Book Blitz and Givaway: The Law of Cavities (Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad #3) by Valerie Tripp

 

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Meet the characters, watch the book trailer and check out the Educator and Reader's Guides on the series website here!

The S.M.A.R.T. Squad is back to tackle more middle school mayhem with science, technology, engineering, math, and friendship!

In this third book in the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series, best friends Izzy Newton, Allie Einstein, Marie Curie, Charlie Darwin, and Gina Carver set out on a mystery-filled Outdoor Adventure Camp experience.

Now that Izzy’s finally found her voice in public speaking class and become an ice hockey star, she’s determined to conquer her “dizzy-Izzy-ness” in new situations―including caring for her brand-new braces on an outdoor education overnight and her friends’ good-natured teasing about her friend Trevor. But the forecast for fun turns cloudy when the girls discover their cabin chaperone is none other than Izzy’s tough public-speaking teacher, Ms. Martinez, and their junior counselor is eighth grade mean girl, Maddie Sharpe.

When an innocent exchange of harmless pranks with Maddie takes a turn for the worse, the Squad turns to science to prove their innocence. That’s nothing, though, compared with the terrifying swamp monster haunting their campsite, a catastrophe befalling Ms. Martinez, and a mysterious disaster threatening the future of camp itself.

With their very survival on the line, will science be enough to save the day?
 

Praise:

"Wholesome entertainment for preteens, offering positivity without didacticism."
― Kirkus

"It's one thing to have children's books about scientists or podcasts or stories about strong women in STEM, but it's another world entirely when your children get to feel represented by the characters they're reading about. The characters in the Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series are diverse, smart, and sure of themselves the way all middle school girls are---through their dreams and newly acquired skills they're still getting used to."
― Romper 

About the Creators

VALERIE TRIPP is the co-creator of the American Girl book series that includes titles featuring Felicity, Josefina, Kit, Maryellen, Molly, and Samantha. Tripp also wrote American Girl's Wellie Wishers titles, Hopscotch Hill School titles, numerous leveled readers, songs, stories, skills book pages, and plays for educational publishers. Tripp is writer and editorial director of the Boys Camp series, and a writer, editor, and art editor for Sterling Publishing Company. Tripp received a B.A. and honors as a member of the first co-educated class at Yale University and a master's of education degree from Harvard University.

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MILLIE LIU was born in sunny Pasadena, California, and has been drawing ever since she could hold a pencil. It did start with color pencils on walls but after some scolding, she decided paper was much better. She graduated from Otis College of Art and Design and went into the field of toy design shortly after, designing colorful toys for children the world over. Her favorite subject to draw is story-driven fantastical locations with a touch of magic. When not drawing, she loves to read, experiment with cooking, and keep up with her fierce, growing collection of house plants. She also makes a conscious effort to buy secondhand or used products, and tries to reduce her use of single-use plastic.

 

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GIVEAWAY

• Three (3) winners will receive the complete 3-book Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad series: Absolute Hero, Newton's Flaw, and The Law of Cavities
• US/Canada only
• Ends 12/11 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

New Kids and Underdogs by Margaret Finnegan

 

Fifth grader Robyn has already been the new kid in school five times because of her mom's job as a biology professor, and now San Luis Obispo will be number six. But this time will be different. This time Robyn is determined not to stick out as the new kid and she's even created a list of 10 Rules for New Kids for blending in and avoiding the judgey kids. All she has to do is stick to the list. Luckily, Robyn has her two faithful and inseparable dogs, anxious Sundae and nearly blind and deaf Fudge, her supportive dad, even if he does live in Toronto, and of course, her mom.  

One thing her mom is firm about is doing extracurricular activities. So when Robyn sees a dog agility class in the park, she is sure that is what she wants to do with three-year-old Sundae and Fudge. But the woman running the class says no, they wouldn't be able to do the agility course. Then, on her first day of school, Robyn meets Lulu and Marshan who seem friendly enough to even warn her not to associate with Alejandra, who's "radioactive" and cruelty nicknamed the Grape because she wears purple every day, but she also skipped fourth grade and is a whiz at math. Later, Robyn runs into the boy who had been helping the woman in the park on the handball court, whose name is Nestor, and his cousin Jonathan. And just like that a deal is struck - Nestor, grandson of the woman in the park, Mrs. Zazueta, will provide agility training on the sly in his grandmother's backyard if Robyn brings snacks and Alejandra provides math tutoring for the three of them. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out that Fudge and Sundae really can't to agility training, but Nestor comes up with the idea of doing ability training instead, and it really works out well for the two dogs. Before long, they are joined by William, a friend of Alejandra, and his dog. But Robyn is so set on following her Rules that she keeps telling herself that the ability training is just a business arrangement and Nestor, Jonathan, Alejandra, and now William are not really friends, enabling her to keep her distance.

On the other hand, Robyn continues to hang out with Lulu and Marshan, despite feeling uncomfortable with some of the judgey things they say. Both girls seem to get off on other people's difficulties, shortcomings and disabilities, including Sundae and Fudge, constantly remarking on their sad lives (and I kept wondering why Robyn couldn't see them for who they are). 

Nestor's ability class grows bigger, and the dogs doing it seem to be thriving until one day his grandmother catches the class in action. And she was angry. Will that be the end of ability training? 

I've never been the new kid in school, but I have a friend who was almost as often as Robyn. It can't be easy to make friends and have to leave them a year later. This new move may be permanent for Robyn and her mother, which would be nice, but Robyn is still very defensive about making friends. I thought that her difficulties were realistically portrayed, though, and she was lucky to have a babysitter who understood what was going on with her. Still, Finnegan shows all they ways Robyn's Rules didn't work. 

The problem with Robyn's Rules is that it means all her relationships with other kids is always superficial, and she never gets to see what's below their surface, what the other kids are really like or what their story is. And they never get to see the real Robyn. 

