Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Author Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

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Author Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

Author Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

It’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday again, and I’ve got middle grade authors Alechia Dow and Tracy Badua here for a double Q&A.

I’ve read almost everything Alechia Dow has published in middle grade and young adult so far (I missed one short story in an anthology), and I am really excited to read more of Tracy Badua’s books, so getting to chat with both of them about the second book in their middle grade series about baking and solving mysteries was an extra special treat!

I loved the first book in this series, The Cookie Crumbles, which came out last year. The second book, Their Just Desserts, comes out next week and promises to deliver more confectionery surprises and investigations.

About Their Just Desserts (The Cookie Crumbles #2) by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow

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Perfect for fans of The Great British Baking Show and Clue, this enchanting and rollicking follow-up to The Cookie Crumbles follows two best friends caught up in a twisty mystery when jewels go missing at a high-stakes baking competition.

Baker extraordinaire Laila Thomas and budding journalist Lucy Flores are living it up at the top of the junior high food chain as eighth graders. But between busy schedules and kinda-boyfriends, these two best friends haven’t gotten to hang out as much. So, when Jaden, an ex-competition rival, begs the duo to step back into the world of cooking competitions and crime—the answer is yes.

Jaden’s father is accused of stealing prized jewels on the set of an amateur kids’ holiday baking show. The plan is for Laila to smash the competition while Lucy investigates behind the scenes—but their half-baked plan gets turned totally upside down when Lucy ends up in front of the cameras instead.

As the investigation and competition heat up, Lucy and Laila’s bond is put to the ultimate test. Can they solve this bakeoff mystery, or will they—and their friendship—crack under pressure?

Author Q&A with Alechia Dow and Tracy Badua

1. What’s your favorite thing about writing for a middle grade audience?

Alechia: I enjoy exploring themes that I know children can relate to: friendship, compassion, growing up, family, and learning to stand up in a world that sometimes makes you feel small. I want kids to read this and feel empowered!

Tracy: Not only are the readers wonderful, but writing for kids is far more fun than legal writing for adults.

2. I love that this series is about baking and mysteries. As an accomplished baker yourself, is there a relationship between your writing and baking? Do you bake along with Laila as you write?

Alechia: Oh, there’s definitely a relationship! I went to pastry school for four years and have a concentration in food writing, so writing food is relying on the skills I’ve honed for a huge portion of my life, which is a blast. I’m always baking, but especially when I’m trying to figure out if Laila’s ideas are possible. It’s fun experimenting and even better tasting if those experiments worked 🙂

3. What was your favorite scene or moment in Their Just Desserts to write?

Alechia: There are so many funny scenes in the story, though I’m partial to the confessionals, they make me laugh. But my favorite is Laila baking with Raphael. It’s a very soft scene between two characters doing what they love and though they have such different approaches and attitudes, there’s something really lovely about seeing them making scones together. 

Tracy: We made up a fake holiday-themed mystery movie for the book, and it was so fun teasing in tidbits of this zany story within a story. 

4. What’s your favorite thing about writing this series collaboratively?

Alechia: Tracy and I have been friends and critique partners for nine years, so there’s an ease working together. Also, we tend to be ridiculous and I honestly don’t know how we get anything done between the laughter. This has been one of my favorite writing experiences. 

Tracy: Same! Plus, we tend to have different styles of drafting and planning (Alechia knows how I am with my spreadsheets), and it’s nice to have someone come in with a refreshing perspective. 

5. If you can share, can you tell us a little bit about a new project you’re working on?

Tracy: I’m gearing up for the release of my next middle grade book, a ghost story titled Ghoul Summer. It’s out September 2, 2026, and I drew from all my “oh no, this vacation rental DEFINITELY feels haunted” experiences. I’m also endlessly revising a young adult novel with some speculative elements and conjuring up more middle grade ideas. 

Alechia: My young adult cozy romantasy, Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, comes out Feb 3, 2026. Other than that, I’ve been drafting some more cozy romantasies, adult romantic comedies, and science fiction!! 

6. What do you most hope readers take away from your novel?

Tracy: I hope readers leave with some of the courage we infused into Laila and Lucy’s stories. Folks who have read the first book The Cookie Crumbles know Laila is the baker and Lucy is the journalist, and we switched it up in Their Just Desserts. It’s hard to be thrown into situations where you feel inexperienced or disadvantaged, and I’d love if our readers took heart from seeing our girls try their best to thrive. 

7.  What is one question about your novel you are often asked by readers?

Alechia: Have you made any of the recipes you mention in the book? Yes! Most of them—though Raphael’s character in Their Just Desserts does things I’ve never attempted before and I’m inspired to try. 

