So Far, So Good: 10 Great Middle Grade Books of 2017

The Unicorn in the Barn, by Jacqueline Ogburn
Myth and fantasy combine with a realistic story of family and loss in this enchanting tale that will delight fans of magical creatures. 11 year-old Eric Harper’s grandfather is dead and his grandmother is in a nursing home, and their house has been sold to a veterinarian and her daughter. But the Harper family still owns the woods beyond the house, a place where people over the years have seen a strange white deer…And one day, Eric sees the “white deer” for himself, and realizes she is a unicorn with an injured hoof. Eric, entranced, follows her to his grandparents’ old house, where the new vet and her daughter treat magical animals alongside ordinary ones. He is taken on as a stable hand, and while caring for the unicorn, he realizes she has magical healing powers that might help him bring his grandmother home. The story builds to an ending full of both loss and wonder, when Eric’s grandmother dies and baby unicorns are born. The sadness Eric feels is profound, and can’t be magically healed, but healing does come from his grandmother’s last words to him, which link him to generations of his family who have cared for this piece of land and its magical inhabitants.

Spirit Hunters, by Ellen Oh
This is one of my top recommendations for fans of middle grade horror. It’s scary enough to provide thrills without being traumatic. Harper’s family has just moved from New York City to a big old house in Washington D.C., bought cheaply because it needs work, and because, though they don’t know it, it is a house where horrible tragedies have happened over the years. Harper can communicate with ghosts, and immediately senses something is wrong. When her little brother becomes possessed by an evil spirit of another little boy who died, in the house, and who turns out to be only a cat’s paw for a much more powerful and malevolent being, Harper must use her gift to lay the spirits to rest. For kids who want horror, there’s plenty of it, with a nice dollop of gore. And although most kids don’t have to battle evil spirits the summer before 7th grade, there’s enough here about the ups and downs of ordinary family life and making friends in a new town that readers will be able to relate to Harper while enjoying her spirit hunting.

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis
If you have a young reader on hand who loves dragons and chocolate, this is a book you must offer immediately! A restless young dragon girl, Aventurine, sets out looking for adventure. She thinks she’s invincible, but a puny human transforms her into a human girl with a magicked cup of hot chocolate. Aventurine is appalled by the transformation, but she’s now desperate for more chocolate, and heads to the nearest town to find it. Being human is hard work, but she’s able to find a place working at a chocolate emporium, though it’s the least successful one in town. The woman who runs it is more interested in the quality of her chocolate than making money, and Aventurine proves to be equally dedicated to the art. But the chocolate house is in danger of failing. And then Aventurine’s family of dragons comes looking for her. They are not happy, and nor are the townfolk glad to see dragons descending on them. Aventurine is a delightful heroine, both because of her own strong personality and because of the very interesting, and often amusing, conflict between the human world and her dragon nature. The chocolate that fills the pages of the book is also, of course, delightful, being chocolate.

The Glass Town Game, by Catherynne M. Valente
Wonder, grief, and the power of storytelling and sibling bonds are woven together in this magnificent adventure. The Bronte children, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Branwell, were perfect company for each other, enthralled in the stories of epic battle and imaginary realms they created together. But Charlotte and Emily must leave their siblings and their home to go back to boarding school, where their two older sisters had died. This dark day is transformed into one of full of wonder when the four children find themselves voyaging to the world of Glass Town, where their stories and the toys used to act them out have become real. There they find wild adventures full of wordplay and metaphor, and though they ready to enjoy the strange experience of being a part of their own creation, there’s a more serious note to the story. In this world, death doesn’t last, and the siblings hope that if they can bring the magic back to their own world, they can bring back their sisters and their mother, who died years ago. Obviously Bronte fans will want to seek this one out, but it will also enthrall kids who loved The Phantom Tollbooth when they were four years (or so) younger, and it will also delight fans of Valente’s Fairyland series.

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth, by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Prez Mallows once lived with his granddad, taking care of things as the old man drifted further and further away from reality, always there to pull him back. At last he couldn’t do it any longer, and now he’s a ward of the state, and this summer he’s been sent to stay on the farm of the warm and loving Blythe family. Before he has a chance to get used to life in the country, an extraterrestrial being named Sputnik shows up and claims his attention. Sputnik has come to Earth with an urgent mission: Unless he can come up with 10 things that make Earth worth saving, it will be declared superfluous and destroyed by the galactic bureaucracy. Sputnik’s ideas of what things have value are peculiar, and very funny. To everyone but Prez, Sputnik looks like a dog, adding to the humor. It’s a rollicking story with lots of chaotic humor (Sputnik’s ability to manipulate reality plus his poor understanding of Earthly safety standards results in lots of near disasters), with warm, poignant moments acting as ballast. Young readers who like everyday reality exploded into wonder will love it, and dog lovers in particular will adore it!

The Loser’s Club, by Andrew Clements
Here’s a must read for any kid who would rather spend time peacefully reading than taking part in structured activities. When sixth-grader Alex is forced to stay after school in the Extended Day Program, he is horrified. He must either take part in a club doing activities he’s not interested in, or do homework in the library. Happily, kids can start their own clubs, and so Alex starts one for reading. He calls it the Losers Club to keep other kids from joining, and settles peacefully into a table of his own. But other kids trickle over, until his table is full of young readers, including a strong-minded new girl named Nina, and this turns out not to be so horrible after all. Sharing book recommendations and finding likeminded new friends turns out to be rather nice, and the Losers Club even gives Alex a way to make peace with his ex-best friend turned bully. A perfect read for young bookworms!

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, by Rita Garcia-Williams
Clayton Byrd loves to play the blues with his grandfather, especially out in the park playing for money with the other bluesmen. Someday his granddad will give him the solo he knows he’s ready to play, and he’ll finally be one of the group for real. But before that day can come, his grandfather dies. His mom, hurt during her own childhood by her father’s nomadic life as a musician, hates the blues, and tries to purge the house of her father and his music. So Clayton, hurting and desperate to play, runs off to find the bluesmen. Instead he finds himself ensnared by a group of street boys, aggressively performing beat music and dancing in the subway. Clayton’s harmonica adds to their music, but the uneasy relationship goes sour when the police arrive…and Clayton must face the music of his mother’s anger. She in turn must face her past and come to terms with her son’s passion. The bustle of the city, and the sadness and joy of the Blues, are a fantastic backdrop for Clayton’s adventure underground and back up again.

Three Pennies, by Melanie Crowder
Marin’s mother abandoned her when she was four, and Marin has bounced around foster homes ever since. Now she’s adoptable, and her case worker has found a possible new mother for her—Dr. Lucy Chang. Marin doesn’t have anything against her, and does what is asked of her, but she cannot open her heart to a new mother when she’s still expecting her own real mother to come back to her. She’s kept her memories of that mother alive casting pennies to ask the I Ching what the future holds, and she won’t give up on her dream now. So instead of focusing on the possibility of a real home, she fixes her mind on tracking down the woman who abandoned her. As the fault lines beneath California push and pull, and tension mounts, Marin confronts her past and embraces a future. Give this one to readers who love emotional stories about family bonds, who appreciate books with short chapters that are quick reads without any sacrificing of good storytelling.

Planet Jupiter, by Jane Kurtz
Jupiter loved her nomadic life performing with her parents and brother wherever the road took them, but now her father has taken off to be a rolling stone free of the moss of family. After a few months camped out on an Oregon farm, Jupiter’s anxious to get on the road again, but it is not to be. Seven year-old Edom, adopted from Ethiopia by her mother’s sister, needs a place to live while her new mom fights cancer, and so a rundown house in Portland is going to become home. With Jupiter’s brother still on the farm and the family van out of commission, the open road seems to have closed. Jupiter misses her old life fiercely, and hatches a plan to get Edom back to her mother and herself away from Portland. But gradually she accepts Edom as family, and puts down tentative roots, encouraged by a friendship with the old woman next door and the quirky kids of her new neighborhood. When her plan to leave town puts Edom in danger, she at last realizes that gathering a bit of moss might be the right thing to do. The vivid characters and the many details of Jupiter’s unconventional life make this a fascinating read.

Stef Soto, Taco Queen, by Jennifer Torres
Here’s a charming one for fans of realistic stories in which the social tensions of school are blended with a bigger external problem. Stef is proud of her Mexican-American dad’s food truck, but she sure does wish he wouldn’t come pick her up from middle school in it! Her parents are too protective of her to let her walk alone to where it’s parked, and now the mean girl who was once her friend has started calling her “Taco Queen.” But soon there are bigger things to worry about. Stef finds herself on the organizing committee of the student fundraising dance alongside her mean ex-friend, and she’s allowed her chance encounter with a pop-star (thanks to the food truck) to mushroom into a rumor that she’s getting the pop-star to come to the dance. An even more urgent problem threatens her family, though, when the city proposes new rules that will threaten the family’s food-truck business. To solve both problems and make peace with her old friend, Stef has to find her voice and speak out for herself and her family, and she does a great job. It’s funny and charming in its portrayal of middle school life, and it’s a lovingly realistic portrayal of protective, hard-working parents and their daughter’s push towards more independence.