Start your kids off with books early this summer. These new novels for middle-grade kids ages 8 to 12 are exciting, refreshing and lighthearted, perfect for beach or poolside reading.
City of Islands
By Kali Wallace; Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins; 33 pages; $16.99
In City of Islands, 12-year-old Mara is a fish girl, an orphaned swimmer who dives in the murky ocean searching for treasures for the powerful Lady of the Tides. What she longs for, though, is to become a great mage, a magician like the bone mage who raised her till age 5, named Bindy.
In the meantime, Mara finds mysterious skeletons of hybrid creatures humming with a powerful “spell-song.” The thrill of her magical find ends abruptly, however, when the Lady encourages her to sneak into an island fortress ruled by the same sorcerer who killed Bindy years ago.
With lots of mermaid undersea action scenarios, sorcery, magicianship, secrets and plot twists, City of Islands will wow youngsters who may enjoy a “Peter Pan”-like fantasy. Kali Wallace writes swimmingly and descriptively, making her new tale incredibly fun.
Deep Water
By Watt Key; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 264 pages; $16.99
Fans of adventure won’t be able to put down Deep Water, a breathtaking tale of a girl who helps her sick father finish a commercial diving expedition with an obnoxious boy, Shane, and his reckless father. Her dad stays on the boat, while she and the other two dive, but they soon drift away and have a pretty intense shark scare.
Shane’s father soon panics and is lost, and Shane and Julie must band together to survive in the open ocean.
The thrilling result is spellbinding and inspirational and captures the drive to survive that humans, especially young ones, have in spades. Clear and smartly penned, Deep Water is a thrill a minute.
Watt Key is a scuba diver himself, and he experienced a similar but less intense diving accident, which inspired this story. Key has penned five other survival adventure tales for kids, and Deep Water is already a coveted Junior Library Guild selection.
Book Scavenger: The Alcatraz Escape
By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman; illustrated by Sarah Watts; Henry Holt & Co.; 262 pages; $16.99
The “Book Scavenger” series for middle-graders includes two previous books — Book Scavenger and The Unbreakable Code — both of which have numerous kudos including being New York Times best-sellers and Junior Library Guild selections, and now The Alcatraz Escape.
All three star legendary literary gamemaker Garrison Griswold; this time, he plans an epic escape room challenge called “Unlock the Rock” on Alcatraz Island. Friends Emily and James become targets and must find out who is threatening them with notes and a plot to frame Emily’s brother.
The pair also compete in Unlock the Rock, but both mysteries pull them into the prison dungeon and they must figure out how to escape. Fun, witty writing that reminds me a little of A Series of Unfortunate Events makes Jennifer Chambliss Bertman’s new tale an exciting adventure kids will want to dive into again and again.
Kid Bits
» The Supernormal Sleuthing Service: The Sphinx’s Secret by Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe (published by Greenwillow) is what Stephen and his friends Ivan and Sofia start up when they learn the New York Public Library lion statues are actually sphinxes guarding supernormal artifacts and the hotel they live in is full of monsters and wizards.
» Thunder Girls: Freya and the Magic Jewel by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams (published by Simon & Schuster) is a brand-new series steeped in Norse mythology, adventure, magic and friendship, with tons of whimsy and girl power.
» The Secret Life of Ben Braver by Marcus Emerson (published by Roaring Brook Press) is perfect for reluctant readers. With explosively fun writing and lots of illustrations, it’s about a boy in a secret school for kids with super abilities.
» All Summer Long by Hope Larson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) is an ocean-colored graphic novel starring a 13-year-old guitar-playing girl who notices her friendship gets weird when her best friend, a boy, comes home from camp. She does befriend his older sister, though, and the pair shares the same musical tastes.
— Lee Littlewood writes the Kids’ Home Library column for Creators. The San Diego wife and mom’s pure love of children’s literature helps her stay interested in words and pictures meant for tots to teens. Click here to contact her, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.