Tracy: Do you bake? Sadly, the answer is not nearly as well as Alechia. This answer always disappoints students who are hoping I bring tasty treats to my school visits. Sorry, kids, but it’s for the best I don’t inflict my baking on you. 

About Tracy Badua

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Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. By day, she is an attorney who works in national housing policy, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret candy stash. She lives in San Diego, California.

About Alechia Dow

Goodreads | Instagram | Website

Alechia Dow is an award-winning author of several acclaimed young adult sci-fi fantasies, short anthology pieces, and magical (sometimes mysterious) middle grade stories. When not writing, you can find her baking, reading, traveling, and exploring her local food scene.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

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

Review: Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna

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Vanya and the Wild Hunt
Sangu Mandanna
Roaring Brook Press
Published March 11, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Vanya and the Wild Hunt

Amari and the Night Brothers meets Nevermoor in this enchanting middle grade fantasy, inspired by Indian mythology and British folklore, about a neurodivergent heroine, a mysterious school, and a world of magical creatures.

Eleven-year-old Vanya Vallen has always felt like she doesn’t fit in. She’s British-Indian in a mostly white town in England, her parents won’t talk about their pasts, and she has ADHD.

Oh, and she talks to books. More importantly, the books talk back.

When her family is attacked by a monster she believed only existed in fairytales, Vanya discovers that her parents have secrets, and that there are a lot more monsters out there. Overnight, she’s whisked off to the enchanted library and school of Auramere, where she joins the ranks of archwitches and archivists.

Life at Auramere is unexpected, exciting and wonderful. But even here, there’s no escaping monsters. The mysterious, powerful Wild Hunt is on the prowl, and Vanya will need all her creativity and courage to unmask its leader and stop them before they destroy the only place she’s ever truly belonged.

From the critically-acclaimed author of the Kiki Kallira series and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes an action-packed and magical middle grade fantasy, perfect for fans of J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.

My Review

The week that Vanya and the Wild Hunt was released, I got to attend a Zoom event with Sangu Mandanna and Stephanie Burgis, which was a lot of fun. At that point, I hadn’t yet read the book, but hearing about the magical world and some of the inspiration behind Vanya’s character was so intriguing. I immediately added this book to the top of my reading list, and I’m so glad I did.

This has a lot of great elements that will appeal to middle grade readers. Vanya attends a magical school and learns about magical creatures. Books talk to her. She is keenly aware of the differences between herself and her peers in how she thinks and behaves, but she finds her people.

I had thought when I picked up the book that it was a standalone, but the way that this one ends definitely leaves room for a follow-up story. I think fans of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief will love getting to discover this new fantasy world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Contains elements inspired by Indian mythology and British folklore. Powerful monsters called Old Ones threaten the lives and safety of those who can experience magic. Some magical books talk to Vanya and to each other.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Someone close to Vanya is critically injured. Vanya witnesses a brief battle scene and people running from a sinkhole-like event.

Drug Content
None.

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

MMGM Review: Ollie in Betwee by Jess Callans

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Ollie in Between
Jess Callans
Feiwel & Friends
Published April 8, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Ollie in Between

As endearing as it is humorous, this debut middle grade novel by Jess Callans is a tender, queer coming of age story about the courage it takes to find your own voice and choosing to just be.

Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13-year-old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends.

Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted.

When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means to be a woman (if anyone’s got an answer, that’d be great), and one of their new friends is the target of bullying, Ollie is caught between the safety of fleeing from their own differences or confronting the risks of fighting to take their own path forward.

My Review

Okay, wow. This book. The authenticity of the voice. The raw, aching tenderness with which Callans tells this story. I’m tearing up even reflecting back on the book.

As I read the story, it felt very focused and very linear. It’s easy to follow. Ollie speaks directly to the reader sometimes, which I found endearing. Like, we’re in this together. I loved that.

Upon reflection, though, so much happens in the 244 pages of this book. Ollie grieves over their mom and unborn baby brother, whose deaths resulted from a pregnancy complication. Ollie and their sister, Lila, talk about PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) which runs in the family, and which Ollie may have.

They experience changes in friendships that seem common to middle school years. When their best friends sense pressure to assimilate into other friend groups to avoid being considered weird, they leave Ollie behind. The loneliness and confusion Ollie feels are so authentic. I felt like I was re-experiencing those moments myself. I couldn’t have expressed it nearly so well as Callans does.

