Awkward

From School Library Journal..

Gr 5 Up—Flawed protagonist Peppi is fantastically imperfect in this middle school graphic novel. She is the new girl at Berrybrook Middle School and is having a hard time fitting in because of her struggles with social anxiety. The work opens with the young teen pushing away the first person who tries to help her, Jaime, and it only gets more awkward from there. A feud between Peppi's after-school art club and Jaime's science club springs up. Can the two groups stop fighting long enough to earn a spot in the school fair? Will Peppi overcome her social anxiety and apologize to Jaime? Will any of them feel comfortable enough in their own skins to have a good school year? The story is told with a clear, believable voice. Diversity is reflected in this average middle school setting, and there are characters from a variety of ethnicities and are differently abled. Chmakova is an adept storyteller and organically incorporates messages of kindness and understanding without being preachy. The placement of the text and images were carefully considered. The illustrations and lettering are playful, bright, and fun, in keeping with the tone of the work. Readers will connect with the relatable, complex characters. VERDICT A superb graphic novel that authentically depicts the naturally awkward adolescent years.—Julie Zimmerman, Brooklyn Public Library


Adorable!  Great story and illustrations!

Gabe and Izzy

From Booklist (via Amazon)…

Recasting her privately published memoir Still Dancing (2009) into a shorter form, Ford offers a clear-eyed self-portrait of a teenager in furious denial after a devastating diagnosis of the degenerative neuromuscular disease Friedreich’s ataxia ended her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. In a narrative punctuated by checklists, bulleted points, recommendations for additional informational resources, and thank-you letters (and photographs) from teens, Ford describes how her stubborn refusal to use artificial aids set her up for sustained bullying in high school and how, after graduation, a coonhound named Izzy—who developed a physical disability strangely similar to hers—pulled her out of the denial stage and led to her becoming a nationally known motivational speaker with an antibullying message. “I’ll never be a prima ballerina,” she finishes, “but I am still dancing.” Salutary reading for young people with developing disabilities, as well as those who bully or are bullied. Grades 6-9. --John Peters --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Very good….inspirational!

I Will Always Write Back

From Publisher's Weekly…

In 1997, a 12-year old girl from Hatfield, Pa., and a 14-year-old boy from Mutare, Zimbabwe, began a pen-pal relationship. In alternating chapters, Alifirenka and Ganda recount how their mutual curiosity led to an increasingly honest, generous correspondence. Martin loves receiving Caitlin's photo, but when she requests one in return, "My heart went from sprinting to a standstill." He sends her the only photo his family owns. Hearing BBC accounts of Zimbabwe's political and economic turmoil alarms Caitlin, but a letter written on a popsicle wrapper shocks her: "I gasped. My friend was writing me on trash." She begins to send him her babysitting money—which Martin's family uses to buy food and to pay school fees and rent—and Caitlin's family eventually decides to sponsor Martin's education. Sensitively and candidly demonstrating how small actions can result in enormous change, this memoir of two families' transformation through the commitment and affection of long-distance friends will humble and inspire. Ages 12–up. 

What a wonderful and inspirational story!  Fun to read!

Popular A Memoir

KIRKUS REVIEW

An interesting and earnest memoir of a social experiment conducted by a contemporary eighth-grader who follows the advice in a popularity guide written for 1950s-era teens and blogged the experience for one school year.

Van Wagenen is the oldest child in her loving, quirky family. A talented writer, she’s funny, thoughtful and self-effacing. She is also, as she describes it, part of the “Social Outcast group, the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be there.” Over the year, she discovers a great deal, most notably that despite its sounding a bit pat, popularity is “about who you are, and how you treat others.” Teens will readily identify with her candid descriptions of social dynamics at her middle school. Many of the scenarios that arise from her adherence to the suggestions in Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide are effectively played to comic effect, such as wearing a girdle or pearls and white gloves. Vignettes about her life, including her grief over the death of a beloved teacher, her horror at hearing the news of a boy killed at a nearby school after he brings in a pellet gun and her excitement over speaking to Betty Cornell by telephone, provide balance.

A fascinating and unusual slice-of-life work whose humor will best be appreciated by younger teens. (Memoir. 12-16)

Adorable and funny!  

Marcelo in the Real World

From Publisher's Weekly..

Artfully crafted characters form the heart of Stork’s (The Way of the Jaguar ) judicious novel. Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old with an Asperger’s-like condition, has arranged a job caring for ponies at his special school’s therapeutic-riding stables. But he is forced to exit his comfort zone when his high-powered father steers Marcelo to work in his law firm’s mailroom (in return, Marcelo can decide whether to stay in special ed, as he prefers, or be mainstreamed for his senior year). Narrating with characteristically flat inflections and frequently forgetting to use the first person, Marcelo manifests his anomalies: he harbors an obsession with religion (he regularly meets with a plainspoken female rabbi, though he’s not Jewish); hears “internal” music; and sleeps in a tree house. Readers enter his private world as he navigates the unfamiliar realm of menial tasks and office politics with the ingenuity of a child, his voice never straying from authenticity even as the summer strips away some of his differences. Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other “real world” conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel’s psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)

I picked this up because the description said "reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night," and it is similar.  I thought this a very good book, although too old for middle school!

Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat

From Publisher's Weekly….

