The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

For generations, Mina's world has been beset by raging storms that take whole villages into the sea.  Those who remain fight over the few resources that survive these storms.  The people believe the sea god is angry.  Every year a beautiful girl is sacrificed to the sea in the hope one of them will finally be the sea god's true bride, the girl who can stop the storms.

Many believe the beautiful Shim Cheong might be the one, but Mina's older brother is in love with her and plans to throw himself into the sea with her, even knowing he will die.  

Mina decides to take Shim Cheong's place to save her brother.  She isn't even sure it will work until she awakens in the Spirit Realm.  This magical city is filled with spirits, ghosts, demons, and even a few minor gods.  Mina soon discovers the sea god in an enchanted slumber.  She must find a way to wake him in order to end the curse on her home, but her time is limited.  If she stays too long in the Spirit Realm, she will become a spirit herself, unable to end the curse or return home.  

She has the help of Shin, a minor god, whose fate has been bound to hers, and an assortment of other spirits and demons.  Mina believes she could be the sea god's true wife and break the curse, but can she follow through if she falls in love with someone else?

Axie Oh's beautiful fairy tale of a story is dream steeped in Korean mythology.  The plot is gentle and meandering, giving way to characters and descriptions, but it's a lovely ride through a dangerous and enchanted kingdom.  The romance is clean enough for a middle school audience and stems from true friendship and devotion.  Recommended.

Witchlings

Every year in the magical town of Ravenskill, witchlings participate in the Black Moon ceremony to be magically sorted into their covens.  Seven Salazar has always dreamed of being in house Hyacinth with her best friend, Poppy.  They plan to become reporters for the local newspaper, and House Hyacinth is the place to be for young writers.  On the night of the ceremony Seven's anxiety mounts as each new coven becomes a closed circle and is accepted into their new house.  Finally, her worst fears are confirmed.  She never even considered this as a possibility.  Seven is a spare.

Every year a few witchlings are left without a coven, without the protection of a magical house. 
Spares don't have the same rights as other witches and they aren't allowed to continue their magical studies, perform higher level spells, or even have real jobs.  To make matters worse, Seven's worst enemy and biggest bully, Valley, is also a spare and technically in her "coven."  The third member of the group is a quiet new girl named Thorn.

To escape her fate, Seven invokes the Impossible Task.  If they can complete the task, the girls will be reinstated in society.  If not...they will be turned into toads!

Claribel Ortega's newest book is full of magic, adventure, and friendship with a diverse cast of characters.  There are definitely shades of Harry Potter here, but the book has it's own perspective, too, highlighting inequities between the social classes and the right to control the rights of those with less the wealthy sometimes feel.  This is solid middle grade fantasy.

The Getaway

Life is good for Jay and his family at Karloff Country.  The outside world has struggles with the economy, climate change, poverty and food shortages, but none of that exists inside the gates of Karloff Country.  The commercials say it's the funnest place around, and that seems to be true.  Jay and his friends live in a community created for employees on the massive Karloff complex.  They go to school during the day and work at the theme park in the afternoons.  They are training for guaranteed jobs in the future, so it's not a bad gig.

Everything is perfect...until it isn't.  One night his friend Connie's dad comes home acting strange, and the next day the whole has is empty. It's like they never lived there, and Connie didn't even tell anyone she was leaving.  Something is definitely wrong.  

Then the richest of the rich start showing up in waves while regular ticket sales stop.  It seems the Karloff family has been selling shares to the ultimate end of the world oasis.  While the world falls to pieces on the outside, the rich will live a pampered life on the inside with the employees catering to their every whim whether they like it or not.

Lamar Giles's newest dystopian thriller is his best book yet!  With every chapter the situation gets worse, and the book is filled with almost nonstop action all while managing to explore themes of racism and classism.  Prepare for things to get super dark.  I don't want to spoil anything...just be prepared.  There is always room for things to get worse!  Recommended for more mature readers and especially for Neal Shusterman fans.

Skin of the Sea

Simi was once a normal girl who prayed to the gods like everyone else.  Now she is a Mami Wata, a mermaid, collecting the souls of those who die on the ships carrying people in chains away from their homes.  Her only job is to collect the souls so they can have a peaceful journey to the afterlife.  She is not supposed to interact with the humans or interfere with them in any way.

One day as she is circling a ship to collect a soul, she discovers a boy who is still alive.  She has been warned to stick to her duties, but how can it be right to leave this boy to die alone in the sea after being stolen from his home?  She does the only thing that seems right in her heart.

Kola is desperate to return home and confused about who Simi is and why he is still alive.  He has secrets of his own, and the two are uneasy with each other.  If Kola returns home, the goddess Yemoja will know Simi has disobeyed her, but Kola is unwilling to leave his family behind.  

