#MiddleGradeMay Wrap Up!

And that's a wrap for Middle Grade May! I had a fabulous month reading and sharing middle grade books with you all. I've still got some book posts I'm working on (things got nuts toward the end of this month with Summer Reading coming up!), so look for those in the coming weeks. 

And check out my Instagram, where I've got video booktalks of some of my favorite new and upcoming middle grade reads (more to come there, too). 

This month, I wanted to concentrate on new and upcoming middle grade books. I was hoping to read 10 books and ended up reading 12 books, so I met my goal. Here's what I read this month: 

  

Pie in the Sky by Ramy Lai (Henry Holt, May 2019). 

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (Balzer + Bray, May 2019). 

Because of the Rabbit by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic, March 2019). 

  

The Great Penguin Rescue by Sandra Markle (Milbrook, 2017). 

Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow, September 2019). 

Roll With It by Jamie Sumner (Atheneum, October 2019). 

  

Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos (Random House, May 2019). 

Camp by Kayla Miller (HMH Books for Young Readers, April 2019). 

All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Viking, June 2019). 

  

Girl of the Southern Sea by Michelle Kadarusman (Pajama Press, May 2019). 

Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya (Kokila, August 2019). 

Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy (Balzer + Bray, October 2019). 

What a great month of books! Next up, I'm going to be going back to my Romance Project and picking up a bunch of LGBT books for Pride Month. 

What's on your reading agenda for this summer? 

#MiddleGradeMay: Lalani of the Distant Sea

Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly. Grades 5-8. Greenwillow, September 2019. 304 pages. Reviewed from digital galley provided by publisher. 

Booktalk:
There are stories of extraordinary children who are chosen from birth to complete great quests and conquer evil villains. 
This is no such story. 
Sometimes, you are an ordinary child. 

Sometimes, you choose yourself. 

So begins Lalani's story. Lalani is about an ordinary a child as it gets. She's not especially smart or brave or hardworking. But times are getting desperate in her village. There's been no rain for weeks and weeks. The plants that they make into medicine are no longer growing, so the sick are dying. Lalani's father set off on a Sailing Day and never returned - just like all the sailors that leave their island - and her mother has just been been struck with mender's disease. 

There's no hero showing up to save them. But maybe all it takes is one girl, stubborn or foolish enough to start things in motion. Maybe all it takes is one girl who will never, ever give up. One ordinary girl with an extraordinary will: Lalani of the Distant Sea. 

My thoughts:

This is an extraordinary story. Based on Filipino folklore, this is a layered look at a community on the verge of something and a girl with nothing left to lose. When Lalani's father didn't come home, she got a stepfather and stepbrother who are domineering and demanding. "The sky was clear, but a storm had entered their house." When Lalani's mother takes ill, she's finally desperate to break the norm and start looking for extraordinary solutions to save her own family and the village. 

This story is set in a world of fantastic creatures, a menacing mountain that threatens the village's existence and a land of plenty that no one has ever reached (or returned from, anyway). Readers who are looking for a lush fantasy novel that's unlike anything they have read will want to pick up this book. 

It's dark. It's scary sometimes. It's rich and layered and feminist. This is a book to watch. 

Readalikes: 

Hand this to fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Algonquin, 2016) by Kelly Barnhill for readers who like a rich fantasy story with a wholly original setting where you may not always know where it's going but things come together in a really satisfying way at the end. 

Hand this to fans of A Path Begins (The Thickety) (Katherine Tegen 2014( by J.A. White for readers who like a strong heroine in a dark fantasy novel with scary moments. 

Hand this to fans of Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond, 2011) for readers who love a strong everyday heroine who will stop at nothing to save her friends. 

#MiddleGradeMay: Other Words for Home

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. Grades 4-7. Balzer + Bray, 2019. 352 pages. Reviewed from galley provided by publisher.

Booktalk:

Jude always dreamed of America, but her dream was nothing like what actually happened. She dreamed of becoming a famous movie star just like in the American movies she and her best friend watched from their seaside city in Syria. It was nothing like what actually happened - leaving her father and brother to travel to stay with family in Cincinnati as things grow more and more violent. Actually living in America is way different than the movies.

In America, Jude is "Middle Eastern". She gets looks from people and realizes that they assume that she has come from violence. She struggles to learn English and to make friends at her new school where her American cousin wants nothing to do with her. When she wants to try out for the school play, her cousin and her friends frown on it, assuming that someone with an accent will never get cast. Can this place ever feel like home? Will she ever be reunited with the other half of her family?

