Category Archives: Middle Grades (5-8)

Elem./MG – Party Time!

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Neuenfeldt, Elizabeth. Party Time! Bellwether Media, 2023. $19.95 ea. $119.70 set of 6. 24 p. Grades 3-7. 

Throw a Halloween Party. 979-8-88687-182-1.
Throw a Lunar New Year Party. 979-8-88687-183-8.
Throw a St. Patrick’s Day Party. 979-8-88687-184-5.
Throw a Valentine’s Day Party. 979-8-88687-185-2.
Throw an Earth Day Party. 979-8-88687-186-9.
Throw an Independence Day Party. 979-8-88687-187-6.

The Party Time! series offers readers tips and suggestions for celebrating six holidays. Each volume offers instructions on creating crafts, games, decorations, snacks, and drinks to celebrate a holiday. This reviewer had the opportunity to read Throw a Halloween Party. Some of the items readers learned to create included spooky bat bunting, eyeball cake pops, a ghouslish party punch, and a witch hat ring toss. Each craft included a paragraph that offered readers insight into the history and symbols of the holiday. A materials list (or ingredients list for recipes) and step by step visual instructions were provided with all projects. Basic art supplies (paper, glue, scissors, etc) were all that was needed to create the craft projects. Adult assistance would be needed for the cooking-related projects. For those looking to go the “extra mile” when throwing their party, tips accompanied all projects that offered ways to vary or enhance the craft.

THOUGHTS: A great choice for party planners, this series could also be used by educators looking for seasonal projects/activities for their classrooms. Several volumes of the series focus on holidays that do not often receive coverage in party-planning related books available to students. Librarians looking to re-fresh or add to their party/event planning collections should consider this series.

745.594 Crafts and Activities

Elem./MG – Exit 13: The Whispering Pines

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Preller, James. Exit 13: The Whispering Pines. Scholastic, 2023. 978-1-338-81044-8. 187 p. $7.99. Grades 3-6.

Lost in the gloom, the McGinn family reluctantly checks into the Exit 13 Motel for the night. Somehow, the young man at the desk, Kristoff, seems to be expecting them… and their rooms are already prepared. Intending only to stay for one night, the family’s stay is extended after Mr. McGinn injures himself and is unable to drive. Since their arrival, the youngest McGinn, Ash, has felt there was something wrong with the motel and is drawn to the woods behind the motel and the wolf-like creature that seems to live in them. As the story develops, the McGinn family seems unable to find a means to leave the hotel area. To escape, Ash and his sister, Willow, along with their newfound friend, Justice, must solve its mystery and that of the woods beyond. Ending on a cliffhanger, this book is part of a series designed to encourage further reading.

THOUGHTS: Lately, my younger students have been requesting “scary books,” and I’ve had a limited selection to offer them. The Whispering Pines presents a balanced scare factor that will appeal to the younger set (without terrifying them) and entice my older readers looking for a quick read. The chapters are short and several graphic novel sequences move the story along, presenting a format that is appealing to fans of graphics but also supporting reluctant readers. Recommended for those seeking to add to their “scary” collections for younger readers or those looking for books with built-in supports for striving readers.

Mystery

MG – The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine

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Marsh, Katherine. The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine. Roaring Brook Press, 2023. 978-1-250-31360-7. 368 p. Grades 6-8.

Flipping between the days of the pandemic in 2020 and the Holodomor in the Ukraine in 1933, this eye-opening historical fiction work tells the story of Matthew, a young man barely tolerating the conditions brought on by COVID days and three cousins from the Ukraine. Matthew’s mother has moved GG, Matthew’s 100-year-old great-grandmother, to their home to protect her health. As a diversion from video games, she encourages her son to help GG sort through the many boxes from storage that GG brings with her. At first reluctantly, then gradually eagerly, Matthew gets to know his immigrant grandmother in a new way, learn about this atrocity that was suppressed in even prestigious newspapers like the New York Times, and form a tighter bond with his journalist father who is seconded to Paris for his work. In each compelling chapter, the reader uncovers the struggles, beliefs, and failures of the girls: Helen, the cousin who lives in a cramped apartment in Brooklyn and is trying to shed light on the Ukrainian famine; Mila, the spoiled daughter of a staunch Stalinist who has grown up believing the doctrine of the Communist Party; and Nadiya, the poor peasant whose family resists the collective farms and suffers terrible consequences. Author Katherine Marsh, whether deliberately or inadvertently, draws similarities between the disinformation prevalent during COVID in contemporary times and the near silence on the Ukrainians’ years of starvation in the early thirties. With the current war in the Ukraine continuing, the reader cannot help but feel sympathetic toward this country that has endured so much.

THOUGHTS: Students having Ukrainian or Russian ancestry will gain the most from this book, but everyone who reads it will know of the Holodomor. (I asked a student whose family came from the Ukraine if she knew about the Holodomor and she immediately said yes, though I just learned about it from this book.) It provokes discussion of perpetuating true information and encourages a stronger discernment of governments and the news they pass on. This title is a springboard for preserving family stories. Matthew’s search for information is contagious, and the action keeps building, but more prolific readers may predict the plot twist before it happens.

