Tag: mg fantasy

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

Elsetime

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Elsetime (Everything with Words, 2020) by Eve McDonnell is a fascinating historical set in two time periods (1864 and 1928) with time travel, and was inspired by the 1928 Great Flood of London.

First we meet orphaned Glory, an eleven-year-old looking for a job, who is dressing up to look older. She’s been expelled from school because of her wooden hand–it would be a waste to educate her. But not only is she determined to get a job, she plans to own an emporium someday. Meanwhile, she and her older sister must earn enough to keep the landlord at bay.

Then the story switches to Needle, also eleven, whose father is missing. A mudlark who digs up lost treasures at the river’s edge, Needle senses the story behind each piece. He takes his found bits and pieces and makes beautiful things to sell so he and his mother can survive.

What connects them? A crow named Magpie and a list of who will die in the flood.

The novel has won awards: Winner Children’s Book Award (pre-publication) Wells Festival of Literature 2017,  Book of the Year 2020: Halfway Up Books, and  Children’s Book of the Year 2020: Bridge Street Books.

Read about this Irish author here and check out her other books here. Eve is also an artist!

cover of Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood (Disney/Hyperion, 2024) by Robert Beatty is a mysterious story.

Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe tries to stay with her foster families. But the only place she feels she belongs is Highland Home for Children, with it’s caretaker, and the horses. Sylvia always finds her way back. “Caught in a nook here, and a cranny there, she was the one little pebble that the river could never seem to push downstream.” Once “home” a powerful storm causes the river to flood and Sylvia finds strange things that don’t belong, and even rescues an odd boy, who doesn’t seem to be from her time.

Watch the book trailer on this page.

Read about the bestselling author here and check out his Serafina and Willow series here.

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 The Hotel Balzaar
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Hotel Balzaar

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Hotel Balzaar (Candlewick Press, 2024) by Kate DiCamillo is a sweet story of stories within a story. It’s beautifully illustrated by Júlia Sardà.

Marta and her mother live in a hotel where Marta must be as quiet and invisible as a small mouse while her mother works. Marta obeys until a countess with a parrot arrives and invites her to visit. The stories the countess tells don’t seem connected and Marta is not sure they are even true, but they give her hope.

Part of The Norendy Tales, this book is aimed at ages 7-10, but I think older readers will enjoy as well. The first book in the collection is The Puppets of Spelhorst and coming in September is a third, Lost Evangeline. The books stand alone but share a world.

Kate is a two-time Newbery winner who writes picture books, early chapter books, and middle grade novels. Read more about this award winning author here.

Júlia is an author as well as an illustrator–read about her here and see samples of her work here.

cover of The Girl Who Kept the Castle
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Girl Who Kept the Castle

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Girl Who Kept the Castle (Quill Tree Books, 2024) by Ryan Graudin was a fun fantasy with humor and heart. It also has a main character who has to fight against what is expected. Plus, there’s a dragon.

Look at the first line, “Wizard West was dead for nearly an entire day before he noticed.” And actually he doesn’t notice. It’s up to Faye, the daughter of the West’s groundskeeper, to tell him he’s dead. (The servants cast lots.) “Sugarcoat the situation,” Puck, the cat says. But the wizard is angry to hear the news and casts a spell to turn Faye into a . . .

Read about the author here and check out her many books here. I love finding a new author.