Summary: Fifty years ago, Madeleine L’Engle introduced the world to A Wrinkle in Time and the wonderful and unforgettable characters Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend Calvin O’Keefe. When the children learn that Mr. Murry has been captured by the Dark Thing, they time travel to Camazotz, where they must face the leader IT in the ultimate battle between good and evil—a journey that threatens their lives and our universe.

A Newbery Award winner, A Wrinkle in Time is an iconic novel that continues to inspire millions of fans around the world. This special edition has been redesigned and includes an introduction by Katherine Paterson, an afterword by Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis that includes photographs and memorabilia, the author’s Newbery Medal acceptance speech, and other bonus materials. — FSG

What better way to introduce this Middle Grade Book Review Column, than with a classic on it’s 50th birthday?

“It was a dark and stormy night.”

I absolutely love the simplicity of the first sentence. It summarizes the entire book and foreshadows the characters’ journeys.

Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin are taken across the universe by the Three Mrs. W’s- Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which, to save Meg’s and Charles Wallace’s father. Throw in quantum physics, Centaur-like creatures, mind control and possession, 2-dimensional planets, and strange beasts for an unforgettable experience.

I only recently discovered how special L’Engle’s character, Meg Murray, was at the time of publication. Never before had there been such a spunky, determined, witty girl in sic-fi (in the 1960s). She was strong and brave and made her own decisions. I found Meg to be a character who would resonate with girls today and in the future.

(SPOILER ALERT)

The best part of this book (other than the richly drawn characters) was the ending. I caught my children (7 yo boy and 10 yo girl) hugging each other (we listened to the audiobook) as Meg overcame evil with the love she had for her younger brother. Because L’Engle created such rich characters, namely Charles Wallace and Meg, this didn’t seem cliche. It felt warm and genuine.

This is indeed a timeless piece of art. I celebrate it’s 50th birthday and look forward to reading it with my grandchildren in another 50 years.

From Hicklebee’s: Dragons exist. They’re ferocious. And they’re smart: Before they were killed off by slayer-knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive. Only a handful of people know about this, let alone believe it – these “Slayers” are descended from the original knights, and are now a diverse group of teens that includes Tori, a smart but spoiled senator’s daughter who didn’t sign up to save the world.
The dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands. The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching. They will fight; they will fall in love. But will they survive?

I enjoy these types of books immensely. Kids with special abilities at camp learning how to kick some butt. The idea of secret societies as a whole interests me greatly. Who are we to know if there are not fancy meetings happening right now, where fairies or slayers or vampires are deciding the world’s fate while we are watching America’s Next Top Model? Having a fascination for dragons also doesn’t hurt when one is reading the book.

There are many characters in this book and while they are not fleshed out very deeply they still showcase unique traits that make it easy to distinguish one character from another. In Slayers there is hope, mystery, action and even a little espionage. I adored every minute of it.

The idea that dragons used to stalk the earth and alchemists devised two ways to deal with the species and those two ways are at war with each other is a unique and thrilling concept. One group of alchemists infused themselves with dragon DNA and can control dragons with their mind, this is your bad guy. The other drank a potion and created special abilities in order to kill dragons. Years went by with no dragons and the abilities were watered down in the blood over time, but when eggs are brought on a plane to DC several pregnant women gave birth to a new generation of slayers to combat the dragons when they hatch.

At camp the kids work to become ready for the dragon invasion. Circumstances push the group to act faster than they had originally thought and the book takes off at a break-neck pace to a great conclusion leaving room for a sequel.

If you like dragons, camp stories, or secret societies you will love Slayers.

Book Trailer:

From Hicklebee’s A stunning modern-day fairy tale from acclaimed author Anne Ursu.

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest with a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go in after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

Breadcrumbs is heartbreakingly beautiful. Ursu took one of my most favorite fairy tales and made it her own by adding themes that a lot of today’s children deal with. Hazel is adopted, she has brown skin and her parents have white skin. Her father left, and now it is just her mom and her trying to survive. Hazel had to stop going to her private school and enroll in the local middle school where she is bullied for being entirely too different. Her only friend is Jack, when he changes and stops being nice to her Hazel is shattered, when he disappears completely Hazel is devastated. She does what any heroine would, she sets off to find Jack and set her whole world back to right, because with her dad leaving and not paying for her school or dance lessons and Jack not speaking to her nothing is right.