My thoughts:

There were so many details that struck me throughout this story - like the reaction that Jude gets when she starts wearing hijab. Strangers approach her to tell her that she doesn't have to cover herself in America, but Jude has never seen hijab as anything but a joyous symbol of growing up. And the moment when Jude realizes that everyone here assumes that her country is violent and wartorn, when in fact Syria was peaceful for most of her life and she believes it will be again. Reading this book as a white woman, it shone a light on a lot of assumptions that American make about Muslim people and Middle Eastern countries. Jude learns what it's like to see her country through the eyes of others and it's much different than how she views her own home.

And the verse is so beautifully crafted, there were so many passages that made me sit up and take notice. Jason Reynolds has a blurb on the back of the galley where he says this is a story that "peels back layers of culture and identity, fear and prejudice, exile and belonging" and that is the perfect way to explain why this story is so important.

Readalikes:

Readers who rooted for the intrepid young heroine Ha in Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins, 2011), another novel in verse about a refugee girl coming to America, will root for Jude, too.

This is an older title, but another great novel in verse about the refugee experience is Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (Feiwel & Friends, 2007). The way that Kek, a refugee from Sudan, experiences the overwhelming new world of America is similar to what Jude goes through. Both are lyrical portraits of the refugee experience.

And readers interested in contemporary stories of Muslim girls navigating middle school will also enjoy Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (Salaam Reads, 2017). Amina is a Pakistani-American girl and Jude is a Syrian immigrant, but both face prejudice and stereotyping as Muslim girls. Both also have a hidden talent for singing.

#MiddleGradeMay: Because of the Rabbit

Because of the Rabbit by Cynthia Lord. Grades 3-5. Scholastic, 2019. 192 pages. Reviewed from galley provided by publisher.  

Booktalk:

Fifth grader Emma (formerly homeschooled) is starting public school for the first time and Scared and Excited are in a race to see which will win out. Emma's number one goal in fifth grade is to make a best friend; she's been lonely in homeschool since her older brother decided to start public school, and she figures she'll find one the very first day.

But it's not as easy as she thought it would be. There are a lot of weird rules in public school, it takes way too long to get through each day (at home she was usually done with her lessons by lunchtime), and most of the kids seem to already have established friend groups. Each day, Emma longs to get home to the newest addition to her family: a pet rabbit that she and her game warden dad rescued and that Emma has named Monsieur Lapin in honor of the forest stories her Pepere used to tell her.

It turns out that Lapi might just be the key to making a new friend, but not the first friend Emma would have chosen. Jack, a kid who sits in her desk cluster and who has special needs, LOVES animals. Emma has a list of things she's looking for in a best friend: likes the things she likes, always chooses her side, accepts her for herself... and Jack ticks a lot of those boxes. But, while the other kids in class are mostly kind to Jack, no one hangs out with him outside of school. If Emma befriends Jack is she branding herself a weirdo? Can she find the strength to navigate school and stay true to herself?

My thoughts: 

This is the sweet, realistic story that we've come to expect from Cynthia Lord. Emma is a likeable character who is easy to root for, even when she's sometimes making questionable choices. I loved the strong sense of setting, a small community in the mountains of Maine and Emma's house on the lake and all the nature all around them.

And even though this is a gentle story, it packs a bit of a punch, as well. I found myself getting emotional towards the end as Emma tackles something that is really hard for her to do, even though it's the right thing to do. The characters really felt real to me and that makes sense since a lot of this story was inspired by elements of the author's life - she has an adult son with autism, her children were homeschooled and her daughter went from that to public school, and they even keep rabbits.

Readalikes:

Young animal lovers will eat this book with a spoon. Hand it to readers who enjoyed A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold (Walden Pond, 2017), which also features a neurodiverse character obsessed with animals.

Readers who enjoyed the adventures of a former homeschooler starting middle school in graphic novel All's Fair in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson (Dial, 2017) will also be interested in Emma's journey.

And readers who like school stories about unlikely friends like Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan (Scholastic, 2016) will love reading about Emma's quest to make a friend.

#MiddleGradeMay: Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai. Grades 3-7. Henry Holt, 2019. Digital galley provided by publisher.

Booktalk:

Jingwen feels like he's just landed on Mars when his plane touches down in Australia. There's only one English word he's really mastered - BOOGER - because his annoying little brother is a giant booger. School is a torture chamber where he's forced to repeat the fifth grade and still doesn't understand anything because everything is taught in English. He has no friends and he's afraid to try to talk to anyone since he probably won't be able to respond to them anyway.

The only thing that gets Jingwen through the day is what his brother calls CAKE TIME! Every afternoon after school when Jingwen's mother goes to work, Jingwen and Yanghao buy groceries and bake a cake from the menu of his father's dream bakery, Pie in the Sky. The bakery was his father's dream and he didn't live long enough to see it through, so Jingwen bakes the fancy cakes they would have had on the menu as a way to feel good about himself and feel connected to his father.

