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One of the great things of having a reading list with more than 160 book on it is finding yourself reading, and enjoying, books you wouldn't have picked out for yourself (yet strangely this didn't happen with many of my high school reading lists). One such book is Ratha's Courage, by Clare Bell, the fifth book of the Named series (2008, Imaginator Press). This book could be described as Watership Down Meets Clan of the Cave Bear (only with prehistoric cats as the main characters, and a different plot, feel, and style from either, she adds helpfully). But seriously. Watership Down is the only "sentient animals as characters" book I love, and Clan of the Cave Bear was amazingly successful at capturing prehistoric life, and Ratha's Courage works for me in similar way.

Ratha is the leader of a clan of prehistoric, sentient cats, who has led her people into a settled existence as herders rather than hunters, with fire tamed to serve them. But this peace is threatened when delicate diplomatic relations with another clan of hunter cats collapse...for the hunters share a group mind, and how can one society, that prizes the contributions of each individual, coexist with another in which the song of tradition dictates every action?

After a few doubts about sharing a story with sentient cats, I found myself swept into Ratha's world. I hadn't read any of the previous books, but this was not an issue. The cats became real characters in my mind, and their problems were gripping.

Ratha's Courage has an interesting publishing history. The first four books were written in the 1980s and 1990s, and this book was written 14 years later, when the first four were reissued. But due to publishing issues, it didn't see daylight until an independent publisher, Imaginator Press, took it on. I see in the front of the book that other new Ratha books have been written, and I am a tad surprised (given that I still don't consider myself a fan of sentient animal books) at how much interest I have in reading them....and, of course, in going back to books 1-4.

But it will have to wait, because, like I said, I have this reading list--all the wonderful, sweet, strange, and fascinating books nominated for the Cybils Awards in the science fiction/fantasy category (which you can see here).

One of the nominees for the Cybils Award in the Easy Reader category is this funny offering by Sesame Street scribe turned children's book legend, Mo Willems. Willems was the recipient of the 2008 Theodore Geisel Award for There is a Bird On Your Head, which also features Gerald Elephant and Piggie. In "Surprise", Gerald and Piggie observe a squirrel playing a hide and seek trick on a friend,

I just finished In the Company of Whispers, by Sallie Lowenstein (2008, Lion Stone Books, 360 pp). I am shaking a little, and sniffing. Oh my gosh. I don't think a book has had this much emotional effect on me since I first read Lois Lowry's The Giver* a few years ago.

In the Company of Whispers is a dystopia, set in the Greater East Coast Metropolis in 2047. The roaches are doing well; people, less so. Zeyya comes home one day to find her apartment sealed, yellow quarantine tape across the door, and no parents. Ever again. She takes refuge with her grandmother, in what might be the last single family house in the hellish city. And there she meets Jonah, whose intricate tattoos apparently let him commune with his ancestors...who says he is from another place, another people, for whom the past is always present.

Zeyya's story is interspersed with flashbacks to her grandmother's childhood in Burma, told with pictures, letters, and quotations from historical and contemporary accounts of Burma. For the first half of the book, I found this distracting, and I wasn't quite sure I was going to like the book in general. But then, as I let myself simply take it in, I began to understand the point--the intersections of past and present, love and loss that are at the heart of the stories.

And somewhere past page 250 I began to cry off and on as I read...but I was careful not to let any tears actually fall on the book itself, for this book, qua book, is a thing of beauty. It is heavy and luxuriant, the pages are glossy, the reproductions of old photographs beautiful. And I think these choices in book-making serve the story well.

In the Company of Whispers is beautiful (and I'll add a picture of the cover when I get a new mouse...)

This book has been nominated for the Cybils Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category, and I'd like to thank the publisher, Lion Stone Books, for sending each of us panelists a review copy.

Here are two other reviews, at Wands and Worlds, and at Becky's Book Reviews.

*Other reasons why I am reminded of The Giver, besides the dystopian part and the focus on the transmission of memories, are the obvious similarities of character name (Jonah here and Jonas there), and also the important role played by a wooden sled...

