Review of Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Three Times Lucky

by Sheila Turnage

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. 312 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Newbery Honor Book

I didn’t read Three Times Lucky until 2013 had started, so it didn’t have a chance to be on my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs. I did read it in time for our library’s first Mock Newbery voting, and Three Times Lucky was our winner. It hadn’t gotten a lot of attention on the Heavy Medal blog, so I was thinking of it as kind of a longshot and was very happy when it achieved Newbery Honor.

Three Times Lucky has so much to like about it: Quirky characters in a Southern small town. A girl without parents who doesn’t know who they are (she was found in a hurricane). Good friends who get into scrapes and adventures. A hurricane and deadly peril. And, oh yes, a murder mystery. With meddlesome kids.

The first paragraph gives you the flavor of the book:

Trouble cruised into Tupelo Landing at exactly seven minutes past noon on Wednesday, the third of June, flashing a gold badge and driving a Chevy Impala the color of dirt. Almost before the dust had settled, Mr. Jesse turned up dead and life in Tupelo Landing turned upside down.

Mo LoBeau was named Moses because she was “taken out of the water.” She and her best friend Dale are opening the town cafe while Miss Lana is gone, but they aren’t allowed to use the stove, “which the Colonel says could be dangerous for someone of my height and temperament.” I like the paragraph where she lists off the day’s specials:

I stood up straight, the way Miss Lana taught me and draped a paper napkin over my arm. “This morning we’re offering a full line of peanut butter entrees,” I said. “We got peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and raisins, and a delicate peanut butter/peanut butter combination. These come crunchy or smooth, on Wonder Bread, hand-squished flat on the plate or not, as you prefer. The special today is our famous peanut butter and banana sandwich. It comes on Wonder Bread, cut diagonal on the plate, with crust or without. What can I start you with?”

Yes, there are some coincidences. A few details of the plot are maybe a tiny bit of a stretch. But most of all, the book is fun reading. The townsfolk of Tupelo Landing, with all their quirks, come to life and seem real. And besides having a mystery to solve, there are budding romances, Dale’s brother in a big race, and Mo’s sending bottles upriver hoping to find her mother.

This book is a heap of fun, and I’m so glad it’s joining the Newbery canon.

sheilaturnage.com
penguin.com/youngreaders

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/3_times_lucky.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Review of The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

by Catherynne M. Valente

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2012. 258 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 Children’s Fiction: Fantasy and Science Fiction

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There is a sequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. A friend of mine calls both of them The Girl With the Very Long Title. I think you can get away without having read the first book to read this one, because September’s adventures continue to be quite episodic, but she does meet many characters she met in her first set of adventures, or their shadows, so you may appreciate it more having read the first book.

It’s been a year since September saved Fairyland. She does miss it terribly, and the experience has made her all the more different from other girls at her school. And what no one seems to notice is that September left her shadow behind in Fairyland.

When September does get to go back, it turns out that her own shadow has gone to Fairyland-Below and become the Hollow Queen, Halloween. What’s more, she’s gradually draining more shadows from Fairyland-Above, and so people there are losing their magic along with their shadows. She meets A-Through-L, her dear wyverary, and her friend Saturday the marid, but they are actually the shadows of her friends and behave quite differently.

Now, I don’t know how much children will enjoy The Girl With the Very Long Title books. It would be a fun one to try out in a family read-aloud at bedtime. They would have to have high tolerance for big words. And the many things in the book that an adult finds funny and clever might not appeal as much to a child, because it is so funny precisely because it mirror’s a child’s logic.

There were many, many clever bits, and with my son away at college, I just have to share them in the review. I don’t think it gives away the plot at all, but shows the fun the author has with the situations.

A Wyvern’s body is different from the body of a young girl’s in several major respects. First, it has wings, which most young girls do not (there are exceptions). Second, it has a very long, thick tail, which some young girls may have, but those who find themselves so lucky keep them well hidden. Let us just say, there is a reason some ladies wore bustles in times gone by! Third, it weighs about as much as a tugboat carrying several horses and at least one boulder. There are girls who weigh that much, but as a rule, they are likely to be frost giants. Do not trouble such folk with asking after the time or why their shoes do not fit so well.

