Review of The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away, by Ronald L. Smith

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction 0

The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away

by Ronald L. Smith

Clarion Books, 2019. 216 pages.
Review written October 27, 2019, from a library book

I love the title of this book, so nicely sinister. You might not want to give it to a kid prone to nightmares, or a kid prone to conspiracy theories.

This book tells the story of Simon, a 13-year-old who is obsessed by aliens – who then has encounters with aliens – or at least he thinks so. When they abduct him, what he remembers is looking into the eyes of an owl.

Simon does the right things and tells his parents – but they don’t believe him. They have him see a psychiatrist, who puts him on medication.

Simon lives on a military base, and his father is in the Air Force and especially skeptical of his story. But Simon meets some people who believe him, though their theories aren’t particularly comforting.

I did think that the book ended just when things got the most interesting.

One other objection is that Simon is writing a fantasy book – and we get to read the beginning chapters of this book. The author realistically shows us a book such as a 13-year-old would write – and I would rather not spend my time reading a fantasy tale written by a 13-year-old. It was a little bit hard to follow, too, so each time Simon gives us a new installment, he summarizes what went before. Each time that happened, I wished he’d summarized in the first place and not made us read the whole thing. The summaries worked just fine.

That said, the book still kept me reading. I’d like to hear what happens next, and not a hundred years in the future, either. But if the aliens are coming, I found it easy to believe this is what that would look like. Simon searched on the internet for insight on what was happening to him – I would not be surprised if a reader could replicate those searches.

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Review of The First State of Being, by Erin Entrada Kelly

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The First State of Being

by Erin Entrada Kelly

Greenwillow Books, 2024. 253 pages.
Review written April 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book opens with a kid named Michael Rosario in August 1999, on his eleventh birthday, stealing canned peaches from a grocery store to save for his mother after the world ends with the Y2K bug.

Michael’s mom lost her job at that same grocery store because she’d called in to take care of him when he was sick. (His fault, obviously!) Now she works three part-time jobs and is almost never home. She pays an older teen named Gibby to watch him a few days a week.

But when Michael and Gibby go out of the apartment to feed the cats who hang out by the dumpster, they see a strange teen named Ridge wearing strange clothes. He talks strangely, using slang awkwardly, and asks weird questions like what the dumpster is for and what plastic is and what year is it?

The next time they see him, he tells them he’s from the future. And gives them convincing proof without telling them anything they’d be able to change.

And adventures follow. Ridge wasn’t actually supposed to use the Spatial Teleportation Module. His brother goaded him into it. But now that he’s here, he wants to see a mall. Michael wants to find out how he should prepare for Y2K – but Ridge doesn’t dare tell him anything that might change the future.

To be fair, I am the wrong audience for this book. I don’t actually believe that time travel is possible. I don’t believe in alternate universes. And I did computer programming before the year 2000, and my eyes are still rolling about the gloom and doom people were predicting as Y2K approached. (The whole day on January 1, 2000, I kept saying, “I knew it! I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.” Though I also knew that programmers were right to do lots of work fixing accounting programs and the like. But they did that, folks.) So I didn’t have much sympathy for poor anxious Michael. Though we got glimpses into the Spatial Teleportation Summary Book and the reader also knows that though the Millennium Bug caused widespread panic, that ultimately no disaster came to pass.

But Erin Entrada Kelly hits exactly the right note for a beginning time travel book. It ends with a very light touch of paradox, but the main story is about a group of relatable kids in an ordinary situation that turns out to be extraordinary. With a lesson thrown in about living in the present.

erinentradakelly.com

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Review of Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee

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

Dragon Pearl

by Yoon Ha Lee

Rick Riordan Presents (Disney Hyperion), 2019. 310 pages.
Starred Review
Review written December 2, 2019, from a library book

I’m finding that I especially like the Rick Riordan Presents books that don’t just fit another culture’s mythology into the formula of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, but instead does something new. Dragon Pearl achieves that beautifully – taking Korean supernatural beings and putting them in space.

Our main character, Min, is a fox spirit, like the other members of her family. Fox spirits are generally not trusted, because they are shape shifters who can Charm the thoughts and emotions of people around them.

