Movies Based on MidGrade Novels

With winter here, now's the perfect time to pull up a chair and enjoy a good book. I think it's even better if you can follow that up with a movie, as well. I think it's interesting to compare a written story to one told visually. Comparing and contrasting the two mediums can lead to some interesting and insightful conversations. 

The biggest movie release for the middle school audience this past fall was Wonder, which was based on R. J. Palacio's New York Times bestseller from 2012. Both the movie and the book tell the story of August Pullman, a boy born with Treacher Collins Syndrome or mandibulofacial dysostosis, a genetic disease that affects the bones of the head and face. August's many surgeries have caused him to be home-schooled, but at the beginning of this story he is entering the fifth grade (which is in Middle School in the book, and Elementary in the movie) for the first time. This story offers its tween audience great lessons on kindness, friendship, and acceptance, and the devastation of bullying.

Wonder isn't historical fiction. It is set in the present. But it made me wonder what other book to movie adaptations are available for middle grade readers.

Although it is not pivotal to the story, August Pullman's dog dies in Wonder. I don't know why, but dogs seems to die in a lot of middle grade novels. In Wilson Rawls' 1961 novel, Where the Red Fern Grows, an Oklahoma boy named Billy Colman saves up his money to buy two Redbone Coonhounds, Old Dan and Little Anne, which he trains. These two dogs end up saving Billy's life, but at an awful cost. This novel has been adapted to the screen several times, most recently in 2003.

Sounder is another historical fiction that features a faithful dog. Set in the Deep South during the Depression, William H. Armstrong's Newbery Award-winning 1969 novel tells the story of an African-American family dealing with racism and poverty after the father is imprisoned for stealing a ham. The 1972 movie version of this story features moving performances by Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield.


No dog dies in the classic Anne of Green Gables. L. M. Montgomery published Anne of Green Gables over 100 years ago, but it has remained a perennial favorite. Its main character, a spirited 11 year old orphan named Anne Shirley, is adopted by Matthew Cuthbert and his grumpy sister Marilla, who contacted the orphanage looking for a boy to work on their farm, and estate called Green Gables located on Prince Edward Island. There have been numerous screen adaptations of this novel, but by far the best is the TV miniseries from 1985.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer and teacher. You can learn more about her and her books here.