Coming Home: Leonard (My Life As A Cat) by Carlie Sorosiak

This was not the way it was supposed to go!

It's unclear when things started to go wrong. Perhaps it was when I began to sprout a tail....

I was a cat, crashing into North America. Faster, faster, landing paws-first in a tree. And what a sensation--to feel.

For almost three hundred years, I had wished for hands. Humans might take these things for granted, but I promised myself, centuries ago, that I would not. It was so tremendously exciting, as I hitched a ride on that beam of light. This trip to Earth was about discovery. And I was ready. I chose the most magnificent creature on Earth: the common human--a national park ranger.

But instead of a ranger in Yellowstone National Park, the space traveler finds himself a cat, being rescued from a tropical storm in Turtle Beach, South Carolina, saved from drowning by a smallish girl in a yellow slicker, proving her claim to be a Girl Scout by grabbing the scruff of his neck and pulling him to safety.

Glimpsing a human up close was something like a miracle.

Olive, too, is not exactly where she would have chosen to be. Her mom has parked her for the summer with a grandmother she hardly knows while she and her fiance' head west to find a new home for all three of them in California--where Olive doesn't want to be. It's hard enough not fitting in with kids she's always known, and she has no idea what kind of creatures California middle school kids will be.

But Olive explains to her grandma Norma that she couldn't let the cat drown, and the once incorporeal being begins getting used to a real body--with a tail he didn't quite know what to do with--and the strange feeling of affection he feels for the the girl who saved him, the girl that seems to understand and want to care for him. Humans are both like and unlike the ones in "I Love Lucy" or "Dora the Explorer" that he had studied before. Olive helps him get used to a dish with crunchy things to eat (eating was new) and his own litter box (another very new experience) and a collar and leash so she can take him everywhere she goes. She begins to tell him all about everything, and he realizes that on earth, there is both the feeling of touch and personal feelings--fears, hopes, love. She even gives him a name--Leonard. How she knew he wanted a yellow raincoat like hers, he doesn't know, but she ordered it for him. She takes him to the aquarium where Norma and her friend Q work, and Leonard knows just the way to call the penguins, and Olive begins to suspect that he is no ordinary cat. And when she falls asleep with her laptop open and on, Leonard decides to type a message to tell her what he really is.

"I am an alien."

Leonard confesses how he came to be a cat in a storm-tossed tree in South Carolina instead of a ranger at Yellowstone Park, and he has to tell her that he must be there, beside the geyser Old Faithful at just the right instant in a month if he is ever to return to his own helium planet and re-claim his immortality as member of his Hive. Olive is both amazed and sad at the thoughts of losing Leonard, but she promises to try to come up with some way to get him to the right spot to return to his own place in space. In the days it takes Olive to persuade Norma and her friend Q to drive them to Yellowstone, Leonard has the surprising experience of enjoying everything he does. Even the long car ride--that most human of trips--the roadside cafes where they eat pancakes, the long dark nights of driving through rainstorms, the camping out under the trees and skies, and the feeling of being part of a sort of family is wonderful. Leonard knows that Norma and Q's making the drive straight through from South Carolina to Wyoming come out of their love for Olive, and that Olive, who loves him deeply, deeply enough to make him a Yellowstone Ranger's badge for his raincoat, enough to do everything to help him go back, is doing it all because she loves him.

"I realize that even though I've lived in a different body, I have really and truly lived."

Leonard realizes that as a mortal, even a cat, he can make a choice. As he nears Old Faithful, he hears the Hive counting down to activate his energy beam.

THREE, TWO....

Which way is home?

In a unusual fantasy filled with pathos and humor, Carlie Sorosiak's just published novel, Leonard (My Life as a Cat) (Walker Books, 2021) is about how and what it is to be mortal, from the tap of beginning raindrops, sunshine on shoulders, the surge of the ocean, the touch of a hand, and the love they are capable of sharing, even with a supposed stray cat. In a parallel with Olive, who has to choose to stay with Norma or go to California, Leonard has to decide to forfeit the immortality of the mind-meld of the Hive for the mortal life in the deep relationship of belonging in a impromptu family. What is it to be a mortal creature in the one part of the world he can call home? Young readers will love Leonard, alien or mortal, and also feel the warmth of love and place in this genuinely moving, very human science fiction novel.

Writes Kirkus Reviews, "A comforting read about connection and compassion."

This Place Is For The Birds! Free by Sam Usher

WHEN I WOKE UP THIS MORNING, ONE OF THE BIRDS WAS SICK.

When a boy finds a ailing bird stretched out on his windowsill one morning, he knows who to call--Granddad, who has books on everything! They make the bird comfortable while Granddad consults a volume on bird facts. He gives the bird some water, and when the bird revives, Granddad prescribes putting him outside.

"DO I HAVE TO?"

But Granddad insists that the bird would not want to be kept inside.

THAT'S THAT!

But while the boy and Granddad are whipping up a pile of pancakes, the bird strolls back inside, warbling a greeting. Granddad suggests putting him on a blueberry bush, near the window, and it seems that that is that. But at lunchtime, the same bird shows up again on the kitchen table. Granddad suggests giving him free range of the bird bath. But at teatime that afternoon, there he is again, hopping across the kitchen floor. The boy is overjoyed.

"I THINK HE LIKES US! HE KEEPS COMING BACK!"

And indeed the bird does settle down, perching on Granddad's newspaper. Granddad determines that they must make a trek to find the bird's home tree, so with their backpacks loaded with expedition supplies, the two follow the bird, who flies straight for a big tree atop a steep mountain. It's a hard climb, but...

"WE MADE IT!"

The birds, perched wing to wing on the branches of the tree--pelicans to parrots, owls to ospreys--and many varieties unknown to man, are singing and peeping and hooting and warbling to greet them. And after refreshments, the boy and Granddad are given an avian airlift for their return flight home....

THEY FLEW US ALL THE WAY HOME, BACK IN TIME FOR BREAKFAST!

