Fantasy

Adele in Sand Land by Claude Ponti

ADELE IN SAND LAND
Written and illustrated by Claude Ponti
(Toon Books; $12.95, Ages 3 and up)

 

Adele in Sand Land by Claude Ponti cvr

 

Adele in Sand Land  by Claude Ponti is an ideal read for summer, especially for children eager to read on their own. Toon Books excels at its mission to provide easy-to-read comics in hardcover format with highly accessible content for children starting with Level 1 (First Comics for Brand New Readers) all the way through to Level 3 (Chapter-Book Comics For Advanced Beginners). This particular book, rated Level 1, will appeal to children as young as age 3 while geared for a reading level of K-1.

Originally published in French in 1988, this delightful story with its Alice in Wonderland-like fantastical plot line features a buoyant main character named Adele and her stuffed doll, Stuffy. Adele in Sand Land takes youngsters on an imaginative adventure spanning 48 colorful pages along with Adele and her charismatic cohorts Stuffy, Sandy and Masked Chicken. The action begins at her neighborhood sandbox, then inside a Sand Dragon, up to the top of the world, onto a dessert island (yes, that’s not a typo) with many other wondrous stops in-between, all before returning to the sandbox where Adele’s imagination first took flight.

Ponti wastes no time in introducing readers to a bevy of whimsical characters in the frames of the comics as the sandbox and everything around it begins to magically transform into a zany parallel universe where trees morph into birds, sand toys are caged inside a dragon and a rescued furball creature helps save the day. If you think that sounds inventive, there’s more! Ponti’s entertaining illustrations invite youngsters to explore every single image in every panel on every page because he’s managed to put such fun into every picture. Whether looking at people with “books and pots and pans to cover their heads,” a hot-dog tree or an enormous nosed Snack Man, readers won’t want to skip over a millimeter of artwork because you simply don’t know what unexpected treats you’ll find.

Prepare for numerous re-readings of this creative tale to experience the joyous journey that is Adele in Sand Land.

 

  • Reviewed by Ronna Mandel

 

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Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Hilary Taber tells us about Neil Gaiman’s newest book, Fortunately, the Milk with illustrations by Skottie Young, (Harper Collins Children’s Books, $14.99, Ages 8-12). Click here for Mouse Circus, the official Neil Gaiman Website for Young Readers.

Fortunately, The Milk by Neil GaimanA Tall Tale Well Told

“We have come to your planet from a world very far away,” said the people in the disc.

I call them people, but they were a bit green and rather globby and they looked very grumpy indeed.

“Now, as a representative of your species, we demand that you give us ownership of the whole planet. We want to remodel it.”

“I jolly well won’t,” I said.

One day two children are left alone with their father for the weekend. Their mother is gone on a business trip. The last thing their Mum told their Dad was, “Oh, and we’re almost out of milk. You’ll need to pick some up.” Time passes and suddenly the brother and sister duo inform their Dad that there is no milk for their “Toastios”. After waiting for Dad to come back with the milk, “For ages…” he finally returns with the milk and a tale to tell. This is a tale of high adventure involving aliens, pirates, a Professor Stegosaurus who pilots a floating balloon/time machine, and all of these combined together make for the perfect blend of humor, imagination, and two skeptical children who wonder if Dad is just making it all up. Maybe he is, and maybe he isn’t. You will have to read this wonderful book yourself to find out!

I found this book just cheered me up so much. Jumping from adventure to adventure was great fun, and Skottie Young’s illustrations make a wonderful second voice to all the incredible situations that could befall one father trying to get milk for
his “breakfastless” children. This book is sure to please younger readers, and their fathers (especially those fathers who like to tell a tall tale or two). You could not have picked a better book for an amusing read aloud that would please anyone in your family. In fact, I ended up reading it aloud to my family! Gaiman’s signature style shines through with a sly, humorous, but well intended wink to the reader, plenty of jokes, and plot twists galore. You can also purchase this as an audio book, and your family may sit together to listen to Neil Gaiman tell you his story himself. He even does the voices well, so you know you are in good hands. Fortunately, the Milk is an ideal audio book to take on a road trip for it will be sure to amuse everyone. Highly recommended reading! This book left me wondering if a bottle of milk, used correctly of course in all situations by a highly intelligent Dad, could actually save the world? Well, as Professor Stegosaurs says, “Where there is milk there is hope.”

Click here for Neil Gaiman’s blog.

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The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog by Frances Sackett

MIDDLE GRADE MAGIC FROM HOLIDAY HOUSE

This middle grade novel is ideal for fantasy fans interested in the power of enchantment and love.
This middle grade novel is ideal for fantasy fans interested in the power of enchantment and love.

The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog, (Holiday House Inc., $16.95, ages 8-12) by Frances Sackett, is reviewed by Rita Zobayan.

For children who are interested in reading books about magic but who aren’t ready for the intensity and length of the Harry Potter series, The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog by Frances Sackett might provide a good introduction.  At 178 pages and presented in easy-to-understand language, Misadventures is about Peter, a 12-year-old who adopts a magical, talking dog. The Dog, as he is known, is on a quest to rescue his previous owner, a magician who has succumbed to the dark allure of magic, and he needs Peter’s help. Peter, however, has his own agenda in helping The Dog. He will help rescue the magician because he needs the magician’s help to bring his father home from his third tour of duty.

While Peter nibbled on his toast and scrambled eggs, his thoughts went something like this:

1. He understood how to do magic and could do it if he wanted.

2. He had promised Izzy [his younger sister] he wouldn’t do magic.

3. Doing magic might make him angry.

4. If he did magic, maybe he could bring his father home.

                  Four was the sticking point… But his father—how could Peter not use magic to get his father back?

Misadventures is about more than just a magical quest. It includes elements of family dynamics—Peter’s relationship with his parents and sisters—as well as issues of self-esteem. Peter is an “army brat,” moving from city to city and school to school. He has a hard time making friends and fitting in, and he is not even close to brimming with confidence. He feels the burden of the being the “man of the house” while his father is away, and has a rocky relationship with one of his sisters, Celia. Misadventures ties these very real, everyday issues and the emotional brunt they bear to Peter’s ability to help The Dog, and, ultimately, his own family and himself.

An entertaining and discussion-provoking read, The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog is a solid step into the fantasy genre.

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A New Golden Age of Epic Fantasy Fiction Shines On

Seraphina ($17.99, Random House Book for Young Readers, ages 12 and up) is reviewed today by Jason Carpenter.

When George Lucas conceived of his Star Wars galaxy, he saw beyond the here and now of giving the people a rousing good yarn. He envisioned a mythology, a world logical and responsible only unto itself, with fantastical creatures that nonetheless felt of flesh and blood.  And like Tolkien before him and Rowling after, the devil- or the grip of imagination- is in the details. 

Rachel Hartman infuses her expansive new novel Seraphina– the saga of an uneasy alliance between mistrustful species (sound familiar?) and the young royal court’s musician who may end up being the key to ultimate harmony or lynchpin to inevitable war- with an eye for Joseph Campbell-like character and plot machinations and an adherence to a painstakingly created medieval alternaverse.

The oppositional species are, in this case, humans and dragons, and as Seraphina begins, a murder of a member of the royal court bearing the trademark savagery of a dragon attack threatens to derail the anniversary celebration of a historical, but tenuous, peace treaty between the two sides. In the midst of this pomp, Hartman also fully realizes the emergence of a young girl’s identity, the fiercely astute Seraphina, torturous as it may be to discover that her mother was a dragon. In a genre dominated by young empowered male principals, it’s  a wonderfully acute choice.

Seraphina’s intended demographic, the young and young-at-heart, has proven they can handle the layered storylines, philosophical yearnings, and literal hundreds of major and minor characters that populate the modern fantasy epic. Indeed, Harry Potter’s enduring legacy may just be that it made digging intellectual sword and sorcery lit cool for a fresh generation of make-believers. This novel follows that template elegantly, and at over 450 pages with accompanying glossary, it’s weighty, as well.  The payoff- and it’s not the metaphoric allusions to our own world’s penchant for xenophobia- is in the small quirks of some strongly drawn supporting characters, particularly the reluctantly compassionate dragon mentor Orma, who cares for Seraphina in a way that his dragon demeanor would be loathe to reveal.

Seraphina does rise to rousing good yarn status, but its greatest triumph is in depicting grotesqueries that are anything but and a world that often doesn’t feel that far, far away after all.