Jack has his reasons for leaving. His mother is severely depressed and it has been hard on him. Hazel moved to his school instead of going to her private one and now all the boys in his grade give him a hard time for being the friend of the weirdo. He is always walking on eggshells at home and in school. When a piece of an enchanted mirror flies into his eye and a beautiful woman in white offers to whisk him away he agrees to go. He is so over everything.

In the woods on her quest to find Jack, Hazel learns a lot about life, love, right and wrong. She learns that you can’t always trust the things you think you should, and sometimes you have to trust the things you shouldn’t. She learns that taking control of her own situation is empowering and she has to go for what she wants in life.

Hazel is a strong role model, a good girl and a fabulous protagonist. I loved every minute I spent reading Breadcrumbs and I can’t wait to see what Ursu does next.

Please be sure to check my guest post with Anne for original art and more, and also Walden Pond Press is letting me host a giveaway of Breadcrumbs as well.

Hicklebees: Trapped in a hidden fortress tucked between towering mountains and a frozen sea, Solveig, along with her brother the crown prince, their older sister, and an army of restless warriors, anxiously awaits news of her father’s victory at battle. But as winter stretches on, and the unending ice refuses to break, terrible acts of treachery soon make it clear that a traitor lurks in their midst. A malevolent air begins to seep through the fortress walls, and a smothering claustrophobia slowly turns these prisoners of winter against one another.

Those charged with protecting the king’s children are all suspect, and the siblings must choose their allies wisely. But who can be trusted so far from their father’s watchful eye? Can Solveig and her siblings survive the long winter months and expose the traitor before he succeeds in destroying a kingdom?

There is something ever so magical about middle grade fantasy. Rarely does it ever fail to pull me in and immerse me in prolific language and prodigious landscapes.

Icefall by Kirby was by far one of the best Norse MG fantasies I have ever read. The setting was brutal, the characters gruff and believable, I was able to sink into icy oblivion in the middle of the summer. Kirby’s story telling skills are incredibly verbose while not overwhelming the younger reader. I feel Kirby did an astounding job relating the viking culture and the religions and stories of Norse legend. I was swept away by Solveig and her story-telling scenes.

The mystery of who is sabotaging the fjord is incredibly believable and I had a great many theories that proved to be wrong while trying to decipher the whodunit. There are harsh moments, bloody battles and plenty of intense action to move the plot along. I was thoroughly dazzled by the pacing of the book and I felt like I read it in no time at all.

I think Icefall has re-readability stamina and readers will go back for a closer look at the culture and character development.

I urge you not to miss Icefall when it hits the shelves on October 1st. A brilliant icy way to begin the fall season.

From Hicklebee’s From a master of visual comedy comes the royally satisfying tale of a head swollen out of proportion and a blowhard brought down to earth.

Hugo is a tiny king with a very large ego. But when he mistreats a villager who also happens to be a sorceress, the spell she casts causes his head to literally swell. The more he boasts, the bigger it gets, until it finally topples the mini monarch right off his castle! Who will cut this royal pain down to size? And, more important, will anyone live happily ever after? Chris Van Dusen’s hilarious story is matched only by his outrageous illustrations. Together, they make for a picture book that is sometimes fairy tale, sometimes cautionary tale, and always laugh-out loud funny.

Oh King Hugo, you made me laugh, you made me want to read you out loud to hear the magical lilt of your text audible. I loved every bit of the fifteen minutes I read about you King Hugo, and all the times I have read you since then… you are after all a highly re-readable book.

Guys I know it’s not very often I talk about picture books here; and by not very often I mean never, but sometimes you read one and it stands out and begs to be talked about and Hugo is one of those books. The author illustrator is extremely talented and it is incredibly easy to find yourself as an adult enjoying the story of Hugo and his inflating egotistical head. We all know that one guy or gal whose ego surpasses everyone else.

Hugo wakes up every morning and gives a sermon to his people about his awesomeness. They have to go listen because he is the king. Then one day he is driving his cart about the city and asks a woman to move off the road so that he may pass. She declines to move to the muddy side of the road as she is carrying heavy things and needs to get on with her day’s work. Hugo merely uses his horse and cart to knock her aside and continues on his way.

What Hugo doesn’t realize is the woman he knocked aside is a sorceress and she curses him! Every time the king talks about himself his head grows larger, until one day it is so big and heavy he falls over and begins rolling through the village.

Will King Hugo learn from this curse?

Delightful, funny, and fantastically illustrated I highly recommend King Hugo!

From Goodreads: Knightley Academy is back in session, and Henry Grim is confident that nothing else can prevent him from earning his knighthood. But Henry and his friends quickly discover that their professors have made some troubling changes to the curriculum — an old classroom filled with forgotten weapons. It is the discovery of this classroom that prompts Henry and Valmont to become the unlikely leaders of a secret battle society. But disaster strikes as Henry, Adam and Frankie find themselves stuck as Partisan School servants. Yet something is rotten in Partisan Keep. And when Henry is discovered by a secret society of outlaws with a sinister purpose, he must come to terms with a great sacrifice that will take him away from everything he has ever known and wanted. The stakes get higher and tension mounts in the second installment of Violet Haberdasher’s fresh, fast-paced, and always surprising Knightley Academy books.

While I was a bit confused when I reviewed Knightley Academy I have since asked questions of the author about what what Harry Potter Inspired Fiction really is. Now that I understand this concept so much better I went into The Secret Prince armed with knowledge and was able to simply just fall in love with the story and the characters. Oh, and fall in love I did. The book starts off with amazingly intriguing prose:

In the pale gloom of the unusually cold January afternoon when our story starts, the roads are desolate but their emptiness is not due entirely to the dreadful weather.
As you have probably heard, or read, or suspected without quite knowing why, sinister things indeed were happening up north, and in those dark days, fearful rumors were more common than holiday cheer.

But where there is suspicion there is also doubt, and some people still pretended that nothing was the matter. After all, appearances have to be maintained, especially by those looked to as an example. “Let the superstitious servants worry!” the aristocracy scoffed from the comfort of their elegant town houses.

After all, it wasn’t as though there were proof to any rumor. pg2 of the ARC

The Secret Prince was quite honestly an adventure mystery. I loved every minute of reading this and I adore Henry and his ragtag group of friends. I greatly appreciated and enjoyed the love story side plot and that we as the reader get to know more about the Nordlands and what makes them so different from where Henry lives.

There is love, laughter, death and life decisions made that are forced upon our protagonists. We learn more about Henry and his history, we learn about his friends and what their home life is like, and it reads like a suitor to Harry Potter.

I cannot wait to read book three and see what Henry and crew come up with to combat all of the things they learned in this book. Fantastic reading.

From Goodreads: The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.
These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.

The Near Witch is a fairytale written in the 21st century that reads like a 16th century tale. The world is lush and the folklore of the Near Witch is full of detail and haunting beauty. Lexi is comparable to an old world Nancy Drew, her hunt for the children is based on instinct and her knowledge of Near.

When a new boy comes to town and children start to go missing the citizens of Near, especially Lexi’s Uncle, want to find the boy to question him about the children. It must be him stealing them from their beds because he is the only stranger and strangers are bad news. The problem with finding him is he is rumored to be up at the house of the two old witches, whom make everyone in town a bit nervous.

Lexi has had her share of misfortune as a fairy tale heroine should. She lost her father and her uncle is now their breadwinner and he just wants to marry Lexi off. Lexi, however has other ideas and employs the knowledge her father gave her before his passing in every way she can get by with.

The Near Witch is a strong contendor for my book of the year, there are several quantifiers that go into me choosing and Victoria Schwab’s debut has them in spades:

Readability: The plot flows extremely well from one thought, one mishap to the next.

Escapism: When you are in the world of The Near Witch everything else melts away and you are surrounded by black forests and howling whispering winds.

Writing: Style is reminiscent of old folklore tales, and the verbage used was fantastic.

I whole-heartedly recommend for all to try this book, it is not ‘another’ paranormal tale, it is not a YA romance, it is a hauntingly lyrical and intimate look into the lives of those who live in the Near. It reads like a classic and I cannot wait to see what Victoria Schwab writes next.

The Near Witch is out in a month or so but until then beware, do not listen too closely to the wind for it whispers secrets and invitations to places you would much rather not go.

From Goodreads: Juniper’s parents have not been themselves lately. In fact, they have been cold, disinterested and cruel. And lonely Juniper Berry, and her equally beset friend, Giles, are determined to figure out why.

On a cold and rainy night Juniper follows her parents as they sneak out of the house and enter the woods. What she discovers is an underworld filled with contradictions: one that is terrifying and enticing, lorded over by a creature both sinister and seductive, who can sell you all the world’s secrets in a simple red balloon. For the first time, Juniper and Giles have a choice to make. And it will be up to them to confront their own fears in order to save the ones who couldn’t.

