Here are 97 books that The Midnight Children fans have personally recommended if you like
The Midnight Children.
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Since college, psychology has been a subject I find intriguing. I am a retired Early Childhood Educator. Having daughters has enabled me to travel the time-worn path of mother-and-daughter relationships. After much trial and error, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a complicated dynamic given the ages and stages, distinct personalities, social and cultural differences, socio-economics as well as generational challenges. An important thing is for mothers to understand that their daughters may have similarities to them, but they are not them. As they mature, they will make their own life choices.
Right off the bat, I was taken aback by modern family life in this story. I got caught up in the busyness of these medical professionals as the parents of three teenagers, the youngest a fifteen-year-old girl. Having three daughters of my own, I recalled our own hectic lives. Like the mother in this story, I was so caught up in my work that I only found out much later how little I knew about my teenagers.
This book brought hard memories back that hurt, yet they helped me better understand the mother’s point of view. I couldn’t put the book down because I related so closely to it.
Did you know you can survive being swallowed by a whale? Or that octopus wrestling used to be an actual sport? Or, that once a town in Oregon didn't know what to do with a whale carcass that washed up on their beaches, so they...BLEW IT UP?
Since college, psychology has been a subject I find intriguing. I am a retired Early Childhood Educator. Having daughters has enabled me to travel the time-worn path of mother-and-daughter relationships. After much trial and error, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a complicated dynamic given the ages and stages, distinct personalities, social and cultural differences, socio-economics as well as generational challenges. An important thing is for mothers to understand that their daughters may have similarities to them, but they are not them. As they mature, they will make their own life choices.
I can honestly say that I felt a tingle of happiness after reading this book. I’m attracted to stories with different points of view. In this case, an 8-year-old girl has become fixated on the disappearance of her 16-year-old sister, who she was very close to.
I was fascinated by this child’s maturity while surrounded by her parents, a neighbour and the police. It was apparent that the dysfunction between the mother and the teenage daughter made her leave for good. I got wrapped up in the little sister’s world of worry and responsibility while receiving little comfort from her mother.
This book was unputdownable, as they say. I had to know what would happen next.
Set in the frozen north of Canada in 1972, this is a novel of painful histories and the moments in life when we can change for the better.
Clara's rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened.
Liam, newly divorced and newly unemployed, moves into the house next door and within hours gets a visit from the police.
Elizabeth is thinking about a crime committed thirty years ago, one that had tragic consequences for two families. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.
I’ve always lived in a small city in Northern Ontario (Canada) that is surrounded by smaller towns and even smaller villages. I’m a first-generation Canadian who grew up without extended family any closer than Scotland. I’ve learned first-hand how wonderful found families can be. Once I started writing, I was drawn to happy endings and small-town settings where everyone knows your business but has your back too. I hope you enjoy these small-town recommendations as much as I do. Here’s to small towns, found families, and happy endings!
I love the strong found-family vibe in this one (like many of the books Jill Shalvis writes).
Harper arrives in the small town where she last felt happy. She has no idea what’s in store for her. She’s strong, independent, and most definitely not looking for a relationship. Oops.
Shalvis combines humor, love, found family, and a roller coaster of emotions in this wonderful found-family romance. A fabulous read!
New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Sunrise Cove with a beguiling, lighthearted story about fresh starts, second chances and true love.
When Harper Shaw's life falls apart, she knows it's time for a change. She removes everything that doesn't spark joy-from her soul-sucking job to eating kale to making lists-and sets off for the last place she was happy, Lake Tahoe (who wouldn't feel good there, right?) to fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery.
With her Sugar Pine Bakery in between a tavern, owned by sexy, grumpy Bodie Campbell, and a bookstore, run by her…
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
I’ve always been drawn to stories that feature mysterious locales and secret objects and strange or magical occurrences, so books with these elements—particularly when the main characters in the books are young people learning about themselves and the world around them—are often very satisfying to me. There’s something naturally engaging, I believe, in tales where someone is thrust into a disorienting situation and has to make sense of the uncertainty he or she faces. The books I’ve written for young readers all tend in this direction, and so I’m always on the hunt for stories along these same lines.
