**Towards the bottom of my shelves, my childhood books are tucked away in totes. I pull the totes out and pull out some of my old books. I take in the covers and they whisk me away to a time long ago. I take the books out one by one and remember the stories I loved as a child. So many magical stories of adventure and friendship. I wonder which ones I would choose as favorites.**

Welcome or welcome back to bookishcore! I did a graphic novels recommendations post back in June, so I have wanted to do other recommendation posts by genre and age range, so I thought today I would do some recommendations for middle grade and children’s books. Get comfortable, because there are definitely a lot of recommendations today. Enjoy!

Middle Grade Recs

I have a LOT of recommendations, so I will try and keep each rec short and sweet. Starting with a younger read, we have the Stink series by Megan McDonald. This was my favorite series as a kid. If you haven’t heard of this series, it’s a series that follows Judy Moody’s younger brother! It just follows his life with his family and friends and whatever situation he finds himself in. I highly recommend checking this out.

Another rec that may be a bit younger than middle grade is Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton. These are two different series following our main protagonists Geronimo and Thea who are mice that go on adventures. It’s been a long time since I’ve read these so I don’t remember them well, but I really liked them when I read them.

Next, I would recommend the My Sister the Vampire series by Sienna Mercer, specifically the books Love Bites and Lucky Break. This is a series about two girls that meet in school, one a vampire and one a human. They learn that they are twins separated when they were younger after their human mother died. I liked this series, but these two books were ones I loved and read multiple times.

My next recommendation is A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I started this series in third grade and read it for several years after that. To be completely honest, I never finished this series. I read 12/13 books. It took me years to read this series for some reason, and by the time I got to book 13 I just didn’t want to keep going. I would still recommend these books because I did really enjoy them for a long time.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is another of my middle grade recommendations. I read this book about three times when I was younger. I honestly can’t say what I liked about this book. It’s kind of strange but I really liked it when I was younger. I recommend just picking this up and not really looking into it.

Another rec I read more than once is Almost Home by Joan Bauer. I read this twice when I was younger and really enjoyed it. It’s about a girl and her mom who lose their home. The main girl, Sugar, gets taken in by a foster family and ends up taking in a dog being abused. I can’t do this book justice in describing it, so go check it out. It was a great read.

Next we have The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. This series follows a brother and sister who have competing lemonade stands to see who can make more money. I remember really enjoying this series and really like how there is a sibling element to it.

One of my favorite middle grade authors was Wendy Mass. I loved every book I read by her, with The Candymakers and The Willow Falls series (that one was my favorite) being my favorites. The Candymakers follows four kids that compete in a candy factory to make the best chocolate bar, and 11 Birthdays, book one in the Willow Falls series, follows two best friends who aren’t talking anymore. They share a birthday, and on their eleventh, they get stuck in a time loop. I adored her books and would love to check out the one she did with Rebecca Stead, The Lost Library.

Next, I would recommend The Dead End and Now You See Me. These are two books from the Poison Apple series, a middle grade series of horror/thriller stories. I loved both of these, with The Dead End being a story about a girl staying in a summer house with weird occurrences, and Now You See Me about two friends who thrift a camera with a ghost appearing in each picture. I love both and have reread them several times, even now!

I would also recommend Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, a book about a group of kids solving riddles with famous game-maker Mr. Lemoncello. This was such a fun book with lots of riddles. I highly recommend.

For a fantasy rec, we have The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. This follows twins that find themselves in a world with storybook characters. This was such a magical read and I have great memories reading this series. The second book was my favorite, partly because of the story, and partly because of the memories.

Second to last rec, we have A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This book follows a young boy in 1985 Sudan who is running from the war, and a girl in 2008 Sudan who walks hours everyday to get water for her family. This is a story that really speaks to you. It’s heavy and emotional with hopeful tones throughout.

Last but not least, we have Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea. This is a really great story about a group of students and how their teacher changes their lives. We read in the perspective of maybe seven kids and learn about their lives and the friendships they build with their classmates.

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If you somehow read through all my recommendations and made it to this point, thank you for reading. I hope you were able to find a recommendation for yourself or someone looking for a good middle grade read. There are probably so many other books I could recommend, but these are my top ones for right now and the ones that were my favorites. Happy reading!

xoxo,

Just another reader