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Fridays Featuring Flintridge – For Fantasy Lovers

Want Your Kids to Read? Be a Reader–a message from Catherine Linka

If we want our children to eat their peas, we get there by eating our own peas with enthusiasm. We model the behavior we want so they will follow our example.

So if you value reading, you need to model it. And that means, making time to read in front of your child. Turn off the TV, the computer, your phone and sit down and read where they can see you–not just in bed after the kids are down for the night.

Andrew Smith, teacher and author, insists that it is especially important for fathers to model for their sons that reading is masculine.  He says that boys “ look at what their father does, and what their older brother does and what their best friends do.”

Be a reader to raise a reader.

Books for Fantasy Lovers Who’ve Read Everything

THE UNWANTEDS ($16.99,  Aladdin) by Lisa McCann – My pick for kid-pleasing. At 13, kids are tested and sorted into Wanted and Unwanted and the Unwanteds are taken off to be executed. But it turns out that what looks like a prison is really a sanctuary that takes creative, artistic, musical kids and turns their talents into strengths when the Wanteds invade. Gentler than HUNGER GAMES, but with lots of action. (ages 8+)

EMERALD ATLAS ($7.99, Yearling) by John Stephens – Our community read One Summer-One Book for kids. A little like NARNIA, a little like A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, a little like LORD OF THE RINGS. The first in a trilogy. The second is due this fall. For the strong reader 9+. It has three brave kids, an evil countess, a magical book, terrifying Screechers and donut-loving dwarves. Funny and scary. (now in paper, ages 9+)

NO PASSENGERS BEYOND THIS POINT ($6.99, Puffin) by Gennifer Choldenko -Now in paperback. Unlike Choldenko’s other realistic fiction, this story follows three children who tumble into a fantastical world where their every desire if fulfilled–except their desire to leave. Appealing to both guys and girls. (ages 10+)

GHOST KNIGHT ($16.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) by Cornelia Funke -Set in a present day English boarding school, a boy calls upon the ghost of a famous knight to fend off the other ghosts who are threatening him. Funke’s setting is real and many of the ghost knights she introduces were real people whose brief bios she includes at the end. (ages 10+)

THE FALSE PRINCE ($17.99, Scholastic Press) by Jennifer Nielsen -A conniving noble trains four street urchins to impersonate a missing prince. Only one will survive the training as the noble attempts to take over the throne. Twists and turns and double-crosses. Lots of action. So well-written an adult would love to read it aloud. (ages 13+)

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Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, a Graphic Novel For Kids Worth Exploring

Reinterpreting the Anthology For a New Generation

Reviewed today by Jason Carpenter

Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone’s enduring legacy has been the impact it’s had on short form storytelling and the generation-spanning celebration of the paranormal-infused science fiction/fantasy genre.  But, alas, for the demographic born after 1990, television has failed to deliver the next culture-defining anthology program.  Perhaps with Explorer: The Mystery Boxes ($10.95 paperback, $19.95 hardcover, Amulet Books, ages 9 and up), as edited by Amulet creator Kazu Kibuishi, with stories by a host of other artists and writers, the graphic novel format will carry the torch of those well-told– often replete with  jaw-dropping, gut-punching finales– morality plays that possess more than a touch of the bizarre.

Explorer holds seven short tales, including one by Kibuishi himself, connected thematically by one element: each work has its own manifestation of a magical, mystical, or otherwise pedestrian-seeming box.  The boxes, whether harboring treasure or inciting mischief, are really the crystal pools in which the true nature of the protagonists are reflected.  The seven stories vary in tone and atmosphere, from the comic to the otherworldly, and, as is wont with anthology compendiums, they achieve varying levels of success.

Chief among the standouts are Emily Carroll’s “Under the Floorboards”; in it, a young girl discovers a duty-bound wax doll that may be evolving (or devolving) into a spiteful doppelgänger.  Carroll’s grim fairy tale plays out like a minimalist hybrid of the gothic whimsy of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time series and the psychological interior of Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning graphic novel Persepolis.  It’s also the closest in spirit to Serling’s odes to the macabre. Rad Sechrist’s “The Butter Thief” adopts an outline-free aesthetic reminiscent of Genndy Tartakovsky’s elegant Samurai Jack animated series, and is the most action-packed and oddly moving of the bunch.

The scope and spiritual ambition of the Explorer: The Mystery Boxes compilation is admirable– the mystery is why it isn’t attempted more often.

To learn more about Jason, please visit About Our Reviewers page by clicking here.

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One Camel, Two Kids and Five Skies!

In  Adventures With Kazmir The Flying Camel: The Five Skies by Gina L. Vivona, readers will find enough amazing exploits to keep them turning the 121 pages and will be sad to say good-bye to the well-developed characters at the story’s end.  And while I do not usually review self-published titles, I am so glad I agreed to read Vivona’s book because it was so original, entertaining and imaginative. Don’t forget, too, to visit the fabulous website with a sample chapter, fun stuff to do, a parent’s page and more! If you purchase the audiobook you will also be treated to a narration by three-time Emmy Award-winner Bryan Cranston along with wonderful, mood-setting music that will transport you instantaneously to a magical land where anything can happen.

The story: involving a camel, a kidnapped prince and his power-crazed evil uncle promises action, adventure and even danger for an archaeologist’s daughter, Michael-Ann on a dig with her dad, in Egypt. Without giving away too much, I can tell you this fun fantasy takes place not only in ancient and present day Egypt, but in five unique settings known as the Five Skies.  I will also share that the kidnapped prince is being held in a no man’s land only reached by collecting and piecing together five fragments of a shattered mirror. Each part of the mirror can be found in one of the Five Skies, but reaching these remote places proves more than a challenge for 12-year-old Michael-Ann and Kazmir who have taken on the daunting, perilous task of rescuing the prince. Vivona has woven a wonderful tale for pre-teens full of fluffy clouds (Rain Masters), gigantic spiders (Wish Weavers), Optionators and unimaginably inventive locales that beg to be revisited over and over because of just how amazing they are.

By the time the book ends, Michael-Ann will have experienced such a multitude of emotions and escapades that returning to the dig will certainly open her eyes to the richness of life and love with which she is blessed.

The best part: Adventures With Kazmir The Flying Camel is available as an Audiobook, MP3, paperback, Kindle, and eBook.  For more information, visit www.KazmirTheFlyingCamel.com. Proceeds benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles.

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The Mostly True Story of Jack

The Mostly True Story of Jack ($16.95, Little, Brown and Company, Middle Grade) is by Kelly Barnhill and reviewed by Lindy Michaels.

Who is Jack and perhaps more importantly, what is Jack? He is taken by his divorcing mother to stay with his aunt and uncle in the town of Hazelwood, Iowa. Even though Jack had always felt invisible to his mother, he never wanted to leave her. But oddly, there was something so familiar about this new and strange place, although he knew not what. And the strange only got stranger to the boy, as the days went by. Jack knew things, remembered things, but he just couldn’t seem to remember why he was remembering these things and what they meant. It was all so fuzzy in his mind.

There was the ancient book that his uncle gave him, which was filled with magical and unworldly information. Very confusing!  There was the girl, Wendy, who knew things, but wouldn’t tell. And there was her twin brother, Frankie, who years before, mysteriously had disappeared for months, only to be found by Jack’s uncle, his face now scarred, unable to utter a single word, never able to tell what had happened to him and why.

The richest man in town, Mr. Avery knew the secrets of Hazelwood, of the Lady under the ground, who had split in two… her good side weakened by her evil side, who stole the souls of those who had disappeared from the town. And yes, there were many of them. And the strangest thing of all was that once they were gone, they were immediately forgotten by their loved ones, by the town. It was as if they had never existed. And later, Wendy was underground. Would she be forgotten forever? Could her soul be saved?

What was the secret of this town and the Lady, split in two? And who would win? The good side of her, or the evil? And somehow could the young boy, Jack, have the magic within himself to find the answers? To save Wendy? To rescue all the taken souls? To bring together the good and evil of the Lady and make her whole, once again, perhaps making Jack whole again, too, to finally find his way home?  The  Mostly True Story of Jack is a mesmerizing read, beautifully poetic, with the rhythm of the wind. This is a novel that compels one to turn page after page, because one must learn of all the secrets and haunting mystery and magic of Hazelwood.

Written so beautifully by first time children’s author, Kelly Barnhill, this story will take readers to places they could have never, ever imagined in their wildest dreams. My personal opinion is, because of the rather complicated storyline, I recommend it for children ages eleven up through adulthood, all of whom, I believe, will be as touched by this magical journey as I was. A stunning debut novel.

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