2021 Releases | Owned Books | TBR Posts
Welcome to my second post for Unread November. Find the details here. tl;dr on Sundays in November I’m posting about books I didn’t read this year.
For today’s post, I scrolled through my to-read-middle-grade shelf, sorted by most recent publication date first. I picked the first 25 titles that instantly jumped out to me (“Oooh, I remember wanting to read that!”). This strategy took took me back to books published in spring 2018. Many of these titles I was anticipating ahead of their publication date… and now here we are, however many months or years later.
This week I’ve split the list into three genres: fantasy/speculative fiction, realistic, and spooky/horror. I’d like to boost some of my favourite middle grade blogs, so I’ve included links to blogger reviews. (If you’re a mutual of mine who’s reviewed one of these books and I missed your link, let me know if you’d like me to add it!) (Also this is one of the reasons why I still prefer Goodreads – easy to see all of my blogging buddies’ reviews on a single title.)
Note that I included six 2021 middle grade releases in my Unread November post from last week (all about 2021 releases, including YA and adult) so check that out if you’re keen on middle grade.
Emoji guide: ✨ = secondary world, 🏞️ = our world, 🗺️ = historical, 🌎 = contemporary, 👻 = ghosts, 💀 = creepy
The List
Fantasy/Speculative Fiction
🗺️ Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack – Brandy @ Random Musings of a Bibliophile
🏞️ The Dreamway by Lisa Papademetriou
✨ Eva Evergeen, Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe – Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction (FYFA), Lili @ USOM, Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
🏞️ A Game of Fox & Squirrels by Jenn Reese – Brandy @ Random Musings of a Bibliophile, Nicole @ FYFA, Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
🗺️ The Green Children of Woolpit by J. Anderson Coats – Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
🗺️? The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson – Jessica @ Spooky KidLit
🏞️ Into the Tall, Tall Grass by Loriel Ryon – Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense, Rosemary @ Mom Read It, Nicole @ FYFA
✨ The Last Windwitch by Jennifer Adam
🏞️ Pog by Pádraig Kenny
🏞️ The Trouble with Shooting Stars by Meg Cannistra
🗺️ The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad – Nicole @ FYFA, Kathie @ Bit About Books
🏞️ When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller – Alex @ Randomly Reading, Nicole @ FYFA, Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
🗺️ A Wolf for a Spell by Karah Sutton
Realistic
🌎 Almost Flying by Jake Maia Arlow – Kathie @ Bit About Books
🌎 Any Day With You by Mae Respicio
🗺️ A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus – Alex @ The Children’s War, Afoma @ Reading Middle Grade, Laurie @ Bit About Books, Kathie @ Bit About Books
🌎 On These Magic Shores by Yamile Saied Méndez – Cande @ Cande Reads, Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
🌎 The Water Bears by Kim Baker
🌎 When Life Gives You Mangos by Kereen Getten – Afoma @ Reading Middle Grade, @ Book of Cinz, Sierra @ Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed.
🗺️ While I was Away by Waka T. Brown – Kathie @ Bit About Books
Spooky/Horror
💀 The Bone Garden by Heather Kassner – Brenda @ Log Cabin Library
👻 The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown – Jessica @ Spooky KidLit, Laurie @ Bit About Books, Cande @ Cande Reads
👻 The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes – Annemieke @ A Dance with Books
💀 Nightbooks by J.A. White
💀 Whispering Pines by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski – Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den
Are any of these favourites of yours?
What middle grade titles are you still keen to read?
Nice list! Some of those are on my listed already, now I’ve added a few more!
Happy to hear that – thanks for stopping by 🙂
Oh gosh, you are such a brave soul! I don’t think I’d be able to stand making a list like this. xD It’s also be too long. Some of these books are definitely on my TBR still, though!
I actually read When You Trap A Tiger for one of my classes this semester, and I highly recommend it! It was a fabulous read (but will absolutely stab you in the feels). I really need to read Eva Evergreen! I think I’m going to love that one, but last time my hold came through on it, I was knee-deep in assignments and knew I wouldn’t have time to finish before I turned it in, so I skipped it. I’m just waiting for it to come back around. xD
Ahaha, thanks!! I just had to cut myself off so I didn’t make the list too long. Good to know about When You Trap a Tiger. I feel like I really need to give it a read especially since it won the Newbery. Eva Evergreen is also one I’ve checked out at least once before but didn’t get to… some day!
I’m always so impressed by Middle Grade covers. I’ll have to bookmark this list for later, I’d only heard of Eva Evergreen and When Life Gives You Mangos but haven’t read any of these
Right! I had fun arranging the spec fic titles by colour.
The cover of Eva Evergreen always just winks at me.
It is a fun one!