Guest Blogger: Most Anticipated Middle Grades #1

 Michele is back today to talk about middle grade books!

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Over time, our reading tastes change and evolve and I will soon be going into my Middle Grade Era. My daughter, Luna, is just about 7 ½ and I can see her moving towards this level of books in the next year or two and I am super excited to read them with her! I am now on the lookout for fun and interesting books that will challenge her but also, hopefully, enhance her love of reading. Here are a few of my most anticipated books, all by authors that I have enjoyed adult and YA books from in the past:

 

The Firefly Summer

Morgan Matson

The Penderwicks meets The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street in a story about a young girl who gets to know her mom’s side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one chaotic summer.

For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she’s received a letter from her grandparents—grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom’s death—inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos.

Ryanna accepts. She wants to learn about her mom. She wants to uncover the mystery of why her father hasn’t spoken to her grandparents all these years. She’s even looking forward to a quiet summer by the lake. But what she finds are relatives… so many relatives! Aunts and uncles and cousins upon cousins—a motley, rambunctious crew of kids and eccentric, unconventional adults. People who have memories of her mom from when she was Ryanna’s age, clues to her past like a treasure map. Ryanna even finds an actual, real-life treasure map!

Over the course of one unforgettable summer—filled with s’mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve—Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.

 

The Islands of Elsewhere

Heather Fawcett

With hints of magic and plenty of adventure, this seaside story of siblings on a hunt for treasure is just right for fans of The Penderwicks and The Vanderbeekers.

Not many kids have an island in their backyard, but suddenly, the Snolly sisters have three. They're staying at Granddaddy's seaside property for the summer, which includes the mysterious Fairy Islands: Fairy, Little Fairy, and Ghost. The people in Misty Cove call them "in-between places," and say they're full of magic--a magic that gets inside you.

But ten-year-old Bee Snolly doesn't believe in magic--she just wants to help her ill Granddaddy. And if she and her sisters can unravel the mystery of the Fairy Islands in time, they may discover a long-buried secret that could help them all.

Bumps in the Night

Amalie Howard

The middle grade horror debut from USA Today bestselling author Amalie Howard in which a girl stays with her grandmother in Trinidad for the summer and discovers that she comes from a long line of witches.

Thirteen-year-old Darika Lovelace is in big trouble. The kind of trouble that means she’s being sent off to her grandmother in the Caribbean. She should be grateful, but instead she’s angry. Angry at her dad and step-mom for sending her away for an entire summer. Angry at her mom who went away and never came back.

But the island is definitely not what she remembers! The minute she steps off the plane, strange things start happening, including being stalked by a baby iguana. When she meets a ragtag group of children on her Granny’s estate, she knows they are not what they seem, but after they promise to take her to her long-lost mom, she leaps at the chance.

Thrust into an incredible adventure involving strange monsters, a supernatural silk cotton tree, and a mysterious maze, soon the truth about her unique magical roots comes to light. She’s the island’s only hope, but unless she learns to believe in magic, all will be lost.

 

Have you read any middle grade books recently? Any recommendations?