The Best Middle Grade Fiction I read in 2024: A Baker’s Dozen

Jan1

My children’s fiction reading this year has been influenced a lot by two projects: my project to read and evaluate current day middle grade fiction published in 2024 and my other project to read and evaluate the middle grade fiction of 60 years ago, published in 1964. I found more gold in ’64 than I did in 2024, but there were a few good ones from this past year. I also spent a lot of time with one particular children’s author from the past who deserved all of the awards he received. Links are to reviews of the books here at Semicolon or at Plumfield and Paideia.

Indeed, it was the year of good books from 1964, and the year of Meindert DeJong. If you’ve not read any of DeJong’s award-winning books, and if you like animal stories, you should definitely try one of Mr. DeJong’s heart-warming tales.

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea

Dec27

Over the course of four years, actor and director Brendan O’Hea and his good friend, actress Judi Dench, met regularly to discuss the Shakespeare plays in which she had performed, as well as a few she had directed. This book, drawn from transcripts of those conversations, features Dame Judi Dench sharing stories, anecdotes, and some playful gossip—mostly at her own expense. While her humor often focuses on her own quirks and missteps, the primary focus of the book is on the plays themselves, the characters she portrayed, and the timeless poetry of Shakespeare—the man who, as Dench notes, has “paid the rent” for countless actors over the years.

If you are a fan of Shakespeare, whether you are familiar with all or just some of his plays, you will find much to love and ponder in this memoir. It reflects a lifetime spent interpreting and performing his works. While readers may choose either to overlook or enjoy Ms. Dench’s irreverent humor and occasional coarse language, it’s worth noting her irreverence and sexual frankness reflect that of Shakespeare himself. And Judi Dench displays a true belief in Shakespeare’s genius—his mastery of the English language and his ability to write plays that resonate across time and cultures.

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent is not your typical celebrity memoir. Rather, it serves as a thoughtful treatise on acting, especially when it comes to interpreting Shakespeare’s characters. Dench offers valuable insights into the intricacies of the roles she has played, demonstrating that she has deeply engaged with the text, carefully considering its meaning and its implications. The interviews also provide a rich personal history of British theater during the time Dench has been active (1957-2024), shedding light on the roles and productions that shaped her career. Her range as an actress is staggering, with memorable performances in both major and minor roles, including Ophelia in Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Katharine in Henry V, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Adriana in The Comedy of Errors, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, and many more.

The book is filled with humor, particularly when Dench recounts her onstage mishaps—like the many times she fell unexpectedly or almost came onstage without her skirt. There’s also the incident where she sneezed while playing Juliet, during a scene where she was supposed to be dead—or at least feigning death. But the memoir is also deeply poignant, as Dench reflects on, or rather refuses to discuss, her fear of death, and tells how Shakespeare’s works have helped her process the grief of losing her husband, actor Michael Williams, and other theater friends. Some of these friends even have trees planted in her garden in their honor.

Published in 2024, when Dench was 80 years old, the book captures her in her seventies, still actively working in theater and film. She mentions her struggles with failing eyesight, yet she refuses to let this or any other obstacle deter her from continuing her career and growing as an artist. It’s Dench’s perspective, a blend of maturity, childlike wonder, humor, gratitude, and deep love for Shakespeare, that makes this memoir such a joy to read.

This book is recommended for adults who love Shakespeare, theater, or Judi Dench’s remarkable acting career. I read the book in a hardcover edition from the public library, but it is also available as an audiobook, read by Brendan O’Hea and Barbara Flynn (as Judi Dench). Content considerations include some language, explicit sexual jokes, innuendo, and adult themes.

Mystery in the Night Woods by John Peterson

Dec26

I went to a library book sale a couple of months ago, and I found eight or ten old Scholastic paperbacks for sale for fifty cents apiece. I grabbed them all with plans to read them and see if they would fit into my library. Mystery in the Night Woods definitely makes the grade.

However, let’s deal with the possibly offensive parts first. Flying Squirrel, aka F.S., and his friend Bat are introduced in the first chapter, and right away we can tell that F.S. is a proud and self-centered squirrel. He tells Bat, “When I do something, I want to do it the best!” and “that’s why I’m a success!” So, it’s no surprise that when F.S. falls for Miss Owl and asks her to marry him, he is not willing to take “no” for an answer.

