mglit | Page 5 of 8 | Daddy Mojo

Finch House nails the age-appropriate scary scene for ages eight and up

The other year I read The Thief of Always to a group of fifth-grade students. I personally had read some Clive Barker before and wasn’t familiar with this dark fantasy release that’s come to be a modern-day classic. What makes that book so awesome is what makes Finch House, a really great book for those middle-elementary school through lower middle-school readers. It’s age-appropriate scary, which is a really tough characteristic to nail down because if it’s too soft then the young readers will see it as babyish and if it’s too graphic then it won’t be attractive to those readers at all.

Finch House is an age-appropriate ghost tale for ages eight and up that starts dark and evolves into a heartfelt story with spooky vibes.

finicky mglit readers who want genuine creeps beware

In the Tunnel, realistic fiction that breathes life into mglit

There is a reason that people read different types of genres. If you read stories that roughly revolve around the same characters or situations that you’re used to then your perspective will never expand or be challenged. Don’t misinterpret that sentence. By “challenge” I mean “to grow” or expand what you think that you know, and not to confront or bicker merely for the sake of argument. Granted, some books will certainly troll or bait folks into circular conflict, but literature like that is easy to spot. Into the Tunnel is realistic fiction that “challenges” mglit readers in just the right way.

In the Tunnel slow boils its way into your awareness with a realistic fiction story about family, war, oppression and the will to survive.

Branch on out and try mglit with a historical fiction, humanity vibe

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S, is story strong mglit

Charming is an underused and dangerous word to describe mglit. Some readers might view it as a less juvenile way to describe something when you’re tempted to use ‘cute’. The kitten is cute. The behavior of someone else’s six-year-old child is cute. The behavior of any 10-year-old does not want to be perceived as cute. That’s the sort of behavior that causes your grandmother to pinch your cheeks, and no self-respecting kid over eight wants that. The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. by Tom Phillips, is a very charming book in the best of all possible ways. It’s mglit that’s the second one in the series and has enough humor, action, and intrigue to hook readers who are in middle school and older.

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. is story centric mglit that readers can jump into this sophomore entry and still be comfortable.

MGLIT in its sophomore book that hooks in readers who don’t know about ti

Men of the 65th, Borinqueneers, Korean War and mglit history

Uphill, both ways, that’s the cliché that parents will use when describing how challenging things were when they were younger as compared to today’s children. It’s usually preceded or followed by “back in my day” for full get-off-of-my-lawn effect. In that vein, Men of the 65th: The Borinqueneers of the Korean War has the very challenging goal of making readers care about a regiment that they probably haven’t heard of from a war that they most likely know nothing about. To make things even more problematic, the book is aimed at middle and high school students.

Men of the 65th is a non-fiction look at this Puerto Rican regiment that served heroically but was castigated due to prejudice.

Non-fiction that plays it straight for middle school and up

Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After sticks the finale

Trilogies are tricky business. Which came first, the trilogy or the story? That’s the question that sometimes vexes readers and reviewers. If you add too much backstory then it could water down the traction that readers would have with the characters, but if you don’t add enough then people won’t be emotionally invested in them. I completely understand the creative will to have more than one book, but am aware that it can be perceived as simply needing multiple entries to sell books. It’s a thin line, isn’t it? Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After (or Once Upon Another Time 3) deftly approaches that line, happily looks over it, and then dances back and forth over that line on repeated occasions.

Happily Ever After, the third and final book in the Once Upon Another Time series, pokes, dances and has fun with expectations and fairy tale tropes.

Rounding out the series with fun to spare

Time to Roll, continues to move with middle school, mglit ease

You don’t need to read Roll With It in order to enjoy Time to Roll. As a matter of fact, that first book snuck up on us because it adhered to the age-old saying of not judging a book by its cover. Time to Roll follows that formula so successfully that it doesn’t feel like a sequel to another book, but it is. Part of that is our fault because we’ve seen too many follow-ups, sequels, or properties that intended to make themselves multiple entries; but instead merely check off formulaic boxes. Middle school readers, if they give Time To Roll an opportunity, will find themselves enjoying a story that they never thought they would.

Time to Roll is realistic fiction, great storytelling that tells us about two people that we don’t know, but seems a lot like someone that we might.

Realistic fiction that’s on a roll with readers

The Umbrella Maker’s Son left us feeling all wet

It’s possible to be too clever or too meta when audiences aren’t ready for it yet. The Umbrella Maker’s Son falls into one, or two of those traps.* The surface of The Umbrella Maker’s Son has a lot going for it that will be attractive to middle school readers. Oscar Buckle is the titular son of an umbrella maker, named after their family and boy does the city ever need umbrellas.** Everything is going well with Buckle and their umbrellas, after all, they’re the best in town and priced appropriately.**** Unfortunately, the city’s other umbrella manufacturer is selling more market share. This causes Oscar to have to quit school and work for his father as an apprentice to learn the family business and ask questions about the competitor.

The Umbrella Maker’s Son is softly paced mglit that meanders its way to a fate that readers can see coming.

Sometimes, less is more

Far Out! uses UFOs as cover for a deeper story

Imagine that I’m going to tell you a story about pizza. This pizza starts out in a kitchen, it’s dirtier than most places to cook that you’ve seen, but it gets the job done. The person who works in this kitchen is quite the character. They’ve also got a family who is going through some challenging times that are firmly in the vein of realistic fiction. Having said all of that, is my story more about the pizza, the family, or the place where it’s cooked? Far Out! is mglit that has a similar problem. Its cover hooks you with the 1960s-styled couple of teenagers who are sitting on a wall at night. The girl is using a magnifying glass to examine a rock and the boy is looking towards the sky, presumably for UFOs.

Far Out! is mglit with a deeper story that readers who like to read will enjoy, but uses UFOs to bait the hook.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, really