Helloooo it is time for some middle grade mini reviews!
I received these three books with thanks from Walker Books and thought I’d do a little review for each here. They’re all quite short and pretty fun reads 🤗 So if you’re a middle-grade lover or have a small human in your life who needs books, hopefully these recommendations will help you!
Title: The Astronaughties by Andrew Cranna
Date Published: May, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade SFF
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
About the book: It’s 101 years in the future and the Moon has been transformed into the ultimate super-cool intergalactic amusement park. The Astronaughties, the children of some of the park’s designers, get a chance to visit the Lunar Park before it officially opens. But when they arrive, they discover their parents are missing. Now their mission is to find them, defeat the baddies and free a trapped alien. Hold on tight, this is going to be one wild rocket ride!
This is a silly and fun story about three naughty little kids who end up on the moon. It definitely leans into the nonsense aspect and as the story goes, the adventure just gets more wild and random. It’s definitely perfect for younger readers with big, fun font, and it’s entirely illustrated as a graphic novel. At the beginning the book is told by the kids’ robot nanny who is overheating his little batteries trying to keep the kids out of trouble. The villains are all very nefarious and foolish, and the kids end up doing the right thing on…accident. Also add in aliens and roller coasters on the moons and slimy eggs and buying milk in the milky way.
Title: Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good by Louie Stowell
Date Published: May 18th, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade SFF
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
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About the book: After one prank too many, trickster god Loki has been banished to live as a kid on Earth. If he can show moral improvement within one month, he can return to Asgard. If he can’t? Eternity in a pit of angry snakes. Rude! To keep track of Loki’s progress, King Odin (a bossy poo-poo head) gives him this magical diary in which Loki is forced to confess the truth, even when that truth is as ugly as a naked mole rat. To make matters worse, Loki has to put up with an eleven-year-old Thor tagging along and making him look bad. Loki is not even allowed to use his awesome godly powers! As Loki suffers the misery of school lunch, discovers the magic of internet videos, and keeps watch for frost giant spies, will he finally learn to tell good from bad, trust from tricks, and friends from enemies?
I liked the premise of this one! Reminded me of Rick Riordan’s retelling of the god Apollo being turned into a teen boy as punishment. Except this time it’s Loki, god of mischief, being made into an 11-year-old disaster child who has to earn points to prove he’s Good to be allowed back into this god form. It eludes to a lot of Norse mythology too, but in a lowkey way. It also has lots of illustrations and fun font changes, to keep young readers engaged.
But some of the underlying messages didn’t sit right with me. Telling kids you need to “earn points” to be good isn’t great. And while Loki was deliberately obtuse, I feel like the few times he tried to be good and ended up making things worse were reminiscent of telling the “bad kids” that they’re always going to be bad. Especially when Loki took a lot things literally (which made him feel coded as neurodiverse). I’m sure the book is meant to be silly, light-hearted fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it for neurodiverse or black-and-white thinking children.
Title: The Great Fox Illusion by Justyn Edwards
Date Published: April, 2022
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Purchase: Book Depository, Dymocks, Walker Books
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About the book: Thirteen-year-old Flick Lions has won a place on a new television show, in which young people compete to win the legacy of the Great Fox, one of the world’s most famous magicians. But Flick isn’t interested in uncovering the Great Fox’s tired old magic tricks – she’s after something much more important. The magician destroyed her family, and this is Flick’s only chance to put things right. Inside the Fox’s house is a secret that will change the world of magic for ever, and Flick will go to any lengths to find it.
This was a really fun and cute story of friendship and magicians, and I really enjoyed it! It features the unstoppable and determined Flick, who has entered a TV reality show contest to uncover the secrets of a great magician. The winner gets to inherit his WHOLE estate. Tricks. House. Fortune. The works. Flick is a talented little magician herself, but also wants answers why her father disappeared — and the Great Fox stole her father’s greatest magic trick. Flick wants it back.
Flick is impossible not to love. Tenacious and very self-sufficient, she’s easy to root for. She also is an amputee and wears a prosthetic leg, and I felt the book was so respectful yet mindful of her abilities and limitations. It took time to talk about pains from prosthetics and gave Flick logical accommodations. Too often I feel like kids’ books have the message of “you can do it DESPITE your disability!” But there wasn’t that tone here. Flick is disabled, needs help, and can still do all the things. Loved this.
There’s also lots of disclosing on how magic tricks are done, which is so fun. And Flick makes a talkative friend named Charlie with secrets of his own as to why he wants to win. (I suspect Charlie is coded as autistic?) They’re up against two other kid aspiring magicians who nicely balance between being lowkey bullies vs just kids desperate to win for their own parents’ approval. There’s lots of puzzles to unravel, secret rooms, mysteries, and nods to famous magicians. Lots of fun, fast-paced and easy to read. Recommended for ages 10+!
These sound like a lot of fun, I do love MG!