Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

As we jump into summer, let's take a quick look back at May's reads. Do you have favorites to share? Tell us what stood out, so we can add them to our own Want To Read shelves!

May was a little crazy for me since I participated in an annual reading challenge on the middle grade blog I help run. #BookADayMay has become a fun tradition. My favorites this month include graphic novels like The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge and Wingbearer by Marjorie M. Liu. Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter by Melissa Savage is about a girl whose dad lands a Netflix deal for a docu-series about a haunted holel. And I've been reading the quartet of books that begins with Chase: The Boy Who Hid by Z Jeffries. It's a contemporary story with a sci-fi twist, involving a game that tests cutting edge camouflage technology in military trials. It's a high-tech, high stakes game of hide and seek.

It's tough to pick the best books of May because so many of the books I read for May were great. If I could, I would probably list almost all the books I read for the month, but that would defeat the purpose of picking out the best ones. So, here we go. I have, somehow, managed to narrow down the list of what I read to the top 6, with an honorable mention (which I think is pretty good considering I read 42 books in the month).

This was my first year participating in #BookADayMay, which was a lot of fun and also very helpful with clearing my TBR list of many shorter books (though it's hard to tell given the length of the list LOL). My favorites this month include Virus Attack and Survival by Susan Draper, the first two novellas in a trilogy that are about alien cats who come to Earth to find a cure for a killer virus... Alien cats! I know; I am waiting for book 3 to come out so I can finish the series. Then there were two graphic novels about being true to yourself: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, which is about a Vietnamese-American boy trying to find the words to tell his parents he's gay, and Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince, which is about growing up as a tomboy in the 80s and 90s, and this book felt like I was reading my own life - though there were a few differences; I connected with this book so much that I purchased my own copy.

Next up in the awesome books I read was an audiobook - Secret Supers by Andy Zach, which was a book with a group of friends who all have various disabilities and who suddenly find themselves with superpowers. The Weirdies by Michael Buckley, another audiobook - narrated by Kate Winsley (she was FABULOUS!) - which was a story about a set of triplets who are ... different ... and who wake up one day to find themselves entirely alone. Rounding out the totally awesome books I read in May is The Altruism Trial by Christopher Francis, which is about an absolute asshole of a kid (I dislike calling a kid that, but in this case it fits) who ends up crash-landing on an island and begins learning the importance of selflessness and altruism. Also, the ending? OMG! That ending was great. I enjoyed this book so much, I read it AND listened to it. Of the two, I recommend the audiobook; the narrator, Coleman Christian, did a wonderful job.

So now we come to the honorable mention. While there are some who would say that this book isn't really MG because the protagonists are in their early 20s; both of them are stuck in life, spending most of their time playing video games before they die, at which point they are provided with the opportunity to go back in order to save all the children who also died with them. The book takes place largely in various video games, many of which would be familiar to MG readers. The way the book is written, though, lends itself much better to listening than reading - much like Shakespeare's work - so I definitely recommend the audiobook version. As an added note, the author is British, so some of the words may be a bit confusing to younger readers who haven't been exposed to British English. So, all of that said, I can hear you asking "so, what's the book already?" I'm so glad you asked. The book is Noobs by Simon Carr. If you want a book that will have you laughing, this is it.

So, there you have it. The top 6 (+ 1 honorable mention) books I read in May. Yes, I know there are technically 8, but Virus Attack and Survival were both short enough that I'm counting them as one book. Also, if you decide to read Virus Attack, you will most likely end up reading Survival right after it, so in that way, it seems to count as 1 book, also.

I'm looking forward to seeing the great books that others read, too. After all, I need to add more books to my never-ending TBR list to replace the books I read this month. LOL.

Happy Reading!

The best books that I read in May were the first three books in the Wells and Wong mystery series: Murder Is Bad Manners, Poison is Not Polite, and First Class Murder all by Robin Stevens.

US titles.

I'm glad you went on with the Wells & Wong series. Murder Most Unladylike was the only MG book I read in May, although one I thought might be turned out to be early teen at the youngest, and YA really.
I've added the next three Wells & Wong stories (well four but I've read #4 already) to my TBR and we'll see how soon the library turns up the next one :)

The books that I read in May is The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan(which is the second book of the lightning thief and Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens. I both enjoyed reading them:)

Jennifer wrote: "It's tough to pick the best books of May because so many of the books I read for May were great. If I could, I would probably list almost all the books I read for the month, but that would defeat t..."

I am almost finished reading The Magic Fish and the other day I completed The Prince and the Dressmaker. :)

Apart from our Book of the Month The Lemonade War , I managed The Cats We Meet Along the Way. It's a quirky book set in Malaysia, describing in the days before an apocalyptic event, but it's not doom and gloom.