Two magical books topped off our April reading, both earning starred reviews. The Golem and the Jinni is a mash-up of Jewish and Arab folklore, historical fiction and fantasy, new and old world sensibilities. Helene Wecker’s debut seems destined to be among the best of the year. The publisher has certainly gone all-out. The physical package is richly [...]
Weekly Reviews: Magic
By on April 29, 2013
Today’s three reviewed novels share elements of the supernatural and magical realism. What teenager doesn’t wish for a superpower, if only to imagine themselves less under the control of the adults in their lives? In a series of connected vignettes, What the Family Needed introduces seven members of one family who grapple with special abilities. [...]
Review: Midwinterblood
By on April 23, 2013
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. Roaring Brook Press. 2013. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: Always, there is an Eric and a Merle; a hare and a loss; and the island of Blessed. These are the constants. What changes in the seven stories of Midwinterblood is the time, starting in the future, 2073, and going back [...]
Review: Quintana of Charyn
By on April 9, 2013
Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta, Candlewick Press, 2013. Reviewed from the Australia edition (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (Australia), 2012), a gift from a friend. will be published April 2013. Background: This is the final of three books (and one short story) that make up the The Lumatere Chronicles. It began with Finnikin of [...]
Weekly Reviews: High Adrenaline
By on April 8, 2013
In The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (ALA, 2009), Joyce Saricks divides genre fiction into four categories: Adrenaline Genres, Emotion Genres, Intellect Genres, and Landscape Genres (h/t to Jonathan Hunt for pointing me to this wonderful resource–and click through that link to read some fascinating commentary on the categories). I find this categorization much more [...]
Review: Poison
By on March 27, 2013
Poison by Bridget Zinn. Hyperion. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Kyra, sixteen, is not your typical hero. She is breaking into the home of the Master Trio of Potioners to steal a very specific, very deadly poison. So, thief and killer? Not quite. Kyra is — was — one of the Master [...]
Weekly Reviews: Sequels
By on March 12, 2013
Retract those claws
By on February 26, 2013
Weekly Reviews: New Look Snow White
By on February 4, 2013
Today we have two brief books, each a “fractured fairy tale” version of Snow White. First up, Catherynne Valente’s Six-Gun Snow White shares connections with a couple of recent posts on this site. As the first half of the title should make clear, it shares with Six-Gun Tarot a Western setting, but also partakes of the same intense genre-blending [...]
The Six-Gun Tarot
By on January 25, 2013
Pick of the Day: The Fire Chronicle: The Books of Beginning, Bk. 2 (Audiobook)
By on January 24, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Fire Chronicle: The Books of Beginning, Book 2. By John Stephens. 10 CDs. 12:22 hrs. Prod. by Listening Library. Dist. by Listening Library/Books on Tape. 2012. ISBN 978-0-307-87982-0. $37.
Gr 4-7–In The Emerald Atlas (2011), the first book in John Stephens’s series, we met Kate, Michael, and Emma who were searching for their missing parents and got caught up in a magical adventure that nearly turned deadly, tested their family bonds, and gained them the first Book. In this second [...]
Review: The Brides of Rollrock Island
By on January 20, 2013
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan. Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House. 2012. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Misskaella Prout is the witch of Rollrock Island, so ugly and disagreeable and witchy that no man would have her for a wife. Misskaella has her revenge on those who keep her [...]
Pick of the Day: Splendors & Glooms (Audiobook)
By on January 11, 2013 Leave a Comment
Splendors & Glooms. By Laura Amy Schlitz. 10 cassettes or 10 CDs. 12 hrs. Recorded Books. 2012. cassette: ISBN 978-1-4498-3568-2, CD: ISBN 978-1-4498-3572-9. $108.75
Gr 4-8–Set in a Dickensian London, Davina Porter is the perfect narrator to capture the nuances of the characters and the time period in Schlitz’s exceptional Victorian fantasy (Candlewick, 2012). Listeners will ache for the orphan children, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, when they come up with money after pawning a watch. Should they have a proper meal [...]
Scholastic Launches New Multi-Platform Fantasy Series
By on January 10, 2013 1 Comment
Scholastic has announced it will release Spirit Animals, a new multi-platform, multi-author fantasy adventure series for readers ages 8–12, in September. The story arc of the seven-book series and online game will be established by New York Times bestselling author Brandon Mull, with a second title launching next year from bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.
Pick of the Day: The Savage Fortress
By on January 9, 2013 1 Comment
CHADDA, Sarwat. The Savage Fortress. 292p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-38516-9; ebook $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-46996-8. LC 2011046291
Gr 8 Up–On vacation in India with his aunt, uncle, and younger sister, pudgy Ash Mistry can’t wait to get back home to his video games and London friends. But when his uncle is offered a million pounds to assist mysterious Lord Savage with translations from an archaeological find, Ash becomes embroiled in an overwhelming and deadly real-life battle. He realizes [...]
Pick of the Day: Jinx
By on January 7, 2013 Leave a Comment
BLACKWOOD, Sage. Jinx. 360p. HarperCollins/Harper. Jan. 2013. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-06-212990-1; ebook $9.99. ISBN 978-0-06-212992-5.
Gr 4-8–“In the Urwald you grow up fast or not at all,” readers learn in the opening of this rich and fecund fantasy. Jinx is that staple of children’s literature: the scorned, ill-used orphan who proves to be so much more gifted and important than he ever imagined possible. He occupies a world that is simultaneously original and familiar, influenced by centuries of folklore, but newly [...]
Fairy Tales
By on December 31, 2012
Adaptations of the fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers are among my great pleasures in life. They account for one of my favorite picture books, Trina Schart Hyman outrageously gorgeous (and even more outrageously out-of-print) version of “Snow White” (Little, Brown, 1974); one of my favorite YA novels, Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels (Knopf, 2008), [...]
Fairy Tales
By on December 31, 2012
Adaptations of the fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers are among my great pleasures in life. They account for one of my favorite picture books, Trina Schart Hyman outrageously gorgeous (and even more outrageously out-of-print) version of “Snow White” (Little, Brown, 1974); one of my favorite YA novels, Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels (Knopf, 2008), [...]
Review of the Day: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
By on December 29, 2012
The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom By Christopher Healy Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-211743-4 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Since when did fairytales become the realm of the girly? I blame Disney. Back in the days of Grimm your average everyday fairytale might contain princesses and pretty gowns [...]
From Exploring Tolkien’s Symbolic Language to Making Furry Feet, Teachers and Librarians Gear up for ‘The Hobbit’
By on December 11, 2012 1 Comment
As librarians and teachers prepare for the release of the new film “The Hobbit,” they’re incorporating Tolkien-related activities and events into their libraries and classrooms.
