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Rebecca🌈

@reading.rebex

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I recently got back into reading regularly after taking a break from reading for ages📚
I mostly read middle grade and queer books💕🏳️‍🌈

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🦋I liked most of these. See any you know?

#classicbooks #middlegradebooks #judyblume #katedicamillo #beverlycleary

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) The second book I read for #middlegrademarch !

👻Nightbooks by J.A. White is a middle grade horror novel. The main character, Alex, is a kid who loves all things horror, but has been having a hard time at school because of it. He decides one night to burn all of his “nightbooks” (notebooks that has scary stories he has written) in the boiler room of his apartment complex. But the night he tries to set out to do it, he instead gets lured into a mysterious and magical apartment unit instead. It is owned by a witch named Natacha.

🧙‍♀️Natacha imprisons Alex and makes him read a scary story to her every night. At the same time, Alex forms a bond (althought they did butt heads at first) with another girl imprisoned in the apartment: a baseball-loving girl named Yasmin. Yasmin’s job is to tend to the plants that Natacha makes her essential oils with. Together, Alex and Yasmin figure out a way to escape, and they find out so many more shocking truths about the apartment and Natacha herself.

🧛🏻‍♀️This was another book that solidified my love of middle grade horror! I can’t wait to read the sequel to this book.

🎬While I was looking up stuff about this book I found out there was a movie adaptation made several years ago! Although it is only on Netflix, so I probably won’t be watching it anytime soon since I don’t have a subscription.

#nightbooks #jawhiteauthor #middlegradehorror #middlegrademystery

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) This book was a part of my #middlegrademarch challenge, and it fits the prompt of a book featuring siblings.

🤗Well, if you’ve been on my page long enough, you know how much I love the majority of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s books! This was another great one.

🤔Under Their Skin is about twin fraternal siblings Nick and Eryn, whose mother gets remarried to a guy named Michael. They all move into a new big house to live in. For some reason, Nick and Eryn are not allowed to meet their new stepsiblings. Whenever the twins are out meeting their dad, their stepsiblings Ava and Jackson come to their new house.

😱Of course, Nick and Eryn get all curious as to why they are forbidden to meet them, so during a snow day when they can’t go to school and their mom and stepdad are out of the house, they devise a sneaky plan to go meet them. When they do, they get the shock of their lives of what secrets they’re hiding.

🫣I can’t get too into details because it will go into spoiler territory, but let me just say Nick and Eryn’s lives aren’t the same after that, and the human species is in danger.

🤩This was a great start to Middle Grade March! I should also add that this book is actually the first book of a duology. Sometime later this year I will read the second book, In Over Their Heads.

#undertheirskin #margaretpetersonhaddix #scifibooks #mysterybooks

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Looking forward to #middlegrademarch this year!

#middlegradebooks #underratedbooks #marchtbr

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 stars) This book makes you wonder if immortality is a good idea.

🧐It was pretty hard to get ahold of this book, because it's one of the author's older books from the year 2000. I found this copy of it at a library in my area that I don't go to frequently, and they have a lot of older books.

🤫Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix starts out in the year 2000, with a group of centenarians in a nursing home. This group signed on to a be a part of a secret (and illegal) science experiment that will age them backwards. Well, they only age backwards physically.

😮The story mostly follows two of the participants: Melly and Anny Beth, as they try to survive away from the public eye in the year 2085 as teenagers again. Now that the girls are closer to being babies again, they need to find someone to take care of them. It is not easy trying to lay low when they live in a world where you practically have no privacy. There is also a tabloid reporter that seems to be trying to track them down, and she appears to be a distant relative of Melly's. The girls wonder if their secret has been exposed.

