alibrarymama

Velveteen vs.

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Katy K.

My love is always on the look-out for new superhero-themed books to listen to, and this is one that he bought and loved so much that he burned it onto to CD for me to listen to in my car, and hounded me until I did. Now that I have, I’ve been seeing Seanan McGuire pop up all sorts of places, like writing the introduction for Speculative Fiction 2013, edited by the Book Smugglers.

Velveteen vs. the Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire. Read by Allison McLemore. Audible Studios, 2013. Print ISiFic Press, 2012.
Velma Martinez, aka Velveteen, was bought by the Super Patriots, Inc., as a young teen. Her parents were happy to take the large payout with the promise of more to come and freedom from the difficulty of raising a super-powered child. She grew up a member of the Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, following strict rules, and given as much training in maintaining a marketable media presence as using her superpowers. She bonded closely with her teammates: Action Dude (your regular flight and super-strength guy), Sparkle Bright (photon manipulator), and the Claw (half lobster due to his father’s genetic experimentation.) Velveteen herself has the power to animate stuffed animals and dolls – hence the gag-worthy bunny ears and tail Marketing forces her to wear. And then the team fell apart. Instead of signing a new contract when she turned 18, Velma quit the superhero life, trying to make it on her own with a series of minimum wage jobs. Now in her 20s, she’s got a car on her last legs and a desperate need to make it from California to Oregon, where the superhero laws will allow her to take shelter from the long arm of the Super Patriots, Inc. Marketing Department. On her way there, she’ll face a former team mate turned villain, a barista determined to use coffee and free wifi to open the world up to a realm of eternal shadow, and the new members of the Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division.

It sounds hilarious, and it is. These linked short stories (available in print and free on Seanan McGuire’s website) are filled with quirky yet believable characters and Velma’s struggles to live a normal life despite her upbringing and superpowers. But it also has a lot to say about how we treat our child heroes, using them up and spitting them out again when they fail to stay the innocent stars we want them to be, despite the harsh grown-up world we put them into. My love wishes the language were cleaner, so we could share it with our kids – there is a lot of foul language, mild violence, and no real sexual content, so I’d say it’s good for interested teens and up. Allison McLemore does a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life, from Action Dude’s all-American hero voice to Velma’s world-weary tones. I’m just sorry that the audio is only available from Audible, as I’d like to see it available from the library as well.

Velveteen vs. the Multiverse by Seanan McGuire. Read by Allison McLemore. Audible Studios, 2013. Print ISiFic Press, 2013.
Now ensconced as Portland’s official superhero, Velma/Velveteen has some fragile success and a whole lot of new challenges, from figuring out when it’s time to exchange real names with her new superhero boyfriend to trying out the alternate versions of her life in the Snow Queen’s mirrors. In one of them, she meets a displaced steampunk heroine, Victory Anna. The stakes are higher and everything is more intense as it might finally be time for Velveteen to take on the Marketing Department directly. It’s even better than the first volume, which is saying a lot. We’ll definitely be looking into more Seanan McGuire – I just saw that her latest, Sparrow Hill Road is on the hold shelf waiting for me to pick it up.

Posted in books | Tagged adult fantasy, audiobooks, diversity, superheroes | 5 Comments

The Real Boy

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Katy K.

This one falls in the “I wanted to read it when it first came out, but there were just too many good books!” category, even though I really enjoyed Ursu’s Breadcrumbs. I’m very glad I got around to it anyway!

The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. Walden Pond Press, 2013.
Oscar is the boy who serves Caleb the Magician and his bullying apprentice Wolf, in the small village of Barrow which supplies the magic for the glittering city of Asteri on the island of Aletheia, the last home of magic in the kingdom after the plague that wiped out most of the population and the magic. Though Wolf constantly belittles and bullies him while the Magician does nothing to stop it, Oscar actually understands more about magic than Wolf, sneaking into the library at night to read about the properties of plants and the history of magic. Oscar may not be happy, and he never expects to be able to formally do the things he loves, but at least he is secure in his place, hiding in the cellar and gardens, away from the baffling public world of people.

Then things start going wrong, as they are wont to do. Wolf is killed; Caleb’s hidden greenhouse is smashed. Oscar is given the paralyzing task of running Caleb’s shop while Caleb tries to figure out what is going on. He is befriended by Callie, the healer’s apprentice, who needs Oscar to help solve the problem of the rich children from the city who are inexplicably falling ill. Their search to solve the problem involves investigations into the purpose and cost of magic and what makes people human, all while fending off outraged nobles and a large, unidentifiable monster.

