Kate's Tales of Books and Bands

One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence (47North, May 2019) , is a time travel story in which changes to the past create multiple timelines.  It's the story of 15 year old Nick, a math genius who enjoys playing D. and D. with his three buddies, and what happens when a girl, Mia, joins the game.  It's the story of Nick finding out he has cancer.  These concerns, even the fact that Nick might be dying, are back-burnered when a strange man starts stalking Nick, telling him that Mia is in danger and needs his help. Saving future Mia involves a dangerous heist, and it also involves surviving the violent attentions of a gang of drug-dealing thugs, one of whom is a true psychopath.  Fortunately, the strange man is there to help when things get really ugly. Turns out (and this isn't much of a spoiler, because it's told to the reader fairly early on) that this stranger is Nick from the future, come back to save future Mia.  Though his timeline's Mia might be in jeopardy, ther...

Here's what I found this week; please let me know of anything I missed! (It may not be the longest list of links ever, but still I visited three blogs new to me and found two books I'd not yet heard of, so that's a win in my book!) The Reviews Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, at Madison's Inkwell The Bad Luck Lighthouse, by Nicki Thornton, at thereaderteacher Bad Order, by B.B. Ullman, at Always in the Middle Banneker Bones and the Alligator People, at Charlotte's Library Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, by Jennifer Donnelly, at Pages Unbound Bone Garden by Heather Kassner, at Log Cabin Library  The Camelot Code, by Mari Mancusi, at Cover2Cover Carnival Catastrophe (The Problim Children #2) by Natalie Lloyd, at Log Cabin Library Changling (The Oddmire #1), by William Ritter, at Carina's Books , Young Adult Books-What We're Reading Now , and Howling Libraries Darkwood, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, at Rachel Neumeier The Dragon in the Library, by Louie Stow...

Banneker Bones and the Alligator People , by Rob Kent (Create Space, May 2019) brings 11-year-old cousins Banneker and Ellicott back for a second action packed adventure!  No sooner had they foiled an evil plot involving giant robot bees, as told in their first book  ( my review ), then they are caught up in an even eviler one.    When they set off flying on their jet packs that night (Banneker is a mad inventor extraordinaire), little did they know they end up following an alligator person into the city sewer!  It didn't go well, but worst of all, no one believes they were attacked by an alligator person.   Possibly this is because Banneker, never one to pass up a chance for the spotlight, proclaims on tv that " This is the start of the alligator people apocalypse!"  It's actually not, though the alligator people are indeed real, and they are indeed unhappy with the non-alligator people.  The real villain of the piece is an incredibly wealth and...

Here's what I found this week; please let me know of anything I missed! The Reviews Amelia Fang Books 1 and 2 Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball and Amelia Fang and the Unicorns of Gliteropolis), by Laura Ellen Anderson, at Word Spelunking Aru Shah and the Song of Death, by Roshani Chokshi, at Reading Books with Coffee Asha and the Spirit Bird, by Jasbinder Bilan, at Way Too Fantasy Battle of the Beetles, by M.G. Leonard, at Arkham Reviews The Big Foot Files, by Lindsay Eager, at Puss Reboots Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, at Milliebot Reads Bonefires and Broomsticks, by Mary Norton, at Fantasy Literature Changling (The Oddmire Book 1), by William Ritter, at J.R.'s Book Reviews , Forever Lost In Literature , Books and Wafffles Genie in a Bottle (Whatever After #9), by Sarah Mlynowski at Jill's Book Blog The Girl of Ink and Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, at Book Craic The Maker of Monsters, by Lorraine Gregory, at Book Craic Midsummer's Mayhem, by Rajani LaRo...

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ronald L. Smith at Kidlitcon back in 2015 (PSA--come to Kidlitcon 2020 in Ann Arbor next March!).  His first middle grade book, Hoodoo, a tale of supernatural horror in the south, had just been published, and I enjoyed it very much ( my review ).  I likewise enjoyed The Mesmerist (2017), about kids fighting evil in 19th century London ( my review ).  I never reviewed Black Panther: the Young Prince (2018)….someday I will.  So in any event, I was very excited about his most recent book, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away (Clarion Books, February 2019). This is the story of an air force kid, Simon, son of a black mom and a white dad, who's obsessed with aliens.  He's convinced owl-like aliens have arrived, watching and experimenting on humans.  His family has no time or patience for aliens, so Simon is alone with his fears of the Grays, as he calls them.  When something very strange happens on a camping trip with hi...

