Where Mattimeo Has to Grow Up

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am aware that this novel was not aimed at my demographic. Nevertheless, I often read, and usually enjoy, YA and MG books. And I really enjoyed Redwall, back in the day. Years later I read the second book in the series and didn't love it. I liked this a little better, but thought it lagged. A lot. That's why only 3 stars.

These books are largely about vibes. You have righteous and quirky woodland creatures trying to survive in a tough world, and they have carved out for themselves a safe haven in Redwall Abbey, in Mossflower. All the food (and there's a lot of food in these books) baked by loving hands behind the scenes, and the long summer days, and the hijinks in the trees, and the sense of harmless fun, all combine to create a feeling like the safe place many of us recall from our childhoods when we were not responsible for much at all. Young readers might already be old enough to be nostalgic for that, and the rest of us surely are. That hazy, warm security is disturbed by bad guys (slavers, here) and the gentle creatures have to go out into the wider world to defeat them before they can return to a state of comfort and calm.

It really works. It reminds me of Tolkien's Shire, which had to go through tough times before returning to its quiet, tranquil state. The Boskydells in Dennis McKiernan's Mithgar stories (based on Middle Earth, with warrows instead of hobbits) has an even more pronounced sense of security and separation, of being a place apart, so that when it is endangered you feel it even more strongly. And all of these various incarnations of an idyllic England that never existed are like childhood, at least the kind experienced by those lucky enough to have a happy childhood. Returning to it, with carefree feasting and games and untroubled relations with all the good creatures, is like finding your happy childhood once again.

Making the characters mice and squirrels and otters and badgers instead of humans makes it cuter and more fantastic, perfectly suited to young readers. It isn't too syrupy, IMO; the bad guys are pretty bad. Characters die. Kids lose their families. There's actual brutality. So young readers are put through it a bit, and I think it works well overall.

I just thought this got real boring in the middle. There is some action, but nothing good happens. Very little to cheer for, I mean, because most of the action is disheartening. This must have been okay for lots of readers, because there are a bunch more sequels after this one, but I found it kind of exhausting, and I have a soft spot for kids books.

I wonder if kids reading this on their own identify more strongly with one of the characters than I did. Probably so. If you're team Mattimeo or team Constance, you might be psyched every time they do something to approve of. I dunno. I'm spitballing here.

Young readers generally like this more than I did, so listen to them, I suppose.

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Where Olive Climbs in the Paintings

The Shadows by Jacqueline West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Yes, I'm an old dude. Yes, I occasionally enjoy MG books. I also used to teach English and ESL and had lots of these books in my classroom and I still have lots of opinions about them.]

There are some fun things in this book, and I bet there are young readers who would like it. But I feel like it misses the mark.

It's a bit slow. Not deadly slow, but not awesome. The MC is likable enough, and I can get behind her, but she doesn't achieve much, and I wish she had. She mostly blunders around, seeing weird and sketchy things without knowing what to make of it, letting bad things escape. (The reader is also mostly confused. What's going on?) She does a few brave things--that's where the "pretty good" grade of 3/5 comes from--but the first 80% of the plot is so disjointed that it's frustrating.

Why don't the cats give a proper warning? Why a vague, ultimately useless one? Most of the conflict comes from her inadvertent mistakes that they could have prevented.

Her search for explanations and answers is so random and unproductive. I would rather if the author had her searching for old stories in the paper, reading private journals, winnowing it out from the paintings, or finding some other kind of evidence explaining the mystery and the dangers in the old house, something that allowed her to be more active, more intelligent. It also would have been better (IMO) if the crisis was brought on by something outside her, like maybe her parents or something happening in town, instead of it all being kinda her fault.

The final showdown, written out in words (which I'm not gonna do), is not impressive. Too easy. Very anticlimactic. It's told in a dramatic way, but it's not that great.

Maybe kids would read this with a "what happens next?" attitude, and maybe they'd like it okay, but the MC's role in the story is not very satisfying, outside a few moments here and there, and I don't know if many young readers would want to come back to this world. Maybe they would. And maybe she's a more successful hero in the next book. I hope so.

Modestly recommended. If they do like it, there are several sequels.

