Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Favorites among the tween crowd!

My boys were reluctant readers until one of their friends started reading the doorstopper ERAGON. Probably this one belongs in YA, rather than MG, but after they found they could make it through Paolini's tome, there was no turning back -- they devoured every book on dragons they could find in the school library, including the DRAGON SLAYER ACADEMY series (young middle grade) and THE DRAGON RIDER, by Cornelia Funk.

I could spend a year listing all the good books in this genre. For today, I mention the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo. It was a delightful read from start to finish with many characters I greatly enjoyed spending a lot of time with. Charlie himself, of course, his maternal grandmother, his Uncle Paton, his mother, his friend from across the street with his dog Runner, his many friends at school, etc etc. A few readers have accused the book of being copycat Harry Potter but that is not my experience. Yes, Charlie is discovered to have a magical gift (that sort of thing runs in the family) & so he has to attend the Bloor Academy where the other magical children go, but the school has much more than magic. As a result, magic is embedded in a deeply human context where personal relationships are the greatest magic of all.

Andrew wrote: "I could spend a year listing all the good books in this genre. For today, I mention the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo. It was a delightful read from start to finish with many characters I grea..."

I'll have to give Charlie another try!

Thanks Andrew. I will give Charlie Bones another try too.

Another great fantasy series for MG readers (and older, of course) is the Magyk series by Angie Sage. For seven wonderful volumes we follow Septimus, the missing seventh son of a mediocre wizard and a host of wonderful characters and some not-so-nice villains as Septimus goes through his apprenticeship with the Extraordinary Wizard and his best friend learns the ropes of being the Queen.

Seekers is sort of upper-MG, but they're so good!

Just finished reading Sapphire Flute by Karen E. Hoover and thought it was an excellent fantasy for girls. It's a very imaginative, well-told good vs. evil story.

I am currently reading The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander to my children. I loved these books as a child and am looking for similar books to read to them when we are done with the series. Any suggestions would be great. My oldest is not really ready for Percy Jackson, Earthsea, or Harry Potter.

I'm a fan of Tamora Pierce, though most of her quartets end up in more YA territory than MG. I just love the fact that girls today can read sword-and-sorcery without having to then imagine that they are boys so they can do that stuff.

The early Pern books (Anne McCaffrey) are fairly suitable, especially Dragonsinger, Dragonsong, and DragonDrums. As she wrote, they grew more and more adult.

And, of course, Tolkien. There's violence enough, but you can definitely count on there being no sex :D

Just finished Gary Schmidt's What Came from the Stars. This science fiction story is quite different from his usual, realistic fiction. A little literary, maybe even allegorical. Loved what Schmidt had to say about the power of creativity. I really enjoyed it. Would recommend for more advanced readers and Narnia fans.

How did I fail to mention Brian Jacques?

Rebecca wrote: "How did I fail to mention Brian Jacques?"

I personally could never finish one -- I blame my own distractibility and too tall book pile-- but my youngest son has read every single book in the Redwall series, some of them multiple times. He'd definitely list them among his favorites.

Secret Of Nimph, I just had to say it. Actually most of O'brien's books. This is generally what I refer to, when I often request dark upper MG.

Oh, do Mary Poppins books count as MG? I know they are not chapter books. But I'm not sure if I would quite call it middle grade.

M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "How did I fail to mention Brian Jacques?"

I personally could never finish one -- I blame my own distractibility and too tall book pile-- but my youngest son has read every single b..."

I didn't like the first one when I first looked at it, and put it down after a few pages. But then one of the boys brought it from school and asked us to read it (bedtime reading) and we all got hooked! I think Jacques was feeling his way a bit in the first one, and only after that figured out that the animal characters only really worked if there were no human anywhere, and no human artifacts, as that is all out of scale (like the horse and cart in the first book).

I currently getting Ila's Story after watching the movie Noah. Based on the excerpt, so far it looks promising.

I'm currently reading I am enjoying it. It is another series. Similar vibe to Harry Potter. Not quite as wonderful of course, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. The book just came in to my library and when I showed it as a book that would become available to read (after I catalog it), I had students clamoring for it.

Has anyone read the Bartimaeus trilogy? It's a great read, especially if you like a bit of humor if your stories.

I would recommend The Tale of Atlantis very highly in the YA space.
Great adventure novel with archaeology, great mythological characters and Atlantis. A combination that's keeping me up very, very late these days :)

Yes, Victor, I've read the first book of the Bartimaeus trilogy and need to read the other two but I'm enjoying it so far.

