Intro Hi there everyone! Welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two, a teacher of 23, and always amazed at how much I learn from my students. Sometimes it’s something profound, or like last week it’s a snack suggestion! So a shout out to Jadyn and Malia for helping my daughters and I get completely addicted to these things called Flip yogurts. Have you tried them? They are these little flavored yogurts with a side sprinkle of sweetness. I have purchased an embarrassingly large amount of these in the past week - enough so that the Wegman’s cashier is giving me the side eye. You have to try them - delicious! This is Episode #42 and Today I’m sharing with you a great opportunity to participate in the MG @ Heart Book Club, a fantastic interview with author Elly Swartz about her upcoming novel Smart Cookie, and then I’ll share with you some news about the All the Wonders website. MG @ Heart Book Club The first thing that I am really excited to tell you about is that I am teaming up with the Middle Grade at Heart Book Club to bring you great discussions and interviews with the authors of each month’s selection. So you can read along with us all and at the end of the month or sometimes early the following month, MG at Heart will host a Twitter chat to discuss the book together and I’ll host an episode of Books Between featuring that novel. First, let me tell you about all of the awesome 2018 picks so you can plan out your reading and pre-order the ones you want to get. There are lots of debut authors on this list so I’m excited for us all to meet some new voices in world of middle grade literature. (And remember that links to all of the books mentioned are in the show notes and the transcript posted on allthewonders.com so you don’t have to scramble to write anything down.) After I list the reading schedule, then I’ll let you know where you can go to get more information about the MG at Heart Book Club. In January, we are reading Love, Sugar, Magic by debut author Anna Meriano. It is about an 11 year-old girl, named Leonora, in a tight-knit family where all the women are brujas - witches. Leonora soon discovers that she - like her sisters and mother - have magical abilities that manifest through their baking. I’m about halfway through this book right now and I love the family, and magic, and food, and culture. It’s like a mix of the movie Coco and one of my favorite novels, Chocolat. I just know you and your kids will love it!  So, I hope you can join us all for the Twitter chat about Love, Sugar, Magic on Tuesday, February 6th at 8pm EST using the hashtag #mgbookclub. And February’s read is See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng! Oh my gosh - I just finished the audio version of this novel and I was blown away. Really - you HAVE to read this one!  Or better yet since the premise of the entire book is that it’s recorded on an ipod - get the audio performance! You’ll just fall in love with Alex and his dog, Carl Sagan.  So - stay tuned for the Twitter chat date for that book! In March, we’ll be reading The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. This one has been on my TBR pile for ages so I’m glad to have a reason to push it to the top of my pile and get ready for the sequel which, I think, is due out this fall. April’s book is Varian Johnson’s The Parker Inheritance - which sounds like a fabulous historical mystery. Can’t wait to read that one - it looks amazing! In May, we’ll be reading Every Shiny Thing by Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison - a contemporary novel in half prose, half verse. June’s selection is The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras - a Scottish medieval adventure that sounds a bit like The Ranger’s Apprentice with a twist of Tamora Pierce. Doesn’t that sounds amazing? In July, we’ll be reading Just Under the Clouds by Melissa Sarno about a family struggling