Middle Grade Madness! discussion

It’s here! It’s finally here! You know how long I’ve been waiting to host this event? Since last year! And finally we get to do it🎉

What is steampunk?
- It’s a sub-genre of science fiction.
- Usually set in the late 19th century or early 20th century.
- Features steam-powered and clockwork inventions and machines.

How It Works:
- Recommend as many steampunk books/graphic novels for our list as you want (read more about that below) OR you can just take part.
- There's no need to sign up to take part, just join in the conversation below.
- This readathon starts in September 2021 (countdown below).
- Create a new Goodreads shelf for Steampunk September so you can keep track of what you’ve read for it if you want!

- Recommendations for our list closes on 20th August.
- I will feed the books/graphic novels from our list into a random picker.
- Using the link below (not yet added), access the random picker, spin the wheel, and it’ll randomly pick a book/graphic novel from our lists for you to read.
- Read the book/graphic novel and let us know your thoughts on it below!
- Then spin the wheels of the random picker again and it’ll choose another book/graphic novel for you.
- Try to read what the random picker picks for you but if you don’t have access to that book/graphic novel yet or if it chooses something you’ve already read for the readathon or that you've already read before or that you don't want to read/have DNF'ed/aren't interested in, then spin it again and it’ll choose something different.
- Alternatively, you can just ignore the random picker and read anything on the list that you like, but the random picker makes it more fun and spontaneous!


IF YOU WANT TO RECOMMEND A BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL FOR THE LIST:
The Rules on Recommending:
- It can be a book or a graphic novel.
- It MUST belong to the steampunk genre.
- The book or graphic novel must be in English or translated to English.
- They can be MG, YA, Adult or New Adult.
- If the book/graphic novel is part of a series please only recommend the first in the series.
- You can recommend as many books or graphic novels as you like to be added to our list.

RECOMMEND YOUR BOOK(S) OR GRAPHIC NOVEL(S) FOR THE LIST HERE:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
Or let me know below and I can add it to the poll for you!

LINK TO THE RANDOM PICKER:
https://www.online-stopwatch.com/rand...

Will the list say if they are MG, YA, A, NA? I only read MG and the occasional clean YA.

I havent read any Steampunk that I know of but it sounds fun.

@Rory yep that’s the plan, I’ll be sectioning the list by age category (mg, ya, etc). I too like to err on the side of mg when faced with the choice between mg and ya!

Kadi wrote: "@Rory yep that’s the plan, I’ll be sectioning the list by age category (mg, ya, etc). I too like to err on the side of mg when faced with the choice between mg and ya!"

Cool. Then I will make a shelf for it here's hoping the library has the books I like from the MG list.

I'm really picky with the content that I read and I know what I enjoy book wise and only mix it up in genre last year I started reading scifi MG. Gabby Duran loved how the authors wrote a book 4 and tied the books to the show.

@Rory I’ll post the complete list on 21st or 22nd August but if you want to see what’ll be on it so you can check to see if some of the books are in your library, these are all the books that’ll be on our list so far: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

If you want to check out the books’ goodreads entries they’ll probably tell you if they’re YA or MG.

I totally get sticking to what you like. When I’m not sure what to read I always fall back on mystery books because they’re my fave genre. Every now and then it’s nice to try out a new genre and I get the feeling this steampunk readathon will be a new venture for a lot of us!

Kadi wrote: "@Rory I’ll post the complete list on 21st or 22nd August but if you want to see what’ll be on it so you can check to see if some of the books are in your library, these are all the books that’ll be..."

Thanks.

Steampunk List: (names in italics are the recommender)
MG:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - Kadi
City of Secrets by Victoria Ying - Kadi
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy by Richard Due - Kadi
The Clockwork Crow by Catherine Fisher - Abigail
A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis - Anita McDivitt Barrios
Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier - Brooklyn
Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage - Audrey
The Kidnap Plot by Dave Butler - Audrey
Cogheart by Peter Bunzl – Elena

YA:
The Case Study of Vanitas, Vol. 1 by Jun Mochizuki - Kadi
Beyond the Clouds, Vol. 1 by Nicke - Kadi
Timekeeper by Tara Sim - Arin
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - Patronusgranger12
Steampunk Alice by Dennis Higgins - Jeannie

LINK TO RANDOM PICKER: https://www.online-stopwatch.com/rand...

