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Review: Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis

May 7, 2013

Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis

This third in the Kat, Incorrigible series continues the magical story of Kat who continues to romp through the social rules of the Regency-era with reckless abandon. In this book, she is attending the wedding of her sister Angeline or at least she hopes that it will turn out that way. But someone seems to be trying to kill her, cutting the axle of their carriage. She has spotted someone lingering in the shadows, watching her, but has yet to figure out what she has done to anger them. Kat is due to be initiated into the Order of the Guardians finally but that is delayed when it is discovered that their collection of spare portals has been stolen. Then there is the woman who looks disturbingly like Kat’s dead mother who is also attending the wedding and the fact that Kat’s brother Charles has chosen a very bad time to finally wake up and become responsible. It all makes for another delight of a novel in this charming series.

Burgis has created a heroine in Kat who is dynamic, ignores the social niceties of the day, and manages to get into all sorts of trouble, both magical and normal. Through it all, she finds herself in incredible scrapes and adventures, that are great fun to go along on. The writing is light handed, clear and makes for a rollicking read that is easy to read greedily and almost impossible to read slowly.

I see that this is said to be the conclusion of the series, though I admit that I hope for more about Kat. I want to see what happens when she actually enters the Guardians, what happens to the hint of romance in the air, and what scrapes she gets into next.

A grand ending to a great trilogy, this series is perfect to hand to both fans of fantasy and fans of historical fiction since it is a wonderful sweet concoction of both genres. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum.

Tags: fantasy, historical fiction

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Review: Renegade Magic by Stephanie Burgis

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School, Middle School — Leave a comment

May 2, 2013

Renegade Magic by Stephanie Burgis

Somehow I lost track of this wonderful magical series, so I’m a little late in reading the last two books. This is the second in the series, following Kat, Incorrigible. Kat’s oldest sister is wed at the beginning of this book, but not before her wedding is disrupted by the angry mother of another sister’s suitor. Once again Kat’s feud with Lady Fotherington has caused catastrophe. When Kat confronts Lady Fotherington about what she has done, she goes too far and loses her right to learn how to use her Guardian magic. Soon after the wedding, the suitor has reluctantly left and the family heads to Bath to escape the scandal for a time. Little do they know, but they are heading directly into a huge magical situation where Kat will be unable to avoid the Guardians.

Burgis weaves actual history into her story of Bath which adds a fine solid foundation to a story that is frothy with fun and sparkling with magic. Perhaps the best part of this book is the frumpery and finery of the upper class, making sure they are seen in the proper way and fretting about the smallest things. Through it all, Kat is a fierce heroine, determined to regain her right to learn Guardian magic and do what is best for her family.

A strong second book in a delight of a series, this book has a strong ending that sets readers up nicely for the final book in the series. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Tags: fantasy, historical fiction

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Review: The Flame in the Mist by Kit Grindstaff

Filed under: Book Reviews, Middle School — Leave a comment

April 29, 2013

The Flame in the Mist by Kit Grindstaff

Jemma thinks she is the youngest daughter of the Agromond family, readying herself for the day her Powers will finally reveal themselves fully. But before that can happen, her true past is revealed and Jemma understands why she has never been able to do the black magic that her family does so easily. Now she has to escape their castle and enter the dangerous mist that can read a person’s intentions. She only has the help of her two golden rats, a decrepit old servant, and a trusted friend, Digby. Lost and wandering in the mist, Jemma has to battle monsters, flee from those sent to find her, and convince the mist itself that she is not a threat. As she travels, ghostly children try to seek her help, crying for their brothers and sisters in the castle. Jemma has to learn the truth of not only her own past but of the castle and the horrors that are hidden there.

This is such a compelling read! Grindstaff’s slow reveal of the truth is very deftly done in this carefully plotted novel. She does not flinch away from true horrors here, never hiding from what it would truly take to create a force like the mist and have such dark powers. The plotting during the time that Jemma is lost in the mist does meander a bit, but happily that is not made up by speeding up the ending.

Jemma is a compelling heroine with her self-doubt and fear. Yet she is an incredibly brave heroine, risking herself for others. I particularly enjoyed the part towards the end when she had to continually revise her plans based on what was happening at the time. It made for a very complex and exceptional read. It also took away from the reader the ability to predict what would happen, making the ending a much more immediate experience.

This is a strong debut novel that reads like a stand alone. While I wouldn’t mind more adventures from Jemma, I look forward to seeing what Grindstaff has to offer us next. Appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from copy received from Delacorte Press.

Tags: fantasy

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Review: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

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April 2, 2013

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

Sybella has been forced to return to her family after fleeing to the convent for safety. There she learned the art of assassination, but nothing prepared her for returning to the family that abused her for years. Now she has to play the dutiful daughter while waiting to see if the marque of Death will appear on her father’s body. She has been promised the right to personally murder him. Around Sybella, politics are being played out. Loyal to the Duchess, unlike the rest of her family, Sybella is able to send a message to warn them and turn the result of a battle. When the convent orders her to rescue a valuable prisoner from under her father’s nose, Sybella risks losing her entire protective disguise. She doesn’t realize that she risks losing her heart as well.

