Shelf Awareness--Wake the Bones

YA Review: Wake the Bones

Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne (Wednesday Books, 320p., ages 12-up, 9781250790828)

Wake the Bones is a marvelously eerie, atmospheric debut novel in which four teenage friends face hauntings and pure horror as they try to simply survive.

Anna, Laurel Early's "strange" mother, had a suspiciously green thumb, given the name of their farming town, Dry Valley. When Laurel was a baby, Anna's body was found at the bottom of a well. Now 19-year-old Laurel has "strange gifts" of her own and is known in town as "the devil's daughter." Since college didn't work out, Laurel, her best friend Isaac, and their respective sometime-crushes Ricky and Garrett, are in Dry Valley working with Laurel's uncle Jay growing tobacco. Laurel makes extra money by collecting bones for her growing taxidermy practice. When the teens find Anna's "watery grave" bashed open with "a whole wash of" blood around it, they go into the woods to find what was bleeding. They discover a "morbid mandala of old bones pointed like an accusatory finger at a dead deer" stuffed with flowers. Turns out, the inhabitants of Dry Valley weren't entirely wrong: there is a devil haunting the Early farm. Anna was taken by this devil and Laurel, who "reek[s] of destiny and uncontrolled magic," is its next prey.

Elizabeth Kilcoyne delivers a contemporary Southern gothic novel that illuminates the difficulties inherent in being different in a small town. She laces her mesmerizing prose with the darkness of death, the heat of summer and the uncertainty of destiny, and she uses magic to define the tenuous relationships between life, love and loss. There is beauty and horror here that's not to be missed. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

July's Book of the Month--Endlessly Ever After

July’s Book of the Month is the endlessly amusing ENDLESSLY EVER AFTER: PICK YOUR PATH TO COUNTLESS FAIRY TALE ENDINGS! written by Laurel Snyder and illustrated by Dan Santat.

This 86-page picture book begins the tale of Little Red Riding Hood innocently enough: Mama tells Rosie her granny is ill, and Rosie must hurry over with cake to cheer her up. But will Rosie wear her “coziest (faux) fur coat,” or her “favorite red cape?”

It’s up to you, the reader, to decide!

If you pick the coat, you’ll turn to page 20, where new decisions await. Does Rosie knock on the fine, blue door of an unfamiliar house she finds along her path? Or does she hurry to Gran’s instead? Each of her two choices leads to new story possibilities.

However, if you pick the cape, Rosie encounters the wolf along the path, which leads to another decision and even more story possibilities.

This interactive picture book is humorously told by a narrator who alternates between bouncy, rhyming exposition and commentary—peppered with just the right amount of snark—about the myriad decisions being posed. The watercolor and Photoshop illustrations have a comic/graphic novel-style feel that use lots of dramatic angles to amp up the fun, and the large trim-size makes for an impressive presentation.

A hunter, a boy in underpants, and plenty of fairy tale character cameos are all part of the strange, ever-changing adventures to be had within ENDLESSLY EVER AFTER’s covers. With all of the story combinations to pore over, you may never read this book the same way twice!

--Lynn

Shelf Awareness--Goblin Market

MG Review: Goblin Market

Goblin Market by Diane Zahler (Holiday House, 256p., ages 10-14, 9780823450817, August 16, 2022)

Goblin Market is a delightfully imaginative story about the unbreakable bond between two sisters, one who unknowingly falls in love with a goblin, and the other who is driven to save her.

Sisters Lizzie and Minka are extremely close despite being very different: vivacious and outgoing Minka enjoys going into town to sell the family's bread and vegetables; quiet and introspective Lizzie, for whom "each sound [is] a color," prefers to stay near home. One day, when Minka comes home from the market, Lizzie immediately notices that her words are "a little brighter than usual." Apparently Minka met "the handsomest boy," who gave her a "gorgeous" piece of fruit. The next week Minka gives a lock of hair to the boy, Emil, in exchange for more fruit, then develops a fever. By evening, her hair turns gray and falls out. Delirious, Minka begs Lizzie for more fruit.

Lizzie reluctantly agrees to go to town on the next market day. She hopes to find Emil and bring Minka the fruit she desperately craves. But when Lizzie finds Emil, she's disturbed to realize that, unlike everyone else, his words have "no color at all." Soon after, Minka falls into a comatose state. Lizzie goes back to town accompanied by steadfast, cheerful neighbor Jakob. They confront Emil, who tells them he has promised Minka "her heart's desire." But Jakob can't see Minka's suitor, and Lizzie notices flickers of "something quite different standing in his place." Lizzie and Jakob realize that Emil is a zdusze, a forest goblin out of a children's story, and when Minka disappears, the children plunge into the dark Wood to save her. Ultimately, it's only when Lizzie figures out what she has, and the zdusze does not, that she can save her sister.

Dianne Zahler (Baker's Magic) spins a terrifically timeless upper-middle-grade story of sisterly love, goblin magic and overstepped boundaries. Her lush language describes a fully realized fairy tale world, wherein Lizzie and Minka's cozy cottage at the edge of the Wood sets off the creepy, menacing realm of the goblins hidden within. Though Minka is the love interest--the author wisely points out and then expunges the blame associated with her victimization--this is Lizzie's story from start to finish. Her indomitable spirit and unusual abilities allow her to shine. Share this book with anyone who loves their stories located in far off lands potentially inhabited by monsters. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Shelf Talker: Goblin Market is a splendid, folklore-inspired story of sisterly affection in which one sister falls in love with a goblin and the other must save her.