Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

What? Another Monday is here already? The time is a flying by and that is fine with me because tomorrow is my first day at the new school. Prep time before the kids are back, oh yes yes it is. I here I must SQUEE. Even went shopping for new school clothes. Will confess that it was all I could do to keep myself from buying school supplies.

This is the final Marvelous Middle Grade Monday of the summer! Hope you had a great one and are looking forward to the fall.


It's always been my favourite time of year and now even more so because of #Cybils. Even if you are not applying, start thinking of books in all the different categories that you'd like to see nominated. I did apply again this year and even if I don't get placed on my panels of choice I am ready to take part by nominating and helping spread the word!


Here is some of my Marvelous Middle Grade reads, I recommend you check out:

House of Secrets 

Oh my, what a ride. It has everything that would have appealed to middle grade me who loved dark and scary, creepy gothic style. It also captivated with the crazy world the siblings are pulled into via a curse unleashed by a rather nasty being. And I loved loved the sibling relationship...so real, believable, it really made the book pop. Siblings with very different personalities that will clash, but when the going gets tough the sibs get tight. Good stuff.

From Goodreads:

The Walker kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games . . . but everything changed when their father lost his job as a result of an inexplicable transgression. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by Denver Kristoff, a troubled writer with a penchant for the occult.

Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey into a mash-up world born of Kristoff’s dangerous imagination, to retrieve a dark book of untold power, uncover the Walker family’s secret history and save their parents . . . and maybe even the world.

The Year of Billy Miller

Speaking of showing real and true family relationships. This book does that via the voice of Billy Miller. A short novel with fourth sections that take us through those relationships and into the year. Billy is in grade two, so it will most likely have the highest appeal to younger and same age. However, I am thinking this will be one to share with my third graders. In both cases with readers who are already strong or as was pointed out in a review (can't remember which! Maybe Ms. Yingling?) as a read aloud. I am a huge Kevin Henkes fan and think he is a master at portraying kids in their family and peer dynamics in his picture books and novels.

From Goodreads:

When Billy Miller has a mishap at the statue of the Jolly Green Giant at the end of summer vacation, he ends up with a big lump on his head. What a way to start second grade, with a lump on your head! As the year goes by, though, Billy figures out how to navigate elementary school, how to appreciate his little sister, and how to be a more grown up and responsible member of the family and a help to his busy working mom and stay-at-home dad. Newbery Honor author and Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes delivers a short, satisfying, laugh-out-loud-funny school and family story that features a diorama homework assignment, a school poetry slam, cancelled sleepovers, and epic sibling temper tantrums. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white art by the author, this is a perfect short novel for the early elementary grades. Yeah, so quite likely more a chapter book than a middle grade-especially when it comes to Cybil Nominations?

Ta for now and thanks for stopping by. Will see you around the blogosphere as I head over to Shannon Messenger's to see what Marvelous Middle Grade Goodness she is a rounding up for us!