Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
If you like fun fantasy, you’ll like Castle Hangnail (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015) by Ursula Vernon, who not only wrote the story, but did the illustrations.
The minions at Castle Hangnail are worried. If they don’t get a master soon, the castle will be decommissioned. The ravens say someone is on the way, but no one expects it to be the twelve-year-old girl who shows up. Can she really be a wicked witch? Molly, the “evil” twin, has to convince them she is.
I loved the humor in this book. How can one not enjoy lines like these that open the story? “It was a marvelously dark and dour twilight at the castle. Clouds the color of bruises lay across the hills.”
I also loved the characters from the nonhunchback guardian to the suit of armor and the minotaur cook to the doll made out of burlap, and, of course, Molly, the Wicked Witch, who is bad, er, good at being wicked.
Ursula Vernon is the author of the Dragonbreath books, too. Read more on her website: http://ursulavernon.com/.
Category: MG Novels
middle grade novels (for 8-12 yo)
Moonpenny Island
Moonpenny Island (Balzer and Bray, 2015) by Tricia Springstubb is a story about change and offers encouragement that we can do more than simply survive.
Eleven-year-olds, Flor and Sylvie, are inseparable, so what is Flor going to do when Sylvie has to leave the island to go to school on the mainland? If that’s not bad enough, Flor’s mother leaves to take care of grandmother and Flor is afraid she might not come back. Her older sister has a secret too that has Flor worried.
I love what the author says on her website in her FAQ in answer to this question:
Did you always want to be a writer?
“The first thing I wanted to be was a dog. When I realized the odds of that, I switched to a cowgirl. Then an archeologist. I also wanted to be a mom. (Hooray! That came true.) I didn’t decide to be a writer till I was grown-up.”
Read all about her other books here. Tricia is also a member of the “From the Mixed-Up Files…of Middle Grade Authors,” where members talk about books.
Waiting for Unicorns
Waiting for Unicorns (Philomel, 2015) by Beth Hautala is a story of loss, loneliness and hope. (We may not all have a wish jar as the main character does, but we all know what wishing is like!)
When twelve-year-old Talia McQuinn moves north with her father she talks about leaving as “Watching things slip away from you until your insides ache and everything feels backward.” But it’s not just a simple move to a new town for Talia and her father. Instead, she’s going from one culture to another. And she’ll have to face it alone since her father will be out hunting whales, and her mother is dead.
This was author Beth Hautala’s first book.
She has recently sold her second book The Ostrich and Other Lost Things also to Philomel for publication in 2017. Read more on her website.
Fish in a Tree
I loved Fish in a Tree (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015) by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.
Poor Ally has been hiding the fact that she can’t read. Instead teachers and others think she’s disruptive. She’s often in trouble–like sent-to-the-Principal’s-office trouble. In Ally’s words, “Seven schools in seven years and they’re all the same. Whenever I do my best, they tell me I don’t try hard enough.” The other kids get tired of her, too, and call her Freak. Dumb. Loser. Even her mom doesn’t understand. But Ally can’t tell the truth.
I loved the relationships in this book: Ally and her brother Travis, Ally and her new friends, Ally and her new teacher, Ally and her “away” father. I ached for Ally and all the frustrations and misunderstandings. (Can you tell I really liked this book?!)
And after finishing the book, I loved reading about how Ally’s brother came to be in this post. To learn more, go to the author’s website.
This is author Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s second book. Hopefully, there will be many more to come.
The Truth about Twinkie Pie
The Truth about Twinkie Pie (Little, Brown and Company, 2015) by Kat Yeh is not an easy story, but it’s a good one.
Twelve-year-old GiGi and her nine years older sister DiDi have moved from South Carolina to Long Island. GiGi can reinvent herself at her new school and even go by the new name of Leia. (It’s a better nickname for her real name of Galileo Galilei). But life gets complicated with a new friend–a guy!–a girl who hates GiGi/Leia, and family secrets revealed.
This isn’t one of those forgettable books. Author Kat Yeh has a goal of helping children cope and has written about real life and real Issues in this story. (Read more on her blog April 9, 2015.) I hope it reaches the kids who need it and wins some awards, too!
A fun bonus of The Truth about Twinkie Pie is all the recipes written by the girls’ mama.
Read about the author’s published picture books on her site.