Friday, July 10, 2009

Searching for a Good Middle Grade Novel

I write both Middle Grade and Young Adult - I ADORE both genres and read widely and eclectically (yes, I made up that word ending!)

Young Adult has been absolutely EPIC the last five years. So many titles, so many new twists on the various genres, so many adored authors and humongous advances and buzz and new readers and book tours and publicity tours via Publishers. I love it! It bring so much attention to the Children's Lit world.

Middle Grade Fiction has taken a *back seat* to all the great YA out there, BUT that is about to CHANGE. For the past year or two publishers have been asking and searching to acquire Middle-grade and I'm really pleased that my MG, The Healing Spell, which took 5 years to sell (perhaps due to the YA adoration) will be coming out next year. I've also heard about many other MG's coming out next year, too, like
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So my question is this:

I haven't read many Middle-Grade novels in a long time and I'm salivating for one to read. I've checked out the Newbery Buzz books, but am hearing lots of pros/cons and hate to invest the mulah (I've bought so many YA's I'm broke) and for some reason my public library system has very few of them. What's on their shelves you ask??? YA Fantasy, Vampire, Demon, Fairy and the like.

NO Middle Grade.

Give me some titles and opinions people!!!

Thank you. Happy Weekend!



4 comments:

breckster said...

I just finished "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. I had seen a lot of praise for it on goodreads (are you on there? if so we should connect... but if you aren't don't start--its too addicting). It was exactly what would have kept me reading when I was in the middle grades, although it did feel a little slow and was just a bit too predictable (even for a retelling of fairy tale) for me to be able to recommend it. I've heard that her later work is better, and I'll be working on them as my to-read list allows it.

The as far as recent (I use that term loosely) MG fiction goes, my favorite is the fairy tales. Like Kate DiCamillo (Edward Tulane is my favorite) and Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted, and Fairest being favorites).

Kimberley Griffiths Little said...

I have read ALL of Shannon Hale's books - and her adult novels, too, which are great! Have you read them?

I heart Kate DiCamillo and Gail Carson Levin, too.

Yeah, I keep thinking I should get on GoodReads, but I'm blogging here and Live Journal and recently got on Facebook and revamping my web site and some days it's just WAY TOO MUCH with trying to get a book revised and a new one started!!! ;-D

I'll probably sign up for GR when it gets closer to my book coming out next summer . . .

Oh! You know, if you like MG, you may want to check out the great comments from the other writers/readers on my LJ mirror post for other MG and YA books. I've actually already read most of them, too, but it may give you some new titles.

www.kimberleylittle.livejournal.com

Aubrey said...

Kimberley--

Your books sound so interesting-- I'll have to put The Healing Spell on my list for next summer!

Since you're looking for a middle grade/YA novel to read, I wanted to recommend one called My Fairy Grandmother. I hope it's good; I wrote it! :) It's about Kaitlin, a ten-year-old girl who goes to visit Viola, the grandmother she doesn't know. Viola wants to tell her the story of her life, but when she confesses that there are fairies in her family tree, Kaitlin knows that this is no ordinary family history lesson! As Viola's story progresses, she tells her granddaughter about a young girl with a beautiful voice, kidnapped by an evil Count and kept in a cage. Kaitlin has to decide if Viola's colorful tale really happened or if her grandmother is just senile.
If this sounds like something you would enjoy, I would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

Good luck with your Scholastic books-- that's awesome!

Thanks,
Aubrey Mace :)

Kimberley Griffiths Little said...

Hi Aubrey, thanks for the comment! And nice to meet you! Congrats on your two new books, that's wonderful. I just checked out My Fairy Grandmother on amazon and ordered a copy. ;-D
Hope you'll like The Healing Spell next summer, too. Stay tuned - or add me as a follower!

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