Category: middle grade

holiday, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Read: The Doll That Waved Goodbye and Other Scary Stories

Seth Harris

Michael Dahl’s Really Scary Stories: The Doll That Waved Goodbye and Other Scary Stories (Stone Arch Books)
Written by Michael Dahl
Illustrated by Xavier Bonnet

For ages: 7-10
Children love horror. That’s just a fact. But, do children often get exposed to age-inappropriate horror? Sadly, yes. But that doesn’t mean we should allow them to have access to scary stories. This recent article from National Geographic discusses how the genre is really good for kids. In my teaching experience, I have included horror and scary stories in some of my read-alouds based on what my students wanted. I would also introduce the scary book, explain what it was, and state that if one person didn’t feel comfortable with me reading it, we would put it away and read another equally fun book. Sometimes I had students that didn’t want to hear it, so I set the book aside. However, almost every time, those same students would go to the scary book during their independent reading time and ultimately enjoyed the text. 

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afro-caribbean, folktales, middle grade, scary

Middle Grade Must-Read: The Jumbies

Seth Harris

The Jumbies (Algonquin Young Readers)
Written by Tracey Baptiste

If you are like me, you might have never heard of a jumbie before. A jumbie is a mythological spirit or demon in the folklore of Caribbean countries like Trinidad & Tobago or Jamaica. They are the centerpiece of the first book in a middle-grade fantasy series that brings a unique mythos to young readers. Corrine Le Mer is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her widower father. She sells oranges in the market to make extra money and seems to have an almost supernatural green thumb. One day, a couple of troublemaking boys tie her late mother’s necklace to a wild animal. Corrine chases after it to retrieve the heirloom. A jumbie takes notice of her and follows the girl out of the jungle. Eventually, we learn the jumbie is directly related to Corrine, and the little girl’s mother never revealed something about herself while she lived.

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history, lgbtq+, middle grade, social-emotional

Middle Grade Must-Read: Alice Austen Lived Here

Seth Harris

Alice Austen Lived Here (Scholastic Press)
Written by Alex Gino

There is an ugly event happening within portions of America at the moment, a rising tide of transphobia & gender ignorance prodded on by greedy media interested in driving up traffic and morally rotten politicians who think throwing hateful red meat to their voting base guarantees them electoral success. All of this spits in the face of reality which is that LGBTQ+ people have existed and lived in our societies since the earliest days humans walked the Earth. Transgender people are not a “new fad”; they have been ever-present; in the United States, reactionary forces have been very efficient at driving these people into even further marginalization. That does not extinguish the truth, though. There is hope that we can end this hate, not by listening to the transphobes but by holding up and supporting transgender youth.

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humor, middle grade, mystery

Middle Grade Must-Reads – The Mysterious Howling

Seth Harris

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I – The Mysterious Howling (Balzer + Bray)
Written by Maryrose Wood
Illustrated by Jon Klassen

So…this is a knock-off of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The author doesn’t try to hide it by including witty asides and long-winded introductions to chapters. Every page is filled with baroque language that evokes some laughs. It’s not a bad book, but because it is so obviously attempting to mimic an outstanding middle-grade series, you cannot help but compare the two. That means the flaws of this book stand out more. The inclusion of illustrations by Jon Klassen drew my attention to the text in the first place. His style evokes the macabre work of Edward Gorey in this context, and I think that helps give the story personality. 

Miss Penelope Lumley is a recent Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females graduate. Her first job will be the governess at Ashton Place, an estate hidden in the forest. When she arrives, Penelope cannot find a trace of any children in the house. Instead, there is a constant howling coming from the barn outside. Penelope investigates and finds three feral children being kept there. The staff and the owners explain that these children appeared one day and could not speak. They want Penelope to train the children and make them presentable by the holiday ball a month away. Penelope begins to uncover a mystery in Ashton Place that may help her discover where these children came from.