Here are my reccs (and I've read a lot so I can go on and on):

Books/Authors that I loved when I was younger:
Diana Wynne Jones. Howl’s Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series are fantastic. I love the world building and characters in her books.
Madeleine L’Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and the rest of the Time Quartet are favorites of mine.
Patricia C. Wrede's Dragon series. Those books are honestly what started my life-long love of fantasy.
Also Gail Carson Levine books, especially Ella Enchanted (the movie sucks - the book is hilarious and wonderful.)
The Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson is so imaginative and well plotted.

books I've enjoyed as an adult:
The Fairy-Tale Detectives The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley - these fairy tale mysteries are a lot of fun
Coraline by Neil Gaiman is creepy-good. Also The Graveyard Book. It's Neil Gaiman, need I say more?
Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy (best known for his band the Decemberists) is a great new series.
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is a absolute MUST read series. It's mystery, adventure, fantasy.

And of course, there’s the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. (Have you read the The Magician's Nephew?)

I just discovered Jonathan Stroud (Bartimaeus series) this year and have thoroughly enjoyed the "Lockwood & Co." series, too. Ghosts and rapiers and kids getting the job done... Great stuff!

As a tween, I can tell you that Shatter Me is one of the best books to grace this planet! Monument 14 and the Selection series are also vary popular at the moment :)

I'm also on the Space Opera group, and I discovered they have a lot of LISTOPIA lists, including one with Best Space Opera books for MG: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

I confess I hadn't heard of most of these... more reading to be done!

I think this is a general problem in scifi/fantasy. We read things and love them when we are young, and in that phase where they are new and give us the scope to step out of our ordinary worlds. By the time we are more experienced with life they can seem something less than we remember them. Or even (gasp) old-fashioned. But only because those books gave us the ideas to develop. :)

Dan said: Yeah, good scifi for MG is tough! I fell in love with the books of Clifford D. Simak during my junior high and high school years - and of course most all of the other authors of the 'golden age' of science fiction. The golden age is gone, however, and I think you two agree that today's science fiction is either too adult or, as Rebecca said, just plain goofy.

One of [Dan's] books ("Has Anyone Seen My Brain?") incorporates time travel, but it's more of an adventure/friendship novel for upper MG than true science fiction.

I've found a lot of us indie authors including time travel as a simple science fiction element to lead into historic periods we love.

These series use that approach:
S W Lothian's The Golden Scarab
Wendy Leighton-Porter's The Shadow of Atlantis
Fiona Ingram's series mixes myth and time travel for a more fantasy approach into history The Secret of the Sacred Scarab

SW's spin-off series takes the time travelling element further
TIME SQUARE THE SHIFT

Jennifer Ellis's Derivatives of Displacement series is time travel Scifi at the mind-boggling stage, maybe for upper MG/teen (and adults who can keep up) A Pair of Docks

Mine uses time travel in the first book, and gets complicated with its time lines in later ones (6 in particular, 7 involves some time travel, the finale will resolve the problems).

I thought I'd already mentioned this one I read a couple of years back; it's a true scifi MG book: Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble. I read the first one as part of a blog tour and I see there are at least four more out.

For MG scifi lovers with gentler souls, try Julie Grasso's wonderful Escape From The Forbidden Planet series.

And if you'd like some MG Scifi/Dystopia, where the corporations have taken control of food production so you can't even grow vegetables in your back yard, try S Smith's Seed Savers series, starting with Treasure

There's time travel in The Emerald Atlas. My son (12 at the time) didn't care for the first book (it started too slow for him), but my daughter (10) read and loved the whole series.

Another fantasy series my kids have loved is Fablehaven

Scott Roche's Crimson Sands is the first (and hope not still the only; need to go back and check if he wrote more) in a SF aimed at, I think, older middle grades (moving on towards Jr. High, but not really teens).

Polly Shulman has written a great series of books (3 so far) which have sci-fi/time travel/fantasy elements to the plot. I'd say they're upper MG (11+). The books are:
The Grimm Legacy - this one plays on classic fairy tales

The Wells Bequest - this one is all about time travel and other classic sci fi elements

The Poe Estae - this one uses lots of classic horror stuff.

They're all very good, and not goofy.

My 9 year old daughter is looking for stories set in space. She has lots of non-fiction books on the topic, but is now looking for fiction. Has anybody got any recommendations for me? I'm probably looking more towards the younger age group here.

Carolien wrote: "My 9 year old daughter is looking for stories set in space. She has lots of non-fiction books on the topic, but is now looking for fiction. Has anybody got any recommendations for me? I'm probably ..."

I've seen these books in our children's section at work (a library. The series is called Hyperspace High and the author is Zac Harrison):Crash Landing
There's also Steve Cole's Astrosaurs series (dinosaurs in space!) Here's the first one Riddle of the Raptors

On the topic of MG sci-fi/fantasy, I'm currently listening to the audio CD of Grinny by Nicholas Fisk. I think it's upper-MG. The main character is 14, but he has a younger sister who is 8, I think.

Carolien wrote: "My 9 year old daughter is looking for stories set in space. She has lots of non-fiction books on the topic, but is now looking for fiction. Has anybody got any recommendations for me? I'm probably ..."

It would be hard to go wrong with Jemima's suggestion of Escape From The Forbidden Planet and sequels.

It looks very interesting. Will definitely try them.

Thanks so much! Some of these look perfect.

Carolien wrote: "My 9 year old daughter is looking for stories set in space. She has lots of non-fiction books on the topic, but is now looking for fiction. Has anybody got any recommendations for me? I'm probably ..."

I'd suggest the Chase Garrety series (The Lost Planet) by Rachel Searles. It's set in space (a bit of a Star Wars vibe) and has all sorts of cool stuff like teleportation.

If you're looking for more "realistic" sci fi, maybe Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel is more for you. It's the 3rd book in the Matt Cruse series. Starclimber

I'm picking up more junior scifi recommendations from a scifi & horror blog that I follow. (I skip the horror)

Recently:
Robot Revolution! House of Robots #3
The Cypher Guardians Inc. #1 (Tweens & teens)

They also have a good number of ghostly, zombie, dystopian and other creepy/horror stories for juniors buried in the blog - Sci-fi and Scary

Tesla's Attic is on my list :)

Fablehaven and The Beyonders are both excellent series by Brandon Mull.
Gregor and the Overlander is also a fun series.
My boys loved these.

I really love the lost planet series by Rachel searles

So, so, so many options. Some great series are Percy Jackson, Wings Of Fire, and Spirit Animals. And also, read anything, by Brandon Mull. Now for my favorite series of all time, Beyonders by Brandon Mull. These books are a YA epic fantasy series, with ssooo much world building, disguised as a Middle-grade series. Just read it.

MartinInAMask wrote: "So, so, so many options. Some great series are Percy Jackson, Wings Of Fire, and Spirit Animals. And also, read anything, by Brandon Mull. Now for my favorite series of all time, Beyonders by Brand..."

I just started reading Percy Jackson. I'm enjoying it.

I have to admit that though I enjoyed the first Percy Jackson, by the second one I found it just a bit too frenetic.

I recently read an advance copy of The Weather Weaver by Tamsin Mori.

I really loved this tale of a girl who returns to Shetland to stay with her bereaved grandpa while her parents are on a scientific expedition.

It turns out she is destined to become a weather weaver, a type of witch who can control, or call up, weather - with the aid of her personal cloud, who she has to tame (think puppy, the cloud is adorable).

And of course, there are wicked witches who do not want her to succeed...

I loved fantasy books as a child. I still do. Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Narnia etc.

I really got into sci-fi and fantasy as a teenager, anything from Clifford D Simak to John Wyndham to Tolkein. I then moved away from it but returned to reading it when our daughter got into Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure it has informed my writing.

Hi, how do I get my novel, Braxton Rogers and the Brave New Beyond added to the groups shelf. This novel is a fun read for parents and kids of all ages, though its written at a 5th grade level. I hope the group will give it a chance. At the moment 20% of profit made from sales of this novel will go to ST. Jude's children's hospital and 5% to the Alton Grizzard scholarship fund. (Alton Grizzard was a young Navy SEAL who died protecting a female naval officer in a domestic dispute. His sister was my high school English teacher.)

Carolien wrote: "It looks very interesting. Will definitely try them."

If you are still looking for a science fiction novel set in space, I would be honored to have her read my book,Braxton Rogers and the Brave New Beyond. It's set on a generation ship in the future. It has the two boys and one girl character formula that is so popular in stories like star wars and harry potter. And of course, despite the main character being a boy, the female character is the stronger of the group.
If you are interested, my public email is Keithyagerman@yahoo.com. Email me a request and I'll email you a free PDF if you and your daughter are willing to write me a review. Check out my author's profile for more information about me.

Sincerely,
Keith Yagerman