My favorite middle grade books of 2022

 In 2022, I  had my 4th worst reading year, number-wise, since I started keeping track back in 2012, with 292 books read.  I faltered during the fall, as is so often the case, when I realized that the windows weren't going to glaze themselves, nor the house paint itself, or the wood magically be cut, split and stacked by good fairies....but still, there was lots of good reading, and at no point did I think "Charlotte, you may run out of things to read."  It was more like "this is getting out of hand please for the love of all that is holy, Charlotte, read down your tbr heaps and maybe stop going to library book sales?"  I did not stop going to library book sales, and I will not run out of books in 2023 (I have set my Goodreads goal at 500 as is my wont, just to show a willing and hopeful reading spirit to myself; I am currently 2 books ahead of schedule yay me.)

In any event, here are my favorite middle grade books of the year, some new, some vintage. (links go to my reviews, if applicable, or to Goodreads). 

Of course, if you are a regular reader, you know that a lot of what I read is middle grade fantasy/sci fi, and you probably also know that I was a panelist for the elementary/middle grade speculative fiction category of the Cybils Awards.  I loved all the books that me and my fellow panelists shortlisted, and those automatically count as favorites of the year, but there were others that would have made the list if it were just me doing the nominating and the picking the shortlist.

My top four:

The Shelterlings, by Sarah Beth Durst

Ravenfall, by Kalyn Josephson

A Taste of Magic, by J. Elle

The Secret of the Shadow Beasts, by Diane Magras 

I also very much enjoyed The Fire Star, by J.L. Tait, Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, by Nick Brooks, and The Prince of Nowhere, by Rochelle Hassan

On the vintage side of things (mostly for me this means mid-20th century books marketed to girls), there were fewer books I loved.

My top two were Gone Away, a lovely half school story, half ghost story by Ruth Tomalin, by Ruth Tomalin, and The Level Land (Holland at the outbreak of WW II), by Dola de Jong, and am deeply sad that the sequel, Return the Level Land, isn't available anywhere at any price.

Two that aren't all time favorites, but which most pleasantly surprised me. were A Tune for the Towpath, by Jane Flory, about a 19th-century girl whose father is a canal lock-keeper (it's first vintage canal mg book I can remember liking lots; generally "historic canal fiction" as a category does not appeal) and Run Sheep Run, which has an unappealing name and a worse cover, but is a nice malt-shop type adjacent story in which the high school girl's happy ending isn't a boy but the prospect of a career as a marine biology illustrator (marine biology illustration appeals, so if you know of other mg/ya books where the main character does this, let me know).

Though their books don't make my best of list for 2022, I have hopes for the two new authors I am not collecting -- Frieda Freedman (I've now acquired Sundays with Judy and Dot for Short, both nice comfort reads), and Meta Mayne Reid (The Glen Beyond the Door).

And finally a bonus award for the 2002 best middle grade house ("house" is a category that appeals to me lots) in a book--The House of the Swan, by Elizabeth Coatsworth |--a lovely historic house in France carved into limestone. The house is unfortunately the best part of an otherwise mediocre book, but it is a really, really neat house!

For 2023, I will of course keep on reading and reviewing middle grade spec fic, but I think I might start reviewing more of the vintage books I read; I do review vintage time travel, and those are my most visited posts.  I can't think of any blogs that regular review vintage middle grade....if you know of any, let me know.

Happy reading to us all, and may we have good luck at the library booksales!