MORE 'MIDDLE-GRADE-FICTION' POSTS
The Last Mapmaker offers readers proof positive that you can write succinctly, sacrificing nothing, while showing your readers absolutely everything.
The Lock-Eater is a marvelous example of how you may render old ideas new, if only you’ve the ability to combine smart, timely writing with the current zeitgeist. Our kids are lucky they get to tap into books like this. Let’s hope for more of the same.
I review the latest from Kyle Lukoff and, yes, there will be spoilers. A brave title for a time when we need brave books for kids more than ever.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Middle Grade Novels
| 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2021, Booklists
Let's talk about the great middle grade novels of 2021 a little early this year! A collected list of some of the best books my librarians and I have seen.
It is truly rare to find a book like Much Ado About Baseball where math not only propels the plot forward, but also contains perfectly normal, sportsy characters for whom loving math is just one aspect of their personality. Add in baseball, Shakespeare, magic AND snacks and you’ve got yourself a unicorn of a book.
Pairing with the utterly lovely Sophie Blackall, Kate DiCamillo presents us with a story that has all the trappings of a fable, and all the reality of a thoroughly thrilling tale.
"...sometimes, it’s okay to make a scene." We're talking with author Emma Otheguy today about immigration, her own family history, and her brand new middle grade novel out in 2022. It's a cover reveal day!
In an era of information overload, Mary Winn Heider is the author who will lead us through the pandemonium into the light. Hand this to the kid that wants something smart and funny with a side order of turmoil for spice.
Ms. Milford’s skills have at last come together to produce her magnum opus. I’ll tell you true – there’s not a soul alive I’ve handed this book to that didn’t get sucked into it. Every book has its reader. It just happens that this book’s reader is you.
A smartly plotted dip into the Gullah-Geechee culture of early 60s rural South Carolina, this book weaves family, history, and spooky stuff together like a braid.