middle grade

Book Review: The Blunder Years

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The Blunder Years
McGee and Me! #11
by Bill Myers & Robert West

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

Nicholas’s entry into middle school may be pure cliché, as he ditches his friends to hang out with the cool crowd, but it still made for a touching story, at least to me. The key to that is Derrick Cryder, Nick’s erstwhile bully, whose change of heart is maybe a bit tenuous. Derrick being the catalyst to getting Nick back to his real self is great. As for McGee, it’s no secret that I’m not a fan of his adventures, but it adds another layer to Nick’s attempt to change himself when McGee sort of disappears for a time. Though Nick will have to outgrow his cartoon friend some time, apparently this is not that time. Cliché plot or not, I really enjoyed this entry in the series. These books may not be easy to find anymore, but if you do have the chance to read this book or procure it for an 8-10-year-old child, I recommend it.

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Book Review: A King’s Ransom

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A King’s Ransom
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #2
by Jude Watson

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Amy and Dan Cahill continue to jump through hoops for their enemy, Vesper One, trying to save the lives of their abducted friends and family members. This time, they’re given the impossible task of finding a map that’s been missing for decades.

The Cahills’ saga continues strong in this 2nd book in the sequel series. Amy and Dan are forced to make decisions beyond their years, and pick up some allies and enemies along the way. Some major developments happen in this book, more than I expected so early, though I have to remember this series is about half the length of the previous. I enjoyed the excitement in this book and the little hints at a greater hunt that the Vespers are on.

I feel like the different-author-per-book issues aren’t as noticeable so far in this series, which could be due to there being a lot more to look at and build off of. Plus, both of the authors so far have written at least one 39 Clues book already. Amy still struggles with nerves, yet it’s clear that her training has helped her overcome some of it. Dan, though he’s clearly more serious and troubled than he used to be, still has his goofy moments that are reminiscent of his younger self. I appreciate the growth seen in these two; it’s realistic for what they’ve been through. I recommend this book for young and old, anyone who enjoys mystery and adventure for a younger audience.

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Book Review: The Medusa Plot

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The Medusa Plot
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #1
by Gordon Korman

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Two years after the events at the end of the main series, we pick up with Amy and Dan, trying to live a “normal” life. For Amy, this means dating a guy at school while secretly training in various disciplines at home. For Dan, this means the drudgery of normal school, but he’s also dealing with some internal distractions. When the Vespers make a move after 2 years of silence, it’s a big one. Now Dan and Amy are in a race against the clock to save some of their closest loved ones and some of their once-worst enemies.

This follow-up series to The 39 Clues starts off with a bang. Despite the hatred that these family members had for each other in the past, I think the ending of the main series was sufficient to pave the way for these young people working together now. And the fact that their parents aren’t necessarily on board with inner-Cahill-family friendship seems quite realistic as well. I particularly like that Sinead lives with Dan and Amy now and has established a com-center at their house. The way this generation of Clue hunters works together is nice to see.

Dan seems to have a sort of PTSD, where he’ll pull away from Amy and kind of recede into himself. She doesn’t know that he’s mentally working out how he can complete and use the serum that was destroyed (everywhere but in his memory) 2 years ago, so he can stop the Vespers. I really appreciate this aspect of the story and feel for these siblings who have already been through so much tragedy and just want to keep their loved ones safe.

I feel like, in some ways, the story has aged and matured past where it started. The original series could be read by as young as 10-11-year-old kids, but this series, so far, seems a bit darker and more mature than that. If kids sort of “grow up” with the series, though, and start this series after reading the first, at around 12-13, I could see it working. For my part as an adult reader, I enjoy the new, deeper elements to the plot and look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

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Book Review: Kristy’s Great Idea

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Kristy’s Great Idea
The Baby-Sitters Club #1
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.

I enjoyed diving into the first book in the series and witnessing the birth of the Baby-Sitters Club anew. I struggle to actually envision these pre-teens as 12-year-olds though. My daughter is 14, and I can’t imagine her talking and acting like these characters do 2 years ago. Maybe that’s a difference in time periods, or maybe it was Martin’s attempt to make the plot plausible. On the other hand, Kristy acts very immature with her mom and mom’s boyfriend/fiancé, while most of the maturity is related to the girls’ babysitting abilities and experience, a nuance that might actually make sense after all. I look forward to the evolution of the club, which starts in this book and I know will continue in future books as the girls add more protocols and members.

I remember doing a small-scale version of this with my friend (we lived in the country, so it definitely didn’t work quite as well, but I did get one summer-long job out of it). I don’t remember if it was inspired by the series, though I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have influenced us to some degree, but I can say that I was not nearly as professional as these girls. I checked out the e-book on a whim while waiting until I had time to pick up a book I had on hold at the library, and I was sad that the e-book doesn’t have the distinct handwriting of the club members. I’ll definitely get physical copies as much as possible as I continue through the series. I don’t know how far I’ll get before stopping—maybe once I am past the books that I would have read due to outgrowing the books, or maybe further. Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. My guess is no, but maybe if your kids are interested in reading about a somewhat simpler time (it’s so weird to say that about my own childhood period, but it really is true—and I have now realized that this book came out 40 years ago, and now I feel really old) they’ll enjoy this book.