If your student is very into Gothic flowery stories, you will not be able to go wrong with this one. I personally love A Series of Unfortunate Events and wasn’t overly excited about this one. I can’t put my finger on it, but the language doesn’t flow as smoothly from Wood’s pen as it seems from Lemony Snicket’s. It’s not a bad book, but it pales in comparison to the original.

fantasy, mexican, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Read – Paola Santiago and the River of Tears

Seth Harris

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Rick Riordan Presents)
Written by Tehlor Mejia

Some saw Rick Riordan as piggybacking off of the popularity of Harry Potter when he began publishing his Percy Jackson. And while there are some surface-level similarities, it’s ultimately a celebration of Riordan’s love of Greek mythology. The same sentiment is present in Tehlor Mejia’s first entry in her Paola Santiago series, which Riordan presents. This is a celebration of Mexican folklore and culture delivered in an exciting manner that will draw in children whether they have a personal connection to the figures presented or not. The key to the book’s success are richly-drawn characters and a pace that keeps the reader hooked.

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black lives, middle grade, social-emotional

Middle Grade Must-Reads: Caprice

Seth Harris

Caprice (Scholastic, Inc.)
Written by Coe Booth

When you read her first words, Caprice comes alive on the page. She’s a twelve-year-old girl on the cusp of significant changes in her life. Caprice’s parents pick her up after attending a summer program at the private all-girls school, Ainsley. She is offered a free ride by the school’s headmaster. There’s time to think it over, but not much as she returns to her neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. Caprice spends time with her best friend Nicole, contemplating if she feels something more for her longtime friend Jarrett and deciding if she should go to Ainsley and leave all this behind. But something else weighs on Caprice, an experience from her early years has haunted the girl, and she’s kept it secret from everyone who loves her.

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asian-american, fantasy, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Reads – Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend

Seth Harris

Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend (Random House Books for Young Readers)
Written by Katie Zhao

Middle school can be a scary transition in life. New building with new teachers, some familiar faces among the student body, but always the chance it’s other kids you’d rather not be in class with. Winnie Zeng has the expected anxieties around this new chapter in her life. Still, it’s about to get more complicated than she could imagine. When a class bake sale is announced one morning, Winnie begins racking her brain on what to bake and settles on her late grandmother’s mooncakes. After making them, she suddenly unleashes grandma’s spirit from her pet bunny. The world is full of ghosts, some friendly and others malevolent. Winnie comes from a long line of people who fight back against the evil ones. Unfortunately, something has entered our realm and is causing havoc, so it’s up to Winnie, her grandmother, and some unexpected allies to take it on.

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coming of age, fairy tales, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Read: The Counterclockwise Heart

Seth Harris

The Counterclockwise Heart (Algonquin Young Readers)
Written by Brian Farrey

While I am not the biggest fan of fantasy literature, I always enjoy a thought-provoking book, especially one where children are encouraged to think outside the boundaries they’ve had set around them. Most popular kids’ lit I see seems to pander, and it makes sense that children would be pulled toward familiar brands and names. However, I think this book is well worth your effort to present as a read-aloud or for those voracious readers who can’t get enough. 

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climate collapse, middle grade, science, weather

Middle Grade Must-Reads – The Story of More

Seth Harris

The Story of More (Adapted for Young Adults) (Delacorte Press)
By Hope Jahren

If you are an older Millennial like myself, you must come to terms with the idea that this planet is not ours. A solid argument can be made that the older generations clung to their positions of power for too long, resulting in a complete imbalance. Octogenarians run the American government, and activism is quickly becoming the realm of the young people. As a teacher, you must realize your crucial role in this dynamic. Despite not having the immediate power to upend the broken society crushing us, our students, their parents, etc., you must provide the youth with knowledge. You are arming them to face the devastation of climate collapse on this world in the hopes that, sometime after you are long gone, they create that better world of which we dream.

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history, middle grade

Middle Grade Must-Read: Catch You Later, Traitor

Seth Harris

Catch You Later, Traitor (Algonquin Young Readers)
Written by Avi

The Second Red Scare (1947-1957) is a period of American history not often addressed with our younger students. As the political climate in the United States becomes increasingly reactionary (one look at today’s headlines shows the horror), we must inform our students about times in America’s past when people’s political beliefs were used to harm them. The tradition in the United States in times of political strife is for most of the brutality to be visited upon Leftists’ heads. This was no more apparent than during the McCarthy era when people lost jobs and were even sent to prison simply for holding a political belief supportive of Communism. 

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