It is a bit disconcerting to present-day sensitivities to discover what F.S. does about his unrequited love for Miss Owl. He kidnaps her and refuses to let her go until she promises to marry him. This abduction is the part that a couple of Amazon reviewers found offensive, but I didn’t read it that way. Of course, the kidnapping is wrong, indeed criminal, but Miss Owl is for the most part unharmed. F.S. is arrested, sentenced by the Night Court, and made to pay for his crime. And eventually he becomes a much more humble and helpful squirrel.

So, it’s a story of “pride goeth before a fall” and “crime doesn’t pay” and “all’s well that ends well.” I believe in repentance and forgiveness as well as justice, and that’s what the book models with anthropomorphic animal characters. I daresay had the characters been human adults doing the same things, my take would have been different. But really, a lovesick flying squirrel kidnaps an innocent Miss Owl, but then repents and helps solve a mystery and foil a major crime spree? It feels like something from the cartoons that entertained me on my childhood Saturday mornings.

“Weasel stuck his head out of the window and whistled. A dark cloud came out and floated past him. Bat looked on from his hiding place. He could hardly believe what he had seen. What was the dark cloud? Where did it go? Bat was sure of only one thing–Weasel was up to something crooked again.”

And there you have the teaser for the rest of the story. It’s a good mystery for the 8-10 year old crowd. Leave it at that. I wouldn’t pay a lot for the book, especially since it’s only available in a paperback edition published in 1969. MY copy happens to be in very good condition, but it won’t last forever. Still, if you come across it, pick it up and give to a child you know who is not too jaded to enjoy a simple animal story mystery.

John Peterson was a successful children’s author who published quite a few best-selling books including Terry’s Treasure Hunt, The Secret Hide-Out, Enemies of the Secret Hide-Out, and the series of books about The Littles, a tiny family who live in the walls of a human-size family’s house. Cyndy Szekeres, the illustrator for Mystery in the Night Woods, is well known for her tiny animal illustrations, and the ones in this book are charming.

Patron families can check this book out from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

2024 Middle Grade Fiction–Not Recommended

Dec20

Here’s a list of 2024 middle grade fiction books that I’ve read or partially read and do NOT recommend, for various reasons, mostly because they contain gratuitous and unhelpful sexual references, lies about gender and sexuality, crude language and/or just bad writing:

  • Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston
  • The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon
  • A Game of Noctis by Deva Fagan
  • Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
  • Unstuck by Barbara Dee
  • Keep It Like a Secret by John David Anderson
  • The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy
  • The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown by Elizabeth Laird
  • Jamie by L.D. Lapinski
  • Gooseberry by Robin Gow
  • Linus and Etta Could Use a Win by Caroline Huntoon
  • Murray Out of Water by Tracy Taylor
  • Crushing It by Erin Becker
  • The Truth About Triangles by Michael Leali
  • Puzzleheart by Jenn Reese

Faker by Gordon Korman

Dec18

What would it be like to grow up with a conman for a father? A conman who swindles your friends’ families out of large sums of money and convinces you that it’s all just part of “the family business”?

In Faker, Gordon Korman, a prolific middle-grade novelist, explores this intriguing premise through the eyes of Trey, a young boy who has been hustling people with his dad and younger sister for as long as he can remember. The family moves from town to town, conning wealthy people out of their money, and then disappearing when the heat gets too intense. As soon as things start to unravel, Trey’s dad calls a “Houdini”—a quick escape—and they vanish, only to reappear later in a new place with a new scheme.

Despite the fact that this is a story about a family of criminals, Korman does a good job of showing that Trey is more than just a product of his environment. As the story progresses, Trey begins to question the rationale his father has always fed him about their lifestyle, grappling with his maturing conscience. I also appreciated that Trey’s father, while clearly a thief, isn’t painted as entirely villainous. He’s a complex character: a criminal with a good heart. In fact, he might be a bit too good a dad to feel entirely believable, but this adds to the book’s emotional appeal.

As I read, I found myself thinking, “This is not going to end well,” especially when Trey’s dad uses him and his sister to establish relationships with the wealthy parents of their schoolmates. But Korman manages to craft a surprisingly hopeful conclusion, one that, while somewhat improbable, avoids the darker turn the story might have taken. While the book offers some redemption and resolution, the narrative doesn’t shy away from difficult questions about right and wrong. Trey may come to understand the ethics of his actions, but his father’s repentance and reformation remain more ambiguous.

If you’re looking for a squeaky-clean story with no lying, stealing, or moral dilemmas, Faker is not the book for you. However, if you’re looking for a thought-provoking story that raises important questions about ethics, theft, and deception, this is a great choice. The book offers an opportunity to discuss complex topics like whether it’s okay to steal from the rich, the nature of heroes and villains, and whether criminals deceive themselves about their own motives. Pairing Faker with a version of the Robin Hood stories would make for some excellent discussions about the ethics of stealing from the rich and living outside the law.

Library Girl by Polly Horvath

Dec13

I came across a critique of this story about an eleven-year-old girl, Essie, who has been raised by four librarian mothers in a public library. The critic argued that the story wasn’t believable. Well, of course it’s not. This isn’t a realistic, middle-grade problem novel; it’s a whimsical and exaggerated fairy tale with some real truths mixed in.

“Essie has grown up in the public library, raised in secret by the four librarians who found her abandoned as a baby in the children’s department. With four mothers and miles of books to read, Essie has always been very happy living there.”

Now that she’s eleven, her mothers decide it’s time for Essie to experience the world outside the library and gain some independence. They give her a Saturday allowance (like in The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright) and set boundaries for her exploration. But as Essie makes new friends—possibly enemies, too—including a boy named G.E., she begins to uncover surprising truths about herself and her past.

This book is a mixed bag. I enjoyed the references to children’s literature throughout; they were a fun touch. However, some of the books Essie reads or hears about, like Slaughterhouse-Five, are wildly inappropriate for an eleven-year-old. There’s a recurring theme of the freedom to read without censorship, which is one of the more realistic aspects of the story, especially given today’s library culture.

The narrative is generally clean, though there are a couple of instances where God’s name is taken in vain, which were unnecessary and spoiled the tone. That said, the story remains relatively wholesome. There’s a fair amount of deception and secrecy, but ultimately, the truth comes out. It’s amusing to watch Essie navigate the world of candy shops, novelty stores, and department stores when she’s never really experienced them firsthand, having only read about them in books.

And what about those “real truths”? After some misunderstandings and a bit of trauma, the characters do reach a happy ending—more or less. There are consequences to the characters’ bad and foolish choices, but the consequences are not too severe. Even the villain, Mrs. Matterhorn, the legalistic librarian who wants to kick Essie out of the library, finds her own place in a library that suits her better.

But this is also a story about how real life isn’t like a story. Not all characters undergo perfect transformations. The past can’t be changed, and the poor choices of the past do affect the present. Some characters remain flawed, and not every problem is neatly resolved. In the end, the story acknowledges that life is messy, and sometimes, the answers we seek aren’t so clear-cut, even after everything is revealed.

The Swedish Nightingale: Jenny Lind by Elisabeth Kyle

Dec12

Published in 1964. Biographical novelist Elisabeth Kyle published two books in 1964: Girl With a Pen: Charlotte Brontë, which I read and reviewed earlier this year, and this novel about the life of nineteenth century singer and celebrity Jenny Lind. Kyle also wrote several other “biographical novels,” including works about Joan of Arc, Mary Stuart, Mary of Orange, Queen Victoria, Clara and Robert Schumann, Edvard and Nina Grieg, and Charles Dickens, as well as numerous regular novels for both adults and children. If anyone has read any of her other books, I’d love to hear your thoughts. These two that I read were quite engaging and would be well-suited for voracious teen readers looking for clean, absorbing stories about real people.

As for Jenny Lind, the movie The Greatest Showman did her a great disservice. If she were still alive, I would advise her to sue for defamation of character. The real Jenny Lind was a deeply devout Christian who would never have tried to seduce P.T. Barnum, as the film implied. She was known for her “golden voice” by all who heard her sing, and she was a celebrity in the modern sense—hounded by fans and people eager to exploit her talent, including Barnum himself. Over the course of her career, Jenny Lind made a significant amount of money, most of which she generously gave away to family and charity.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Kyle’s biography of Jenny Lind. In this portrayal, Jenny is depicted as strong-willed (her friends even use reverse psychology to guide her decisions), yet also kind and generous. Her childhood was tumultuous, with parents who were both neglectful and overbearing , yet after her career takes off, Jenny supports them by buying them a house. Though she initially resists leaving Sweden, she eventually travels to France for singing lessons, and later performs in England and America, including on the famous P.T. Barnum tour.

Jenny Lind herself was a fascinating mix of contradictions: talented yet shy, a child prodigy who almost lost her ability to sing in her early twenties, confident on stage but plagued by stage fright before every performance. She was plain in appearance but transformed by her voice into a beautiful star who attracted numerous admirers, including Hans Christian Andersen and Felix Mendelssohn. Over time, she reconciled all of these contradictions, eventually giving up her singing career to marry and settle in England with her husband and children.

Though Kyle only briefly mentions it, Jenny’s strong Christian faith seemed to be a key factor in preventing her from becoming a spoiled diva. It’s a shame the filmmakers behind The Greatest Showman either didn’t see—or chose to ignore—this aspect of Jenny Lind’s life and character. Jenny Bicks, one of the screenwriters for The Greatest Showman (and a writer for Sex and the City), was likely part of the reason the film’s portrayal of Jenny Lind strayed so far from reality.

In any case, Elisabeth Kyle does a much more faithful job of novelizing Jenny Lind’s story. I wonder how she would have portrayed P.T. Barnum if she had written a book about him?

Rosa By Starlight by Hilary McKay

Dec1

British author Hilary McKay has a history of writing odd and quirky characters in her middle grade fiction, and somehow for me they work. See my reviews of The Time of Green Magic, Binny in Secret, Wishing for Tomorrow, and the Casson family series.

New in 2024, Rosa By Starlight is a modern day fairy tale about an orphan girl, Rosa Mundi, and a magical cat, Balthazar, and couple of wicked villains, Rosa’s aunt and uncle who become her guardians. About 150 pages long, the book incudes a trip to Venice and a flight through the stars on the back of a winged lion. As it should be, the good are rewarded, and the evil characters get their just desserts as well.

The book reminded me of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess because poor little orphaned Rosa lives in a room at the back of the house in England while her aunt and uncle scheme to make a fortune selling fake grass. And later on in Venice Rosa is consigned to a garret room and left alone to fend for herself. But the Venetian part of the story becomes more and more magical as Rosa explores the sights and canals of Venice while trying to find refuge from her terrible, murderous guardians.

As with any good fairy tale, there are questions left unanswered in the story. What happened to Rosa’s apple seeds? Did they grow through the artificial turf to become trees? Are Rosa’s aunt and uncle really related to her? Why does the word “stop” become Rosa’s magic word? How is the cat Balthazar so wealthy with servants and gourmet cat menu of food and treats? How does the magic work, and what will make it stop and start when it needs to? And finally, the question at the heart of it all: how can one escape the evil schemes of men and come home at last? For Rosa, it’s a process and a journey, and she does indeed find a real home at last.

White Stallion of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry

Nov29

The magnificent white Lipizzan stallions, bred for hundreds of years to dance and delight emperors and kings, captivated Marguerite Henry when she saw them perform in the Spanish Court Riding School in Vienna.

Now she makes this unique spectacle the focal point in her story of Borina, one of the most famous stallions of this famous breed. It was Borina who, at the height of his career, took a fling in the Viennese grand opera. And it was Borina who, as a mature school stallion, helped train young apprentices riders, and thus became known as the Four-footed Professor.

What a delightful story that could lead to any number of delight-directed studies and pursuits! After reading about Hans, the baker’s boy, and his overwhelming desire to become a Riding Master, to ride the famous Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, I was impelled to look up and read more about the Lipizzaners and the school and the history of these horses who entertained the elite society of Vienna. I also became curious about Xenophon and his book The Art of Horsemanship, the earliest known work on the horse and his care. And I developed a bit of an urge to visit Vienna and see the castles and statues and maybe even the Lipizzaner stallions that still perform their acrobatics in Vienna and across the world in dressage shows and competitions.

I also discovered that Disney made a movie about the Lipizzaners called Miracle of the White Stallions. The movie is not based on Marguerite Henry’s book, but rather it tells the story of how during World War II the U.S. Army under General Patton rescued the Lipizzans and other valuable horses that the Nazis had moved to Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the war. Of course, that movie, as well as a 1940 film called Florian, also about Lipizzaners, is another rabbit trail for me to follow up on, soon.