Of all the books I've read this past month (around 40), Wake, by Lisa McMann, was the page-turniest, grippingest of them all. I am very glad that I woke up early this morning and read it cover to cover before my Dear Children awoke, because I would have not have been happy to put it down! (Although I would, of course, have done so with a smile...and gone into the kitchen to prepare nutritious breakfasts etc. etc.)

17 year-old Janie falls into other peoples dreams. In high-school, surrounded by sleep-deprived classmates, Janie suffers.

"A boy named Jack Tomlinson falls asleep in English class. Janie watches his head nodding from across the room. She begins to sweat, even though the room is cold. It is 11:41 a.m. Seven minutes until the bell rings for lunch. Too much time."

Because Janie, even though still awake, would have to dream right along with him.

But much worse than suffering through the humiliations and sexual fantasies of her classmates is the nightmare that finds her when she is driving home from work one night. And this worst dream of all belong to Caleb, a boy she finds herself drawn too...

Janie struggles to control her dreaming, struggles to understand Caleb and his secrets, and suffers. It doesn't help that she's poor, with an alcoholic mom. Caleb is the only person she knows who might bring her out of her own personal nightmare, but he seems caught in a nightmarish situation of his own...

Like I said, this was a page turner-I read it in less than an hour. It moves so briskly in part because it is written in third person present, in short sentences and episodes that take Janie back and forth from dream to reality. I think this was an absolutely brilliant choice of tense and voice--the reader is present with Janie moment by moment, but not inside her head--just like Janie's situation when she's stuck in other peoples' dreams.

And I liked Janie and Caleb. They didn't get a chance to do a whole heck of a lot besides dreaming (and a bit of, um, other stuff in a (very) mild YAish sort of way), but neither of them were whiners, despite having cause (lots of cause). Janie is focused on working her way through college, and doing well in school. She's a good friend, and a caring person.

And I really liked the plot! Suspense, mystery, dreams holding the key to unravelling it, a nice dash of romance-good stuff! It is really easy to imagine this one being recommend from reader to reader. I myself am anxious to read the sequel, Fade (coming in February 2009). A third book will be out in 2010.

Jen had much the same reaction as I did; so did Sarah, at Sarah's Random Musings, and here's a review by one of my Cybil's co-panelists, at The Compulsive Reader.

And now I am going to be very unselfish and tell you that there is a "freaking huge contest" at Lisa McMann's blog (ending Nov. 25, 2008) in which I would really like to be a winner....

Wake (2008 , Simon and Schuster) has been nominated for the Cybils Awards in the Sci. Fi./Fantasy category. Thank you, Simon and Schuster, for sending us panelists review copies (and of course for publishing the book in the first place, which always helps).

…you start getting worried letters from kindhearted readers who want to make sure you aren’t back in the hospital or something. No worries; we are all well; I’ve just not been feeling very talky. Am spending a lot of time working in the yard—our mini-butterfly garden is really coming along, particularly the hundred billion weed seeds which were apparently lying dormant in that dry, dry soil until we oblingly began to water them. Now Beanie and Rose and I are out there every day, ruthlessly yanking up wee baby weedlings by the dozen. Ah, the blissful peace of gardening…

And I’ve had lots of Wonderboy stuff to occupy me: preparing for his IEP meeting tomorrow (yes, on Election Day, because I am a glutton for punishment, I guess), working some new PT exercises into his daily routine, reading Mother Goose on demand a hundred times a day…have I mentioned that he is awfully fond of the two Rosemary Wells/Iona Opie Mother Goose collections? As in, he wants them read and/or sung cover to cover approximately once every hour? Rilla, of course, approves wholeheartedly—except she wants it known that they are HER Mudda Doose books, and hers alone, contradictory evidence in the form of inside-front-cover inscriptions to Jane and Rose notwithstanding.

Speaking of reading, I’ve been kept quite busy, of course, with my ever-growing stack of Cybils picture book nominees. I think we have about 35 of them checked out from the library right now, and at least 20 more have arrived via post as review copies from publishers. I don’t know where I’m going to put them all. We are plumb out of shelf space. But reading them is fun, for sure. Ask Beanie. She’s way ahead of me. I’ve read about a dozen nominees so far, and I think she is upwards of thirty.

