Middle School Books | Mommy Ramblings

School is back in session throughout the country, and reading is so important. Finding interesting books that your child wants to read, will really help, if you have to battle with them to read for 20 or 30 minutes a day.

My boys love books that draw them in and capture their interest with an exciting and engaging story. The Last Kids on Earth series does just that! Described as Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets The Walking Dead these very funny post-apocalyptic graphic novels are perfect for middle-grade readers.

This is a four book series to date and it all starts with Book 1; The Last Kids on Earth.

Kids will be chomping at the bit to continue with Book 2; The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade .

The zombies are disappearing. This might seem like a good thing, since zombies eat your brains, but normal human kid Jack Sullivan is suspicious. He keeps hearing an eerie shrieking noise that seems to be almost summoning the zombies—but to where, and for what (probably) foul purpose?

Jack, his three best friends (maybe the only people left on Earth), and their pet monster Rover need to get to the bottom of this. Along the way they encounter a lot more than they bargained for, including a giant Wormungulous, a pizza parlor monster hangout, an ancient evil who destroys worlds, and a stereo system that is totally the bomb. Can Jack figure out why the zombies are vanishing . . . before he and his friends are next?

Kids will be excited to get their hands on Book 3; The Last Kids on Earth and the Nightmare King.

Life after the zombie apocalypse is pretty good for 13-year-old Jack Sullivan: he lives in a mind-clobberingly cool tree fort with his best friends, speeds through town playing Real-Life Mario Kart, has a crew of monster buddies, battles zombies on the regular, and generally treats life-like it’s a video game!

But then Jack’s friends make a startling discovery: they may not be the last kids on earth, after all. This is great news for everyone… except Jack. Once they’ve found other humans, his friends won’t stick around for long! Jack’s only hope for keeping things the way they are is to prove that everything here is perfect, life is crazy fun, and nothing else could be any better.

One problem: it’s hard convincing his friends that everything is great when they’re being hunted by a monstrous Nightmare King and an ancient evil who won’t rest until Earth has been devoured. Crud! Maybe life after the monster apocalypse is more complicated than Jack thought…

The last book in the series (so far), is Book 4; The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond

The newest installment in this New York Times bestselling series introduces new monsters, new bad guys, and tons of new laughs!

It’s the first winter after the Monster Apocalypse. For Jack and his buddies, that means sled catapults, epic snowball battles, and one monstrous Christmas celebration. But their winter wonderland turns dark when a villainess begins hunting them. And this villainess is different—she’s a human.

When the villainess steals Jack’s prized monster-slaying tool, the Louisville Slicer, he vows to get it back. But it won’t be easy. Jack and his friends soon discover that the Louisville Slicer is the key to a dark plan that threatens the entire world—and beyond…

You can watch a video trailer for the series below:

About The Author:

Max Brallier (maxbrallier.com) is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books and games, including the previous books in The Last Kids on Earth series. He is the creator and writer of Galactic Hot Dogs, an ongoing middle-grade web serial and book series with Aladdin. He writes for licensed properties including Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa. Under the pen name Jack Chabert, he is the creator and author of the Eerie Elementary series for Scholastic Books. In the olden days, he worked in the marketing department at St. Martin’s Press. Max lives just outside of New York City with his wife and daughter.

ILLUSTRATOR BIO:

Douglas Holgate has been a freelance comic book artist and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia, for more than ten years. He’s illustrated books for publishers including HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster, and comics for Image, Dynamite, Abrams, and Penguin Random House.

Giveaway

Penguin Random House is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will win Book 1 and Book 4 of The Last Kids on Earth Series! Thank you to Penguin Random House for the review books and for sponsoring this great giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! Open to US residents.

The Last Kids On Earth Book 1 and Book 4 Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:

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If you’re looking for a summer reading book for your middle grade child or a book you can read aloud a chapter at a time as I like to do with my kids, A Clatter of Jars by Lisa Graff might be a perfect fit. Set in a town near me, Poughkeepsie, New York, this book takes place at Camp Atropos. This camp for talented kids might just be a recipe for disaster!

A Clatter of Jars is the companion book to A Tangle of Knots. For the kids heading off to Camp Atropos, it should be a summer filled with campfires, sing-a-longs, swimming in the lake and of course a place to practice for the Talent Show. However, it just might not turn out that way because the camp director wants to keep the real reason they are at the camp a secret and she will do almost anything to keep it that way.

The tiny peanut butter jar that was dropped to the bottom of the lake hit a rock on the way down opening the lid and letting out the talent that was inside. Now all kinds of strange things are happening and every day dozens of seemingly empty jars are washing up on the shore. This causes all kinds of chaos for the campers, talents get swapped, memories traded and no one knows why!

This camp full of kids, lake full of magic and a camp director full of secrets makes for a wonderful read! A Clatter of Jars is a story about summer, family, and the depths they go to win back the ones they love. Perfect for readers who loved Katherine Paterson’s The Great Gilly Hopkins or Louis Sachar’s Holes .

I am reading this book with my kids a chapter at a time and they are really enjoying it. I like that special time spent sharing a book like this in the evening.

Penguin Young Readers Group is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will win their own hardcover copy of A Clatter of Jars! Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group for the review book and for sponsoring this fantastic giveaway on Mommy Ramblings!!! Open to US residents.

A Clatter of Jars by Lisa Graff Book Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:

Please enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below. Good Luck!!!