I loved the Physickists September met, students of Quiet Physicks, Queer Physicks, and Questing Physicks:

We seek out Quest-Dense Zones and hop in with both feet. We Experiment. We prove. Mersenne has gone off into the Jargoon Mountains to work on his thesis, investigating the spiritual connection between dragons and maidens. Candella last reported from the bottom of Blackdamp Lake, conducting experiments on free-range treasure. Red Newton wholly devoted himself to the study of magic apples, immortality causing and otherwise, and that means setting up a year-round camp in the Garden of Ascalaphus. . . . It is my dearest hope that one day I shall be the one to discover the GUT — the Grand Unified Tale, the one which will bind together all our Theorems and Laws, leaving out not one Orphan Girl or Youngest Son or Cup of Life and Death. Not one Descent or Ascent, not one Riddle or Puzzle or Trick. One perfect golden map that can guide any soul to its desire and back again.

Avogadra grinned. “Whilst on an expedition to prove the Rule of Three, my honored colleague Black Fermat hypothesized that certain Quest Objects cast a field around them, like a magnet or a planet — an Everyone Knows That Field. This is how they draw in unsuspecting Heroes. When an E.K.T. Field is in effect, everyone within its power will know a good deal about the Object, even if they can’t say where they heard about it or why it’s so deathly important to remember all that dusty old nonsense. They’ll chat about it with any passing stranger like it’s sizzling local gossip. ‘Oh, the Troll-Goblet of Clinkstone Hall? A Forgetful Whale swallowed it, and took it to her pod so they could bring the Whale-Maiden Omoom back to life. Everyone knows that! — the sword Excalibur? Nice lady down by the lake will let you see it for a dime, swing it for a dollar — Everyone knows that!’ Trust me, if you want to know the score, just find out What Everyone Knows, and you’ll be on the scent.

Later, September talks with a Mad Scientist:

A wyrmhole just goes from one place to another place. Dull as a street. A squidhole starts in one place — like my shop here — and goes five or ten other places, depending on how many field mice you happened to get.

And there are bits of wisdom:

For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them. You, being sharp and clever, will have noticed that I said “practice.” Forgiveness always takes practice to get right, and September was very new at it.

The story is episodic, with wild, random events happening to September one after the other, like a maze with unexpected turns. The author is incredibly imaginative, and I have to admit I enjoyed her little asides. I recommend trying the first book, and if you’re up for more of the same, you’ll definitely want to read on.

fairylandbook.com
mackids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/girl_who_fell.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 Advance Review Copy I got at an American Library Association conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Review of The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Prairie Thief

by Melissa Wiley

Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster), 2012. 215 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 Children’s Fiction: Fantasy and Science Fiction

I read this book as one of the many nominees for the Cybils Award in Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy, and I can safely say it was distinctly different from any other of the 151 books we considered. The book is a sweet story, and it’s set on the American prairie among some of the first European settlers, who live isolated and far apart from each other. Louisa’s Pa has been imprisoned for thievery, even though no one — least of all Louisa — thinks he’s the kind of person who’d do that. But many missing objects have been found in his abandoned dugout. What other explanation is there?

When the little girl from the family who’s taken Louisa in sees a little man nearby, it’s not hard for the reader to guess what’s going on (especially combined with the cover illustration). So though the plot may not be surprising, there is a good story here. There are some lovely moments, like when Louisa gets to ride on a pronghorn antelope to speed to her father’s trial.

Yes, the ending has a rather large coincidence. But the story is so nice, it was easy to forgive, especially since the coincidence was told with humor. There are nice imaginative touches along the way, too. Reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie, but with little people, maybe it should be called Little People on the Prairie. I like the imagining how little people would deal with the New World if they decided to stowaway with the Big Folk.

melissawiley.com
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/prairie_thief.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Review of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

by Catherynne M. Valente

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2011. 247 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time. I finally did so on the excuse that the sequel has come out, and I now I want to read both.

The Girl With the Very Long Title, as my friend calls it, reminds me a bit of Alice in Wonderland, because of the style of the illustrations, combined with one strange thing after another happening to the heroine, September, in seemingly random order.

The narrator has a strong voice. In many cases, the narrator treats the reader as a child, which seems reasonable.

By the time a lady reaches the grand, golden evening of her life, she has accumulated a great number of things. You know this — when you visited your grandmother on the lake that summer you were surprised to see how many portaits of people you didn’t recognize hung on the walls and how many porcelain ducks and copper pans and books and collectible spoons and old mirrors and scrap wood and half-finished knitting and board games and fireplace pokers she had stuffed away in the corners of her house. You couldn’t think what use a person would have for all that junk, why they would keep it around for all this time, slowly fading in the sun and turning the same shade of parchmenty brown. You thought your grandmother was a bit crazy, to have such a collection of glass owls and china sugar bowls.

In several other places, the reader is addressed as a grown-up, which seems perhaps out-of-place, although it certainly applied, in my case:

You and I, being grown-up and having lost our hearts at least twice or thrice along the way, might shut our eyes and cry out, Not that way, child! But as we have said, September was Somewhat Heartless, and felt herself reasonably safe on that road. Children always do.

Still, this book gives an enjoyable trip through Fairyland, which quickly becomes for September about saving her friends. I’m not completely sure I would have liked it when I was a child, but then, I didn’t like Alice in Wonderland then either. And I am still looking forward to seeing what the sequel is like. The book is full of imaginative details and fairyland logic, which isn’t quite the same as real-world logic. There were some statements from the narrator I particularly liked:

Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble.

“When you are born,” the golem said softly, “your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off of staircases, saying your first words without fearing that someone will think you are foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you’re half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it’s so grunged up with living. So every once in a while, you have to scrub it up and get the works going or else you’ll never be brave again. Unfortunately, there are not so many facilities in your world that provide the kind of services we do. So most people go around with grimy machinery, when all it would take is a bit of spit and polish to make them paladins once more, bold knights and true.”

That’s the kind of fun observations and magical details you’ll find in this book.

fairylandbook.com
mackids.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/girl_who_circumnavigated.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Review of Bink and Gollie: Two for One, by Kate Di Camillo and Alison McGhee

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Bink and Gollie
Two for One

by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
illustrated by Tony Fucile

Candlewick Press, 2012. 80 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Capitol Choices List
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#6 Picture Books

This follow-up to Bink and Gollie is as irresistible as the first. Bink is short and wild. Gollie is tall and sedate. They spend a day together at the fair.

In many ways this book is about failure. Failure at Whack-a-Duck and failure at the Talent Show. But it’s not treated as failure. Not at all. After both events, the girls find happy compensation.

The pictures are the crowning glory of this delightful book. Yes, the words are wonderful, but the pictures bring it to life. Bink’s efforts to throw the ball and Whack a Duck take up an entire dramatic two-page spread. Gollie’s stage fright is communicated without a word as the scene widens to show just how many people are listening to her and the frozen look on her face.

There are not very many words on each page, but there is lots and lots of story on each page. Beginning readers will feel they’ve accomplished something, and skilled readers won’t be bored for a second.

The two girls finish up the day in a fortune teller’s tent.

“I see two friends,” said Madame Prunely.
“Is one of those friends tall?” said Gollie.
“Yes,” said Madame Prunely.

“And is the other friend short?” said Bink.
“Yes,” said Madame Prunely.

“Are they together?” said Gollie.
“Without question,” said Madame Prunely.

“That’s all the future I need to know,” said Bink.
“Come on, Gollie!”

An absolute delight for beginning readers.

binkandgollie.com
candlewick.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/two_for_one.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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.

Review of The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Cabinet of Earths

by Anne Nesbet

Harper, 2012. 260 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#2 Children’s Fiction: Fantasy and Science Fiction

It’s hard not to like a children’s fantasy tale set in Paris. (Okay, it’s hard for me not to like any book set in Paris.) Now, Maya, the main character, is not happy to be in Paris, and I like the way they explain it, not in a feel-sorry-for-herself way:

Her mother had a saying for bad days: Life is full of lessons, and the grades aren’t fair. By which she might as well have said, Sometimes your mother gets sick — really sick, like having to go through chemo and losing all her hair and most of her get-up-and-go — and you have to be a very good sport. Not just for a day or a summer, but for years. And here are the lessons Maya had learned about trying to be always, always a good sport:
1. it’s exhausting; and
2. nobody notices; and
3. it doesn’t really work very well, anyway.

After Maya’s mother is recovering from chemo, she encourages Maya’s dad to accept a fellowship he’s been offered to move the whole family to Paris for one year. Maya’s mom has a cousin in Paris. Maya’s little brother is annoyingly happy with the whole thing, and makes French-speaking friends at his new school almost instantly.

But there are some strange things happening in Paris. The Society of Philosophical Chemistry that gave her dad the fellowship has some mysteries. Its director is a distant relation. He’s young and handsome, and he seems awfully eager to meet Maya and her brother James. For years, children have gone missing from that section of Paris. Then there’s Cousin Louise, who is strangely invisible and unmemorable. She has to ask Maya to get even a waiter’s attention.

She was strangely hard to see. No color to her, somehow, just an oddly muted effect, as if there were a curtain of frosted glass between Maya’s eyes and her. Or a kind of haze in the air, almost. Just an ordinary sort of woman, but too vague to be properly ordinary, because ordinary ordinary people become more vivid when you pay attention to them, and this woman — well, you couldn’t quite focus on her, somehow.

All the mysteries seem to be focused around an amazing and beautiful old cabinet filled with bottles of earth that is in the possession of another distant relation of theirs — an eccentric old man who never leaves his home.

The mysteries and the adventure and the danger are woven together skillfully. Maya has to figure out her part in all these secrets, and then try to avert disaster.

I had one teeny-tiny complaint: I didn’t think that James talked like a five-year-old. But that’s minor, and I was able to adjust my image of him when the author mentioned his age. Perhaps his annoying charisma that makes everyone love him also made him a precocious conversationalist.

And like I said, that complaint was extremely minor. Overall, this book is a highly unusual magical adventure tale. We’ve got a modern child up against sinister forces in an unfamiliar environment and a mystery to solve before it’s too late. And it’s all set in Paris! Win-win!

annenesbet.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/cabinet_of_earths.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Review of The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The False Prince

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Scholastic Press, New York, 2012. 342 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out #1 Fantasy and Science Fiction for Children

So, funny thing. I read this book earlier in the year, as an Advance Reader Copy, and although I enjoyed it, I decided there were too many flaws, and I didn’t want to review it. I read it afresh at the end of 2012, as part of my reading for the Cybils, and this time I loved it.

What was the difference? I believe that both times I read it in one sitting, into the small hours of the morning, so I certainly found it a page turner both times.

I think the first time, it reminded me so much of The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, I couldn’t help but be disappointed. That’s an unfair comparison for almost any book, so when I figured out the big reveal fairly easily, I held it against the author and thought she should have done the revealing differently. The second time I read it, I knew what I knew (and some other reviewers thought she intended us to figure it out), so I didn’t worry about that. I firmly did not compare it to The Thief, and this time I loved it.

The book opens with an orphan named Sage stealing a roast for the orphanage and then being captured and bought by a nobleman. Conner, the nobleman, gets three other orphan boys and tells them one of them is going to replace the prince who’s been missing for four years. The rest of the royal family is dead, and the country will find out in two weeks’ time. If one of the boys can get everything right in two weeks, he will be the new king and live in luxury the rest of his life. Of course, it’s pretty clear that whichever boys are not chosen will need to be killed to keep the secret.

Sage isn’t one to capitulate to Conner’s power, and he clearly has plans of his own. How it all gets worked out is wonderful tale. If the big twists and turns don’t take you by surprise, there are still some little details that will slip through. The book is hard to put down, and the action keeps going. I do have to say that, like Megan Whalen Turner’s books, you do spot more details when you reread the book that you won’t have realized were significant the first time around.

The best thing about this book? It’s “Book One of the Ascendance Trilogy.” The book does stand alone beautifully, and tells a complete story. But I’m definitely looking forward to finding out what happens next.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/false_prince.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 the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Science Fiction and Fantasy Children’s Fiction

Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

I’m doing blog posts about my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs, and I’m finally getting to the category for which I was a Cybils judge, Science Fiction and Fantasy for Middle Grade Readers. The Cybils list was created by our panel of 7 people, and they were a fabulously insightful group to work with. The list here simply represents my own personal favorites. The Cybils list has a little more variety (and, yes, I’m very happy with it and proud of it), but this list has a whole lot of love.

