Parenting

Book Review: All the Impossible Things

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 6 Comments

39407710._SY475_Larrabee told me three things about All the Impossible Things by Linsday Lackey:

  1. It has lots of awesome animals, including a giant tortoise named Tuck (after Tuck Everlasting).
  2. It would make me cry.
  3. I would find it impossible to put down.

All were true.

All the Impossible Things is the story of 11-year-old Red. She’s been in foster care since the death of her grandmother and the arrest of her mother on drug charges three years ago.

Like her mother, Red has power over the wind. Whenever she is upset or angry, she struggles to keep her feelings inside for fear of causing a dangerous windstorm.

Red’s latest foster family is an older couple who run the Groovy Petting Zoo. They love animals and books, and they seem like they could be a good fit. But when Red’s mother is released from prison early, she’s no longer sure where she belongs.

All the Impossible Things addresses difficult issues, but it is a hopeful book. I highly recommend it.

 

Book Review: The Revenge of Magic

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 3 Comments

38724516._SY475_The Revenge of Magic is the first book in a new series by James Riley, author of the Story Thieves books. It’s action-packed and highly entertaining.

Fort Fitzgerald and his father are touring the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC when a giant monster bursts from the ground and attacks the city. Fort gets away safely, but his father is not so lucky.

A few months later, Fort is invited to a top-secret school where kids are being trained to wield destructive magic and healing magic against the “old ones.” He’s eager to fight back against the creatures who took his father, but he may not get the chance. Some of his teachers seem to want him to fail, he’s not sure which of his new classmates he can trust, and he keeps hearing a mysterious voice in his head.

I recommend this book to kids who like magic and mystery. Larrabee liked it too–and he also recommends the second book in the series, The Last Dragon.

Book Review: Over the Moon

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 6 Comments

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Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd is a hopeful and heart-warming fantasy. Larrabee and I both really liked it.

Dust is a fact of life for twelve-year-old Mallie. It covers the sky in the town of Coal Top and makes everyone feel sad. Gone are the days when weavers used to make cloth out of starlight and the people used to sing and dream of happy things.

All the mountain families are poor, but Mallie’s is poorer than most because her father can no longer work. Although she has only one arm, she scrubs floors for a rich family to keep her little brother out of the mines.

Then, she learns about a chance to make a fortune. Mortimer Good is looking for children to ride winged horses and collect gold dust. Mallie is determined to succeed, but the challenge is even more dangerous than she knows.

This book has plenty of adventure and mystery. I love the world that Lloyd has created, and I especially love the horses, known as Starbirds. And Mallie over the Moon is a heroine who will make you cheer!

 

Book Review: The Dark Lord Clementine

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 6 Comments

ClementineThe Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz is a charming and original fantasy for middle grade readers.

Twelve-year-old Clementine Morcerous is the only child of the Dark Lord Elithor. She lives all alone with her father in Castle Brack and spends her days learning dark magic and tending to the fire-breathing chickens and the poison apple orchard on the silent farm.

Then, her father is cursed by the Witch of the Woods. As he grows weaker, more and more tasks fall to Clementine. She has to keep the castle running all by herself, satisfy the Council of Evil Overlords’ Dastardly Deeds quota, and try to save her father’s life. In the process, though, Clementine makes friends for the first time in her life and starts to question whether she even wants to be a Dark Lord.

This story has many of the elements you’d expect in a fantasy, such as witches, knights, villagers, a Lady of the Lake, and a unicorn. And it has unexpected elements too. My favorite is the Gricken, the Morcerous family grimoire that has been transformed into a chicken and lays spells in the form of eggs.

Larrabee and I both recommend it!

Book Review: The Size of the Truth

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 9 Comments

28154339._SX318_The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith is an (excuse me) surprising book. It’s a surprisingly funny and surprisingly touching coming-of-age story. Larrabee and I both enjoyed it.

Sam Abernathy is an 11-year-old 8th grader (having skipped both 6th and 7th grade).

When he was four years old, he fell in an abandoned well, and it took three days for him to be rescued. As a result of that experience, he still has claustrophobia. Also, he’s still recognized as the Boy in the Well everywhere he goes in his small town of Blue Creek, Texas.

Now, his parents think he’s on track to go to MIT and invent something that will change the world. But his dream is to be a chef. And his more immediate goal is to survive the school year, and in particular, to avoid a 14-year-old 8th grader named James Jenkins who was responsible (he believes) for his falling into the well.

The book alternates between Sam’s emerging memories of his time in the well (with a talking armadillo?!) and his accounts of his life as an 8th grader.

Here are some of the reasons this book is so funny:

  • Sam’s descriptions of James Jenkins:  According to Sam, even James’ friends are afraid of him. Here’s why: “James Jenkins walks like a murderer. He combs his hair like a murderer. James Jenkins chews Goldfish crackers for a really long time, which is something only a murderer would do.”
  • Sam’s use of excuse me: Sam is not allowed to swear, so anytime he feels like swearing, he instead says, “Excuse me.”
  • Sam’s accounts of his adventures with his dad. Sam’s dad, who owns a mini golf course, likes to wear kilts and take him survival camping.
  • Sam’s descriptions of the horrors of middle school. From male teachers to dances to P.E., there are new challenges everywhere for a kid who was recently in the 5th grade.

Sam from The Size of the Truth is a character from Smith’s YA book, Stand-Off, but you don’t need to have read that book to enjoy this one.

Book Review: Homerooms and Hall Passes

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 4 Comments

Screen Shot 2019-10-30 at 11.15.15 AMTom O’Donnell’s Homerooms and Hall Passes has a hilarious premise. Five young adventurers from the realm of Bríandalör meet once a week to play H&H, a role-playing game set in J. A. Dewar Middle School.

Vela the paladin plays Valerie the Overachiever. Devis the thief plays Stinky the Class Clown. Thromdurr the barbarian plays Doug the Nerd. Sorrowshade the gloom elf assassin plays Melissa the Loner. And Albiorix the wizard is the Hall Master.

It’s all fun and games until a cursed jewel sends the five friends to the realm of suburbia for real. There, they’ll have to survive a semester of 8th grade without “blowing it” (failing a class or getting more than three unexcused absences).

That’s easier said than done when they have to do it with no weapons, no poisons, and no magic in a world that doesn’t make sense. For example, in Earth Sciences, they learn that rocks apparently aren’t made by Cragnar, the god of rocks. In English class, they have to write a persuasive essay arguing either that cats are or are not good pets, but it’s unacceptable to say that cats are good because they can see ancient spirits or bad because they might be evil wizards in disguise. And Algebra is a completely baffling subject.

Homerooms and Hall Passes is fast-paced and really, really funny. Larrabee and I both highly recommend it.

Book Review: Love Sugar Magic

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 11 Comments

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Anna Meriano’s Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble is a delightful fantasy full of family, friendship, magic, and baking.

Eleven-year-old Leonora Logroño is the youngest of five sisters. Her family owns a bakery, Amor y Azucár Pandadería, in Rose Hill, Texas.

Leo wants to help with the preparations for Dia de los Muertos, but her family insists that she wait until she’s fifteen. She sneaks into the bakery to see what she’s missing and learns her family’s secret. Her mother and sisters are brujas!

Not wanting to be left out, she smuggles her family’s old recipe book home in her backpack and starts experimenting with her own baking magic. When she tries to solve her best friend’s problem by baking cookies with a love spell, though, she finds that magic sometimes has unintended consequences.

The magical adventure continues in the next book in the series, Love Sugar Magic: A Sprinkle of Spirits, and another one is expected next year. Larrabee and I enjoyed the first two and are looking forward to the third book.

Book Review: We’re Not From Here

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 4 Comments

35615208We’re Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey is a quick, funny read, and at the same time, it makes you think. It’s the story of a kid named Lan, who has to convince the aliens of Planet Choom to accept a spaceship full of human refugees.

At the beginning of the story, Lan and his family are living on Mars. Life on Earth is no longer an option. Life on Mars isn’t so great either. Lan and his friends try to keep their sense of humor by making funny videos, but the truth is that the station is running low on food and oxygen.

Then, they’re invited to immigrate to Choom, a planet that will support human life. It’s inhabited by several alien species, including the Zhuri, who look like giant mosquitos, the Ororo, who look like giant marshmallows, and the Krik, who look like little, green werewolves. About a thousand people opt to make the journey. When they come out of their bio-suspension pods twenty years later, though, they find that they are no longer welcome.

In the end, the Zhuri government allows one “human reproductive unit,” Lan, his sister, and his parents, to come to Choom as a test case. They’re being set up to fail, of course, but if Lan can make friends and make some of his new classmates laugh, they may have a chance. Luckily, the Zhuri can’t resist a good pratfall.

Everyone agrees it makes for an entertaining story. (And you’ll have to read the book to get this joke.)

On a more serious note, it would be interesting to read this book in a classroom along with a book of realistic fiction about refugees, such as Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh, The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle by Victoria Williamson, or The Eleventh Trade by Alyssa Hollingsworth.

Book Review: Dragon Pearl

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 6 Comments

34966859Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee combines Korean mythology, science fiction, and mystery in a terrific adventure story. Larrabee and I both loved it.

Min is a 13-year-old fox spirit living on a poor planet with her mother, aunts, and cousins. When her older brother, a cadet in the Thousand Worlds Space Forces, is accused of deserting his post to search for the fabled Dragon Pearl, Min runs away from home to find him. Her quest takes her across the galaxy toward the Ghost Sector.

Some of the things I liked best about this book are:

  1.  Min’s fox magic. In addition to acute senses of smell and hearing, Min has the ability to shape shift and to use Charm to influence other people’s behavior. Although she’s grown up assuming a human form and hiding her magic at her mother’s insistence, all of her special abilities prove useful in her search for her brother.
  2. The Thousand Worlds. From Min’s dome house on dusty Jinju to the sleek corridors of the battle cruiser Pale Lightning, the book’s settings drew me into the story.
  3. Min’s allies. Throughout the story, Min finds friends and allies in unexpected places. I particularly liked the goblin Sujin and the dragon Haneul.

Dragon Pearl is a fast-paced, suspenseful, and immersive read. I recommend it.

Book Review: The Reckless Club

~ Beth Mitchell ~ 5 Comments

38526585In The Reckless Club by Beth Vrabel, five students arrive at an assisted living home on the last day of summer. They’ve all been invited by the principal to do a day of service instead of serving a suspension for their bad behavior on the last day of school.

At the beginning of the day, they know each other only by reputation. Lilith is the Drama Queen. Wes is the Flirt. Ally is the Athlete, Rex is the Rebel, and Jason is the Nobody.

The story is told over the course of a single day from alternating viewpoints. As the five kids interact with the residents and with each other, they unravel the mystery of the Teddy Bear Nurse and reveal what they did to earn this punishment. In the process, they develop a surprising bond and figure out both who they’ve been in middle school and who they want to be going forward. 

The book’s title is a nod to The Breakfast Club, of course, a movie I loved when I was younger. I expect that most middle grade readers (Larrabee included) haven’t seen it, but that won’t impact their enjoyment of the book.