Tag: MMGM

cover of Press 1 for Invasion
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Press 1 for Invasion

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Press 1 for Invasion (Aladdin, 2025) by J.A. Dauber is hilarious and deliciously scary. The first line is great: “It’s all my parents’ fault.”

Precocious 10-year-old Matt’s parents won’t let him have a cell phone like the other kids, so, of course, when he sees a cell phone on the sidewalk, he picks it up and keeps it. But it won’t make calls and the only app he can use is the camera. But when Matt takes a picture of Mr. Mackintosh, the school crossing guard, it shows a purple alien with scary teeth, six or seven eye stalks, and tentacles. But Matt’s the only one who can see it. Then the lunch lady, Mrs. MacGillicuddy, reveals that there’s an alien invasion and only he can help save everyone in the world from being eaten.

Matt is definitely funny–the way he thinks and talks–yet he also finds out he hasn’t been a great friend. But the threat of being cooked in an oven changes one’s perspective.

Read about the author here. He’s also written a YA novel, Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain.

cover of The Lost Year
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Lost Year

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Lost Year (Roaring Brook Press, 2023) by Katherine Marsh is a really good historical about the Holodomor (the Ukraine famine tragedy in the 1930s), and is also set at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. With Ukraine and Russia and immigration being in the news, this book is very timely. The story is told in multiple points of view.

It’s the pandemic and thirteen-year-old Matthew’s reporter father is in France and can’t come home. All Matthew can do is online school, help Mom with his great grandmother, and not see his friends or go anywhere. When Mom takes away his Switch, she makes him help GG sort out the boxes in her room. It’s not easy going, since GG periodically tells him to “get out,” but as he starts learning family history, secrets are revealed.

We meet three cousins: Nadiya, Mila, and Helen.

This book was inspired by Marsh’s own family history and is a National Book Award Finalist, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the 21st Century, Winner of the Jane Addams, Golden Kite and New York Historical Society Awards and on 28 state lists. I hope you get to read it.

Here’s a video about Katherine’s family. Read about the author here and see her other books here. I’ve read two of her books before and see others I need to read.

cover of Olivetti shows a typewriter with flowers coming out of the basket area
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Olivetti

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Olivetti (Feiwel and Friends, 2024) by Allie Millington is told in two points of view–a twelve-year-old boy named Ernest and a typewritter named Olivetti. In fact, the opening lines are from Olivetti.

“It’s quite possible you’ve never spoken to a typewriter before. This is not your fault.”

How could one not read on?

Olivetti lives with the Brindle family and has been replaced with a laptop. But when Mrs. Brindle leaves the family, only Olivetti has clues and he breaks the typewriter code by typing back to Ernest. With a newfound friend, the two work together to find Beatrice Brindle, until disaster strikes.

This debut book is unusual and compelling. It’s been on the following lists: School Library Journal Best Books of 2024, Booklist Best Books of 2024, Boston Globe Best Books of 2024, Bookshop Best Books of 2024, and more.

Read about the author here. She now has two other books which you can read about here.

Although I like the cover, I don’t think it would appeal to middle grade boys.

cover of Afia in the Land of Wonders
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Afia in the Land of Wonders

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

It’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!

I loved Afia in the Land of Wonders (Scholastic Press, 2025) written and illustrated by Mia Araujo. It’s such an intriguing and well done fantasy set in Western Africa (not tribe specific). Isn’t that cover gorgeous? (And what you can’t tell is the gold is embossed.)

Afia’s beloved twin has always been happy to work with their family in the crystal business, but Afia wants more. She wants to explore outside of Dafra. Have adventures. In disobedience to her family she leaves them and gets much more adventure than she wants.

The writing and the illustrations are beautiful. I didn’t want to stop reading, but the ending is very satisfying.

This book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Awards Finalist for 2025. The main character is 16 but very approachable for the middle grade audience.

This illustrated novel was the author’s debut. I hope she is working on further books! Read more about Mia here and see her paintings and drawings.

cover of Not Lucile
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Not Lucille

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

It took me a bit to get into Not Lucille (Creative James Media, 2025) by Mike Steele, but I was glad I persisted with this historical novel from the 1930s. Lucy is such a sympathetic character.

Ten-year-old Lucy Contento’s fifth grade year is not going well. She talks too much. She doesn’t pay attention. And she can’t write with her left hand. Plus, her teacher hates her. But her new friend Florence, who’s deaf, is the best–even if she does encourage Lucy to write right handed. Just if Lucy didn’t have to be disobeying her parents by trespassing and lying to spend time with Florence.

I love how Lucy is learning sign language so she and Florence can talk easier. What she wants most is an American Sign Language dictionary, but with Dad out of work, money’s another problem.

The inside look into history before people understood how different brains work and that left-handedness was wrong is such a good topic.

I also really enjoyed the back matter. I had no clue how long it was before an ASL dictionary was created. (Life for Florence reminded me of the experiences of the son in the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus.)

Read about the author here.