Middle Grade – Readers Alley

Category: Middle Grade

Middle School Grade Fantasy Cover Reveal – The Dragon and the Girl: True North

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Middle School Grade Fantasy

Date Published: December 2, 2021

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

The last dragons in the kingdom were killed a half century ago. At least that’s what twelve-year-old Eliana has grown up hearing. Imagine her surprise when one morning in the forest she finds herself eye-to-eye with a young dragon named Winston who is just as terrified as she is. Overcoming her fear, Eliana reaches out to the shaking dragon and miraculously can understand what he is telling her just by touching his brilliant emerald green and turquoise scales. Winston says his father has been missing since the last full moon, and she vows to help. Together, they seek out the King for guidance, but upon reaching the castle they realize that short, frazzled King Halwyn has problems of his own. The kingdom’s treasure is missing and the tribute to the Overking is due in a few short weeks. If unpaid, Halwyn will lose his kingdom to the Overking’s feckless nephew. Elianna and Winston must work fast, discovering the gifts and courage within themselves to find the treasure before their kingdom falls into the wrong hands, and people and dragons perish forever.

About the Author

At six years old, Laura Findley Evans wrote her first story about a man named Brill who flew to the moon. When her teacher asked her to stand up and read it to the class, she learned just how powerful a story can be. A creative writing major in college, she has written many more short stories, some of which were published, and one that won an award. The Dragon and the Girl: Due North is her first novel. It began when her grandchildren said one night (when they were supposed to be sleeping), “Tell us a story.” And so she did. Laura would like you to know that whatever she writes must be true, whether it is real or not. She hopes you will discover the truth in this story. You can visit her online at www.LauraFindleyEvans.com.

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Instagram: @laurafindleyevans

Cover Reveal – Relatively Normal Secrets – Middle-Grade Mystery Adventure

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Middle-Grade Mystery Adventure

Release Day: September 7, 2021

Tuesday and Zed Furst are perfectly normal children with perfectly strange parents. Their father won’t discuss his job, their mother never leaves the house without her guard dog, and the topic of the family tree is off limits.

When a last minute “business trip” gets the adults out of the way, Zed and Tuesday decide to get to the bottom of things once and for all. Too bad some thugs with shape-shifting weapons have other ideas. Their escape leaves them trapped in the modern-meets-medieval Falinnheim, where everyone insists their father is a disgraced fugitive. They hope whoever is leaving them coded clues may have some answers, but they’re not sure they’re going to like what they learn.

If they ever want to see their parents again, they’ll need the help of a smuggler with a broken compass, their unusually talented dog, some extremely organized bandits, and a selection of suspiciously misquoted nursery rhymes.

Zed and Tuesday may not have all the answers, but one thing is certain—when it comes to normal, everything is relative.

About the Author

C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent.

She recently settled in the high desert of rural Utah with her husband, their three children, and a noisy flock of orphaned ideas. Someday she will create literary homes for all of them. (The ideas, not her family.)

Relatively Normal Secrets (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, Fall 2021) is her debut novel. She writes fantasy novels for tweens, picture books for children, and short stories and poems for former children. Her work will appear in numerous anthologies in 2021. She is also a frequent guest presenter at writing conferences and club meetings, which helps her procrastinate knuckling down to any actual writing

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Middle Grade Fantasy – Maya Loop by Lis Anna-Langston

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Middle Grade Fantasy

Release Date: June 26, 2021

Publisher: Mapleton Press

Get ready to meet the blue haired girl from Baltimore who saves the world.

Following maps her grandmother drew before she disappeared, Maya Loop, the brave, blue-haired girl from Baltimore, has to depend on her wits and bravery to face the alien race of Landions who have taken her grandmother and best friends to an underground world of creatures living beyond the limits of time. The Landions are not only trying to end the human race but erase them completely. A delightfully fast-paced story crackling with energy, Maya Loop meets young readers in the wide-open world of being a kid where everything feels like magic.

