Middle Grade Summer Reading Bingo is Back!

Catching up, upcoming events, scheduling author visits, and more!

May 25, 2025

Gah! I’ve fallen behind with my weekly writing prompts. If you’ve been waiting for the next one, I appreciate your patience. I always forget how hectic May gets until I’m in the swing of it, running after the Everything Bus with stuff spilling from my bag as I try to catch up with it. The bus left me behind in a puff of exhaust, and now I’m picking up what fell. The weekly writing prompts will resume shortly so you’ll be hearing from me again soon (but remember, you can opt out of those emails by managing your subscription on Substack), but it’s officially summer break in my neck of the woods (er, suburbs?), and so I’m excited to share the second annual Middle-Grade Summer Reading Bingo!

I had so much fun organizing (and playing!) this last year, and several people asked me to do it again, so here it is! Like last year, I’ve collected a diverse mix of books from a variety of authors: some new releases and some backlist, graphic novels, a verse novel, nonfiction, funny, suspenseful, romance, historical fiction . . . Hopefully, there’s something here for every reader. I put Book Scavenger in the center “free” space to celebrate its 10-year anniversary this year. (Confetti throw, hooray!) I figure many of you who subscribe to my newsletter have already read it, so it likely is a free square for you. (If you haven’t read Book Scavenger, you could still consider it a free square, or you could read it! It’s a good book. I’m very proud of it.)

Also like last year, I’ll mail an envelope of bookish goodies (stickers and bookmarks) to anyone who completes a Bingo. You can score a Bingo by reading any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of books. Or maybe you want to go for the “four corners” or “outside edge” Bingo, or if you’re feeling ambitious, go for a “full house” and read them all! After you've read your Bingo, if you'd like to receive a prize, please fill out this form.

This is an example of what the prize pack looked like last year. Each one is a little different.

Grownups are welcome to play, too! If you don’t typically read middle grade, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy reading these stories. And if there are kids in your life, this can be a great activity for bonding over books. Feel free to forward this message to the readers in your life and invite them to play along. You can find a PDF of the Bingo board here.

All titles are published in the United States, so they might not be as easy to find if you’re in another country, but everyone is welcome to participate, no matter where you live. You could even swap out titles that aren’t available to you for ones that are—I’m loosey-goosey with the rules here. My motivation is really to encourage you to make time for reading this summer and discover some wonderful middle-grade books!

I’ve included all the titles and linked to them on Bookshop, where you can learn more about each one. (If you end up purchasing one through my link, I earn a small fee, which will go toward reimbursing my shipping expenses for the prize packs.) Purchasing books online through Bookshop also supports independent bookstores, or you can buy them from your local store. And, of course, you don’t need to buy the books to participate! All titles should be available at your local library, and if one isn’t, they might be able to add it to their collection if you make a request. You could also form a neighborhood book club and share the books with each other.

I’ll be sharing my Bingo reads over the summer on Instagram, Blue Sky, and Substack Notes, and I would love to hear about the books you read too. If you share on social media, please tag me so I see your post.

Let’s make this another summer of celebrating middle-grade books and having fun with reading!

Share Letters From Jenn

Upcoming Events

I’ll be doing two story time events this summer. Here’s the info:

June 12, Lafayette, CO:

WOW! Children’s Museum Storytime I’ll be reading A Good Deed Can Grow and sharing a craft activity at 11:00am.

July 30, Fort Collins, CO:

Gardens at Spring Creek Summer Story time Series The event runs from 3:30-5:30, and I’ll be reading A Good Deed Can Grow at 4:30

Now Booking 2025-26 School Visits!

Earlier this month, I was in Omaha as the guest author for the Omaha Public Schools Reading Olympics event. What an amazing event! Two days, hundreds of kids from different schools each day. I was wowed by the educators and students, and I had so much fun sharing about myself as a writer. After I gave my opening talk, the kids rotated between a creative challenge activity, a quiz bowl activity, and a writing workshop with me where we used word puzzles to brainstorm story ideas. Every student at the event received a signed copy of Sisterhood of Sleuths (compliments of the school district). One morning, as we were waiting for all the schools to arrive, a teacher pointed out a table where the students had immediately started reading their new books. Love!!! Another teacher shared this photo of students reading on the bus ride back to their school and gave me permission to share.

Celebrating reading and finding ways to encourage and empower young readers makes such a difference. If you’re a teacher, librarian, or parent who is interested in having me visit your school, I’m currently scheduling in-person visits for next year. Email me through my website with information about your school, where you’re located, and what kind of visit you’re interested in. (For example, general assembly presentations for grades 3-5, a mix of assembly and writing workshops with smaller groups, you’re doing a One School One Reads event, etc.)

My current rate for a full day is $3000 plus travel expenses. (My local airport is Denver, if you want to estimate what the travel expense might be.) If you’re scheduling more than one day in a row, the rate is discounted to $2500. I’m happy to split a visit among schools, as long as my presentations are scheduled so that I have enough time to get from one school to another.

I know school budgets are tight, so if you’d like to schedule a visit but my rates are too high, please reach out and we might be able to make something work, or I can refer you to other authors that might work within your parameters.

Weekly Writing Prompts

Here is the most recent prompt:

I’ll be sharing my response and WWP #17 soon! You can find all the Weekly Writing Prompts here.

Odds and Ends

What I’m Watching: I recently finished the first two seasons of Fisk (recommended by

Julie Falatko

, I’m pretty sure). I loved it! Funny, great characters, heartwarming. I also watched the season finale of Survivor. I won’t give spoilers, but I was happy with who won! (Although I was rooting for someone else.)

What I’m Reading: Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee. A YA murder mystery set in 1930s Los Angeles Chinatown. It’s very good so far! Many scenes are so cinematic—it would be an excellent movie adaptation. I think it works for older middle-grade audiences in addition to teens. It feels on par with The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynne Barnes and One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus, if you’re familiar with those books. I haven’t finished it yet, but at the halfway mark there are very light (and funny!) romance threads woven in, and the violence that led to murder happened off the page so it’s not really graphic, other than some minimal description of the found body.

What’s Blooming: I love this time of year in Colorado. Most trees have leafed out by now and the blooms are starting to come. My climbing rose is bonkers beautiful right now: