Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Take a look back at last month's reading. What books stand out as good finds? Or maybe you reread an old favorite? Share them with the group so we can add them to our To Read piles!

Also... if Twitter's your thing, #MGBookMarch is underway. Get their list of daily themes & add to the conversation with your own book recommendations!

Let's see. My own February was jam-packed with *other* kinds of reading because I edited 3 books. So I only got into the F section of this year's A-Z Reading Challenge. Firegirl is a contemporary that stirs up discomfort and compassion. Fearless is a historical that puts a boy on a quest to find his father, who might be lost at sea. And Forget Me Not is a novel in verse about a girl with Tourette syndrome and the neighbor boy who wants to be her friend (but doesn't want anyone to know about it).

I started the month with Victoria Schwab's Everyday Angel: Three Novels trilogy. And, I finished February with the first two books Robin Wasserman's Chasing Yesterday trilogy. ( I read book three in March.)
In between I read several other great books. This included rereading The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn.

I began the MG A-Z Challenge in February, so a great many of the books on my list were read in February. It has been a while since I have immersed myself in middle grades books, but I have always loved reading books that are categorized at MG and YA. Looking at my list of book covers (posted in the order in which they were finished), the last book read in February was The Year of Billy Milly by Kevin Henkes.

Of all the books read in February for this challenge, the ones I enjoyed the most were (list of titles and authors below covers):



Aru Shah and the End of Time - Roshani Chokshi
Dragon Planet - Dan Wells
Stargazer - Dan Wells
Interview with the Robot - Lee Bacon
Amari and the Night Brothers - B. B. Alston
The Girl Who Drank the Moon - Kelly Barnhill
Jinxed - Amy McCulloch
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - Chris Grabenstein
Frogkisser - Garth Nix

And though it was not part of the original question, the question also had me looking forward. Of the books I still have on my list to read for the challenge, the ones I am looking forward to reading most (or of the few I have already read this month) are:



The Island of Dr. Libris - Chris Grabenstein
Katya's World - Jonathan L Howard
The Library of Ever - Zeno Alexander
Loser - Jerry Spinelli
Magyk - Angie Sage (the entire Septimus Heap series, really)
The Nightmare Thief - Nicole Lesperance
Out of My Mind - Sharon M Draper
OCDaniel - Wesley King
The Portal - Kathryn Lasky
Race to the Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse
When the Sea Turned Silver - Grace Lin
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Grace Lin
Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - T Kingfisher
The Zero Equation - Christopher Nuttall (and the rest of The Zero Enigma series)

The two best middle grade novels I read for the first time (not rereading) in February are

Big John's Secret (histocal fiction novel with a wonderful sense of time and place, and an encouragingly balanced depiction of the crusades with the Muslims being depicted as not only the enemy)

More to the Story (one of the best contemporary retelling of Little Women I have read)

The best books I read in February were: March: Book One, March: Book Two, and March: Book Three by John Lewis

I read 2 MG books in February which is:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I was just interested in this book because I like wizards, magic, etc and also a lot of people reading this one:)

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I like this book because it has a lot of adventures and it was really interesting. I was planning to read the second book in May:)

"The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare" appealed to me, since its theme is one I try to include in my books - the acceptance of others despite differences - as 13-year-old Matt learns in the developing friendship between him and Attean, a young Indian.

Leone wrote: ""The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare" appealed to me, since its theme is one I try to include in my books - the acceptance of others despite differences - as 13-year-old Matt learns ..."

I remember reading this book to my sons when they were younger. We really enjoyed it a lot and had great discussions.