Saturday Review of Books: November 12, 2016

Nov11

“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” ~Anne Lamott

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Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read.

Making America Great

Nov10

I began Tuesday morning, Election Day, by going to the polls to vote, along with Drama Daughter (21) who was voting in her first presidential election. We went early because Drama Daughter had to be at school by 8:30. We waited in line for maybe five minutes, voted, and came home. I did not vote for Donald Trump. I did not vote for Hillary Clinton. I knew that whatever happened the presidential election results were not going to fill me with hope for the future of this nation. But that’s O.K. My hope and my encouragement come from another source, not from the political system or the elected officials in our government.

After voting on Tuesday, I wrote a letter to my son. I told him that even though I believed she was corrupt and untrustworthy, and even though her views on abortion, religious liberty, human sexuality, marriage and many other vital subjects, were anathema to me, it looked as if Hillary Clinton would become the first female president of the United States. And, I told him in my less than prescient letter, that we would survive. (Well, the survival part was good, anyway.) Not that it didn’t matter who won the election. Certainly it mattered to many babies as yet unborn, to women who would be coerced and tricked into disposing of their own children, to children who would be told that their gender and their sexuality were both inborn and unchangeable and at the same time malleable according to their own feelings. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, girls would be told that they could become anything they wanted, including becoming POTUS (good!), but also including becoming boys (impossible!). If Hillary Clinton had been elected, we would be approving of one set of laws for the poor and the middle class and another set for the rich and powerful.

On the other hand, I had already looked very carefully at what it would mean for the United States and for me and my family if Donald Trump were elected president, especially if he were elected with a majority of the votes of evangelical Christians. I am an evangelical Christian. Although I am tired of the media and the pollsters dividing Americans into tribes and ethnic groups and religious groups and socioeconomic groups, if I have a tribe, that’s mine. I am a person who claims the name of Christian. I follow Jesus. And I was and am deeply troubled by the thought that the majority of “my tribe” is following, or at least acquiesced to, Donald Trump, a man who personifies many of the things that I most hate: misogyny, disregard for the power and meaning of words, and hubris. I am told that over 80% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. That makes me sad, and I am concerned that Christians, whether we want to be or not, will be tied in the public mind to the policies and mistakes and tragedies of the Trump presidency. I am concerned that the name of Jesus will be misunderstood and vilified. I am also concerned for families of immigrants, legal and illegal, for minorities, for survivors of abuse, and for many others who are fearful and worried about living in a country where Mr. Trump is president.

Some Clinton supporters yesterday and today were posting a list of liberal organizations and causes in need of contributions from those who oppose Donald Trump and all he stands for. They wanted to give people who were grieving and angry at Mr. Trump’s election something positive to do for this country and its people. I can’t contribute to most of those causes because they are pro-abortion organizations that promote the very objectivization of women that they accuse Donald Trump of supporting. Male and female babies in the womb deserve our care and protection; girls and women outside the womb deserve our care and protection. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump could be trusted to care about women (or men) at every stage of life. That’s why this election was so hard. That’s the elephant in the room. If the media wants to divide us into warring groups, I believe the factor most predictive of a vote for either Trump or Clinton was whether the voter was pro-life or pro-choice.

But I don’t want us to be at war with ourselves. We already fought one civil war, and although the result of that war was the great good of ending slavery, it also left us with great wounds and bitterness as a people, some of which still remain to this day. I don’t know how to resolve this deep divide, but I think we’re going to have to start by communicating with one another. We’re going to have to talk to one another about hard stuff—racism, abortion, sexuality, moral standards, what it means to be male and female—without name-calling and without violence and without silencing each other. Free speech along with “free listening” beget understanding and maybe even real tolerance.

In that previously mentioned letter, I told my son that after Hillary Clinton became president, the real work of making America great would be left up to us, the American people. In particular, Christians are called to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world. What I told my son about the work we would be called to after Ms. Clinton was elected is just as true now that Mr. Trump is preparing to become our 45th president. We must do the work of healing relationships, building community, listening to one another, and making not just America, but the world, great and safe and forgiving and kind and freely yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Specifically, I hope to be doing the following things to heal and make our country great:

1. I will be praying for President-elect Donald Trump as I have prayed for President Obama. I will also pray for the many other political leaders in our country and around the world, that they will restrain evil, eschew pride, and use their power wisely and carefully for the good of others.

2. I will ask people who voted for Donald Trump and people who voted for Hillary Clinton to explain to me WHY they voted as they did. I will ask them what they hope for and what they fear. I will try to listen and understand, and when I do not agree, I will still respect and show love to the person I disagree with.

