Cybils Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Yet To Be Nominated

Here’s a list of some middle grade speculative fiction books of 2018 that have yet to be nominated for a Cybils Award. Anyone can nominate, and it’s a simple process. If you’ve read any of the following and want to nominate your favorite or if you’ve read books from this year in other categories, go ye forth to the Cybils website and nominate. Nominations close after October 15th.

The Rose Legacy by Jessica Day George. The orphaned Anthea Thornley is sent north to her uncle’s farm where she meets horses, a breed of animal she has been taught were dangerous and are now extinct. But Anthea has much to learn about her own family history and the history of her country and about horses. NOMINATED.

The Griffin’s Feather by Cornelia Funke. Sequel to Dragon Rider.

A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem: A Dastardly Plot by Christopher Healy. The first book in a new alternate history adventure by the author of The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. NOMINATED

The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd. “When the Problim children’s ramshackle bungalow in the Swampy Woods goes kaboom, the seven siblings—each born on a different day of the week—have to move into their grandpa’s bizarre old mansion in Lost Cove.” NOMINATED

The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast by Samantha Clark. “A boy washes up on a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited beach. Who is he? How did he get there? The boy can’t remember.” NOMINATED

Outlaws of Time: The Last of the Lost Boys by N.D. Wilson. This third book in the series introduces Sam Miracle’s son and heir. NOMINATED

The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings by Sarah Prineas.“The powerful Lost Books at the palace library are infecting the rest with an evil magic, and two unlikely friends must figure out who, or what, is controlling the books and their power. If they can’t, the entire kingdom could be at risk.” NOMINATED

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book VI: the Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood. The final book in the Ashton Place series?

Voyage of the Dogs by Greg van Eekhout. Dogs in space—called Barkonauts? NOMINATED

The Phantom Tower by Keir Graff. “Twin brothers discover their new home is also a portal–for an hour a day–to a parallel dimension.”

The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr. A dragon freed from a teapot meets a very special friend. NOMINATED

Pages and Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James.

Spindrift and the Orchid by Emma Trevayne.

The Road to Ever After by Moira Young. In this Christmas tale, orphan Davy Davidson meets the eccentric Miss Flint, and as they travel together, Miss Flint begins to age backwards.

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin. “An anarchic, outlandish, and deeply political saga of warring elf and goblin kingdoms.” Long-Listed for the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. NOMINATED

A Fever, a Flight, and a Fight for the World: The Rwendigo Tales Book Four by Jennifer Myhre. May be young adult. Set in East Africa. NOMINATED in YA.

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudy Trueit. From National Geographic, kids train to become the next generation of scientists to explore the galaxy.

Bravelands #3: Blood and Bone by Erin Hunter.

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris. NOMINATED

2018 Cybils Nominations Categories:
Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books
Elementary/Middle-Grade Nonfiction
Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction
Fiction Picture Books/Board Books
Graphic Novels
Junior/Senior High Nonfiction
Middle-Grade Fiction
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction
Young Adult Speculative Fiction

The Third Mushroom by Jennifer L. Holm

The Third Mushroom is a sequel to Holm’s 2017 book, The Fourteenth Goldfish. Both books have the advantage of being short, sweet, and simple, easy to digest and productive of not a few chuckles at the very least. However, both books are also somewhat over-simplified, especially in the science department, and both have a kind of snarky, disrespectful edge that just stays within my boundaries for likability.

Ellie, a seventh grade only child of divorced parents, doesn’t like mushrooms at all. In both books, Ellie has to deal with a grandfather who has two PhDs, which he brags about, a grandfather who ends up disguised as a middle school student in Ellie’s school as he coerces her into his wild and crazy science experiments and plays havoc with Ellie’s life. Grandpa Melvin is not a very sympathetic character, but he does make the book fun. He very obviously needs to grow up, but he also is fixated on making Ellie into a scientist like him.

This science obsession is an excuse for the author to shoehorn in all kinds of science information and mini-biographies of famous scientists such as Alexander Fleming, William and Caroline Herschel, Carolus Linnaeus, and others. It felt forced to me, but maybe kids won’t notice. Also, the science experiments were a bit wacky and unconvincing, but again maybe for beginning scientists the details don’t matter so much.

