Category Archives: Middle Grade & Children’s

This tag contains all books tagged as Middle Grade fiction and relevant non-fiction.

Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi

Aru is only just getting the hang of this whole Pandava thing when the Otherworld goes into full panic mode. The god of love’s bow and arrow have gone missing, and the thief isn’t playing Cupid. Instead, they’re turning people into heartless fighting-machine zombies. If that weren’t bad enough, somehow Aru gets framed as the thief. If she doesn’t find the arrow by the next full moon, she’ll be kicked out of the Otherworld. For good. But, for better or worse, she won’t be going it alone. Along with her soul-sister, Mini, Aru will team up with Brynne, an ultra-strong girl who knows more than she lets on, and Aiden, the boy who lives across the street… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Animal attack
  • Bullying

Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi

Aru Shah and her sisters–including one who also claims to be the Sleeper’s daughter–must find their mentors Hanuman and Urvashi in Lanka, the city of gold, before war breaks out between the devas and asuras. Aru has just made a wish on the tree of wishes, but she can’t remember what it was. She’s pretty sure she didn’t wish for a new sister, one who looks strangely familiar and claims to be the Sleeper’s daughter, like her. Aru also isn’t sure she still wants to fight on behalf of the devas in the war against the Sleeper and his demon army. The gods have been too devious up to now. Case in point: Kubera, ruler of the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Nightmares
  • Sword violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Disappearance of a parent
  • War themes & battle scenes, on-page

Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi

The Pandavas only have until the next full moon to stop the Sleeper from gaining access to the nectar of immortality, which will grant him infinite power. But how can Aru, Mini, and Brynne hope to defeat him without their celestial weapons? The Sleeper and his army are already plundering the labyrinth, and the sisters can’t even enter. Their quest to get in will have them calling on old friends, meeting new allies, and facing fearsome trials, like…performing in a rock concert? When the moment of confrontation finally arrives, it’s up to Aru to decide who deserves immortality, the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Memory loss (magical)
  • Kidnapping & captivity of a child
  • Poisoning
  • Battle scenes
  • Animal attack (bear)

Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

War between the devas and the demons is imminent, and the Otherworld is on high alert. When intelligence from the human world reveals that the Sleeper is holding a powerful clairvoyant and her sister captive, 14-year-old Aru and her friends launch a search-and-rescue mission. The captives, a pair of twins, turn out to be the newest Pandava sisters, though, according to a prophecy, one sister is not true. During the celebration of Holi, the heavenly attendants stage a massage PR rebranding campaign to convince everyone that the Pandavas are to be trusted. As much as Aru relishes the attention, she fears that she is destined to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Mentions of experiences in the foster care system
  • Nightmares
  • Drugging
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping

The Spirit Glass by Roshani Chokshi

Corazon yearns to finally start training as a babaylan (a mystical healer and spirit guide) under her powerful guardian, Aunt Tina. As soon as her magic awakens, Corazon plans to bring her parents back from the dead and no longer have to rely on a soul key to allow visits with her their ghosts for a few hours every Saturday night. But when a vengeful ghost steals Corazon’s precious key, the fragile balance between the human world and the spirit world is thrown out of whack. Aunt Tina reveals that if Corazon wants her magic to awaken, then she just lay the ghost to rest by fashioning a new soul key. With her rather bloodthirsty… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cigar smoking mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Mentions of a mother, father & son being burned alive in their home

New from Here by Kelly Yang

When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work. At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • COVID-19

The Chaos Curse by Sayantani DasGupta

Kiranmala must leave the Kingdom Beyond and travel to her hometown of Parsippany to save Prince Lal, who has been spirited to the unlikeliest of places — a tree in the yard of her best-enemy-for-life. She also faces evil serpents (of course!), plus a frightening prophecy about her role in the coming conflict between good and evil. Most troubling of all, though, is the way reality all around her seems to waver and flicker at odd moments. Could it be that the Anti-Chaos Committee’s efforts are causing a dangerous disruption in the multiverse? Kiran must grapple with the increasingly tangled threads that threaten to ensnare her…and everyone in the world and the Kingdom Beyond.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Internalised racism & colourism
  • Arrow violence

The Poison Waves by Sayantani DasGupta

Kiya and Kinjal have succeeded in their first quest in the magical world of the Kingdom Beyond, but it quickly becomes obvious that whatever good they achieved might not be enough. Their faithful flying horses Snowy and Raat reappear and whisk them back to the Kingdom at the behest of the magical Princess Pakkhiraj. There, she tells them the water pari–winged merpeople–are slowly being poisoned and it is up to the twins to figure it out and put a stop to it. Fortunately Kiya has the know how to solve this mystery…if only she can put the pieces together before the evil serpent king Sesha knows they’ve reentered the Kingdom!

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Arrow violence
  • Fire
  • Earthquakes & mud slides
  • Animal illness & death (horse, fish)

9/11 by Alan Gratz

9/11 by Alan Gratz

September 11, 2001. New York City. Nine-year-old Brandon goes to work with his dad on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an aeroplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion that threatens everyone in the building. Can Brandon survive–and escape? September 11, 2019. Afghanistan. Eleven-year-old Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help him–and put herself and her family in mortal danger?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • War themes
  • The events of 9/11 (theme) including building collapse and plane crash

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Brent Schoonover

In this thrilling historical adventure, 18-year-old Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes are fighting in WWII when they encounter a threat like none they’ve ever seen — a Ghost Army. The dead of this war and wars past are coming back to life, impervious to bullets, flames, or anything else the Allies can throw at them. The armies rise from the ground in the night and seem to disappear without a trace. How can Cap and Buck fight something that’s already dead? And just what does the mysterious Baron Mordo, sitting in his castle atop nearby Wundagore Mountain have to do with this?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nazism
  • Death from a head injury (sc)
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)