Guest Post: Jana from Milk and Cookies - MG Books Parents should Read!

I'm so excited because today I get to welcome one of my most favorite MG bloggers.  Jana from Milk and Cookies: Comfort Reading!  If you've never visited her blog you so need to! She's awesome and has such great reviews.  

Today Jana is talking about MG and what ones might help parents see their child's lives through new eyes.  

Welcome Jana!!!

Recently read a book that affected me so strongly.  So I passed it along to my fellow librarian and it affected her just as strongly.  So she asked me if I thought that book would affect young readers as much as it did us because the young readers are not parents yet.  The book was Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur and reading it from a parent's perspective made the experience so emotional.  The storyline of a dad knowing he was going to die before he got to see his daughter grow up and what he did to prep for that was gut wrenching as a mom.  But, if I had a daughter who was having a hard time transitioning from elementary to middle school this would be a fantastic book to see things from her point of view.

And that is one reason I love reading middle grade books.  It is such an interesting time of life for our kids!  Emotional, stressful, hormonal, all of it.  Middle grade books get into the heart of what children are feeling at this stage of life. And most of us do not remember what that is like.  We just know that we made it through and we are ok (for the most part).

It is also the time of life that kids tend to start keeping things to themselves.  It's hard to get to the heart of what your child is feeling or going through when they won't talk to you about it.  And sometimes they sugarcoat what they are going through so that you don't worry about them.

I have been going through middle grade collection and have come up with several books that can help you see things from your child's point of view!

If your daughter is having problems with her best friend from grade school read The Secret Language of Girls by Frances O'Roark Dowell.

If she has an unrequited crush (or is having a hard time connecting with the "popular" kids) read Shug by Jenny Han.  Or  Deep Down Popular by Phoebe Stone.

If your son is having learning issues read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan together.  Percy has dyslexia and has been kicked out of lots of schools,  but that doesn't stop him from becoming a hero of epic proportions!

If your child is having some bullying issues or you know he/she is keeping something from you read Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur.




This is the tip of the iceberg my friends!  Middle grade authors do a fantastic job of getting the the heart of what it is like to be in middle school.  Take the time to get to know some of these books and I a guarantee you will look at your child's middle school experience through new eyes!

I so love this post! We so often think about getting kids to read MG, but what a strong use of MG books by getting the parents to read them too! Thank you Jana for reminding us of this and for sharing some fantastic books! 

If you have other books you think might be great please share!!!