I am posting mini-reviews at Twitter, by the way, if you’d like a peek. More like mini-summaries, I guess I should say: these are my plot notes to help me keep the 175 nominees straight. I am finding I quite enjoy the challenge of boiling a summary down to 140 characters. You know brevity really IS a challenge for me, ahem.

Speaking of Twitter, you can always look for me there if you’re worried because of bloggity silence…the link above goes to bonnyglencybils, but my main Twitter profile is just plain bonnyglen. I often post short (duh, it’s Twitter) notes during the day about what’s going on around the house. I really love being able to look back, later, at these microglimpses of our days. They are like candid snapshots, the kind no one knows are being taken, the kind you linger over in the photo album because they are so filled with rich detail of what was really happening. Not that my tweets are necessarily “filled with rich detail,” detail being exactly what is hard to squeeze into a 140-character box, but I’m just going to assume you know what I mean. And sometimes a tweet does capture a detail you wouldn’t have been likely to record in any other medium.

by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Sucie Stevenson. Simon & Schuster, 2008. (View and excerpt by clicking the link on the publisher's name). I've loved Cynthia Rylant's beginning readers ever since my oldest son was learning to read with Henry and Mudge back in the early 90s. Annie is Henry's cousin and best friend, and Snowball is her pet rabbit. Annie loves dainty, frilly things. She loves her

The Merchant of Venice (Graphic Shakespeare) by Gareth Hinds
I'll admit, The Merchant of Venice has never been my favorite play - smug Portia, gloomy Antonio, is it racist or is it a comment on racism: whatever, Shakespeare - but this condensation by Gareth Hinds is skilfully done. He manages to reduce giant long scenes of greeting and farewell to fairly snappy exchanges, while incorporating the famous and beautiful speeches from the play (the quality of mercy; prick us and do we not bleed) in a reasonably organic way. And I personally like the scratchy, sketchy grisaille drawing style - I think it suits the setting - though I know that some people find it a bit drab.

The thing is, though, putting The Merchant of Venice in a modern setting is always problematic. The juxtaposition of real peril - Antonio's trial and potential death - with the lighthearted naughty teasing that takes place between Antonio's newlywed pals comes off as even more jarring. When Portia and her maid Nerissa dress up as men, travel to Venice, and save the day, the audience is clearly meant to be as impressed as their husbands are - but in a modern context, we more or less expect Portia - beautiful, rich, smart Portia - to pull a Nancy Drew. If not a Buffy, for Pete's sake. Shylock is lucky she wasn't carrying a stake.

Speaking of Shylock, his poor treatment at the hands of the otherwise noble Antonio and his friends just doesn't make it when they're wearing tailored suits instead of jerkins and pantaloons. A guy in a suit who says he's going to spit on a Jew is, nowadays, an irredeemable douche - and it takes a story much longer than this one to show him as otherwise. (I can't help it - I'm thinking of Tony Soprano here.)

There are just too many problems with this particular play for it to be anything but a hot mess except when presented exactly as written and in historical context. This is not to say that this book isn't immensely superior to graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare by other authors. It is: they're terrible. It's just that other plays have aged better. I look forward eagerly to Gareth Hinds's treatment of almost any of them, as I am currently on the lookout for his King Lear.

Chiggers by Hope Larson
I read this sweet-but-not-too-sweet graphic novel at the same time, and for the same reason (it's a Cybils nominee), as Betsy, Ms. Fuse #8, did, and I pretty much have to say... what she said.

Is that a cop-out? Yeahhh... but no! She just happens to have written just exactly what I'd've written (except, hrm, more words, 'cause of the part about me being lazy and sometimes being content to just go like, "ME LIKE," and I guess you'd have to say this current review would be an example of that).

Except that, unlike Betsy, I do have some memorable summer camp experiences, both as a camper, at Girl Scout camp and orchestra camp (I played oboe) and, if I'm not mistaken, some G&T camp where we read Walden Two and discussed behavior modification... and as a counselor, at a beautiful hippy-dippy camp up in Maine where I taught candle-making and fencing to Manhattan preteens wearing Echo and the Bunnymen t-shirts (in 1984). And reading Chiggers took me right back to camp, especially to Maine, and I found myself trying to remember the names of the girls in my cabin: tall Allison, shy Betsy, bubbly Deenie, and a girl we called Titsy, whose personality traits you may intuit all on your own.

