Tag: middle grade

REVIEW: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

REVIEW: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

On Zoe’s birthday, she picks up the mail at home and finds a letter from her birth father, Marcus. Zoe’s never met him because Marcus is in prison. She’s never heard from him before either, although his letter makes it sound like he’s sent others. Zoe tries to talk to her mom about Marcus, but her mom says he is bad news. Zoe decides to write him back anyway. And she doesn’t tell her mom or step-dad about the letter.

Zoe is home for the summer so she can pick up the mail before anyone sees it. Her best friends are gone for the summer, and she’s fighting with her neighbor, Trevor, so she has a lot of time on her hands.

As Zoe learns more about Marcus, she sees what they have in common – a passion for cooking, a love of music. And she finally gets brave enough to ask why he’s in prison. Marcus says he was convicted of murder, but he’s innocent. So Zoe decides she’s going to look into Marcus’ case and try to help him.

Review

This was SO great! I adored Zoe! It’s the nature of the story that Zoe has to keep some secrets and lie at times to stay in communication with Marcus. And I so badly wanted her to have that relationship with him. There are so many other examples of her good character – she’s a hard worker, she forgives her neighbor for the things that hurt her feelings – that I could let the lying not bother me for the sake of the story. I knew it would all come out in the end.

The author does a great job of rounding out Zoe’s story with the baking and cooking pieces (A recipe for her cupcakes would have been a fun addition to the book) as well as her friendship with Trevor. Those non-Marcus threads never distracted from the primary story, they only enhanced it.

The big conflict at the end, when Zoe’s secrets were exposed, felt realistic. And the resolution to Marcus’s situation was so satisfying! There were some details in the story about The Innocence Project, their mission, and statistics about wrongful conviction. There were also references to the biases and discrimination against Blacks in general and against Black men and boys when it comes to the law. It’s a timely story. I thought there might be an author’s note in the back with more information or resources, but the content of the story stands on its own.

I loved this story. Hand this to any and every middle grade reader. Zoe is a delight. Don’t miss this one!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: The Amelia Six by Kristin L. Gray

REVIEW: The Amelia Six by Kristin L. Gray

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Millie, Thea, Cassie, Nathalie, Robin, and Wren are the Amelia Six – six girls who won the chance to spend the night at Amelia Earhart’s Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas. It was supposed to be an evening of food and fun with a scavenger hunt and a tour of the house, full of Amelia Earhart memorabilia. The prize attraction is a pair of Amelia’s goggles – a pair that is about to go the Smithsonian. But over the course of the evening, the goggles go missing.

The kids and the adults in charge of the museum are trapped in the house due to a snowstorm. There’s no cell reception. And everyone is suspicious of everyone else. The goggles are worth a lot of money to a thief.

But the Amelia Six are determined to find the goggles, get to the truth, and preserve Amelia’s memory. But what can six pre-teens do?

Review

This was a fun mystery with some unexpected twists. Millie was the point of view character, but the ensemble of girls was great. They worked well together once the investigation kicked in, and each brought something different to the sleuthing.

There’s a lot of great Amelia Earhart information both in the book and in the back matter. The setting for the story and the group that plans the event for the girls in the book are both real. Amelia Earhart fans will get a kick out of all the little nuggets of information.

Mystery fans, Earhart fans, and fans of books with great ensembles of characters should be sure to check this one out. It is a lot of fun with plenty of page-turning suspense.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn

REVIEW: Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Tundra Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Aggie is a bright girl, living in Torquay, England with her mother and grandmother. She takes dance at the Mermaid Dance Room from Miss Marianne. Marianne lives with her sister-in-law, Irma Eversham, and her niece Rose, neighbors of Aggie’s. Mrs. Eversham is abrasive, shrill, short-tempered and snappish. In fact, on the night of the benefit concert at the Mermaid Dance Room, Irma doesn’t even stay for the performance. She walks in, shouts at people, and leaves.

The benefit goes well, collecting clothes for the recent influx of refugees. When Aggie and her friends show up for dance class the next day, still excited about their performance and the good they accomplished, Aggie is surprised to find Irma dead under the piano from what appears to be poison.

Since Aggie saw the body, she’s eager to do some investigating of her own, especially when Miss Marianne becomes the primary suspect. Aggie discovers that her new Belgian friend, Hector, is an eager partner for her investigation. While Aggie’s nursemaid is determined to distract her from investigating, Aggie is firm in her plans to discover the culprit for herself.

Review

This was a fun mystery! Aggie is a great character – curious and determined. And she’s already a storyteller. She plots out interesting scenes and conversations in her mind based on the people and events around her. When I read the author’s note that Aggie was written with Agatha Christie in mind, this habit of Aggie’s was even more endearing.

I enjoyed the full cast of characters. The setting and timing of the story led to great challenges for the writer to address. Aggie’s age and gender meant she had to be properly supervised. The timing of the story also influenced how the women in the book were treated. I loved the feisty characters who pushed back against the gender expectations/limitations.

It’s not often that a kid’s mystery deals directly with a murder. Usually the crime is less violent – a theft, a missing person, etc. This is written for older middle grade readers (10+), probably because of the violence of a murder and an assault. Nothing seemed too graphic for the general reader in this age group. More sensitive readers should just be aware.

The case is delightfully twisty, giving readers several possible suspects. I enjoyed watching Aggie and Hector puzzle through their clues. I can’t wait to see what mystery the two of them stumble across next.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: Misfits by Jen Calonita

REVIEW: Misfits by Jen Calonita

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

In the world of the Fairy Tale Reform School there is another school for fairy tale-related characters – the Royal Academy. And Devinaria Nile of Cobblestone Creek has been invited to attend. The headmistress is the famous fairy godmother, Olivina. Devin has less than no interest in princess training. She has a special gift for communicating with animals and feels her calling is creature care. But the Royal Academy, Olivina, and Devin’s mother won’t take no for an answer.

Devin is in way over her head! She hasn’t done any of the required reading, so she doesn’t know the rules and expectations for the Royal Academy. She doesn’t have the right clothes for all the balls and princess-y activities. And her gift for talking to animals and her drive to take charge and care for her friends have put her at risk for expulsion. But something about the Royal Academy is just not right. The question is whether Devin will fall in line with Olivina’s rules or if she’ll keep digging until she finds the truth.

Review

This was excellent! This has strong characters like the ones I loved at the start of the Fairy Tale Reform School series. I love the princess-saves-herself attitude from Devin. And Olivina’s efforts to squash it were infuriating. But there’s so much more going on that we still don’t understand even after the first book wraps up. I can’t wait to get to book 2! It’s been awhile since I wanted a middle grade sequel so badly.

Devin and her friends are characters you want to cheer for. Even when tensions arise as Devin’s choices lead to trouble for her friends, and they push her away, you know they will stand together when it truly matters.

This book does a terrific job of establishing the characters and the setting while teasing at the mysteries of the series. I am thrilled with how the author balanced those pieces. I never felt like the character pieces were drawn out or filler to drag out the mystery/questions of the plot. And there’s a ton of action and plot in this but only hints at what’s really going on. This is delightful and redeems all of my frustration at the last couple Fairy Tale Reform School books. Highly Recommend!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: Kid Normal by Greg James and Chris Smith

REVIEW: Kid Normal by Greg James and Chris Smith

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Bloomsbury Children’s Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Murphy is sick of moving. They’ve moved so often it’s not even worthwhile for Murph to make friends at each new school. But this move is particularly bad. Murph’s mom can’t even find a school to take him! All the area middle schools are full, and she’s starting to get desperate.

One day she and Murphy stumble across a building labeled “The School.” The headmaster tries to put her off like the rest, but when she begs, stating his capabilities and her belief that in the right environment Murphy could “fly,” the headmaster perks up and invites Murph to the school.

But Murph might as well be in school in a foreign country because he doesn’t understand ANYTHING going on in this school. In one class, the teacher talks about “Capes” but no one in class is wearing one. And he’d swear he saw another student FLY onto the school grounds.

It turns out The School is a training institute for kids with powers of all sorts. Only a select few will be good enough to join the Heroes Alliance. The rest will learn to hide their powers from the world.

But a science experiment gone wrong brings a new villain on the scene. And he is very interested in the kids at The School.

Review

This is a fun, quirky superhero story. It reminds me a lot of the NERDS series by Michael Buckley. With the powers and the villains and the narrator that addresses the reader, it all had a familiar feel to it.

The hero school is pretty typical for the genre. There are kids whose powers seem too lame to be useful, kids who use their powers for bullying, and teachers who do the same with their positions. It felt a little like the movie Sky High.

There were layers to the villainous portions of the book, which was fun. There’s the science-experiment-gone-wrong guy at the top, the brains behind the schemes, and then a potential traitor hinted at for a sequel.

There’s a lot of silliness that will appeal to kids, but for me I felt like sometimes the authors were trying too hard. For example, at a big reveal moment, they inserted a random story about a rabbit. Instead of it being amusing, it was annoying (for me as an adult – kids might love it). I think they instead could have cut away to a villain scene or two. That would have delayed the reveal and prolonged the tension while keeping the reader engaged in the story. As I said, kids might love it.

I loved the illustrations. They really added a nice touch to the storytelling. And there’s a great message in the book, too, that anyone can be a hero. I’d put this in the hands of third and fourth grade students; I think they would love it.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: The Great Treehouse War by Lisa Graff

REVIEW: The Great Treehouse War by Lisa Graff

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

When Winnie was finishing 4th grade, her perpetually bickering parents announced they were getting a divorce. Their primary concern was complete and total equality. No extra time for either parent. So one parent took Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays. The other took Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Wednesdays were “free” days when Winnie would live in her two-story treehouse between her parents’ homes.

If this wacky schedule wasn’t obnoxious enough, her parents also started competing with one another to plan the most elaborate “holiday” celebrations for days like “Peach Cobbler Day” each and every day they had Winnie. Their elaborate plans consumed all of Winnie’s time. Her 5th grade school work suffered. Winnie’s best days at school were Thursdays, after her no-nonsense day to herself.

Winnie gets desperate. Her promotion to 6th grade is at risk, and she can’t get her parents to listen to her about how serious things are. Her teacher can’t get through to them, either. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Winnie decides to just STAY in her peaceful, neutral treehouse. And her friends decide to revolt as well and join her. This is the story of The Treehouse Ten.

Review

I have longed to read this book for months, and I am SO glad I did. What a FUN story!

There was a part of me that wanted to get distracted by plausibility. What custody plan puts a 5th grader in an unsupervised treehouse one day a week? What parents would get so caught up in their petty competition that they would ignore their daughter’s schooling? But I have seen how divorce and custody can bring out the worst in people. So I set aside my plausibility issues and just enjoyed the story. The rest of the story overcame my questions. And thankfully there were other adults looking out for Winnie!

I loved Winnie! She is such a great character. Her solution to the chaos of the Treehouse Ten standoff was so creative. Absolutely fantastic!

The format of this was fun. It’s presented as a school memoir project and includes diagrams, post-it notes from all of the kids, and transcripts of news reports. The format kept things fun and fresh.

I would put this into the hands of any kid who loves stories about kids who stand up for themselves in difficult situations. I highly recommend this one!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: What Is "Middle Grade?"

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: What Is “Middle Grade?”

Posted on by Jaymie

Publishers Weekly recently published an issue that focused on the “Middle Grade” market for books. This category is defined as books for 8 to 12 year olds who are reading independently. This sparked a fascinating discussion on Twitter about how different 8 to 12 year olds are, and also about the kids in the 10 to 14 year old range who sometimes are forgotten in the publishing world because they are ready for more mature reading experiences, but not necessarily ready or interested in some of the material found in Young Adult books.

After reading the article and participating in some of the Twitter talk, I looked at my middle grade reading very differently. I love this category in general. Middle Grade books are what kicked off my love of children’s literature. But the professionals – teachers, librarians, authors – on Twitter are right. It’s a diverse category trying to be all things to all readers who are at a pivotal time in their development as readers. I’m not sure there is any other reading category that has to cover the same sort of spread as Middle Grade.

When I was teaching, the books my third graders wanted (8-9 years old) and the ones my sixth graders wanted (11-12 years old) were vastly different. Here are some examples:

Middle Grade Books for the Average Third Grader

These books tend to be illustrated, shorter, and focused on kids close in age to the reader – around 10 years old. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule (stronger readers, genre preferences, etc.), but in general these books would have appealed to my third graders.

Middle Grade Books for the Average Sixth Grader

These books tend to be longer and focused on kids close in age to the reader – more in the 12 or 13 year old range.  They tackle more mature topics – race relations, death and dying, mental illness, etc., but at a level appropriate for the reader. The stories – and the emotional issues – are often more nuanced and intricate. These books will often work for 7th and 8th graders, too – the 10 to 14 age group. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule (struggling readers, genre preferences, etc. – and some kids in this age group will push toward teen/YA books like Maze Runner and Hunger Games), but in general these books would have appealed to my sixth graders.

Middle Grade Books that Span the Age Range

Theory of Small Things mysteryBrilliant Middle School Detective

Then there are the books that work for the whole range – Dork Diaries/Wimpy Kid, animal stories, graphic novels, super hero stories, mysteries and fantasy stories that are mostly action-focused. I had kids at both ends of the Middle Grade age range that would dig into books like these. If they could handle the length of the book and the vocabulary, they could handle anything the story might have dished out, no matter what the age. (Wings of Fire might push the envelope a little on the younger end because of the violence.)

I would love to see publishers push a different sort of division for Middle Grade that reflects the different needs and interests of the kids in this age range. Some of the authors on Twitter said their publishers were marketing their books to the older 10-14 group, which seems like a wise sub-category to me. There are things you can explore with middle schoolers that you wouldn’t want to tackle with younger kids, but you can keep some of the more mature features of Young Adult books out of those stories, knowing that the kids who are ready for that material will seek it out on their own.

REVIEW: Unicorn of Many Hats by Dana Simpson

REVIEW: Unicorn of Many Hats by Dana Simpson

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Phoebe and her unicorn best friend, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, are back in a new comic collection. In this volume the friends

  • talk about books
  • learn about fandom
  • explore Phoebe’s favorite show, Confetti Canyon
  • see what a unicorn is like as a babysitter
  • experience friendship and family
  • visit Marigold’s home
  • meet Phoebe’s new teacher
  • celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas
  • and Marigold tries video games

Review

This is my favorite comic/graphic novel series for kids. The pair’s friendship has grown so nicely over the series. Marigold maintains her unicorn vanity but she isn’t off-putting or catty. (That’s Dakota’s role.) Phoebe’s family and human friends bring some diversity to the stories and the humor, so every strip isn’t about sparkles or Marigold’s beauty.

I can’t recommend this series – and this particular book – highly enough. If you are looking for a FUN reading experience for yourself or for a kid in your life, check out the Phoebe and her Unicorn series. I have enjoyed reading these books in order so I can see how the relationships change over time, but I don’t know that it is essential. This is book 7 in the series. Books 1, 2 and 7 have been my favorites so far.

Many, many thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an electronic review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: Princess Juniper of the Hourglass by Ammi-Joan Paquette

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Princess Juniper of Torr makes a small request for her 13th birthday – a kingdom of her own. She longs for a place where she can be with kids her own age without having to follow the endless rules of her Comportment Master. A place where she can put all of her lessons into practice. Surprisingly, her father says yes.

Soon, Juniper and her “country men and women” are loaded up and ready to head to their new kingdom. Two things keep this from feeling as awesome as it should. One is Cyril, Juniper’s arrogant older cousin  who is sent along with two of his friends; they  have no intention of following Juniper as queen. The other is the “minor skirmish” Torr seems to be having with a neighboring kingdom. Juniper worries about her father, the king, and her people, but she sticks with the plan and heads to the Hourglass Mountains. Little does she know what awaits them in her new kingdom.

Review

This was fantastic! I loved Juniper right from the start. The kids who go with her to the Basin are an interesting mix. The kids are supposed to be 13 or younger, except for Cyril’s crew, which is a little bit of a stretch to me because in some ways they act older, but I chose not to focus on it. I enjoyed the story completely when I put that aside.

Juniper is a great leader, but she is only 13. She has a lot to learn about dealing with difficult subjects, balancing work and play for her people, and deciding what to share and what to keep to herself. Parts of this reminded me of the book The False Prince – the kingdoms, the swordplay and the treachery. It also reminded me of books like The Maze Runner in that it had kids making up their own society (although this is more light-hearted than The Maze Runner).

This book sets up the rest of the series nicely. There’s closure for many of the plot points in this story, but a larger conflict looms that Juniper and her friends will need to deal with. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

An elderly woman and three kids with their families meet up at a run down motel. Aggie has struggled to keep the motel going since her husband died. Willow’s dad is looking to buy the motel as a fresh start for their family. For Willow, it is just a reminder of all she has lost. Loretta is looking to connect with her dead “other mother” by visiting places she might have gone. Kirby is on his way to reform school – his “last chance” to get his act together, something his family seems to doubt is possible. The Sleepy Time Motel will be their home for several days that will impact all of them.

Review

I love stories that take characters from different places and throw them together to see what happens. That idea – along with the description of Aggie and the kids – were what prompted me to pick this book up in the first place. I was delighted by the story.

Willow’s story is probably my favorite from the book. She seems to endure the most change in her circumstances and I loved how things worked out. Loretta was just a delight from start to finish. Kirby’s story left me wanting more. He gets to see himself in a new way through the story. I’d love to know what happens to him.

I read Wish by Barbara O’Connor a few weeks ago. I liked both of these books which probably means I should try some more. My students enjoyed How to Steal a Dog. I might have to add that one to my list.

Rating:♥♥♥♥