Middle grade speculative fiction 2024

 Middle grade speculative fiction is SO MUCH FUN.  The characters are always interesting, the problems are often rooted in social issues, which those middle graders are just beginning to notice, and the fantastical situations that authors put these characters in is just a blast.  Here are two new ones that I really enjoyed.

The first one is called the Princess Protection Program and it's written by Alex London.  He's written several other books and this is a link to his website.  I thought the title was intriguing and I wasn't wrong!  The story starts with a prince who is about to kiss Sleeping Beauty, except that Alex brings up some of the details that other authors might have missed.  Like, if this prince has been out scouring the countryside for the princess, is he really going to smell all that great?  When was the last time he bathed?  Or shaved?  Or even brushed his teeth?  And if you've been asleep for 100 years, are you really going to be delighted that a stinky stranger is kissing you and then expecting you to marry him?  Sheesh, no wonder Sleeping Beauty takes off!  And in this story, she ends up at a school that has a Princess Protection Program.  But Rosamund (aka Sleeping Beauty) has a LOT of questions, not all of which are related to the dizzying array of technology and cultural changes that have happened since she fell asleep.  It turns out that there are monsters called Onceuponatimes that are prowling around, waiting to gobble up princesses and send them back to their stories.  There are other princesses at the school and when one of them is gobbled up, Rosamund the other princesses decide to try to rescue her.  There are tons of references to fairy tales and lots of questions about how the stories play out in a modern time when cultural expectations around gender roles have changed (for example, does the prince HAVE to save the princess?  Can the princess do the saving?).  There are also some very funny parts as well as scary monsters.  This is a super fun book to read.  I think the fairy tale lovers are going to adore this one.  

The second one is called The Five Impossible Tasks of Eden Smith.  It's written by Tom Llewellyn.  It starts off a bit like a Roald Dahl book, where Eden's parents die in a terrible accident and she's left in the care of people who don't like her and don't care about her, until one day, she's sent to live with her grandfather, who she didn't know existed.  Questions about why it took the system six years to find him are answered when Eden arrives at her grandfather's home to find him disgraced and banished to a cell.  Eden ends up moving in with her elderly aunts into the home she didn't know she had-a union of magical metal workers.  Eden believes that her grandfather is innocent, but the only way to free him is to perform five impossible tasks, which are set forth by the guild.  People have died in pursuit of the five tasks, so it's not just a small thing that she agrees to do them.  She does something quite unexpected, though, she asks that her new friend, Nathaniel, can join her.  This is unusual because Nathaniel's mom is the cook (and she's amazing) but in this place, everyone's role is fixed and social movement is impossible.  This is a fun story to read - Eden is an interesting character who questions lots of things and is great at solving all kinds of problems.  There are some great science and engineering ideas and some really interesting ideas about social class assignments and distinctions that could spark some very compelling discussions among your students. There is also a very provacative conversation about the virtues of things that are made by hand versus things that are mass produced, an idea that many of your students probably haven't considered (I know mine hadn't). Don't miss this one! 

And here's the author reading the first two chapters!