2022 Middle Grade Must Reads – April Part Two

How to Steal the Mona Lisa

• Written by Bethany Walker

• Illustrations by Jack Noel

• Published by Scholastic 

I loved Bethany’s first book, Chocolate Milk, X Ray Specs and Me, I found it genuinely funny, and I read it to my 2 children for a bedtime read. So when I mentioned to my boys she’d wrote another book, they were desperate to have this for a bedtime read. 

We absolutely adored this one. It is written as a series of emails between a girl and her grandmother which I thought was modern. 

It also features newspapers reports and one of the characters has a blog  which again is modern. As the reader you see the little clues that the author drops into the emails,  clues that actually make you end up suspecting everyone. But I’d like to say that my first suspect was right.

Again this is a laugh out loud book, on particular funny part was when after breaking her glasses Mia’s grandmother sends her some new glasses. Unfortunately these glasses make her look like Dame Edna Everage.

Now I’m at the age where I remember watching Dame Edna on the TV. But my children aren’t, so I then spent an interesting half an hour googling Dane Edna. Then my children wanted to watch a few clips, needless to say they enjoyed that.  But this was good because they could then picture the glasses in their mind.

Myself and my children are so looking forward to reading her next book.

The Strangeworlds Travel Agency-The Secrets of the Stormforest

• Written by LD Lapinski

• Published by Orion

What can I say, when I first started reading middle grade books, The Strangeworlds Travel Agency book 1 was one of the first I read. I couldn’t believe the quality of the story. Book 2 was even better and we were introduced to new characters so I was pleased when I got my hands on book 3.

Unfortunately we all know that book 3 was going to be the last book in the series so fans up and down the country couldn’t wait to dive in and we weren’t disappointed.

We carry on from the end of book 2, with the world’s under threat Flick and Jonathon must work hard to uncover the secrets of Strangeworld.

Full of favourite characters who we all love, this is a fitting end to a fantastic series and loveable characters.

The characters will always be remembered, and this series will remind in the hearts of MG fans for years to come.

The Violet Veil Mysteries – A Case of Misfortune

• Written by Sophie Cleverly

• Published by Harper Collins

This is the second book in the Violet Veil series, Violet is an undertaker’s daughter who’s a master detective. She dreams of adventure and goes looking for it.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the first book as chapter one is a recap of the first book.

This book is set just after the first one finishes.

Violet is despart for her next adventure, so when strange things happen at the Garden Theatre It’s long before Violet is on the case.

Violet needs to work out if something sinister is happening or if it’s all a trick.

I like that this book is told from the point of view of Violet, I like that we discover things when she does. I like the setting of the book, the fact that her father is an undertaker is something new that I haven’t read before.

I’m hoping there is more in this series to come as I know a lot of girls would love this.

The Unmorrow Curse

• Written by Jasmine Richards

• Published by Uclan

This book was amazing, I loved it from the first chapter.

Can you imagine it  being the same day everyday. Well for Buzz and Mari this is what happens to them.

It all starts when a famous weather girl goes missing, well I say missing she is actually tied to a tree by magic. And she isn’t really a weather girl, she’s a norse goddess in charge of saturday, and because she’s missing it gets stuck on saturday.She is one of 7 guardians.

No one believes Buzz and Mari so it’s up to them to travel and collect the ruins of valhalla. And they need to awaken the other gods before Loki gets involved, but is Loki misunderstood? And who exactly is Mari.

But for me the best bit about this book is the fact that it is the first in a new series.

This is perfect for fans of Rick Riordian, full of magic and mythology.

I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

The Tower at the End of Time

• Written by Amy Sparkes

• Published by Walker Books

After reading the first book in the series The house at the end of magic I decided that I really wanted to live in the house, I loved everything about it and I thought I could easy live with the residents. 

I felt that the book was perfect so I was delighted when a second book came out.

Again we join the mismatched residents,  the brave and fearless spoon, the wizard who isn’t really good at magic,  the nice troll and Nine a young girl who has just moved in. And of course the magic house where anything can happen. 

So when the house develops the hiccups the friends need to find a cure before the house destroys itself. 

Along the way they decide to enter the annual Wizarding hopscotch tournament. 

Of course nothing goes well for the friends and they leap from disaster to disaster, making us laugh alone the way.

This is one of my favourite book series and I’m so looking forward to their next adventure. 

Oh and by the way I definitely want to live in the house.

Check out my other recommendations this month here.