Getting back to the book, the illustrations by Wesley Dennis are a treat in themselves, both the tiny black-and-white pictures that adorn the margins of each page of the book as well as the full color one and two page spreads the show up periodically. These beautiful drawings and paintings should speak to both horse lovers and artists and draw them into the story alongside the text.

Ms. Henry’s story takes place in the early 1900’s, about the time the horse and cart were giving way to the motorized vehicle. Hans has a horse named Rosy and a cart to make bakery deliveries, and he always stops to watch the Lipizzaners come out of their stable to walk to the riding school in the early morning. (Later in the story, Hans’ bakery gets a truck to make deliveries.) Hans is fascinated with beauty and skill of the Lipizzaner stallions, and his nearly impossible dream is to someday be rider who partners with these magnificent horses to bring that beauty to the people who come to watch the performance at the Imperial Palace. Hans’ journey toward that dream is a series of miracles and disappointments that require initiative and perseverance on his part until at last he succeeds in learning the lessons that Borina, the most famous of Lipizzaner stallions, has to teach.

The “moral” of the story is embedded in the text, as Colonel Podhajsky tells his apprentice riders:

“Here in the Spanish Reitschule . . . the great art of classical riding is brought to its highest perfection. This art is a two-thousand-year-old heritage which has come down to us from Greece, Spain, Italy, and of course, France. . . Our Reitschule is a tiny candle in the big world. Our duty, our privilege is to keep it burning. Surely, if we can send out one beam of splendor, of glory, of elegance into this torn and troubled world . . . that would be worth a man’s life, no?”

I am not a horsewoman or a performer, but that quote speaks to me. It reminds me of what I hope my library can be: a beam of splendor, of glory, of elegance in this torn and troubled world. What a lovely thought that can be applied to anything good, and true, and beautiful that God has called us to do, not matter how seemingly small and insignificant.

This book can be borrowed by patron families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey

Nov21

Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart; What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive by Russ Ramsey. Zondervan, 2024.

Russ Ramsey’s first book about art and the life it portrays and reflects and illuminates, Rembrandt Is in the Wind, was and is one of my favorite nonfiction books of all time. This second book is just as good and thought-provoking as the first one, and I highly recommend both books even if you are not an art aficionado, and even if you are not a Christian.

Both books are about art and artists and the Christian life. Both books are accessible and enjoyable to art lovers and philistines (like me), to Christians and to unbelievers. I would call these chapters “sermons in art”–Mr. Ramsey is, after all, a pastor– but that might give those who are not fond of sermons reason to skip the book. That would be a mistake.

What Russ Ramsey offers up in these two books, but especially in this second volume, is a compassionate and broad vision for what art can show us about how to live our our lives through times of joy and wonder as well as through periods of suffering and injustice. The chapters in Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart tell stories about the artists Gustave Dore, Leonardo DaVinci, Rembrandt, Artemisia Gentileschi, Joseph Turner, the artists of the Hudson River School, Norman Rockwell, Paul Gauguin, Norman Rockwell, Edgar Degas, Jimmy Abegg, and others. Each artist’s story illustrates some aspect of life’s journey and some way of seeing that life that is found in the art of those who sacrificed something for the art’s sake.

Charlotte Mason educators talk a lot about “narration”, a practice of telling back what the student sees in a painting or reads in a book or hears in a well told story. These books seem to me to be Russ Ramsey’s narrations of the paintings and the artists’ lives that have taught him to see certain ideas and stories in a new light, that have clarified concepts, both theological and philosophical, for him as he studies the art and artists that have spoken truth into his life.

The books are also just a gentle introduction to and invitation into the world of fine art. Art doesn’t have to intimidating and elitist. It’s for everyone. The appendices to the book are invaluable in this regard. In Appendix 1, I Don’t Like Donatello, and You Can Too, Mr. Ramsey explains what we can do when we “don’t like a work of art or an artist or even an entire style of art.” In short, it’s fine to have a personal taste in art, but it might surprise you to try to figure out why and how to appreciate even that which you don’t much like. Appendix 2 is a Beginner’s Guide to Symbols in Art, also quite helpful. Appendix 3 is a list of Lost, Stolen, and Recovered Art, some selected, famous works of art that have been stolen over the years. (Maybe you’ll find one of these in your attic?) There are also color pictures of some of the artworks featured in the book in a center section.

Recommended for older teens and adults. The two books, Rembrandt Is in the Wind and Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart, by Russ Ramsey are available for checkout from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.