#middle grade mystery

[daystar-daydreamer]

The Pirates of Pompeii by Caroline Lawrence

Category: Middle-grade

Genre: Historical whodunnit

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌑🌑 3/5 stars

Recommended for: 7-10

It is AD 79. The Roman world is reeling from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Hundreds of refugees are living in a makeshift camp, trying to come to terms with what has happened. Then even more tragedy strikes: the camp's children begin to disappear. Flavia Gemina and her friends Jonathan, Nubia, and Lupus are determined to find out more and start to investigate a powerful and charismatic man known as the Patron. A dangerous trail leads them to the caves and grottoes of Sorrento, where they encounter pirates, slave dealers, and possible death.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

I’m not going to be reviewing The Secrets of Vesuvius because all I have to say about it is that after the life-or-death (At least for the dogs) stakes of the last book, that glorified easter egg hunt feels like a downgrade. And I can see the author thought so too, so she added a hefty dose of soap opera to make it more exciting. It didn’t work. And Gaius is NASTY for making moves on 14-year-old Miriam. I get the book is set in ancient Rome and that sort of thing was normal, but goddamn!

Now onto the Pirates of Pompeii. This one is much better than SoV, and a little better than ToO. 

I like that we get some of Nubia and Lupus’s backstories (Which I suspect will become relevant in later books), and the little seeds of foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the book: Julia . The character work is stronger in this book than the previous two.

I don’t really like that arc where Flavia started acting more like Pulchia. Firstly, it seems really out of character compared to the Flavia from the previous books. At least it didn’t last very long. 

I did find it funny how Pulchia kept calling Flavia ‘Fulvia’. And Pulchia’s character development was nice too, though I admit I kind of hoped she’d get offed because she was so insufferable. And even if Pulchra isn't such a piece of crap now, I don't think Leda will be jumping at the chance to be her friend.

It was nice of Flavia to set Nubia free, even if I saw it coming.

[bookjunkiez]

The Neighbors' Secret Blitz

A Maddie Mystery series, Book 1   Middle Grade Mystery, Children’s Mystery Date Published: 05/21/2024 Publisher: EverImagine Books (an imprint of Harbor Lane Books, LLC.)     Maddie’s life is a mess. Along with the usual hassles of eighth grade, her best friend Rachel has gone boy-crazy and seems drawn to a new crowd. To make matters worse, everyone’s teasing Maddie for impulsively breaking into…

[booksformks]

Book Review: The Westing Game

The Westing Gameby Ellen Raskin 4 out of 5 stars Sam Westing leaves a puzzle in his will, and any of the heirs who can solve the riddle will win the entire inheritance. The puzzle is, who murdered Sam Westing? The heirs are broken up into teams and given different clues, but only by working together can they solve the mystery. Continue reading Untitled

[booksteacupandreviews]

Miracles for the Maharaja by Aditi Krishnakumar - adventurous middle-grade mystery

#MiraclesfortheMaharaja is entertaining and adventurous #middlegrade #fantasy mystery with the exploration of the world and amusing quirky characters. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ @PenguinIndia Check out full review ⬇️

Miracles for the Maharaja is entertaining and adventurous middle-grade mystery with the exploration of the world and amusing quirky characters. Miracles for the Maharaja (Meandering Magicians #3) by Aditi Krishnakumar Publication Date : January 2, 2023 Publisher : Duckbill Read Date : April 6, 2023 Genre : Middle-grade / Fantasy / Mystery Pages : 256 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Previous…

[the-worlds-between-pages]

The Architect by: Jonathan Starrett

Published by: Tyndale House Publishers I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to them and the publisher. So, at the beginning of this book, I had no idea where it was going and that was fun. We’ve got a spunky main character in Charlie who lives in Phantom City as an orphan. She lives on the streets and has no memories of her family. There’s also a zeppelin…

[bodhrancomedy]

Just a list of children’s books that did impact my life way more than Harry Potter.

[best-childhood-book]

Welcome to the Bracket of Childhood Books!

Hello! Welcome to the Best Childhood Book bracket, reminiscent of many going around on Tumblr right now, that will decide what this userbase thinks is the best childhood book.

Since we need some clarification, the definition of childhood book in this competition is as follows: a book people read in childhood that must be for a YA age group or younger and has chapters. I developed this definition to keep it as open as possible while making sure picture and adult books were excluded. There are a lot of books that skirt the line between middle grade and young adult, so I figured it best to play it safe and include all YA books, especially for those of us who read at a much higher level. There is a difference between “children’s” book and “childhood” book. ANY book that met those requirements could be submitted, as I am striving to keep my personal opinion out of this competition for the most part. This definition will not change for the foreseeable future.

This masterpost will be updated with links to all the polls regularly, and each poll will last 7 days. If you vote, reblog if you can so more people can vote, and feel free to campaign for your personal favorite if you want!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD BOOKS (320/320)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD WORLDS (192/192)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR FANTASY BOOKS (320/320)

Please submit with the name of the book and the author. Check the lists to see if anything has been submitted before trying yourself. If a book is part of a series, it will be listed under the series name (i.e. The Lightning Thief > Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Golden Compass > His Dark Materials). You can find the current list of childhood books here. A world will be listed with its series, and you can find the current list of worlds here. You can find the current list of fantasy books here.

Poll links and rules under the cut

Help decide parameters for submissions with some fringe cases: recently published YA, adult books lots of children/teens read, retelling worlds

First Competition (here)

Second Competition (here)

Third Competition (here)

Fourth Competition (here)

BCW First Competition (here)

Rules/Guidelines

Submissions for Childhood Books

Must be a middle grade or young adult book

Must have chapters

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Submissions for Childhood Worlds

Must be the setting of a middle grade or young adult book.

Must be either a whole other world (i.e. Narnia, Panem), a setting largely separate from our own world (i.e. Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood), or a specific setting within our own world that is invented for the purpose of that book (i.e. 221B Baker Street, Ferryport Landing)

Main characters have to have visited this place

Cannot be somewhere that already exists in our world outside that book

Submissions for Fantasy Books

Must be listed as 'fantasy' or some fantasy subgenre within the first three genres on Goodreads or Storygraph

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Must have chapters but can otherwise be for any age range

Polls

Be respectful (no hate, no harassment, I will block you)

I'm totally okay with spam reblogs; if you want to subject your followers to seventeen copies of a poll, you do you

If you're trying to get my attention about something, @ me or submit an ask, there's no guarantee I'll see all the reblogs

Propaganda

Submit it to me as an ask; I won't be reblogging personal posts or reblogs of the polls

Promote the book you're supporting; it's okay to poke fun at the other books, but please don't attack them or the authors

Only ONE (1) propaganda post per user per book. I really don't want to clog people's dashes with sixty posts about voting for a single book

Asks

Be respectful, not just to me but to all the people who will end up seeing that ask when I post it

If you're asking about a poll or a rule or anything else, please check and see if it's in this post or elsewhere

Try to keep things focused on the competition/books

Competition Hall of Fame

First Competition: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Second Competition: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Third Competition: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Fourth Competition: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

[haveyoureadthispoll]

It’s wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler’s inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers’ adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo’s home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass House—and themselves.

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

Series info:

Book 1 of The Secret Series

Book 2: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late

Book 3: This Book is Not Good For You

Book 4: This Isn't What It Looks Like

Book 5: You Have to Stop This

[lonesomedotmp3]

she's literally if arthur pendragon bbc merlin was a 1930s schoolgirl...

[daystar-daydreamer]

The Colossus of Rhodes by Caroline Lawrence

Category: Middle-grade

Genre: Historical drama

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌑 4/5 stars

Recommended for: 7-10

I really liked having Marcus, Flavia’s father, around here. He doesn’t get in the way of the kids’ adventures, but he’s also not a neglectful father like so many middle-grade parents. He contributes plenty to the plot, and he’s also a pretty nice guy all around most of the time. 

About halfway through the story, it’s revealed that one of the members of Marcus’s new crew, Zosimus, is a mole working for the slave trafficking ring. Before the reveal, I’d found him charming and I really liked him. I didn’t see it coming whatsoever, and even after the twist, he was still a pretty solid villain for what little page time he got. 

The scene where the characters were interrogating him and he started singing like a bird when Lupus threatened his pigeons was way funnier than it probably should have been. 

Shortly before Zosimus’s reveal, Lupus spends the night on a little boat tethered behind the ship, and while everyone was sleeping, Zosimus cut the rope, and Lupus drifted to a desert island inhabited by a woman named Julia and her slave, Pinchas, who told Lupus what was happening to some of the children who were being kidnapped. I was hoping the storyline with Pinchas and Julia would go somewhere. Sure, they gave Lupus some interesting information, but it didn’t do much more than that. I wish we’d gotten to know them a little better. 

During the climax, the kids pretend to be slaves so they can get close to the mastermind and rescue the kids who’d been kidnapped. I thought that was pretty clever. And so was the reveal that Magnus, the villain, had been a mile ahead of them the whole time. 

Lupus, however, had gotten separated from them, and he’d heard that his mother was on the island so he was trying to track her down. And then Magnus revealed that if he went to his mother, his friends would end up being sold into slavery! It was tense in the best way possible, and this time, it did live up to its heartwrenching potential; Lupus had to make the choice for himself rather than essentially having it made for him.

[morganeboydauthor]

Hi, everyone! This week, we dive into a review of The Hampton House Mystery, the newest installment in Ellen Alexander's Dinswood Chronicles! Hope you enjoy!

[booksformks]

Book Review: Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screenby Anne Nesbet (Goodreads Author) 5 out of 5 stars Darleen is the star of silent films produced by her family’s film company just outside New York City. As part of a publicity stunt, they set up a fake kidnapping to bring more attention to their films, but something goes terrible wrong. Darleen gets trapped in the middle of a real kidnapping with a wealthy…

[booksteacupandreviews]

Murder in Melucha by Aditi Krishnakumar - middle-grade magical mystery

#MurderinMelucha is entertaining, delightful and well-written #middlegrade magical mystery with theme of human nature. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ #bookchatter #tbrchallenge @PenguinIndia @blogchatter Full review ⬇️

Murder in Melucha is entertaining, delightful and well-written middle-grade magical mystery with theme of human nature. Murder in Melucha (Meandering Magicians #2) by Aditi Krishnakumar Publication Date : August 1, 2021 Publisher : Duckbill Read Date : April 7, 2023 Genre : Middle Grade / Fantasy / Mystery Pages : 240 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Previous book in series I read – The…

[the-worlds-between-pages]

Wretched Waterpark by: Kiersten White

Wretched Waterpark by: Kiersten White

Alright so this is a fast paced middle grade fantasy that gave me Lemony Snicket vibes in the extreme and I loved it. We follow the Sinister-Winterbottom kids, Wil, the oldest, and Theo and Alexander, fraternal twins. One is very cautious, the other very brave and Wil, unfortunately is a bit of a teen cliché. Wil never looks up from her phone and has even named it Roderigo. I know the joke that…