Historical Fiction                                          

MG – The Beautiful Something Else

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Van Otterloo, Ash. The Beautiful Something Else. Scholastic Press, 2023. 978-1-338-84322-4. 288 p. $17.99. Grades 3-7.

Sparrow Malone, who’s birth name is Magnolia Grace, realizes they don’t quite tick any one gender box in this middle grade novel about family, identity, and growing up. Sparrow’s mom, Abigail, is very protective and insists Sparrow dons dresses and frills, but Abigail is also dealing with her own addiction to opioids. After a car accident, mom is sent to rehabilitation, and Sparrow is sent to live with her Aunt Mags. Aunt Mags lives on the grounds of Windy Hill, the huge estate where Sparrow’s mother also grew up. However, Aunt Mags has transformed Windy Hill into a rainbow-colored safe haven for gardeners, college students, and professors from a nearby university. While meeting friends, neighbors, and family, Sparrow begins to form a new understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community that Abigail seems to fear. Sparrow soon realizes they aren’t quite fitting the mold that Abigail desires in a daughter. The question is: will Sparrow feel empowered enough to tell their mom how they feel? Or anyone else?

THOUGHTS: The Beautiful Something Else is a great addition to diverse middle grade library collections. The characters in this book are layered and diverse, and the feelings Sparrow experiences are written realistically as they realize their nonbinary identity. A “shadow” (think: Peter Pan) is introduced throughout the book as a fantastical character that causes Sparrow to explore their identity and own their feelings. Otherwise, the book is wholly realistic fiction. While the book would be equally as strong without its “shadow,” this element is a good metaphor for readers to realize there is something itching at Sparrow and following them around. In this case, it’s simply the need for Sparrow to be true to themself. Written with care for middle grade audiences.

Realistic Fiction

Elem./MG – ThunderBoom

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Briglio, Jack. ThunderBoom. Illustrated by Claudia Dávila. Kids Can Press, 2023. 978-1-525-30496-5. 128 p. $16.99. Grades 3-6.

Logan, a nonverbal child, wants to attend a holiday parade with his family. In order to attend, he will have to cope with his fear of masked people and other things. After arriving at the parade via train with his family, Logan is separated from his mom and dad. While on his own, he channels the power of ThunderBoom, his imaginative superhero alter ego, to help a lost neighbor girl, Becky, find her mom. Logan is reunited with his family quickly, and he concentrates on his super powers to repel anything that scares him.

THOUGHTS: This short graphic novel offers a unique window into a nonverbal child’s deep imagination. The author includes very little dialogue throughout the story; the emphasis on emotions and images make this an accessible graphic novel for all upper elementary and middle grade students. The author’s note includes information on Angelman’s Syndrome, the causation behind the character Logan’s nonverbal and developmental behaviors within the story. Brilgio also explains in his author’s note that Logan’s character is based on his own son, Lucas, and Lucas’s experiences living with the same genetic disorder.

Graphic Novel

MG – Eb & Flow

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Baptist, Kelly J. Eb & Flow. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-0-593-42913-6. 212 p. $16.99. Grades 4-8.

This realistic novel in verse begins after Ebony and De’Kari (who go by the nicknames Eb and Flow) are suspended for fighting at school. First, Eb poured sauce on Flow’s sneakers, and then, Flow called her a name. A physical fight followed and was recorded by other students. Flow is ashamed he “hit a girl,” and that notion is repeated again and again by his family members. Ebony, in turn, knows her ‘joke’ of fake-pouring sauce onto Flow’s shoes went terribly wrong. The book takes place over the course of the next ten days while both seventh graders serve their out-of-school suspension. Told in verse with alternating perspectives, the story follows what happens to each student during their time out of school. While peers and even some family members fuel the ongoing fight, Eb and Flow have to overcome their frustrated, angry feelings about each other and work to get back to school. While the story ‘ebbs and flows,’ the two characters learn they have way more in common than they think.

THOUGHTS: This story opens a window to the emotions and motivations of two seventh grade students as they serve a suspension for fighting. Eb and Flow’s two families also are written with complexity, and readers get to see a window into the heart of their family dynamics. This creates an enormous amount of empathy for the two main characters, and I found myself constantly hoping Eb and Flow wouldn’t let the escalation between friend groups or family members pull them back down into a cyclical or violent fight. It took me a little bit to catch on to the constant back-and-forth between the two character perspectives, but this might be because Kelly J. Baptist includes so many parallels between their two lives. This is done purposefully and creatively to show how enemies might not be so different after all. This story touches on a number of issues such as older siblings with issues, deployed parents, poverty, and the potential impact of gang involvement on families. All characters present as BIPOC. 

Realistic Fiction

Elem./MG – Camp Sylvania

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Murphy, Julie. Camp Sylvania. Balzer + Bray, 2023. 978-0-063-11402-9. 280 p. $18.99. Grades 3-6.

Magnolia “Maggie” Hagen has been waiting for years to attend Camp Rising Star with her best friend, Nora. They’ve just finished their fifth grade year and are ready to start packing, but Maggie’s parents have an unwelcome surprise in store: Maggie will attend Camp Sylvania instead. Camp Sylvania’s website promises a “place for big dreams, big fun, and big weight loss.” Maggie is horrified that her parents are sending her to “fat camp” on the Lake of the Ozarks, and without her best friend. Maggie’s mom knows the founder, Sylvia Sylvania, from her own days at a similar camp called New Beginnings, and believes that losing weight is truly in Maggie’s best interest. Although Maggie initially resents being sent to Camp Sylvania, she makes fast friends with her bunkmates and soon enjoys a sense of belonging, even auditioning for the camp’s musical. She adjusts to the camp’s grueling workouts, Sylia’s patented Scarlet Diet (the cafeteria only serves food that is red), and a blood bank where all campers are encouraged to donate regularly. But when campers begin disappearing overnight, Maggie realizes that something is very wrong at Camp Sylvania. By the time her folks arrive for Parents’ Day, it may be too late, unless Maggie and her friends take drastic action (with a little help from the camp ghost).

THOUGHTS: Julie Murphy’s latest is both a spirited summer camp horror novel and a keen take-down of diet culture. 

Mystery (Horror)

MG/YA – Our Solar System (Series NF)

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Our Solar System. BrightPoint Press, 2023. $33.05 ea. $198.30 set of 6, 64 p. Grades 6-12. 

Fraiser, Carolyn Bennett. Moons. 978-1-678-20406-8.
LaPierre, Yvette. The Asteroid Belt. 978-1-678-20402-0.
Mitchell, KS. The Gas Giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. 978-1-678-20404-4.
Terp, Gail. Pluto and the Dwarf Planets. 978-1-678-20408-2.
Thacher, Meg. The Terrestrial Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. 978-1-678-20412-9.
Wolny, Philip. The Sun. 978-1-678-20410-5.

This reviewer evaluated the titles The Sun and Moons. Each of the series titles is organized in a similar fashion, with a two-page ‘at a glance’ summary preceding the books’ longer introduction and chapters. An index, source notes, and a bibliography is included for students to use in further research of the topic. In The Sun, Wolny includes information about the Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018 to gather new information about Earth’s relationship with the Sun. The book also contains information about heliocentric and geocentric models, and it covers civilization’s historical understanding of the Sun. Moons contains a multitude of information about not just Earth’s moon but the many other moons present in the solar system. In each book, the authors take care to place vocabulary words in bold font, and they include clear text features with extra information on missions and locations. Pictures are varied and contain captions that do not distract from the chapters’ text.

THOUGHTS: These new hi-lo solar system nonfiction titles will be great primers in all things outer space for interested students in both middle and high school. The up-to-date information offered in this collection will be a welcome addition for libraries that may be living with an otherwise aged natural science nonfiction collection. One thing I particularly liked about this series is its inclusion of carefully curated source notes and bibliography. The authors include credible online sources (as well as books), so students easily can look up additional bits of information as needed. These series books are short but mighty at 64 pages each, and this series makes great resource material for young scientists!

500 Science

YA – Charisma’s Turn: A Story of Girls and Their Gifts

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Couvson, Monique. Charisma’s Turn: A Story of Girls and Their Gifts. Illustrated by Amanda Jones. The New Press, 2023. 978-1-620-97401-8. 126 p. $19.99. Grades 6-12.

During her senior year, Charisma doesn’t get much sleep or time to herself. Instead, she helps her single mother take care of Charisma’s little brother, Khalil. Fueled by lack of sleep and lack of time, Charisma’s temper is short. It’s not long before she gets involved in yet another physical fight at school. Instead of doling out another purely punitive suspension, Principal Lopez brings in a school counselor, Ms. Anderson, to try to help Charisma using a different method: the restorative approach. Not only does Ms. Anderson help Charisma to start controlling her temper and outbursts, but she also empowers Charisma to be a positive, strong student leader. Charisma begins to pursue her passions with the help of an after-school social justice student roundtable. With Ms. Anderson at the helm, Charisma jumps in and truly starts to thrive.

THOUGHTS: This graphic novel is a powerful window into a girl’s thoughts, dreams, and passions. Charisma is a realistic and layered character who isn’t perfect but has so much potential; thankfully, in this novel, that potential is realized by school leaders and nurtured. Toni Morrison and other Black women make inspiring appearances in Charisma’s dreams. The illustrations in this graphic novel are bright, nuanced, and beautiful to see. I loved to see a book that highlights restorative methods and organizing student roundtables as empowering tools for peer leadership. All characters present as BIPOC. Uplifting, accessible, and real—a great addition to diverse middle and high school library graphic novel collections.

Graphic Novel