Archives de catégorie : Middle Grade

DOOM’S DAY CAMP de Joshua Hauke

The Last Kids on Earth meets Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children in this funny and adventurous middle-grade graphic novel set in a world where everyone has unusual abilities except for a boy named Doom . . . who just might have to save them all.

DOOM’S DAY CAMP
by Joshua Hauke
‎ Razorbill/Penguin YR, March 2022

Doom Thorax is destined for greatness! Well, maybe…His dad is, after all, the fiercest apocalyptic warrior to ever walk what’s left of the earth. Unfortunately, in a world where the remaining humans (if you can still call them that) all have extraordinary abilities, Doom is painfully ordinary. In fact, the only thing even remotely special about him is that he is the one person in their whole pack who can read.
When his dad leads the adults off to battle a mysterious new threat, Doom gets left in charge of all the other kids from his camp. The only problem is he can barely take care of himself, let alone a group of weirdos like them. What’s he supposed to feed a boy made of mud? Why is the girl with telekinesis such a headache? And how can he stop his super strong little sister from turning everyone against him? Doom has ¬ finally been given a chance to prove himself. But it may take a lot more than book smarts if he and the others are going to have any chance at surviving on their own.

Joshua Hauke was lucky enough to discover that he was a weirdo at a very young age. After breaking his drawing arm three times in a row, Joshua learned that he could teach almost any part of his body to pick up a pencil, including his opposite arm and his left earlobe. Eventually, he even trained his beard to help out! Joshua is the creator of the webcomic Tales of the Brothers Three, which is inspired by his own life growing up in the Midwest. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

GHOSTLIGHT de Kenneth Oppel

One teen’s summer job scaring tourists with ghost stories takes a terrifying turn when he accidentally summons the spirit of a dead girl—and she has demands. . . . The award-winning author of Airborn delivers a roller-coaster ride of a story about the wakeful and wicked dead.

GHOSTLIGHT
by Kenneth Oppel
Knopf, September 2022
(via Writers House)

Rebecca Strand was just sixteen when she and her father fell to their deaths from the top of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse in 1839. Just how they fell—or were they pushed?—remains a mystery. And their ghosts haunt the lighthouse to this day. . .
Gabe tells this story every day when he gives the ghost tour on Toronto Island. He tries to make it scary enough to satisfy the tourists, but he doesn’t actually believe in ghosts—until he finds himself face to face with Rebecca Strand. The true story of her death is far more terrifying than any ghost tale Gabe has told. Rebecca reveals that her father was a member of the Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead”—malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But the Order has disappeared, and Viker’s ghost is growing ever stronger. Now Gabe and his friends must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls. . . .

Kenneth Oppel was born in Port Alberni, a mill town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia but spent the bulk of his childhood in Victoria, B.C. and on the opposite coast, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is one of the most highly regarded authors of middle-grade fiction writing today. Some of his best-known titles are The Inkling, The Nest, Airborn, a 2005 Printz Honor Book, and Silverwing.

THE LOCK-EATER de Zack Loran Clark

For fans of Nevermoor and Howl’s Moving Castle comes an epic middle-grade fantasy about a girl with the ability to unlock anything—including the empire’s darkest secrets.

THE LOCK-EATER
by Zack Loran Clark
Dial Books/Penguin Young Readers, January 2022

Melanie Gate is a foundling with a peculiar talent for opening the unopenable—any lock releases at the touch of her hand. One night, her orphanage is visited by Traveler, a gearling automaton there on behalf of his magical mistress, who needs an apprentice pronto. When Melanie is selected because of her gift, her life changes in a flash, and in more ways than she knows—because Traveler is not at all what he seems. But then, neither is Melanie Gate.
So begins an epic adventure sparkling with magic, humor, secret identities, stinky cats, fierce orphan girls, impostor boys, and a foundling and gearling hotly pursued by the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the land.
Action-packed yet layered, THE LOCK-EATER is a mix of lush world-building, high stakes, humor, and emotional heft—a page-turner and so much more.

« An epic tapestry threaded with rich lore, vibrant characters, and a twisting plot that will have readers tumbling through the pages. Marrying the zany inventiveness of Alice in Wonderland with the thorough magical world-building of Howl’s Moving Castle, Clark creates a deeply immersive fantasy, full of both heft and humor, that’s sure to stay with young readers long after its final page is turned. » —Soman Chainani, New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil series

Zack Loran Clark is a writer and editor of children’s books, and the co-author of The Adventurers Guild trilogy. A lifelong fantasy nerd, avid Dungeons & Dragons player, and aspiring sorcerer, he lives with his husband and their dog in Brooklyn, New York.

MY LIFE BEGINS! de Patricia MacLachlan

Patricia MacLachlan has crafted another humorous and poignant early middle-grade novel about how life begins for Jacob when his triplet sisters are born, and how siblings get to know each other as time, and love, evolve.

MY LIFE BEGINS!
by Patricia MacLachlan
HarperCollins Children’s Books, July 2022

Jacob is nine years old when his life changes. He wants a litter of puppies. But instead his parents have a different surprise. Jacob will be an older brother soon. And there won’t be only one new baby. There will be three! When the triplets are born, Jacob thinks puppies are cuter. The babies look identical to him and he gives them a name: “the Trips.” For a school science project, Jacob decides to study the Trips. It feels like magic as they begin to smile, talk, and grow. Slowly, he gets to know each of them. They call his mother “Mama” and his father “Da.”
But what will they call him? One day, one of the Trips calls him “Jay.” As each of the triplets become unique and more special with each day, Jacob starts to wonder if “the Trips” is still a good name for them. They aren’t puppies, or a bunch of bananas, and they aren’t just “the Trips” anymore. What should he call them that will show what they mean to him? Can he figure out their “forever name?” And will he ever get a puppy?

Patricia MacLachlan is the celebrated author of many timeless books for young readers, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal. Her novels for young readers include Skylark, Caleb’s Story, More Perfect Than the Moon, Grandfather’s Dance, Word After Word After Word, Kindred Souls, The Truth of Me, The Poet’s Dog, Wondrous Rex, A Secret Shared, and My Father’s Words. She is also the author of many beloved picture books, a number of which she cowrote with her daughter, Emily. She lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

DEAR FRIENDS de Lisa Greenwald

The Friendship List meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this middle-grade novel about a girl who attempts to get over the worst BFF break-up ever by revisiting her top five friENDships to see if she can learn from past mistakes or if she’s doomed to be friendless 4ever.

DEAR FRIENDS
by Lisa Greenwald
HarperCollins Children’s Books, April 2022

When Eleni comes home from a lonely summer at camp only to get dumped by her BFF since kindergarten, she figures there’s got to be something wrong with her. Who loses two friends in span of a couple of months? So, she sets out to revisit her top five “friendship fails” in an attempt to figure out where she went wrong and what makes a good friend.
Along the way, Eleni reconnects with her across-the-street neighbor, a friend-turned-mean-girl from Hebrew school, and a friend who moved away in Pre-K, all while building new friendships in surprising ways. But will she ever truly work through the burn of losing her BFF?
In the vein of
High Fidelity and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Lisa Greenwald uses her exceptional skills at capturing tween social dynamics to explore the ins and outs of friendship in a humorous and insightful novel that affirms that we are all innately capable and worthy of 4ever friendship.

Lisa Greenwald is the author of the Friendship List, TBH, and the Pink & Green series. She works in the library at the Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan, is a graduate of The New School’s MFA program in writing for children, and lives on the Upper East Side with her husband and two kids.