Narrowing down to my top ten middle-grade books is always the hardest of all! Some of these books are younger than others, as always, because age ranges are hard to define. A few of these would be borderline chapter books; a few would be borderline young adult.The Racehorse Who Wouldn't GallopWriter: Clare BaldingIllustrator: Tony RossPublisher: Penguin UKAs a child, I loved the Animal Ark series so much that I longed to be a vet. When I learned that studying medicine involved cutting things up, I balked. Yet, animals were special to me, and I would go as far as to say that they are special to most children.The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop is a charming story of love for animals. It is a tale of friendship and grit: friendship among animals, people, and animals and people. Once more, it is a story that explores the idea that children can do … [Read more...]
The Explorer
With some writers, I feel I just cannot go wrong. Katherine Rundell is one of them. Sure, I like some books more than others, but at the end of each one, I find myself smiling, deeply contented. I didn't write about the first two books I read by Rundell (The Girl Savage and Rooftoppers), but I did review The Wolf Wilder, which was one of the top ten middle-grade books I read in 2018.The Explorer began slowly, just like The Wolf Wilder. I took a while to get into the story and feel for the characters - I even read another book in between. Yet, when I came back to The Explorer, I stayed, sucked into the secrets of the jungle.A six-seater plane crashes into the Amazon rainforest. The pilot dies, leaving four children who barely know one another. There's Lila, who is fiercely protective of her five-year-old brother Max. Then there's Con, who seems … [Read more...]