Ordinary Magic

Hawkins, Rachel. Spell Bound.

This much anticipated third book in the Hex Hall series started off by making me laugh, as usual. "Sure, it's awesome when you're using (magic) to change your hair color, or fly, or turn day into night. But for the most part, magic tends to end in explosions, or tears, or with you flat on your back in the middle of nowhere, feeling like a tiny dwarf is mining for diamonds inside your head. Okay, so maybe that last bit was just me." (page 3). Sophie is back, having lost her magical powers, but she is accompanied by the ghost of her friend Elodie. When she is attacked by members of the Brannicks, she ends up in their compound, where she finds her mother who is... a Brannick. This is a problem, since they hunt evil and consider Sophie's demon heritage a negative even though without her powers she is just human. This, too, is a problem because the Brannicks had hoped that Sophie would fight with they against the Prodigium and help them win. Sophie has some other problems as well-- how can she choose between her fiance, Cal, and her boyfriend, Archer? Hate to say too much and spoil this, but suffice it to say that there are a lot of good spells, political machinations, a fair amount of fighting, and a very sad romantic twist. I'll be very interested to see what Ms. Hawkins writes next!
Strengths: The snarky humor makes this stand out in the vast sea of paranormalish books, and I liked that Sophie was key to the epic battle. I'm very glad that they didn't decide to change the cover-- the series looks awesome together.
Weaknesses: I find that I forget a lot of the details between books, so it would have been good to have a little more recap. Now that the entire series is out, readers can finish them all together, and this will be less of a problem.

Rubino-Bradway, Caitlin. Ordinary Magic.
Bloomsbury USA, 8 May 2012

On the day of her Judging, twelve-year-old Abby is very excited. After all, her older brothers and sisters are all doing well in their careers in magic, so chances are good her level will be really high as well. Unfortunately, Abby is an "ord" and has no magic at all. This is dangerous in her society, where "normal" means magicking up breakfast and being able to fly carpets! It also means that ords are discriminated against; Abby can no longer go to her regular school, and is in danger of being taken by adventurers who need ords to circumvent spells and magic creatures. Luckily, Abby's older sister Alexa works at a school for ords that King Steve is backing, thanks to new legislation he has put in place to make selling ord children illegal. Abby is whisked off to the school, and the students are taught the topics presented in "normal" schools but also multiple languages (in case they get kidnapped!) and how to fight off red cap goblins who want to eat them! These skills are good to have when Barbarian Mike makes yet another attempt to kidnap Abby, and is finally successful. She manages to escape, and bring this adventurer to justice with the help of the king. There are still some adventures awaiting the ords, however, and I smell a sequel in the offing!
Strengths: This was oddly intriguing, and magical realism is something a lot of the girls have been asking for. Even though Abby and her friends are without magic themselves, they are certainly surrounded by it!
Weaknesses: As intrigued as I was, I was also somewhat confused by the setting. While there are magical creatures, mages, and some medieval elements, it also feels like the setting is modern, with a house and bedrooms and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Reading an E-ARC of this and not seeing the cover didn't help, but I still am having trouble envisioning the world, and since I am not a fantasy aficionado, realizing the setting is very important to me.

Oh, to be in England.

Roy, Jennifer. Cordially Uninvited.

Claire is very excited that she gets to go to her cousin Belle's wedding... and even more excited because her cousin is marrying the future king of England and she gets to be a junior bridesmaid. She's kept the secret for the longest time while the two were dating, but the connection is leaked to the press and the paparazzi arrive at her house, so she and her mother go over earlier. While she is very glad to see her cousin, she is also interested in one of the young boys who is also going to be in the wedding. She is less than thrilled with Pandora, who is also a junior bridesmaid but for some reason thinks that she is fated to marry the prince and who tries to sabotage the wedding! There's a lot of London sight seeing, meeting of royals, and a budding romance for eleven year old Claire.

Strengths: This was very cleverly done. The royals are not really named, and described in vague ways that make them align a little with Prince Elizabeth, etc., but not so much that it will cause the book to be dated. The London descriptions are wonderful, and the rivalry with Pandora fun. The depiction of Belle as a loving cousin and commoner trying very hard to fit in are nice touches. Enjoyed tremendously.

Weaknesses: This would have been much more successful if the girls had been much older. I can't really buy romance books with eleven year olds as main characters. The Pandora story line especially was hard to swallow. Had the girls been about 17, it could still have been a book that middle school students liked (they like reading about older girls, anyway), and would have seemed more plausible to me.
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Churchyard, Kathleen. Bye For Now. (A Wishers Story)

Robin is fed up with her life-- she bonks heads with her younger sister and gives herself a black eye right before a big swim meet, doesn't do well, and then finds out she has head lice, so her birthday party is canceled. Blowing out the candles, she wishing she were someone else, and soon finds herself in England as Fiona Walker. Fiona is gorgeous, has quirky, artsy parents, and is starring in a professional stage production of Peter Pan. Sure, it's hard to figure out what's going on at school, Fiona's sister Jolene is really mean, and she finds herself missing her family. She turns to the computer to solve her problems, communicating with her brother's girlfriend Alia and finding out that she is a Wisher-- and eleven year old girl who has switched bodies. This apparently happens all the time. An India girl named Neera is in Robin's body, and Fiona is in the body of a Japanese gir, Naomi Nagata. Through a Facebook group, all of the Wishers try to coordinate how they can get back home, but once they realize that their twelfth birthday will mean the end of the ability to change, and since Naomi's birthday is very soon, they have to figure out a way to switch back. Will Robin be able to make it in time, or will she have to be Fiona forever?
Strengths: Lots of good details on British language and habits, and an interesting take on wanting to switch lives. Will buy this one to fill the need for books with magical realism, since there is also a little romance.

