Middle Grade Marvels – Books Full O’ Wonder: Middle Grade Book Club Announcement

Hello everyone!!

I’m SO excited to have you here today, because I’ll be sharing a very exciting undertaking with you – a collaboration with two very awesome people, and hopefully lots of you lovely readers will be following us on this adventure! Soooo… where to start? Probably at the start. lol

So, a couple of months ago, Holly (from HollyLovesBooks) and I were talking about our shared love for middle grade books. We felt like they aren’t really widely discussed on bookish Twitter (aka the place where many of us spend more time than with  actual reading… cough, cough) and since they make us so happy we thought – why not start our VERY OWN MIDDLE GRADE BOOK CLUB?! Wow, ok, I need to calm down lol. But I’m just soooo excited!! We never really went through with our idea though until Ellie (from ReadtoRamble) and I talked about starting a book club and I told her about this idea. She was instantly in! From then on our ideas flowed and this is it – we’re finally doing it! That’s how The Middle Grade Marvels – Books Full O’ Wonder book club was born!!! 

We really hope that with our book club we can bring middle grade books out of the shadows a bit, because we think that’s where they are at the moment. Hopefully lots and lots of people get on board so we can all spread the MG book love together! So, if you’re new to the genre (I know it’s not actually a genre, but you know what I mean), you might wonder – why do these books deserve so much love? Well, I’m glad that you asked.

Not only are they very often full of magic, adventure and wonder – no! Often they are very, very deep too, teach life lessons that are not in the least only for children! Furthermore, I think we can all agree that in these crazy, scary, dangerous times, we could all do with some light-hearted fun and happiness, right? Lately I had some problems sticking to reading a big novel, felt distracted or couldn’t concentrate, and I know I’m not alone in this. So, why not try an often shorter, yet equally (or even more!) fun book?

HOW DOES IT WORK?

We are not pros when it comes to how book clubs work, so please be patient with us. We will probably figure lots of it out as we go along, but for now, this is what we have planned:

Each month we will be reading a Book of the Month, a book that doesn’t have to be new or hyped or very popular, just something we either picked (like the book for May which I’ll announce further down), or a book that was picked by YOU (via a poll). Now, chances are that you have already read the book of the month, right? Well, don’t you worry, we’ve got you covered! For each month (but the first month, since it’s all a bit soon), Holly, Ellie and I will additionally be working on a Similar Books List – so books that are similar to the BOTM! This list will also come in handy for those who read quickly and want MORE! We probably won’t have read all the books from the Similar Books List, but we will make sure that they have the same type of plot or themes of course!

Alongside our book of the month, we will also be posting a Recommendations List of all the MG books we have read and loved, so you will have a huge magic chest type list of middle grade books to choose from! You can also pick your own book of the month from that list!

(Just to clear this up in case you worry, there is absolutely no obligation for you to read the BOTM that we pick, you can read whatever you want – either from our lists, from your own shelf or other recommendations, it is totally up to you! We just want to read MG together and have fun!)

How to interact / Where to find us

To make this all fun and interactive, we will also be having a Twitter dm chat for the BOTM! You can join that if you don’t mind spoilers and chat groups and want a place to discuss the book. If you don’t want to join the Twitter chat but still speak about the book(s) with us on Twitter, you can do so by using the #MiddleGradeMarvels hashtag! We still need to create our Twitter account, but this should be happening very soon (any day now!), and more info will be available in the Twitter bio and in the pinned tweet there!

Since the Middle Grade Marvels is still in the early days, once we get everything sorted, we will have a sign-up sheet pinned to the Middle Grade Marvels Twitter account where you can all sign up, so things will hopefully be more clear soon, I promise! In the meantime you can always reach us on Twitter should you have any questions!

 

Mini Recs List

This part was very hard to do, because we thought we should include some kind of recs in the announcement post, but not give everything away right from the start, so we restricted ourselves to one recommendation each! These are MG books we have loved and can wholeheartedly recommend:

• Ban This Book by Alan Gratz (me)
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (Ellie)
• Ghostcatcher by Sophie Green (Holly)

Book of the Month: May 

Now comes the exciting part! (Ok, I hope ALL of this was exciting lol)

I will be announcing the BOTM May!!! It is….drum rolls please…

Tilly and the Bookwanderers, (Pages & Co. #1) by Anna James!! A book I have been wanting to read for ages! The blurb is as follows (taken from Goodreads):

A magical adventure to delight the imagination. A curl-up-on-the-sofa debut from a uniquely talented author.

Eleven year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents’ bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories.

One day Tilly realises that classic children’s characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of `book wandering’ – crossing over from the page into real life.

With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland. Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.

And… I think that is it?! I’m so excited for this, and I so hope you will join in on this adventure! Please make sure to head on over to my Twitter and follow me there for more info and updates!

Also, here’s Holly’s blog and Twitter and Ellie’s blog and Twitter.

The rest will follow soon!

Love you lots, thank you all for reading and stay tuned for more!
xoxo
Noly