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!
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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.”
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