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Where the Kids Hunt for the Malamander

Malamander by Thomas Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this book fell far short of its promise. It sounds very cool, very imaginative, but it was headed for a 2-star review from me until it was rescued slightly by the final act.

Young Herbert works in a weird hotel near the ocean for some reason (running the lost and found department, which apparently is a full-time job), and he helps his new friend Violet try to figure out the truth of the Malamander, along with the answer to her parents' disappearance years before. Lots of oddball people know a little about strange mysteries in that strange town, a place that apparently exists on the edge of our real world, but nobody gives them anything very helpful. That's pretty much the whole plot until the last part.

*I* don't much recommend it, though it has a high rating on GR, and it has many sequels that might or might not be better.

It sounded better than this, though. It's a MG magical adventure set in an off-kilter England (I guess?) that feels a little like a Roald Dahl story, where impossible stuff exists alongside an otherwise normal world. (Monsters and magic and curses and the like are real, but most people don't believe in them.) The characters are quirky and mysterious with goofy names, and it feels like there's a lot going on behind the scenes. But most of that quirkiness is just window dressing; it seldom affects the plot in any way. The whole book had the feel of something written on the fly without any plan other than introducing lots of weird people. Almost no loose ends are tied up. Questions are answered half-way at best.

To be fair, I am not the intended audience for this book. But I also am *not* NOT the audience. I have always read kids books for several reasons (including just for fun) and I'm always on the lookout for cool series for MG or YA readers. The blurb for this sounds like a perfect fit for kids who want a kind of magical setting with odd characters and supernatural creatures, which is what I hoped to find. But 3/4 of the book is plodding, aimless meandering that never quite does anything interesting. And the dangerous-ish bad guys that I believed to be like the harmless antagonists you might find in a Scooby Doo cartoon turn out in the end to be violent and deadly in a Voldemort way, giving the whole thing a strange mismatched feel and the reader a bit of whiplash.

Of course, that last bit was the only stuff that was good, as it finally has excellent action, with the characters engaging directly with the bad guys as well as the titular monster for real stakes. If the sequels continue that, I bet they're pretty good. If, however, they follow the pacing of this first book, I can't see why anyone continued reading them. I don't think I'm gonna investigate them, myself.

Recommendation? NO harm in trying it, getting the first book for a reader who seems right for this type of book--with lots of quick chapters and good illustrations. Give it a shot. If they do like it, great, you can line the sequels up for them.

If they don't like it--well, they can't all be winners.

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Where Beowulf Gets a MG Makeover

Beowulf: Dragon Slayer by Rosemary Sutcliff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rosemary Sutcliff is known for her historical novels and retellings aimed mostly at young readers (we would probably call most of them MG, but you could argue YA for them, too). And she was very successful at this. Here is the retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, and I thought it was excellent. Not perfect, IMO, but definitely well done and very entertaining.

This is still a slim book--she hasn't made Beowulf into a long novel. More like a novelette, actually, and with the fine drawings it reads very fast. She has embellished the story somewhat, adding sensory details and some exposition that wasn't in the original, and I love it all. The land around Heorot seems like a place people live instead of a fairytale village. The hall itself is finally kind of visible to me. The battle with Grendel seems more plausible and real. And there are a lot of such details, none of which do damage (as always, IMO) to the original story.

She has removed a couple of digressions, and I think that's wise. They don't really work for a modern audience, especially young readers, and they only slow down the narrative. Otherwise, the whole story is here. The only thing I felt it lacked was a bit more added in; every ounce of world-building she includes improves the story, and I feel there was room for about twice as much as she did. In fact, the story rolls along almost too fast (here and in the original) and could have used a little more breathing space. It could have been 20% or 30% longer without doing the pacing any harm at all.

But what she did really works. The language is still stately and feels old fashioned, but it's nicely comprehensible for average to good readers of a young age. I found it entertaining as an old man who already knows the story, so I'm pretty sure this would work with a lot of kids.

Of course, the only reason I even know of this 1962 book is because it was put on the discard rack at the school where I taught and I picked it up. I think most of the other copies of this book have met a similar fate. Like so many books, I suspect a new edition with a modern cover could be successful again, but there's little chance of that.

Alas.

Recommended for MG (especially) or YA readers who like historical adventures with a touch of supernatural. Or for readers of any age, honestly. I liked it.

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Where Kate Fights her Fate

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Out of favor with Queen Mary, young Kate Sutton gets banished to an out-of-the-way castle called Perilous Gard. Strange things happen there, and it's not much of spoiler to say that she discovers that the world of fairies is very real and very dangerous. She's in danger, and so is the lord's brother and daughter, both of whom Kate wants to help. It's a clever story with a great sense of place, putting the reader in a closed-off corner of forest and rocky hills where magic is still possible, and I feel it's pretty successful.

The middle section of the book drags more than I like, and sense of mystery is damaged by too much familiarity, but the ending(s) are satisfying enough to make allowances.

This is meant to be a MG (supposedly) or YA novel, and it was a Newberry Honor book after it was first published, so it has credentials. Nice cover; interesting premise; some age-appropriate art inside; this seems like it should still do well with young people. I couldn't interest any of my students in it over the years while it was in my class library, which was a disappointment, but I get it now; it looks at first like it would be in reach of struggling or disaffected readers, something like Cooper's Dark is Rising, but when you start you find that it reads harder than that (IMO), and is about 10,000 words longer. Not quite right for the bulk of my population.

Anyway, it's a good historical fantasy that really should appeal to many readers, and even after all these years (as it was first published 1974), it deserves to find an audience.

Recommended for old people like me, sturdy MG readers, and lots of people in between.

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Where I'm Sorry to Reach the End of the Series

Loot by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another nice entry in this series. It's also the last of the series, unfortunately, though there's lots of room to write more if the authors and publishers had a mind to.

Like pretty much all of them, it tells a nice story, makes good use of period details, has sympathetic characters, and has significant enough stakes to keep it engaging without raising the tension too high. In tone and readability, it's much like Enola Holmes, and both series, written for MG or YA audiences, make very nice cozy mysteries for adults.

IMO.

But they're also ideal for young readers; I love a series that can hook a kid and then offer so many sequels. I hope somebody decides to bring them all back out in new editions--there's a whole new group of young people who are unlikely to find these older copies and they certainly deserve to be read.

Recommended--the book and the series, I mean.

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Where Grace Solves a Locked Room Mystery

Keys by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 11--just as good as books 1-10.

Set in Queen Elizabeth's reign, among her ladies in waiting, this story, like the others, has a young woman named Grace solving a mystery without letting on that she's doing so. That's a bit of a trick, though she has a couple friends who can help her sneak around at night or gather rumors. This one was a locked room murder mystery with a clever solution, and I feel like it worked well. The authors behind the "Lady Grace" pen name do a good job with characterization and dialogue and pacing, but I think they are especially good with setting; they make excellent good use of London and the various residences of the queen's in the 16th Century, and the historical elements that go into the stories, including this one, I find not only accurate but instructive.

These are intended for a MG audience, and I think both in terms of interest and quality they should continued to do well with that group--if they find them. The last book was published more than a decade ago, and the later ones in the series, like this one, are kinda rare. Maybe a new edition?

Recommended for young readers as well as older readers who enjoy mysteries with a cozier tone.

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Still Good, 10 Books In

Jinx by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 10th book in the Lady Grace Mystery series, and it's still fun.

A woman is killed and one of the ladies in waiting burned at the St Bartholomew's Fair. As it happens, the best hope for Lady Sarah's burns was the woman who died in the fire, a woman with some healing skill, and the story behind that is the heart of the mystery. Lady Grace has to figure out what really happened to the woman, who started the fire, and how to prove what she has learned. IMO, the story works, and Lady Grace continues to be quite realistically plotted, or at least as realistic as the genre requires. It is also plenty of fun and more than a little informative about the time and setting in general.

Ranking the book for me, an old man reading a book aimed at kids, I found it (and the series as a whole) entertaining and unironically enjoyable--4 stars. Ranking it according to my opinion regarding young people and their preferences, I'd give it all the stars. Nothing not to like. Speaking as a teacher with an ax to grind, the best thing for turning young on-again, off-again readers into genuine excited readers is finding something they like and getting them lots more of that, which is why a successful series like this is perfect (depending on the particular interests of the reader). There is a lot to like with no drop-off in quality across the books. If they like one, they're bound to like the whole bunch.

So--recommended for all ages, but especially for MG and YA.

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Where Grace Unmasks a Ghost

Haunted by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought the series faltered a bit in the first half of the previous book--though it did get better later--and I feared the series had run its course; I thought it would only disappoint from here on, and I half expected this to be a mess. Nope. Great fun. Solid. Good mystery, good use of our favorite characters, good action. The series seems to be going strong at this point.

"Haunted" is a bit like an episode of Scooby Doo, but in a good way. A ghost in the castle? Nice. A generations-old mystery? Perfect. It works. Plus, [spoiler] there's a happy surprise for one of Grace's friends, which I was glad to see.

Recommended. Obviously, if you've read the first seven books in the series, you should read this one too. Very entertaining.

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Where Grace Has to Save a Friend

Feud by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sixth in the series, and I've enjoyed them all.

One of the great pleasures of reading this book and series (in common with the Enola Holmes books) is having a genuine conflict with stakes that give the story interest without raising the temperature so high I have to put it down. That's how this whole series has ended up on my bedstand; it's a pleasure to read around bedtime, when I will enjoy adventure but not agonizing dread.

Well plotted and paced, as always, and internally consistent.

Aimed at younger readers; recommended for just about anyone interested in historical mystery.

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Where Enola and Sherlock Team Up

Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seventh book in the series. I've enjoyed them all. And this one is just as fun, just as compelling, as any that came before.

What I really like is how Enola's situation is a little different in every book, and the author uses that to her advantage. In this novel, Enola is not forced to hide from Sherlock, and though they don't have a perfect understanding--she's still Enola and he's still Sherlock--it's close enough for them to trust each other. This allows them to team up, which brings a different feeling to the mystery and its solution, and I loved it.

These books are a treasure, just the right vibe if you want conflict and stakes but not so much it's oppressive, and lately they have been my go-to series for reading before bed.

TL;DR: If you enjoy Sherlock variations, get going already. :)

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Where Grace Saves Her Friend

Exile by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another fun story in the series. As one expects in pretty much all fiction, there's some implausible stuff here, things unlikely to ever happen in real life, and I think this title has a bit more of that than the previous ones, but it's still blended so well with historical details and a well realized setting that it works. The mystery is not too difficult for the reader to solve, but the action is brisk and it resolves in a satisfying way.

This series remains one of my go-to's for reading at bedtime when I'm not prepared for the cost of, say, grimdark fantasy or Victorian literature. The stakes are real, but it's still light reading and makes few demands on one's patience.

Still recommended.

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Where It Keeps Getting Better

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm liking these books. All of them. I've said it four times before, and repeating it after every book seems unnecessary.

The first one was good... and then they only got better. This is the fifth book in the mg/YA mystery series, and both Enola the character and Enola the sleuth/action hero just keep improving. The character is more confident and capable and creative and clever all the time, making for more exciting mysteries (which makes her increasingly dynamic), but she's also rounder and more realistic and more believable in each one. This series could have been perfectly entertaining with a cartoonish protagonist, a veritable superhero solving crimes at a tender age, and I would have probably read them, but the author went with credible, with possible, and it really works.

I enjoyed this book (involving Florence Nightingale and hidden messages from the past--you should read it) and look forward to the remaining (checks list) two books.

Just two! Damn.

Well, I'm glad there are those two, anyway. It's all good.

Recommended.

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Where Grace Solves Another One

Conspiracy by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Third in the series. Still very cute, well plotted, well researched, and fun.

This is intended for a MG audience, and IMO is nicely tuned to that age group, but the readers aren't condescended to, which is why it works for older readers, too. Obviously, a writer of fiction is allowed to take liberties with facts, and few middle graders would notice if the novel was unrealistic in its depiction of the setting or characters, but I credit the author(s) with doing an excellent job of recreating Queen Elizabeth's court and the people within it. The overall setting is believable, the characters are generally constrained by the norms of their time, and the historical events and context are handled in a way that is both instructive and (thankfully) unobtrusive.

