Rutabaga's Reads 2025: Part 7

Hello! Here I am with my second middle-grade (MG) compilation post of 2025. Do you read MG novels? Why or why not?

Isle of Ever (Mar. 25, 2025) by Jen Calonita.

<This is the first novel in a series.>

They manage to squeak on by, but 12-year-old Everly “Benny” Benedict and her mom are broke most of the time. Imagine their surprise when a lawyer shows up, looking for Benny. He informs her that she’s heir to the vast fortune of Evelyn Terry, a mysterious ancestor from the 1800s! How she knew that Benny would exist in 2025 is anybody’s guess, but this news is amazing and possibly too good to be true. In order to actually obtain the inheritance, she has to play a game following Evelyn’s clues and win it. She must find Evelyn’s Island, which doesn’t exist on any map. It’s been 200 years since Evelyn found it, and she watched it disappear during a Blood Orange Moon. Always having moved so often, Benny’s finally found two friends in Zara Dabney and Ryan Gale. She’s going to need their help. The puzzle may have been waiting two centuries for her to come along, but she’s only got two weeks to solve it! If she doesn’t, a rival family can buy out the Terry estate shares (the Rudd family also exists during Evelyn’s time), and Benny and her mom will go back to scraping by. Benny loves puzzles, so Benny knows she can win. She’s determined to!

            In this genre-bending, middle-grade series starter, red herrings and a major cliffhanger enhance this tale. It’s absorbing from the beginning, a fantasy adventure that’s part mystery that also blends in history and a dash of magic. The magical nature doesn’t get carried away. In fact, the realistic depictions of Benny’s preteen moodiness and sometimes frustration with her mom ground the story. The contemporary timeline is interspersed with Evelyn’s journal entries, newspaper clippings and other notes. The first in the Isle of Ever series features an engaging, puzzle-centric quest in a fast-paced storyline seamlessly bridging the past with the present.

Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret (Sept. 10, 2024) by Lori M. Lee.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

She’s the reincarnation of Shee Yee, known as the greatest warrior of all time and graced with athletic finesse. In the here and now, she’s Pahua Moua, a skinny 11-year-old with about zero athletic grace and no warrior training. Pahua has the chance to attend a shaman school in Minnesota to receive proper training, but she must first fulfill a quest. She has to repair the second seal that imprisons Xov, the god of thunder, destruction and wrath. To do that, she must retrieve metallic dragon scales, find the hidden prison and transmute successfully. That’d be a remarkable challenge for a trained shaman warrior, but for the untrained Pahua? Yikes! She’s got her trusted-but-sarcastic cat spirit, Miv, and tough-but-bratty, shaman-in-training friend Zhong. Pahua encounters a rooster spirit called Rou, and they meet Yulong in the Land of Dragons, which doesn’t go so smoothly at first (Zhong tries to kill him). They find the truth stone, which has significance to their journey, though it isn’t known right away, and Zhong becomes unhealthily fanatic about it. Pahua understands that magic is circular, but that doesn’t make knowing that she’ll have to give an equally powerful sacrifice in return any easier.

            If being a preteen is tricky, then being the preteen reincarnation of a great warrior is dangerously tricky. The danger doesn’t overwhelm the characters’ wit. This second in the contemporary, fantasy adventure, Hmong-mythology-filled, Pahua Moua series is imbued with fast pacing, clever plotting, imaginative world-building and an excellent cast. Her love of her family is visible, and her self-doubt only makes her more relatable. Lee’s Pahua stories are steeped in culture and abundant in meaning, but are also entertaining adventures to read. While I’ve enjoyed every story I’ve read from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint – and I’ve read many of them – Lee’s stories are definite standouts. Go forth, readers, and be the brave, fierce warriors that life needs you to be. Just beware of the phim nyuj vais. That demon wants to feast on your intestines.

            Book One: Pahua and the Soul Stealer

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares (Aug. 3, 2021) by Tehlor Kay Mejia.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

Six months have passed since La Llorona, and Paola Santiago would never have guessed that life would be what it is now. She’s barely speaking to her best friends, Dante Mata and Emma Lockwood. Dante seems to resent Paola in a big, big way, and Emma is busy with the Rainbow Rogues, a school group. Her mom is distracted by her blond-haired boyfriend. At least Paola has her loyal chupacabra puppy, Bruto, but Bruto can’t fend off the nightmares that have returned. Paola finds herself in a forest of nightmares – sometimes with multiple pairs of watching eyes – and at its center is her estranged father. He’s more of an enigma, as she hardly remembers him. Dante’s abuela (Señora Mata) has even shown up in her dreams and knows her as Maria (that’s Paola’s mom). When Señora Mata falls mysteriously ill, she barely convinces Dante to go on a search for her father to help Dante’s grandmother. She gains an ally – albeit a sarcastic one – in a lone Niña and a sweet duendecillo called Estrella. She’ll need all the help she can get, because fighting El Autostopisto alone will be impossible, and she has to somehow get from Arizona to Oregon on the funds of a 12-year-old (so, she’s mostly broke). There are new and terrifying monsters to clash with, a devastating betrayal to bear and a nightmare forest to confront. At the end of it all, is the man in her dreams really her father? Or a nightmare wearing his face?

            Mejia draws on her Mexican heritage for the second entry in the Paola Santiago series. It’s a story filled with magic and folklore and is layered with realistic concerns that can surround minorities in dealing with police and healthcare and real-life drama within friend groups (though likely without magically transforming Arma del Almas). Paola’s drive to find her father makes this a fast-paced, paranormal fantasy, middle-grade story. She’s got heart, but also sass, and she’s clever, but also makes mistakes. The tale can be mysteriously spooky and fabulously courageous and is incredibly, emotionally honest.

            Book One: Paola Santiago and the River of Tears