Books for Kids Who Love CITY SPIES 📚

Hi friends,

How's it going? The next email you receive from me on Monday, May 6 will include a link to the SUMMER READING GUIDE! Can you believe it? Here's a sneak peek of the cover:

Patreon members saw the other two cover options earlier this week, and we ended up going with this one. I love all the vibrant colors and can't wait to share the vibrant stories in the guide.

Our Summer Reading Guide is uniquely designed to offer you a wide range of reading options, especially if you love realistic middle grade fiction. I focused on choosing stories that grab readers from the first or second (at most!) chapter, SHORT books, and a healthy mix of lighthearted stories with a dash of touching stories that aren't sopping sad.

📖 Patreon members will receive the guide bright and early Monday morning, so this is a great time to join our community. You'll be getting the guide for less and enjoy other perks like my Book Matchmaking service and our monthly New Releases posts.

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The guide will also include an audio walk-through to explain each book more and an optional Content Notes file with content warnings similar to those in our online book reviews.

I'm so thrilled to share the guide soon! In the meantime, this post about books for City Spies fans is one of my favorites I've compiled. It also features one of our Summer Reading Guide picks 😉

Galley of the Week

This week's galley is...

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This week, I received an e-galley of a new chapter book series, Stella and Marigold by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall. Here's the synopsis:

Generations of readers have fallen in love with Ivy + Bean, which has sold over 8 million copies and been adapted into a popular Netflix Original Film series. Now, bestselling author Annie Barrows and illustrator Sophie Blackall are back with the first book in a bright new series about a pair of sisters named Stella and Marigold.

Stella, who’s seven, is kind, a good storyteller, and ponders big questions like, what do animals think of people? Marigold, at four, tells imaginative stories (her mother calls them “fibs”) and likes to wear her favorite Halloween costume year-round. Stella and Marigold do all the regular things—like going to school, playing, getting sick sometimes, and visiting the zoo—but even the most regular things have a secret side.

Sure to delight fans of Ivy and Bean, these adventure tales—animated with full-color illustrations of the sisters’ encounters with magical bathrooms, snow monkeys, dream lions, howling wolves, a lost Vice President, and much more—are filled with vibrant characters, creative storytelling, and a whole lot of laughs.

The Best Thing I Read Last Month

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I read almost entirely SRG picks in April, but I did finish this stand-out middle grade spy book about a girl genius who's recruited to help the CIA recover an important equation developed by Albert Einstein. This is my top City Spies readalike and I was gripped from start to finish by how realistic everything felt. It doesn't hurt that the audiobook is excellently done, too. If you've yet to read this backlist title, move it up your TBR!

Newsletter Book Giveaway

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This week, Simon & Schuster is giving away Drawing Deena. To enter, reply to this email indicating interest. The giveaway is US/Canada only and closes next Thursday, May 9, 2024, at midnight EST.

Last week's winners: Ashley G. & Eryn A. I'll be in touch shortly!

This Week on the Blog

Here's what you may have missed this week on the blog:

Explorer Academy Blog Tour: An Interview with Sailor York - If you love the Explorer Academy series, you'll want to read this interview between its main character and the author Trudi Trueit
Middle grade books starring kids of Asian descent - Thanks to A.Y. Chan and her debut, The Legendary Mo Seto, for sponsoring this post!
My review of Anne Rellihan's debut, Not the Worst Friend in the World (I enjoyed this relatable book about the angst of tween friendship)
REPLAY: Jewish middle grade books
REPLAY: Middle grade books about mental health challenges

This Week on Patreon

This week, Patreon members received:

🗒️ Printable versions of the two book lists we published
📚 May 2024 middle grade book releases(not on the Summer Reading Guide)
🎙️A podcast episode (not paywalled) about the Behind-the-Scenes of Creating the Summer Reading Guide (including two middle-grade books I enjoyed but won't be adding to the guide -- and why).

📚The Reading Middle Grade Patreon Community is for you if you're an educator, librarian, or parent looking for insightful, current book recommendations from an expert who lives and breathes middle grade books! Perks include Book Matchmaking, printable book lists, seasonal reading guides, and so much more. The resources in this community will save you so much time and effort so you can focus on serving your students.

Join the Patreon Party 🎉