Baker’s Dozen: The Best Middle Grade Fiction I Read in 2015

1. Mennyms Under Siege by Sylvia Waugh. Greenwillow, 1996. This doll story is not a new book, and it won’t appeal to all readers, even those who like stories of dolls and the creatures living hidden lives alongside human beings (The Borrowers? The Doll People series by Ann Martin?). Mennyms Under Siege is much darker and more philosophical than most doll books, and its concern with the themes of death and thwarted love and over-protection feels almost young adult rather than middle grade. Anyway, it’s a good book, and I look forward to reading the first two books in the series and the last two.

2. I Don’t Know How the Story Ends by J.B. Cheaney. (2015)

3. Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff. (2015)

4. Down Ryton Water by Eva Roe Gaggin. Another oldie, published in 1941, and winner of a Newbery honor in 1942.

5. Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley. (2015)

6. Twelve Bright Trumpets by Margaret Leighton.

7. The Cottage in the Woods by Katherine Coville. (2015)

8. The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall. (2015)

9. The Green Ember by S.D. Smith. (2015) Rabbits with swords, and very popular in my library and among homeschoolers that I know.

10. Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.

11. Mikis and the Donkey by Bib Dumon Tak. (2015)

12. Walking Home by Eric Walters. (2015)

13. Take Wing by Jean Little.

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