For those of us for whom summer feels faintly unreal, with its langerous heat and the disaloution of the routines of the school year, and all the work that needs doing outside, here's a romantic timeslip story of in which reality does indeed become unraveled. The Square Root of Summer , by Harriet Reuter Hapgood (Roaring Brook Press 2016), is a story of a teenaged girl's grief and growing-up, the wormholes that are moving her back and for from her past to her present, and her efforts to understand what's happening through math and introspection.  Last summer, Gottie (short for Margot) lost her grandfather, the cornerstone of her family. Before that, she lost her childhood soulmate, Thomas, when he moved away and left her with a hole in her memory. After that, she lost her heart to her older brother's friend Jason, who ended up dumping her. Now Thomas and Jason are both back in her life, but she is unsure of where her heart stands in relationship to them. And her bot...

Here's what I found this week; please let me know of anything I missed! The Reviews And All Between (Green Sky #3), by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, at Say What? The Book of Dust, by Philip Pullman, at Girl With Her Head in a Book Brightstorm, by Vashti Hardy, at Charlotte's Library Changling (the Oddmire #1), by William Ritter, at Metalphantasmreads , Storythreads , and Bookworm for Kids The Haunting of Henry Davis, by Kathryn Siebel, at From My Bookshelf The House with Chicken Legs, by Sophie Anderson, at Arkham Reviews The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, at Middle Grade Mafia The Lost Tide Warriors, by Catherine Doyle, at Book Craic  The Magic Bed-Knob, by Mary Norton, at Fantasy Literature Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, at Heather's Reading Hideaway The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson, at Read Till Dawn Serafina and the Seven Stars, by Robert Beatty, at the B and N Kids Blog Ship Rats: A Tale of Heroism on the High Seas, by R...

I don't tend to seek out books for early elementary grade kids, but I'm by no means averse to reading them when they come my way (not just because it's a fast way to notch a few more books read with an eye to meeting my Goodreads goal for the year).  I just read the first two books in a new series for kids 5-8ish-- Kitten Kingdom: Tabby's First Quest , and the second book, Tabby and the Pup Prince , by Mia Bell (Scholastic, May 2019) and am happy to recommend them! Tabby is a kitten princess, but she and her brothers sometimes find it hard to behave with royal decorum (they are kittens, after all).  And Tabby dreams of having wild adventures...One day an adventure falls into the kittens' paws when the evil lord of the rats, Gorgonzola, steals the magic scroll that confers the power to rule on their parents.  If it isn't recovered, the rats will take over the kingdom of Mewtopia!  So Tabby squelches a bit of self-doubt and transforms herself and her brothers into...

Back to blogging after vacation time, happily with a book I loved to write about! Brightstorm , by Vashti Hardy (published in the UK March 2018, Scholastic), is a gorgeous middle grade adventure, one of my favorite books of the year so far!  I am so happy that some savvy Rhode Island librarian (Ashaway RI to be precise) reached across the Atlantic to add it to our state library system! Twins Arthur and Maudie are left destitute in an alternate version of London when their father never returns from a voyage in his airship to reach the South Polaris on the mysterious Third Continent.  He's considered guilty of failing to render aid to his chief competitor in his quest for the polaris, the powerful Eudora Vine.  Then Arthur and Maudie are taken on as crew by a young captain, Harriet Culpepper, who flies an airship like no other.  She's determined to beat Eudora in a second race to the polaris, and Maudie and Arthur are determined to all they can to help, partly for the ...

The Opposite of Always , by Justin A. Reynolds (Katherine Tegan Books, March 2019), is a sweet, funny, poignant time travel YA with a lot going on in its briskly turning pages. Jack, a high school senior, and Kate, a college freshman, meet and fall hard for each other.  Their chemistry is immediate, and their enjoyment of each other's company seems to Jack to promise the possibility to love.  Jack's two best friends, Franny, the boy he's been best buddies with forever, and Jillian, the best friend he was in love with before she started going out with Frannie, hit it off with Kate when they finally get to meet her, and all seems golden when she agrees to go to prom with Jack.  B ut then Kate doesn't show up on prom night, and Jack is only just able to find her in the hospital to say good-bye before she dies from complications of sickle cell anemia. That isn't the end of the story.  Jack loops back in time to meet her all over again.  Over and over, trying to save...

My first try at writing my thoughts about Bad Order , by Barb Bentler Ullman (Stirling Children's Books, June 2019), went through some rip in the reality of Blogger, and so I'm quickly trying to redo it before the deathless prose of my first try is lost. (which is appropriate, given what the book is about.  But sigh). In any event, this is the story of a little boy, Albie, who doesn't speak.  He does, though, communicate telepathically with his loving big sister, Mary, sending her "memes," as she thinks of his messages.  One snowy day Mary, Brit and Albie are out for a walk, when Albie sends a frightening meme--"Bad order." He can't convey anything more specific, but it's clear that he's perceived a wrongness.  Then the kids see a mysterious red mist, that pulls at them.  To their horror, anyone pulled in by the mist becomes distorted, angry, and violent.  Clearly the mist is part of the "bad order" Albie was sensing. When news of t...