middle grade

Book Review: Mystery Ranch

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Mystery Ranch
The Boxcar Children #4
by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Read by Aimee Lilly

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

This one really left me scratching my head. The mean, old aunt is instantly won over by the too-perfect kids, and apparently minors were able to own property in the time this was written, without needing an adult to be the trustee or anything like that. When the aunt talked about some men trying to get her to sell her ranch to them, it started to feel like a Nancy Drew story, but it resolved far too quickly and easily. In fact, though I didn’t compare the length of this to the previous stories, it felt super short in general. Also, the narrator for this book was even less enjoyable than the previous, who I already didn’t care for. Maybe if I had a young child to read these with and discuss the good and bad, it would be worth continuing with the series, but I don’t really have any motivation to do so.

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Book Review: The Yellow House Mystery

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The Yellow House Mystery
The Boxcar Children #3
by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Read by Tim Gregory

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

I really think Warner needs to branch out from missing people being re-discovered in this series. Three books, and that’s been a theme in all of them. That and the repetition of the kids “roughing it” in one way or another. Overall, I did like the story here better than the previous book, but I had some issues with the plot. For example, if it’s important for a letter to not be seen by anyone but the recipient, why instruct the recipient to hide it? Wouldn’t destroying it be better? But of course, destroying it would have meant that no one could discover it decades later and start off an adventure. I know this was written for kids and written in a very different time, and I really can’t know what I would have thought of the story if I’d read it as a kid. I suppose most kids, even nowadays, wouldn’t take issue with the things I did, but that doesn’t make some of what happens in this book okay.

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Book Review: Surprise Island

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Surprise Island
The Boxcar Children #2
by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Read by Tim Gregory

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

I don’t have nostalgia to fall back on with this book (if I read more than the first book in the series as a kid, I don’t remember any of them), so I’m sure that plays a big part in my review. Maybe as a kid I would have enjoyed this story, but as an adult, I was too distracted by some strange choices by the author. First, the grandfather, who searched for a while for his grandkids after their parents’ death and finally found them and took them in, sends them off to an island (basically) by themselves for the summer. I don’t know how long it’s been since the boxcar days, but I’d think he’d want to spend the summer with them. Then, there is a strange man living on the island, which the grandfather owns, that he doesn’t even attempt to meet before he leaves his grandkids there, where they’ll live in a leaky barn. The island is apparently in the ocean, which I would think would make the shoreline dangerous, but these kids are basically left on their own. And even though I enjoyed the ingenuity the kids showed setting up their home in the first book, it seems less fun in this book, I think partly because it’s repeated so quickly after the first and partly because the lack of necessity somehow makes it less special. I also can’t help but wonder how many missing family members one old man can have…

I was not a fan of this narrator, which didn’t help. His way of voicing the younger kids grated on me. I don’t know how far into the series I’ll go, but I’m hoping the narrator changes soon. Maybe this book would be enjoyable by younger kids even today, but I am definitely too old for it.

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Book Review: Moonleapers

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Moonleapers
Book #1
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade science fiction

The good news is that 12-year-old Maisie is finally getting a phone like everyone at school. The bad news is that her family is going to spend the summer in Maryland so her mom can be with her great-aunt who is dying. A mysterious text on the phone that actually used to belong to Great-Aunt Hazel, a blank book, and a brief phone call from a dying woman launch Maisie into the world of moonleaping.

The official synopsis gives as little clue about what moonleaping is and what angle this sci-fi book takes as I did above, so it sort of feels like a spoiler to explain. But the info is available in the genre sections on both Goodreads and Amazon, and I really don’t think I can write this review very well without stating it, but I’ll still try to be vague. This book is an interesting take on time travel, especially since there’s technically no travel involved. It’s all about communicating with other times, not traveling there. I’m the kind of person who really appreciates a time travel story that is well done, where connections to the past or the future are made well and flow in the way that would make the most sense if time travel were real. And though there are definitely some liberties taken here that are somewhat common in this genre, they really worked for me. I can’t explain further, but I actually got really excited by a sort of twist that the author brought out later in the book to make the time travel angle work in a fresh way.

The story and journey along the way to Maisie discovering what she can do and what she’s supposed to do with it are maybe a little on the slower side, but I was never bored. As the set-up for more to come now that Maisie knows about her moonleaping abilities, the book did what it needed to do and gave plenty of intrigue along the way. Some things are left unexplained—maybe they’ll be explained in a future book, but to be honest, they didn’t feel to me like loose enough threads to be certain they’ll ever be explained. Though that doesn’t make me want an explanation any less. Then there were other aspects that I wish had simply been fleshed out more in the plot, especially some details related to the climax. Also, Maisie’s younger siblings at times acted or talked older than their ages, especially her brother, which threw me off now and then.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to the next one, even though this one won’t be released for over a month! I do recommend this book for anyone who likes mystery and intrigue and light time travel elements. It is middle grade fiction, but I don’t think the younger audience makes the story any less readable for adults.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: September 16, 2025

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Book Review: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

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Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians
Book #1
by Brandon Sanderson
read by Ramón de Ocampo


My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When Alcatraz Smedry turns 13, he receives an inheritance in the mail—a bag of sand. Then he sets fire to his current foster parents’ kitchen and is about to be removed from the home when an old man claiming to be his grandfather shows up and whisks him off to help fight the evil librarians. Somehow that bag of sand, which was stolen soon after Alcatraz received it, is related to an entire world that Alcatraz doesn’t know he’s a part of.

I listened to this book on a whim while waiting for other audiobooks I had on hold to be ready for me. I’ve never read any Brandon Sanderson and always found the idea of it a bit daunting, but I thought a middle grade book could be a good place to start. And it is a simple enough story for being fantasy. The world building is inventive and a bit complex, while the plot is tropey and not hard to follow. Alcatraz narrates the story and often interrupts it to talk about the art of storytelling or to remind the reader that he’s actually a terrible person, no matter how brave and selfless he might seem. Sometimes these interruptions were interesting or amusing, other times they were obnoxious and felt a little overdone.

There are some elements in the story that I particularly enjoyed, like when we begin to understand just how useful Grandpa Smedry’s talent actually is. And another character’s talent having its moment to shine. At least a little of the world building left me scratching my head—I didn’t fully understand or believe how some of the evil librarians’ tactics worked, and if I had a difficult time with it, I’m sure younger readers would as well. Overall, I mostly enjoyed the book, but it’s kind of weird—when I was around 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through, I told my husband that it was kind of boring, or at least not particularly engaging so far. Yet I remember also feeling happy to be able to get back into listening when I had the chance. So I guess part of me was more engaged than I realized? I don’t know if I’ll continue the series. Probably not right away, which means that if I decide to come back to it again someday, I’ll probably need to re-read this one to remember it well enough to continue. Maybe having a better understanding of what I’m getting into from the beginning will  help me like it more. In the meantime, I do think that kids around 12-14 who like fantasy worlds, antiheros, and polite dinosaurs could enjoy this book.

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Book Review: Beauty in the Least

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Beauty in the Least
McGee and Me! #12
by Bill Myers & Robert West

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian fiction

This was my least favorite book in the series, which is a shame, since it’s also the last, leaving me on a not-so-high note. It just doesn’t have the same feel as the rest of the series. The entire family is so put out by these visiting foreigners, and I’m not really sure anyone learns much of a lesson in the end. The father and son duo provide the only real heart in the story, and it’s overall pretty brief. Considering all of the growing Nicholas has done throughout these books, I just think he should be beyond the petty, immature behavior he displays here—or at least that he should get past it a little more quickly. So sadly, I wouldn’t recommend this book on its own, but the rest of the series is still great. These books may not be easy to find anymore, but if you do have the chance to read any of them or procure them for an 8-10-year-old child, I recommend it.

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Book Review: Mary Anne Saves the Day

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Mary Anne Saves the Day
The Baby-Sitters Club #4
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

Mary Anne was the character I most identified with in this series. She’s quiet, shy, and doesn’t like conflict. And she makes a new friend by sort of falling into it, which is about the only way I ever made new friends in school too. Her character grows a lot in this one book, as she confronts not only her fighting friends but also her over-protective dad. The fight between the members of the BSC is unfortunately very realistic for the age they are. Of course, as an adult, I wanted to sit them all down and make them stop being stupid, but I’m sure when I read it originally, I sided with one or another of the characters. Also as an adult, I feel like it’s a bit of an overreaction to take a kid with a fever and no other symptoms to the emergency room unless the kid had some kind of pre-existing medical condition. Overall, though, this was a fun book to re-visit.

Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. I wish I had thought to start reading this series to/with my daughter when she was around 8-10, because I think she would have enjoyed it, and we could have discussed the good and the bad of the books.

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Book Review: The Truth About Stacey

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The Truth About Stacey
The Baby-Sitters Club #3
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

I have to admit that the storyline of Stacey trying to break out from under her over-protective parents didn’t resonate much with me. That’s probably because I’ve never been in the same situation as either a child or a parent. I suppose some would say my mom was overprotective, but it was in a very different way and I didn’t feel particularly bothered by it at the time. The side plot about the competitive agency interested me a little more, especially since I knew that of course the BSC would come out on top. Their reactions may have been a bit immature, but hey, they’re 12-year-olds, after all! Sometimes they talk or act older than that, but it’s nice to have a reminder that they’re still…well, immature.

Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. I wish I had thought to start reading this series to/with my daughter when she was around 8-10, because I think she would have enjoyed it, and we could have discussed the good and the bad of the books.

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Book Review: The Boxcar Children

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The Boxcar Children
Book #1
by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Read by Phyllis Newman

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

I know I read at least the first book in this series when I was younger, but I don’t remember much after that. Truth be told, apparently I didn’t remember the first one very well either, because…(spoiler alert, but hey, the book is about a century old) I really thought the kids would live in the boxcar for more than just one book. Clearly my memory is faulty, not that that’s a surprise to me. But I digress…the story is sweet, but boy was this a different time. Nowadays, if there was an older man who set up an event because he liked to watch teenage boys run…he’d probably be arrested. I don’t mean to say that the man in this book had any ill intent, but it’s certainly something no one would include in a book these days.

I liked all the different kinds of ingenuity the kids employed to set up their home and give it some semblance of normalcy, from their dishes to the “refrigerator.” And though at least one adult they meet is heinous, at least other adults are kind and compassionate, so it avoids that trope of “all adults are evil” some kids books have. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Phyllis Newman, and though I don’t know if I can accurately explain what I mean, I felt her voice worked really well for the time period this is set in. It reminded me of a record I listened to as a kid with a woman narrating some story. I could see this book being fun for younger kids nowadays to read or listen to (or have read to them), though they might have some questions about things that are very different from our world today.

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Book Review: The Alcatraz Escape

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The Alcatraz Escape
Book Scavenger #3
by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

An escape room in Alcatraz? What’s not to love?! Of course, there’s more to the story as Emily, James, and Matthew test their wits against fellow book scavengers and other puzzle lovers. Someone clearly doesn’t want Emily involved, and the man who helped create the story for the escape room is more than a little mysterious. Then Matthew is blamed for several mean-spirited incidents, so Emily has to kick her puzzling into high gear.

As an escape room enthusiast, I often find that books that are billed to be about escape rooms are the worst at being true to the real-life experience. This book was the first that I’ve read with escape rooms mentioned in the synopsis that had a true escape-room feel, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The rest of the plot involving the mysterious game maker and Matthew being suspected as a villain was good as well. I think the inclusion of several of Emily’s classmates may have bloated the character list a little too much, and it was difficult to keep some of them straight. Overall, though, this was a good wrap-up to a series about books and puzzles that I have really enjoyed, and I think that as a kid, I would have loved it all the more. So it’s easy to recommend it to kids aged around 10-14 (my 14-year-old daughter loved it as well) but also for teens and even adults who enjoy books and puzzles.

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