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Geeks and the Holy Grail (Camelot Code #2), by Mari Mancusi, for Timeslip Tuesday

The first book in the Camelot Code series, The Once and Future Geek , mixed time travel between the medieval world of King Arthur and our own, and it is a very entertaining book.  The second book in the series, Geeks and Holy Grail (Hyperion, October 2019), is also entertaining (though not quite as funny; King Arthur as a modern day high school student is hard to beat....). When Morgana, sworn enemy of King Arthur, attacks the druids of Avalon, Nimue, the youngest of them, takes the Holy Grail and runs with it.  King Arthur is dying, and only the Grail can save him.  Desperate to keep it from falling into Morgana's hands, she stumbles into Merlin's Crystal Cave.  But instead of Merlin there to help her (he's on vacation in Los Vegas, in our time), there's only his very inexperienced apprentice, Emrys.  His attempt to hide the grail works, in a sense--as a small, flatulent dragon, it sure doesn't look much like a grail.  But it isn't much use to Arthur as a...
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The Secret

The Secret

Prairie Fire

By E.K. Johnston

Ignore the cover.  Ignore the summary.  Go straight for the first page of this book and start reading because this is the single most amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking, hilarious, emotionally compromising, pulchritudinous, SOUL TEARING sequel I have ever laid eyes on in my long history of laying eyes on books.  Or better yet, read the first book.  

Prairie Fire finishes the tale of Siobhan McQuaid and Owen Thorskgard started in The Story of Owen, where Siobhan becomes the bard of Owen, a dragon slayer.  The world building in this series is phenomenal.  Set in an alternate universe shaped by the existence of non-magical, carbon-consuming dragons, everything is pretty much the same as our world, but tweaked for the allowance of dragons.  For example, the United States is half the size as it is in our universe, Canada claimed all the extra land, and the Sahara Desert was created through an environmental disaster caused by a dragon war.  Driver’s Ed contains sessions detailing dragon evasion, and there is an international army of dragon slayers that work around the world to protect people from the dragons, called the Oil Watch.  

In the beginning of Prairie Fire, Owen and Siobhan enlist in the Oil Watch, proving to be difficult for Siobhan, who suffers from physical injuries after the events of The Story of Owen.  The book follows Owen and Siobhan’s experiences in the Oil Watch, with Siobhan struggling to overcome the limitations of her injuries, and Owen trying to do his duty to protect people, no matter the outcomes.  Everything is told through the voice of Siobhan, who proves not only to be subtly hilarious, but insightful and immensely entertaining.

The relationships between characters in these two books are extremely diverse and genuine for a young adult book.  The main female character does not end up dating the main male character, and said main female character does not have a rivalry with main male character’s girlfriend.  Owen’s aunt is married to another woman, and his father is not married to his mother, who chose to stay in her country, Venezuela.  The characters themselves are extremely well written and constructed, including the side characters, who do not get written out of the story.  Even in Prairie Fire, when faced with a potential love triangle, Siobhan does not feel pressured to start relationships with either of the love interests, but rather chooses not to engage in a romance at the time so she could work on her other issues, such as composing music of Owen’s deeds and staying alive.

The only things I did not like about these books have nothing to do with the content.  The cover art is rather atrocious, looking so badly photoshopped that I had decided not to read The Story of Owen when I first saw it (I later read it and discovered just how wrong my assumptions were).  The summary is no less convincing, a little cheesy and not at all compelling.  

Overall, The Story of Owen and its sequel, Prairie Fire, were both engaging, entertaining, hilarious, and magnificent.  The ending of Prairie Fire made me sob so much my family grew concerned.  I can not write enough to express my love for these two books.  If this review did not convince you to read it (I doubt it did, these books can not be explained and my writing does not do them justice), then just go, find The Story of Owen in your local site of book distribution, charge past the horrible cover and slightly better summary and read the first page.  These books are so beautiful that I place them on the same shelf as Harry Potter.  E.K. Johnston is an incredible writer, and I am looking forward to more books by her. 

If these books were food, they would be homemade apple fritters with vanilla sauce, still warm.
 Sweet, but not barf your face off sugary, kinda sorta healthy, filling and satisfactory, and so good that you have an emotional breakdown after finishing them because there are no more left and you need more because they were so amazing and huggable (though I do not recommend hugging apple fritters) and make you want to cry and sing Disney songs at the same time.  If by any chance apple fritters are not a favorite or an experience you have had yet, then these books are like your favorite comfort food.  I give both The Story of Owen and Prairie Fire five out of five stars.

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The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper

If you are a fantasy fan who loves quirky small museums with collections of oddities, you will love  The Hippo at the End of the Hall , by Helen Cooper (first published in the UK in 2017, now out in the US from Candlewick, Oct 2019). Ben's invitation to the Gee Museum was delivered by bees.  He'd never heard of the place before, but despite his mother's reservations about letting him go there on his own (reservations which seem, for reasons, to be a bit much, even taking into account the fact that Ben's only ten)  he went...There, in its rooms full of taxidermidied creatures, other natural history collections, a glass bee hive, and clocks and other treasures collected by the Gee family from around the world years ago, he found magic, and the truth about his father, who died many years ago while off on an expedition of his own. Ben also found danger, one of my personal least favorite types of danger--the unscrupulous developer, in this case paired with the unscrupulous d...
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The Moon Over Crete, by Jyotsna Sreenivasan, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Moon Over Crete , by Jyotsna Sreenivasan (1996, Smooth Stone Press), is a slightly older children's time travel story, interesting for several reasons. It's the story of a modern girl, 11-year-old Lily, whose mom is Indian American, and whose dad is European American.  Lily is finding it difficult being a girl--her best friend is interested in dressing to impress boys, a boy in her class is sexually harassing her and no one is doing anything about it, her mother isn't letting her do things (like go exploring off in the woods) that she'd be allowed to do if she were a boy.  Lily's flute teacher, Mrs. Zinn, is the only one who seems to understand Lily's growing resentment. And happily for Lily, Mrs. Zinn is a time-traveler, fond of visiting ancient Crete, where (in this fictional world) there is almost utopian gender equality.  Mrs. Zinn offers Lily the chance to go to ancient Crete with her for a few weeks,  and Lily accepts.  Having an experienced adult guid...
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The Time Museum, Vol. 2, by Matthew Loux for Timeslip Tuesday

Delia and her cohort of kids training at the Time Museum to journey across the ages are back in another adventure-- The Time Museum, Vol. 2 , by Matthew Loux (First Second, June 2019).  This graphic novel has all the brightly illustrated fun and excitement of the first volume ( my review ), and even more danger and suspense. Delia and the other kids are getting ready for their next time travel mission, with the help of none other than Richard Nixon.  Nixon is a surprisingly capable instructor, and the tips and tricks he provides during training come in very useful indeed when things start going wrong.  Their mission sounded straightforward--travel back to 18th century Versailles to patch up French/US diplomatic relations, but it quickly becomes complicated by a temporal loop that brings future versions of themselves back in time too.  And then things become very strange indeed when all of them travel to a dystopian future, where an old enemy awaits.... I have to conf...
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