Fantasy Literature for Children ages 9-12.
The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum
OK. It’s obvious what’s going on here. As L. Frank Baum explained in the foreword to one of the OZ books (and I’ve seen such sentiments in some of his other forewords, too):
It’s no use; no use at all. The children won’t let me stop telling tales of the Land of Oz. I know lots of other stories, and I hope to tell them, some time or another; but just now my loving tyrants won’t allow me.
February 13th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | L. Frank Baum | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
Palace of Stone is a sequel to Shannon Hale’s excellent Newbery Honor-winning Middle Grade novel Princess Academy. You’ll definitely want to read Princess Academy first, and to avoid spoilers, you should read it before you read this review. So, if you haven’t read Princess Academy yet, go away and read it now. (Then come back, please.)
In Princess Academy,
February 9th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Shannon Hale | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum
If you happen to know Dorothy Gale, let me advise you to stay away from her. The girl attracts natural disasters like she’s some sort of magnet. This time, it’s an earthquake. Dorothy and her cousin Zeb are traveling on a wagon in California when it strikes. Down they go into a big crack in the earth and keep falling until they land in a city made of glass buildings. There are several clues that they have entered a fairy realm: Zeb’s horse (Jim) and Dorothy’s kitten (Eureka) can suddenly talk,
February 6th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | L. Frank Baum | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Ozma of Oz is the third book in L. Frank Baum’s OZ series. We all know what happened in the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, a boy named Tip accompanied several strange characters on a quest to help restore Princess Ozma to the throne of Oz. Dorothy, who was back in Kansas, didn’t appear in The Marvelous Land of Oz.
February 3rd, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | L. Frank Baum | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Ares: Bringer of War by George O’Connor
Ares: Bringer of War is George O’Connor‘s sixth title in his OLYMPIANS series of graphic retellings of Greek myths for younger readers. Short take? I’m wondering why the Hades I don’t own the first five, an oversight I will quickly rectify. Long take below . . .
I absolutely loved this book. Beginning with its opening segment on the distinction to be made between the two gods of War in the Greek pantheon: Athena and Ares.
January 23rd, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Children, Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau
Nickie is eleven years old when her aunt Crystal takes her to Yonwood, North Carolina. Their family has inherited a mansion, Greenhaven, from Nickie’s great-grandfather, and while Nickie loves the old building, Crystal is determined to sell it and get back to Philadelphia as soon as possible.
We see the house through Nickie’s eyes, and it is full of neat things, including her great-grandfather’s journals. Nickie also finds Amanda Stokes, who had cared for Nickie’s great-grandfather but who now has nowhere else to go.
January 16th, 2015. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2 | Jeanne DuPrau | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Rogue Knight, book two of Brandon Mull’s FIVE KINGDOMS series, continues the story about Cole, the boy who took his friends to a haunted house on Halloween and unwittingly caused them all to be sold into slavery in another universe. (Ouch.) Cole managed to escape slavery, but he’s racked with guilt, and now, with the help of some friends he’s made in The Outskirts, which consists of the five kingdoms of this series’ title, he hopes to eventually save his friends.
January 1st, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Brandon Mull | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sinbad the Sailor by Phil Masters
I’ve read a good numbers of titles in Osprey Publishing’s MYTHS AND LEGENDS series and while the individual books vary in quality, that variation runs between good and excellent, making the series as a whole top notch. My latest read, Sinbad the Sailor, by Phil Masters, continues the positive run, falling somewhere in the middle of its predecessors.
The bulk of the book is a retelling of Sinbad’s seven voyages (including an alternate seventh voyage), keeping the original frame of Sinbad the Sailor telling the story to Sinbad the Porter,
December 17th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Myths-&-Legends | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Foundry’s Edge by Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz
The Foundry’s Edge, by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, is a solid MG/YA entry that, I’d say, had more potential than was met. In failing to fully take advantage of its possibilities, it never falls so far as to be a “bad” read, but it also rarely inspires or enthralls, though it picks up in the latter quarter of the novel, both in terms of action and emotion.
The story is set at first in the city of Meridian, a technologically advanced (well past any other regions) city thanks to being the home of the Foundry,
December 16th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Cam Baity | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”
Lina and Doon have led their people out from the subterranean city of Ember. Now, they encounter a world full of dazzling new things like birds, sunlight, and trees. For all its wonder, Lina and Doon have not entered a world of plenty. The humans before largely destroyed the world with their weapons and their insatiable need for revenge. Doon and Lina lead the wandering Emberites in search of a new home.
December 9th, 2014. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Jeanne DuPrau | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
It's a tightrope act for sure.
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