The Mighty Mountain of Theornin

by De Kenyon

Astra knows what she’s good at: thieving, tricking, and hitting people with rocks. Especially the mayor’s bullying son, after he makes fun of her. She also knows what she’s not good at: being a girl. Not the kind of girl that lives in the tiny mountain village of Theornin, anyway.

So logically that means making Wizard Jorphen change her into a boy.

But the mayor’s already pushing Wizard Jorphen around to do something else: stopping a mountain from growing under the village and pushing everyone out. Except the only way to stop a mountain from growing might kill Astra’s only friend.

(For kids 8-12.)

“Now, what I want you to do is spell them off. Or just keep them from getting bigger.” Astra held her breath. Didn’t matter how good a plan was, if some adult didn’t approve of it.

Sure enough, Wizard Jorphen said, “No.”

She slammed her fist on the heavy, black-wood table, which made the dishes rattle but didn’t move the table one bit. He was looking up at her all steady and serious. His dirty, dark blue robe sparkled with stars; as she looked, she thought she saw one twinkle and slide over the skinny bone at the top of his shoulder. He had big blue eyes and yellow hair and a fake beard that was coming loose again.

“Then make me a boy so I can grow up to be a man, and they can all quit bothering me. I don’t want to learn how to cook or clean up after people. I don’t want to go out in the fields and dig and hoe and pull weeds and get the sun in my eyes and the bugs in my throat. I want to go to Newmarket and steal for a living. Why don’t anybody believe me when I say I’ll send money back?”

“No,” he said.

She hit the table again, but this time the whole house shook around them, and she had to grab the table to stay steady. They’d been having a lot of earthquakes lately, the first ever in the history of Theornin village. The old clay jar at the end of the Wizard Jorphen’s bookshelf started to tip off the side of the shelf, right over his head. She jumped up so her foot was on the table and hit the pot away from his head. The jar smashed against the stone wall, busted-up clay flying everywhere.
Astra stood on the table and braced the row of books before they could slide off. “I told you not to sit there. Now can we take the books down?”

Wizard Jorphen ignored her and crouched down on the floor next to where the jar had smashed. Astra started taking books off the shelf and dropping them on the one clear spot on the table, in a stack. He was just lucky his dirty dishes hadn’t slid off the table, was all. He was running out of dishes. At least she’d put all the jars in the cellar were on the floor, so they should be all right. She should of just said she wasn’t going to work for him anymore, last time she’d paid off all the favors he’d done her. He was so stubborn. He could find someone else to do chores for him. And be his friend.

“You could have just caught it.” He picked up a few of the larger pieces. “Now I’ll have to make time to fix it.”

“Why? There wasn’t anything in it, and it was ugly as a snake.”

He sighed. “I was going to put something in it. Someday.”

“Well, at least leave these books on the table ‘till the earthquakes are over, all right?”

He twisted around, a stack of jar pieces in one hand that he set on the table. He blinked and swayed on his dirty knees.

“Your eyes are real red,” she said. “Are you sick?”

“Just tired. The earthquakes aren’t going to stop, Astra. A mountain is growing under our village.”

She blinked. A mountain? Mountains grew? “When’ll it be over?”

“Never. Theornin will either have to move or slide down the mountain.”

Buy now at Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo, and more to come.

The Boy Who Would Not Sleep

by De Kenyon

In the woods, Nickolas’s father tells him stories to pass the time as they cut down trees…but one story, he won’t tell. Not until Nickolas grows old enough to hear it. Finally, the time comes: the men in Nickolas’s family were always good at cutting things, but in older times, they were too good, and did monstrous things, eventually angering a local dragon.

The dragon cursed the men of their family to fall into a deep sleep that lasts from fall to spring, like a bear’s. And in their dreams, they must serve the dragon.

More than that, Nickolas’s father will not say.

Now, Nickolas is eating enough for many men…and getting sleepier with every step. The townswomen think it’s funny, but Nickolas has made up his mind: he will not sleep.

No matter what the cost.

(Ages 11-13.)

When Nickolas was a young boy following his father into the woods in order to carry his water while his father cut trees, his father would tell all kinds of stories of dragons and knights and fighting, and Nickolas enjoyed those stories very much. However, there was one story that his father would not tell him.

Nickolas would beg for a new story, and his father would say that he only had one story that he hadn’t told him yet. “But Nickolas, I am saving this story for you, and when it is time I will tell you.”

Nickolas grew older and older, and his father showed him how to use the ax to strip off branches, to cut away bark.

But he would not let him cut down a tree, not by himself. “There will be time,” his father said. “After you hear the story.”
“Soon?” Nickolas asked.

At first, his father had laughed and said, “Not so soon,” and told him the old stories again.

But then it changed to “soon,” and then “very soon now,” until finally his father said, “Now it is time to hear the last story, Nickolas, during the noon meal.”

They worked all morning, until finally it was time to eat. Every mouthful felt like it was going to choke Nickolas, for he could barely swallow.

“Once upon a time,” his father said, because that was the way he started his stories, “our family was cursed by a dragon.”

“A dragon!” Nickolas said. “I don’t believe it.”

“You better watch out for what you believe and what you don’t believe, young man,” said his father, who smiled until the tips of his teeth showed. “It will only get you in trouble. If I tell you our family was cursed by a dragon, then that’s what happened.”

“Yes, Father,” Nickolas said.

“Our family was cursed by a dragon for being…more than a little rambunctious. Wild. You see, when our family was young, we had no patience, no love of family, nothing but a desire to cut trees, to cut and cut and cut. Our family was so mad about cutting trees that we cut down the whole forest.”

Nickolas was surrounded by trees, trees so tall and thick that it seemed like the sun set hours early and rose hours late, it was so shaded and dim. Yet he knew better than to argue with his father that day.

“This was many, many hundreds of years ago,” his father added. “And the trees have all grown back.”

“Obviously,” said Nickolas, which earned him a pinch on the ear from his father. “Ow!”

Read more here.

**** Excellent.

Two female main characters, no strong male characters but boys (especially ones who are having trouble with bullies) might still be able to relate.  For 7-8 year olds, a chapter book rather than a middle-grade.

About 136 pages.

The Adventures of Tempest and Serena

by Marty Mokler Banks

In short: The two main characters, Tempest and Serena, are twin sisters. One, Tempest, is tempestuous; the other, Serena, is shy. On the first day of school, Tempest rebels–she’s not going back. Having obtained a magic flashlight, she makes a wish to have a forever summer, sprouts wings, and flies off, leaving behind her sister Serena to cope with all the responsibilities, here represented by having to defend Tempest’s empty bus seat, lunch seat, etc., from a school bully.

Okay.

I normally write book reviews trying to see things from a kid’s perspective.  I just couldn’t on this one; I apologize.  So this is for parents.

It was well-written, with solid characters, fun episodes, and lessons to be learned, but–I almost had to read this as an adult; there were too many interesting adult-level things going on. I’d definitely give it a try on your chapter-book reader who’s bored with Ramona and that ilk but isn’t ready for the intensity of a middle-grade yet. It’s a gentle book, the equivalent of a Mr. Rogers episode, all sweetness and light on top but a bunch of powerful, subtle things going on underneath.

I think I’ve been in too many college literature classes to read that straight on. Anytime you see twins, you have to suspect that the characters are really one person, split in two. Or, in this case, perhaps an imaginary friend. Is Tempest real or not? The mom acts like it’s not important that Tempest, one of her daughters, is gone. For months. And the way that Serena has to defend the empty places where Tempest isn’t, like her lunch seat…it seems like something my daughter would have done, at eight-ish, when she loved an imaginary friend.

In the end, I don’t know–some people acted as though Tempest were real; others, not. I think it’s not meant to be figured out so much as appreciated. At that age, what’s real is what’s in front of you, even if it only comes out of your imagination.

Read on a literal level – it seems impossible, and almost sad: the wild sister comes home. I got the sense that she was foolish to go, even though she had such great adventures; she had such a time of it getting back. But–looking at it as though Tempest were an imaginary friend–of course your imaginary friend has to come home; your imagination has to focus on the here-and-now sometimes, too, and it can certainly go haring off whenever it wants to.

I think that what it comes down to is that I’m too old, too adult to be able to judge this through a kids’ eyes. Normally, it isn’t a problem–I love it when a kids’ book takes me away from the adult world. Ahhhh, it’s nice to lay all that “adultness” aside. But this? You never get to lay that responsibility aside, so it’s not a perfect kids’ book for an adult reader–but I can’t tell you whether it’s a perfect kids’ book for a kid. I suspect it is, for the right kind of kid.

