If I haven't said it often enough, reading for the CYBILS award is so much fun. It's a lot of work (well, if you call reading LOTS of middle grade chapter books work) but then there are THESE treasures you can uncover.
The first one is called Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom. It's written by Nina Varela. I hadn't read anything by her before but this one was so good! It's about Juniper, or June who has recently moved from Dallas, Texas to a small town in southern Florida. She isn't so good at making friends but she's pretty good at disappearing into a crowd. She likes to draw and has been busy drawing a graphic novel, but she's been having these REALLY weird and realistic dreams. She doesn't want to worry her parents, who already worry about her not having friends and fitting in and her friends in Dallas seem to have forgotten about her. But one night, she has to deal with her dream, because one of the people from her dream shows up in her bedroom and she's looking for a crown. June tries to make sense of all of this, the dream, Galatea (the girl looking for the crown, which she needs to save her kingdom AND get back to it) and Galatea's quest. And her best option is to pretend that she and Galatea are friends and that Galatea's visiting from Bulgaria. I don't really want to tell you more of the plot because it's so much fun watching this one play out. The characters are interesting and complicated and funny. The villains are scary and there's a really great part of the story line about finding your own gifts and being your own true self. I really liked this one a lot and I think middle graders are going to love it too.
The second one will come as a surprise to NO ONE who's been reading at all over the last five years. It's called Spirit Glass and it's written by the amazing Roshani Chokshi. Chokshi has written lots of other books for kids and grown ups, including Aru Shah and the End of Time. Spirit Glass is similar-a young girl is trying to come into her powers, but something is blocking and she ends up on an epic quest to save the ones she loves. Sound familiar? Yeah, to me too. I was completely prepared to not really like this one, until I met the incredibly amazing characters. Corazon, the main character, is the young babaylan or shaman trying to gain her powers. Except she's super sad because her parents died. Her mom was supposed to teach her to use her powers, but in her place, her sister, Corazon's aunt is meant to teach her. Her aunt, Tina, is not very approachable. Corazon has an anito, or an animal familiar. Her aunt's animal familiar is gigantic and intimidating eagle. Her mom's familiar was a gigantic 20 foot long blue python. Corazon's familiar is a bright blue gecko with purple spots, who believes he is a crocodile, named Samson, or Saso, who is absolutely hilarious. Like I had to put the book down because I was laughing so hard. Like if you're reading it on a plane, tears come to your eyes and people stare at you hard. Luckily, I was only reading it on my couch, so the only stares I got, were from my husband. Anyway, Corazon goes to the magical market with Tina one day and ends up having her magical amulet stolen by a ghost. The amulet allows Corazon to connect with her dead parents every week so it's pretty important to her. She also believes that once she comes into her powers, that she'll be able to bring her parents back to real life. So, when you're in trouble, where do you go? The library. Me too! The librarian advises Corazon that she needs to get two blessings from magical creatures in order to get the amulet back. On her quest, she gets a ghost guide, named Leo, who wants to be a writer. Did I mention that this story is based on Filipino folk lore? Filipino culture is such an amazing amalgamation of cultures- over 7000 islands, 150 languages, and all those people who thought they could conquer the Filipinos. As IF. There is so much to love in this book. There are scary confrontations with monsters of all shapes and sizes. There are big themes of love and friendship and making hard choices. When I checked her website, it turns out there is a sequel. YAY!!! I can't wait to hear more about these characters, because they are so much fun. I can't wait to put this one in the hands of some of my favorite readers.
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