Mar 16 2026
Oh gosh, I don’t even know how to write about this book, but I strongly suspect that it was just not For Me, as I struggled to empathize with the main character (not a problem I ordinarily have!) And I get it, middle school friendships are hard and occasionally stupid and definitely prone to sudden …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/03/16/olivia-gray-will-not-fade-away-by-ciera-burch/
Mar 12 2026
Every time I think parts of my Malaysian Muslim upbringing were strict, I run up against really weird shit from other Muslim cultural denominations and I’m all “wow.” Which isn’t to run them down at all! And perhaps nowhere is this sort of reflection more appropriate than in a book about a twelve year-old Muslim …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/03/12/hail-mariam-by-huda-al-marashi/
Mar 03 2026
Hello, dear readers! I don’t usually do excerpts of Middle Grade books here, so I have a delightful treat for you today with this magic-tinged adventure novel. The third book in Kimberly Behre Kenna’s Brave Girls series is titled Lola Gillette And The Summer Of Second Chances. Our title heroine is so desperate to complete …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/03/03/lola-gillette-and-the-summer-of-second-chances-by-kimberly-behre-kenna-excerpt/
Feb 26 2026
Lol, idk why I didn’t realize this was part of a series when I first picked it up. I do think that this is one of those books that very much benefits from readers going in already knowing the rest of the lore, if you’re an adult. Younger readers who are more ready to accept …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/26/escape-room-game-zero-by-christopher-edge/
Feb 23 2026
It continues to frighten and infuriate me that books like these aren’t merely a snapshot of a period in time but a very necessary and urgent warning of the road we must not presently travel. As with the prior books in The Web of The Spider series, set during Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/23/the-spider-strikes-by-michael-p-spradlin/
Feb 12 2026
As someone who enjoys but doesn’t follow much comedy (a lot of my favorites come from random clips passing through my Instagram,) I honestly don’t remember how I first became aware of groundbreaking comedian Maysoon Zayid. I do remember her inspirational TED Talk tho, which this book expands upon in a format more suitable for …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/12/maysoon-zayid-the-girl-who-can-can-by-seema-yasmin-noha-habaieb/
Feb 11 2026
Hahahahaha, I’m in this book and I don’t know if I like it. Look, I know I do too much. The fact that I’m taking so long to recover from the flu rn has given me plenty of time to reflect on what I usually spend my days doing (a lot, tho it honestly doesn’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/11/serendipity-by-gabbie-benda/
Feb 10 2026
This seventh installment in the terrific City Spies series finds our family of young secret agents (and their adult handlers) getting used to their new living quarters in London. Now that Le Fantome, the head of the terrorist group known as UMBRA, is in an English prison, the kids are focusing on their academics, both …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/10/europa-by-james-ponti/
Feb 09 2026
It’s my birthday week so I’m going to treat myself by focusing on recently published Middle Grade books this week instead of going for a wide variety of genres, as I usually do. MG is one of my favorite categories because the authors uniformly care about being entertaining and emotionally engaging — and often educational …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/09/dante-n-ferno-is-not-a-loser-by-brian-gordon/
Feb 02 2026
Y’all, as soon as I finished this book, I was all Adam Driver Saying More gif. I’m actually kinda mad that I’m going to have to wait who knows how long before I get to read the next book in this series. Tracy Wolff has written something so fresh from what can often feel like …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/02/the-aftermyth-by-tracy-wolff/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire