Recent Reads: A Huge List of Middle Grade Chapter Books

OK, so not every book on this list was exactly a recent read, but they are all books read in the last eight months or so. I’m a little behind on my “Recent Reads” series, but fear not, we have been reading more than ever during this year that has been filled with time at home.

• Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker. It’s a charming and engaging story that has you rooting for the characters.
• Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner. This was a pandemic splurge purchase during the days when we did not have any library access whatsoever, and this book totally delivered! It’s entertaining, fantastical, and a page turner. I loved the connection to the opera house, and the mysterious plot made this a one-sitting read for me in the middle of the night even though it was a longer book.
• Mr. Tiger Betsy and the Blue Moon and Mr. Tiger, Betsy and the Golden Seahorse and Mr. Tiger, Peasy and the Sea Dragon by Sally Gardner. We totally fell in love with these engaging, creative stories. They make wonderful read alouds and inspire so much imagination.
• The Two Princesses of Bamare and The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine. These action packed princess stories make for a great fantasy read. I do have a soft spot for imaginary kingdoms.
• Itch by Polly Farquhar. It’s always nice when you run across a realistic fiction book set in middle school with an authentic male protagonist. This is also an introduction to chronic idiopathic medical diagnosis and how it might affect peers.
• Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech. This is one of Mr. TOF’s favorite books that I read out loud to him this year. The characters are pretty great.
• The Canning Season by Polly Horvath. This is an incredibly quirky book, and I ended up totally loving it. I’ve read nothing like it ever.
• Klipfish Code by Mary Casanova. I love historical fiction, and this was a great story set in Norway during World War II.
• The Doldrums and The Doldrums and The Helmsley Curse by Nicholas Gannon. I really enjoyed both of these highly creative books. Fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society and and the Wildwood series might really enjoy these titles as well.
• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. I forgot how much I loved this Newberry Award Winner until I reread it twice this fall, once to myself and once again out loud to Mr. TOF as a literature component for our medieval studies for homeschool. Mr. TOF was a big fan as well.
• Mockingbird by Katheryn Erskine. A favorite of the bigger kids in the household when they were younger, this was a reread that I read out loud to Mr. TOF. I’ve liked it each time I have read it.
• The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani. I learned so much about the history of India and Pakistan in the late 1940’s from reading this book. I knew nothing about this part of the world during that time period, and this engaging story had me researching all kinds of things to discover more.
• The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney. A story about the determination of a young Sudanese girl in a refugee camp to learn to draw, read and write, this book is like looking through a lens at circumstances in the world that we should all be paying more attention to.
• The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen. This is an exciting fantasy read with a gripping plot. Fans of books like the Kingdom of Bamarre will also really enjoy this book.
• The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata. This book sometimes gets reviews lamenting it’s slow, psychological plot, which some people feel isn’t appealing to middle grade readers, but I am here to tell you, that this book stressed me out so much my heart was in my throat and I was so tense that I had to actually stop reading and do something else and come back to the book later! This author really gets the stress of harvest for custom combiners right (and I say this as a farm girl whoas a child watched adults around me deal with the stress of harvest). The characters in the book, although maybe not always likable, were totally real and the tensions that were drawn between them were so realistic I could barely stand it. This makes it a great book, in my opinion, to evoke such strong feelings in the reader.
• Under the Egg by Laura Max Fitzgerald. When I was a kid one of my favorite books was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler, and this book reminded me very much of that title! I liked it a lot.
• The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman. There is a reason that this book has become almost a classic of children’s literature over the past few decades. It gives such a great glimpse into life in the middle ages while telling a riveting story. This was a reread for me, but it had been many years since my first reading, and I really enjoyed it this time too.
• An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo. This also was a reread for me this fall. Both times I have really appreciated the point of view of a story about the end of World War II from the perspective of a German character, and I think it is also a very valuable glimpse into the destruction of Dresden at the end of the war.
• Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. This book has long been perhaps the ultimate favorite middle grade book of both YaYa and The Banana, and this time around, Mr. TOF really like it as well. It’s such an important book about the mind of a girl with a physical disability, and it really gets kids thinking about their peers who might be faced with extra challenges. It’s a book that inspires compassion when interacting with others.

Nonfiction

• Fatty Legs and Not My Girl by Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton. These are important books about a native Inuvialuit girl who attends a residential school in the Northwest Territory of Canada. Heartbreaking, yet full of courage and insight, we all learned a lot from reading these books, and found that they made a big impact on our thinking.
• River of Words by Jen Bryant. I have always enjoyed the writing of William Carlos Williams, and this is a terrific book that introduces his writing to older elementary students in a colorful, delightful way.
• Some Writer by Melissa Sweet. This colorful, wonderfully designed biography of E.B. White is a delight to read, giving kids insight to one of the most famous children’s writers in the twentieth century, and his process for writing.
• The Great Composer Series: These short but informational picture books are terrific introductions to famous composers. Just the right length, with just the right amount of information to get an upper elementary student engaged in learning about each composer, this books also have a lot of humor, and we’ve been hooked all fall.
• The Great Artist Series: Similar to the Great Composer Series, these books are written in a similar format, but introduce many famous artists throughout history.

Audiobooks

• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Mr. TOF and I listened to all six of these award winning audiobooks this summer, and we loved them so much! They might be some of my very favorite audiobooks ever. They are so well narrated (although my big kids found the narration a bit obnoxious at times, Mr. TOF and I were riveted for hours on end) and the stories are so complex and quirky, while incorporating vast tidbits of knowledge and learning. All through the homeschool fall, we’ve been finding ourselves learning about things that the Incorrigibles were learning from their governess. They really are a treat, but listening to them in order is a must, I believe.