Middle Grade Madness! discussion

Team Sophie Foster - Special Category 19
1. (CAPTAIN) Aeriell
2. (SUB-CAPTAIN) Audrey Hammer
3. Jessica
4. AurorainBookland
5. Anissa Michaud
6. D.L.
7. Ms. B
8. Lynn

(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 1st September: (countdown: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...)

2 important things to note:
1. REFER TO THE RULES
- You can find them here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- They list every detail from how the points are calculated to information on the bonus tasks.
- If you have a questions, please check it against the rules and if you’re still looking for an answer please put it to your team captain who will ask me in the Captain's Chat and refer back to you.

2. MAKE SURE YOUR BOOKS COUNT
Please always check your book counts towards our challenge before starting to read it!
Refer to the rules below to remind yourself of what counts as an mg book for the challenge:

WHAT COUNTS AS A MIDDLE GRADE BOOK:
- Must be more than 100 pages long.
*For audio books*: The print edition must be more than 100 pages long.
*For graphic novels*: must be more than 150 pages long.
- Must be categorised as MG+ or MG on this website: https://www.arbookfind.com/
If it says LG or UG on the website it DOESN’T COUNT.
OR
Must be categorised as MY+ or MY on this website: https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/
If it says LY or UY on the website it DOESN’T COUNT.
- Only books started on/after 1st September count!

Ice-breaker:
1. Introduce yourself! Tell your fellow team members what your favourite genres to read are and some things you 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. This challenge has been hosted four times in the past and here are what past teams have chosen: Coraline, Alice Queensmeadow, Logan Sweet, Lucy Pevensie, Sirius Black, Merlin, Charlotte, Morrigan Crow, Mary Poppins, Amari Peters, Matilda Wormwood, Wolf, Zenobia, Diana Barry, Remus Lupin, and Anthony Lockwood, so please don’t choose those!

3. Decide on a special category to be revealed! The categories are numbered 1 to 20, so pick a number as a team and that category will be one of the special categories revealed on either the 2nd, 3rd or 4th week and the tasks of this special category will be work more points!

Hi team, I'm Rory, here on Goodreads. I just picked a random name I liked from researching baby names, I used to write as a hobby and Alice in Wonderlanded it lol. I read mostly Fantasy Middle Grade with some MG contemporary and scifi mixed in.
Besides reading I like art; drawing fashion designs and dragons. Coloring; Hannah Lynn is my favorite coloring book artist. She draws in a cute style.
And playing video games like Star Stable, Fae Farm and am looking forward to checking out Legend of Zelda Echos of wisdom in Oct. Since September is of course dedicated to this challenge lol! I have played the other cute styled Legend of Zelda games and love them. But have played the classic Ocarina of time, etc. Except for the Switch games as cozy games are more my vibe lately.

Name ideas; The Wild Robot by Peter Brown has a movie coming out in theaters in September so we could name our team after the main character Roz.

Category maybe we could use a random number generator?

^ Hi Rory, the random number generator is a good idea for how to pick the category! Glad to meet you.

My name is D.L. I am an animal lover and I think possibly, I'm a young person stuck in an aging person's body lol I love middle-grade and children's books. Some of my fictional heroines are Nancy Drew, Anne Shirley, and Kristy Thomas.

Name suggestions:
- Ali Cross (from the Ali Cross series. It's topical and I really enjoy it)
- Beezus Quimby (I almost guarantee no one else will think of that one lol)
- Anne Shirley or Diana Barry (Bosom Buddies are good to have)
- Trixie Belden
- George Fayne (from Nancy Drew)
- Wilbur (from Charlotte's web)
- Winn-Dixie

Hi Team B,
My name is Lynn, and I'm a retired middle grade language arts (English) teacher. My favorite genre is romance, especially romantic suspense. I also really like middle grade and YA mysteries, mostly when a team is involved in coming up with the solution.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is my favorite YA author, but she has written a few that are classified as MG. I also like most of the books written by James Ponti.

I'll be happy to meet you all and am looking forward to this year's challenge. As far as the team name and our category number - I'll be happy with whatever is chosen as long as the category doesn't end up being horror.

Hi D.L. Nice to meet you! Thanks. For the name only Middle grade books count so Beezus and George won't count. I love the babysitters club! Claudia is my favorite character.

