Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Leave your comments about our BOTM for letter J here!

The orphan who lives with terrible, abusive guardians is a too-common trope in children's books, and the author sure got James's parents out of the way quickly by having them eaten by rhinos. I dislike the ugly=evil thing that is too common in children's literature. The impromptu science lesson in the middle to teach us about how bugs help us was weird and the casual violence described by the spider was just awful. The casual violence toward James was awful, too. This book would be a fun fantastical tale to read to a youngster, but I didn't enjoy it myself as much as most of the middle grade fiction I read.