Fun Middle-Grade Reads for Winter Break: Library Girl, The Long Way Around, and We Do Not Welcome Our 10-Year-Old Overlord

Library Girl is the whimsical story of a girl finding a home while her adoring caretakers find true love.

Library Girl by Polly Horvath. Holiday House (Margaret Ferguson Books), 2024, 245 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 8-14

The four librarians are just going about their business one day when they hear a cry from the library stacks. It’s an abandoned baby girl, of all things, and all four heartstrings immediately thrum. Doris, Lucinda, Jeanne-Marie, and Taisha are spinsters, though not by choice, each carrying her own heartache about being single and childless. Without seriously thinking it through, they unofficially adopt the baby, name her Essie (short for Esmerelda) and work out an arrangement for raising her right there in the library. It works—sort of. Their boss Mr. Fellowes is deathly afraid of rocking any boats, so if he suspects anything he says nothing.

Essie happily grows up amid the stacks while her four “mothers” take turns feeding her and staying with her at night. But this state of affairs is bound to come to an end as Essie grows up and becomes more aware of her peculiar circumstances. Three events bring matters to a head. one, Essie meets G.E., a boy her own age, and the two form an immediate, though combative, relationship. Two, the boy appears to have four dads—what a coincidence!—and they are all single. Three, a new supervisor arrives on the library scene, and Ms. Matterhorn is an absolute terror with suspicions.

Can Essie keep her origins hidden, unravel the mystery of G.E., and play matchmaker with her beloved caretakers? The story, though far-fetched, is positive about marriage and children, gently humorous, and often charming, though marred by four misuses of God’s name (which can be easily skipped if reading aloud).

Bottom Line: A quirky and sweet tale of lost identities and found love.

In We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord, four children encounter and alien being whose intentions are unclear.

We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix. Scholastic, 2024, 221 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grade, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-14

Four kids bike down to the lake as they usually did in the evening: Kim Basalt and his younger sister Eila, with Kim’s friend Bennie and Bennie’s sister Mader. The older kids kept their distance from the younger: “For Kim, it was a break from having Eila always know more about everything than he did,” while Mader worshipped Eila and Bennie enjoyed not having to look after her sister. This comfortable arrangement comes to an end when Eila suddenly plunges into the lake to rescue what appears at first to be a human head. Not that, of course, but something more like a basketball. That glows. And as soon as Kim touches it, the object sends a jolt through him, along with the unpleasant sensation that something wants to meddle with his brain.

Eila, the brainy one, has no such qualms. She even takes the globe home with her and establishes a connection with it—or rather, she. Aster by name. Aster, Eila assures everyone, wants to learn about earth and its people, so she can help them. And Aster does appear to help by healing a neighbor and mending the rocky relationship of Bennie’s parents. It’s the how that’s a problem: “I don’t think you should be doing things to people if they don’t know about it,” Kim insists, but Eila is the smart one. Insufferably smart, and just possibly wrong. Could Kim, so used to playing second fiddle, actually be right for a change?

The cover is a bit creepy and the premise could be quite terrifying, but Nix scales down the scary potential in a way appropriate for the reading age. And comes to a conclusion that’s almost cozy.

Bottom Line: Suspenseful and thoughtful, but not heavy–younger sci-fi fans will eat it up

The Long Way Around by Anne Nesbet. Candlewick, 2024, 238 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 8-14

Vivian, age 12, is thrilled about the upcoming camping trip with her mom, her younger sister Amy, her cousin Owen, and her Uncle Mike (Owen’s dad). The two grownups are siblings and enthusiastic campers, with fond hopes of recreating some of their childhood adventures in the Cascades. This year, after careful consideration, they’re allowing the kids to camp by themselves one valley over from the home base. Vivian, the adventurous one, is beyond excited. Owen is the cautious, meticulous one, and Amy, age 8, is just going along for the ride though she’d rather stay home and make up stories with her bestie. It’s small compensation to take her favorite stuffie along.

The first night of all-kid camping is idyllic–until a rumbling and tumbling shakes them awake. An earthquake has blocked the pass that separates them from the parents, and they narrowly missed being smashed by loose-cannon boulders. After coming to grips with their situation Vivian takes charge, pinning their hopes on a little-used trail Uncle Mike told her about. It’s on the map but will take days to get back to a ranger station: the long way around. The next few days will uncover secret fears and sorrows, as well as unexpected reserves of resilience and initiative.

The real dangers the kids face seem underplayed in the narrative, especially where a certain solicitous bear is concerned. But Nesbet’s sparkling style makes up for gaps in realism. Here’s Owen near the end of their ordeal: “The mountain sage, bruised by all those little hailstones, filled the air with the most amazing herby sweetness . . . there was no wall or curtain between him and the world—just, for that moment, life.” Even non-campers can inhale some of that sweetness in these pages.

Bottom line: An absorbing, exceptionally well-written adventure that gently probes human sorrows and fears.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

Reviews: Other books by Nesbet, Nix, and Horvath include Newt’s Emerald, Frogkisser!, Darling Darleen, Queen of the Screen, The Orphan Band of Springdale, and Mr. and Mrs. Bunny: Detectives Extrordinare.

Resource: Betsy rounds up some Popular Middle-grade Series fiction.

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