As much as I liked New Kids & Underdogs, I wish it had been a little bit shorter. I thought Robyn's dilemma went on too long and she began to get annoying. I realize she was defensive and didn't want to experience the kinds of fails she had in previous schools, but her refusal to not give in to what she wanted was just too drawn out, especially given who Lulu and Marshan are. But I would still recommend this novel. It's a fast read and does come to a satisfying conclusion, with a valuable lesson for anyone, whether they are new kids or not.   

“A thoughtful story about learning to look beneath the surface and be a better friend.” —Kirkus

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Meet the Author:

Margaret Finnegan is the author of We Could Be Heroes and Susie B. Won’t Back Down, both Junior Library Guild Selections. Her other works have appeared in FamilyFun Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and other publications. She lives in South Pasadena, California, where she enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dog, and baking really good chocolate cakes. To learn more, and to download free discussion guides, visit MargaretFinnegan.com.

Twitter: @FinneganBegin

Instagram: @finneganbegin

Just like the kids in New Kids & Underdogs, you can ability train your dog! Check out the fun tips here!

Thank you to Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media for providing a review copy of New Kids & Underdogs.

Instagram: @blue_slip_media

Facebook: Blue Slip Media

You can see all of this week's wonderful MMGM books thanks to Greg at Always in the Middle

🎃The Girl in White by Lindsay Currie

 

What's better than a sinister middle grade ghost story to get the Halloween season off to a good start? And who better than Lindsay Currie to come up with the perfect spine tingler. Mallory Denton, 12, wasn't terribly happy when her parents decided to move from Chicago to Eastport, Massachusetts to open their dream restaurant, The Hill. It even comes with a ready made legend about a casket bursting through the wall from the graveyard next door one stormy October night. In fact, all of Eastport has haunting legends and curses and that's how it makes its tourist money.

And although Mallory and her best friend Emmie don't believe in the legends or curses, Mallory is having the same disturbing dream night after night centered around an old woman. Legend has it that Sweet Molly's brother Liam was killed in a storm one October night and Molly has been haunting the seaport ever since. Now, it is October, a time when the town capitalizes on  the anniversary of the Liam's death. So, when Mallory sees the same lady from her nightmares by the harbor one evening on her way home during an October  storm, she begins to doubt her own disbelief. Is she being haunted by Liam's sister Sweet Molly?

But when Mallory gets home to finally get some much needed sleep, she is surprised when, six hours later, her mother calls from the restaurant to see if she is OK. It seems that Mallory was seen digging in the sand near the harbor. Yet, Mallory has no recollection of going back to there. Could she have walked in her sleep? There is sand and water all over the house and even under her fingernails. Then, Mallory learns she isn't the only one haunted by the same woman. Next door neighbor Joshua, a classmate she hasn't ever really spoken to, tells her the same thing has been happening to him, including the sleepwalking. Together with Emmie and Joshua, Mallory decides it's time to get to the bottom of things. 

As the anniversary celebration draws near, complete with parade, Mallory's other friend Brianne is chosen to play the part of Molly. When Bri appears to be possessed by the spirit of Molly and goes after Mallory, she, Joshua and Emmie decide to include Bri in their investigations. So far, they have two theories - first, that Mallory and Joshua are being targeted because they are the only two kids not born in Eastport, and second, that Molly is getting more agitated as the anniversary of her brother's death comes closer.  And to make matters even worse, Joshua is chosen to play Liam for the anniversary. It's beginning to look like a recipe for disaster. But, can disaster be avoided and peace made with Molly's ghost? 

This was not the kind of ghost story I expected, which was kind of fun and kind of creepy at the same time, by which I mean that the ending was somewhat of a surprise, just not your usual ghostly fare. And that was part of what made this novel so good. Well, that plus the great descriptions of Eastport, and the haunting of Mallory and Joshua. So perfect for this time of year or anytime readers are interested in a story guaranteed to raise the short hairs on their neck. 

Currie, an experienced author in this genre, has created a town that on the surface appears almost comical in their obsession with legends and ghosts, but Mallory's haunting takes it out of the realm of droll and puts it into an almost believable paranormal realm. But the droll is needed, for example, the names Mallory's dad gives the food on his restaurant menus, like his Sunny-Side Up Skull eggs, to relieve some of the haunting tension. 

The Girl in White is a chilling story that is perfect for middle grade readers looking for some October frights. 

And if you have ever visited Salem, Massachusetts in October, than you can believe that a town can become as obsessed as Eastport is portrayed with its haunted legends. 

Thank you to Heather Moore at Sourcebooks Kids for providing me with a review copy of The Girl in White. 

You can see all of this week's wonderful MMGM books thanks to Greg at Always in the Middle

Haven Jacobs Saves the Planet by Barbara Dee

 

Seventh grader Haven Jacobs is a worrier. And right now she's worried about planet earth and what's happening to it because of climate change. She's kept her thoughts to herself, right up until her science teacher Mr. Hendricks showed a film about how climate change was causing the Antarctic glaciers to being melting. After all, what would happen to the penguins if they lost their icy home? This all leads to a full on panic attack, and Haven can no longer hide her fears from her family and friends and frequently finds herself falling down the internet rabbit hole researching articles and videos about what climate change is doing to the world.

All these worries come to head when Mr. Hendricks announces their class project to study the local Belmont River. This is a project he does every year with his class. In fact, two years before Haven's brother Carter was in his class, and he tells her about all the frogs that were there. But when Haven and her class arrive at the river, not only are there no frogs, but there are not even pollution sensitive macros to be found, only macros that can tolerate pollution. 

At the same time, there is a new boy in Haven's class named Kenji, whose father is in charge of the new glass factory, Gemba, where Haven's father finally got a job after being jobless for two years. Her best friend Riley has a crush on Kenji and is also hanging out with another girl more that with Haven. And why isn't her oldest friend Archer speaking to her in person, only texting about the video game he's playing. Haven's life is beginning to get really complicated, and skipping social studies and not doing her homework doesn't help.

The results of the Belmont River project shows that this year it is indeed polluted, and Haven feels like she needs to do something to make a difference in the world, even if it is only cleaning up the river and finding out who is polluting it. With the help of Mr. Hendricks, Ms. Packer, her social studies teacher, her friends and family, a big river clean-up is organized. There's food, fun, and games, and people do volunteer to do river cleanup, and it feels like it is a success. But in the end, Haven realizes they have only contributed to pollution, and not made much of a difference at all. Is there anything Haven can do to have a impact on climate change?

One of the things about a Barbara Dee novel is that as soon as you begin reading, you are quickly pulled into the story and it's easy to continue to the end in one sitting and Haven's story is no different. Haven is an interesting protagonist, and you can really feel her anxiety and her need to do something. I imagine there are lots of kids today who have some degree of eco-anxiety and who will relate to Haven's feelings and her attempts to make a difference on a small scale. Haven's parents are concerned about her and after finding about what's going on in social studies, suggest she see a therapist, who does help her focus more. 

One of the other things I liked about this book is that the adults are presented in a positive, supportive and involved way, with the exception of Kenji's father. It was also nice to see Haven's relationship with her brother change amd mature over the course of the book. And for the most part Haven's friends are also supportive, although she has a hard time liking one of them, Em, until she learns her story. Even so, Em gives Haven an interesting way to help her control nail biting. 

Haven Jacobs Saves the Planet is an inspiring novel that should appeal to middle graders concerned about climate change and show hem that not everyone needs to be a Greta Thunberg to make a difference. 

I haven't done a MMGM in a long time and it's good to be back. You can see all of this week's wonderful MMGM books thanks to Greg at Always in the Middle

Blog Tour and Giveaway: How to Speak Animal by Dr. Gabby Wild and Aubre Andrus

Welcome to the How to Speak Animal Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of National Geographic Kids' How to Speak Animal on August 16th and World Animal Day on October 4th, this week blogs across the web will feature special excerpts from the book, sharing fascinating insight into the secret language of animals of all shapes and sizes. If you’ve ever wondered why ants touch antennae when they meet, what it means when a cichlid fish pees, or why turkeys gobble, this is the blog tour (and book!) for you!

How to Speak... BAT

When a male bat wants to impress a female, he will spread his wings, sing, and the long hairs on the top of his head stand up. The singing noise that bats make is like that of a songbird’s, with trills and up and down notes. Each male sings a unique tune. This noise is often too high for humans to hear. Bats also use singing to identify each other, scare off predators, and teach their offspring. Scientists believe bats may use vocalizations because sound can travel far. By vocalizing, a bat can stay in one place and send a message across a distance instead of using its energy to fly there. 

After studying 22 Egyptian fruit bats for 75 days, scientists discovered that the bats weren’t just squeaking— they were arguing. They were fighting about food and sleeping space. And sometimes the squeak meant “Get away!” These squeaks were directed toward a specific bat, which means the bats were having one-on-one conversations. 

Bats use chemical communication, too. With scent glands on their neck and chin, bats can mark their territory by rubbing their chin against a surface near their home. This helps bats define their status and claim a prime location at the top of a tree or cave instead of one of the lower edges. It’s their way of saying, "This is MY spot."

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DR. WILD'S WORDS
After humans, bats are the most vocal mammals. That’s because they “see” by “talking.” This is called echolocation. Bats’ high-pitched noises bounce off objects around them and return as an echo. Bats can tell the difference between the echo from a tree, a human, a mosquito, or another bat. Because they rely on echolocation, bats become temporarily “blind” while they eat. They can’t make a noise with a mouth full of food.

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DID YOU KNOW?
The world's smallest mammal is a bumblee bat.  It weighs less than a penny. 

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Buy | Goodreads

Learn about the secret language of wild animals in this exciting and informative guide from the experts who brought you How to Speak Cat and How to Speak Dog.

We know animals can’t speak and express themselves in the same way as humans … but even the smallest and quietest animals have incredible ways of communicating with each other. With wildlife veterinarian expert Dr. Gabby Wild as a guide, How to Speak Animal helps kids understand how animals communicate through sound, body language, and behavior. It’s full of expert insights and real-life stories of humans exploring ways to “talk” to animals, from teaching great apes sign language to speaking “dolphin.” Packed with super-engaging animal photography that helps illustrate key concepts, this fascinating bookprofiles more than 60 different creatures―from birds to mammals to reptiles and more―and their amazing ways of communicating with each other.

If you’ve ever wondered why gorillas beat their chests and make hooting noises, what it means when chameleons change color, or why some elephants twist their trunks together, this is the book for you!

 

About the Authors

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DR. GABBY WILD earned her bachelor of science and doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) degrees at Cornell University. She completed her veterinary internship training at Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital in Akron, Ohio, and received her master’s of public health (MPH) from the University of Minnesota. She is a published genetics researcher and uses her research background to screen zoonotic disease transmission among wildlife, domestic animals, and people. To help maintain a healthy planet, she monitors herd and individual health for rising epidemics. Dr. Wild balances her Western medicine practices with traditional Chinese medicine in an effort to blend both methodologies. Acclaimed for her role as “the veterinarian” on Animal Jam, the world’s largest online “playground,” with 54 million players, she creates educational videos and teaches children internationally about wildlife conservation and medicine. When not in the wild, Gabby works as a Wildlife Health Program veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo and is a training veterinary surgeon at the Veterinary Medical Center of Long Island. She lives in New York City.

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AUBRE ANDRUS is an award-winning children's book author with dozens of books published by National Geographic, Lonely Planet, American Girl, Disney, Scholastic, and more. She has also ghostwritten books for young YouTube stars. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her family. 

