70 Favorite Middle Grade Fantasy Books

Click HERE for a Google Slides presentation from Spring 2021 that included books from our school library.  I have added many more since then and will update the slideshow with our newer books from this Fall. 

In August of 2021 I recommended these reads for our 5th graders. These include Realistic Fiction, Fantasy, Scary, Historical Fiction, and soon I will add Biography and Nonfiction.  

Do you have more that you recommend? Add the title or series name in the comments below!

Genesis Begins Again: a middle grade novel of self-hate & hope

 Genesis Begins Again, the multiple award winning chapter book by Alicia D. Williams is mighty in its characterization of a young woman who comes from a traumatic home life who's desperate to erase her past and start anew.  13-year old Genesis and her parents have been kicked out of their rental home again.  Unfortunately it's on the day that Genesis finally convinces the cool clique of classmates to accompany her home.  Right from the start of that opening scene the reader feels for Genesis as many can connect to her humiliation and helplessness for what will happen tomorrow when she has to face them at school.  Fortunately for Genesis, her mother decides to leave her father's harmful ways and move the two of them to a new place that she can afford on her own.  Will Genesis have the fresh start that she's always wanted or will the reasons why she hates herself according to class bullies and her father come back into her mind? 

At her new school, Genesis surprises herself by making friends easily, even if they aren't in the popular crowd. With her new friends and a supportive singing teacher who opens Genesis's eyes to singers who also had unstable home lives but funneled their emotions into their singing, maybe this is Genesis's shot at a new identity?  Genesis still makes questionable decisions that are relatable to any reader who has tried to change a part of themselves or hide a family secret at the expense of their health only to hope for a better tomorrow.

This story is perfect for middle schoolers and above who want to understand how race, social class, substance abuse, bullying and trauma can affect a person.  Educators can learn more about their students who may be going through similar issues that Genesis faces like homelessness, poverty and self-hatred. Williams is a teacher herself so she writes with authenticity for what Genesis experiences at school It's no wonder that this book has won so many accolades!  

Readers can also discuss how much they understand about skin color shades as they pertain to different cultures around the world.  As a societal prejudice in many areas of the world, the darker the skin tone, the more the person is persecuted. How does this ring true for Genesis? Young people can also discuss what they'd do if they were in Genesis's shoes.  What if they were her classmates?  

Here is a special treat of Williams reading aloud from the first chapter of the novel:

The publisher's website also has an audio excerpt from the audiobook and a book club discussion guide!

Last Night at the Telegraph Club: a Young Adult historical fiction coming of age tale

Last Night at the Telegraph Club the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's Literature written by Malinda Lo is a story that has yet to be told in the arena of young adult literature. Lo deserves the award for her portrayal of Lily Hu, a 17 year-old Chinese-American daughter of immigrants who settled in Chinatown in San Francisco.  The year is 1954 and the Red Scare is is buzzing all around Lily and her community. She must be careful with whom she associates or else it could spell trouble for her family.  What ends up happening not only affects Lily's future, but also those around her.  

With the tone of a coming of age story, Lo reminds the reader of what it's like to be a teenager trying to figure out who you really are.  When Lily sees an advertisement for The Telegraph Club with a male impersonator or cross-dresser, something in her is awakened. She feels drawn to the club and finds a fellow classmate, Kath, who has an in there.  Once Kath introduces Lily to the club and the people inside, a whole new world opens up for Lily.  A world where others who feel like her can feel normal.  How can Lily return to the person her family expects her to be after she's discovered her feelings for women?  

The best part of this story is when Lo uses the flashbacks between Lily's storyline with ones about her parents and her aunt.  Their own circumstances and journeys to the U.S. to where they are in the 1950s sheds much light on their actions.  As I read the story I kept telling myself if Lily only knew her own family's struggles with their identity in the U.S., then she could open up to them about her own apprehension about where she stands.  

As a former history teacher, I also enjoyed the timelines that Lo includes that show the year, Lily and her family's major moments, and parts of world and American history that have affected Chinese Americans since they were first brought to the U.S. to build the trans-continental railroad.  As the daughter of an aerospace engineer, I enjoyed the development of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as Lily's other passion is studying space travel.  Thankfully her aunt is a human computer for the program and encourages Lily to pursue her interest in math, science, and engineering.  This part of history is interesting for readers to compare to Katherine Johnson and her pioneering work she did for NASA.

This story is an important one for people to read who may not be familiar with the experiences of Chinese Americans.  It's also a history of how the LGBTQ+ community has had to seek out safe spaces to be themselves.  It surprised me that in the ever-inclusive city of San Francisco, there was once a time that it was illegal for homosexuals to even congregate in public.  The end of the novel is full of more information that Lo explains served as her basis for all of the storylines in the book.  Readers who are interested have a number of resources to use to continue learning about more people who lived during this time and left their mark on the country. 

Once Upon a Camel: middle grade fantasy, adventure

 

Once Upon a Camel, a middle grade chapter book written by award-winning author Kathi Appelt with pictures by Eric Rohmann is a heart-warming, educational story that is perfect for animal & history lovers.  The twist is that this story is told from the point of view of Zada, an old camel who is thrust into protecting the baby chicks of two kestrel friends as a wind storm rushes their way.  Zada takes the journey seriously as they make their way across the wilderness towards safety and hopefully the chicks can reunite with their parents who were carried away by the storm.  To help the time pass, Zada recalls how she came to live in Texas from Turkey. Through a series of flashbacks the touching tale leaps off the page and ends in the most uplifting, surprising way imaginable.  

I highly recommend this for elementary, middle school and home libraries, especially those with readers who enjoyed The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. If readers like this book, then I suggest offering them  Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel by Kathleen Karr about the perspective of an Egyptian camel who ends up in the U.S.  There are similarities between the camels' experiences and those interested in the real-life history of camels being brought to the U.S. in the 1850s to be part of the camel corps for the U.S. Army. The illustrations also help the story move forward and softens the high stakes situations in which Zada finds herself. 

Appelt shares more about her book and reads an excerpt in the video below:

 Here's an entertaining book trailer to share with readers:

I Can Make This Promise: family secrets & identity

 Christine Day's debut middle grade novel, I Can Make This Promise, conveys a perspective of a 12-year old Native American girl who only knows that her mother was adopted by a White couple so she has no connection to the Native side of her heritage.  Although Edie is constantly "othered" by people asking her "what are you?", she feels as though her parents would've shared anything they knew with her.  That is until she and her friends stumble across a box of keepsakes in Edie's attic full of mysterious photos, letters, and postcards.  The woman in the photos looks just like Edie and even shares her name.  When Edie asks her parents, they act shifty and change the subject.  Why would they keep something like that a secret? 

Edie and her friends approach this sensitive mystery in different ways. One of her friends urges Edie to talk about it with her parents more while her other friend thinks they should dig for more clues on their own.  The journey that Edie takes to find out the truth is both heart-breaking, yet, hopeful.  Day puts real faces and emotions to the atrocities Native people suffered at the hands of the U.S. Government.  Readers can take the snippets of people mentioned in the story and conduct further research about who they were and why they were considered activists of their time.  Readers can also relate to the changing friendships and history that follow them into adolescence.  Edie decides to cut ties with someone who refuses to be an ally to her and that is a situation that readers can discuss.  

As a teacher, librarian and parent, I would definitely share this book with my students and daughter.  The themes of identity, family, friendship, and historical power and injustice offer a lot of important conversations that connect to other media.  Share the book trailer below with readers to gauge their interest in this story:

Initially I read Day's second novel, The Sea in Winter and was impressed by the authentic voice her characters use while teaching the reader about the upper northwestern U.S. and the Native tribes located there.  I'm looking forward to reading more by Day!

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It

 

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney is like no other book I've ever read.  The multi-generational, historical fiction novel begins during an unfair sharecropping agreement between the main character's family and a plantation owner in Mississippi. Then it shifts to surviving under Jim Crow Laws to eventually marching for civil rights.  It's a dramatic series of monologues that follows Loretta Little (from 1927-1930), Roly (from 1942-1950), and finally, Aggie B. (from 1962-1968). Each chapter has a where and when to set the stage for the reader as they step into the heart and mind of the characters.  The first-person narration told in verse, song, and illustrations transport the reader to the emotion of each character.

What stood out was how the author, Pinkney, incorporated real-life historical figures into her storytelling.  Readers can learn more about Fannie Lou Hamer, President Lyndon B. Johnson, James Forman, Emmett Till, Charles McLaurin, and of course, Martin Luther King, Jr. Pinkney also includes more information about sharecroppers in the southern U.S. with additional photos from that time.  

As a parent, teacher and librarian, I would share this book with 3rd graders and above.  It's certainly age-appropriate for readers to learn about the southern Black experience in the U.S.  Each character is strong, distinct and unforgettable.  The illustrations help readers understand the essence of the story without giving away too much.  

Here are several video interviews the Pinkneys did to share with readers:

Politics & Prose

Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books 

Hispanic Heritage Month Ideas

September 15 - October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month and although we need to share Latinx voices all year round, this is the month that we can bring all of their books together in one place and celebrate.  Over the years I have done school-wide books and other times we focus on author studies for each grade level:

Kindergarten-1st grades: Juana Martinez-Neal, Matt de la Peña

2nd-3rd grades: Meg Medina, Yuyi Morales, Pat Mora

4th-5th grades: Gary Soto, Duncan Tonatiuh, Pam Muñoz Ryan,  Margarita Engle

Here are some specific books with lesson ideas:

Kindergarten - 1st grades

Prior the read aloud teach students how to say donkey in sign language. share that the author and illustrator, Anuska Allepuz is originally from Spain, and have them predict what the donkey eats that turns it green.  

After reading, go over the difference between fiction and nonfiction. What do they think this book is and why?  

Have the students choose a food for the donkey to eat and color their donkey the color of that food.  Students can also write the food and color on the template.

Before reading Moon Rope by Lois Ehlert, share that folktales often have a lesson and that this story is from Peru.  Review the animals that they will encounter in the story and have them act out the motions of the animals while they listen.  

After the story give each child a page with pictures from the book.  For example, here is one I provide:

Ask them to cut out the pictures and arrange them in order. They can number them or tape them to a piece of yarn for the full "Moon Rope" retelling experience.

Feel the Beat by Marilyn Singer and Let's Dance! by Valerie Bolling feature dances from Latin and South America.  Feel the Beat has a CD that comes with it, so students can listen to the poem with music.  Let's Dance can be read then students can get up and dance to Latinx music.  If you have shakers and maracas it's even better!

Here is an audio sample of Feel the Beat. 

2nd-3rd Grades

Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina and Angela Dominguez is perfect for making predictions and having students discuss all of the ways someone who speaks another language could feel.

Students share the words that they know in Spanish and learn the sign language for parrot. before listening to the story.   During the reading I like to share a prop of a suitcase with a snapshot and red feather like Abuela shares with Mia.  Students like to handle the objects after they hear the story.  Once the read aloud is complete, students can discuss the ways that language pushed the characters apart and how they were brought together.

As an extension of the book, students can make their own parrots out of paper or other STEM building materials.

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales is a beautiful story to share with students.  I ask students what it is like to move to another country.  Students discuss the wide range of feelings an immigrant could have.   Prior to reading the book we listen to Morales give background on her story and what her drawings symbolize.

After listening to the story, students brainstorm what gives them their identity.  Then they write a bio poem on a template provided by the teacher. You can get it HERE.

All the Way to Havana is a special picture book by Margarita Engle and Mike Curato.  Students get to learn about Cuba by listening to the author's note about how prior to 1959 there was a car ban in the country.  

There's a great trailer show:

As the book is read, it's really a poem, so the students can chant the sounds they hear.  After reading the story students can build a car of their design using the materials in their STEM bins.  When they are finished they can walk around and look at each other's creations.  TeachingBooks.Net also has an audio clip of Curato explaining how he went about creating the illustrations for the story.

4th-5th Grades

Students may recognize the skulls or caleveras from the movie Coco and associate it with The Day of the Dead.  Ask the students how it became so popular and invite them to listen to biography picture book, Funny Bones by Duncan Tonatiuh.  I give students a biography graphic organizer to use to write their notes and sketch their images.  

Students can listen to Tonatuih on TeachingBooks.Net explain his process for creating the illustrations.

After reading the story students can try to make their own calaveras out of paper plates. HERE are the directions.

Other books by Duncan Tonatiuh that I like to share are Separate is Never Equal and Dear Primo: 

Frida, a picture book by Jonah Winter and Ana Juan, is a beautifully told and illustrated story about artist, Frida Kahlo. Since I use this book with older readers I like to use the idea found on Common Sense Media  called, Queen of the Selfies.  Prior to reading the story I ask students to define what a selfie is, what makes them like or dislike one and how long they think selfies have been around.

Then I ask them what they know about Frida Kahlo:

We look at her self-portraits and try to guess what her life was like:

We read the book aloud and go back to her paintings to find clues to what she endured:

Finally, students are challenged to create a self-portrait using Frida's style of including important feelings, objects, and symbols. We use the app PicCollage on our iPads to do this. Here is my example:

Gary Soto's book of poetry, Neighborhood Odes is excellent for this age group.  Prior to reading  the poems, students brainstorm ideas from their neighborhood, family, friends, or objects they own.

I share that in Neighborhood Odes, Gary Soto focuses on these categories.  I challenge the students to try to match up the titles of the poems and the papel picado cutout-illustrations based on clues.  

Then I show them Soto's news story about the museum that opened in his honor:

We read one of his poems, "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes" and students underline the parts that stand out to them.  They pick something from their brainstormed list and write an ode or a story about that idea.

As an extension we read his poem, "Oranges" that was made into a short film. After we read it, we watch the video and compare and contrast it to the poem.  

If students want to read a picture book by Soto, I recommend Too Many Tamales:

Shannon McClintock-Miller has created a Choice Board for students to explore, as well. If you have more titles you suggest please leave them in the comments!