I adored the first in the Fair Assassin series and looked forward to this second book. The heroine in this book is Sybella rather than Ismae. While the first book was awhirl in the politics of 15th century Brittany, this one is much more about a person and her own personal history. Sybella is a compelling and rich character. As the abuse she suffered is slowly revealed, readers will discover more and more about the incredible strength of this girl turned killer.

Sybella also questions her own loyalties and ties to Mortain, the God of Death. She wonders whether the convent may be wrong about things or if perhaps she herself has overstepped and lost the God’s favor. These questions of faith against the dark stain of familial abuse add to the depth of the novel. As with the first book, there is a passionate romance that rings true and honest. Sybella slowly falls in love, so gradually that she doesn’t notice until she is fully intoxicated with it. It is beautiful and glorious, especially as she is accepted as she admits the entire truth about her life.

A killer book, this is a strong sophomore book in a riveting series. Not for the faint of heart, this book has abuse, murder and true tragedies in its pages. Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Tags: fantasy, historical fiction

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Review: Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

Filed under: Book Reviews, Teen — 2 Comments

March 29, 2013

Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher

The author of Incarceron has returned with the start of another series. This is the story of Jake whose father has disappeared. Jake knows his father is dead and blames one person, Venn, the idiosyncratic wealthy man who was his father’s best friend and is Jake’s godfather. So Jake gets himself expelled from his posh Swiss boarding school and sent back to Venn’s home in England. When he gets there, he learns about the mirror that allows people to travel through time. He also finds out that his father is not dead, but lost in time. At Venn’s house, others are arriving. There is a girl from the future with a tie to the mirror, a man from the past who used to own the mirror before it was stolen from him, and a boy tied to the Faerie World and living long past he should have died. All of them have purposes for the mirror, but not everyone will succeed in their dreams.

Fisher is a consummate world builder. Here she has created a decaying but splendid abbey that is located on the border of a vast woods. It is a lonely and wild place, perfect for experiments with time since it seems to be timeless itself. Readers are also invited into a faerie world and on journeys through time where honest depictions of the past offer real insight into places like Victorian England. The mirror is the hub of this complex book, with everyone’s lives revolving around controlling and using it.

Fisher also excels at creating complex characters and she has several in this book. Jake himself is not completely likeable except in his devotion to his father. Everyone has their own personal agendas and reasons for acting. Because she creates characters who have an opportunity to really show how complex they are, the book does slow at times. Yet it is this attention to detail and character that makes her books so intriguingly rich.

Get this in the hands of teens who loved Incarceron. They will enjoy the twists of time travel and revel in the striking characters and vibrant world building. Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from ARC received from Dial Books.

Tags: fantasy

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Review: Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Filed under: Book Reviews, Middle School — 1 Comment

March 25, 2013

Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Raised in the Urwald, Jinx knows that no matter what you never leave the path through the woods. So when his stepfather decides to get rid of Jinx, they leave the path. That’s when Jinx meets Simon, a wizard who agrees to take Jinx from his stepfather rather than letting him die in the woods. Jinx moves in with Simon, who makes incredibly delicious food and has only one rule, never go into certain rooms. Jinx has his own sort of magic: he is able to see people’s emotions as colorful clouds above their heads. He can also talk with the trees of the Urwald. But Simon does not believe he can actually do either. Living with a wizard brings Jinx into touch with other sorts of magic and soon he is learning about that magic too, though he doesn’t seem to be any good at it. Life is cozy and as good as Jinx has ever had, but it can’t stay that way. Jinx soon wants to explore the Urwald himself, which leads to all sorts of amazing adventures and deadly dangers.

Blackwood has truly invented her own fantasy world here. While she borrows from classic fantasies for some of her creatures: vampires, werewolves, wizards, and trolls, she has created her own rules for their world. By creating the Urwald, a living woods that takes knowing the laws to survive for any length of time, she has effectively created a smaller world inside a larger one. There are glimpses of the other parts of the world that are tantalizing. It’s a complex world that she has created, which makes it all the more delightful to explore.

In Jinx, Blackwood has created what seems to be a very simple character. Jinx grows throughout the novel not just in his age but in his perspective. At first he is just happy to have somewhere warm with good food, but quickly he becomes intrigued with the magic around him. Readers will immediately understand the Jinx is special thanks to his unique vision of emotions, but as they grow to know him more, they will discover he is just as complicated as the world he lives in.

Blackwood has written an impressive fantasy novel for middle grade readers that is both dazzling and dangerous. Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from library copy.

Tags: fantasy

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Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Filed under: Book Reviews, Middle School, Teen

February 15, 2013

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

I must admit right up front that I haven’t read Carriger’s adult series The Parasol Protectorate. So it is with fresh eyes that I came to the first book in her new teen series. Here we meet Sophronia who at age 14 is rough and tumble enough for her mother to send her to a finishing school, hoping that she will learn proper manners and decorum before her older sister’s debutante ball. Sophronia thinks she is being sent to a dull school only about curtsying and clothes, but Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality turns out to be about far more than Victorian manners and society. Instead Sophronia is thrust into adventure right from the trip to school, finding herself the heroine when they are attacked on their travels. As she discovers her real gifts are embraced by her new school, much of which would chagrin and alarm her mother. This blend of boarding school and steampunk espionage will not stay on library shelves for long!

