Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Best Middle Grade Books from Spring 2020

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Best Middle Grade Books from 2020

I don’t know if I’m reading more books than usual because of trying to stay home and avoid COVID-19, or if I’ve just got better contacts and a better sense of the middle grade book world these days, or if I’ve just gotten incredible lucky, but it seems like there have been a LOT of really amazing books published this year.

This list will focus on middle grade books, which are aimed at kids 8 to 12. I’ll do a separate post featuring young adult books, because there have been some fabulous titles there, too.

If you’re looking for a book that will sweep you away, make you laugh out loud, or make you get lost in another world, these are the books for you. Discover a real animal you probably didn’t know existed in MUSIC FOR TIGERS. Learn about cricket farming. Dolphins. Complex and changing friendships. It’s all here. Just waiting for you to crack the cover.

Note: Many of the buy links listed below are affiliate links, which help support this blog if you use them to shop. They do not cost you anything to use.

Best Middle Grade Books of Spring 2020

The Lost Tide Warriors by Catherine Doyle

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

Fionn and his friends face a growing army of Soulstalkers. Without his magic, Fionn and his friends must work together to summon an army of merrows before the island is overrun.

This is the second in one of my favorite series. (Read my review of book one.) If you liked A SNICKER OF MAGIC by Natalie Lloyd or THREE TIMES LUCKY by Sheila Turnage, or you are breathing and love a good story, please add this series to your reading list.

Finally Something Mysterious by Doug Cornett

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

Paul Marconi and his best friends have been longing for a mystery to liven up their small town. Then hundreds of rubber duckies appear in their neighbor’s yard, and the friends finally have something to investigate.

A perfect summer story about friends, amateur sleuthing and a whole lot of rubber duckies.

My Life as a Potato by Arianne Costner

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

Ben’s potato curse and a bouncing hot dog cause him to serve as the school mascot– a giant potato. Hilarity ensues as Ben struggles to keep his spud identity a secret from his friends and the prettiest girl in school.

Lots of fun antics and great character growth make this a perfect read for upper elementary students.

The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

A telepathic message from an elephant and a quest from a ghost send Lex on a hunt that might just solve the mystery of who her family is and why the tornado brought her to the zoo when she was a baby.

A really sweet story about found families. If you liked FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo, you’ll want to read this one.

Music for Tigers by Michelle Kadarusman

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

From Goodreads: “A moving coming-of-age story wrapped up in the moss, leaves, and blue gums of the Tasmanian rainforest where, hidden under giant ferns, crouches its most beloved, and lost, creature.”

Perfect for nature fans, or readers who enjoyed BE LIGHT LIKE A BIRD or CHIRP.

The Space Between Lost and Found by Sandy Stark-McGinnis

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

After Cassie’s mom is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Cassie decides they need to have one more adventure to help her mom remember what matters most.

Heartbreaking, moving, and hopeful. Perfect for fans of BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE or BE LIGHT LIKE A BIRD.

Ways to Make Sunshine
Renée Watson

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

Between inventing new recipes, staging her own parade, and finding a talent for the school talent show, Ryan is a busy girl. She believes in making the best of any situation, even when life gets difficult.

A sweet story about family, friendship, facing fears, and learning to see beyond first impressions.

The Queen Bee and Me by Gillian McDunn

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

Meg doesn’t want to be in her best friend Beatrix’s shadow anymore, but stepping out on her own might cost the friendship. Especially when stepping out means joining a special science class with a quirky new girl Beatrix doesn’t like.

An insightful look at friendship and finding your voice. Perfect for fans of books by Kate Messner or THE LIST by Patricia Forde.

Fire in the Star by Kamilla Benko

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

The breathtaking conclusion to the Unicorn Quest series packed with magic, secrets, and the power of sisterhood.

If you like books by Jessica Day George, you really need to check out The Unicorn Quest series.

