MG Book Review: Doodle Adventures – The Search for Slimy Space Slugs! by Mike Lowery

The Middle Grade Mafia has read a number of books for our reviews, but none were like Mike Lowery's Doodle Adventures: The Search for Slimy Space Slugs! In this fun interactive book, kids have been recruited to help Carl the Duck, who happens to work for a super secret agency, to help find Captain Sleezoog's space base and retrieve a stolen jar. The adventure requires the reader to draw a variety of objects and scenes as [...]

By |2016-05-16T22:04:15-04:00May 16th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: Beetle Boy by M. G. Leonard

Darkus Cuttle's dad works at the Natural History Museum in London. One day his father goes into a research room and disappears. The room was locked from the inside and there were no windows. The police are baffled. While authorities try to find his father, Darkus goes to live with his eccentric archaeologist Uncle Max. His uncle's next door neighbors Humphrey and Pickering are loud, mean and creepy. Their back yard is a maze of [...]

By |2016-05-06T13:51:03-04:00May 6th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Review by Laura Raines In a video interview about The War that Saved My Life, author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley says that she hopes readers won’t be able to put it down, that they’ll be taken up with Ada’s story. She also says that she hopes readers will feel the emotions. Her hopes are fulfilled! I devoured this book in a day, rooting for Ada all the way. She made me laugh, cry, fear, hope, and [...]

By |2016-04-28T13:54:33-04:00May 2nd, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry

Sometimes it seems like Grandmothers get no respect in middle-grade books. They sip tea, play bridge or are witches! Watch out! Here come Grannies with style. Who knew bridge playing tea sippers could be such amazing thieves? Not only can they pull off heists, they can teach our middle-grade heroine a thing or two about being fearless. But being fearless isn’t always the same thing as having courage, as AJ soon discovers. When her parents [...]

By |2016-04-28T13:55:18-04:00April 29th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver & HC Chester

They’re back! Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester have come up with another recipe for fun. Take one part 1930’s hard-boiled detective series (think Sam Spade and The Maltese Falcon), add a little murder (for spice), mystery (for texture), and humor (just because you can) and you get an adventure middle grade readers will just love. The second book of the Curiosity House series finds Pippa, Sam, Thomas and Max finally happy after the infamous villain [...]

By |2016-04-27T11:24:20-04:00April 26th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan

In drought-stricken Mali, it’s common for boys to leave their homes to look for work across the border in the Ivory Coast. For the families, it meant less mouths to feed. For the boys, it means a better chance to eat and hopefully make money to send home. When Amadou and his little brother Seydou meet a man promising work, they jump at the chance, not realizing they were getting sold into modern-day slavery at [...]

By |2016-04-14T15:28:50-04:00April 20th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The Inn Between by Marina Cohen

The Inn Between is middle-grade horror at its best. Cohen masterfully builds suspense without gimmicks, all while keeping an honest middle-grade voice. The story is engaging, clues to what is going on intriguing, and tension, as strong as you choose to make it. It all depends on your imagination. Readers need not leave the lights on. Parents need not worry for their children. The story does not have monsters or unnecessary violence in it. It [...]

By |2016-03-29T17:29:50-04:00April 4th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier

As a kid, I loved monster movies and action flicks. In The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier, I got to relive those glory days. The story is told partly through the typical narrative format, but it is the graphic novel sections that make it a truly fun read. The illustrations by Douglas Holgate are action packed and are done in a style that makes you feel the pictures are about to jump off the page and [...]

By |2016-04-01T12:53:56-04:00April 1st, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Books – Science Edition

I recently attended a writer’s conference in Atlanta and while there, was blown away by the awesome science books written by authors in the region. Here are three of my favorites! National Geographic Kids Brain Games: The Mind-Blowing Science of Your Amazing Brain by Jennifer Swanson.   The blurb: QUICK: Name the most powerful and complex supercomputer ever built. Give up? Here’s a hint: It’s housed in your head and it’s the one thing that makes you YOU. [...]

By |2016-03-29T22:06:59-04:00March 30th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More

MG Book Review: The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

Ali Benjamin’s debut Middle Grade book, The Thing About Jellyfish, is luminous. And that’s a terrible pun, I know, but truly this book glows with a subtle inner life, much like the jellyfish that float throughout it. The bones of the story are simple: our narrator Suzy and her best friend Franny drift apart as they enter middle school. Increasingly, Suzy feels isolated as the things that interest her—science facts and the world at large— [...]

By |2016-03-25T09:03:58-04:00March 25th, 2016|Book Review|0 Comments
Read More
Go to Top