cahn | (no subject)

Since you had so many great ideas for books for E to read, I am consulting you yet again! E and I went over her list of book categories tonight and there are two more categories that I need help with (and a third I want to complain about but would also welcome help with) :

-Category: vampires
-Category: book about superheroes
-Category to complain about: #1 on NYT list

As before, the categories are not super strict; her teacher is very flexible (more flexible than I am, lol); if there is any way one can reasonably argue for it, I am willing to count it. I know there have got to be offbeat vampire or superhero books I can't think of right now. (Sadly, E is not old enough to read The Dragon Waiting.)

I did go to amazon and snag a paperback of Sarah Rees Brennan's Team Human, which is apparently out of print (I... thought I read this?? But I can't find any record of it anywhere, the library doesn't have it and I don't have an e-copy or any other sort, and I remember nothing about it, so maybe not), and we have Tanith Lee's Red as Blood if it comes down to it. But there must be others, right? That might be more middle-school-ish and therefore probably make more sense to E?

Superheroes I just have no clue! ...except that I just put a library hold on How Mirka Got Her Sword for the graphic novel category; does Mirka count as a superhero? (I have never read this and am looking forward to it!)

I am also massively side-eyeing the #1 New York Times category. E has rejected rereading the Harry Potter books (even though rereading is allowed); maybe I get her a Sue Grafton book, because I went through the lists for the last ten years and to be fair I didn't look super closely, but I can't find anything besides Harry Potter that's remotely suitable except maybe Grafton. I am not giving her Jodi Picoult, for crying out loud. Any suggestions there would be very welcome, though that's harder to weasel around, I think. Maybe I should work on her Harry Potter reluctance. ETA: I live under a rock and did not know there was a middle school category?? Yay!

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From:

selenak

“The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman has one of the best vampires I’ve ever encountered in a book as the most prominent supporting character (mentor of the kid hero), and it’s one of my favourite books to rec for any age.

From:

thistleingrey

Vampires as a required category! Gosh.

For superheroes, Lisa Yee has a sequence of __ at Superhero High titles, I think MG level. Reason recently re-borrowed them from the library. Also perhaps--as options, not that E. would need all of these!--G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel titles; Gene Luen Yang's AtLA tie-ins.

NYT has a middle-grade list separate from their adult fiction, adult nonfic, and children's lists, if it'd be allowed.

From:

ambyr

Is there a reason to pick something from the NYT Adult Bestseller list instead of the NYT YA Bestseller list or the NYT Children's Bestseller list?

Also, it's an adult book, but I can't think of any reason it couldn't be read by a middle schooler, so: All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault features vampires vs. superheroes.

From:

ase

Isn't McKinley's Sunshine a vampre novel?

Is E. old enough for Stephen King? He'd had a bunch of bestsellers. Heir to the Empire hit NYT #1 for one week when it was released in 1991. There's your Star Wars nerd fact for the day.

The last "superhero" novel I read was... Not Your Sidekick, er, five years ago. Not my genre (she says, right after nerding out about Star Wars of all things).

From:

dolorosa_12

One other vampire book that might work: The Reformed Vampires' Support Group (Catherine Jinks), although I don't know how easy it will be to obtain outside Australia. There's also Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, but it's a bit more YA-ish.

From:

brainwane

NYT: does it have to be fiction? I bet, like, Michelle Obama's memoir hit #1 on the nonfiction list.

Superheroes: I believe there is an Unbeatable Squirrel Girl novel suitable for young people.

Mirka is in my opinion a hero and I am not sure whether she is a SUPERHERO precisely but maybe!

From:

brainwane

An offbeat vampire book: "The Case of the Visiting Vampire" which I read when I was a child.

From:

crystalpyramid

As kids, my sibling and I loved a Pamela F. Service book called Weirdos of the Universe Unite!, which is kind of a middle-grade American Gods. I'm not sure if gods count as superheroes, but there is the whole Loki franchise so maybe? They definitely have powers.

The Jacqueline Carey novel Santa Olivia might be too old for her, but is superhero-y and not too long. Similar feelings about Robin McKinley's Sunshine for vampires — I think I first read and adored that in high school.

It looks like Amanda Gorman's poetry books have been on the bestseller list this year. Not sure if they might work. Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer, a fantasy novel about slavery (some brutal bits but also some fantasy bits) is on the 2019 list. Andy Weir's The Martian, which I haven't read so it's probably too old. Some Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels, which I recall being quick reads and pretty fluffy? There's a novelization of Star Wars Episode I in 1999, the same year as Harry Potter. The Children of Húrin, a posthumous Tolkien novel, 320 pages, apparently made the #1 spot when it came out.

Oh the Places You'll Go!, by Dr. Seuss, is in and out of the #1 spot all through the early 90s.

I'm trying to remember if my extensive mystery novel phase was in middle school. I know I was really into Mary Higgins Clark and Agatha Christie at one point early on.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was #1 on the list for the first half of 1944. The Yearling made the list in 1938.

From:

primeideal

Probably cheating, but apparently "Oh, The Places You'll Go" reached #1 several times in the early 90s, must be a graduation present thing :D

Maybe Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson for a superhero book?

From:

hamsterwoman

For vampires, I think Team Human is a pretty good pick, actually! (I did read it, and liked it a lot.) But also seconding McKinley's Sunshine (I read it as a grown-up, but think would've enjoyed it younger, too) and excellent point about The Graveyard Book above (Silas is one of my favorite vampires also).

Re: superheroes -- seconding Not Your Sidekick. It's not great literature, but it's cute.

And I had the same question about does it have to be the NYT best sellers for fiction -- there may be more interesting/palatable nonfiction options (or children's, or YA).

From:

sophia_sol

For superheroes, the middle grade squirrel girl novels by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale are great! The first one is The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World.

From:

melannen

For superheroes I am hitting a plethora of options! Basically there are a huge number of middle-grade superhero things recently out, many very good. You've already got a lot of recs but I have to mention Secret Hero Society, which is a series of middle-grade books in which Diana Prince, Bruce Wayne, and Clark Kent go to the same middle school and make friends. It's adorable and I feel like fandom has been sleeping on it.

For vampires: "The Accursed Vampire" by Madeline McGrane, graphic novel (She posts lots of vampire comics on tumblr, they are all good; the graphic novel is an expansion of the kid vampires' story and is great, adorable, exciting, surprisingly deep.)

Edited Date: 2022-01-19 02:19 am (UTC)