The Book Search

 Need some great new fiction to inspire your middle grade readers?  Check out this pair! The first one came out in early May, 2026 and it's by one of my favorite authors-Gary D. Schmidt.  Schmidt has such a gift for characters-he writes about some of the most interesting people I've ever read about and this one is no exception.  It's about Simon, a 12 year boy, who when he is sent to Hades, chooses not to drink from the River Styx and forget his former life.  For the next 2,451 years, he tries to escape, unsuccessfully, until one day, he figures out a way past Cerebus and across the River Styx and ends up in a middle school, where thankfully, a kind boy named Zeke helps out.  He gets Simon some clothes and invites Simon to stay with him.  At the same time Persephone misses Simon, he was one of her favorites, and when she finds out that he's gone, she tells Hades, who is determined to get Simon back.  In the meantime, Simon is trying to find his be...

Strong female characters are one of the things I love about middle grade fiction.  Girls trying to find their way as they grow and mature.  These two are a perfect example of those young women.   The first one is "The Queen's Granddaughter" by Diane Zahler.  I loved her books "The Blackwood Magicians" and "Baker's Magic" so I was excited to read this new one.  This is the story of Blanca, the granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Blanca has been living a happy life with her sister, Uraca, her loving parents, and her new baby sister Eleanor.  Blanca understands that her job is to marry well but at 12, she hopes that it's going to be awhile until she gets married.  Her oldest sister is already married and so when her grandmother shows up at the castle, ready to announce the latest arranged marriage, Blanca doesn't want Uraca to go, so she badmouths her sister to her grandmother.  When her grandmother makes her announcement, it's Blanca,...

 There have been SO MANY new books that came out in the last month!  So lucky us!  Here are two of my newest favorites. "When Tomorrow Burns" by Tae Keller is about three middle school kids who are trying to figure things out.  They have been friends for a long time, but are struggling to remain friends because of the things they haven't felt confident to share with each other.  Nomi, Vi, and Arthur each have the own opportunity to tell their stories and through that story telling, readers get a full picture of how their relationships crisscross and intersect and divide.  And each of them believes in a prophecy that they read in a book that they found at the Museum of Lost and Found, a gallery where people could drop off paintings, sculptures and poems that one of Arthur's dads runs in the first floor of their apartment.  Part of the story line that keeps the kids together is trying to find the second book to try to figure out the true meaning of the p...

  There have been some amazing books that came into the world in the last month.   Here are two of my favorites! The first one is called “Glory Be” by Jamie Sumner.  Jamie has such a gift for giving a voice to people with big hearts and quirky personalities.  You might remembers some of her other work, like “Roll On”.  This one is a new set of characters and  you are going to love it.  Glory lives with her mom and her dad and their dog Roux.  Except that Roux is missing and Glory is heartbroken.  It takes until almost the end of the book to find out really what happened and it is super fun ride.  The story is written in free verse and as usual, Sumner has a wonderful way of describing not only the setting but also helping readers to understand the depth and complexities of the feelings of the characters.  This would be a great one for teaching personal narrative, for character analysis, for foreshadowing and inferencing.  There...

 So if you like middle grade fiction, there are so many new books coming out this fall.  Two of my favorite authors have new books, YAY!!  And they are both wonderful (the authors AND their new books).   The first one is by Holly Goldberg Sloan, who wrote Counting by 7s, which is still on my top ten favorite books of all time.  She's written several others as well, including this new one, which is called "Finding Lost".  It's about Cordy, a middle schooler, who lives with her mom and her perpetually cheerful younger brother, Geno in coastal Oregon.  They are living in a small caretaker's house on the edge of a bigger property, for which her mother acts as a caretaker.  The owners are rarely there, which makes living in the caretaker's house seem all the more miserable.  The caretaker's house is a former boatshed and has a leaky roof, poor insulation and poor internet access.  They live there because since Cordy's dad died in a boating ac...

 So I guess I'm a little behind on updating the blog... since it's been since APRIL that I posted last.  Sheesh, it's not even like I have work to blame it on anymore.  But ok, here are two amazing new middle grade realistic fiction books.  The first one is by a favorite author, Jeanne Birdsall.  If you don't know, she wrote a series of books about a family called the Penderwicks, that was just wonderful.  Her newest book is called "The Library of Unruly Treasures" and it's also just a treasure.  Birdsall has a real gift for writing characters that are interesting and kind and smart, people that I'd like to be friends with and this book is exactly that, except this one also has magical creatures.  It's about Gwen, who's lived a life of upheaval, her parents are divorced and neither of them really seems to want a girl like Gwen around, so one summer, she ends up going to stay with her great uncle Matthew who she doesn't really remember and d...

 My husband and I were traveling last week and lucky me!  I had lots of books on my Netgalley app and lots of time to read!  Here are two of my new favorites. The first one is called Octopus Moon.  It's written by Bobbie Pryon. I hadn't read anything by her before, so this one was a great surprise.  It's written in free verse and it's about Pearl, a girl who lives in a small town on the Florida Gulf Coast.  Pearl is part of a loving family that includes her big sister, her mom and dad, and her grandparents, who live close by.  Pearl feels especially connected to her grandfather.  Pearl also has some really great friends, including her bestie-Rosie.  But lately, Pearl has been struggling.  She feels sad a lot for no particular reason.  She's tired a lot.  She doesn't want to get out of bed or go to school or hang with her friends.  She doesn't even want to run with her dog Tuck, even though she loves running.  It turns...

 Now that I'm done with the CYBILS for the year, I can dig back into the realistic fiction pile.  Here are two of my latest favorites! Weirdly Walter by Julia Walton is a terrific new book.  It came out in October and I read it over the winter holidays and I wondered why it had taken so long (oh, yeah, I remember-I was reading for the CYBILS award-107 middle grade fantasy books, that's right).  Walter was such a charming and heartwarming read-I think you're going to love it.  Walter is a fifth grader who has always lived with his dad, a musician.  They've traveled around quite a bit and Walter is used to being the new kid at school.  But this is different.  His dad has left him for the first time, with Walter's grandfather, and there's no end in sight for when Walter will go back on the road with his dad.  Walter adores his dad and records some of his dad's wisdom in his journal.  But he's also kind of mad at his dad, that there was no c...

 I've been having a great time reading the books on the new Sunshine State Young Reader lists.  They never fail to find such fun books!  Here's a link to the K-2 list .  And here's a link to the 3-5 and 6-8 lists . They have such a variety of books.  And here's a link to my TPT store where there are reading comprehension questions for all the 3-5 and 6-8 books and lesson plans for the K-2 list.   But lucky me!  I've had to read some advanced readers copies from Netgalley and boy, did I find some good ones!  The first one came out a couple of weeks ago-it's called "The Cookie Crumbles" and it's written by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow.  It's about Laila and Lucy, two girls who have been best friends since kindergarten, even though they have very different interests AND they live on opposite sides of town.  If they want to go to high school together, they BOTH need to get into the prestigious high school, Sunderland.  Laila is trying ...

And the hits just keep coming!  Boy, have I read some great books lately!  Here are two of my favorites. The first one is "Max in the House of Spies" by Adam Gidwitz.  I haven't read all of Gidwitz's works, but I loved "The Inquisitors" so I was excited to see this one come up in my Netgalley feed.  It did NOT disappoint.  It's about Max, an 11 year old living with his parents in Berlin in 1939.  The family is trying to figure out how to cope with the limitations on their lives that the Nazis are putting in place.  After Kristallnacht, Max's parents insist that he go on the Kindertransport to London.  He doesn't want to leave his parents, but they don't give him a choice, so he goes.  As he's traveling on the ship, he finds he's picked up two immortal beings, Stein and Berg (who sound a bit like tiny vaudevillians) that are now sitting on his shoulders, simultaneously trying to throw him under the bus and help him get through all this...

 I'm playing catch up on blog posts because while we were away I was reading madly but we often had kind of sketchy internet connections AND there was more wine involved than usual (it was France, what can I say?).  Anyway, here are two new realistic fiction books you should definitely look for. The first one is by a favorite author, Gary D. Schmidt. He's written some of my perennial favorites-The Wednesday Wars, Orbiting Jupiter, Okay for Now...  there are lots more and he has such a gift with voice! His characters always ring so true and that's exactly how this new one is.  It's called The Labors of Hercules Beal and it's so great.  It's about Hercules, who at 12 is dealing with a big loss-his parents were killed in a car accident and his brother has come home to run the family business, a nursery on Cape Cod. When school starts, Hercules is given an assignment by his 6th grade social studies/language arts teacher, Lt. Colonel Hupfer.  The assignment is a...

 The publishers seem to be trying to play catch up after COVID.  There are SO MANY new books coming out, it can feel overwhelming to see my TBR pile.  Or maybe I'm just too greedy!  Anyway, here are some that are coming out soon. The first one is called When Giants Burn by Beth Vrabel.  Beth has a real gift for telling stories about interesting characters - two of my former favorites are Blind Guide to Stinkville and The Newspaper Club, if you missed them.  This new one is no exception.  It's told in two voices-Gerty and Hayes.  Both are being seen by the school counselor for interpersonal issues.  Gerty's family are survivalists and are doing their best to be independent from government influences.  Hayes lives with his grandmother, his younger brother and his mom, who has recently been released from jail. Neither of the kids feel like they have any friends and so find some connection to the other.  Gerty is trying to build an ultr...

 I just finished two graphic novels you might want to be on the look out for.  My students really love graphic novels that are realistic fiction, like Smile and Drama by Reina Telegmeier or the Baby Sitter's Club, so these two new ones are right in that sweet spot. The first one is by one of my favorite authors, Wendy Mass.  Wendy has written some amazing middle grade fiction like 11 Birthdays and the Candymakers that are perennial hits in my elementary school library.  Her first foray into graphic novels is called Lo and Behold.  Like many of her books, the story is based around a middle schooler, Addie, who is going to spend the summer with her dad who is a futurist, which is a scientist who helps people plan for the future.  His current line of study is augmented reality and he's super into it.  Addie's mom is out of the picture-of course Wendy doesn't tell you the whole thing at the beginning, but it involves a bike accident and pain killers. ...

 Would you be surprised to hear that body images are something that kids think about?  The images kids see on social media (including TV and video games) shape the way they think about their own bodies and not always for the better.  Here are two books where the main characters are thinking about the way that they are perceived and how people perceive them in two really different ways.   The first one is called Time to Roll by Jamie Summer.  This is a sequel to her book Roll With It.  The main character, Ellie, wants to be a baker and finds happiness cooking and baking for her family.  She is also in a wheelchair most of the time, which she doesn't find as off putting as some other people do.  In Roll With It, Ellie and her mom move back to their hometown to help Ellie's grandmother because Ellie's grandfather is struggling with dementia.  In this second book, Ellie has happily settled into her new hometown, she has wonderful friends and her ...