Book review - Once Upon a Space-Time!

Title: Once Upon a Space-Time!
Author: Jeffrey Brown
Genre: sci-fi/graphic novel
Similar books: Star Scouts by Mike Lawrence
                      Earthling by Mike Fearing
Rating:

cute and informative

Summary (provided by publisher): Jide and Petra are just two normal kids until they are selected to leave Earth and join their new alien classmates on an intergalactic research mission to Mars. Too bad Petra has no idea how she ended up in the program, seeing as the closest she wants to get to space is being a sci-fi writer. Jide, on the other hand, is the brains of the mission, but his helicopter parents make it clear he hasn't left their gravitational pull behind quite yet.
What is meant to be an intra-species bonding experience soon turns to hijinx as the kids discover The Potato orbiting around their new space classroom and accidentally launch a mission of their own without any adult commanders around to supervise--or help!

My opinion: This is Brown's second journey into using a narrative to educate in the graphic novel format. Previously, in the Lucy and Andy Neanderthal series he taught us about prehistoric life. This book takes on the science of space travel. As in that previous series, this book uses the story as a loose framework for teaching us about space. There is no strong conflict, more a series of quirky circumstances. Some of the complications work a bit too hard to integrate the facts into the text. Additionally the humor is pretty random, sometimes drawing focus away from the plot. The art is charming enough to support this through a single read though I don't know that it will hold up to a repeat.
More information: Once Upon a Space-Time! releases June 2
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Nowhere on Earth

Title: Nowhere on Earth
Author: Nick Lake
Genre: sci-fi
Similar books: When Light Left Us by Leah Thomas
                      From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion
Rating:

I had some issues with it

Summary (provided by publisher):Sixteen-year-old Emily is on the run. Between her parents and the trouble she's recently gotten into at school, she has more than enough reason to get away. But when she finds a little boy named Aidan wandering in the woods, she knows she needs to help him find his way home. But getting home is no easy matter, especially when Emily finds out that Aidan isn't even from Earth. When their plane crashes into the side of a snowy mountain, it's up to Emily to ensure Aidan and their pilot, Bob, make it off the mountain alive. Pursued by government forces who want to capture Aidan, the unlikely team of three trek across the freezing landscape, learning more about each other, and about life, than they ever thought possible.

My opinion: I think I wanted to like this book better than I did. There was a strong sense of unreality to the plot and I don't think that the presence of aliens is to blame. The alien worked best for me, actually. The idea that aliens aren't going to look even vaguely human, that they might occupy more dimensions, be formed of different elemental combinations, defy our ability to fully perceive them, and utilize perceptual camouflage, all seemed quite reasonable to me. It was Emily that I struggled with. Her extraordinary survival skills, her flight from shadow agents, this was my struggle. Her backstory of struggles at school and her desire to dance were only tenuously tied to the main plot. The final chapters relied a bit more on happenstance than I generally prefer. While the ideas are interesting, it's just a bit too scattered.
More information: Nowhere on Earth releases May 26.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Picture books for everyone

A is for Another Rabbit by Hannah Batsel

We've seen a trend recent years of alphabet books that do their best to be more. Some are informative. Others, like this one, use humor. This one uses a single object, rabbits, to illustrate every letter. Sometimes this is in the form of a sentence like "Can you believe how many rabbits are on this page". Other times it's through trickery, like disguising the rabbits as something else. It's not a story exactly but there's a lot of humor in the creative uses of rabbits and the increasingly exasperated owl. It's humor that will reach early elementary kids and the adults reading to them alike. And the illustrations are charming so it's also fun just to leaf through.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Non-fiction book review - The Mermaid Atlas

The Mermaid Atlas by Anna Claybourne

Personally, I've never really been into mermaids. Especially the typical portrayal we get in cartoons of pretty, empty-headed things that just giggle and flirt with men. What does interest me is the various portrayals of merfolk in folktales. And that's what Claybourne is looking at here. We have friendly, aggressive, and indifferent creatures. Single gender or fully cultured. Even some proto-merfolk like selkies. Each legend gets just a couple of paragraphs but that's enough to see both how the idea of mermaids is cross-cultural and how other cultural elements influence the nature of the legend. This is a great book for any kid with an interest in folk creatures.