I haven’t posted all the reviews for these books yet. Soon! Soon! Do stay tuned! I’ll try to start with posting two tonight and catch up the rest within the next week or two.

I should add that judging for this category was a treat. I do love fantasy books, and this year I got to indulge more than ever. All of these books are recommended reading.

That said, here are the Fantasy and Science Fiction Children’s Books I most enjoyed reading in 2012:

1. The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood
2. The Spy Princess, by Sherwood Smith
3. The False Prince, by Jennifer L. Nielsen
4. Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
5. Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin
6. Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung
7. The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet
8. Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis
9. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente
10. The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley
11. The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

Watch for the remaining reviews!

And how about you? What were your favorite fantasy and science fiction books for children you read in 2012? (Links to other lists are welcome.)

Happy Reading!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Other Children’s Fiction

Children's Fiction Review, Stand-outs 0

Tonight I’m posting about my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs in the category of “other” Children’s Fiction — all except Fantasy and Science Fiction, which was the category I judged for the Cybils, so had a lot of books.

This category includes most of my Newbery hopefuls, though I didn’t choose them for award winners, but just ranked in terms of how much I enjoyed reading them. I’m posting this category tonight because it’s the only category where I have all the reviews already posted. I’m getting to this late tonight because today I went and looked at a townhome that I’m going to make an offer for! I found that the best way to make such a big decision was to take a nap!

Anyway, here are my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs for Non-Fantasy Children’s Fiction:

1. Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker
2. The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
3. Wonder, by R. J. Palacio
4. Liar and Spy, by Rebecca Stead
5. Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Obed Bryan
6. The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine

You may have noticed that I don’t have the same number of stand-outs in each category. That’s because these are the books that stand out in my mind after a year of reading, and I try to hold the same standard to all categories. So some have more choices than others.

This list does have one book, The One and Only Ivan, that was on our Cybils shortlist for Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction, by virtue of animals talking to each other. But I maintain that in spirit, it’s not a fantasy novel at all, so for my purposes, it’s on this list.

Come to think of it, all of these books are on our Mock Newbery Book Club shortlist for voting on January 14th at 4:30 pm at City of Fairfax Regional Library. I guess that makes sense, since I made the shortlist! Also on our shortlist are two other Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Palace of Stone and Starry River of the Sky, and two books I haven’t read yet: Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, and Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage. If any of my readers live in the area, please come join us, even if you haven’t read all the books!

Tonight I’ll update the review pages for all these books to reflect their Stand-out status. If you haven’t caught these books yet, I recommend them all highly. And who knows, maybe you can beat the crowd for checking out some Newbery honorees!

Review of Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Liar & Spy

by Rebecca Stead

Wendy Lamb Books, 2012. 180 pages.
Starred Review

Georges has just had to move; his Dad lost his job; his Mom is working extra shifts at the hospital; his best friend started sitting at the cool table; and he’s dealing with more and more bullying at school. Then there’s a post in the laundry room: “Spy Club today.” When Georges investigates, he meets a kid named Safer.

Safer and his family aren’t much like the other kids Georges knows. Safer plans to train him to be a spy. It starts with things like watching the lobbycam but goes on to checking the laundry of Mr. X, the man who dresses only in black, and progresses to breaking and entering.

I think Safer pictures a little box of evil in a corner of Mr. X’s apartment, and he thinks that if he can find it, he’ll save the world, or at least a small part of Brooklyn.

And who am I to say that he’s wrong?

This is a quiet book, but has more of what Rebecca Stead does well: quirky characters who feel just quirky enough to be real; group dynamics of classes of kids; the strange details of middle school; and especially making new friends.

This book is a lot like When You Reach Me, but without the time travel, so it’s a quieter book. The result is not as flashy, but still excellent, about an ordinary kid coping with a lot of things, and doing it with some stumbles, but coming out on top.

randomhouse.com/kids

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

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

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