Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

13 Incredible Middle Grade Books Coming Winter 2024

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13 Incredible Middle Grade Books Coming Winter 2024

13 Incredible Middle Grade Books Coming Winter 2024

I’m getting a late start on putting together my lists for this year, but I really wanted to share some of the middle grade books coming out in January and February that really look too good to miss. This list is entirely based on my preferences, and I’m already planning to review many of the books listed here. I hope you enjoy the list– please let me know if you’ve already read any of these titles or are as eager to check them out as I am!

Since I’m late getting this posted, some of the review links are already live, so please feel free to check out my full reviews if any of these books interest you. Stay warm and happy winter reading!

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost anything for you to use but help support my blog when you use them for your shopping.

13 Incredible Middle Grade Books Coming Winter 2024

Courtesy of Cupid by Nashae Jones

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: When Erin discovers her dad is actually the love god, Cupid, she experiments with her own love power… and must face the consequences. An adorable MG rom-com.

Published January 2, 2024 | My Review

The Griffin’s Egg by Cole Poindexter

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A girl and a goblin work together to save the last griffin’s egg– and a magical world– from destruction. I love stories that feature unexpected pairings, and a girl and a goblin definitely intrigues me!

Published January 15, 2024 | My Review to Come

Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: An older sister desperately tries to hold her family together but can’t help wondering if that’s the best thing for her and her siblings. I loved LOTUS BLOOM AND THE AFRO REVOLUTION, so I couldn’t wait to check this one out.

Published January 16, 2024 | My Review

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A girl struggling to adjust to a changing family and friend group moves into a creaky attic bedroom in a new house where she falls ill and can’t seem to get better. I loved Anne Ursu’s MG fantasy novel from last year, and this sounds like a story that will pack equally surprising twists and turns.

Published January 16, 2024 | My Review to Come

Maybe It’s a Sign by E. L. Shen

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A girl who lost her dad a year ago looks for messages from him all around her. When she faces new choices and doesn’t see signs from her dad, she realizes she’ll have to make her own luck. Sounds like a sweet, poignant story– with deep dish chocolate chip cookies!

Published January 23, 2024 | My Review to Come

Emma and the Love Spell by Meredith Ireland

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A secret witch tries to use a love spell to save her crush’s marriage and keep them from moving away. I love the magic-with-unexpected-consequences theme, and I can’t wait to read more.

Published January 23, 2024 | My Review to Come

The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel, Sammy Savos, and Bethany Strout

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A powerful graphic memoir following a Jewish girl and her family who must hide during the Nazi occupation of Poland. This is a heartbreaking story beautifully told.

Published January 23, 2024 | My Review

Waverider (Amulet #9) by Kazu Kibuishi

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: Emily finally understands the power of the amulet. She and her allies must stand together to conquer the shadowy threats against them. The highly anticipated conclusion to a popular series. I’m a newer reader to this series (I’m currently on book three), but I really want to catch up and finish all nine books this year.

Published February 6, 2024 | My Review to Come

Drawing Deena by Hena Khan

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A Pakistani-American young artist uses her talents to help her mom’s local business and soon realizes she’s turned something that helped her manage her anxiety into a source of it. I’m seeing more and more MG novels exploring characters with anxiety, and I love the resilience and hope in these books.

Published February 6, 2024 | My Review to Come

City Spies: Mission Manhattan (City Spies #5) by James Ponti

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: Charged with protecting a teen scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly, the City Spies head to NYC in the fifth book in the series. Looks like an exciting adventure in the Big Apple.

Published February 6, 2024 | My Review to Come

Sick!: The Twists and Turns Behind Animal Germs by Heather L. Montgomery

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: Find out how scientists study animal diseases and how the animal’s bodies adapt to the germs in this twisty nonfiction book filled with graphic novel-style art.

Published February 20, 2024 | My Review to Come

The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic by Kamilla Benko

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: A young magic apprentice must prove that her sister is not harming unicorns in this gorgeous new series by the author of The Unicorn Quest series. I’m so excited to return to the land of Arden.

Published February 27, 2024 | My Review to Come

Finally Heard (Finally Seen #2) by Kelly Yang

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: In the sequel to FINALLY SEEN, Lina sets out to go viral on social media but quickly feels overwhelmed by the flood of accounts, pressure to compete with her classmates, and pressure to keep up with new emojis, apps, and ways to interact. This couldn’t be more timely.

Published February 27, 2024 | My Review to Come

What’s on your winter reading list?

Do you have big reading plans for the rest of the winter season? What books are at the top of your reading list?

If you follow middle grade books, are any of my top picks on your reading list?