It's a genuine flight of fancy, in Sam Usher's new first book in a prospective four-book series in his FREE (Candlewick/Templar Books, 2021) in which grandfather and grandson fly as free as birds with their new feathered friends. For young readers who like to spread the wings of their imaginations, fans of author-illustrator Sam Usher's earlier boy and Granddad books, the Seasons series (see review here) will want to continue their fanciful adventures in the great outdoors.

Wait For It! The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear

CHARLES WANTED TO FIND A WISH TREE.

HIS BROTHER AND SISTER SAID, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING."

blockquote="">BUT CHARLES SAID, "WHAT DO YOU THINK, BOGGAN?"

AND BOGGAN THOUGHT SURELY THERE WAS SUCH A THING.

Charles follows his sled Boggan through the snowy woods, but none of the snowy trees seem to have any special powers. But Boggan whishhhh-ed along, and Charles sang loudly through the trees....

LA DI DA DI DA DI DAH!

Charles came upon Squirrel struggling to get a trove of nuts home to his home and loaded them on Boggan to take home to store for the winter. Further through the woods they meet up with Beaver, carrying birch branches, one by one, to his lodge. Charles loaded up Boggan, and soon Beaver was all set for the season. Singing his La-Di-Da song, Charles and Boggan slid across the beaver pond.

They didn't meet a wishing tree, but they found Fox trying to bring a bunch of berries home to her babies, so Charles and Boggan pitched in to deliver the goods right to the door of her den. They plucked some mushrooms for a mob of mice. It was nice that the mice were pleased, but Charles was beginning to worry if they would ever find their wish tree.

"WE MAY NEED TO MOVE A LITTLE FASTER, BOGGAN," SAID CHARLES.

It felt late. The shadows seemed darker.

"I CANNOT. SEARCH. ANY. LONGER," SAID CHARLES.

And then he sees it. The silvery Wish Tree.

CHARLES WROTE HIS WISH ON A PIECE OF PAPER AND TIED IT ON THE TREE.

And just beyond the Wish Tree the animals had set up a feast of hazlenut souffle and birch tea and berry biscuits for all.

And Charles sang as Boggan whooshed him all the way back home, in The Wish Tree (Chronicle Books), in Kyo Maclear's lovely snowy day story of kindness returned and wishes fulfilled. Illustrated with minimalist colors, white, blue, and pale pink, by Chris Dunham, there is a quiet magic in the snowy landscape in this wintry story of wish fulfillment.

Save the Tiger! Tigers at Twilight (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne

Jack and Annie walked past the Frog Creek Woods on the way back from the library.

"I miss Teddy!" said Annie."He is a really smart dog."

Jack agreed.

"And here!" said Annie.

"ARF! ARF!" The small dog barked from behind a bush. "Is it time to get our third gift?" asked Jack.

Teddy sneezed, as if to say "YES!"

Teddy leads them into the woods where inside their tree house they find a note from Morgan Le Fay.

"Now we have to get a gift from a faraway forest," Annie reads.

And with a tap of Morgan's magic book, the tree house rises above the trees and spins away, finally coming down to rest in what is indeed a forest, with two langur monkeys, Kah and Ko, waiting in the tree to guide them. Kah places his little paw in Jack's hand and leads him into the beautiful forest. Jack and Annie are amazed at the bright birds and flowers, but frightened by a giant python and a tree marked by the deep scratches left by a huge tiger. And then they spot a real tiger, unconscious with his foot caught in a steel trap. Jack and Annie spring the trap, and dash up a tree, afraid of the tiger.

Kah and Ko show them how to swing from the vines in the tree to the back of a patient elephant. Safe for the moment, they meet a hermit seated by a blue pool who asks Annie to pick him a lily from the pond. It's a beautiful bloom, but its stem ends in a muddy smelly root. Annie wonders how can anything as beautiful as the lily and the tiger can be so ugly at the same time?

"When you saved the tiger, you saved all of him, his graceful beauty and his fierce nature. This perfect lotus blossom grows from dark, thick mud," said the wise man. "It's beauty cannot live without its ugliness. Do you understand?

Take this lotus." he said.

"A gift from a faraway forest.... Our third gift," said Annie, thoughtfully.

Their task is complete and with a tap of the magic book the Magic Tree House returns them to its place in Frog Creek Woods, with only more task and gift left to free Teddy from his spell, in Mary Pope Osborne's book from her best-selling series, Tigers at Twilight (Magic Tree House, No. 19) (Random House). As she always does, Osborne also includes an appendix which explains much about the folklore and animals of India's tropical forest

Jack and Annie have only one last task to perform to free Teddy from his spell. For that transformation, see Osborne's Magic Tree House #20, Dingoes at Dinnertime (Magic Tree House, No. 20)

Here To Stay: Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper

We were stuck in a town that had a different mailman every three days.

Tiveda is a town of transients. Someone leaves or is enrolled in Jade's class almost every week. Since she moved there, she's had three best friends, and all three have left. They didn't even write.

And then her father falls ill and has to have chemotherapy that makes him sleep most of the time. Jade is stuck in Tiveda, and she longs for a friend.

Maybe there wasn't a perfect best friend there for me. Maybe I'd be better off if I created one... here to stay.

I opened my notebook.

Zoe and Jade and the Best Lunch Ever! I wrote at the top.

In her yellow notebook Jade creates Zoe, the perfect best friend, one who giggles with her at lunch and one who likes everything she likes. But then a strange boy in her class called Clue takes her notebook, but when he returns it, it looks the same... except that after she writes a chapter describing Zoe, something wonderful happens.

A moving van appears at the house across the street and and a girl her age comes out of the house and sticks some big red letters on the empty mailbox.

Z O E

And when Zoe turns up as the new student in Jade's class, she and Zoe became friends immediately. Jade can't believe how perfect Zoe is. She likes everything Jade likes and wants to do all of her favorite things. When Jade invites her to dinner, Zoe even likes carrots just like her. Except that...she calls them "orange sticks." Suddenly, Jade realizes that she's never mentioned carrots by name in her stories. At that moment Jade sees that somehow her new neighbor has a life only in what she writes about her.