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GIVEAWAY

• Five (5) winners will receive a copy of How to Speak Animal
• US/Canada only
• Ends 10/2 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Blog Tour Schedule:

September 19th — Susie's Reviews and Giveaways
September 20th — Pragmatic Mom
September 21st — Mom Read It
September 22nd — Randomly Reading
September 23rd — YA Book Nerd

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

 

Moving from Brooklyn to Florida means a new apartment, a new school and new friends for middle schooler Bree Hanley and she's excited about the change. While moving into their new apartment, Bree meets elderly Ms. Etta, who loves to do jigsaw puzzles, and Clara, a neighbor and fellow student at Enith Brigitha Middle School. 

Bree, who loves math, is excited to begin school and sign up for the Math Puzzles elective. But when she's told the class is full and she will have to take swimming instead, Bree is completely deflated - she doesn't know how to swim. Meanwhile, she and Clara become best friends. Clara is also a great swimmer and is on the school's competitive swim team, the Enith Brigitha Manatees. After repeatedly skipping swim class, Bree is finally caught and when the reason comes out, her dad signs her up for swimming lessons. 

Some girls from her new school's rival swim team, Holyoke Prep, see Bree learning to swim in the kiddy pool, and cruelly make fun of her. Afraid and humiliated, Bree goes from skipping swim class to skipping school altogether. When her math homework falls into the pool at her apartment, Bree jumps in to get it back, and has to be rescued by Ms. Etta. It turns out that Ms. Etta had been a champion swimmer all through school, college and even professionally for a while. Naturally, she offers to teach Bree how to swim. 

Meanwhile, the coach of the Enith Brigitha Manatees learns that the pool the team swims in may be turned into a Smoothie Palace and he desperately needs to get more good swimmers on his team to save it. Bree's swimming lessons with Ms. Etta are going well, although Bree is still filled with self-doubt in the water. Ms. Etta is a calm and patient teacher, and even gives Bree a brief but important lesson about why so many Black people don't know how to swim and it has nothing to do with fear of the water, but rather from laws that limited their access to pools.

When Bree makes the team, and then signs up for swimming instead of math her second semester, her father is clearly disappointed, but accepts her decision. He's been pretty busy with his new job and training and keeps missing her meets, which is very disappointing for Bree. Bree is still filled with self-doubt whenever she's in the water, and that isn't made easier when Keisha, one of the girls from Holyoke Prep who made fun of her, transfers to Enith Brigitha after being kicked off the team there for coming in last at a meet. And Clara, whose mother wants her to go to Holyoke Prep, gets a letter saying she has been accepted there and will be transferring at the beginning of the next school year. All this makes for a very disunited team. So, maybe now that Coach has asked Ms. Etta to help with the team, she can bring some unity and help lead the team to victory and saving their pool, and maybe, just maybe, the girls can help Ms. Etta find the missing piece in her own life. 

Bree is a wonderful character. She's smart, upbeat, and supportive, then swimming and self-doubt enter her life. Christmas has really captured the kinds of thoughts that go through a person's head in the throes of self-doubt, but he has Bree swim though them more than once, because anyone who has ever doubted themselves about something knows those pesky thoughts don't go away overnight or even necessarily with accomplishment. It was hard to see this sweet girl sink but wonderful to see how she finally met the challenges put in front of her and swam to the surface. 

Ms. Etta was also a great character, bringing the past into the present with her own accomplishments and I like that Christmas portrayed her as someone who still had so much to give to the youth of today. And Bree was certainly a catalyst for turning Ms. Etta's life around as much as Ms. Etta did that for Bree. I was a little disappointed in Bree's father's behavior once she joined the swim team, but forgave him when his own deep dark secret finally came out.

Swim Team is definitely a positive, accessible book about family, community, and sportsmanship (in and out of the pool). It does have some social commentary but much of it is subtle. For example, it's Bree's more diverse school that may lose their OK pool, while the mostly white Holyoke Prep has a state of the art pool. The art is simple, but clear and the cells are easy to follow. It reminded me of Jerry Craft's graphic novel New Kid, which I loved and I would definitely pair these two books for a class read.

How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani

 

It's June 1967, and 11-year-old Ariel "Ari" Goldberg has just learned that her sister Leah, 18, is in love. The only problem is that the Goldbergs are Jewish and want nothing more than for Leah to find a nice Jewish boy to marry. Instead, the boy Leah is in love with is Raj Jagwani, a Hindu from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, but an American citizen and a graduate student at NYU. And so Ari and Leah spend the summer meeting Raj on the sly.

But when school begins in September, everything  changes. Leah has been forbidden to see Raj, and at school, Ari is sure she will face another year of struggling to write clearly until she is put into a class for kids who need more help. In the past, Leah had always helped her with her schoolwork, but now she's unhappy and too preoccupied with Raj. After Leah and Raj elope and just disappear, Ari is left to cope with school on her own. Then she discovers that her parent's bakery, Gertie's, is in financial trouble and may have to be sold. At school, Ari has always been tormented by an anti-Semitic bully, but luckily has always had her best friend Jane until they have a falling out. 

Ari has also been waiting for her new teacher, Miss Field, to finally recommend she be put into the slow class, but at a conference with Ari and her mother, she tells them she suspects that Ari has dysgraphia, a learning disability in which a person can't write coherently. Mrs. Goldberg is convinced Ari's inability to write is just laziness and requires more practice. But Miss Fields encourages Ari to write poetry, something she finds is an easy way to express how she feels, on the classroom's electric typewriter. 

When Ari's class is assigned a special current events project to present, Ari decides to do the Loving vs. Virginia case, something she learned about from Leah and a way to keep her connection to her beloved sister. Yet, unable to understand why she hasn't heard from Leah, Ari and Jane, who loves Nancy Drew mystery novels, decide to solve the mystery of where Leah has disappeared to. 

