Five stars: Lo and Behold by Wendy Mass and Gabi Mendez (Illustrator) (2023) is about friendships made through augmented and virtual reality. Addie and her father have moved temporarily to a college town so he can help some computer science students with their grants.
A mermaid, a firebird, and a witch become entangled with the mysterious and powerful Witch Queen, who may hold the key to each of their past in this epic middle grade fantasy by debut author Vivian Zhou.
From We Need Diverse Books cofounder Lamar Giles comes an out-of-this-world adventure starring the Epic Ellison twins! Join them as they race to solve the mystery of Cosmos Camp for young geniuses in this stand-alone companion to the Legendary Alston Boys series.
Making new friends can be difficult. It can seem even more insurmountable when you are on the autistic spectrum. 11-year-old Alex knows one or two things about it. He really doesn’t like change. Change can be terrifying. Alex thinks that having a friend will greatly help him, but how will he meet someone before school begins ?
Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy: 4* for this this #MiddleGrade#GraphicNovel that explores what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States from a young teenage girl's perspective.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes the third and final book in the cheerful and charming trilogy about friendship, adventure, and celebrating your true self.
With its friendly monsters, The Monsters of Marymount Mansion is the perfect middle grade book for #spookyseason ! Toby is a sweet monster, but with a scary apparence : he has skin like a fish, fur like a dog, and smells like cotton candy when he gets excited ! Courageous and curious, the young monster has a lot of adventures on Halloween !
The Witch Boy trilogy by Molly Knox Ostertag is a fun graphic novel series about a boy witch in a family where only girls can be witches. It follows the MC as he navigates friendships, family dynamics, mysteries, and witchcraft. The three books are: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch. Perfect for ages 8-13 or any fan of graphic novels.
Affective Worldmaking: Narrative Counterpublics of Gender and Sexuality edited by S. Schultermandl, J. Aresin, S. Pages Whybrew, and D. Simic (nonfiction)
I am reading the cutest middle grade novel right now. It's called The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass and it's about a boy, a little free library, a couple ghosts, and Mortimer, the library cat. Highly recommend for readers age 8-12.
Four stars: The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton and Khadijah Khatib (Illustrator) (2022) is the start of The Conjureverse middle grade fantasy series set in an alternate Earth where magic is real and segregated. Ella Durand is the first conjurer to attend the Arcanum Training Institute. Although she's been welcomed to join, she faces prejudice from nearly everyone at the school. She also finds herself in the middle of a mystery that threatens the school.
If your middle grader is interested in History and Art and enjoys reading non fiction, it may be the perfect book ! A propulsive work of narrative nonfiction about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, how the robbery made the portrait the most famous artwork in the world—and how the painting by Leonardo da Vinci should never have existed at all.
The Professional Tarpon Rodeo is back, and Doc Ford needs help from the trio of brave friends who make up Sharks Inc. to investigate the million-dollar competition in bestselling author Randy Wayne White’s fourth Sharks Incorporated novel, Megalops .
I really enjoyed Kate Searle’s other book My Soul Treasure, so I was quite excited to discover Find your treasure. Created with the same illustrator as her other book, Alison Mutton, Find your treasure is an enchanting and magical chapter book that takes young readers on a journey of spiritual discovery, self awareness and empowerment .
Keep up with kidlit news and what I'm reading with my periodic newsletter - latest issue out now, including what I'm reading (Claire Swinarski's wonderful new middle grade What Happened to Rachel Riley?), my Portobello Book Festival event next month and more! Read it now at http://bit.ly/SMAnews13
Tomorrow will be the release day of this insightful middle grade novel-in-verse about the joys and struggles of a Chicana girl who is a warrior for her name, her history, and her right to choose what she celebrates in life.
Inspired by a true story, Hoops dramatizes the historic struggle for gender equality in high school sports. Taking place in Wilkins in Indiana in 1976, it follows a group of teenagers who created one of the first high school girls basketball teams.
In this hilarious second book in the Middle School and Other Disasters series, witch-in-training Heidi Heckelbeck wants her crush to notice her. Featuring black-and-white illustrations and doodles throughout and sparkly foil on the cover!
If you are looking for a very sweet MG read, you should check Calvin and the Sugar Apples. Focusing on eleven-year-old Amelia and the loss of her best friend Calvin, a twenty-one-year-old chinchilla, this novel is beautifully written and illustrated.
Five stars: Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson and Junyi Wu (Illustrator) (2023) begins with a royal hunt in the Kingdom Under the Mountain from the perspective of a young elfhound. When the prey ends up outside the mountain and the hunt follows, the elfhound is separated and befuddled by a modern human mountain town.