Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! March is right around the corner and that means it’s time for Middle Grade March. I wanted to do something a bit different in 2024 and make some content centering middle grade books over the next month, as I really don’t think it gets enough love.

Middle Grade March is a readathon to highlight middle grade books, which are books for kids 8-12, but I think you can read it at any age. You can check out the announcement video HERE.

I had a few ideas of how to do this, but I think I’m just going to give recommendations based on the first four prompts for the readathon, but keep an eye out in March for some other middle grade recommendation posts!

Let me know if you guys have specific middle grade recs you would like! I’ve got some ideas, but I would love to know what you would like to see from me.

Prompt 1: A One Word Title

Melissa, previously titled George, follows a young girl who knows she is a girl, but looks like a boy. Everyone perceives her as a boy and she is afraid to tell anyone, even her parents.

She also really loves Charlotte’s Web and wants to play Charlotte in the upcoming play, but is quickly dismissed for the role for the reason stated earlier.

This is suck a cute coming out story that doesn’t end badly. I always feel like books and movies only show families who immediately freak out and refuse to speak to their child ever again when they find out they are LGBT of any sort.

It really makes you think about how important pronouns are to some people. Every time someone calls Melissa ‘he’, I would actually cringe. But, no one really did it on purpose.

Now, RICK follows a young boy named Rick. This is not a direct sequel to Melissa, but she does make a cameo in it. Rick is the best friend of Melissa’s bully named Jeff. He joins this LGBT positive group and finds a community there. The problem is, he feels like he is betraying his best friend, Jeff.

Jeff was always there for Rick when he had no one and so he feels a sense of loyalty to him, but he also recognizes that Jeff is not a good person. Both of these stories, along with everything else Alex Gino has written, are honestly AMAZING.

Smile is the first book in a non-fiction series. All of which have one word titles, BTW. You don’t need to read them in any order as they follow Raina Telgemeier’s life, but are all centered on different aspects completely.

Book 1 follows Raina when she is coming home from a girl scout meeting when she falls and knocks out her two front teeth. She then spend the next decade of her life trying to fix her smile.

Book 2 is Guts, which follows Raina when she learns she has IBS and book 3 is called Sisters and follows her relationship with her sister while they are on vacation.

I have read nearly all of Dahl’s books and Matilda would be a great one for this challenge! If you have never heard of Matilda, it follows a young girl who is very smart for her age. Her entire family neglects her, but she spends all of her alone time reading.

Then, they send her to boarding school where she meets the notorious Trunchbull. If you haven’t read this book or seen the movie, I recommend doing so.

Prompt 2: A Debut

Amari and the Night Brothers is BB Alston’s debut about a young girl who goes to this magical school. It absolutely has Harry Potter vibes if you are looking for that.

Her brother went missing and the police think he was a drug dealer, so they don’t really care to find him. Then, she finds this suitcase in his old room that tells her of a magical school she can go to, but she cannot tell anyone about it, not even her mom.

This book has one of my absolute favorite tropes, which is trials. That is kind of a common trope in middle grade, I suppose. But, I always love it. We follow her going to this new school, which her mom thinks is just a regular boarding school, while she attempts to learn about her brother’s dissapearance.

AND BOY, did this book end on a cliffanger! Book three comes out this year and I really need to reread it at some point so I can catch up to the series.

So most of us have read The Hunger Games at this point, right? BUT, have you read Suzanne Collin’s middle grade series that she wrote before The Hunger Games?

Gregor the Overlander follows Gregor, who falls into his dryer one day and ends up in a world where bugs and animals are GIANT. This would actually be a horror novel if I were the main character. 😂 It would actually be a terrifying thing to come across, but I promise it isn’t a horror book, it’s full of adventure.

Anyhow, he goes back and forth to the Underworld where he is usually met with a prophecy in each book. In book one, his dad goes missing and he has to find him.

Prompt 3: Immigration or Refugee Story

Measuring Up is a graphic novel that follows Cici. Her family has recently moved to America from Taiwan.

Her grandma is turning 70. And, in their culture, that is a really important birthday. Cici’s grandma is back home in Taiwain and no one has any money to afford a plain ticket for her. She enters this cooking competition to win money to fund her grandma visiting for her 70th birthday.

This is not only a wonderful foodie story, which are my favorite, but it’s also a really, cute wholesome story of a little girl who just wants to see her grandma on her birthday. It’s so heartwarming and you won’t regret reading it if you give it a shot.

This is a story set in WWII following a boy named Rudi. He finally gets a dog, and then war breaks out. He ends up having to leave Germany for England, but he can’t take his new dog with him.

So we are following him through this story, hoping by some chance that he finds this dog again. (I promise, the dog does not die or anything.)

This is also an amazing way to represent the Holocaust to kids in a way they may understand.

Prompt 4: Animal On the Cover

I was searching my Goodreads read shelf for this one and I totally forgot I read this book! It follows a 7th grader named Zoey who suffers with parentification.

Her mom works at a pizza place and pushes all the care of her younger kids onto Zoey. She also has to deal with her Mom’s boyfriend, whose trailer they live in. He doesn’t care for any of them and treats her like trash.

Parentification is honestly way too common. One child should not have to sacrifice their childhood for the others. A kid shouldn’t have to bear the burden of caring for their siblings. I myself do not have siblings, but I have seen it happen a lot with cousins and friends of mine.

Hear me out, there are flying pigs on the cover. So, technically that’s an animal. 😂

This series follows Leonora who finds out she is a witch. Her parents own a bakery and do kitchen magic. Despite her mothers wishes, she decides to make a potion without any training.

When she creates a love potion for her friend at school, it accidently makes the boy fall in love with her instead. And, the more she tries to fix this problem, the worse it gets.

---

This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.

Where to find me: https://linktr.ee/Allithebookgiraffe

Add this user on Goodreads for all your trigger warning needs: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/86920464-trigger-warning-database