I read eight middle-grade books in August. Time to get back to reading books to help my library patrons find just the right book! I'm starting to record video reviews for middle-grade books on my YouTube channel. I linked those videos to the titles of the books. With hybrid and distance learning, we are encouraged to do more videos with our faces to help students connect. So, I'm not trying to make money or be a YouTube star...I just want to connect books to readers.
3 Stars | Every Shiny Thing | Cordelia Jensen & Laurie Morrison | 2018 | Grade 5-9
The story is about two middle school girls and is told in alternating views. One is free verse and the other is traditional. Foster care, autism, family dynamics, addiction, Quaker school, simplicity, stealing like Robin hood to help the poor are all part of this book. The story dragged a little and I wanted it to move along. Otherwise, I liked it. Great for Middle school and division 2.
4 stars | Resistance | Jennifer A. Nielsen | 2018
This book is 2020-2021 Maud Hart Lovelace nomination for Division 2 which is for middle school or grades 6-8. The interest level from the publisher lists this book for grades 5-8. Because most of the Division 2 books interest level starts at 5th grade, I usually buy and promote these titles for 5th grade. Many 5th graders are looking for edgier middle school reading. I am saying all of this because this book is intense! I actually did not read this until this week. I will let 5th graders know that sensitive readers may want to wait and read this book later. (Yes, I know this will entice some to read this because of my warning.)
This is a story of a Jewish teenage girl from Poland who is working with the resistance to defy the Nazis. It is very specific in describing the atrocities of how Jews were treated. You also go along with resistance groups and experience the danger and harrowing as well as heart-breaking activity they plan and play out. This book is more plot and action than a character study. For those students looking for WW II books, they will read about lots of details as to what the resistance groups experienced. It is so sad to read about such evil and yet, many Jewish people held tightly to their faith and experienced love and help from others despite the dangers.
May we never forget and may it inspire us to do better and love people.
I really liked this book and its perspective. I recommend it highly to adult readers too.
Jerome is a black 7th grader in Chicago who tries to avoid the bullies and do well in school. A new boy comes to school and Jerome tries to help him avoid a bully attack. The new boy uses a toy gun to scare them away and then gives the gun to Jerome to play with. Later, in the park, as Jerome plays, a police car arrives and shoots Jerome and he dies. Jerome now looks on as a ghost at how the rest of the days play out.
Jerome meets the Ghost of Emmitt Till and is also able to communicate with Sarah who is the daughter of the police officer who shot him. Sarah begins to see how she can become an activist to make a change in our world.
This book is heart-breaking and outstanding. It is so well written and tells an important story. History is so important in helping us change for the better if we could only learn our lessons well. I hope parents and teachers use this book for a discussion or read aloud. I rated it a 5 because it gave me that reading feeling at the end where I want to press this book into everybody’s hands to read.
I love author Linda Sue Park even more because she loved reading “Little House” as much as I did as a kid. This book is her adult response to challenge the racism in Wilder books and then give a diverse perspective to an American pioneer story.
Park writes about a father, Ben, and his daughter, Hanna, who arrives in a small town in Dakota Territory in the 1880s to open a dress shop. They are coming from California and looking for a new life after the death of Hanna's mother. Hanna is half-Chinese. Unfortunately, she encounters lots of people who are unwelcoming to her and refuse to have any contact with her. People even keep their children away from the school she is eager to attend. Hanna's dream is to assist her father in the clothing shop they are opening by using the seamstress skills that she learned from her mother. Many people she encounters are not open to a Chinese person in their midst. Will they end up having to leave with all of their work and dreams dashed?
Encounters with Native Americans is one of the plot points in this book. Park is careful to show how Hanna is respectful and empathetic to the people she makes friends with. The author's notes at the end explain how Park did much research and had many people help her to get the scenes just right. (I recognized many of the experts from her list!)
Many of the scenes take place in the schoolhouse. I imagined a place similar to the “When Calls The Heart” television show. Even though there are a lot of tough things in this story...I still got the warm pioneer story vibes from this book. Kids may not be reading Wilder books as much anymore, but fans of “When Calls The Heart” might really enjoy reading this one. This book is a great addition to the frontier life genre and adds much-needed diversity.
