Tag Archives: magic

12 Somewhat Scary Stories for Middle Grade Readers

30 Oct

middle grade halloween

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a scaredy-cat – I don’t like haunted houses, scary movies or even scary books! But I know tons of readers who love books that creep them out, so if that’s something you love – check out these creepy titles for middle grade readers!

  1. The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud*
  2. Doll Bones by Holly Black
  3. A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz*
  4. The Shadows by Jacqueline West*
  5. Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
  6. Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith
  7. Took by Mary Downing Hahn
  8. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste*
  9. Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty*
  10. Coraline by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean
  11. The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
  12. The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Jon Klassen

*First in a series!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/14/17

14 Aug

I kicked butt reading this week, I finished The Painting by Charis Cotter and also read The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg and Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed. I love getting to all the books I want to during the week! I finished Love, Hate & Other Filters in just one day, staying up wayyyyy toooo late to finish it. But it was so good, I couldn’t put it down. I’ll be posting a review soon.

This week’s reading goals consist of titles that I picked up at BEA, a never ending pile of ARCs that I need to get off my bookshelf if I ever have hope to add new books to my personal collection. I’m going to read Slider by Pete Hautman, The Incredible Magic of Being by Kathryn Erskine and if I get a chance The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris.


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Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 7/24/17

24 Jul

I’m not doing too bad with middle grade fiction lately!  Over the past week, I read Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder and Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk. I just started Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded by Sage Blackwood yesterday, so I’m working my way through that story and have Funny Girl: Funniest. Stories. Ever. edited by Betsy Bird, which I’m super excited to read. With family coming into town this weekend, I don’t expect I’ll have a lot of time to read, so anything else at this point is extra! I still have a bunch of ARCs from BookExpo America that I’d like to get to before the fall, so I might try and pick up another one of those, maybe bounce over to YA for a little while after the large amount of middle grade fiction I’ve been reading lately! Have a great week!


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Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 3/27/17

27 Mar


finally finished Carmer and Grit: The Wingsnatchers by Sarah Jean Horowitz – it took me quite a while to finish and it wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy reading it, for whatever reason it just took me some time. It’s the perfect book if you have a middle grade reader who likes fairies and magic but is also interested in adventure and science.

I also sat down over the weekend and read two other books that have been on my radar for awhile – Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate and Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan.  Home of the Brave is written in verse, making it a quick read, but a powerful one.  Kek travels from war-torn Sudan to America by himself to live with his aunt and cousin. He learns about snow, the grocery store and helps a number of friends along the way. It’s the story of growing up and holding on to hope. Amina’s Voice is a newly published novel from Salaam Reads, an imprint of Simon & Schuster that, “aims to introduce readers of all faiths and backgrounds to a wide variety of Muslim children and families, and offer Muslim kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected positively in published works.” And what I like most about this story, is that it truly is a diverse story, but at the same time it’s the story of a girl in middle school dealing with family, friends and school – things that absolutely everyone has to deal with. And although her family and her community come in contact with hatred that is all too familiar in this world, the basis of the story is a young girl finding her voice and that’s what makes this diverse read so perfect. Plus, I absolutely love how gorgeous the cover is!

This coming week I plan to read The Unexpected Life of Oliver Cromwell Pitts by Avi and maybe even jump into some YA books – The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge and The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis that I thought about reading last week, but didn’t get a chance to dive into.


imwayr

Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read. It’s the best way to discover what to read next

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Wish Had More Magic

7 Feb

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This Top Ten theme was sooooo hard for me to figure out!  It took me a long time to not only figure out what direction I wanted to go but also finding books that fit the theme. I spent a long time trying to decide if the books I was choosing would already have these elements in them or if they didn’t have anything to do with the theme but would be fun to read if they were different in some way. After thinking more about what I like in books, I decided to focus on magical realism, a sub-genre of fantasy/realistic fiction, so I chose books that either already include some magical realism aspects or others that I thought would be fun to see a little magic in them. Take these ideas with a grain of salt as I am not a writer and I already read these books and enjoyed them as is!

  1. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
  2. Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
  3. The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy
  4. Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson
  5. Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand
  6. A Nearer Moon by Melanie Crowder
  7. The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly
  8. Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin
  9. Rules for Stealing Stars by Corey Ann Haydu
  10. Moonpenny Island by Tricia Springstubb

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created byThe Broke and the Bookish

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