The six books I have on my TBR for Middle Grade March 2024.
One thing that is important to me as a reader is reading widely. To me, that means including a good variety of genres and authors — even books for young readers! This is especially important to me as a mom because reading the same books as your kids can give you a valuable point of connection.
For those reasons, I always look forward to putting together a list of books to read for Middle Grade March, a month dedicated to promoting books for readers in the 8-12 demographic.
Books for kids are usually pretty fun and can also be good palate cleansers between heavier adult books, though many of them also deal with heavy topics in age-appropriate ways. This year, I’m choosing books that I think I might be putting on my girls’ summer reading lists to make sure they are as interesting as they sound. I want to make sure I’m giving them excellent reading experiences so that they trust my recommendations!
Here are the books I chose for my Middle Grade March 2024 list, along with their back cover descriptions:
Four orphans have escaped from the Home for Friendless Children. One is Lucy, who used to talk and sing. No one knows why she doesn’t speak anymore; silence is her protection.
The orphans find work and new friends at a traveling circus. Lucy loves caring for the elephants, but she must be able to speak to them, and to warn others of danger. If Lucy doesn’t find her voice, she’ll be left behind when the circus goes on the rails. Meanwhile, people are searching for Lucy, and her puzzling past is about to catch up with her.
Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow’s only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar.
Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn’t until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger.
The story of Mary Tudor’s childhood is a classic fairy tale: A princess who is to inherit the throne of England is separated from her mother; abused by an evil stepmother who has enchanted her father; stripped of her title; and forced to care for her baby stepsister, who inherits Mary’s rights to the throne. Believe it or not, it’s all true.
Told in the voice of the young Mary, this novel explores the history and intrigue of the dramatic rule of Henry VIII, his outrageous affair with and marriage to the bewitching Anne Boleyn, and the consequences of that relationship for his firstborn daughter. Carolyn Meyer has written a compassionate historical novel about love and loss, jealousy and fear–and a girl’s struggle with forces far beyond her control.
As a baby, Noah Minor miraculously—and mysteriously—survived a fall from a sixteen-story balcony. But ever since then, Noah’s life has been pretty boring.
As he enters seventh grade, Noah is hoping to be less ordinary and more extraordinary, like his best friends, trumpet prodigy Rodney and the practically perfect Haley. So Noah’s sure his star is on the rise when during a standard vision test, he learns he can manipulate gravity and is recruited to train with Gravitas, a top-secret government agency!
Noah thinks his life will now be awesome, but instead, he has a whole new set of problems. The biggest one: His great-uncle Saul is on Gravitas’s most-wanted list . . . but might also be the only person who can help Noah reach his full potential.
When Death has a story to tell, you listen.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Escape from the Everglades is the first book in the High Water series and blends contemporary mystery and suspense, dramatic situations, and high adventure that both boys and girls will love.
A park ranger’s son hates the Everglades, and he thinks he’ll just die if he doesn’t escape Southern Florida soon . . . and he’s right. After Parker Buckman is mauled and nearly killed by an alligator, he sees the glades as a place of death. All he wants to do is get out of the area, and he’s convinced he won’t truly be okay until he does. But he can’t leave until he finds a friend who goes missing.
Escaping a bad situation isn’t a matter of a geographical change. Sometimes the best way to a brighter future is to face the darkness of your past.