Weaknesses: Marginal cover, and again, I wish the main character were about 13, in order to make the romance seem more realistic. I personally dislike the use of texting and the reliance on Facebook, since that will date the story, but girls now will like it. I also was slightly confused by the large number of Wishers and found myself doubting that they would really be able to return to the right body!

Sunday Brunch

Diggs, Taye and Shane W. Evans. Chocolate Me.

Johnny, Timmy and Mark make fun of young Taye because he does not look like them, nor does he have a similar name. His hair is curly, his skin is dark, and his nose is wide. These comments make Taye doubt his own worth, but his supportive mother points out to him that he has many fine qualities, and is the same color as chocolate. She makes him cupcakes to share with his friends, who also agree that chocolate can be a good thing.

My favorite part of this book was the t shirts that Taye is wearing, all of which bear supportive messages like "Number 1 Son" and "Be Super". The pictures are colorful and appealing.

Pinkwater, Daniel. Mrs. Noodlekugel.

ARC from Netgalley.com

Nick and Maxine move into a tall apartment building and accidentally get a glimpse of a small house with a garden in the center of their block. They are told not to go there, but once they find that they can get to the area through the boiler room of their building, they go and meet Mrs. Noodlekugel, her talking cat, and her four nearsighted mice. It turns out that she will be their babysitter, but their parents told them not to visit her so that they would be more intrigued and get to meet her. (Is this a good lesson? Hmmm.) They bake some magical cookies with her, and get to find out a little about her world.

Strengths: The pictures are adorable, even in rough draft, and the premise is an intriguing ones.

Weaknesses: I was expecting something like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and while the set up is there, the follow through is not. In fact, when I got to the end of the book, I strongly suspected that half the pages were missing. Maybe this will be a series, so the book ended abruptly to entice children to pick up the next one, but I did have the distinct feeling that this was unfinished.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Beleated answers to Thursday's trivia. Yesterday, I was too busy saying how awesome Linda Gerber was!
1. In Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, what is the color of the dress that Miss Terwilliger wears in the giant ball o' yarn contest?
Robin Egg's Blue AND Pink. She unwound it to pad out her ball of yarn!
2. What is the very 1950's name of Henry Reed's best friend? Midge
3. What was the first mainstream audio CD sold in the US? Springsteen's Born in the USA.
4. What is appropriate apparel for librarians everywhere this coming January 18?
A Winnie-the-Pooh t shirt! It's the 130th anniversary of A.A. Milne's birth!
5.What is the state rock song of Ohio? Hang on Sloopy

Do children watch Saturday morning cartoons anymore? It was one of the few times that I watched as a child (Josie and the Pussycats was a particular favorite!), but my own children didn't watch much. Instead of letting 7-11 year olds watch cartoons, try giving them one of these books:

Bonnell, Lynne. Lawn Mower Magic.
EARC provided by Edelweiss' Above the Treeline.
The Willows have moved out to a somewhat remote house with a fair acreage. Derek misses his friends at his old home, and wants to get a train ticket and go visit, but money is tight. When the family lawn mower dies, Derek and his brothers and sister find an old rotary mower in the shed and start to tackle the huge job of mowing. It's much easier when they find that the mower is magic, and it happily drags them all over the yard, as well as over some hedges. Can Derek keep the lawn under control so the family doesn't have to buy a new mower, and he will have enough money for a train ticket?
Strengths: The second in a series (Hamster Magic is first) this was a fairly amusing Stepping Stone book vaguely reminiscent of the work of Ruth Chew. Since I have a rotary mower, I had to read it.
Weaknesses: Too young for middle school, and very weak on plot.

Hashimoto, Meika. The Magic Cake Shop.
Emma Burblee is a no nonsense ten year old who lies to bake and is very weary of her incredibly vain and self-involved parents. Her mother and father don't eat anything but carrots, have 80 step skin care routine, and care more about their business selling expensive hats than they do about Emma. When she disappoints them at her tenth birthday party, she is sent to live with her horrible Uncle Simon, who is a neglectful slob. The bright spot in her day is Mr. Crackle and his fantastic bakery. When she finds that her Uncle is in league with a villain who wants to force Mr. Crackle out of business by selling substandard bakery items fortified with "elixir of delight" that will make them irresistible, she has to find a way to stop him.
Strengths: The cover is SO pretty! Anything with cakes on the cover will get picked up, and this has an overall decent Roald Dahl/Lemony Snicket vibe to it that younger students might enjoy.
Weaknesses: While the extremely vain parents, horrible uncle, and magical baker started out not being too cloying, the level of whimsy got a bit much for me when sentences like "Well, why do't you and Albie plug in the blender and take care of the beans, squid, spleens, legs, sogs, and hegs while I deal with the tree, shick shack shree spizzle, and tea." (page 125) Really? This pushed it right out the middle school arena and down to elementary school for me.