Review of Blue Floats Away, by Travis Jonker, pictures by Grant Snider

Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Blue Floats Away

words by Travis Jonker
pictures by Grant Snider

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021. 40 pages.
Review written July 26, 2022, from my own copy, signed by the author
Starred Review

Full disclosure: Travis Jonker is a librarian friend. I served on a committee with him at one point and say hello at conferences, all after I followed his blog, 100 Scope Notes. It made me happy when ALA Annual Conference was finally in person again to get a welcoming smile along with the signed book.

The book is a simple story of an iceberg calf named Blue who suddenly breaks off from the iceberg where he lived with his parents. All the characters are expressed by iceberg shapes with three dots for their faces.

The words are simple, and the pictures really make it special. They are also simple, done with what looks like collage and torn paper, but it’s colorful and beautiful. Blue floats away and sees new things. Beautiful things.

Just after he’s made friends who helped him figure out how to get back, he melts away —

But Blue wasn’t gone.
He was changing.

Blue mixed with the ocean water,
evaporated,
condensed,
and was transformed.

Now Blue sees more new things. And learning about air currents, he finds away to get back to his parents in the North.

“Were they ever surprised.”

This is a simple and happy story that would work great in storytime, but there’s also a note in the back about how Blue’s story illustrates the water cycle. So you’ve got some very simple science to go with it.

A really lovely picture book with a happy ending.

travisjonkerbooks.com

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Review of The Grace of Wild Things, by Heather Fawcett, read by Aven Shore

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Grace of Wild Things

by Heather Fawcett
read by Aven Shore

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 8 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written June 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Here’s another one I loved oh, so much! This is Anne of Green Gables, if Anne were a witch child! It’s even set on Prince Edward Island.

The world is somewhat different from ours, though. Our orphaned heroine, Grace, has a natural gift for magic and the strange heartbeat that marks out witches — so she leaves the orphanage and finds a witch to apprentice herself to.

The witch lives in a beautiful cozy house by a brook, but she doesn’t want an apprentice and tries to bake Grace in her oven. Once Grace gets out of that she convinces the witch to make a pact with her. If Grace can perform all one hundred and a half spells in the witch’s grimoire before the cherry trees bloom, she can stay and become the witch’s apprentice. Otherwise, Grace must give up her magic.

So the stakes are high. But Grace is gifted and Grace is imaginative — and she chatters on about her imaginings just like Anne of Green Gables. Fortunately, Grace has a knack of making friends, and once she finds a best friend at the neighboring farm, she gets some help at figuring out the grimoire.

This is not a retelling but a reimagining, so the parallels are quite loose — though I did enjoy the way magic got Grace’s best friend tipsy and the witch told her mother she’d mistaken currant wine for raspberry cordial. The magic in that world is playful and fun, and I enjoyed the boy who offends Grace early – rather like Gilbert – but is actually a fairy who makes all the humans forget about him.

Anne loves poetry, and she loves to read poetry to Wind Weaver, her familiar (who is a crow). So each chapter begins with poetry from that time period, and I was surprised how many appropriately flowery poems the author found.

Completely delightful! I highly recommend this book to any fan of Anne of Green Gables. Revisit Prince Edward Island — with a little magic.

heatherfawcettbooks.com

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Review of Our Divine Mischief, by Hanna C. Howard

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Our Divine Mischief

by Hanna C. Howard

Blink, 2023. 371 pages.
Reviewed October 16, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a sweet young adult fantasy with a touch of romance set on an island where every young person makes a trip to Yslet’s Island to meet the goddess and learn what apprenticeship they will get. Áila is almost eighteen, and it’s time for her to make her pilgrimage. But when she goes, the goddess is not there – instead she finds a dog, a dog named Orail.

The village elders don’t know how to respond when Áila has nothing to show for her trip to the island but a dog. So they have her live in isolation and prepare for five Ordeals. If she passes the Ordeals, she will be allowed to try again to voyage to Yslet’s isle. The only human she’s allowed to talk to is Hew, a young man who is considered Unblessed because Yslet gave him a blank pendant. His work cutting peat is so unimportant, he can be spared to run errands for Áila.

But while Áila is preparing for the Ordeals, it becomes obvious that Orail is no ordinary dog. She can grant wishes, especially Áila’s wishes. And Hew is observant enough to find out something is going on. Best of all, Orail’s thoughts are given to the reader in poetry form.

But there’s another man who’s interested in helping Áila, and he has the approval of the priests – a handsome visiting scribe and his sister. Is there a reason Orail doesn’t trust him? It’s probably just that he doesn’t like dogs.

As events start taking place that affect far more than their island, Áila and Hew face huge obstacles to try to make it right.

A big part of the charm of this book is the wonderful dog character, and the love between Orail and Áila. I won’t give anything away, but I also love what we learn at the end about those who are thought to be “Unblessed.” A feel-good story with a whole lot of charm.

hannachoward.com
BlinkYABooks.com

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Review of Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Impossible Creatures

by Katherine Rundell
read by Samuel West

Listening Library, 2024. (Print edition first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.) 8 hours, 55 minutes.
Review written October 7, 2024, from a library eaudiobook (referencing an advance reader copy).
Starred Review

I’m not sure how this book got all the buzz, but it turns out I didn’t order nearly enough print copies or ebook copies or eaudiobook copies for the library. Perhaps because it was first published in the UK, people knew how good it is? I even had an Advance Reader Copy I’d been meaning to read, but didn’t get to it before I needed to start reading Young Adult Speculative Fiction for the Cybils Awards, so I got in the queue to listen to the Audiobook version.

This book completely deserves all the hype! It’s one I plan to read again some day in the finished print form – probably buy myself a copy – because it’s illustrated, including a map and an illustrated bestiary at the back. The advance reader copy has some finished illustrations, but mostly sketches that show what will go there. (The book has Art by Ashley Mackenzie.) However, the audiobook is delightful, and Samuel West has the wonderful voice of someone reading you a fairy tale – which completely fits this epic quest.

I pulled out the Advance Reader Copy to write this review so that I could quote you the incredible beginning. (Wasn’t sure I’d get it exactly right without referring to it.) Then as I reread, the whole first chapter, called “The Beginning,” is perfect:

It was a very fine day, until something tried to eat him.

It was a black doglike creature, but it was not like any dog he had ever seen. It had teeth as long as his arm and claws that could tear apart an oak tree.

It says, therefore, a great deal in Christopher Forrester’s favor that he refused — with speed and cunning and courage — to be eaten.

The second chapter, called “The Beginning, Elsewhere,” begins like this:

It was a very fine day, until somebody tried to kill her.

Mal had returned home from her journey, flying back from the forest with arms outstretched and coat flapping, buffeted by the wind.

After the opening chapters, the book backtracks from that very fine day to give us some background on Christopher and Mal. Christopher lives an ordinary life – except that animals flock to him and want to get close to him.

Mal does not live an ordinary life, having learned to fly by using a coat given to her by the seer who named her. And she lives somewhere where that doesn’t surprise her neighbors, with her great-aunt who has so many rules, Mal can’t possibly keep them all.

Then on the fateful day referred to at the beginning, their worlds come together. Christopher has learned from his grandfather that he is inheriting the guardianship of a magical place, called the Archipelago, hidden from our world and full of magical creatures. But the magical tree at the heart of the Archipelago is failing and animals are dying. Griffins are believed to be extinct.

And then a baby griffin comes through the lake on the mountain by his grandfather’s house, followed by a giant black dog with flaming ears. But a girl comes through the lake after the dog and shows him how to extinguish the ears and kill the beast. The griffin is hers (It’s Mal!) and she tells Christopher that someone tried to kill her and she needs help. So she leads Christopher back through the door that has opened in the lake to the Archipelago.

And so begins an epic quest, a quest to heal the tree, the source of magic. And both Christopher and Mal have crucial parts to play.

I usually don’t like stories that lead the characters from one thing to another, taking detours all along the way. But I think since this one was all in service of the goal to help heal the magic, it didn’t bother me. First they want to get to the sphinxes to find out what to do. No, I take that back – first, they try to tell the authorities in the Azurial Senate about the problem and get them to fix it. There’s a comical scene when they are spurned for being children. But a scholar who has detailed information about the problem is also spurned. Both they and this woman are going to be arrested and imprisoned for disrupting the court – when someone comes to their rescue, and they end up joining forces with the scholar and their rescuer. Then they go to the sphinxes, because if the human leaders don’t know, the sphinxes are the wisest ones who may be able to help.

Getting to the sphinxes is an adventure in itself, and that leads them to the next adventure, which leads them to the next adventure, and so on until it’s finally Christopher and Mal trying to heal the magical tree.

And the whole story is epic and wonderful and magical and full of wonderful people and danger and beauty and peril.

My only sadness is that this book was first published in the UK, so it’s not eligible for the Newbery Medal.

And I was delighted just now when I pulled out the Advance Reader Copy to notice “Book One” on the spine! That settles it – by the time Book Two comes out, I’m buying myself finished copies of both books and rereading this one in print for the joy of it. It’s that good.

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Review of Plain Jane and the Mermaid, by Vera Brosgol

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

Plain Jane and the Mermaid

by Vera Brosgol

First Second, 2024. 364 pages.
Review written September 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’ve appreciated Vera Brosgol’s graphic novels since reading her middle school memoir Be Prepared the year I was on the Newbery committee. And her picture book Leave Me Alone! has won Caldecott Honor. I like both her art and her stories, and she knows how to put them together well.

This graphic novel for kids deftly shows that some things are much more important than good looks. And as with all Vera Brosgol’s books, it delivers its message in a quirky and thought-provoking way.

Jane is a very plain looking girl from a wealthy family, but as the book opens, a lawyer tells her that since her parents died and her little brother is dead, their stately home is going to pass to her cousin. Her cousin proves to be an odious and greedy man. Jane, still a teen, will have to move along to “wherever women go.” They give her a week to move out, but the lawyer tells her that if she were to marry, she’ll get a dowry, enough to live on quite comfortably.

So there’s nothing else to do. Jane goes down to the harbor, where the fisherman’s son whom she’s long had a crush on works – or rather pretends to work while he spends his time looking beautiful. Jane reasons that he might be willing to marry her if it means he can quit working, and he seems quite agreeable to that idea. But before they can seal the deal, a mermaid comes up out of the water and pulls the boy into the sea, the mermaid also being taken with his good looks.

Jane vows to save him, and she finds a crone in a shop by the sea who gives her magical items to help her on her way. But still, Jane’s quest is dangerous and difficult. She gains further help along the way, and before she arrives, the boy learns that the mermaid’s planning to marry him and then eat him in order to stay beautiful. But it’s not going to be easy to get him out of her clutches.

The fun thing about this tale is that by the time it’s done, we see that there are wonderful things that go much deeper than beauty. There’s a satisfying ending as Jane herself sees that love can be based on more than looks. I love the fairy tale elements (three magical objects to help – though there’s a twist in how Jane uses them) that are presented in Vera Brosgol’s unique way to give us a modern story with a classic fairy tale feeling.

firstsecondbooks.com

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Review of Heartless Hunter, by Kristen Ciccarelli, read by Grace Gray

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Heartless Hunter

by Kristen Ciccarelli
read by Grace Gray

Listening Library, 2024. 12 hours, 9 minutes.
Review written September 23, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Heartless Hunter is an example of masterfully written young adult Romantasy. We’ve got the enemies-to-lovers trope, but nothing about this book felt stereotypical.

