Genre: Middle Grade

Bite-Sized Reviews of After the Fire, Watersnakes, Into the Bright Unknown and House Arrest

I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA contemp, a YA historical fantasy, a graphic novel, and a MG contemp in verse. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! If, like me, you’re fascinated by stories about cults, this book will be just what you’ve been searching for. It explores what happens to people after they leave a cult environment—in this case, unwillingly. I love that the book looks at all […]

Posted December 6, 2018 in Reviews / 14 Comments

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudy Trueit – Review & Giveaway

This is a fun and adventurous first book in a younger middle grade series. Filled with high-tech gadgets and virtual reality(ish) simulations of distant lands, it’s sure to capture readers’ imaginations. At the end of the book, there’s even some real-world discussion of innovations that could lead to the many different types of tech in the book—I loved that real-world tie-in. Cruz’s virtual “journeys” to different lands were interesting—I especially loved the trip to the butterfly conservation […]

Posted November 26, 2018 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 11 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Lying Woods, What If It’s Us, Between Shades of Gray and The Hotel Between

I’ve got four reviews for you today, a YA mystery, a YA contemporary, a YA historical fiction and a MG fantasy. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I always think I don’t really like mysteries, but then I read a book like this and it blows me away and I just want MORE! I have no idea how to review this book without giving things away, so I’m actually not going […]

Posted November 20, 2018 in Reviews / 34 Comments

The Camelot Code: The Once and Future Geek by Mari Mancusi – Review & Giveaway

This series is a fun middle grade romp through Camelot! What Fed My Addiction: King Arthur! I love all things Camelot, so the concept of this book had me hooked right from the start. Kids can get a little lesson on these epic characters in a fun format! (This makes me want to reread A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.) The story gives us a lot of the original Arthurian legends and then puts them […]

Posted November 19, 2018 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 6 Comments

Twilight of the Elves (& The Adventurers Guild) by Zack Loran Clark & Nick Eliopulos: Review & Giveaway

This series gives us a fun spin on a fantasy world inhabited by elves, dwarves and humans (not to mention some twisted otherworldly monsters). Zed is half elf and has spent his life trying to prove he’s worthy of attention. He’s always dreamed of becoming a mage and finally gaining status and respect, and he almost gets his dream … until things go wrong. Brock is Zed’s best friend, and he plans to follow in his parents’ footsteps […]

Posted November 5, 2018 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 13 Comments

The Adventurer’s Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White: A Dual Review with Danielle Hammelef

(No actual dueling—or even arm-twisting—was involved. Don’t worry, this is a dual review, not a duel review. Sorry if you’re disappointed.) Danielle Hammelef was the latest winner of my Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” giveaway, and she chose to make me read The Adventurer’s Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White. I’ll confess that I hadn’t given this book much thought it awhile, but it turned out to be a fantastic selection! I read the book […]

Posted October 30, 2018 in Dual Reviews, Reviews / 10 Comments

Lulu the Broadway Mouse by Jenna Gavigan: Review & Giveaway

This book is just plain cute. Since I was a theatre major in college, I loved all the references to how Broadway and theatre in general work. I think any little kid with dreams of being on the stage would really enjoy this story (and learn a lot from it too). The style is sort of interesting because it’s really pretty much a contemporary MG set in a Broadway theatre—except the MC happens to be […]

Posted October 26, 2018 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 0 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Shadow of the Fox, The Talon Series, Misfits, and Drama

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two YA fantasies, a MG fantasy, and a YA/MG graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Steeped in Japanese folklore, Shadow of the Fox is sure to please anyone who’s a fan of anime or manga or any reader who loves fantastical stories based on traditional lore. The book is dual-narrated: First we have Yumeko, who is half kitsune and […]

Posted September 27, 2018 in Reviews / 20 Comments

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes: Hispanic and Disability Rep + Mythology Not Many of Us Know About

There’s a whole lot to love about this little gem of a book. It’s an action-packed introduction to a little-known mythological system that features a hispanic, disabled MC. This sounds like a lot of rep and you might be wondering if the inclusion of the disability might seem like too much, but it’s all woven together seamlessly and given its due weight. What Fed My Addiction: Maya mythology. I knew absolutely nothing about Maya mythology going into […]

Posted September 21, 2018 in Middle Grade, Reviews / 20 Comments

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu: A Classroom Reading Review

I read this book with my homeschool language arts class (last spring—for some reason it’s taken me this long to post this—I have no idea why), and the class really enjoyed it! We started out by reading “The Snow Queen,” which the book is based on. It was fun to see the parallels between the two stories and to see where Ursu strayed from the original. The book is split into two parts—the first part […]

Posted September 14, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments