Feb 22 2025

Tales From the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

Since Rivers of London was first published in 2011, the series has grown to nine novels, five novellas, and 12 graphic novels. Along the way, Aaronovitch wrote a fair number of shorter stories that were set in the world of the series; sometimes he was asked to write them, as when Waterstone’s published special editions of some of the novels, and sometimes he wrote smaller bits that were complete on their own and did not need to go into a larger work. Tales From the Folly collects a baker’s dozen of these. Six are Peter Grant stories, seven feature other characters in the leading role. They are all quite short — the longest is just over 30 pages — and three are what he calls “moments,” something “more of a mood than a story, something that will last a page or two and conjure an atmosphere.” Aaronovitch closes the collection with those three, and they make a good coda. He says he included them for completeness, but I think that they do more than that. They demonstrate one of the strengths of the series: that all of the characters are more than what gets shown on the page, that things keep happening to them when they are not the focus of the Aaronovitch’s narratives.

Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

Aaronovitch is right that Tales From the Folly is not a good place to start reading the series. The stories are too short to give much context about the interconnected characters of his magical London, although the four that were introductions to the special Waterstone’s editions are good about whetting the appetite for a longer story. “That’s great! More, please” was my reaction to each of them. If, for some reason, you are reading this review and considering diving in but aren’t sure where to start, begin at the hilarious and enthralling beginning and enjoy the whole ride.

One of the hallmarks of the series that’s present from the start and continues all the way through to this collection is Arronovitch’s deep and specific love for London. It is a patchwork, contradictory and many-layered place. Aaronovitch can’t get enough of it, warts and all, and happily he shares that enthusiasm with his readers, as in this bit from the collection’s first story “The Home Crowd Advantage.”

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/22/tales-from-the-folly-by-ben-aaronovitch/

Feb 21 2025

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

You can say a lot of things about movie adaptations, but you can’t deny how great they are for bringing books back into public attention.

The Wild Robot totally passed me by when it was first published almost a decade ago, so getting the movie tie-in from a publicist’s box was a nice little surprise. Peter Brown’s first children’s novel is a charming tale that deftly presents an entirely plausible future where humanity’s reliance on technology (and, more subtly, disregard for climate change) has created a strange but not unfamiliar world.

Rozz is a robot whose crate gets washed up on a remote island during transit. A playful troupe of otters accidentally awakens her by pressing down on the button in the back of her head. Rozz is initially confused, but her survival programming leads her to swiftly set herself to the task of learning about her surroundings.

The temperate island is bucolic and pristine, as the only inhabitants are wild animals. All of these animals treat Rozz with suspicion, despite her best efforts to learn about and communicate with them. When Rozz accidentally gets caught in a rockslide that destroys a pair of geese and their nest, she finds herself in custody of the sole surviving egg. Her attempts to raise the little hatchling eventually encourage the animals of the island to assimilate her into their ecosystem.

But danger lurks, as a possessive corporation becomes aware of her survival. Will Rozz and her new friends be able to secure her freedom?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/21/the-wild-robot-by-peter-brown/

Feb 20 2025

Be Limitless, Be Love by Michael Toledo

I deeply appreciate what Michael Toledo is trying to do with this collection of short stories, interspersed with several illuminating autobiographical entries. The parts that were written with young readers in mind are trying hard to reach them at their level, especially the at-risk kids like Cielo in Grandfather To Granddaughter and Gracie in Heart. You can tell that Mr Toledo feels really passionately about his time in social work, and how he’s been called to help young people not only survive but thrive.

I do think that this collection would have gained so much through the services of both an editor and a beta reader tho. Aside from the basic grammatical corrections, an editor likely would have recommended that the entirety of Part 2 be saved for another book. While the idea of a middle-aged couple seeking to outdo each other in a contest of who can be more loving to one another is outstanding, the actual depiction feels discomfitingly out of place in a book that had previously been aimed at younger readers. The tone shift is just too jarring, even coming on the heels of the first autobiographical essay that closes out Part 1.

That essay (titled either The Dream And The Dreamer or The Dreamer And The Dream, depending on whether you’re looking at the Table Of Contents or the chapter heading itself) starts out appropriately enough in its description of the author’s childhood. Unfortunately, it devolves into what I fear are borderline libelous accusations about people whom he clearly still holds a grudge against. All the stuff about mentally ill ex-wives and cheating bosses could have been excised and saved for another, more adult book: including them here only dilutes the effect of trying to give hope to troubled kids.