Review: Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston

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Shark Teeth
Sherri Winston
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published January 16, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Shark Teeth

From National Book Award longlisted author Sherri Winston comes an important middle grade novel about a girl’s tumultuous journey to keep her family together, even when she’s falling apart.

Sharkita “Kita” Hayes is always waiting.
Waiting for her mama to mess up.
Waiting for social services to be called again.
Waiting for her and her siblings to be separated.
Waiting for her worst fear to come true.

But Mama promises things are different now. She’s got a good job, she’s stopped drinking, stopped going out every night-it’s almost enough to make Kita believe her this time. But even as Kita’s life is going good, she can’t shake the feeling that everything could go up in flames at any moment. When her assistant principal and trusted dance coach starts asking questions about her home life, Kita is more determined than ever to keep up appearances and make sure her family stays together-even if it means falling apart herself.

As the threat of her family being separated again circles like a shark in the water, the pressure starts to get to Kita. But could it be that Kita’s worst fear is actually the best thing that could happen to her family . . . and to her?

My Review

Writing about kids in foster care is such an important thing and such a complex thing to do. Here, I felt like the author tackled these topics with care and gentleness without romanticizing or glossing over the messiness and trauma these experiences bring with them.

As I read each scene relating Kita’s life at home, it was so easy to feel the pressure her mom placed on her and the weight of her siblings’ needs. She seemed caught in the middle in so many ways.

I love that the book shows how her involvement in a baton twirling group provided a safe place for her to be a kid and to forge her own supportive community around her. I remember having friends with painful or complicated lives at home who had similar experiences with school programs. I loved seeing that celebrated in this book.

There were a couple of moments in which the story dealt with Kita’s anxiety that I wished had progressed more slowly. For the most part, I think the author described Kita’s experiences with anxiety, panic attacks, and sleep paralysis really well. I pieced some things together from the symptoms she described, but there were a couple of points when it felt like the story rushed through Kita processing new information about what she experienced.

So much of the story pulled me straight into Kita’s mind and heart, though. I felt her protectiveness toward her younger siblings. Kita’s desperation for her mom’s love and approval, combined with her frustration and anger toward her, made so much sense. I rooted for Kita from the first page to the last.

All in all, SHARK TEETH is a book I’d easily recommend. It’s an incredibly moving story with unforgettable characters.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Kita and her family are Black, as are some of the other minor characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A boy kisses Kita on the cheek. She wonders about what it’d be like to have a boyfriend.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Kita’s mom says cutting things to her sometimes. Kita gets injured while trying to take care of her younger siblings. Her brother pushes her and accidentally hits her in the nose with his head. A child starts a fire.

Drug Content
Kita and her siblings worry that her mother, who is an alcoholic, will start drinking alcohol again. In one scene, Kita sees her mom drinking alcoholic drinks with her friends. In another, her mom is hung over and trying to hide it.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of SHARK TEETH in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Girl Who Sang by Estelle Nadel, Sammy Savos, and Bethany Strout

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The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival
Estelle Nadel
Illustrated by Sammy Savos
Edited by Bethany Strout
Roaring Brook Press
Published January 23, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival

A heartrending graphic memoir about a young Jewish girl’s fight for survival in Nazi-occupied Poland, THE GIRL WHO SANG illustrates the power of a brother’s love, the kindness of strangers, and finding hope when facing the unimaginable.

Born to a Jewish family in a small Polish village, Estelle Nadel―then known as Enia Feld―was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Once a vibrant child with a song for every occasion, Estelle would eventually lose her voice as, over the next five years, she would survive the deaths of their mother, father, their eldest brother and sister, and countless others.

A child at the mercy of her neighbors during a terrifying time in history, THE GIRL WHO SANG is an enthralling first-hand account of Estelle’s fight for survival during World War II. She would weather loss, betrayal, near-execution, and spend two years away from the warmth of the sun―all before the age of eleven. And once the war was over, Estelle would walk barefoot across European borders and find remnants of home in an Austrian displaced persons camp before finally crossing the Atlantic to arrive in New York City―a young woman carrying the unseen scars of war.

Beautifully rendered in bright hues with expressive, emotional characters, debut illustrator Sammy Savos masterfully brings Estelle’s story of survival during the Holocaust to a whole new generation of readers. THE GIRL WHO SANG is perfect for fans of MARCH, MAUS, and ANNE FRANK’S DIARY.

My Review

What a powerful first-hand account of survival during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In the opening pages, we meet Enia’s family and see the quiet life they live in their small town. Then, as the Nazis invade, things change. Her family must hide. Enia feels afraid. She loses so many people, but always, when she needs help, someone steps up to help her.