3 stars | The Pumpkin War | Cathleen Young | 2019 | IL 4-6
This story takes place on Madeline Island in Wisconsin on Lake Superior. Every year they have a pumpkin race in the fall. People grow large pumpkins and then hollow them out and use them as a boat for the race. 12-year-old Billie is convinced that her best friend Sam purposely did something to cause her to lose in the past year. She had not been friendly with him since that time.
The story takes over summer from planting to harvest time. Billie is part Ojibwa and many of the things she does come from her heritage....such as powwows, her grandmother's stories, and some of the food she cooks and eats. She also works hard keeping bees, fishing, and managing her pumpkins. Her father's estranged father comes to visit and Billie learns about forgiveness.
This is a short book with a lot packed into it. When it came to describing beekeeping or pumpkin growing or many of the activities that Billie does the reader does not get much help in understanding it. So many times I thought this would make a good video so I could see the honey processing or other tasks that Billie does. I wanted more description for the reader.
I thought Billie lived an amazing life and I loved the setting since I have visited several times. I don't think they really have pumpkin races though. I don't think the author is Ojibwa and so this is not an own voices book. I wanted to love this cozy fall book but it fell a bit short for me.
4 Stars | The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA | Brenda Woods | 2019 | Grades 4 - 7
It is just after WW II in a small town in South Carolina and Gabriel receives a new bike for his birthday. In his excitement and daydreaming, he doesn't pay attention to traffic on his first ride and gets in in front of a car on the road. A man named Meriwether Hunter pushes him into safety and then fixes his damaged bike...good as new. Meriwether is an African American war veteran who is having difficulty finding work in the Jim Crow South. Gabriel befriends him and gets his father to hire him at his auto shop. It is there that Gabriel learns how racism, segregation, and Jim Crow laws affect the life of a man who was an unsung war hero. He is a hero to Gabriel and his family for saving his life but other people in the community make his life very difficult because of his skin color.
This book takes a light-handed approach in dealing with racism and Jim Crow laws. Gabriel and Meriwether are such likable characters! There are some quirky characters in the town in which some are funny and others difficult. It is a coming of age story where a boy with a happy go lucky life begins to realize that life can be unfair, unequal and disappointing.
There is a caution scene for sensitive readers where a man dies in front of the characters. Overall, this would be a great classroom read-aloud about racism, The Great Migration from South to North, and the role of African American soldiers in WW II. I enjoyed this book.
This short book is mostly written in rhyming verse, free verse and haiku and is a personal narrative of the childhood of the author, Lois Lowry. She focuses on when she lived in Hawaii and Japan during and after World War II. Oh boy, is it emotional and heartbreaking. I shed some tears while I was reading this one! It is also a tribute to the USS Arizona which sunk during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When Lowry's family moves to Japan, she also experiences the devastation of the bombing of Hiroshima. There is no doubt that Lois Lowry is the master of her craft because she writes a cohesive and beautiful memoir with so few words. This book isn't just about her. She includes stories of real people that connects to her, Pearl Harbor, or Japan. There is also the amazing connection she has with author and illustrator Allen Say! Read the author's notes in the back for some interesting details. I love Hawai’i and I know most visitors will visit The USS Arizona Memorial. I suggest this book as an essential read either before or after visiting. It is also another great book for the catalog of World War II stories.
Including the author's notes, this book is 72 pages long. Kenard Park illustrates almost every page with lovely pencil drawings.
“It was an island of rainbows.
My mother said that color arced across the sky
on the spring day when I was born.”
2 stars | The Miraculous | Jess Redman l 2019 | IL 4-6
Wunder is 11 years old and has been noticing and writing down miracles in his journal for most of his life. When his baby sister is born but dies on day 8, it puts the entire family into heartbreak. Mom is depressed and Wunder does not believe in miracles anymore. At the cemetery, he meets Faye who is a cape-wearing quirky girl who find a mysterious house nearby with a witch. The witch gives them some tasks that require Wunder to deliver letters all over town. It turns out that even though there are miracles attached to these people from Wunder's journal, there is also death and grief. Everyone is looking for hope.
This book was not for me. I thought the writing was fine...and it kept me turning pages, but I was depressed reading this book. It was also a bit too weird and mystical for my taste. I did not get a feeling of hope from this book. I was glad to have finished it so I didn't have to read anymore.
