Take Five: Wintery Middle Grade Fiction

Oh, winter, how I loathe you. Good thing I live in Minnesota where it’s only winter… forever. Even jokingly, I can’t say there is any upside to climate change, BUT the snow/cold aspects of winter have been notably less terrible here for years. Even I would take the usual weather if it meant we weren’t steadily creating an unlivable planet. Now, if someone could figure out how to give us something other than a million hours of darkness each day, that I’d be into. My little Happy Light is getting a workout.

As always, the one thing that makes life tolerable is escaping into fiction. And for all my hatred of actual winter, I love books set in winter, whether that wintery setting makes the books extra cozy or extra high-stakes. Here are a few you might like, too!

All descriptions from the publishers.

Greenglass House (Greenglass House Series) by Kate Milford, Jaime Zollars (Illustrator) (ISBN 13: 9780544052703 Publisher: HarperCollins Publication date: 08/26/2014, Ages 10-12)

New York Times Bestseller * National Book Award Nominee * Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery

It’s wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler’s inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers’ adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing.

But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again…

Soon Milo’s home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House—and themselves.

Very Rich by Polly Horvath (ISBN-13: 9780823440283 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 09/25/2018, Ages 8-12)

Ten-year-old Rupert Brown inadvertently finds himself spending Christmas with the wealthiest family in town and is astonished to discover a world he never knew existed.

Rupert lives with his parents and many siblings in a small house in the poorest section of Steelville, Ohio. When he spends Christmas with his classmate Turgid Rivers, he is offered all the food he can eat, and the opportunity to win wonderful prizes in the family games—prizes he hopes to take home so he can share his Christmas bounty with his family.  But after he loses everything in the last game, Rupert resigns himself to going home empty handed. 

Feeling secretly guilty, all of the adults in Rivers family try to make it up to him by taking Rupert on one unlikely adventure after another, embroiling him in everything from time travel to bank robberies.  But can anything he experiences make up for what he has lost?

Deftly blending magical realism with heartbreak, hope, and a wide cast of eccentric characters, Polly Horvath weaves a tale that is darkly funny and deeply poignant.  Very Rich is a bittersweet and quirky story that celebrates the unique nature of human experience.

A Junior Library Guild selection!

Brother’s Keeper by Julie Lee (ISBN-13: 9780823444946 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 07/21/2020, Ages 8-12)

With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two children escape North Korea on their own?

WINNER OF THE FREEMAN BOOK AWARD!

North Korea. December, 1950.

Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader. Don’t trust your neighbors. Don’t speak your mind. You are being watched.

But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaos—and war is the perfect time to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and enemy soldiers.

But they can’t. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can a twelve-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother survive three hundred miles of warzone in winter?

Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel from a searing new talent offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed nation.

The Sea in Winter by Christine Day (ISBN-13: 9780062872043 Publisher: HarperCollins Publication date: 01/05/2021, Ages 8-12)

In this evocative and heartwarming novel for readers who loved The Thing About Jellyfish, the author of I Can Make This Promise tells the story of a Native American girl struggling to find her joy again.

It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions.

Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels. With everything she’s dealing with, Maisie is not excited for their family midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up.

But soon, Maisie’s anxieties and dark moods start to hurt as much as the pain in her knee. How can she keep pretending to be strong when on the inside she feels as roiling and cold as the ocean?

The Heartdrum imprint centers a wide range of intertribal voices, visions, and stories while welcoming all young readers, with an emphasis on the present and future of Indian Country and on the strength of young Native heroes. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy (ISBN-13: 9781250360816 Publisher: Feiwel & Friends Publication date: 10/29/2024, Ages 8-12)

Now an instant USA TODAY bestseller!

When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather.

One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong? Find out in this sweet as a sugarplum and satisfying as a latke middle grade novel by Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles, and Joanne Levy, award-winning author of Sorry for Your Loss and several other books for tweens.

Filed under: Take 5