Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Just add your nomination for the book you'd like to read here. We don't trawl other threads looking for things people would like to add, except.... these two were put forward for November which is why I've opened the thread early. Maybe we should do that every time so there's plenty of time for people to add their pick.

All nominations go into the voting thread.

Archie Wilson & The Nuckelavee By Mark A. Cooper
The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

There is no theme this month. Nominations close around 25th October.

Eight Notes to a Nobody by Cynthia Toney. Insightful, funny and cuts deep

This is the NOMINATIONS thread. Once a book is nominated, it will be included. You don't have to support it, or renominate it :)

Group members will get an email when the voting thread goes up - with the link - usually around five-seven days before the month starts.

Please use the add book/author link so I can quickly investigate the book you're nominating (see how our host did in the first thread). I'm not likely to vote for a book I've never heard of, or to search out info. for it. Make it easy for me to do so, and I might. Thanks!

To provide links for the books mentioned so far (that aren't already linked):
The Recruit
All Fall Down
8 Notes to a Nobody

I will note that all three of these may fall closer to YA than Middle Grade, based on a quick look at their descriptions (I haven't read any, so can't say for sure; I do know that other Ally Carter books are filed in YA at my library). That's not necessarily a deal-breaker (we have definitely read some other YA), but this is a group about middle grade books ;)

Thank you, Rebecca.

Nice observation Rebecca! One question for the group or Jemima though, as I understand it, kids read up often two grades. Therefore aren’t 7th and 8th grade protagonists normally considered middle grade? Just asking

Glenn wrote: "Nice observation Rebecca! One question for the group or Jemima though, as I understand it, kids read up often two grades. Therefore aren’t 7th and 8th grade protagonists normally considered middle ..."

Glenn, we frequently have lengthy discussions on this topic! Yes, kids do tend to read up. But generally there is some sense of a point when a book is more about teen concerns at a more serious level (of romance or real threats in adventures, etc.--but that's all a matter of how it's written...) when it tips over to YA. I often just go by where the librarians shelve it, but I know they are using a lot of subjective criteria, too. Basically, they are trying to keep anything more than mild smooches out of the kids' room, and the body count needs to stay low (except, of course, in some historical fiction, where the body counts are amazing because they are war stories...).

Like I say, we can debate that question all night and all the next day :)

Thank you that was very helpful

Here's the thread where we've discussed what defines Middle Grade:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We have another about romance in middle grade lit, too. I think it was distilled down to about what I said above :)

I notice that not all the books are pre 2012. Are we lifting the restriction on year of publication this time round?

Forgot to check that. How about I check some library catalogs and see if they are readily available? If so, we can certainly go ahead. Probably time to shift that date up a year or two in any case...

Okay, we have a problem.
Archie Wilson: brand new, and not in any libraries I checked, including King County (Washington; one of the largest library systems in the country)

Rick Riordan: this is his newest book. It's in all the libraries, but in my library system, the wait list is at least a month long.

The Recruit: seems to be fine--it's from 2005, and is available without significant waits in the libraries I checked.

All Fall Down: This is from 2015, but seems to be readily available in the libraries.

8 Notes to a Nobody is not available in any of the libraries I checked. It is also brand new.

I'm sorry to say that, in keeping with our policy of not selecting books that would force people to spend money in order to participate, this would disqualify 3 of our 5 nominees.

One option would be to select other books by the same authors. Although I found nothing by Cynthia Toney (8 Notes) in any of the libraries, there are other books by Mark A Cooper (the Jason Steed series) and of course by Rick Riordan which are more readily available.

Meanwhile, keep the nominations coming.

The Jason Steed novels are fun, too. So I would be happy to nominate Fledgling Fledgling, which is the first in the series. I am very sure my Year 7 boys would enjoy this. (I loved the Scottishness of Archie, having been brought up on bagpipes, highland dancing and ceilidh (in New Zealand) but the Englishness of Jason Steed might be fun for US readers)!

Sword of Summer! I've missed Rick Riordon since he finished Hoo, even though it wasn't that long ago, lol. I'm incredibly excited to read his latest story!

The main characters are as diverse in a novel as you can get and that's one of my favorite things about Riordon. The main character is homeless, the main girl is Muslim (I'm so happy about that since I'm Muslim too!!) and, omg, another main character is deaf! Can't wait! :)

Thank you very much for making sure these are books that are avl. at libraries.

My nomination is Breaking Stalin's Nose (unless the group has read it before, in which case how about Inside Out & Back Again).

I hope we try to choose books that have something discuss-able about them, rather than straight up adventures.

Is there a master list of all the prior books of the month? I don't want to suggest something already read.

I nominate Capture the Flag by Kate Messner.

It's nice to see the young members getting involved and suggesting BOTM

Archie wrote: "Megan wrote: "The Jason Steed novels are fun, too. So I would be happy to nominate Fledgling Fledgling, which is the first in the series. I am very sure my Year 7 boys would enjoy th..."

