Middle Grade Madness! discussion

Team Sirius Black
Members:
1. (CAPTAIN) Jessica - Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks
2. Grace - Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
3. Audrey - The Secret Window by Betty Ren Wright
4. Breanne (breegreen books) - The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
5. Abigael-Kala - The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown
6. Bella A - Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

*Please take note of your assigned numbers, they may be important for some of the tasks*
(Each person’s name is linked to their challenge bookshelf and the book listed beside their name is their mg book recommendation)

The spreadsheet containing all the tasks will be shared with every team member via email invite on August 1st: countdown
I understand that may make it a bit hard to plan your first few books if you need to borrow them from a library in advance, but the tasks are many and wide enough in criteria that you can read any book at first and easily apply it to a task.

3 important things to note:
1. POINTS
- There are now 100 tasks not 70. Remember, each task is worth 1 point.
- 5 tasks make up 1 category. Each completed category is worth 5 extra points.
- There are 5 extra extra points for each category completed by only 1 team member. This is a good way to earn extra points but it doesn’t have to be used, please discuss it with your fellow team members.
- Remember tasks can be completed in any order.

2. BONUS TASKS
- There are 12 bonus tasks that will be revealed on 15 August.
- The first 5 bonus tasks are worth 3 points each with 10 extra points for completing all 5.
- The remaining 7 bonus tasks are worth 5 points each with 15 extra points for completing all 7.

3. MAKE SURE YOUR BOOKS COUNT
It’ll be really sad if you spend the time reading a book and then end up realising it doesn’t even count towards the challenge so always check it counts before starting to read it!
Refer to the rules to remind yourself of what counts as an mg book for the challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If you’re reading a book with a specific task in mind and you’re not sure if your book will count towards the challenge, please check the FAQ tab on your team spreadsheet. If it doesn’t help then ask your team captain who will either answer if they can or pass on the question to me on the Captain's Chat and they’ll let you know the answer.

Now that the admin is out of the way, I’d just like to take a quick moment to say thanks for taking part in the challenge! All competitiveness aside, please make sure you have fun and communicate well with your fellow team members. And above all, let’s read some awesome books!

Ice-breaker:
1. Introduce yourself! Tell your fellow team members what your favourite genres to read are and some things they like to do besides reading.
2. Decide on a team name! Choose the name of a protagonist (or main character) from a middle grade book/series. Last time I hosted this challenge the teams chose: Coraline, Alice Queensmeadow and Logan Sweet so please don’t choose those!

hi everyone!! i'm jessica, and i'll be the captain of this ship😂

my fave genre to read is fantasy—across all age ranges. and for fun, i enjoy writing and editing (which works great for me since my job is a book editor)

i'm excited because i don't believe i've read any of your mg book recs, so i'm pumped to read some new books!

let me know some of your ideas for team names! :)

Hello y'all! I'm Breanne, I'm a book blogger (hint hint *check my bio lol*) and my favorite genre is romance although I like to read a bit of everything. In my free time, I enjoy writing, doing yoga, and spending time with God.

I'm so excited to read MG with y'all! I never make time to read the MG titles that are on my TBR so August is going to be so fun and so different and I can't wait to learn what all the tasks are!

I'm not good with suggestions but I think a character name would be really cool.

@Breanne agreed! though at the moment basically all mg books I’ve read have gone out of my head and I can’t remember any character names. except my faves, which are nico and leo from the percy jackson series ☺️ which leo would be fun bc “team leo” is a thing in the books!

of course, just an idea! I’m open to any other suggestions :)

Hi, I'm Kala. I'm a Canadian who doesn't live in Toronto or Vancouver (which are the stereotypes) but in a well-populated prairie region instead. I love juvenile fantasy and I can't remember the last non-juvenile fiction book I enjoyed, unless it was a fun/humourous fact book about Canada/Canadians. I like watching YouTube to learn about diverse perspectives and spending time with Jesus. I've recently discovered there are lots of Arthur Reid episodes on the Internet, so I've been spending a lot of time watching that show recently.

My suggestions for a team name would almostly come from fantasy books. My favourite ones I can come up with now are Hermione (Granger, of course), Ron Weasley, Sirius Black, or Juniper (Berry, a brave girl from a scary book I couldn't finish). I like the idea of having just a first name for our group, since there are so many unique character names, but of course we would have to use last names in the case of somebody like Ron or Sirius.

I'm Audrey. I was born in Mexico, grew up in California, and live in Utah now. I have five kids, ages 11-22. I'm a musician and editor, and I decorate cakes and make greeting cards for fun. I mostly read sci fi and fantasy but I also like to be always be reading a nonfiction as well.

We could be a Quidditch team, like the Chudley Cannons.

ooh I like that idea! and it’ll keep the harry potter theme of a lot of Kala's suggestions!

Yes! all i was thinking about was harry potter / percy jackson when it came to names so i'm down with either as inspiration :)

Abigael wrote: "Hi, I'm Kala. I'm a Canadian who doesn't live in Toronto or Vancouver (which are the stereotypes) but in a well-populated prairie region instead. I love juvenile fantasy and I can't remember the la..."

AHH HI I'm also a Canadian that doesn't live in either stereotypical metropolitan cities (I don't live in their provinces either lol) so fun to see another Canadian here!

Hi! I’m Bella!

I live in Arizona, and I have WAY to much time on my hands. I’m starting a new school around August 10th, so hopefully I can keep up with you all! I’m a green belt in Tae Kwon Do and my favorite genres are fantasy and mystery, though my friend is trying to get me to read horror (emphasis on “trying”). I believe this is my second challenge for this group, and I’m super excited!

hello! the name’s grace. my favorite genres are fantasy and contemporary romance (i’m basic, i know). other than reading, some of my hobbies include art, crochet, cuddling with my 5 cats, and playing animal crossing.

for a team name, i’m pretty much down for whatever. i’m a big percy jackson and harry potter fan though, so i thought team hermione and team leo were great ideas.

super excited to start this challenge, i’ve done it twice before and it’s always super fun! ☺️

@bella good luck at your new school! no pressure for the challenge bc school is definitely a priority :) plus we’re just here to have fun!

so i think the general consensus for team names is either percy jackson or harry potter themed, which sounds great!

Hiya guys, just wanted to pop in and clarify some minor things.
The team name should be a character’s name specifically. It can be anyone from any middle grade book. Please make sure to choose their full name unless their last name is not known (like with Coraline).

The name you choose doesn’t have to relate to the recommended books of your team members. Those listed books are causing some confusion all around! The recommendations will come into play later when the tasks are revealed (some tasks relate to the recommendations).

If anyone has any other questions please either refer to the rules or put them to your captain and she’ll bring it to me if necessary on the captain’s chat.

@kadi thanks for the reminders!

as for team names, here's what's been recommended so far!

- team nico diangelo
- team leo valdez
- team hermione granger
- team ronald weasley (or ron weasley, but "ronald" makes me think of the howler scene which cracks me up every single time)
- team sirius black
- team juniper berry (was "berry" her last name? i've not heard of the character so just want to make sure!)

i also liked the chudley cannons idea, but unfortunately that's not a specific character. it was a good idea, though!

let me know if i forgot any that any of you mentioned or if you have any more ideas. i believe we only have a couple more days to decide, so let me know what you're preferences are too!

Yes, Juniper Berry. Her name is the title of her book, so now you can look it up if you want.

I just remembered Dobby, as well! ❤️💙💛

ah, yes! perhaps it’s something that can fit into one of the tasks so i can read it next month ☺️

and awwh dobby! he’d also be a really good team name

alright so since everyone has given their thoughts/suggestions for a team name, how do we want to go about choosing it? should we just vote or...?

yeah! go ahead and vote for your favorite. to start, we'll start with one fave. if no name is in the lead, we'll decide where to go from there

I like Sirius and Leo best. Or Crookshanks, if you want to go with a pet.

my favorite is Leo, that's where my votes going

I think Sirius would be a good team name.

okay!

so, so far, we have

Sirius: 2
Leo: 2

I like the idea of Crookshanks, but at the moment, i think we'll stick with what's been offered so far :)

so, now we're still waiting for Grace and Kala to give their preferences!

Hey Team B,

I know some people are swamped with work etc, but still want to take part in the challenge. Well, fear not! Thankfully, middle grade books are the one age category where you can quite easily find some fantastic but short reads (200 pages or less) that you can read in just a few hours, such as:
- Everything on this list
- All the books in The Spiderwick Chronicles
- All the books in the A Series of Unfortunate Event series
- All the MG books by Vivian Vande Velde
- All the MG books by Roald Dahl
I’m sure there are even more particular authors and series with short books out there. If you want to recommend any to your fellow team members below then please go ahead!

