The Book Search

Reading for the CYBILS is SO much fun!  It can feel a little overwhelming sometimes, but I always find books that I never would have read, if it weren't for the list!  Including these two gems. I'm a big fan of novelty and by that I mean plots or characters that are really different from anything I've read before and both of these books fit that bill!  The first one is called Poppy and Marigold and it's written by Meg Dendler.  She's written a number of books but this is the first one of hers I've read.  Her website is here if you want to check it out .  It's about a girl named Poppy, who lives in a dystopian world, where people are segregated by the color of their skin.  Poppy's skin is blue and the Blue Society is steeped in technology and rule following.  There are 50 rules that all Blue citizens must follow and they repeat them every day at school.  There are also hard consequences for rule breaking but Poppy is a good student and an obed...

 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...

 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...

 Middle grade speculative fiction is SO MUCH FUN.  The characters are always interesting, the problems are often rooted in social issues, which those middle graders are just beginning to notice, and the fantastical situations that authors put these characters in is just a blast.  Here are two new ones that I really enjoyed. The first one is called the Princess Protection Program and it's written by Alex London.  He's written several other books and this is a link to his website .  I thought the title was intriguing and I wasn't wrong!  The story starts with a prince who is about to kiss Sleeping Beauty, except that Alex brings up some of the details that other authors might have missed.  Like, if this prince has been out scouring the countryside for the princess, is he really going to smell all that great?  When was the last time he bathed?  Or shaved?  Or even brushed his teeth?  And if you've been asleep for 100 years, are you rea...

 I might have mentioned before that I'm not typically a fan of graphic novels.  I like creating my own mental images of characters and settings and so I don't usually choose graphic novels. BUT, holy cow, these two new ones have such interesting story lines and the art work is SO compelling, you have to look for them! The first one is called Atana and the Firebird by Vivian Zhou .  This is her first book, but it better not be her last!  The cover is stunning and that's exactly what made me want to read it.   All the art work has this magical, glowing quality to it, which is perfect because it's about Atana, a mermaid, who is living alone on an island.   One day, a Firebird comes to earth.  Her name is Ren and she has been hearing stories all her life about how wonderful Earth is and so even though it's been hundreds of years since a Firebird has come to earth, Ren has come to experience Earth life.  But there are evil forces afoot and it's not saf...

 Still reading for the CYBILS award, but coming down the end of the pile.  Today I found this really great one lurking! It's called "If you meet the Devil, Don't Shake Hands" by Sylvia Whitman.  I'd never read anything by Whitman before, so this one was a very pleasant surprise.  The narrator is Gavin, a worrier who is in middle school.  His best friend, Javi, is an excellent support system because Gavin's dad has been deployed in the military and Gavin's worrying has really ramped up.  He has a big (annoying) sister and his mom, but Javi is his closest ally.  Javi lives upstairs from Gavin and they are in and out of each other's homes all the time.  But when Javi's mom sends Javi a text that the Devil has returned, Javi's grandfather, who left when Javi's mom was a little girl.  A magician and card sharp and general rogue.  Gavin goes with Javi to his apartment as support for him.  But the man sitting at the table doesn't seem that...

 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 d...

 It may seem like this post is a little late, being two days PAST Halloween, but these magical titles are so great, you're not going to want to miss them!   The first one is the latest offering from two of my favorite authors-Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass.  They co-wrote another book called "Bob" that remains one of my favorites, even though it was published five years ago.  They are both masters at plot twists so I was super excited to read this one.  It's told from a few different points of view, which at first is a little confusing.  The first character's voice is Mortimer, a cat that lives in a library and rescues mice that have moved in there.  He feels very guilty about something that happened (but readers don't find out what actually happened until almost the end of the story).  The second storyteller is Evan, a boy who is just finishing fifth grade.  He lives with his loving parents, his dad who is an exterminator that relocates mice r...

 Reading for the CYBILS is so much fun.  It's a little like standing in a firehose spray of children's literature but if you can get past feeling completely overwhelmed (that was earlier this week), it's a blast, because there are SO MANY great books.   Well, not literally, because that would hurt.  Okay, then!  Let me tell you about my two new favorites.  Creatures of the In Between by Cindy Lin is an exciting adventure that starts in the middle of things, with an attack on Whisper Island, a haven for magical beasts.  The Kingdom of the Three Realms is tied to the magical beasts and the leader of the Realm is meant to be bonded to a magical beast.  The current leader is the Dowager Queen who's phoenix does her bidding.  The Crown Prince is Jin, her 12 year old grandson, who has spent his entire life learning from books about magical creatures because, other than her phoenix, there are no other creatures in the kingdom.  Jin really wants...

 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. ...

  There have been SO MANY middle grade fiction books coming out this month.   I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up!   But so far so good!   Here are two of my newest favorites. Nell of Gumbling is a fun new fairy tale/graphic novel/mystery/friendship story.  I’m pretty sure there’s not a specific genre for this one, but it was a very fun read. It's written and illustrated by Emma Steinkellner, who also wrote and illustrated the adorable "The Okay Witch" , which I blogged about here .  This new one is about Nell, or Lenore, who lives in a place called Gumbling.  There was a king there once, but when a witch threatened to eat him, he relinquished his throne and the city has been run by a council ever since.  She lives with her two dads, who are star farmers and her two younger siblings, Rib and Schmitty.  She has two best friends, Gil, who is a Thumbkin and Myra, who is a fairy.  Nell has started a journal because s...

 I've been waiting and waiting to get to this part of my TBR pile-I have this HUGE stack of books that are being published in the next few weeks and I'm so excited to get to read them!  These were DEFINITELY worth the wait! The first one is called Nimbus by Jan Eldredge.  The main character is Nimbus, Nim for short, an 11 month old black cat, who lives with a boy named Fletcher.  They live with Fletcher's aunt because Fletcher's dad is working so much.  Fletcher doesn't mind living with his aunt, but Aunt Connie is not a big fan of Nim but Fletcher rescued Nim when she was a really small kitten and had been hit by a car.  He took very good care of her and they are tightly bonded.  One night, Fletcher finds an old jar and tries to open it.  It turns out what's in the jar is REALLY bad-it's a nightmare demon and it's trying to suck out Fletcher's life essence.  Nim attacks the demon and thinks she's destroyed it, but she's also been badly injur...

 I always feel so lucky to get to read for the CYBILS award.  I love being a first round panelist where we read EVERYTHING.  I'm not going to tell you that all the nominees are wonderful because that would be a straight up lie, but there are SO many terrific surprises as we read.  Here are two of my new favorites. The first one is called Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato.  This is her first novel and I really hope it's not the last, because this one was terrific!  The main character in this one is Riley, who lives with her mom and her older brother, except that her older brother, Devin, has left to go to college and Riley misses him terribly.  Riley's mom works A LOT and Devin really held the family together.  Riley is unhappy with having to ride the bus, fix her own meals, do the laundry and her homework all on her own but as luck would have it, a friendly girl named Lucy has moved into her apartment complex and she's looking for some new frie...

 So my colleagues and I are busily reading the books on our CYBILS list.  It's a little daunting at this point-there are 107 books on our list (that's the usual thing) and they all have to read by at least 2 people by the end of December.  Trying to get everyone copies of each book is a completely different issue, one luckily I don't have to deal with!  That's the job of the amazing Sheila Ruth .  Anyway, I've had a little extra time on my hands this week - I managed to catch some icky bug from one of those rotten PreK kids (who sat on my lap for an hour weeping copiously).  So I've put my time to good use.  Here are two of my new favorites and these are both mysteries! Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee is such a wonderful, heartfelt story.  It's about Maizy, who lives in Los Angeles with her mom, a food stylist.  They have driven across country to Last Chance, Minnesota to come and spend time with her grandparents.  Her grandfather i...

 I'm so excited that I was chosen to be a first round panelist for CYBILS again!  This year, I'm doing middle grade fiction (instead of speculative fiction like last year).  It's so awesome to get to read realistic fiction with all the cultural issues that are typically a part of middle grade fiction.  I've read a few so far, and these are two of my new favorites.   The first one is by Amy Sarig King, you might know her work- The Year We Fell from Space and Me and Marvin Gardens.  She has a terrific voice, but wait until you read this one-It's called Attack of the Black Rectangles.  It's about Mac who is navigating his final year of elementary school with his two best friends, Marci and Denis.  He lives with his mom and his grandfather.  His dad does not live at their house, but he comes over every week for dinner and to work on an old car in the garage.  His new teacher writes a column for the newspaper that supports conservative values...