Our middle grade book spotlight this week is on books that have one word titles!!! Sometimes, we just need something that is going to be quick and easy to remember and those titles fit the bill. We have a great mixture of fantasy, historical, steampunk, thrillers, and more so there is something for everyone and the titles are easy to remember! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthoneword as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Pony by R.J. Palacio--Twelve-year-old Silas is left scared and shaken by himself after three mysterious horsemen take his father away in the night. Left with no companionship except that of Mittenwool, a ghost, Silas decides to wait, as instructed, for his father to return in a week. However, when a strange pony one of the men was riding shows up at his door, Silas sees it as a sign from his father to go find him, Silas mounts up and sets out on a journey across the Western American landscape to find his father and help him make sense of the mysterious ghosts he sees and the changing world around him.
The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson--In an effort to help support his parents and eight siblings, Colm Candorly takes up pickpocketing. That is, until a smooth-talking rogue named Finn Argos enlists Colm in Thwodin's Legions, a dungeoneers' guild filled with warriors, mages, and hunters searching for treasure.
Starfish by James Crowley--In the early part of the 1900s, Beatrice and Lionel, two Blackfeet Indian children, escape from the Chalk Bluff Indian Boarding School in Montana to find their grandfather, and must elude their pursuers and make a life for themselves in the wilderness.
Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff--In Brooklyn during World War II, young Jayna and her brother live all by themselves, with a landlady as their only guardian. When Jayna's brother is called away to serve in the Navy, Jayna is devastated-her only companion is now her pet-box turtle, Theresa, and the landlady, who is not able to fill the role of a family member. However, just before he leaves, her brother gives her a mysterious blue recipe book with a name and address inscribed on its cover. There is also a picture of a woman standing in front of a bakery-secretly, her brother thinks this woman may be their grandmother. Thus begins Jayna's adventure to New York City to search for family in a time of loss.
Mayday by Karen Harrington--After his uncle in the army is killed overseas, Wayne Kovok and his mother travel by plane to Arlington for his funeral. On the way back, their plane crashes, and in the aftermath Wayne loses his voice. Wayne used to love recounting all the facts he had memorized, like the statistics on vending machine deaths versus shark attack deaths. He had plans of wooing the prettiest girl in school with his facts and voice, but now how can he? How can he stand up to his drill-sergeant grandfather? His voicelessness forces Wayne to rethink who he is, who he wants to be, and just what exactly he wants to say.
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford--When Jake Limberleg brings his traveling medicine show to a small Missouri town in 1913, thirteen-year-old Natalie senses that something is wrong and, after investigating, learns that her love of automata and other machines make her the only one who can set things right.