Additionally, Ollie wrestles with questions about what it means to transition from girlhood into womanhood. While the people they interview often contribute thought-provoking or poignant answers, they never explicitly answer the unspoken question Ollie is really asking. Only through continuing to ask questions and explore what resonates authentically with Ollie do the answers begin to be apparent.

I also love the way that Ollie’s dad and sister respond to them. It’s not perfect. They make mistakes along the way, which stinks, but also felt so relatable. Oof. I know I’ve been there.

I think fans of books by Alex Gino and Nicole Melleby need to read this one. Ollie in Between also reminded me of Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid, another fabulous queer middle grade debut.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
References to the F-slur. (The full word does not appear on the page.) Bullying/homophobic/transphobic words do appear. Other characters condemn those words (though not always out loud).

Romance/Sexual Content
References to dating and kissing. Some discussion about puberty (breasts growing, periods beginning) and what it means to be a woman.

Spiritual Content
Ollie’s mom’s Iranian family stopped speaking to her when she married a white man in the US and had their first child baptized in a Christian church.

Violent Content
Reference to the death of a parent. Some instances of bullying (see above) and homophobic/transphobic behavior. Sometimes, this is perpetrated by people who may be well-intentioned and simply aren’t leaving room for people who don’t fit a gender binary. At other times, it’s clear that people mean to cause harm. Often, those harmful words are challenged or condemned.

Drug Content
None.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

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

Review: The Underwild: River of Spirits by Shana Targosz

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The Underwild: River of Spirits
Shana Targosz
Aladdin
Published March 25, 2025

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About The Underwild: River of Spirits

A stunning debut middle grade fantasy about a girl caught between the realms of the living and the dead who gets lost in the Underworld—perfect for fans of Greenwild and Rick Riordan.

Senka lives between the realm of the Living and the realm of the Dead. As ward to Charon, the Ferryer of the Underworld, Senka assists in ferrying recently departed souls across the river and into their afterlife. Although Charon has taught her many Rules about life in the Underworld, there is much he avoids telling her. Though she doesn’t understand why the Rules are so important, she listens—she must heed them in order to become an official Ferryer, just like Charon.

Then a Living girl, Poppy, enters the Underworld to plead for help in finding the ghost of her brother. Poppy’s grief tugs at Senka’s heart—but helping Poppy goes against the very Rules Senka is so desperate to follow. When Poppy is yanked away by the river’s current, Senka leaps to save her, and she and Poppy are swept downriver, far from everything Senka has ever known.

Lost in the Underwild, Senka and Poppy encounter malevolent spirits of lore and eccentric ghosts—and not all are willing to let souls slip through their grasp. Senka knows the Living can’t stay in the realm of the Dead for long, and if Poppy isn’t returned home soon, she will risk becoming lost to the Underworld forever. But as Senka travels deeper into the Underwild, she discovers there are secrets her guardian has kept from her, including the mystery surrounding her own existence. As Poppy and Senka dodge angry demigods, hungry wraiths, and terrifying dragon chimera, Senka gets closer to learning the truth of her own past. Soon, Senka won’t just need to save Poppy’s life—she’ll also need to save her own.

My Review

One of the really enjoyable things about this book is the voice. Senka speaks directly to readers, offering bits of advice for anyone brave or foolish enough to venture into the Underworld. It made the story feel very conversational.

I also liked Senka’s relationship with Charon and Poppy. I especially liked the evolution of her connection to Poppy. At the beginning, Senka’s pretty much humoring her just enough to hopefully get her back to the Land of the Living before Charon finds out she was involved. As she gets to know Poppy, though, things change. She begins to root for her and even to help her on her quest.

Senka also has an engaging personal story. Initially, she accepts a simple explanation for her life with Charon and the rule against wandering from her island home. But as events bring her backstory into question, she seeks answers, even if they disrupt the only life she knows.

The story has plenty of unexpected moments and reasons to keep turning the pages. It’s on the longer side of middle grade fantasy at a little over 400 pages. However, the chapters are short, and the scenes move quickly, making it feel like a fast read.

Readers who enjoy the Percy Jackson series and other middle grade fantasy reimagining Greek mythology will find lots to love in this debut novel.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Senka lives in the Underworld with a guardian who ferries souls from the Land of the Living to the afterlife. She meets other deities and mythical creatures.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Dangerous creatures called mormos feed on the memories of the living. A living person will become a mormo if they spend too much time in the Underworld. Mentions of death. Loss of family members.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Wishbone by Justine Pucella Winans

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Wishbone
Justine Pucella Winans
Publisher
Published September 17, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Wishbone

Coraline meets Ghost Squad in this terrifying story about what happens when you aren’t careful what you wish for.

