Shelf Awareness--A Properly Unhaunted Place

MG Review: A Properly Unhaunted Place

A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander, illus. by Kelly Murphy (Margaret K. McElderry/S&S, $16.99 hardcover, 192p., ages 8-12, 9781481469159)

Rosa Ramona Diaz is not impressed when she and her mother move from the city to a basement apartment underneath the Ingot Public Library. Rosa's mom is the new library appeasement specialist, a job that involves calming down ghosts who get upset and keeping the really nasty ones distracted. But there are no ghosts in Ingot. In fact, it's "the only unhaunted place that Rosa had ever heard of," and nobody knows why. Which means that when Rosa goes out to explore, she leaves her "tool belt" behind.

While exploring, Rosa meets Jasper Chevalier, who is dressed as a squire and following his dad, "Sir Morien, Black Knight of Arthur's court and table." They make their way to the splendid Ingot Renaissance Festival, where "centuries smacked into each other" in a hodgepodge of historical reenactment. When a beast (mostly mountain lion, with "an antlered deer skull... where its head used to be") charges out of the forest, Rosa springs into action. She's got no salt, matches or chalk, but she's been well trained by her mom. Grabbing a roll of copper wire, Rosa manages to fend off the "rearranged wildlife," but she knows it's only the beginning. Ghost-free Ingot has just had a haunting.

Though primarily about ghosts, A Properly Unhaunted Place is also about respect; Rosa's mom doesn't hunt spirits or banish them. Rather, she appeases them using the powers of listening and speaking their language--she even offers her own voice (literally) and the beast absconds with it! Kelly Murphy's illustrations help bring life to William Alexander's (Goblin Secrets) succinct gem: a meticulously crafted world so tangible it feels like an alternate version of our own. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI. 

Discover: A town with no ghosts hires a ghost appeasement librarian, then suddenly plays host to a haunting.

August Recommendations

Novels:

THE APPRENTICE WITCH, by James Nicol, features Arianwyn Gribble, a young witch who is mortified when her magical assessment goes horribly wrong and she’s labeled an apprentice who "has not yet reached the maturity of her powers.” Nevertheless, she’s sent to a small town that’s in need of a witch, where she makes charms and deals with the less dangerous beasts that plague the neighborhood. Until something huge, dark, and twisted emerges from the Great Wood and Arianwyn has to step up to save the town. Feeling both fresh and familiar, this one’s for fans of Jennifer Nielsen and Eva Ibbotson. (MG)

In THE GIRL IN BETWEEN, by Sarah Carroll, the only thing that the unnamed, "invisible" girl who narrates this lyrical yet chilling novel wants is a safe place to live with her Ma, off the streets, where the Authorities can't get them. Because the last time they were sleeping in an alley, when Ma was still drinking and using drugs, the Authorities came to take the girl away. The girl never doubts her mother's love for her, and spends her time weaving fantastic tales, exploring the mill, and hoping that one day Ma will bring them home to Gran's. It’s powerful and, despite a young-sounding protagonist, probably a better choice for older kids. (YA)

THE HATE U GIVE, by Angie Thomas, is an intense, engaging story: sixteen-year-old Starr lives in Garden Heights, a poor black neighborhood, but she goes to school at an elite, mostly white prep school. She feels torn between who she is in each of these two very different worlds when, over spring break, she finds herself at a “Garden party.” Leaving with her old friend Khalil, Starr is the only witness when Khalil is shot by police. She has to navigate the ensuing community outrage and media fray as she decides who she is and who she will become. It recently won the 2017 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction. (YA)

Picture Books:

THE LEGEND OF ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, by Drew Daywalt with pictures by Adam Rex, is packed with action and kid-friendly snark. From the mysterious Forest of Over by the Tire Swing to the great cavern of Two Car Garage, it’s Rock vs. Scissors vs. Paper to see who is the champion of them all!

In COLETTE’S LOST PET, by Isabelle Arsenault, Colette has just moved to a new neighborhood. When her mom sends her out to explore, she meets some kids and invents a lost bird who gets more and more spectacular. Everyone has fun searching for the parakeet named Marie-Antoinette who can surf, speak French, and is the best pet anyone could dream of. The art is rendered in panels and the text all in dialog. Arsenault has been on the NY Times Best Illustrated Books list twice, and the illustrations in this one does not disappoint.

TRIANGLE, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, is about how Triangle leaves his triangle-shaped house to go over to his friend Square’s square-shaped house and play a sneaky trick. It’s droll and a bit philosophical, with Klassen’s signature art. The bookmaking is nice too—there are chunky board covers with no dust jacket, and regular paper pages inside, for a different look and feel.

--Lynn

August's Book of the Month--Scythe

August’s Book Talk book is the futuristic dystopian fantasy SCYTHE, by Neal Shusterman.

It is some far distant year in the future. No one knows for sure when, because once death (along with pain, misery, disease, and old age) was conquered, there seemed little point in counting. However, a simple truth remains: to ease the tide of population growth, people still have to die. The Scythedom was created to deal with this responsibility.

