C.J. Milbrandt's Blog, page 32

The Stonekeeper’s Curse is volume 2 in the Amulet series of graphic novels. Walking houses. Elf kings. Clever foxes. Talking trees. And the dangers of trying to do everything on your own. Exciting installment! In the graphic novel Ghosts, Cat’s family moves from sunny Southern California to a foggy little town up the coast, where everyone seems to really love the traditions surrounding Mexico’s Day of the Dead. But all this talk of ghosts make Cat uncomfortable. Especially since her little s...

Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ

Josh and Jordan, twin sons of a professional basketball player, are a couple of phenoms on the court. But as the twelve-year-olds get older, their synergy turns to friction. In The Crossover, the story unfolds in verse, with a patter and pounding and slide that fits young Josh’s voice.In the graphic novel Smile, Raina shares some of her middle school experiences, especially as they related to having (surviving) braces. Dental trauma, fitting in, and finding reasons to smile. In Upside Down i...

All in a Row. I haven’t updated my BINGO board for August here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. This is an admittedly busy month for me, so I chose my titles with more strategy than usual. Lined them right up:

Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil L. Frankweiler is a classic. Sure that she’s unappreciated at home, Claudia makes a carefully detailed plan to run away from home, with her younger brother Jamie for company. They take the train to New York City and “move in” to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Marco Impossible, Stephen and Marco are best friends and fellow detectives, solving (admittedly silly) cases which they write up in their casebook. As middle school draws to an end, Marco plots ...

Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ

Welcome to Berrybrook Middle School! Peppi, who loves to draw, regrets her first day of school, when she hastily distances herself from Jaime, a nerd from the science club. She was mean. He must hate her. Could anything be more Awkward? After the art club (his only friends at school) overlook Jensen, he begins spending more time with the newspaper club. But doing odd jobs for them isn’t really friendship. In Brave, Jensen’s beginning to realize that most of the stuff he puts up with on a dai...

Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ

In New Kid, Jordan is the new kid at a private school full of rich kids and lacking in diversity. His insights and asides are often the subject of the comics he creates. A graphic novel that blends humor and honesty. In Flush, Noah’s dad is in prison for sinking the Coral Queen, a pleasure ship which has (allegedly) been emptying its holding tanks straight into the ocean. But no one can prove it. So Noah and his sister decide to get the proof they need. And The Empty Grave follows close on t...