Of course the boys are NOT ALLOWED to use the oven when they're home alone and they could get into big trouble, so they have to keep their baking an absolute secret AND they must eat the entire cake every night. How long 'til Yanghao blows their secret? How long 'til eating all that cake makes one of them blow chunks? How long 'til Jingwen's longing to feel at home stops being just "pie in the sky" - an impossible dream?

My thoughts:

This is a pitch-perfect story that explores how tough moving to a new place and learning a new language can be. Jingwen spends hours and hours on his homework even though he's repeating the fifth grade. He knows the answers if he can understand the questions, but understanding the questions is the tough part. Throughout the book, Jingwen talks about seashells - seashells that he collected and asked his mother to hold for him, even though it weighed down her pockets. They come to represent Jingwen's feelings of guilt over his father's death.

The cartoon illustrations add so much to the book - Remy Lai uses gibberish symbols to show how English sounds like an alien language to Jingwen. His frustration is compounded by how easily his younger brother is picking up the language. As we read, we begin to learn that it's not just a lack of practice that holds Jingwen back, but a refusal to accept his life in Australia and the fact that his father passed away and his feelings of guilt about his father's death.

And it's a story about brotherhood - Jingwen is the oldest and has to take care of his little brother, but he carries a lot of resentment. Yanghao is picking up the language more quickly and seems fearless about speaking it, not caring if he makes mistakes. Because Yanghao's more willing to try, he makes friends and succeeds in school where Jingwen lets his fear and embarrassment hold him back. It's hard to be the big brother caring for a younger brother who sometimes translates for you and can talk to the librarians to book a computer.

This is a book that's both salty and sweet, like the perfect salted caramel sauce.

Readalikes:

The humor and graphic novel portions of this book make it a great read for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Big Nate, even though the subject matter carries more gravity than in those books.

New Kid by Jerry Craft is a full graphic novel and uses humor to explore a similar feeling of being a new kid and a kid who stands out from the other kids around you.

All Four Stars by Tara Dairman is another character-driven book for budding foodies about kids who love cooking but must keep their kitchen exploits a secret.

#MiddleGradeMay: My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

Okay, I cheated and finished this one up in April so that I would have something to post right away for #MiddleGradeMay. 

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi (Dutton, August 2019). Grades 5-8. Galley provided by publisher.

Booktalk:

Ebony Grace would much rather be spending the summer at home with her granddaddy, one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA and the inspiration for her obsession with all things space, especially Star Trek and Star Wars. INSTEAD, she's been sent to another planet - Harlem - to stay with her dad while her mom takes care of something having to do with her granddaddy (no one will tell her what). E-Grace uses her imagination location to turn her summer trip into a mission for the starship Uhura, but the other kids in her neighborhood do NOT want to play along. 

Even Bianca, the girl who lives in her daddy's building and who has spent many hours playing space missions with her on previous visits, has changed. No longer interested in visiting the junkyard and building rockets, Bianca is jumping double dutch and breakdancing with her crew - other girls on their block who have all named themselves after ice cream flavors. So how to survive a summer on an alien planet completely surrounded by strange beings with ways you don't understand? Use your imagination location, stay true to yourself, and don't forget the prime directive. 

My thoughts:

Ibi Zoboi's middle grade debut is a story about an oddball girl who doesn't fit in with the other kids - E-Grace doesn't understand the stuff they're interested in and she has no desire to compromise herself to get along. This makes for a hard summer, a lonely summer. E-Grace is facing a lot of challenges - not only with the other kids but also with her family. She's been shipped up to a different state to spend the summer with a father she doesn't know too well who doesn't actually have a lot of time to be with her. All in the interest of getting her out of the way of whatever is happening with her grandfather. She's out of the loop in a way that breaks her heart but that's not atypical for kids. When tough stuff happens, sometimes the kids are just gotten out of the way to try to make life easier for everyone. 

All this is to say that I didn't always like Ebony-Grace, but I think that's the point. She's one of those kids who is a little TOO MUCH sometimes. But I don't think I'll ever forget her and I was definitely rooting for her the whole time.

Readalikes:

I would hand this to readers who identified with or rooted for Sunny by Jason Reynolds - Sunny and Ebony-Grace are both quirky characters who march to the beat of their own drummers and aren't willing to conform to what others might want for them. 

And I would hand this to readers who enjoyed the strong sense of setting and capable girl leads of One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. 

#MiddleGradeMay

It's May, which means it's time to DEARMG - Drop Everything And Read Middle Grade! This is a great month to catch up on that middle grade reading you've been meaning to do. Want to participate? Grab the graphic above for your blog posts or whatever else you want to use it for. Tweet or post on Instagram (or whatever other social media you use) what you're reading with our hashtag #MiddleGradeMay. And read, read, read!