The beginning reminded me of a beloved classic, The Scarlet Pimpernel, with our first viewpoint character, Rune Winters, posing as an airheaded socialite interested only in fashion – but in secret rescuing witches from the new regime that would execute them. Rune showed her loyalty to the new regime by turning in her own adopted grandmother. Nobody but Rune knows she did that at the strong request of Nan herself, who knew they’d been betrayed – and didn’t want to see Rune killed alongside her. It was after Nan’s death that Rune discovered she, too, was a witch, which gave her extra resources and incentive in her quest to save Nan’s friends and fellow witches. Now Rune’s best friend and helper has suggested it’s time for Rune to accept one of her suitors, the better to get inside information on what the government is planning next.

The signature left behind by Rune’s magic is a small crimson moth. And Gideon Sharpe, captain of the witch hunters, has been trying to catch the witch who is the Crimson Moth for the two years that she’s been helping witches escape his clutches. And now there have been brutal murders of members of the Guard as well. When he learns that a magic signature was seen on one of Rune’s ships, it’s suggested that if he were to court Rune and join her high society suitors, he could learn if she’s the Crimson Moth.

Gideon knows that his brother Alex has long been in love with Rune. So she should be off limits. But Gideon decides he should find out if Rune is the Crimson Moth and save Alex from marrying a witch. He’ll stand down if he discovers she’s innocent. Or so he tells himself.

As for Rune – when Gideon begins to show interest, she reasons that no one could give her better inside information than the captain of the witch hunters. But can she keep him underestimating her?

To add to the fun, witch’s need blood to cast spells. And when they use their own blood to cast spells, the scars turn silver. In the old days, intricate silver scars were a badge of honor, but now they are all that’s needed to convict a witch.

Rune came into her power after the fall of the witch queens, so she hasn’t dared to cut herself. Instead, she stores the blood from her monthly cycle to cast spells, so she has no scars on her body. So – when Gideon finds excuses to see her naked, she has nothing to hide.

And yes, that gets as steamy as you might imagine. Yes, there’s a descriptive sex scene in this book, and lots of smoldering tension leading up to that scene. But it’s carried off far more subtly and compellingly than my description makes it sound. There are narrow escapes, misunderstandings, and misdirection – but there are also vulnerable moments. I appreciated learning that in this world, it’s not a simple case of witches are good and non-witches are bad to want to kill them. And that came from learning about Gideon’s back story.

And there’s a love triangle as well. Gideon’s brother Alex has indeed been in love with Rune for years, and she’s appreciated him as a true friend who knows her secrets. The author makes the choice Rune is faced with exceptionally difficult.

Oh, and did I mention the narrow escapes? The clever misdirection? The reversals and reveals?

The description says this is a duology, and it did leave me anxiously waiting for the sequel.

kristenciccarelli.com

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Review of Splinter and Ash, by Marieke Nijkamp

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Splinter & Ash

by Marieke Nijkamp

Greenwillow Books, September 2024. 345 pages.
Review written July 7, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

Oh, this book is a delightful start to a middle grade fantasy trilogy. The title characters are both twelve years old. Princess Ash has just come back to her kingdom after years learning with her aunt. And the court doesn’t seem to think that she measures up. She has joints that always want to pop out, her health is fragile, and she walks with a cane and wears braces. In our world, I think we’d say she has Ehler-Danlos syndrome, but in her world she’s called a cripple, and not good enough to be a princess by the unkind. Even her own brother is disappointed in her.

Splinter wants to be a squire more than anything. But everyone says that girls can’t be squires. Splinter doesn’t feel like a girl, and the word “boy” isn’t quite right for them either – but Splinter does know that being a squire feels absolutely right and they want to protect the princess.

There is a war going on, and some nobles may be taking the side of the empire against the queen. When Ash becomes a pawn in intrigues against the crown, both Ash and Splinter get a chance to prove themselves – but it’s not going to be easy.