Both books are fun and easy to read. Grandpa Melvin is a crank, but he has some funny moments. Ellie, a seventh grader, has a date with a boy, completely clean and almost platonic, but if you’re wanting to delay that particular discussion, I wouldn’t have my second grader reading this one, as one Amazon reviewer said hers did. Also, (SPOILER): Animal Trauma Alert (in The Third Mushroom).

And, by the way, I totally disagree with Ellie about mushrooms and Brussels sprouts. Mushrooms are great, very tasty; Brussels sprouts are Tiny Cabbages of Death. And if you’re not sure what the mushrooms have to do with the actual story, I’m not either.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty

Willa is a young night-spirit jaetter of the Dead Hollow clan of the Faeran, an orphan and a sort of New world fairy? She’s also a woodwitch with the ability to talk to trees and plants and some animals, and she can change skin color like a chameleon and blend so that she can hardly be seen among the flora of the forest. Jaetters are thieves who come at night and steal from the day-folk for the benefit of the ruler of Willa’s clan, the paderan. Faeran believe in the guideline that “there is no I, only we”, but Willa is an individual. She escapes from the confines of her dictatorial clan life, but she finds that life without the clan is lonely and purposeless. So, most of the book is about Willa’s search for home, community, and family.

Who’s editing the books these days, anyway? Willa of the Wood tells a good story, set in the Great Smoky Mountains, with atmosphere and suspense and compelling characters and a touch of Americana (Cherokee characters, the mountains, panthers and otters and other animals native to the area). BUT there are some obvious glitches that a good editor should have noticed. The first paragraph of chapter 33 repeats the action in the last few paragraphs of chapter 32, as if the reader is picking up on a serial installment of the story. Why? None of the other chapters have this repetition (that I noticed), and it was disconcerting.

Then, there were niggling little questions I had as I was reading. The miller, Nathaniel, says he earns his living from the mill, taking one bag of cornmeal for every ten that he grinds, but no one ever comes to the mill to have their grain milled. And most of the time Nathaniel is absent from home, anyway. How can he run a business when he’s gone half the time and has no customers? And how many children were there in the underground prison? It seemed as if there were lots, more than Willa could visit or free, on multiple levels. Then, the story said that she freed only 23 or 24 children. What happened to the rest of the children? And why did the Faeran let the girl stay with her baby brother?

There were more questions I had as I read. Some were resolved; others were not. I can see how this fantasy fiction would appeal especially to children who live in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee or South Carolina. Or those who like stories about communication with animals. The entire book is rather dark and melancholy, with themes of cultural annihilation, cruelty, power-grabbing, and greed. But, as I said, it may appeal to some readers. I thought it was OK, but I was kind of glad for the happy-ish ending. If it’s the first in a series, there wasn’t enough there to draw me back for a second go-round.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Hope in the Holler by Lisa Lewis Tyre

When Wavie’s mother dies of cancer, Wavie ends up in the Appalachian trailer home of her long-lost and unknown Aunt Samantha Rose. Wavie’s father is dead, to (or is he?), and Wavie has only her own wits and a couple of new friends in Conley Hollow, her new home, to get her out of the predicament of living with an aunt who feeds her ketchup and spaghetti for meals and only wants to spend the government check for Wavie’s support on stuff for Aunt Samantha Rose.

Can Wavie do anything that will prevent Aunt Samantha Rose from becoming her legal guardian? Can Wavie find her real father or did he really die in an accident long ago? Why did Wavie’s mother leave Conley Hollow and never tell her about Samantha Rose or anyone else in the family? What else did Wavie’s mother fail to tell her before she died?

Adult fans of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance will find this story familiar and believable. Those who dissed Vance’s story of his own rise from Appalachian poverty will probably think this children’s version of that escape is just as offensive as Vance’s true life story. I thought some of the stereotypical elements of the story were overdone: Aunt Samantha Rose buys a big-screen TV with the child support money, of course. The family lives in a trailer home, of course. Wavie’s friend comes over to her house to bathe because there’s no water or soap at his house.

