Fluttering Butterflies

If Hannah had known what was going to happen, she would have told her dad, off on a business trip, that she loved him. If she had known, she wouldn't have gotten into a fight with her best friend. And if she had known, maybe she wouldn't have grumped at her mom's advise. But she didn't. And now a devastating earthquake has stranded her and the two younger kids she's babysitting on an island.  There are no grown-ups.  No power.  No water.  No phone service.  Will they make it? The Disaster Days , by Rebecca Behrens, is a gripping story of kids surviving on their own after an earthquake that will set your mind racing!   It's  only Hannah's second time babysitting the neighbor's kids; she's not all that much older than them (she in 7th, Zoe's in 4th and Oscar is in 3rd  Her mother has fussed at her for not being responsible enough to look after anyone, but Hannah feels fairly confident, even if her mother won't be on the island where they live t...

Welcome to this week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy blog postings!  Please let me know if I missed anything (anyone is welcome to send me posts during the week for the following Sunday's round-up, including authors and publiscists etc.). The Reviews Anya and the Dragon, by Sofiya Pasternack, at Read Love The Battle, by Karuna Riazi, at Charlotte's Library City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at Fantasy Literature and Treestand Book Reviews The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Horwitz, at Log Cabin Library Dragonfell, by Sarah Prineas, at Puss Reboots The Green Children of Woolpit, by J. Anderson Coats, at Charlotte's Library The Library of Ever, by Zeno Alexander, at Cover2CoverBlog The Lost Girl, by Anne Ursu, at Imaginary Friends Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at Ms. Yingling Reads Marigold Star, by Elise Primavera, at Nayu's Reading Corner The Red Rover: Origins, by C.E. Whitaker III, at The Write Path Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez...

Back in the 12th century, two green children were found in the English village of Woolpit.  The boy died, but the girl lived, and spoke of the twilight underground country they'd come from.  They became a legend .  And now J. Anderson Coats has made them the center of a magical middle grade story, The Green Children of Woolpit (Atheneum, September 2019). Except that the center of her story is not actually the two green children, but Agnes, the peasant girl who finds them.  Agnes, whose mind wanders, who can see the wind, who isn't rushing toward growing up like her former best friend, Glory.  Agnes was the only one to hear the green children calling for help.  And because she went to their aid, her own life becomes a nightmare. While the green girl tries to take her place in her family with guile and fairy glamor, Agnes is trapped in the underground halls of the malevolent and sadistic Good People.  To make things right, she must undo the bargain she b...

The Battle , by Karuna Riazi (middle grade, Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster, August, 2019) has just as much exciting fun as its predecessor, The Gauntlet! It's four years after Ahmad Mirza, his big sister Farah and two of her friends were sucked into a game that came to life, and Farah led the group to defeat the game's architect (as told in The Gauntlet ).  Four years in which Ahmed has gotten into trouble, made no friends, and obsessively drawn the game's city setting, Paheli.  And now Ahmed is sitting in the principle's office, in trouble for sneaking the package his sister mailed to him at school from the school office.  Then Winnie, a "good kid," shows up to explain she was the one who snuck the package out.  And when Ahmed sets off home that day, she follows him. He doesn't understand why, but can't help but hope that Winnie might be a friend....And so the two of them look at the high-tech video game that was in the package-- The Battle -- a...

Welcome to this week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs! Please let me know if I missed your post. The Reviews The 12th Candle, by Kim Tomsic, at Always in the Middle All the Impossible Things, by Lindsay Lackey, at Charlotte's Library City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, at The Zen Leaf The Curse of Greg, by Chris Rylander, at Say What? The Disaster Days, by Rebecca Behrens, at Bibliobrit Frostfire, by Jamie Smith, at Fantasy Literature Guardians of Magic (The Cloud Horse Chronicles #1), by Chris Riddell, at Books for Topics The Girl Who Speaks Bear, by Sophie Anderson, at A little but a lot The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade, by Max Brallier, at J.R.'s Book Reviews Malamander, by Thomas Taylor, at A Garden of Books (audiobook review) Nico Bravo and the Hound of Hades by Mike Cavallaro, at Jean Little Library Outlaws (Royal Academy Rebels) by Jen Calonita, at Sharon the Librarian The Remarkables, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, a...

This is How You Lose the Time War , by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ( July 2019, Gallery / Saga Pres) , is an epistolary love story between two agents (Red and Blue) on either side of a time war that stretches millennia in both directions.  Red and Blue are skilled at manipulating the strings of time, braiding them into patterns that will result in the desired outcomes of the two very different futures that spawned them. But when they begin a correspondence that starts as a taunting challenge, they find that they are braiding themselves together, tugging each other toward a future that seems impossible. It's not a doorstopper of a book (198 pages), so I thought it would be a fast read, but it's not, because all the words deserve consideration, and it's so rich in literary allusions and historical details and epistolary conceits that it demands to be savored.  It' s a very complicated sort of time travel (constant back and forth manipulation of history can make my he...

All the Impossible Things , by Lindsay Lackey (middle grade, Roaring Brook Press, September 2019), is a story about a magical girl finding love, and it's heartwarming and sad and sweet, and a very good read. Eleven-year-old Red (her real name's Ruby, but she's always been Red to her mom) has been in and out of various foster homes since her grandma's death a few years earlier.  She's driven off to her newest placement with no particular hopes that it will be any better than anywhere else, and since she's counting down the days (about a year's worth) till her mom gets out of prison and they can be together again, she has no interest in actually finding a home. But the Grooves, an older couple who run a small petting zoo, welcome her with love, and the promise of home.  And when Red finds out her mom, whose drug addition is what landed her in jail and left Red with her Grandma, is out early, she's torn by her burning wish to be a happy family with her mom,...