Join Mojo in welcoming these three amazing middle grade June releases. The Sinister Secrets of Singe by Sean Ferrell Noah lives with his mother in a mysterious house that grows larger every night! When he discovers a message hidden in one of his father’s inventions, he runs away to find him, but soon discovers his father may be more of a monster than his creations. When his father's robot army follows him home can he [...]
12-year-old Mac has been raised by his mother and grandfather to stand up for the truth. When his 6th grade class are given copies of Jane Yolan’s The Devil’s Arithmetic for a literacy unit, he’s shocked to see some words are blacked out. He and his friends, Denis and Marci, buy a copy at the bookstore to find out what has been censored. When they discover the word "breast" has been blacked out, they're [...]
What a coincidence that I just finished reading Dream, Annie, Dream in which the University of Kansas Jayhawks win the NCAA championships in 1988, and the Jayhawks soared through March Madness to win again this year! Seventh-grader Annie and her dad are big fans of the Jayhawks, partly because her dad is a math professor at the University of Kansas and partly because Annie loves to play basketball. Even though she’s barely five feet tall [...]
Set in the days of horse-and-buggies, Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu is a fantasy about a group of girls who have been labeled "troubled" by the powerful sorcerers of Illyria. They are sent away to the Dragomir Academy to learn how to be proper ladies and who might one day serve in an estate of a sorcerer. That is the best they can hope for. But Marya Lupu begins to discover a strange [...]
Welcome to Jennie Mayes, our guest reviewer. When Jennie recommended that Middle Grade Mojo write a review of A SMALL ZOMBIE PROBLEM, her obvious enthusiasm for this series prompted us to invite her to write the review. And now we can't wait to read it ourselves. This is the first book in the series of three. Thanks, Jennie! August DuPont has never been outside his falling-down ancestral home where he lives alone with his Aunt [...]
Happy book birthday to Alysa Wishingrad and her debut novel The Verdigris Pawn. Beau is the heir to the Land, and because of his importance, he is kept in his apartments to protect him from any danger including the deadly fever that has spread through the guards’ barracks. His only activities are horseback riding and studying The Histories to prepare him to be the next leader. Beau’s angry, demanding father, known as “Himself”, doesn’t bother [...]
Curtis Pith is a culinary genius and he’s only in the 5th grade. He has learned almost everything he knows from the best cooking show ever, Super Chef, which features the best chef in the world, Lucas Taylor, who also happens to be Curtis’s father, except no one knows that. Curtis only knows because his mom let it slip a few years ago, but Curtis hasn’t told anyone, not even his little sister Paige or [...]
Willa is one of the last of the Faeran clan, an ancient people who have lived in the forests of the Great Smokey Mountains for thousands of years. Willa’s family are all dead and she lives with her adoptive human father and sister in the mountains near Cades Cove. Her peaceful life in the woods is disrupted when logging crews begin clear-cutting huge sections of her precious forest. Trees are not just big plants to [...]
Marisol Rainey has a tree in her backyard which she calls Peppina. This wonderous, glorious, giant Magnolia tree is exceptionally perfect for climbing, just ask her 12-year-brother Oz and her best friend Jada who both love to climb it. Marisol hates Peppina because she can’t climb it. She’s too afraid. This is Newbery author Erin Entrada Kelly’s newest book about the very imaginative 8-year-old Marisol who lives in Louisiana with her science teacher mother [...]
After her mother dies, 12-year-old Lydia goes to live with her aunt Brat, and her aunt's wife Eileen on a farm that they care for while also caring for the ancient owner of the farm, Elloroy. This story about grief and starting over is as soft, comforting, and beautiful as the hand-knitted sweater that Lydia wears constantly to keep her mother close to her. Before she died, Lydia's mom spent several years waiting on a [...]