Still, this book had a lot of heart and a lot of pathos. Wavie is a spunky, persistent protagonist, and her two sidekicks are believably flawed and somewhat antagonistic toward each other, and yet they support Wavie well in attempt to break free of her vulgar and uncaring aunt. I would recommend this one to readers who like a good overcoming-the-obstacles kind of story. It’s similar in some ways, themes and setting, to Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo. I thought Louisiana was the better book, but Hope in the Holler wasn’t bad at all.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

The Last (Endling #1) by Katherine Applegate

Byx is the youngest and most vulnerable member of the dairne pack in a world where dairnes are about to become extinct. There aren’t many of these dog-like but intelligent and communicating creatures left in the world, and Byx doesn’t know whether to believe the legends and rumor that other dairne packs exist in the far off north or not. When Byx loses her own family, she goes on a journey to find the other dairnes, the ones who will keep her from being the endling, the last of her kind. Will she find them, and will the humans and other creatures that have joined her on her quest be her new family or will they betray her to the evil dictator, Murdano, who wants to destroy the dairnes and any other creatures who will not obey him.

This book has a lot of newly coined words and newly imagined creatures: dairnes, wobbyks, raptidons, felivets, and others. It reminded me of the Warriors and Bravelands series of books by Erin Hunter and of The Guardians of Ga’hoole books by Kathryn Lasky. Anthropomorphized animals or animal-like characters and a quest to save the world or the species or both make for good plots to hang a story upon. And The Last is a good story.

I did face the never-ending frustration as I was reading of realizing that I was about twenty pages from the end of the book, and the loose ends were numerous and the miles to go on the quest that forms the impetus for the plot were barely begun. So, this story wasn’t going to end neatly or even at all. That said, the ending wasn’t too bad; no one was hanging from the edge of a cliff, literal or figurative, at the close of this first volume.

The tone was rather dark. Extinction looms for the dairnes and for other species. Humans are taking over the world and running roughshod over the other governing species. In fact, humans are portrayed as greedy and power-drunk and traitorous liars, most of the time. The dairnes, on the other hand, never lie and always know when others are not telling the truth, a useful and rather dangerous skill in a world where a murderous dictator is trying to consolidate his reign over the other species. But this devotion to the truth doesn’t keep Byx from telling herself that since she may be the endling, perhaps her death would be better than living in a world where she is the only dairne left.

I feel as if this series can only improve as it moves into future volumes, but of course, that remains to be seen. Could this series be another Animorphs?

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr

A dragon first spends fifty plus years trapped as an enchanted teapot. Then, as World War II is ending, the dragon, Grisha, is freed from his teapot spell entrapment, and he follows the rest of the dragons to Vienna where he is again trapped in a dead-end job at a castle and not allowed to leave the city. When Grisha meets Maggie at the Blaue Bar, the two of them embark up on a quest to free the dragons who have been put to sleep and imprisoned in an underground space. Maggie and her father, Alexander the poet, are two of the very few people who can truly see Grisha and the other un-imprisoned dragons, except that the tourists can see Grisha, too, and ask him questions in his day-job as a tour guide at the castle.

I found this one to be really odd. I kept wanting to read it as allegory, in the way that C.S. Lewis insisted his Narnia books were NOT allegorical, but I couldn’t make anything fit. Maybe it’s just my way of reading. Is it a book about the Holocaust? No, although there are elements that evoke a persecuted and misunderstood minority. About the industrial revolution and modernity and its effect on faith and whimsy and beauty? Maybe, kinda sorta. About Communism and it’s effect on Eastern Europe? Not really. It’s set mostly in an alternate history fantasy Vienna. It’s not really any of those things, just odd, and contemplative and a little slow. But I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to contemplate or think about.

And the rules of the story or the world in which it was set kept shifting in a disconcerting way. The cats are evil. No, not really evil. Well, maybe. Most people can’t see the dragons, but the tourists can see and talk to the dragons who work as caretakers and tour guides at old castles. Magic requires a price. So, it’s kind of cruel. But we want to go back and live in a magical world anyway. Nostalgic longing for the days of magic abounds. Memories are malleable and fragile. Memories are the most important part of who we are. I guess it did make me think, but I’m still not sure what I think about the book as a whole. (I did find the couple of times that Maggie’s father uses God’s name in vain to be disconcerting, annoying, unnecessary and perhaps out of character.)

It’s a decent book, but I’m not sure who would like it enough to stick with it. Amazon says it’s about “the transformative power of friendship”, and I did like the friendship between Maggie and Grisha. However, that wasn’t enough to really pull me into the story and make me believe in magical Viennese dragons.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo

From the ARC I read in early June:

“Now, for the first time ever, Kate DiCamillo is returning to the world of a previous novel to tell us more about a character who her fans already know and love. Louisiana’s Way Home picks up two years after the events of National Book Award Finalist Raymie NIghtingale to unravel the story of Raymie’s friend and beloved ranchero, Louisiana Elefante. . . . Readers will also love the opportunity to spend more time with Louisiana as she uncovers difficult truths about her past—and makes choices that will determine her future.”

