Category: Middle Grades

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grades

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Sarah

This book was recommended to me by a customer at the bookstore – and when I realized the illustrations were done by one of my favorite graphic novel artists, Skottie Young, I was sold.

Synopsis

“I bought the milk,” said my father. “I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: thummthumm. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road.” … “Hullo,” I said to myself. “That’s not something you see every day. And then something odd happened.”

Review

The elementary school teacher in me loves this book – it would make the absolute perfect read-aloud for any class from 2nd to 4th grade. The artist in me loves this book for Skottie Young’s illustrations. The reader in me? Well, I’m getting kind of tired of Neil Gaiman. My coworker would probably faux-smack me for saying it, but alas, I think it’s true.

This book is, by all accounts, hilarious. Young children will find it absolutely hysterical. But I didn’t laugh. Not once. I’m not sure why, I felt like I was in the right mood/mindset to do so, but for some reason, I just didn’t giggle, not once. Fortunately, the Milk is the story a dad recounts for his two children as an explanation of why it took him so long to pick up milk for their breakfast cereal one morning. It’s full of adventure, time traveling dinosaurs, pirates, a talking volcano, ponies, all sorts of mischief and mayhem.

But for some reason, I didn’t enjoy the adventure. Maybe that’s a commentary on the book, maybe that’s a commentary on me, I honestly don’t know. So if you love a book that is adventurous and exciting, if you are between the ages of 8 and 12, then please, take a look at Fortunately, the Milk, I bet you’ll enjoy it more than me.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Edition: Paperback • $5.99 • 9780062224088 • 101 pages • originally published September 2013, this edition published September 2014 by Harper Collins Publishers • average Goodreads rating 4.04 out of 5 • read in September 2017

Neil Gaiman’s Website for Young Readers

Fortunately, the Milk on Goodreads

Get a Copy of Fortunately, the Milk

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grades, Mythology

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Sarah

Just after I finished listening to the audiobook of The Lightning Thief, a good 8 years after my friend Iram told me I just had to read it, I found out it is part of this upcoming school year’s Reading Olympics lists! I now can recommend officially 1 out of 45 titles for the elementary schoolers!

Synopsis

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Review

The Lightning Thief has been a bestselling book at the bookstore since I started working there in the summer of 2015 and it has been a perpetual favorite with 6th graders since I student taught 6th grade in 2013, and I’m certain this was the case even before I was aware of it. Since it was first published in the mid-2000’s, Rick Riordan has started 4 other series, finished 2 of them, and has had three of the five series adapted into graphic novels. Clearly, there’s widespread appeal, to the point where I was really starting to feel like I was missing out on something.

When I started writing my novel, which I lovingly call my Viking Story, it was around the same time Riordan announced his second newest trilogy, Magnus Chase, a series based on Norse Mythology and the first with a decided young adult slant. I was convinced it would be my first of his books, but one day, when browsing the audiobook section at the library, I decided to pick up The Lightning Thief. Usually I’m wary when the entirety of the 12 year old population loves something (hello One Direction…), but thankfully, I was not disappointed!

Percy is a “half-blood,” his father is a god of Olympus proportions, but he doesn’t know which one. Being such, puts him in a special position when it comes to quests, adventures, and fulfilling a heroic destiny. Basically, he’s fated to be a tragic Greek hero, not exactly the future most 12 year olds dream of. But he has the help of friends and allies, and the adventure is not one to be missed!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Edition: Paperback • $7.99 • 9780786838653 • 377 pages • originally published June 2005, this edition published March 2006 by Hyperion Kids • average Goodreads rating 4.22 out of 5 • read in April 2017

Rick Riordan’s Website

The Lightning Thief on Goodreads

Get a Copy of The Lightning Thief

Lightning Thief