When Yemoja learns the truth, she reveals Simi has broken a godly bargain that jeopardizes the lives of all the Mami Wata.  Now she and Kola are on a quest together to save his home and all the Mami Wata.  The journey will be perilous, and they must defeat a trickster god to win, but Simi knows success is her only option.

Natasha Bowen's black mermaid story is a truly magical adventure.  These mermaids have legs on land and tails in the water, so that solves some potential problems from the beginning.  She weaves traditional African tales with the European Little Mermaid story, and wraps it all around a quest adventure.  I struggled to get into this one at first, but I'm really glad I stuck with it.  This book wins both as a good fantasy and as strong representation.  This is much more complex than a middle grade fantasy and would be better suited for readers who enjoy a big juicy complex fantasy.

Hummingbird

At twelve years old, Olive has never been to school with other kids.  She has osteogenesis imperfecta, OI for short.   That just must her bones are fragile and break easily.  Because of this, she's always been homeschooled, but she's finally convinced her parents to let her go to school with everyone else.  Olive desperately wants a BFF.  She loves her family, but it's not the same as having someone her own age.  She has her stepbrother, Hatch, but he barely looks at her.  

It doesn't take long for Olive to find a potential best friend in Grace, who is kind, creative, and who is making sets and costumes for the upcoming play.  Olive's true dream is to be an actress, and she's arrived just in time to try out.  Movies would be just as good if the actors used wheelchairs and had disabilities!

She also hears a strange story about a magical golden hummingbird who grants wishes.  Everyone knows the hummingbird is coming when magical white feathers that melt like snow fall from the sky in the weeks leading up to May Day.  Olive already has so many great things, and she loves herself as she is, but what if she didn't have OI?  What if her parents didn't have to constantly worry she might break a bone?

What if she could wish away the hardest thing in her life?

Natalie Lloyd's new book isn't set to come out until August, but it should definitely be on your TBR pile.  Lloyd and Olive have the same disability, and the author's personal struggles and triumphs shine through the story.  This is not one of those books where the "normal" kids learn to be better people because of a magical experience with a disabled person.  This is a story that centers a character with a disability whose family and friends rally around her because they love her as a person regardless of her physical abilities and disabilities.  The story is also filled with Lloyd's delightful touches of magical realism and her love of the Tennessee mountains where she grew up.  Highly recommended!

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone

Mallory Moss knows how middle school works.  Wear the right clothes, say the right things, and don't stand out.  When Reagan, who is obviously cool, moved to town in elementary school and chose Mallory for her best friend, life was perfect.  She is on the right side of the social divide, and she has a best friend to share secrets with.

Then Jennifer Chan moves in across the street.  Jennifer is unlike anyone Mallory has ever known.  She's so...herself.  Jennifer is obsessed with aliens, and she's not embarrassed or shy about it all.  The way she talks about aliens almost makes Mallory want to believe herself.  

Then summer is over, and Mallory moves back into her role as best friend of the class queen.  If only Jennifer would just try to fit in, dress like a normal person, not talk about aliens, maybe things could be different.

Then Jennifer goes missing, and Mallory feels compelled to find her, partly because of the connection they had back in the summer...and partly because of the incident.  But she's not even really ready to admit the truth of that to herself.

Tae Keller's first book after winning the Newberry is a beautiful and painful story about friendship and fitting in.  The social interactions and power dynamics of middle school are realistically and brutally displayed.  Be sure to read the author's note at the end for extra insight into the characters and the author herself.  Nearly everyone will relate to this story of bullying and the struggle to be your authentic self.  Highly recommended.

The Patron Thief of Bread

Duck was saved from the river as a baby by the Crowns, a group of child thieves who band together for survival.  At eight years old, Duck knows they saved her life, but she also feels resentment and fear for the group's leader, Gnat.  She mostly tries to stay quiet and out of the way, but when the Crowns move into a new town, Gnat has a plan to keep them in coin and bread for the foreseeable future.  One of them will pose as the baker's apprentice and slip bread and money to the Crowns right under the baker's nose.  And he's decided Duck will take on this job.

Despite her nerves, getting a position as Griselde Baker's assistant is not a problem.  Despite the fact that her assistant doesn't trust Duck, the plan continues to work perfectly.  But it doesn't take long for Duck's heart to be pulled in two directions.  The Crowns saved her and kept her alive all these years, but the blind baker gives her a taste of warmth, comfort, and love she's never known before.

Meanwhile, a grouchy gargoyle sits atop an uncompleted cathedral.  He watches everything that happens, but he is unable to perform his duties as a protector because the cathedral was never completed.  For almost one hundred years, he has only been able to watch and complain.

Linsday Eagar is one of my favorites because her books are always unusual and creative.  This one is no exception.  It's a beautiful story about found family and the things we do for the ones we love.  The last few chapters of the book take various characters on a journey of seeking and granting forgiveness that really take this story to a deeper level.  Highly recommended.