Middle Grade Marvels July Announcement

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Hello Hello! How are you?

It’s getting hot in France and I’m already frustrated with the heat, but on a positive note, the Middle Grade Marvels Book Club is super fun and we have some amazing things happening in the next months! It’s all rather hush hush at the moment, but keep your eyes peeled for some announcements either going up on our blogs (Holly, Noly and I) or on our Twitters.

In June, we have been reading The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, the first book in the Nevermoor series. It is really different to a lot of MG books we’ve previously read, but it’s definitely magical, surprising, it has a bit of a darker side to the story and we are all wondering what is going on and what’s going to happen to Morrigan in the last section of the book that we will be discussing on Saturday!

Noly and I are making our way through Tilly and the Lost Fairy Tales, the second book in the Pages and Co series we started in May and I will be posting a mini-review of the series when I get around to it, in case you were wondering! I’m sure you can guess that we all adored book 1, many of us have started book 2 and especially Noly and I are LOVING IT! If you like Middle Grade and are looking for a lovely story about the love of books with some baddies and magic, you definitely need to pick this one up!

If you haven’t yet heard about Middle Grade Marvels, you can check out Noly’s announcement post, Holly’s announcement post, or my own announcement post to find out more about the Middle Grade book club we are hosting every month for the foreseeable future. I’m so glad we decided to give it a go because it has already brought us so much joy in these hard times.

You may have already seen our announcement, polls and pinned Tweet on Twitter in the past week, but following nominations and a few polls we have decided to read both Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows (#1 The Elandrian Chronicles) by J.M. Bergen as an author/publisher request and The Jumbies (#1) by Tracey Baptiste as our diverse read for the month. None of our members have read any of these books, so it’s going to be such a fun experience to all be learning and reading this book at the same time.

If you haven’t yet joined our book club and you love reading Middle Grade books, what are you waiting for?

You can sign-up on this form to tell us where you want to discuss the books (Twitter, Goodreads), if you will read the BOTM with us or just read something from your own TBR. Those already in the Twitter chat no longer need to sign-up, just tell us which book you will be reading for July (either or both) and we can work out how to do the chats after. If you are in the MGM – BOTM twitter chat, but do not want to follow the July BOTM discussion, you are free to leave, and of course if you would like to come back in following months, just fill out the form again!

We have also made a Nominations form where you can give us your nominations, and please remember to join us on Goodreads where we post our BOTM discussions for you to join in, and we have also posted the Recommendations list and Nominations board for you on there. If you are not on Goodreads, you can find our Recommendations list here.

Here is a bit of information about both books we will be reading in July, we have high hopes for them and hope you will enjoy them, whether you read both or only one!

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows (#1) by J.M. Bergen

Thomas thinks he’s an ordinary twelve-year-old, but when a strange little man with gold-flecked eyes gives him an ancient text called The Book of Sorrows, the world he knows is turned upside down. Suddenly he’s faced with a secret family legacy, powers he can hardly begin to understand, and an enemy bent on destroying everything he holds dear. The more he reads and discovers, the deeper the danger to himself and the people he loves. As the race to the final showdown unfolds, Thomas must turn to trusted friends and uncertain allies as he seeks to prevent destruction at an epic scale.

The Jumbies (#1) by Tracey Baptiste

A spine-tingling tale rooted in Caribbean folklore that will have readers holding their breath as they fly through its pages.

Corinne La Mer isn’t afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They’re just tricksters parents make up to frighten their children. Then one night Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden forest. Those shining yellow eyes that followed her to the edge of the trees, they couldn’t belong to a jumbie. Or could they?

When Corinne spots a beautiful stranger speaking to the town witch at the market the next day, she knows something unexpected is about to happen. And when this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne’s house, cooking dinner for Corinne’s father, Corinne is sure that danger is in the air. She soon finds out that bewitching her father, Pierre, is only the first step in Severine’s plan to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn’t know she possessed to stop Severine and save her island home.

With its able and gutsy heroine, lyrical narration, and inventive twist on the classic Haitian folktale “The Magic Orange Tree,” The Jumbies will be a favourite of fans of Breadcrumbs, A Tale Dark and Grimm, and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

We are currently working on the Similar Books list and it will be up in a couple of days, we will make a new pinned tweet and add it! As we are reading two books this month you can pick whichever you want, or both if you feel like it! You can also read any book from our previous Similar Books list or our recommendations list. And of course, you can read any Middle Grade book you have on your bookcase, just let us know what you will be reading with the hashtag #middlegrademarvels on Twitter!

We are so excited for the July books and we hope that you are too! Join our club if you love Middle Grade and want to discuss some amazing books with our amazing members! Looking forward to having you on for the ride!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

Middle Grade Marvels Book Club links: Twitter – Goodreads – Recommendations List – June BOTM Similar Books List – Monthly Sign-up Form – Nominations Form