I'm so excited to read a new genre next month

Ooh this should be fun! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read a book in the steampunk genre, so this will be a nice way for me to branch out 😊

Excited for you guys to read Hugo Cabret!! It was one of my favorites from last year :))

I really enjoyed clockwork crow so hopefully you guys do 2

@Rory @Grace aah I'm glad you guys are excited! I'm really excited too and from all the books/graphic novels I've recommended I haven't actually read any of them, I added them because this was the perfect opportunity for me to finally read them.

@Spencer yes! I remember it was one of our book of the months last year I think or maybe even the year before. I didn't manage to find a copy of it so I couldn't read it but this time I'm going to check to see if my library has a copy. I've also been waiting since last year to read Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy! It was featured as one of the books in our Writer's Showcase and I always wanted to read it but never got around to it. I think this will finally be my chance.

@Eden I'm not a big fan of historical fiction but I do love mystery and it's a short read so I'm going to hopefully try giving The Clockwork Crow a go!

looking forward to this...

@Sameeksha same! Only a few days left now. Are you planning on using the random picker? I’m going to roll it to get my first read tomorrow👏🏻

I’m quite excited! i’ve read a couple of these and have a couple others on my list already, which i hadn’t anticipated 😂

@Jessica ooh nice! Which have you read? And did you like them? I haven’t read any of these but I want to read them all which is a little surprising, I don’t usually find myself interested in every book on the list of these kind of themed readathons.

i've read the invention of hugo cabret (which i LOVED) and clockwork angel. it's been years since i've read that one, and i remember absolutely adoring it when i read it, buuut i've read some other of her books more recently and was very eh about them. but the characters are very different, and i'm a very character-driven reader, so i'm interested in rereading to see if my opinion has changed!

yeah i definitely get that. i've already got timekeeper on my shelves and have been meaning to read it for years, so now i'll have some extra motivation! i haven't looked into any of the other books, but i adore the steampunk aesthetic, so i'm super intrigued

I'm excited to try to read Fires of Invention by Savage J Scott, as I'm really into dragons right now.

The invention of Hugo Cabret by Selznick Brian, I want to read this because I'm pretty sure I saw the movie years ago. I usually read the book first but sometimes I end up watching the movie first then reading the book.

City of secrets by Ying Victoria, sounds cool and so does Beyond the clouds vol 1 by Nicke, the only YA steampunk on my list.

@Jessica I’m pretty much the same, I read Clockwork Angel in 2015 so like 6 years ago and I gave it 4 stars back then but that was also the last Cassandra Clare book I read because I gave up on her after that. I don’t think I actually liked it that much so not sure why I gave it 4 stars😂 I read it before I set up my goodreads account so it’s more than likely that the rating isn’t an accurate reflection of how I actually felt about it. It’s the only book on the list that I don’t want to read. Her books are too long and all the plots are the same, just different character names.

I also watched a bit of the Hugo movie when I was younger (also around 2015, lol that seems to be when everything was happening) but I didn’t watch the full movie. Love Asa Butterfield so this is my chance to read the book and then fully watch the movie again.

@Rory I’ve been wanting to read City of Secrets for a few months now. I’ve actually been really tempted to read it this month for the August Reading Challenge because those kind of graphic novels are a great easy length and I read another graphic novel that wasn’t steampunk but was similar. As soon as September arrives I’m going to read it!

jessica wrote: "i've read the invention of hugo cabret (which i LOVED) and clockwork angel. it's been years since i've read that one, and i remember absolutely adoring it when i read it, buuut i've read some other..."

yessss, timekeeper is one of my favourite of this year! it has slower plot, but the last third was amazing. i really enjoyed it and i hope you will enjoy it too. i still need to read the next books though.

i want to join this readathon but i'll have exams in september, so i'm afraid i can't really read anything. but i will try my best to join this readathon after everything's done. i hope you guys will have a great time!

@kadi i wish i had as much willpower as you to stop reading her books😂 i remember starting the mortal instruments in high school and stopping because i just couldn't handle it anymore. then my aunt gifted me the infernal devices trilogy so i was like sure, i'll give it a go, and my high school self was like YES. though i think a big part of it was because the mc was a book nerd and there was a lot of conversations about books which i was so happy about. i have absolutely NO idea what the plot was about because i literally couldn't have cared less because i was so focused on the characters themselves and their most basic interactions lol. but, because i am who i am, at some point i plan to reread what i've read (basically just tmi and tid) and read the other newer stuff. i don't know why i'm going to do this to myself, but i'm doing it lol

and that movie is SO GOOD. my sister was OBSESSED with it growing up, so i've seen it many a time. i don't know how much of my love for it is nostalgia, so take what i say with a grain of salt😂 but regardless, it's still a good one and from what i remember, they did a fantastic job of keeping to the book

arin wrote: "jessica wrote: "i've read the invention of hugo cabret (which i LOVED) and clockwork angel. it's been years since i've read that one, and i remember absolutely adoring it when i read it, buuut i've..."

that's so good to hear! ngl it was definitely a cover buy, but i'm super glad to hear it's good! also good to know that it picks up later so i'll be motivated to keep on going if i start to lose steam😊

good luck on your exams!

Kadi wrote: "@Jessica I’m pretty much the same, I read Clockwork Angel in 2015 so like 6 years ago and I gave it 4 stars back then but that was also the last Cassandra Clare book I read because I gave up on her..."

Thats a graphic novel it didnt seem to say that on the summary so thanks for the info

yes @Kadi... I am definitely gonna use random picker

I read one Cassandra Clare book, and it was so blah, she went on my Never Again list.

I still need to read the third book in the Mysteries of Cove; the second has a lot more dragons than the first.

@Audrey good to know. I'm pretty much reading any MG book that has dragons the library has.

@Arin good luck with your exams! If you don’t have time to join in that’s totally ok, definitely focus on your exams! If you read any of the books in the future (after September) you can always come to this discussion page and discuss your thoughts on it!

@Jessica it’s going to be so interesting to see your thoughts on it after you reread it whenever you do so in the future. Because like you said you read it ages ago and then you grow as a person and a reader. Recently I reread 2 books I read like 3 years ago for the August Reading Challenge and I was really glad to find that I still liked them a lot because I’m much more critical of books now compared to in the past mostly because I’ve read more books but also I review everything I read now so that naturally makes me more critical.

I can’t remember much of the plot of TMI or TID so that either says something about how good the plot was or just that I read it way too long ago. I’d never bother to reread it, it’s just really not my thing anymore.

So I really hope I can get my hands on a copy of the invention of Hugo Cabret then! I definitely have to read the book before I can watch the movie and I want to watch the movie!

Hugo cabaret was pretty fun. ngl the illustrations kinda creeped me out though XD

@Rory yep out of all of them City of Secrets is a graphic novel and The Case Study of Vanitas vol 1 and Beyond the Clouds vol 1 are both manga (collected single chapters into graphic novels).

@Kacie 😂😂 like they were creepy or just a weird art style? Books with illustrations are always interesting to see.

both. I've just always been creeped out by things like that. hard to explain lol

Kadi wrote: "@Rory yep out of all of them City of Secrets is a graphic novel and The Case Study of Vanitas vol 1 and Beyond the Clouds vol 1 are both manga (collected single chapters into graphic novels)."

I love manga too, though its hard to find clean manga. I.e no graphic violence or nudity basically PG if books had movie ratings.

@Kacie I guess I’ll see what you mean when I read it!

@Rory same I like manga! Thankfully I don’t really find it hard to find clean manga. Granted I tend to read mainly romance shojo manga but I’ve read some action/adventure manga too so maybe it depends on what genres you’re looking at. Because I also watch anime I tend to stick within those same circles of manga so like manga that have show adaptations or manga by authors (mangaka) I know have adapted works.

The Case Study of Vanitas also has an anime show! It just came out recently and I don’t think it’s finished yet. I really want to watch it but I have to wait for an English dub (I only watch dubbed anime) so that’s actually why I added it to the list, if I can’t watch it then reading it is the next best thing!

Kadi wrote: "@Kacie I guess I’ll see what you mean when I read it!

@Rory same I like manga! Thankfully I don’t really find it hard to find clean manga. Granted I tend to read mainly romance shojo manga but I’v..."

I like magical girl and fantasy stuff. I have a ton on my list mostly series but a lot of it is old DN Angel, so its hard to find and Id rather not pay full price even if it is in bookstores. I scored a huge stack of DN Angel volumes a few years ago at a used bookstore you bring in books and get store credit if they want it, and fell in love!

Shugo Chara has a show and manga its adorable. Where do you watch anime? Do you buy the DVDs? Legit subscription service?

I’m going to try and use the random picker for this challenge to spice things up a little (and because i can’t make decisions haha.) I just spun it to pick my first book so that i can go ahead and get it from the library, and I got The Invention of Hugo Cabret! Really excited since that is the one I was looking forward to reading most.

Grace wrote: "I’m going to try and use the random picker for this challenge to spice things up a little (and because i can’t make decisions haha.) I just spun it to pick my first book so that i can go ahead and ..."

Yay! Congrats.

@Rory Shugo Chara looks a little too shojo for me😂 very cute looking but I prefer slice of life, high-school, romance etc. Which is kind of ironic because I hate contemporary books and that’s basically what slice of life is. Here’s my manga TBR shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I only have Netflix for watching anime. I was considering getting a Funimation subscription but there’s kinda no point because it doesn’t work when I’m in Dubai (it’s only available in the UK) and because of my life circumstances rn I’m really back and forth between countries so I just watch stuff online then. What about you?

@Grace wow that’s really lucky then! Can’t wait to see what you think of it! You got me excited so I rolled the random picker as well and got The Kidnap Plot! I need to try and find a copy of it although I’m seriously considering starting with City of Secrets because I’ve already got it downloaded. Well, I’ve still got time to decide which I’ll start with so we’ll see!

Kadi wrote: "@Rory Shugo Chara looks a little too shojo for me😂 very cute looking but I prefer slice of life, high-school, romance etc. Which is kind of ironic because I hate contemporary books and that’s basic..."

Yeah everyone has diffrent tastes, I like cute things. I havent found the anime just the manga of sugo chara. The company that makes Ouran high school host club put the whole show up on their youtube channel so I watched that.

Netflix they just got Card capture Sakura awhile ago and I need to watch it. Theyve been getting more kids anime lately yay! Before I was buying DVDs.

Thanks, the springtime one sounds interesting. Ill have to look for it during one of my used bookstore trips.

heres my shelf https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

The random picker gave me Hugo Cabret. I have been interested in it. I'm reading The Kidnap Plot for the MG challenge right now.

The Fablehaven series has dragons in the last two books, and the spinoff series, Dragonwatch, is all about dragons.

Audrey wrote: "The random picker gave me Hugo Cabret. I have been interested in it. I'm reading The Kidnap Plot for the MG challenge right now.

The Fablehaven series has dragons in the last two books, and the sp..."

Thanks I will look them up!

My first spin, got me A Riddle in Ruby . Loved the synopsis. Excited to get my hands on the book :D

I'm really excited for some steampunk recommendations! I've always wanted to read more steampunk but was never sure where to start. I did read a fantasy with steampunk elements a while ago Dragonfell and really liked it! I'm not sure if I'll get to read any next month, but I will definitely check back here if I do.

@Rory Ouran High School Host Club is on my to watch list! Right now I’ve just started season 2 of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU/My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected (Oregairu/Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku lol it has a lot of names) and they’re from the same genre so I imagine I’d you liked one you’d like the other.

Yeah Netflix doesn’t really have a huge anime collection to be honest. Lots of Ghibli studio movies and lots of young kid anime shows. I just finished Great Pretender season 1 from Netflix and that was really great though. I post my anime reviews on my Instagram if you’re interested in my thoughts on it: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ...

Also if you’re looking for cute manga I think you’d really like A Sign of Affection, Vol. 1. The protagonist is really cute she innocent and the romance is sweet (although personally I thought the male love interest was too smooth but still it was good). The first 4 vols are out already!

@Audrey ooh let me know what you think of The Kidnap Plot after you finish it!

@Sameeksha omg yes A Riddle in Ruby looks so good! Hope you enjoy it!

@Tiffany hopefully you can take part next month but if not no worries, the list is always here for future use anyway!

Kadi wrote: "@Rory Ouran High School Host Club is on my to watch list! Right now I’ve just started season 2 of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU/My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected (Oregairu/Yahari Ore ..."

Thanks! I'll see what theyre about and check out your instagram.

Hey everyone, the time is upon us! Our first day of Steampunk September has arrived! Share what you're reading and what your thoughts are on any of the books on our list😊

I'm going to start reading City of Secrets tonight!

Clockwork Crow is good.
Timekeeper is amazing!!

Some great picks on the list