Tag: historical middle grade

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Finding Family

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Family Story with Photographs

Finding-FamilyIn Finding Family (Bloomsbury, 2010) by Tonya Bolden we get to see the characters grow and change in this historical middle grade novel set in 1905 Charleston, West Virginia. Author Tonya Bolden was Inspired by old pictures to create the story. Here’s a brief summary:
12-year-old Delana is being raised by a great aunt and her grandpa. Aunt Tilley loves visiting kinfolk by pulling the pictures out of a basket. But Aunt Tilley has been scattered lately and changing stories. Grandpa doesn’t say much and Delana thinks he doesn’t love her, so when Aunt Tilley dies, she wants to go home with various family members, not that she’s brave enough to tell them.
See what else the author has written on her website. As for me, I’m planning to check out some of her nonfiction!

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Selling Hope

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

SellingHopeSelling Hope (Feiwel and Friends, 2010) by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb is one of those fascinating stories with characters so real you want to meet them. Here’s an introduction:
It’s 1910 and 13-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father, a philosophical/talkative magician, are part of a vaudeville group. The group is going back to Chicago, her home town, and Hope wants to stay and in fact does things that could contribute to her father getting fired to ensure staying. Meanwhile, she knows she has to save up enough money for them to live on for a while and comes up with the scheme of selling anti-comet pills as people are afraid of Halley’s Comet that will be passing by the earth.
The story includes a countdown to the arrival of the comet. It was fun learning inside knowledge on how some tricks work, and reading about their life on the train and in boarding houses. This author did her research! Great way to learn some history as well as being entertained.
Check out Kristin’s other book, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different on her website. On her About page, check out what makes her tick or ticks her off!