The Oddmire

The Oddmire, Book One: Changeling 
by William Ritter
272 pages; ages 8 - 12
Algonquin Young Readers, 2019

from the jacket: Magic is fading from the WildWood. To renew it, goblins must perform an ancient ritual involving the rarest of their kind – a newborn changeling. 

But when the time comes, something goes wrong. Kull, the goblin charged with trading a human baby for a goblin, is distracted. And when he turns back to the two babies in the crib, he can’t tell which is which – human or goblin – so he leaves both babies and returns to the goblin world.

And leaves a young mother with unexpected twins. and whispers amongst townsfolk about it being goblins. Or maybe a witch. The two boys, Cole and Tinn, grow up hearing tales that one of them may actually be a goblin. But which one?

Then twelve years, eleven months and twenty-eight days later the boys discover a note in a tree in an orchard where they aren't supposed to be. The note tells them to meet the goblins at a certain place on a certain night. Tinn and Cole decide to go together into the WildWood in which:

• they lose their marmalade tarts
• are chased by a bear
• meet a girl
• are captured by a witch
• and kidnapped 

Basically, if anything can go wrong it will

This is a great story about children stolen, lost, sold to fairies, and … found. At its heart, it’s a story of adventure and love.

What I like about this book: Besides the tale of adventure and mishap, I love the language. Here’s a description of the town the boys live in, Endsborough… “a quaint community teetering on the edge of what could be only generously termed civilization. A dense forest … curled around the town the way a Great Dane might curl around a terrier puppy.” It sits at the end of a windy road, beyond towns that have already adopted gas lighting, a quiet town that doesn’t go looking for trouble.

I’m looking forward to reading book 2, The Unready Queen, due to be released this June.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

If Sun Could Speak

If Sun Could Speak 
by Kourtney LaFavre; illus by Saki Tanaka
36 pages; ages 5 - 8
Spork, 2020

theme: sun, night & day

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the sun – a glorious star.

Told in first person, this book introduces STEM concepts about day, night, planetary motion, and light. Kourtney LaFavre also introduces some world mythology about the sun and some scientific observations people have made from 99 BC to modern day.

What I like about this book: I like the timetable of discoveries about planets, stars, and the universe, from Lucretius and his On the Nature of Things to Stephen Hawking. So many important discoveries, such as light moves in a straight line, and Earth moves around the Sun, and how to tell what stars are made of. LaFavre includes the powerful message that readers can create their own experiments to answer questions they have about the natural world.

I caught up with Kourtney a couple weeks ago by email to ask her One Question ~

Sally: Kudos for scoring an interview with the sun. How did you decide to write using Sun's POV?

Kourtney: I think I was about five or six when I first discovered that the sun doesn’t actually rise and set. I had assumed that the sun was moving up and down in the sky, because the word RISE means to move upward. That was the definition that my five year old self understood, and five year old brains are very literal. It totally blew my mind that it was the earth’s movement that created sunrises and sunsets. And I felt mad that I was mislead to believe inaccurate information. I was frustrated whenever I heard people say anything about the sun RISING. That’s where the concept of a book told from the sun’s perspective began, to clear up any misunderstandings about the sun.

She explains more about her inspiration for the book in this blog post.

Beyond the Books:

Before clocks, people used the sun to tell the time. You can too – just build a sun dial.

Kourtney posted a bunch of activities on her blog. You can find them here.

Kourtney LaFavre is part of #STEAMTeam2020. You can find out more about her here.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Whoo-ku.... whoo, whoo, whoooooo.....

Whoo-Ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story  
by Maria Gianferrari; illus. by Jonathan Voss
32 pages; ages 4 - 8
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2020

theme: owls, haiku, animal families

A great horned owl pair
Finds squirrel’s nest of oak leaves
Perched high in a pine.

Pairing haiku with stunning ink and watercolor illustrations, Whoo-ku shows the life of a great horned owl.

What I like about this book: Just as haiku is the postcard of poetry, every whoo-ku in this book is a snapshot of that particular bit of a great horned owl’s life. The hard part, which author Maria Gianferrari does well, is linking them together to create a larger picture of the owls.

And there is Back Matter! Want to know more about owl feathers? Eggs? Owl pellets? It’s in the back matter, along with recommended books and websites for curious naturalists.

Last week I caught up with Maria long enough to ask One Question ~

Sally: How did you come to write this book in haiku?

Maria: Unlike most of my other books, this book began with the title, Whoo-Ku, so it’s the only book where the title actually dictated the form. When my daughter was in elementary school, we used to “write”/recite haikus on long car rides. She cleverly came up with that title and gifted me with her own written and illustrated Whoo-Ku book as a birthday present, a story of owls written in haiku. It’s one of my most treasured gifts! We had been reading haiku books like Wonton, by Lee Wardlaw, and Dogku, by the late Andrew Clements. Many years later I decided to try my hand at my own version of a haiku story, starring a Great horned owl family. And that’s how it all started!

Beyond the Books:

Learn how to identify great horned owls with this Audubon field guide.

What do great horned owls sound like? You can listen to their hoots and calls here.

Write some haiku about one of your favorite animals - or plants.  Here's how. Grab some pencils or markers or paints and create some pictures. Whooo knows - maybe you'll end up with your own book!

Maria Gianferrari is a member of #STEAMTeam2020. You can find out more about her at her website.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

The Queen Bee and Me

The Queen Bee and Me 
by Gillian McDunn
288 pages; ages 8 - 12
Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2020

If I’m honest, it was the title that made me pick up this book. Anything related to bees – no matter how remotely – and I’m going to read the first page or two. Or, as in this case, the entire book. Especially when they open with a line like this:

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want to look inside to see how stuff works and those who couldn’t care less.

And Meg, the main character, definitely wants to see how stuff works. She’s the kid who tales apart toasters, clocks, blenders, radios, microwaves. Though, she admits, “putting them back together is harder.” Raise your hand if you have found that out the hard way.

While she’s great with science stuff, Meg isn’t so confident with people stuff. Her best friend forever, Beatrix, is changing, there’s a new student in town, Meg really wants to take the science elective, but Beatrix is sure Meg’s gonna fall in line and join the dance class. When Meg is paired with a new girl for a research project, friendship dynamics get complicated.

And then there are the bees: a hive of honey bees that Hazel, the new girl, wants to study for their project. Bees are cool, Hazel explains, and essential for pollination. Without them, we wouldn’t have some of our favorite foods. There’s only one problem… well, maybe two.
Meg is afraid of bees because they sting.
And someone is trying to scuttle Hazel’s plan to raise her bees in town.

What I like love about this book: I love how author Gillian McDunn weaves real science into her novel of middle-grade life. I love how every so often we get a page from Meg’s Animal Fieldwork Project report. And I really love how Meg, with a bit of help, finds her voice to save the bees and her friendships, both old and new.

I give this book one huge Huzzzzzzzzah!

Gillian McDunn is a member of #STEAMTeam2020. You can find out more about her at her website.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. ARC provided by the publisher.