Summer 2024 Canadian Middle-Grade Book Releases!
Canadian middle grade books!
Summer is in full swing, and that means reading time on the deck, the beach, or out in nature while camping. Really, anywhere outside that’s soothing, warm, and sunny. So load up your and your kids’ book baskets with these ten hot new middle-grade releases from awesome Canadian authors like Gordon Korman and Melissa Yue in summer 2024!
Faker by Gordon Korman
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Scholastic
Trey knows the drill: His dad gets him into a school full of kids with rich parents. Trey makes friends, and his dad makes connections. Soon, there's the con, where Trey's dad suckers the other parents into investing in one of his schemes. Once the money's in the bank, Trey, his sister, and their dad are on the run... until they set up somewhere else and start again.
Trey believes his father when he says no one's getting hurt. After all, these parents have money to spare.
But Trey's starting to get tired of running... and lying... and never having a friend for longer than a few months. But how do you get your family to stop lying when your lives depend on it?
Liar Liar - Whatever After 16 by Melissa Yue
My little brother Jonah and I have a magic mirror in our basement. This time, the mirror sucks us up and drops us into the story of Pinocchio. Our task? To help Gepetto get his wooden puppet son, Pinocchio, to go to school. But even though his nose grows when he lies, Pinocchio is tricky ― and he ends up sneaking back into OUR world with us!
So now we need to:
-Find the Blue Fairy.
-Convince our friends and teachers that Pinocchio is our cousin . . . but lying isn't easy when your nose grows!
-And avoid ending up in the belly of a shark.
We need to find a way to get Pinocchio home . . . and that's no lie!
Wings to Soar by Tina Athaide
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Charlesbridge
It's 1972 and Viva’s Indian family has been expelled from Uganda and sent to a resettlement camp in England, but not all of them made the trip. Her father is supposed to meet them in London, but he never shows up. As they wait for him, Viva, her mother, and her sister get settled in camp and try to make the best of their life there.
Just when she is beginning to feel at home with new friends, Viva and her family move out of the camp and to a part of London where they are not welcome. While grappling with the hate for brown-skinned people in their new community, Viva is determined to find her missing father so they can finish their move to Canada. When it turns out he has been sponsored to move to the United States, they have to save enough money to join him.
Told in verse, Wings to Soar follows a resilient girl and the friendships she forges during a turbulent time.
The Genius Hour Project by Leanne Shirtliffe
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Thistledown Press
Eleven-year-old Frazzy likes to chat her way through classes, distracting her best friend Mel, while inwardly speculating about whether Ebrahim, the boy she has a crush on, really does like her—all without attracting any more attention from the bully Jake who humiliates her whenever possible. Then the teacher springs a yearlong assignment on her class called The Genius Hour Project, while at the same time Frazzy discovers that Mel's parents might be divorcing and Mel might be going to a different school. And just when she needs him most, Frazzy's stay-at-home-dad disappears into a major depression.
The idea behind The Genius Hour Project is for kids to "let their inner genius shine," but the thing is, Frazzy doesn't want her schoolmates to know that what she really cares about is vintage music and finding deals on old records at garage sales with her dad—too totally uncool. So she chooses a really dull, normal Genius Hour Project, something that she thinks will please her teacher: women politicians. She'll start close to home, with her mom, the long-suffering mayor of Riverview.
The problem is that nobody, not her teacher or the principal or her friends, gets behind Frazzy's project. So, if trying to be more normal is not the solution, what is? Over the months that follow, though she is worried about her dad, and even more distracted than usual at school, Frazzy slowly finds a way to be her best and brightest self.
The Outsmarters by Deborah Ellis
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Groundwood Books
Suspended from school and prone to rages, twelve-year-old Kate finds her own way to get on with her life, despite the messed-up adults around her. Her gran, for one, is stubborn and aloof — not unlike Kate herself, who has no friends, and who’s been expelled for “behavioral issues,” like the meltdowns she has had ever since her mom dumped her with her grandmother three years ago. Kate dreams that one day her mother will return for her. When that happens, they’ll need money, so Kate sets out to make some.
Gran nixes her idea to sell psychiatric advice like Lucy in Peanuts (“You’re not a psychiatrist. You’ll get sued.”), so Kate decides to open a philosophy booth to provide answers to life’s big and small questions. She soon learns that adults have plenty of problems and secrets of their own, including Gran. When she finds that her grandmother has been lying to her about her mother, the two have a huge fight, and Gran says she can’t wait for Kate to finish high school so she’ll be rid of her at last. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands and discovers that to get what she wants, she may have to reach out to some unexpected people, and find a way to lay down her own anger.
Today I am: 10 Stories of Belonging
A fresh and fearless collection of short fiction, poetry and graphic fiction for today’s middle-grade readers.
In this timely, thought-provoking, funny and heartbreaking collection, ten acclaimed BIPOC authors from across Canada explore the theme and concept of home.
From awkward family dinners, to life on the rez, to moving to a new town, each of these stories provides a unique perspective on the theme of belonging through characters tasked with navigating and finding their place in this world.
Brought together by curator (and story contributor), Jael Richardson, Today I Am will make readers laugh and cry while opening their hearts and minds to the world around them, validating how it feels to be young and alive today.
Today I Am includes stories by Jael Richardson, Marty Chan, Rosena Fung, Michael Hutchinson, Chad Lucas, Angela Misri, Mahtab Narsimhan, Danny Ramadan, Liselle Sambury and Brandon Wint.
Flow by Dana Goldstein
GoodReads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Young Dragons
Dax Masters has everything he could wish for—great friends, a good handle on 7th Grade, and a science community to run. As head of the Earth Moves Project, Dax has inspired other kid scientists from around the world to share their observations. His schedule is full, but that doesn't stop him from signing up for a new extracurricular class, Environmental Studies.
Dax hopes he can sail through the new class by using Earth Moves to expand on what he's learned about tectonic plate movement. But when a new problem presents itself, Dax can't ignore his instincts. The planet's oceans are in trouble, and with the help of his classmates, Dax has once again identified a potentially catastrophic global crisis others have missed. This time, though, he has to prove to himself that he has what it takes to find a solution.
Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Summer and her family always spend relaxed summers in Alberta, Canada, on the reservation where her mom’s family lives. But this year is turning out to be an eye-opening one.
First, Summer has begun to have vivid dreams in which she's running away from one of the many real-life residential schools that tore Native children from their families and tried to erase their Native identities. Not long after that, she learns that unmarked children’s graves have been discovered at the school her grandpa attended as a child. Now more folks are speaking up about their harrowing experiences at these places, including her grandfather.
Summer cherishes her heritage and is heartbroken about all her grandfather was forced to give up and miss out on. When the town holds a rally, she’s proud to take part to acknowledge the painful past and speak of her hopes for the future, and anxious to find someone who can fill her in on the source of her unsettling dreams.
Misadventures in Ghosthunting by Melissa Yue
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Emma Wong is struggling to tell her parents about a lot of things. Getting a D on her math test, for one. Seeing ghosts, for another.
When a mysterious figure sets Emma’s family altar on fire, that’s one more secret to add to her list, which is growing perilously long. At the top of the list is the spectral ghosthunter named Henry, who has an attitude problem and a special loathing for Emma. Next, there’s Leon, a mild-mannered ghost guardian who is as flighty as the pigeon he often turns into. There’s Michelle, Emma’s ride-or-die bestie, whose curiosity about ghosts often eclipses her instinct for survival. And then there’s Chinese calligraphy—the magical kind. In the hands of a skilled ghosthunter, words and intention transform into magical protections. But in Emma’s shaky hands, it’s shiny and ineffective.
The most stunning secret, however, is that Emma’s sweet, plant-loving grandmother has the power to shank ghosts! What’s more, her grandma is an exorcist with a secret of her own. A secret that is haunting the Wongs from the Underworld.
The only way for Emma to save her loved ones is to tap into the Wong family’s ghosthunting history. Easier said than done, of course. Hungry ghosts are one thing, but Emma’s bad calligraphy may be what dooms them all!
The Disappearance of White Pine Beach by Danielle McKechnie
GoodReads | Amazon | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Eleven-year-old Otto and his mom move to Monsterton, a gorgeous island on the border of the Belcarra forest and a mysterious place called The Dark. In Monsterton, each monster can be themselves. They are free to be as scaly, slimy, or scary as nature intended.
There's only one teeny, tinyproblem. Otto and his mom aren't monsters.
As a human, Otto feels that he has to prove himself. After all, as Remi the ghost girl reminds him, he's so fragile. Along with Otto's new friends Hamish, Darby, and Luck, the group sets out to find the legendary White Pine Beach—a beach so mysterious, it's rumored to jump locations, never staying in the same place for too long. But what the ragtag team of monsters (and one human) discovers is far more mysterious than a location-jumping beach. And when one of their number doesn't return home with them . . . rumors swirl.
Can Otto find his new friend, fit in with the monsters, and stay true to himself?