2025 Summer Reading Guide: For the Middle-Grade Readers (Ages 8-14)
June 24, 2025 § Leave a comment
And we’re back with the second installment of this year’s Summer Reading Guide! This time I’ve got twelve new middle-grade standalones or series starters that I have read and heartily endorse for today’s picky elementary and tween readers! Included in this list are some titles that fall inside the traditional 8-12 years window and others that skew 10+.
As with all the installments of this year’s Summer Guide, my reviews are shorter than in the past BUT I’ve also linked to any full reviews that I’ve done on Instagram. Where illustrations play a key role in enhancing the story, I also include some interior shots.
« Read the rest of this entry »2025 Summer Reading Guide: For the Emerging Readers (Ages 5-10)
June 11, 2025 Comments Off on 2025 Summer Reading Guide: For the Emerging Readers (Ages 5-10)
Let me begin by apologizing to those of you who follow me here, as my almost full-time work at the bookstore these days has meant that I am much less present on this platform that I used to be. As many of you know, I continue to be very active on Instagram (@thebookmommy), posting several reviews each week, but I know that many of you have moved away from social media, and I also understand that! I’m not quite sure what the future of this blog will be, but I do know many of you have reached out asking if I would please at least continue to share my Summer Reading Guide and Holiday Gift Guides, and so here I am with the first installment of this year’s Summer Reading Guide (better late than never?). My reviews won’t be quite as long as in years’ past, though I will link to longer reviews that I’ve done so far on Instagram and pop in periodically to add links.
My 2025 Summer Reading Guide is pretty close to the one that has already launched at Old Town Books—and which I spearhead each year. I’m fortunate to have amazing colleagues at the bookstore who help me read for the guides, and I’ll often prioritize reading things that they’ve loved. But I also can’t get through everything, so there are some books on the shop’s guide that are not in my personal guide, simply because I only ever recommend books that I have personally read (and loved, of course).
This first installment highlights my favorite new short chapter books and early graphic novels for emerging readers. Note that these are all standalone titles or first in a series, but you should absolutely go back and read past guides because many of those books now have sequels out!
« Read the rest of this entry »2024 Gift Guide: For Elementary Readers (Ages 8-12)
December 5, 2024 § 1 Comment
And we’re back, with another installment of this year’s Gift Guide, today with a whopping fifteen new books aimed at the 8-12 audience. (The next and final post will cover books for tweens and young teens and will encompass some upper middle-grade titles in addition to young adult.) Below, you’ll find graphic novels interspersed among traditional novels, though many of the latter have a strong visual component.
What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, many of us were bemoaning the rising disconnect between today’s young readers, who are turning away from reading for fun at record rates, and the books being marketed towards them. What do today’s young readers actually want? Fun! Shorter page count! More illustrations! More boy protagonists! FUNNY without compromising solid storytelling! I’m thrilled to report that the books below deliver in spades.
I have to give credit to my marvelous colleagues at the bookstore, who read many of these first and insisted I move them up on my to-read pile.
As always, I’ve prioritized books that feel particularly gifty. All of these are hardcover editions, many with captivating art and special touches, and if you order from Old Town Books, you’ll find some of them even come with signed book plates and swag.
Though all the books below are targeted towards 8-12, some of them—ahem, Westfallen—are going to have legs for older kids as well. Stellar storytelling is stellar storytelling, after all.
« Read the rest of this entry »2024 Gift Guide: Short Chapter Books (Ages 5-10)
December 3, 2024 Comments Off on 2024 Gift Guide: Short Chapter Books (Ages 5-10)
After a break for the Thanksgiving holiday, we are back with another installment of this year’s Gift Guide, and this one is all about short chapter books. (In case you missed it, we’ve already done Novelty & Nonfiction and Picture Books.) In this post, you’ll discover a range of titles, from traditional early chapter books for those still mastering independent reading, to longer chapter books that would shine as read alouds for those ready to listen to longer stories. When selecting these titles, I have given priority to books that feel particularly gifty—not always an easy feat in this category—such as hardcover editions with special touches and captivating art.
I also want to mention that the books below, especially the ones towards the end, can also work brilliantly for kids who might test at a higher reading level but haven’t yet developed the stamina to delve into longer books in their own time. Parking a fixation on reading level and letting kids read what appeals to them in any given moment is the tried-and-true key to raising lifetime readers. If you read these books, you’ll see just what I mean: they’re a true delight, each and every one.
The books are loosely presented in order of ascending age/reading ability.
