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Read It Now on NetGalley!
This week on NetGalley you can find a preview copy of a sweet picture book about chasing away fears and feeling happy in the moment. COME BACK OUT, MOLE! from NubeOcho in their “Somos8” series featuring the first experiences, sensations, and difficulties which are part of children’s lives in accessible, nondidactic animal stories. Mole is afraid and nothings his friends seem to suggest lures him from the burrow where he feels safe. How will Badger, Beaver, and Squirrel help him tom overcome his fears and join them again? Written by Alicia Acosta, illustrated by Alessandro Montagnana, and translated from Spanish by Cecilia Ross, this title will be available in this English edition and the original Spanish upon publication.
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Our Latest Article
- A Smorgasbord of Series for Middle Graders
As a librarian who has provided readers’ advisory support on the front line with kids, teens, and adults, and now trains library staff in both public and school libraries to deliver support for readers and would-be readers, I have come to recognize some salient differences among the age ranges:
- Individual adults are way less interested in reading outside the genre(s) each has determined to be their favored while
- Kids who enjoy reading are open to exploring a variety of genres as well as “nongenre” reading material
- Genre fiction provides some great ways to explore features of non-genre literature—and of life on the cusp of tweendom!
Genre fiction written for and engaging to middle graders features some developmentally attuned resonance, including characters who can seem to become personal friends (or enemies!) of the readers, plots that combine series-familiar elements with introductions to new and unfamiliar ones, and a reassuring certainty that there will be another story enough like this one (while promising something beyond this one) to know what to read next. These are books that can also are good read-alouds, making them even more widely accessible, and provide good launch titles for newly forming middle grade book discussions given the peer recognition and recommendations made by those in the group who are already won over to the series as a continuing reading adventure.
MYSTERY AT THE BILTMORE
MYSTERY AT THE BILTMORE provides middle graders, including those just moving from earlier reader stage chapter books, with a straight-up mystery presented and resolved in each volume. Written by teacher and kid-attuned author Colleen Nelson, published by Pajama Press, and replete with full color illustrations by Peggy Collins, the series has already grown to three volumes with the fourth waiting in Spring’s wings. Elodie LaRue shares some qualities in common with other fictional heroines: she lives in New York, in a grand building with interesting neighbors, and she is both bold and resourceful. While she may have foremothers in fictional New Yorkers Eloise (who lived at the Plaza in the picture books by Kay Tompson) and Harriet (who spied on her neighbors and was created by Louise Fitzhugh), Elodie is her own distinct person. Each case she sets to solve—accompanied by friend Oscar as well as her dog, Carnegie—involves the classic trope of mysteries, the red herring, well realized depictions of classic quirky character types, and a setting that involves a classically appointed New York edifice. So what do each these mysteries entail in terms of premise?
The first in the series entails The Vanderhoff Heist, and the search is on to discover the whereabouts of Mrs. Vanderhoff’s missing sapphire earrings. Next up is The Classified Catnapping in which a Biltmore resident’s celebrity status means Elodie and her LaRue Detective Agency must keep their investigation of the mystery a secret. Then comes A Recipe for Robbery and the hunt is on to find the recipe stolen—and of course the errant thief—of Biltmore resident and innovative Chef Sebastian. The newest in the series follows Elodie and pals hunting for a missing Jackson Pollock painting and a forged replacement in The Farouk Forgery case.
Find out more about the author and the series in this interview with Colleen Nleson published in The Open Book.
ALICE ÉCLAIR, SPY EXTRAORDINAIRE!
ALICE ÉCLAIR, SPY EXTRAORDINAIRE! offers middle graders experience with historical fiction as well as spy-featuring plots. Written by Sarah Todd Taylor and published by Nosy Crow, the series is set in Paris in the 1930’s. Thirteen-year-old Alice assists her mother in the family’s pastry shop and plans to pursue fancy baking as a career. And then she finds herself leading a double life: baking by day and engaged in an international spy chase after hours. Like Nelson, Todd knows how to create strong female characters ready for daring do and attractive leads for middle graders looking for admirable yet nicely rounded characters. This series has already reached four volumes in the UK and now has the first two available to North American kids.
The series opener, A Recipe for Trouble, introduces the heroine, the setting, and the time period, all so deftly that young readers are pulled into Alice’s world of chasing the enemy aboard a train where everyone seems to be hiding a secret. Her own secret spy tool? A whisk, of course! Next up is A Spoonful of Spying, a spying assignment set against the World Fair. Inventors featured as prides of French aviation ingenuity at the Fair, however, are at risk from enemy spies and Alice must fly to their rescue. What’s next? In A Sprinkling of Danger Alice once again must use her persona as a pastry chef, this time going undercover to identify who is behind the thefts of national treasures from the Palace of Versailles—while protecting France’s own secret agents from information leaks endangering them. And the spy work isn’t finished yet; Alice will need her baking know how as well as her investigation chops to ferret out others threatening her country.
You can visit author Sarah Todd Taylor’s website for more about this series and other books she’s written for kids.
THE PINCHERS
While Elodie and Alice are recognized by friends and family as motivated to do the right thing, THE PINCHERS features a hero who is the black sheep of his family: the Pinchers are criminals and Theo is, well, honest. Written by Anders Sparring, illustrated in color by Per Gustavsson, translated to English from Swedish by Julia Marshall, and published by Gecko Press, the series delivers wit and skewed plotting for middle graders looking for comic relief. The hero/antihero reveals fresh perspectives on character traits and might even set kids up for ready appreciation of sophisticated comedies in which farce delivers social critique.
Theo is introduced with The Pinchers and the Diamond Heist when his parents are out casing a diamond exhibit and he’s trying to get a substitute bedtime story reader for his little sister. Theo can’t lie and he doesn’t steal—and these are big problems for him as they are activities of great importance to the rest of his family. Next up in the series The Pinchers and the Dog Chase features a highly disagreeable police officer. In this outing, Theo earns a bit of respect from his criminal family by not only saving their dog (suitably named Sherlock) but also makes sure that the truth about this bad policeman comes out and he is suitably disgraced. The Pinchers and the Curse of the Egyptian Cat involves an accident that releases a potentially bothersome curse: it turns the dishonest into honest folks! How will Theo help his family out of this jam?
The team of Anders Sparring and Per Gustavsson stay in character as they discuss their creation of Theo and his family in this interview.
Each of these series continues to grow, welcome news for kids who become fans and need to know that more is on the way. Their settings and plots do not rely on popular culture of the moment and instead offer potential for future discovery by new generations of middle grade readers hungry to gobble their mysteries, adventures, and good humor.