At first Jade is excited to write about fun things for her and Zoe to do together. They walk to school together, eat lunch and spend recess together, walk home together, and go to the mall and eat ice cream together. Zoe has dinner with Jade's family every night. Zoe is the best best friend ever.

But slowly, drawn by the fun Jade and her friend are having, the other girls in the class, the "sparkle girls" who had ignored Jade, become friendly with Zoe. Jade tries to write them out of Zoe's life, but she's not quite successful. And when her family goes away for a weekend at the Grand Canyon to celebrate the end of her dad's chemo, Jade is afraid of losing control of her best friend.

Then she thinks about something Zoe said.

"I have no idea what I am doing in this weird world of yours."

Jade suddenly realizes it's not good to create a character totally under her own control, and she also sees what she has been missing with her absorption with Zoe, in Abby Cooper's, Friend or Fiction (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2019).  In a strangely sweet and moving story of a "Franken-Friend" who is and is not real, author Cooper has a real tour de force of a middle-reader novel that explores fear and loneliness, family love and friendship, and the magic of friendship in an inspired blend of realistic and fantasy fiction.  Says Booklist, "An endearing story, with a pitch-perfect "tween" voice and a touch of magic about what makes a friend."

Not What It Seems! The Thief Knot: A Greenglass House Story by Kate Milford

Marzana and Nialla are dissatisfied. Desperate for some excitement, they had lurked at a sidewalk table with their coffees, surveilling what they earnestly hoped was a robbery about to take place inside the jewelry store. Instead, it appeared to be the purchase of a surprise engagement ring for a happy young couple.

So the guy had looked a bit shifty. A high percentage of who lived within the city-within-the-city of Nagspeake called the Liberty were shifty--or had been to one degree or another in a previous life," thought Marzana.

"I should have known it was nothing...because... we live in the Liberty, and this is the place where nothing happens."

The neighborhood of the Liberty should be an intriguing environment, being the sanctuary city of former seafaring smugglers. And when talk spreads of the kidnapping of ten-year-old Peony Hyde, and Marzana's sometimes investigator parents receive a copy of the ransom note delivered by the mysterious Emmett, who brought up the possible involvement of someone called "Snakebird," Marzana seizes on solving the case as her remedy for ennui. With Nialla as co-sleuth, she organizes a group to help in their investigations, even calling their friend Milo, resident of the peculiar Greenglass House, where they had been previously involved in a puzzling Christmas enigma, for advice.

Marzana and Nialla recruit fans of fantasy fiction from Lucky's bookstore--Emilia, privy to many secrets of their school's historic building, Ciro, a self-declared born camoufleur, J. J., a magician, and Milo's offering, Meddie, a sometimes visible ghost resident at Greenglass House whose talents including invisibility, walking through walls, and supernatural sight and hearing. When the crew of six discover that their substitute math teacher is the great nephew of Andrew Cormorant, called "the Snakebird," they suspect that the kidnapped Peony may be hidden at the apartment of their real math teacher and indeed they find a little girl chained there--one who turns out to be a counterfeit Peony Hyde, whose real name is, interestingly, Tasha Cormorant.

Now, as Sherlock would say, "The case is afoot!" Marzana's crew, self-named the Thief Knot, discover an undercover conductor on the mostly abandoned Nagspeake subway system, the Belowground, who takes the young sleuths to a nightmarish abandoned station, overgrown with the ornamental ironwork which infests the Liberty, overgrowing buildings, walkways, and especially subway tunnels, where the real kidnap victim is perhaps to be found.

With a plot with as many convolutions as the enchanted ironwork of The Liberty, Kate Milford's forthcoming third book in series, The Thief Knot: A Greenglass House Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), nothing or no one is quite what it seems in a place where time and setting overlay each other. Like the Harry Potter series, the plot draws on the strengths of the young friends to solve a puzzle with many pieces, a band of unlikely mates--differently-abled in abilities, knowledge, and exceptional powers, but one in loyalty.

This is no quick-read Nancy Drew mystery, but one to be taken slowly, savored for its atmosphere, its murky clues, and shifting plot. In the Liberty, the haven for old secrets, Marzana not only helps solve the mystery of the missing student, but also some of the mysteries of her own parents' hidden histories. Milford's over-arching theme of connection, the links between people, places, and their joint history, provides a part-fantasy/mystery tale perfect for middle readers who like to solve puzzles that range from relationships to crimes of the past.

Previous books in this series are Greenglass House (read review here) and sequel Ghosts of Greenglass House (read review here).

Magical Mystery Tour (The Sequel) Hey, Grandude! by Paul McCartney

Lucy and Tom and Em and Bob were spending the weekend with their granddad.

Today was one of those days when nothing felt quite right. It was gray and drizzly and everybody was grumpy and too bored to be bothered.

Bear up, Chillers!" said Grandude.

Grandude is too cool to let a little ennui ruin the day. He pulls out a bunch of picture postcards of intriguing sunny scenes and encourages each one of the kids to choose one they'd like to visit.

Em picks a sunlit beach with sun-kissed sand and blue waves.

And with a magical flash, they are there, on that actual beach. Wavelets splash their toes and the sun warms their backs. They splash and build sandcastles, and then join a school of flying fish and soar OVER THE WAVES.

Then for Tom, Grandude spins his magical compass needle and the kids find themselves at a dude ranch, lassoing their cayooses and riding like cowpokes, fully at HOME ON THE RANGE. Another compass spin for Lucy take them high on an Alpine meadow, but when they try out their YO-DE-LAY-DEE-HOOS, they find themselves fleeing a rock 'n' roll avalanche with the cows.

By now Bob is ready to call it A DAY IN THE LIFE!

It's Grandude's Magical Mystery Tour, for sure, in Paul McCartney's Hey Grandude! (Random House, 2019). A grandpa six times over, author McCartney evidently knows a lot about entertaining kids.   Along with the fantastic illustrations of Kathryn Durst, McCartney, who owns 18 Grammies and stacks of gold and platinum records, also knows how to keep a top-selling hit rolling.

Grandads (a.k.a Grandudes) Rock!

“This picture book debut from the musical icon hits all the right notes," trills Publishers Weekly.

Can't Scare Me! Nothing Wee About Me! A Magical Adventure by Kim Chafee

It was finally Sunday again.
Liesel had only one thing on her mind!

ADVENTURE!

So it's off to Grandma Rose's house for a special "wand"--a much-used soup ladle, which Grandma warns doesn't work so well anymore. But Liesel only makes one big wish and is whisked away in her yellow submarine to a mysteriously medieval island.

Using the versatile ladle as a periscope, Liesel spots the island volcano's lava flow and sees her mission!

She has to warn the villagers to save themselves from the red-hot danger!

But the islanders don't cooperate with the rescue plan. Brandishing her ladle, Leisel convinces a pirate to join her rescue effort, but a giant dragon defiantly defends the castle keep.

"Go away, wee girl, or join the prince as a prisoner in my castle," the dragon roared.

"Not a chance, Dragon," snapped Liesel."There won't BE a castle once that volcano goes kablooey.

"AND THERE'S NOTHING WEE ABOUT ME!"

And pirates, dragons, a prince who needs to potty, and a lava-spouting volcano are no match for a confident girl and a magic ladle with all its old powers, in Kim Chafee's funny and fantastical tall tale, Nothing Wee about Me!: A Magical Adventure (Page Street Kids, 2019). With a brave heroine with spunk and big ideas and the jolly, spirited illustrations of Laura Bobbiesi which greatly extend the text, Chafee's story has a reassuring premise for little readers that courage counts more than size.

Passing It On: The Traveler's Gift by Danielle Davison

Liam's father was a sailor. After returning from sea, he'd weave tales for Liam of the faraway places he'd been.

His father's words fire Liam to imagine the glorious adventures, the exotic places, and strange creatures he will see with his father when he, too, is old enough to go to sea.

But one day, his father didn't return.

Liam is lost, his future gone. Other sailors' tales do not fill the void.

But then a very old white-bearded man named Enzo, disembarks.

The other men call him "the Traveler."

When the Traveler spoke of his voyages, a peculiar thing happened. His beard grew.

As Enzo recounts his travels, his beard seems to grow longer and longer like a tapestry filled with fantastic images. And Liam is thrilled when one day the old man invites him along on a final voyage, to be the teller of their adventures.  Liam cannot believe his fortune and his heart swells. It is almost as if he is taking the voyage he always dreamed of with his own father. As they share their experiences, the old man teaches Liam his wisdom.

Enzo taught him to really listen.

He taught him to see truly see things, with more than his eyes.

Time passes and Liam is happy, but when Enzo comes to the end of his days, he asks Liam to become the Traveler, the new teller of stories. Liam is overcome with sadness, but eventually he finds his own voice and he sees the future ahead of him, in Danielle Davison's forthcoming The Traveler's Gift: A Story of Loss and Hope (Page Street Books, 2019). Everyone has his or her own story, and wisdom is really seeing and hearing the story of everyone and everything. We are our own stories and those of others, and this book, whimsically and symbolically illustrated by Anne Lambelet, turns on the value of the work of the storyteller in life.

The Gorm Is Rising: The Beasts of GrimHeart (Longburrow) by Kieran Larwood

Back in the first days, it is said, the goddesses Estra and Nixha banished Gormalech the World Eater underground and set about filling the place with life (and death, because that was Nixha's job).

They chose rabbits to run the world, walking and talking as the Ancients before them once had. They gave them fire and shelter, even twelve magic Gifts. But something was missing.

Estra realized that living is nothing without the power to think, talk, and sing and to pass on those thoughts and ideas. Life, the goddess thought, is one big story, and she needed someone to tell it.

But the Old Bard is dead and his pyre has been lit, and the bard and his apprentice Rue have been taken prisoner by the Bonedancers who will sacrifice him to their pit beast for, as he explains to Rue, "telling the wrong story to the wrong people."

The Bonedancers of Spinestone are displeased that he has told a tale about them, but by the gift of his words, the bard gets them to agree that he will tell the whole tale and let them judge if his words are true.

"Off we go," says the bard. His eyes are shining bright green.

And so the bard seats himself in front of the pit and begins to to tell the tale he knows is true.

Once an aimless and lazy little rabbit, Young Podkin One-Ear with his sister Paz have twice put down the dark forces of Gorm, the worshipers of the Gormleach who rule by the power of iron and are driven to consume the creation. Avenging their father's death, they have won victories and gained the Gifts of the copper dagger Starclaw that cuts through all but iron, the silver brooch Moonfyre that enables it wearer to hide in moonshadows, and the hammer Surestrike which can forge Gorm-piercing weapens,, and Aifew, the sickle that reveals poison. But now word comes from warrens near the edge of the Grimheart forest that the Gorm are coming, with a fearsome armored horde and giant tree-shredding iron beasts, to destroy the entire forest and slaughter the inhabitants of every warren.

Podkin and Paz, with their baby brother Pook, flee deeper into the forest where they have heard they may find another of the Gifts needed to destroy the Gorm. There they meet Mo Grim and the Wardens and the chief of the giant rabbit Wardens and receive Bloodcrun, the twisted crown that enables the wearer to read minds. Wearing Bloodcrun, Podkin One-Ear is able to speak with the giant saber wolves of the deep forest, and astride the alpha wolf Truefang, rides back to rally all the warrens for a final stand against the encroaching Gorm army.

The giant wolves are ravenous fighters, and the assembled warrens' warriors fight courageously, but their weapons are weak against the iron-clad Gorm and their machines. Then the war council determines that their only hope is Soulshot, in the possession of Pokkin's uncle, Hennic, the bow that never misses its target and the three arrows forged by Surestrike to kill Scramashank, the leader of the Gorm. But Podkin is too young to draw Soulshot. The blind warrior Crom is chosen to pull the bow, and Podkin, wearing Blodcrun, must meld his mind with Crom's strength to guide the last arrow to Scramashank's head.

