Back to School MG Reading

 

Back to School MG Reading

 

It’s September, and time for a new school year, so I thought I’d look back at a few recent interviews I did with middle grade authors on my other blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb. 

 

MaryLou Driedger is the author of the new MG novel Sixties Girl, which focuses on a grandmother (the “Sixties Girl” of the title) and her 11-year-old grandson. “During the pandemic, my husband and I started telling stories about our childhoods to our grandsons on FaceTime and their interest in those stories about my childhood in the 1960s made me think that maybe other kids would be interested in learning about that time period too,” she told me. “When I did an online search I found there weren't many books for middle-grade kids set in the 1960s so I thought perhaps mine could fill that niche.”

 

Jennifer Claessen’s new novel, The October Witches, highlights a family of witches, including 13-year-old Clemmie. “The Merlyns have their issues and arguments but at their core, they are a busy, bustling matriarchy full of love,” Claessen said of her witch family. “It is possible to be very fed up with your family and still love them more than anything and Clemmie has to save her many aunts, even from themselves.”

 

Another new MG novel featuring magic—in this case, a haunted house—is Ciera Burch’s Finch House. “I had a ton of inspiration for Finch House but a pretty big one was the many, many Victorian houses in a nearby town when I was growing up,” Burch said. “They were gorgeous to me, especially since I grew up in apartments most of my life, and every time I drove through the town with my mom, I wondered what the houses looked like inside. Especially at night, when they looked like every haunted house I’d ever seen on TV and in movies.”

 

Happy reading, and I wish everyone a wonderful school year!

 

--Deborah Kalb