Reading for CYBILS 2023 - Middle Grade Speculative Fiction

 One of the best parts (in my opinion) of reading for the CYBILS book award, is that, as a panelist, I'm asked to read as many of the middle grade speculative fiction books published in the last year as possible.  Even better, if I blog about them.  So we get a list of the books and are asked to read them.  Invariably, there are some that I've already read and some that are really hard to get a hold of and some that are just terrible.  And some of them are complete gems that I never would have read, had it not been for the list!  That's the case today- my new favorites!  Have a look!

The first one is an illustrated fairy tale, which we hardly ever get.  Typically, picture books are a separate category, but this one, even though it is beautifully and lavishly illustrated by P. J. Lynch (one of my very favorite illustrators) is really not a picture book.  The text is dense and complicated and rich, like a beautiful tapestry or a soaring opera.  It's written by Eion Colfer, who has written lots of books, like Artemis Fowl, The Fowl Twins, and Highfire.    This new one is  called Three Tasks for a Dragon.  It's based on two different Irish folktales.  It opens with Lir, the prince, who is living with his step-mother and step-brother, his mother and father having died, and Lir isn't so interested in being the king, he was hoping to be the royal librarian.  But his stepbrother, Delbayne, REALLY wants to be king and really wants Lir out of the way.  Delbayne invokes an ancient law that would allow Lir to either live the kingdom and never come back (which Lir really doesn't want to do) OR go and rescue a maiden from a dragon (which he doesn't really want to do either, because he'd probably be eaten).  So Lir decides to go and confront the dragon, except the dragon isn't really in that great of shape.  His wing was broken, he's living in a damp cave, his fire has gone out, and the girl that Lir is supposed to rescue is actually a servant making cherry wine for the dragon.  This is a really great story.  The characters are interesting and well developed.  The language of the story is complex and vivid.  The plot is complicated with lots of plot twists.  This would make a wonderful read aloud for an upper elementary or middle school class with lots of opportunities to make connections to other texts, to folklore from other cultures, to analyze these very interesting characters and see how they change through the story.  But that's not all.  The amazing P.J. Lynch illustrated this book.  He's illustrated some of my very favorite fairy tales like Melisande by Edith Nesbit or Catkin by Antonia Barber.  If you're unfamiliar with Mr. Lynch's work, I would say you've probably seen it and not realized it, because his work feels like the best possible traditional fairy tale art work.  It's realistic in sort of an Italian Renaissance way.  It reminds be a bit of N. C. Wyeth's work illustrating fairy tales and folktales.  There's an illustration of Lir going deep into the dragon's cave about half way through the book that made me gasp.  The art work is so vivid and so intricate and so emotionally drenched, I spent a lot of time looking at it!  The art work is equally as complicated and rich as the text.  I think those middle grade readers who think they are too big for picture books are going to absolutely love this one.  I loved this one and I hope you will too. 

Here's the gorgeous cover. 

And here's a short video about how long it takes Mr. Lynch to illustrate a picture book. 

The second one is also by two of my favorite authors-Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko.  Each of them has written a number of wonderful books (Applegate is best known for The One and Only Ivan and the Animorphs series, just to name a few, Choldenko has written a series of books called the Tales from Alcatraz as well as picture books) and this new one called Dogtown is a whole new set of voices in their already crowded room.  Dogtown is about a shelter for dogs who need homes.  People have brought their dogs to the shelter for a number of reasons.  Surprisingly, some of the dogs are robots and even the robots are looking for new homes.  The story shifts perspectives at each chapter.  Chance is really the main character and most common storyteller.  Chance is a border collie mix who has been at the shelter for about a year.  She has three legs instead of four because of an accident that she doesn't like to think about.  Part of that story is how she ended up at the shelter.   The other dogs in the shelter are also trying to find homes, including a robot dog called Metal Head that Chance doesn't really think much of to begin with, but it turns out Metal Head also has a story about how he came to be at the shelter that has a lot more emotion to it than you might think is possible with a robot.  This is a story full of heart.  There are parts that are heartbreakingly poignant and parts that are laugh out loud funny.  This would be another wonderful read aloud to middle grade classes looking for opportunities to discuss big issues like the ethical treatment of animals, friendship and how someone might try to help a friend as well as thinking about writing techniques, like writing from multiple points of view and author's voice.  I thought this one was great and I think the kids will like this one too.