Friends, I LOVE it when setting is a character and Tuesdays At The Castle by Jessica Day George just fuels this love. When King and Queen Glower disappear and are considered to be dead, a few opportunists try to shove out Celie and her siblings Lilah and heir Rolf. Celie, however, turns to Castle Glower in her time of need.
Tuesdays At The Castle
Be careful what you wish for definitely holds true for Rebecca, main character of Bigger Than A Bread Box by Laurel Snyder. Rebecca is uprooted from her Baltimore townhouse by her mother who decides to separate from her dad and live in Atlanta with Grandma. Rebecca doesn’t have an easy go of it as a new kid until she finds a magical bread box in the attic.
Bigger Than A Bread Box
I very much enjoy when books creep me out and give me goosebumps. Juniper Berry by MP Kozlowsky read in 2011 for the Dewey 24 Hour Readathon accomplished this. Juniper, the titular main character, has celebrity parents. You’d think her life is baller, but lately her parents have been acting weird, with no time nor thoughts to spare for her. Juniper then makes a friend, Giles, who is a lonely and neglected boy dealing with the same issues as her.
Juniper Berry
I’m convinced that as an author Lauren Oliver is one of the best of the best. No matter the genre, she is a powerful storyteller. Liesl And Po, a story Oliver says is very close to her heart, is Oliver’s middle grade debut. It is a magical read in which ghosts play a prominent role and titular character Liesl must go on a journey and set her father’s ashes to rights.
Liesl And Po
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby is one of those books that upon closing I said out loud to the empty room ‘that was a really good book’ because I just have to vocalize my feelings sometimes to make them real. With Vikings, fjords, betrayals and middle child syndrome, Icefall is pretty much a book that hits my buzzer points of awesome.
Icefall
Yay! Friends, I finally read my first Eva Ibbotson and I feel I can finally join the club as I’m no longer the only person who hasn’t read Ibbotson. I felt pretty much the same way after I read my first Diana Wynne Jones book. Y’all ogres are awesome. I learned this after watching Shrek and was reinforced by The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson.
The Ogre Of Oglefort
Please note: I have not read Dark Life by Kat Falls, any spoilers are unintentional.
Building a world in which humans living under the sea seems feasible takes skill, which it seems Kat Falls has in spades. Rip Tide, sequel to Dark Life is a roller coaster of a book, filled with action from beginning to end. You do not have to read Dark Life to be able to follow along with the events in Rip Tide.
Rip Tide
The Mostly True Story Of Jack by Kelly Barnhill is what I would consider to be a deeply unsettling book, especially for middle grade. Now, being unsettled isn’t bad. I’m still actually thinking about The Mostly True Story Of Jack. Kelly Barnhill’s writing plays on people’s fears without overt monsters.
The Mostly True Story Of Jack
David, also known as Scrub, is the main character of Aliens On Vacation by Clete Barrett Smith and he is in for a disappointment. You see, Scrub had planned on spending his summer training for basketball and hopefully kissing a girl. Instead, he discovers that he must help his kooky earth cruchy grandma run her hotel,the Intergalactic Bed And Breakfast, which totally looks like something out of Star Wars. Scrub thinks it is dorky, I think it is awesome.
Aliens On Vacation by Clete Barrett Smith
I wish I could go back in time to my middle school days so I could take lessons from Louise Lambert, the vintage wearing protagonist of The Time Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky. Seriously, Louise is all that even if she doesn’t realize it herself.
The Time-Traveling Fashionista
