Back to the Wild Wood with Oddmire Book 2

 

The Oddmire, book two: The Unready Queen

by William Ritter 

320 pages; ages 8-12

Algonquin Young Readers (Workman), 2020

Things are finally getting back to normal for the human and goblin brothers Cole and Tinn. After their previous adventure in the Wild Wood they are back home and going to school (mo-o-om! we can walk to school by ourselves!). Working through lessons. Discovering girls. And, for Tinn, trying to learn how to control his goblin magic. Fortunately, he’s got a goblin mentor who teaches him howling and the stuff of goblin culture he missed by living amongst humans. Learning magic might be like learning how to swim… or at least learning to listen to the universe and accept what it provides when you need it.

Relations between the fay folk and humans is already stretched, but when a new guy arrives in town and begins hiring roustabouts for his drilling rig, things blow up. When the humans cut down the Grandmother Tree, a giant destroys the drilling rig.

It takes little effort for a sour old man to convince the townspeople that the Wild Wood’s magic is evil. And it looks as though the pixies and other magic folk have been doing more than the usual mischief. Are they trying to start a war with the humans? Or is someone going to great lengths to make it seem that way?

Cole, Tinn, the Wild Wood witch’s daughter Fable, and Evie (whose very presence causes Tinn to stutter) are drawn into the conflict even after promises made. For Cole and Tinn: promises to stay out of the Wild Wood. For Fable: promises to stay within the Wild Wood. At the end of it all the question remains: is it possible for people of two vastly different cultures to live together in respect and tolerance and understanding?

This is the story of:

reluctant heroes

a young queen who does not want to be a queen

a changeling trying to find himself 

a brother feeling left out

an artist who wants to see the magic

But mostly the strong bonds of friendship and family.

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.

I'm taking a winter break ~ so have a Joyous Solstice and a Merry New Year!

See you in January.

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.

The Dark Lord Clementine

The Dark Lord Clementine 
by Sarah Jean Horwitz
336 pages; ages 9 - 13
Algonquin Young Readers, 2019

Last month I was checking out the pile of books in my To Be Reviewed basket… and was just about to put this in the “later” stack when I flipped it open to read the first sentence. Good thing I did, because… well, I’ll let the book speak for itself.

Clementine Morcerous awoke one morning to discover that her father had no nose.

And really! How could I put it down after that!

I love the premise: Clementine’s father, the Dark Lord, is wasting away. And if he disappears completely, she is the only one to carry on his name – and his life’s work. But Clementine isn’t nearly as dark as her dad. We can see this when she’s in the garden and there, away from the spiky, carnivorous, bloodsucking plants, she’s raising flowers. Dark Lords do NOT raise flowers!

What I like about this book:

• There is mystery. What is happening to her father? Who is responsible for chipping bits off him?
• There is fear. How will Clementine get on with managing the estate should her father’s magic disappear?
• There is a longing. While on a trip to town to buy bread and candles and other necessities, Clementine hides in the trees behind the schoolyard to watch the kids play. Wouldn’t it be fun to have friends?
• There is a challenge. Someone wants to usurp the Dark Lord’s power. Or are they really after something else?
• There are unexpected allies. Like Sebastian, who wants to be a knight and had seen Clementine hiding in the forest. And while there is no sword in the stone, there are plenty of swords stuck in the ground, courtesy of the Lady of the Lake, who has really bad aim.
• There are adventures.
• And there is an inside glimpse of the sorts of intellectual property disputes that rage between Evil Overlords.
• Mostly, there is a lot of fun!

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.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Reading this book is better than nibbling the ends off a Cadbury Royal Dark chocolate bar. And if you haven't read it yet - I know, how can you miss reading a Newbery medal winner! - then now's your chance. It's being released next Tuesday, April 30, in paperback. So fill up your mug with hot tea, grab a chocolate bar, and give yourself permission to go on a mini-vacation so you can enjoy a few hours of uninterrupted reading.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
By Kelly Barnhill
400 pages; ages 10 – 14
Algonquin Young Readers, 2016 (2019 paperback)

Here's the scoop (from the back cover):

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest to keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is really kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest.

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge with unpredictable consequences, just when it’s time for Xan to go collect another child. Meanwhile, a young man is determined to free his people by killing the witch. And a volcano, dormant for centuries, rumbles within the earth… 

Of course, the story is so much more complex than one can blurb on a book jacket. Or back cover. And, say my writerly friends and colleagues, the story seems so much darker for adults than for children. It could be that we older folk have forgotten the portals to the world of magic, have forgotten the secret handshake and password. 

What I like love about this book:

As an emerging fiction writer who can't nail my character to a sheet of lined notebook paper, I fell in love with Kelly Barnhill's cast of characters:

• A Grand Elder who is nothing more than a bully and a thug, scheming ways to consolidate and keep political power
• A reluctant Elder-in-Training who prefers carpentry to politics
• A witch who is short and squat and "a bit bulbous about the belly" - not only does she resemble people I know, but there's that fun bit of alliteration
• A swamp monster with attitude - who else would have the chutzpah to roll his eyes at a witch?
• A tiny dragon who believes it is Simply Enormous
• An abandoned baby, enmagicked by accident

I love the way folk tales of the bog-people are woven through the book. And the origin story: In the beginning there was only Bog.

I love that the book is filled with more than magic; there are ethical questions that make you pause and ponder.

And I love the way each chapter has a title. Some could have come from my own experience, like this one: "In Which a Map is Rather Useless".

Beyond the Book: Check out Barnhill's essay, in which she finds things she did not expect! 

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.

The Night Gardener

The Night Gardener
by Jonathan Auxier
384 pages; ages 10 & up
Amulet Books (Abrams), 2014

I found a novel hiding at the bottom of my book basket! Imagine that! And it's a perfect time to read it, as the book begins.....

"The calendar said early march, but the smell in the air sail late October. A crisp sun shone over Cedar Hallow, melting the final bits of ice from the bare trees."

OK ... maybe in some places the sun is melting the final bits of ice... but not here in the northeast where we're still buried beneath feet of sedimentary snow layers.

The book opens with Molly and her brother Kip, abandoned Irish siblings on their way to the Windsor estate where a job awaits. But when they ask for directions, people spit in the dirt and warn them to avoid the "sour woods".

They should turn around.

But they don't, and they eventually make it to the estate which once was gorgeous but now has an unkempt house invaded by a huge tree, and gardens that need a lot of care. And a cranky mistress who warns Molly that "This house is no place for you."

Why is the house always filled with leaves? Who is the dark stranger who walks the halls at night? Why is the mistress getting thinner and sicker, despite Molly's good cooking? And what's with the tree?

There's magic, but dark and uncomfortable - in the manner of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Molly - and the others in the household, are seduced by the magic. But magic requires payment, and this magic sucks the life from your soul.

This is the sort of book you want to read with the lights on, and a hot cup of cocoa. Unless you delight in spooky books, in which case turn out the lights and read by the flickering light of candles. Just, whatever you do, don't open the locked closet door....

Today is Marvelous Middle Grade Monday - on any other Monday when I review middle grade books we'd be hanging out with other MMGM bloggers over at Shannon Messenger's blog. But not today.... MMGM resumes next week. Review copy provided by publisher.