MORE '2011-MIDDLE-GRADE-FICTION' POSTS
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making By Catherynne M. Valente Illustrations by Ana Juan Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-312-64961-6 On shelves now. Well devil if I know what to do with it. Never complain that you are bored, ladies and gentlemen. Say such a […]
The Boy at the End of the World By Greg van Eekhout Bloomsbury Children’s Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59990-524-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves June 21, 2011 For all that dystopias are now the #1 hot genre amongst children and teens (having supplanted vampires for the moment) I’ve yet to have a kid actually ask me for […]
Dead End in Norvelt By Jack Gantos Farrar, Straus and Giroux (an imprint of Macmillan) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3 Ages 10-14 On shelves September 13, 2011 What makes Jack Gantos tick? It’s a question that haunts every book he writes, from the simplest Rotten Ralph to his own YA autobiography Hole in My Life. It’s a […]
Kat, Incorrigible By Stephanie Burgis Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 9781416994473 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Early nineteenth-century child and teen novels written with an equal influence of Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones are nothing new. Indeed they’ve been around for quite some time. They’re your Sorcery and Cecelia by […]
Fly Trap By Frances Hardinge Harper Collins $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-088044-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves May 31, 2011 As I see it, reviewing a sequel is a peculiar enterprise. One can hardly review a book without suggesting to the reader that they read the previous novel as well. And in the rare case where the sequel […]
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette By Jeanne Birdsall Knopf (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-85851-2 Ages 7-12 On shelves May 10th When Jeanne Birdsall’s first middle grade novel The Penderwicks was published in 2005 it committed a crime. A crime shared, I might add, by books written by authors like Dr. Seuss, J.K. […]
Inside Out and Back Again By Thanhha Lai Harper Collins $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-196278-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Thinking about the most memorable of children’s novels, one trait in all of them has to ring true in order for them to click with their readers. The books must contain some kind of “meaning”. Even the […]
Small Persons with Wings By Ellen Booraem Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3471-5 Ages 10-14 On shelves now We’re all sick of vampires right now. We’re also a little tired of zombies and don’t even TALK to me about angels. A couple years ago you could have said the same about child wizards. […]
Okay for Now By Gary D. Schmidt Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-15260-8 Ages 10-14 On shelves April 18th There are three kinds of literary sequels for kids out there. First, you have the sequel that is so intricately tied into the plot of the first book that not a […]
Season of Secrets By Sally Nicholls Arthur A. Levine (an imprint of Scholastic) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-21825-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Sally Nicholls is not a household name here in America. She is possibly not even a name that most children’s librarians, booksellers, and teachers would recognize right off the bat. This, in spite of […]