Hi! My name's Penny and as usual I'm here to talk about some bookish things
specifically I thought that since Gavin is doing his believeathon readathon next
month which is all about reading magical middle grade books, that that's a great
excuse for me to talk about some of the middle grade books that I've read and
loved. So the first book I want to talk about is the Rithmassist... rithmatist...
rithmatist? the rhy thy myh... The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. Brandon
Sanderson is one of my favorite adult authors but he did actually write a
single middle grade book. It's supposed to be the beginning of a series but
the second book has kind of got lost and who knows when he's going to finish it
but potentially if more people read it that will encourage him to continue the
series and as well I do think the first book is enough of a story that you can
actually read it and get enough enjoyment out of it even if he never
gets around to finishing the series. And I'm sure he will. Like I think what he
said is that he just wanted to do a lot more research because this is set in a
dystopian future set on earth and I believe he's hoping to pull in a lot of
different cultures but he wants to do a good job of it, which I respect. So what
is the Rithmatist about? Basically as I said it's a
dystopian future where the United States have kind of broken up into all these
separate islands and people are being plagued by these chalk monsters. And
there are also Rithmatists, who are able to draw protections against these
chalk monsters. Our main character is this boy named Joel who is the son of a
chalk maker at this fancy Rithmatist school. Unfortunately he's not able to be
a Rithmatist but then some students start disappearing and he gets involved
in the investigation about what's going on. Obviously this book has an amazing
magic system as Brandon Sanderson creates in all his out books but this
was a really cool middle grade take on that. And I think as well he has a really
good look at how you can still be valuable even if you're not someone who
has these amazing powers. Then I also have a couple of spooky middle grade
books because it is October right now, the spooky season, and
to be honest I like spooky books all the time. So firstly I have the Cassidy Blake
series by Victoria Schwab. This is the second book Tunnel of Bones and I've
only just read about a chapter of this but I did read the first book, City of
Bones when it came out and I really enjoyed that. So this series follows a
girl named Cassidy Blake. She almost drowned but was saved by a ghost and now
she's able to see ghosts and as well as that her parents are actually filming a
documentary series about ghosts so they are taking her from haunted city to
haunted city. So the first book estate in Edinburgh and has a look at the
ghosts in Edinburgh and then this one is the in Paris. I think this is a fun
series for anyone who likes things that just a little bit creepy. It's still
middle grade so it doesn't get too scary but if you like your middle grade to be
a little bit spooky then this is a good option. Then there's also Doll Bones by
Holly Black. So this is a story about three friends that play with dolls and
create stories around those dolls but one of the friends is a boy and his
father starts pressuring him to stop playing with dolls and to try and keep
him engaged in the storytelling one of his friends steals this china doll that
supposedly has real bones in it and they decide they're gonna go and bury this
doll. They go on a bit of a journey and while they're at it
of course they learn about themselves. I thought that the way it addressed the
issues of growing up and doing things you enjoy regardless of what other
people think was really well done. It is also actually quite scary in some
point so it's another spooky middle-grade book. Although I have to say
I was so mad at the boy's father when I was reading this book. I just wanted to
like slap him. Then I also wanted to talk about a few middle grade books that I've
read more recently. Firstly we have the Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris.
This follows a runaway orphan who jumps on a train and ends up in a strange town
where there is a circus. He meets a bunch of friends who all
like to do magic and they discover a criminal plot that some of the circus
performers are attempting to pull off which they may attempt to
get in the way of that plot. I really enjoyed the diversity and the message of
friendship in this book. And also throughout this book it has different
magic lessons so you can learn a few different magic tricks throughout this
book and I am actually excited to see that as the series continues whether you
can learn more and more magic. I was a bit busy when I read this but I really would
like to go through and see if I could learn to do the magic myself. I would
quite like to be a magician but I'm a bit clumsy probably. I hope that real
magic,when I finally get my real magical powers, I hope my clumsiness
doesn't stop me from being able to do real magic. Another book that I've read
recently and quite enjoyed was Tilly and the Book Wanderers, Pages and Co. So this
is a book series about a family that is able to go into books. So we have this
young girl Tilly who starts running into characters from books, so primarily Anne
of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, and then she discovers that she can go
into books and in fact there is a whole society of people who are able to do
this "book wandering". This is another one where it's a series and I really do want
to continue the series to see what else the author does with the concept because
it was such a cool idea. Especially there's a few things which it
would be spoilers to talk about but I think it did some really interesting
things. Then we have Holes by Louis Sachar. This is about a boy named Stanley
Yelnats. He gets sent to this Detention Center for boys where every
day they have to dig a hole and it becomes clear that they're actually
looking for something. And throughout the story is also little snippets of other
stories in the past and eventually all those stories linked together in a
really fun way. I will say there are a few bits in this story where I'm not
sure about how race is being dealt with. There's some good parts but there's some
just a couple of bits where it was a bit mmmm...
so that's something to watch out for but it is a fun story that I think is
totally worth reading. Then lastly I couldn't really have a video talking
about middle grade books that I love without talking
about the baby-sitters club. Now I realize that I'm kind of just being the
old lady recommending books from her childhood and perhaps some of these aren't
as relevant now as they were when I was a child but that said these are the
first five books in the series. There's something like a hundred and something
books in the series I think I only are in the first 50-ish but these books
just cover a lot of topics that I think young girls around this age are likely
to relate to. Even now I want to say even now but I'm not really sure, I kind of
think that maybe in November I might have a go at rereading some more of
these. They have also been re-releasing some of these as graphic novels and I
read a couple of those I would like to read some more of those as well. These
were by far my favorite books when I was a middle grade type person and I know
that I learned a lot from reading these books so I think they'd still be worth
picking up. I don't know. If you have read the Baby-Sitters Club books let me know
what some of your favorites were and in November I think I will have a go at
rereading some of the Baby-Sitters Club books and maybe I will consider picking
up some ones that you suggest. But anyway that's it for some of my favorite middle
grade books. Do let me know down in the comments some of your favorite middle
grade books. Otherwise thank you so much for watching! I hope you're having a
wonderful day and I will see you next time :)