Recommended Reading: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Book Description:

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

Peter Nimble is an earlier work from the author of The Night Gardener, which we enthusiastically recommended at the beginning of the year. Peter Nimble isn't quite that good, but it's still a lot of fun. The Night Gardener is middle-grade horror, with more focused themes and more overall success as a story, while Peter Nimble is a fantasy that relies on quirky characters and worldbuilding.  

The tone is light and not-quite-realistic, hearkening back to some favorite middle-grade books like The Phantom Tollbooth, but the actual content is a little more mature with lots of character deaths and injuries. The narrator has a Lemony Snicket sort of style where not everything he says in his asides can be trusted, but the target age range for this book may not understand that -- the narrator talks about how apes can go months without drinking water and have a hump to store water in, for instance. An older child would know this is tongue-in-cheek, but a younger child who's used to those kinds of educational asides might just take it at face value. 

Either way, Peter Nimble is a fun read for middle graders. It's got wacky characters like the cat-horse-knight Sir Tode, and a huge talking dogfish named Frederick. It's got enough action and jokes to keep things moving, but is also complex enough for older kids who want more of a challenge!

Recommended Reading: The Bad Kitty series by Nick Bruel

Bad Kitty is a unique series about a singularly ill-behaved cat,and all her friends and relatives. Each new addition plays with the form a little more, and expands Bad Kitty's circle of acquaintances! The first installment is a picture book with several fun rhyming lists, and the second book (Poor Puppy) builds on the same formula, adding new characters and some counting. Later books become more like easy chapter books, or hybrids of the two forms -- some are mostly text with lots of pictures, while others are mostly pictures with a little text. Kitty's friends include the puppy, the baby, all the cats on her street, Uncle Murray her petsitter, and more! Each book includes alphabetical lists, but as the series progresses they also include counting, fun facts about cats, different picture styles, etc. Kids with housecats will definitely recognize Kitty's antics, and since the series can progress along with a developing reader, it's a great choice for all ages.

Recommended Reading: The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

Book Description: 

This much-anticipated follow-up to Jonathan Auxier’s exceptional debut, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a Victorian ghost story with shades of Washington Irving and Henry James. More than just a spooky tale, it’s also a moral fable about human greed and the power of storytelling.

The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem. Soon the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre and an ancient curse that threatens their very lives. With Auxier’s exquisite command of language, The Night Gardener is a mesmerizing read and a classic in the making.

This 2014 release is the perfect horror novel for middle graders -- creepy, with its share of gross-out moments, but not terrifying. The focus is on the two orphans as characters, and they're more nuanced than in most other middle-grade books... In fact, all the characters have dominant personality traits, but those traits aren't random. They go along with whole personalities and backstories. The characters got where they are not because they've just always been that way, but because they've made specific choices over time, so this would be great opportunity to discuss choices and consequences with your child! Altogether, The Night Gardener is a super-fun book that's satisfying on many levels, from old-fashioned spookiness to well-written prose and a compelling plot.