Middle Grade Madness! discussion
August MG Reading Challenge 2023
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Team Remus Lupin
Mod
1. REFER TO THE RULES
- You can find them here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
- They list every detail from how the points are calculated to information on the bonus tasks.
- If you have a questions, please check it against the rules and if you’re still looking for an answer please put it to your team captain who will ask me in the Captain's Chat and refer back to you.
2. MAKE SURE YOUR BOOKS COUNT
Please always check your book counts towards our challenge before starting to read it!
Refer to the rules below to remind yourself of what counts as an mg book for the challenge:
WHAT COUNTS AS A MIDDLE GRADE BOOK:
- Must be more than 100 pages long.
*For audio books*: The print edition must be more than 100 pages long.
*For graphic novels*: must be more than 150 pages long.
- Must be categorised as MG+ or MG on this website: https://www.arbookfind.com/
If it says LG or UG on the website it DOESN’T COUNT.
OR
Must be categorised as MY+ or MY on this website: https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/
If it says LY or UY on the website it DOESN’T COUNT.
- Only books started on/after 1st August count!
Mod
1. Introduce yourself! Tell your fellow team members what your favourite genres to read are and some things you like to do besides reading.
2. Decide on a team name! Choose the name of a protagonist (or main character) from a middle grade book/series. This challenge has been hosted three times in the past and here are what past teams have chosen: Coraline, Alice Queensmeadow, Logan Sweet, Lucy Pevensie, Sirius Black, Merlin, Charlotte, Morrigan Crow, Mary Poppins, Amari Peters, Matilda Wormwood, Wolf, and Zenobia, so please don’t choose those!
3. Decide on a category to be revealed! The categories are numbered 1 to 20, so pick a number as a team and that category will be revealed early before the challenge starts on 27th July!
Hi Everyone! So, I'm your Sub-captain this challenge and my name is Patricia Mae but you can call me Patricia for short😊😊So, like I'm really excited for this challenge because it's my first time join this challenge but I will try my best guys😊😊😍😍😍
Hi! My name’s Finn. I’ve participated in this challenge since the beginning, and it is always so much fun!! I can’t wait to do this with you all this year :)Here’s a list of character names I came up with:
Remus Lupin (Harry Potter)
Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)
Laura Wilder (Little House on the Prairie)
Cat (Coraline)
Jo March (Little Women)
Dorothy Gale (Wizard of Oz)
Athena (Percy Jackson)
Anybody else have suggestions?
We also need to come up with a number. Anyone have a lucky number they’d like to use?
Hello and welcome everybody! This is your captain speaking Chara (Care-a). This is my second year participating in the challenge and as captain. Glad to have you aboard as my sub captain Patricia. Finn! You're experience is most welcome here.
Abigeal and Fillisita! Funny how we're same team again.
Mannat, Ro and Amy, Looking forward to getting to know you and competing you guys in this challenge.
My first edict: Team names. Just submit what you like then we as a team can decide what we'll be called. Same goes for the number.
Here are some my suggestions.
Alcatraz Smedry: (Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians)
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III: How to Train Your Dragon
Gratuity "Tip" Tucci: The true meaning of smek day
Cimorene: (Pronounced Sim O reen) Dealing with Dragons
Zita: Zita the Spacegirl
Skulduggery Pleasant from Skulduggery Pleasant
Nimona From Nimona
Arthur Spiderwick from the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Three is magic number, cue School House Rock song. 3 is my pick.
My name is Abigael-Kala. Online, most people call me Abigael.I read basically nothing except Middle Grade books even though I'm not in school anymore. My favourite genres are Fantasy & Adventure. Other than reading, I do puzzles, watch a lot of YouTube, & volunteer in the super tiny town I live in.
Good to see some returning folks on our team!
My favourite number is 8.
My favourite names from the suggestions are:
Remus Lupin
Cimorene
Zita
Hi, my name is Ro, or Rowan. This is my first time participating in the challenge. I can't wait to participate and meet new people.My favourite number is 8.