If you want to find the shortest books on your TBR shelf you can filter it by page length and set it to ascending so that it’ll show all the short books on your shelf at the top. Make sure the books count towards the challenge before you start reading them!

To level the playing field, I’ve shared this message with all teams😊
But any short books you recommend to your fellow team members below I won’t share with other teams or even see myself. (I never really check other teams’ pages, that’s why I have captains bring queries to the captain’s chat)

i say team sirius :)

@grace okay great!

so, we have:
team leo: 2
team sirius: 3

now we just have Kala! if it’s a tie, i’ll do a tie breaker. otherwise we’ll have our team name :)

Hi Team Sirius Black,

I’ve sent out email invites to all the team members so you can access your team’s spreadsheet.

If you didn’t receive an email invite first check your junk mail and then if you still haven’t received it please private message me to let me know and I can try sending it again. Or if you’d like to change your email address or add an additional email address please send me a private message.

All tasks are visible on your spreadsheet but the bonus tasks will be revealed on August 15th.

Remember that your team captain is in charge of the spreadsheet especially the official challenge sheet so please coordinate with her about who will fill in what parts of the spreadsheet.

Right well, that’s all from me for now...
Good luck and happy reading!😊

YAY! and let the challenge begin!

like kadi said, I'll be the one to update the official challenge sheet, but y'all can update the "tracking sheet" so everything's in one place and easy to keep track of😊

if you could also comment in here that you've finished a book, that will help me know to check the tracking sheet to update the official sheet.

we can also discuss in here what tasks we want/plan on reading for so that there isn't any overlap. and since we also get extra points if one person finishes a category by themselves, if there's a category that you have ideas for each task, let me know!

Just to be crystal clear here, a (1) task can only be completed by one team member correct?

Breanne wrote: "Just to be crystal clear here, a (1) task can only be completed by one team member correct?"

correct! one book for one task completed by one person

I’d love to do the “Those That Read Together” category! I just have one question: Since I’m the last number in my group, I can’t read below myself; could I read Jessica’s recommendation, as she is number 1?

@bella okay great! I’m pretty sure you can do that, but let me double-check with kadi and i’ll let you know!

also, if you don't want to update or deal with the spreadsheet, i'm more than happy to update the tracking sheet for you! i'll just need the book, date you started, date you finished, and what task it applied to and why.

also, if a book you're reading applies to multiple tasks, please list all of the applicable tasks! that way, we can move things around if needed :)

@bella yep, you could read my rec!

jessica wrote: "@bella yep, you could read my rec!"

Okay, thank you!

if it works, i'd like to do the 5 tasks for 16. Lions and Witches and Wardrobes, Oh My! 😊

I would like to do all the tasks for #5, Growing Pains, if that's okay!!!

Sorry I disappeared for a few days. I would have definitely voted for Sirius, so I'm very happy it turned out in my favour anyway!

I am a very "prolific" (so I've been told; I do typically read 10+ middle grade books in a month and that's what I wrote when I entered this read-athon) reader. Tonight I'll be going through the middle grade books I borrowed from the library last week to see which of them count for tasks on the list.
If anyone isn't sure where to start, I will be very happy if I don't have to read any "scary" (anxiety, bad birthday, vampires, zombies, scary stories, villains, battles, robots) books, so I hope someone will start there.
Looking forward to reading a lot this coming month!! I'm hoping some of my books will cover "Old is gold" and "Who you gonna call?" (Benevolent ghosts don't usually scare me.)
Happy reading, Team Sirius!

I have a book ready for the bad birthday task and for the anxiety task so that works for me :)

woo! things are developing nicely :)

so, so far, here's a tentative plan for what people want to do so far, just so everything is in one place:

Category 2: Bella
Category 5: Breanne
Category 16: me (Jessica)

Abigael wrote: "Sorry I disappeared for a few days. I would have definitely voted for Sirius, so I'm very happy it turned out in my favour anyway!

I am a very "prolific" (so I've been told; I do typically read 1..."

no worries! super glad it worked out😊 and thanks for the update on books/themes you'd prefer to not read!

also, just as a reminder, idk what time zones everyone's in, but just remember that books won't count unless they're started on August 1! for me, I've still got like 5 hours of July 31, so even though we've got the tasks, still gotta wait to start reading until your time zone reaches August 1😊

I'm jealous that you were only 5 hours away 2.5 hours ago!! Here in MDT of Western Canada, I have 4.5 hours to wait as of now!! Time to do research and planning, fortunately. 🙂

For sequels, do the books have to be in exact sequence or is book 2 then book 6 okay?

Also, I LOVED the Oxford commas and British/Canadian/Australian?/N.Z.? spelling on the challenge list!! There is no colour or favour or glamour without U!! 😆❤️🇨🇦

Abigael wrote: "I'm jealous that you were only 5 hours away 2.5 hours ago!! Here in MDT of Western Canada, I have 4.5 hours to wait as of now!! Time to do research and planning, fortunately. 🙂

For sequels, do the..."

i know kadi is over in europe, idk where, so that's why the "u" is there😂

and for the sequels, which task are you referring to?

Sorry for any confusion: I just realised Breanne has Category 5, so I don't have to read any sequels.

no worries! ☺️

I have a bunch of questions, now that I've reviewed my currently available books:
📚What is considered a "noticeable landmark"? (Category 4) I have a book that features a landmark that's well-known in my side of the country (Dear Canada book about the Frank Slide) and I have another book with an animated zoo on it and I'm not sure what is the correct/best choice?
📚I have 100% Wolf, protagonist's name is "Freddy". Does that count for Category 10?
📚I have a book that has a question-ish title but lacks a question mark (What happens next). Does it count for Category 10?
📚I have a book about Queen Elizabeth I and it takes place between September and April (book is diary format). Does this count for Category 14?
📚How do you know which genre a book belongs in? Is it because it's funny (to me or according to hype quotes on the book cover) or because Goodreads/A.R. Bookfinder/Kirkus says so? (Categories 7, 10, 11, 14)
📚Is "main character" different than "protagonist"? (Category 15)
📚Is treasure specifically gold and precious stones or does it also include friendship/healing/missing loved one/etc.? (Category 17)
📚The only book I've found with any kind of rotary telephone is one my library doesn't have (Mud Street Misfits). How do you find such obscure cover images?? (Categories 8 and 19)
📚Do books have to be in genre of the category? Like, title is in gold cursive writing (Category 11, Fairy tales) but it's a horror novel (for example)?
📚Would it better for me to write long lists of questions in the Captain's Chat myself?

1. What's the book? and i believe the Frank Slide should definitely count as a landmark, but i'll double-check with kadi. as long as the Frank Slide is obvious on the cover, it should be good!

2. Freddy should be close enough for that, but i'm not sure how specific Kadi was for that, so I'll double-check for that as well :)

3. I would count it! it's still a question, even without the quotation mark

4. i'm assuming that the Queen Elizabeth book would be used to a book set in the fall? I'll have to ask because i'm not sure if it works for part of the book or if it ALL has to be in the fall

5. I'm not sure which task you're referring to in category 7 that relates to genre? in general, i'd say base it off the goodreads tags. a lot of them will have mystery/horror/comedy/nonfiction listed as common things people tag it as. for category 11, i'm assuming you're referring to the fairytale retelling? that might be listed on the goodreads tags, but i know a lot of people list it in reviews as well, starting off with "retelling of ____ fairytale." hopefully that answer makes sense? let me know if it doesn't.

6. i would say slightly yes. i would say the protagonist is the character we directly follow, but main characters are characters who are still very prominent within a story. so, like in harry potter, harry is the protagonist, but ron and hermione are still main characters.

7. i'll ask about that one because i'm not sure!

8. honestly, the way i've found weird/obscure things like that is by scrolling through lists of mg books and looking at their covers or by trying to search mg books with *blank* on the cover. for those kinds of tasks, it might just be best to wait on those and focus on the easier ones first.

9. nope! as long as the book matches the direct task, it's fine. so you can definitely read a horror book for that category as long as it's got the gold cursive writing and is mg! kadi just likes having themes for the categories.

10. nah, you don't need to! i'm happy to answer them here, and I can relay any questions i'm unsure of to kadi in the captains chat😊

let me know if those did answer your questions or if i can clarify anything more!