Need to take a little adventure this summer? Here are two titles that might be right up your alley!
The first one is called Champion's Quest: The Die of Destiny by Frank L. Cole. It starts with Lucas, a 12 year old in foster care. He is convinced that he would be better off away from the foster home where he has been living, so he hatches a plan to run away by train. Except that one of the other foster kids, Miles, is meant to give his story credence, and Miles doesn't really want Lucas to go. They end up in what seems like a store but is actually the offices of a magical adventure group. Two girls join them-one is Jasmine, a girl who seems to be perpetually in trouble, and Vanessa, the daughter of the foster parents where Lucas and Miles are living. The game sounds like some of the role playing games that people play on line like Dungeons and Dragons-there are magical beasts that can either help or hurt you, your welfare depends on your decision making and you have to keep track of food and sleep and energy, and other characters that may or may not be there to help you. There's also a fun subplot of how the makers of the games are trying to help or hurt different teams. The characters are interesting and it's an exciting adventure with lots of plot twists. There are also some fun references to other magical stories, like Harry Potter. For kids who like role playing games or magic kingdoms, this would be a fun read. It reminded me a bit of one I'd read a couple of years ago called Homework and Hall Passes by Tom O'Donnell. I think the kids will like this one a lot.
Here's the official book trailer.
Here's the cover.
The second one is called Stowaway. It's written by John David Anderson, who you might remember wrote a terrific book called Ms. Bixby's Last Day. Ms. Bixby is realistic fiction and the new one is science fiction, which I keep saying is not my favorite, but I always like these science fiction books I pick! Go figure. Anyway, this new one is great too. It's about Leo who is living with his older brother Garrett and his dad on a space ship. Leo and Garrett's dad is a scientist and he's been working with the alien beings that have colonized Earth to get their ventasium, a mineral that provides them with power. Leo's mom was killed in an attack by a rival alien group, which is part of why the boys and their dad are living in space now. At the beginning of the story, their ship is attacked and left floating in outer space with out power, communication, or food. Leo and Garrett's dad is taken prisoner. In desperation, Garrett puts Leo on a pirate ship in hopes that Leo will be able to get help back to the ship. The pirates are less than thrilled to find a stowaway, but eventually, Leo proves his worth and the band of pirates set out to track down Leo's dad. This is another very exciting story. The characters in this one are well conceived and there are some fun cultural touchstones thrown in along the way that may or may not resonate with middle grader readers (but totally did with me). The idea that Leo probably doesn't have the whole story about the different groups of aliens will ring true with readers and could be used to connect with more topical stories about a conversation about what is the truth and why it gets shaded. I thought this one was terrific and the ending left me thinking it was probably not the last one! I hope you'll like this one too.
I've been enjoying my spring break and since we were traveling, I had some long uninterrupted time to read (because when I'm at home, there's a lot of "Oh look! Something shiny!" going on). There are some terrific new middle grade fiction books in the pipeline. Here are two of my favorites. The first one is called "The Orphan Band of Springdale" by Anne Nesbet. It's historical fiction but it's based on the author's family stories. It's set in World War 2 and I really loved that it tells the story of what it was like growing up in America at that time, with some of the ugly prejudices that people held as well as some of the social issues that have since been resolved. Gusta's dad leaves her on a train as they were heading to Maine because Gusta's dad is a socialist and believes that workers should have rights and he is being pursued by the police. Gusta ends up at her grandmother's house, which is a kind of an orphan...
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...
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...
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