"I see him, Crom!" Podkin shouted. "Draw now! NOW!

Soulshot creaked as Crom heaved the string back to his ear.

Quickly Podkin summoned up every memory he had. Scramashank drawing his sword to kill his father, all those memories, all that terror overcome--Podkin let it flood through him... until he reached out a finger and touched the taught bowstring.

In that moment he felt the bow leap. Suddenly it knew its target. He leaned down to Crom's ear.

"Now."

It is this story that is told by the bard to the Bonedancers, so well told that he and Rue depart safely into the wood to continue to tell their story of how Podkin saved them all. Story, as we see, must always be told, and as readers learn at the closing, especially if it is told by the  bard, Pook, younger brother of Podkin.

Since J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, there have been a seeming multitude of fantasy novel series, (viz. Harry Potter) set in invented societies, human, alien, and animal, with a hero or heroine who is forced to lead in the iconic battle of good and evil, often within the medieval settings that Tolkien drew on so so vividly from Britain's ancient history. Few such stories move as naturally and compellingly as this one, short on warfare scenes and long on emotional understanding. Podkin himself is a wonderfully sympathetic hero for young readers, compelled by birth and circumstance and perhaps by prophecy to make himself a leader despite his lack of skill and experience, his own reluctance to lead, and his own very real fears. Unlike many such fantasies with heroes with super powers, this young rabbit, the unlikeliest of heroes, owns no powers of his own, save for the courage to do what has to be done, acquiring instead the Gifts left at the beginning of time. Podkin's sacrifice is all the more appealing and understandable for middle readers who may worry about their own powers and who can only hope and believe, like Podkin, that, despite the Dark that is always rising, the universe bends toward the Good.

Kieran Larwood's forthcoming The Beasts of Grimheart (Longburrow) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019), the supposed finale in the Longburrow series, is an accessible read and a good preface for middle graders who may soon move on the classics of this genre waiting for them. Other books in this series, cleverly also set in a frame narrative as bard's tales as the story within a story, are Podkin One-Ear (Longburrow) (see review here) and The Gift of Dark Hollow (Longburrow)

The Sky Is All One Piece: Spark by Sarah Beth Durst

Mina had always been quiet.

She'd been born without a cry on a peaceful night when the stars over their family farm sparkled brighter than usual, or so her mother liked to say.

With calm, capable farmer parents, sandwiched between her affectionately playful older brother and the ebullient toddler twins, Mina is happy to listen quietly to the happy talk around her--until one morning she has something important to say:

"I think my egg is going to hatch soon."

Only one in four children in the land are give weather-beast eggs at the age of twelve, with a charge to nurture them until they are mature enough to go to the school where together they train for duties controlling natural energy for the utopian land of Alorria. There are sun beasts and rain beasts and wind beasts who maintain perfect temperature, breezes, and perfect rainfall for perfect crops for their land, but only a few of those beasts are storm beasts, who with their child guardians astride them, fly into storms to gather the electricity that provides the energy source for the entire land. But when her egg hatches into an energetic scale-sparking storm beast, Mina fears that she and Pixit must be mistakenly mismatched.

But Mina loves her beast and goes bravely off with Pixit for their training at Mytris Lightning School. She is overwhelmed by her daredevil roommate Jyx and their adventurous classmates Ferro and Zek, and most of her conversations are the silent mind-to-mind kind she shares with Pixit, who loyally helps her hide her inability to collect lightning for Alorria's power grid. But when the novice students are sent out to intercept a giant electrical storm on the boundary of their land, Mina and Pixit are lost from the others over the mountain peaks and fall from the sky into the forbidden land beyond Alorria's border.

Hurt and terrified, Mina and Pixit are rescued and cared for in a family outpost of the borderland people whom they have been taught to fear. And what they tell Mina reveals that the perfection of Alorria exists at the expense of those surviving outside their perfect world, and Mina realizes that she must find her true voice and speak what she has learned to her own people--and soon!

"All weather is connected and the sky is all one piece."

Sarah Beth Durst's forthcoming Spark (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019) chronicles Mina's coming of age as she learns that her utopian Alorria is actually a dystopian state maintained at the expense of the rest of their planet. Young readers familiar with the Harry Potter canon will recognize the parallels of both the boarding school setting and the premise of the battle between good and evil in this well-imagined other-worldly fantasy with a real world sense of the responsibility to speak truth to power. Mina's own spark of courage and sense for environmental justice makes her a most appealing realistic heroine in this inventive new fantasy novel.

In Two Worlds: Silent Lee and the Adventure of the Side Door Key by Alex Hiam

Time was complex when it came to Generous Lee, who had lived mostly in a world that was a full century out of date.

When you left Auntie's house by the side door, you found yourself stepping down into the side garden. A narrow path led to a black iron gate and then to the sidewalk on Newbery Street... . Through the side door there were actual residences, with mothers taking babies out for a stroll in big, black perambulators and maids hurrying back with baskets of dinner ingredients.

Silent Lee, called Sie, is aware of the modern world, from which her most-unmotherly mother infrequently flies in from her jet-setter world and whom her Auntie Gen whispers is a spy. But she has always been with Gen, who lives, by means of the key to a magical "side door," in the world of Boston a hundred years before. Sie's school, the Girls Academy of Latin and Alchemy, is a ten-minute walk from the side door, where she excels in Latin, math, and especially spell-weaving.

But when her mother appears suddenly, declaring that her Aunt Gen has become ill and died, Sie is abruptly removed from her side-door world and sent to live in the attic of "the cousins," who abruptly disappear "on vacation," leaving her to discover that their house is to be sold from under her. And when she returns to Auntie Gen's house, the side door no longer exists, and she is left alone, a stranger in the strange century of the front door world.