There are hints of Pinocchio in The Real Boy, though not enough to call it a retelling. Oscar’s difficulty with people is clearly autism spectrum disorder, though of course in the fantasy setting, it’s not labeled as such and is just a part of who Oscar is rather than “Oscar Overcomes ASD.” I loved the way Oscar and Callie’s strengths and weaknesses played off of each other, and that they both found that they could do what needed to be done, even when it was well outside their comfort zones. The setting is beautifully detailed, a world where, again without it being a Thing, everyone is a person of color. Despite the monster and its smashing, this is a reflective story that will appeal most to those who like a story focused on character and setting. I’m not sure, alas, that that would be my son – but it’s certainly welcome to see a story with a thoughtful boy protagonist. At any rate, this is a gem of a book that deserves to be widely read.

Other thoughts on the real boy:
The Book Smugglers
Sonderbooks

Posted in books | Tagged diversity, youth fantasy | 5 Comments

Small Move, Big Change

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Katy K.

When I went to PLA in March, one of the sessions I went to was on the most popular kinds of nonfiction books for adults, the Top Five of the Nonfiction 5. Unsurprisingly, self-help is a perennial favorite category (if not one recognized by Dewey), and one of the trending hot themes right now is the power of habit. It just so happened that I’d already put this one (still on order at the time) on hold for myself.

Small Move, Big Change by Caroline L. Arnold. Penguin, 2014.
Most people, Arnold contends, make a few of the standard five resolutions every rear. Every New Year’s they make them, and then, with feelings of deep guilt, realize a few months later that they’ve fallen off the wagon. The problem is that the resolutions – get in shape, lose weight, get organized – are too broad, with no real starting point. Instead, Arnold proposes a series of microresolutions. Pledge to take the stairs, or to let the cookies offered in the meetings go by, or to take care of the mail right away every day. Once this small change is so automatic you don’t have to think about it anymore – usually after a couple of months – you can move on to a new microresolution. Inching your way closer to your goals is ultimately faster and more successful than aiming for sweeping change!!!

Each of the chapters is filled with lots of upbeat stories of real people and how their problems were solved with microresolutions, which I found interesting, but they are also set up to make it easy to skim for the nuts and bolts if that’s what you want. The book starts off with chapters devoted to the parts of successful microresolutions, and then moves on to the most common problem areas, starting with sleep. I’m still looking for that magic bullet of a microresolution that will let me consistently get to bed on time, but overall, I found Arnold’s arguments powerful and convincing.

Posted in books | Tagged Adult Nonfiction, habit, self-help | 4 Comments

Curtsies & Conspiracies

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Katy K.

Curtsies & Conspiracies. Finishing School, Book the Second by Gail Carriger. Little, Brown and Company, 2013.
The students of the steampunk finishing school for future lady assassins of quality return in this second book in the series. Sophronia and the other first-year students are up against their first exams. When Sophronia does better than everyone else, she suddenly finds that none of her classmates will talk to her any more – not even her best friend Dimity. Sophronia’s natural reaction is to spend more time sneaking around, meeting her friend Soap in the engines and young genius Vieve. Then the girls are joined by some of the boys from the rival evil genius school, including handsome goth boy Felix Mersey. There’s a mysterious trip to London, codes hidden in embroidered throw pillows, and more mysteries that only Sophronia and her friends can solve.

I had two issues with this book. First, too much of the plot was resolved by meetings with characters who are central to her previously published adult trilogy (which starts with Soulless), but who are barely introduced here. It made sense to me, since I’ve read them, but I’m not sure that it would make as much sense to people who haven’t. Since this series is aimed at a younger audience, it needs to work on its own. Secondly, this book spends a lot of time on Sophronia’s two would-be beaux, pitting her best male friend Soap, whom she doesn’t see in a romantic light because of the large class difference, against the mysterious and untrustworthy Lord Felix Mersey. But as Sophronia makes it quite clear that she’s not ready for any romance yet, the whole thing seems a waste of time.

Those problems aside, this is still a very fun steampunk romp, full of intrigue, gadgets, and the importance of understanding the complicated rules of etiquette. I’ll still check in with the next volume, and hope the wrinkles in this one are ironed out.

Posted in books | Tagged steampunk, teen fantasy | Leave a comment

The Screaming Staircase

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Katy K.

