Check out these releases coming up this month. Perfect for summer reading!
I’m really excited about my friend Mary Winn Heider’s debut novel, The Mortification of Fovea Munson. Mary Winn read a chapter at a writing workshop, and I know kids will love this story! Read on to learn about all the new books for the middle grade readers in your life!
The Mortification of Fovea Munson Hardcover – June 5
by Mary Winn Heider (Author), Chi Birmingham (Illustrator)
Disney Press
Fovea Munson is nobody’s Igor. True, her parents own a cadaver lab where they perform surgeries on dead bodies. And yes, that makes her gross by association, at least according to everyone in seventh grade. And sure, Fovea’s stuck working at the lab now that her summer camp plans have fallen through. But she is by no means Dr. Frankenstein’s snuffling assistant!
That is, until three disembodied heads, left to thaw in the wet lab, start talking. To her. Out loud.
What seems like a nightmare, or bizarre hallucination, is not. Fovea is somebody’s Igor, all right. Three somebodies, actually. And they need a favor.
With a madcap sense of humor and a lot of heart (not to mention other body parts), this is a story about finding oneself, finding one’s friends, and embracing the moment.
Breakout -June 5
By Kate Messner
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Nora Tucker is looking forward to summer vacation in Wolf Creek–two months of swimming, popsicles, and brushing up on her journalism skills for the school paper. But when two inmates break out of the town’s maximum-security prison, everything changes. Doors are locked, helicopters fly over the woods, and police patrol the school grounds. Worst of all, everyone is on edge, and fear brings out the worst in some people Nora has known her whole life. Even if the inmates are caught, she worries that home might never feel the same.
Told in letters, poems, text messages, news stories, and comics–a series of documents Nora collects for the Wolf Creek Community Time Capsule Project–Breakout is a thrilling story that will leave readers thinking about who’s really welcome in the places we call home.
Wild Rescuers: Guardians of the Taiga (book 1) -June 5
by StacyPlays
HarperCollins Publishers
From the creator of the mega-popular YouTube series Dogcraft, comes a thrilling illustrated novel about a girl raised by a pack of wolves and her quest to protect their shared forest home. The first in a new Minecraft-inspired fantasy adventure series!
Stacy was raised by wolves. She’s never needed humans to survive and, from what she sees of humans, they’re dangerous and unpredictable. For as long as she can remember, Stacy’s pack of six powerful, playful wolves—Addison, Basil, Everest, Noah, Tucker and Wink—have been her only family.
Together, Stacy’s pack patrols the forest to keep other animals safe, relying on her wits and each wolf’s unique abilities to accomplish risky rescue missions. But as the forest changes and new dangers begin lurking, are Stacy and the wolves prepared for the perils that await them?
The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair – June 12
by Amy Makechnie
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
A ten-year-old girl is determined to find her missing neighbor, but the answers lead her to a places and people she never expected—and maybe even one she’s been running away from—in this gorgeous debut novel that’s perfect for fans of The Thing About Jellyfish.
Guinevere St. Clair is going to be a lawyer. She was the fastest girl in New York City. She knows everything there is to know about the brain. And now that she’s living in Crow, Iowa, she wants to ride into her first day of school on a cow named Willowdale Princess Deon Dawn.
But Gwyn isn’t in Crow, Iowa, just for royal cows. Her family has moved there, where her parents grew up, in the hopes of jogging her mother Vienna’s memory. Vienna has been suffering from memory loss since Gwyn was four. She can no longer remember anything past the age of thirteen, not even that she has two young daughters. Gwyn’s father is obsessed with finding out everything he can to help his wife, but Gwyn’s focused on problems that seem a little more within her reach. Like proving that the very strange Gaysie Cutter who lives next door is behind the disappearance of her only friend, Wilbur Truesdale.
Gwyn is sure she can crack the case, but when she does she finds that not all of her investigations lead her to the places she would have expected. In fact they might just lead her to learn about the mother she’s been doing her best to forget.
Everything I Know About You – June 19
By Barbara Dee
Aladdin
Misfit Tally is forced to room with queen bee Ava on the seventh grade field trip to Washington, DC, and discovers several surprising things about her roommate—including the possibility of an eating disorder—in this timely new novel from the author of Star-Crossed and Halfway Normal.
During a class trip to DC, twelve-year-old Tally and her best friends, Sonnet and Caleb (a.k.a. Spider) are less than thrilled when they are assigned roommates and are paired with kids who are essentially their sworn enemies. For Tally, rooming with “clonegirl” Ava Seely feels like punishment, rather than potential for fun.
But the trip is full of surprises. Despite a pact to stick together as much as they can, Sonnet pulls away, and spider befriends Marco, the boy who tormented him last year. And Marco just might “like” Tally—what’s that about?
But the uneasy peace in Ava and Tally’s room is quickly upended when Tally begins to suspect something is off about Ava. She has a weird notebook full of random numbers, and doesn’t seem to eat anything during meals. When Tally confronts Ava, Ava threatens to share an embarrassing picture of Tally with the class if Tally says anything to anyone about her suspicions. But will Tally endanger more than her pride by keeping her secret?
This is one class trip full of lessons Tally will never forget: how to stay true to yourself, how to love yourself and embrace your flaws, and how being a good friend can actually mean telling a secret you promised to keep…
Why Can’t I Be You? – June 19
By Melissa Walker
HarperCollins Publishers
Claire Ladd knows that this summer is going to be special. She and her two best friends, Ronan and Brianna, are turning twelve. She is leaving camp behind and gets to do what she wants all day. She feels everything starting to change.
But things don’t always change for the better.
With Brianna’s cousin Eden visiting for the summer, Claire feels like a third wheel. Even though she is only a year older, Eden seems so much more sophisticated and glamorous . . . and when she’s around, she takes up everyone’s attention, including Brianna’s.
But that doesn’t explain why things have felt awkward with Brianna ever since she moved to a fancy new house, or why Ronan, who lives in the trailer next to Claire’s, has started acting moody anytime anyone mentions his dad.
Claire has always been happy with her life just as it is, but as the summer wears on and the issues with her friends start to grow, she can’t help but wonder: Would everything be better if she could just be someone else?
The Lost Continent (Wings of Fire, Book 11) – June 26
by Tui T. Sutherland
Scholastic, Inc.
For centuries there have been rumors of another continent on the dragons’ planet — another land far across the ocean, populated by tribes of dragons very different from those we know. But there’s never been any evidence, and most dragons dismissed the rumors as fairy tales.
Until now.
Because it turns out the stories are true.
And the other tribes are coming.
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So many of these books are going straight into my TBR pile. I do want to call out Kate Messner, because she has been posting a fascinating series of blogs on the revision and editing process for BREAKOUT. Those posts are useful reading both for writers of middle grade, but also for middle grade readers. Students will be blown away by the process of bringing a book to life!
Thanks for the list. Lots of good books to look for this month.
So much awesome middle grade fiction out there! Thanks for the round-up, Julie.