Middle Grade Reading for October

Middle Grade Reading for October

With the arrival of fall, it's time to review a new group of middle grade novels!

Sarvenaz Tash's new novel is called The Queen of Ocean Parkway. I asked how she created her protagonist, Roya, and she said, "I was inspired by my neighborhood, which I share with Roya! I also thought a lot about Harriet the Spy when I was writing this book, particularly about how that book made me feel as a kid. 

 

She added: "As a shy suburban kid myself, Harriet, with her curiosity and unapologetic personality, living in a NYC apartment building and having so much access to secret parts of the building and its tenants was one of the mostly wildly thrilling concepts I had ever read. I really wanted to try to capture that feeling of adventure and agency too, with Roya being the super’s kid in her Brooklyn apartment building—and making a secret podcast about the tenants to boot."

 

 Ciera Burch is the author of the new novel Camp Twisted Pine. I asked what inspired the novel, and she said, "A few things inspired me! The most prominent was probably my desire to go to a sleep away summer camp as a kid that was never fulfilled. At least, not how I wanted it to be."

 

She continued: "My mom wasn’t a fan of sending me away for weeks at a time with strangers, but my school had a week-long field trip for the entire 6th grade class to a place called Mt. Misery up in the Pine Barrens and the memory of that, my one and only camping experience, really had a lasting effect!" 

 

Susan R. Greenway's new novel is called Elephant Touch. When I asked about the story behind the novel, she said, "On a visit to see elephants in Thailand several years ago, I received a phone call from my sister in California that my mother had passed. As I cried, three elephants behind me in a fenced corral came towards me. One of them put its trunk on my shoulder. I was profoundly touched."

 

She added: "That was the beginning of my love for elephants and desire to find out more about them. As I read more about Asian elephants, I was even more impressed with their magnificence. But I also found out how frequently and horribly they’ve been abused. Fortunately, there are some wonderful sanctuaries that house elephants needing a safe home."

 

Finally,  Michael P. Spradlin is the author of the new novel Rise of the Spider. In our Q&A, he said, "Most of my historical fiction involves young people with a front-row seat to a historical event. My goal is always for readers to imagine themselves in these situations and think about how they would respond."

 

He continued: "In the case of Rise of the Spider, I wanted the same approach, but with a longer view. How did the Nazis’ rise to power affect a young person during that time? And how was it the same and different for each of them?"

 

Thanks so much for reading.

--Deborah Kalb