Themes in Middle Grade Fiction

I had the funniest realization while I was reading over the past week, each book I read fed into the next in with its theme. I’ll show you what I mean:

The first title I read of this group of books – it’s about a child growing up as (you guessed it) the warden’s daughter in a prison. Her mother passed away when she was just a baby and now as she heads into middle school, she begins looking for someone to take the role as her mother.

This title is about boys that are sent to an island to attend a reform school, that is run very much like a prison. Jonathan feels he deserves a dark, damp fortress after what he’s done, but when an accident leaves the group of boys without adult supervision, Jonathan must face his past in order to save the boys on the island from a massive storm.

This title also takes place on an island where once a year a boat comes through the fog to drop off a new young, orphan child and take away the oldest child. The nine children on the island don’t know why they only know that it’s always been that way.

This is the story of Crow an orphan girl who washed up to the shore of a small island inhabited by just one mysterious man as a baby. He took her in and raised her as her own, but as she grows up she wants to learn more about where she came from and who her family was/is.

I just thought it was so funny that each story had a theme that carried from one book to the next and then the next book had a theme that carried to another title. By the way, these are all amazing middle grade novels that everyone should read!