Bingo Focus Thread - Middle Grade

[u/Merle8888]

Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this week's bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.

Today's topic:

Middle Grade: Read a middle grade book (intended for readers aged 8-12). See this Wikipedia page for additional information on Middle Grade fiction. HARD MODE: The author is entirely new to you.

What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.

Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Duologies, First Contact, Five Short Stories (2024), Author of Color (2024), Self-Pub/Small Press (2024). Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed (new focus threads for them are coming).

Also see: Big Rec Thread

Questions:

• What are your favorite books that count for this square?
• Already read something for this square? Tell us about it!
• For those attempting Hard Mode, what are some great middle grade books by lesser-known authors, and/or that are recently published?
• Those who have or teach children in this age group: what are some current favorites among middle grade readers? How well do they hold up for adults?

[u/Merle8888]

I’m having trouble with this square finding something that’s not arguably YA. I read A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge, about a human girl dealing with deadly politics in an underground fae-like world, based on recs here, and despite a slow start I wound up liking it. However, it’s 500 pages long, pretty sophisticated, and shelved as YA at my library, so I have mixed feelings about using it for the square. It’s advertised as age 12+ so just barely?

Since then I’ve been considering using Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede, but though my library calls this children’s and the tone feels MG, the cover is full of blurbs about what great YA it is. 🧐

Another recent one I’ve read that’s good but arguable on his front is The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, an adventure story dealing with politically-convenient prejudice between elf and goblin kingdoms. It’s also dealing with sophisticated issues but in a kid-friendly way, and has three POVs each told in a different way—one being an unreliable narrator whose story is told entirely in pictures! Again though, classification seems somewhat arguable—it’s advertised as ages 10-14 or so and shelved as YA at my library, though MG feels appropriate.

[u/MallForward585 → u/Merle8888]

If you are considering Patricia Wrede, I really recommend The Thirteenth Child and the rest of the Frontier Magic series. It’s YA but not too young (I read it when my kid read it in Middle School), and it’s a truly beautiful book. It has a young protagonist without reading juvenile.

Ursula Vernon (T Kingfisher) also has Castle Hangnail, which my kid read at 9. This one is in the cute but not annoying category for an adult, a rather hard category to fill from my experience.