Middle-Grade Novels
by Deborah Hopkinson
While serving as a civil defense messenger during the 1944 "Little Blitz," Bertie accidentally collides with an American girl, Eleanor Shea, and discovers a mysterious red notebook she dropped. Nearby, his rescue dog, Little Roo, finds an unconscious woman who vanishes before help can arrive. Bertie and Eleanor team up with David, a Jewish refugee and cipher expert, to decode the notebook. They discover it belongs to Violette Romy, a missing secret agent and Eleanor’s former tutor. The trio realizes the notebook contains critical information regarding a double agent and the upcoming D-Day invasion. They must use their newly-learned skills of deduction and code-breaking to unmask the traitor before Allied secrets are leaked to the Nazis.
by Glenn McCarty
10-year-old Thomas Spencer and his family head to his Aunt Cecelia's house nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina for the summer. While the trip is meant to help his mother recover from cancer treatment, the Spencers soon learn her illness has returned. Seeking solace in the woods, Thomas discovers a mysterious stone tiger named Shalomar that awakens when he sings to it. The two form a deep bond and embark on a mission to find out how the big cat arrived in this world and, more importantly, how to prevent him from permanently turning back into stone.
Thomas’s efforts to "save" Shalomar mirror his internal struggle and grief regarding his mother’s illness. Although not overtly Christian fantasy, the subtle Biblical allegory and the story's fantastical elements will be appreciated by fans of The Wingfeather Saga and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Please note: Like in Narnia, Thomas meets a sorceress determined to thwart the tiger's plans. She is presented as evil and is eventually conquered by the good king of the woods.
by Michael J. Rosen
During a seasonal break, a Floridian family travels to the Appalachian foothills of Ohio to experience the wonder of winter. While on a walk, the father, mother, and son get turned around. Lost in the woods and unprepared for the impending blizzard, they hunker down in the snow. Nearby, an Australian cattle dog hears their cries for help and runs to rescue. Relying on his herding instincts and using the muscle of forty head of cattle, he clears a path through deep snow and guides the family to safety.
Based on a true story, this is the author's account of a harrowing childhood adventure that led him to own his dog, Rescue.
I'm often asked for book suggestions for tweens struggling to read. They don't want to settle for "baby" books. They want age-appropriate content but with a breezy writing style. The Tale of Rescue, with its rich language but small word count, fits the bill.
Please note: When describing the storm, one line reads, "As if some god, suddenly angered, were sending a horrible punishment upon the land."
Miss Hickory
by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Miss Hickory is a doll with an apple-wood twig body and a hickory nut head. When her owner, Ann, moves from New Hampshire to Boston for the winter, Miss Hickory is inadvertently left behind to face the harsh elements alone. Her woodland friends try their best to help her, but Miss Hickory is hard-headed, prickly, and stubborn. She spends most of the winter learning lessons in humility, friendship, and trust.
Fans of The Wind in the Willows and Thorton Burgess' Animal Stories will enjoy this award-winning, episodic book. Each chapter tells of Miss Hickory's encounter with a different woodland creature. The author has done an excellent job of personifying each animal while keeping to their natural, God-given traits and peculiarities.
Parents, Be Aware
The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell
by Jordan Sonnenblick
In this semi-autobiographical memoir, a nervous fourth-grader named Jordan navigates a disastrous year at PS 35 on Staten Island during the 1970s. He faces a hostile teacher, Mrs. Fisher, who seems determined to fail him even when he tries his best, deals with severe asthma and undiagnosed anxiety, which manifests as a habit of pulling out his hair, and in a lapse of judgement brings his pet snake, Hector, for show and tell, only to deal with a crisis when Hector unexpectedly gives birth to numerous babies.
Similar to the movies The Sandlot and The Christmas Story, this book is a satirical and often crass look at a young boy's everyday misadventures.
Things to know: Much of the story depicts Jordan's struggles at school with a few classmates and a teacher he calls boring and mean, and who eventually slaps him across the face. In one scene, he hits a bully in the face with a metal lunch box. In another, he writes a story about people getting murdered.
Jordan desperately wants to learn to play the drums because he thinks it will make him more popular at school. "Drummers are like gods," he remarks.
There are many uses of God's name being used in vain as well as words like "idiot," "stupid," "butthead, and "no freaking way."
Just for you, Mom
by Tea Cooper
The year is 1906. Orphan Jane Piper, adopted at age nine by wealthy philanthropist siblings Michael and Elizabeth Quinn, is proving herself to be a mathematical prodigy. One day, while attending an art exhibition in Maitland, the trio stumble across a mysterious painting. Upon a closer look, Elizabeth begins to tremble. Long-repressed memories of her childhood begin to surface, causing a rapid deterioration of her health and sanity.
Driven by loyalty and love, Jane uses her analytical mind to investigate Elizabeth’s hidden past to uncover the source of her breakdown. Unfortunately, the more Jane learns about the Quinn's early years as penniless young immigrants traveling from England to the gritty Australian goldfields, the more confusing the decades-long puzzle becomes.
Best in Show
by Laura Martin
Regan Fitz and Elliot Mason have loathed each other for as long as they can remember. They are both in training at the Glitcher Academy, a school designed to prepare kids to travel back in time and stop nefarious time travelers from altering the timeline and dramatically changing history forever. But when they are forced to become glitch partners, they must work together to stop the biggest time crime in Glitcher history.
While I didn't love the bickering between the two main characters in the first couple of chapters, I do appreciate the redemption in their relationship as the story unfolds. It is a fast-paced, action-packed story that sneaks in quite a bit of history.