#mgbooks

(Gifted) BOOK REVIEW: Monstrous Devices by Damien Love 🤖 . I’ve been in a huge reading slump this past month but I’ve finally come out of it and finished Monstrous Devices, a middle grade adventure centred around a boy and his grandfather as they go on a trip around Europe fighting off bad guys and robots. 💪🏻 . I thought this was a fun read. It’s very different from what I usually read, being the first middle grade book I’ve read in a while and the first one about robots, ever! So it took getting used to, but you’re very much eased into the story. The pacing did seem a little off in the middle, I felt it took a bit too long for the reader to find out what the story was *really* about. I should add that I did not know this was the first in a series. 😅 If I had, I probably would have had different expectations. I am very excited to read the next book, however, because I feel like this has the potential to be quite a dark middle-grade story which I’m totally in favour of. 🙌🏻 . Thank you to @rocktheboatnews for sending me a review copy! 🥰 . . . #MonstrousDevices #Damienlove #Rocktheboat #middlegrade #middlegradebooks #mgbooks #bookcover #bookcoverart #bookstagram #booklover #JohannasReviews #bookreview #childrensfiction #beautifulbooks #kidlit #currentread #amreading #readingslump https://www.instagram.com/p/CALEW5TglB5/?igshid=1093jcuzfmu8b

Continuing on with my series of #booksthatmademe as a writer and reader, here’s two more: Edward Eager’s HALF MAGIC and SEVEN-DAY MAGIC. I grew up on epic high fantasy and portal fantasy, but it was these books that first convinced me of the pleasure of “low” fantasy — that is, magical creatures and adventures coming into the modern, mundane world. . It’s impossible to talk about Eager without giving due respect to his British predecessor E. Nesbit, whose books I also read and loved as a child, and who was — by his own frank admission — Eager’s chief influence. But although his plots were often borrowed from Nesbit’s, Eager has a light touch and a sparkling sense of humour that is quintessentially his own, as well as a reflection of both his American background and the decade of the 1950’s in which he wrote. . There’s something irresistibly sunny and optimistic about Eager’s books, even though his child characters are by no means idealized — they can be stubborn, fearful and prone to squabbling as any normal group of children. But although the kids inevitably get themselves into disaster by playing with the magical artifacts they encounter — like a coin that grants only half of what you wish for, or a library book that offers you a new magical adventure every day for a week — the solution to their problems is usually only a few good deeds away. . And even the disasters are usually hilarious. It always makes me smile to read the “Chickadee tidbit, chickadee tidbit, skedaddle skedaddle pow!” episode in SEVEN-DAY MAGIC, and especially the chapter in HALF MAGIC when Martha tries to cure Carrie the cat of half-talking (“Sick!” said Carrie the cat. “Sick sick sick sick sick.”). . Have you read any of Eager’s books? What scenes and characters stood out for you? . . . . #bookstagram #bookish #BookRecommendations #kidsbooks #childrensliterature #kidlit #MGlit #MGbooks #middlegrademarch #enesbit #edwardeager #sevendaymagic #halfmagic https://www.instagram.com/p/B-F_fHWgOji/?igshid=1l2697uqylm0d

(@graphixbooks​)

‘The Year the Maps Changed’ by me, Danielle Binks! Coming out in 2020 with Lothian Children’s Books! https://www.hachette.com.au/danielle-binks/the-year-the-maps-changed

My gray tomcat here is excited to announce that @scholasticcda is reprinting PLAIN KATE. This new edition has hits of red on the cover and of course that seal! Out in the new year. By excited I mean indifferent. But I am excited. #erinbow #middlegrade #mgbooks #plainkate #scholastic #scholasticcanada. Word is it will be in the #scholasticbookfair https://www.instagram.com/p/BrY6RZGn9EH/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wvxf8zxpjyun

Kiwi decided to join me for some reading today. #currentlyreading #bookstagram #catsofinstagram #catsofbookstagram #reading #books #ya #mg #MGbooks #YAbooks #YAreads #booksforteens #booklover #bookworm #bookobsessed #book #theabsolutelytruediaryofaparttimeindian #shermanalexie

"Green isn't a mourning color." This is a sort of side illustration for Ella Enchanted I did while I was working on my visual development for the story--I wanted something that looked like it could also be an illustration in the book itself, as well as to practice working in black and white.

Advance copies of Rules for Thieves are here!!! 😱😍🎉✨