Long a favorite of mine, every couple of years I enjoy returning to this book about two brothers who fall in with a group of Venetian street children and the young master-thief who oversees them. Funke's classic, assured style grants this relatively contemporary novel (first published in Germany in 2000) a charming, old-fashioned sensibility, while the pacing and characterization should appeal to the most modern of readers, at least to my eyes. The book has everything I love in stories for young readers–mystery, magic, friendship, and startling plot twists–and the interior illustrations done by Funke herself are lovely.
The magical multi-award-winning modern classic from master storyteller and New York Times-bestselling author, Cornelia Funke - over a million copies sold worldwide!
'A completely delicious read.' THE OBSERVER
'Today's young readers will probably love this book as they love the Harry Potter series' THE NEW YORK TIMES
'My enjoyment of The Thief Lord grew and grew as I read it' DIANA WYNNE JONES
Winter has come early to Venice.
Two orphaned children are on the run, hiding among the crumbling canals and misty alleyways of the city. Befriended by a gang of street children and their mysterious leader, the Thief…
All my life, I’ve struggled with accepting who I am. It’s no secret that the Vietnam War was unpopular in America; as such, I spent my adolescence hiding who I was. Literature like this didn’t exist when I was a kid. If it had, I think I would’ve seen myself differently. As a writer, I explore similar themes in my work and highlight the importance of discussing how our childhood experiences (good and bad) shape us. Uniformity is a destroyer of identity; my mission is to show how loving what makes us different allows us to love the differences we see in others.
April is the kind of character everyone roots for. She’s sixteen and fending for herself after her crappy father abandoned her in a motor home with no engine.
Teens who grow up like April have grit built into their DNA, and when she takes off for a new life, she soars. The problem is, our past has a way of dragging us backward, and seeing April fight to keep the life and friends she’s built is what makes you keep turning the pages. Oh, and also, she has a beautiful skill. April can sing.
Reading this book is akin to watching a flower bloom; you can’t help but be in awe.
Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at Margo's diner, she's left fending for herself in a town where she's never quite felt at home. When she "borrows" her neighbor's car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that's all hers.
I’ve always been fascinated with the first-person voice, the way it magically pulls us into a story through the character’s/narrator’s perspective, and how when done well, can feel so natural and personal. I’ve tried to write in this perspective over the years, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I hope I have done it adequately with this current novel. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert when it comes to the first-person, but I am an interested participant. I am a creative writing professor, but I am also a student of writing and always will be. The more I investigate, the more I read, the more I learn. Focusing on this topic has been no exception.
Since my own book is marketed for young readers (and adults BTW) I thought I’d give a nod to one of the voices in that genre that got set in my brain years ago.
Philbrick’s voice in Max the Mighty might be my favorite young reader first-person voice. Told in retrospect, Maxwell’s voice is both wise and self-effacing, and believable from the jump. “...even though I’m a big dude with a face like a moon and ears that stick out like radar scoops…I’m a real weenie. A yellow-bellied sapsucker. A gigantic wuss. A coward.”
The voice carries the banner of strength in the vulnerability of the human condition. A lesson we should hold dear to our heart. Different is cool. Different is good. This book and its voice are timeless.
A companion to Newbery Honor winning author Rodman Philbrick's Freak the Mighty. This is the dramatic, heart-wrenching tale of Max and Worm, two outsiders who turn to each other for survival.
Meet Max Kane, the brooding giant-of-a-boy who escaped from his basement hiding place and faced the real world in Freak the Mighty. Still grieving over the loss of his best friend, Kevin, Max finds himself defending a young, solitary girl cruelly nicknamed "Worm" because she loves to read. And when Max gets blamed for a horrific crime, he and Worm flee across America--hunted by the police and pursued by…
An interdimensional mixer with angels and other beings brings unexpected trouble for Malachi and his friends in this smart and uniquely funny second book about the squad of teens from hell.
When an angel comes to his home to deliver a message, Malachi immediately knows what’s going on. The seraph…
I’ve always enjoyed reading true stories and stories that feel like they could be true. I enjoy learning about other people’s lives and experiences. If a character’s life experiences have been very different than my own, it is eye-opening and informative. If we’ve had similar experiences it helps me feel less alone. When writing, I usually draw inspiration from my own life experiences. With AWOL, I wanted to share military family culture and help readers affected by PTSD feel less alone.
