Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ
All posts by C. J. Milbrandt
#amreading Hodge Podge
I’ve dabbled quite a bit in books like Love That Dog, which tell a single story through a series of interconnected poems. In this case, the young poet/protagonist is writing these poems as part of his English homework, so I can see it being useful to teachers doing poetry units. A Grain of Rice reads like a folk tale. A pleasant, hard-working man turns an empire upside down by being very, very clever. Math is involved! And The Everafter War is the next (seventh) installment in The Sisters Grimm series.
Fishy
Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ
#amreading Excitement
While I mostly prefer the upper reaches of the Middle Grade range (10-12 year olds), I do dabble in books intended for younger readers (8-10 year olds). One of my favorite lower middle grade finds was The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great, mostly because Morris made me laugh. More than once. Tales from the Hood is the sixth book in the Sisters Grimm series, which I recommend. Serafina and the Black Cloak, the first in a series, is an intriguing blend of historical fiction and magical realism that is tense enough and scary enough that I’d caution against it for sensitive readers. But for those who enjoy teetering on the edge of their seats, this is a stand-out series.
Is that an egg?
Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ
Black Bird
Elza and I love games almost as much as we love reading middle grade books. You’ll find more of these over on Middle Grade Carousel and posting throughout the day on our Twitter account. Follow us and play along! ~CJ
This Month’s Theme
#amreading Grimm
I usually try to tackle at least one “long” series a year, and in 2018, that was The Sisters Grimm. (Yes, I’m that far behind with these Book Report posts.) These three titles put us into the thick of things in this 9-book series by Michael Buckley. Worth the commitment? Definitely!
January BINGO
Let’s Do This! I’m always so excited to read middle grade books in January. There are plenty of incentives:
- Re-upped my goal for Goodreads’ 2020 Reading Challenge. (Are you following me on Goodreads?)
- Participating in the A-Z Challenge at Great Middle Grade Reads, where I’m a moderator. (This year, I plan to get through the alphabet twice. Again.)
- Also participating in the GMGR Series Challenge for 2020, which I use to motivate my reading … both in wrapping up unfinished trilogies and for tackling larger series.
- And I’m active with Middle Grade Carousel, which keeps things interesting with monthly themes & BINGO boards:
#amreading Good Books
Happy to report the completion of a trilogy. Fork-Tongued Charmers and Rise of the Ragged Clover wrap up Paul Durham’s Luck Uglies series, which now ranks among my favorite MG trilogies. Creative and complex, daring and enduring. Highly recommended. And then there’s the graphic novel Drama, which follows a group of friends as they get ready for a stage production. It’s a classic kerfuffle of she-likes-him but he-likes-them … with friends doing their best to support one another while still figuring themselves out.
C. J. Milbrandt 