasugraq Rainey Hopson
  • The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba
  • Nimbus by Jan Eldredge
  • Serwa Boatang’s Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem by Roseanne Brown
  • Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  • The Witch of Wild Things by Rachel Vasquez Gilliland
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Adventures with Djinn: Nayra and the Djinn and Kingdom over the Sea

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Katy K.

Dear readers, it’s the end of September, which mean the beginning of Cybils time! I’m excited once again to be serving on the Round 1 Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction panel. And as usual, I’m trying to write up reviews of the many, many books I’ve read and loved and not yet gotten to reviewing before nominations open up on October 1 and I start reading even more books I’ll want to share with you. Stay posted for those details, and meantime, be aware that both of these excellent books are eligible to be nominated!

Cover of Nayra and the Djinn by Iasmin Omar Ata
Cover of Kingdom over the Sea by Zohra Nab

Nayra and the Djinn by Iasmin Omar Ata. Viking, 2023. ISBN 9780593117118. Ebook available through Libby. Read from a library copy. 

In this graphic novel, set entirely during the holy month of Ramadan, our main character Nayra is struggling with lots of things – trying to fit in in school (middle school, in general; trying to avoid difficulties especially when she’s lightheaded and clumsy from fasting, dealing with friends, and dealing with her family.  finds relief and new perspective on these when she bonds with a djinn – who it turns out has secrets of their own.  The art has a mostly pastel palette, with frequent use of overall tints and beautiful decorative in-between panels that reminded me a little bit of Heartstopper, though this is aimed at a younger audience.  The plot is streamlined because of the short space, the story and art blending together beautifully and effectively.  Plus, I’ve never read a book set during Ramadan, a valuable perspective both for the many Muslim kids who haven’t seen this important holiday in their books as well as kids unfamiliar with it.  In addition, though, it serves as an excellent framework for the story, neatly holding all the events of the book. This is well worth looking at. 

Kingdom over the Sea by Zohra Nabi. Margaret K. McElderry, 2023. ISBN 978166531083. Read from a library copy. 

12-year-old Yara has grown up in London, but when her mother dies leaving behind a letter with strange instructions, Yara has to travel to the magical land of Zehaira.  One catch: the letter includes directions to the sorceress Leyla Khatoun, but when Yara arrives, she discovers that not only does her modern clothing stand out in this ancient Middle-Easternish world, but sorcery has been outlawed.  What was once the sorcerer’s quarter is now the alchemist’s quarter, so that following her mother’s instructions establishes Yara as a dangerous suspect.  Even more unfortunately, the very little she’s discovered makes her certain that the alchemists are making Nefarious Plots that must be stopped.  Still, she meets a persistently friendly black cat and a woman who is able to point her in the right direction.  There are new friends, people to win over, a jinn who usually disguises himself as a goat, and hidden powers to discover – all while avoiding the alchemists.  The bare plot description sounds familiar, yet all the elements and characters blended together so perfectly for me that I was drawn in almost immediately and didn’t want to put the book down.  It was simultaneously epic, funny, and a heartfelt exploration of self-discovery.

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Back to Magic School: a Middle Grade Book List

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Katy K.

Now that school is back in swing where I live, I’ve been itching to put together a list of the great magic school fantasies that have (mostly) come out since I put together my Magical Middle School list. Unlike that list, this one includes only books with school specifically designed for magical kids – some you might want to go to and some you definitely wouldn’t. As usual, links are to my full reviews. Let me know in the comments if you have or want to read any of these, or if you have other titles you’d want to add to this list!

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. – Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Conjure Island by Eden Royce. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Ice Wolves. Elementals Book 1 by Amie Kaufman. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Nevermoor: the Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun by Tọlá Okogwu. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

A Taste of Magic by J. Elle.

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu. Ebook and audiobook available through Hoopla.

Wildseed Witch by Marti Dumas. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

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For Real: Nikhil Out Loud, On Air with Zoe Washington, and The Many Masks of Andy Zhou

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Katy K.

Fantasy is the genre I return to again and again, but these realistic middle grade picks are all books I’m excited to share with you!

Cover of Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy.
Cover of On Air with Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
Cover of The Many Masks of Andy Zhou by Jack Cheng

Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy. Read by the author. Balzer + Bray, 2022. ISBN 978-0063091924 Listened to audiobook on Libby. 

Nikhil’s story opens with a bang, as he’s accepting an award for his long-standing role as the star of a wildly popular animated series, Raj Reddy in Outer Space. Things get rockier as his mother moves them from California to small-town Ohio to help care for his sick grandfather. Now, not only does he have to adjust to a new school, but he also has to deal with his grandfather’s traditional Indian views around homosexuality. At school, joining the drama club seems like a natural fit – but studio voice acting is a whole lot different from getting up on stage in front of people. Managing his stage fright is even more complicated by his having a crush on one of the other drama club members, and again when local parents find out he’s gay and start protesting the “homosexual agenda”. And on top of everything else, puberty is coming – which feels like death for a kid whose identity revolves around playing a kid with a kid’s voice. Can Nikhil figure out who he is without Raj Reddy – and even more importantly, stand up for himself?

Writing all these elements down makes it sound like a very serious story, but Nikhil is an energetic, lighthearted type despite the angst. This book is filled with so much hilarity that I laughed out loud constantly at Nikhil’s physical and verbal missteps. There are some tear-jerking moments as Nikhil and his grandfather develop their relationship, and a sweet, low-key romance. Maulik Pancholy reads this book perfectly, as someone with enough similar experiences, including the voice acting. And if you haven’t already, be sure to go back to read his The Best at It.

On Air with Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. Read by Bahni Turpin. Harper Audio, 2023. ASIN B0B1N73K1R. Listened to audiobook on Libby. 

Zoe might have expected life to just keep on getting better after she proved her incarcerated father’s innocence in From the Desk of Zoe Washington. But even though her dad is now out of prison, the road to a normal life is a long one, with many barriers. Many people don’t want to hire or give an apartment to someone who was in prison – he has no work or credit history, even if he was ultimately proven innocent. And while he’s content to accept things as they are, Zoe isn’t. When she learns of his dream to start his own restaurant with her, she’s determined to make it happen. It will take possibly even more effort, learning, and help from her friends and family to make a plan and find the funding. Along the way, she – and we – learn more about the many difficulties faced by all people trying to build a life after prison.

As with the first book, Marks does a great job of blending these serious topics with Zoe’s relationships balancing her old friendships as things shift, making a new friend, and trying to maintain the bond she’s always had with the stepfather she considers her dad while building a new one with Marcus, her biological father. Zoe’s using a podcast to help spread the word about her efforts, and the details about technology and building an audience will interest young readers who want to spread their own stories through this popular medium. All in all, this is another engaging story about a young women I’d be happy to keep reading about.

The Many Masks of Andy Zhou by Jack Cheng. Dial Books, 2023. ISBN 978-0525553823. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Andy’s lived a safe, predictable life for quite some time now.  And then, going into sixth grade, lots of things change all at once.  His father’s parents, Hao Bu and Ah Dia, come to visit from Shanghai.  His best friend, Cindy, whose family shares a duplex with his, decides that they should both bleach their hair and try out for the Movement club at school – neither of which Andy is really interested in.  And for the first time, Andy and Cindy don’t have all their classes together.  In science, he’s paired with a Khaldean boy named Jameel, who is at first the bane of his existence, calling Andy “Irish” for his orange hair.  

All of these changes – any one of them probably manageable on their own – swirl into the pattern of this life, causing a string of further changes. Andy develops anxiety with a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) – but also he slowly builds new friendships, learns things about people he thought he knew, develops his own artistic skills, and begins slowly to push his family towards talking about the difficult things they’ve always avoided.  There’s a lot going on, yet all of it feels real, without the complexity of real life stripped down to focus on just one big problem.  It deals with several weighty topics, including bullying, discrimination, eating disorders, and family health problems while still having many threads of joy, laughter, and connection.  I also loved and recognized the distinctive metro Detroit setting, with its landmarks, snack foods, and ethnic mix.  Also, the movement teacher goes unremarked by the prefix Mx., which is awesome. This is just all-around good, and reminds me a little of 2021 Cybils Finalist Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas.

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