Middle grade speculative fiction -August 2024

 There is some terrific new middle grade speculative fiction coming out this month that I think kids are going to love!  

My first new favorite is called Majestica by Sarah Tolcser.  It's about Hattie, who is an orphan who works in a hotel in a magical animal preserve.  She tries hard and wants to do a good job, but things don't always go the way she thinks they should.  One day, a new group of guests arrives and the group includes Evelyn, the niece of the hotel owner.  When Evelyn's chaperone takes sick (because Evelyn poisoned her), the head of the staff asks Hattie to take over as Evelyn's companion.  Hattie tries to be positive, but Evelyn is pretty headstrong and disagreeable.  They go out on a safari and Hattie starts to think something might be amiss.  When the train they're traveling on derails, Hattie knows something is wrong and wonders if Evelyn or one of the other guests might have something to do with it.  Each of the guests has reasons to possibly want to harm the magical animals or get some of the other people out of the way.  It's a very exciting mystery and the magical animal component is super fun.  There are big themes of friendship, trust, making assumptions about people, and conservation that will make this a terrific read for middle graders.  

The second one is called Keeper Chance and the Conundrum of Chaos written by Alex Evanovich.  It looks like this might be her first book but I hope it's not her last, because I really liked this story.  As the title implies, the main character is Keeper Chance.  Keeper is an undistinguished student (with a carefully crafted 75 average at school) and Chaos, the leader of a local group of E.V.I.L villains is looking to recruit Keeper into their chapter.  Each of the villains of the group have their own talent, Chaos's talent is creating chaos.  Toby, the other new recruit's talent is smelling things and no one seems to know what Keeper's talent is, but he seems very good at being able to put things together.  There is also another group, led by a Sensei, who would like to see Keeper NOT become a part of the E.V.I.L group.  As part of their initiation, Toby and Keeper get tangled up in a mystery that involves cookies, a big box of cash, a really big dog, and a secret villain posing as toilet salesman.  Parts of this are laugh out loud funny, the characters are cartoonish but likable and the mystery is compelling.  It's a really fun read and I think kids are going to like it a lot.