A master of action-propelled outdoor stories, Paulsen moves his focus inside, literally and figuratively, as he explores the interactions among six eighth-grade boys while they take shelter in a school bathroom during a severe weather alert. The situation is recounted by narrator Jordan, known for his anxiety-induced nosebleeds, his “standing date with the detention hall,” and his acerbic, insecurity-masking humor. Through the boys’ conversations and Jordan’s opinionated commentary, Paulsen shapes complex portraits of each character (including a condescending “hyperintellectual,” a popular but “emotionally tone deaf” overachiever, and a mostly nonspeaking kid plugged into his earbuds and rocking an air guitar), exposing subtle contrasts between their inner and outer selves. At the story’s emotional center is skittish new student Avery, who’s embarrassed by his security blanket–like plush cat. The novel’s contained setting and rapid-fire dialogue gives the story a theatrical quality that Paulsen taps into directly by retelling the entire story in screenplay form, complete with stage directions, at the end. Both versions provide opportunities for thought and conversations about self-honesty, stereotypes, and making friends in unexpected situations. Ages 8–12. 

Good, sophisticated narrative typical of Paulsen.

Pokemon Go! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide

From Goodreads

The essential guide book to the biggest mobile game in history, Pokémon Go!
Pokémon GO! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide is a must-read companion to the hit mobile game that has taken the world by storm. This essential guide will teach gamers all they need to know to become the ultimate Pokémon Master. Filled with tips, cheats, strategies, insights and even guides to Pokémon Go sites in a variety of cities, Pokémon GO! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guideis indispensable for anyone looking to fill their Pokédex. This guide includes:
• Everything you need to know about Lures, PokéBalls, Eggs 
• How to catch the really hard Pokémon…Level 20 and above!
• Level Up! XP, Medals, Achievements + more
• How to find the best Gyms and Pokéstops in your hometown

Informative!  I wish I would have read this when I first started playing.  Not really well written though, and a bit repetitive.  

33 Minutes

From Publisher's Weekly…

Adult author Hasak-Lowy (Captives) makes his middle-grade debut with an entertaining story about the shifting nature of friendship. Sam and Morgan used to be best friends, but a new kid named Chris has driven them apart, with Morgan joining the football team and becoming one of the most popular seventh graders. As the novel opens, the titular countdown to the moment when Morgan is scheduled to beat up Sam has begun, and Sam’s flashbacks to the events surrounding their friendship’s dissolution intermix with that last half hour of safety at school. The supporting cast is only lightly developed, and Chris comes across as a one-dimensional villain, rather than the more complex character that his background suggests (readers learn, for instance, that his parents are seldom around). Nonetheless, Hasak-Lowy gives Sam an amusingly discursive narrative voice (on getting his “butt kicked”: “[I]f you knew someone was going to kick you some place, would you not hope for that place to be your butt?”) through which he dissects the middle school experience and his loss of a friend. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Jan.)

Cute! Friendship is a difficult thing in middle school.  

Under the Egg

From Publisher's Weekly…
2016-17 middle school LOE

As he lay dying, Theodora Tenpenny’s grandfather Jack muttered something about a treasure “under the egg.” Theodora, 13, thinks this means that Jack—a thrifty, unknown artist—left a means of providing for Theo and her unreliable mother. She searches the mantelpiece, beneath Jack’s painting of an egg, and the bowl where they display an egg gathered from the chicken coop behind their Greenwich Village townhouse. Nothing. Then an accident uncovers another image under Jack’s painting, sending Theo and her new friend Bodhi, the daughter of two film stars, on a mission to discover the provenance of what appears to be a Renaissance masterpiece. Theo is smart and resourceful, and debut author Fitzgerald creates a plausible backstory for the teen’s uncanny ability to spot “the difference between a Manet and a Monet.” While the resolution falls into place too easily, the search for answers forces Theo out of her shell and into the wonderfully quirky community around her. Fans of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will find this another delightful lesson in art history. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger. (Mar.)

I agree that the ending was too convenient but overall a delightful book.  

I Kill the Mockingbird

From Publisher's Weekly…
2016-17 LOE Lizard (middle school)

In this quick, witty novel, narrator Lucy and her bibliophile best friends Elena and Michael embark on a campaign of literary rebellion in an attempt to compel fellow students to read To Kill a Mockingbirdover the summer. Their plan? Hide copies of Harper Lee’s classic novel in local bookstores and libraries, which will promote a false sense of scarcity and increase demand. “It’s not stealing,” says Lucy in defense of the idea. “It’s shrinkage.” They also orchestrate an accompanying social media campaign, and before long the friends’ brand of “literary terrorism” has grown out of their control. Acampora (Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face) layers the novel with emotional nuance, as Lucy worries about her mother who recently beat cancer, and the friends contend with emerging romantic tension between Lucy and Michael. Strong characters bolster the narrative, including Elena’s outspoken indie bookstore owner Uncle Mort. This strong novel stands on its own as a testament to the power of reverse psychology, but will resonate with fans of the original Mockingbird and maybe inspire a few to check it out. Ages 10–14.

Hmmmmm…I think I like this one a little, but not a lot.  

The One Safe Place

From Publisher's Weekly…

In her first book for children, Unsworth takes readers inside the sinister and secretive world of the Gabriel H. Penn Home for Childhood—a refuge for specially chosen orphans in a bleak, scorching, and none-too-distant future. Devin has spent his young life on a secluded farm, “a pocket of richness” in an otherwise dry wasteland, with his grandfather. After his grandfather dies, Devin leaves for the city in order to survive. There he meets Kit—a girl with a dark past and quick, thieving hands—and Roman, who lures them both to the Home. With a photographic mind and heightened senses, Devin immediately suspects foul play at the Home, despite its extravagance and the too-good-to-be-true amenities it has to offer. Unsworth unravels the story with skilled deliberation, creating a page-turning mix of suspense, intrigue, and anxiety. The kids are genuine and quirky, just the right kind of mismatched misfits to snag readers’ hearts. This is a wholly enjoyable journey, and a dystopian vision with some great new twists. Ages 10–up. 

I thought this was just ok, but intriguing enough to keep me reading.  

Skellig

From Publisher's Weekly…
2000 Printz Honor Award

British novelist Almond makes a triumphant debut in the field of children's literature with prose that is at once eerie, magical and poignant. Broken down into 46 succinct, eloquent chapters, the story begins in medias res with narrator Michael recounting his discovery of a mysterious stranger living in an old shed on the rundown property the boy's family has just purchased: ""He was lying there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he'd been there forever.... I'd soon begin to see the truth about him, that there'd never been another creature like him in the world."" With that first description of Skellig, the author creates a tantalizing tension between the dank and dusty here-and-now and an aura of other-worldliness that permeates the rest of the novel. The magnetism of Skellig's ethereal world grows markedly stronger when Michael, brushing his hand across Skellig's back, detects what appears to be a pair of wings. Soon after Michael's discovery in the shed, he meets his new neighbor, Mina, a home-schooled girl with a passion for William Blake's poetry and an imagination as large as her vast knowledge of birds. Unable to take his mind off Skellig, Michael is temporarily distracted from other pressing concerns about his new surroundings, his gravely ill baby sister and his parents. Determined to nurse Skellig back to health, Michael enlists Mina's help. Besides providing Skellig with more comfortable accommodations and nourishing food, the two children offer him companionship. In response, Skellig undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis that profoundly affects the narrator's (and audience members') first impression of the curious creature, and opens the way to an examination of the subtle line between life and death. The author adroitly interconnects the threads of the story--Michael's difficult adjustment to a new neighborhood, his growing friendship with Mina, the baby's decline--to Skellig, whose history and reason for being are open to readers' interpretations. Although some foreshadowing suggests that Skellig has been sent to Earth on a grim mission, the dark, almost gothic tone of the story brightens dramatically as Michael's loving, life-affirming spirit begins to work miracles. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)

Well written and engaging, but an odd story!  

A Death-Struck Year

From Publisher's Weekly...

Lucier strikes an appropriately sobering tone in her debut novel, about the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. Seventeen-year-old orphan Cleo Berry describes the gruesome day-to-day realities in Portland, Ore., as disease ravages her community, brought by contagious visiting soldiers. Resourceful and empathetic, Cleo joins the Red Cross volunteers, distributing informational pamphlets and masks, and seeing to "unattended cases," saving three lives on her first mission. With her brother and his pregnant wife stuck in San Francisco, Cleo befriends fellow volunteers at the transformed Public Auditorium, learns self-reliance, and assists in horrifying medical procedures, while discovering the ambition that aids in her will to survive. Lucier gracefully provides historical verisimilitude with references to bob haircuts, the spread of knowledge about birth control, wartime food shortages and inflation, and the traumatizing effects of the draft. Highly sympathetic characters, a solid sense of place, and the transformation of a city under siege by an invisible assailant result in a powerful and disturbing reading experience. Ages 12–up.

Very good…

Thrice the Brinded Cat hath Mew'd

From Publisher's Weekly…

Bestseller Bradley’s lively eighth Flavia de Luce novel (after 2015’s As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust) finds the preadolescent chemist and detective back at Buckshaw, her crumbling family estate in England, after being dishonorably discharged from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada. Her beloved father’s sickness taints homecoming, leaving moody Flavia to ward off a flock of pesky sisters. Welcome distraction comes when Flavia stumbles on the body of a local wood-carver strapped upside-down to a wooden contraption, flanked by a stack of children’s books by famed nonsense-versifier Oliver Inchbald. Flavia, who’s delighted to investigate under the eye of her old friend Inspector Hewitt, uncovers a backstory to the murder involving a man devoured by seagulls and a madcap Auntie Loo who dies scuba diving. Only the somewhat arbitrary final reveal disappoints. Child detectives can irritate, but Flavia’s a winner, a mix of sparky irreverence and wrathful propriety who evades the preciousness endemic to the species.

Another winner! 

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pi

From Publisher's Weekly…

Fans of Louise Fitzhugh's iconic Harriet the Spy will welcome 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, the heroine of Canadian journalist Bradley's rollicking debut. In an early 1950s English village, Flavia is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters when a rude, redheaded stranger arrives to confront her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee. Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed, wacky village characters with ties to the schoolmaster, and a sharp inspector with doubts about the colonel and his enterprising young detective daughter mean complications for Flavia and enormous fun for the reader. Tantalizing hints about a gardener with a shady past and the mysterious death of Flavia's adventurous mother promise further intrigues ahead. (Apr.)

I had to re-read this after reading the 8th installment.  Excellent!  Love Flavia's character. 

The Marvels

From Publisher's Weekly…
NM Battle of the Books 2016-2017

Selznick imagines an alternate backstory for a real English tourist attraction, the Dennis Severs’ House: 10 meticulously curated rooms that suggest what life might have been like for a family of Huguenot silk weavers in 18th-century London. The first 500 pages are double-page pencil drawings that (almost) wordlessly tell the story of the Marvel family, beginning with a 1766 shipwreck and following successive generations as they gain fame in London’s theater community. As he did in his Caldecott Medal–winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Selznick uses a telescoping point of view with great success, bringing the audience effortlessly from the general to the specific, from wide shot to close-up. The next 200 pages are prose, jumping forward to 1990 when a boy named Joseph Jervis has run away from boarding school in search of an uncle he has never met. Uncle Albert, who lives in a home maintained in much the same way as the Dennis Severs’ House, has been reclusive ever since losing his “beloved” to AIDS, but Joseph and the neighbor girl he befriends, Frankie, refuse to stay away. Viewed narrowly, it’s a love letter to the Dennis Severs’ House, but readers won’t need preexisting knowledge of the museum to enjoy this powerful story about creating lasting art and finding family in unexpected places. 

This is a beautiful story!

THe Spy Goddess Live and Let Shop

From Amazon…

After running into trouble with the law, a teenager with an attitude is sent to a boarding school with a big secret

Even though it wasn’t Rachel’s idea to steal the car, she was happy to go along for the ride. But when her so-called friends bolt as soon as the cops show up, they leave Rachel to take the rap. In court, the judge takes pity on the Beverly Hills bad girl, and offers her a choice: thirty days in juvie, or a year at Blackthorn Academy. Rachel chooses the boarding school. After all, how bad could it be?

Cut into the side of a Pennsylvania mountain, Blackthorn is weirder than Rachel could ever have imagined. The students take Tae Kwon Do instead of gym, there are guardhouses on the edge of campus, and there’s a secret Top Floor that only certain students are allowed to access. Despite Blackthorn’s mysteries, Rachel is starting to fit in. She likes her roommate and her classmates, and even the all-knowing headmaster, Mr. Kim. But when Mr. Kim disappears, Rachel learns a secret about Blackthorn Academy—and herself—that will change her life forever.

Cute! Lots of action and attitude!

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

From Publisher's Weekly…

Sonnenblick's insightful debut novel charts the way a talented 13-year-old drummer's life changes when his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey, is diagnosed with leukemia. Steven, whose story unfolds through his journals for English class, was the first drummer ever admitted into the All-City High School Band in the seventh grade, and this year, as an eighth grader, his future looks even brighter. After Jeffrey is diagnosed with cancer, his mother must spend more time taking Jeffrey to treatment and the family's finances begin to suffer; Steven takes refuge in the basement, practicing the drums for hours. The author perceptively records the struggle within Steven to lash out against his parents for feeling neglected and to feel compassion for his brother, as well as the normal adolescent concerns, including overlooking childhood friend Annette ("It's like she's figured out how to play [piano] like Beethoven and Thelonious Monk but hasn't quite mastered the art of being a girl yet"), who clearly has a crush on him, in favor of unattainable girl-next-door Renee. The journal structure is not always entirely believable, but Steven's thoughts and feelings are (after his mother returns from one of Jeffrey's treatments, Steven has an epiphany: "I realized without any shadow of a doubt that she would have done the same for me"). Readers may well feel inspired by the teen's gradual growth over the course of the novel, and drummers especially will enjoy this insider's view. Ages 12-up.

Excellent, funny and sad….

The Fourteenth Goldfish

From Publisher's Weekly…

Middle school doesn’t start smoothly for 11-year-old Ellie, whose best friend finds her passion (volleyball) and new teammates to eat lunch with, while Ellie flounders, uninterested in sports or her parents’ avocation, theater. A startling addition to the household helps Ellie get her groove back when Grandpa Melvin, a scientist, moves in after engineering a cure for aging (the regenerative properties of jellyfish are involved) and transforming himself into a teenage boy. Though Melvin dresses and acts like the crotchety old man he was, he and Ellie bond over spirited discussions about Jonas Salk, Robert Oppenheimer, the possibilities of science, and the moral questions scientific advances can raise. Though the subject matter has a lot of intellectual heft, the writing has Holm’s ever-present light touch. The small cast, which refreshingly includes divorced parents who treat each other respectfully, is so well realized that the farfetched aspects of the plot seem almost plausible. This is top-notch middle-grade fiction with a meaty dilemma, humor, and an ending that leaves room for the possibility of a sequel. Ages 8–12.

I thought this was ok…I liked the science aspect.  

Rain Reign

From Publisher's Weekly...
New Mexico Land of Enchantment

Rose Howard is a high-functioning autistic fifth-grader, and her preoccupation with homophones, her insistence on rules being followed to the letter of the law, and her difficulties reading social cues and understanding emotions are giving her trouble at school and frustrating her impatient and often angry single father. Rose’s own feelings of anxiety and worry are viscerally felt when her dog, Rain, gets lost after a storm wreaks havoc in her small New York town. As Rose’s sense of order is disrupted by floods, uprooted trees, and destroyed buildings, she methodically follows a plan to bring Rain home, though things don’t go as expected. Newbery Honor author Martin (A Corner of the Universe) is extremely successful in capturing Rose’s perspective and personality; Rose can’t always recognize when she is being treated unkindly (it’s no rare occurrence), but readers will see what she is up against, as well as the efforts of those who reach out to her. Filled with integrity and determination, Rose overcomes significant obstacles in order to do what is right. Ages 9–12. 

