Category Archives: Middle Grade & Children’s

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

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)

Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Two Degrees by Alan Gratz

Fire. Flood. Ice. Three natural disasters. Three kids who must fight to survive—and change things for the better. In California, Akira Kristiansen is driving through the mountains with her mom when a wildfire sparks — and grows scarily fast. In just moments, Akira and her family have to evacuate… but which way is safe with fire all around them? In Churchill, Manitoba, Owen Mackenzie is running a tour for travellers who’ve come to see the polar bears. Lately, the bears show up more and more as the ice thins. When Owen and his friend see a bear much too close for comfort, they end up in a fight for their lives. In Miami, a hurricane bear… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Depiction of dead bodies
  • Hurricanes
  • Wildfire
  • Flood
  • Animal attack (polar bear)

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz

Welcome to D-Day. Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee — along with his brothers-in-arms — is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders. But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)
  • Train accident
  • Bullying

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Infiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage. World War II is raging. Michael O’Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth. But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for. But he joins in the Hitler Youth’s horrific games and book burnings, playing the part so he can gain insider knowledge. When Michael learns about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission, things get even more complicated. He must prove his loyalty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • War World Two (theme)

Prisoner B3087 by Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It’s something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prison, his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend
  • Imprisonment in concentration camps (theme)
  • War World Two & the Holocaust