Praise for Maya Loop:

“Maya Loop is Alice in Wonderland meets the Wizard of Oz, with the sweet tinge of Fortnite and Percy Jackson thrown in. I loved every page.” – Linda Sands, Award winning Georgia Author of the Year

“Readers interested in a passionate journey of determination and evolving wisdom will find Maya Loop unpredictable, driven by understandable emotions and extraordinary events that lead Maya to a new form of determination and courage.” – Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Lis Anna-Langston was raised along the winding current of the Mississippi River on a steady diet of dog-eared books. She attended a Creative and Performing Arts School from middle school until graduation and went on to study Literature at Webster University. Her two novels, Gobbledy and Tupelo Honey have won the Parents’ Choice Gold, Moonbeam Book Award, Independent Press Award, Benjamin Franklin Book Award and NYC Big Book Awards. Twice nominated for the Pushcart award and Finalist in the Brighthorse Book Prize, William Faulkner Fiction Contest and Thomas Wolfe Fiction Award, her work has been published in The Literary Review, Emerson Review, The Merrimack Review, Emrys Journal, The MacGuffin, Sand Hill Review and dozens of other literary journals. She draws badly, sings loudly, loves ketchup, starry skies & stories with happy aliens.

You can find her in the wilds of South Carolina plucking stories out of thin air.

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Middle Grade Fantasy – Maya Loop by Lis Anna-Langston

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Middle Grade Fantasy

Release Date: June 26, 2021

Publisher: Mapleton Press

Get ready to meet the blue haired girl from Baltimore who saves the world.

Praise for Maya Loop:

About the Author

You can find her in the wilds of South Carolina plucking stories out of thin air.

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Middle-Grade Fantasy – The New Enchantress

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Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions, Book 3

Middle-Grade Fantasy

Published: March 15, 2021

The point of no return has come!

It’s the summer before high school and life is about to change for fourteen-year-old Alyssa McCarthy. A sorcerer hexes her with everlasting powers, requiring her to become an enchantress. If she cannot learn to control her magic pronto, she will forget her loved ones and serve as the warlock’s eternal slave.

In order to control her powers, Alyssa must gain control of her emotions. With the struggles of adolescence and disasters everywhere, catastrophes are bound to happen! It’s only a matter of time before Alyssa’s world changes, for better or worse…

Other Books in the Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions series:

The Frights of Fiji

Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions, Book One

A world of magic and adventure awaits…

Sent to live with her strict, aloof, and uncaring uncle after her parents are killed in a car accident, twelve-year-old orphan Alyssa McCarthy longs for the life she used to have—one filled with fun and love. Then one stormy night, a message appears in the raindrops on the window that will change everything.

“Your life will never be the same again, as magic will interfere.”

Before long, Alyssa is kidnapped by Master Beau, a banished sorcerer with a mysterious connection to her who can only regain his power by weakening hers. Suddenly hurled into a world of wizardry filled with fantastical beasts and marvelous technology beyond her wildest imagination, Alyssa must defeat Master Beau if she ever wants to get home again. But Master Beau will stop at nothing, including using Alyssa’s friends, to ensure he is triumphant.

Originally titled “From Frights to Flaws”, this story is the exciting and enchanting first book in the “Magical Missions” series.

Amazon

A Curse of Mayhem

Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions, Book Two

History, like magic, has a habit of repeating itself

It’s been six months since thirteen-year-old Alyssa McCarthy left magic behind for good. Or so she thought…

Then the enchanted objects that protected her disappear. Now a skeleton named Errol has cursed her with magical powers that keep getting her in trouble. Suddenly strange things are happening with disastrous effects, and if Alyssa can’t remove the magic, she will lose everything she holds dear.

In order to get rid of her unwanted wizardry, Alyssa will have to boost her bravery and confidence and determine who Errol really is. But every time Alyssa uses an enchantment, Errol is one step closer to getting his flesh back and becoming alive, and he will do anything to achieve his goals…even if it means destroying Alyssa’s happiness.

Originally published in 2016 as “Wizardry Goes Wild” and “The Unruly Curse” in 2019, “A Curse of Mayhem” is book two in the exciting and suspenseful “Magical Missions” series.

Amazon

About the Author

Sunayna Prasad enjoys writing fantasy books for children, as well as cooking, creating artwork, watching online videos, and blogging. She has also written The Frights of Fiji, and A Curse of Mayhem and is constantly creating and brainstorming new ideas.

Sunayna also loves cartoons, traveling, and thinking outside the box.

She lives in New York.

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Middle Grade Fantasy – Mariposa Mysteries Trilogy

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Middle Grade Fantasy

Date Published: March 2021

A trilogy of fast-paced coming-of-age adventure stories, full of magic and strange paranormal events. With unforgettable scenes, inspired characters, and fun story lines, here’s a wonderfully entertaining fantasy read for kids of all ages!

Book One: Watch What You Wish For

Book Two: Magic and Mischief in Mariposa

Book Three: The Wizard Wannabe

Excerpt

(From Book One: Watch What You Wish For)

I gazed in disbelief at the desolation. The town looked forlorn, forbidding, forsaken. Graffiti everywhere. Store windows looking like they hadn’t been washed in years. Signs leaning crookedly into the wind; the occasional beer can clattering along the gutters. Not a single patch of grass to be seen; not a flower or a tree to relieve the monotony. What few passers-by there were hurried along with their heads down, deliberately avoiding eye contact. They looked miserable, angry, and most decidedly unfriendly.

It was hard to believe that our once-thriving town had undergone such a transformation in just a couple of hours. Only this morning, the tree-lined main street had bustled with locals and tourists. Even though it was October and the weather was getting cooler with the approach of winter, colourful hanging baskets adorned the streets and people gossiped cheerfully as they sipped coffee on the patios. Store fronts gleamed, while not a single piece of garbage littered the street. And even if it had, you can guarantee some concerned citizen would have immediately whisked it up and deposited it in the nearest garbage can.

But that’s Mariposa for you – everyone being so neighbourly and helpful.

Until now, that is. On a normal day, you wouldn’t be able to walk a block before being greeted with enough ‘good mornings’ and ‘how’re you doings’ to last you a lifetime. Being from the city, it’s something I could never get used to. But now I think I’ve changed my mind about that.

Besides the condition of the town, my seventh grade teacher, Ms. Nightingale, had vanished off the face of the earth. Along with our poor old neighbour Mrs. Clutterbuck. Not only were they both missing, apparently they had never even existed!

And the worst part of all? This was ALL my fault!

About The Author

After teaching middle school for 25 years, Val is now retired but still stuck in that mindset, particularly when it comes to storytelling in the fantasy genre. Stories of evil spirits, wizards and ghosts are constantly running around in her head, which can be somewhat of an interference when she’s working at her other job: serious copywriting gigs for grownups. Based in Ontario, Canada, Val is a truly awful cook and a voracious reader. Find out more at valerieannehudson.com.

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Middle Grade Mystery – The Problem at Wisteria Gardens

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A Pekin Dewlap Mystery

Middle Grade Mystery

Date Published: 3/9/21

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

The ghost haunting Wisteria Gardens Antiques appears to be a charming and loving mother who can’t stand the thought of being separated from her son.

But appearances can be deceiving.

The Ghosties are moved by her expression of devotion, until they discover the truth. Her attachment to the real world has nothing to do with love.

As the teen ghost hunters struggle with the case, Althea’s determination to stay threatens their very lives. Will Pekin, Scout, and Amber convince the ghost to move on before it’s too late?

About The Author

Pam got a late start in writing, but has made up for it with several published novels and at least one more on the way. A serendipitous conversation with a writer friend launched her literary career, and the fact that she might never have had that particular conversation is enough to make her believe that fate played a hand in sending her down her best path. She’s lived in Southern California most of her life and is thankful to have a loving family and supportive friends. Spending time at home during the COVID pandemic has advanced both Pam’s writing and her relationship with her My Cat From Hell TV star, Allie, who manages to exude just enough affection to make her scary feral ways tolerable.

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