Ollie wishes things could be different. He wishes his parents would stop fighting. He wishes his sister Mia didn’t have to worry about paying for college. And he wishes people would accept him for who he is. Most of all, he wishes he wasn’t so angry about all of this.

When he and Mia find a two-tailed cat they name Wishbone, Ollie takes comfort in telling him everything he wishes would change—then, it does. Everything Ollie and Mia wish for comes true, and it’s like all of their problems are solved. But magic comes at a price. Their wishes have consequences, and a mysterious shadow man called The Mage is after Wishbone. Darkness is overtaking their world, and worst of all, it threatens to take over Ollie, too. Can he let go of everything he’s ever wanted, or will he let evil win?

My Review

I read The Otherwoods by the same author in 2023, and I enjoyed the spine-tingly elements of the story and how they ultimately played out. I’ve been meaning to read more by Winans, but it has taken me too long to get back to another of their books.

One of the things I knew I’d love about Wishbone is that it has a cat-who-is-not-a-cat character. Wishbone is a cat with two tails that has the inexplicable magical ability to grant wishes. He is feisty and prone to biting people, which makes sense, considering the trauma that he’s been through. I like the unpredictable nature of him as a character. For a long time, I wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to be good or bad. Eventually, he makes his alliances known and says pretty loyal to his people.

The book has a nicely inclusive cast. Ollie is a trans boy, but the book isn’t at all about him explaining his identity or existence. We enter his story past all of that, and he simply is who he is. He has other LGBTQIA+ friends and allies, too. The story touches on the impact of bullying and anger issues, and takes readers through a Twilight Zone kind of experience.

If you like scary stories like The Darkdeep by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs, definitely check out Wishbone.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a crush between Ollie and another character.

Spiritual Content
Another place/dimension Ollie calls The Backward Place contains magic and curses, including the ability to grant conditional wishes.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some characters try to kill other characters while under the influence of a curse. In one instance, a parent character tries to kill a child because of the curse. References to and a brief scene showing animal cruelty in an apparent science experiment.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Whale Eyes by James Robinson

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Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen
James Robinson
Illustrated by Brian Rea
Penguin Workshop
Published March 18, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen

From Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker James Robinson comes a breathtaking illustrated memoir for middle-grade readers (and adults, too) inspired by the viral, Emmy-nominated short film Whale Eyes.

Told through an experimental mix of intimate anecdotes and interactive visuals, this book immerses readers in James’s point of view, allowing them to see the world through his disabling eye conditions.

Readers will get lost as they chase words. They’ll stare into this book while taking a vision test. They’ll hold it upside down as they practice “pretend-reading”…and they’ll follow an unlikely trail toward discovering the power of words.

With poignant illustrations by Eisner Award-nominated artist Brian Rea, James’s story equips readers of all ages with the tools to confront their discomfort with disability and turn confused, blank stares into powerful connections.

My Review

I loved this book. It’s kind of written in two parts. The first part is really accessible to kids, packed with a lot of illustrations and examples of how James Robinson sees the world. Some of the illustrations show words written upside down or at different angles. One page includes an eye test that readers can perform by folding the page a certain way.

The second half of the book is a little more dense and is where Robinson talks more deeply about his journey with documentary filmmaking. It describes how he began filming about a passion project and then, in college, made a twenty-four-minute video about his visual disability, strabismus. That project led him to collaborate with the New York Times to make a series of videos about different people’s experiences living with disabilities.

Even though this part of the book will appeal more to older readers, I think Robinson relates important reflections about his childhood, what he’s realized about disability, and what he wishes adults had told him about it when he was younger. The writing throughout the book is smart and appealing.

Documentaries Mentioned in the Book

Here are some links and brief descriptions of video documentaries that James Robinson made and released as NYT Opinion pieces. All three are mentioned in the book. These are YouTube links, so they are available to watch for free. I watched all three. They are thoughtful and deeply engaging. I spent the afternoon after I watched them sending the links to friends and family members.

I Have a Visual Disability, And I Want You to Look Me In the Eye NYT Opinion Piece: This is a twelve-minute documentary about James and how he sees the world and how we see him. He writes about filming this video in the book.

I Have Face Blindness. This is How I Recognize You. NYT Opinion Piece: This documentary, also produced by James Robinson, introduces viewers to a man named Paul who has prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

I Stutter. But I Need You to Listen. NYT Opinion Piece: Another documentary produced by Robinson about writer John Hendrickson.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to thoughtless and hurtful comments made by kids or adults about James’s eyes.

Drug Content
None.

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