3. I will celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and with my church family, and I will try to find ways to make those holidays meaningful and encouraging for all of those people who are my immediate encouragers and responsibility.

4. I will continue to contribute, not to pro-abortion causes or to political causes, but to small groups that are doing large things to make this world better: an orphanage in Zambia, a ministry to women who are trapped in the sex trade in Waco, missionaries in Nepal, a counseling ministry that will be working mostly with refugees and immigrants in Ohio. Choose your own places to give; give lots of money or just a little , as you can, or give your time to volunteer. But generous giving is one way to change the world.

5. I will carefully post encouraging and insightful words on Twitter and on Facebook and on this blog. I will think before I write and pray before I post.

6. I will smile and greet people I see at the grocery store or the post office or other places, especially people who are of another ethnic group or religious group or who just look as if they need the boost of a smile and the reassurance of a friendly greeting. I plan to go the extra mile to show that there are many, many Americans, Democrats and Republicans, who are not hateful, not racist, not misogynistic, and not intolerant.

7. I will share the gospel–in letters, in phone calls, in person, with words and with deeds. I truly believe that the good news of peace with God through Jesus Christ is the only thing that can bring peace between people. If you don’t believe that or don’t understand it, let’s talk about it. Tell me why you don’t believe in Jesus, and I will tell why I do. Maybe it’s true that America will only be great again when individual Americans come to repentance and understanding in Him.

You may or may not agree with everything I have written in this blog post. That’s OK. We are different people, and we have different ways of seeing the world. Right now I want to know: what specific things are you doing in the next few weeks or months to make things better, to truly make America great, to bring healing to our nation?

The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz

Nov3

The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz.

I hate books that seem to say, “Oh, kids like gross, nasty, slimy stuff. Let’s take the really loathsome parts of this tale and make them the centerpiece of the narrative because that will draw the kids in.” That’s what I wrote about Mr. Gidwitz’s book, In a Glass Grimmly, and it applies to this story, too. It’s a shame that this author has such a penchant for poops and farts and crude humor because otherwise he’s a good writer. The scatological attempts at humor aren’t usually very funny, and they just don’t add to the story at all.

The story: On a dark night in the year 1242, travelers from across France cross paths at an inn and begin to tell stories of three children: Jeanne, a peasant girl who has visions, William, an oblate who is half-Saracen and half French, and Jacob, a Jewish boy with a gift for healing. These children may be saints, or they may be using evil magic to do wonders that will deceive the faithful. And the dog, Gwenforte, who once saved a child from a deadly serpent, may be resurrected, but can a dog really be a saint? The children’s adventures take them from a farting dragon to a meeting with the king to a plot to save the illicit, mostly Jewish, books that are scheduled for burning by Good King Louis and his mother, Blanche of Castile.

So, Louis IX and his mother were real people, and so were several of the other characters in the novel. The three children are composite character, partly taken from the hagiographic stories of medieval saints and partly from Mr. Gidwitz’s fertile imagination. Other real medieval characters in the book include: Chretien de Troyes, a late 12th century poet and trouvare, Francis Bacon, the late medieval (1561-1626) scientist and philosopher, Rabbi Rashi of Troyes, an 11th century Jewish scholar, and various other minor characters imported from the pages of medieval French stories and poems. In addition, the girl, Jeanne, bears an affinity to Joan of Arc, the storytelling reminds one of Chaucer, and the burning in Paris of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books actually took place in 1243.

So, as he did in his other series of books based on Grimm’s fairy tales, Mr. Gidwitz took the elements from several French, and even British, lives and tales of the middle ages and stirred them into a stew which turned out to be something completely different. And it could have been a delight. Instead, it’s sort of a mish-mosh of good scenes and bad, crude and insightful, funny and flat. If I could extract the bad parts and leave in the good, I would recommend it.

The illustrations, or illuminations, that adorn the pages of this medieval tale are a delight.

For a much more thorough and positive review of The Inquisitor’s Tale, check out this post by Sara Masarik at Plumfield and Paideia.

What’s New in the Library? November 1, 2016

Nov1

These are just a few of the books that I’ve recently added to my private subscription library for homeschoolers and others in southeast Houston, Meriadoc Homeschool Library:

Finding Providence: The Story of Roger Williams by Avi. With lovely illustrations by James Watling, this I Can Read Chapter Book tells the story of the hero of religious liberty, Roger Williams, from the point of view of his daughter, Mary. The book has five very short chapters, and the text by Avi is thorough, but simple and straightforward. I have another book about Roger Williams for more advanced readers, Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams by Jeanette Eaton.

