Writing fiction about music can be tricky. Music is sound in time; it speaks to our brains at a pre-verbal level. As a result, using words to describe music can be hard and the literature is littered with near-misses. So it’s a great pleasure as a musician to read a well-written novel centered around music … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Wonderful Feels Like This
When it comes to dishing out advice to their teenage selves, people don’t hesitate; interestingly, though, there are far fewer posts on how their teenage selves would advise them. Imagine, then, the conversation an older and younger self would have were they to ever meet. This is exactly what Carole Maurel has done in her … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Luisa, Now and Then
Set in a post-Rupture steampunk world, A Winter’s Promise and The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos tell the story of Ophelia, a member of the Anima ark who can animate objects. Unassuming, clumsy, and shy, Ophelia has two major talents and life passions. First, she is a superb object “reader,” i.e., she can view … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: A Winter’s Promise/ The Missing of Clairdelune
This November we turn six … and during the current climate, this feels like a considerable achievement, with more ups and downs that a short blog can possibly do justice. ‘Orenda’ is a Canadian First Nations word – one of those almost-impossible-to-translate terms – meaning ‘the mystical power that drives human accomplishment’. The energy it … Continue reading #TranslatedLit An Introduction to Orenda Books by Karen Sullivan
An epistolary novel. A beautiful story with a strong female protagonist. The stand-alone conclusion to a trilogy. Maresi: Red Mantle by Maria Turtschaninoff is all of these. It’s also the co-winner of the 2020 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize—and deservedly so, as it’s a fabulous read. Set in an agrarian, mostly pre-literate, fantasy world, Red … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Maresi: Red Mantle
“I don’t understand why you insist on calling yourselves the Three Little Piglettes,” Mum groans. “It’s a horrible name.” “We’ll make it beautiful, you’ll see. Or better, we’ll make it powerful.” After taking out the top three spots in the ‘Pig Pageant’, a school ugliness contest run on social media, three girls embark on an … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Piglettes
What if you could stop time? Would it work? Would it even be a good idea? That is the core dilemma in The Casket of Time, an intricately plotted, carefully wrought, and beautifully translated book for YA readers by Icelandic author, poet and former presidential candidate Andri Snær Magnason. Made up of two interwoven stories … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Casket of Time
Mysterious and melancholy, The Book of Pearl consists of two complex, interwoven strands. One is historical fiction, the other is pure faerie fantasy, and both are the story of Joshua Iliån Pearl. Framing these two strands is the story of a young photographer/narrator who first appears as a teen and whose intervention many years later … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Book of Pearl
“Bronze’s family was like an old cart that has rolled for years along bumpy roads and through wind and rain. The axles need grease, the wheels need fixing, the parts seem a bit loose and the cart creaks forward, as though everything is a big effort. But it still works, and it still gets to … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Bronze and Sunflower
Max (by Sarah Cohen-Scali, translated by Penny Hueston) is creepy. Beautifully written. Translated in flawlessly idiomatic English. And seriously creepy. A well-researched work of historical fiction for upper YA readers*, the book tells the story of the eponymous Max, aka Konrad von Kebernsol, a product of the once-secret, actual Nazi Lebensborn program (literally, fountain of … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: MAX by Sarah Cohen-Scali