Fortunately, Part 3 is a return to the YA tone, with Mi Familia/My Family especially being a great story for teen readers. Even the closing story, Father To Son, feels like it fits thematically. While both of the characters here are older, they’re neither of them terribly mature, so the struggle between them feels quite relatable to a teen audience.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/20/be-limitless-be-love-by-michael-toledo/

Feb 19 2025

A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The early 1990s!

In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Castle in the Air, Aunt Maria, A Sudden Wild Magic and Hexwood!

Honestly, it was a big month. Those are some hefty ones, and I think Hexwood is among her very best. It’s a high bar!

In Marnanel Thurman's image, the words "A Year of Diana Wynne Jones," the week we read the book, and the title of the book are superimposed over colorful original artwork on the book's theme, and a small image of a book cover of one of the possible editions.Castle in the Air (1990)

Castle in the Air takes place in the same world as Howl’s Moving Castle, and some of our beloved characters from Howl make cameo appearances. The main character and setting, however, are quite different. In Howl, Diana Wynne Jones comments on European fairytale tropes, with protagonist Sophie making assumptions about what life might be available to her based on who gets to have adventures in stories. In Castle in the Air, Diana Wynne Jones is similarly commenting on story assumptions, but this time she is working with the British consumption of “Eastern” stories, especially from the Thousand and One Nights. Her protagonist Abdullah is a rug merchant who falls in love with a beautiful maiden, secluded in a garden by her wealthy father, and hijinks ensue. There’s a roadtrip, and a chaos-loving genie.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/19/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-early-1990s/

Feb 18 2025

So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre & Zac Retz

Matty is a grade-schooler who loves making homemade slime with his parents. When he gets permission to demonstrate how to make slime in art class at school, he’s super excited! He packs enough ingredients so that all his classmates can get some slime to take home with them, and repeats to himself the simple recipe his parents taught him: glue, baking soda, saline — and pizzazz!

His art teacher is at first a little perturbed by the sheer amount of slime Matty is planning on making. But Matty assures her that he knows what he’s doing… until he doesn’t. Examining the waves of sticky goop he’s unleashed in class, he realizes that he’s forgotten the saline! His classmates try to come up with creative ideas to sop up the mess that’s threatening to drown poor Matty, but their attempts to help only make the waves of slime get bigger. Will anybody be able to figure out how to fix things before it becomes an uncontrollable disaster?

This was an absolutely adorable picture book about making that toy? material? that so many kids (and their parents!) adore. Personally, I like slime for how it helps clean irregularly shaped items, but that’s neither here nor there. The enthusiasm of Matty and his parents is infectious, and even tho the demonstration goes a lot more haywire than planned, all’s well that ends well. Matty and his art teacher might be a little traumatized by the experience, but it’s clear that all the other kids had a blast as they tried to help solve the problem. Plus, the coda reinforces the fact that while not all experiments (or demonstrations) are successful, making notes of both what worked and what went wrong are valuable, scientific learning experiences.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/18/so-much-slime-by-jason-lefebvre-zac-retz/

Feb 14 2025

Tantalizing Tales — February 2025 — Part One

Happy Valentine’s Day, readers! Love the day or loathe the day, we have a terrific slate of new book recommendations to complement your feelings toward the season.

First off, we have a new genre-bending standalone novel from TJ Klune, The Bones Beneath My Skin. With an enemies-to-lovers queer romance, speculative twists, road trip comedy and high-octane thrills, this is the perfect book for anyone who doesn’t want to stick with just one mood.

It’s the spring of 1995 and Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he’s been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family’s summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense of direction.

The cabin should be empty, but it’s not.

Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader, who isn’t exactly as she appears. Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because Artemis is special, and forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her, no matter what she wants herself.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/14/tantalizing-tales-february-2025-part-one/

Feb 13 2025

Ex Marks The Spot by Gloria Chao

So excited I get to review this in the overlap between the Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day seasons!

Gemma Sun is the perfect straight-A student. Hard-working and straitlaced to a fault, she’s always wanted to cause minimal trouble for her own mother Jean, who had her young and without family support. For as long as Gemma can remember, it’s always been her and her mom against the world. If she ever wishes that she had a bigger family to rely on and stronger ties to her Taiwanese roots, she rarely brings these issues up to her mother, if at all. The most important thing is getting good grades so that she can make a better life for the both of them.

So it’s with chagrin that Gemma has to share her high school valedictorian spot with Xander Pan, the boy who broke her heart in 9th grade. He changed his name from Alex to something cooler, and made it his life’s mission to be goofy and popular. Gemma misses the sweet boy she would share puzzles with, but after he wrecked an important assignment for them in his pursuit of fun, she knew it was over. Ever since, he’s been her sworn enemy: not that it ever seems like he notices.

When Gemma gets word immediately after graduation that her grandfather died and potentially left her an inheritance, she’s intrigued. Her mom doesn’t talk about her grandfather, saying only that he was cold, distant and never supported them. With college bills weighing on her, Gemma meets with the lawyer and discovers that her grandfather left her a puzzle to solve, one that will hopefully have a lucrative treasure at the end.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/13/ex-marks-the-spot-by-gloria-chao/

Feb 12 2025

Lebanon Is Burning And Other Dispatches by Yazan Al-Saadi et. al.

featuring the art of Tracy Chahwan, Ganzeer, Ghadi Ghosn, Omar Khouri, Sirene Moukheiber, Hicham Rahma and Enas Satir.

Hoo boy, readers, what a book. If you’re as unfamiliar with current events in the Middle East and North Africa as I am, then this book is likely to be a jarring experience for you, as Yazan Al-Saadi takes readers on a tour of what’s been happening recently in some of the area’s most politically repressed nations, moving from the better-publicized crises in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, to the ones that receive less coverage in Bahrain, Yemen and Sudan, with other stops along the way. The author himself is Syrian Canadian, and worked as both a journalist and with Medecins Sans Frontieres. There are many rightful targets of his ire who all share this in common: the desire to centralize power in themselves alone, and by doing so strip others of their rights and dignities.

As such, Mr Al-Saadi sets any number of dictators and authoritarian regimes in his sights, as well as the imperialist/settler-colonial powers of the West and Israel. This is, ofc, old hat to anyone with any awareness of the area and even half a heart, but the sheer amount of detail he puts into narrating the crimes against the people of MENA sheds light on some truly awful situations. In doing so, his aim is to raise both awareness and inspire solidarity worldwide. Tyranny and economic exploitation must be fought against by the many below: we cannot expect to be rescued by the (perishingly rare benevolent) few in power above.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/12/lebanon-is-burning-and-other-dispatches-by-yazan-al-saadi-et-al/

Feb 11 2025

The Bushcraft 101 Field Log by Dave Canterbury

subtitled Track And Record Your Wilderness Adventures.

A part of me has always wanted to have wilderness adventures. I want to be that person who enjoys camping and hiking and surviving in the outdoors. Alas, even with my well-practiced adaptability, I am only ever reluctantly the outdoorsy type, and less and less so as the years wear on.

Still, I, like millions of others, gained a greater appreciation for nature in the wake of the pandemic lockdowns, so when I was offered this field log for review, I leaped at the chance. I enjoy observing and making notes of nature, and thought this would be useful for writing down my few encounters with such in suburbia, or on one of my woodland walks.

Lol, was I wrong.

And that is in no way the fault of the book, which is geared towards people who are making long trips in the bush, not dilettantes like myself who simply refuse to live without indoor plumbing. This field log is geared towards people who make camp and explore the actual wilderness — think hiking the Appalachian Trail vs taking a walk in your local green space — with handy tips on how to use the book in tandem with your experiences and future plans.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/11/the-bushcraft-101-field-log-by-dave-canterbury/

Feb 10 2025

Jovi Giraffe Learns To Look by Patricia Bardina, Joanne Burgess & Paul Sharp

subtitled A Lesson in Eye Contact, and frankly a very valuable read for anyone who’s ever struggled with sociability.

This companion piece to Revony Rhinoceros Starts To Smile is another terrific book about how body language encourages relationships or otherwise. With its cute anthropomorphic cast, it’s an accessible way for people who struggle with social skills to learn about how something as seemingly simple a/o small as eye contact can be very nuanced and important when it comes to transmitting and understanding feelings.

Jovi Giraffe is nice and polite but has trouble making friends. He’ll readily engage in conversation but tends to looks everywhere but into the eyes of the person he’s talking with, leading others to believe that he’s just not that interested in them. Poor Jovi feels quite lonely as he makes his way to the park one day, after his lack of eye contact causes more than one friend to skip away to hang out with people they think actually want to spend time with them.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/10/jovi-giraffe-learns-to-look-by-patricia-bardina-joanne-burgess-paul-sharp/