MMGM: THE BILLIONAIRE’S CURSE

When I saw the title for this book, I knew I had to read it. You see, one of many titles I brainstormed for my earlier manuscript was THE BILLIONAIRE’S CURSE. It would have fit perfectly in many ways, but alas, it was already taken by Richard Newsome. I haven’t covered much middle grade adventure…

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MMGM: SEEING CINDERELLA

A few weeks ago I was the lucky winner on Deb Marshall’s blog. The prize? SEEING CINDERELLA by Jenny Lundquist. Deb’s review got me excited about the book, and I’m so pleased to feature it as this week’s MMGM. Several of you noticed Deb and I featured the same book last week. Since she’s already…

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MMGM: CIRCLE OF SECRETS

A few weeks ago a middle grade author stopped by my blog to comment on one of my MMGM posts. Since I was down to one MG novel in my TBR pile, I picked hers up. So thanks to networking through social media, today’s MMGM is about CIRCLE OF SECRETS by Kimberley Griffiths Little, who…

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MMGM: SAMMY KEYES AND THE HOTEL THIEF

Back when I was researching agents for CAVEBOY, I came across a book called SAMMY KEYES AND THE NIGHT OF SKULLS by Wendelin Van Draanen. As I was reading I got the distinct feeling I’d jumped into the middle of a series. Well, it turns out I’d picked up book fourteen! I enjoyed it enough…

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MMGM: THE WESTING GAME

Some of you may be surprised to learn that until I read this post by agent Suzie Townsend on Claire LeGrand’s blog a few weeks ago, I’d never heard of THE WESTING GAME. When I mentioned it to my husband, he said that, like Suzie, he read THE WESTING GAME in school. At that point,…

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MMGM: THREE TIMES LUCKY

I love getting recommendations from other writers. In this case, Krista Van Dolzer saw one of my MMGM tweets and said I should cover THREE TIMES LUCKY by Sheila Turnage. I immediately requested it from the library, and it was waiting for me when I returned from the cruise. (Krista also did a review. Go…

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MMGM: LIESL & PO

I had this book queued up on my Kindle when Shannon Messenger reviewed it a few weeks ago, so I was very excited to read it. I’m not sure what I expected. It reminded me of BREADCRUMBS by Anne Ursu–the language, darkness and magic. Despair is evident throughout, but the novel left me with a…

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MMGM: A FAREWELL TO CHARMS

If you’ve read my query letter in a contest or my post on where I get my ideas, you already know I’m a big fan of Lindsey Leavitt’s PRINCESS FOR HIRE series. So of course I had to pick up the final book as soon as it came out. If you haven’t read the first…

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MMGM: THE HERO’S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM

As you’re reading this post, I’m somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on an epic family cruise (note to crazies: I have a house sitter and an alarm system). I’ve read so many great middle grade books lately I didn’t want to miss a week of MMGM and scheduled this one in advance….

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MMGM: THE SEVENTH LEVEL

I’ve been meaning to read THE SEVENTH LEVEL ever since I saw it on the local authors table at the Missouri SCBWI conference in 2010. I’m excited to feature a book from a fellow St. Louisan. I’ve read a couple lately, although the other one (KATANA by Cole Gibsen) was a YA book. In both…

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MMGM: THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODA

I first learned about THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODA on the agent’s* Twitter feed, but I didn’t decide to read it until I saw it crop up repeatedly in an impromptu Twitter survey of the best recent middle grade books. I figured if that many people recommended it, I should pick it up, too….

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MMGM: BREADCRUMBS

I’m sure BREADCRUMBS has already been covered by someone for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, but I’m going to do it anyway. There was so much hype about this book when it came out–and not just from the author’s agent* and publisher, both of whom I follow on Twitter. I had read one other book by…

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