Some of the scenes in the book are pretty chilling. There’s one brief series of panels that shows, from a distance, soldiers lining people up against a building. In the next image, red smudges the wall of the building, and the people are shown collapsed on the ground. The viewer easily understands they’ve been shot to death.

Thinking about this tiny girl never speaking above a whisper or standing up while she was in hiding can’t help but break your heart. Thinking about her brother, who was only a few years older than she was, risking his life several times a week to look for food is also heartbreaking. I can’t begin to think about how I would process that anxiety– both from being the person going out and the person left behind. The resilience and devotedness of these siblings leaves me in awe.

I also love the decision to tell this story as a graphic memoir. Not only do the illustrations help to anchor the story in its setting, but they carefully lay out the story without needing to graphically describe some of the horrors Estelle and her family endured.

I think readers who were moved by THE LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION or the graphic adaptations mentioned in the book description above will find this story equally moving and important.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Estelle (called Enia in the early pages of the book) and her family are Jewish and Polish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Enia believes her older sister and her sister’s sweetheart will get married.

She describes how her family used public showers in town once per week as part of getting ready for the Sabbath. One image shows a vague representation from a distance of Enia and her mother readying for a shower.

Spiritual Content
Enia celebrates Shabbat and Passover with her family. She also learns to prepare food according to Jewish rules so that the food is kosher.

Violent Content
Soldiers ransack Enia’s house, looking for valuables.

There’s one brief series of panels that shows, from a distance, soldiers lining people up against a building. In the next image, red smudges the wall of the building, and the people are shown collapsed on the ground. The viewer easily understands they’ve been shot to death. Enia is told that her mother was beaten by soldiers and likely shot to death the next morning. She’s told that other family members were shot as well and later learns they were killed in a gas chamber.

At one point, Enia witnesses soldiers beating her brother and begs for them to stop. The panels show simplified images that hint at the violence without being gratuitous.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE GIRL WHO SANG in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Courtesy of Cupid by Nashae Jones

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Courtesy of Cupid
Nashae Jones
Aladdin
Published January 2, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Courtesy of Cupid

In this middle grade rom-com sprinkled with a dash of magic, a girl uses her newfound ability to make people fall in love to sabotage her rival.

Erin Johnson’s thirteenth birthday unfolds like any other day, from her mom’s quirky and embarrassing choice of outfit to racing her nemesis, Trevor Jin, to the best seat in class—front row, center. But her gifts this year include something very out of the magical powers.

Erin discovers her mysterious father is actually the love god Cupid, and she’s inherited his knack for romance. It’s not the most useful ability for an overachiever with lofty academic and extracurricular goals…or is it? Erin desperately wants to be elected president of the Multicultural Leadership Club, and as usual, Trevor is her fiercest competition. He’s never backed down from a challenge before, but if Erin makes him fall in love with her, maybe he’d drop out of the race and let her win.

With her magical pedigree, wrapping Trevor around her finger is a snap, and having him around all the time is a small price to pay for victory. But without their cutthroat rivalry bringing out the worst in each other, Erin realizes Trevor may not be as bad as she thought, and suddenly, her first foray into love gets a lot more complicated…

My Review

I feel like this book is what would happen if you took the first Percy Jackson book and made it a romantic comedy. (Okay, there’s no special camp or anything, but hopefully, the idea still makes sense.)

The characters in the book are great in terms of being very different from one another and easy to keep track of because of that. I didn’t get anyone mixed up, even though there are a lot of named side characters, and I’m prone to mixups. I also really liked the relationship between Trevor and Erin. The rivalry made sense from Erin’s perspective, but knowing what was happening on Trevor’s side made sense, too.

Because this is a middle grade romance, the love parts of it stay in the land of very sweet. Characters hug or hold hands. There’s lots of blushing and hearts going pitter-patter, which just felt adorable.

The wrapup might have happened just a tad too simply, but on the whole, I felt like the book was very true to its rom-com flavor and definitely ended with lots of grins and good feelings. I enjoyed this one a lot, and I’m looking forward to the next book by this author.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Erin is Black. Trevor is Korean American. Bruno and Ben, twins who are Erin’s close friends, are Latine. Ben and Bruno have two moms. Two minor characters, both men, commit to a romantic relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Obvious attraction between characters culminates in holding hands or hugging, or, in one instance, a marriage proposal.

Spiritual Content
Erin learns her dad is a god, specifically Cupid. No commentary on the existence of other gods or how Cupid’s existence fits into any larger pantheon.

Violent Content
Ben makes mean comments to his brother and does some manipulative things to try to hurt him or Erin. Erin tries to use her Cupid power to control others and faces consequences for it.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays. Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12

Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit (Theo Tan #1)
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 31, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit

After inheriting a grieving fox spirit, a Chinese American boy must learn to embrace his heritage to solve the mystery of his brother’s death in Jesse Q Sutanto’s magical, action-packed middle grade fantasy, Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit.