Chirp by Kate Messner

Review | Amazon | Barnes & Noble |Book Depository | Goodreads

Mia faces secrets she’d rather forget and the challenge of making new friends while solving the mystery of who is trying to sabotage her grandmother’s cricket farm.

Readers who are looking for a balance of light and heavy topics will enjoy CHIRP a lot, especially fans of BE LIGHT LIKE A BIRD by Monika Schröder or FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo.

What books would you add to this list?

Have you read any middle grade books this year? What are some of the favorites from your late elementary-school/early middle school days that still stick with you today? Share the titles with me in the comments! I’d love to know if there are great titles I’ve missed.

Review: Nevertell by Katharine Orton

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Historical, Magical Realism, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

Nevertell
Katharine Orton
Walker Books US
Published April 14, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Nevertell

After escaping a Soviet prison camp, Lina is pursued by a powerful witch and her shadow wolves in a riveting debut that imbues frozen wilderness with fairy-tale magic.

All that twelve-year-old Lina knows of the world is the Stalinist labor camp where she was born, a place of hunger, cruelty, and deprivation. After a daring escape into the frigid Siberian wilds with her best friend, Bogdan, Lina vows to reach Moscow and find her long-lost grandmother, whom she hopes will help her return to the camp to rescue her mother.

But out in the dark forests and haunted tundras, Lina and Bogdan catch the eye of a vengeful witch, a refugee of oppressive new laws about magic, who commands an army of shadow wolves. She seems drawn to some mysterious power within Lina herself.

Pursued by the witch and in fear of recapture, Lina will need every ounce of courage she has — and a whisper of her own magic — if she and Bogdan are to survive the journey and bring hope to a dark place. An enthralling debut that weaves Russian fairy tales through fast-paced adventure.

My Review

I found NEVERTELL to be a really imaginative story and really liked the way it sat between fantasy and history. The history is rather broad– the story takes place during a time when Stalin ruled Russia and imprisoned anyone who spoke against him or talked of magic and fairy tales. The story centers more on magical elements and the difference between using magic to help versus harm.

Lina’s character is determined and kind. She never gives up, and she resolves to save everyone she cares about, even if it looks impossible. I loved that Bogdan makes the journey with her. I thought their friendship made the story much warmer and sweeter.

Natalya’s story broke my heart. I get why that happened, but it just really ached to think of what happened to her and the life she left behind. I loved the alliance between her and Lina, though.

All in all, I thought NEVERTELL was a really good story, though a dark one with some very gray characters. I think perhaps readers who enjoyed NIGHTINGALE’S NEST by Nikki Lofton will enjoy this story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 12.

Representation
All characters are Russian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
See the SPOILER section at the end of the post.

Spiritual Content
Characters possess magic and the ability to curse/transform others.

Violent Content
References to cruel treatment of prisoners in the camp. Situations of peril. Lina and Bogdan face men who wish to murder them as well as threats from invisible wolf-like creatures and a powerful witch.

Drug Content
None.

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

SPOILER

Late in the story, Lina confronts her mother about her father, the commandant at the prison camp. She asks her mother if she loved him, and her mother answers that she did.

It’s hard to know if she’s giving a child’s answer because it’s Lina who’s asking, but the relationship (a prisoner/prison guard romance) is problematic because of consent issues.

Review: Finally, Something Mysterious by Doug Cornett

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Finally, Something Mysterious
Doug Cornett
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published April 14, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Finally, Something Mysterious

Paul Marconi has always thought that Bellwood was a strange town, but also a bit of a boring one. Not much for an 11 year old to do. Fires are burning nearby, Paul’s parents are obsessed with winning a bratwurst contest, his best friend, one of the founding members of their only-sibling detective club, The One and Onlys, is about to have a younger sister, sort of undoing their whole reason for existing. But then! Hundreds of rubber duckies have appeared on the lawn of poor Mr. Babbage without any explanation. Finally! There is something that Paul and his friends can actually investigate.

