Chapter Books for Grades Middle Grades

Disclosure: I was sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday I did a mega review of books for gift ideas for all ages. They included crafts and non-fiction books. Today I thought I would share some books and a CD for the middle grades. Next week we will be sharing chapter books for older kids as well. 

Our first book is Wishapick: Tickety Book and the Black Trunk by M.M. Allen. Now a few weeks ago I cohosted in a giveaway introducing this book and its CD of the music from the new musical being released. Hazel and I had not finished reading the book at that point, but now we have and I have to say we love it!! The story itself is a bit of a fantasy. It reminds me of Narnia a bit. The kids enter Wishapick through the black trunk but go in separately and discover a world where the animals act like humans and live in darkness because of an angry snake king. The kids find their own strengths, magic and love to help the animals restore the light. It is a wonderful tale and I know we both enjoyed it and couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Of course it was even more interesting because we listened to the entire CD before we finished the book. We wanted to know who was singing each song and after finishing the book we could relate the songs to the various parts of the book.

This is a must read for anyone who loved Narnia!! Personally I hope to see the musical. I imagine it will be amazing! We love listening to the music and often are singing it as well. 

Our next book is one of Amazon's Top 20 Children's Books of 2017 and New York Times Bestseller as well as many other awards! It is Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. This book tells a tale of acceptance and friendship.The narrator is a red oak tree. Did you know trees talk? They just don't talk to humans usually. This is such a timely story about the mixed feelings towards groups like Muslims. The feelings in this book are amazing. I can see why it won so many awards The humor and imagination in the story makes it fun to read and the message is so important. This is a must read book. There is no other way to describe this book. 


Our final two books are part of the Girls Who Code series. We loved the first ones and shared them here. 

The second Girls Who Code novel is Team BFF: Race to the Finish! by Stacia Deustch. This book is told by Sophie. The first book was told by Lucy. However it is a continuation of the first book. The hackathon is quickly approaching and the girls are planning for their robot, but life and family gets in Sophie's way. Will she let her friends down? 

I love how these stories are about friendships as well as coding. They are multicultural and about life. Sophie is stuck taking care of her younger sisters. Her parents are super busy and on the go. There are all sorts of issues that come up and Sophie discovers her world is falling apart and now she may disqualify her whole team. These books are suck amazing stories for girls. The girls are strong and yet regular kids. The book deals with relationships, friendships and family as well as the excitement of coding. 

To go along with the novel is Code It! Create It! by Sarah Hunt and illustrated by Breanna Vaughn. This is an interactive journal for girls to get ideas and be inspired in coding projects. It asks questions and has space for girls to be creative and get inspired with ideas for coding. It is a place to write ones dreams for coding. What do you want to create? It helps if the girl has some knowledge of coding, but there is some information in the journal as well. There are pages of secret codes, information about historical women in the computer fields (Ada Lovelace, Grace Murray Hopper, and Katherine Johnson), things to begin working with a partner and so much more! It is full of ideas, pages to write and aids to help organize your ideas. 

I hope you will check out these great books for the middle grades (3-6).