Book Description:

Tempest and Serena Cooper think they are nothing alike. That all changes when Tempest flies off a wild, brave journey to find summer forever, while Serena promises to save her sister’s seat on the school bus. As each battles bullies, disasters, and loneliness, they find they’re not so different. A suspenseful, charming chapter book adventure for readers ages 7 and up.

About the Author: 

Marty Mokler Banks writes for the travel and business worlds, but is most passionate about her work in children’s fiction. She received a B.S. in journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder and attended the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. An active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), Marty lives in Colorado with her family and dogs.

Marty welcomes comments and feedback via Amazon’s reviews and likes to hear directly from readers through her website, www.MartyMoklerBanks.com.

Here it is, the new cover by Martha Lancaster!  So sweet.

As soon as the POD goes live (I’m waiting to check the proof), I’ll set up a contest on Goodreads.  Right now, I’m finishing up the last book in the series…I’m waiting to see if I need to make any changes to fit the whole series together before I publish The Exotics Book 3: The Subterranean Sanctuary.  I think my daughter’s about ready to kill me…

Find copies at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, and more!

The Girl and the Genie

by De Kenyon

In this fairy tale, a girl finds a magic bottle with a genie inside (she can tell there’s a genie inside, because she can see it having adventures), but the genie won’t come out to give her wishes.  What does she do?  She goes inside…

Like a story from The Arabian Night’s Entertainment, the girl has to travel far, posing as a traveling teacher (of things like math problems and standing in line), making friends with some curious demons, and surviving a revenge that was meant for someone else before she finally gets the genie to give her at least one wish.

(For children 8 to 12 years old.)

Once upon a time, there was a girl who found a genie bottle. She could tell it was a genie bottle, because it was a clear bottle, and she could see the genie in it, strong and magical and half-made out of smoke, having adventures.

The girl immediately opened the bottle to let the genie out, in expectation of getting three wishes. However, when she opened the bottle, nothing came out—no smoke, no genie, not even sand—when she turned the bottle upside-down and shook it. And no matter how much she yelled— “Genie! Genie!”—the genie didn’t answer, but only kept having adventures. Without her.

And so the girl did the only thing she could do, which was to go into the bottle.

At first she thought she wouldn’t be able to fit, but at last she managed to fit in a single finger, her pinkie finger. With her pinkie finger inside, she was able to fit another finger, and another, until finally she had her whole arm inside, then her legs, her body, and her head and other arm, until she was hanging from the inside of the bottle by one hand. She was afraid to let go, because inside the bottle was dark, but her hand was getting weaker and weaker by the second, so eventually she did let go, because after all she had not climbed into the bottle in order to not have adventures.

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Pick “The Last Voyage of the Mermaid” up at Smashwords for free here.  If you can’t wait, you can find it for $.99 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple, and more.

The Last Voyage of the Mermaid

by De Kenyon

Arnold had always wanted to know about a) pirates and b) death.  But his mother would never let him find out.  Now Arnold is grown up, old, and tired of being both…so he goes on an adventure to find out the things that he was always supposed to never find out about:  Murder, mermaids, and the deep, dark sea.

When Arnold was a boy, he wondered about two things: what would it be like to be dead, and what would it be like to be a pirate. Being the kind of boy who first asked his mother about things, he received a lecture saying that a) being dead was something that would happen in its own time, and he was forbidden to try to find out early and b) being a pirate was not at all as nice as it seemed in Peter Pan, there being no such things as mermaids, pixies, or alligators with clocks in their stomachs. Whether he should have listened to his mother or not remains to be seen.

And so Arnold grew up, got a job, got married, and had kids. For the longest time, as a boy, he wondered whether he would do these ordinary things, as he was convinced that girls would always have a terrible antipathy (which is the opposite of understanding) of him, and that he would have to adopt children if he wanted to have them. As it turned out, a number of girls fell in love with him, although there was only one he truly loved back. And although her name was something else entirely, he always thought of her as his Wendy.

He did not think of himself as Peter Pan.

Instead, he secretly thought of himself as Captain Hook.

The most excellent Emma Hunneyball has written the World’s Best Review for The Exotics, Book 2: Xanadu House:

This is an action-packed, fun book filled with the type of imaginative (and at times gross) adventures I’ve come to expect from De’s writing. The book is never predictable or patronising and the story itself concludes by neatly setting up the next book in the series. Children’s books don’t get much better than this.

Read more here.

What?  Don’t have book 1?  Sign up for the Wonderland Press newsletter, and you can pick up a free copy.

[Dance dance daaaaaance!]

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