Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

So my friend from college texted me this morning, letting me know that she was offered a position as librarian in a middle school library! That was basically our dream in college (because middle school libraries are way more fun than high school, where it's all research stuff).

That being said, she's been a high school English teacher for a few years now and she's gotten away from reading middle school books. BUT! I know we have quite a few people here who read and love MS books, so I'm looking for recommendations. She doesn't start in the library until August, so she wants to do some reading to prepare. What are the newest, latest trends in MS literature? Any must-reads that have come out recently? Also, any YA that would be appropriate for 12-13 year olds? Thanks!

Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend. It’s won heaps of Australian book awards including Book of the Year. Not just kids book of the year either. The second one comes out this month.

And you can’t forget the Treehouse books by Andy Griffiths. I think there’s 8 of them from 13 Storeys to 104 Storeys.

Rick Riordans books can probably be included in there too. Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase among others.

I am currently reading The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street series. It is a great younger middle school book for quieter kids. More a fun book than the intense ones that are out there. The Graveyard Book is great for ghost lovers.

I'll second The Graveyard Book ( and Coraline), also any of the graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier.

YA series I'm not sure about, I feel like theres always at least a little sex in there somewhere, yes? I read anything and everything at that age, tough call. Percy Jackson would be good, I think. I haven't read the books but my 8 year old loves the movie, and I think there are probably a lot of middle schoolers interested in mythology...or if they don't know it yet they will be after reading some books infused with it ;-)

I try and look at what my 12 year old niece is reading all the time and then I read them. One I really liked was The Healing Spell. I also just finished War Horse and that was fantastic. Probably Code Name Verity also, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
also:
The Diary of a Young Girl
Red Scarf Girl?

Read the first book in The Voyage to Magical North series and enjoyed it very much. I really want to get my hands on the next one and I told Zoey she would enjoy it when she gets a little older. Same with Going Bovine and Between the Lines which might be a little more mature but I'd let my girls read them at 12 or 13. Ditto Uprooted but I think that had a few scenes in it.

Classics? A Little Princess, The Secret Garden ( although I read these much younger) The Yearling!!!! White Fang and The Call of the Wild

Series, Harry Potter of course, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, The Golden Compass? Inkspell? Eragon, Redwall books.

and of course I just keep buying them ... my recent purchases that I haven't gotten around to yet:
The Eyes of the Amaryllis
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
The Thing About Jellyfish
Ninth Ward
A Tale Dark & Grimm
Inside Out & Back Again
Summerlost
Wolf Hollow
Pax
Doll Bones
Forget Me Not
Skeleton Tree
My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope
Where the Watermelons Grow
Wild Blues
Swallow's Dance
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Quite a few of these are diverse reads, dealing with other cultures, or mental illness.Some are historical fiction, some ghosty type stories, and some friendship themed books or war themed books. I think at least 2 are written in verse. Oh my goodness, The Goldfish Boy, Just finished it, fantastic!!!!!! That one is great for that age, a little mental illness, a little mystery, a lot of friendship and the exact age range.

This thread for boys: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hi my name is Tracy and I have a juvenile/YA fiction problem...please point me to the support group thread lol.

Your friend is living my dream. Congrats to her.

Exactly how old are middle school children? (I have an idea of course, but I'd like to know).

This question is like asking me to choose my favourite book... Impossible to answer short and precisely.

@Tracy, you're welcome to attend to my

...support group, aka me and my fellow children's librarians at work (unless you have a wish of quitting your addiction)

They would be 10-14 years old, approximately.

oh, that's a bit slightly older than I thought. Glad I asked.

*bit slightly*... phhhsssh I am a bit tired and on the app. Sorry.

Johanne wrote: "...@Tracy you're welcome to attend my support group, aka me and my fellow children's librarians at work (unless you have a wish of quitting your addiction)"

LOL thats funny Johanne because I was just telling my friend this morning that I want to up and move to Denmark 😊

Alright here goes. This list is what I currently remember, of what´s talked about and popular in the library where I work (public library, children´s section. It´s the best job.) It´s in Denmark, so of course there are differences, but in my experience also a lot of similarities in what kids like as a whole (there are huge personal differences, but that´s another story).
I´ve left the ones out that are not available in English.

Funny books:
Dork Diaries Book 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
The 13-Storey Treehouse
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley
The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

SFF
The Iron Trial (Magisterium)
The Shamer's Daughter (Shamer series)
The Devil's Apprentice (Big Devils War)
The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger´s Apprentice)
Harry Potter (of course)
Everything Rick Riordan
Time Riders
Wild Born (Spirit animals, different authors on books in series)

SFF for the oldest in the group
The Paladin Prophecy (for the oldest in the group)
The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles. Warning. Not yet finished. This is one of those series where you´re afraid he´ll never finish it).
The Emerald Atlas (Books from the beginning)
The Maze Runner (series)
I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (series)

Other books, all ages:
George
A Monster Calls
Crenshaw
Into the Wild (Warrior cats)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
The Stonekeeper (Amulet, graphic novel series)
Thornhill (graphic novel)


We have three children´s book clubs in that age group.
What I remember we have read:

9/10-12 year olds:
Akata Witch
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson)
Aru Shah and the End of Time
The Witches
Wonder
Dork Diaries Book 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
William Wenton and the Luridium Thief
Cogheart
Into the Wild

12-15 year olds:
The Hazel Wood
This One Summer
I'll Give You the Sun
Throne of Glass
A Court of Thorns and Roses
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
A Monster Calls
More Than This
Grasshopper Jungle
Mosquitoland
1984 (yup, that 1984 by Orwell)
And currently reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (yeah, just goes to show, you never really know with kids).

And I just realised we read a lot of not-transated-to English, Danish, (Swedish and Norwegian) books in the book clubs, especially the ones with the youngest kids. They are the ones who decide what we read, and we all come with suggestions.

Tracy wrote: "Johanne wrote: "...@Tracy you're welcome to attend my support group, aka me and my fellow children's librarians at work (unless you have a wish of quitting your addiction)"

LOL thats funny Johanne..."

Cool :) Were DO you live?

Johanne wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Johanne wrote: "...@Tracy you're welcome to attend my support group, aka me and my fellow children's librarians at work (unless you have a wish of quitting your addiction)"

LOL thats..."

USA...Connecticut

I don't know about trends, but I'd definitely recommend Odd Duck

@Tracy, I hear that's a beautiful place. Have a friend who was stuck there in a friends boyfriends family cabin for three months because of a problematic pregnancy that was found out while she was visiting our friend in New York, which resulted in her not being allowed on a plane back to DK. She had her boyfriend and older son with her, and everything turned out well in the end, but it was quite stressful for a while, dealing with maybe losing the child, unfamiliar surroundings, getting the travel insurance to pay hospital bills, visits from immigrations who thought it was a ploy to stay in the US (well that was easy, they couldn't have found an airline that would take her + doctors orders) But it least the place and nature was beautiful.

It is beautiful Johanne, especially with the change of seasons :-)

That sounds like quite a vacation. Glad to hear that everything turned out ok for your friend. Scary.

She is just that kind of unlucky person whose real life stories you would find too improbable in fiction...

Johanne wrote: "She is just that kind of unlucky person whose real life stories you would find too improbable in fiction..."

Maybe she should write a book ;-)

She makes indie films, so not far off :)

I love mid-grade books! Some of my faves are: Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi; Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Chodenko; Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus; Nation by Terry Pratchett

A monster calls.

...by Patrick Ness

Oh sorry, that was already on my list ;)

I recommend you books by Jonathan Stroud , Patrick Ness and Eoin Colfer. All three have really good middle-grade books.

I remember liking the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I also just read the Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, and I like that series a lot. It has a lot of light hearted part and it ended happier and less disappointing than the Series of Unfortunate Events.

I think a lot of kids are into Minecraft today also. If that is the case, Diary of an 8-bit Warrior is a good series. It has a lot of reference to the game.

Authors:
Frances Hardinge
Garth Nix
Cornelia Funke
Brian Selznick
Second Eoin Colfer from above - I really liked the Artemis Fowl books at that age
Eva Ibbotson

Books:
The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett, starting with The Wee Free Men
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
The Earthsea Quartet
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (+ sequels) and The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M Valente
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The Last Unicorn
The Lumberjanes comic series (starting with Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy)
The Arthur Trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland, starting with The Seeing Stone
The Book Thief (for older kids)
The Bromeliad
Howl's Moving Castle
everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too
Silverwing
Goodnight Mister Tom
The Sword in the Stone

My recommendations are based on what my kids have liked at that age.

Realistic fiction:
Moo by Sharon Creech
Dork Diaries Book 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renée Russell

Fantasy:
Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan
The Wishing Spell book one of the Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer

Graphic novels (we really love graphic novels and it's tough to find good ones for this age group):
Zita the Spacegirl series by Ben Hatke - we LOVE ZITA!!
Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
The Stonekeeper (the Amulet series) by Kazu Kibuishi
Everything from Raina Telgemeier, especially Smile, Sisters & Drama.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff (okay full confession: I'm the one who loves Delilah, not my kids)
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson



Note that Bone, Vol, 1: Out from Boneville, anything by Shaun Tan,& Code Name Verity were NOT popular with my kids.

Monkiecat wrote: "series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/189759
https://www.goodreads.com/series/6028...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4381...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4..."


I LOVED The True Meaning of Smekday, I laughed and laughed!!! I couldn't wait for my kids to be old enough to read it!! Naturally, oldest daughter thought it was boring and dumb. I should try it on my younger daughter now.

Monkiecat wrote: "series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/189759
https://www.goodreads.com/series/6028...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4381...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4..."


And I just realized ... I'm thinking about reading The Westing Game for my "children's classic" next year. I guess you would recommend?

My daughter added a few more:

Infinity Ring series A Mutiny in Time / Divide and Conquer / The Trap Door / Eternity / Curse of the Ancients

Tuesdays at the Castle series by Jessica Day George. (George has a fairy tale retellings romance series too, for slightly older kids, starts with: Princess of the Midnight Ball)

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke


And she added: " Harry potter(obvi)". :-)

Speaking of graphic novels for that age group: El Deafo.

I may skip reading challenges next year and just read from this list...

Cendaquenta wrote: "Authors:
Frances Hardinge
Garth Nix
Cornelia Funke
Brian Selznick
Second Eoin Colfer from above - I really liked the Artem..."

I really enjoyed The Lie Tree, have you read any other Frances Hardinge books and how do they compare?

Oh and my son really enjoyed Jirō Taniguchi's graphic novels when he was 12-13. He is definitely not the target group, but he loved them (he read all of the ones translated).

Johanne wrote: "I may skip reading challenges next year and just read from this list..."


LOL!!! Not a bad plan :-)


I can say, I immediately put a Jiro Taniguchi book on hold at my library. They only have two: The Quest For The Missing Girl & Guardians of the Louvre. I chose the first one because I can't imagine getting my 12 yo interested in the Louvre, I'm not sure if she knows what it is. I've never read manga.

My younger kid and I LOVE Miyazaki movies (I can't even count the number of t-shirts she has with Totoro, Howl, No Face, etc), so she may be interested in this.

They are really slowpaced and my colleague was baffled that he liked them. He was particularly fond of Min Fars dagbog (my fathers diary) that I can't see an English edition of, weird... and Quartier lointain and no English edition either. I haven't researched it thoroughly tbh.
We love Miyazaki in my family as well. And my kids have recently discovered Monty Python... I have a Totoro handbag.

So I had a look in Worldcat and A Distant Neighborhood, Vol. 1 is translated to English, but I cannot find an English edition of "My Father´s diary" - the original title is 父の暦.