Middle Grade Must Reads – August 2025 (Part Two)
Dante N. Ferno is NOT a Loser
- Written and illustrated by Brian Gordon
- Published by Macmillan
Everything about this book looked funny and I couldn’t wait to read it.
And I wasn’t disappointed in it.
Ever since his trousers fell down in front of the whole school, Dante has struggled to shake off his seriously uncool reputation. Luckily, he has a foolproof plan to become the most popular kid at his new
1. Completely reinvent himself.
2. Make a ton of friends and accept his nomination as their leader.
3. Become good at sports stuff and win all the game things.
4. Rub his newfound popularity in the face of all the haters he grew up with.
Sounds easy, right? Well think again – Purg School is attended by infamous creatures from myths and legends and they’re not going to let him shake off his loser status overnight! Dante is going to have his work cut out to beat the bullies and show the world that he is NOT a loser.
I took this to bed one night and all my neighbours could hear was my uncontrollable laughter. This book is so funny, it has the vibes of the wimpy kid series.
This book is full of puns, which some children will not understand.
The moral of this book is learning to look at life with optimism and how important friendship is.
I am looking forward to reading more in this series.
The Misadventures of Mina Mahmood – School Trip
- Written by Farhana Islam
- Published by Farshore
Welcome to the joyous world of Mina and best friends Reema and Mobeen!
Mina, Reema and Mobeen can’t wait to go on their school trip, an overnight stay at Shiremoor Oaks Adventure Centre . . . until somebody spooks them with stories about Bertie who haunts the woods, who sharpens her toenails with twigs, who is waiting to skewer her next unfortunate victim all over with cheese-and-onion crisps!
With Bertie Blackteeth lurking and the school bully seeming to have become the teacher’s pet – this trip will test their friendship, courage and love of potato chips to the limit.
I have done so many school trips that I couldn’t even begin to guess a number, there’s nothing like sitting on the coach and hearing the children excitedly talk about what they might do. But this might be a different sort of school trip.
What’s better than an urban legend and a school trip to the wilderness and a load of friends?
This is one school trip that even I wouldn’t want to go on.
This is such a nice book, full of funny characters, an amazing family and true friendship, and perhaps a lesson to why you never leave friends alone in the forest.
There is an epic laser tag scene that makes me glad that I have never done this.
The Zombie Project
- Written by Alice Nuttall
- Published by Chicken House
I love a zombie, the creepier the better and I know a lot of children who love a scare while reading so with this in mind I took this to bed one night and I loved every second of it.
When the bees die out, a new pollinator arrives. Deathflies help grow crops but there’s a nasty side effect . . . zombies.
Laying their eggs in people, deathflies turn people into dangerous zombies when they die. But the world must adapt or there won’t be enough to eat.
Can Merian and her scientist mum convince others to save the zombies? Or will the big corporation succeed in convincing people to kill them? And just what does it mean when a docile zombie shows up?
I think the first thing to mention is this is a debut book, unbelievable but it is.
This is a different look at zombie’s, in this case they are useful to the environment.
This is such a diverse book packed full of people you would see in your everyday life, there’s queer characters, IVF children, single parent families and hidden disabilities. But it’s written so that it’s not a ticking box book. In my day today I have definitely come across 3 of these.
The book is written so that you can clearly see this world in your mind’s eye and you can easily see the zombies walking through the woods.
The theme running through this book is the planet and saving the environment.
This is definitely a book for fans of R.L Stein.