Adorable!  Well told!

All of the Above

From Publisher's Weekly...
NM Battle of the Books

Pearsall's (Crooked River) engaging multi-voiced narrative presents an inspiring account (based on a true event) of four African-American seventh-graders who wind up in an after-school math club in Cleveland, Oh. Their white teacher, Mr. Collins, begins with a vague hope: that some of his class might lose their apathy by working together to build a Stage 7 tetrahedron composed of 16,384 pieces (besting a California school's Stage 6 construction). He offers a passing grade to James Harris III, an angry student flunking math, if he will help with the project. Outgoing Marcel's hardworking father (owner of the local Willy Q's Barbecue) curtails his son's participation because he needs his son's labor. Sharice, bright and sociable, makes helpful lists, organizes their Christmas party, yet suffers privately, severely neglected by ""foster non-parent #5."" Shy, smart Rhondell wonders if Mr. Collins's contest will bring her dream of college closer. Mr. Collins is no super-teacher-just a 20-year veteran trying to inspire a rowdy, at-risk class. The kids struggle with daunting problems, but they embrace the challenge. When vandals destroy their work-in-progress, they are devastated. It's the unlikely James who reinvigorates the group, using his artistic talents to guide the tetrahedron's color scheme. The kids (aided by Willy G and Rhondell's Aunt Asia's beauty salon colleagues) work into July to triumph. Seasoned with recipes from Willy G's, this tale sparkles as it unifies voices of pride, determination and hope. Ages 8-12.

Beautiful!

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk

From Publisher's Weekly...

Traveling into territory more commonly associated with Isaac Bashevis Singer, Newbery Medalist Fleischman (The Whipping Boy ) draws attention to the especially cruel treatment of Jewish children during the Holocaust. The “Great Freddie” is a decorated GI, an orphan who has stayed in Europe and, by 1948, has found a toehold as a ventriloquist. And then Avrom Amos Poliakov shows up—rather, takes over. Avrom Amos is a dybbuk, a wandering soul or ghost, and, by demonstrating how he might speak for Freddie's wooden dummy, Avrom Amos convinces Freddie to let him lodge within Freddie. The dybbuk makes good on his promise, and Freddie's act becomes the toast of Paris. But Avrom Amos has his own agenda, as Freddie knows. He wants to track down the infamous SS colonel who not only killed him but also tortured children, including his sister, and before long, the dybbuk co-opts Freddie's act and his interviews to spread the word about the SS colonel. The dybbuk's voice will shock some readers; he speaks in embittered, Yiddish-inflected English that drives home his point. Here is Avrom Amos giving Freddie a history lesson: “You didn't hear [that Hitler] told his Nazi meshuggeners, those lunatics, 'Soldiers of Germany, have some fun and go murder a million and a half Jewish kids? All ages! Babies, fine. Girls with ribbons in their hair, why not?' ” Fleischman inserts horrific factual details of Nazi brutality, and yet his message about bearing witness may be submerged beneath the sensational story line. Ages 9-14. 

We've had this in the LBJ for a while and I decided to read it because it's on the NM Battle of the Books list for middle schools.  It's very good, but quite graphic in the descriptions of the Jewish children's deaths.  

The School for Good and Evil

From Publisher's Weekly...

At first glance, Chainani's debut appears to resemble the trend-following herd. There's the secret school that sorts its students into apparently predestined categories, courtesy of J.K. Rowling. There's the knowing, slightly shocking narration, full of farts and greasy hair, borrowed from Roald Dahl via Lemony Snicket. But Chainani's story gradually takes on dimension. Sophie and Agatha are plucked from their hometown of Gavaldon, where children are voracious readers of fairy tales. A skeletal bird drops them at the School for Good and Evil, populated by the living embodiments of these tales—princesses, princes, and villains in training. The girls soon discover, however, that these fledgling stereotypes have never read the stories. Sophie and Agatha are the only "Readers" in their class—shunned, mocked, but also feared. While the notion that conventions of good and evil don't tell the whole truth is hardly new, exploring the middle ground moves Chainani's novel out of its own ruts and, in the process, shows readers a hyperactively imaginative way to leave black-and-white thinking behind. Ages 8–12.

Hmmmm...I really didn't like this very much...it seemed to drag on..

The Night Gardener

From ...

KIRKUS REVIEW

Replete with engaging figurative language and literary allusions to works ranging from the Bible to Paradise Lost, Auxier’s creepy Victorian ghost story is an allegory on greed and the power of stories.

Fourteen-year-old Molly and her younger brother, Kip, orphans fleeing the Irish famine, seek work in England. The destitute siblings become servants at the Windsor estate, at the center of which is a decrepit house entwined with a huge and sinister tree. Although warned that this place contains something ominous that changes people, they are unprepared for the evil they encounter. The master, mistress and their two children grow pale and thin; their eyes and hair blacken. Entering the forbidden room at the top of the stairs, Molly finds a knothole in the tree—a knothole that produces whatever one wishes for (money, jewels, sweets). The price is a piece of the petitioner’s soul. Muddy footprints and dead leaves in the house attest to an evil nocturnal visitor, the titular Night Gardener, who wipes the sweat of fear from their nightmare-ridden brows to water the tree. In a heart-stopping climax, Molly and Kip attempt to stop this specter and the ancient curse.

