Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

I always have trouble coming up with themes for our monthly BOTM nominations, so if you have an idea, just pop it in a comment below.

One I am planning to use is: Books beginning with Z (or Q or X) for our annual A to Z reading challenge!

Also, noticing that one of our librarian readers asked an author a question about one of his much-requested books Dingo, made me wonder about books you know are popular in your area, but you don't think are well-known. They would have to be widely available, though.

What do you think?

I like the idea of the regional reads, if we can find enough candidates that are readily available.

My mind is a blank right now, no doubt due to sugar withdrawal, since we've finally put an end to the holiday dessert-fest.

We could certainly test out the regional reads, Jemima. I often think there are regional differences, so this is a good way to find out more.

On the note of themes, I usually get stumped when a reader asks our group to recommend a particular type of book. For example, books about Germany but not on WW2, or books about a cartoonist. There was a time when I was looking for books about working parents, books about grief, books about separation.

Another suggestion is about book blurbs: stories that are better than their blurbs, or vice versa?

Boarding school stories. That can range from the classics to Princess Academy or Harry Potter-type things.

Rebecca wrote: "Boarding school stories. That can range from the classics to Princess Academy or Harry Potter-type things."

That would be good. Hopefully some of the nominees are the first book in the series.

Okay, after what I think was a success with Q, some of the themes I'm planning to use are as follows:

Letter X
Letter Z
Boarding School stories
Regional reads (maybe as a Theme month, rather than a book month)
First books in series
Indie month

More ideas always welcome!

I like first books in a series. It's a good way to find new book series.

Since I'm new I don't know what you've done in the past, but I'd like to suggest science fiction and / or historical novels. When my kids were young, I had trouble finding books my boys liked. Science fiction and historical novels were two genres that got their attention.

Cora wrote: "I like first books in a series. It's a good way to find new book series.

Since I'm new I don't know what you've done in the past, but I'd like to suggest science fiction and / or historical novels..."

Thanks, Cora. I think we do both from time to time, but that's no reason not to include them each year :) There is a list of all the books we've read in this section, which might give you an idea of the themes chosen before, but not always!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jemima wrote: "Cora wrote: "I like first books in a series. It's a good way to find new book series.

Since I'm new I don't know what you've done in the past, but I'd like to suggest science fiction and / or hist..."

Thanks for the link.

How are you planning to tackle the regions, Jemima? Are you going to pick specific countries or continents?

Carolien wrote: "How are you planning to tackle the regions, Jemima? Are you going to pick specific countries or continents?"

Ah-ha! Well, I've been thinking about this one, and thought I might suggest it for March (and therefore announce it in February so people can get organised).

Thanks to a great blog post about bookclub questions, I'm planning to set some standard questions that everyone should answer when talking about the book they choose.

So for the theme Regional Books, you choose a book you think or know works in your region, but you don't think travels well.

When you talk about it in March, apart from the normal review-type of thing, I'll ask you to cover things like: what made it special to your region; do you think it was a good representation of your region; why do you think other people outside your region might not take to it, and what do you think might make the story overcome regional barriers.... or something along those lines!

What do you think?

And just to clarify - this is for a month where we each read something along the same theme, rather than nominate books to a theme and most of us read the winner. And yes, Theme Month is new, suggested last year in ideas for improving the participation in BOTM, and untried...

We've been talking about horsey books on the thread about Listopia books. I'm planning that for later in the year.

So do we have a theme for the March regional books? And can we all post our local books at the beginning of the month, so if people want they can see what others are reading?

I admit I'm having trouble thinking of books for this, but I'll keep my eyes out for things that might not make sense elsewhere.

It's here already... https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...