BookDragon Middle Grade Readers
Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Rift (Part Two) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler
25 Jul, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers
Just to be totally up front, we have four months of waiting for Part Three. Just saying (and sighing). Until then, in case you need to flash back, here's a look at Part One, which landed Avatar Aang and his motley entourage at what should have been the...
Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson
20 Jul, by in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
Readers with groupie-tendencies (like me), take careful note: Hattie Ever After is positive proof that if you ask an author enough times for more, you just might receive. "When I left Hattie at the end of Hattie Big Sky," confesses Kirby Larson in her ending "Author's...
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
13 Jul, by in Audio, Australian, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
Micah is a boy. Micah is a girl. Micah is 17, a senior in a progressive New York City private school. Micah's father went to Marseille in search of his unknown black French father and came back with a white French wife. Micah's father is an...
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
04 Jul, by in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
Although Fridays are predominantly reserved for manga, I thought July Fourth trumped the usual today. Kirby Larson’s Hattie Big Sky, a 2007 Newbery Honor title, examines American patriotism from a perspective I can't remember encountering before in fiction. While the target audience is younger readers, surely adults...
Better Nate than Ever by Tim Federle
29 Jun, by in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific
Nate Foster, who at "four foot eight" looks much younger that his almost-14 years, makes up for his diminutive height with outsized dreams – and the grandest of plans to make them come true. While his parents are away for a romantic weekend (Dad's trying to make...
Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff and Laura DeLuca
25 Jun, by in African, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
Not quite a teenager, Poni loses her 12-year-old best friend in violent increments: to too-early forced marriage, three failed suicide attempts, and finally to childbirth long before her natural time. Poni – and her fiercely supportive mother – are determined that Poni will somehow stay in school...
Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
20 Jun, by in Biography, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers
Some time in the recent past, a video link came through that began with birthday wishes for Anne Frank, as if she had miraculously survived the Holocaust and lived many fulfilling decades. [I can't seem to find the link again, so if anyone recognizes the description...
Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew
13 Jun, by in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Malaysian, Middle Grade Readers, Singaporean, Young Adult Readers
You can go two ways here: 1. Just read this as is, without context or background, and you would enjoy it immensely because it's just so much fun; 2. Invest a little research time before you open the book and reach the final page satisfied and...
Soldier Doll by Jennifer Gold
12 Jun, by in Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
Canadian lawyer/author Jennifer Gold’s debut novel starts with such promise: a contemporary teenager's discovery of the eponymous "soldier doll" is interwoven with the doll's near-century-long journey from Europe to the U.S. to Vietnam, landing in a garage sale in Toronto to be bargained for a mere...
A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt
11 Jun, by in Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
"Look at us. A family of four. Seated around the dinner table," 16-year-old Simone observes. "We do this every night. ...
Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad by Monica Edinger, illustrated by Robert Byrd
09 Jun, by in Biography, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific
In what should have been a year-long contract of difficult labor as a "pawn" for a 9-year-old girl whose family cannot survive otherwise, becomes a horrific journey to the other side of the world. Named Magulu by her parents, she becomes Margru because of a...
Every Day by David Levithan
25 May, by in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
I really, really don't want to tell you what this book is about because I don't want to ruin your delight of discovery. I knew nothing at all of its premise ...
Summer Wars (vols. 1-2) by Mamoru Hosoda, illustrated by Iqura Sugimoto, character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
16 May, by in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers
"2010 late July. A record of the biggest, hottest summer of my life." High school student Kenji is 17, and mourning the fact that he "failed to become Japan's rep in the Math Olympics." At the suggestion of his best friend Sakuma, he's agreed to...
Legend Trilogy: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion by Marie Lu
13 May, by in Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
While production doesn't seem to have started just yet, news that Marie Lu's bestselling dystopic trilogy is coming to a theater near you keeps resurfacing since CBS Films bought rights to Legend in 2011. That Lu has a much-hyped new series, The Young Elites, hitting shelves this fall, will surely add pressure to...
The Shadow Mother by Seán Virgo, illustrated by Javier Serrano Pérez
11 May, by in Adult Readers, Canadian, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
Confession: this post appears today only because of the word "Mother" in the title. In the U.S. and many countries around the world, the second Sunday in May is designated "Mother's Day" [check out this comprehensive chart for a Mother's Day near you!]. So here's the warning: if you're...
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
24 Apr, by in Australian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers
As I feel I know so little about the literature of our Down Under friends, I admit I'm surprised to find I've posted almost 30 titles with Australian origins here on BookDragon thus far. If you were to pop-quiz me on Aussie authors, my instant...