Out of the suggestions my favourites are Remus Lupin, Athena, or Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
CraftyChara wrote: "Hello and welcome everybody! This is your captain speaking Chara (Care-a). This is my second year participating in the challenge and as captain. Glad to have you aboard as my sub captain Patricia. ..."Hi Chara! It's so nice to know you and I'm glad you are the captain of this challenge too. Well, I'm glad that this is the second year you have participated in this challenge. Well, from your suggestions above, I prefer these three titles: Nimona, Athena, and Dorothy Gale. My favorite number is 5 because I was born in May:)
But if you have any other title suggestions guys, feel free to comment on them below:)
Other name suggestions: Albus Dumbledore,
Hermione Granger,
King Arthur
I can't edit comments using the mobile app - I'm already making a bunch of messages; sorry.More name ideas:
Lemony Snicket,
Dashiell Qwerty (All the wrong questions series / Lemony Snicket.)
Hi, all. sorry for the late response!WOW! Chara, Abigael, nice to meet you again!we're in the same team again lol
and nice to meet you all!
i have some names:
Riley Oh from Last FAllen Star
Minli from Where the Mountains meet the moon
Hiccup from How to train your dragon
any names chosen is good for me.
the number, mmm how about 1? the very first number lol
Abigael wrote: "I can't edit comments using the mobile app - I'm already making a bunch of messages; sorry.More name ideas:
Lemony Snicket,
Dashiell Qwerty (All the wrong questions series / Lemony Snicket.)"
Same! When I'm using my mobile app, I can't edit the comments too! So, I changed into Desktop version so I can edit the comments😊But it's fine! You're doing good😊😊
Here's an idea, let's add up all of our number suggestions. 3 - 8 + 8 + 5 x 1 = 16...We'll go with 16 unless anybody wants to ADD more...I'll stop now 😅
As for the team name we have three votes for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Remus Lupin and Athena
Two votes for Nimona, Cimorene, Zita and Dashiell Qwerty
Hi! My name is Mannat I mainly read fantasy and yeah that’s it. I think the group name should be either Annabeth Chase or Daisy Carpenter And my lucky number is 21 but that’s not an option so 2 + 1 is 3!
For the number: we could combine 1 with any of the other numbers: 13, 15, or 18. This way, at least 2 people can have their number selected.I wish we could have 38 or 83 because 2 people picked both of those numbers but 38 & 83 are not 20 or below.
Also, if no one else mentioned it, perhaps it's unnecessary, but anyone need or want a pronoun check? I can just assume you're all she/her if that's accurate enough. (I'm she/her, & as far as I know, Chara & Filli are as well. Mannat, Finn, & Ro are all names I've never seen consistent pronouns for, so I apologise if your names are obviously gendered or if this is a topic anyone would rather avoid.)
CraftyChara wrote: "Here's an idea, let's add up all of our number suggestions. 3 - 8 + 8 + 5 x 1 = 16...We'll go with 16 unless anybody wants to ADD more...I'll stop now 😅
As for the team name we have three votes f..."
I like the idea of adding numbers! Or maybe we can vote for numbers or maybe create a spinning wheel or something. So, we have three votes for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Remus Lupin, and Athena. But In my opinion, the title Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a long title or name for the team. So, maybe we chose a short title? I guess:)
We can always shorten it to Hiccup. :)@Patrica do you know how to create a spinning wheel? If so we can have the number and or team name selected that way.
i go by they/he pronouns :)i think in the past Kadi had wanted the team names to include the characters full name, so we might not be able to shorten it to just Hiccup.
Since we have a 3 way tie between Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Remus Lupin, and Athena, maybe we could have everyone vote between these suggestions?
I don’t have any preference for the number. My lucky number is 43, so that’s out of the question. I like the idea of doing a random picker.
Hello everyone! I'm excited to be participating in this challenge for the third year! Middle grade is one of my favorite genres, as well as historical fiction, non-fiction, mystery/suspense, classics, and christian fiction. As far as a team name goes, a few I thought of are Pippi Longstocking, The Vanderbeekers, and Ralph S. Mouse. I have so many more, but since I'm late in responding, figured I better not add too many more to vote on.
As for a number, lets go with 18!
Looking forward to reading and competing with all of you!
Mod
The three early categories are going to be revealed tomorrow so please can your captain/sub-captain drop a comment on the captain’s chat to let me know your team’s choice of category number by the end of the day.
As for the team name, there’s still time for that so please can the captain/sub-captain let me know once you’ve all decided.
If anyone has any questions about the tasks or anything else once we get started with the challenge, please put them to your captain or sub-captain to ask in the captain’s chat as I don’t normally read other teams’ discussion pages!
Thanks guys😊
CraftyChara wrote: "We can always shorten it to Hiccup. :)@Patrica do you know how to create a spinning wheel? If so we can have the number and or team name selected that way."
Sure! I'll try to make one:)
So, I'm going to make a spinning wheel of numbers. So, the numbers we have so far are 3,8,5,1 and 18.P.S. I already spin the wheel and the lucky number is 3! If you don't want the number 3, we can spin it again. Anyway, do you guys want to spin also the title for our team?
yeah let’s spin the wheel for the team name as well i think i have good chances since 3 was a number i recommended sooo my suggestion was Daisy Carpenter from the candy makers series
Let’s go with 3 then. Hey, the wheel said so. Let’s do the same with the team name.@Patricia please put all of our suggestions onto the wheel.
@Mannat I know you said Daisy Carpenter, but for whatever reason I keep thinking that it’s Daisy Jones of Daisy Jones and the Six🤣
I'd prefer people vote between the top 3 names so that it has more meaning to our team. If no one has any preference or the names are still tied, then spinning seems fine.
Okay. It made be awhile until we hear back from the rest of the team. Their time zones are at least 10-12 hours ahead of us.My time zone is Atlantic Canada.
Our top three picks are Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, we can be call Hiccup for short. Remus Lupin and Athena
O good point, Chara! Since the Challenge starts at the first strike of August (and ends at the last one), it's probably good to know which timezone people are in so we can know where everyone's at in starting. I'm in Canada & my timezone is Mountain.Also, Mannat, do you want to give your pronouns? Your name says "Man" but you didn't correct my she/her assumption & I don't mean to single you out, but you might care how you're referred to. I'm so sorry if this is not comfortable.
Abigael wrote: "O good point, Chara! Since the Challenge starts at the first strike of August (and ends at the last one), it's probably good to know which timezone people are in so we can know where everyone's at ..."I'm also in Canada, but on Central Standard Time
Mod
Team A chose category 7, Team Anthony Lockwood chose category 13, and your team chose category 3. So here they are...
Category 3. Letters
11. A book with a protagonist who receives a letter in the post
12. A book with a title that has no more than four vowels
13. A book that contains ciphers or codes with letters
14. A book with a protagonist whose name has 9 or more letters
15. A book with a title that contains the letter "w"
Category 7. Going Green
31. A book with a tree on the cover
32. A book set in a forest
33. A book about a natural disaster
34. A book with a character who is an environmentalist
35. A book with green writing on the cover
Category 13. Lucky Lucky
61. A book with a rainbow on the cover
62. A book with a protagonist who is unlucky a lot
63. A book with a character who has a lucky charm, object, or piece of clothing
64. A book with a number in the title
65. A book with a scene where the protagonist looks into a mirror
Good luck and happy early planning!😊
If you've got any questions, please ask your captain to drop a quick comment on the captain's chat!
ooh these are really interesting tasks! it makes me so excited! i know that in the past, some teams have organized a spreadsheet for themselves where you can list suggestions of books that you know would fill the task requirements. because maybe one person knows of a book that would fill a particular task but they aren’t going to read that book, so they could put it in the suggestions and another team member could read it. hope that made sense 😅 anyway, if that is something that y’all would be interested in, i could make the spreadsheet and send it to everyone. i found it really helpful in previous years.
Hi guys! Sorry for the late reply. So, do you want to spin also the name of our team or not?
CraftyChara wrote: "Okay. It made be awhile until we hear back from the rest of the team. Their time zones are at least 10-12 hours ahead of us.My time zone is Atlantic Canada.
Our top three picks are Hiccup Horre..."
Hi! My time zone is the Philippine Standard Time(PST)
So, my vote will be for Hiccup:)
i agree with abigael, that voting between the top 3 would be best instead of doing the random picker. plus, a few of us have already put in a vote.
Kadi wrote: "Hi Team C! So, early category reveals🎉Team A chose category 7, Team Anthony Lockwood chose category 13, and your team chose category 3. So here they are...
Category 3. Letters
11. A book with a ..."
Here, I want to pick the number 15:)
@ Finn Yes please make a spreadsheet! I already have few suggestions for some books and I would like to hear everybody else's.Alright we'll pick from the top three. I vote for Hiccup.
@Patricia The numbers have already been picked. Kadi has posted the categories a few posts ago.
The points system is different this year. This year the more people complete a category the more points we'll get. :)
1 person completes a category alone = 10 bonus points
2 people complete a category together = 20 points
3 people = 30
4 people = 40
5 people = 50
So with the help of the spreadsheet let's each pick one task from each category.
CraftyChara wrote: "@ Finn Yes please make a spreadsheet! I already have few suggestions for some books and I would like to hear everybody else's.Alright we'll pick from the top three. I vote for Hiccup.
@Patricia ..."
wowww! it's the opposite from last year points.
sounds fun. i cant wait to read all your recommendation too
CraftyChara wrote: "@ Finn Yes please make a spreadsheet! I already have few suggestions for some books and I would like to hear everybody else's.Alright we'll pick from the top three. I vote for Hiccup.
@Patricia ..."
Sure! Thank you Chara😊If you need help, feel free to message me😊😊
Abigael wrote: "O good point, Chara! Since the Challenge starts at the first strike of August (and ends at the last one), it's probably good to know which timezone people are in so we can know where everyone's at ..."my time zone is Western Indonesian Time (WIB), it's UTC + 7 to be exact
finn wrote: "i agree with abigael, that voting between the top 3 would be best instead of doing the random picker. plus, a few of us have already put in a vote."Sure! It's fine😊😊So, we'll go to votes this time😊😊
I love the idea of a spreadsheet, but I don't think my phone is going to let me edit one (if it's a Google one than maybe because I have an Android). I'm happy to put suggestions in the chat, though. Also, I think there are 8 of us, so not all of us need to pick 1 from each of 20 categories. If we each pick 2 prompts from the entire revealed list (3, 7, 13 combined), that would work unless anyone doesn't want some.
I know that some people read only a few books & others read a lot in a month. I've been reading a maximum of about 8 in a month in 2023 but I usually read at least 30 in August (I'm hoping for at least 30 again this time. I read more when I prioritise it & when I want to complete a mission.) I think it would be helpful to know what everyone's goal number or average number of books is so that expectations are communicated. (e.g., I expect to read more than some people & to pick at least 1 prompt from all 20 categories if there's 1 I like.)
Chara/Patricia, do you know if Kadi is wants us to note what number we are because it's relevant to some of the prompts? I noticed I'm my favourite number! I'm 8! HOORAY!!! A lot of things are different this year so maybe our numbers don't matter.
OMG I have the perfect book for 13.!!!! Eeeep im so excited coz it’s a middle grade classic by a very well known author
alright, i’ll make the spreadsheet august 1 when the prompts come out, that way i can just copy and paste from kadi’s spreadsheet into ours instead of having to manually transfer all the tasksi’m quite busy in august, with traveling and school, but i think i should be able to read at least 5 books. maybe more, depending on how much time i have, but i can only promise 5.
@abigael Hi! So I am biologically a girl and I go by she/her pronouns (basic ik🤪🤪🤪) fun fact Mannat is actually a beautiful Punjabi/Hindi/Urdu name that means “wish” and if that using enough my home name in jinnie ( pronounced genie) so if I’m just full of wishes you guys can call me either Mannar or Jinnie as long as your using Jinnie in a respectful manner coz the amount of jokes I’ve gotten are astronomical
Ignore previous comment just clearing up typo's @abigael Hi! So I am biologically a girl and I go by she/her pronouns fun fact Mannat is actually a beautiful Punjabi/Hindi/Urdu name that means “wish” and if that’s not enough my home name is jinnie ( pronounced genie) so ig I’m just full of wishes you guys can call me either Mannat or Jinnie as long as your using Jinnie in a respectful manner coz the amount of jokes I’ve gotten are astronomical
Middle Grade Madness!
Books mentioned in this topic
Maizy Chen's Last Chance (other topics)Lety Out Loud: A Wish Novel (other topics)
A Rover's Story (other topics)
Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of) (other topics)
The Mummy With No Name (other topics)
More...
1. (CAPTAIN) Chara
2. (SUB-CAPTAIN) Patricia Mae
3. Fillisita
4. Mannat
5. Finn
6. Amy Steiner
7. Ro
8. Abigael Kala
(Each person’s name is linked to their challenge bookshelf and the book listed beside their name is their mg book recommendation)
The spreadsheet containing all the tasks will be shared with every team member via email invite on August 1st: (countdown: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...)