This is the book that won the Cybils award for Middle Grade Speculative Fiction this year, reviewed in brief because this week is shaping up to be crazy.
The Screaming Staircase. Lockwood & Co. Book 1. by Jonathan Stroud. Disney-Hyperion. 2013.
Recently, England has been having Troubles with ghosts. Suddenly, they are everywhere, and lethal. Only kids can see them, and thus fight them, however, putting teens in demand as ghost-hunting agents. Lucy Carlyle joins one such organization, Lockwood & Co., headed by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood – only to discover that the company is on the brink of bankruptcy and disgrace. When one of her first missions with the team winds up with Lucy in possession of a locket haunted by the spirit of a murdered girl and the house it was found in burning down, things heat up even more. (eeks! Pun!)

This alternate-history story has a plot that keeps going like a rollercoaster, characters I could believe in, and is creepily atmospheric as all get-out. There’s something to appeal to all types of readers here – at least if the cover looks appealing in the first place. I was glad to be reading it on my work breaks rather than before bed at home, because it is scary – while none of the three members of our team die, there’s a fairly high body count over all. I think it’s still too intense for my nine-year-old, but this is perfect for older middle grade to teen reader looking for spooky, edge-of-the-seat suspense.

Posted in books | Tagged Armchair Cybils, Cybils, ghosts, youth fantasy | 2 Comments

Your Favorite Pirate and 48HBC

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Katy K.

Thank you to all the people who entered the giveaway for the Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate books! I hope you all had a great time with Children’s Book Week, and the rest of the stops on the hop, too. And thanks again to Renee of Mother Daughter Books and Katie of Youth Literature Reviews for coordinating the hop.

The winner of the giveaway, chosen by randomly generated number, is commenter #21, Charlotte of Charlotte’s Library, whose favorite pirates are those in Jupiter Pirates: the Hunt for the Hydra, a book I’ve really been wanting to read.

I was hoping to be able to announce a Pirate King, based on votes from the comments… but Captain Hook and Captain Jack Sparrow came out dead even at six votes each, with Blackbeard coming in a distant third with three votes. Other literary pirates that got votes, in case your pirate fans want more pirate books, were the pirates in the charming picture book Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon; and the star of Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy Bastien, a graphic novel with appeal for kids through adults.

For those who prefer their pirates historical, readers recommend you steer towards Blackbeard, Calico Jack Rackham, Bartholomew Roberts, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and Madam Ching.

In other news, it’s almost time for the 9th Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge, hosted again this year by Pam of Mother Reader, and focusing this year on diversity in children’s literature. Here’s my reading list so far – please feel free to chime in with suggestions!
Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda
The Great Green Heist by Varian Johnson
Bad Luck Girl by Sarah Zettel
Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Menagerie by Tui Sutherland
Nightingale’s Nest by Nikki Loftin
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Avatar gns by Gene Luen Yang
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow

Posted in Blog | Tagged 48 hour book challenge, giveaways, Kid Lit Giveaway Hop, pirates | Leave a comment

Palace of Spies

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Katy K.

Have I mentioned before that Sarah Zettel is a favorite of mine? Bad Luck Girl, the final book in her American Fairy trilogy (after Dust Girl and Golden Girl)is coming out at the end of this month!!! I pre-ordered it today, along with Varian Johnson’s The Great Greene Heist, which is coming out the same day.

My love got this one for me for my birthday a while back, where it sadly went unread for a while because I owned it and had a large pile of library books.

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
This is the first Zettel book I’ve read that doesn’t have a sci-fi or fantasy element, though I’d hesitate to call it serious historical fiction. There’s some depth – I’d hardly expect less from Zettel – but for the most part, this is a madcap spy adventure.

Margaret Preston Fitzroy, aka Peggy, lives with her cold Uncle Pierpont and her beloved cousin Olivia. When her uncle betroths Peggy to a rich and handsome but abusive gentleman, Peggy rebels – only to find herself cast out into the street without even her pocket money. In desperation, she turns to a brand-new acquaintance, Mr. Tinderflint, who claims to have known her mother. He seems to be a foolish aging dandy, but offers her a position as a spy in the royal court. After some rigorous training with a pair of unpleasant people – card playing from Mr. Peele, clothing and etiquette with Mrs. Abbott – Peggy is sent to court pretending to be the recently deceased (at home, away from court) Lady Francesca Wallingham, a young lady-in-waiting to the Princess in the court of George I.

Here the plot both gets more exciting and more implausible. Really – the other ladies in waiting, the Princess, and even Lady Francesca’s secret lover are all supposed to believe that Peggy is Francesca, just because she has roughly the same build and coloring and the fashion involves heavy make-up? I had to just set this aside for the rest of the story to work. The list of things Peggy should know and doesn’t keeps growing, as she tries to figure out what side her spymasters might be on, what secrets Francesca herself was hiding – and if she actually died of natural. The plots are tangled; the fashion and gossip are epic; there is a pleasurable bit of romance. As always, Zettel pays meticulous attention to historical details, educating the reader about the times along with Peggy.

There are some intense moments in what’s otherwise a light, enjoyable read – an attempted rape near the beginning, Peggy witnessing a couple having sex (I wondered at the people in question for their choice of locale), and some named characters dying violently.

Honestly, I am so in love with Callie and her story that it’s hard for me to be as fond of this book – and perhaps it’s not surprising, fantasy fan that I am, that I prefer Zettel’s fantasy books. But – this is still an awfully fun book, more in the vein of the Gallagher Girls series than your typical serene and serious historical.

Posted in books | Tagged historical fiction, sarah zettel, spies, teen fiction | 2 Comments

The Maze of Bones

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Katy K.

As we were once again stuck waiting for the next book in our series to be returned, I took our teen librarian’s advice on an audiobook for my son and I to listen to.

The Maze of Bones. The 39 Clues Book 1. by Rick Riordan. Read by David Pittu. Scholastic Audio, 2008
So, the 39 Clues. I’d heard of it. A Great Big Long Series! With four spin-off series! Each book by a different Famous Children’s Author! Exciting action! Tie-ins! A web site with games! The chance to win real money yourself!!! Honestly, it all seemed like too much hype – with so much activity surrounding the books, would the story itself be any good? The whole series never really registered as one to bother reading.

But there I was, in desperate need of an audio book right then, and I gave it a try. Maybe it would work for my son even if it didn’t work for me. Here are the basics of the plot:
Amy and Dan Cahill, aged 12 and 11, are orphaned and impoverished members of a large, rich family. Their beloved grandmother, Grace, whom they spent every weekend with, has just died. Her will gives every member of the family a choice: either take a million dollars right then, or take the first clue in a series for a chance to win fame and an even bigger fortune. The four branches of the Cahill family have members on every continent, and their deceased members include just about every famous person ever. That means the search will involve learning more about famous people and places in Cahill history, starting here with Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia and Paris. Amy and Dan, deciding that Grandma Grace was counting on them to solve the mystery for even more mysterious reasons, embark on the quest, with the help of their conveniently multilingual au pair, Nellie. There is danger to be avoided at every turn as our heroes must use their wits both to solve the clues and to stay away from the ruthless cousins also on the hunt.

As might have been predicted, the boy very much enjoyed the book. He’s a big fan of Rick Riordan and (unlike me) of high-action plot, and also very interested in history, so even though there wasn’t the fantasy element that’s usually his favorite, he was a happy camper. We looked up pictures of several of the places mentioned in the book to Amy and Dan are Neutral Characters in the age and ethnicity game, but the rest of the family included people of many different countries and skin colors, which the narrator did a fine job of reflecting. Nellie is the only person possibly of color who didn’t betray or try to trap the kids in the first book – I’m going to hope that’s more because everyone but Nellie is out to get our guys than anything else. The black-and-white nature of the characterizations was my least favorite part of the book, but didn’t bother the boy.

With a series like this written by so many authors, it’s hard to know what kind of consistency they’re able to maintain across the books. They do seem to vary widely in length, with book three only 156 pages and some of the later ones on the shelf looking decidedly fat. I’m hoping that since the earlier ones at least are mostly under 200 pages, they’ll be short enough for the boy to feel up to reading them to himself, now that he’s already liked the first one. In any case, if you’re looking for fast-paced bibliocrack for middle grade readers with some underlying educational value, this series is one to try.

Posted in books | Tagged youth audiobooks, youth fiction, youth mystery | 1 Comment

Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Katy K.