Carriger has created a great world in her book, one that I understand is the same as that in her adult novels. Populated with vampires and werewolves as well as humans, the world that Sophronia is sent to at school reveals that there is far more to life than her mother would approve of. The setting of a school that floats in the air also adds that distance and isolation that works so well in boarding school novels.

Happily, Sophronia is a girl who loves adventure and though she may disdain her mother’s focus on fashion and decorum, begins to learn that as well. She is a brave character, one that is unafraid to go against societal rules. It makes for a book that is rambunctious and wildly fun while at the same time filled with wide skirts, hats and frippery. It’s a charming mix.

With the popularity of steampunk, this is one book that belongs in every public library collection for teens. With no sex and plenty of action, middle school readers will also enjoy it immensely. It’s a very fun read, so expect demand for the upcoming books as well. Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from library copy.

Tags: fantasy, steampunk

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Review: Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

Filed under: Book Reviews, Middle School

February 14, 2013

Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

No adults live in Hokey Pokey, just kids. They fall asleep right where they leave off playing and then jump up again to start playing the next day. There are plenty of places to play: the Doll Farm, Thousand Puddles, Snuggle Stop, and Trucks. Jack is one of the biggest kids at Hokey Pokey. He rides a legendary bike, Scramjet, captured from the herds of wild bicycles that roam the plains. But when Jack wakes up one day, Scramjet has been taken and by a girl! As Jubilee rides Scramjet around Hokey Pokey, everyone soon realizes that something is changing. Jubilee paints the bike yellow but as she tries to get under Jack’s skin, Jack realizes that he himself is changing. It must have something to do with hearing a train whistle no one else can hear. But trains never come to Hokey Pokey despite the train tracks.

I was captured by this book the moment I read the first page. I knew that I was in for a treat from Spinelli that is unlike anything he’s every written before. This is a wonderfully wild and fanciful book that will remind readers of Peter Pan, yet it is brightly modern and not afraid to be dark too. Spinelli uses a new language in Hokey Pokey, one that is easily understood but that also marks that we are somewhere new. Take this description of children at play in Hokey Pokey, “…kids big and little everywhere streaking, leaping, chasing, shrieking, warring, hopscotching, footballing, hide-and-seeking, jumproping, hokeypoking, razzing, dazzing, runamucking, chuckleducking…” The language he uses has a wonderful rhythm to it that is evident throughout the book.

The setting of Hokey Pokey is such a large part of this book. Some places remain rather mysterious while others are completely explained in action in the story. When readers are given a glimpse of some of the other wonders of Hokey Pokey, they can immediately relate to what it is because all of it is about childhood and play. As Jack moves towards adolescence in the story, the book changes too. It becomes more filled with questions, more angst pervades it. This is a story of leaving childhood and all of its bright, candy-colored play behind and heading into the unknown.

Gloriously fun to read, this book was impossible for me not to love. Spinelli writes with a lovely playfulness and yet beneath it all is truth. A truly outstanding read for middle graders. Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Tags: adolescence, childhood, fantasy

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Review: A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Filed under: Book Reviews, Elementary School, Middle School

February 11, 2013

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Cady has a Talent for baking cakes and making just the right one for a specific person. Miss Mallory’s Talent is matching children with the perfect home, but she hasn’t been able to find the right fit for Cady for years. Will has a Talent for hiding, passing through walls and disappearing along with his pet ferret. Zach has a Talent for spitting, something just right for a troublemaker. Marigold is desperately searching for her Talent, trying all sorts of things with no luck. Then there is the mysterious man who has a Talent for knots who seems to appear whenever he is needed most. There is even a man who steals Talents and keeps them in jars, as he frantically searches suitcases for a slip of paper he lost over 50 years ago. The stories of all of these characters are just a tangle at first, but slowly the stories come together into one gorgeously designed knot of a tale.

Graff has created a world like ours but with more than a touch of magic infused into it. While most of the characters have Talents, there are some who don’t have any. There are others who only discover their talent late in life like Marigold. But in this book it is not the magical bits that make it special, instead it is the intricate storytelling, the puzzle. Readers who want a straightforward book should not look here. This is a book that hints, it rambles, it invites you in for cake and adventure, then wanders a bit more. But the wandering is rather the point, the cake is particularly important, and one wouldn’t want to miss a ramble.

Give this one to the dreamers, the wanderers, and those who want a hint of magic, sweetness and frosting with their stories. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Philomel.

Tags: families, fantasy

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Locus Online 2012 Recommended Reading List

Filed under: Awards, Teen

February 8, 2013

Locus, the magazine that covers science fiction and fantasy, has put our their 2012 recommended reading list which are this year’s favorite books of the editors and reviewers of Locus. They have a list of their top Young Adult books: