What Is Your Favorite Middle Grade Book?

If you enjoy reading fiction, I suspect you read across multiple genres, as I do. I love middle-grade novels and adult mystery/suspense, though occasionally I read traditional literary fiction, just to keep up with the trends.

In the middle-grade realm, I’m particularly fond of novels about plucky outsiders who overcome the odds. When I got around to writing my own novel, I chose an orphan as my outsider-protagonist who teams up with a vegetarian vampire (also definitely an outsider!) in a search for family and belonging. Eddie and the Vegetarian Vampire was published by Saguaro Press in 2022.

I am forever in search of the next great middle-grade novel though I don’t read randomly. I mostly pick books based on word-of-mouth or reviews. Thousands of novels are published every month and many untold more have already been written. It would be an understatement to say that no one can get to them all. Finding a novel that really moves me is a rare occasion. When I say ‘moves me’ I refer to a book where I empathize with the characters and their experiences, feeling their pain and struggles as though they were my own.

Emotional experiences are of course subjective, so what moves me may not move others, yet some authors manage to strike a chord with literally millions of readers. Those authors must be doing something right, namely, communicating deeply-held emotions common to most people.

Roll the drums. Here is my current list of favorite middle-grade books in no particular order:

·       Matilda by Roald Dahl – what’s not to like about a girl with kinetic powers whose parents think she is useless because she likes to read books instead of watching TV? Favorite scene: when Matilda puts glue around the rim of her father’s hat.

·       Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis – I recently read this Newbery Medal Winner from 1999. It is a new take on the orphan-finds-a-home motif. A remarkable and disarming mix of comedy and pathos, right up my alley.

·       Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo – Kate DiCamillo visited my local library years ago and an autographed photo of her with my daughter adorns the wall above my desk. This tale of sweetness, sorrow and hope also won a Newbery Medal.

·       Three Pennies by Melanie Crawford – this book is not as well-known as my other selections though it is very well-reviewed, and for good reason. This novel about a foster child desperately searching for her biological mother is written with a poetic and lyrical quality and brims with carefully restrained emotion.

·       Anything Harry Potter by JK Rowling – I became a die-hard fan of this series after reading book two, The Chamber of Secrets. I could scarcely believe the bravery of this kid who was willing to sacrifice his life for fellow student (Ginny Weasley) when he could have just as easily run and hid.

Let me know some of your choices for favorite middle-grade book!