The Book Search

 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 dead will wander around wreaking havoc o