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	<title>Great Books for Children &#187; Friendship Stories</title>
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		<title>Fun Middle Grade: The Hop by Sharelle Byars Moranville</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/908/fun-middle-grade-the-hop-by-sharelle-byars-moranville?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=fun-middle-grade-the-hop-by-sharelle-byars-moranville</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/908/fun-middle-grade-the-hop-by-sharelle-byars-moranville#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2012 07:28:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[charlotte's web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Disney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fairy tale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hoot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[middle grade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moranville]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=908</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Take Charlotte&#8217;s Web, Carl Hiassen&#8217;s Hoot, and toss in a dash of The Frog Prince, and what do you get?  The charming middle grade novel The Hop (Disney Hyperion 2012) by Sharelle Byars Moranville. The story begins with young Tad the toad:  &#8220;The loamy tunnel had fallen around Tad during the long night of winter and padded him like a brown blanket.  But now the earth was stirring.  And even three feet down, the young hopper felt it.  Maybe it was the footsteps of people in the garden, or the deep, seepy drip of warm rain.  Maybe it was the chorus of spring peepers.&#8221; But Tad&#8217;s winter slumber has been troubled by strange dreams, dreams that foretell the potential doom of his home, Toadville-by-Tumbledown.  He learns he must kiss the Queen of the Hop in order to save his home and his people.  But how can he find this Queen?  (Tad reminds me a bit of Frodo&#8211;humble, fearful of the big wide world, and destined to go on a perilous quest.) Enter Taylor, a girl who&#8217;s life has been turned upside down by her grandma&#8217;s chemotherapy and by the sale of the pond and acreage next to her grandma&#8217;s house.  Gone are her regular afternoons at grandma&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Apothecary by Maile Meloy &#8211; Harry Potter with a Cold War Twist</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/891/the-apothecary-by-maile-meloy-harry-potter-with-a-cold-war-twist?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-apothecary-by-maile-meloy-harry-potter-with-a-cold-war-twist</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/891/the-apothecary-by-maile-meloy-harry-potter-with-a-cold-war-twist#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Action/Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science Fiction/Fantasy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Add new tag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cold War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fantasy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harry Potter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade fiction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=891</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Maile Meloy&#8217;s (pronounced MY-lee like Miley Cyrus) middle-grade novel The Apothecary is a bit like Harry Potter meets the pharmacy meets the Cold War.  Instead of wizards and spells you have apothecaries and magical elixirs, and instead of evil Voldemort you have governments bent on nuclear domination. The year is 1952.  The place is London.  Janie Scott has been forced to move from Los Angeles with her screenwriter parents who have been blacklisted.  Soon she meets and makes friend with the daring and adventurous Benjamin Burrows, a classmate who is practicing his espionage skills in the hopes of one-day being a spy for Great Britain.  Heaven knows, he&#8217;d never like to be like his dull apothecary father who runs a boring pharmacy that has been in the family for generations. But boring old dad isn&#8217;t just a pharmacist&#8211;he&#8217;s a chemist, a scientist with an ancient book called the Pharmacopoeia that is full of directions for elixirs, potions, and chemical reactions.   Benjamin&#8217;s father is also involved in a plot to save the world from the devastating effects of the atom bomb.  Soon Janie and Benjamin are running from Russian spies, double-agents, and truancy officers as they race to save Benjamin&#8217;s father and prevent nuclear disaster.  The Apothecary is [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hilarious Middle Grade &#8211; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleburger</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/810/hilarious-middle-grade-the-strange-case-of-origami-yoda-by-tom-angleburger?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hilarious-middle-grade-the-strange-case-of-origami-yoda-by-tom-angleburger</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/810/hilarious-middle-grade-the-strange-case-of-origami-yoda-by-tom-angleburger#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:28:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angleberger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friendship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kindgom Keepers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[middle grade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[middle school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[origami]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Star Wars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yoda]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=810</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Who is the sage of the universe?  Who can you go to for wisdom when all around you is confusion?  Who can you trust?  Yoda, of course.  Tommy knows it, and his fellow sixth graders know it.  Maybe Yoda appears as an origami puppet on the finger of uber-nerd Dwight, maybe Yoda talks in a weird voice that is the worst Yoda impression ever, maybe Dwight isn&#8217;t channeling the Force, whatever.  The point is, Yoda&#8217;s advice works.  Is Origami Yoda real?  Read The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and find out!  P.S.  Directions for making your own Origami Yoda are included. Great book!  Truly LOL in spots.  High schooler, middle schooler, spouse, and I all had fun with this book.  