Review: The Witch's Daughter

{on Goodreads}

Paula Brackston is now high on my list for favorite authors of fantastical historical fiction (my new genre name for fantasy that's steeped in rich historical detail). The first thing that caught my eye was the cover -- for a person whose two obsessions are books and shoes, they sure nailed it on the head for me with this one. The Witch's Daughter is the story of Elizabeth (Bess) Hawksmith, a young girl living with her family in Bathcombe in the early 1600's. Bess's family is struck by the plague, leaving only Bess and her mother alive and well. The villagers fear the disease, and soon bring in a witchfinder, whose duty is to locate the witch who brought the plague to their small village. The witchfinder settles on Bess's mother, and Bess is mortified. Her own mother, a witch? Impossible. But it's true. After Bess sees her mother hanged for her alleged crimes, she escapes into the arms of a powerful sorcerer named Gideon, who transforms Bess into his equal. Fearing her newly dark nature and incredible powers, Bess escapes and plunges into a centuries-long game of cat-and-mouse with Gideon. 

When we next meet Bess, she's living in modern day England as Elizabeth, an eccentric and lonely woman who sells tinctures at artisan markets. She meets a young girl, Tegan, whose admiration for Elizabeth prompts the two to start a relationship as witch and apprentice. Elizabeth tells Tegan the story of her many lives: as a surgeon in the Victorian era and a nurse during the war, and how Gideon has managed to find her in each of those roles. We hear about the heartache and loss that come with Bess's incredible powers, and this was what made me fall in love with her character. 

Brackston wrote Bess as headstrong, as brilliant, devoted to healing and with strong morals, but mostly she wrote her as a flawed, ordinary human (albeit with amazing supernatural powers). That made her heartache that much more potent and made the danger posed by Gideon seem all too real. The villain in this story, Gideon, gave me stronger chills than most because his vengeance was steeped in desire, and that made him all the more dangerous and terrifying. Tegan had to have been my least favorite character, but I'll admit it was because of her immature behavior, which was actually appropriately written. The thing that I loved most about this story was that it could have easily felt like a cheesy fantasy novel, but the historical detail made it rich and sophisticated. Brackston did an excellent job jumping between eras; I fell easily into the different time periods and had no trouble picturing the scenes in my mind as I read. The book reminded me of my favorite October read from 2014, and I've already put several of Brackston's other novels on my library list.

Bottom-Line Rating: 5/5

Title: The Witch's Daughter: A Novel

Author: Paula Brackston

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2011

Price: $10 on Amazon

ISBN: 978-1250004086

Format: Paperback

Source:  Public Library

Word Worship {Carlos Ruiz Zafón}

"Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens."

- Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind 

Children's Review: The Galaxy Pirates: Hunt for the Pyxis

{on Goodreads}

Emma Garton's days have always been dependable: a mom that never does anything unexpected or exciting, a best friend with an overactive imagination, and weekends out on the pacific ocean learning to sail from her dad. All of that changes on the day that her parents are kidnapped by strange men  demanding a mysterious object called a Pyxis. Emma and her friend Herbie are there to witness the unbelievable scene but manage to hide from the kidnappers. Afterwards, they follow the kidnappers' trail down to the water, where they commandeer Emma's family yacht and begin a chase that will lead them to places they could never have imagined existed. There's something Emma's parents have been keeping from her, and it might just be the biggest secret of all time. It turns out that there exists an entire galaxy of creatures and people separate from Earth, and that they're all looking for a princess-turned-pirate named Halifax Brightstroke, a woman who escaped death and defied her queen. If that isn't enough to take in...this woman is Emma's mom, and now everyone is after Emma too. This is where the book first hooked me: the world building in the story is incredible and full of imagination. It reminded me a bit of Treasure Planet in that it places the adventurous character-types (pirates, evil queens, etc.) that we're familiar with in completely unfamiliar territory. This adventure is fast-paced and wildly inventive and definitely one that I'll recommend to future students. There are two things that I wished for when reading the story: first, that it was illustrated. I cannot say enough good things about Ferraris's ability to world build and I think that illustrations would have really complemented that ability throughout the story. Second, there was very little character development outside of Emma and her parents. Now, there was a whole lot of information to convey to the reader in order to introduce them to this new galaxy, and Ferraris managed to do so without making it feel like an info dump, but I feel like all of that effort was spent on the setting and, as a result, the character's backgrounds were set aside. There were certain characters that I was desperate to know more about: the queen, Captain Lovesey of the Argh, and Emma's new friend Santher. I felt a bit detached from the characters while reading because I knew nothing about them, so I'm hoping that's something that will be improved upon in the next installment. And speaking of next installments, I actually yelled "Nooo!" after reading the last sentence, because holy cliffhanger! I cannot wait to see what happens next. There are so many threads left to be tied from the ending of this first book and I am eager to not only find some resolution from the climatic action at the end, but also to read more, because it's clear that Emma's adventures have just begun. This is one trilogy that I would love to see as a bookclub pick for middle-grade readers, and one that I'll be looking to buy for my classroom library. I'd recommend for any and all fans of the fantasy genre.

This book will be released on August 4, 2015.

Bottom Line Rating: 4/5

Recommended for 8-12 (Grades 3-7)

Title: The Galaxy Pirates: Hunt for the Pyxis
Author: Zoe Ferraris
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Price: Pre-order the hardcover for only $12.74 on Amazon!
ISBN: 0385392168
Format: E-book
Source: Advanced Reader Copy provided by Net Galley

Top Shelf Text was provided with advanced reader copies of these texts for review from the publisher.

All opinions are my own.

Children's Review: Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret

{on Goodreads}

Archie Greene is just an ordinary boy who lives with his grandmother, until his twelfth birthday, when a mysterious package is delivered to him. Inside the package is a book, and like most things in Archie's life, this book is old. Archie (who does not care for most things that are old) is intrigued by the book, and soon finds himself in an entirely different world and with a very big destiny to fulfill. When the book arrives on Archie's doorstep, his grandmother is forced to reveal the secrets that she had been keeping for his entire life: that he belongs to a well-established family of Flame Keepers, a group of trusted individuals whose job is to protect ancient magical books from forces of dark magic. That is where this book first shines: Everest's world-building is really unique and has relatively good execution, though I felt that the book could have been fleshed out in at least one hundred more pages, to allow the elements of this magical world to unfold more naturally. Archie soon moves in with his eccentric aunt, uncle, and two cousins, who introduce him to this strange new world. His extended family make up my favorite characters in this story: an aunt who paints the entire house shades of purple and bakes cakes with sardines as her secret ingredient, an uncle who always greets others with "What-ho!", and two cousins that are intelligent, fearless, and unfailingly loyal to Archie throughout the trials of the book. As Archie settles into his new role of apprentice, things start to happen at the Museum of Magical Miscellany, the place where all of the magical texts are kept safely tucked away. As secrets unfold, Archie comes to find that he plays a much large role in the future of the museum-- and of magic. Though I did enjoy the story (and managed to finish it in one sitting), I found myself a bit unimpressed by the level of writing. This book is intended for an 8-12 year-old audience and readers of that age can handle very complex plots and pick up a lot more subtle hints than you might guess. Everest failed in his execution here because he didn't seem to trust his readers to catch on to the big secrets and clues within the plot: it felt as though things were being dumbed-down or blatantly said when they were already obvious to the reader. This disappointed me because many of these obvious observations came from Archie himself, and I felt that his character profile was considerably weakened because of it. In addition to that, there was a lot of straight info-dumping at the beginning of the book. Here was a incredibly intriguing imaginary world, and it was all being explained too quickly for the reader to appreciate. The plot could have been made a bit more complex and secondary characters outside of Archie's family more fleshed out within the span of (at least) one hundred more pages, then this could have become one of my favorite fantasy series for this age group. On the author blurb, Everest mentions that he found writing a children's book to be difficult and that this one "almost killed" him, and I think that struggle is evident in the way that the book fell a little flat. However, despite all of that I will continue to follow the series (no word yet on the next one), as I am always keeping an eye out for books with male protagonists for my classroom library. I feel that I could recommend this to my students as a rather easy read with the hope that the premise will come through more naturally in the next installment. 

Bottom Line Rating: 3/5

Recommended for readers age 8-12 (Grade 3-7)

Title: Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret'

Author: D. D. Everest

Publisher: Harper Collins 2014

Price: $11.39 from Amazon

ISBN: 0062312111

Format: Hardcover

Source: Public Library

Max the Brave Trailer!

Just a quick note today to let you all know that the trailer for Max the Brave is out and that it is going to have you running to the nearest bookstore to pre-order your copy for its release in early September!

From the publisher:

“Are You My Mother?” meets “I Want My Hat Back” in the hilarious new picture book, Max the Brave, by author and illustrator Ed Vere. Follow fearless Max as he encounters every other creature except the one he’s searching for…mouse.

Check out the trailer below! I love the colorful (yet simple) illustrations and the mystery to be solved. I think Max will quickly become a character both recognized and beloved for classroom read-clouds and bedtime stories alike!

You can find out more about Max on his website, print an activity kit here, follow the fun on social media with #maxthebrave, and find educator resources here!

Just a Note:

This promotion is published on Top Shelf Text on behalf of Sourcebooks Publishers. 

Top Shelf Text received an e-ARC copy of this book for review. 

All opinions are my own.

Review: The Glass Sentence

{on Goodreads}

If you're a fan of fantasy novels, drop everything and go find this book. I picked up S.E. Grove's The Glass Sentence on a whim in my local bookstore over the holiday weekend and it's turned out to be one of my favorite reads this year. Our main character, Sophia, lives in a world that's very different from the one that we know today. Almost a century before Sophia's present day, the Great Disruption shattered time and cast different parts of the world into different ages. The United States was torn apart by two ages: the western half of the country becoming The Badlands, while the eastern half was cast into the 19th century and renamed New Occident. Sophia was born and has lived in Boston her whole life, and when the story opens, it's the year 1891. Sophia, whose parents went missing while out of a rescue mission in another age, has been raised by her beloved uncle, Shadrack Elli, who just happens to be the world's most renowned cartographer. Mapmaking is perhaps the single most important academic pursuit in Sophia's world, as maps help people to navigate the many different ages while traveling. Maps come in all different forms, and just as Sophia is being introducing to cartography, Shadrack is kidnapped. Sophia soon finds herself relying on a band of very unlikely friends as she pursues her uncle and the truth behind the world's greatest secret. While reading, I fell quickly into Sophia's world and, in particular, loved every one of the characters. They were fantastically imagined, with such distinguished features that it was easy to see them in my mind, and with just enough mystery left to them that I want to know more about their histories. I also have to commend Grove on the world building in this book. It was the best (in a children's/young adult series) that I've encountered since Harry Potter (yes, that good!) and it was astonishing to me how many little details were so naturally introduced to the reader. The Great Disruption is really one of the more creative ideas that I've seen in the fantasy genre and it so uniquely brings together elements of fantasy, mythology, time travel, and adventure. I loved reading this story so much that I immediately went online and wasted no time pre-ordering the second in the trilogy, which came out this week and which I am so looking forward to reading this weekend! The book is YA, but in the same way that Harry Potter appeals to all ages, I think that readers both younger and older than the target YA audience will enjoy this trilogy.

Bottom-Line Rating: 5/5

Title: The Glass Sentence (The Mapmakers Trilogy #1)

Author: S.E. Grove

Publisher: Puffin Books, 2014

Price: $12.17 for a hardcover on Amazon

Format: Paperback 

Source: Spirit of '76 Bookstore

ISBN: 9780142423660