Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Our first Indie Pick MG read is Fireflies by Bree Wolf.

This ebook is free on both Smashwords and Amazon, so you should be able to get it easily through the link on the Goodreads page, where you can also read the blurb. All non-kindle editions are on Smashwords.

In case you want to link to the Goodreads page, using the add book/author link - it's on page 26 when I did it just now. Food for thought for authors when deciding their titles, perhaps!

This thread is for your comments as usual, there is another one with an interview with Bree Wolf, where she may also discuss the book and anything else you'd like to discuss with her. She's not committed to commenting, but she's aware of the two different threads.

I hope you enjoy the book - I like the sound of it. Happy reading!

As I nominated this, and have already read it, and posted my review with the nomination, I'm going to be curious to see what other people think. I took a screen shot of all the suggestions to use as a summer reading list though. It was interesting to see all the variety offered.

Thanks for nominating it, Dixie!

I am so excited to read this! I started reading it and I cannot put it down! Almost finished and excited to discuss it with people!

This book was such a good read! I really was able to relate to Gabriel in the fact of his parents always arguing and having to find something to take him out of his misery. He chose video games.

Then he is suddenly swept away from his world of video games and arguing parents and put on the fast track to his grandparent's house. His grandparents don't have a computer so Gabriel has to create his own adventure... by going out and making friends. The introvert kid who hides behind his hair, finally takes a step to create his own adventure; simply by saying hello to a kid neighbor. Then he is whisked away on the adventure of a lifetime making new friends, seeing new places, and doing things he never dreamed of. His friends accept him and listen to him, while his grandparents listen to him and trust him. He is able to blossom into a true kid that has friendship, heartbreak, and pure happiness.

I would recommend this book to anyone. I thought it was well written and fast paced. I also liked the riddles within the story and the character traits of each of those zany kids. This is a great book!

I've downloaded it - now I just have to make time to read it!

Got my copy. A couple or five books to clear out of the way first, then I'll get to it :D

Downloaded my copy...should be reading in over the weekend :)

Finished! That was a story that lured me into just sitting and reading. I liked the characters, and thought them well developed, and there was just the right amount of mystery.

Rebecca wrote: "Finished! That was a story that lured me into just sitting and reading. I liked the characters, and thought them well developed, and there was just the right amount of mystery."

Rebecca, were you just sucked into the story and didn't want to put the book down? I also thought that she developed the characters really well and there was the suspense of reading the next chapter!

Samantha, I was. Just at first I wasn't sure, but once he started interacting with other kids, and they started solving the problems, I really wanted to know how it all came out. There were no real surprises, but I still had to read it :)

The only problem I had with what was otherwise a beautiful book was with the dialog. It is just a bit stilted at times; too formal and not quite natural. Part of that is the author's tendency not to use contractions, and part is probably me being cranky because I'm editing for dialog and voice in my own work right now :D

I finished the book yesterday and have been thinking about the book before posting. Mainly because I keep going backwards and forwards in my reaction.
I really like some of the ideas here but I'm not so keen on the variability of tone. At times the book feels adult both in style and language but then switches and sits more comfortably as an MG novel. Sometimes that contrast works - the folksy grandparents set against the hard edged city life - but even then it feels more like a stock adult drama.

The kids definitely did not sound like regular kids to me. The characters were engaging, but they used vocab. and idioms they wouldn't know, over-shared, were too thoughtful and not awkward or impulsive enough, and just didn't seem to actually be real kids.

The riddles were pretty easy, even though the details could only be known by observant ppl who actually lived there. So the quest was fun. The other plot was overly melodramatic, imo.

I have no interest in reading the second book, esp. because the author has no schedule for releasing the last and I hate being left hanging. (Though this one can stand alone.)

It really needed a professional editor - not for typos but for tone, consistency, plausibility, etc. Most indie books that I've read that need help need exactly that, beta readers who are not friends who have a critic's judgement and an editor's eye & ear.

I'm not going to review it here, but over on Leafmarks where I keep my full catalog I'm giving it two stars.

I wish I could say I enjoyed the book. The themes were positive and encouraging which is one facet that I think is lacking in a lot of kids books. However, I found the lack of contractions in dialogue distracting, most of the dialogue unrealistic, the riddles too easy for it to be plausible that no one ever solved it, etc. Overall, there were too many cons to outweigh the one pro of a story about a kid learning to develop relationships and stand up for himself.

I liked reading how Gabriel's confidence grew, and was pleased that he ended up in a much healthier environment than where he started. I found the underlying plot of growth and new friendships to be a nice old fashioned type of book.
I must say that Hannah's story definitely struck an emotional chord with me, given my own young daughter's health battle with cancer in recent years. Thankfully we've had a better outcome than poor Hannah.
We all connect to books in different ways, and sometimes we don't connect at all. That's what makes reading so unpredictable. For the reasons I've mentioned, this one connected with me.

This connected with me, too, and I didn't notice much wrong with the dialogue (although there were a couple of places in the text I'd have edited for clarity). Maybe I was reading it in a different accent? I really enjoyed it, especially the joshing between the gang of kids. Hannah's assessment of them rang a little mature, but then, she was entitled to be.

What I noticed most with the dialogue was that contractions often weren't used when I felt they would be in actual speech. I started taking note at Chapter 11, after that point, there were about 10 times when someone said something like "There is nothing I can do" rather than "There's nothing I can do." It's a small thing, but it gave the whole narrative a really disjointed feel.

I wish I could have connected with the story. There's plenty of positive messages throughout the plot, but sadly it didn't pull at my heart strings like I wanted it to.

I think my reaction to the story was more like S.W.'s (without the personal connection), but like others, I was put off by the editing issues. And I could do a whole other story about the video game, which sadly got dropped.

Still, I gave it 4 stars in my review (still only on my blog; I'm so lazy about moving those things here!) because by the end I really did love the story.

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and have been sorting out my thoughts. Overall, it was a quick, enjoyable read. I liked the idea of a city kid finding himself in a rural town and learning to stand up for what he needed. I loved how it showed kids having fun without constant electronics. The protective parent in me had to remember that there was a time when kids could run free all day with minimal supervision. It made me wish life was that simple now.

Unfortunately, although I felt the story would be great for a third or fourth grader, I wouldn't let my young reader read it because of the language. I don't understand why authors feel the need to throw profanity in to their work. This happens with all forms from blogs to books to music. I firmly believe that if there's a cuss word in any form of media, it should be the only possible word that works there. In this book, there were many other options available that would've been more appropriate for the target market.

I don't remember being aware of the cussing, but in general I agree about it not belonging in kids' books (even though that's the way some kids that age talk). I have consistently avoiding listing the words my characters actually said when someone cusses. It's enough to know they did.

I've mentioned this before, but I love the way Tamora Pierce handles this in places, where she has a character "respond(ed) with a word learned from soldiers." Who needs more?