Citra and Rowan have been chosen by Scythe Faraday to be his apprentices. They will both train for a year, although only one will be ordained as a Scythe. Neither wants to kill (now referred to as gleaning), but it seems they have little choice. In fact, Scythe Faraday considers their reluctance the very reason they will make good apprentices. He and other traditional scythes consider the taking of life to be a serious responsibility, a necessity for the good of society. However, a new school of thought is emerging, promoted by Scythe Goddard, whereby gleanings should be spectacular, en masse, and even enjoyable affairs. Citra and Rowan find themselves caught up in the politics of death and immortality in this novel full of twists, and turns, and the struggle for power in a world where most forms of power have been rendered obsolete.

Shusterman, National Book Award winner for Challenger Deep and the author of numerous well-spun tales, unravels his complex world via narrators Citra and Rowan as they learn the fine art of killing, and supplements it with passages from the mandatory gleaning journals of Scythe’s Curie, Faraday, Goddard, and others. Ethical questions abound!

Have you read Printz Honor book SCYTHE? What do you think?

--Lynn

Wicked Like a Wildfire--Shelf Awareness

YA Review: Wicked Like a Wildfire

Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Popovic (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, $17.99 hardcover, 416p., ages 14-up, 9780062436832, August 15, 2017)

In Wicked Like a Wildfire, Lana Popovic's gorgeous debut, the women of Iris's family are all witches who pass down a dangerous legacy of magic, some even dying for the beauty they create.

Iris remembers that the world of her childhood had been "brilliant and blazing and alive from every angle." Using her gleam (what her mother called "eating the moon"), Iris could make the whole world "explode into fractal fireworks." Twin sister Malina's gleam allowed her to harmonize three vocals by herself, creating "the precise pitch of wonder." But when a neighbor witnessed the seven-year-old twins and their mother, Jasmina, producing magic in their backyard, Jasmina put an end to the nighttime practices and forbade the use of magic ever again. That moment set Iris on a course of resentment and spite and, in turn, sparked a terrible, decade-long coldness from Jasmina.

Now 17, Iris feels like a thing apart, a "prickly offshoot" of the charm, grace and easy beauty her mother and sister share--the power to bloom had been her only way to feel both special and connected to the women in her family. One evening, Iris gets spectacularly wasted at a party and offers to "make a galaxy out of the ceiling" for an attractive new boy. Extremely hungover the next morning, she goes to work at Jasmina's café, where the appearance of a mysterious woman with striking white hair upsets Jasmina. When the woman leaves, Jasmina (who never drinks) gets stinking drunk and "weirdly lovey" with her black sheep daughter. The next day Iris arrives at the café to find blood everywhere and her mother's chest smashed in. Though Jasmina has no pulse and no heartbeat, something is keeping her from dying, keeping her faintly alive but moaning in relentless pain. And women begin appearing, women who also wield the gleam and issue conflicting demands of loyalty. Iris and Malina know they need to untangle the roots of their obscure family tree, so they set off with close friends (and brother and sister) Luka and Nikoleta on a road trip to find answers. Who was the white-haired woman? Who are these women with the gleam? And who was the new boy who let Iris make him a galaxy? What the teens find is a deadly curse passed down through the generations.

Popovic weaves a "wild and beautiful" tale, a contemporary world so seemingly different from our own that references to a "modern age full of mundane things" seem strangely out of place. The magic is old, going back to pre-Indo-European tribes and one woman who is at the heart of it all: a witch, a god, or both. Yet Iris's struggles with her mother ring true to any age, and the drive to create beauty feels universal. Readers will revel in the evocative language and sensory details that feel a time and place apart, in this first of a planned duology. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI.

Shelf Talker: Twins Iris and Malina are forbidden to use their magic, but when their mother is attacked, they must make sense of a deadly curse and the family of witches they never knew they had.

July Recommendations

Novels:

In THE DOORMAN’S REPOSE, by Caldecott Award winner Chris Raschka, Mr. Bunchley opens the door for the many quirky inhabitants of his grand old (and equally quirky) apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Each inhabitant has a story--even some of the building's less human residents have a tale to tell, including  mouse families Brownback and Whitefoot, and Otis the elevator. A charming look at kindness and diversity.  (MG, but a wonderful read aloud for all ages)

In SPEED OF LIFE, by teen advice columnist Carol Weston, 14-year-old Sofia Wolfe's mom died nine months ago, all the other girls are getting their periods, and Sofia worries she may be the only one in her class who has never kissed a boy. She begins writing to Dear Kate, a popular advice columnist at Fifteen magazine. Sofia needs someone to ask all of her "superpersonal" questions, especially now that her dad is dating. But then she finds out that Dad's new girlfriend is Dear Kate herself! (Upper MG)

MIDNIGHT AT THE ELECTRIC, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, tells how sixteen-year-old Adri, preparing to colonize Mars in 2065, finds her life is surprisingly interconnected with two women from long ago. While unpacking at the home of Lily, a newly discovered elderly cousin, Adri discovers a mysterious postcard, journal, and bundle of letters. Through them she learns about Catherine and the dust storms of 1934, as well as Lenore over in England at the end of World War I. They are linked by family ties, friendship, and a tortoise named Galapagos. (YA)

Picture books:

MADELINE FINN AND THE LIBRARY DOG, by Lisa Papp, features a little girl who does not like to read. Sentences get stuck in her mouth like peanut butter, and sometimes the other kids giggle. But Madeline really, really wants a gold star for reading aloud in class. When she is paired with beautiful, patient, library dog Bonnie, she learns not to be afraid of making mistakes.

A HAT FOR MRS. GOLDMAN, with words by Michelle Edwards and pictures by G. Brian Karas, uses knitting to showcase the pleasures of a good deed well done. Mrs. Goldman knits hats for friends and neighbors, to keep their keppies warm, and Sophia makes the pom-poms. But when Mrs. Goldman’s own keppie is cold, Sophia is determined to knit her the most special hat in the world. 

In Korea, Hee Jun is ordinary. A regular boy, playing and laughing and bossing his sister around. When his father moves the family to West Virginia, Hee Jun, his little sister, and even his grandmother struggle to find their way. A PIECE OF HOME, written by Jeri Watts and illustrated by Hyewon Yum, is a heartfelt look at finding a bit of ordinary in a strange, new place.

--Lynn

July's Book of the Month--Du Iz Tak?

July’s Book of the Month is the 2017 winner of the E. B. White Read-Aloud Award and a Caldecott Honor book, DU IZ TAK? by writer/illustrator Carson Ellis.

Conveyed through exquisite illustrations and dialog in a made-up language, DU IZ TAK? follows the progress of a small plant unfurling amid the passing of seasons. Among other minute whimsies, we behold a fort, a transformation, and some top hat-wearing bugs. Ellis provides plenty of small-scale narrative which plays out between the different insects who come and go within this small patch of land, including a web-spinning caterpillar and a menacing spider who gets his comeuppance.

With her gorgeous colors and attention to detail, Ellis has created a unique, delicate, and fantastic universe. But it’s the addition of the invented language that makes this book truly outstanding, giving readers even more reason to linger as they try to decode the buggy discourse.

And, once again, I am interested in how a good book is made better by a high production value. The large format and thick, creamy pages help this book stand out. Candlewick has produced another winner!

--Lynn

The Apprentice Witch--Shelf Awareness

MG Review: The Apprentice Witch

The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol (Chicken House/Scholastic, $16.99 hardcover, 336p., ages 8-12, 9781338118582, July 25, 2017)

Arianwyn Gribble is mortified when her magical assessment by the Civil Witchcraft Authority goes horribly wrong. Instead of focusing on the four cardinal glyphs, her mind is taken over by a larger, bolder symbol, an impossible one that "didn't really exist except in her imagination." The evaluation gauge undergoes a power surge and fails to pick up the required level of magical energy. Arianwyn's humiliating result is officially classified as "ungraded." Instead of the bright silver star of a fully trained witch, a "dull bronze disc" is pinned to her coat. The moon brooch identifies her as an apprentice who "has not yet reached the maturity of her powers."

Nevertheless, her service is needed (it helps that Grandmother, on the Council of Elders, has some say in the matter). Arianwyn takes a position in the small town of Lull, near the Great Wood. Rich in natural magic, "a quiet and pleasant town to live in," Lull has been without a witch for many years and is willing to welcome an apprentice. Provided, as the mayor puts it, she can "fulfill her role without incident." But Lull is not as idyllic as Mayor Belcher advertises. En route to the town, Arianwyn finds herself fighting off a dangerous dark spirit creature. When she begins a spell to banish it, the mysterious glyph flashes before her eyes and her mind goes blank. Arianwyn and her fellow passengers scramble to escape, leaving the dark spirit stunned but not banished. Worse, she may have created a dangerous rift, an opening into the world "anything could get through from the void." Arianwyn is sure that her performance could not have been more pathetic.

Settling into her new home, a musty charm shop named the Spellorium, Arianwyn manages to make charms and deal with the less dangerous beasts that plague the neighborhood. Gradually, she grows more confident and the townsfolk come to accept her. She enjoys the staunch support of best friend Salle (who was involved in the initial melee with the dark creature), and a strange kinship with the other spirit creatures she encounters. Even her district supervisor, while initially skeptical, begins to understand that some great power lurks within the awkward apprentice. All seems to be going well until the mayor's niece arrives, none other than sneaky, cruel Gimma Alverston who taunted Arianwyn mercilessly in school. Something huge, dark and twisted is haunting the Great Wood, and dangerous patches of hex mold are spreading about the area. And why does Arianwyn keep seeing visions of that strange, "tempting and terrifying" glyph?

Feeling at once fresh and familiar, James Nicol's enchanting debut will charm fans of Jennifer Nielsen, J.K. Rowling and Eva Ibbotson. The world of The Apprentice Witch is comfortable, funny and well-imagined. Underneath all the magic, fey creatures and monsters, Arianwyn's struggles with self-doubt will ring true with readers. A few loose plot points hint at a sequel, but this one stands strongly on its own. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI.

Shelf Talker: Distracted by a mysterious magical glyph, a witch-in-training fails her evaluation and is sent off to a remote town, in disgrace, as an ungraded apprentice.