Our middle grade book spotlight this week is all about Possibilities into the Unknown!!! We are exploring books that have an element of unknowing what is going to happen so we have a great mixture of mysteries, suspense, thrillers, plot twists, and horror because who doesn’t love a good edge of your seat storyline every now and then to keep us on our reading toes. These elements can be found in so many different stories so there are a lot of cross genres as well which are so much fun to read and explore. Hopefully these books and others will keep you guessing right with the main characters and leaving you wanting to know what is coming next. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthmysteries, #youththriller, #youthscary, #youthedgeofyourseat, and #youthplottwist as well as on Libby and Hoopla.
The 2022 Summer Reading Program Oceans of Possibilities is taking place from June 4th-August 10th with a new theme and badge activities every week. Make sure to watch the Middle Grade Book Spotlight book talk video for this week as it counts towards your badge activities for the week; if you read one of the titles featured or on the tagged list, that counts as another activity as well!!! Earn the weekly themed badges to get your virtual tickets which can be turned into opportunities to win prizes! For more information--such as to sign up or to sign in to your account in order to track your books and activities--visit our Summer Reading page and click “LOG IN NOW”.
Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Otherwood by Pete Hautman--Stuey Becker likes spending time in Westdale Wood by the house he shares with his artist mother. It is in the woods where he meets Elly Rose, who lives on the other side of the woods, and the pair learn that they share a birthday and have family history in common. While they are in the woods one day, something unbelievable happens. Then Elly disappears, the town is thrown into chaos, and her parents want the woods leveled. Stuey knows what happened in the woods that fateful day--but no one will believe him.
The Crown Heist by Deron Hicks--When Art's best friend Camille receives word from her estranged father, a renowned art professor, the two head to London to meet with him. But before they can meet, her father is kidnapped, and the two friends embark on a dangerous mission to find him and a long-lost relic.
How I Became a Spy by Deborah Hopkinson--Bertie did not plan to become a spy in WWII London. He didn't expect to become friends with a headstrong American girl and a Jewish boy. But when he finds a coded notebook belonging to a missing woman, the three of them must decipher the notebook before a double agent can pass along the important information to the Nazis.
The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter--Alice's summer plans are ruined when her parents announce they are getting a divorce and instead of a fun-filled summer with her friends, she's moving to a small town with her mother, who has been hired as a live-in nurse for an elderly lady. The old woman, Mrs. Bishop, lives in an imposing, old house where Alice discovers a dollhouse in the attic that is an exact replica of the house. But things take an even stranger turn when Alice awakens to find a girl that looks exactly like one of the dolls asleep next to her in her bed. She soon has to try and uncover the truth about the mysterious house and what it has to do with Mrs. Bishop.
Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh--Twelve-year-old Harper Raine has heard the whispers about her new home in Washington, D.C.—it is rumored to be haunted. Harper's not sure she believes in such things until her four-year-old brother, Michael, starts acting strangely. Now Harper wonders if his new imaginary friend, Bill, is something more. And while she struggles to unravel the mysterious and dark history of the home, she also tries to tap into memories she's repressed about an accident that left her badly injured.
Holes by Louis Sachar--As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.