Book review - Oddity

 

Title: Oddity

Author: Eli Brown

Genre: fantasy/alternate history

Similar books: The League of Seven by Alan Gratz

                     Uncrashable Dakota by Andy Marino

Rating:

 

an exciting read

Summary (provided by publisher): The daughter of a murdered physician vows to protect the magical Oddity he left behind in an alternate nineteenth century where a failed Louisiana Purchase has locked a young Unified States into conflict with France.
It’s the early 1800s, and Clover travels the impoverished borderlands of the Unified States with her father, a physician. See to the body before you, he teaches her, but Clover can’t help becoming distracted by bigger things, including the coming war between the US and France, ignited by a failed Louisiana Purchase, and the terrifying vermin, cobbled together from dead animals and spare parts, who patrol the woods. Most of all, she is consumed with interest for Oddities, ordinary objects with extraordinary abilities, such as a Teapot that makes endless amounts of tea and an Ice Hook that freezes everything it touches. Clover’s father has always disapproved of Oddities, but when he is murdered, Clover embarks on a perilous mission to protect the one secret Oddity he left behind. And as she uncovers the truth about her parents and her past, Clover emerges as a powerful agent of history. Here is an action-filled American fantasy of alternate history to rival the great British fantasies in ideas and scope.

My opinion: Oddity is a story that jumps right in with action and never quits. We are introduced to a wide variety of characters, each with a unique flaw that influences the plot. Some characters overcome their flaws, others embrace them. The moral issues that the characters confront are more subtle than we often see in middle grade fiction. I might have liked to have explored the oddities themselves, their nature and source, a bit more but there's room for a sequel that could achieve this end. The story is exciting enough to keep us reading through to the end with enough thought and heart that it has the potential to spark conversation after reading.

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Fly puppet

 I'm in the process of developing some puppets to sell at craft fairs. While I come up with the right designs, I've been playing with other ideas including the sock puppet I made this weekend of a housefly. My favorite part is the sequins on top of metallic paint for the eyes.

Book review - Happily for Now

 

Title: Happily for Now

Author: Kelly Murphy

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: Under the Bottle Bridge by Jessica Lawson

                     The Perfect Place by Teresa Harris

Rating:

 

heartfelt

Summary (provided by publisher): Fiona may have problems, but she's no damsel in distress. She'd rather be the one wielding the wand in the story: she wants to be the fairy godperson. So when her mom sends her off to stay with relatives in a place called Cold Hope for the summer, Fiona decides it's time to start training for the role.
And wow, do these people need help! Aunt Becky's bakery is failing, Great-uncle Timothy draws but never speaks, and Great-Aunt Alta is the gloomiest, doomiest woman she's ever met.
But helping people in the real world isn't as easy as it sounds in fairy tales. Change is messy. What if she's actually making things worse?
Still, with practice (and some deep breaths), Fiona will discover that sometimes messy is okay. Sometimes things do get worse before they get better. And sometimes trying to help fix other people's problems can help you work on your own...

My opinion: Jones has combined an interesting group of elements here. We don't often see a book for a young audience like this with a parent battling addiction. That detail, while a relatively minor plot element, does a lot to inform Fiona's character. It is the reason behind her anxiety and need for control, her dislike for yelling and her compulsive need to help. I like the emphasis on setting boundaries, empowering children to say "I don't like that" or "this is the right thing for me". While the adult characters are fairly one dimensional, the kids are complex. A solid read.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Graphic novel spotlight - Loonicorns

 

Loonicorns: Bleary-Eye by Ced, Waltch, and Gorobei

Loonicorns is built on a really fun concept. Typically stories with unicorns have them all beautiful and skilled. They're all special. In the world of Loonicorns, each creature is declared "pretty" or "ugly" in youth, judged on standards of body conformity and behavior. Pretties have an idealized life, given the best jobs. Uglies do all of the hard work. Throw in a mysterious girl from another dimension and a disease that is turning all of the pretties into zombies and you've got a world ripe to acknowledge prejudice. The plot is well paced and threaded through with off-beat humor. Nothing especially surprising but a lot of fun to read.

 Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - That's No Dino

 

That's No Dino by Helaine Becker

There's certainly no shortage of dinosaur books out there for kids, ranging from simple picture and name combinations to complex explorations of each species. This may well be the first I've encountered with a central focus on defining dinosaurs. While that could be achieved with a simple paragraph, Becker knows that isn't going to reach anyone. Instead she takes each qualifier, and shows us a creature that proves the rule. Thus, we have a couple of animals that resemble or have been listed as dinosaurs but which don't meet the classification requirements. It's not afraid to use scientific terms, though anything with any complexity is carefully defined. A solid choice for young dinosaur enthusiasts.

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Book review - D-39

 

Title: D-39

Author: Irene Latham

Genre: dystopia

Similar books: Parched by Melanie Crowder

                     The Last Wild by Piers Torday

Rating:

 

mostly fun with a stab at emotional complexity

Summary (provided by publisher): In a future United States, civil war is devastating a country on its last legs. On one side: the Patriots. On the other: President Vex's corrupt government. In the middle: everybody else, just trying to survive. The war is going from bad to worse, but out in the sparsely populated Worselands, twelve-year-old Klynt Tovis doesn't see much of it.
Instead, Klynt spends most of her long summer days bored, or restoring artifacts in her Museum of Fond Memories. Real pet dogs are a thing of the past: after they were found to be carriers of a sickness the government ordered them all killed. But one day an incredible antique shows up at the farm: a D-39 robodog, "Real as a dog can be!" Klynt is overjoyed, but the good luck doesn't last. When the war makes its way into the empty Worselands, she and D-39 find themselves thrown into an epic journey for survival and hope.
Through the twists and turns of this riveting read, Irene Latham deftly shows how kindness can appear in unexpected places during uncertain times.

My opinion: While technically this is a verse novel, in large part it reads as a traditional narrative, just broken up into little chunks of thought. Snapshots, really. The first section is fairly positive, showing us how Klynt and the others live. It's just life as they know it. It takes a fairly sharp turn at the halfway point, becoming more of a survival story. Those early chapters get us engaged. The later chapters give the narrative meaning. It's a bleaker world than we typically see in middle grade fiction but that makes it more compelling. The unique vocabulary is a touch confusing at first but a dedicated reader will quickly make sense of it.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - That Thing About Bollywood

 

Title: That Thing About Bollywood

Author: Supriya Kelkar

Genre: magical realism

Similar books: The Magic of Melwick Orchard by Rebecca Caprara

                      Mira in the Present Tense by Sita Brahmachari

Rating: 

 

well balanced

Summary (provided by publisher): Bollywood takes over in this contemporary, magical middle grade novel about an Indian American girl whose world turns upside down when she involuntarily starts bursting into glamorous song-and-dance routines during everyday life.
You know how in Bollywood when people are in love, they sing and dance from the mountaintops? Eleven-year-old Sonali wonders if they do the same when they’re breaking up. The truth is, Sonali’s parents don’t get along, and it looks like they might be separating.
Sonali’s little brother, Ronak, is not taking the news well, constantly crying. Sonali would never do that. It’s embarrassing to let out so many feelings, to show the world how not okay you are. But then something strange happens, something magical, maybe. When Sonali gets upset during a field trip, she can’t bury her feelings like usual—instead, she suddenly bursts into a Bollywood song-and-dance routine about why she’s upset!
The next morning, much to her dismay, Sonali’s reality has shifted. Things seem brighter, almost too bright. Her parents have had Bollywood makeovers. Her friends are also breaking out into song and dance. And somehow, everyone is acting as if this is totally normal.
Sonali knows something has gone wrong, and she suspects it has something to do with her own mismanaged emotions. Can she figure it out before it’s too late?

My opinion: I've read a plot like this one before, where inexplicable magic takes control of a character's life, but this is the first time I've seen it for a middle grade audience. It's unique in it's approach to Sonali's parent's separation as well. Typically in middle grade novels when parents separate the protagonist is desperate to bring them back together. Sonali, though, is relieved. She's ready for her life to find it's new normal and sees the intrusion of what she calls "Bollywood-itis" as a barrier to that change. The nuance comes when Sonali finally addresses her emotions. We see situations where we can be relieved and yet still grieve, happiness and anger all at once. Kelkar really demolishes the notion that emotion is weakness. These ideas might be a little heavy for some middle graders but the zaniness of the Bollywood changes add a lot of light moments.

More information: That Thing About Bollywood releases July 1.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley