Middle Grade Madness! discussion

Meet Audrey:
I think a truly good book is ageless and timeless. I love speculative fiction because I like to escape from the real world. I have five kids (three of them teens) and teach music and do freelance editing on the side.

Audrey’s Favourite Genres:
Fantasy and science fiction.

Connect with Audrey on Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...

Audrey’s MG Recommendations:
Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage
Audrey’s thoughts:
Creative; steampunk dragons!

The House on Hackman's Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon
Audrey’s thoughts:
This scared me so much as a kid even during multiple re-reads. Great mystery.

Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull
Audrey’s thoughts:
The beginning of Brandon Mull's Five Kingdoms series. Each kingdom has a different type of magic. A group of kids gets kidnapped while trick-or-treating and sold into slavery, and the main character tries to rescue everybody.

Fly With Me by Julie Hahn
Audrey’s thoughts:
Fly With Me is MG but covers so many issues -- classism, racism, mental health -- but it's not heavy-handed or anything. It's ultimately uplifting.

The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
Audrey’s thoughts:
Michael Vey is a kid with Tourette's and also has special powers involving electricity, and this evil organization is out to get him. Great characters, great adventure.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
Audrey’s thoughts:
Set in an alternate London where magicians run the government by summoning various types of demons to do their bidding. A young kid summons Bartimaeus, the most hilarious djinn ever. (This is written by the same author as Lockwood & Co.)

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Audrey’s thoughts:
My mom got this when she was little through a book club that mailed a book a month. I then read it as a kid and found out there were sequels in my teens. It's about young kids foiling evil masterminds in an alternate England. It's unique.

I love The House on Hackman's Hill. I taught it in my class. Every chapter ends in a cliffhanger, making my students groan and beg to read on. It is a little dated, though because cell phones would have solved many of the problems.

Cliffhangers you say? Now I’m interested!! And I don’t mind a lack of technology. Sometimes using them in books to solve issues feels like cheating. I’d much prefer kids whip out their torches rather than the torch on their phone despite the latter being more realistic than the former.

Out of all of these the one I reeeally want to read is The Prisoner of Cell 25. I’m really excited to read it next month because I’ve been waiting ages for an excuse to read it. If anyone wants to buddy read it with me let me know!

J. Scott Savage is another author that came to visit our school to speak, unfortunately I didn't get to meet him.

Once again, several of those books of Audrey's were on my bookshelf for years, but I never read them. Of those, I also want to read the most. Kadi, I'd like to buddy read it, but I know others will want to also, so it will depend on the timing for me.

@Lynn Ok ok so I'm going to make an announcement soon with next month's events and then when people come and if any are interested in buddy reading too we can all fix a date! I'm in no rush and am easy with timings anyway so whatever suits everyone else is fine with me.

Is there anything else you're thinking of reading?

Looking at this list I never realised that The Amulet of Samarkand is actually kind of funny. I've always been kinda intimidated by the ugly covers into thinking that it's an old fantasy that is definitely not my kind of thing but I did enjoy Stroud's Lockwood & Co so at least I know it's well written. Maybe I should actually give it a try!

Kadi wrote: "@Lynn Ok ok so I'm going to make an announcement soon with next month's events and then when people come and if any are interested in buddy reading too we can all fix a date! I'm in no rush and am ..."

Not sure, but definitely Prisoner of Cell 25. Buddy read would be fun.

I've had my eye on Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series for a while, but Sky Raiders sounds really interesting too!
And the pitch for The Amulet of Samarkand sounds cool as well, especially for the funny tone it seems to have :)

I have my Scott Savage books and Michael Vey books signed since the authors live pretty close. And Brandon Mull is close.

The Amulet of Samarkand is so funny. Bartimaeus is like Lockwood's Skull but more so. The audiobook read by Simon Jones is exceptional.

@Audrey omg so I've been looking for an audiobook to read, it'll be my very first and after Carmen so kindly sent me a free Scribd thing I now have 2 months free I think. I actually want to try out that audiobook then! I'll let you know how it goes!

I hope it's there. I checked it out of the library a long time ago.

@Audrey it wasn’t there😞 I really wanted to experience a good audiobook. I need to go searching for another audiobook to try now, one worthy of being my first one...

Awwww.

Yes, I would like to buddy read .

I'd love to buddy read The Prisoner of Cell 25

@Lynn @Zoya awesome! Do you guys have any preference about dates? How does Monday sound, would you guys be free to start it then? I'm really excited to read it I have high expectations for this one!

Kadi wrote: "@Lynn @Zoya awesome! Do you guys have any preference about dates? How does Monday sound, would you guys be free to start it then? I'm really excited to read it I have high expectations for this one!"

I'll have to get a copy of the book, but I can probably get one by midweek. How would Wednesday be for starting the book?

Lynn wrote: "Kadi wrote: "@Lynn @Zoya awesome! Do you guys have any preference about dates? How does Monday sound, would you guys be free to start it then? I'm really excited to read it I have high expectations..."

Wednesday works for me too

I've read it three? times, but I'll follow along.

Awesome, Wednesday works well for me too. Gives me time to finish the book I'm procrastinating on right now.

Here's the discussion page I set up for the buddy read: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Can't wait to start reading it! I'm getting my copy ready now...

Kadi wrote: "Awesome, Wednesday works well for me too. Gives me time to finish the book I'm procrastinating on right now.

Here's the discussion page I set up for the buddy read: https://www.goodreads.com/topic..."

We're set. We'll start Wednesday.

Kadi wrote: "Awesome, Wednesday works well for me too. Gives me time to finish the book I'm procrastinating on right now.

Here's the discussion page I set up for the buddy read: https://www.goodreads.com/topic..."

Really excited to read it!

@Zoya same! I just reread the blurb and once again it's hitting me how excited I am for this. I'm so ready for the superpowers and also Tourette's representation because diversity in representation is always welcome👏🏻