Middle grade fiction to look for!

I fell down into a well of grown up fiction that was just terrific but I'm finding my way back to middle grade fiction, because, well, because I can.  Here's some amazing books to look for!

The first one is called Chirp by Kate Messner.  I was lucky enough to get to meet her in November at the FAME conference in Orlando and my friend David was brave enough to try the Chirp Challenge she describes in the book.  I'd been looking forward to reading it since November and I finally got to! It was totally worth the wait.  One of the things that Kate does so well is give you characters that are interesting and likable immediately, but there's always something bigger that comes as you read.  In this case, Mia and her family have moved back to Vermont to be closer to her grandmother.  Her grandmother had a small stroke and is recuperating well, but runs her own business, which Mia's parents would like her to sell.  Mia's grandmother sells crickets for food and at the moment, she's having some very bad luck.  One of the local businessmen would like to buy the business and after a few strange things happening, Mia starts to think that maybe the strange things aren't really a coincidence.  Mia starts talking about what's happening to her new friends, kids that she's meeting at the two camps she's attending, one for innovators and one for an athletic kind of obstacle course called Warrior camp.  Mia is recuperating from an injury that she sustained during gymnastics, but it turns out that injury is lot more complicated than it first appears.  Chirp touches on so many different big ideas and so many places to have conversations with people about such a variety of topics, including non-traditional families, sexual harassment, bravery, food sustainability, women in positions of power, and agism, just to name a few.  This is a terrific book that would be perfect for kids in upper elementary, middle and possibly high school.

Here's Kate telling us about some of her awesome books.  

The second one is an epic and magical adventure called "Mulan Before the Sword" by Grace Lin.  I'm a big fan of Grace Lin's work-I loved "Where the Mountain meets the Moon" and "When the Sea Turned Silver" but I have to confess that I've never seen the Disney version of Mulan and I don't have a deep knowledge of Asian mythology so a lot of this was new to me.  "Mulan Before the Sword" is about Mulan who feels out of place in her rural village.  She's very strong and not very graceful.  Her mother shouts at her often and Mulan is often in trouble for breaking things.  Mulan's sister, Xiu, is more obedient  and more graceful and so of course, Mulan likes to tease her, particularly about spiders, of which Xiu is very afraid.  Xiu gets bitten by a spider one day and it turns out to be a magical poisonous spider.  There is a prophecy that one of the sisters will save the emperor.  No one thinks Mulan would be able to do it, least of all the dangerous and villainous, shape shifting White Fox.  The healer of the village comes to help and says there is only one thing that will save Xiu, a tea made from two plants.  Mulan decides she must go to get the plants to save her sister.  This is a really fun adventure story.  Readers will be reminded of other epic adventure stories like The Lord of the Rings or The Lightning Thief.  There are big themes of believing in yourself and how all stories are tied to together.    There are many folktales woven into the story, which are lovely, but also give the backstory of some of the characters and show how they are all connected.  I think the kids are going to like this one a lot, especially with it's connection to Mulan.