Chiggers is terrific that way - the art, the plot, the characters all ring true. Even the trees look just right. Why, I remember the morning I found a dead mouse in a trap, and since I didn't have my glasses on I had to bring it right up to my face to see what it was, and then... but I guess that's a story for another blog.

That’s how many titles were nominated in the Cybils Fiction Picture Book category, and how many I need to read in the next six weeks or so.

Two. That’s how many I’ve read so far. Neither one was a standout.

I am keeping my Library Elf hopping these days. Slowly I’m making my way through the Cybils database, clicking back and forth to my library catalog to see which nominees are in our local system, reserving all I can find.

It’s fun to observe which books catch the kids’ attention. Reading and discussing the nominees is something of a family affair, as most things are around here. Beanie has read more of the nominees than I have, so far. Guess I’d better get back to my databasing, so I can catch up.

Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural by Eileen Kernaghan (Thistledown, 257 pages)

In Scotland in the 1880s, Jeannie Guthrie, a sixteen-year-old girl raised by her school teacher father to love books, dreamt of being a famous author. This dream died with her father's untimely passing, and she was hired out as a farm girl. That life too came to an abrupt end, when, cornered in the barn by her lecherous cousin, Jeannie stabbed him with a pitchfork. Without picking it up.

"He clutched his shoulder and stared at the blood welling up between his fingers. "You've killed me," he said, and there was a kind of puzzlement as well as anguish in his look.
"I haven't," I cried. "I didn't." Something had happened, sure enough, and George without question was wounded; yet I felt it had naught to do with me.
"You're a witch," he said, and what I saw in his face now was hatred, and bewilderment, and fear."

Terrified that she has killed her cousin, and fearing that she will be accused of witchcraft, Jeannie flees to London. The fortuitous friendship with a free-spirited French girl, Alexandra David, leads Jeannie to a job as assistant/dogsbody to the formidable Madame Helena Blavatsky, a mystic seeker for spiritual truth, keeper of a salon frequented by the likes of Yeats, and a medium. Recognizing Jeannie's wild talent, Madame draws on her power to convince her audiences of her own spiritual abilities. And Jeannie meets Tom, a young, handsome, and skeptical student of zoology....

But when Madame's health fails, there is no longer a place for Jeannie in her menage. Jeannie's new position, assisting a charlatan in deceiving gullible audiences, is depressing, and, she fears, has alienated Tom. She flees to join Alexandra, who is now living a wild bohemian life in Paris, frantically seeking her own path to what lies beyond. When Alexandra goes too far, and actually enters the realm of spirits, it become clear that Madame's earlier warnings are true--that land is not inhabited by the the dear departed, but by much more sinister forces. Jeannie must follow Alexandra, or leave her trapped in a horrible otherworld.

In a book called "Wild Talent," I expected a lot more about Jeannie learning to live with her gifts, exploring their power, struggling with the how, the what, and the why of it all. There is a little bit of this, but the focus of the book is more on the historical fiction side of things--painting a detailed picture of life among the mystics of late Victorian London, and the artists and poets of Paris. The actual journey into the spirit world takes place late in the book, and only lasts 28 pages.

So if you enjoy well-written historical fiction, with particular reference to spiritualism, this is a book for you. Alexandra David and Madame Blavatsky were actual people, who led fascinating lives. Jeannie herself is a believable character within this historical context. On the other hand, if you are looking for wild magic, this might not be quite what you're looking for.

Wild Talent has been nominated for the Cybils Awards, in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.

Bewitching Season, by Marissa Doyle (2008) is the sort of book I would imagine Georgette Heyer thinking up if she had wanted to add Magic to her trademark regency/early 19th century) romances. Like many a Heyer romance, Bewitching Season features a smart heroine and a handsome and sympathetic male lead, and the setting is the London Season, when young girls of good families came out into society.

Persephone and and her twin sister Penelope are about to begin their season. Pen, the more vivacious of the girls, is eager; Persy, the more studious, feels sick to her stomach. She would far rather continue at home with their governess, learning not just the elements of a classical education, but magic as well.