But then Sie is befriended by an acquaintance from her new school, Raahi, who is immediately drawn into her almost incredible story and becomes her partner in discovering what has really happened to Auntie Gen. Together the two find themselves moving between the two worlds--one moment on a MBTA bus and the next, by means of Sie's spell-weaving, in old Boston, pursued by a cadre of X-Men-styled agents complete with black suits, black SUV's, and black helicopters, who track them down  through both sides of the time-warp that is Sie's world....

"What do we do?" asked Raahi.

"Time for another illusion," said Sie. She began to chant in some ancient language. She wove complex shapes in the air..... Two shapes appeared, floating beside them. They rotated as they thickened into humans forms. And there, standing in front of them, were themselves.

The real Sie and Raahi watched, as their conjured doubles reached the door... and knocked. Large arms in dark suit-coats reached out and pulled them inside.

In Alex Hiam's brand-new fantasy mystery, Silent Lee (Webster Press, 2019), two unlikely but intrepid characters bond in a time-traveling fight against a dark enemy in a style reminiscent of Hermione Granger's and Harry Potter's adventures between the muggle and magical worlds. Although Sie is the center around which the plot is woven, Raahi quickly begins to steal the show, his own audacious courage and magical sleuthing skills beginning to emerge as the two flee through both centuries only a step ahead of danger.

With his setting in Boston, where the old and new live side by side, Hiam's narrative skills immediately envelope young teen readers into his fantasy tale as easily as Silent Lee slips in and out of the centuries. Fans of this light but truly spellbinding novel will be glad to learn that a sequel is promised, Silent Lee and the Oxford Adventure.

East Is East and West Is West: Gondra's Treasure by Linda Sue Park

My mom's family comes from the West.

Dad's family is from the East. My name is Gondra, and I was born
somewhere in the middle.

Dragons from the West fly with wings and have green scales. They also breathe fire.

Dragons from the East fly by magic and have golden scales. They breathe mist.

When Gondra was born, a teeny flame came from one nostril and a trace of mist came from the other.

"Adorable!" said her mom.

Dad agreed she was perfect.

Gondra can't wait for her tiny wings to grow big enough to fly. So far she sees no sign of magic like Dad's, but she soon spots a few new greenish blue scales on her tail.

Dad is so proud that he mists up the living room and makes it rain.

But sometimes Mom and Dad quibble about their differences. Dad thinks hoarding a treasure trove in a cave can't hold a candle to flying over the earth and magically controlling the weather.

"Where I come from, humans love dragons," says Dad.

Mom said, "In the West, humans haven't always loved dragons. But they do love stories about us!"

East is East and West is West, and Gondra is sure that she is the best of both.

After all, she is her Mom and Dad's treasure in Linda Sue Park's sweet fantasy story of picking the best from the family tree, in Newbery author Linda Sue Park's fanciful family tale, the forthcoming Gondra's Treasure (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019).  It may be a bit of a fairy-tale family, but Gondra's parents do banter over whose way is best, ("Compared to fire, mist is...um, pretty boring," Mom mutters to herself, ), and Dad rejoices when Gondra sprouts a few blue scales like his. And like all little ones, Gondra blossoms in her parents' pride and love.

Artist Jennifer Black Reinhardt artfully skips the cliches in drawing dragons, giving all three characters their own colorful individual look while keeping to the actual archetypes of both types of dragons with an abundance of imagination and creativity in this definitely different dragon tale. Perfect for building healthy self-concepts and sparking conversations about family history.

Author Park appends an Author's Note, full of both Eastern and Western dragon lore and suggests why peoples of all ages of history have loved dragon stories.

Blood of Life and Death: Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith

"Blood magic is rooted in emotion," he said. "Pain, pleasure, fear, passion--anything that heightens your emotion can be used to increase the strength of your spell. But therein also lies the trouble. It's easy to let the magic overtake you. It's like a dam on a river. If you aren't careful, you can bring the whole dam down on top of yourself."

Princess Aurelia senses that she is a witch, possessed of forbidden blood magic. But she is a royal witch in the witch-hunting kingdom of Renalt, with a power-grabbing Tribunal that would destroy her and her family if they knew of her power. Warned by the wraithlike spirit of the Harbinger, Aurelia sees that her only chance of escape will be her upcoming wedding with the prince of the kingdom of Achlev. Concealing a wedding dress made by her mother the Queen and taking her little brother Conrad, Crown Prince of Renalt, Aurelia flees her kingdom, for protection switching identities with her maid Emilie, helped by her dearest friend Kellen and an enchanted Empyrean horse, Falada.

But her wedding is to be with a reclusive and reputedly frail prince, and Aurelia finds Achlev no refuge. Its protective wall, held up by enchanted gates, has been breached by evil magic which has destroyed the spell of two of its three guardian gates. The decaying kingdom itself is roiled with hate, greed, and murderous plots, led by her betrothed's father King Domhnall, who is "managed" by the evil Toris de Lena, and in Achlev, not everyone is what they seem. But Aurelia, as Emilie, finds love and help in the person of a young man who calls himself Zan. And when Zan, protecting her, is stabbed and near death, it may be only Aurelia's blood magic that can save them all and reveal their true identities to each other.

Crystal Smith's forthcoming Bloodleaf (The Bloodleaf Trilogy) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) is a fantastical, frightening, gory, romantic,young adult novel filled with both appalling and lovely imagery, set in a dystopic, vaguely medieval world of two rival but interrelated kingdoms. This novel is for readers who like their images vivid and their plots convoluted, with the qualities of both A Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games, the grimmest of the Grimm Brothers tales, and the inbred internecine warfare of classic mythology. This first of a planned trilogy is not for the faint of heart or the hyper-sensitive psyche, but for young adult readers it is a rousing and romance-tinged page-turning fantasy adventure.

Saved by Saving Others: Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier

Nan looked toward the patched bag Toby carried everywhere. She could picture it draped over the Sweep's shoulder.

Nan nodded. "The Sweep's like that."

She sighed. "Why didn't he take me with him?"