When an inspector comes to their planet claiming that her brother Jun was a deserter from the Space Forces and tried to steal the powerful Dragon Pearl, Min knows that couldn’t possibly be true. And she decides to set off looking for him and bring Jun home.

Along the way, Min gets into a lot of danger, makes a bargain with a ghost, and impersonates a cadet from the same ship Jun supposedly deserted from.

I like the way in this book, supernatural beings are taken for granted, not some sort of big secret that only Min knows about. Two of the friends she makes are a goblin and a dragon – both of whom spend most of their time in human form, as she does. I like that the goblin is nonbinary, and Min naturally addresses them with they/them pronouns. Of course, as a shapeshifter, Min thinks nothing of taking either female or male forms at different times.

This adventure combines Korean mythology with outer space and futuristic high-tech gadgetry in a delightful way.

RickRiordan.com
DisneyBooks.com

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

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Review of The Q, by Amy Tintera

Cybils, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Q

by Amy Tintera

Crown, 2022. 343 pages.
Review written February 9, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction

The premise of this book set in the not-too-distant future is that the entire city of Austin, Texas, was quarantined for a deadly virus with a 40 percent mortality rate. Eventually, they built a wall around the Q to keep people from escaping. Twenty years later, there is still no vaccine because the virus mutates too quickly and antibodies don’t help, though people inside have developed artificial organs that are keeping everyone alive. The Q seceded from the United States and is ruled inside by two rival gangs, each with their own territory.

Into this scenario, Lennon Pierce falls from the sky.

It’s election year, and Lennon is the son of one of the candidates for U.S. President. His Dad has been speaking up for the Q, trying to come up with helpful solutions, while the incumbent president is talking about nuking the whole thing, including the people inside. So someone kidnaps Lennon, takes him up in a helicopter, and drops him into the Q with a parachute.

Lennon lands in the south, in Lopez territory, and unfortunately, the only exit from the Q lies in the north, in Spencer territory. Fortunately, folks in the south have developed a temporary vaccine for the virus, and they give Lennon a shot of it right away. The US government knows about the vaccine and tells Lennon he can leave if he gets out within 72 hours.

Unfortunately, Lennon arrives just in time for an attempted takeover and a power vacuum in the south. A much-needed shipment of supplies is being held up by the north, so Maisie Rojas, teen daughter of the former Lopez enforcer, decides to go with Lennon to the north. She’ll get him to the gate, and he’ll help her recover the shipment. Unfortunately, the new would-be-leader of the Lopez clan would rather just fight — and hold Lennon as a hostage. Not to mention that folks in the north aren’t exactly open to letting people walk through their territory.

What follows is a heart-racing adventure. This was a book that was hard to put down. When I almost had it finished while waiting at the doctor’s office, I absolutely had to take the book to work and finish on my lunch break. Yes, there’s plenty of violence, in a place that has a wild West vibe. There’s also a nuanced romance — though of course if all goes according to plan, they’ll never see each other again after Lennon escapes from the Q.

Now, mind you, I don’t actually believe the book’s premise is possible. In the age of jet travel, I find it hard to believe that you could ever confine a virus to one city. Somebody would have left the city long before they figured out the virus existed and exactly who had been exposed. But that’s just background, and once I glossed over my disbelief in that, I was completely invested in the situation Lennon and Maisie faced.

Based on the Acknowledgments at the back, the author started this book before the Covid-19 pandemic and never thought it would get published once that pandemic hit. I think reading it today does make the setting more believable — at least that the government would try such a solution, even if I don’t think it would actually work.

Some favorite moments: Finding out why Lennon got arrested three times in the past. Maisie learning to trust in her own abilities as a leader.

I read this book because it’s a Cybils Finalist for Young Adult Speculative Fiction. And I’m happy to say that the panel did a great job picking this book. Read it for a thrill ride that’s also full of sweet moments.

amytintera.com

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Gleanings, by Neal Shusterman

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Gleanings

Stories from the Arc of a Scythe

by Neal Shusterman

Simon & Schuster, 2022. 426 pages.
Review written February 15, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

Gleanings is a collection of stories that all take place in the world created for the Arc of a Scythe trilogy. Most are written by Neal Shusterman, but some with co-authors.

It’s fabulous that Neal Shusterman has done this — the world of the Scythes is so rich, and so full of philosophical implications. This book explores those implications more fully, with some taking place before the books of the trilogy, some after, and some during the same time period. Characters we are familiar with appear or are mentioned in most of the stories. And we’ve got origin stories of a couple of imposing figures from the trilogy.

Just to review, these books take place in our world — but humanity has overcome death. Instead of governments, the world is governed by the Thunderhead — the result of what happened when “the Cloud” became sentient. The Thunderhead is a benevolent ruler, but since there is no more death (memories and personalities can be downloaded by the Thunderhead), the earth will become overpopulated if nothing is done. Humans decided not to give that responsibility to the Thunderhead, but created a class of Scythes responsible for gleaning a certain percentage of the population. These stories explore what that kind of society would be like, looking at how it would impact individuals — which is somewhat different from the big-picture story of the trilogy.

You won’t want to read these stories as your first introduction to the post-mortal age. If you haven’t read the books yet, check out Scythe immediately. If you have read the trilogy, you’ll be as delighted as I was to explore the world of the Scythes further.

storyman.com
simonandschuster.com/teen

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Review of The Notorious Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud, read by Sophie Aldred

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The Notorious Scarlett and Browne

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Sophie Aldred

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written May 24, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is the second book about outlaws Scarlett McLain and Albert Browne, set in a future England after the Cataclysm, when people are huddled into towns for safety against animals that have evolved in dangerous ways and zombie-like once-human “tainted” cannibals.

The book reminds me of the author’s wonderful Lockwood & Co. series. As in the earlier series, you’ve got a feisty and capable girl teaming up with a boy to do daring exploits. They’re of indeterminate age – somewhere in their teens, but living on their own and using their wits to get by.

In this case, Scarlett is using Albert’s mind-reading abilities to help them rob banks — and now they’re taking on the antiquities in the Faith Houses. But in this book, both their pasts catch up with them. For Scarlett, the Brothers of the Hand catch up with her and use some powerful leverage to get her to do one more dangerous job for them. In Albert’s case, a Faith House Operative with powers like Albert’s own comes after them. Albert’s going to have to learn to control and use his powers to be able to get past him.

This book is billed for kids, but let me warn you that there are heavy topics. We learn more about Scarlett’s back story, and there are some horrific things. And when she went to a Faith House for help, they turned a crowd against her. Oh, and there’s plenty of shooting, killing, dumping rocks on people, and letting loose the tainted to eat people. But no sex! So maybe that’s why it’s considered a children’s book?

And there’s lots and lots of tension, too. There are several deadlines in the course of this book — and they’re literally deadlines, when if not met, someone’s going to die. And every time, a solution comes at the very last minute. This warning is to lean toward giving it to older kids — you should have an idea what your kids can handle — but I for one love the series so much.

Of course, Sophie Aldred’s English accent adds to my enjoyment, and the voices she uses for Scarlett and Albert are perfect. I love these characters and hope for a five-book series, like Lockwood & Co. so I can spend much more time with them. Enjoy two kids getting out of horribly tight situations with cleverness and skill. Enjoy Albert’s irrepressible looks on the bright side along with Scarlett’s sarcastic retorts and amazing skill with a gun. In this book, they gain notoriety indeed, and it ends with a definite direction for future books. Hooray! May they come soon.

jonathanstroud.com
listeninglibrary.com

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Review of The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Sophie Aldred

Listening Library, 2021. 12 hours, 19 minutes.
Review written February 26, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Hooray! Jonathan Stroud has a new series out about teens doing exploits in a world not quite like our own. I was already a devoted fan of his Lockwood & Co. series, which is now a Netflix series and gaining new fans. (Hooray!) This one has much the same feel, the same cleverness and banter between the characters and is wonderful in every way. I’m kind of glad I didn’t get this first book read as soon as it came out, because now I only need to wait a couple months for the next one.

Scarlett McCain lives in Britain in the far distant future, after the Cataclysm and the Great Dying. Britain is now a set of islands with fortified towns and a wilderness in between. There’s a lagoon where London used to be.

The book begins as Scarlett pulls off a bank robbery. She needs the money to pay back some folks who will kill her if she fails. Everything goes smoothly, but in the wilderness she comes across a bus that has met with a horrific accident, and all the passengers were eaten by wild beasts. She stops to see if they left any valuables, planning to leave before dark.

In the bus, she hears a sound coming from the toilet. Sure enough, a boy comes out. He’d locked himself in while the others were being eaten. His name’s Albert Browne and he’s naive and awkward, and Scarlett doesn’t quite have the heart to leave him to try to make it to a town on his own. So she takes him into her care, planning to get him to the nearest town.

The next day, though, they get chased by men with dogs and guns. Scarlett’s never known anyone to be so persistent after a bank robbery. But just before she escapes by jumping into a river (after pushing Albert in), one of the gunmen laughs and asks why she thinks they’re chasing after her. Turns out there’s much more to Albert than meets the eye.

The book is full of more exploits. And danger. Albert has heard that the Free Isles — which lie in the London Lagoon — will take anyone, despite blemishes or oddities. But it’s not easy to get there, and they’re still being chased.

Fair warning: The book is full of violence and gore. Another terror is the zombie-like “tainted” who eat human flesh. The animals are all more fearsome than in our day, too. One of the terrors of the Thames is the river otters that can devour the unwary. Scarlett does some killing, but it does feel warranted.

Also in that future day, instead of individual religions, there are Faith Houses that offer all religions humans have ever observed. And they are wary of the evolution that has happened to the animals and have strict rules against any blemishes or deviations in people in order to live in the towns. I’m never thrilled to read a book where the villains are powerful religious people, because that’s not how religion should be. However, then I had to reflect that in the Gospels themselves, the villains are powerful religious people. Scarlett and Browne are being tracked by the most powerful people of their society, and the reader is rooting for them.

Sophie Aldred does a wonderful job reading this one. I always love an English accent, but on top of that, she puts so much personality into Albert’s voice. We hear his naivete and his earnestness, his wonder at the wider world and just how annoying he must be to Scarlett. Though I’m tempted to preorder the next book, I think I’m going to check out another audiobook instead. This is just wonderful.

jonathanstroud.com

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Review of All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All That’s Left in the World

by Erik J. Brown
read by Barrett Leddy and Andrew Gibson

HarperAudio, 2022. 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Teen Fiction

All That’s Left in the World is about two teenage boys trying to figure out how to go on in a post-apocalyptic world after everyone they loved died in a superflu epidemic.

The author’s note says that he signed the contract for this book in March 2020 — so he had no idea how realistic it would feel. But the illness in this book is much, much worse than Covid-19, and civilization in America has completely broken down.

At the start of the book, Jamison is in a mountain cabin that has its own electricity and well water. Andrew is in the woods in big trouble because he stepped into a bear trap. He needs help. When he sees the cabin, he tries the door, expecting anyone who lived there to be dead. Jamie almost shoots him, but instead ends up giving him antibiotics and helping him recover.

But after they’re settling into life in the cabin and getting used to each other and Andrew’s leg is much better, a group comes and steals their food, trying to get them to join their settlement. Andrew takes off to where he was going before — following rumors that the European Union is going to bring help to Reagan National Airport. He tries to sneak away so Jamie won’t stop him — and Jamie ends up coming after him.

What follows is a road trip novel with lots of danger. Some of the people they meet along the way are helpful and kind, but most are the opposite. (I wish I didn’t believe there’d be so many guns in post-apocalyptic America!) Just when I’d think they had things in a good place, some new danger would find them.

So there’s lots of tension, and there’s also romance. It’s the kind I like best, very slow and gradual, and you can understand why they like each other. Andrew knows he’s gay from the start, but Jamie has had only girlfriends in the past, and is confused by his developing feelings for Andrew. But it’s all handled really well, and the reader just hopes against hope they’ll be able to make it to somewhere safe.

I read a novel in late 2020 where the whole population caught a bug, and knowing so much about pandemics by then, I thought it was completely unrealistic. (Viruses don’t spread instantly, for example.) With this one, which took place after most people had died, I wish I didn’t feel like it was believable, but unfortunately it very much seems like it could happen like that.

Of course, there are things I would have done differently if I were writing a post-apocalyptic novel, but this author had me believing the story all along, and worrying about how the boys would survive and figure out they loved each other.

For something as disturbing as this scenario, this was an awfully satisfying novel.

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Review of Little Monarchs, by Jonathan Case

Children's Fiction Review, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Little Monarchs

by Jonathan Case

Margaret Ferguson Books (Holiday House), 2022. 256 pages.
Review written September 12, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This post-apocalyptic graphic novel features a 10-year-old protagonist, Elvie. With the help of her caretaker, Flora, she’s learned how to safely scavenge and survive on things left since mammals were wiped out on earth fifty years before.

It wasn’t war that wiped out humans. It was sun sickness, caused by a change in the radiation coming from the sun. The only people who survived were deep underground. Survivors, Deepers, lived in underground communities. Until Flora discovered that scales from Monarch butterflies could be used to make medicine that protects people from sun sickness. The problem is that it takes lots of butterflies to make enough medicine for a few people, and it expires after six weeks.

Eight years before, when Elvie was a baby, her parents traveled to Mexico, where they could find more monarchs and get more medicine and work on a vaccine. They left Elvie in Flora’s care. But they didn’t come back and sent a message by carrier pigeon that though they had made it, the trip was too difficult without a vaccine.

Not long after they received the message, marauders attacked their site and took it over. Since then, Flora and Elvie have been on their own, with Flora always trying to develop a vaccine, so humans would be able to live on the surface again.

All this background is communicated fairly quickly. Flora and Elvie have some adventures while simply foraging for supplies, and then an earthquake hits. After the earthquake, they find a toddler near the ruins of an underground station. They have no choice but to take care of him. But will his adults follow? And can they be trusted?

This graphic novel had me on the edge of my seat. I loved Elvie — so resourceful, feisty, and kind-hearted.

You might think the story of humanity wiped out by sun sickness would be dark and dismal, but since Elvie and Flora have the medicine, the pictures are bright and colorful. I learned a lot about Monarchs along the way. (Which goes well with a board game I bought recently called “Mariposas” that’s about Monarch migration.)

Bottom line, this is a really good story — great art, great characters, gripping plot.

jonathancase.net
HolidayHouse.com

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Review of Maximillian Fly, by Angie Sage

Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Maximillian Fly

by Angie Sage

Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins), 2019. 370 pages.
Starred Review
Review written October 15, 2019, from a library book

Here’s a dystopian children’s novel where the main character is a human who has the body of a giant cockroach.

I like the way Maximillian introduces himself:

I am Fly. Maximillian Fly. I am a good creature. I am not bad, as some will tell you.

But I see you do not believe me. You do not like my carapace and my broad, flat head, and I can tell that even my beautiful indigo iridescent wings do not persuade you of my goodness. I know that humans like you call me Roach – even though I am human too. Indeed I was once a squashy Wingless baby, just as you were. But I know very well that if I were small enough you would stamp on me without a moment’s thought. Ha! But luckily for me I am much bigger than you and, I have been told, rather terrifying. So we will have no more thoughts of the trampling and crushing of carapaces. They set my mandibles on edge.

As the story begins, Maximillian sees two children from the notorious SilverShip, “which every year takes a group of young ones away from Hope, never to return,” running away from three Enforcers. The smallest of the children has a hurt foot, and Maximillian does not think they will escape. So he decides to help – to prove he is a good creature.

But helping Kaitlin Drew and her brother Jonno starts a long chain of events that puts Maximillian in trouble, too. We learn about unpleasant aspects of the city of Hope, where they are “protected” by a giant electric orb from the “Contagion” on the “Outside.” Periodically, children get sent away on a SilverShip. They’re told it’s to a wonderful island paradise, on the Outside but safe from the Contagion. However, the children who leave never return.

Trying to save some children puts Maximillian on the wrong side of the Enforcers. Next thing he know, his home is being fumigated. On top of that, one of the children has something very important, which the Chief Guardian doesn’t want to lose.

Now, there are some major coincidences in this book, and some of the details of the world-building seemed like a stretch for me.

But who knew that I could ever come to care about a giant cockroach and fondly hope for his best interests? Even if that were the only fun thing about it (it’s not), this book would be worth the read.

A fast-moving story about a Good Creature trying to help.

angiesage.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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