Taking place almost entirely inside the well where Kammie Summers is stuck, The Girl in the Well Is Me by Karen Rivers is a great middle grade novel about bullying, family, friends, and being true…
Posts tagged Middle Grade Readers
Lumberjanes
I wish I had the Lumberjanes when I was young. Following five girls – Jo, April, Molly, Mal, and Ripley – at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types, Lumberjanes is a…
Delilah Dirk
Hooray for Delilah Dirk! That’s what I want to scream after reading the graphic novel Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff. To start, you should know the story really isn’t anything new….
The Riverman
It’s really not a secret that I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan. I haven’t been the only person here to review Gaiman, but if you look at any of my Gaiman reviews, I swoon. So…
Robots & Otters & Losing Sleep
The thing I love about reading books by Kurtis Scaletta (who you should know is a friend of mine), is that they zap me back in time to when it seemed my only responsibility and…
Goblin Secrets
At the 2012 National Book Awards ceremony, when the Young People’s Literature winner was announced I thought, “Goblin Secrets, wha..?” I was shocked because Goblin Secrets is a fantasy novel up against books about drug…
Okay for Now
Doug Swieteck has an abusive father, passive mother, a jerk for an older brother, and he and his family just moved to stupid Marysville, New York, where the library is only open on Saturdays and…
Enchanted by Breadcrumbs
In Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs Minnesota is a magical place covered in glittery snow and shiny ice. You remember when winter used to be like that, don’t you? As I write this review in January there’s…
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Reynie is an orphan with a gift for puzzles. Kate always carries a bucket full of gadgets that help her MacGyver any hairy situation. Sticky is probably the smartest kid on the planet. Constance is…
Wonderstruck
If you don't like gushing, stop reading this right now and start reading Wonderstruck. If you don't mind gushing, read this first, then start reading Wonderstruck. Wonderstruck is the follow-up to Brian Selznick's Caldecott Medal-winning…
Terrorized by glowing fungi
What I like so much about reading Kurtis Scaletta’s novels for middle-grade readers is that he manages to make me feel both young and old at the same time, and not old in the woe-is-me…