We will be publishing a full review of Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein with art by Ed Young in our next issue of PaperTigers so I’m not going to say much now - except that it is stunning and enriching, a gentle, heart-warming delight that lends itself to being read aloud in many different ways! It had already been nominated for a Fiction Picture Book Cybils Award by the time I got round to it (as had a couple of others on my list, making decisions much easier… I finally plumped for Colors! ¡Colores!, which I blogged about last week…).

We’ve been waiting for Wabi Sabi to come out for a while – and one of Aline’s and my thrills at the Bologna Book Fair in April was being shown the proofs for the book by Andrew Smith at Little, Brown and Company, where we learnt that we were not looking at the original but at the second version of art-work…

Yes, this book has an amazing, Wabi Sabi-esque story behind it. It’s hard to explain but Alvina, over at Blue Rose Girls, is the book’s editor and has blogged about its amazing story in four installments – read from Number 1 now! In the meantime, here’s what she says about what Wabi Sabi actually means:

Mark spent some time living in Japan, and while there he was introduced to the concept of wabi sabi. He asked many people about it, and they all paused and said, “That’s hard to explain.” but they would offer a poem, or a photograph, a small description, and gradually, Mark began to piece together the meaning of wabi sabi.

So, what is wabi sabi? Well, as I understand it, it is a Japanese philosophical belief in finding beauty in the imperfect, the unexpected, in simplicity and modesty. For example, a old, cracked clay tea cup is wabi sabi, but a fine china cup is not. Fallen leaves in muddy water is wabi sabi. A scruffy, multi-colored cat can be wabi sabi. Mark actually named his cat in Japan Wabi Sabi!

Her final post on the subject came out on Monday and has had me chuckling aloud – but only after I knew the outcome. All’s well, that ends well! Phew – if ever a book has gone through a parallel journey in real life, this is it!

The Empty Kingdom, by Elizabeth Wein (Viking, 2008), continues the story of young Telemakos, the half British, half-Aksumite (Ethiopian) grandson of King Arthur. This is the second book of the Mark of Solomon duology, set in North Africa and the Arabian peninsula during the 6th century. In the first book, The Sunbird, Telemakos, wounded in body and spirit by months of torture, was further wounded when he lost his left arm to blood poisoning after a lion attack. Sent with his baby sister to Abreha, ruler of Hymar, ostensibly to keep them safe, he began to learn the secrets of his own emperor's erstwhile enemy. But Abreha caught him in an act of apparent treachery, and threatened him with a death warrant.

When The Empty Kingdom opens, Telemakos is serving the final span of his immediate punishment, a period of disgraceful isolation, whose worst pain was his separation from his beloved sister. The valuable information he has learned must somehow be sent home, but how can he do this when his every move is watched by Abreha, who reads his every letter, and whose acts of kindness and respect seem at odds the the death threat hanging over Telemakos' head:

"You sign yourself Meder, lord of the land, and you boast of your disgrace. Do you count yourself so far above other mortals, my shining one, that you make a jest of the order I carry in my sash, and of the iron nails balanced ready to pierce fast your feet and your single wrist?"

The tangled threads of intrigue, politics, and trust are skillfully woven together here, but I would strongly recommend reading The Sunbird first if you want to try to untangle them. I read it last year, when it was a 2007 Cybils nominee, and I still had to focus while reading The Empty Kingdom to try to keep things straight. And these two books are themselves a continuation Telemakos' story, so ideally one should read The Sunbird first. And that in turn is one of a series stretching back to Arthur's Britain, which even more ideally should be read beforehand (see below for complete sequence).

This is a book that I would like to come back to, having read all the earlier ones--I'm sure I would find things I missed in reading The Empty Kingdom this time around (which is a compliment, not a criticism!). For instance, I am still brooding over the title--The Empty Kingdom--which I am sure must be a metaphor that I don't quite get, as yet (the kingdom of Telemakos' lonely spirit??? General emptiness of kingdoms when there is no trust???). Likewise, the world building, in the geographic and cultural sense, is superb in its detailed and nuanced complexity, but carries with it a concomitant possibility that the new reader will be confused.

