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    The Middler
    Unavailable
    The Middler
    Unavailable
    The Middler
    Ebook239 pages3 hours

    The Middler

    By Kirsty Applebaum

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2020

    Nominated for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal

    The Times Children's Book of the Week


    "I was special. I was a hero. I lost the best friend I ever had." Eleven-year-old Maggie lives in Fennis Wick, enclosed and protected from the outside world by a boundary, beyond which the Quiet War rages and the dirty, dangerous wanderers roam. Her brother Jed is an eldest, revered and special. A hero. Her younger brother is Trig - everyone loves Trig. But Maggie's just a middler; invisible and left behind. Then, one hot September day, she meets Una, a hungry wanderer girl in need of help, and everything Maggie has ever known gets turned on its head. Narrated expertly and often hilariously by Maggie, we experience the trials and frustrations of being the forgotten middle child, the child with no voice, even in her own family. This gripping story of forbidden friendship, loyalty and betrayal is perfect for fans of Malorie Blackman, Meg Rosoff and Frances Hardinge.


    "Enter Maggie, 11, a middler, wedged between Jed, the eldest, and Trig, the youngest...I thought I'd almost reached my fill of dystopian novels, but Kirsty Applebaum has rebooted the genre. The plot pulls you along and I liked Maggie more and more as she grew in courage. There is a touch of Harper Lee's Scout about her." - Alex O'Connell, The Times


    "Strikingly original and featuring a spirited heroine" - Amanda Craig, New Statesman

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNosy Crow
    Release dateApr 5, 2019
    ISBN9781788003469
    Unavailable
    The Middler
    Author

    Kirsty Applebaum

    Kirsty was born in Essex and grew up in Hampshire. She has had a wide variety of jobs including bookselling, railway re-signalling, picking stones off conveyor belts, putting lids on perfume bottles and teaching Pilates. She now lives with her husband on top of a hill in Winchester.

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    Reviews for The Middler

    3.5/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Fast-paced, dystopian adventure. Middler Maggie learns to feel her fear and do the right thing. Her strong voice and actions carry the plot.
    • 3/5
      Maggie is a middle child, a middler, trying her hardest to be heard in a town where only the eldest borns are valued, since they're who goes off and fights in The Quiet War. One day she meets Una, a wanderer, someone she's been told her whole life is "dirty, dangerous, and deceitful". The duo quickly become friends though and Maggie begins to question everything she's ever known to be real.

      The voice of Maggie was gripping and helped me turn the pages. She's a fighter that, though she was scared, would talk herself up to become the hero she wanted to be (though not in the way she thought she would).

      The ending felt a little rushed and I wished I could see a bit more of Una, but overall the book was a nice read for a cloudy Sunday. This book is a middle grade level book and was pretty fast paced for me. I read it in two settings in one day. It would be a great book as an introduction to young readers into the dystopian genre.