Middle Grade Madness! discussion

Team Merlin
Members:
1. (CAPTAIN) Aeriell - The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
2. Rory (AurorainBookland) - The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
3. Deeksha - Just Add Magic by Cindy Callaghan
4. Khadijah - Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn
5. Andrea - Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski

*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!

Hello everyone! I am your Captian! This is going to be so much fun and looking at what ya'll say as recommendations is amazing since I've read a could of them! I personally love fantasy with some of sci-fi along with sprinklings of other genres. Besides reading I love the ocean! I could live at the beach if I could.

Hi, I'm Rory and I like to read fantasy and the ocassional contemporary.
Besides reading I love art. I draw and color, Hannah Lynn is my favorite coloring book artist.

We should come up with a magical team name since our book recommendations seem to have a magical presence overall.

Aeriell wrote: "We should come up with a magical team name since our book recommendations seem to have a magical presence overall."

Yeah. It could be united wands. Wands are associated with magic and trying to achieve one goal earning a lot of points as a group united. Just an idea. Maybe everyone could suggest a name and then we vote on it?

Hi all, I’m Andrea. I like to listen to audiobooks especially fantasy, but I listen to most popular genres except horror.

What is there to love besides books, except for looking for more books? I also enjoy streaming historical documentaries and period pieces.

I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you and winning the challenge.

hi :) my name is khadijah
Some of my favourite things to do are sleeping, hiking, a dash of gaming and bit of digital art I guess there's probably a few more things but can never remember everything when it comes to introductions :)

I can't wait to complete this challenge with you guys I hope we have a fun time together
We got this!!

Something magical? how about something to do with harry potter, the quibblers? Maybe I'll keep on thinking, what ever we agree on I'm sure it'll be great!

Here are some ideas: Magic Rangers, Now you see us, Wild Magic, Adorable Magic, Magic Masters. Magic Empire, (I personally like the last two) Feel free to send out more recommondations!

Aeriell wrote: "Here are some ideas: Magic Rangers, Now you see us, Wild Magic, Adorable Magic, Magic Masters. Magic Empire, (I personally like the last two) Feel free to send out more recommondations!"

Magic Masters, I like that.

Aeriell wrote: "Here are some ideas: Magic Rangers, Now you see us, Wild Magic, Adorable Magic, Magic Masters. Magic Empire, (I personally like the last two) Feel free to send out more recommondations!"

I love Magic Masters, but aren’t we supposed to use a name of a character as our 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!”

Andrea wrote: "Aeriell wrote: "Here are some ideas: Magic Rangers, Now you see us, Wild Magic, Adorable Magic, Magic Masters. Magic Empire, (I personally like the last two) Feel free to send out more recommondati..."

Your right.

Luna.

Ollie - cute

I like the team who lived :)

Khadijah wrote: "I like the team who lived :)"

So the team name has to be a name of the main character adding Harry to the list

Luna Lovegood
Ollie
Harry Potter

"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" Kadi

Hiya guys, just wanted to pop in and clear the confusion. Yes, 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!

I say Harry Potter, Gandolf, or Merlin

Sorry for the earlier confusion I must have over looked that part won't happen again really sorry

Merlin sounds good

@Khadijah no need to apologise! Helping explain stuff is what I’m here for!😊

I think Merlin sounds great. 🪄

I have asked and if everyone agrees on Merlin we can use it for the team name!

Aeriell wrote: "I have asked and if everyone agrees on Merlin we can use it for the team name!"

Merlin sounds good to me. Team Merlin has a nice sound.

Hey Team C,

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)

For me I'd say it's somewhere around the 200 page mark so like 250 pages or less. I say 300 pages is the size of an average book and anything more than 350 pages counts as long. But I guess it depends on how fast you read, I've had people both agree and disagree with my classification of short, average and long books. In general, books with less pages are probably better choices for people who don't have a lot of time to read. The challenge is very much quantity-based because the more books you read, the more points you get!

Deeksha wrote: "Is there a minimum page limit?"

I looked in the info/rules and it doesn't state anything about a minimum page limit but I will ask Kadi as well.

Deeksha wrote: "Kadi wrote: "For me I'd say it's somewhere around the 200 page mark so like 250 pages or less. I say 300 pages is the size of an average book and anything more than 350 pages counts as long. But I ..."

WHAT COUNTS AS A MIDDLE GRADE BOOK:
- Must be more than 100 pages long.
[...]
- *For audiobooks*: The print edition must be more than 100 pages long.
- *For graphic novels*: must be more than 150 pages long.”

The What counts part is from Kadi, hope this helps!

Deeksha wrote: "The Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles Crossover, is a trilogy. Each books are only 60 pages long. I have already read the first book, so because minimum page limit is 100, can I count the second an..."

Good question, i have no idea Im sure the Captian will have an answer if not she'll ask Kadi in Captian chat. Also that crossover is amazing! I read it last year and loved it.

Also our team name is Merlin its changing on the 1st of August. So Happy reading Team Merlin!

Deeksha wrote: "The Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles Crossover, is a trilogy. Each books are only 60 pages long. I have already read the first book, so because minimum page limit is 100, can I count the second an..."

I will have to ask Kadi on that one, sorry for the late response!

So um The Lost Years (Merlin #1) by T.A. Barron is in the Teen section of the library is it considered Middle Grade plus? Never read it

Deeksha wrote: "AurorainBookland wrote: "So um The Lost Years (Merlin #1) by T.A. Barron is in the Teen section of the library is it considered Middle Grade plus? Never read it"

According to the link Kadi has ask..."

Thanks! I forgot about that link.

Deeksha wrote: "Aeriell wrote: "Deeksha wrote: "The Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles Crossover, is a trilogy. Each books are only 60 pages long. I have already read the first book, so because minimum page limit i..."

So I just checked and got this response from kadi:unfortunately it’s not possible to combine short books like that to meet the minimum page requirement. The book on its own must be more than 100 pages long. Her suggestion is if you want to read multiple short stories you could try and find a book that is a short story collection instead.

Hi Team Merlin,

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!😊

So how I read books is I will not finish them if I don't like them so Im going to give the captian some titles that I will try to read for this chalenge. I will read 1 or 2 books for the challege

Reader recomendation catagory

3. Ilsen - Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez paperback 416 pages
I own this but have never read it, so I can start reading tomorrow if I DNF I will let you know
DNF = did not finish

I will be reserving other books that were recomendations in case Sal and Gabi does not work out/ for a possible second book

A book with a dragon - Dragons in a bag 106 pages possible second book reserved, been loving dragons lately if its too short let me know

Also if anyone finds a cool middle grade book about dragons of faries you can add them in the comments here as Im always looking for books about them, https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I would like to start with: An audiobook that is a fairy tale retelling- Whatever After #3 Sink or Swim. It is 165 pages long and is MG. I’m already listening to the series and it is next up.

If I can find audiobooks that I own that fit a specific task I can listen to at least 3 books a week. More if they are shorter.

I will examine my personal library and my actual library and post more tomorrow.

Andrea wrote: "I would like to start with: An audiobook that is a fairy tale retelling- Whatever After #3 Sink or Swim. It is 165 pages long and is MG. I’m already listening to th..."

I found another one: A book with fairies- 160 pages and is MG.

Hello again!! I shall get all of these down! To me, it is currently the day before but I shall edit the spreadsheet with this information! If you have any questions on which prompt is already been taken just ask!

Andrea wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I would like to start with: An audiobook that is a fairy tale retelling- Whatever After #3 Sink or Swim. It is 165 pages long and is MG. I’m already ..."

Which one are you doing?

Deeksha wrote: "So when I enter what I have read into the doc. should I use the pen name of the author or the actual name?"

If the author goes by a pen name then put the pen name if can. Since not every author goes by their actual name.

Aeriell wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I would like to start with: An audiobook that is a fairy tale retelling- Whatever After #3 Sink or Swim. It is 165 pages long and is M..."

Both - starting today.

I have books that fit the prompts 18 ,40,57
18-A country or city in the title- Isle of the lost by melissa de la Cruz
40- A book with two or more scenes where the characters swim- Deep blue by Jennifer Donnelly
57-A book with chacthers who use wands- Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

So I can take these prompts if that is okay

I think I'll be starting with prompt 86 'a book with a protagonist who is an orphan' ive chosen the book earwig and the witch by diana wynne jones to fufill this prompt

Deeksha wrote: "I finished prompt 17"

Congratulations!

I finished prompt #53. It should be added to the spreadsheet shortly.

Sorry yesterday and today was extremely busy. I should have had both books completed yesterday.

Few things I wanted to run past the group:
The ones that have my name and book titles are because I've plugged in my current owned middle grade that I have but two: I can change it if someone else completes a book for that prompt before me, just let me know!
Also: for prompts 76 and 51.. does anyone have plans for those or books that they feel would fit the prompt currently. I don't want to hog a lot of the prompts... I have books that will fit that I own before getting library books, just please let me know!

Aeriell wrote: "Few things I wanted to run past the group:
The ones that have my name and book titles are because I've plugged in my current owned middle grade that I have but two: I can change it if someone else ..."

I have no plans for those prompts. Im trying to figure out this spreadsheet thing so i can help the captain out buf im doing prompt 1

I can see everyone elses but I can only read mine if I click on read note, I hope this helps the captian.

I’m taking prompt #54 A book with gold cursive writing on the cover.

Its actually prompt 3 that im doing

There isn’t anything on the tracking sheet, if we are just going to put them on the points sheet then we don’t need to use the tracking sheet unless you really want to. I can put in the prompts people are taking so that way it’s easier.