Telemakos is great hero, not so much in his deeds of action, although those are present, but as a character. In Telemakos, Wein has carefully created a thoughtful, lonely, and intelligent boy, trapped in complex circumstances that seem beyond his control. The pacing of the writing is unhurried, allowing characterization and relationships to take center stage. I imagine that there will be many who love this book for that reason, and others who may become irritated--I fall into the former category.

Amazon has this book listed as appropriate for ages 9-12. It is true that there is no sex or bad language, or actual acts of violence. But I think that (in general) a kid that age might end up confused, and an older kid might get more out of it. Another categorical trickiness is that although this is "fantasy" in the alternate history sense, there is no magic, no supernatural elements--in short, nothing explicitly fantastic at all, so don't expect to find that here!

Here's a review (by another Charlotte), at Blogging for a Good Book.

And here's the sequence: The Winter King, A Coalition of Lions, The Sunbird, The Lion Hunter, and The Empty Kingdom.

The Empty Kingdom has been nominated for the 2008 Cybils Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category (link to complete list at top right).

The lists of nominations for the Cybils are being pulled into their final form, and us panelists are busy reading away….but before I get too involved in talking about the 2008 books that have been nominated, I thought it would be nice to take a look back to 2007, and the science fiction/fantasy books that made the shortlist that year.


This is a great list of great books that embody the qualities my fellow panelists and I are going to be looking for in this year’s crop—outstanding world building, vivid characterization, and the sort of all-engrossing appeal that makes a book one that you find yourself pressing in the hands of strangers in book stores and libraries….(well, I have found myself doing this. Sometimes it’s even appreciated). And although several of these books needed no help from the Cybils in finding readers, others were books that before their Cybilian honors had lingered more under the radar. I hope the mix of books we offer at the end of our reviewing period also has on it wonderful books that haven’t yet gotten the buzz they deserve (this is one of the points of the Cybils, after all).

The Science Fiction and Fantasy category, incidentally, is divided into two groups-- older and younger readers (my 2008 list isn’t split yet; the final one will be). I have lifted the following blurbs off of the Cybils site, where you can go to see the other shortlists of 2006 and 2007, so if anyone ever lifts these descriptions from here in turn, please do credit the original authors!

Cybils 2007 short list in Science Fiction/Fantasy

Teen/Young Adult:

Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
On her first day as a Lady’s maid, Dashti finds herself sealed in a tower for seven years with her Lady, who is being punished for refusing to marry the Lord of a neighboring land. Tight plotting, beautiful use of language and metaphor, and an engaging main character make this book a standout.
--Sheila, Wands and Worlds

Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher
Hodder Children’s Books (UK)
No one has been in or out of Incarceron for over 150 years. Now, a young man on the
Inside thinks he’s found the way Out--and a young woman on the Outside thinks she may
have found the way In. Success will require going up against the Warden--and Incarceron
itself. The strong writing and characterization, suspenseful narrative, and creative world
building brought this book to the top of the pack.
--Leila, Bookshelves of Doom

Northlander (Tales of the Borderlands)
by Meg Burden
Brown Barn Books
Northlander is an engaging tale which shows how hatred is only ignorance of the unknown.
Though Ellin’s gift of healing saves the Northlander king, she is feared and imprisoned. This gripping tale is both emotionally moving and thought-provoking.
--Kim Baccellia, Earrings of Ixtumea

Repossessed
by A. M. Jenkins
HarperCollins
Fast-paced and sharply funny, A.M. Jenkins’ story of Kiriel--the fallen angel whose name
means “mirror of souls”--takes readers on a week-long ride in the body of an ordinary
human boy. Philosophical in a religious sense, yet untethered from any churchy elements,
this novel’s quirky appreciation of the mundane combines with a wisecracking,
personable narrative voice to create a funny yet thought-provoking novel. (For mature
readers)
--Tadmack, ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants

Skin Hunger
by Kathleen Duey
Simon & Schuster/Atheneum
Take two divergent story threads and weave them into one of the year’s darkest novels.
Add vivid characterization, a quest for knowledge beyond any cost, and magic that is
repulsive but intriguing and you have Skin Hunger.
--Tasha, Kids Lit

Elementary/Middle Grade:

The Chaos King
by Laura Ruby
HarperCollins/Eos
The Richest Girl in the World and the son of gangster Sweetcheeks Grabowski have to find
their way back to friendship, as compelling weirdness enters their lives again in the form
of a giant squid, a super-annoying hotel heiress, an animated stone lion, and The
Chaos King--a “Sid” punk with a serious art fetish. This fast-paced, stand-alone sequel is
accessible to both middle grade and teen readers and is both funny and endearing.
--Tadmack, ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants

Into the Wild
by Sarah Beth Durst
Penguin/Razorbill
A long time ago, all fairy-tale characters fled from their stories seeking refuge from “The
Wild,” a tangled, evil forest. Since then, Rapunzel has kept the forest under control with the help of her daughter Julie, but when it gets too powerful she is forced to depend on Julie to set aside her fears and doubts and defeat The Wild. Julie’s strong character is an inspiring example of duty, survival, and love.
--Traci, Fields of Gold

The Land of the Silver Apples
by Nancy Farmer
Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Richard Jackson
Books
Land of the Silver Apples has it all--adventure, fairies, old world gods, and an ancient world that is caught between belief in the Old Gods and Christianity. This standalone sequel will appeal to not only fans of Nancy Farmer but those who enjoy adventurous tales.
--Kim Baccellia, Earrings of Ixtumea

Skulduggery Pleasant
by Derek Landy
HarperCollins
When twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley’s mysterious uncle dies, he not only bequeaths her his house, but a sticky supernatural situation and a rather dashing skeleton detective named Skulduggery Pleasant. This smart novel is full of humor, action, and a real sense of danger--and has a sly wit that would appeal to a wide age range.
--a. fortis, ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants

The True Meaning of Smekday
by Adam Rex
Disney/Hyperion
Nothing has been the same since the Boov invaded Earth and re-christened it Smekland. But things get even weirder when twelve year-old Gratuity Tucci embarks on a journey to find her missing mother--accompanied by her cat (named Pig), a fugitive Boov (named J.Lo) and a slightly illegal hovercar—and realizes that there’s more at stake than just her mother’s whereabouts. A hilarious satire with a touching ending and spot-on illustrations by
the author.
--a. fortis, ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants

Three sequels to books on this list have been nominated this year—Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire, Out of the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst, and Sapphique, sequel to Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher (I’m looking forward to reading these!)

And speaking of sequels, the wait for the sequel to Skin Hunger is almost over (well, kind of). Sacred Scars will be out in paperback in the UK next June, and here in the US in hardback in August (which seems strange, but that's what fanfiction says). Anyway, here’s the cover:

TODAY (OCT. 15) IS THE LAST DAY TO NOMINATE BOOKS FOR THE CYBILS!

The Science Fiction/Fantasy list dosen't actually need any more books on it, but here are a few deserving orphans that haven't made it yet, if you need a suggestion:

Gone, by Michael Grant
Cybele's Secret, by Juliet Marillier
The 39 Clues (The Maze of Bones, Book 1), by Rick Riordan,
The Quest Begins (Seekers, Book 1), by Erin Hunter
Charlie Bone and the Shadow by Jenny Nimmo
Dragon Flight, by Jessica Day George.

Here's where you go to leave your nomiation...but check this list first, to make sure you won't be wasting your vote on something that's already there.

And if you go to this post at the Cybils, you'll find links to suggestions in other catagories!

Just like I said up there. You've only got until midnight to express your love and devotion for your favorite books of the year! Is there a book in one of these categories that you can't imagine living without?

From the Cybils blog:

The genres: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels.

Angel, by Cliff McNish (2008 Carolrhoda Books, 311pp)

Freya is only eight years old when she meets her first angel--tall, shining, and beautifully winged. But after that one appearance, it never returns, leaving Freya in a state of angel obsession that becomes madness.

Six years later, she is home from the mental hospital, and has carefully built a "normal" identity--she's become "friends" with the beautiful alpha female of her class and her henchwomen. Keeping that place means being unable to be kind to the new girl in class. Stephanie is the archetypal total looser--wrong parents, wrong uniform, no social skills, and an obsession with angels that she unwisely shares with her class. But this obsession creates a bond with Freya, despite Freya's fear of falling back into her madness, and it is to Stephanie that Freya turns when she sees her second angel, dark and terrifying...Until she knows who the angels are, and why she sees them, Freya will never find peace. And until she accepts her own destiny, Freya will not help Stephanie, or her own troubled family.