Kidnapped. Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate Book 3. by Jan Burchett. & Sara Vogler. Trafalgar Square Publishing, 2014
The Deadly Trap. Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate Book 4. by Jan Burchett. & Sara Vogler. Trafalgar Square Publishing, 2014
Sam Silver might look like an ordinary boy, but he has an exciting secret – one of his distant ancestors was a pirate. Now, whenever he rubs the magic gold coin the ancestor left behind, Sam is magically transported back to 1706 aboard the pirate ship Sea Wolf. (The biggest hitch is that Sam can’t control when he gets sent back to his own time.) On board ship, he’s part of the regular crew, and his two best friends cover for his frequent absences – Charlie, a girl disguised as a boy to escape her wicked stepfather, and Fernando, a boy of Afro-Caribbean heritage (I think) – but clearly not white, and beautifully illustrated on the cover of book 3. Once there, it’s an exciting, non-stop adventure until Sam gets pulled back to his own time. This is the third book of the series, but I thought the authors did a good job of catching readers up with the backstory without needing to read the first two books. I received these books from the publisher in exchange for honest reviews.

In Kidnapped, the Sea Wolf is attacked by another ship. When the smoke clears, they realize that Charlie is missing! Together, they realize that it must have been Charlie’s conniving stepfather, who needs Charlie so he can take over her fortune. The captain is willing enough to set sail to rescue her, but once they get to the right island, he’s a little too cautious for Sam and Fernando. They set off on their own in the middle of the night to rescue the third member of their trio!

In Book 4, The Deadly Trap, Sam discovers that there is a traitor on board the Sea Wolf. He’s able to figure out who the culprit is – but the rest of the crew thinks that Sam is making a false accusation to cover up his own guilt. Can Sam prove his innocence before it’s too late???

It’s difficult to find chapter books that work for my boy, who reads at grade level but listens much, much higher. (I’ve noticed myself that many early chapter books have a plot that could be told much more succinctly.) This usually boils down to him being too bored to finish books at his reading level, while his reading pace is too slow to make it through the longer, older middle grade books that he’s actually interested in reading. Even if we find a prose book at his level that he likes enough to finish, he’s never been interested enough to go on to a sequel. So when he finished Kidnapped and went straight on to The Deadly Trap, I was ready to jump up and down, and promptly told our youth fiction librarian that she needed to buy the whole series. (She’s a very good egg about this.) They are already going out quite briskly here.

I can’t give this one a diversity tag, as Sam, white and male, is the only point-of-view character. But as so many books of this type start with an all-white cast, with all of the sympathetic characters matching whichever gender the series is marketed to, I will definitely give this series kudos for including diversity of both ethnicity and gender in the supporting cast.

This is a strong early chapter book series for pirate-lovers. The books are a little longer than most early chapter books, but still with plenty of illustrations. It’s a solid choice for third graders, with lots of appeal for older and younger kids around that age as well. My son and I liked them enough that we decided to give away both of the books – see my Kidlit Giveaway Hop post for details. Enter the giveaway now through May 18!
[Edited to correct U.S. publisher info and link to the giveaway, 5/13/14]

Posted in books | Tagged Early Chapter Books, pirates, time travel, youth fantasy | 3 Comments

Kidlit Giveaway Hop 2014: Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Katy K.

It’s Children’s Book Week, and once again, I’m proud to be participating in the Kidlit Giveaway Hop hosted by Mother Daughter Books and Youth Literature Reviews. Participants will be giving away books for children and teens, gift cards, cash and more, so hop around and you’re sure to find something interesting to enter to win!

I am giving away two early chapter books in the Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate series by Jan Burchett. & Sara Vogler, Kidnapped and The Deadly Trap to one lucky winner. These were previously released in the U.K. and have been published for the first time in the U.S. this year.

This fun series stars a modern-day boy who finds a way to travel back in time to a pirate ship. Together with his best friends, a girl in disguise and a boy of African-Caribbean descent, they have one swashbuckling adventure after another. I was sent these two books for review by the publisher. My son read both of them through, when he’s rarely interested in reading more than one book of a series to himself. Since my library has now purchased the entire series (and with my son’s permission), I’m giving away our copies so that some other pirate-loving kid can enjoy Sam Silver and his friends!

This giveaway runs from May 12- midnight May 18 (EST) and is open to the U.S. and Canada. Please leave a comment about your favorite pirate, literary or otherwise, to enter!

Are you a children’s book or teen literature blogger, an author, a publisher, or a publicist looking to share copies of a fabulous book? Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews are joining forces to provide you with the opportunity to take part in the Children’s Book Week Giveaway Hop 2014, featuring links to giveaways for fabulous children/teen’s books, gift cards, cash, or other prizes. What better way to celebrate Children’s Book Week?

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to view the complete list of participating bloggers and authors…

Posted in books | Tagged Early Chapter Books, giveaways, Kid Lit Giveaway Hop, pirates | 53 Comments