Children’s Fiction Review – Page 37

Jan 25, 2015

Review of Boys of Blur, by N. D. Wilson

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Boys of Blur

by N. D. Wilson

Random House, New York, 2014. 195 pages.
Starred Review
2014 Cybils Finalist

The first page of Boys of Blur pulls you in:

When the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, look for the boys who are quicker than flame.

Crouch.

Stare through the smoke and let your eyes burn.

Don’t blink.

While cane leaves crackle and harvesters whir, while blades shatter armies of sugar-sweet sticks, watch for ghosts in the smoke, for boys made of blur, fast as rabbits and faster.

Shall we run with them, you and I? Shall we dodge tractors and fire for small handfuls of fur? Will we grin behind shirt masks while caught rabbits kick in our hands?

Shoes are for the slow. Pull ‘em off. Tug up your socks. Shift side to side. Chase. But be quick. Very quick. Out here in the flats, when the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, there can be only quick. There’s quick, and there’s dead.

Boys of Blur can be thought of as Beowulf in the Florida swamp. With zombies.

Charlie Reynolds has come to Taper, Florida with his mother, stepfather, and little sister, to attend a funeral. The funeral is happening at a white church on a mound outside of town on the edge of the swamps, in the middle of muck, and ringed by a sea of sugarcane. The funeral is for Charlie’s stepfather’s old football coach, and his stepfather has been asked to coach the high school team in his place.

Charlie was in the cane where his stepfather had been raised and played his first football. Over the dike and across the water, he knew he would find more cane and the town of Belle Glade, where his real dad had been raised and played his football.

Soon, Charlie meets Cotton, his stepdad’s second cousin, and Cotton says that makes them cousins, too. He takes Charlie into the cane and shows him a mound topped by a stone. The stone has a dead snake on top, and a small dead rabbit beside it. But that’s only the first strange thing. They see a man wearing a helmet and carrying a sword.

There’s drama and danger here. There’s tension, because Charlie’s mother knows his father lives near, and Charlie sees the old familiar fear in her eyes.

And there are secrets in the cane, in the swamp, in the muck. Why do dead animals keep appearing at certain places? And what is the foul stench that comes up in the swamp at night, while Cotton and Charlie watch the helmeted man digging in Coach Wiz’s grave? And is that sound the scream of a panther?

This book is a bit more mystical than I tend to like my fantasy. But it’s excellently carried out, so it didn’t bother me while I was reading that by the end I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. Think Beowulf in the Florida swamp — with zombies — and you’ll have the idea — Friends fighting monsters together.

ndwilson.com
randomhouse.com/kids

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 24, 2015

Review of Nuts to You, by Lynne Rae Perkins

Animal Characters, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 1

Nuts to You

by Lynne Rae Perkins

Greenwillow Books, 2014. 256 pages.
2014 Cybils Finalist, Speculative Fiction for Elementary/Middle Grade

Nuts to You is a squirrel story. And it’s a friendship story. Supposedly told to the author by a squirrel who enjoyed her peanut butter sandwich, the book has a strong authorial voice that doesn’t get cutesy. With spot illustrations throughout, this is a gentle adventure for young readers, and would make an outstanding family or classroom read-aloud.

Right at the start our hero, the squirrel Jed, gets snatched by a hawk. As he’s flying in the hawk’s talons, he tries to distract the hawk by yelling about mice.

For an instant, the hawk, scanning for mice, eased his grip, ever so slightly.

And in that instant, Jed relaxed his muscles. It was a technique from the ancient squirrel defensive martial art of Hai Tchree, not well known because it doesn’t work most of the time. Because it is so hard to do when your situation is not relaxing.

But Jed concentrated and completely relaxed his muscles — like the great Houdini escaping a straitjacket — and he slipped like water* through the distracted hawk’s talons.

*thick water. Or perhaps like a non-Newtonian fluid. Look it up on YouTube.

However, Jed lands in a realm far from his home. Fortunately for Jed, his best friend, TsTs, is in a treetop, sees the hawk snatch him, and sees him fall, faraway. She sees that he falls near the third giant frozen spider web along the buzzpaths (utility wires). She and another friend, Chai, set out to find Jed.

But where Jed lands, there is a threat to the trees. All the trees near the buzzpaths are getting sawed down with a thunderous roar. Not only do TsTs and Chai need to find Jed, once found, they need to get back home and warn their own colony of squirrels that they need to move. But how can they possibly get squirrels to take a threat seriously?

I can’t get over the idea that this book would be a wonderful first long chapter book to read aloud to a young child who’s ready to listen to a continuing story at bedtimes. There’s adventure and danger, but a happy ending and a need to work together along the way.

LynneRaePerkins.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Loudoun County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 24, 2015

Review of The Luck Uglies, by Paul Durham

Adventure, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Cybils, Fantasy 0

The Luck Uglies

by Paul Durham

Harper, 2014. 387 pages.
2014 Cybils Finalist, Speculative Fiction for Elementary/Middle Grade

We never do find out why the Luck Uglies are called the Luck Uglies. But they are not monsters. They are mask-wearing outlaws who have been banned from Village Drowning by the Earl.

Rye and her friends Folly and Quinn live in Village Drowning and begin the story by accidentally stealing a book and running over the rooftops to escape pursuit.

The Earl who oversaw the affairs of Drowning had not only banned women and girls from reading, but went so far as to outlaw certain books altogether. None was more illicit than the book Rye now pressed close to her body, Tam’s Tome of Drowning Mouth Fibs, Volume II — an obscure history textbook that was widely ignored until the Earl described it as a vile collection of scandalous accusations, dangerous untruths, and outright lies. Even an eleven-year-old could figure out that meant there must be some serious truth to it.

There are, in fact, monsters in this book — the terrifying Bog Noblins who live outside Village Drowning in the forest Beyond the Shale. Rye herself has a close encounter with one. But someone rescues her. When she wakes up in her home, she’s worried about the village.

“Mama,” Rye said, pushing her mother’s hand away from her face. “We need to tell the soldiers. Before it, it . . .” Rye shuddered. “Comes back.”

“Darling, quiet now.” Abby eased her back down. Your close call is something best kept to ourselves. Bog Noblin attacks attract attention. The Constable — and the Earl — would be eager to speak with you. That’s not the type of attention we want.”

Rye didn’t understand.

“But what about the rest of the village?” she said.

“Riley,” her mother said. “Listen to me carefully. I’ll make sure the right people know what happened. But at the moment, you need to rest. Your encounter in the bog was not the only trouble that befell you on the Black Moon. You were poisoned.”

Rye and her friends end up in the thick of danger from monsters, in a village with corrupt leadership. They need the Luck Uglies, but can the Luck Uglies outwit the Earl’s army? It turns out they will need Rye’s help.

This book does have monsters, but it comes across as a gentle fantasy adventure in the style of Robin Hood. With girls in the thick of the action.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/luck_uglies.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Loudoun County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 24, 2015

Review of The Royal Ranger, by John Flanagan

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Royal Ranger

The Ranger’s Apprentice, Book 12

by John Flanagan

Philomel Books (Penguin), 2013. 455 pages.

I listened to the first two and a half books of The Ranger’s Apprentice series, but lost interest in the middle of book three. I have to say that I think John Flanagan has improved as a writer since the beginning of the series.

I wasn’t lost picking up the series with Book 12, though if I were planning to go back and read the books I’d missed, I’d know how some things turned out. I must admit I did like seeing the “futures” of so many of the characters I met in the first two books. In fact, at times I was annoyed in the early books when he seemed to be dwelling on minor characters. – It turns out they were quite important, after all.

But this book is nicely self-contained and tells a good story. The princess Maddie is acting like a spoiled teenager. So her parents ask Will to take her on as an apprentice – the first ever female Ranger’s apprentice.

Will’s got some issues of his own, becoming obsessed with revenge. I like the way this book mirrored, in some ways, the first book, where Will himself was the apprentice. Will and Maddie take on a challenge that threatens to be more than they can handle, and the title doesn’t give away the ending this time!

And there was no magic in this book, evil or otherwise. In the early books, there was a sinister sorcerer they had to fight. I found it interesting that in this book it’s more ordinary (but still powerful) evil they are up against.

For adventure and the excitement of a small person effectively and cleverly fighting bad guys and helping the weak, this series fills the bill.

worldofjohnflanagan.com
penguin.com/youngreaders

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/royal_ranger.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 24, 2015

Review of Wipeout of the Wireless Weenies, by David Lubar

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Short Stories 0

Wipeout of the Wireless Weenies

and Other Warped and Creepy Tales

by David Lubar

A Tom Doherty Associates Book, New York, 2014. 174 pages.

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I thought I’d just dip into it, and the first story had me laughing out loud. Mind you, the book got a little long for my taste, but I don’t think kids will have the same problem. And there’s a simple solution: The stories are short, so just read one or two at a time. Even when I thought I was getting tired of it, I found myself picking it up again, and smiling by the time I put it down.

Think of this book as short episodes of The Twilight Zone for kids. It reminded me of Half-Minute Horrors, only with somewhat less variety, since all the stories were written by the same author. However, don’t get me wrong — there is plenty of variety. Some stories are scary, some have bad kids come to a rotten end, some are hugely funny, most have twist endings, and almost all are very clever.

This book, like Half-Minute Horrors, would be easy to booktalk. Simply read your favorite story — they are all very short — and you will immediately hook the readers who like this sort of thing.

I can’t really describe details of the stories without giving away the twists. But David Lubar covers things like what parents will do to get out of throwing a birthday party, technology gone crazy, monsters coming to life, the dangers of being all wrapped up in your phone, alien contact, and how if you’re not nice, it may come back to bite you. Basically, “Warped and Creepy Tales” sums up the book nicely.

davidlubar.com
tor-forge.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book sent to me by the publisher.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 24, 2015

Review of Abracadabra Tut, by Page McBrier

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical 0

Abracadabra Tut

by Page McBrier

Palm Canyon Press, 2014. 234 pages.

Abracadabra Tut is a fun time-travel story, taking two kids back to Ancient Egypt where they get to meet King Tut.

Fletcher is a magician in middle school with a birthday party business and dreams of greater things. He goes to an estate sale for a famous professional magician and sees many things he would love to have – but his attention is especially caught by an actual mummy’s coffin.

He talks with a woman at the auction about the mummy’s coffin. She seems impressed with his knowledge of ancient Egyptian magic, which he’s read a book about. But he’s not prepared when a mysterious benefactor – named Isis – purchases the mummy’s coffin by bidding online and gives it to Fletcher.

When the head of the Spirit Committee at school, Arielle Torres, hears that Fletcher got an actual mummy’s coffin, she asks him to do a magic show during the break at the end-of-the-school-year dance in two weeks. And she wants to be his assistant.

But she can’t be bothered to practice, and when the show takes place, everything that can go wrong does go wrong – until they both get into the coffin, and it transports them to Egypt during the time of King Tut.

In Egypt, Fletcher uses a little stage magic to impress the crowd and keep from getting killed. But then King Tut decides that Fletcher’s magic gives him luck and protects him, and Fletcher’s worried. Because he knows King Tut died when he was not much older than the king Fletcher has just met. What will happen when his luck runs out? And if someone in the court is trying to kill the king, will they kill Fletcher? And how can Fletcher and Arielle find the coffin and get back home while they’re still alive?

This book is mostly light-hearted fun, but it does throw in some facts and history about ancient Egypt. There’s adventure and humor and two kids trying to do something good when they may be out of their depth.

pagemcbrier.com
PalmCanyonPress.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/abracadabra_tut.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book sent to me by the publisher.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 18, 2015

Review of Ling & Ting: Twice as Silly, by Grace Lin

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 0

Ling & Ting

Twice as Silly

by Grace Lin

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2014. 44 pages.

This is a chapter book for beginning readers. It includes six stories with a surprise, silly payoff for readers who get to the end of each story.

Not to be spoilery, I’ll give an example of one story. Ling and Ting are playing on swings and Ling says she can swing higher than a tree. Ting challenges her, asking “A tree that is taller than a giraffe?” then a building, a mountain, and more. Ling says “Yes” to every challenge. Here’s the end page of that story:

“Okay,” Ting says. “Show me how you can swing higher than a tree.”

“I am doing it right now,” Ling says. “We both are.”

“We are?” Ting asks. “How?”

“It is easy to swing higher than a tree,” Ling says. “A tree cannot swing.”

Another fun thing is that the last story, “Not a Silly Story,” pulls in an element from each of the earlier stories.

This book uses simple words, repetition, and picture clues to help beginning readers. But it is not boring. The silliness and fun little twists at the end will leave readers smiling, over and above the sense of accomplishment they will gain from reading these on their own.

gracelin.com
hachettebookgroup.com/kids

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 18, 2015

Review of The Mystery of the Screaming Clock, by Robert Arthur

Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in

The Mystery of the Screaming Clock

by Robert Arthur

Random House, New York, 1968. 184 pages.

This is Book 9 in The Three Investigators series. This may be about where my brother stopped letting me read his copy when I was a kid. This Interlibrary Loan process is great!

The Mystery of the Screaming Clock is another puzzle-based mystery. It starts with an alarm clock that, instead of a normal ringing alarm, gives off a piercing scream of a woman in mortal terror.

The clock turned up at the junkyard, and now Jupiter Jones wants to solve the mystery of who would create an alarm clock that screams. They discover a whole room full of screaming clocks made by a man who once did sound effects for an old radio mystery show.

Not surprisingly to the reader, this turns to a mystery involving art theft and an innocent person who needs his name cleared and another boy who gets to take part in the investigation.

The clock has a message glued to the bottom:

Dear Rex:
Ask Imogene.
Ask Gerald.
Ask Martha.
Then act! The result will surprise even you.

Clearly, The Three Investigators need to find Rex, Imogene, Gerald, and Martha. This leads them, eventually, to cryptic clues and a puzzle to solve. But they are not the only ones trying to solve this particular mystery. The story does include the usual mortal peril for some of our heroes. It doesn’t include the rival gang of bullies, and I thought it the better for that omission.

I enjoy the puzzle mysteries in this series, though this one had one part of the clues in a form readers couldn’t possibly figure out themselves. But the story of kids chasing down clues and cleverly solving a mystery with fast-moving action does hold up after almost 50 years.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/screaming_clock.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an interlibrary loan via Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 18, 2015

Review of The Mystery of the Fiery Eye, by Robert Arthur

Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

The Mystery of the Fiery Eye

by Robert Arthur

Random House, New York, 1984. 164 pages.

This is Number Seven in the series of The Three Investigators. I was terribly disappointed when my interlibrary loan came in and apparently I hadn’t specified that I only wanted the original 1967 edition. However, I’m pretty sure the only change is that Alfred Hitchcock was changed to “Hector Sebastian,” a fictional “detective turned mystery writer” rather than a famous actual movie director.

This is another mystery, full of action and danger. As in many others, two of the Three Investigators get captured at some point in the story. A lot of luck is involved in the successful solution of the case, but there is also some deduction. And, as has become customary (I didn’t even notice this from when I read them as a kid), there is a boy from another country who is in on the investigation. In this case the other country is Great Britain, so at least there are few stereotypical elements in the boy’s personality and way of speaking.

This mystery includes some written clues – thus making it more of a puzzle than some, and also making it a type I particularly enjoy. Though the clues are not quite as clever as those in The Stuttering Parrot, and I thought the whole process of following red herrings had a few too many coincidences. But it’s still a fun puzzle to watch Jupiter Jones work on.

The Mystery of the Fiery Eye is notable in that it finally has a girl make an appearance! Not a very flattering example, but at least this book acknowledges that girls exist! The girl, Liz Logan, is talkative and eager.

“Look, don’t you ever need a girl operative?” Liz was asking eagerly. “I’m sure you must on some of your investigations. There are times when a girl would be a big help. You could call on me. I’m a terrific actress. I can use make-up to disguise myself, and I can change my voice and –“…

Bob took the card and climbed into the truck beside Hans, not even noticing the blue sedan that passed them. He was thinking that Liz seemed like a pretty nice sort, and maybe a girl could help them sometime. It was true Jupiter had little use for girls, but if the right occasion ever arose, he’d suggest they call Liz Logan.

I honestly don’t remember if Liz shows up later or not, but I think I vaguely remember some such thing.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/fiery_eye.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an interlibrary loan via Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Jan 18, 2015

Review of The Secret of Skeleton Island, by Robert Arthur

Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in

The Secret of Skeleton Island

by Robert Arthur
illustrated by Harry Kane

Random House, New York, 1966. 158 pages.

This is Book Six of The Three Investigators series, and the fourth one I’ve read in my current rereading spree. Reading them out of order so far has not mattered a bit.

This one I actually remembered some crucial plot details because they are so cool, actually involving pirate treasure. I will say no more about that.

This book doesn’t have anything at all about the gold-plated Rolls-Royce and Worthington, the chauffeur, but it has plenty of adventure. Right at the start, Alfred Hitchcock sends them off to Skeleton Island, off the southeast coast of the United States, where a company is making a movie at the old amusement park on the island.

But the movie company is having trouble. Pieces of equipment have been stolen, and their boats have been tinkered with at night. What’s more, a legendary ghost has recently been seen riding the old merry-go-round. The girl died long ago when she vowed to finish her ride in a storm, but was then struck by lightning.

One thing I’d forgotten was how many of these books have a stereotypical ethnic character. In this case, it’s Chris Markos, from Greece, a diver who’s trying to find pirate treasure to help his injured father. The townspeople are stereotypical and superstitious as well, easily falling for the ghost story and gossiping intensely and mistrusting Chris, the foreigner.

But the overall story is fun and adventurous. Pirate treasure. Boats. Being marooned. Making a movie. Scuba diving. Lives in danger and a mystery to solve. This was a fun one to revisit.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/skeleton_island.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an interlibrary loan via Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!