Spoilerishness--I thought at first this was more young adult than fantasy--part of the plot is the ya standard of nice girl with bitchy friends who must befriend outcast girl. As I read on, and the angels become increasingly real, and increasingly implicated in the action of the mortals, the story became more clearly fantasy. These angels are living beings (although inhuman), and their role on earth is not specifically as a conduit to the divine.

McNish doesn't go much for subtlety in his characterizations--Stephanie, in particular, is so awfully a looser that she seems overdone (was it really necessary, for instance, for her clothes to be quite so horribly wrong?) Plot-wise, however, the interesting intersections of angels and humans make this a page turner, and I found Freya's personal angelic journey fascinating (although I would have liked a bit more explanation).

This book came out in the UK last year--here's its cover over there.
I prefer the US one, because the book really is about Freya, not about angels in general.

And here's what seems to be the paperback cover, making it look like a gothic thriller, which it isn't.




Angel has been nominated for the Cybils Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.

You've got one more day to nominate your favorite children's and young adult books of 2008! The CYBILS await you. After October 15, the judges will read, read, read. They will announce the finalists on January 1, 2009 and the winners on February 14.

Tomorrow is the last day to name your favorite books from 2008 for a Cybils award! If you haven't yet spoken up now is the time. Over one hundred children's book bloggers are on commitees eagerly waiting to review all the best books published between Jan. 1 and Oct. 15, 2008. It only takes one mention for a book to be on the list and sent to the review committee in nine categories: Fantasy and

Hurry! Your chance to nominate your favourite children’s book of 2008 in each of nine categories for the third annual Cybils Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards ends on October 15 2008. So pop over to www.Cybils.com and make your voice heard now.

Here are some great books of 2008 that have yet to be nominated:

• The Worst Best Friend
• Darkness Slipped In
• Night of the Moon (A Muslim Holiday Story)
• Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep
• The Scrambled States of America Talent Show
• Thing-Thing
• The Fisherman and the Turtle
• A isn’t for Fox (An Isn’t Alphabet)
• A Very Improbable Story
• Willow
• Not Norman (A Goldfish Story)
• My Friend Jamal
• Hogwood Steps Out (A Good, Good Pig Story)
• Spotty & Eddie Learn to Compromise
• Someday When My Cat Can Talk
• The Butter Man
• The Donkey of Gallipoli (A True Story of Courage in World War I)
• Priscilla and the Hollyhocks
• Waiting For Benjamin (A Story about Autism)
• Some Helpful Tips For A Better World And A Happier Life

Nominations close on October 15 2008, so do it now.

_
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, everyone! Yes, I'm elbow deep (literally) in pie pastry and turkey stuffing today in preparation for The Big Turkey Supper with all the fixin's.

These past few weeks have been busy.

I manned the reception desk at the fabulously successful Fall Book Harvest held by CWILL BC (my professional writers and illustrators group) at the Vancouver Public Library on October 5. So many authors showcasing their new books to crowds of people...teachers, parents, and kids, kids, kids. It was a great afternoon.

I took a preliminary research trip to a local animal site (Shhh! This project's still at the secret stage, but I'm very excited!)

I've been up to my eyeballs organizing the Nonfiction Picture Book Category for the 2008 Cybils Award. So many great books are already nominated, but so many aren't on the list yet, so if you haven't stopped by the Cybils blog to nominate your fave, get on over there. Nominations close on October 15...only a few more days left! (Just scroll down, click on your category of choice, and leave a comment with your nomination.)

I've also been nose to grindstone reading and writing for my English class (I got an A+ on my essay! I got an A+ on my essay! Sheesh, you'd think I'd won the lottery the way I'm jumping around and carrying on, but it's the first university class in over a decade, so it's pretty exciting stuff, let me tell ya).

And if you're looking for more interesting reading today, Laura and I are talking about social networking sites over on the Bubble Stampede blog, and it's Nonfiction Monday...as always you'll find links to great book talk about kids' nonfiction on Anastasia's blog.

Now I'm off to finish making pie and getting that turkey in the oven, as I contemplate how much I have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving!