Middle Grade Monday – On the Radar

Here are some of the new titles coming out this spring that I am eagerly anticipating:

Inherit Midnight by Kate Kaye Myers

Billed as twisty, turny, non-stop action fun by reviewers, this looks to be right in my patrons’ sweet spot.  Here is the publisher’s summary:

Avery is the black sheep of the wealthy VanDemere clan. The ostracized illegitimate daughter. But when her grandmother announces a competition to determine who will inherit her fortune, Avery sees a chance to prove herself to her family. 

Teaming up with Riley, the handsome son of her grandmother’s lawyer, Avery sets out to win challenges that span from Venezuelan mines to Scottish castles. Throughout the game, Avery becomes more drawn to Riley—and more determined to win. But when the competition takes a treacherous turn, she wonders who she can truly trust . . . and whether winning is worth her life.

A breathless, high-stakes thriller sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats, this novel from Kate Kae Myers combines intricate family politics with the drama and adventure of The Amazing Race.

Publication date: February 10, 2015

Princess Academy: the Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale

Eeeeeee!!!! New Shannon Hale Princess Academy book! I think this is the final one? I have a large crowd of Shannon Hale fans (only partially my fault.) I love that her books have such broad appeal and such well developed characters. Here is the publisher’s summary:

After a year at the king’s palace, Miri has learned all about being a proper princess. But the tables turn when the student must become the teacher!

Instead of returning to her beloved Mount Eskel, Miri is ordered to journey to a distant swamp and start a princess academy for three sisters, cousins of the royal family. Unfortunately, Astrid, Felissa, and Sus are more interested in hunting and fishing than becoming princesses.

As Miri spends more time with the sisters, she realizes the king and queen’s interest in them hides a long-buried secret. She must rely on her own strength and intelligence to unravel the mystery, protect the girls, complete her assignment, and finally make her way home.

I strongly recommend reading the first 2 before this one comes out. Publication date: March 3, 2015.

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai

From the author of the award winning Inside Out & Back Again, a new novel about a young girl visiting relatives in Vietnam with her grandmother. From the publisher:

Mia has been shipped off to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is traveling there to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War.

Mia’s parents think this trip is a great opportunity for her to learn more about her roots. But Vietnam is hot, smelly, and the last place Mia wants to be during vacation. Besides barely speaking the language, she doesn’t know the geography, the local customs, or even her distant relatives.

To survive this trip, Mia will be forced to find the balance between her two completely different worlds.

Publication date: January 28, 2015

Mars Evacuees by Sophie McDougall

Humorous SF action adventure with a snarky tween heroine? Count me in. From the publisher:

When Earth comes under attack by aliens, a select group of kids is evacuated to Mars! From bestselling UK author Sophia McDougall comes an adventure-filled tween debut starring hilarious young heroine Alice Dare. Things get very strange when the adults disappear into thin air, the kids face down an alien named Thsaaa, and Alice and her friends must save the galaxy!

When plucky twelve-year-old Alice Dare learns she’s being taken out of the Muckling Abbott School for Girls and evacuated to Mars, no one knows what to expect.

“The fact that someone had decided that I would be safer on Mars, where you could still only sort of breathe the air, and sort of not get sunburned to death, was a sign that the war with the aliens was not going fantastically well.

“I was worried I was about to be told that my mother’s spacefighter had been shot down, so when I found out that I was being evacuated to Mars, I was pretty calm. And, despite everything that happened to me and my friends afterward, I’d do it all again. Because until you have been pursued by terrifying aliens, taught math by a laser-shooting robot goldfish, and tried to save the galaxy, I don’t think you can say that you’ve really lived. If the same thing happens to you, here’s my advice: always carry duct tape.”

Publication date: January 28, 2015

Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt

I’m hopeful that this sequel to Twerp will appeal to my students as much as the first does. I might have something to do with the way I described it…’you know that crazy relative who’s always telling you stories of how they and their friends almost blew up the neighborhood when they were your age…?’ Anyway, here’s the publisher’s summary:

Trouble always seems to find thirteen-year-old Julian Twerski. First it was a bullying incident, and now he’s been accused of vandalizing a painting. The principal doesn’t want to suspend him again, so instead, he asks Julian to write a 200-word essay on good citizenship. Julian writes 200 no’s instead, and so begins an epic struggle between Julian and his principal.

Being falsely accused is bad enough, but outside of school, Julian’s dealing with even bigger issues. His friend Quentin has been really sick. How can life be fair when the nicest guy in your group has cancer? Julian’s faith and friendships are put to the test…and the stakes have never been higher.

Publication date: February 10, 2015

The Question of Miracles by Elana K. Arnold

I reviewed this several months ago, and now it is finally coming out! So excited to share this with my students. From the publisher:

Following the death of her best friend, Iris and her family move to Oregon for a fresh start in this middle-grade story of miracles, magic, rain, hope, and a hairless cat named Charles.

Sixth-grader Iris Abernathy hates life in Corvallis, Oregon, where her family just moved. It’s always raining, and everything is so wet. Besides, nothing has felt right since Iris’s best friend, Sarah, died.

When Iris meets Boris, an awkward mouth-breather with a know-it-all personality, she’s not looking to make a new friend, but it beats eating lunch alone. Then she learns that Boris’s very existence is a medical mystery, maybe even a miracle, and Iris starts to wonder why some people get miracles and others don’t. And if one miracle is possible, can another one be too? Can she possibly communicate with Sarah again?

Filed under: Middle Grade Monday