Cybils Reading Part V

Most of my reading is from the Cybils nominated books.

My category is Middle Grade Speculative Fiction. Thank goodness I belong to two spectacular library systems, King County (kcls) and Seattle, so I can get a lot of the books.

 I Read:






Creature of the Pines, Adam Gidwitz. This is on the younger side, but fun and nicely set specifically in New Jersey. A shy new boy meets up with an adventuresome girl on a field trip where they accidentally adopt a mythical creature and find out about the bad guy industrialist collector and the good guys protective services. It's a bit top-heavy with the series set up but a quick and good read.

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, Jonathan Auxier. A lovely AU that mixes magic and realism in a subtle way, grounded in the lack of distinction a young girl makes between the two. As a young child she accepts that her father is capable of miracles; looking back as a preadolescent she can see the starker reality but still accepts the magic in his final gift. The side characters would be improbably as mains (the boy especially) but they work as adjuncts to her story as the monster grows.

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, Christina Uss. I listened to the audio version of this, and it was great! Once I accepted the idea of a kid traveling across America on her own, a plot that was made easier to swallow once she acquired a ghost riding along and haunting her bicycle, I just relaxed and enjoyed her adventures and friendships. I liked how the situations were allowed to be super quirky but the characters were more grounded so I could emotionally connect without letting my common sense stress me out.

Bob, Wendy Mass. A girl returns to her grandmother's house after five years and has to figure out what her five year old self had been up to on her forgotten previous visit. Of course the reader figures it out much quicker, but it was fun seeing the comparison between the wise ten year old and the younger self seen only through her actions and Bob's memories.

The Magic of Melwick Orchard, Rebecca Caprara. A child discovers a magical artifact in her garden. This traditional trope is done very well, with the girl learning about and bonding with the magical tree that grants wishes, enlisting a new friend to help. Meanwhile outside life is particularly dire, as is traditional in modern stories -- her little sister has cancer and as this is America treatment is bankrupting the family and may force them to sell the land out from under the magic.