Middle Grade Readers Archives - Page 18 of 39

Wandering Son (vol. 5) by Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn

01 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If you don't like spoilers, might I suggest you click here to catch up. This series is so uniquely delightful, you really shouldn't miss a volume; trust me, they do need to be read in order. This latest installment officially hits shelves tomorrow. Welcome to junior high school...

Upside Down: A Vampire Tale by Jess Smart Smiley

31 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

Since I temporarily seem to find myself in Utah – although I admit it's not quite as frightening here as I thought it might be, ahem! – I figured this spookfest would not be complete without a Utahn Halloween manga, right? Jess Smart Smiley, who "lives in the bewitching mountains of Utah,"...

My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz, illustrated by Eva Eriksson, translated by Julia Marshall

27 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Swedish, Translation

When Dani can't sleep, she doesn't count sheep, she "counted all the times she'd been happy." Now she's also excited, as well as happy: "She'd waited her whole life to start school." Her first day is "'[m]aybe a little bit scary, but lots of fun,'"...

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

22 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Fiction, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American, Young Adult Readers

I admit I had a few false starts before I finally settled into Patricia McCormick's latest, which was a 2012 National Book Award finalist for Young People's Literature. Based on the horrifying experiences of Cambodian activist/humanitarian Arn Chorn-Pond’s childhood survival during the brutal Khmer Rouge control...

07-Ghost (vols. 1-4) by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara, translated by Satsuki Yamashita

18 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Since we're talking four volumes here, allow me attempt to offer a set-up without too many spoilers. "One thousand years ago," a boy named Teito Klein (not sure of the kanji for 'Teito,' but his last name means "small" auf Deutsch – you'll find many German-inspired references throughout)...

Mira in the Present Tense by Sita Brahmachari

02 Oct, by SIBookDragon in British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

On the evening of her 12th birthday, Mira Levenson receives three life-changing (death-defying) gifts: a diary, a charm, and her period. As one-quarter of a school writing class (led by an author named Miss Print!), Mira finds her voice – silently at first through the diary...

I dreamt … A book about hope by Gabriela Olmos, translated by Elisa Amado

30 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Children/Picture Books, Latin American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Sometimes, it takes a village to create a book this magnificent. Award-winning author and publisher Gabriela Olmos gathered "[s]ome of Mexico's best illustrators" who donated their art to create this stunning prayer for peace. "I dreamt of pistols that shoot butterflies ...

FArTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith

28 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Certain books make me terribly selfish – because once I finish a post, the book gets cleared off my desk and either shelved or shared. British author/artist Grahame Baker-Smith's FArTHER – the many meanings in the title alone, achieved with just the lower-casing of that single 'r' provokes goosebumps...

The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Abigail Halpin

26 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, South Asian American

You could just start reading Uma Krishnaswami's recent middle grade cross-cultural adventure and thoroughly enjoy it, but why have only half the fun? To maximize the knowing giggles, make sure to start with Dini's 2011 debut in The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. Then check out...

Ling & Ting Share a Birthday by Grace Lin

24 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

The inimitable Grace Lin is at it again ...

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

12 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Middle Grade Readers

Let me know if you've heard this one before ...

The Slave Poet of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls

04 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Biography, Caribbean, Cuban, Cuban American, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Awarded the 2008 Pura Belpré Medal, "presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth," Margarita Engle’s biography-in-verse introduces Cuban poet Juan Francisco Manzano to younger readers. Born into...

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Search (Parts Two and Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

23 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Okay, for the latest full Avatar experience, might I suggest you do a bit of catch-up homework first: To find out what prompts this eponymous ‘search,’ you’ll need to read the three-part Promise which reveals why family relationships matters so much, especially to Aang and Zuko; then...

An Infidel in Paradise by S.J. Laidlaw

13 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Pakistani, Young Adult Readers

Emma is hardly the typical Canadian teenager. At 16, she's lived all over the world, thanks to her career diplomat mother, who Emma currently blames for all the latest terrible events in her life: she's in yet another new country – this time Pakistan with some...

I See the Promised Land: A Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Arthur Flowers, illustrated by Manu Chitrakar, designed by Guglielmo Rossi

09 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Biography, Black/African American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, South Asian, Young Adult Readers

Arthur Flowers, a "blues-based" performance poet, musician, and professor, introduces himself as "Rickydoc Trickmaster," to render the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. into a biography for younger readers, as traditional Patua Indian scroll painter Manu Chitrakar brings Flowers' recitation to vibrant life. Their combined...

Black Flame by Gerelchimeg Blackcrane, translated by Anna Holmwood

08 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Chinese, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Mongolian, Tibetan, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Winner of China's National Children's Literature Award, Black Flame is an engrossing, often heartstring-pulling adventure told from the point of view of a majestic, lion-like, blue-black Tibetan Mastiff. Two things kept going through my head as the pages turned swiftly: 1. the novel reads like an older...

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves

29 Jul, by SIBookDragon in European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Spanish, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The offer of a new job in a small resort town on the coast of Normandy allows the recently widowed Simone Sauvelle the chance for her and her two children to escape a poverty-stricken life in Paris. As the assistant to brilliant toymaker Lazarus Jann,...

The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine, translated by Fatima Sharafeddine

24 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Arab, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

At 15, Faten is uprooted from her village life to become a live-in servant to a wealthy family in Beirut, where violence from the ongoing Lebanese Civil War seems neverending. Her father's decision to pull her out of school, to indenture her away from all...

Ruby Lu, Star of the Show by Lenore Look, illustrated by Stef Choi

14 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers

If Lenore Look’s East Coast leading man, the delightfully frank Alvin Ho, admits to being afraid of just about everything, his West Coast counterpart, wondergirl Ruby Lu, lets little slow her down. Regardless of their opposite fear factors, both of Look's bicoastal protagonists are multicultural heroes with close family ties...

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters (Book 2), Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-Made Catastrophes (Book 3), Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances (Book 4), Allergic to Babies, Burglars, and Other Bumps in the Night (Book 5) by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

08 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Vietnamese American

As part of appreciating the versatile art of LeUyen Pham – who with her hubby Alex Puvilland imbued Friday's post, Templar, with such swashbuckling energy – I thought I should keep a good thing going by adding a few more Pham-tabulously illustrated titles this bright new Monday. [Truth be told, I...

BookDragon Middle Grade Readers