Ten Brave Men: Makers Of The American Way by Sonia Daugherty. With illustrations by Sonia’s husband, Newbery award winning author, James Daugherty. The stories include the following men: William Bradford, Roger Williams, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln.

Tales From Far and Near and Tales of Long Ago (History Stories of Other Lands) by Arthur Guy Terry. World history in story form, perfect for reading aloud.

Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant. The one is a brand-new picture book biography written by the very talented author of The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus. Six Dots concentrates on the few years in his life when Louis Braille was busily inventing braille writing, in his early teens! At age fifteen, Braille had essentially perfected braille writing, a magnificent invention that “has had a lasting and profound impact on so many people.” Helen Keller compared Louis Braille to Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press.

We Were There at the Battle of the Alamo by Margaret Cousins, historical consultant, Walter Prescott Webb. There were about 35 or 40 books of historical fiction published by Grosset and Dunlap in the We Were There series. Each volume has both an author and a historical consultant. Mr. Webb, who was a renowned Texas historian during the first half of the twentieth century, was president of the Texas State Historical Association for many years. He also launched the project that produced the Handbook of Texas. So, if his name is on the book, it’s historically accurate. And Mrs. Cousins, who wrote a couple of the Landmark series books, Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia and The Story of Thomas Alva Edison, was also an accomplished writer for children and a respected biographer. She also wrote The Boy in the Alamo, another Alamo story. Other We Were There historical fiction in Meriadoc Homeschool Library:
We Were There with Cortes and Montezuma by Benjamin Appelt.
We Were There on the Oregon Trail by William O. Steele.
We Were There on the Santa Fe Trail by Ross McLaury Taylor.
We Were There With the California Rancheros by Stephen Holt.
We Were There at the First Airplane Flight by Felix Sutton.
We Were There With Caesar’s Legions by Robert N. Webb.
A few of the books in this exciting and educational series are available from the public library as e-books. Most of them are not available in any form at Houston or Harris County Public Library.

I also acquired several volumes in the Makers of History series by brothers, Jacob and John Abbott. Jan Bloom says of the thirty-two volumes in the series that they are “interesting, well-written, and full of insights into the people the brothers thought were important.” These books are for older students, junior high and high school, even college age. Of the thirty-two, I have the books profiling the following “makers of history”: Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, Empress Josephine, William the Conqueror, Henri IV of France, Marie Antionette, Darius the Great Xerxes the Great, Alfred the Great, Cyrus the Great, Pyrrhus, Mary Queen of Scots, Peter the Great, Genghis Khan, Joseph Bonaparte, and Romulus.

So many treasures to read, so little time.

Spooky Middle Grade Fiction

Oct31

Curse of the Boggin: The Library, Book 1 by D.J.MacHale. In a Library where books involving ghosts and superstitions and curses and monstrous beings are “finished” as they are lived out in the real world, Marcus and his two best friends, Annabella Lu and Theo McLean, work together to solve the supernatural mysteries and lay the ghosts to rest. This is the introductory volume in a projected series of supernatural (spooky) adventures. In the introduction to this introduction, the author tells his readers, “Once you’ve read the first book, you can read the rest in any order. Each will hold a unique tale that doesn’t necessarily rely on any of the others.” That’s a good plan, except that I found this first book to be a little bit un-scary and unbelievable. I couldn’t ever figure out what the rules were for what the Boggin (a kind of ghostly witch-hag, very evil) could and couldn’t do. Maybe if you like horror and ghost stories (I don’t really, unless there’s some other attractive element to add to the ghosts), you’ll like it better than I did.

The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart by Lauren DeStefano is definitely peculiar. However, it’s not clear until the final chapters of the book whether the “blue heart” is about demon possession, mental illness, werewolves, ghosts, feral children, or something else entirely. The book has two main characters, Lionel and Marybeth, who live in a sort of orphanage/foster home with the loving but overworked Mrs. Mannerd. Marybeth is a good girl, healthy, obedient and kind, and Lionel is . . . peculiar. He pretends to be a wolf or a bear or a monkey from time to time, and he eats most of his meals under the table, vegetarian only. Lionel and Marybeth are friends, in spite of their very different personalties, so when the “blue heart” (whatever it really is) takes over Marybeth’s mind and body, Lionel is determined to at least act like a normal human being in order to save her. I think this one is way too disturbing for middle grade readers.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge is creepy, too. Faith SUnderly is a proper Victorian young lady who has always been told, and who believes, that she is inferior in every way to men. Her father, the Reverend Sunderly is not only a cleric but also a world famous paleontologist. Faith, too is interested in science and in anything that will impress her father and get him to pay attention to her, but when she begins to learn more about her father’s research, she also finds herself enmeshed in a web of lies and deceit that won’t let go. This one is about Darwinian evolution, and feminism, and of course, lies. The plot was compelling and kept me reading, but I thought the ending was unsatisfying. Also, Faith is fifteen years old, and the themes will be more interesting to high schoolers and adults than to middle grade readers. However, it is a Halloween-ish read.

I also read these Halloween-ish ghost stories from this year: The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari and School of the Dead by Avi.

Best ghost story of 2016 (so far) goes to one I haven’t read yet: Lockwood & Co., Book Four: The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud. If you want a little wit and banter in your ghostly Halloween read, you should really try the Lockwood and Company series, starting with The Screaming Staircase, progressing to The Whispering Skull, and then The Hollow Boy. If you’ve read and enjoyed those three, you’ll want to read The Creeping Shadow, which is what I am picking for my Halloween read.

Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung

Oct29

Chloe Cho is tired of the Asian jokes, tired of people not knowing whether she’s Chinese or Japanese (she’s Korean), and tired of being compared to famous violinist Abigail Yang. She’s fed up with being the only Asian kid in school and her family being the only Asian family in town. Chloe is also tired of the way her parents avoid the subject of their Korean heritage. Whenever she asks about their childhood or about Korean culture or about how they came to America, all she gets are vague answers and a quick change of subject.

However, Chloe is about to find that things can get worse and that discovering more about her real heritage is more than she can handle: “‘Upset’ was so not the right word. There really wasn’t any one word that captured it all; only a phrase would do, like ‘head in a blender.'”

The writing style in this book is epitomized in that quote. It’s breezy, contemporary, and colloquial. Chloe is a sarcastic over-achiever, a drama queen, and prone to fly off the handle and YELL a lot. Nevertheless, as they say, “she has a good heart.” I wouldn’t understand or even like Chloe very much if I didn’t have a relative of my own who is very much like Chloe. Volcano-like, frequently erupting, then simmering down, the Chloes of this world can be difficult, but they can also be fiercely loyal and tenacious friends.

Unidentified Suburban Object has a lot to say about ethnic diversity and expectations and stereotypes, but it’s not a “heavy” novel. It’s funny, in a sarcastic way, and clever in so far as the plot twist at the center of the novel goes. I think kids will enjoy the story, the interesting shift in perspective, and the very realistic characters. And they might learn something about racism and self-acceptance in a non-threatening and subtle way—which is, of course, the best and most effective way to learn those lessons.

Saturday Review of Books: October 29, 2016

Oct28

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world, to fit the inheritance of generations” ~Henry David Thoreau

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Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read.

Ollie’s Odyssey by William Joyce

Oct28

Cutting-edge and in touch with contemporary concerns (Creepy Clown Craze), this book needs its own trigger warning. Zozo, the villain of this piece, is a Creepy Clown, and his trashy flunkies, made of random toy parts, are rather sinister, too. Coulrophobics, this book is NOT for you.

Zozo, the clown king, and his toy henchmen, the Creeps, have sworn to steal and imprison “Faves” (favorite toys) in their subterranean lair beneath a defunct carnival. When Billy’s favorite toy, Ollie, is stolen, Billy sets out to rescue Ollie. Will they ever be able to find each other again? Or will the hatred of the heartless Zozo triumph?

Ollie’s Odyssey is precious, very, very precious, Velveteen Rabbit precious. Toy Story precious. In fact, if either of those stories is your favorite, then Ollie’s Odyssey is a sure bet. Otherwise, you may overdose on the sweetness—or get scared silly by the evil clown. There are a few internal inconsistencies, mainly having to do with how or why or by what logic things come to life or don’t. A lot of normally inanimate objects—junk from the junkyard, old toys, carnival paraphernalia, tin cans–come to life in this odyssey, but it was never clear how or why some things could move and communicate while others couldn’t. Or some things could move around by themselves sometimes, but not at other times.

Otherwise, the story is well told, like a movie, complete with memorable characters and movie-ready accents and speech patterns. I could imagine this story with computer animated or claymation characters, and I would guess that the author was imagining it that way as he wrote. From the creator of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, one would expect no less, and the beautiful illustrations add to the movie-effect. (Fantastic Flying Books “was created using computer animation, miniatures and traditional hand-drawn techniques.” And according to Wikipedia, “Joyce created conceptual characters for Disney/Pixar’s feature films Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998).”) I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about the movie version of Ollie’s Odyssey sometime in the future.

In the meantime, since it’s written about a six year old, but the almost 300 pages will be a little too much for most six, or even seven and eight, year olds to handle on their own, I would suggest Ollie’s Odyssey as a read-aloud book. Or just wait for the movie.