Thanks Archie, I should have noticed. I'll take a look at the bookshelf again.

Is Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke acceptable as a nomination?

Susan wrote: "Is Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke acceptable as a nomination?"

I'm sure it is!

When my kids were in 5th grade their teacher read a book her mom had sent her from Canada and it one of their favorite ever but I've never been able to find it, except on Amazon Canada so maybe not the best pick, unless someone knows more than I do, but I want to read Here She is, MS. Teeny Wonderful

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Susan wrote: "Is Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke acceptable as a nomination?"

Absolutely! So far all the suggestions since my last post are good, except Dixie's (definitely too hard to find).

I also want to clarify: of course Rick Riordan's book is in all the libraries. What is also true is that every kid in the county wants to read it, so there is a waiting list. In my county, that wait could be a month or more. That's the only reason I think it might not be a great choice this month.

It is true that many of us read ebooks. Many of us also do that through the libraries, and library ebooks are also subject to waiting.

It has been our intention with these group reads that we not put our members in a position of having to buy a book to participate, as not everyone has the budget for that. Yes, this does limit our selection, and sometimes lets out great books. But unless or until the membership decides that we should change that, we will continue to limit books to those that are readily available at little or no expense.

By the way, when did we read Fledgling? I don't remember it, and can't find it in the archives. None of which means we didn't read it, but maybe if it was long enough ago we could put it back on the list.

Hi. I'm new and I can't find a list of books that have been chosen already for BOTM but I'd like to nominate Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians and Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.

An old book, that I loved more than almost any book I ever read, might still be in libraries. I looked it up here and there are a lot of favorable reviews. No probably not available enough, but if you get a chance, from 1968, read The Ghost of Dibble Hollow

I thought of another one - Tuck Everlasting. It's old, but the story is timeless (literally!) and it's a great read-aloud.

The Ghost of Dibble Hollow is not in my library system, unfortunately. You're right that books that old need awards or some other reason for libraries to keep them on the shelf. Being popular at the time is not enough reason, according to the staff here, to replace a worn-out copy, even. :(

Cheryl's right about Dibble Hollow, sadly. But the others are good--Alcatraz, Flora, and Tuck are all in libraries.

And yes, librarians have to be pretty hard-hearted about books that were once popular but haven't circulated in years. Space is limited! They joke in SF about having to keep 10% of the cars in motion all the time because there aren't enough parking spots, but I think at my library if all the books came back at once we'd not have room to shelve half of them. I regularly eye the back wall and wonder if anyone would notice if we expanded 10 or 12 feet out that way...

The best hope for old favorites that have fallen out of favor and out of print is the Gutenberg Project.

Well, I found a copy of Dibble Hollow for about $9, including shipping, and so I ordered it (and a bunch of other old books I'd been accumulating on a wishlist while I was at it, to save on shipping).

Oh! I hope you enjoy it. I've read and reread it over the years, Cheryl.

I get that. I have over the years bought a number of my childhood favorites, long since fallen out of print but still good for me :)

This will be the first time I read Dibble Hollow, but I certainly have revisited childhood favorites, too. It's interesting to see which still appeal to me, and which I'm not sure why I liked... ;)

I'd love to have a month every year with the theme 'childhood favorites' or 'nostalgia.' Or even, books we missed when we were young.

Would the group consider a book by an indie author? I've read a few MG stories by indies that I think are 5 stars.

They have before, I know, because the first time I heard if this group was when one of my novels was being voted on. It didn't win but I stayed around for the one that did and never left. I think they just have to be library accessible

Dixie wrote: "They have before, I know, because the first time I heard if this group was when one of my novels was being voted on. It didn't win but I stayed around for the one that did and never left. I think t..."

Yes--the key is that we are trying to make it so that people don't have to buy books to participate, which means library-accessible (or in the public domain and available through Gutenberg Project or similar). I'll be honest: we are also trying to avoid having our selection threads filled with authors nominating their own works.

Rebecca wrote: "Dixie wrote: "They have before, I know, because the first time I heard if this group was when one of my novels was being voted on. It didn't win but I stayed around for the one that did and never l..."

Rebecca- one of the authors I found was giving away the first in his 4-book series for free on Amazon. That's actually how I found his book. Therefore I will nominate "Molly of Mars and the Alien Syndicate".
Found here: http://www.amazon.com/Molly-Alien-Syn...

Okay. I guess if it's free, it's hard to argue!

Free kindle works if we all have kindle. I do.

True. Not everyone has Kindle. I did finally break down and get one, but it's not universal. We Mods will have to have a conclave to decide if that's good enough.

Just a reminder that you should only promote your own book in the Authors Corner (and in Read4Review).

Nominating someone else's free ebook is okay, within reason....

I'm closing this thread as I'm just about to put the poll together and with all the nominations it could take me a while :)