To be honest, I didn’t actually care for Raymie Nightingale that much; I found it a little too cute. And this one is chockfull of precious and cute, too. But, contrary reader that I am, I loved it, especially the voice and personality of Louisiana Elefante, who finds herself taken against her will from her Florida home and friends, headed for Georgia with her unstable, cursed Granny. And things only get worse as Granny becomes more and more undependable, and Louisiana must fend for herself—even as she finds that her entire past history and identity have been based on a lie.

There is truth here about making good choices and finding a way to forgive the unforgivable. Louisiana is poorly taught, but adorable nonetheless. There are instances of stealing, lying, and other bad behavior that go uncorrected, for the most part, but that lack of correction felt true to the story. And author Kate DiCamillo stays true to the voice and thought life of her narrator, Louisiana, even when those thoughts are uncomfortable for readers, and especially when adult characters (by extension, readers) are being judged for their lack of compassion and kindness.

Of course, some of the adults in the story are good guys. As Louisiana says, “There is goodness in many hearts. In most hearts.” In Louisiana’s story, several people show up to help out: the pastor of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, a mother and baker named Betty Allen, three generations of Burke Allens, and others. Nevertheless, it is Louisiana herself who must decide who she is and how she is going to handle the dissolution of her past history and the abandonment that has happened to her both in the past and in the present.

The book deals with some hard things, “terrible things,” according to Pastor Obertask. But the abandonment, lies and neglect that Louisiana experiences are tempered by the kindness of strangers and met by Louisiana’s own strength and gumption. While Louisiana’s problems are not minimized, they are met with hope, and some righteous anger. Author Kate DiCamillo, out of her vast experience of writing for children, strikes just the right balance in tone between wretchedness and optimism, leaving plenty of room for faith in Louisiana’s future.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Wizardmatch by Lauren Magaziner

We all have such different senses of humor. What to me is just silly may be laugh out loud funny to you. What is witty and fun for me may be boring to another person. So, when I say that humor in Wizardmatch just didn’t tickle my funny bone, that’s not to say that it won’t poke yours or that it shouldn’t. A chocolate pudding swimming pool, a boy whose magical talent is burping out birds, a wizard grandfather who is a spoiled brat—these just weren’t very humorous to me. But you—or your kids– may find them to be hilarious.

“Mortimer de Pomporromp—the oldest, most powerful, most celebrated wizard in his entire family—had the sniffles.”

Now, that’s a promising first line. I liked the name, Mortimer de Pomporromp. I liked that Mortimer’s granddaughter Lennie, the actual protagonist of the book, was half-Filipina. I liked Mortimer’s sensible assistant, Estella. I liked the persnickety cat, Fluffles aka Sir Fluffington the Fourth. I liked the eventual emphasis on forgiveness and family unity and teamwork.

I didn’t care for the constant sparring and fighting that went on between all of the characters in the book. I just didn’t like any of them very much. I didn’t like the snot/barf/gross motif that wove its way throughout the story either, although I realize that repetitive emphasis on bodily functions wasn’t written in for my benefit. Authors think middle graders in particular love that kind of stuff, and they write down to them, IMHO.

Then, there were some things in the book that just didn’t make sense. Lennie thinks her grandfather may be favoring her brother Michael over her partly because she’s a girl but also because she’s part Filipina. However, Poppop Pomporromp does favor Michael, who’s also half Filipino. When the villain of the story is trapped in a supposedly inescapable sticky trap, it turns out that it is escapable after all. And all of the adults in the story are horrendously bad at being mature adults; they’re more childishly competitive and bickering than the children. (Maybe that’s not so unrealistic as I wish it were.)

Final word: I didn’t care for it. You may like it better than I did. It depends on your sense of humor.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

Top 50 American Speeches and Declarations for our Homeschool Listening

I found several lists of of the greatest speeches of the twentieth century, the most important political speeches, the most memorable speeches in the world, etc. But I really found no list like this one. The speeches that really influenced the history of the United States were not just the politicians’ speeches. They were the preachers’ sermons, and the educators’ lessons, and the journalists’ essays that were read aloud and presented in the churches and lecture halls throughout the country.

John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity (City on a Hill), on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630.

Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, preached at Enfield, Connecticut, July 8, 1741. Read by Max McLean.

George Whitefield, The Method of Grace sermon, 1738-1770, read by Max McLean.

Patrick Henry, Liberty or Death, March 23, 1775

The Declaration of Independence, July, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson, et. al., read by Max McLean.

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, December 1776. Orson Welles reads Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis.

President Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796. (Youtube: Learn Out Loud).

Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, 1801, Washington, D.C.

The Monroe Doctrine, President Monroe’s 1823 message to Congress.

Daniel Webster’s Second Reply to Hayne, January 26–27, 1830. Orson Welles gives an excerpt from Webster’s speech.

Andrew Jackson on Nullification, 1832.

Frederick Douglass: The Church and Prejudice, November 4, 1841, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Seneca Falls Keynote Address, July 19, 1848, Seneca Falls, New York.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain’t I A Woman? 1851 Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio.

Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? July 5, 1852, Rochester, NY.

Abraham Lincoln’s House Divided Speech, 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

John Brown’s Speech to the Court at his Trial, 1859, read by Orson Welles.

Abraham Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1962.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865; Washington, D.C.

William Jennings Bryan’s ‘Cross of Gold’ speech, 1869 Address to the Democratic National Convention.

Dwight L. Moody, Law and Grace sermon, 1870’s.

Susan B. Anthony, On Women’s Right to Vote, 1872.

Chief Joseph Surrender Speech, October 5th, 1877.

Frances E.W. Harper, Woman’s Political Future, World’s Congress of Representative Women, Chicago, 1893.

Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Compromise Address, September 1895.

Theodore Roosevelt: The Man with the Muck-Rake, April 15, 1906, Washington, D.C.

Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic, April 23, 1910; Paris, France.

Billy Sunday, The Old-Time Religion, c. 1910.

Russell Conwell, Acres of Diamonds, 1913.

Woodrow Wilson’s War Message, April 2, 1917, Washington, D.C.

Woodrow Wilson, 14 Points speech to Congress, January 8, 1918.

R.G. Lee, Payday Someday, c. 1920.

Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 Inaugural Address.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

Lou Gehrig, Farewell to Baseball Address, July 4, 1939; Yankee Stadium. Text and audio of the entire speech.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s War Message, December 8, 1941.

Harry S. Truman: The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947.

William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1950.

Douglas MacArthur: Farewell Address, April 19, 1951.

Billy Graham, New York Crusade Sermon, How To Live The Christian Life, 1957.

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.

John F. Kennedy, The Decision to Go to the Moon, May 25, 1961; Rice Stadium, Houston, TX.

I Have a Dream Address by Martin Luther King, Jr., March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963

Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet, April 3, 1964.

Paul Harvey, Freedom to Chains, 1965.

Martin Luther King, Jr., I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, April 3, 1968, Memphis, TN, the night before Reverend King was assassinated.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart, June 8, 1978, Harvard University commencement.

Ronald Reagan Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address, January 28, 1986.

Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987.

Spindrift and the Orchid by Emma Trevayne

spindrift: “(more rarely spoondrift)usually refers to spray, particularly to the spray blown from cresting waves during a gale. This spray, which “drifts” in the direction of the gale, is one of the characteristics of a wind speed of 8 Beaufort and higher at sea.” (Wikipedia)

Called Spindrift because she was rescued from the sea after a shipwreck that killed both of her parents, the girl who lives with her grandfather in the apartment above his shop of magical curiosities has only one keepsake from her childhood. Spindrift has a clear glass ball that has always only been a plaything, a reminder that someone cared enough to set her adrift, wrap her in a blanket, and place the glass bauble beside her in the boat. Now, though, things are starting to change. A mysterious man is looking for a black orchid. Spindrift’s grandfather has begun to share with her the letters that her mother sent to him long ago. And the glass orb has become something more, something powerful, something magical.

Maybe you should quit here if you’re going to read the book because the rest of this post may include spoilers. Is it a spoiler to say that I was reminded of Gollum and the One Ring as I read about Spindrift and her black orchid? I liked the friendship between Spindrift and her two besties, Clemence and Max. I liked the loving relationship between Spindrift and her grandfather. The plot was logical and made sense, but it wasn’t completely predictable. And I especially liked the ending.

I read a book, The House of Months and Years, by Emma Trevayne last year, and I wasn’t too impressed. This one is much better, and I plan to recommend it to LOTR fans, N.D. Wilson fans, and others who like magical quest stories.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.