"He was dying, Nan," said Toby. "He didn't want you to find him... like that. And so he left you. You and Charlie. Only something went wrong, and Charlie wasn't born right away."

"I held on to him too tight," said Nan.

"No harm in the end," said Toby. "All it took was being burned alive in a chimney to fix your mistake."

Nan was left all alone on the streets of London, with only a lump of char that kept her warm at night, and she was soon taken by Wilkie Crudd, a cruel chimney sweep whose ragged orphan crew act as his "climbers" in narrow chimneys too small for anyone but a starved child. But when eleven-year-old Nan tries to spare the skin-and-bones little Newt from a nine-inch chimney, she gets herself stuck and when all else fails, her boss uses the final remedy, the "Devil's Nudge," setting the chimney afire with her inside.

"The first rule," said Crudd. "Don't let them talk you out of it. They may have to break a few bones to get out, but...." His words were swallowed up in the roaring of the flames.

Her body felt as it it was burning. The char in her pocket caught fire and burned like a brand. "Help!" she gasped.

Nan comes back to consciousness alone in a cold attic, a pile of rubble from the hole in the collapsed chimney beside her. How had she escaped? She felt around for something to warm her and found her lump of char, but this time it moved and tried to roll away. It was alive.

It stared back. Its warmth radiated through her whole body. She did not question whether the Sweep had meant for this to happen.

"Hello, little thing," she whispered. "I've waited so long to meet you."

Nan is soon taken under the wing of Miss Bloom, the headmistress of the school in whose chimney she nearly died. Miss Bloom tries to keep her safe, feeds and teaches her, and from her Nan learns what Charlie is. He is a golem, given by the Sweep to protect her, and as he grows huge, the two find a home in a abandoned house, The House of One Hundred Chimneys, where Nan takes in escaped sweeps and is drawn into Miss Bloom's cause--the welfare of homeless children who are virtually enslaved as sweeps and mudlarkers, sewer scavengers and thieves. She and Charlie, grown into a hulking black "monster," costumed as the folk hero, the Green Man, join in the May Day Parade of the Sweepers, an action which led to the Sweepers Act of 1875, the first act giving rights to child laborers in London. But Nan is recognized by her old boss and pursued to the top of the Golden Tower, and the crowd below gasps as she falls.

Jonathan Auxier's Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster (Amulet/Abrams Books, 2018), drops the reader right into the Dickensian world of nineteenth-century London, the time of Frankenstein's monster, Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist and Ebenezer Scrooge, a place of great disparity, with the fabulously rich and the desperately poor, an age of advancing literature, science and industry based on a lower class beset with disease and hunger. All is brought together in the characters of Crudd and Miss Bloom, Nan and the redeeming love of the Sweep and her loyal servant, her Charlie. Although the wider setting is grim, Auxier's fantasy has the comforting warmth of a cozy fireplace and the basic goodness and loyalty of his characters who will survive and flourish. "We save ourselves by saving others," says Nan.

Says Booklist, "Auxier wipes away the grime from a bleak chapter in history. He questions what makes one a monster and applauds helping others, activism, education, earthly marvels, and the possibility of magic. Nan’s fiery personality will attract readers like moths, and Auxier's unusual blend of mythology and history will keep them transfixed."

Gen G for Groovy! We Are the Groovicorns by Rosie Greening

Everyone LOVES unicorns!

But you know who should be famous?

GROOVICORNS! "That's us!"

Sure, unicorns are cool, with those crazy horns and their rainbows which curve all the way across the sky.

But Groovicorns? Their rainbows aren't perfect arches. In fact, they're kind of quirky, but they make great twisty slides!

Unicorns grant wishes, wear Eau de Cotton Candy, and hang out in castles made of marshmallows, but Groovicorns set up fancy tents for disco nights.

Unicorns create sunny days.

BORING!

Groovicorns prefer SNOW!

Unicorns work too hard. Groovicorns like to PLAY.

With their rainbow-striped horns and reversible sequins, these Groovicorns are what's up these days, in Rosie Greening's Story Book We are the Groovicorns! (Make Believe Ideas, 2018). It's a case of Vive la Difference, as the unicorns make a case for a more carefree kind of being, with illustrations of that lifestyle provides with plenty of stars, confetti, and some choice sight gags (Unicorns hang out in Buckinghorn Palace), and the book design provides those mega-popular two-way sequins so groovicorns can change their stripes at will.. Share this one with Greening's Do You Believe in Groovicorns? and Story Book We are the Groovicorns!

Would You Like To Bring Home A Star? Star in the Jar by Sam Hay

My little brother likes looking for treasure.

Kids love to bring home findings--some of it nifty or glittery or colorful, like feathers, or shiny rocks, some of it more in the trash category.

But one day he found something extra special.

So special I thought it must belong to someone else.

Big sister takes charge and asks everyone--the girl at school who knows everything, the lunch ladies, the sheriff, even the fairies-- how to find the proper owner.

Nobody claims the star.

Little brother takes that for an omen that he can keep it.

He put it in a jar and carried it everywhere.

The star grows brighter as night comes on, but somehow it doesn't seem glad to be shut up in the jar. Can he keep it? Yes. But should he?

Little Brother wants to help. He makes a sign.

LOST. ONE SMALL STAR.

But there's no claimant for the sad little star. Could they teach it fly up to the sky? Its little light is so small that perhaps the big stars cannot even spot the missing star from space. Would the lonely little star have to stay in the jar always? Can the kind kids find a way for the star in the jar to phone home?

Yes, they can, in Sam Hay's sweet story of having a "forever friend" in high places, in his Star in the Jar(Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2018), illustrated with gentle charm in the sweet illustrations of Sarah Massini. Says Kirkus Reviews, "Hay carefully keeps an even tone, never letting the whimsy descend into treacle and always maintaining a sense of wonder. Tender and loving."

HOWL! A Werewolf Named Oliver James by Nicholas John Frith

Dinner was at six o'clock sharp.

Oliver James has his marching orders. As soon as band practice is done, he is supposed to go to the bus stop with his band buddies and take the first bus home for dinner.

The kids cluster with their instrument cases to wait at the corner in the purple twilight, just as a full moon rises.

But suddenly something strange happens. Leaving their instruments behind...

...All his friends ran off before the bus arrived.

And then the bus speeds right by the stop, the passengers staring out the windows--all wearing horrified expressions on their faces.

What's going on? Oliver wonders. Ah, heck! And now it begins to rain. How is he supposed to get home on time? A man walks up to the bus stop and Oliver inquires when the next bus is due.

"HELP! A WEREWOLF!" The man screams and runs away.

"WHERE? Oliver asks, looking all around.

Then Oliver James spots his reflection in a rain puddle. HE is the werewolf. But ... what? HOW?

But Oliver realizes that being a werewolf has some awesome possibilities. He can outrun a train. He can leap gas stations in a single bound. He can pick up delivery trucks with one hand. Then he spots his friend Sam! Boy, has he some news for him!

GUESS WHAT?

Oliver shows off his howl. OWWW-OOWOOO! Sam is out of sight instantly, and Oliver realizes he can clear the street with a single howl!

He even had a SUPER-SENSE OF SMELL!

A whiff of the Thai restaurant down the street reminds Oliver that he is about to be late for dinner. Uh-oh.

But wait! He's got extra-super speed!

Oliver James has just one worry. How is he going to explain his sudden transformation to his parents?

There's yet another surprise in store for young readers, in Nicholas Oliver James' clever A Werewolf Named Oliver James (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2018), a charming little fantasy just right for the runup to October's semi-scary stories. Frith's tale is paced perfectly, with every page turn a new revelation, and his stylized illustrations done in purples and browns sets the mood for a bit of Halloween fun, just right for a howlin' good read-aloud.

Saving the Spectrum: Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) by Ged Adamson

Ava was excited.

Not because the rain was stopping. She was excited because the sun was coming out.

That means one thing...

A RAINBOW!

Now, nobody doesn't like rainbows. But Ava is a special case.

And this rainbow is really something special, too--the biggest and the most beautiful anyone had ever seen.

"If only you could stay!" she said to the rainbow.

And amazingly, it did. It was still there when Ava awoke the next morning, curving over the whole city. The townspeople were awed and amazed, and as it seemed to be planning on staying, they decided to make the most of their new mascot. Pretty soon the word spread far and wide, and tourists began to flock into town to see the persistent rainbow. Ava was in her glory, spending lots of time hanging out and talking to the rainbow, her special friend.

But even for Ava, the everlasting rainbow was a mixed blessing. Soon the town was crowded with vacationing families taking selfies with the rainbow. Everyone wore rainbow t-shirts; all the toddlers hugged rainbow plush toys, and all of them milled around, spoiling the view. And when they got tired of the same old rainbow, they started looking for rare birds to photograph.

Hmmm! A rare and precious sight? thought the rainbow.

Tired of his notoriety, the rainbow decided to make himself scarce.

Ava was a little sad, but she had a sneaking suspicion that the rainbow might be back before too long, in Ged Adamson's Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) (Harper, 2018). With folksy faux naif illustrations and a whimsical charm, Adamson tells the old story of too much of a good thing in a fanciful and once-over-lightly cautionary tale just right for fans who can't get enough of rainbows, unicorns, and fairy princesses.

Not All It's Cracked Up To Be! Thelma the Unicorn by Aaron Blabey

Fairy Tales can come true,
It can happen to you!

At least that's what Thelma the Pony thinks.

Thelma felt forlorn.

You see, she wished with all her heart to be a unicorn.

Although Otis the Mule thinks the stocky little pony is perfect just the way she is, Thelma has bigger dreams. And one day it happened.

She saw it.
A carrot on the ground.

She tied it to her nose.

And without the wave of a fairy wand or a single bibbidy boppidy boo, Thelma is transformed. Upon her head is a spiraling, sparkly horn, her coat is pink, and her tail is long and silvery. She is a beautiful UNICORN.

And soon Thelma is living the glittery life of a celebrity idol. The fame of her beauty and charm spreads worldwide. Crowds follow wherever she goes. She has a worldwide fan base who greet her with banners that read

OMG! I 💖 YOU!

Thelma The Unicorn tours the world, making appearances before her adoring public, sailing the seven seas on her cruise ship, The Fairy Princess. Throngs await her at every port, swooning at her beauty and begging for her sparkly autograph. Fans await her everywhere, from early morn till midnight. It's great!

Until... it's NOT!

Thelma realizes that it's all a bit too much.

So much fame was kinda tricky, too.

You see, her fans were mad for her. They'd chase her everywhere she went.

It never ever stopped.

Thelma realizes that there's no escape from her fame. She's no longer herself; it's like her admirers own her! They are her FANS, so they feel entitled to follow her every move.

One dark night, she felt quite sad, this famous little pony.

She said, "I thought that I'd feel great..., but all I feel is lonely."

Heavy lies the head that wears the horn. Thelma finds it lonely at the top. There's only thing to do, and Thelma does it. Off comes the magic carrot, and Thelma the glamorous unicorn is no more. It's back to being an ordinary pudgy pony with good ol' Otis waiting to keep her company, in Aaron Blabey's little picture book parable of ditching the Disney delusion of fame, Thelma the Unicorn (Scholastic Press, 2018). Like Blabey's popular character Pig The Pug, Thelma longs for fame, but finds it folly, with artist Blabey providing a plenty of comic scenes along the way as Thelma flees her fans and returns to savor the simple life. Unlike the hopelessly self-absorbed Pig the Pug, though, Thelma emerges a reformed and more lovable character, and with her big smile and googly eyes intact, Thelma returns to her roots as artist Blabey's lovable illustrations poke fun at the glow of the glitterati.

Blabey's other books are Pig the Pug, Pig the Winner (Pig the Pug), Pig the Star (Pig the Pug), Pig the Fibber, and Pig the Elf (Pig the Pug). (See reviews here).