The Book Search

 Now that I'm done with the CYBILS for the year, I can dig back into the realistic fiction pile.  Here are two of my latest favorites! Weirdly Walter by Julia Walton is a terrific new book.  It came out in October and I read it over the winter holidays and I wondered why it had taken so long (oh, yeah, I remember-I was reading for the CYBILS award-107 middle grade fantasy books, that's right).  Walter was such a charming and heartwarming read-I think you're going to love it.  Walter is a fifth grader who has always lived with his dad, a musician.  They've traveled around quite a bit and Walter is used to being the new kid at school.  But this is different.  His dad has left him for the first time, with Walter's grandfather, and there's no end in sight for when Walter will go back on the road with his dad.  Walter adores his dad and records some of his dad's wisdom in his journal.  But he's also kind of mad at his dad, that there was no c...

Reading for the CYBILS is SO much fun!  It can feel a little overwhelming sometimes, but I always find books that I never would have read, if it weren't for the list!  Including these two gems. I'm a big fan of novelty and by that I mean plots or characters that are really different from anything I've read before and both of these books fit that bill!  The first one is called Poppy and Marigold and it's written by Meg Dendler.  She's written a number of books but this is the first one of hers I've read.  Her website is here if you want to check it out .  It's about a girl named Poppy, who lives in a dystopian world, where people are segregated by the color of their skin.  Poppy's skin is blue and the Blue Society is steeped in technology and rule following.  There are 50 rules that all Blue citizens must follow and they repeat them every day at school.  There are also hard consequences for rule breaking but Poppy is a good student and an obed...

 I'm super excited to be reading for the CYBILS again this year!  I love reading all the latest speculative fiction and boy are there some great ones!  Here are my two latest favorites.  The first one is "Island of Wonders" written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett.  It feels like an old fashioned story.  The format of the book is big-like picture book sized, which is good because there are lot of illustrations.  And the illustrations are just amazing-in three colors-black and blue and white, they almost feel like NC Wyeth or that Art Deco kind of traditional children's literature.  But the STORY.  Whoo-boy, is it great.  A super creepy fairy tale kind of story and so beautifully written.  It's about Milo, whose father is a ferryman, but a special kind of ferryman,  HE ferries the dead to the afterlife.  The islanders place a lot of trust in the ferryman, because if he doesn't do his job properly, the de...

 There have been some amazing new titles in my Netgalley TBR pile and YAY for finally reading them!  Here are two of my newest favorites! The first one is called Westfallen.  It's written by a sister and brother team - Ann and Ben Brashares. This is Ann's website.    Ben doesn't seem to have his own website, but they are both prolific writers and their skills show in this tightly written and exciting story.  The book opens with Henry, a middle schooler who is feeling abandoned by his two best friends-Frances and Lukas.  Frances and Lukas have found different lanes (Frances is goth, Lukas is a sports guy), Henry is neither but when the hamster that they adopted together dies, he invites them over to bury the hamster.  In digging a hole, they find an old radio that remarkably still works.  They are able to connect with three other kids, who also live in their hometown.  The 6 kids agree to meet at the local park and all six are disappointe...

 I've fallen deep in the dark heart of middle grade fantasy fiction this week and there have been many, many magical creatures!  These were my two favorite ones! The first one is "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell.  It's not her first book but it's the first one I've read and I thought it was great.  The writing is compelling and beautiful.  I fell into the book but I kept stopping so I could keep going back to it!  As an example, here's the opening line:  "It was a very fine day, until something tried to eat him."   The story is about two kids-Mal and Christopher.  Mal lives with her great aunt Leonor in a place where magical animals are commonplace.  Neither of them knows what happened to her parents, but the man who brought her to Leonor left a big coat that allows Mal to fly.  And then a murder shows up.  Mal narrowly escapes but Lenor does not.  Meanwhile, Christopher is going to spend the summer with his gra...

 There is some terrific new middle grade speculative fiction coming out this month that I think kids are going to love!   My first new favorite is called Majestica by Sarah Tolcser.  It's about Hattie, who is an orphan who works in a hotel in a magical animal preserve.  She tries hard and wants to do a good job, but things don't always go the way she thinks they should.  One day, a new group of guests arrives and the group includes Evelyn, the niece of the hotel owner.  When Evelyn's chaperone takes sick (because Evelyn poisoned her), the head of the staff asks Hattie to take over as Evelyn's companion.  Hattie tries to be positive, but Evelyn is pretty headstrong and disagreeable.  They go out on a safari and Hattie starts to think something might be amiss.  When the train they're traveling on derails, Hattie knows something is wrong and wonders if Evelyn or one of the other guests might have something to do with it.  Each of the guests...