LitChat Topic of the Week: Middle Grade Fiction March 21, 2009
Posted by Carolyn Burns Bass in Uncategorized.trackback
Adrienne Kress
March 27: Wrapping up our Topic of the Week for March 23-27, Middle Grade Fiction, is the delightful Adrienne Kress. Adrienne is author of two children’s adventure books and is an accomplished actress. The daughter of two high school English teachers, it was only natural that Adrienne should fall in love with both creating and performing the written word.
Adrienne’s first book, Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, was featured on the CBS Early Show as “one of the books for children you should know about.” Alex was a finalist in Foreward Magazine’s 2007 Book Of The Year Award (YA category). Adrienne was featured in the New York Post’s “Post Potter Picks” column as one of six authors who have a chance to fill the void left by J.K. Rowling.
Released in mid-January, Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate, is a fantasy adventure complete with dragons, ninjas and enough thrills to keep young readers engaged to the end.
Read Adrienne’s blog here. You can follow Adrienne on Twitter here.
LitChat 
Enjoyed today’s chat. I wanted to pass along the name of a few African American authors writing MG that may intrigue young readers:
Philana Marie Boles – Little Divas
Brenda Woods – My name is Sally Little Song
Derrick Barnes – Ruby and the booker boys
Sheila P. Moses – Joseph
G. Neri – Chess Rumble
Elenora E. Tate – Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance
Karen English – Nikki and Deja
All of these authors are featured over at The Brown Bookshelf as featured authors of the 28 Days Later campaign if folks want more on them: http://www.thebrownbookshelf.com
Thanks, Paula. I suppose I should share some of my favorite books from childhood:
THE MUMMY MARKET by Nancy Burns Brelis
A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L’Engle
FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Koningsburg
JOHNNY TREMAIN by Esther Forbes
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH by Roald Dahl
THE LIGHT PRINCESS by George MacDonald
THE SECRET GARDEN and A LITTLE PRINCESS by Frances Burnett
Oh, so many books. Still enjoy these titles and read most of them to my kids.
It was fun to hear everyone’s favorites at LitChat. (Mostly because it was surprising how many were the same!) Here were the ones I loved so much I saved them for my kids. They’re all sitting on my daughter’s bookshelf right now!:
FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Koningsburg
A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L’Engle
THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth Speare
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE SERIES by Laura Ingalls Wilder
THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Burnett
DEENIE by Judy Blume
ARE YOU THERE GOD, IT’S ME MARGARET by Judy Blume
STARRING SALLY J FREEDMAN AS HERSELF by Judy Blume
I’ve always heard that this age group particularly likes books of “kids surviving without parents,” and I’d have to say that was definitely a theme I loved. My kids did, too. (My kids would add “Hoot,” “Hatchet,” and “Island of the Blue Dolphins” to this list.) The Judy Blume books leaned a little more toward “solving problems you don’t want to involve your parents in,” but overall, I’d say that summed up my book-love in those days!
Thanks so much for stopping into LitChat. One of the topics we chatted about during MG week is alienation and how prevalent it appears in MG books. The middle grade years are rife with kids not fitting in at home, school and other social settings. I know I felt like a changling in my own home and Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books helped me understand I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Hi all,
New to the forum, just thought I’d introduce myself 🙂
Hello, hypnoticgenius. I hope you’ll stop into LitChat on Twitter. You can find us by searching for #litchat. We have posted topic chats every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 4-5 pm/eastern. Please join us.