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  • From the Mixed-Up Files... > Book Lists > A new page for ravenous readers

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    March 28, 2013: Big at Bologna

     

     

    This year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the focus has shifted to middle-grade.  “A lot of foreign publishers are cutting back on YA and are looking for middle-grade,” said agent Laura Langlie, according to Publisher's Weekly.  Lighly illustrated or stand-alone contemporary middle-grade fiction is getting the most attention.  Read more...

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    March 10, 2013: Marching to New Titles

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these titles releasing in March...

     

     

     

     

     

    March 5, 2013: Catch the BEA Buzz

     

    Titles for BEA's Editor Buzz panels have been announced.  The middle-grade titles selected are:

     

     

    A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson

     

     

    Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

     

     

    The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward

     

     

    Nick and Tesla's High-Voltages Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

     

     

    The Tie Fetch by Amy Herrick

     

    For more Buzz books in other categories, read more...

     

     

     

    February 20, 2013: Lunching at the MG Roundtable 

     

    Earlier this month, MG authors Jeanne Birdsall, Rebecca Stead, and N.D. Wilson shared insight about writing for the middle grades at an informal luncheon with librarians held in conjunction with the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Salon "Middle Grade: Surviving the Onslaught." 

     

     

    Read about their thoughts...

     

    February 10, 2013: New Books to Love

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these new titles releasing in February...

     

     

     

    January 28, 2013: Ivan Tops List of Winners 

    The American Library Association today honored the best of the best from 2012, announcing the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards, along with a host of other prestigious youth media awards, at their annual winter meeting in Seattle.

    The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Honor books were: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz; Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin; and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. 

    The Coretta Scott King Book Award went to Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

    The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author for his or her long-standing contributions to children’s literature, was presented to Katherine Paterson.  

    The Pura Belpre Author Award, which honors a Latino author, went to Benjamin Alire Saenz for his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was also named a Printz Honor book and won the Stonewall Book Award for its portrayal of the GLBT experience.

    For a complete list of winners…

     

    January 22, 2013: Biography Wins Sydney Taylor

    Louise Borden's His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, a verse biography of the Swedish humanitarian, has won the Sydney Taylor Award in the middle-grade category. The award is given annually to books of the highest literary merit that highlight the Jewish experience. Aimee Lurie, chair of the awards committee, writes, "Louise Borden's well-researched biography will, without a doubt, inspire children to perform acts of kindness and speak out against oppression."

    For more...

     

    January 17, 2013: Erdrich Wins Second O'Dell

    Louise Erdrich is recipient of the 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for her historical novel Chickadee, the fourth book in her Birchbark House series. Roger Sutton, Horn Book editor and chair of the awards committee, says of Chickadee, "The book has humor and suspense (and disarmingly simple pencil illustrations by the author), providing a picture of 1860s Anishinabe life that is never didactic or exotic and is briskly detailed with the kind of information young readers enjoy." Erdrich also won the O'Dell Award in 2006 for The Game of Silence, the second book in the Birchbark series. 

    For more...

     

    January 15, 2013: After the Call

    Past Newbery winners Jack Gantos, Clare Vanderpool, Neil Gaiman, Rebecca Stead, and Laura Amy Schlitz talk about how winning the Newbery changed (or didn't change) their lives in this piece from Publishers Weekly...

     

    January 2, 2013: On the Big Screen

    One of our Mixed-up Files members may be headed to the movies! Jennifer Nielsen's fantasy adventure novel The False Prince is being adapted for Paramount Pictures by Bryan Cogman, story editor for HBO's Game of Thrones. For more...

     


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A new page for ravenous readers

Nov 15, 2012
Book Lists, For Kids, Librarians, Parents, Teachers

Has this ever happened to you? Your favorite middle-grade reader has finished reading the latest stack of books from the library.

“More!” your reader says to you. “I want more! Give me more books!”

“Fine,” you say. You’ve already gone through all the book lists and book list blog posts on our site, so you browse aimlessly through your library’s online catalog. “What kind of book do you want?”

“I like sports and I like science. I want girl power. I want it to be funny, but not too hard to read. And it can’t have any of that icky stuff we learned about in Human Growth and Development.”

 

Where do you start?

 You can start here, at our new page, What should I read next?

Although we here at From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors think we have a pretty good site, there are lots more out there and we all have one goal in common–getting great books into the hands of readers. To help bring the resources of the online middle-grade community together, we’ve collected links to sites that review and categorize middle-grade books. Some are searchable, some are specialized, some are by kids, some are by librarians. Try out the sites and find the sites that are right for you. And if you have a favorite, please let us know so we can add it.

 

Jacqueline Houtman is a very slow reader, and her to-be-read pile is taking over her house. 

Written by: Jacqueline Houtman on November 15, 2012.
2 Comments
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2 Comments

  1. PragmaticMom  •  Nov 15, 2012 @9:56 pm

    Happens to me all the time with PickyKidPix, my 5th grader! And it is hard to find her books she likes. She lives up to her name. She is reading:

    Al Capone Does My Shirts and One Crazy Summer right now. She likes both books but it took several chapters before she settled into One Crazy Summer (and stopped complaining about it).

    Next, we are going to try Rocky Road…fingers crossed! She likes realistic fiction with special needs characters or just a really well written Newbery quality book. Her blog has the books that have met with her approval: http://pickykidpix.wordpress.com/

    I pull my hair out trying to find books for her in all honesty. I use this site plus read Newberyish books to screen for her. She finally trusts my picks for her! Phew!

  2. Jacqueline Houtman  •  Nov 16, 2012 @9:17 am

    Great book lists, thanks! Encourage her to keep at it. It’s a great service for kids.

    http://pickykidpix.wordpress.com/category/books-for-kids-my-age/