The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi


The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Genre: Childrens, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Age Recommendation: 3+
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

When a young girl named Kikko realizes her father has forgotten the pie he was supposed to bring to Grandma’s house, she offers to try and catch him as he makes his way through the woods. She hurriedly follows her father’s footprints in the snow and happens upon a large house she has never seen before. Curious, Kikko peers through the window, when she is startled by a small lamb wearing a coat and carrying a purse. Even more surprising, the lamb speaks, asking her in a kind voice, ?Are you here for the tea party?? Suddenly, Kikko realizes her trip through the woods has turned into something magical.

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There was so much kindness woven into this book. Originally, I was planning to recommend it to a slightly older age group, but it was so gentle that I decided to include younger readers as well. Every scene was filled with so much warmth that I think it would appeal to preschoolers just as much as it would to older children. This is even more true for kids who like the fantasy genre or spending time out in nature.

While I loved the premise of this one, there wasn’t as much going on with the storyline as I would have preferred to see. Kikko’s adventures could have been summarized in far fewer pages because of how quickly everything happened. Had there been more conflict or the inclusion of a plot twist or two, I would have chosen a much higher rating for this story. It definitely had promise, but it simply didn’t do as much with the ideas explored in it as I would have liked to see.

The animals in this tale had abilities that bears, deer, and other creatures in our world do not. I can’t go into a lot of details about this without giving away spoilers, but I was amused by all of the things they were capable of doing. The descriptions of how they lead their lives in the quiet and remote parts of a forest were as detailed as they were creative.

Anyone who enjoys tea parties should give The Tea Party in the Woods a try.

Typecasting by Harry Turtledove


Typecasting by Harry Turtledove
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (36 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Being Governor of Jefferson has its particular perks, and its particular challenges. Particularly if you’re a member of this Pacific Northwest state’s most famous ethnic minority…with all the extra height and hair that implies. Typecasting, a Tor.Com Original from fantasy and SF mastermind Harry Turtledove.

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The world building was really well done. While I’m sure many viewers will be able to figure out quickly what sort of mythical creature is the focus of this story, I’ll avoid referring to it by name in case anyone prefers to be surprised. What I will say is that I loved seeing Mr. Turtledove’s vision of what American society would be like if this creature not only existed but is in the process of being fully integrated into human society. He had some incredibly creative ideas about the logistics of creating everything from furniture to laws that would be fair for both species.

I would have liked to see more time spent developing the conflict. Even with all of the development of the backstory and setting, I finished this tale wishing that the characters could have had bigger problems to wrestle with. The things they worried about were so ordinary that they felt a bit out of place given how wildly different their world was from our own. Had a little more attention been paid to this area,

The ending left me wishing for a sequel. While the main conflict was wrapped up satisfactorily, it hinted at parts of this universe that I’d sure like to see explored in a sequel. There were still plenty of things the main character, Bill, still had to learn about living alongside a species so different from his own. If the author ever decides to revisit Bill’s life, I’d be excited to see what else is happening in it.

Typecasting should be read by anyone who enjoys cryptozoology.

Lullaby for a Lost World by Aliette de Bodard


Lullaby for a Lost World by Aliette de Bodard
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Historical
Length: Short Story (16 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Charlotte died to shore up her master’s house. Her bones grew into the foundation and pushed up through the walls, feeding his power and continuing the cycle. As time passes and the ones she loved fade away, the house and the master remain, and she yearns ever more deeply for vengeance.

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Charlotte was such a sympathetic character. This is never something I thought I’d say about a ghost who had homicidal urges, but she had excellent reasons for behaving the way she did. The people who took her life did so in such a despicable way that I couldn’t help but to hope that she’d find some way to make peace with it. She was young, poor, and defenceless when she died. Any one of those would have made me feel sympathy for her, but for it to happen to someone who fit all three of those groups only increased my urge to find out what her ultimate fate would be.

There was only one small thing I wish had been done differently with this tale, and it had to do with the ending. The final scene was by far the most exciting part of the plot, so I was a bit surprised by how abruptly it ended. It would have been nice to know how that scene turned out even if the narrator wasn’t planning to tell the audience anything else about how she planned to get her revenge for her murder.

This was one of the most grisly things I’ve read this year, and that was a good thing. Charlotte’s death was bloody, violent, and honestly disturbing at times. Learning about why it happened only made me more eager to find out if anyone would ever pay for what they did to this poor girl. I wanted her killers to deal with the consequences of their actions almost as much as she did! It was the only way she’d ever find peace. Knowing how horribly her life had ended was an integral part of understanding why her afterlife was so restless and full of justified anger.

Lullaby for a Lost World was deliciously scary. Anyone who loves their horror grim and ghastly should check it out.

Heroes for Hire: First Contact by C.S. Feldman


Heroes for Hire: First Contact by C.S. Feldman
Book Two in the Heroes for Hire Fantasy Adventure Series

Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full Length (187 pgs)
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Poinsettia

Her first—and quite accidental—foray into the field of heroics brought plucky St. Louis waitress Peg Brickner more than one narrow escape from danger and doom in the magical land of Cantrial. But hey, the first Hero’s Quest is always the roughest, right? Right. Unless maybe the next one involves airlocks that can suck people into the vacuum of outer space, warring alien races that are vying for political control of a planet, ruthless kidnappers, a ticking clock, and the ever-present risk of—God forbid—alien probings. And that’s before what was just supposed to be a simple ransom drop implodes. Suddenly it’s up to Peg to come up with Plan B before a snatched comrade disappears forever, an alien client’s hapless offspring meet a grisly fate, or all-out war takes over the planet. And all before her oxygen runs out. Sure. What could possibly go wrong?

Peg Brickner, Mighty Sagittarius, has signed up for another adventure!

Peg seems to have embraced her role as a hero for hire. With one successful mission under her belt, Peg has developed a bit of a taste for adventure. I had so much fun following Peg and her band of misfit heroes on their first mission that I could hardly wait for their next adventure to begin. In order to have a clear understanding of Peg’s team and how she “accidentally” became a hero, I highly recommend reading the first book, Heroes for Hire: Discount Prices. It is excellent and will greatly add to the enjoyment of this story.
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Peg has all the makings of a great hero, especially with Grodan as her mentor. Although Peg is very inexperienced, she is loyal, brave, and genuinely wants to help those in need. I loved seeing Peg reunite with Grodan and Kraak, but I must admit I missed Masie. The team didn’t quite feel complete without the dragon. It was amusing to see Peg and Danby working together. Danby insists he is nothing more than a master thief. Nevertheless, I get the sense that Danby cares for Peg and her team, or at the very least he enjoys annoying them. However, he comes to their rescue in moments when he doesn’t have to. Danby could have cut his losses and left many times, but he stayed. Peg just might make a hero out of the thief yet.

As I mentioned, Peg is incredibly inexperienced. While her heart is in the right place, she is prone to making errors. Many of her blunders are minor and extremely humorous. However, some of Peg’s mistakes are costly and have the potential to cause major devastation. It is a tough realization for Peg, but I have faith in Peg’s character. I’m certain there are more adventures in Peg’s future.

Throughout the story, Ms. Feldman has sprinkled excerpts from other books on magic. While these passages are not directly related to Peg’s current situation, they do provide some very useful background information on magical history. These passages also hint at something ominous on the horizon regarding the stability of magic and the portals that connect various worlds. I’m intrigued and look forward to learning more in the next installment of this series.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the first book, Discount Prices, was how well Ms. Feldman balanced humor and more serious moments. I’m pleased to report Ms. Feldman has once again achieved that perfect balance. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I watched Peg trying to adapt to life in outer space, and I was genuinely moved by the more serious moments. I was particularly touched when I learned more about Grodan’s past and how he was cursed into his current form.

Ms. Feldman did an excellent job creating the magical world of Cantrial in Discount Prices, and she has proved to be just as adept at creating a more technologically advanced society in space. She describes the planet, various alien races, and spacecraft in great detail that makes it easy to picture the new world Peg is exploring, but the pacing never suffers.

Heroes for Hire: First Contact is thoroughly entertaining. The Heroes for Hire series is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The pacing and world building are excellent, and Peg and her team are some of the most fun characters I’ve ever come across. I can’t wait for the next installment!

Rabbit’s Snow Dance by Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac


Rabbit’s Snow Dance by Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac
Publisher: Dial Books
Genre: Childrens, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Age Recommendation: 3+
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Rabbit loves the winter. He knows a dance, using an Iroquois drum and song, to make it snow—even in summertime! When rabbit decides that it should snow early, he starts his dance and the snow begins to fall. The other forest animals are not happy and ask him to stop, but Rabbit doesn’t listen. How much snow is too much, and will Rabbit know when to stop?

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With great power comes many opportunities to misuse it.

Repetition is one of those things that can make or break a children’s book. Luckily, the repetition in this book was handled perfectly. It happened often enough to give the storyline a sense of rhythm, and the words used in it were so catchy that I actually really liked seeing them pop up over and over again. They also gave the audience a lot of insight into Rabbit’s personality. The more he repeated those terms, the more I learned about who he was as a character.

The only thing I wish had been added to this tale was an explanation of where Rabbit’s powers came from. His ability to control the weather was impressive. I only wish I could have known if it was something he’d always been able to do or if his decision to make it snow in the middle of summer was a one-time mistake. With that being said, this is a minor criticism of something I enjoyed reading quite a bit.

There was so much humor tucked into the plot. I chuckled my way through many of the scenes, especially the later ones when Rabbit’s wish for winter weather began to come true. There were so many moments where his stubborn insistence on skipping ahead to his favorite season had consequences that he couldn’t have seen coming but might have taken they risk they’d happen anyway if he did. It was delightful to watch this character react to everything that happened to him as a result of his stubbornness.

I’d recommend Rabbit’s Snow Dance to readers of all ages, from kids to adults, who love legends.

The Kite Maker by Brenda Peynado


The Kite Maker by Brenda Peynado
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The Kite Maker is Brenda Peynado’s science fiction novelette of how humans cope with alien contact.

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There are many different types of prejudice out there. Is it any wonder that humans might be prejudiced against aliens, too, if we ever met them?

The main character was someone I related to quite a bit because of how gentle and kind she was when the opening scene began. It was hard to imagine someone like that carrying a dark secret around with her, but as soon as I learned about the existence of it I wanted to know more about her past. There were parts of her story that didn’t seem to fit together at first. More than anything, I wished to find out how they were all related to each other.

It would have been helpful to have more time dedicated to the final scene. As much as I liked the imagery in it, I did have some trouble tying it to what had happened before. There simply weren’t enough hints earlier on that this would be the way things would be wrapped up, so I was left trying to fit what I did know together without being entirely sure it was what the author had intended for the audience to think.

This tale had some interesting things to say about xenophobia and how it can blind someone to the truth. The best part of this message for me was how subtle it was. The plot always came first in the narrator’s mind, but it carried along with it little reminders of the damage hatred does not only to the target but to the people who have chosen to or been taught to hate as well. I can’t say much else about this without giving away spoilers, but I was pleased with how the author decided to broach such a complex topic without resorting to stereotypes.

I’d recommend The Kite Maker to anyone who wishes they could change something about the past.

The Woods by Paul Hoppe


The Woods by Paul Hoppe
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Genre: Childrens, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (44 pages)
Age Recommendation: 3+
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Being afraid of the dark doesn’t mean being afraid alone. When a boy can’t find his favorite stuffed bunny, he bravely heads into the woods to look for it. Instead, he finds a big, scary brown bear! But the bear is just lonely, so the boy shares his night light and forges ahead with his new companion, until…they run into two frightening giants! As the boy continues on, he comes across other seemingly menacing creatures, but finds that—like him—they’re just looking for some comfort and security before bedtime. Simple text and classic European style meet a fresh, modern twist in this delightful picture book.

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The amount and types of conflict was perfect for the age group it was written for. There were definitely a few scary moments, but they were always handled with kindness. I wouldn’t hesitate to read this to even the most sensitive child due to how wonderfully the author dealt with the frightening things that can happen when someone goes tromping into the woods to find their favorite toy.

With that being said, the ending was less satisfactory. The narrator’s explanation for why the main character’s quest had ended wasn’t a very detailed one. While the basic framework was there to explain what happened to his bunny, it would have been helpful to know more about how and why that toy was stolen. There was so much more room to cover here, and it would have easily persuaded me to give it a much higher rating if the narrator had been willing to explain more of this part of the plot to the audience.

One of the best parts of this book had to do with how the monsters were handled. The main character kept running into these creatures as he wandered around in the woods looking for his toy. Without giving away too many details, they all had excellent reasons for behaving the way that they did. It was a great deal of fun to find out what those reasons were and see how the protagonist reacted to them once he got to know them a bit better.

The Woods should be read by any family who likes to follow the same bedtime routine every night.

Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light by Sarah McCarry


Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light by Sarah McCarry
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (24 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Sarah McCarry’s “Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light” is about a lonely young woman, recently moved to the big city, who is looking for love. What she finds is a friend and confidante who is much older and wiser than she.

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The sarcasm in this story made me smile. It existed for a specific reason, and it served that purpose well. I especially liked how it poked fun at a specific fantasy sub-genre while also wandering into that type of storytelling at times and when necessary. The contradiction between these two things was as unexpected as it was amusing.

This tale could have been interpreted in one of two contradictory ways. While I can’t go into detail about what those ways were without giving away spoilers, I do wish the narrator had given the audience more hints about both options. I adore ambiguous fiction, but I prefer to be able to point out multiple parts of a text that make it sound like a specific theory could be the right one. There weren’t quite enough examples of this for me to go for a five-star rating even though I loved the concept in general.

The most interesting scenes to me were the ones that could have easily happened in the real world because they dealt with the main character’s crushing loneliness. This wasn’t something I was expecting the narrator to cover when there were so many other things going on for the characters, but it was handled beautifully. I could feel the protagonists loneliness growing heavier by the minute. It gave me a lot of sympathy for her and made me hope she’d figure out a solution to her problems soon.

Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light should be read by anyone who prefers their vampires dark and dangerous.

Ghost Hedgehog by Nina Kiriki Hoffman


Ghost Hedgehog by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

With all the places ghosts could go, why do they keep hanging around me?

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One of the most interesting parts of this story involved the way the ghosts behaved in it. Most of the paranormal fiction I read is about vengeful spirits, but that didn’t describe these characters well at all. Despite the fact that they were deceased, they behaved in pretty similar ways to how the living would act in the same situations. At first I was surprised by this change, but I soon grew to like it quite a bit.

There was only one small thing I wish had been done differently with this tale, and it had to do with how the characters talked about the evil entities in this universe called Shades. Their descriptions of these creatures were deliciously frightening when they were talking about what Shades were capable of doing to humans. However, there wasn’t as much attention paid to the history of these things. It would have been nice to have a bit more information about where they came from and why they were so dangerous to the living.

The character development was strong. By the final scene, I was wishing that this had been the first chapter of a full-length novel instead so that I could continue to see how Jack evolved as a result of his ability to see and communicate with the dead. As satisfied as I was by how everything was wrapped up, I also saw so many exciting possibilities for future adventures for this character. Hopefully, the author will write them one day.

Ghost Hedgehog made me shudder in the best possible way. I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves reading about hauntings.

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by J M Bergen


Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by J M Bergen
Publisher: Elandrian Press
Genre: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Young Adult
Length: Full length (352 pages)
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Aloe

Thomas thinks he’s an ordinary twelve year old, but when a strange little man with gold-flecked eyes gives him an ancient text called The Book of Sorrows, the world he knows is turned upside down. Suddenly he’s faced with a secret family legacy, powers he can hardly begin to understand, and an enemy bent on destroying everything he holds dear. The more he reads and discovers, the deeper the danger to himself and the people he loves. As the race to the final showdown unfolds, Thomas must turn to trusted friends and uncertain allies as he seeks to prevent destruction at an epic scale.

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This is a wonderful fantasy tale well-told by the author. The character development is good, the friendships Thomas has are heart-warming and the magic is unpredictable. After all, if you didn’t know you had any, how could you practice?

What he finds in the shop is a “real” magic book. The owner tells him to take it home and read it and then bring it back as soon as he’s done. Tell no one and keep it hidden. He does that but he finds the contents of the book confusing and he starts meeting up with people who are unfriendly to him. He soon learns they are after the book.

When he finishes the book, they tell him of his destiny and that he has mighty powers. He’s not sure about that but when they give him his first training assignment and lock him in a room, he has to perform to get out. He can’t quite figure it out but he’s getting hungry. Will he manage to do what he needs to? He does and he finds that the training moves faster once he’s won the first battle to open his mind.

With magical acts all through the story and the fight between good and evil, it’s an exciting tale that reads fast. It’s also the first book in the series so Thomas will be back.