The Book Search

 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...