Prince Liam, Prince Frederic, Prince Duncan, and Prince Gustav are back, and they’re just as klutzy and heroic as they were in the first book in this series, The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. And the ending to this book, which I will not reveal even if you torture me, promises more adventures to …
Category Archive: Children’s Fiction
May 17
Beholding Bee by Kimberley Newton Fusco
I reviewed Ms. Fusco’s book, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed reading it. This novel, Beholding Bee, set during World War II in the northeastern U.S.(Ohio, Illinois), tells a good story, too. Bee is a feisty girl who learns over the course of the novel to stand up …
Apr 21
Failstate by John W. Otte
“John W. Otte leads a double life. By day he’s a Lutheran minister. By night, he writes weird stories.” Failstate is kind of weird. Robin Laughlin aka Failstate and Robin’s brother Ben aka Gauntlet are both unlicensed superheroes. Failstate is a “cognit” who can mess with the power grid. The theory is that Failstate’s super-power …
Apr 16
The Drowned Vault by N.D. Wilson
About the first book in this fantasy series by N.D. Wilson, I wrote: The Dragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson. Too much action and it moved way too fast for me. I think there was a sub-text that I just didn’t get, and I think Mr. Wilson is too smart for my Very Little Brain. Reading …
Apr 07
Code of Silence by Tim Shoemaker
Living a Lie Comes With a Price. This thriller is book with a moral, but it didn’t feel preachy to me, just real. Three teens–Cooper, Hiro, and Gordy—witness a robbery and attempted murder. Because Cooper and his family are threatened by the robbers and because they have reason to believe that at least one of …
Apr 06
There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones
The INSPY Awards are blogger-initiated book awards for fictional literature that grapples with expressions of the Christian faith. The awards were given in several categories in 2011, including the category of “literature for young people”, and I got to be judge in that category. The INSPY Awards took a break in 2012, but they’re back …
Feb 01
Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss
Time travel at its most historically teach-y. I learned a lot about the Dreyfus affair, but the time travel elements of this story were too unbelievable. Mira keeps traveling back and forth from our time to various times in the late nineteenth century, and she meets many of the same people at different key points …
Jan 27
Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction: What’s In, What’s Out
Some observations from my Cybils reading: What’s In Clockwork/mechanical animals, birds, monsters, objects, steam-punk: The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody, The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, Above World by Jenn Reese, The Brightworking by Paul B. Thompson, Goblin Secrets by William Alexander. Ghosts: Tilly’s Moonlight Garden by Julia Green, The Whispering House by Rebecca Wade, A …
Jan 19
Spirit Fighter by Jerel Law
Angels, nephilim, winged demons, kidnapping, creepy. A not-too-compelling entry in the Christian horror-dystopia-weird creatures genre. I dunno. If you like stories about supernatural creatures but want to keep your reading theologically borderline sound and sexually pure (those vampire/zombie stories get nasty sometimes), then this debut novel from Thomas Nelson Publishers might fit the bill. I …
Jan 18
Horten’s Incredible Illusions by Lissa Evans
I liked the second book better than I did the first, I think. Children who like puzzles and magic tricks would really find this book and its prequel, Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms, quite compelling. I just wanted more character development, more reasons to like or at least sympathize with the children in the two stories. Stuart …
CYBILS
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