The Bones of Ruin is a big book. It’s the thick kind of upper mglit book that starts with that age range, but demos north for some readers. This is a story whose scope of action grows with each chapter and new character introduction and mysterious ability that they have. Aside from having one of the coolest titles I’ve seen in ages, The Bones of Ruin comes across as a book that will make the rounds for high school kids as a smart, alternate history tale that could possibly lead to the apocalypse.
Our 12YO read Middle School Bites: Out For Blood so quickly that I thought he was trying to distract me from something else. It’s not I thought he was lying, but he got the book on Friday and had read it by Tuesday. Combine that timeframe with middle school, LEGO, Scouts video games, and something didn’t add up. He told me the plot of Out For Blood, I then read it for myself and had a similar experience, except I read it two days quicker. Apparently, I need to play more video games, buy more LEGO sets, or otherwise engage my time, or maybe not.
Middle school books sometimes exist in the middle of the Venn Diagram. That’s the spot where a myriad of kids could enjoy the book for any number of reasons. Overlaid on that diagram is the very black and white metric of ‘kids want to read it’ and ‘kids don’t want to read it’. To make things even more complex there’s a duo chromatic lens that asks the very simple question of ‘is the book good?’, with a yes/no slider that could help middle school readers find that book. Of course, this silly way of quantifying children’s literature doesn’t exist. However, when I read a book that’s aimed at middle school readers my imagination creates this matrix and tries to think like a kid. Frankie & Bug is mglit that hammers some of these categories home, while creating a whole new “yes, but…” category that will inspire some readers while frustrating others.
I love great books. Actually, it stands to reason that anybody who likes to read loves great books. It’s probably even more important for reluctant readers and younger readers to dig into those great books. If you have a third-grade reader then The One And Only Ivan is a great book. It’s a novel that feels big and gives those ages confidence that they’re able to read, understand and enjoy books that they thought were previously out of their range. It’s a modern classic that elementary school readers will still be reading in 100 years. In reading the press about Once Upon A Camel, it was often compared to that book, which I found a little insulting. Ivan is a book that gave our kid confidence and taught our youngest son. That book has memories. How dare something new and unproven be compared to the book that provided the literary bridge to our child, I thought. All of that was until I actually read Once Upon A Camel.
“That’s life, welcome to fourth grade” is what I said in response to my class whining about the amount of work I was giving them. I consider that a precursor to what these students will experience in two years in middle school. The soft, forgiving way in which tests can be retaken again, and students are given a worst-case scenario of 70 are gone. They’ve been replaced with a still very generous, method of being able to re-take a test once, but the score you get is what you get. One Kid’s Trash is not as direct as my teaching methods, thankfully. This is a book for upper elementary and middle school students about life as the way they see it and live it. For those science-fiction or graphic novel readers, that’s not a bad thing.
Sixth grade is a magical time. It’s when kids are getting old enough to do some of the really cool things in life, are discovering their own social circles, and are just clinging on to that ability to be utterly silly. On the surface, Long Distance by Whitney Gardner, feels like some other early middle school graphic novels that you’ve seen. There are some overlapping themes and it’s easy to compare Long Distance to Lumberjanes as a sister by another mother. But just one moment, do not get lulled into a sense of malaise or that you fully know what to expect with this graphic novel.
“This better not end in a cliffhanger”, I told my wife as I was finishing Mission Multiverse. It’s not that I don’t like cliffhanger endings, it’s just that sometimes when they end that way I feel cheated. Mission Multiverse is a great book. It sounds like I’m setting it up for some form of a backhanded compliment, but I’m not. It’s a very satisfying middle-grade book that exceeded my expectations. The reason that the words are coming out wonky is that it initially didn’t seem like it would be an entertaining book.
It goes without saying that books should be entertaining. But, I just said it, so sometimes we need to be reminded of the fact that some books are better than others. The Last Fallen Star is an entertaining, complete book that also opens it up to a larger world. The book is in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint from Disney Books and rewards readers more thoroughly than some of its contemporaries.
It can also be said that there is no bad pizza. There is simply pizza that is better than other pizza. The Last Fallen Star is literary pizza that is better than others. The book is part of the Gifted Clans Novel series by Graci Kim. It’s important not to cringe when you see that the first book in a series is already part of a planned series, much less one that has Rick Riordan Presents, before the title. I am all for letting a series or franchise prove its worth, let the one book be successful, and then deliver more. However, I can also see from the creator’s perspective that a greater story roadmap needs to be laid out so that they, as well as the reader, can let their imagination wander about what could happen to the characters.
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