Tag: Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

cover of Nightingale
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Nightingale

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Nightingale (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2022) by Deva Fagan was a fun fantasy–there’s a magic sword, flying, an evil factory owner, workers literally ghosting, princes, a giant robot, a possibly war on the horizon, and a hero or two.

12-year-old Lark is an orphan just trying to earn enough money to get her mother’s locket back from mean Mrs. Starvenger. During an attempted theft she accidentally touches a magicked sword and becomes the fabled hero Nightingale expected to save Gallant from an ancient evil. 13-year-old Prince Jasper was the one who awakened the sword, but unfortunately the sword has a mind of it’s own and won’t go back. But Lark can’t be a hero, can’t she?

The book is a 2022 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year and has been put on a several state lists. Read more here.

Read about the author here and check out her other books on her site.

cover of Stay, Girl, shows a beagle running to a girl
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Stay, Girl

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Stay, Girl (Crow & Pitcher Press, 2024) by Angelica R. Jackson was a compelling read.

It’s 1953 in Sacramento, CA and 13-year-old Bet’s dying mother makes her promise to go to her Uncle Earl. The moment Mom dies, Bet packs up a few things and steals hidden money from her crooked stepfather, and is on the run. She plans to only stay a few days with her uncle and then go on to Oregon, but a small injured dog needs some care, so Bet decides to stick around a bit longer.

I enjoyed the details of small town life in this story and was rooting for Bet to have a real home in Amberfields, CA. And, of course, the dogs were fun.

Besides being a writer, Angelica has also rescued some dogs, which you can read about here. Read about the author here and see her other novels here.

cover of Alone
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Alone

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Alone (Aladdin, 2021) by Megan E. Freeman is a fascinating near future novel-in-verse that shouldn’t be missed.

Twelve-year-old Maddie wakes up in her small Colorado town and finds herself completely alone. No family. No friends. No neighbors. Not even strangers. Maddie discovers a rottweiler named George, and must keep them both alive without electricity, running water, or anyone to help.

This was a hard to put down story. I love that we along with Maddie don’t know what happened.

And it has won many awards:
Alone is a “New York Times bestseller, winner of the Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award, the California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Japan, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and named on dozens of ‘best of’ book lists.” Wow!

Just this month, a companion book set in the same story universe, has come out. It’s called Away. I’m really looking forward to it.

Read about Megan here.

cover of Westfallen
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Westfallen

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Westfallen (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024) by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares is not quite time travel, perhaps time communication, but in the same exact place.

79 years apart, six kids meet via an old radio. The 2023 kids (Henry, Frances, and Lukas) unwittingly tell the 1944 kids (Alice, Artie, and Lawrence) some things that change the past and their future–today is not the American the modern three know, but now a country called Westfallen. With men in uniforms with swastika armbands. The six have to work together to change the past and present. But they destroyed the radio…

This is the first book in a planned trilogy of alternate history.

Ann is the bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, plus others. Read more about her books here, and about her here.

Ben, her brother, also has other books–check them out here. Read about him here.

paperback cover of Ban This Book
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Ban This Book

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Ban This Book (Starscape, 2017) by Alan Gratz is such a good read. It’s definitely still timely. I wish I’d noticed this book sooner.

When Amy Anne Ollinger tries to check out her “favorite book in the world” from the school library, the librarian tells her the book has been banned. She learns it’s a classmate’s mom who thought the book was inappropriate. After a failed attempt to talk to the school board about the book, Amy Anne starts a secret banned-book library out of her locker. Trouble ensues.

Of course, there’s more involved in the story. Amy Anne has to learn how to speak up in other places as well…like at home. And you’ll probably recognize books from the banned book lists at Amy Anne’s school.

I love the log line on Alan’s website: “PUTTING FICTIONAL KIDS IN DANGER SINCE 2006.” Read about this bestselling author here. See all his novels here. He’s also written a graphic novel, Captain America: The Ghost Army. His short fiction is posted here.

Previously, I recommended Alan’s historical book, Allies.