fantasy

Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage

| Tasha

Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage by Kaye Umansky, illustrated by Johanna Wright

Clover is a sensible girl who isn’t bothered by being a housekeeper for a witch.  In fact, now Clover doesn’t have to tidy up after her many younger siblings at home and can have a bedroom all her own.  Tidying the witch’s cottage, cooking, cleaning and running errands is all very normal and domestic, but it can’t be that simple when magic is involved.  Clover meets Wilf, an exceedingly clumsy boy, who always seems to be in the middle of some sort of trouble.  But it takes a magic potion, a wicked witch, an invisible flying horse, and a lot more to really cause mischief and strife!

This book is funny and fast-paced.  The pace is a romp through a surprises, cunning plans, and twists.  Urmansky has written a book filled with magic that is not sentimental at all and happily pokes fun at the entire genre.  Clover is a wonderful and unexpected heroine in all of her quiet and clean glory.  Wilf is a great foil for her as he pratfalls around the book, causing confusion wherever he goes.  This book is not subtle.  It is vaudeville comedy wrapped in fairy tale paper. 

This would make a grand read-aloud for a 2nd or 3rd grade classroom where the broad comedy will play extremely well.  Appropriate for ages 7-11.

Reviewed from library copy.

The Silver Blade

| Tasha

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner

This sequel to The Red Necklace is just as winning a book as the first.  Readers are once again taken into the French Revolution with Yann and Sido.  Yann is still rescuing people from the bloody edge of the guillotine, spiriting them out of the country using his innate magic of the threads of light.  His nemesis Count Kalliovski is now living deep under Paris in the catacombs and is once again seeking Sido for his demonic uses.  This is a magical romance set against the horror of the French Revolution.  It is a dark but shining novel which could be described as the Scarlet Pimpernel for teens.

Gardner creates books with a unique mix of historical fiction and fantasy.  Her historical fiction is so vivid that one might just think that the fantasy interwoven into the story is part of that actual history.  Gardner’s language is just as powerful and deep as the novel itself.  Here is a passage on page 76 of the novel where she describes the darkness in the catacombs:

Yet here, where no sunlight had ever been, the darkness had an altogether unfamiliar texture.  No dawn would break through these shadowy corridors.  This darkness would never remember the light of a lantern’; it would be nothing more than a pinprick in the liquid heart of eternal night.  So powerful was this absence of light that for the first time, Yann experienced the sensation of being blind.

She weaves her story together out of the different strands of light and dark.  She takes the vilest of characters and brings them unflinchingly to life while also creating a hero for the ages.  The story is as riveting and fascinating as the first book thanks to her strong characterization and great action sequences.

Get this pair of books in the hands of teens who like either historical fiction or fantasy.  Both sets will enjoy it immensely.  Appropriate for ages 13-16. 

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Princess Hyacinth

| Tasha

Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) by Florence Parry Heide, illustrated by Lane Smith.

Released September 22, 2009.

Princess Hyacinth had a very distinct problem:  she floated.  Unless she was tethered to something, she would float up and up.  So she wore a heavy crown with a strap to hold in on and had weights in her hems and socks.  She was allowed to float indoors because they could get her back down, but she was never allowed to float outdoors.  As she watched the children play outside, a boy who could fly his kite higher than anyone else came and said hello. Princess Hyacinth ventured outside with all of her heavy weights on and noticed a man selling balloons.  Because she was the princess, her wish to be tethered in the bunch of balloons was granted.  But when the string breaks, where does that leave the princess as she floats up and up into the sky?

The tone that this book is written in will have you smiling.  It has a certain confidence and silliness that makes it irresistible.  And it has obviously been written to read aloud to children.  The book design itself is clever, as words float very high on the page when the Princess is floating.  The size of text is played with as is the color, making reading it aloud that much more pleasurable.  Heide’s writing is paired perfectly with Smith’s art.  The illustrations match what is happening on the page with a heaviness to the art when the princess is tied down and a lightness when she is in the air.  As with all of Smith’s art, there is a tongue-in-cheek aspect to many of the pictures which will be appreciated by adults and children alike.

Highly recommended, this is a wonderful read-aloud for classrooms or story times.  This is a princess story that all children will enjoy, which you can’t say often!  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Magical Ms. Plum

| Tasha

The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Amy Portnoy

Third-grade teacher Ms. Plum is the most popular teacher in the school.  Everyone wants to be in her class.  Children who have had her speak of their love for her, but then stop talking and just smile mysteriously.  Ms. Plum has a wonderful secret: a magic supply closet.  It smells of something wonderful and has dark corners filled with wondrous things.  When a student is asked to get something from the closet, they return with an animal that perfectly matches what they need.  A shy girl is pampered by a group of little monkeys.  A loud child returns with a parrot who talks even more than he does.  And who knows what the smart boy who sees himself as not needing anything will get! 

This book is a delight.  Ms. Plum is a mix of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Ms. Frizzle.  She solves children’s problems with magic and a modern style.  Becker has just the right touch, nicely building from one story to the next in episodic chapters.  Ms. Plum’s teaching is evident, but the animals and children are the heart of the story, just as they should be.  Portnoy’s black-and-white illustrations are have a modern feel that is right at home here.  They nicely break up the text, making a book that reluctant readers will feel right at home reading.

Perfect for reading aloud to a class, this is also an ideal book to hand to young readers who can reach the end of a chapter and have some resolution and a sense of accomplishment.  This would also be a good pick for readers who are reading above their age group.  There is nothing scary here but plenty of interest.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Once a Witch

| Tasha

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Tamsin comes from a family with magical Talents, but she doesn’t have any herself.  While working in her family’s bookstore, she is asked to help find a lost object, something others in her family do for people.  Tamsin is tired of being overlooked and pretends to be her older and very Talented sister Rowena and takes the job.  She goes to boarding school in New York City, against her family’s recommendations, and finds that the man looking for a unique clock also lives there.  He’s a professor at NYC.  At the same time, a Talented childhood friend reappears into Tamsin’s life and agrees to help her find the clock.  But all is not what it seems in this twisting book filled with romance, magic, and danger.

This book is light and lovely.  It is a refreshing fantasy filled with enough angst and action to move it along briskly.  There is also enough danger to make it difficult to put down, enough mystery to keep the pages turning, and enough romantic tension to keep any romance-lover happy.  MacCullough has created a protagonist who is bright, snarky and very funny.  Tasmin is the brilliant star of the novel even though she feels ordinary and dull.  MacCullough’s light touch keeps the book breezy and a pleasure to read.

Perfect for reading under the covers with a flashlight, this novel is simply a lot of fun to read with its captivating blend of fantasy and romance.  A light and lovely book appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

Museum of Mary Child

| Tasha

The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds

Heloise lives a lonely, subdued and severe life with her godmother.  She is not allowed to have toys, not allowed to play, and must spend her time being constructive.  Heloise yearns most of all for a doll and then she discovers a secret niche under a floorboard where a doll is hidden.  She succeeds for some time in hiding the doll from her godmother, but when her godmother discovers the doll, she flies into a rage.  Next door to their house is the Museum of Mary Child, a place where visitors come but Heloise has never been allowed to enter.  Her grandmother drags her there.  Stunned by the revelations of the museum, Heloise flees her godmother’s home with her doll in tow.  Ending up in the city, Heloise is taken in by a choir of orphans, where she begins to learn about what life is about and to feel like a real little girl.  But she cannot escape the mystery of her own upbringing for long.

This gothic tale owes a lot to folk tales with birds who guide humans, and a prince in prison.  These elements weave themselves into Heloise’s tale, offering glimpses of magic and wonder  against the darkness of madness and solitude.  Just as Heloise is a unique child, so this book is unique and fascinating.  It doesn’t fit into a genre niche neatly, offering so many different but well-worked elements.  Because of this, it is a very fun read.  Readers will be unable to figure out how the novel will end because they won’t be sure if they are reading fantasy, gothic, horror or fairy tale – perhaps it is all of them at once.

