8 Great New Middle Grade Action & Adventure Stories!

Malamander, by Thomas Taylor
The town of Eerie-on-Sea is haunted by legends of the Malamander, a monstrous sea creature. Two orphans, Herbie, keeper of the Lost and Found office of the Grand Nautilus hotel, and Violet, whose parents disappeared on the town’s beach years ago, join forces to find out what really happened to them. This quest throws the kids into in a race to find the Malamander’s (possibly) magical egg, before a sinister enemy beats them to it. The Malamander (naturally) does not want anyone to find the egg, and so things get more than a little dangerous…If you enjoy towns that are slightly whacky, plucky orphan children facing down bad adults, and scary sea monster stories, you’ll love this one! If you enjoy cheering for hunted monsters, you’ll love it even more!

The Battle, by Karuna Riazi
The adventure begun in The Gauntlet continues in an expanded game world full of even more exciting fun and danger! Four years after Ahmad Mirza was sucked into a game that became real, a state-of-the-art video game arrives in the mail. It sucks Ahmad and his classmate Winnie into it…and the two of them must overcome the challenges set up by the game’s architect, before confronting an even more powerful opponent in an epic showdown to save the world itself! It’s a wild and crazy world they are in, full of marvelous, malevolent, magnificent settings, creatures, puzzles, and traps. Young readers may well find the kids’ adventures (high jacking flying cars, fighting off zombie monkeys, escaping deadly traps, and more) and their growing friendship even more fun than actually playing video games!

The Little Grey Girl, by Celine Kiernan
Imagine your grandmother was an evil witch queen in a magical land, until your mom defeated her. And then imagine your family moves from the ordinary world to the magical one, and now grandma’s castle, with its horrible dungeons and the restless ghosts of people she tortured, is your new house. This is what has happened to Mup. One of the ghosts, a little girl, seems to hate Mup in particular, and is filling the castle with overwhelming grief. Mup and her best friend, a shapeshifting boy called Crow, set out to stop the little ghost girl from trapping them all in despair. This sequel to Begone the Raggedy Witches is about what happens after wickedness has been driven away, and how the act of remembering can be a way forward. It’s moving and thought-provoking with enough intriguing magic to keep it from being too grim.

The Green Children of Woolpit, by J. Anderson Coats
Agnes is a peasant girl in 12th century England. She’s a daydreamer who can see the wind, and because she’s not like the other girls, she’s the only one to hear the call for help from two green children trapped in the bottom of an old pit. Though the green boy and girl are safely rescued, their arrival plunges Agnes into a nightmare. They have come from the underground halls of the Good People, the fairies, and they are not friendly. While the green girl tries to take her place in her family using fairy magic, Agnes is trapped in the underground halls of the malevolent Good People. She must undo the bargain ensnaring her, but it is a very tricky business to try to outsmart the fairies. It’s top notch historical fantasy, with lots of shuddery horror and magic.

The Bookwanderers, by Anna James
Tilly’s used to getting lost in books, and living in her grandparents’ bookshop means there’s plenty for her to read. When Tilly discovers she has the family talent for actually entering books, she is thrilled to make friends with Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland. Knowing her mother also was a book wanderer, Tilly tries to find clues to her disappearance years ago by searching in the books she left behind. But a strange and sinister member of the librarian team who overseas book wandering seems to be working against her, and Tilly finds that there are reasons why he doesn’t want her to find her mother, or even to exist at all. It’s a delightful adventure, full of bookish mystery and magic, that will enchant all young bibliophiles.

Legacy and the Queen, by Annie Matthew (created by Kobe Bryant)
In a world where tennis champions become members of the political elite, a girl from a poor, rural era dreams of becoming a tennis star in the big city. Legacy practices every day with her old wooden racquet, and when the call goes out for newcomers to compete for a chance to enter the great tennis school, and train for the national tournament, she answers it. But the best young competitors aren’t just great at the game; they have magical talents as well, like making the ground shake, or raising a cloud of darkness. Legacy’s tennis playing gets her to the academy, where she must unlock her own magic in order to win the big prize. But the system is rigged against her for the start, and it’s not just the other kids who want her to lose. Young tennis players love this, and so will anyone who enjoys magic mixed with a great underdog story!

The Key of Lost Things, by Sean Easley
In The Hotel Between, Cam found a world of magic, and a job as concierge-in-training at a marvelous hotel. He also found an enemy determined to seize the power of the hotel and all the other magical place to which it is linked. Now Cam is struggling to learn how to care for the hotel, and how to let his sister live her own life, and neither is going well. The enemy was foiled, but not defeated, at the end of the first book, and now his blight is threatening to destroy all that Cam holds dear. In a race against time, Cam must figure out his enemy’s plans, and how to fight back, while trying to keep the hotel going. It’s a tremendously exciting adventure, full of magical excursions and adventures, and a whole host of great characters!

Hearts of Ice, by Adi Rule
Evangeline has no friends. Her mother keeps her isolated, and they’re constantly moving. Then she wakes one morning to find her room full of snow and a message written in frost on her mirror—“help.” The message comes from a twin sister Evangeline never knew she had, and she plunges through the glass to find her. In the snowy world on the other side, Evangeline finds she’s the daughter of a tyrannical king, and that her sister is missing. Can she learn how to use the magical powers waking in her to save not just herself and her sister, but the whole kingdom? It’s a gripping journey through a cold and magical realm full of danger and treachery, a place of unlikely friends and the answers to all Evangeline’s questions about herself and her family. A must-read for fans of brave girls finding themselves and saving the day!