More information:  The Mermaid Atlas releases June 1.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Orphan Eleven

Title: Orphan Eleven
Author: Gennifer Choldenko
Genre: historical fiction
Similar books: Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine
                      Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
Rating:

a bit fanciful

Summary (provided by publisher): An engaging adventure from a Newbery Honor-winning storyteller for readers who love the circus, and anyone who has dreamed of finding the perfect home.
Four orphans have escaped from the Home for Friendless Children. One is Lucy, who used to talk and sing. No one knows why she doesn't speak anymore; silence is her protection.
The orphans find work and new friends at a traveling circus. Lucy loves caring for the elephants, but she must be able to speak to them, and to warn others of danger. If Lucy doesn't find her voice, she'll be left behind when the circus goes on the rails. Meanwhile, people are searching for Lucy, and her puzzling past is about to catch up with her. 

My opinion: Choldenko certainly isn't afraid to show us marginalized populations in historical contexts and the harshness of everyday lives. Here we have orphaned/abandoned children coming into contact with circus folk, a group bound to be populated by outsiders. We see these people trying to find a place in life, a place they can belong and feel safe. This is paralleled in the elephants. The young elephant's loving acceptance and general skittishness are a direct reflection of various characters. The plot never digs too deep into any topic, somewhat to a disappointing degree. I might have liked more reflection on the reality of the life Lucy has left behind ,the future that awaited her. Or even more reflection on the things that influence the four orphans, the hurts that have caused the to act out, to act not in their own self interest.  Add in the circus which had an almost magical air, a sense of unreality, and I found I wasn't as satisfied with the book on the whole as I'd have liked.

More information: Orphan Eleven releases May 26.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Cardboard Corny Crab

I'm still participating in the Cardboard Creature Club on Instagram. This week's prompt was corny crab creature. I made my entry with a box, a little extra cardboard, some paint, and a pair of wiggle eyes.

 

Book review - The Elephant's Girl

Title: The Elephant's Girl
Author: Celesta Rimington
Genre: magical realism
Similar books: Forever Glimmer Creek by Stacy Hackney
                      Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Rating:

a solid read that gives us something to consider

Summary (provided by publisher): An elephant never forgets, but Lexington Willow can't remember what happened before a tornado swept her away when she was a toddler. All she knows is that it landed her near an enclosure in a Nebraska zoo; and there an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. With no trace of her birth family, Lex grew up at the zoo with Nyah and her elephant family; her foster father, Roger; her best friend, Fisher; and the wind whispering in her ear.
Now that she's twelve, Lex is finally old enough to help with the elephants. But during their first training session, Nyah sends her a telepathic image of the woods outside the zoo. Despite the wind's protests, Lex decides to investigate Nyah's message and gets wrapped up in an adventure involving ghosts, lost treasure, and a puzzle that might be the key to finding her family. As she hunts for answers, Lex must summon the courage to leave the secure borders of her zoo to discover who she really is--and why the tornado brought her here all those years ago. 

My opinion: Rimington leans hard into the magical realism, giving us a protagonist who can communicate with the wind and elephants as well as a ghost. The presentation of ghosts in this particular novel is fairly unique and creates a metaphor for exploring the changes to a friendship in adolescence. Lex's devotion to the ghost parallels her changing relationship with Fisher and reinforces the message that one person shouldn't be somebody else's everything. Add in our ties to the past, the ways that the people who came before us influence our present, and we have a solidly interesting read. The metaphors are a bit blunt but this is not uncommon in books for this age group.
More information: The Elephant's Girl releases May 19.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley