Guest post written by The Black Market author Jed Alexander
Jed Alexander is the author and illustrator of The Fairy-Tale Color Collection, a series of wordless retellings of classic fairytales for children—including Red and Gold, which have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly and praise from the New York Times. He has also written and illustrated for SpongeBob Comics and Cricket magazine. Jed lives in California with his wife, best friend, and favorite person in the world, Regina. Visit him at jedalexander.com.
About The Black Market: Author-artist Jed Alexander’s debut novel is filled with scares, determined, relatable kids, and uncanny pranks; accompanied by Alexander’s classic-style, atmospheric illustrations.
As a writer for middle grade fantasy, I have my favorites, both classic and contemporary, And it doesn’t get more classic than Daniel Pinkwater. Some might say, “the 80s? That’s not classic. Where’s the Roald Dahl? The Lewis Carroll?” Well, there’s classics, and there’s classics, and Pinkwater, as far as I’m concerned, deserves to be an institution.
Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater
The fact that Alan Mendelsohn is from Mars is the least interesting thing about him and is incidental to the events of what we shall loosely call a plot. Leonard Neeble and his friend Alan meet the con man Samuel Klugarsh who gives them a gadget that puts them into state 26, allowing them to control minds. Sort of. At first all they’re able to do is make people rub their bellies and take of their hats. But it’s not about mind control, or going into that other plane of existence known as Waka Waka. With Pinkwater it’s more about the journey than the destination. And what a journey! But even better than Alan Mendelsohn is:
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater
Walter’s friend Winston Bongo is the inventor of “snarking out,” or sneaking out at night to go to The Snark Theater to watch unusual, rare, and classic movies. On a solo Snark, Walter meets Rat, a punk rock girl with an eccentric family. Walter, Winston and Rat are on the search for Rat’s recently missing relative, but really, summarizing Pinkwater’s books is impossible so I won’t even try.
This one has genuine moments of real magic that outmagics anything in a Harry Potter book. There’s one particularly evocative scene with a performing chicken that is both absurd and beautiful. And no one describes food better than Pinkwater; baked potatoes, pastries, bowls of Bermuda Triangle chili. Everything about these books is delicious.
His books typically have no grand themes or morals, and often it feels like he’s making it up as he goes along, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The sequel, The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror isn’t nearly as good, but still worth a look. Or really, you can’t go wrong with any Pinkwater book. He has written, and sometimes illustrated, everything from picture books to middle grade to YA, and one book for adults called The Afterlife Diet. He has such a distinct voice, you can recognize it a mile off, just for the way he describes doughnuts.
Skullduggery Pleasant By Derek Landry
This series is more in the realm of contemporary fantasy, with lots of Irish wit. It’s about Skullduggery Pleasant, a skeleton sorcerer detective, and his protégé, twelve year old Stephanie Edgeley AKA Valkyrie Cain. Lot of action, adventure, and the occasional horrible pun. There are over 18 books in the series, but I’m afraid to say I’ve only read the first three, which I adored. The first book came out in 2007.
Neal Shusterman’s Skinjacker Trilogy
This one is also from the mid 2000s. The tone of Shusterman’s books is more on the dark and serious side. The series begins with Everlost, which is also the name of the limbo between heaven and earth where the book takes place. The recently deceased kids in the story can’t be seen by the living world, but some of them have learned to “skinjack” or inhabit the bodies of the living.
Shusterman at his best writes real horror, and The Skinjacker series is as horrific as middle grade fiction gets. Not Goosebumps jump scare horror, but real existential, what happens when we die, dread. The other books in the series are Everwild and Everfound. Five stars!
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
Another 2007 release. I’ve only read the first of the series, but I can’t wait to read the sequels. Alcatraz Smedry’s clumsiness and general tendency to destroy things is both the bane of his existence and his superpower. He has bounced from foster home to foster home because of it. On his 13th birthday he meets his biological grandfather for the first time. His grandfather informs him that he is part of a great legacy of Smedrys who each have a strange inborn talent that at first seems like a nuisance, but turns out to be their secret weapon, like his cousin Sing Sing who has the ability to trip and fall at just the right moments. And part of that legacy is their ongoing battle with a conspiracy of Evil Librarians who secretly rule the world. What more is there to say?
Your Pal Fred, A Graphic Novel by Michael Rex
The most recent of the bunch, Your Pal Fred came out in 2022. Fred is a relentlessly friendly boy robot from a more enlightened time, who is revived by scavengers to find himself in a future post apocalyptic hellscape. In contrast to the cynical world he finds himself in, Fred believes in friendship, kindness, and fairness, and brings a beam of sunshine to everyone he meets. In the midst of this chaos, can Fred negotiate peace between the two biggest nastiest warlords of the apocalypse, Lord Bonkers and Papa Mayhem?
First in a series. The second book, Your Pal Fred, Low Power was released this year, and I can’t wait to check it out!
This short, very biased, and not at all up to date list only scratches the surface, since, in the last 20 years, middle grade and YA fantasy have exploded. So good hunting! And be sure to pick up my book, The Black Market if this kind of thing appeals to you.