« Read the rest of this entry »2024 Summer Reading Guide: Elementary Readers (ages 7-12)
June 6, 2024 Comments Off on 2024 Summer Reading Guide: Elementary Readers (ages 7-12)
Welcome to the second of three installments of my Summer Reading Guide! This round-up includes a whopping seventeen brand new middle-grade books for a range of readers, from animal lovers to Dog Man aficionados, fantasy seekers to summer camp dreamers, mystery solvers to history buffs, and everything in between. There’s even a touch of elementary-appropriate romance! The list spans a mix of traditional novels and graphic novels, and I’ve included an example of an interior spread where illustration factors into the enjoyment of the story.
Nearly all of these have been published in just the past few weeks or months. THAT SAID, I must encourage you to take a look at my Spring Break Reading Round-Up from earlier in the year, with what will undoubtedly end up being some of my very favorite middle grade of the entire year. If your kiddos haven’t found their way into the likes of The Liars Society, Max in the House of Spies, The First State of Being, or Not Quite a Ghost, consider them musts. Likewise, Katherine Marsh’s Medusa, an action-packed, thought-provoking story about a group of kids descended from Greek Monsters, is being met with such enthusiasm by my readers at the shop (and me!) that I’ve chosen it for Old Town Book’s inaugural Camp Bookworm. If you’re local, encourage your kids to read the book, then join us in person to discuss and meet Katherine Marsh herself (!) on Tuesday, August 27, at 6pm at the bookshop.
Now, a quick word for my fantasy lovers. There are two fantasies on the below list, but there should be more. One of my colleagues with a deep love of fantasy and a great eye for kid lit read and loved two additional fantasies that made it onto our shop’s Summer Reading Guide but are not included here, simply because I haven’t had time to read them yet. They are: Julie Kagawa’s Lightningborn: Storm Dragons, a series starter about a boy who finds a wild baby dragon, believed to be extinct, and becomes the focus of an evil sky pirate’s vengeance; and Ryan Graudin’s The Girl Who Kept the Castle, another series starter about a girl who must save her home from destruction when a not-totally-dead wizard’s inheritance competition goes awry (think Nevermoor meets Howl’s Moving Castle). It should also be said that every single fantasy on last year’s Summer Reading Guide—and there were some fabulous ones—now have sequels out (hello, Greenwild!).
OK, let’s gooooo! As always, the list is organized in ascending order of target ages.
« Read the rest of this entry »2023 Gift Guide: Illustrated Chapter Books for Ages 5-10
November 17, 2023 § 2 Comments
Today’s installment of the Gift Guide is a small but mighty selection of books perfect for reading aloud or building the momentum of emerging or newly confident readers. This is the first time my Gift Guide has included a collection like this, simply because these types of books don’t typically look or feel particularly gifty. But this year offered some gems, including re-released, souped-up classics, as well as new series written or illustrated by some of the finest and funniest creators today.
There’s an array of ages and levels represented, with some titles considered early chapter books and others designed for strong readers overwhelmed by the longer, more serious titles of traditional middle-grade. The headlines will give you age range suggestions, while the interior photos will help you gauge language and words per page.
Everything below is either a stand-alone story or the first in a series. So, before we go any further, you need to know that three of the very best chapter series for emerging readers (also for reading aloud) got new installments this year, so if you haven’t gotten your hands on Dory Fantasmagory: Can’t Live Without You, Cornbread & Poppy at the Museum, and Anne Dares, add these to your gift list. And if you don’t know these series, remedy that immediately, I implore you.
As always, titles are in stock at Old Town Books, though I encourage you to support an indie near you.
Let’s begin! And remember, those with more mature readers may want to scroll past the first two titles here and get straight to the meatier stuff.
« Read the rest of this entry »Gift Guide 2018: Aspiring Sleuths Take Note
December 3, 2018 § 2 Comments
Elementary children may know that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. But do they know that Lincoln was almost assassinated by angry secessionists four years earlier, on his way to his own inauguration? That, if successful, the attack would have prevented Lincoln from becoming president and uniting the country? How about that he was saved by Allan Pinkerton, a self-made private detective who went on to inspire the creation of the Secret Service?
Um, I sure didn’t. « Read the rest of this entry »
Arthropods and Art Heists
October 29, 2015 § 2 Comments
In preparation for our recent trip to New York City, I wanted to select a chapter book to read to my eight year old that would inspire our itinerary. Last year, you might remember that we read two fantastic books which took us straight to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was amazing to watch JP anticipate what he would find in the museum, based on what he had read—and then to leave a few hours later with a skip in his step and an entirely different experience from what he had expected. This is the power of art: to transform, to surprise, to delight.