The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari

Oct27

Ever since twelve year old Charlie Price’s mom died of cancer, his dad has been gone, too—absentminded, working late, not really there when he is home. Charlie misses his mom. Charlie’s little sister Imogen misses mom, too. Charlie also misses his best friend, Frank, who just disappeared (kidnapped? runaway?) several months ago.

Everything goes from bad to worse when Charlie tries to make Mom’s special spaghetti sauce and fails spectacularly, and then Imogen wishes for the impossible: she wants to live with Mom again and forget about Charlie and their dad.

“Sometimes you can make the impossible happen.” That’s the tagline on the cover of The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, and Imogen’s wish does come true. Unfortunately, to paraphrase The Rolling Stones, when you get what you think you want, you don’t always get what you need. Charlie, Imogen, Frank, and another friend, Elliott, are all in for a big surprise when they try to reclaim their deceased loved ones.

Bibliotherapy disguised as fantasy. It’s disguised pretty well, but just as Charlie Price didn’t get much from the school psychologist and her “grief group”, I’m not sure how effective this book is going to be in healing or alleviating the grief of children who have lost a loved one or family member. Maybe it would be helpful for some. Different strokes.

Remarkable Journey is a debut novel for Ms. Maschari. The writing is good, characters are okay, plotting works. A little less death and angst (three deaths of intimate family members and one disappearance?) might have been adequate.

Magic in the Village

Oct26

The Wrinkled Crown by Anne Nesbet.
Time Stoppers by Carrie Jones.


The “wrinkled” or magical mountain village of Lourka where “stories have a way of coming true.”

A twelve year old girl named Linny who breaks the law and makes her own musical instrument, also called a lourka.

Linny’s best friend and almost twin, Sayra, who pays the price for Linny’s rule-breaking.

Add in the apprentice, Elias, a wrinkled half-cat, and the city of Bend at the foot of the mountains where the people are divided between wrinkled and plain, magical and logical, tradition and progress. Linny must find the medicine in Bend that will cure Sayra, but she also runs into numerous other obstacles and diversions that take her into danger, conflict, and finally, a very hard decision. Will she be able to take the medicine back to Lourka to cure Sayra, or is she the prophesied Girl With the Lourka who must stay in Bend and save everyone?

I found this story slow going, and by the time the action picked up in the middle, I still didn’t really care about the characters. And the ending was . . . weird, probably a set-up for a sequel. Which I probably won’t read. However, if the synopsis of the first part of the novel sounds like something you would enjoy, you might get more out of it than I did.

Time Stoppers features another magical village in the mountains where magical creatures like elves and dwarfs and hags and witches go to be safe. They are protected by a garden gnome. Yes, a magical garden gnome statue protects the village of Aurora until it is stolen by trolls. And little Annie Nobody is the child who is destined to be a Time Stopper, find the gnome, bring it back to Aurora, and defeat the evil Each Uisge and the Raiff. With her friend Jamie, the dwarf fighter Eva, and the elf Bloom, Annie does manage to complete some, but not all, of those tasks, leaving plenty of room for Time Stoppers, Book Two.

The action in this one was non-stop, but the whole thing was an outlandish caricature from the beginning. The bad guys, trolls, are horribly, outrageously bad. They eat children, but also before they chow down, they abuse them, refuse to feed them, send them out to sleep with the dogs/wolves, make them smell underwear(?), cackle at them, insult them, etc. The trolls are ridiculously bad, almost laughable, but then they’re not really funny because they are abusive in ugly, bad-parent ways. And the good magical beings of Aurora also behave in outsized, but stereotypical ways. Eva is a loudmouthed, battle-hungry, boastful, warrior maiden. Bloom is quietly strong and spends most of his time annoyed with Eva, which is understandable. Annie and Jamie are bewildered and timid, just happy to find themselves in Aurora where the trolls can’t get them, until the trolls, and other creatures even worse, invade. Then, Annie and Jamie are told that they must be brave.

The Wrinkled Crown felt dream-like (Alice in Wonderland) and over-wrought, with too many directions for Linny to follow and too many tasks to complete. Time Stoppers felt grotesque and buffoonish, slapstick but not very funny. Kirkus says about The Wrinkled Crown: “With hints of a sequel to come, this agreeable adventure introduces an appealing, spunky heroine and sets the stage for more conflict and compromise to come.” And SLJ called Time Stoppers: “”An imaginative blend of fantasy, whimsy, and suspense, with a charming cast of underdog characters.”

I just don’t think either of these is the best middle grade fantasy has to offer.