Heloise is a great character with her fierceness and inquisitiveness.  She carries this book forward, gradually learning along with the reader what her story is.  It is a delicately balanced story, never moving too far into horror, never too far from its fairy tale elements.  The setting is such a large part of the tale from the museum to the city itself and its madhouse and prison.  Golds does a great job creating and sustaining a mood though the entire book along with a tension that makes it difficult to put down and impossible not to puzzle about even when not reading.

Recommended for tweens who are a little too young for Twilight, this book has quality writing and an intriguing premise.  Children as young as ten who are looking for a little horror and creepiness will find a great read here.  Appropriate for ages 10-14.

Reviewed from copy provided by publisher.

Sacred Scars

| Tasha


Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey

I adored Skin Hunger when it came out, despite it’s precipitous ending.  Remember those debates?!

Now the second in the series has been released to help people recover from that ending.  And it picks up right where the last book left off, in the midst of the drama and tension.  The book has two interconnected story lines which are set 200 years apart.  Readers get to see the rediscovery of magic in one of the lines and the harsh reality of it in the other.  In both stories is Somiss, the aristocrat who struggles to find the key to magic and after finding it, runs a diabolical school to train young magicians.  Franklin, his servant, also appears in both story lines, as servant, unwilling helper, and magician.  At the heart of the stories is Sadima, who learns magic by reading Somiss’ documents and eavesdropping on his recitations.  She yearns to escape with Franklin, her love, and the street urchins they have kidnapped and caged.  But in this brutal world of magic, there are only desperate choices, evil around ever corner, and constant deception.

Nicely the novel manages to not rehash the first book at all, yet readers who have had a gap of a few years between the novels will find it offers just enough to allow you to remember the first novel.  Duey’s writing is gripping, tense, and engulfing.  She has created a world that is so dark, yet it has piercing moments of light, love and truth.  Duey excels at creating characters with depth and dimension, then immersing them into a twisted story.  It makes for a book that is not only impossible to put down but makes it difficult to breathe deeply while reading.

This novel is filled with violence.  Violence so shattering that it is hard to read, harder to process, and impossible to understand.  She is an author who pushes it to a new limit, daring the reader to read on, dancing on the knife’s edge.  All to great and dazzling effect.  She is an author I don’t trust to keep my favored characters alive.  In fact, I am constantly checking to see which of the stories is written in first person, hoping that guarantees survival.

Though I have used some of the most powerful words I have to describe this novel, it is far more dark, disturbing and taut than I can express.  Teens will love this world, react to its harshness, and eagerly await the third and final book in the series.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Booklist’s Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy

| Tasha

Booklist has listed its top picks for science fiction and fantasy in 2009.  There are two lists.  The first is for youth and the second for adults, but as we know teens love to read adult science fiction/fantasy titles.

The youth list is a great one!  Books I had yet to read mixed with my favorites of the year. 

Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy for Youth

 

Attica by Garry Kilworth

The Carbon Diaries.2015. by Saci Lloyd

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

 

Top SF/Fantasy

All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum

The Best of Lucius Shepard by Lucius Shepard

The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling

Crazy Love by Leslie What

Crusade by Taylor Anderson

Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

The Man with the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove

We Never Talk about My Brother by Peter S. Beagle

VOYA’s Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror

| Tasha

VOYA has released their list of the best sci fi, fantasy and horror for teens in 2008.  I usually love their lists, but this one in my mind is lacking.  And really, for such a lengthy list, it should not have missed so many of my favorite titles. 

I applaud the inclusion of Hunger Games, Adoration of Jenna Fox, and Melting Stones, plus of course The Graveyard Book.  But where are some of my other favorites?

Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Skinned by Robin Wasserman