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 [...]
Middle Grade Mojo loved Chris Negron’s new book The Last Super Chef. We had to know, is he a super chef? Middle Grade Mojo: The level of detail in the cooking scenes is remarkable. Are you a super chef yourself, or is it all researched based? Chris Negron: I should have realized writing The Last Super Chef would mean I’d have to confess I’m not much of a cook over and over again! But yes, [...]
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 [...]
Erin Entrada Kelly was recently awarded a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space and she won the Newberry Medal in 2018 with Hello, Universe. Middle Grade Mojo was honored to get to chat with her new early middle grade novel Maybe, Maybe, Marisol Rainey which released on May 4th. Middle Grade Mojo: In Maybe, Maybe, Marisol Rainey we meet the wonderfully imaginative, yet fearful, 8-year-old Marisol. You have said Marisol is a lot like [...]
