Middle Grade Must Reads – July 2025 (Part Two)
The Boy Whose Wishes Came True
- Written by Helen Ritter
- Published by Scholastic
I loved The boy who made everyone laugh so much that it has become a class read at school. So I knew if was going to love this one.
Archie Crumb is having a tough time. Picked-on at school, picked last for any team; his home has been sad and quiet since Dad left and his luck feels like its run out.
But things start looking up when Archie bumps his head and literally sees stars: his favourite famous football player standing in front of him, granting him nine wishes.
This is book INCREDIBLE! Unlimited ice cream, a whole day of eating pizza and playing on the X-Box, revenge on the bullies, becoming the star player in a televised football tournament: finally, all his dreams can come true! Will Archie wish his way to happiness? Or will he realise that magic wishes may be wonderful, but only he has the true power to change his life?
Archie Crumb has a difficult life, much different to most yr6 children he is a young carer. His mum’s mental health spiralled downwards after Archie’s parents divorce. This causes problems but Archie doesn’t even tell his Dad who Archie thinks has the perfect new family, even though he loves his little sister Scarlet (Scadge). But their neighbour Rosemary is quite concerned about him, and his mum. Can he keep her from finding out the truth?
His love is football and Rovers and Lucas Bailey in particular. Lucas is a local boy made good, he even went to Archie’s school.
On the way home from his best friend Mouse’s house one night Archie falls off his bike and bangs his head. He awakes to see Lucas, who picks him up and walks him home. Archie tells him everything, and Lucas tells him he has 9 wishes but to be careful with them. Archie wakes the next day but can’t even decide whether he dreamt it.
So he tries it out…the first wish is pretty good. But amazingly you have to be very careful what you wish for…very careful.
Archie almost destroys his friendship with Mouse, but they find themselves fighting for something else. Something that will take Mouse away…equally funny results!
Will Archie find out the truth? Perhaps when he meets Lucas again…will he remember Archie? Will Lucas’s words about asking for help mean Archie finally does?
And the final….not quite intentional wish…well that one would this book certainly didn’t disappoint. The way Archie looks after himself and protects his mum is both admirable and sad at the same time. No child should have to do this, but for someone they love they probably will continue to do so. Helen Rutters books always, makes me stop and think.
Vanya and the Wild Hunt
- Written by Sangu Mandanna
- Published by Macmillan
The second I heard about this book I knew I was going to love it.–Eleven-year-old Vanya Vallen has always felt like she doesn’t fit in. She’s British-Indian in a mostly white town in England, her parents won’t talk about their pasts, and she has ADHD.
Oh, and she talks to books. More importantly, the books talk back.
When her family is attacked by a monster she believed only existed in fairytales, Vanya discovers that her parents have secrets, and that there are a lot more monsters out there. Overnight, she’s whisked off to the enchanted library and school of Auramere, where she joins the ranks of archwitches and archivists.
Life at Auramere is unexpected, exciting and wonderful. But even here, there’s no escaping monsters. The mysterious, powerful Wild Hunt is on the prowl, and Vanya will need all her creativity and courage to unmask its leader and stop them before they destroy the only place she’s ever truly belonged.This was everything and more that I wanted in a MG novel. This is an exciting adventure made even better by the fact that this is the first in the series and that this ended in a cliffhanger.The characters are well thought out and plotted and they are very diverse, with the main character being British/Indian. I liked how the main character sufferers from ADHD and this is mentioned throughout the book. The author doesn’t shy away from showing the reader what it’s really like to live with ADHD. I really like the world the author had created and I ended up wishing I lived there.But what I liked most of all was the fact that books could talk, that they had personalities. And of course Vanya’s familiar was awesome.Overall this is going to be a wonderful edition to any library and I can’t wait for the next book.
Serial Chillers – The Witch in the Woods
- Written by Jennifer Killick
I love anything written by Jennifer Killick and I knew this was going to be amazing… And I was right.
Welcome to Hazard. An ordinary town where strangeness is a way of life. A town where sinkholes appear with no warning, where people go missing way too often and where things really DO go bump in the night …
To Travis and his classmates, Hazard is home. But when they’re set a school project to investigate the history of the town, they soon realise that something strange and alien lies beneath Hazard. What can they learn from their investigations into the mysterious witch in the woods? And – if the witch really does exist – will they make it home to tell the tale…?
This is possibly the best book she has ever written. It was non-stop action the whole way through the book. And best of all it’s the start of a brand new series.
We all know the author from gems such as Crater Lake and Dreadwood, but this book/series has turned up the creep and fear factor a notch. The atmosphere is creepy and scary all the way through and even as an adult I was scared more than once.
The new characters were marvellous, each one completely different, and each likeable in their own way. The dialogue between these characters was believable and natural.
This is going to be a popular series and I can’t wait for more of this.
