The Top 10 Tuesday list, inspired by the good folks at the Broke and the Bookish – which would have been out on Tuesday (I’m almost positive) if not for some pesky life events. Perhaps soon life will calm down and I’ll be able to catch up with all the other posts I want to write.
Here are 10 of my favorite books for kids and teens, all with under 600 reviews on Goodreads, and all of which I read (or re-read with my kids) in the past year.
Middle Grade
Cupcake Cousins by Kate Hannigan – I’m just starting to read the third book in this series aloud to my daughter. With a great blend of realistic life problems and fun, as well as a loving modern-day family, these books are perfect for kids and parents.
Exiles in Love by Hilary McKay – this was one of my favorite entries in Hilary McKay’s older series. There is just something about the logic and difficulties of kids that McKay gets so very right.
Makoons by Louise Erdrich – the most recent entry in Erdrich’s ongoing Birchbark House series, one which every American family needs to read.
Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities by Mike Jung – Enough with realism! What superhero-loving kid wouldn’t love to be the very resource that superhero needs in a tight spot? A great mix of excitement and humor that my son and I both loved.
Space Hostages by Sophia McDougall – The sequel to Cybils-finalists Mars Evacuees, which I also loved, with more high-stakes adventures in space.
Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung – What do you do when you discover that the secret your parents have been keeping from you – isn’t anything at all like you expected? This one comes with a whole lot of figuring out what it means to have and be friends.
Teen
Mountain of Kept Memory by Rachel Neumeier – Ok, it’s still new, and maybe officially marketed towards adults, but with plenty of appeal for teens. Still, I’ve yet to read a Rachel Neumeier book I didn’t adore.
Peas and Carrots by Tanita S. Davis – This was one of my favorite books last year – such a great depiction of two girls learning to look past the prejudice and see each other.
Pure Magic by Rachel Neumeier – I am so excited about Neumeier’s Black Dog series. And while I’m grateful she’s still working on it even after the original publisher went out of business, more people need to read this so she has incentive to make time to write more.
A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty – This is the most popular of the books in this list, and yet not nearly as popular as it should be. Reality-bending in a book seems so often to go along with metallic cold, but The Colors of Madeleine series comes with so much warmth and heart at the same time.
What are your favorite underrated books?
alibrarymama 
I love the whole Madeleine series so I completely agree with A Tangle of Gold. It should have a bazillion reviews, quite frankly. I love these lists. Why 600?
Haha! That’s a good question! I think I copied 600 from last time I did a similar list, and I think I copied that from Chachic at Chachic’s Book Nook. But I started this list before this year’s post was up on Broke and Bookish – last time, they’d used 2000 reviews as a cut-off, which I thought was too much. This year, they did 500 for their list, so they were even more restrictive than I was. I wasn’t about to go back and take Madeleine off the list, though!
Hmm, maybe I’ll try 600 (or less than a thousand) for my next list of this type.