The Book Search

 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. ...

After having plunged into the dark heart of middle grade fantasy fiction for the past few months, I'm coming out on the other side, ready to read some new things!  I happened to get a hold of some realistic fiction for upper middle grade or YA, bigger than what I've been reading and what a treat.  Here are two I read this week. The first one is a graphic novel called "Illegal" by Eion Colfer and Andrew Donkin.  I find graphic novels are not usually my first choice.  I read really fast and I love creating my own mental images.  I find the graphic novels require me to slow down, read the text and interpret the pictures because they are usually a big part of the story.  This one was worth slowing down for.  It's about a boy named Ebo.  It's told in two different parts and it flashes between the two parts of the story.  The story begins with Ebo finding that his brother, Kwame, has left the family home (which is pretty short on family-their par...

This week I got to dip back into the Netgalley pool.  There have been some titles languishing, unread, there for many weeks so it was great to be able to read some of these new ones. The first one is a magical fantasy book.  It's called "The Evil Wizard Smallbone" by Delia Sherman.  It's about a boy named Nick who has been living with an abusive uncle, Gabe, and his rotten cousin, Jerry.  Nick's mom died sometime before and Nick has gotten tired of the abuse from both of them.  One day, after a violent altercation with his uncle, Nick runs away.  There is a terrible storm and he ends up at the home of the Evil Wizard Smallbone.   The wizard decides that Nick would be a good apprentice (although at first, Nick is just looking for a way out), but the wizard has other ideas.  There is another even more evil wizard about, and the Evil Wizard Smallbone is looking for a way to defeat him.  This one is funny (Smallbone has a gift for transfigurati...