Middle Grade Fiction – Mom Read It

Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads

Cybils Finalists Announced!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’m sorry to be a bit late on the news, I’ve been in bed with an awful head cold. But the great news is that the 2014 Cybils Finalists have been announced!

You can find the full list of finalists, across all categories, here.

I had the honor and privilege of being a first round judge in the Middle Grade Fiction category this year – and WOW, what an amazing experience that was! We had over 130 entries this year; 34 of which I ended up reading. And I was in the minority, which fills me with even more amazement and respect of my fellow children’s book bloggers/teachers/librarians/bibliophiles. Here’s hoping that next year, I’ll get to participate again, and I promise, I’ll get more of those books in. In the meantime, I’ve discovered so many new, exciting books that I can now handsell to the kids at all of my libraries and in my life. It’s a great feeling.

If you’d like to just go straight to the Middle Grade Fiction nominees, click here – I wrote the blurb for The Meaning of Maggie, a book which I hope everyone will read and find meaning in as I did.

More reviews to come in this New Year – and I resolve to get more picture book reviews in; I seem to have gone lacking in that area. If you have a book you think I’m missing out on, please let me know!

Have a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Fiction, Middle Grade

Cybils Middle Grade At-a-Glance: The Meaning of Maggie & All Four Stars

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I’ve been quiet lately, because I’ve been plowing through my Cybils middle grade fiction nominees. Here are some thoughts.

The Meaning of Maggie, by Megan Jean Sovern (2014, Chronicle Books) $16.99, ISBN: 978-1452110219

Recommended for ages 9-12

Set in the 1980s, Maggie’s an 11 year-old girl who wants to be president one day. She’s funny, quirky, and seemingly always at odds with her two older sisters. Her family is coping with her father’s increasingly worsening multiple sclerosis, the severity of which they try to shield from Maggie.

I enjoyed this book, in part because one of my childhood friends lost her mom to MS. Reading this book helped me, in a way, understand what my friend went through all those years ago, when we were all far too young to understand it. The author drew upon her own life to write this book, and for that, I’m thankful. Maggie is engaging and quirky, and as frustrating as I found her dad, in his ultimate quest to “be cool”, I saw his struggle to hang on when everything was falling apart around him.

All Four Stars, by Tara Dairman (2014, Putnam Juvenile), $16.99, ISBN: 978-0399162527

Recommended for ages 9-12

An 11 year-old foodie raised by junk food junkies has to be one of the best story plots I’ve come across in a while!

Gladys LOVES cooking. It’s her passion. She has a cookbook collection, watches cooking shows with a passion her classmates reserve for video games… and her parents just don’t get it. They microwave everything that they don’t bring home in a greasy bag. How can a foodie live like this?

When Gladys enters an essay contest for the New York Standard newspaper, her essay ends up in the hands of the food editor – who thinks it’s a cover letter. Gladys finds herself with a freelance assignment – to test out a new dessert restaurant in Manhattan! How can she visit the restaurant and write her review without her parents catching on?

This book just made me happy. It’s a fun story, with an instantly likable main character. Even her antagonists are likable, if a bit clueless. The plot moves along at a great pace, and I found myself chuckling out loud at some of the situations Gladys found herself in while trying to keep her secret. This is a great book to put into kids’ hands, a welcome lift from the heaviness that seems to permeate middle grade realistic fiction these days. I can’t wait to read the sequel, The Stars of Summer, when it hits shelves this summer.

Early Reader, Graphic Novels, Toddler Reads, Tween Reads, Young Adult/New Adult

Have you nominated your Cybils books yet?

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Cybils are Children’s and YA bloggers literary awards – we bloggers nominate, read, and vote for these books, folks! I’m thrilled to be a Middle Grade Fiction judge this year, and as a first round judge, I have to read all the nominees and whittle them down for the next round!

Nominations are open until October 15, so please go make your voice heard! The following categories are accepting nominations for children’s and YA published between October 16, 2013 and October 15, 2014:

Young Adult Non-fiction
Young Adult Speculative Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
Poetry
Book Apps
Middle Grade Fiction
Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction
Elementary/Middle Grade Non-fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphics
Easy Reader/Short Chapter Books

You can nominate one title per category, so make it your favorite!