Lots of creepiness, memorable characters, a worthy message, Arrasmith’s atmospheric drawings and touches of humor amid the horror make this cautionary tale one readers will not soon forget. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Good!

  

How the Universe Got Its Spots

From Barnes and Noble..

Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, the gifted young cosmologist Janna Levin not only announces the central theme of her intriguing and controversial new book but establishes herself as one of the most direct and unorthodox voices in contemporary science. For even as she sets out to determine how big “really big” may be, Levin gives us an intimate look at the day-to-day life of a globe-trotting physicist, complete with jet lag and romantic disturbances.

Nimbly synthesizing geometry, topology, chaos and string theories, Levin shows how the pattern of hot and cold spots left over from the big bang may one day reveal the size and shape of the cosmos. She does so with such originality, lucidity—and even poetry—that How the Universe Got Its Spots becomes a thrilling and deeply personal communication between a scientist and the lay reader.

I read half so I get to count it!  It's pretty technical for a lay reader.  

This Star Won't Go Out

From Booklist Reviews

Esther was 16 when she died from complications of thyroid cancer in 2010. By that time, she'd become a fixture among the Nerdfighters, a community dedicated to intellectualism and creativity, created by YA author John Green and his brother, composer Hank Green, via their popular YouTube channel, the Vlogbrothers. She loved Harry Potter–themed "wizard" rock music and Doctor Who, and she was part of Catitude, a group that ran the Project for Awesome, a Nerdfighter charity campaign. John Green dedicated The Fault in Our Stars (2012) to Esther, and in his introduction to this memoir, he notes that while he's proud of Fault's success, "the one person I most want to read it never will." Featuring essays from friends, family, and doctors and curated by her parents, this collection—part autobiography, portfolio of her fiction and drawings, and photo album—is a touching eulogy, and it fulfills her dream to be an author. An intimate portrait of a vibrant, deeply engaged teen, this title reveals the power of the internet as a mode for connection, which comes through with each reproduced chat session and blog post. As the Nerdfighters say, rest in awesome, Esther. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

A very sad story!  Although a bit difficult to read...

The Road from Coorain

From Publisher's Weekly..

At age 11, Conway ( Women Reformers and American Culture ) left the arduous life on her family's sheep farm in the Australian outback for school in war-time Sydney, burdened by an emotionally dependent, recently widowed mother. A lively curiosity and penetrating intellect illuminate this unusually objective account of the author's progress from a solitary childhood--the most appealing part of the narrative--to public achievement as president of Smith College and now professor at MIT. Gifted with an ability to adapt to a wide range of cultures and people and despite ingrained Australian prejudice against intellectuals, Conway devoted herself to the study of history and literature, spurred on by excellent British-style schooling. Her further adventures could easily make a rewarding second volume.

I picked up this book in a used book store in Juneau and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

A Snicker of Magic

From Publisher's Weekly...
2016-2017 NM Land of Enchantment middle school

From every angle, Lloyd’s first novel sparkles and radiates warmth. Felicity Juniper Pickle, 12, feels an immediate kinship with the town of Midnight Gulch, Tenn., the latest place her itinerant mother has brought Felicity, her almost-six-year-old sister, Frannie Jo, and their dog Biscuit. The remote mountain town has a history interwoven with secret magic, but most of it seems to have evaporated years ago following a dual between a pair of famous magician brothers, which divided a family and resulted in a curse. Felicity’s immediate concerns lay with her mother’s sadness and her insistence on constantly uprooting the family. With the help of Felicity’s new friend Jonah, who has his own secret magic that he works on Midnight Gulch; the stories that Felicity collects from various townspeople; and Felicity’s ability to see words that reflect people’s hidden thoughts and desires) she tries to save both the town and her own family. Working in the folksy vein of Ingrid Law’s Savvy, Lloyd offers a reassuring, homespun story about self-expression and the magic that resides in one’s mind and heart. Ages 8–12. 


Sweet story, but Felicity has a lot of understanding, wisdom, and depth of feelings for a 12 year old!

The Boy on the Wooden Box

From Publisher's Weekly...
2014 Sydney Taylor honor award for older readers

Leyson, who died in January at age 83, was No. 289 on Schindler’s list and its youngest member. He was just 13 when Leyson’s father convinced Oskar Schindler to let “Little Leyson” (as Schindler knew him) and other family members find refuge in the Emalia factory; Leyson was so small he had to stand on a box to work the machinery. Leyson and his coauthors give this wrenching memoir some literary styling, but the book is at its most powerful when Leyson relays the events in a straightforward manner, as if in a deposition, from the shock of seeing his once-proud father shamed by anti-Semitism to the deprivation that defined his youth. Schindler remains a kindly but enigmatic figure in Leyson’s retelling, occasionally doting but usually distant. Leyson makes it clear that being “Schindler Jews” offered a thread of hope, but it never shielded them from the chaos and evil that surrounded them. Readers will close the book feeling that they have made a genuinely personal connection to this remarkable man. Ages 9–14. 

Beautiful!

Geeks: How Tow Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho

From Publisher's Weekly...

While promoting his book Virtuous Reality, journalist Katz was introduced to the world of ""geeks,"" those smart, technically savvy misfits who are ostracized by their high school peers. Katz wrote in his column on the slashdot.org Web site about the isolation, exclusion and maltreatment--from dirty looks to brutal beatings--such kids routinely face. Tens of thousands of anguished e-mails confirmed his story. One of the e-mailers was Jesse Dailey, a working-class 19-year-old trapped in rural Idaho, where he and his friend Eric Twilegar fixed computers for a living, and hacked and surfed the Web, convinced that they were losers and outcasts. Katz, also a writer for Wired and Rolling Stone, traveled to Idaho to meet the pair, intending to chronicle their lives. He wound up encouraging and sometimes assisting Jesse and Eric as they tried to improve their lives by moving to Chicago, where they sought better jobs and even considered applying to college. Sometimes intensely earnest, Katz cuts back and forth between Jesse and Eric's story and more general discussions of the geeks' condition. Over the course of the book, Jesse and Eric come to represent geeks' collective weaknesses and strengths. While the bulk of the book has broad social and educational implications (concerning the fate of bright kids who don't come from socially and educationally privileged backgrounds), it is a highly personal tale: Katz takes us inside the lives of these two young men, shows us their sense of isolation, their complete absorption in the cyberworld, their distrust of authority and institutions, and their attempts to negotiate an often hostile society. He breaks through the stereotype and humanizes this outcast group of young people. (Feb.)

I bought this book for the LBJ library because it is on the list of text exemplars from Common Core Appendix B.  And, it is a very good book, a little wordy and repetitive, but the story is moving.  

Fuzzy Mud

From Publisher's Weekly...

Sachar blends elements of mystery, suspense, and school-day life into a taut environmental cautionary tale about the insatiable hunger for energy sources and the cost of not doing the right thing. Marshall’s routines at Woodridge Academy—including his daily walk to and from school with his anxious neighbor Tamaya—are upended by the arrival of blowhard bully Chad. A quiet seventh-grader, Marshall becomes a target for Chad, who challenges him to an after-school fight. Rather than suffer a beating, he and Tamaya take a shortcut through the off-limits woods and come across what Tamaya dubs “fuzzy mud,” a strange substance they don’t realize harbors great danger for them and the town at large. Amid chapters following the children’s exploits, Sachar includes transcripts of secret Senate hearings with the scientists who engineered the microorganisms that generate fuzzy mud. In a tense sequence of events, readers learn more about Marshall, Tamaya, Chad, and the peril they face. A dramatic conclusion celebrates the positive ripples of friendship and honesty, and will leave readers with much food for thought. Ages 10–up.

This is a quick and easy read.  It's enjoyable although a little far fetched.  Not nearly as good as Holes.  

Nest

From Publisher's Weekly...


First-time author Ehrlich’s achingly realistic depiction of family love and loss is set on Cape Cod during the early 1970s. Chirp Orenstein’s mother, Hannah, is a vivacious, talented dancer until a leg ailment forces her to slow down. When Hannah is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she falls into a deep depression, fading to an almost unrecognizable shadow of her former self. No one—not Chirp, not her older sister, not their psychiatrist father—can make Hannah feel better. Chirp keeps her sadness and feelings of helplessness to herself except when she’s with her friend Joey, a neighbor who spends a good deal of time trying to avoid his violent father and seems to understand what Chirp is going through. Ehrlich’s novel beautifully captures the fragile bond shared by Chirp and Joey and their growing trust for each other in a world filled with disappointments and misunderstandings. Allusions to songs and trends of the era and references to Chirp’s strong Jewish heritage accentuate and ground the story. Ages 8–12. 

Beautiful...I love how Chirp thinks like someone her age, and not someone wise beyond her years.  

The Nest

From Publisher's Weekly...

As four middle-aged Plumb siblings—Leo, Beatrice, Jack, and Melody—await the distribution of the trust fund their father had established for them as just an extra dividend in what he assumed would be their financially comfortable lives, they find themselves in dire economic straits. Unfortunately, the Nest (as they call the trust fund) had been used to settle the medical bills for a young woman who was badly injured when an inebriated Leo crashed his Porsche while they were inside it and getting intimate. Already a sadly dysfunctional family, the siblings plan to confront Leo. In a clever touch that reveals their hopes and desperation, each secretly has a drink in a different Manhattan bar before they convene to hear Leo swear he will get his act together and pay back the money. That Leo can’t be trusted is evident to the reader right away, but his segue into a meaningful domestic relationship with a literary agent seems hopeful. Meanwhile, his siblings try to avoid other financial crises, brought on by their own irresponsible behavior. Jack can’t repay the loans he has kept secret from his husband; Melody won’t be able to meet the mortgage payments on her home or forthcoming college tuition for her twin daughters; Bea has been forced to return the advance on the second novel she cannot write. In her debut, Sweeney spins a fast-moving, often-humorous narrative, and her portrait of each sibling is compassionate even as she reveals their foibles with emotional clarity. She sets scenes among iconic Manhattan watering places, capturing the tempo of various neighborhoods. Her writing is assured, energetic, and adroitly plotted, sweeping the reader along through an engrossing narrative that endears readers to the Plumb family for their essential humanity.

Read this in ebook format while on vacation in Alaska, and I found it very entertaining.  

Short Walking Tall When You're Not Tall At All

From Publisher's Weekly....

Schwartz, a reporter for the New York Times , debuts with an investigation of the relationship between height, wealth, and happiness, that's rich with examples from his own life. At 5'3” as an adult, Schwartz has been considered short all his life, which has affected him in ways both obvious and invisible. With an accessibly informal and even cheeky tone, he mixes personal anecdotes with information from scientific papers, news articles, and interviews as he explores hormones and surgeries marketed to children and parents, breaks down the biases that can be found in scientific studies, and even covers the embarrassment (but also bargains!) to be had shopping in the boys' department. Schwartz also discusses ways to physically and mentally deal with shortness (and how it can be an advantage), encouraging healthy eating, exercise, and breaking the habit of blaming one's problems on height: “[L]earning to tell what's real from what's hype can save you from a lot of unhappiness.” Charts and statistics complement this down-to-earth and hopeful account, which demonstrates that being different doesn't have to forecast what Schwartz calls a “second-rate life.” Ages 11–14. (Apr.)

Great message, although a little repetitive.

Orphan Train

From Publisher's Weekly...

Kline’s absorbing new novel (after Bird in the Hand) is a heartfelt page-turner about two women finding a sense of home. Seventeen-year-old Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer has spent most of her life in foster care. When she’s caught stealing a copy of Jane Eyre from the library, in an effort to keep the peace with her stressed foster parents, she ends up cleaning out elderly Vivian Daly’s attic. Molly learns that Vivian was herself an orphan, an Irish immigrant in New York who was put on the Orphan Train in the late 1920s and tossed from home to home in Minnesota. The growing connection leads Molly to dig deeper into Vivian’s life, which allows Molly to discover her own potential and helps Vivian rediscover someone she believed had been lost to her forever. Chapters alternate between Vivian’s struggle to find a safe home, both physically and emotionally, in early 20th-century Minnesota, and Molly’s similar struggle in modern-day Maine. Kline lets us live the characters’ experiences vividly through their skin, and even the use of present tense, which could distract, feels suited to this tale. The growth from instinct to conscious understanding to partnership between the two is the foundation for a moving tale. 

Excellent!

Fallout

From Publisher's Weekly...

Strasser (Kill You Last) brings readers to the 1960s Long Island of his youth, with one crucial difference: in this story, the Cuban Missile Crisis leads Russia to bomb the U.S. The plot alternates between two threads set before and after the bomb drops; in the immediate aftermath, 11-year-old Scott, his family, and a handful of neighbors endure the increasingly difficult conditions in the subterranean bomb shelter Scott’s father built, waiting for radiation levels to fall. The format allows Strasser to have the best of both worlds. In the “before” chapters, he presents a vision of life during the Cold War that feels ripped from personal memory as Scott grows aware of racial prejudice, the prevailing “us vs. them” mentality toward Russia, and his own nascent sexuality (“You want to die without ever seeing a breast?” Scott’s snide friend Ronnie asks). Meanwhile, the “after” chapters are claustrophobic, heartbreaking, and at times ugly as civility breaks down among the few adult and children survivors. An eye-opening “what if” scenario about the human response to disaster. Ages 10–up. 

I really enjoyed this, and I think it's a good book for middle schoolers.  

Terrible Tyhpoid Mary

From Publisher's Weekly…

In this thoroughly researched biography, Bartoletti (They Called Themselves the KKK) seeks to illuminate the backstory of “Typhoid Mary,” who allegedly infected nearly 50 individuals with the disease. Mary Mallon cooked for wealthy families in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City until she became the first documented “healthy carrier” of typhoid in the U.S. and was imprisoned in hospitals for most of her remaining life. Little is known about Mallon outside of one six-page letter she wrote, official documents, newspaper reports, journal articles, and other firsthand accounts of her. Though Bartoletti forms an objective portrait of Mallon’s case, she often has to rely on conjecture (“Mary probably didn’t understand that she could be a healthy carrier”), filling in gaps using deductive reasoning based on facts from that era. In the end, this study of Mallon’s ill-fated life is as much an examination of the period in which she lived, including the public’s ignorance about the spread and treatment of disease, the extreme measures health officials took to advance science, and how yellow journalism’s sensationalized stories could ruin someone’s reputation. Ages 10–up. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Aug.)

Excellent! Very interesting.  

Out of Darkness

2016 Printz Honor

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—The tale's layered plot begins with a prologue set hours after an actual deadly U.S. school disaster in New London, TX in March 1937. Readers are plunged into the grief and horror of the moment long enough to meet important protagonists and wonder at the event before being transported back to September 1936. From this point, the book focuses primarily on Naomi, a 15-year-old of Mexican heritage, and her younger biracial twin half-siblings. Recent arrivals from San Antonio, the children are all living with the twins' white father, and Naomi is forced to navigate the racially divided oil-mining town, learn to run a household, and to face her increasing interest in an African American youth. This third person story, recounted in multiple perspectives, slowly discloses the origins of the teen's apprehension for the recent transition. The insertion of black-and-white photos and stark black pages interrupt the narrative much like the metaphoric explosions in the lives of the diverse protagonists. Additionally, an increased use of white space leading to the book's climax seems to slow, and almost stop time. This book presents a range of human nature, from kindness and love to acts of racial and sexual violence. The work resonates with fear, hope, love, and the importance of memory. The author's note and acknowledgements pages give more background on the disaster. VERDICT Set against the backdrop of an actual historical event, Pérez's young adult novel gives voice to many long-omitted facets of U.S. history.—Ruth Quiroa, National Louis University, IL

Very good, but difficult to read.  Not appropriate for middle school.