Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

We've made it safely through the spookiest month. Time to chime in again with reading recommendations. What were *your* best middle grade reads from October?

I grabbed a ghost story last month and enjoyed the world-building of Ghost and Bone by Andrew Prentice. Other notables were the second book in the League of Seven trilogy, The Dragon Lantern by Alan Gratz. And a fun, contemporary super hero graphic novel, Primer.

The House on Hoarder Hill by Mikki Lish anddKelly Ngai

I read Tove Jansson’s Moomin novels for the first time in English this October, and I definitely do find the German translations generally superior to all three English translators. But I did quite enjoy Moominland Midwinter and how Moomintroll learns to appreciate winter as a season (and even the translation works better).

But the best and totally new book I read in October is a recent September 2021 publication by Toronto’s Second Story Press, Suzanne Meade’s A Terrible Tide, a historical fiction but based on true events story of how a Newfoundland fishing village in 1929 is devastated by a tsunami (after an offshore earthquake). The author has a great sense of time and place and the fictional story of Celia and her family (and her neighbours’) struggle does totally mirror the basic details of what really happened (and which is shown in an author’s note with accompanying photographs).

The Peculiar Tale of the Tentacle Boy is a quirky book about a boy being discovered in a seaside town. He has crab claws for hands and tentacles on his head. A fun read.

The other book I managed was called Twitch by M. G. Leonard. It's about a boy who is mad on birds -- one for any birdwatchers out there!

The best book I read was Meranda and the Legend of the Lake by Meagan Mahoney. It follows Meranda who has cerebral palsy who has returned to the town she was born in after the death of her great uncle. While there she encounters a mystery surrounding her own past that is entangled with the town's mermaid legends.

Catching up on my goodreads posts after a very busy fall at school, but always appreciate reading the posts by these groups.
The best middle grade book I read in October was The Beatryce Prophecy and I think it is a strong Newbery contender this year.
I also liked Maniac Magee, The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, and We Are Family.

I think we're having trouble on a number of threads where people are forgetting that this is a Group for Middle Grade (Grade not School) which roughly equates to the 9-12 year old group in Europe).

I'm editing some of these 'last month' threads to put the MG back, which may help.

It doesn't help that the new owners of Goodreads have removed all the useful clues like Genre and what people have shelved the book as on the books page. There is a button marked 'Beta' on book pages at present. Please click it and give them feedback, especially about genre and other people shelves which is a pretty accurate assessment of suitability, usually!