Middle grade is a term that refers to books written for readers between the ages of eight and twelve. In this column, Erica will recommend great books for children in this age group!

Ellie Engel is completely fine existing in the shadow of her amazing best friend Abigail; she has her comics, she has Abigail, she has her fish and her mom – that’s all she needs. Everything starts to change when she and Abigail begin middle school, but everything *really* changes when she wakes up with superpowers. Her entire life is upended, and she is thrust from the shadows into the spotlight.Can Ellie find a way back to normal? Or has any chance of a normal life disappeared?

Johnson has created a marvelous cast of characters, where everyone has layers and compelling reasons for the choices they make. Ellie is a delightful, relatable protagonist who readers will find themselves wanting to comfort and cheer for in turns. The back matter includes the promise of a sequel that I, for one, cannot wait to see on the shelves!

Check out the book that Booklist Reviews praised as a “delightful, magical middle-grade debut [that] excellently harnesses the anxiety that is prevalent throughout the junior-high years” and “strongly recommended for all collections,” PW Reviews described as “a warmly rendered, lightly speculative love story about a girl learning to believe she’s anything but ordinary,” and Kirkus Reviews called a “fast-paced, humorous novel” and “a joyful coming-of-age story” that “will have readers racing to the end as they fall in love with Ellie’s quirky and authentic personality.”