The Mad Wolf's Daughter by Diane Magras

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book as an ARC from the author. I've seen it on a lot of "Most Anticipated of 2018" lists for middle grade and friends, I think it is worth the hype. 

Drest lives with her family in a remote part of Scotland. Her mother is not in the picture, so she lives with her father and brothers and is trained in the same ways they are. One night, her family is captured by the local knights of Faintree Castle. One knight is left behind, and Drest takes him as a hostage on her trip to rescue her family. She thinks her family is beloved protectors of the land, but her travels teach her that not everyone may see her family that way. Can she still rescue them before they hang?

I'll admit this is as bit of a male heavy book. We don't know what happened to Drest's mother, and her two most constant companions are male, in addition to her family and the knights. At least Drest doesn't seem to harbor feelings that feminine traits are useless. There are a few women who come into the story and Drest reacts well to them.

I think my favorite part of the story is the way Drest's father and brothers talk to her in her head while she is on her mission to rescue them. They provide a sense of humor, and you also get a sense of each other's personality, since you only meet them briefly in the beginning. It will remind you of the way you hear the voices of your own family in your head.

This is an excellent middle grade addition to any library collection.

Happy Book Birthday, Quest for the Golden Arrow!

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the second Time Stoppers book, Quest for the Golden Arrow, from the author, Carrie Jones. However, it came during peak Maine Student Book Award reading season, so I was unable to read it until recently. I decided that I would post the review in time for its birthday, so that I could help drum up excitement for the book on its publication day.

The book picks up the morning after the first book, Time Stoppers, ends. Annie Nobody wakes up happy, but soon realizes something is off. As her friends rejoin her in Miss Cornelia's house, they realize that the beloved woman is missing. From there, Annie and her friends go off on an adventure in hopes of rescuing her. Bloom, Jamie, and Annie learn lots of things about themselves on the journey, and it ends on a perilous note that will make readers anxious for the next book.

One of the things I love most about this series is how well I can hear the voice of the author. I know not everyone is lucky enough to know authors and hear things in their cadence, but I don't even need to try hard for this. I hear Carrie telling me this story in my head, just as I did in the first Time Stoppers book. This makes sense, as the story was created as an oral story years ago, but I love that it hasn't lost that flavor through the years. The other thing I love about this story is that Aurora and Bar Harbor feel like the real places they are. The book does travel beyond these towns, and I hope it is just as realistic there, as it is in Maine.

There were still moment when I got annoyed that Annie was so hard on herself, but when I think about myself, I realize that I react similarly. So maybe it's one of those situations where things hit home too closely? I also really felt for Jamie. In this book, he's still struggling with whether or not he will become a troll, and people don't always react well to that.

There are a few new characters I love. I don't want to spoil much of the book, but my favorite has multiple legs that can be used for different things at the same time.

Recommended for juvenile fantasy readers or realistic fiction readers that can cross over to fantasy from time to time.