Mai K. Nguyen pairs really tough topics: grief, loss, and overwhelming emotions with beautiful and soothing artwork and a little bit of magic. When Willow gets upset and runs off into the woods she meets Pilu, a lost wood sprite. Together, Willow and Pilu help each other learn to deal with their emotions and find their way home. I love that the reader can learn alongside the characters without feeling like they are being taught a lesson.
A heartwarming story of friendship, loss, and finding your way home from debut author/illustrator Mai K. Nguyen!
Willow loves the woods near her house. TheyaEURO (TM)re calm and quiet, so different from her own turbulent emotions, which she keeps locked away. When her emotions get the better of her one day, she decides to run away into the woods.
There, she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who canaEURO (TM)t find her way back homeaEURO"which turns out to be the magnolia grove WillowaEURO (TM)s mom used to take her to. Willow offers to help Pilu, and the two quickly become…
I learned early that information doesn’t change people’s minds and that we can’t lecture our way into people’s hearts. Real change comes through building empathy, and we do that through compelling, personal storytelling. I’ve been working on disrupting bias and building empathy my whole life. It’s why I write, and why I teach, and why I travel to speak with different groups. It’s my theory of change in the world—the first step towards moving us to a more caring, kinder global society.
This book was also heart-touching and eye-opening.
The writing was beautiful, the story was remarkable, and the insights were compelling. Maybe more than that, I kept finding myself reminded by how much our outlooks and opinions are shaped by the perspectives we receive.
Hearing “Jim’s” first-hand account was a drastically different experience than hearing about him through Huck Finn, and appreciating that—with all the complexities it entails—made the experience of reading James all the more enriching and enjoyable.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new…
My first true religion was being a boy alone in the woods and feeling a deep connection to nature in all its aspects. I felt a connection with all life and knew myself to be an animal—and gloried in it. Since then, I've learned how vigorously humans fight our animal nature, estranging us from ourselves and the planet. Each of these books invites us to get over ourselves and connect with all life on Earth.
What a weird and wonderful book. I've read and reread it several times now, and it always casts its spell. I've never been so willing—so eager—to suspend disbelief. It's Murakami's special gift.
The novel creates its own wondrous world out of what seems to be the stuff of this one—a young runaway, Colonel Sanders, alley cats, a beautiful librarian, a seashore painting, a demented old man—but the result is more magical than any fairy kingdom. I was completely carried along by the experience of an understanding beyond sense.
"A stunning work of art that bears no comparisons" the New York Observer wrote of Haruki Murakami's masterpiece, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. In its playful stretching of the limits of the real world, his magnificent new novel, Kafka on the Shore is every bit as bewitching and ambitious. The narrative follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his highly simplified life suddenly overturned. Their parallel odysseys - as…
A satisfying story of rediscovering friendship after time spent apart.
For many years, Hazel and Mabel were inseparable. The two friends made up stories, spent the night together, and shared their snacks. Then, Mabel moved away. As time passes, Hazel and Mabel think of each other often, but they also…
I lived an isolated and sometimes nomadic adolescence. My struggling single mother had untreated paranoid schizophrenia and believed herself to be a prophet. The world, as she saw it, was a strange and scary place, and she raised me and my sister to believe as she did. But being an avid reader and artist, I would escape into my own fantasy worlds to find hope and meaning. Now, as an adult, I use my art and writing to make sense of trauma, and I hope my stories can inspire and empower the people who read them.
This one was all about the surreal atmosphere and haunting artwork for me.
Two young women and a cat go on a roadtrip through a dark, dreamlike American west, encountering strange people and places along the way. The bleak, nightmare-tinged landscapes were my favorite part and inspired the way I drew my desert scenes in my graphic novel.
The duo embarks on a long drive to nowhere, but strange happenings - some whimsical, some terrifying - seem to follow them no matter where they go.
Bea and Lou are both looking for something on the road, and the journey itself may turn out to be exactly what they need.
This magical realistic adventure is rich with suspense and heartbreak; startling revelations about betrayal, sexual assault, and death; and exquisite examples of deeply human connections that will stay with readers long after the final gorgeously illustrated page.