M.P. Kozlowsky’s debut novel is a modern-day fairy tale of terror, temptation, and ways in which it is our choices that make us who we are.

Kozlowsky creates a spooky tale with Juniper Berry. Juniper is a lonely little girl alone in a mansion with little to no interaction with the outside world. Her parents are movie stars and the more famous they become the more they change. Juniper longs for the days before her parents became Jolie-Pitt famous and spends her days with her tutor who is celebrity obsessed and messing around in her backyard with her spy glasses.

Juniper is a peculiar little girl. I loved her character immediately. Her eccentric behaviors are adorable and you immediately fall in love with her character.

Giles falls into Juniper’s life and they together figure out that everything is changing in both there households, so they start hunting for clues to what links their parents and why they are changing. What they discover is chilling. It will take all of their skills and willpower to resist the temptations themselves and save their families.

Juniper Berry is dark, chilling and devilishly entertaining. I fell in love with the dark undertones of the book and the mystery unfolded at a great pace. The book plays perfectly on children’s feelings that their parents do not pay enough attention to them and kids reading the book will find an instant affinity with the characters.

Illustrations by Erwin Madrid throughout the book increase the haunting quality of Juniper Berry. I recommend it for all ages who enjoy a spectacular spooky story.

I received Juniper Berry from Walden Pond Press for review.

From Goodreads: Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident…but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to get either. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It’s a magical yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he’s found a home. But Allie isn’t satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the “Criminal Art” of haunting and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

In this imaginative novel, Neal Shusterman explores questions of life, death, and what just might lie in between.

Everlost showed up in my mail last week with a note saying to expect the second book in anticipation for Everfound coming out on May 3rd! I have heard a lot about this series and had previously purchased a different Shusterman book Unwind but hadn’t taken the time to read.

Shusterman’s writing style is reminiscent of Gaiman and Bray but wholly his own unique thing. The Everlost is a continually interesting place. Learning how the universe works in this first book is an experience unto itself. Mary Hightower also known as Mary Queen of Snots books are referenced at the beginning of each chapter and you dig a bit deeper into the world and how the Afterlight’s survive day to day.

Nick and Allie are unusual counterparts and their differences of opinion make their partnership even more interesting to the reader. The monsters and finders and other Afterlight children make the experience of the book amazing to read.

If you haven’t picked up this trilogy and have been inclined to do so; there is no time like the present! You will fall in love with this world and the children populating it. There are mysteries to be solved and not of the stale whodunit style. There is so much to appreciate about in the smaller side stories and subtle nuances of Everlost.

I can’t wait to read Everwild! I think I will read Unwind while I wait for book two to come!

Review copy sent by publisher for a review.

Simon and Schuster:Every tween girl knows what it’s like to have a mom who can be a little embarrasing at times. But for Marigold, it goes way beyond embarrassing. Marigold’s single mom is a performance artist, meaning she stages dramatic, wacky performances to express her personal beliefs. Things like wrapping herself in saran wrap for a piece on plastic surgery, or inviting people over in the middle of the night to videotape her sleeping. In fact, Marigold’s mom’s performances caused such a ruckus in their last town that the two of them, along with Marigold’s little sister, have just had to move. Now Marigold’s starting a new school, missing her best friend like crazy, and trying to fit in all over again in the shadow of a mom who’s famous for all the wrong reasons. As if that’s not bad enough, Marigold’s mom takes on a new job–teaching drama at Marigold’s school! Now all the kids know instantly just how weird her mom is, and Marigold’s worried she’ll never be able to have a friendship that can survive her mother.

Read Chapter One online for free!

Oh Mari we so would have been BFFs. I loved everything about this book from the fabulous Barbara Dee. This book showed me that I made the perfect decision in adding more Middle Grade to my reading schedule. Trauma Queen was everything I knew it would be, smart, funny and completely a blast to read.

Marigold is completely mortified by her mother’s job as a performance artist. It was easy to sink into Mari’s mind and her precarious situation. She has to survive a new school without her bestie and even though her mom promised no more antics she completely reneges on her promise and starts a drama club just as Mari was starting to feel good about fitting in.

Grandma is amazing and little sister with her Prairie speak fascination is just completely adorbs.

I love Dee’s easy writing style and her conclusion to this novel. I wouldn’t change a thing!

Thank you to the author for sending me a review copy.