Secretly the adults might have enjoyed it the most because we&#8217;re the furthest from the traumas of middle school]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Abby Carnelia&#8217;s One &amp; Only Magical Power</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/755/abby-carnelias-one-only-magical-power?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=abby-carnelias-one-only-magical-power</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/755/abby-carnelias-one-only-magical-power#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:12:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Action/Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle Grade]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=755</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wouldn’t it be awesome to discover you had magical powers?  Like Harry Potter—one day living a completely normal, nothing special kind of life, and the next day—poof!  Off to Hogwarts. That’s exactly what happens to eleven-year old Abby Carnelia in Abby Carnelia’s One and Only Magical Power, a middle-grade novel by David Pogue (Roaring Brook Press, 2010).  It’s another regular old evening helping mom make chef salad for dinner. Abby happens to pull her earlobes at the exact second she looks at a hard-boiled egg, and—poof!  She discovers she has a magical power. What is it?  Super-strength?  Super-speed?  Invisibility?  Not eggs-actly.  Abby Carnelia’s one and only magical power is . . . she can make an egg spin.  Yep, that’s it. That’s her magical power.  She can make an egg spin. Only if it’s hard-boiled.  Only if she’s looking at it.  Only if she’s tugging on her earlobes at the same time.  Huh?!  What kind of a super power is that?   Ok, so Abby thinks it’s pretty weird too.  “Confused and just a little bit freaked out,” Abby says nothing to her family.  They think she’s learned some really cool magic trick, and Abby’s not about to let them in on [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Abigail Iris: The One and Only</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/714/abigail-iris-the-one-and-only?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=abigail-iris-the-one-and-only</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/714/abigail-iris-the-one-and-only#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:31:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School Stories]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=714</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you ever wished you were an only child?  No annoying brother or sister.  Parents all to yourself.  Your own room and fantastic presents and giant birthday parties and fancy vacations and maybe even a pony (ok, maybe not the pony) . . .  Abigail Iris has four kids in her family, schoolteacher parents that are always on a budget, and the same spring break camping trip to the same campsite with the family crammed in the same tent&#8211;year after year.  If only Abigail Iris was an &#8220;Only&#8221;&#8211;like her three best friends. When eight-year-old Abigail Iris gets invited to vacation with &#8220;Only&#8221; friend Genevieve and parents, she jumps at the chance.  A fancy hotel, expensive restaurants, room service, lots of shopping.  How exotic. But is being an Only really as wonderful as Abigail Iris imagines?  Abigail Iris: The One and Only, written by Lisa Glatt &#38; Suzanne Greenberg and illustrated by Joy Allen (Walker &#38; Co., 2009), is a happy, light-hearted look at friends and family life (the cover illustration captures Abigail Iris&#8217; spirit).  If you enjoy the literary heroines Amber Brown and Clementine, you&#8217;re sure to like Abigail Iris.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Imaginary Friends:  Lissy&#8217;s Friends by Grace Lin</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/701/imaginary-friends-lissys-friends-by-grace-lin?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=imaginary-friends-lissys-friends-by-grace-lin</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/701/imaginary-friends-lissys-friends-by-grace-lin#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:25:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Picture Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School Stories]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=701</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What do you do if you&#8217;re the new girl at school and no one smiles at you or talks to you or sits by you at lunch?  Well, if you&#8217;re Lissy, you make a friend.  You make an origami crane to be your new friend at your new school. Author/illustrator Grace Lin uses wonderfully vibrant patterns and colors to tell the story Lissy&#8217;s Friends (Viking 2007).  As the new girl, Lissy hasn&#8217;t made friends yet, so she makes a paper crane to be her friend.  After school Lissy&#8217;s mother asks her, &#8220;Did you make any friends in school today?&#8221;  She answers, &#8220;Well . . . I did make one friend.&#8221;  Lissy makes herself more and more origami animals.  Soon she has a whole flock of origami friends.  And these paper friends keep her company and help her . . . until she can make people friends of her own.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Nancy Drew for the Younger Set: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/697/nancy-drew-for-the-younger-set-nancy-drew-and-the-clue-crew?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=nancy-drew-for-the-younger-set-nancy-drew-and-the-clue-crew</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/697/nancy-drew-for-the-younger-set-nancy-drew-and-the-clue-crew#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 May 2010 01:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Action/Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School Stories]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=697</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a girl, I read every Nancy Drew mystery written.  A few years later, I graduated to Agatha Christie.  Recently I ran across the book Nancy Drew and Clue Crew #1:  Sleepover Sleuths (Simon and Schuster, 2006).  I was surprised to see the author as Carolyn Keene since the original Carolyn Keene (a pseudonym for Mildred Wert Benson) died in 2002.   A google search led me to this Fantastic Fiction link by a UK bookstore that shows just how many Nancy Drew spin-offs there are.  I don&#8217;t know if their list is exhaustive, but it blew me away.  Graphic novels, early chapter books, teen romances, Nancy teaming up with the Hardy Boys&#8211;Nancy really gets around.  According to the BBC, &#8220;When [the author] attended the first Nancy Drew convention in 1993, she was reported to have told a friend: &#8216;I&#8217;m so sick of Nancy Drew I could vomit.&#8217;&#8221;  After seeing all the Nancy books on the Fantastic Fiction website, I can see why. Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew is a series for the same set that reads the A to Z Mystery or Magic Tree House series.  In Book #1, Sleepover Sleuths, eight-year old Nancy and her two chums solve the mystery of &#8220;Who took Deirdre&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>G.P. Taylor&#8217;s Graphic Novel:   The Doppleganger Chronicles</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/680/g-p-taylors-graphic-novel-the-doppleganger-chronicles?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=g-p-taylors-graphic-novel-the-doppleganger-chronicles</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/680/g-p-taylors-graphic-novel-the-doppleganger-chronicles#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:57:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Action/Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=680</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ll be honest.  I got this book exclusively based on the teaser quotes on the back cover:  &#8220;The new C.S. Lewis&#8221; and &#8220;Hotter than Potter.&#8221;  Wow! I thought.  The first book in The Doppleganger Chronicles, The First Escape (Tyndale Press, 2008) introduces us to the Dopple twins, Saskia and Sadie, who have been abandoned at Isambard Dunstan&#8217;s School for Wayward Children.  Although their mother said she would return, the twins are now fourteen and she hasn&#8217;t returned.  Still they have each other to rely on.  That is, until the wealthy writer Muzz Elliott adopts Saskia . . . but not Sadie.   As Sadie joins forces with Erik Morissey Ganger (janitor and former orphan himself) in a scheme to reunite with her sister, twin Saskie unwittingly becomes embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy plot.  Soon all three are running for their lives.  The tone of this book has a retro-Victorian feel akin to Lemony Snicket&#8217;s A Series of Unfortunate Events.  However, this book is quite different in that it is illustrated like a graphic novel with Asian-inspired manga-style art.  Tyndale Press  calls these books &#8220;illustra-novellas&#8211;a new kind of book designed to enhance the reading experience for a visually oriented generation of kids, especially reluctant readers.&#8221;  [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>A Modern Time Wrinkle: Rebecca Stead&#8217;s When You Reach Me</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/541/a-modern-time-wrinkle-rebecca-steads-when-you-reach-me?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-modern-time-wrinkle-rebecca-steads-when-you-reach-me</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/541/a-modern-time-wrinkle-rebecca-steads-when-you-reach-me#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:36:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Newbery Medal Winners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science Fiction/Fantasy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=541</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ I first heard about Rebecca Stead&#8217;s When You Reach Me (Random House 2009) from a  book editor who said, &#8220;There is so much buzz about this book, I think it might win the Newbery.&#8221;  Set in the 70&#8242;s in New York City, the story centers on sixth grade Miranda and her best friend Sal.  Miranda (a girl) and Sal (a boy) live in the same apartment complex, both are from single-mom families, and they&#8217;ve been best friends forever.  Then one day Sal gets punched in the face by a random kid on the street, and suddenly Sal wants nothing to do with Miranda.  Miranda&#8217;s on her own and has to learn how to make new friends and fit in.  There is so much going on in this novel I hardly know where to start.  It&#8217;s a coming of age story, it&#8217;s a story about mother/daughter relationships, it&#8217;s a story about friendship.  But it&#8217;s also a mystery with unexplainable, unsigned letters, a missing apartment key, and a crazy homeless guy on the corner, all wrapped up with a sci-fi twist a la Madeleine L&#8217;Engle&#8217;s A Wrinkle in Time. When You Reach Me has a bit of a retro feel, kind of like the 70&#8242;s style t-shirts I [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Twins and Time Travel:  The Magic Half by Annie Barrows</title>
		<link>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/618/twins-and-time-travel-the-magic-half-by-annie-barrows?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=twins-and-time-travel-the-magic-half-by-annie-barrows</link>
		<comments>http://greatbooksforchildren.com/618/twins-and-time-travel-the-magic-half-by-annie-barrows#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:41:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Smoore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Action/Adventure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Friendship Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science Fiction/Fantasy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://greatbooksforchildren.com/?p=618</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you&#8217;re a sister sandwiched between two sets of twins, you pretty much get ignored.  It&#8217;s the twins everyone finds interesting, they&#8217;re the novelty&#8211;you&#8217;re just an extra.  At least that&#8217;s how Miri feels in The Magic Half (Bloomsbury, 2008).  This middle grade novel by Annie Barrows weaves a story of family and friendship with a unique time travel twist (and a surprise ending to boot).   When Miri&#8217;s family moves to a new house, Miri has no one to hang out with.  Older brothers Ray and Robbie, and younger sisters Nell and Nora, all have built-in friends, their twin.  Mom and dad are swamped with work and unpacking.  So Miri, a girl with &#8221;a dazzling imaginative capacity&#8221;  is on her own.    Soon Miri finds herself in trouble.  She hits her brother with a shovel and gets sent to her room.  Miri&#8217;s old, quirky bedroom with its ugly orange and purple wallpaper was once part of the attic.  Miri explores the room and discovers a small piece of pinkish glass. As Miri looks through the glass, the room seems &#8220;to bend and collapse in the middle, as though the center of the house were being sucked into a whirlpool.&#8221;  Miri has been transported to 1935.  She&#8217;s in the same bedroom, but it looks completely [...]]]></description>
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