A Year in Middle Grade

It's my last Middle Grade Minded Post for the year and I can't help but look back.

This has been a wonderful year for middle grade books.

You can't help but feel that a year that gave us Orphan Island, Refugee, Wishtree, The Stars Beneath our Feet, The War I Finally Won, The Dollmaker of Krakow, and Patina to name but a few, is a good year.

 

#ownvoices and #weneeddiversebooks became a rallying cry within the industry and brought us new and wonderful stories:

 

 

And then there were the delights of just wonderfully funny and thrilling and epic MG, always the best antidote for everything negative in this world:

 

 

And heartwarming and inspiring tales:

 

 

 

In no way is this an exhaustive list, but these books helped me get through 2017, and made the world shine a little brighter for me.

Now, more than ever, we need middle grade novels that inspire, transport and delight readers. 

We live in a complicated world.

Sometimes we want to escape from it in a book.

Sometimes we want to understand it by reading a book.

Sometimes we want heroines and heroes who vanquish foes, kids who figure things out, animals and trees that have a different kind of wisdom, families that aren't perfect but keep trying, friendships that are messy but fulfilling.

Sometimes, we need hope.

I found all of that in the middle grade novels I read this year.

And if 2017 is any indication of the quality of middle grade literature, I look forward to 2018 with open arms, with my library card and wallet in one hand, my TBR list in the other, and a heart full of gladness for the creativity and respect for children shown by our middle grade authors.

I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful holiday season and look forward to more blog posts in 2018!