Not only did this book give us a great story about characters we’re rooting for, it also set up situations for the rest of the trilogy with the kingdom possibly in the balance.

The only trouble with starting a trilogy with an Advance Reader Copy is I’m going to have to wait far too long to hear more about these characters.

mariekenijkamp.com

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Review of Ghostsmith, by Nicki Pau Preto, read by Molly Hanson

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Ghostsmith

by Nicki Pau Preto
read by Molly Hanson

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 13 hours, 34 minutes.
Review written August 30, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

I am delighted to report that this epic fantasy series from Nicki Pau Preto ended up being a duology, not a trilogy, so I have happily finished the complete story.

I enjoyed the second volume even more than the first. The plot is still a bit convoluted. There are betrayals and reversals, but it felt organic to the story. She doesn’t do a whole lot of catch-up, and it was almost a year since I read Bonesmith, so basically I took what they said was happening at face value and pretty much gave up trying to fully understand how the magic worked. And it did feel like it was hanging together more than before – maybe because there was less need to explain things in the second book, and the characters understood how the magic works and used it.

I also had gotten over the coincidences from the first book – mainly that our main character Wren is dealing with long-lost family. I was reminded of one unlikely thing when another character listened and watched at the very same door where Wren had gotten her earth-shaking revelations and this character also didn’t get caught. But this character didn’t learn as crucial information, so the unlikelihood didn’t bother me nearly as much.

The story itself had me listening eagerly the whole way, wondering how in the world our crew was going to come out on top. In fact, there was only about an hour left before I figured out that this wasn’t, in fact, a trilogy, where everything would be terrible by the end of the second book. (Hence my joy in learning it’s a duology.)

Wren’s trained all her life as a Bonesmith, but learned in the first book that she inherited from her mother the powers of the Ghostsmiths. Bonesmiths can manipulate the bones of the dead, but Ghostsmiths can manipulate their ghosts. In the first book, Wren and her companions learned what had gone wrong in the world and in the Breachlands and that there were powerful people (coincidentally related to them) trying to get even more control. In this second book, they’re trying to shut down the source of leaking magic and thwart those who want to take power. But there are not many resisting with them. And those they are fighting have an incredible amount of power.

It all ended up being a wonderful yarn with a satisfying ending. The snarky and scrappy win out!

nickipaupreto.com

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Review of Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Throne of Glass

by Sarah J. Maas
read by Elizabeth Evans

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. 13 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written August 19, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Sarah J. Maas’s books are wildly popular at our library, so that we’ve hit the cap on some of the ebooks and can’t keep up with the holds list. I decided to see what all the fuss is about and started in on the Throne of Glass series. I followed the order I found online and read the prequel novellas, collected in The Assassin’s Blade first, which may have taken a little bit of mystery from the main character, Celaena Sardothien, in this book. But I don’t think it was a bad thing to already know her and be impressed with her skills. I also know her history and the people she reasonably holds grudges against – though she doesn’t know who betrayed her and sent her into slavery in the mines, and I do.

At the start of this book, the prince of the empire has taken 18-year-old Celaena out of the mines, where she’s been slaving for a year, surviving despite the high odds against that. The prince tells her she has a chance to win her freedom. He is sponsoring her in a contest to determine the king’s champion. If she loses, she’ll have to go back to the mines. If she wins, she’ll have to serve the brutal king – responsible for killing her parents when his army destroyed her people – for four years as champion.

So the stakes are high. I already knew about Celaena’s incredible skills, so her confidence didn’t feel misplaced to me, but she’s up against some powerful opponents, and she has plenty of work to do to prepare. On top of that, contestants begin dying – killed brutally with their insides ripped out.

Celaena does have allies in the palace. The prince chose her because he knew it would anger his father. He has put his captain of the guard in charge of monitoring her progress. And Celaena befriends a visiting princess, whose language she learned in the mines, where so many of those who spoke it were also enslaved.

