2024 Summer Reading Guide: Tweens & Young Teens (Ages 10-16)
July 3, 2024 Comments Off on 2024 Summer Reading Guide: Tweens & Young Teens (Ages 10-16)
I may have made you wait for the final installment of this year’s Summer Reading Guide far longer than I had planned (apologies!), but at least I made sure it delivered. Today’s roundup includes a fantastically diverse list of new releases that span upper middle grade (ages 10-14) to young YA (ages 12+), making it the perfect resource for those getting ready to embark on middle school, those already well into it, and those on their way out. (Not that high schoolers won’t like the YA recs—they will—just that with YA encompassing such a broad range of ages and topics these days, I’m finding it increasingly helpful to curate some that aren’t quite as heavy or risque.)
If you’ve got teens who are ready for more mature content, I won’t have time to do a separate post, but I’ll list a few here that we chose for our Teen Summer Reading Guide at Old Town Books and that I enjoyed. These are all categorized by the publisher for 14 and up, which means they include more graphic language, violence, or heavier themes. That said, I’ve been comfortable letting my thirteen-year-old daughter read them, and they’ve been big hits. They are Holly Jackson’s The Reappearance of Rachel Price (same author as the perennial 12+ favorite, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, though heavier on the violence); Monica Hesse’s The Brightwood Code (gripping historical fiction about a telephone operator back from the frontlines of WW1, though heads up about an attempted sexual assault); Jas Hammonds’ Thirsty (a “cautionary tale”—my daughter’s words—about a girl who descends into alcoholism after rushing a sorority); and two edgy, dark, unique graphic novels: The Worst Ronin and The Deep Dark.
And now for the Main Event! The books below are presented in order of target ages, with the 12+ picks towards the second half.
« Read the rest of this entry »2020 Gift Guide: Middle-Grade Fiction for Ages 8-14, Part One
November 12, 2020 § 1 Comment
As evidenced by the massive stack I’m bringing to you today and tomorrow, 2020 delivered some fantastic middle-grade fiction, including a number of novels by debut authors your kids won’t forget anytime soon. (It delivered non-fiction as well, as evidenced by my earlier endorsement of the astounding All Thirteen.)
One could make a case that storytelling has never been more essential. The stories below will take children far beyond the four walls of their home. They will entertain and inspire, while also eliciting empathy for those with different lived experiences. They will comfort, nurture, even heal. They’re the hope our children need to go forth into a brighter 2021.
A few of the novels I blogged about earlier in the year but mention again because I live in fear that you might miss them. The rest are new to these pages. (Remember, you won’t find any 2020 graphic novels here, because they got their own post.)
Below are the first ten. The second ten will follow tomorrow. I’ve taken particular care in noting the suggested age range below each title. Some of these skew younger, others older. I hope I’ve found something for every tween and young teen in your life.
« Read the rest of this entry »2017 Gift Guide (No. 4): Middle-Grade Magnificence
December 7, 2017 § 3 Comments
As promised, here is a roundup of my favorite middle-grade fiction of 2017, a mix of graphic and traditional novels, targeted at tweens or older. Not included are titles I blogged about earlier in the year—gems like The Inquisitor’s Tale, The Wild Robot, and See You in the Cosmos, which would make excellent additions to this list. Also not included are books I haven’t read yet—particularly Amina’s Voice, Nevermoor, The Stars Beneath Our Feet, and Scar Island (by the same author as the riveting Some Kind of Courage)—which would likely be on this list if I had. The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, which I adore, has a sequel out this year which I’m dying to read. And I should also mention that if my son were making this list, he would undoubtedly note that it has been a stand-out year for new installments in his favorite series, including this, this, this, this, and this.
Now, without further ado, let’s sink our teeth into these richly textured and meaty stories, filled with angst and adventure, secrets and self-discovery. « Read the rest of this entry »
2015 Gift Guide (No. 3): Chapter Books for the Courage Seeker
December 10, 2015 § 2 Comments
As a child who loved reading all sorts of books, the characters that stayed with me long after I finished the final page were not the knights in shining armor or the warrior princesses. They were everyday children—characters who looked or felt or went to school like me—whose strength and courage were greatly tested by circumstances beyond their control. These children got dealt a bad hand; and yet, they managed to come through with grace and humor, with an increased sensitivity to others, and with a wealth of self-knowledge. Perhaps it is through reading stories about loss, disability, bullying, or poverty that we can create our own personal roadmap to peace, compassion, and joy.
Without further ado, I present my three favorite middle-grade chapter books of the year for the 9-14 year-old set. (Mind you, these are in addition to Echo and Circus Mirandus, which I wrote about over the summer here and which are every bit as awesome as the ones below). These three novels are vastly different from one another, both in subject and in narrative voice—and yet all of them sing with the beauty of the human spirit. « Read the rest of this entry »
What to Read to Your Kids 