This is indeed a novel about searching for something. If it seems that there is a lot going on in Ari's life in this novel, and that Hiranandani throws a lot of things at her - the Loving case, the Vietnam War, racism, anti-Semitism, and learning disabilities - it is also a thoughtful exploration of Ariel's search to find her own voice and place in her world, and it is also wonderful to watch how Ari grows and changes as events unfold. Written in the second person singular, it was a little odd at first to be reading historical fiction in the present tense, but it also brought the story closer, doing away with historical distancing. After all, some of the events and attitudes in this novel are still with us today.

I think the fact that Hiranandani is biracial, with a Jewish American mother and an Indian father, made this novel feel more relevant and important because she was speaking from experience. She handles Ari's story with sensitivity, humor, and honestly. One of the things I really found interesting were the chapter headings, which all began with How to... It was like a little preview of what was coming without giving anything away. 

How to Find What You're Not Looking For is a wonderful heartfelt, character driven novel and if you think the ending is too pat, well, sometimes that's just what is needed.

The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Raúf

 

Hector, 10-years-old and a middle child, has always been a bully and a prankster. And subsequently spending a lot of time in the principal's office. From the beginning, it's clear that Hector thinks very little of most people, and often does what he does just to annoy them. For example, as the book opens, Hector is about to drop a second rubber snake into the school's lunch soup, and even as the principal warns him not to, Hector defiantly does it anyway, knowing he will be in trouble. He always to derive satisfaction knowing he's ruin something for someone with his pranks. But, for him, it's ok, after all, his friends Will and Katie always think his antics are funny.

On their way home, Will and Katie tease Hector about being slow and getting caught. Angered by the teasing, Hector decides to show them how wrong they are. Seeing a homeless man asleep on a bench next to his trolley full of what appears to be trash, Hector decides to steal the hat the old man always wears. But when he wakes up and catches at them, they run off with the hat. 

Angry at the world, Hector decides to run off with the homeless man's trolley after school the next day. But the trolley quickly gains momentum and when Hector loses control, the trolley lands in the lake and sinks. Unfortunately, Mei-Li, the smartest girl in Hector's class, witnesses the whole thing, as does a woman walking her dog. Even though his friends think the cruel stunt is great, Hector can't celebrate - his plan went wrong, and that had never happened before. 

Meanwhile, at home, Hector learns his father is working on a new film about homeless people. And also that someone has been stealing statues and framing the homeless by leaving special marks that only they would understand. 

Skateboarding around Piccadilly Circus with a friend on afternoon, Hector decides to stay longer by himself, when his sees the homeless man, whose trolley he'd sunk and whose name he has learned is Thomas, suddenly appear and break into a run. Naturally, when another statue goes missing, Hector is convinced it's Thomas doing it, and decides to find him and turn him over to the police. And to do that, he needs to enlist the help of Mei-Li, but will she help someone who she clearly does not like? And together can Mei-Li and Thomas help Hector overcome his need to be bad?

There's a lot going on in this novel as Raúf tackles themes of bullying, homelessness, behavior, family dynamics, and a mystery. But Raúf is such a adept writer that none of these themes overwhelms the others, and never blurr Hector's selfish, cruel behavior. In fact, they all contribute to his redemption in such a believable way that it all happens almost unconsciously, for the reader and for Hector. And all the while, events inform reader and Hector of what it is like to live rough, to live where you aren't wanted, to feel the consequences of another person's cruel prank. 

Hector is a most unlikable protagonist, but then readers see his family's dynamics and the things he does are almost understandable in his need to get some attention his way. And while you may feel some empathy, it only lasts momentarily, as he commences his bad acts again. But, Hector is a boy who is and does deserve redemption. A clever artist who needs his talents redirected. 

I find that I am becoming quite a fan of Raúf. Her writing is refreshingly breezy and pulls the reader in immediately and compels them to stay to the end, to see what will become of her protagonists. Back matter consists of information about bullying and where to find information and resources about dealing with issues of bullying, and well as information about homelessness and where to find information. She has also included The Homeless Code, which may be different in Britain that in the US, symbols used by thieves, and an Author's Note. 

On a personal note, my grandmother went to Berea College in Kentucky and studied home economics. She made really great biscuits, and during the depression, despite having to feed six kids on a minister's salary, my grandmother got up every morning and made dozens and dozens of biscuits and lots of coffee to give to the homeless men who always stopped at their house. The house, my mother said, was marked showing that "a good woman lives here." 

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Worser by Jennifer Ziegler

 

Life has not been easy for 12-year-old William Orser. A loner whose elderly father passed away when he was very young, nicknamed Worser (W. Orser) on the first day of second grade, and bullied by the other kids, Worser is now living with a mother who has had a severe stroke, and his Aunt Iris, who is taking care of them. Ironically, Worser's mother was a professor of rhetoric who can no longer speak, but who had imparted a love of words in her son when he was a child, a love that has continued. 

Worser has been working on a project he calls his Masterwork, a loose-leaf binder filled with lists of important observations about words, a project that enables him to work in the library at the end of the school day to avoid going home and dealing with his mother and aunt. But now, because of budget cuts, Worser finds that the library is closed after school but not before he meets Turk, who has his own unique (and cringe worthy to Worser) twist on words.  

No library forces Worser to find another place to work on his Masterwork and eventually he finds and strikes a deal with Mr. Murray, the owner of a secondhand bookstore called Re-Visions. When Worser finds out that his crush, Donya Khoury, has lost the school sponsor for her Literary Club and can not longer meet in school, Worser comes up with a plan to help her out using his space at the bookstore and ultimately becoming a member of the club. But when Mr. Murray's rent is increased, it looks like he will have to close Re-Visions. And again, Worser has a plan to save the store. But will it actually work?