I was secretly hoping I could convince JP to go back to The Met this fall, so I scrounged up another novel set in and around the museum. Beginning a few days before we left and concluding on the train ride home (where the woman sitting behind us remarked, as we were getting off, “Thank you for that delightful story!”), I read aloud Elise Broach’s moving and riveting Masterpiece (Ages 9-12), which features a boy, a beetle, and an art heist staged around a masterpiece on loan to The Met.
Skulls & Ghosts & Black Cats (Oh My!)
September 24, 2015 § 2 Comments
Wherever you fall on the “free range” versus “helicopter” parenting debate, I think we can all agree that the former makes for much more exciting fiction. After all, kids do way cooler stuff outside the watchful eyes of their parents. When I was growing up, my favorite chapter books—spooky, suspenseful titles, like The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Children of Green Knowe—starred children who were forever falling down the Rabbit Hole of grave danger. The appeal, of course, lay in watching them wrangle their way out again—oftentimes, without their parents even noticing that they were gone.
This past summer, my son and I were looking for read-aloud inspiration at our local bookstore, when we happened upon Missing on Superstition Mountain, the first book in a newly completed trilogy by Elise Broach (Ages 9-12). I have always heard wonderful things about Broach’s writing, but it was the subject of these books that quickly sold us. Three brothers (ages six, ten and eleven), having relocated with their parents from Chicago to rural Arizona at the dawn of summer, begin exploring the mountainous terrain in their backyard, more out of sheer boredom than owing to any strong desire to go against their parents’ stern warnings. Before long, the children find themselves in the center of a centuries-old unsolved mystery—involving murder, ghost towns, and buried treasure.
In short, these books seemed like the perfect ticket to a Summer of Literary Adventure.
Indeed, they were. And yet, with summer now behind us, I see no reason why these books can’t be your children’s entree to a Spooky Fall. After all, with October almost upon us, it seems only appropriate to arm your young readers with a ghoulish graveyard scene, or a black cat who may or may not have been reincarnated for the purpose of taking her revenge. « Read the rest of this entry »
Digging for Mummies
January 15, 2014 § 1 Comment
While my son and I were on the subject of excavating fossils, it seemed it might be logical to jump from paleontology to archaeology. It didn’t hurt that, over winter break, JP’s teacher had emailed me about tracking down some good books about Ancient Egypt (see list at the end). And so, one snowy night, JP and I sat down on the couch to read the Treasure Trove that is The 5,000-Year-Puzzle-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt (Ages 6-12), by Claudia Logan, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
An hour later, we were still reading it, my daughter and husband had joined us, and I almost couldn’t tear myself away to meet my girlfriends for a scheduled drink. Almost. I can’t think of a better introduction, not only to Ancient Egypt, but also to the painstaking role that archaeologists play in unearthing clues about ancient life. While the American boy and his father in the book are fictitious, they join an actual historic dig, led by a Harvard team of scientists, which occurred in 1924 at the Egyptian site of Giza 7000X, where a secret and unusually well-preserved tomb was discovered. Through a combination of actual historic records and the young boy’s first-person narrative, we learn about the team’s efforts to excavate this ancient site over the course of a year—including their continual revisions to hypotheses over whose tomb it was and why it was constructed in such a way. « Read the rest of this entry »
Counting Down to Halloween
October 12, 2013 Comments Off on Counting Down to Halloween
Our decorations are up, the kids’ costumes are ordered, and earlier this week, right on cue, a streak of stormy weather moved in. All in all, the perfect time for getting out our Halloween-themed books and sharing tales of ghosts and goblins with my revved up trick-or-treaters (it’s not just about the sugar, my sugars). Honestly, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by this year’s Halloween offerings. Of course, last year was particularly exceptional: we were treated to Creepy Carrots, The Monsters’ Monster, and Vampirina Ballerina—all three brilliant and all three enjoyed (since none actually mention Halloween) long past pumpkin-carving season. But speaking of pumpkins, it has been a long time since a great pumpkin book has entered the scene, and this year of slim pickings has at least given us that.
Stephen Savage’s Ten Orange Pumpkins (Ages 2-6) is billed as a counting book—and it’s true that there are opportunities to count on every page, as ten pumpkins become nine, become eight, and so on. But the “trick” of the book lies in how each pumpkin disappears, and the answers are (often quite subtly) revealed in the striking illustrations. « Read the rest of this entry »
What to Read to Your Kids 