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*MIDDLE GRADE*
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New books added daily through July 30th, 2021!
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FICTION / HISTORICAL / POST-WWII / TEXAS MERCI TRAIN
Blue Skies
By Anne Bustard
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
212 pages; hardcover and paperback; also available in eBook
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Ten-year-old Glory Bea Bennett believes in miracles. And she wants one of her own—her daddy’s return from WWII. So, when reports that the Texas boxcar from the Merci Train (the “thank you” train)—a train filled with gifts of gratitude from the people of France—will be stopping in Gladiola, Glory Bea just knows daddy will be its surprise cargo.
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FICTION / ADVENTURE / AGES 9-12
Cow Boyhood
By S.J. Dahlstrom
Paul Dry Books
Thirteen-year-old Wilder has spent his boyhood watching men like his grandpa Papa Milam . . . and wanting to be like them. Now he is leaving on a two day cattle drive through river and canyon country with his aging Papa and another older man, Red Guffey. In big ranch country full of livestock and wild animals, Wilder is forced to recognize that his own instincts and abilities may have become greater than those of his heroes.
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FICTION / ACTION / ADVENTURE
Edison Jones and the Anti-Grav Elevator
By Michael Scott Clifton
Book Liftoff
282 pages; paperback and eBook
Visit the Lone Star Lit Tour Page.
Genius, Inventor…and Lonely Twelve-Year-Old Boy
Edison Jones is a prodigy with a passion for technology. Although a car accident at age five left him orphaned and paralyzed from the waist down, Edison hasn’t let his disability slow him down. In his underground lab, he happily busies himself with his latest inventions. Then one day his world changes overnight. His grandfather, a billionaire tech company owner, fears Edison’s isolation from kids his own age is dangerous and unhealthy. Instead of private tutors, he decides to enroll Edison in a public school. Thrust into the chaotic world of seventh-grade boys and girls, Edison struggles to adjust. Algorithms, quantum physics, and digital engineering are easy, but despite his genius, what Edison really wants is to fit in and find his place…and be just like everyone else.
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FICTION / FANTASY / ADVENTURE / COMING-OF-AGE
Ida and the Unfinished City
By Carolyn Cohagan
Girls With Pens Press
316 pages; paperback, audio book, and eBook
In this long-awaited sequel to fan-favorite The Lost Children, con-artist Ida journeys to the Unfinished City to find a cure for her inability to age. Stuck in the body of a 12-year-old, Ida longs to look and feel her true age of 16. The Unfinished City is the weirdest place Ida has ever visited—every 365 days a flood destroys the whole town, and odder still, the citizens look forward to it! To Ida’s dismay, no one there wants to explain the mysterious Treatment that could be Ida’s remedy. Ida begs, borrows, and steals to get what she wants. Will she be able to set her age right and return to her friends Fargus and Josephine before her scheming and lies catch up with her?
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FICTION / PICTURE BOOK / HUMOR / FANTASY / ACTIVITY
Ida's Book of Scathing Insults and Furious Outrage
By Carolyn Cohagan; Illustrated by Lynn Cohagan
Girls With Pens Press
A companion book to the fantasy adventure Ida and the Unfinished City, this hilarious book is an illustrated collection of Ida's best ridiculous slurs like "Squid Nibbler" and "Conniving Pile of Cowplop!" GUARANTEED TO CAUSE FITS OF GIGGLES. Activities included in the back.
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FICTION / MYSTERY / FANTASY / AGES 10-14
The Lost Property Office
By James R. Hannibal
Simon & Schuster
Jack Buckles is great at finding things. Not just a missing glove or the other sock, but things normal people have long given up on ever seeing again. If only he could find his father, who has disappeared in London without a trace. But Jack’s father was not who he claimed to be. He was a member of a secret society of detectives that has served the British crown for centuries—and membership into the Ministry of Trackers is Jack’s inheritance. Now the only way Jack will ever see his father again is if he finds what the nefarious Clockmaker is after: the Ember, which holds a secret that has been kept since the Great Fire of London. Will Jack be able to find the Ember and save his father, or will his talent for finding things fall short?
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SCIENCE FICTION / HUMOR / ADVENTURE
ME VS. THE MULTIVERSE BOOK 1: PLEASED TO MEET ME
By S.G. Wilson
Random House Books for Young Readers
272 pages; hardcover, paperback, audio book, and eBook
It all starts with a note folded into the shape of an origami octopus: "Hi, Me. Yes, you. You're me, and I'm you." If you believe this and the other origami notes that follow--which middle schooler Meade Macon absolutely, positively does NOT--the concept of parallel dimensions is true, and there is a convention full of alternate versions of Meade waiting for his RSVP. It's got to be a joke.
ME VS. THE MULTIVERSE BOOK 2: ENOUGH ABOUT ME
By S.G. Wilson
Random House Books for Young Readers
272 pages; hardcover, paperback, audio book, and eBook
Meade Macon knows that parallel dimensions are real. He's met dozens of his counterparts from other Earths. What he doesn't know is that they're all about to get zapped out of existence. A rip in the multiverse is spreading to other realities and causing chaos wherever it appears. And the different versions of Meade--the Mes--are caught in the middle! Motor Me, Resist Me, and Hollywood Me just want to go back home to their own Earths. The only way to do that is to repair the rip. Once again, it's up to Average Me! But if Average is going to fix the multiverse, he just might have to team up with his archnemesis . . . Meticulous Me.
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FICTION / FANTASY / RETELLINGS / NATIVE LITERATURE
Sisters of the Neversea
By Cynthia Leitich Smith; Cover by Floyd Cooper
Heartdrum / HarperCollins
309 pages; hardcover, audio book, and eBook
The second star to the right will take them very far from home…. Lily and Wendy have been best friends since they became stepsisters. But with their feuding parents planning to spend the summer apart, what will become of their family—and their friendship? Little do they know that a mysterious boy has been watching them from the oak tree outside their window. A boy who intends to take them away from home for good, to an island of wild animals, Merfolk, Fairies, and kidnapped children. A boy who calls himself Peter Pan.
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CONTEMPORARY FICTION / AGES 8-12
Song For a Whale
By Lynne Kelly
Random House / Delacorte
300 pages; hardcover, paperback, library binding, audio book, and eBook
Twelve-year-old Iris never lets her deafness slow her down. A whiz at fixing electronics, she feels at home in the world of wires and vacuum tubes. School isn’t quite as simple. Between her frustrating teacher Ms. Conn and her overly helpful classmate Nina, Iris can’t catch a break. But during science class, Iris learns about Blue 55—the loneliest whale in the world. Saddened by the animal’s inability to speak to other whales, Iris uses her tech skills to come up with a plan communicate with Blue 55. One small problem: the whale is swimming off the coast of Alaska, far from Iris's Texas home. But nothing stops Iris, and with her Deaf grandmother by her side, she sets out on a journey to meet the whale and make sure he’s finally heard.
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FICTION / FANTASY / ADVENTURE / ENVIRONMENT
True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
By Kathi Appelt
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
352 pages; hardcover, paperback, library binding, audio book, and eBook
Raccoon brothers Bingo and J’miah are the newest recruits of the Official Sugar Man Swamp Scouts. The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility. Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a Scout. But he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it. And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all.
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New books added daily through July 30, 2021!
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