I have to admit that for much of this novel, I really didn't like Worser very much. It was clear he had nothing good to say about most people, including his aunt, who was trying her best to care for him and his mom. Interestingly, she is the opposite of Worser, being very emotional where he seems to completely lack emotion. She is also rather eccentric, albeit in a very different way than Worser and apparently his mother was before her stroke. It's very clear that Worser has not come to terms with the drastic changes he sees in his mother now that she is unable to speak or do anything for herself, and, rather that dealing with this, he loses himself in working on his Masterwork and later getting involved with the Literary Club to get Donya's attention.

As I went along on Worser's coming-of-age story, he began to grow on me more and more, and I began to feel very empathic as I realized how traumatized he was by the things that have happened to him over time and his attempts to avoid facing the truths about his feelings. Channeling his emotions into words is exactly how he lost his ability to communicate with the world and it would take a catastrophic event for him to find his way back. And it is quite a journey. 

Thank you Edelweiss+ for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Wave by Diana Farid

Wave by Diana Farid,

illustrated by Kris Goto

Cameron Kids, 2022, 320 Pages

Available March 29, 2022

Wave is a novel-in-verse narrated in the first person by Ava, a thirteen-year-old Persian American living in southern California who is mildly OCD. Set in the 1980s, Ava is looking forward to graduating from eight grade and a summer of hanging out at the beach surfing with Phoenix and best friend Naz before school begins again. Ava's parents are divorced, her dad lives in Paris with his new family, and her Iranian born mom is an OB/GYN doctor at the local hospital. Her mom is hoping Ava will follow her into medicine, and signs her up to be a volunteer on Saturdays for the summer, something she isn't too happy about. 

At the hospital, Ava meets patient, Mr. Cameron, in room 509 and discovers that they share a love of poetry by the Persian poet Rumi. 

At school, Ava, who loves music, sings in the choir and her teacher announces that they have been invited to sing at the Fourth of July Freedom Festival, with Ava having a solo part. It means rehearsals even after school ends.  

At the beach, Ava is confronted by a racist volleyball player more than once who instantly dislikes her for her dark olive skin. This is a difficult experience for her since the beach is the one place Ava has always felt she like she fit in since her skin tone could pass for tan. And it's at the beach that she begins to notice small changes in Phoenix. He had been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma as a child, but has been in remission. Now his cancer has returned and his prognosis isn't very good. 

Then, Ava slips and falls at the hospital, breaking her leg. Since her summer of surfing is now curtailed, her mother signs her up for a medicine for teens class every Monday and Wednesday, a class that begins June 29th, which Ava resents since she has made it clear to her mother that she has no interest in medicine and needs to prepare for her solo at the Freedom Festival. 

There's a lot happening in this novel and yet none of it feels unrealistic or overwhelming. Instead, it is a poignant coming-of-age story about identity, friendship, love, loss and grief. But it is also about how music and poetry can help us process life's more difficult challenges, as summed up in the song that Ava wrote about her life.

Farid has included lots of different aspects of Iranian culture throughout the novel and it is interesting that she set her novel in a time when anti-Iranian feelings were running high in this country. The poetry gives the reader not just a sense of waves building as they come in and crash at the shoreline, then draw back out to sea again, but they are so symbolic of the highs and lows of Ava's life that fateful year (the timeline goes from March to November).

Sprinkled throughout the novel are lovely spot illustrations relating to Ava's life. I chuckled when I saw the one with Ava's new walkman. I know exactly how she felt when she received it, I still have mine and yes, it still works. And to go with that walkman, Farid has included a playlist of Phoenix's songs for Ava, and Ava's songs for Phoenix - all very 80s.

Wave is a poignant novel and though some may see it as historical fiction, it will no doubt resonate for today's readers. 

Thank you to Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media for providing me with an ARC of Wave.

Meet the Author:

Diana Farid is the author of When You Breathe, named a 2021 Notable Poetry Book by the National Council of Teachers of English; it was also awarded the California Reading Association’s 2021 EUREKA! Gold Award for nonfiction children’s book. She is a poet and a physician at Stanford University. Wave is her first middle grade novel. For more information, visit dianafarid.com.

Twitter and Instagram: @_artelixir

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Equal by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Equal is the fifth book in Joyce Moyer Hostetter's excellent Baker's Mountain Stories series. The first book I read was Blue, set in Hickory, NC, in the midst of the Polio Epidemic of 1944. Told to be the man of the house while her father is off fighting in WWII, Ann Fay Honeycutt, 13, is diagnosed with polio and the novel follows her treatment and recovery. The next book is a prequel, set in 1941 and tells the story of ninth grader Junior Bledsoe, who needs to solve the mystery of how his abusive father died while grappling with the changes and challenges this brings his life. Book 3, Comfort, returns to Ann Fay's story. She home from the polio hospital and finding it difficult to fit into her old life. WWII has ended and her father has returned from fighting in Europe and is suffering severe PTSD. The fourth book, Drive, brings the Honeycutt family in the 1950s. Ann Fay's younger twin sisters, high schoolers Ida and Ellie are beginning to grow apart, but both like the same boy. Ellie is the driven-to-achieve twin, while Ida is more laid back. Their father is still suffering with PTSD, and taking up a lot of their mother's time, along with Jackie, 6, the youngest Honeycutt. And Ann Fay and Junior Bledsoe decide to get married. Plus, it is the year that the Hickory Motor Speedway, the birthplace of NASCAR stars, opened and Junior is an automobile mechanic.    

And that short summary leads readers to Equal, set in 1959. Jackie, the youngest of the Honeycutt children and a rising eight grader, has one thing on his mind - entering his beloved cow Lucy into the 4-H dairy contest at the upcoming fair. But, he is reminded by Thomas Freeman, a Black kid he doesn't really know, about the Lutzes, who always walk away with first place. Thomas is into birdwatching and bird calling, and not much interested in the friendship Jackie is offering.

But at the river one day, while the two kids are fishing, a drunk old man goes after Thomas for being on the riverbank with a white boy, throwing his empty liquor bottle at him, hitting him in the side of the head. The incident jolts Jackie's own memory of a time when he threw an apple at the Black kids waiting for their school bus and hit Thomas in the back of his head. Jackie knows he should say something to Thomas, but is too ashamed to bring it up with him.

1959 sees a lot of unrest in the world: the cold war between the Russians and the United States, the growing Civil Rights Movement and angry white supremacists, and locally for Jackie, it's an enemy in class named Dennis Aiken. All of which prompts his teacher to put a quote from Abraham Lincoln on the blackboard: "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" for her class to think about.

Little by little, Jackie becomes more aware of the constant fear that the Freeman's and other Black families live with. His sister, Ellie, is working for a Black attorney in the Civil Right's movement and friends with his daughter, Maribelle Bradley. When she invites them to stop at the Honeycutt house on their way to a protest that turns into an overnight visit, it becomes surprising but enlightening visit for the Honeycutts, for which they pay a big price afterwards. 

Although Lucy didn't win the 4-H contest, Jackie is still proud of his cow. But after the Bradley's visit, someone tries to poison Lucy by feeding her a poisonous branch from a yew tree, and no one can figure who or why. But when the Freeman's cow is found dead also from a branch of a yew tree, it looks like both incidents are related. Will Jackie and Thomas be able to solve this mystery before there are any more incidents?

One of the nice things about reading the Bakers Mountain stories is that they can be read as a series, or as a stand alone novel. Each one provides enough background to know who is who and what has happened. The other nice thing is that these are really excellent historical fiction novels. Author Joyce Moyer Hostetter has managed to incorporate the most important international, national, and local events into the lives of the Honeycutts in each of the novels and shows how these events impacts the lives of even the most ordinary citizens, and she includes enough back matter about each event in every book for the reader. 

The Lincoln quote permeates the novel, and forces Jackie and his parents to rethink their view of who is a friend and who is an enemy and why. I was relieved that is isn't a white savior book. Jackie changes and grows by seeing how the Freeman and the Bradley families live their lives and their truths and not by being put in the position of having to educate the Honeycutts. Instead, Jackie and his parents learn to have empathy for their new friends after getting to know them. For example, Jackie's dad and Mr. Bradley were both soldiers in WWII and could empathize with each other over their experience and resulting PTSD. 

Equal is a well-written, well-researched novel that will no doubt at times touch the readers heartstrings. It is an emotional journey for Jackie, but in the end, he is a much better person for it and so are we for having traveled his journey with him. 

This book was an eARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+

Partly Cloudy by Tanita S. Davis

 

Sixth grade was a pretty stormy year for Madalyn Thomas - her dog Lucy died, her best friend moved away, she found out she was lactose intolerant and, as it things couldn't be worse, her dad was laid off from his job. That meant moving and changing schools and Robinson Howard Middle School was a pretty grim place in which to learn, especially after the shooting that happened there. Now, her mom tells her that "Skies are clearing.... Your dad and I have a plan," which can only mean more changes in Madalyn's life.

Her dad will be working across the country in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her mom, as social worker, works long hours, so the plan is for Madalyn to live with her great uncle Papa Lobo four days a week and come home on the weekend. While this may not be the ideal situation Madalyn would like, the one advantage is that Kingsbridge Junior High is a more promising school that her old school and there's a great library in town.  

It doesn't take long for Madalyn and Papa Lobo to develop a comfortable routine, and except for Jean Duval, Papa Lobo's godson who helps him around the house, things would be pretty good. But Jean, who goes to the same school but in a higher grade, seems to only tolerate Madalyn. She also meets neighbor Mrs. Baylor, a older white woman with a cat and a beautiful garden, but also an on-going-long-running feud with Papa Lobo.

When school begins, Madalyn realizes she isn't just the new kid, she's also the only Black kid in her seventh grade class. First day, first class Madalyn meet Natalie, who seems like a fun, potential friend. It's Natalie who warns her about Carlin and Sydney, the class snobs/mean girls. Sure enough, it doesn't take long for the first microagression when Carlin says to Madalyn "...You're Addy, like that American Girl doll, right?"

Natalie and Madalyn get along well in school, but when Natalie sees Madalyn with Jean, it becomes clear that something is wrong. It turns out that Natalie had an unfortunate bullying experience with a Black boy, and now says her older sister Annica, with whom she lives, demands she not have anything to do by Black boys in general. Madalyn is faced with a dilemma - to continue being friends with Natalie or not - but one thing she is sure of is that she will have to have a tough conversation with Natalie about race. Madalyn spends a lot of time agonizing over when and how to have this difficult conversation. 

When wild fires break out around their California area, Madalyn is worried about her mom, trying to drive from home to be with her but not answering her phone. Then, Natalie calls, home alone and frightened because she can't get her sister on the phone. Papa Lobo insists they pick up Natalie and bring her to his house, leaving a note for Annica with the address, even though Madalyn is still mad at her. A little later, Mrs. Baylor collapses in her garden. She has difficulty breathing and Papa Lobo insists they bring her to his house. 

Partly Cloudy is an interesting novel with a lesson for all readers. It is essentially a slice-of-life story but by putting Madalyn in a basically white school, Davis really highlights the kind of covert and overt prejudice and the regular microaggressions that a person of color experiences on a regular basis. but that a white person seems totally oblivious to. For Natalie, it means seeing people as indivisibles and not stereotypes. For Madalyn, it's the opposite - learning the importance of standing up for herself and not letting other people define who she are based on their expectations or stereotypical ideas. 

Partly Cloudy explores themes of family, friendship, and race through the experience of a seventh grade Black girl living in the bay area in California. It is very much a story of today and one that many readers will relate to. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was gratefully received from Madison Ostrander formerly at Spark Point Studio

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee

 

One morning in February, 11-year-old Ren wakes up and discovers her dad has left the house and she doesn't hear from him until he lands in NYC, assuming Ren's mom has explained that they were getting divorced. Ren's mom Kelly, an ER nurse, doesn't really want to talk about the divorce, and escapes accepting it by sleeping a lot. Ren copes with these changes in her life watching online extreme makeup videos, especially those of Cat FX, an expert in special effects makeup. 

It turns out Ren's father has met someone who lives in Brooklyn and they are planning to get married in the summer. He invites Ren out for a visit and as much as she doesn't want to like Vanessa, she does. Vanessa is also pregnant, and somewhat into makeup because of her upcoming wedding. and the two have fun shopping for different kinds of cosmetics.

That summer, attending her father's summer wedding (and doing Vanessa's makeup for it), Ren's mom decides they need to move and start over, and since she is going to be attending a new school, Ren decides she want's to be called Wren from now on. At school, she immediately makes a friend named Poppy, who is so impressed with Wren's makeup skill, she talks her into trying out to do the makeup for the school play Wicked. Poppy was hoping for the part of Elphaba, but it goes to Avery, a not very friendly mean girl. Avery has a crush on a boy named Kai, but it seems that Kai is more attracted to Wren. 

Meanwhile, Kelly is sleeping more and more, and blaming it on her long days in the ER and the aching back and knees that come with job. Perhaps that's why she is so short tempered with Wren. Then there are all the pain pills in the medicine cabinet, and the lock Kelly has put on her bedroom door, keeping it locked at all time so Wren can't go in. Wren thinks there might be something wrong with her mom, but doesn't know what. Luckily, Kelly has made a friend in the ER named Krystal, and it starts to become clear that something is indeed wrong when Krystal begins checking up on her and Wren. It all comes to a head when Kelly doesn't show up for opening night of Wicked. All of this leads up to a crisis which Wren is way too young to handle by herself, but thankfully has Krystal and her dad's help.

This is another tough topic book by Barbara Dee who tackled sexual harassment in Maybe He Just Likes You and mental illness in My Life in the Fish Tank. Parents who divorce is also tough enough topic, as is moving to another town and school and starting over, but here Dee takes things one step further and explores the reasons for the broken trust between Wren and her mother, a trust that may never be healed completely. 

I have to confess that at first Wren's extreme makeup interest didn't appeal much to me, but when I thought why, I realized that the extreme makeup was a great metaphor for the secrets Wren and her mother hide from each other throughout the book. Makeup, after all, is used to hide flaws and make us look better than we might without it, in a sense presenting a false face to the world. Wren's having to hide her feelings about her dad and his new life forces her into being secretive about what happens on her visits to Brooklyn (and there are many) and the cosmetics Vanessa sends her, hiding them from Kelly. Meanwhile, Kelly hiding a host of her own problems behind a locked door which is just so telling. 

On a positive note, it was very nice to see a stepmom getting along so well with her husband's daughter from a previous marriage, and Wren acceptance of her and the twin babies she gives birth to is equally good to see. You don't often see that in middle grade novels. Vanessa is so open and accepting of Wren and Wren really needs that.  

Violets are Blue is an emotionally charged novel, and one that I highly recommend. You can also find a useful Reading Group Guide courtesy of the publisher Aladdin/Simon & Schuster HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an ARC gratefully received from Casey Blackwell at Media Masters Publicity

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Guitars (Made By Hand Series #4) by Patricia Lakin

 

Guitars by Patricia Lakin

(Made by Hand Series #4)

Aladdin, 2021, 32 pages

Available November 9, 2021

Guitars are such a popular instrument, but have you ever wondered about their history or how they are made? Well, just as she did in her previous Made by Hand books, author Patricia Lakin takes readers behind the scenes to learn all about both acoustic and electric guitars.

The first section begins with a definition a guitar as a long-necked, flat-backed string instrument with pear-shaped incurved sides, readers are introduced to the different parts of the two kinds of guitars. Not surprisingly, the acoustic guitar is a much simpler instrument than the electric guitar, which has so many more parts to it. And who would have guessed that the sounds a guitar makes is really just a matter of physics? But I leave that to the author to explain, who does a far better job than I could.

Next, the history of guitars in introduced. Interestingly, earliest guitar-like instrument dates back as far as 1490 BC, where it was found in Thebes, Egypt. In fact, cousins of today's guitars can be found throughout history and in various countries. 

Nowadays, electric guitars might be more popular than the acoustic guitar, but readers will learn exactly who an electric guitar works and it is way more complicated than I would have thought. But just how are these instruments made? To get a good idea about that, Lakin turned to Meredith Coloma, a luthier from Vancouver, Canada. A talented violinist since the age of 9, Meredith toured with a Celtic rock band. Once she graduated high school, she traveled to New York City and, instead of performing, apprenticed with an elderly violin maker there. Returning to Vancouver, Meredith took a course in guitar making, but something in her guitars was missing. She began an apprenticeship with luthier Roger Sadowsky in NYC, and began making guitars with just the right tone that she wanted. But Meredith wasn't quite satisfied, and apprenticed with luthier Michael Dunn in Vancouver. Now a luthier in her own right, Meredith makes unique guitars back in Vancouver. 

In the next section of the book, Meredith takes readers on a detailed tour of her workshop where she gives a step by step demonstration of how both an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar are made and it is fascinating to see. I had no idea just what went into producing a guitar that looks good and has great sound quality.

Finally (and this is one of my favorite sections of the books in the Made By Hand series), young readers can learn how to make their own telephone and harmonica using the science behind instruments like guitars or violins that vibrate when played by plucking strings. 

Guitars is a wonderfully informative book for budding musicians or really, for anyone interested in music, particularly guitars. The writing is accessible and there are lots of photographs and illustrations to help readers understand some of the finer, perhaps more complicated aspects of guitars (like the physics part that even I understood). Back matter consists of a list of great guitarists, a time line, and a glossary and list of resources.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from Casey Blackwell at Media Masters Publicity