Lisa Moore Ramée has taken the complexity of the real world, with all its police shootings and racism and destructive tendencies and made it personal for young readers. I don’t care what kid you hand this book to. Every single one of them will understand what’s going on here and, maybe, what’s going on in the wider world. The new required reading.
“I am Fly. Maximillian Fly. I am a good creature. I am not bad, as some will tell you.” Considering that Maximillian is a human/cockroach hybrid of sorts, this is not particularly surprising news. Meet the dystopian/Steampunk/action adventure novel that’s like nothing you’ve ever read before.
With Trace, Ms. Cummings takes time to examine what we owe our ancestors, even as we try to live our daily lives. We live with their decisions, whether we want to or not, and sometimes we relive their mistakes. This is a ghost story that asks you to stop and listen to the voices that are dead but not gone. Who are the ghosts that haunt your story? And what are they trying to tell you?
If you received your latest issue of Booklist in the mail then you might have noticed that its editors got together and created nothing less than the 50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the 21st Century. I substitute some of their choices for my own for fun.
There are books for kids that dare to be more thoughtful than pulse pounding. If chosen freely by a child, they can unlock something inside. Something that means more to the person reading than anyone else. The Line Tender carries this promise in its pages. It’s the right book for the right reader.
Here’s an idea: Why not take the idea of a world gone mad and give it a jolt of lightning to the veins? Set your book in another era when America went a little crazy, then liven things up with spies, car chases, murder attempts, gunshots, traitors, double agents, and that’s just the first few chapters! A book for the kids that want to read a response to our age that will thrill them to the core, and maybe plant a couple of seeds of rebellion in their craniums at the same time.
Gracefully switching between text and comics, comics and text, author Remy Lai feeds breadcrumbs (or, more accurately, cake crumbs) of humor and sequential art to kids, luring them towards a storyline with a deeper, darker meaning. For the kid that avoids serious stories like the plague, Pie in the Sky is the perfect gateway drug.
The penultimate list! I’m so excited! This year I did a bit better than in 2017 in terms of reading middle grade fiction. Thanks to a system of following starred reviews, the recommendations of readers I trust, blogs, Twitter, Mock Newbery lists, the whole kerschmozzle, here are the 2018 books that I think are great.
The Season of Styx Malone By Kekla Magoon Wendy Lamb Books (an imprint of Random House Children’s Books) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-5247-1595-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now And it was around this time that I started wondering why more people weren’t talking about The Season of Styx Malone. So let me tell you a little story. […]
The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle By Christina Uss Margaret Ferguson Books (an imprint of Holiday House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8234-4007-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. The term “quirky” has gotten a bad rap recently. I blamed forced quirk. Have you ever read or watched something where the book or movie is just trying too […]
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish By Pablo Cartaya Viking (an imprint of Penguin Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 9781101997260 Ages 9-12 On shelves now The other day a woman contacted me and wondered if I could offer any picture book/middle grade/ YA suggestions for a list of various topics. The list consisted of things like “OCD”, […]
Louisiana’s Way Home By Kate DiCamillo Candlewick Press ISBN: 978-0-7636-9463-0 $16.99 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 2nd There once was a book called Raymie Nightingale. Not a big flashy book with glitter on the cover and fonts that look like escaped balloon animals. Just a quiet book set in the late 1970s in Florida, patiently […]
The Story Collector By Kristin O’Donnell Tubb Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno Henry Holt & Co. (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-250-14380-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves August 28th From 2007 until about 2012 I had the distinct pleasure of working in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of New York Public Library. It’s one of those […]
Harbor Me By Jacqueline Woodson Nancy Paulsen Books (an imprint of Penguin) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-399-25252-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves August 28th A good book, whether it’s written for a nine-year-old, a nineteen-year-old, or a ninety-year-old can tilt your perspective, if only momentarily. Consider the concept of the “happy ending” and what it’s supposed to resemble. […]
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge By M.T. Anderson Illustrated by Eugene Yelchin Candlewick Press $24.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-9822-5 Ages 10 and up On shelves September 25th In my job I read a lot of books written for kids and middle schoolers. To guide this reading I take into account a lot of professional reviews from sources […]
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