In the face of all these strange occurences, Paul is convinced that solving who put the duckies on that lawn will finally bring some sense to what has become an upside down world. Soon the three friends have a long list of suspects, all with their own motives, but no clear culprit. When everything comes to a head at the town’s annual Bellwood Bratwurst Bonanza, Paul discovers some that some things don’t have an easy explanation and not everything can be solved.

A perfect summer story about friends, amateur sleuthing and a whole lot of rubber duckies.

My Review

You can probably guess from the title that FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS is going to be a funny book, and you’re right! These three friends won’t back down in the face of weird alibis, scary teachers, or midnight tuba solos. I had so much fun reading this book. I loved the friendship between Paul and the One and Onlys. His small town is packed with quirky people sharing interesting connections.

I love that the mystery they’re solving involves loads of rubber ducks. It’s random and strange and a great representation of the kind of goofy humor that fills the pages of the story. If you’re looking for a good laugh, this book delivers.

It reminded me a little bit of THREE TIMES LUCKY by Sheila Turnage and Lemony Snicket’s All the Wrong Questions series. If you liked either of those, or you just need a good laugh, you’ll want to check out FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
I think all three main characters are white kids.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: My Life as a Potato by Arianne Costner

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

My Life as a Potato
Arianne Costner
Random House Books for Young Readers
Published March 24, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About My Life as a Potato

For anyone who has ever felt like a potato in middle school, this hilarious story about a boy forced to become the dorkiest school mascot ever will have readers cheering!

“A grade A, spudtastic (not to mention FUNNY) debut. Arianne Costner sure knows middle school and middle schoolers!” –Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

Ben Hardy believes he’s cursed by potatoes. And now he’s moved to Idaho, where the school’s mascot is Steve the Spud! Yeah, this cannot be good.

After accidentally causing the mascot to sprain an ankle, Ben is sentenced to Spud duty for the final basketball games of the year. But if the other kids know he’s the Spud, his plans for popularity are likely to be a big dud! Ben doesn’t want to let the team down, so he lies to his friends to keep it a secret. No one will know it’s him under the potato suit . . . right?

Life as a potato is all about not getting mashed! With laugh-out-loud illustrations throughout, hand to fans of James Patterson, Gordan Korman, Jeff Kinney, and Chris Grabenstein!

“A hilarious, relatable story for any kid who has ever felt out of place.” –Stacy McAnulty, author of The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl.

My Review

This book is full of all the right kinds of silliness. Ben fumbles his way through one hilarious disaster and right into another, always thinking he can fix it all by himself. He’s a hard worker– and even when he’s punished by being forced to serve as the school mascot, he tries his best to do it well. I loved the ways he challenges himself– to learn more about mascots, to examine his behavior toward a kid who seems to be a bit of an outcast.

He doesn’t do it all the right way, but he has a good heart, and that makes him so easy to love. His relationships with his family members were sweet, and his friendships felt very much like those ports of safety we all needed in middle school.

MY LIFE AS A POTATO is a super fun read. It does show Ben transitioning toward dating and having relationships, so it might be best suited to readers who are thinking about those transitions themselves. It has a lot of humor and friendship issues in it, too, which make it a great story for upper elementary school readers.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Ben’s friend Ellie is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One boy accidentally trips another with a hot dog. A boy knocks some girls over accidentally. One boy plans pranks against another boy. Kids get into a food fight.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

The Elephant’s Girl
Celesta Rimington
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published May 19, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About The Elephant’s Girl

An elephant never forgets…but Lexington Willow can’t remember her past. When she was a toddler, a tornado swept her away from everyone and everything she knew and landed her near an enclosure in a Nebraska zoo, where an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. With no trace of her family, Lex grew up at the zoo with her foster father, Roger; her best friend, Fisher; and the wind whispering in her ear.

Now that she’s twelve, Lex is finally old enough to help with the elephants. But during their first training session, Nyah sends her a telepathic image of the woods outside the zoo. Despite the wind’s protests, Lex decides to investigate Nyah’s message and gets wrapped up in an adventure involving ghosts, lost treasure, and a puzzle that might be the key to finding her family. Can Lex summon the courage to hunt for who she really is–and why the tornado brought her here all those years ago?

My Review

I think magical realism is one of the toughest genres to write well, because there’s always the risk that instead of seeing magic, a reader will see something else– hallucinations? Inconsistent plot or world?

Lex has a special relationship with the elephant Nyah, who protected her after the tornado left her at the zoo. Nyah sends her messages– pictures in her mind– and Lex tries to send pictures back.

Ever since the tornado, Lex has been able to hear the wind speaking to her, too. This was the most difficult element in the story for me to get into. I liked that it gave voice to Lex’s fears, making them a sort of personified antagonist. I wondered if it diluted the power of Nyah being able to speak to her, though.

I loved Lex’s relationship with Roger and her best friend, Fisher– all of her zoo family, really, but especially those two. As Lex tries to help Nyah find her family, it makes her examine her feelings about living with Roger at the zoo, too. He’s patient and clearly loves her, though he never pushes her to accept him as family. She also learns a lot through her friendship with Fisher, who is really different than she is. He’s outgoing and loves baseball. She learns how to be a good friend to him even when it means stepping out of her comfort zone or doing things for him.

On the whole, I thought this book was a really sweet story about found families. I liked the characters and the relationships between them. If you liked FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo, you’ll want to check out THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Fisher’s grandmother is from Thailand.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Lex meets a ghost and promises to help her solve a mystery so she can move on.

Violent Content
Situation of peril and some descriptions of a tornado.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher

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Stoneheart (Stoneheart Trilogy #1)
Charlie Fletcher
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published May 1, 2007

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Stoneheart

A city has many lives and layers. London has more than most. Not all the layers are underground, and not all the lives belong to the living.

Twelve-year-old George Chapman is about to find this out the hard way. When, in a tiny act of rebellion, George breaks the head from a stone dragon outside the Natural History Museum, he awakes an ancient power. This power has been dormant for centuries but the results are instant and terrifying: A stone Pterodactyl unpeels from the wall and starts chasing George. He runs for his life but it seems that no one can see what he’s running from. No one, except Edie, who is also trapped in this strange world.

And this is just the beginning as the statues of London awake
This is a story of statues coming to life; of a struggle between those with souls and those without; of how one boy who has been emotionally abandoned manages to find hope.

My Review

I listened to this story as an audiobook read by Jim Dale, and I really, really needed this book right now. I started listening to it because I couldn’t sleep, and I think Dale’s voice is particularly soothing.

At first, I kept having to listen to the same chapters over and over because I’d fall asleep. But once I got hooked on the story, I started finding time to listen to it during the day, even if it was just for ten minutes while I folded laundry or started making dinner.

I found George to be a really sympathetic character (totally reminded me of like, every downtrodden, nerdy hero from 90s kids’ movies) and Edie even more lovable. I wish there had been more clarity about her background, but I feel like she’s such a big character in the present action in the story that I almost didn’t have time to miss the backstory details.

Also, the Gunner. I mean. Has there ever been a STATUE that made such an amazing character? I want him on my team forever. I felt like there were other more minor characters– the Clocker and Dictionary for instance– that I also thought were just great.

STONEHEART is a bit of a weird book. It definitely takes some willing-suspension-of-disbelief, but I both needed and really enjoyed the escape from reality for a bit while I read this one.

I think fans of THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND would enjoy the clever and unique story world of STONEHEART.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Main characters are white and from the UK.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a couple of times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Statues come alive. Some monsters or people live under curses. A curse can only be broken by following a certain ritual.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril and frightening images, including reference to a man trying to stab a child, a man drowning a child, a monster who intends to eat a child.

Drug Content
The children hide out at a bar that’s closed.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.