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 [...]
Happy Book Birthday to Drawing Outside the Lines! In 1883, after a journey from Oakland, California to Brooklyn, New York on the Transcontinental Railroad, eleven-year-old Julia Morgan (known as Dudu to her family) got to walk on the newly completed Brooklyn Bridge. She was awestruck by that engineering marvel which was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Her mother tolerated Julia’s obsession with structures and construction techniques when she was a [...]
Happy book birthday to MONSTER CLUB by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel! Almost everyone calls Eric "Doodle" because he doodles a lot. And he's so good at it that he got into Mark Twain Middle School for the Gifted and Talented. His favorite thing to draw is Brickman, a fighting monster he designed for the game he and his best friend, Yoo-Hoo created. They, along with three other friends play it during lunchtime. They [...]
Eleven-year-old Zack Einstein and his family have moved to Vista Point so his parents can open a bed-and-breakfast. They want a fresh start in a new place because a few months before, the youngest Einstein was killed in an accident. Zack blames himself. If only he had stopped his little sister Susan from chasing after the kitten, she wouldn’t have been hit by a car. Zack can’t forget that fateful day and his role in [...]
In 1913, thousands of Mexicans, including 12-year-old Petra Luna, her six-year-old sister, one-year-old brother, and her grandmother cross the Rio Grande into Texas to escape the violent civil war in Mexico. They stay in an overcrowded refugee camp with little food and a smallpox outbreak. When the revolutionists take back the Mexican border town, the refugees are given the option to go back to Mexico or get a job in the United States. Petra [...]
Aurora can be a bit too much; too much talking, too much activity, and too much volume. Frenchie, on the other hand, doesn’t talk at all. Aurora likes that about Frenchie. She doesn’t have to worry about interrupting him, like she tends to do to everyone else. After Frenchie and his mother Gracia move in next door, he and Aurora become best friends. They spend hours hiking through the Maine countryside with Frenchie silently bird [...]
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 [...]
This fabulous historic novel is coming out September 14th, just in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15). But this isn’t just a good Hispanic Heritage story, it’s a great story that tells the hardships that all refugees face, no matter what dangers they’re running from. In 1913, the revolutionary war is raging in Mexico. Twelve-year-old Petra Luna’s father has been conscripted into the Federal army against his will and may never return. [...]
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 [...]
Calling all writers, aspiring writers, and writing teachers out there! Rochelle Melander’s upcoming book Mightier Than the Sword will release on July 27th and is a collection of over 40 biographies of people whose written work have influenced our world. Middle Grade Mojo chatted with Rochelle about how she brought them all together in one book and why. Middle Grade Mojo: In Mightier Than the Sword, you tell the stories of some famous people such as [...]
