Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I decided to read Iron Hearted Violet (Little, Brown and Company, 2012), one of Kelly Barnhill‘s earlier books, because of reading several recent ones.
Violet is not your average princess. First of all, she’s not beautiful. Even her eyes don’t match. But her people love her anyway. She’s an excellent story teller. Her only friend is a stable boy named Demetrius and the two often escape duties to run around the castle. One day they stumble on a forbidden book and Violet starts reading about the Nybbas, who is not ever to be mentioned. While her father is off hunting the first dragon that has been sighted in years, Violet’s mother gets very sick, and cracks start showing up in the castle. Will their world collapse?
Kelly recently won the Newbery medal so I figured it is only appropriate to link to an interview about her win. Here’s my recommendation of The Girl Who Drank the Moon in case you missed it.
Category: MG Novels
middle grade novels (for 8-12 yo)
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Algonquin Young Readers, 2016) by Kelly Barnhilll is unusual. It’s not told all in the viewpoint of a child main character–in fact we’re in the viewpoint of two adults, a swamp monster, and even a tiny dragon. The girl’s viewpoint comes later in the book.
The people in the village sacrifice the youngest born child each year to keep themselves safe from a witch. What they don’t know is that the witch is actually kind and she’s been rescuing these children and giving them to good homes on the other side of the forest. This time Xan keeps a baby girl, whom she names Luna. She raises her with the help of Glerk, a swamp monster, and Fyrian, a perfectly tiny dragon. To keep everyone safe from Luna’s magic, Xan locks it inside her until she’s thirteen. Meanwhile, a young man from the village plans to kill the witch.
I loved this epic story and had a hard time putting it down. And isn’t that a beautiful cover? The book has been put on a number of Best Book lists and is a New York Times bestseller.
The author describes herself on her website as: “Author. Teacher. Insufferable Blabbermouth. I also make pie.” Read more about her here. I haven’t read all of her books, yet, but besides this one, I’ve already recommended The Mostly True Story of Jack here.
Dead Boy
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Dead Boy (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2015) by Laurel Gale starts right off with humor. The first sentence is “Being dead stank.” The paragraph ends with talking about spray-on deodorant not masking the smell.
Besides the weirdness of his situation, I felt such empathy for the main character. Crow Darlingson is lonely–something we’ve all experienced. His mother won’t let him go outside (the odor, maggots, and falling body parts) and he’s not allowed to have friends (ditto). Then a new girl moves into the neighborhood and waves at him through the window. She even comes to the door to meet him. Of course, his mother won’t let her in. But Crow’s willing to risk a lot to have a friend. He just doesn’t know how much he’ll be risking. Or the truths he’ll discover.
(BTW, I’m not a fan of horror, so if that’s not your “cup of tea” don’t worry that this book goes too far. The horrible elements in this story are balanced well with humor and Crow’s positive traits.)
I love what author Laurel Gale says in a Thanksgiving blog post on her website: “I’m thankful for the magical doors books open.” I agree and am thankful she wrote Dead Boy. Because of it we got to meet. 🙂
Laurel also has helpful writing tips on her website.
Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
Ms. Bixby’s Last Day (Walden Pond Press, 2016) by John David Anderson is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
Take three fifth grade boys, who are friends–Topher, Steve and Brand. Mix in their favorite teacher who is leaving because she has cancer. Three personalities reacting to the same event together develop a plan which will get them in trouble and go so incredibly wrong and right.
The story is told in multiple viewpoints. We see kids whose lives are very different, but pulled together as friends. The book is a 2016 Junior Library Guild Selection and a “TOP 10 Summer 16 Kids’ Indie Next Pick.”
The author has also written Insert Coin to Continue, The Dungeoneers, Minion, Sidekicked, and Standard Hero Behavior. Go to John David Anderson’s website and read the About the Author page for a sense of his humor. Plus, look at the fun extras on each book’s page.
Towers Falling
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Towers Falling (Little, Brown and Company, 2016) by Jewell Parker Rhodes is such a good book. Kids born after 9/11 don’t know the stories and don’t know why they should care.
Fifth grader Dèja is having enough trouble in her life without worrying about something that happened before she was born. She’s starting a new school, she and her family are living in a shelter, and Pop won’t get a job. How can Dèja’s new teacher expect her to write about her summer vacation when her family has never had a vacation? How can Dèja fit in when all she knows is Brooklyn and not the stuff in Manhattan which the class can see from their window? And how can something that isn’t there anymore affect any of the kids?
This is a moving and well-done story. Jewell is the author of Ninth Ward, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and Sugar, winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award–I wouldn’t be surprised to find Towers Falling wins awards, too! She’s written many other books as well. For more details check out her website.