Set your own goal for the month - Akoss is challenging everyone to read in a genre they don't normally read. I'm challenging myself to read ahead and tackle some of the galleys I've got burning a hole in my Kindle. You can take a peek at my Middle Grade May TBR pile here. Of course, as I put my list together I also grabbed a ton that I need to catch up on from earlier in the year, last year, etc.

I'll be reading and posting throughout the month and Tweeting, too. I would love to know what middle grade you have loved recently or what you're looking forward to!

#MiddleGradeMay Announcement and TBR!

It's that time of year again: time for #MiddleGradeMay, the month when we read Middle Grade! I'm so thrilled to be co-hosting again with the wonderful booktuber Akoss who has our official announcement here:




Be sure to click through to her YouTube channel for tons of middle grade reviews and lots of other great stuff.

You can play along, too! All you have to do is read middle grade books this month and post/tweet/video about them during May. Use the hashtag #MiddleGradeMay so we can all find your stuff.

This year we're challenging you to choose a genre that's outside of what you normally read and dive in. However, we're super laid back - this month is just all about discovering and enjoying middle grade lit.

I am kinda cheating because my "genre" is going to be catching up on 2019 books and reading ahead some upcoming 2019 galleys, inspired by all the lovely folks who participate in the Early Word Galley Chat YA/MG (check out the hashtag #ewgcya to see!). But the good news is that there is no cheating since we're laid back. ;)

I've come up with a TBR pile that I'll attempt to tackle. I'm hoping I can read 10 books this month, but WE'LL SEE. And this is subject to change, of course. Here are some of the books on my TBR pile (not pictured are a ton of digital galleys that I will choose from, too!).

Will you be reading along with us this month? What books or genres are on your #MiddleGradeMay TBR list? 

#MiddleGradeMay Wrap Up

It's been a blast concentrating on reading middle grade books this month. Now that I'm not a youth specialist anymore, it's easy to let that reading slip as I'm concentrating on building up my skills in other areas of collection development and reader's advisory. I read some great books this month and had a lot of fun recording some video booktalks to highlight books to go along with Akoss's weekly themes.

I read a lot of the books from the TBR pile that I started with, but not all of them. And I ended up picking up some other titles as I was inspired to throughout the month. I did a lot of reviewing, as you may have noticed, and it was great to get back in the habit of writing in depth about what I'm reading.

Here are the middle grade books I read this month (some pictured above):

• All Summer Long by Hope Larson (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2018)
• Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol (First Second, 2018)
• Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow, 2015)
• Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead (Feiwel and Friends, 2018)
• The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya (Viking, 2017)
• Front Desk by Kelly Yang (Scholastic, 2018)
• Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, 2018)
• Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (Little, Brown 2018)
• The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic, 2018)
• Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile by Sharlee Glen (Abrams, 2018)
• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson (Scholastic, 2018)
• Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo (Clarion, September 2018)
• The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta (Scholastic, 2018)
• You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow, 2018)

And speaking of middle grade... are you following Heavy Medal, SLJ's Mock Newbery blog? Usually they are quiet this time of year and pick up the discussion in the fall as we approach award season, but this year they're compiling suggestions of titles just like the actual committees do. I LOVE this not only because it gives a greater feel of what being on the actual committee is like, but because it gives all of us a head's up on what books we might want to pay attention to because they're getting award buzz. 

Each month, anyone can submit up to 4 suggestions of already-published eligible books and the Heavy Medal bloggers are compiling the suggestions, grouped by number of suggestions. So if you're wondering what middle grade to check out this year, books with multiple suggestions on their lists are good bets to be books people will be talking about. This is a great resource for collection development, too!

#MiddleGradeMay: The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

Save the restaurant, save the world.

Okay, not really, but it feels that way to Arturo in The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. Since before Arturo was born, his family has run their restaurant La Cocina de la Isla. La Cocina is a special place in a close-knit Latino neighborhood. Arturo's abuela knows every regular customer by name and it's a place where many in the community feel like family. Now, it's being threatened by a developer who wants to move in and build condos and destroy their neighborhood.

In addition to saving his restaurant, Arturo's trying to win over the girl of his dreams, his god-cousin Carmen who's come to visit for the summer after the death of her mom. She's into poetry and activism; how can Arturo get her attention? And he's starting his first kitchen job in the restaurant - not a prep chef like he'd imagined, but a dishwasher which is harder than it sounds!

It's a lot for one thirteen-year-old boy. Can Arturo make it work? Or will it all be an Epic Fail?

I don't know why I waited so long to pick up this book, but I'm so glad I did. It won a Pura Belpre honor, so that definitely tells you something. I fell in love with Arturo and his family and their neighborhood. This is a great story about the power of people to stand up to bigger, richer forces and defend their neighborhoods and their way of life. It introduces the concept of gentrification in a way that makes sense and really digs into the issues surrounding it. Arturo and the other kids in his family really take an active role, seeing the urgency in their situation even as others in his family want to pretend it's not happening to protect their ailing abuela from the devastating truth.

It's funny and it's serious, which is my favorite kind of contemporary story. I like to laugh AND cry.

I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author and it's great. Pablo Cartaya is an actor, which makes sense since he reads really well and does voices for the characters. Audiobook is a great way to experience this book if you, like me, don't always know how the Spanish words should be pronounced. Or if you're just looking for a fun listen. This would be a great family listen for families with tweens, too.

Hand this one to activism-minded kids or kids who like realistic stories about kids making a difference in their communities.

Readalikes:

An oldie but a goodie: Hoot by Carl Hiaasen about a kid trying to save the burrowing owls in his Florida home from development, this is another book for kids who want to save the world.

The tone and characters of the book reminded me a lot of Gordon Korman, so maybe try Ungifted. And readers looking for stories about boys told with a mix of humor and serious subjects might like Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Anderson. 

For kids drawn to Arturo's experience in the kitchen and restaurant life, hand them All Four Stars by Tara Dairmen.

For kids looking for more stories about Latino families, try Enchanted Air by Margarita Engel, Stef Soto Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres, or Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar.

The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. Grades 5-9. Viking, 2017. 230 pages. Audiobook is 5 hours and 6 minutes. Review copy provided by my local library. 

#MiddleGradeMay Week 5: Diverse Books!

Whew! What a month it has been! I don't know about you, but I have really cherished the time I spent this month dedicating my reading to middle grade books. I read more than I normally do and I read and blogged about some truly great books. Let's hope I can keep the momentum going as we head into summer. (My first summer in 10+ years that I will not be stressed out about the Summer Reading Program...)

Our final week of Middle Grade May 2018 is all about diverse books. Akoss asked us to talk about books that portray diversity in an uplifting way. I couldn't narrow it down this week, so I have six booktalks for you with some of my favorite recent diverse reads.



Books mentioned in this video:

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokski (Disney-Hyperion, 2018)

The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta (Scholastic, 2018)

Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres (Little, Brown, 2017)

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin, 2015)

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez (Viking, 2017)

Rebound by Kwame Alexander (Houghton Mifflin, 2018)

How'd your Middle Grade May go? Did you read some great middle grade books? I'd love to hear about them - let me know what you've been reading!

#MiddleGradeMay: Ghost Boys

You guys. This book. My heart. I just... This is one not to miss if you've got kids asking questions about social justice or things they've heard (or seen or experiences) about police violence. It's incredibly tough and beautiful, and it would make an excellent conversation starter.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes is narrated by Jerome. Jerome wasn't doing anything.

He was playing.
In his neighborhood.
With a toy guy his friend had given him.

Until he wasn't.
Until he was shot.
Until he died.

Now Jerome's stuck as a ghost. He desperately wants to move on; he doesn't want to see his family in pain. He doesn't want to see them moving on and living their lives without him. But Jerome, and all the ghosts of boys killed due to racial injustice, can't move on.

The first ghost that Jerome gets to know a bit is the ghost of Emmett Till who was killed in 1955. That's a lot of years for ghost boys to be waiting for change, for the world to get better so that there stop being more ghost boys.

This book absolutely broke my heart. It's a hard read. And it says such important things. It starts a conversation essential to have with middle schoolers.

The only character in the book who can see Jerome as a ghost is Sarah, the 12-year-old daughter of the police officer who killed Jerome. Not only does this show essential similarities between the two children - they're the same age, they're the same height even though Officer Moore describes Jerome as being massive and threatening - but it humanizes Officer Moore. He's a person. He made a terrible decision. He has a family. His daughter cares what happens to him. As Sarah learns more about the trial and hears corrections from Jerome about what went down that day, she has to figure out how she feels about her father and what she's going to do with those feelings.

Middle school kids who aren't ready for books like The Hate U Give or How It Went Down need this book. This is an essential purchase for library shelves. It deserves to be read widely and taught and discussed.

Readalikes:

Readers looking for more moving stories of atrocities against people might try How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle, narrated by a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears.

#MiddleGradeMay: The Parker Inheritance

A great middle grade mystery story puts child heroes into the position where they are the only ones who can solve the mystery. Sometimes it's because they don't trust the adults in their lives enough to involve them. Sometimes it's because adults aren't present. And sometimes it's because the adults around think the mystery is a joke. The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson is one of the latter kind.

Candice is spending the summer in her late grandmother's house due to some complications with her separated parents and their house in Atlanta. When she meets Brandon, the boy across the street, and discovers that he loves reading almost as much as she does, she thinks she might have found a friend. And when she discovers a long-forgotten letter in her grandmother's attic, a letter that speaks of a fortune hidden in town awaiting the person who can solve the puzzle, she knows she and Brandon have to try to find it. Her grandmother tried and failed. But now Candice has another chance.

Everyone thought Candice's grandmother was crazy for pursuing the Parker Inheritance, and when she didn't find it, they forced her to resign from her position as City Manager. So of course everyone thinks that the fortune is a myth. And it's going to take two kids with the power to believe and the perseverance to solve the clues to figure it out.

Candice and Brandon begin to decipher the clues in the letter, a challenge that will lead them to research the town's history, racial injustice, forgotten heroes and a true love story. But can two kids do what no adults have been able to do in decades? Can they solve the mystery before time runs out and the answers fade back into the past?

Kids who like puzzle mysteries and solving riddles are going to eat this up. And it's a story with meat on its bones. As Candice and Brandon are researching, they discover a lot of unsavory stuff that happened to the African Americans who started the whole thing in the 1950s. They learn a lot about their families and their town and themselves as they try to piece together where the fortune came from and where it might be hidden.

Readalikes:

Hand this one to kids who like puzzle mysteries. Then also hand them any or all of the following:

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Puffin, 1978). The original? fortune-hunting children's mystery story, this is still a classic beloved by many. Candice reads it in the book, a fitting homage.

The Emperor's Riddle by Kat Zhang (Aladdin, 2017). Take an armchair travel trip to China as Mia tries to find her aunt and maybe a fortune beyond imagination.

Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald (Dial, 2014). This art history mystery will especially appeal to kids who like the historical and research themes in The Parker Inheritance.

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson. Grades 4-8. Scholastic, 2018. 352 pages. ARC provided by publisher.

#MiddleGradeMay Week 4: 2018 Debuts

This fourth week of #MiddleGradeMay is all about those debut authors and there have already been some FANTASTIC debut books coming out this year! I'm really excited to tell you about four of my favorites that have come out so far this year in the video below. (Do you like the videos I'm making? I am a totally newbie at YouTube, but I have been enjoying it.)



Books mentioned in this video:

Front Desk by Kelly Yang (Scholastic, May 2018) - comes out next week on May 29!

P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy (Feiwel and Friends, March 2018)

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (Little, Brown, March 2018)
Whoops - this is not actually a debut novel, but it is Blake's first middle grade novel and also I want you to know about it, so I'm leaving it in there!)

Like Vanessa by Tami Charles (Charlesbridge, March 2018)

These debuts are awesome! You should definitely check them out and I hope that we'll

#MiddleGradeMay: Be Prepared

I do not actually buy a lot of books. When you're a librarian, you don't always need to. We are surrounded by free books. But when I started updating our grade level book lists to get ready for Summer Reading, I was hearing a lot of buzz for this title and I wasn't going to be able to get a library copy in before I needed to have the updates done. So I bought it.

No regrets!!!!

Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol gave me the feels. Like, so much that I actually had to put it down at one point and come back to it the next day. And I dreamed about summer camp.

Almost-10-year-old Vera is on the outside a lot. Although she gets invited to slumber parties with the other girls, she's never really part of the in-crowd. And when she tries to throw her own birthday slumber party, things go horribly awry. Vera always feels different than the other kids and part of that is because, as Russian immigrants, her family is different. Which is why, when Vera hears about a Russian culture summer camp sponsored by her church, she is desperate to go. All the kids in her neighborhood disappear to go to various camps in the summer and Vera's sure she's finally found a place where she will really fit in.

But camp is not at all what Vera expected. She's put into a tent with two girls who are best friends and who are much older than her. There's no running water, which means using a disgusting outhouse for two weeks, and Vera can't seem to do anything right. Having no friends at camp is even worse than having no friends at home because at home at least a bear's not going to eat you. And you have toilets.

This story is based on author Vera Brosgol's actual experiences and she definitely captures that feeling of being on the outside. What strikes me about this book is that it's so raw and real; Vera makes some bad decisions and some cruel decisions sometimes. Even though she knows how it feels to be the odd one out, she still is sometimes mean to some of the other kids. When you're growing up and you're figuring things out, you don't always make the right decisions and Brosgol doesn't shy away from that.

Camp is made out to be this idyllic experience that everyone looks back on with nostalgia and longing. And it's not that way for everyone! I was one of those kids who went to camp and did not have an amazing time. I had a fine time, it wasn't torture every minutes, but given the choice I did not elect to go back. So I definitely identified with Vera.

So, yes. Go get this book. Add it to your Summer Reading lists. I think it'll be a hit with kids.

Readalikes:

This is another great entry into the Children's Graphic Novel Memoir category, so kids who enjoy books like Raina Telgemeier's Smile, Jennifer Holm's Sunny Side Up or Cece Bell's El Deafo will also enjoy this one.

Don't miss Vera Brosgol's fiction graphic novel Anya's Ghost, which is also great.

Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol. Grades 4-7. First Second, April 2018. 256 pages. Review copy purchased (!!).

#MiddleGradeMay: Blackbird Fly

Here's a backlist title for #MiddleGradeMay and I'm kicking myself because it took me so long to pick it up. I've recently read Erin Entrada Kelly's latest book and it made me want to go back and pick up the one that I missed. Blackbird Fly (Greenwillow, 2015) is a favorite booktalk title of one of my school booktalk partners and I can definitely see why! This is a raw and realistic portrayal of middle school bullying.

The Dog Log.

Apple is on the Dog Log, a list of the ugliest girls in school that the boys come up with each year. Apple knew she didn't have many friends and the popular kids sometimes said mean stuff to her, like calling her a dog-eater because she is Filipino. But to be on the Dog Log? There's no coming back from that. Apple's plan is to get a guitar, learn how to play all her favorite Beatles songs, and then run away to become a street musician and ditch this middle school life forever.

Unless... When a new kid shows up at school, a kid who knows nothing about the Dog Log, maybe he'll go with Apple to the Halloween dance. And then maybe she won't seem like such a hopeless loser. As Apple gets to know Evan, she realizes he's very different from the kids she thought were her friends. He doesn't seem to care what people think. He's interested in her Filipino culture. And he might be able to help her turn everything around.

As I was reading this, I kept thinking about Blubber by Judy Blume, which I know is a dated reference from my own childhood. But that's the level of meanness going on here, more heartbreaking because I know it happens in schools every day. Apple feels trapped, stuck with "friends" who are mean to her because it's better to be with someone who makes fun of you than to be alone.

Music is a savior and a healing agent here. Apple listens to her Beatles albums over and over again. The Beatles are a connection to her dad who died in the Philippines and they are a bridge to her future. Apple envisions a future writing and performing songs, even as her mom refuses to support her, saying that she won't make any money or get a good job by studying music. As we go through the story, music starts bringing people together.

This is a powerful story that will speak to victims of bullying and it's one that you should definitely have in your RA repertoire for when that question comes up.

Readalikes:

Hand this to kids who like Wonder by R.J. Palaccio but don't mind a rather more bleak outlook. Kelly's latest novel You Go First would also make a good readalike with a similar tone and outlook on middle school life and how kids who are different are treated.

Readers interested in the musical aspects of the book should definitely check out Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, 2017), which has a similar theme of a talented musical kid whose parent doesn't approve of his plans to be a musician. Other musical novels that might be of interest include A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Readers interested in more books about kids figuring out their identities might also like Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins, 2015) or The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods (Nancy Paulsen, 2014).

Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly. Grades 5-8. Greenwillow, 2015. 296 pages. Review copy provided by my local library. 

#MiddleGradeMay Week 3: Underrated Middle Grade

It's the third week of #MiddleGradeMay and we're almost halfway through the month. I hope you've found some awesome middle grade lit to read this month! The theme set by our Booktuber host Akoss for this week is Underrated Middle Grade, meaning books that have less than 1000 ratings on GoodReads. I have three of my favorite underrated books for you today in this week's video:



Books mentioned in this video:

The Emperor's Riddle by Kat Zhang (Aladdin, 2017).

The Perilous Princess Plot by Sarah Courtald (Feiwel & Friends, 2015).

(Second Buckle & Squash book is The Gigantic Giant Goof-Up)

Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung (Scholastic, 2016).

I was a little surprised at some of my favorite titles that have less than 1000 ratings on GoodReads once I started looking at it. You might be surprised, too! What are some of YOUR favorites that you wish more people would read?

#MiddleGradeMay: Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World

Crushes. Remember how confusing it was to figure out crushes? Maybe you had them and didn't know how to talk about it. Maybe your friends had them and suddenly could talk about nothing else. Maybe you had a crush that seemed like it was "wrong". Maybe you never had any crushes and wondered why everyone else seemed to. Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (Little, Brown, 2018) is a great book about first crushes and that unique ache that middle school love can bring.

There's been a lot changing recently in Ivy's life: Ivy's mom had twin boys, Ivy's suddenly feeling a rift between her and her older sister, Ivy's feeling like she doesn't matter very much to her family. And there's this big thing that she can't tell anyone, not her mom, not her sister, not her best friend. Ivy's never had a crush, but when she imagines herself having a crush, she imagines it with a girl. She doesn't know any other girls or women who have relationships with other girls or women. She knows that girls her age are supposed to like boys. And... she doesn't. So she keeps it to herself, letting her art journal be her only outlet for her feelings.

At the beginning of the book, a tornado descends upon her rural Georgia town and destroys Ivy's house. Her family escapes with their lives, but not much else. And suddenly Ivy's life is truly thrown into tumult. In the aftermath of the storm, June, a girl from Ivy's class, shows up with her doctor mom to help victims of the storm. And suddenly Ivy's imagined crush has a name.

But what do you do about a crush that's such a big secret you can't tell ANYONE? And what do you do if you're not sure and if making a decision about who you like might change your life forever?

Can I tell you that I am so glad that middle grade LGBTQ lit is blossoming? There have been a handful of great titles published over the past couple of years and I'm so excited to purchase it and put it on my library's shelves to reflect our diverse community. These books are so needed. As mentioned by this book's editor in a forward note in the galley, middle grade is when many kids start identifying their preferences with regards to relationships. As gatekeepers, we need to be certain that we're providing mirrors to all kinds of different experiences. And when it's a great, moving story with unforgettable characters, that's just all the more reason to put Ivy Aberdeen on our library shelves.

Ivy's a great tween character, dealing with being stuck in the middle of her family and being stuck in that "tween" place - no longer a child, not yet an adult. She's thoughtful and sensitive and wants to help more than anything, but she's afraid that her family sees her as a bother, a burden when they have so much else going on. I love the use of the physical storm as a catalyst to the story that represents the emotional storm going on within Ivy's mind. And Ivy's pain and confusion is palpable as she tries to navigate after the storm, feeling unsure not only about her place in her family (the unwanted middle child), but about her place in society.

Readers who look for stories about the tween experience or stories about first crushes will find much to love in Ivy.

Readalikes:

There have been some great LGBTQ middle grade novels that have come out in the past couple of years. Readers looking for more lesbian or questioning characters should pick up P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy and Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee.

Readers who want additional realistic books that really GET how it feels to be a tween might enjoy P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia.

And readers looking for more middle grade books about exploring first crushes might like Shug by Jenny Han.

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to  the World by Ashley Herring Blake. Grades 5-8. Little, Brown, 2018. 320 pages. Reviewed from ARC snagged at ALA Midwinter.

#MiddleGradeMay: You Go First

Well. Erin Entrada Kelly's done it again. She is a master of that particular ache that comes from middle school. In You Go First (Greenwillow, 2018), we meet two characters separated by 1200 miles. Charlotte and Ben are friends who've never met in real life. They play online Scrabble against each other and battle it out for first place on the leaderboard. Online, each of them can present the persona they want to. They could be kids who have nicknames, kids who are about to be elected student council president, kids who have friends...

But real life is different. Both Charlotte (Philadelphia) and Ben (Louisiana)  find themselves alone. Charlotte's discovering that her best friend is moving on to a different group of girls. Ben has always been a loner. And both of them are dealing with big life changes. Charlotte's dad is in the hospital after having a heart attack and Charlotte's ridden with guilt over how they've been growing apart. Ben's parents just told him they're getting a divorce, his home life will never be the same.

Over the course of a week and many narrative turns back and forth (mimicking the turns taken at Scrabble), Charlotte and Ben will come to depend on each other much more than they ever had before. With no one else to turn to, they turn to each other as they start to navigate the muddled, confusing waters of middle school.

Oh, this one got me in the feels. It's not overtly heartbreaking, but it's heartbreaking in its way of describing exactly how it feels to be in middle school and be totally flummoxed by how others are acting. The small (and big) actions of the other kids are so cruel, but so commonplace. As I was reading, my heart ached for these small, confused kids just beginning to grow up.

Erin Entrada Kelly is a master of showing her characters rather than telling you all about them. Sometimes the things she leaves out are even more important than the things she leaves in, letting readers discover Ben and Charlotte as they read the novel. This book reminded me so much of the Judy Blume books I read as a kid - books I read when I wanted to meet characters like me dealing with middle school life.

Readalikes:

This is a great followup to Kelly's Newbery-winning Hello, Universe (Greenwillow, 2017). Readers who loved her character development in that book will find much to love in You Go First.

The tone of the book reminded me a lot of Goodbye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb, 2015), which is another character-driven book that explores middle school through the eyes of several characters.

You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly. Grades 4-7. Greenwillow, 2018. 304 pages. Reviewed from ARC snagged at ALA Midwinter. 

#MiddleGradeMay Week 2: Heartbreaking Reads

How is your #MiddleGradeMay going? I have been reading some really great books and today I have some suggestions for you if you're looking for something great to read. Our Booktuber host Akoss has set themes for each week of #MiddleGradeMay this year. This week's theme is Heartbreaking Books and I've got booktalks of three of my favorites in this video:



Books mentioned in this video:

A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry (Laurel Leaf, 1977) - the first book that ever made me cry. I read it for the first time in fifth grade.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart (Scholastic, 2015).

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, 2016).

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick (Scholastic, 2004). (There is also a sequel, which I forgot to mention but which is also awesome: After Ever After.)

I hope you'll join us in reading and celebrating middle grade books this month! What are YOUR favorite heartbreaking middle grade reads?