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Book Review: Al Capone Shines My Shoes

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Al Capone Shines My Shoes
Tales from Alcatraz #2
by Gennifer Choldenko

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

Spoiler notice: The following review contains some spoilers for the previous book in the series, Al Capone Does My Shirts.

Moose Flanagan’s life on Alcatraz may never be normal, but after his autistic sister gets into a special school, at least it may be calm for a while. That is, until he gets a note from notorious gangster Al Capone, whose help Moose enlisted in getting his sister into that school, asking him for a favor in return.

I knew this book couldn’t quite have the same punch as the first one, considering that the note from Capone at the end really blew me away. But there’s still quite a bit of intrigue when it comes to Capone and the prison, including a prison break that adds some excitement. Knowing that the author’s sister was autistic and was used as a basis for Moose’s sister, I appreciated the way she treats Natalie in the book as well. And the author’s notes after the book show that her research about Alcatraz and Al Capone were extensive, and she included plenty of that in interesting ways in the story.

My only gripe about this book is that it seems like all of the kids went a little nutty in it. Suddenly all of Moose’s friends treat him like crap, some for reasons I don’t think are ever even explained, even while one of them maintains that “everyone likes Moose.” In some ways, it might be completely normal for a group of kids at their age spending a lot of time in close proximity to behave this way toward each other, and some stressors are made clear, but it just made me scratch my head a lot and wait for everyone to start making sense again. Still, the story overall is enjoyable, and I recommend this book for pre-teens and young teens, as well as any adults who enjoy younger-audience books.

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Book Review: Between Flowers and Bones

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Between Flowers and Bones
The Restorationists #2
by Carolyn Leiloglou

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian middle grade fantasy

Now that she’s not the only Restorationist kid that needs training, Georgia finds herself in the shadow of Vincent, her 2nd cousin, whose Gift is much flashier than hers. Her own parents spend more time with him than they do with her, and she begins to doubt the usefulness of her Gift. But she tries to remember that they need to work as a team to defeat the Distortionists and Vincent’s rogue aunt, who wants Georgia and Vincent to help her steal a painting.

I greatly enjoy the world Leiloglou has set up in this series and had a lot of fun returning to it. This book brings some cheer-worthy moments regarding peripheral characters and sets up a time-sensitive future danger. If the protagonist had been a bit different, this would have definitely been another 5-star read. As I read, I felt more and more like her issues with Vincent were being sort of trumped up to give us a moment of clarity and change, which all felt a little too much like Georgia was too wise for her age (even with the help from an older gentleman). It’s not that her issues with feeling overlooked and unneeded are unrealistic for her age (or any age, really), but the way she overcomes them seems a bit unlikely.

The plot, though, and the worldbuilding of this fantasy story are engaging and simple to follow. The ending feels just a smidge unresolved and/or rushed, but overall, I am so excited for the continuation of this series. I recommend this book to anyone (young and old) interested in fantasy fiction with a Christian worldview.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: September 10, 2024

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Book Review: In the Nick of Time

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In the Nick of Time
McGee and Me! #10
by Bill Myers & Robert West

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian fiction

This is the first in what I always thought of as the “older Nick” additions to the series. I don’t know that I ever watched this one, so the story was unfamiliar to me. I really liked the suggestion of looking up before you look down, meaning look to God before you look at the difficult situation in front of you. There’s also a very good lesson in taking a mountain one step at a time (cue Psalty song to really hit the nostalgia), rather than getting anxious over the idea of tackling it all at once. Just do the next thing, then the next thing, etc. That’s good advice for anyone—young or old, Christian or not. As Nick gets older, though, it seems like McGee is much less part of his life (in fact, I’m not sure Nick “acknowledged” McGee more than once in this book), and so it’s all the more jarring that this obnoxious, egotistical imaginary character keeps popping in to have his own little adventures. Still, the main story is another good one. These books may not be easy to find anymore, but if you do have the chance to read this book or procure it for an 8-10-year-old child, I recommend it.

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Book Review: Vespers Rising

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Vespers Rising
The 39 Clues #11
by Rick Riordan, Peter Lerangis, Gordon Korman, & Jude Watson

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Though it’s billed as the last book in the main 39 Clues series, this book is really more of a launching point into a spinoff series: Cahills vs. Vespers. This book is a collection of 4 vignettes of different key points in the history of the Cahill family—the death of the patriarch of the family after he split the Clues into 4 sets and sent them with his four children; the fifth Cahill child grown up and trying to figure out how to proceed with her task; Grace Cahill coming into her role in the family; and Amy & Dan learning about the rival family and being sent off on another adventure.

Each of these stories dives in quickly and gives you just what you need to catch up and follow the action. Some are a little confusing at first, but I found each of them to be engaging in its own way.  However, it’s easy to feel like the Vespers were made up after the main series had found enough success that the authors/publisher wanted to be able to keep it going, because it seems strange that, with as dogged as these people are, they would not have come up even once during the Clue hunt in the first 10 books. Whether or not that will prove to be a detraction for the coming books remains to be seen (by me, at least), but I’ll definitely give it a try. I’m also not entirely sure how necessary this book is to the rest of the series. It’s definitely not at all important to finishing the main series. Whether it contains information that is crucial to the spinoff or not, I don’t know. I’m also not sure it would be quite as fun a read for middle grade readers as the rest of the series.

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Book Review: The Groundworld Heroes

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The Groundworld Heroes
by Adrian So

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

The continual war between humans and ground-dwelling animals comes to life in this fun, well-crafted adventure by (then) 13-year-old Adrian So. The main character is a mole named Benjamin who is basically just trying to follow rules and be the best Soiland citizen and member of the mole-digger team that he can be, but the incursion of the humans causes all sorts of chaos. While Benjamin gets left behind, the rest of the Soilanders, under the direction of the president, Mr. Hare, who gives his own POV to the story, run into trouble as refugees. The inclusion of terms like “bunny-hops” as units of distance and “badger-winces” as units of time added to the immersion of the underground world, though at times some were a little difficult to follow. There were parts here and there that felt unnecessary or confusing that perhaps may be cleaned up before the book releases (I received an ARC to review at the author’s request), and sadly that includes the dragonfly fossil thread that ran through the story in a way that I don’t think I ever understood. But overall, the story felt like a fun adventure that kids in the 7-10 age range will enjoy.

I received a free review copy from the author in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.
Publication date: August 6, 2024

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Book Review: The Mystery of Locked Rooms

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The Mystery of Locked Rooms
by Lindsay Currie

My rating:2.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

When her family is faced with foreclosure and moving to another state, Sarah and her friends West and Hannah decide to try to find the fabled treasure in a nearby abandoned funhouse built in the 1950s. They’ve solved lots of escape rooms together, so they know they have the best chance of making it past the riddles and puzzles to find the prize at the end.

I’ll get to the part of this review about the escape room side of this book in a bit, but I’ll start with talking about the plot and characterization. The plot was fairly basic—MC desperately needs money to save herself/her family, fabled treasure is available, she enlists her friends to help her get it. The ER elements aside, it plays out about like you’d expect. There’s even one character with a far-above-average memory, which I guess I don’t know how rare it is, but I have a feeling the statistics are something vastly lower than 1 in 4 people with that kind of memory, which is what a lot of MG books make it seem like. Throughout their experience in the funhouse, these kids are pushed to their limits and end up opening up to each other in ways that they haven’t in the past, and their conversations sound a lot more insightful and self-aware than kids would really be at this age (pre-teens, I think? I don’t remember if their ages are stated). Add to that the way the funhouse is just somehow magically set up to test each of their unique strengths and weaknesses, and I feel like it definitely could have been done better.

If this book had not been billed to be about escape rooms, I would have rated it higher. I’ll just say up front that if you’re thinking about reading this book because you enjoy escape rooms, maybe give it a pass. However, it is for younger readers, and most of them will have never played any escape rooms, or at least not enough to see the problems with that aspect of this book, so I doubt that would be much of an issue for them. I’ve only played about 30+ escape rooms, which is a low number amongst enthusiasts, but I have a difficult time believing that these 3 kids have played as many as they have at their age (and income level for one of them at least—escape rooms are expensive, and though it’s mentioned that she got a subscription or something to a particular business for a birthday present, that one business couldn’t include enough different rooms to account for the seemingly high number of rooms the book makes it seem like these kids have done). At the beginning of the book, they’re all excited because they beat a game with a very low escape rate, and then later it’s mentioned that it was their 3rd time attempting the room. In my experience, playing an ER multiple times is very uncommon. Plus, it’s mentioned later in the book that many ERs have multiple exits to the next room…also not something I’ve really seen or heard of much, if ever. Then the details within the funhouse, the way the escape room elements play out, just…don’t really make a lot of sense to me. The kids get excited over things they figure out that don’t actually mean anything or advance them, and riddles they find are somehow perfectly tailored to what they’ve done or the order in which they’ve done things, even though the puzzles are way too non-linear for that to be possible. In the end, this felt like every book or movie I’ve ever read/seen about a not-quite-mainstream fad (like when TV shows try to include MMORPGs) that is clearly written by people who do not have enough experience about the subject matter. I really can’t say if that’s the case with Currie or not, but it definitely fell short for me.

I was so excited to read this book. I figured that ERs have now been around long enough for them to be more correctly used, and this book certainly sounded like it would be a good one for that. It really wasn’t, at least to me. Between that and the drama in the plot, it just wasn’t as exciting as it seemed like it was meant to be. I didn’t hate it by any means, and it was a quick read. And as I said above, I am certain that pre-teens wouldn’t have any issue with the lack of escape room realness. That leaves the story and characters, which I still think were a bit weak, but it’s also entirely possible that they’ll resonate more with those of the age group this is meant for.

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Kids for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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