Archives de catégorie : Middle Grade

MAGIC BELOW STAIRS de Caroline Stevermer

In an alternate Regency England, a plucky young boy is hired be a wizard’s assistant and with help from his fairy guardian, he will excel at his job and break a curse on the wizard. This charming Middle Grade novel is set in the same world as Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede’s beloved Cecilia and Kate novels.

MAGIC BELOW STAIRS
by Caroline Stevermer
Dial Press, 2010
(via JABberwocky)

11-year-old Frederick is plucked from an orphanage to be a servant to the wizard Lord Schofield. With help from Billy Bly, the brownie who has been his « fairy guardian » over the years, Frederick quickly proves his worth and excels at the difficult tasks assigned by Lord Schofield.

However, Lord Schofield has banished all magical creatures from his holdings so Frederick must keep Billy Bly’s existence a secret. When Billy Bly discovers dark magic within the Schofields’ manor house, it’s up to Frederick and Billy to break the curse and save the manor.

Caroline Stevermer is the multiple-award-winning author of the Cecelia and Kate Novels, the College of Magics Series, the Glass Magician Series, and the middle grade novels River Rats and Magic Below Stairs.

RIVER RATS de Caroline Stevermer

In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of kids living on a steamboat rescue a downtrodden man and race to uncover a buried treasure before their enemies get there first.

RIVER RATS
by Caroline Stevermer
Open Road, 2022)
(via JABberwocky)

The award-winning author of the Scholarly Magic series delivers the thrilling adventure of a crew of young kids working their way through a post-apocalyptic world on a steamboat they call home . . .

No one knows for sure what caused the Flash. They just know that nothing has been the same since. Cities have been destroyed by pestilence, riots, and fires. The paddleboat River Rat, once a museum, was turned into an orphanage. But a dangerous storm forced the children to flee with the boat to safer waters, making it theirs for good.

Since then, Tomcat, Toby, Esteban, Lindy, Spike, and Jake have traveled, bartered, and performed their way up and down the Mississippi River. One rule that has served them well: no passengers. But after watching a man on shore being pursued by a vicious pack of locals, the group has no choice but to save him.

At every stop, the boat is met by the man’s tireless hunters. They want what the fugitive knows: the location of a bunker filled with guns. A currency more valuable than gold . . . and one that the crew of the River Rat might well pay for—with their lives.

This standalone Middle Grade novel was highlighted as a “Best Book for Young Adults” by the American Library Association (ALA), the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and the New York Public Library. It also won the Golden Duck Award and the Golden Kite Award, both regional awards in the United States.

THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM d’Alex London

Where can a princess hide if her Ever After isn’t all that Happy? Bestselling author Alex London turns classic fairy tales on their heads in this fast-paced, funny fantasy about embracing change and taking control of your own story. For fans of The School for Good and Evil and the Chronicles of Never After series.

THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
by Alex London
HarperCollins / Greenwillow, February 2024
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Every fairy tale ends with its characters living happily ever after, right? A valiant prince quests long and hard to reach the castle where the sleeping princess lies. And with a kiss, he awakens her.

But what if the princess does NOT think a kiss from a stranger is a very pleasant way to wake up? Yuck!

When Rosamund flees her prince, a Door of Opportunity opens, and she steps through it to the Home Educational Academy (the HEA for short). Rosamund has found the Princess Protection Program, where fugitive fairy-tale princesses escape unwanted affections, untimely ends, and all the other perils of their stories.

But the longer Rosamund lives in the real world, the more questions she has. Does anyone ever graduate from the HEA? Why doesn’t anyone seem to remember the former students? Is the kindly fairy headmistress all she appears to be? Is anyone? And the most important question of all: Can Rosamund change her story?

Acclaimed and bestselling author Alex London weaves together several beloved fairy tales in this fast-paced, funny, and slyly subversive adventure about finding your place in the world.

Alex London is the author of over 25 books for children, teens, and adults, with over 2 million copies sold. He’s the author of the middle grade Dog Tags, Tides of War, Wild Ones, and Accidental Adventures series, as well as two titles in the 39 Clues. His latest middle grade series, Battle Dragons, a cyberpunk romp pitched as The Fast and the Furious meets How to Train Your Dragon, is out from Scholastic. For young adults, he’s the author of the cyberpunk duology Proxy, an ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, Best Fiction For Young Adults, and Rainbow List selection and the epic fantasy trilogy, Black Wings Beating, an NBC Today Show Pick, a Kirkus Best Young Adult Fantasy selection, a Seventeen Magazine best of 2018 pick, and a We Need Diverse Books 2018 Must Read, and a 2020 Rainbow List selection. He’s been a journalist and human rights researcher reporting from conflict zones and refugee camps, a young adult librarian with New York Public Library, an assistant to a film agent, and a snorkel salesman. He lives with his husband, daughter, and hound dog in Philadelphia, PA.

RIVER OF SPIRITS de Shana Targosz

In her beautifully written and fiercely imaginative middle-grade novel, debut author Shana Targosz delivers an utterly original take on Greek mythology that’s a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and an incredibly nuanced portrayal of grief for a younger audience.

RIVER OF SPIRITS
by Shana Targosz
Simon & Schuster, Spring 2025
(via Writers House)

Senka lives between the realm of the Living and the realm of the Dead. As ward to Charon, the Ferryer of the Underworld, Senka assists Charon in ferrying recently departed souls across the river and into their afterlife. Although Charon has mentored her, and messenger-raven and tutor Mortimer has taught Senka a bit about the realm of the Living, there’s so much about the Underworld Charon has been keeping from her. Senka knows Charon forbids her from straying too far from their home (it’s Rule number five in the Rules for Ferryers, after all), and though she doesn’t understand why, she listens—there is nothing she wants more than to prove she can be a model Ferryer.

When a young boy’s soul gets yanked away by the river’s current, and when the boy’s living sister, Poppy, arrives in the Underworld and pleads for Senka’s help to find him, Senka is literally dragged downriver, far from everything she’s ever known. Lost in the Underworld, Senka and Poppy encounter malevolent spirits of lore and eccentric ghosts—and not all are willing to let souls slip through their grasp.

But the Living can’t stay in the realm of the Dead for long, and there are only three days until Poppy’s soul will also become lost to the Underworld. Senka must utilize everything she has learned in order to save Poppy from a fate worse than death. As Poppy and Senka dodge angry demigods, hungry wraiths, tricksy shape-shifters, and terrifying dragon chimera, Senka gets closer and closer to learning the truth of her own past. Soon, Senka won’t just need to save Poppy’s life—she’ll also need to save her own. . .

Shana Targosz is an Oregon Literary Fellow and the recipient of the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship for Young Readers. An alumni of Author Mentor Match (#AMM), she is a former Pitch Wars mentor and current AMM mentor, and has been a guest host on Grace Lin’s #kidlitwomen podcast.

WINK de Rob Harrell

A hilarious and heartwrenching story about surviving middle school–and an unthinkable diagnosis–while embracing life’s weirdness.

WINK
by Rob Harrell
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020
(via Writers House)

Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn’t want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don’t know what to say to « the cancer kid. » But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table.

Based on Rob Harrell’s real life experience, and packed with comic panels and spot art, this incredibly personal and poignant novel is an unforgettable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting story of survival and finding the music, magic, and laughter in life’s weirdness.

Rob Harrell created the Life of Zarf series, the graphic novel Monster on the Hill, and also writes and draws the long-running daily comic strip Adam@Home, which appears in more than 140 papers worldwide. He created and drew the internationally syndicated comic strip Big Top until 2007. He lives with his wife in Indiana.