Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Yes, I know I'm a bit early, but with vacations and all, better early than late, I reckon.

To be clear, you need to nominate books during August (before August 15th), so that I can set up the voting thread and we finish that in time to start reading in September.

Please nominate books that are easy to find at reasonable prices or free, e.g. in libraries. This means limiting them to traditionally published books that have been out long enough to be in most libraries.

The THEME THIS MONTH is... BOARDING SCHOOLS

That's a suggestion that came up last year and I didn't use... but it seems appropriate for 'back to school' month.

You can nominate up to THREE, but if we get a load of nominations I will cut it down to only two per person (or less if we're swamped!)

As many boarding school stories start at the first year of the protagonist, let's make it your favourite in the series, rather than having to start with the first year.

I'll nominate one boarding school book that I have read, The Iron Trial (Magesterium, #1) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, which is a recent favorite series for me. And one boarding school book that I'd love to read, Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens. These mysteries look like they're right up my alley.

Beswitched

Daddy-Long-Legs

The Twins at St. Clare's

Sorry, I did have to remove Helen’s book, even though it’s on my list, too. Maybe I’ll throw in an extra indie author pick in this year, otherwise it’ll have to wait to be nominated in February or March.

No problem, Jemima!

All of these are at the library except the Twins at St. Clare's. That one is on Amazon from $4 for the Kindle down to a couple of bucks for a used paperback or up to megabucks for a 1st edition hardback :)

I'd love to nominate the Sue Barton books, which I dearly loved as a kid, but they aren't in most libraries anymore, and are expensive if you can find them at all.

Rebecca wrote: "All of these are at the library except the Twins at St. Clare's. That one is on Amazon from $4 for the Kindle down to a couple of bucks for a used paperback or up to megabucks for a 1st edition har..."

Yes, so many classic school and college stories collectible and ridiculously expensive.

C.J. wrote: "I'll nominate one boarding school book that I have read, The Iron Trial (Magesterium, #1) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, which is a recent favorite series for me. And one board..."

Murder Most Unladylike was published in the US as Murder Is Bad Manners. Good choice. I am ready to read it again.

I loved Jolly Foul Play, which is the fourth in the Murder most Unladylike series. I read it first and would have nominated it if you hadn't. I'll leave the nomination on the first one.

Note that my library refuses to shelve it in Children's because of the word 'murder'. Despite my objections to them, they persist. OTOH they have now taken off the totally unsuitable 'Pythonesque Shakespeare' (title forgotten) which was full of very rude words and bawdy sex :)

That's five books so far.

I think I'll add The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson. I got hold of it in the last five years, so I hope it's accessible where you are.

Dragonfly Pool is in my library :)

I like the Wells and Wong series. I've only read the 1st 2, so I might re-read if it's chosen, or I might go on to #3.

Did we ever read Princess Academy? I think I remember it being nominated. I read it several years ago and was pleasantly surprised to find it very good; not at all pink and glittery.

Okay, stopped being lazy. We have not read Princess Academy, so that's good.

I was surprised that I didn't find any Harry Potter on the read shelf. Maybe everyone has already read it, but it's a favorite, so I nominate Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Paula wrote: "I was surprised that I didn't find any Harry Potter on the read shelf. Maybe everyone has already read it, but it's a favorite, so I nominate Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

I was toying with nominating the Harry Potter series but then decided to nominate books not as universally known.

Yeah, I think we figure that everyone has read Harry Potter. But it might be interesting to have a formal discussion of the book.

That's eight nominations.

I also enjoyed The Iron Trials. It had a Harry Potter feel to it in a totally different setting.

The Iron Trial

It's in my library, print and digital.

I nominate The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

I nominate Mandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard. I am not sure about availability.

That's 10. The Iron Trial was the first one nominated!

The School for Good and Evil is in the library.

Mandie might be harder to get, though Amazon lists used paperbacks for cheap.

I have The Mysterious Benedict Society on my to-read list. The children chosen have to infiltrate a school for the gifted.

We read The Mysterious Benedict Society in January 2016. I think we'll have to wait a while before we can stick it in the poll again.

But I too have it on my to-read list, Sarakat, since I didn't have time to read it then!

Jemima wrote: "We read The Mysterious Benedict Society in January 2016. I think we'll have to wait a while before we can stick it in the poll again.

But I too have it on my to-read list, Sarakat, since I didn't ..."

Ah, I joined after that and didn't think to check the list. Thanks for letting me know!

Last call before we close nominations and start voting. Mind you, ten is probably enough!

Alright, this is a fourth nomination for me and totally fun, Gordon Korman's first novel, and one he actually wrote as a teenager for a school project (first of a series).

This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall!

Nominations closed.

The poll is now up and running. It closes at midnight on August 23rd, so you should be able to get the results on 24th and order your books with a week to spare, bearing in mind you might have a holiday weekend around then.

If it looks like we're heading for a large tie, I'll halt it early and do a run off. If there are just two (or three) in a tie, I'll do my casting vote.

The poll is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

And the winner, with 20% of the vote (which was well spread over the ten nominations), is...

The School for Good and Evil

It looks intriguing to me! I'll put the comment thread up at the beginning of the month.