The story is absorbing with its high-stakes contest. I’d heard that Sarah Maas’s books have explicit sex, but not this series, or at least not this book. There is some kissing, but not a lot. In fact, the book seems to be setting up a love triangle, but that kind of fizzles out at the end, and I’m expecting more to develop in one side of that triangle in the next book.

Although I did enjoy the book, it hit a number of my pet peeves. Not badly enough that I stopped listening (as I have been known to do), but enough that I’m withholding a star. The first was the terrible king with a noble prince for a son trope. Yes, the king is awful, responsible for the deaths of thousands – but the prince is different. Really!

The second pet peeve this book hit was the Noble Thief trope. Someone was forced into living a life of crime, but they’re good at heart and when good things happen we all cheer. Disney’s Aladdin popularized this one. In this book, our main character isn’t a thief – she’s an assassin. An incredibly skilled assassin, the best in the kingdom, at seventeen years old. She knows multiple ways to kill people with her bare hands – and yet it’s not her fault. She was taken in by an assassin and forced to learn the trade. And she learned it well, so that despite her small size, she can kill almost anyone. And she’s good at heart. Really!

The third one was about writing style. The point of view didn’t stick with the main character, but dipped into other heads here and there. It wasn’t often enough to really make them viewpoint characters, and it felt a little undisciplined. Tied in with that, the writing felt a little overdramatic. Yeah, sure, she’s the best assassin ever. A little more telling than showing. Though it’s possible that was from the way the narrator read it – but I think it was in the words themselves.

Despite all this, I think I’m going to continue with the series (though I may have to wait until after this year’s Cybils Awards to read on). Celaena is growing on me. I think there are six more books in the series, and I’m hoping eventually the brutal king will get his comeuppance. Also, Celaena’s been through a lot. I’d already love to see her find love and friendship. And have her loved one not die horribly right away. Though I do have a feeling she’s in for a lot more trouble first.

sarahjmaas.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but 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.

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Review of Illuminations, by T. Kingfisher

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Illuminations

by T. Kingfisher

Argyll Productions, 2022. 260 pages.
Review written April 17, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I need to read more books by T. Kingfisher! I checked this one out because of how thoroughly I enjoyed A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, and then picked it up and got it read after a librarian mentioned T. Kingfisher as one of her favorite authors. I wasn’t quite as big a fan of this one, but it’s got the same flavor of a whole lot of fun in a magical kingdom.

Rosa Mandolini is almost eleven years old, a member of Studio Mandolini, surrounded by artist family members who do the important magical work of illumination.

The Mandolinis painted pictures of radishes with wings to ward off sickness, and they painted great droopy-faced hounds with halos to protect against burglars. They painted flaming swords on shingles to keep storms from blowing the roofs off houses, and they painted very strange pictures of men with hummingbird heads to keep venomous snakes out of people’s gardens.

And every one of these paintings worked, although they would wear out over time. Sometimes the illumination had to be very large. It was no good getting a tiny painting of a blue-eyed cat to keep mice away if you had a barn that was already full of rats. The tiny painting would keep mice out of your pantry, but to keep them out of a barn, you needed a painting six feet high with a blue-eyed cat the size of a tiger.

But one day, when Rosa is bored, she goes searching for a stuffed armadillo model for her uncle in their disorganized storeroom — and discovers a box with an illumination that makes her walk away and forget about it. When she manages to overcome the forgetting about it part, her next challenge is to figure out how to get the box open. When she does, the crow illumination on the box cover comes alive — and something inside the box escapes. The crow informs her that she’s just let loose an evil creature that’s been imprisoned for two hundred years and will proceed to suck the magic out of all of their illuminations.

The crow is absolutely right. And hijinks ensue. Eventually her whole family needs to get in on the act of stopping the evil mandrake root running around the corners of their studio.

It’s all told in a light-hearted way with eccentric characters, a creative magic system, and a kid who wants to not get in trouble — but also contribute to the family.

redwombatstudio.com

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