Entertainment was the primary goal of the series, I suspect, not social studies instruction, but historical accuracy and educational value were clearly significant concerns for the author and publishers. (The mention of teacher tools in the back rather confirms this.) And there's a lot to learn here. Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth taught me a lot about the place and time, which makes sense because he was a brilliant scholar, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't also learn quite a few things about the Earl of Leicester, Kenilworth Castle, and life for people at court from reading this novel. It's all packed in there, just part of the deal.

I also like the main character. Lady Grace make a fine detective ("pursuivant" here) and an entertaining protagonist for the series. She isn't a bumbling goof (a type I never enjoy), but neither is she excessively skilled, and is in the sweet spot to make the mystery work. She can't fight, she doesn't dance well, and other than climbing trees is not any kind of action star. Neither is she some kind of Sherlock, solving mysteries by cigarette ash and footprints. But she's brave enough, resourceful enough, persistent enough, and clever enough to make a fine POV character.

I liked it.

This book and the previous two were written by Patricia Finney (writing as Grace Cavendish, in the same way that the Hardy Boys authors were all called Franklin Dixon), but she didn't do any more. The following titles are written by other authors; I'm hoping they continue the excellence.

Let's find out. :)

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Where Enola Comes Into Her Own

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan by Nancy Springer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fourth in the series. I like this one, and I like them all.

One thing that's especially nice about this one is the way Enola is coming into her own. She is growing in confidence and ability, and she's embracing her role as an investigator in a more deliberate, permanent way. She has established a pattern for her life, and she's living it rather than just getting by.

And another thing I like is the role that Sherlock plays in this one. It's fun to have the two of them interact and show how they truly admire one other. It helps the story when someone besides Enola can know how awesome she is.

If you read the earlier books, there's no longer any reason to read the blurb or check for summaries to see if you wanna read it. If you liked the others, you'll like this. Same as the next book, no doubt, which I'm gonna order in 3... 2... 1...

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Where the Pirates Are the Good Guys

Betrayal by Grace Cavendish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second of the Lady Grace mysteries, actually written by Patricia Finney ("writing as Grace Cavendish," as they say). I found it well written and entertaining, even better than the first.

This is a MG book that does an admirable job with creating a realistic and believable story. The setting is nicely realized, with the characters mostly behaving as they would have in that time. The MC has adventures that would be very unlikely for one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honor, but the action is still plausible enough and the literary devices managed well enough that the plot works. Making the usual allowances for fiction, one can read this without finding fault with the author for taking excessive license with reality.

Put simply--the story seems realistic enough to have happened, and that makes the action that much more fun.

I like the character of Grace (who reminds me of Enola Holmes in a good way) and she carries the story well. The other characters are also well developed, especially for a novel of this length.

So--good stuff. Recommended especially for younger readers, but also for those older readers who enjoy this sort of thing. Like me.

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Young Thief Turned Scholar

Grimpow: The Invisible Road by Rafael Ábalos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grimpow is a MG/YA medieval adventure that is a lot like Harry Potter (or closer, perhaps, Lyra Belacqua) unraveling a DaVinci Code-style mystery. It starts out slow, almost DNF slow, spending too much time with Grimpow's education and some picaresque meandering (the author is Spanish, so maybe he fully intended to write una novela picaresca) but once we get close to the tournament, the action improves a great deal and the plot kicks in.

From that point it's a four-star novel, and that's how I rate it overall.

The characterization isn't deep, but when the focus turns in earnest to Grimpow's quest it doesn't really matter. It's fun to follow him and his friends as they face real-life villains and ancient puzzles across northern Europe. One of the things I like in stories like this is the way the locate allies who they can rely on, kind people who are glad to help. I get tired of stories where everybody is horrible to everyone and no one can be trusted. It's not like that here.

This book went unread in my classroom library for several years, but I think it has an audience. The reader needs to hold on through some low points in the first bit to get to the fun stuff. I'm not gonna hunt it down immediately, but I'm up for the sequel and have reason to hope it'll be a little more even.

Some fun ideas here. Mostly recommended.

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