Must Have Middle Grade Monday

Welcome to this week's edition of Must Have Middle Grade Reads, a weekly feature here on Mundie Moms where I spotlight last week's middle grade books I reviewed on Mundie Kids. This week's Must Have Middle Grade features two MG I've recently read and highly recommend picking up:

By: Katherine Applegate

Published by: Harper Collins Childrens

Released on: January 17th, 2012

4.5 stars: I Really Enjoyed It

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope - quoted from Goodreads

This is a story that animal lovers of all ages will fall in love with. Katherine Applegate does a beautiful job at giving a voice to the true story of Ivan the Urban Gorilla, who spent 27 years living in a cage at mall in Washington State. In telling Ivan's story, Katherine not only allows readers to understand and fall in love with Ivan, but she gives his story an imaginative spin. The fact that does this through Ivan's point of view in first person really fascinated me, and made the story feel that much more genuine. I felt like if Ivan could speak, it would similar to the words Katherine used in telling his story. What an unforgettable character Ivan is.

You can read the rest of my review here.

By: Christopher Healy

Published by: Walden Pond Press

Released on: May 1st, 2012

5 Stars: I Loved It!

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Enter a world where everything, even our classic fairy tales, is not at all what it seems.

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You've never head of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as "Prince Charming." But all of this is about to change...

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Guztav stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it's up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other associated terrors to becom the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

This title is the first in a series about the adventures of Liam, Frederic, Duncan, and Gustav. The second title is due out in 2013 -quoted from Goodreads

I absolutely love a fresh spin on the beloved fairy tales I grew up with and Christopher Healy does just that with his debut, The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. This fun mix up of fairy tale Princes and Princess is one that kids and parents a like with enjoy. There's adventure, plenty of mishaps and of course plenty of laughs as readers journey along side Prince Liam, Prince Frederic, Prince Duncan and Prince Gustav. 

You can read my review here, and enter to win a copy of the book here. I also post my review for this book on MM's this past weekend. 

Middle Grade Monday:

Don't miss my Marvelous Middle Grade Monday meme on Mundie Kids, a weekly meme hosted by author Shannon Messenger's. You can check out this week's Mundie Kids feature here