In Defense of Middle Grade Bangers

The Books that Continue to Nourish Us

I’ll never forget the moment when another full-grown adult judged my reading choices and found them wanting. Admittedly, that might not have been her original intention. But it certainly came across that way.

I was sitting with a good friend and one of her acquaintances, a woman I had never met before. “Ruth, you’ll love her,” my friend had insisted, citing that the acquaintance was also a reader.

The acquaintance asked what I’d been reading lately. This question, as always, sent me into a spiral because, like any respectable reader of a certain age, when people ask what I’ve been reading lately, I can never remember the title of a single book I’ve ever read in my entire life.

Scrolling through my Goodreads timeline, however, everything clicked into place, and I felt my joy rising. I’d recently been on a Victoria Holt kick, devouring her gothic romances in single sittings, having bought armfuls of them, all dusty-covered and yellow-paged for ten cents each from the thrift store near my house. Hours of mindless, affordable entertainment!

Victoria Holt, of course, is only one of the seven pen names used by prolific twentieth-century author Eleanor Alice Burford. I’d already worked my way through her family sagas written under the name Philippa Carr and was finding her Victoria Holt vibe much more to my current tastes.

But just as I opened my mouth, prepared to wax eloquent on this very topic, the acquaintance, rolling her head on her neck, made a small noise—a dismissive pphht.

She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, those. I went through my Victoria Holt phase ages ago when I was much younger.”

Good for her, I guess?

That doesn’t mean another reader couldn’t enjoy them whenever they want.

I’m a firm believer in the serendipity of the reading life. The books we need find us at the right time, no matter when they were released, who the original intended audience was, or what age we are when they make their way into our hands.

This has been nowhere more evident in my reading life than in my encounters with middle grade fiction—a genre riddled with genuine bangers.

Bread and Butter Reading

In his insightful and ever-engaging essay “On Stories,” famed children’s (and adults’!) author C.S. Lewis wrote:

It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one's adult enjoyment of what are called 'children's books.' I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty–except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all. A mature palate will probably not much care for crême de menthe: but it ought still to enjoy bread and butter and honey.

The best of middle grade fiction is what Lewis would refer to as bread and butter and honey—it’s wholesome, delicious, and will sustain you through a difficult task. As humans with souls—whether we are ten years old or fifty or somewhere in between—we need the nourishment and enrichment of good stories to help us hold onto our imagination and our empathy. Life beats us down with work and stress and terrible news. Why not escape from a weary world for a little while and dive back into a gentler world of magic and whimsy?

That’s not to say, of course, that all middle grade fiction consists of imaginative happy endings. As several of the titles we suggest in this piece will illustrate, MGF can handle some weighty topics.

Setting the Table

Maybe you think kids’ books are just for kids—or for people with kids.

Maybe, like that acquaintance in the opening of this post, you feel that you’ve left this segment of reading behind you in childhood, and it’s never occurred to you to pick it back up again.

Perhaps you haven’t been tracking what’s been going on in this genre, and you’re unaware of just how many amazing middle grade bangers lurk in the offing, just waiting to be discovered, devoured, and delighted in.

Whatever the reason, the good news is that there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from pulling down your everyday tableware and bellying up for the feast.

Pulling Up a Seat

Below you’ll find a tasting menu featuring some of our favorite middle grade reads. Skim through for ones that sound as if they might suit your taste, and adjust your summer reading lists accordingly!

Amy’s Picks:

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

If you’re like me, you’ve read and reread Little Women. If you’re really like me—and Meg March—you’re the eldest of four sisters. And when I first read The Penderwicks at the age of eleven, the same age as Rosalind (eldest of the four Penderwick sisters), it went straight to my soul and stayed there.

This is a simple story in the great tradition of E. Nesbit and L.M. Montgomery and Elizabeth Enright: a family tale set in the summertime, concerned with the happiness that C.S. Lewis calls “the simplest and most attainable things—food, sleep, exercise, friendship, the face of nature.” The four Penderwick sisters are spending a summer in the Berkshire mountains with their benevolent but somewhat absentee and academic father, and the extraordinariness of this adventure is heightened by the discovery of a Very Interesting Boy living on the grounds which they are renting. In yet more great tradition of children’s classics, the boy is wealthy and privileged but deeply misunderstood and unhappy, and it is through their attempts to help him–rescue him, even– that he and the sisters become fast friends. I won’t spoil it further, but it’s deeply funny, touching and sweet, and overall as satisfying as a cold, cold popsicle on a sultry day.

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

I’ll be the first to agree that Bible-adjacent fiction is often… cringey. Whether it’s a heavy-handed attempt at Christian moralizing with a thin veneer of story or a total rewrite taking liberties with the original text for an unexpected interpretation, novels about Biblical figures are rarely my cup of tea. The Bronze Bow is the exception that proves the rule: very few other novels can do what it does. It won the Newbery, for heaven’s sake!

Set in Galilee around AD 30-35, the story revolves around bitter teen Daniel bar Jamin whose life is consumed by plotting revenge against the conquering Romans who killed his parents. But when Daniel’s friend Simon leaves behind his work as a zealot (sound familiar?) to follow a carpenter from Nazareth named Jesus (okay, this had BETTER sound familiar), Daniel’s world begins to change. Caught between working with his band of outlaws against the Roman occupation, working as a blacksmith and taking care of his disabled sister, and hearing counterintuitive messages of forgiveness from Jesus and his followers, Daniel’s hero’s journey runs against the typical narrative—but in the best way.

It’s actually been years since I picked this one up, but the vivid imagery and haunting themes of loss, anger, betrayal and rebirth have stayed with me for a very long time. I need to read it again.

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine is perhaps best known for Ella Enchanted, a Newbery Honor twist on Cinderella, which is excellent in its own right. But my focus today is on the less-popular—and perhaps criminally underrated—companion novel, Fairest. Set in the same fictional world as Ella Enchanted, it draws inspiration from Snow White—but richer, deeper, funnier, and all-around better than the original grim fairy tale.

Aza, a foundling and adopted daughter of innkeepers, has on paper all the same attributes as the classic Snow White: pale skin, dark hair, blood-red lips. But no one around her considers her beautiful—her charm, and her downfall via manipulation from the selfish queen of the kingdom, is in her mesmerizing voice. As a lady-in-waiting at the court, Aza begins to experiment with magic, desperately hoping to become beautiful, but her dubious magical success comes at a dangerous price.

One of the things I love about this book is that it features a fat heroine, a rarity in middle-grade and young adult fiction. I read this book for the first time as an adult, but my inner adolescent felt so seen and understood by Aza’s insecurity about her body size and her longing to fit in and be seen as dainty and demure. Aza’s journey toward confidence and self-respect is not just resonant for kids, but anyone whose inner child could use some gentle encouragement to accept themselves for who they are, woven seamlessly into a sparkling tale of good versus evil.

Ruth’s Picks:

Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Neyeri

I first picked this one up because my friend’s daughter was carrying it around under her arm, toting it from place to place, singing its praises in evangelistic tones. “Aunt Ruth,” she gushed. “You have to read this one.”

Reading other people’s favorite books makes me nervous, especially when those people are children whose souls I do not want to blister with my hot literary takes.

Thankfully, in this case, she and I were in one accord.

I found this book remarkable.

Though broadly shelved as middle grade fiction, this is essentially an autobiographical novel, a lightly fictionalized version of Neyeri’s own experiences coming to the United States from Iran as a young boy. Though told from the perspective of an adolescent, the narrative carries the sure and purposeful direction of the mature storyteller who now sits beyond the end of the story.

It had been a long time since I’d encountered a voice this warm, this compelling, and this real. I fell completely into the narrative and didn't want to come back up for air. I lost sleep reading this book. I woke up early to read before work. I will definitely read it again, probably soon. It's warm, funny, poignant, and sad.

Ghost (Track #1) by Jason Reynolds

Castle Crenshaw (nicknamed Ghost) has a natural talent for running—and, like a lot of people drawn to running, trauma. With the encouragement of an empathetic coach who sees through to the heart of things, though, Ghost finds the courage to join (and bond with!) the track team, discovering skills to navigate life’s complexities along the way.

This entire series is pitch-perfect, each book featuring a strong narrative voice and compelling story.

What I love best about the series, though, is how truly kid-like the voices and perspectives are. It’s clear not only that Reynolds knows how to write a child for children but that he also remembers what it felt like to be a child.

In this way, Reynolds reminds me of Beverly Cleary. Both authors demonstrate a keen ability to tap into the vividness of childhood—big feelings, big experiences, and all.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

In the opening pages, ten-year-old Ada and her little brother Jamie are shipped off from London to escape WWII air raids. While for some children, such an experience would no doubt prove traumatic, for these two, it proves a saving grace.

This bittersweet and emotionally resonant tale about lonely people finding each other and building a family had me absolutely in my feelings the entire way. Watching the characters navigate grief, abuse, PTSD, and trauma while learning to love and trust again blew winds of grace and hope over my world-weary soul.

A Feast to Read and Re-Read

Tuck this list away, and if you’re ever caught in a reading slump or in need of a palate cleanser, come back for another taste.

Perhaps you’ve read along with us in this little essay and nodded your head at every title because you’ve read them already, and to that we say, if they were worth reading once, they are worth a revisit!

To quote C.S. Lewis once again, from the same essay:

We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness. The children understand this well when they ask for the same story over and over again, and in the same words. They want to have again the 'surprise' of discovering that what seemed Little-Red-Riding-Hood's grandmother is really the wolf. It is better when you know it is coming: free from the shock of actual surprise you can attend better to the intrinsic surprisingness of the peripeteia.¹

Best of luck, and good hunting to you, dear readers!

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Ruth here.

I’m so thankful Amy took the time to collaborate on this essay and reading list!

She’s an extensive reader, an amazing writer, and a bright light. Click through below to learn more about her, sample her writing, and follow her work.

Amy Colleen is a freelance writer and editor, a mom of two, and a person who uses random receipts and junk mail scraps to mark her place in books despite owning many beautiful bookmarks. She is the writer of Something Funny, Something True and an editor at The Pomegranate.

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1 - Peripeteia: “a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative.” There’s your fifty-cent word of the day.

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For further reading:

• Amy’s recommendations for getting out of a reading slump (with middle-grade fiction!)

• Beyond Narnia and Middle-Earth: 6 Recommended Reads That Are Not Lewis and Tolkien, from Ruth and Erin Newton

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