Donald Glover's Beyoncé-Inspired Series 'Swarm,' Taron Egerton's ...

'The Locket' Is Young Adult FantasyBook Talk

A sensitive, psychic teenager is the narrator of "The Tales of Alexandria Stecklar: The Locket," a debut young adult fantasy by Munroe Falls resident Tiara J. Brown.

Alex lives with her parents and older sister in a steel-reinforced underground bunker meant to keep them safe from the long war between the psychics and the sorcerers. The claustrophobia and lack of privacy, coupled with the fact that her father can read her mind, drives Alex to use the secret exit for brief escapes to the outdoors.

The sisters' days are spent in martial arts training and indoctrination about their country's illustrious history. The adults are buttoned up about their lives before the war.

The Locket

One day, Alex finds a hidden box that contains a broken locket, and she begins to hear a voice that insists that her parents are lying about their past and even that there may not really be a war. When Alex's father is upgrading the security system, Alex makes her last-minute move.

In the outside world, Alex encounters menacing sorcerers, one of them a boy who may become an ally. Her parents, heavily armed, set off to find her.

The scenes of the sorcerers' village are vivid, and the ending leaves things open for a sequel.

"The Tales of Alexandria Stecklar: The Locket" (182 pages, hardcover) costs $18.99 from online retailers. Tiara J. Brown attended Ohio University.

'She Is Charlotte'

"She Is Charlotte: A Mother's Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey with Her Child with Medical Complexities" is an inspirational account by Emily K. Whiting of Doylestown.

Whiting found that she was pregnant in April 2017. After an ultrasound in July, Whiting and her husband learned that the fetus had congenital abnormalities, including in the brain, heart and kidneys. The doctor tells them that "her quality of life is unknown, if she survives." After the doctor tells them their options, the couple decides to continue the pregnancy.

Including excerpts from Whiting's prayerful journal entries, the book follows the setbacks and small victories involved in carrying a child almost to term, and their faith-based acceptance of the difficulties in caring for the baby both before and after birth. Whiting feels anger and sorrow when she is unable to see and hold the baby, and gratitude for the many specialists piecing together her care.

Story continues

She Is Charlotte

Before the Whitings brought the baby home in February 2019, they had spent more than two months with her in the hospital as she endured countless tests and treatments, and five surgeries with more to come. With family and community support, Charlotte is thriving. Whiting founded "Charlotte's Hope Foundation, Inc. To help families of children with medical compleixites.

"She Is Charlotte" (380 pages, softcover) costs $22 from online retailers. Emily Whiting now has three children.

'Holy Ghost'

"Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler" by Richard Koloda is a comprehensive biography of the influential Cleveland-born avant-garde saxophonist.

While still in high school, Ayler toured with blues harmonica player Little Walter and singer Lloyd Price. His life was typical of that of a young man with musical talent: He took lessons, worked at various jobs and was drafted into the Army, where he played in a regimental band. In Europe, he found more acceptance of his style, and when he returned, he found difficulty keeping employment with bands. When Ayler made records, critics considered his music inaccessible.

Holy Ghost The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ryler

Koloda continues to chronicle Ayler's prolific recording and performing career through his return to Cleveland in 1963 and arrival in New York, where he played in a quintet at Lincoln Center.

The title "Holy Ghost" refers to a quote Ayler made about fellow artists Pharaoh Sanders and his idol John Coltrane. He may be known to many by the manner of his death: His body was found in the East River in 1970. The cause of death was listed as "circumstances undetermined."

"Holy Ghost" (312 pages, softcover) costs $24.95 from Jawbone Press. Richard Koloda earned a master's degree in musicology from Cleveland State and works as a lawyer. He lives in Wayland in Portage County.

Awards

"Ten Days in a Mad-House" by Cleveland author Brad Ricca and Minnesota artist Courtney Sieh, the graphic adaptation of pioneering reporter Nellie Bly's 1887 investigation of a New York asylum, has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Adaptation from Another Medium category. The awards will be presented in July.

Events

Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Chante Thomas signs her middle-grade novel "Sean and the Book Cures: The Great Sacrifice," about a boy whose mother has kidney disease, 1 to 3 p.M. Sunday.

Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): Voting rights activist Greg Moore signs "Beyond the Voting Rights Act: The Untold Story of the Struggle to Reform America's Voter Registration Laws," 2 p.M. Sunday.

Massillon Library (208 Lincoln Way E.): Doug Waller talks about Bigfoot and signs his books including "Screams in the Night: More Bigfoot Stories from Ohio and Beyond," 1 to 2 p.M. Tuesday. Register at massillonlibrary.Org.

Mentor Public Library (8215 Mentor Ave.): Railroad enthusiast Dan Rager talks about "Northeastern Ohio Maple Leaf Route: The Critical Edition," 6:30 to 8 p.M. Thursday. Register at mentorpl.Org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Fairview Park branch, 21255 Lorain Road): Les Roberts signs his crime novel "The C.I.", 7 to 8 p.M. Thursday.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch, 1876 S. Green Road, South Euclid): A Self-Publishing Roundtable features Toya L. Adams-Driscoll ("A Note to My Black Daughter"), Sara Coven ("The One We Left Behind") and Penny Christian Knight ("Developing Resilience: Secrets, Sex Abuse, and the Quest for Love and Inner Peace"), 7 to 8:30 p.M. Thursday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.Org.

Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Doug Cornett signs his children's books "Finally, Something Mysterious" and "Finally, Something Dangerous," 1 to 3 p.M. Saturday.

Cleveland Public Library (Martin Luther King Jr. Branch, 1962 Stokes Blvd.): Nicole D. Miller discusses "When Love Wins" and talks about grief recovery and childhood trauma, 1 to 2 p.M. Saturday.

Stark County District Library (Lake Community branch, 565 Market Avenue SW, Lake Township): WJW-TV anchor Wayne Dawson talks about "The Seeds of Greatness Are Within You: A Memoir," 2 to 3 p.M. Saturday. Register at starklibrary.Org.

Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.Com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.Com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'The Locket' by Tiara J. Brown is young adult fantasy

Children's Fantasy Books With Strong Heroines

Looking for a new book for your tween, or would you like to give a special gift? These Children's Fantasy Books are tween-recommended.

My 9-year-old twin daughters are voracious readers who happen to love fantasy books. They helped me pull this list together after several of my husband's coworkers asked for recommendations of Children's Fantasy Books with Strong Heroines. It was easy to do, since they've read (and re-read) all of these books many times now. 

This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you make a purchase after clicking on a link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

For higher reading levels (teen and adult), it's easy to think of The Hunger Games and other popular novels based on female main characters, but this list is filled with books appropriate for ages 9-12.

Keep in mind that while these books have strong heroines, the stories are just as appealing to boys. My son has read them all multiple times as well, and just did a 7th grade book report on Howl's Moving Castle. Let's get to the list!

Children's Fantasy Books The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

Two young orphans discover that they belong to a long line of people in charge of guarding a town of fairy tale creatures. Each book has a mystery to solve, and my daughters liked how action-packed and funny each book was.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie is a young woman who is turned into a 90-year-old by the Witch of the Waste and has to find a way to be turned back. She stumbles upon a castle owned by the mysterious wizard Howl, encounters a fire demon, and experiences oddities before triumphing.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Lyra comes-of-age in this story about a young girl with a magical animal companion. She overhears a plot to kill her father and sets off to warn him in an adventure that will pit her against the most powerful people in her world, and others.

The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer

To be fair, the heroine Alex is one of the two main characters along with her twin brother Conner. In the first book, The Wishing Spell, they find a book that takes them into a world of fantasy, where they meet many strange creatures.

These books have captivated my daughters and have become our go-to birthday gift for friends their age.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (Tiffany Aching series, 1-3)

A strong-willed young girl decides to become a witch and protects her family and friends from other-wordly friends with the help of a hysterical band of tiny men. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments happened with all three of my kids loving this book. 

Be aware that Tiffany comes of age through the series, so we recommend that you stick to the first three books in the series. After that, topics get slightly more mature as Tiffany is a teen serving as wise woman for the area, dealing with darker themes.

The Search for Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi

12-year-old Evanine is raised underground by a robot and heads out in search of humans in this middle-grade story. Both of my daughters loved the action and adventure in this book about friendship.

Wildwood by Colin Meloy

Prue's life turns upside down when her baby brother is kidnapped by crows and taken to Wildwood. My daughter loved how the story was told in multiple points-of-view and all the artistic illustrations.

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint

After Lillian is bitten by a poisonous snake, the Cats of Tanglewood Forest save her by turning her into a cat. She journeys through dangerous lands with a fox friend to reach Old Mother Possum who may be able to help her change back.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Ssh–this three-book series will be under the tree this year for my girls. After they read (many times) Funke's Dragon Rider, I found this series about a girl whose father can read characters right out of books, causing chaos in both worlds. They'll love them!

More for kids ages 9-12

The post Children's Fantasy Books with Strong Heroines appeared first on Moneywise Moms.

5 New Fantasy Novels Invigorate Old Tropes

The fantasy genre is known for its standard motifs — the magical elements derived from lore and history that turn up again and again whenever such tales are told.

Spell books, dragons, mermaids, fairies and a magic circus all take on new life in the pages of these five enchanting tales hitting shelves in May and June.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

You could say that sisters Joanna and Esther are estranged. They grew up together, hidden away with their family's collection of magical books. Each book is a spell, written in blood. Now Joanna tends to the collection, alone and isolated. Esther fled years before when she found out she was endangering her family with her presence. Tired of living on the run, she decides to risk everything and remain at the Antarctic station where she spent the past year and finally began to put down roots. But almost immediately, magic catches up with her, putting her, Joanna, and their family's books at risk. Soon they realize that the spells controlling their lives go back further and have much more complicated origins than they could have imagined.

Confident, compassionate, and incredibly engrossing, Ink Blood Sister Scribe grabbed me with its first pages and put me completely under its spell — despite not being written in blood. Elements of many different genres entwine to form the cleverly paced narrative as we travel from Antarctic station thriller to new England murder mystery to the secret society intrigues of Europe's magical elite. The characters are all delightfully warm in their own weird ways, despite being traumatized and frazzled, and the plot zigs and zags along with just the right amount of twists and reveals. Ink Blood Sister Scribe stands out as a stellar and original debut novel.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Anequs has grown up on the Island of Masquapaug with her family, and would have happily stayed there forever. But when a dragon hatches among her people for the first time in recent memory, it chooses her to bond with. She soon finds out that the Anglish settlers who have colonized the lands around Masquapaug have rules about who can have dragons and how they must be trained to shape the dragon's breath and hone its powers. With her community and her dragon under threat, she has no choice but to enrol at an Anglish school for dragoneers on the mainland. But it soon becomes clear that there are many people who want Anequs to fail, and she realizes that shaping her dragon's breath and her own sense of self based on Anglish values could destroy everything she cares about.

Magical schools have always been a staple of the fantasy genre, but these days, I find that it's hard to read a boarding school setting without considering the inherent colonial undertones of such institutions, even when they're imaginary. To Shape a Dragon's Breath cuts right to the chase and is about that, offering a scathing rejection of the idea that there is one right way for a person to be educated. The idea that a creature like a dragon is also something that could be colonized, and that there is power in honoring Indigenous ways of knowledge keeping and working harmoniously with the forces of nature rather than seeking to dominate them is a brilliant approach that brings something truly current to the genre. To Shape a Dragon's Breath is also a very entertaining and fun read, full of loveable characters and intricate, original worldbuilding. I tore through it, caught up in an enthusiasm for dragons that I hadn't experienced since I was a teenager obsessed with Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea and Anne McCaffrey's Pern. I can only hope that there will be more stories set in this engaging new world.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

In this story, a king takes a mermaid as a wife and their children are born with a ravenous hunger. The mermaid departs her former husband's ravaged kingdom and travels the land with a strange but gentle plague doctor, seeking a new story — but it may prove to be even more harrowing than the one they left behind.

This slip of a novella reads more like a poem or a fireside oration recited by some bard of old than it does like a traditional fantasy or horror novel. It is gory and grotesque, full of severed body parts and the sort of people who consume them. But it is also beautiful in its darkness; much like the mermaids of lore — before they were transformed into manatee-sweet, soft-haired sirens — it has teeth. Readers in the mood to savor a silver-tongued little nightmare will sink happily into its depths.

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

This sapphic historical romance with a supernatural twist is narrated by none other than that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow, servant of the fairy king. Or rather, former servant. Out of favor, our narrator is forced to live as a mortal and (ugh) make a living telling tales...

In an England rife with little but powerful gods and spirits around every corner, a certain Miss Mitchelmore finds herself under the power of a curse that seeks to ruin her. Her ballgown dissolves into shreds around her, swarms of bees chase her into dangerous waterways — it's clear that someone wishes her to meet with great, or even fatal, misfortune. Could it be the mysterious Lady Georgiana, whom everyone calls the Duke of Annadale, seeing as she (purportedly) murdered her own father and brothers via magical means in order to seize their estate? If the Duke is the cause of Miss Mitchelmore's misfortunes, then she certainly ought not to be attracted to the prickly, impossible woman! But if the curse has some other source, it may be that the Duke is the only one who can help her be free of it.

Alexis Hall can always be counted on to deliver a sweet and compelling historical romance that explores the paths that queer people forged to find love in the past. Mortal Follies definitely fits this brief, though it does stray a bit from the traditional romance framework, relying on the observations of its third-party narrator to tell us how the characters are feeling rather than delving directly into their thoughts. And while this conceit does keep both Miss Mitchelmore and the Duke at a bit more of a distance from the reader, Robin Goodfellow's hilarious asides and grumbles more than make up for it. Also worth noting are the secondary characters, who are so compelling that I rather hope Hall intends to give several of them their own follow-up books — most especially Miss Mitchelmore's best friend, Miss Bickle, who truly deserves some romantic escapades of her own. In the meantime, Mortal Follies more than satisfies.

The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson

When Windy Van Hooten's Circus of the Fantasticals rolls into town, it is always with purpose. The management, lead by the Ringmaster, can see the future and even travel back and forth through time using powers called Sparks, which manifested in a chosen few in the wake of the Great War. Everyone in the circus is a Spark, and by performing for the right people on the right nights, they hope to set the world on a path to a better future. Because the Ringmaster knows that another war is coming, somehow even worse than the one that was meant to end all wars. And she also knows that another Spark circus is on their heels — one led by a man who once sought to dominate her with his power.

Over the years, magical circus books have become a staple of the fantasy genre, and it can be difficult for a new example to really distinguish itself. The First Bright Thing's use of time travel and its characters' dedication to shaping the future they hope for is where it shines. Themes of found family, faith, queerness, and free will weave in and out of the timelines along with the Ringmaster and her crew. The circus itself serves, as it often does, as a symbol of a place where the impossible becomes reality — and the power of that is the reason why circus stories will continue to enchant readers for years to come.

Caitlyn Paxson is a writer and performer. She is a regular reviewer for NPR Books and Quill & Quire.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.Npr.Org.

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