Clean Books for Picky Readers, Part 3

    Welcome back to my Clean Books series! Here are another five entries to help you along your reading journey!

Entry #1: Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher.
    It's not as good as the other book I recommended from this author, and it has surprisingly dark themes for being a middle-grade fantasy novella. But I enjoyed it, and the armadillo is hilarious, and it's definitely worth reading.

Entry #2: The Rush Revere series, by Rush Limbaugh
    Want to learn American history? Pick up a history book.
    Want to learn American history without falling asleep in the process? Pick up these books. 
    Another non-fantasy entry on my list of fantasy books (sorry), these books are amazing and I highly recommend them for any young readers.
    Although, I could probably classify Liberty as fantasy...
    No further spoilers; go look it up and read it for yourself.

Entry #3: The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill
    I've only read it once, since it falls more on the younger end of the middle-grade fantasy spectrum. Though it works for older readers, too, it has a few darker themes of its own that the average middle-grade reader won't pick up on, but that can make the book entertaining for older audiences as well. I'd let my kids read it, even if I feel no need to read it again myself.

Entry #4: The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgeson Burnett
    Oops! Another non-fantasy entry!
    But this one is a classic, and I liked it even though I didn't think I would. You might have to read it aloud to figure out what some of the characters who speak in dialect are saying, but you'll get used to it over time.

Entry #5: The Impossible Quest, by Kate Forsyth
    My only issue with these books is that they have way too many adverbs--more even than the Harry Potter series, and that one has a lot! But that's more of an author complaint than anything else; to the average middle-grade reader, these books are just a fun fantasy adventure, and the adverbs slip by without notice. The characters feel real and are entirely relatable, the action sequences are properly suspenseful, and the humor is on point. Overall, there's nothing to complain about in these books.
    Except the adverbs. :)

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