Theo Tan doesn’t want a spirit companion. He just wants to be a normal American kid, playing video games, going to conventions, and using cirth pendants to cast his spells like everyone else. But, when his older brother dies, Theo ends up inheriting Jamie’s fox spirit, Kai.

Kai isn’t happy about this either. Theo is nothing like Jamie, and the two of them have never gotten along. But, when they realize the mysterious journal Jamie left Theo is filled with clues and secret codes, it’s clear that something strange was going on with Jamie’s internship at Reapling Corp.

But the only way onto the campus is the highly competitive “Know Your Roots” summer camp program, a celebration of Chinese and Indian cultures designed to help connect students with their heritage. Theo and Kai will have to put aside their differences long enough to honor Jamie’s last wishes, or the mystery he died for will remain unsolved forever…

My Review

I read the second book in this series last summer, and I have been meaning to read this first one since. When I read the second book, I liked Kai’s quirky humor and the funny footnotes she leaves in her chapters, but somehow reading the first book, I felt like I got the humor more, if that makes sense. Maybe it was simply that I was introduced to her as a character in this book rather than jumping into the second book in which the reader is already sort of expected to know her.

I loved the scenes at the beginning between Theo and Jamie. Even though Jamie was confusing Theo and acting strange, it was easy to get a sense of the rapport between them, and that made a great setup for the rest of the book. There were moments when I wondered if Kai’s storyline was distracting from the central plot, but as the threads of her scenes and Theo’s came together, I felt like they fit together nicely.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book a lot. I’d been on a graphic novel binge, and this was the first prose novel I read after that. It was an excellent choice.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Theo and his family are Chinese American. His friend is Indian American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Theo meets spiritual beings, from a fox spirit companion to deities and demons from Chinese mythology. Characters are shown in different spiritual realms, such as Diyu (hell).

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to a fatal car accident. Battles and deception.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THEO TAN AND THE FOX SPIRIT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Part 1 by Shannon Messenger, Celina Frenn, and Gabriella Chianello

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,

Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Part 1
Shannon Messenger
Adapted by Celina Frenn
Illustrated by Gabriella Chianello
Aladdin Books
Published November 7, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Part 1

The first book in the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series is being reimagined as a graphic novel with the first half of the epic novel adapted to this new format with beautiful artwork!

Twelve-year-old Sophie Foster has never quite fit into her life. She’s skipped multiple grades and doesn’t really connect with the older kids at school, but she’s not comfortable with her family, either. The reason? Sophie’s a Telepath, someone who can read minds. No one knows her secret—at least, that’s what she thinks…

But the day Sophie meets Fitz, a mysterious (and adorable) boy, she learns she’s not alone. He’s a Telepath, too, and it turns out the reason she has never felt at home is that, well…she isn’t. Fitz opens Sophie’s eyes to a shocking truth, and she is forced to leave behind her family for a new life in a place that is vastly different from what she has ever known.

This stunning graphic novel retelling of the first half of the thrilling first novel comes to life with all the adventure and epic worldbuilding the Keeper of the Lost Cities series is known for.

My Review

This is my first foray into the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, which is maybe a weird place to begin. On the other hand, I had no preconceived ideas about the story going into the book and also no familiarity with the original. I had no trouble following the story and making sense of what was happening, so I don’t think readers would need to have read the prose novels in order to follow this adaptation.

Some elements of the story felt a little bit dated, which only makes sense. After all, the original book came out in 2012. It definitely has that portal fantasy feel of some of the other big books that came out around that time, and yet, I think the themes are super relatable anyway: friendship, feeling alone in a new place, learning you have abilities or history you never knew about.

I liked the relationships between Sophie and the other characters. As I read, I kept trying to figure out who was on her side and who was secretly working against her. I definitely have some theories, but I have no idea if I’m right or not at this point.

The only thing that I kept getting stuck on is the fact that the illustrations of Sophie make her look so much older than twelve. I kept thinking she was fifteen or sixteen from the images of her in the panels and then remembering that wasn’t right. So that threw me off a little bit. The illustrations are beautiful, though, and definitely anchor the story in the fantasy setting.

I think readers looking for an engaging portal fantasy will enjoy this series opener. I think fans of THE STONEKEEPER by Kazu Kibuishi will enjoy it.

Content Notes for Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Part 1

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Maybe some attraction between Sophie and a boy character. Just some blushing here and there.

Spiritual Content
A hidden world contains people with magic powers.

Violent Content
Magic can cause some pretty serious destruction when not properly used. A man tries to kidnap Sophie.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PART 1 in exchange for my honest review.