Book #22 of 2020: Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly I like the idea behind this wandering maritime adventure — think The Voyage of the Dawn Treader crossed with Disney’s Moana, roughly — but I feel like it would have been stronger if the point-of-view had stuck with the title heroine throughout …
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Book #21 of 2020: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (Akata Witch #1) This middle-grade series debut has some terrific #ownvoices African-inspired fantasy worldbuilding, but it lags behind in matching that with any significant narrative development or character arcs. So much of the novel consists of either pure exposition about the setting or else the protagonist …
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Book #1 of 2020: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4) Overall this is another fun Percy Jackson adventure, but there are a few issues that are bugging me about the series at large. Four volumes in, it still feels like author Rick Riordan is retelling ancient Greek …
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Book #247 of 2019: Star Wars: Force Collector by Kevin Shinick Theoretically, there could be a decent story told about a Force-sensitive youth retracing the path of the earlier Star Wars movies and setting up the sequel trilogy. But this attempt unfortunately misses the mark for me. The characters are flat and juvenile, the overarching …
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Book #230 of 2019: Homerooms & Hall Passes by Tom O’Donnell (Homerooms & Hall Passes #1) This middle-grade adventure story is lightweight but pretty fun, tracking a band of thirteen-year-old heroes who get magically trapped in the setting of their favorite tabletop roleplaying game, which happens to resemble a middle school of our reality. I …
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Book #221 of 2019: Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly This is a really lovely middle-grade novel about a twelve-year-old deaf girl trying to help a lonely whale — ostracized for singing at an unusual frequency — and I think a younger audience would enjoy it even more than I have. Author Lynne Kelly’s …
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Book #216 of 2019: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong #1) Middle-grade fiction is very hit-or-miss for me, but I loved this series debut right from the start. #OwnVoices stories rooted in the perspective of their authors’ cultural heritage have become increasingly popular, and this latest novel from …
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Book #204 of 2019: Nightbooks by J. A. White In this delightfully spooky middle-grade adventure, a young horror fan keeps his witch kidnapper at bay by telling her a series of scary stories. It’s a smart modern blend of Hansel and Gretel with The Thousand and One Nights, and both the smaller nested narratives and …
Book #188 of 2019: Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack I’m really enjoying the recent trend of explicit Jewish representation in speculative fiction, and this new middle-grade fantasy novel is another fun example. The story is populated with all sorts of creatures from Slavic folklore, but the main conflict facing twelve-year-old Anya isn’t a …
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Book #169 of 2019: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) This middle-grade fantasy debut is a fun ride with an engaging young character voice at its center. The plot can be a bit episodic, and the worldbuilding doesn’t go much deeper than bringing traditional Greek myths into the modern …
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