Category: MG Novels

middle grade novels (for 8-12 yo)

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Is It Night or Day?

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

nightorday.jpgI love learning about history via historical fiction–it just brings it alive. Is It Night or Day? (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010) by Fern Schumer Chapman is a recent discover for me. The book is inspired by the author’s mother’s experiences, who was one of twelve hundred children rescued from the Holocaust by Americans through the One Thousand Children project.

It’s 1938 and twelve-year-old Edith has to travel alone from Germany to America as the anti-Semitism is getting worse. She’ll be staying with family she’s never met in Chicago. Is that scary or what?

See if the opening lines of this book don’t just grab you: “The first long train trip I ever took in Germany was my last. Now I see that it was a funeral procession. The mourners traveling with me were my father, my mother, and Mina, a Christian girl who lived with my family and was as dear to me as my big sister, Betty. We were burying my childhood.”

The author creates such sympathy in the reader’s heart for Edith. Wow! It’s an unforgettable story and definitely a good read.

Read about Fern Schumer Chapman’s other books here.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Shadow Magic

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

shadowmagic.jpgShadow Magic (Disney Hyperion, 2016) by Joshua Khan is fantasy told from two viewpoints. We have twelve-year-old Thorn, the outlaw peasant who was purchased from a slaver to become the executioner’s squire, and thirteen-year-old Lily (Lilith Shadow) who is now the ruler of Castle Gloom and Gehenna, the land of the dead. Thorn just wants to escape and find his father. Lily would like to escape her onerous duties. How can she be a successful ruler when girls are forbidden to do the magic that members of her family have done for ages?
These two are drawn together over their dislike of Gabriel, who Lily is pledged to marry. Secret passages, assassins, a puppy named Custard, zombies, and a giant bat named Hades all have their roles in this fantasy. What’s not to like?
I was pleased to discover this was book 1 in a trilogy. Dream Magic came out in 2017 and Burning Magic comes out in 2018.
Read more about the books and the author here.

Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Lucky Broken Girl

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

luckybrokengirl.jpgI read Lucky Broken Girl (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017) by Ruth Behar before the announcement that Ruth won the well deserved 2018 Pura Belpré Author Award. This historical novel is based on the author’s own experience of being in a body cast for almost a year. One of the things this story set in the 60’s did for me was make me grateful for medical advancements.

Fifth grader Ruthie Mizrahi and her family have emigrated from Cuba. Hear her voice in the opening two lines: “When we lived in Cuba, I was smart. But when we got to Queens, in New York City, in the United States of America, I became dumb, just because I couldn’t speak English.”

However, Ruthie is a fighter and an encourager. She makes friends with another student who is from India who is also “not dumb.” She gets the teacher to agree to them both being promoted to the smart class. She’s also the hopscotch queen in her neighborhood and has even talked her father into a pair of go go boots.
But then the family is in a terrible car accident and Ruthie is put in a body cast. She is pretty discouraged–she’s alone so much and afraid. Surprisingly, in time her life improves. The question remains though: will she ever walk again?

Amazingly enough this is Ruth Behar’s debut novel. Ruth is also a cultural anthropologist. Read more about her here. And read about the other honors and lists, etc. for this book here.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Wonderling

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

wonderling.jpgWonderling (Candlewick Press, 2017) by Mira Bartók is a touching story perfect for the middle grade reader.
The wonderling is an 11-year-old groundling (part animal, part human) with only a number instead of a name. Number Thirteen has only one ear and is foxlike, but has not tale. He lives in the Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures run by Miss Carbunkle. Mistreated, overworked and bullied, he keeps his head down and does what he’s told. But he yearns for something more. His life begins to bloom when he makes his first friend, a young bird groundling he defends. Trinket gives him a real name, Arthur, and through an invention of hers the two friends escape the home. And that’s just the beginning of their adventures.
This book is Mira Bartók’s first book for children and will be the first of a fantasy series. I just read on the author’s website that a movie based on the book is in progress. Read more here. I’m looking forward to both.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Foxheart

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

FOXHEART Final HC c.inddFoxheart (Greenwillow Books, 2016) by Claire Legrand starts out with an unlikable main character that I grew to like a lot.
“For the first twelve years of her life, Girl had no name.” Left at the Convent at age three, she wouldn’t even talk for two years. Her gray hair made her unusual too and everyone was suspicious of the unusual. At age five when she wouldn’t tell the sisters her name, her punishment was to be given no name. Of course, the other orphans made up names for her. Girl took advantage of this and acted like a pig when the girls called her one. Called herself Pigwitch Girl while stealing from a woman from town.
Though obnoxious on the outside, Girl yearns for her parents. When she’s ten, a stray yellow dog becomes her sole friend and she names him Fox. She dreams about becoming the best thief in the Star Lands. But one night her whole life changes, and Girl has to run for her life.
I really enjoyed the story and the different characters we are introduced to and I loved the cover that hints to all kinds of things in the story. The book is a 2016 Junior Library Guild selection.
Author Claire Legrand has a number of other books that you can check out here. Three books are slated for 2018 and 2019.