🤔That's what the story is explained in the simplest way possible. You probably have a lot of questions, like "Do their families know about all this?" No, in order to keep it a secret, the participants are forbidden from seeing their families. The doctor's in charge of the experiment actually fake everyone's deaths. Also "why did these doctors even do this experiment in the first places? Isn't this wrong?" Why they conducted the experiment gets explained in the first few chapters, and questioning the ethics of it all gets sprinkled throughout the book, with no definitive answer. "Who will take care of the participants after the original doctors dies?" Their descendants, whom you meet towards the end, and they are not the kind of people who'd you expect them to be.

🤗Yeah, there is a lot going on in this 200 page book! It was a gripping page turner, like all of Ms. Haddix's books. I really love how philosophical the story gets.

(continued in comments)⬇

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)🤩I need to read more middle grade horror books after this!

🐦‍⬛The Clackity by Lora Senf is about 12 year old Evie, who lives with her aunt Desdemona is a reportedly haunted town called Blight Harbor. One day, her aunt goes missing after investigating a strange phenomenon in an old abandoned slaughterhouse. Evie tries to get her aunt back, but she does so by making a deal with a creepy creature called the Clackity. The Clackity wants Evie to bring back the ghost of a notorious criminal named John Jeffery Pope. So Evie goes on this quest through 7 mysterious, magical houses to find her aunt—and the malicious John Jeffery Pope.

🕸️Whoa, this book had me on the edge of my seat! I like that was scary but not too scary. It was more mysterious and even a little whimsical at times. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!

Alt text: The Clackity by Lora Senf sits on a bed with purple blankets. A Chocoat plushie from Sanrio sits to the viewer’s right, next to the book.

#theclackity #lorasenf #middlegradebooks #horrorbooks #mysterybooks #fantasybooks #chococat #sanriocharacters #plushies

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️This book is a used copy that used to be a library book.

👨🏻‍🏫Fun fact: the author of this book actually visited my middle school way back when I was a student in middle school (in the early 2010s)! I never forgot him, the books he talked about, and the inspiration behind his books. This book that I just read was one of them. Maybe I am a little late to the party, but it’s better late than never!

🌠The Prince who Fell from the Sky by John Claude Bemis is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where all the humans (referred to as “Skinless Ones” and “Old Devils” throughout the book) have left and left their relics behind. Nature has taken over completely. Our main character is an old bear named Casseomae, who is sort of an outcast in the Forest she lives in. One day a starship falls from the sky, and a human boy emerges from it. Casseomae decides to protect the boy as if he was her cub. But then the Ogeema (the wolf leader of the forest) finds out about Casseomae and the boy, and he decides to hunt them. Casseomae decides to venture far out of the Forest to find a safe place for her and the boy to live. Along the way they get help from some new friends: a rat named Dumpster and a dog named Pang.

🐻This was such a cool book! Everything was told from the perspective of the animals, and the author came up with unique ways that they all refer to each other, their dynamics, and things about humans and human behavior. It’s also just a great adventure story with a found family in it.

🛸If you’re wondering what the inspiration was for this book, Mr. Bemis told my school that he was inspired by an old abandoned race car track near where he lived.

💜So yeah, this is an underrated masterpiece. I really want to read the rest of his books!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(5 stars) OMG! I think I found my true favorite Sharon Creech book of all time! Bloomability is now at the number two spot.

⛴️The Wanderer is about thirteen year old Sophie, who goes on a sailing trip with her two cousins and three uncles across the Atlantic Ocean to meet her grandfather, Bompie, in England. They make a lot of pit stops along the way to get their boat fixed and to pick up more supplies. Sophie and her cousins also learn a lot along the way: about sailing, stories about each other, their uncles, and Bompie, and other random things like juggling. But the trip is not a smooth one! Sailing out onto the ocean blue isn’t as whimsical as Sophie thought it would be, and they run into a lot of problems. Luckily, she has her family and they always support one another.

🤫The story is actually told in alternating points of view of Sophie and one of her cousins named Cody. We learn that Sophie is actually hiding a mysterious past that she doesn’t really want to talk about, and Cody throughout the story tries to figure out what happened to her. We readers try to figure it out along with Cody, too.

🩵Oh, this book was just lovely! I just love the way Sharon Creech writes: her poetic style really tugs at your heartstrings, and you really feel like you are there with the characters.

🤗I gave this book 4.5 stars, but that’s just because I was a little confused with Sophie’s mysterious backstory at first. It all gets explained and makes sense at the end, though!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) Fun fact: this was actually a book I read waaay back in elementary school, but I couldn't remember a lot of it. So this review is actually a reread. Now with the story fresh in my mind!

🤖The Power of Un by Nancy Etchemendy is about Gib, who learns that little decisions can affect your life in big ways. One day before going to a local carnival that he and his friend Ash planned to go to, he gets a weird gift from a mysterious old man called the unner. It has the power to undo any mistake he makes by going back in time either by seconds, or minutes, or hours. Gib ends up using the unner to undo a really huge, life-changing mistake.

🎭This book had a great balance of humor and seriousness! I am so glad i decided to reread it.

Alt text: The Power of Un by Nancy Etchemendy sits on a black platform.

#thepowerofun #nancyetchemendy #middlegradebooks #timetravelbooks #underratedbooks

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) My third Andrew Clements book! The first two I read were Frindle and The Report Card back when I was a kid. Then I reread them a few years ago and loved them the same. I did try reading Lunch Money about a year or so ago, but DNF'd it. But I read this one in its entirety and really liked it!

No Talking is about Dave and Lynsey--two fifth graders who annoy each other a lot. Their fifth grade class is notorious for being unable to stop talking. So much so that their group has been nicknamed "The Unshushables". After embarassing Lynsey in class for not properly doing an oral report, Dave makes a bet that the girls probably can't go a long time without talking. Lynsey bets that the boys can't go a long time without talking either. Dave gets all of the boys on his side, and Lynsey all of the girls. Pretty soon their social experiment of not talking and communicating with few words possible extends to the whole fifth grade! It weirds out the teachers--but pretty soon they come to embrace their little social experiment, too.

This book was just as fun (and funny!) as Frindle and The Report Card! Andrew Clements's books really like following the formula of kids getting a weird idea and then it spreads all over their school.

Alt text: A person holding up No Talking by Andrew Clements in front of a white wall background.

#notalkingbook #andrewclements #middlegradebooks #funnybooks #shortbooks #underratedbooks

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🍬Additionally, these are all middle grade books! Coincidentally, all with 13 year old protagonists. Perfect for Middle Grade March! Or any time of the year.🐰

Alt text: 5 olive green slides. Slide 1 has clip art of green leaves in the corners. The slide also has a cartoon pic of the user looking to the right and holding a pile of books. The black Arial text within the white rectangles read: "Underrated Books part 15! Swipe to see books." Slides 2-5 all have pics of books with brief descriptions either above or underneath them.

#underratedbooks #middlegrademarch #doubleidentity #margaretpetersonhaddix #theyearling #marjoriekinnanrawlings #classicbooks #drumsgirlsanddangerouspie #jordansonnenblick #theunfinishedangel #sharoncreech

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🍬So this is the first book I read for Middle Grade March. It is the second book of the Amari series by BB Alston. I read the first book, Amari and the Night Brothers last month.

I can't get too into detail with this second book, Amari and the Great Game, because it's a sequel. I will say though this book was way more intense than the second one! I really love the way BB Alston writes. The story had me on the edge of my seat. I love Amari and her friends. The worldbuilding is cool, too. The mystery was mind blowing. I can't wait to read book 3! 🐰

Alt text: A dark blue square graphic with clipart of stars on the side. The light blue Arial text reads: "Middle Grade March Book 1. Prompt: Part of a series." The user's handle is on the left sideways. The book in the middle is Amari and the Great Game by BB Alston.

#middlegrademarch #amariseries #bbalston #fantasybooks #mysterybooks

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