I only read 14 middle grade fantasy/scince fiction books this year. So these are the best of those I read.
Published in 2021:
- Once Upon a Camel by Kathi Appelt. My favorite middle grade fiction book of 2021.
- The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo. My second favorite. At the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, covered in dirt and blood, and holding on to the ear of Answelica the goat. (Answelica is the stubborn star of the book.) It turns out that the king’s men are searching for Beatryce, but Beatryce doesn’t remember who she is or why the king wants to capture her. Can she elude the search long enough to recover her own story?
- Stowaway by John David Anderson. A little bit Star Wars and a little bit Ender’s Game or even Dune, Stowaway takes space opera into the middle grade fiction genre and does it well. When Leo is separated from his father and his older brother and lost in space with a bunch of space pirates, he truly doesn’t know whom to trust. But he’s determined to find his father who has been kidnapped (maybe?) by the enemy Djarik soldiers. Can he trust the pirates to help him? Are the Aykari, Earth’s allies in the universal war to control the valuable mineral ventasium, even trustworthy? Can Leo be smart enough to get to his father beforetime runs out, and can he find his brother, too?
- Children of the Fox by Kevin Sands. First book in a projected series.
- The Accidental Apprentice (Wilderlore) by Amanda Foody. Also the first in a series.
Published before 2021:
- Kneeknock Rise by Natalie Babbit. Classic fantasy by the author of Tuck Everlasting.