MORE '2011-MIDDLE-GRADE-FICTION' POSTS
Wonderstruck By Brian Selznick Scholastic Press $29.99 ISBN: 978-0545027892 Ages 9 and up On shelves September 13, 2011 Hype. What’s the point? A publisher believes that a book is going to be big so they crank up the old hype machine and do everything in their power to draw attention to it long before its […]
Jefferson’s Sons By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3499-9 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 15th When I was in high school I started reading Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved on my own. At the time, my mother said something about the book that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever […]
The Unforgotten Coat By Frank Cottrell Boyce Photographs by Carl Hunter and Clare Heney Candlewick Press $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5729-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 13th. Contemporary Mongolia doesn’t have all that many English language children’s novels to its name. And if you asked me to name everything I knew about Mongolia today, I’d probably find […]
When Life Gives You O.J. By Erica S. Perl Alfred A. Knopf $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-85924-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Children’s librarians can be neatly divided into two categories with relatively little difficulty. Basically, they either love and adore dogs and all things doggie related or they don’t. I don’t. I was never the kid […]
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale By Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright Illustrated by Barry Moser Peachtree Press $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-56145-595-9 Ages 7-12 On shelves October 1, 2011 Animal stories. Done well and you get something like Charlotte’s Web or The Incredible Journey. Done poorly and you cannot name for me […]
Hound Dog True By Linda Urban Harcourt Children’s Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-55869-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 20th There’s identifying with a work of children’s fiction and then there’s wondering if the author of the work has somehow discovered time travel and was able to observe your younger self. […]
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes By Jonathan Auxier Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-0025-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves August 1st. What is the most telling difference between those works of children’s literature written long ago and those written today? Pose this question to a room full of children’s librarians and I […]
Hidden By Helen Frost Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus & Giroux) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-38221-6 Ages 10 and up On shelves now. If poems had been introduced to me as a child as puzzles, maybe I would have taken to them a little more. A poem is a kind of puzzle, isn’t it? Depending on the […]
Breadcrumbs By Anne Ursu Illustrated by Erin McGuire Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201505-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 27, 2011 Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen is, let’s admit it, the world’s greatest puberty metaphor. A boy and girl are friends. Something happens and he grows cold […]
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales By Chris Van Allsburg and more Houghton Mifflin Harcourt $24.99 ISBN: 978-0547548104 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 25, 2011 Chris Van Allsburg has always been the Rod Serling of the children’s literary world. Of that there can be no question. With no other author, […]