My September and October reading pile

This is not the best image for Australia because we are heading into Spring not Autumn 

but hopefully it caught your eye.  Image source: Mama Teaches

How did I go with my August Middle Grade reading pile? I listed ten titles in my blog post and completed seven (and blogged six). Clutch; Leila and the Blue Fox; and A Night Divided are still on my reading pile so adding those to this set I have nine middle grade novels to read over the coming weeks. 

Masterminds by Gordon Korman

I spied this in a library where I am volunteering. I have read and enjoyed other books by Gordon Korman (especially the three book in the Island series). This is the first book in a trilogy.

Blurb: Eli Frieden lives in the most perfect town in the world: Serenity, New Mexico. Everyone has a great house, with a pool. Money problems and crime are unheard of. Honesty and integrity are valued above all else. The thirty kids who live there never lie. They know it’s a short leap from that to the awful problems of other, less fortunate places. Eli has never left Serenity … until, one day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens that it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and it soon becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, linking their ideal community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known.

Cobweb by Michael Morpurgo

I picked this up in the library because the cover is terrific and I have read several other books by Michael Morpurgo. I also enjoy books with dogs as heroes.

Blurb: Britain. 1815. After years of loss and sacrifice, the end of the war with Napoleon is approaching. Cobweb knows nothing of the war – he loves being a young puppy and playing with his owner, Bethan, exploring the countryside and chasing rabbits. But when he is taken away from Bethan and sold, Cobweb must learn to become a Drover’s Dog – herding sheep and cattle for hundreds of miles on the long, treacherous journey to London. And after the Napoleonic wars finally come to an end with the Battle of Waterloo, Cobweb meets an unexpected stranger with an incredible tale to tell on his journey home …

Promises and Other Lies by Sue Whiting

Sue Whiting is an Australian author. I really enjoyed The Book of Chance; Missing and decades ago I loved one of her first titles Battle of the Rats. Promises and Other lies has a splendid cover which I now discover was designed by her publisher Walker Books. I picked this book up at Gleebooks here in Sydney after discovering it is a middle grade title not YA as I had previously thought. 

Blurb: One year on from a devastating bushfire, the small coastal town of Wangaroo Bay is still reeling. Fletch’s family lost their home, and his best friend Immie lost her beloved dad, a volunteer firefighter. Throughout it all, Fletch and Immie have had each other … Immie’s grandparents push for the Bayfire investigation to be reopened, but Fletch’s mum, dad and elder brother Cooper want to put the past behind them. And when a local, one of their own, is charged with arson, emotions flare, sides are taken, and promises – and secrets – are at stake.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost was published in 2017 so it is not new but it is a title I see referenced on lots of lists. This is another book that I thought was probably a YA title but the library where I work as a volunteer have shelved it with our Primary School collection. 

Blurb:  Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Running. That’s all Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who sees something in Ghost: crazy natural talent. If Ghost can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed, or will his past finally catch up to him?

The Last Journey by Stacy Gregg

Stacy Gregg has a large body of work, but this will be my first of her books. I am not at all a cat person, but the cover intrigued me, and the blurb gave the story a slightly dystopian feel which is a genre I really enjoy. 

Blurb: Pusskin lives a charmed life with his loving owner, Lottie. The bond between them is unbreakable, or so they both thought. But when birds start to disappear, cats are blamed. Pusskin and his feline friends have to band together and embark on an epic journey. Lottie wants to bring her beloved pet home. But for Pusskin to have any chance of survival, she may just have to let him go.

Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry by Mildred D Taylor

This book was published in 1977. I have started it as an eBook and am nearly halfway but because of the racial violence I keep having to take a break. This book was the February title for my online book club. I will be very late with my comments to their discussion but that's okay. 

Blurb: It’s 1933 in Mississippi. Cassie Logan lives in a loving, supportive family. Throughout her childhood she has been aware of the casual insults, routine humiliation and discrimination that are aimed at her and other black families. But it’s only now she’s getting older that she can feel the fear that dominates every decision the family makes. When tensions in the area escalate, and her family stand to lose their home, her father must find a way to fight back without using the violence that would get him hanged. Almost 70 years after slavery was abolished in the USA, prejudice and segregation still blighted the lives of many black people. In this remarkable book, readers will get just a taste of lives lived in the shadow of racism so extreme that lynching and burning perpetrated by white people on black were rarely challenged. Cassie and her family are fiercely courageous, intelligent and determined but are forced to temper their ambitions because of the constant threat from ‘white people who have to believe they are better than black people to make themselves feel big’.