Ali Cross is MG and sounds cool
Anne of Green Gables is also MG but someone might think of it for sure because it's been picking up popularity lots of retellings and the TV show Anne with an E on Netflix put it on the map as they say. But if our group wants to use it I'm not against it, she seems cool, just saying someone might get to it first.
Diana Barry from same series would probably be less picked. People usually use a main character as their team name.
Trixie Belden, never heard of her had to look it, from MG books. Would be fine with this name too.
Winn Dixie, I really dislike this name but it gets redeemed because its used for a dog and not a human. I don't even know why I don't like it lol.

Lynn, nice to meet you! I've been in this in past years and the categories are not genres they are a theme of prompts sort of like the smaller monthly challenges in this and other groups on here. Horror isn't my cup of tea either.

I haven't seen a group message yet about the teams and found it by accident.

I'm a freelance editor and I teach orchestra to elementary school students October through May. So I practice the piano every day and rotate through another three or four instruments. I have five kids; three are adults now. I most like to read sci fi and fantasy.

Beezus is from MG grade books. Diana Barry was already used but there are lots of other characters. Names from classics include Mary Lennox, Sara Crewe, Alice Liddle; also Hugo Cabret, Septimus Heap; still lots of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson characters available.

Audrey wrote: "I haven't seen a group message yet about the teams and found it by accident.

I'm a freelance editor and I teach orchestra to elementary school students October through May. So I practice the piano..."

Hi, Audrey! Nice to meet you.
What books? I only know Romona and Beezus which is LG and I read a lot of MG summaries and lists. Like I mean a lot and don't remember any of them being named Beezus. Just wondering. I believe you.

Nice to see more members! Hey everyone!

I do like Septimus Heap for a name :) I also like Nevil Longbottom. He's kind of an underrated hero.

I like Septimus too! It works well with the challenge being in September :)

The app is having issues it's saying I can't comment from it because I'm not in the group but I am, What the heck?!

Hello there team! My name is Aeriell and I will be your captain!
I have been captian previously and so happy that I get to partake this year since I missed last year. I am a current college student working to get my masters. I am a walking nerd and book lover.

Here are my options for name suggestions:
Sophie Foster- From Keeper of the Lost Citites series. Yes the books are huge but I started binge reading them earlier this year and fell in love with them!
Artemis Fowl- My all time fav MG series.
Rusty/ Firestar- I grew up reading warrior cats by Erin Hunter novels (There is so many names!)

AurorainBookland wrote:
The app is having issues it's saying I can't comment from it because I'm not in the group but I am, What the heck?!"

That is really strange! Sounds like another GR glitch. Hope it resolves.

Hi, Aeriell. Nice to meet you.

2nd Artemis Fowl

D.L. it's fixed :)

hi all! I'm Jessica, or more commonly jess

I'm a full-time medical editor - my fave genres are fantasy and horror. I've been super behind in my reading goals this year, but I work better with motivation so hopefully I'll get a bit caught up

I'm down with whatever we choose as a team name and using rng for the number works for me!

Hi Jessica. Nice to meet you :)

Hi Team! I'm Anissa and I've very excited to meet and read with all of you. Our captain is awesome, although I might be a little biased because she's my LDBF (long distance best friend). :)

I'm a full-time account for state government and my favorite genres are romance and fantasy but I'm always looking to broaden my horizons with other books/genres. This is my third year participating in this challenge. Prior to joining for the first time, I read little to no middle grade but found out that I quite enjoy them.

Similar to Jessica, I've been quite slumpy in my reading this year but am confident my excitement for this challenge will help boost my motivation.

I don't have a whole lot of middle grade books under my belt, which is one of the reason I love this reading challenge every year, but I did have a couple of name suggestions to throw into the hat.

♥ Noah Nowicki (I liked all of the Action Scouts from the first book in this series (The Secret Zoo) but since Noah was the most adventurous. I thought he would be the most fitting suggestion for this challenge (which, for me at least, is also an
adventure)).

♥ Lenora (She's the main character from the Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander and this book was another of ones from last year's challenge that I found quite adventurous. I tried to find her last name but she doesn't appear to have one that's mentioned.)

Ultimately, I'm down for whatever we choose as a team name and agree that using a random number generator is the easiest way to determine our special category. Go Team!

Hi Anissa. Nice to meet you. :)

Hi, I'm Ms. B. I am a library media specialist for a PreK-12 school district. I work at all 5 schools, no central location. Since I read broadly for all ages, I tend to read a lot of MG since it can cover multiple buildings. My favorite genres are realistic and historic. As far as a team name, I was thinking of Sophie Foster (from Keeper of the Lost Cities) too. And I love the suggestion of Nevil Longbottom.

Hi Ms. B. Nice to meet you. Sophie Foster sounds cool.

AurorainBookland wrote: "What books? I only know Ramona and Beezus which is LG and I read a lot of MG summaries and lists. Like I mean a lot and don't remember any of them being named Beezus. Just wondering. I believe you.."

Oh, it could be LG. I was thinking it's definitely not YA. I forgot there was something younger than MG. Hmm.

Yeah there's chapter books which are LG. For the early readers.
Then UG slightly higher then MG.

So I read a lot of my middle grade books from Everand and every year, until we get the official spreadsheet, I always feel like a kid in a candy store (aka saving all the books that look intriguing but also meet the criteria). I honestly can't decide if I love or dread the suspense...LOL!

How do we want to do our name? Do we want to do random spinner or put it to a vote?

random spinner could be fun.

Name suggestions so far:

Roz (The Wild Robot)
Ali Cross (Ali Cross series)
Beezus Quimby (Beezus and Ramona)
Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)
Trixie Belden
George Fayne (Nancy Drew)
Wilbur (Charlotte's web)
Winn-Dixie (Because of Winn-Dixie)
Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden)
Sara Crewe (A Little Princess)
Alice Liddle (Alice in Wonderland)
Hugo Cabret (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)
Septimus Heap (Septimus Heap)
Sophie Foster (Keeper of the Lost Cities)
Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl)
Rusty/Firestar (Warriors)
Noah Nowicki (The Secret Zoo)
Lenora (Library of Ever)
Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter)

How about everyone pick your top three to narrow it down?

I like the random spinner idea. If you are trying to narrow down options for the spinner, my top 3 are:
Sophie Foster (Keeper of the Lost Cities)
Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter)
Trixie Belden (old school)

I like that idea!

My top 3:

Ali Cross (Ali Cross series)
Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)
Neville Longbottom

My top three:
Septimus Heap (Septimus Heap)
Sophie Foster (Keeper of the Lost Cities)
Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl)

My top three:

Hugo Cabret (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)
Sophie Foster (Keeper of the Lost Cities)
Noah Nowicki (The Secret Zoo)

Artemis Fowl
Sophie Foster
Roz

Wilbur doesn't count Charlotte's web is a picture books names have to be from a middle grade book

Beezus also wouldn't count as that series is basic chapter book LG

or UG on the arc site

AurorainBookland wrote: "Wilbur doesn't count Charlotte's web is a picture books names have to be from a middle grade book"

Okay, thank you for the clarification Rory. I will just edit my post with another pick for my top three.

I think Lenora might be out as well because I couldn't find anything on her last name...and I'm guessing she probably has one (given she isn't an animal, etc)?

Your welcome :)

Anissa wrote: "I think Lenora might be out as well because I couldn't find anything on her last name...and I'm guessing she probably has one (given she isn't an animal, etc)?"

Some characters' last names aren't mentioned, so it's fine if we don't know it.

My three:

Neville Longbottom
Septimus Heap
Mary Lennox

I’ll have my top 2 as Hugo and Neville bc i adore both

I hope to finally settle this debate lol Beezus and Ramona is listed as MG on the arbookfinder site. But I can absolutely live without it. I am sure we all can lol Same goes for Wilbur from Charlotte's Web (In fact, I believe Charlotte was used as a group name in the past)

D.L. maybe the site was having issues when I checked. Thanks.

oh okay, no big deal. We're all just helping each other so we can hopefully win lol

So the current two leading is:
Sophie Foster (Keeper of the Lost Citites)
OR
Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter)
Both have 4 votes total

both names in random picker?

So I did that…and it landed on Sophie Foster

Also for the category, do you want me just use a random spinner wheel and take the number that just pops up?

Sounds good to me for the category. 🙂

agreed just use a spinner for Category.