Middle Grade

Buzzing

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by Samuel Sattin, illustrated by Rye Hickman
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Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is mention of cartoon violence. It’s in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Isaac has just been diagnosed with OCD, which is manifest in the graphic novel as hovering, ever-present bees. His mother is pretty protective of him, and the way he’s coping with his new diagnosis, so when he asks to join a group of friends to play a Swamps & Sorcery game. Everything is fine until he fails a history test (and thereby the class) and his mother bans him from seeing his friends or playing the game. There is some growth – his older sister feels left out because Isaac gets a lot of attention due to his OCD and she learns to accept it. Additionally, his mother learns to be more trusting of Isaac. And he learns how to better manage the buzzing in his life.

I liked this one well enough. I think the best part of the book was the depiction of the OCD as the bees. I liked how they were always around, and Isaac had to learn to live with – and ignore – them. I liked the story and the interspersing of the Swamps & Sorcery game. The art was nice; there was some diversity – Isaac is Latinx, maybe? – and one of the characters was gender fluid. It’s not going to be my favorite this year, but it was a solid book.

The First Magnificent Summer

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by R. L. Toalson
First sentence: “Period (noun): a length or segment of time.”
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Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is mention of swearing, and maybe a couple of mild ones. There is talk of a girl getting her period, and of their father having an affair. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but this one really skews to the older end.

Victoria – please don’t call me Tori anymore – and her two siblings are off to Ohio to see their father, whom they haven’t seen since he left their mom two years ago, for a whole month. Victoria is – rightly – worried about it: her dad has a new family, a new wife, and two new children, whom she calls The Replacements. She hopes it will go well, but is anxious she won’t.

And – no surprise – it doesn’t. Her dad is emotionally abusive to her, calling her fat and making her do chores that her older brother gets out of simply by being male. In fact, when she vents into a journal about her experiences – camping in a tent while The Replacements sleep in a trailer, getting her period and her father forcing her to swim anyway, her stepmother complaining that Victoria doesn’t dry the dishes correctly, or even the fact that her dad won’t use the name she prefers – her father reads her journal without her permission then proceeds to yell and slap her for it. Victoria is supremely happy to go home.

The cover and title suggest something happy, something about discovery (well, Victoria discovers she doesn’t need her father), but this was a dark, terrible book. Victoria’s dad was – to put it mildly – a piece of work. I didn’t quite get why the book needed to be set in the 90s (there was a mention of the Waco Branch Davidians raid happening a couple months before, which is a really odd way of setting a book in a time. Are kids going to know that reference?), except to maybe make it so Victoria couldn’t call home? (Or to give her dad something else to yell at her about.) It was very much about shattered dreams and shattered illusions and picking oneself up after that. Which, sure, I appreciate that.

But honestly? I really disliked this one.

Dad’s Girlfriend and Other Anxieties

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by Kellye Crocker
First sentence: “Ana should have been happy.”
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Content: There is a lot of lying, talk of pregnancy, and some parental neglect. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Ana’s whole life it has just been her and her dad. Her mom passed soon after Ana was born, and she hasn’t known anything else. But the summer after sixth grade, her dad decides to take her out to Colorado to meet his new girlfriend and her daughter. For two whole weeks. This wouldn’t be so bad, but Ana just got diagnosed with anxiety disorder, and the idea of traveling to Colorado from nice, safe Iowa is positively anxiety-inducing. And so, when they get there, all she wants to do is go home. So she decides to sabotage the vacation. In one horrible situation after another, Ana tries to make everything come undone… and learns a lot in the process.

This was a good portrait of a 12-year-old, who was used to being the center of her father’s life, learning to share him with another adult. And remember to manage her anxiety, and how to be open to new situations. It’s kind of fun, sweet, and perfect for those middle-grade readers who want to experience a Colorado vacation (while simultaneously getting second-hand embarrassment).

A fun read.

102 Days of Lying About Lauren

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by Maura Jortner
First sentence: “Every morning, the skeleton-rooster lets out a cock-a-doodle-do that could shake a person to their very core.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s abandonment and some parental emotional abuse. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but I’d be wary about handing it to the younger end of that age group.

For 102 days, Mouse has been living in the attic of the Haunted House ride at the theme park. For 102 days she has been pretending with her “borrowed” shirt to be an employee, sweeping up guests’ messes. For 102 days she has been left alone after her mother left her in the park. She doesn’t know if her mother is going to come back, but just in case, she doesn’t want to leave. For 102 days, Mouse has been just fine. But then a strange girl comes to the park and starts asking questions about Lauren, which Mouse doesn’t want to think about. And hasn’t – not really – for 102 days.

Oh, this one is heartbreaking. Abandonment – Mouse’s mother just hit the end of her rope, but you don’t leave your kid at an amusement park! And parental abuse – Mouse’s friend Tanner is the son of the park boss, and he’s a piece of work. It takes a tornado and his son almost dying to bring him around (sorry, that’s a bit of a spoiler). And yet, there’s a bit of Boxcar Children in this one: a 12-year-old girl figuring out how to “survive” on her own, making things work for her. It’s sad, but it’s also engaging, especially since the book takes place over one day, that 102nd day when Mouse’s life changes again.

I’m not sure it’s for really young kids, but it’s a good book for someone who wants a bit of adventure and doesn’t mind the abandonment part.

Dear Mothman

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by Robin Gow
First sentence: “Dear Mothman, I pretended to believe in you for Lewis.”
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Content: The font, which looks like handwriting, is sometimes hard to read (but I’m old), and it talks about the death of a friend. It’s in the Middle-Grade section of the bookstore.

Noah’s best friend, Lewis, has died in a car accident, and Noah is not taking it well. They were inseparable, and it seems like the adults in Noah’s life don’t quite know how to handle his grief. So, Noah decides to take on Lewis’s idea for the sixth-grade science fair: proving Mothman exists. So, he starts writing letters in a journal and leaving them for Mothman to find. While proving this, Noah not only makes new friends (and finds a girlfriend), he gets brave enough to tell his parents and teacher that his pronouns and name are not what he was born with. It’s a journey in every sense of the word.

I’ve heard excellent things about this one since it came out and I thought I’d give it a try. It’s a lovely novel in verse, and I think it deals with grief really well. This means, though, that’s is quite a sad book. Noah’s dealing with a lot, and while the adults are trying, they’re not always succeeding. I’m not sure how I felt about it falling over into the magical realm, but as a book about a kid dealing with his own identity as well as the loss of his anchor, it was an excellent story.

My Not-So-Great French Escape

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by Cliff Burke
First sentence: “‘Smile!’ my mom urged.”
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Content: There are some moments of bullying and a neglectful father. It’s in the Middle-Grade section of the bookstore.

Ryan has been drifting apart from his best friend, Wilder, for a while. At first, it was because they went to different schools, but when Wilder’s mom got Ryan a scholarship to the elite private school Wilder went to, Ryan thought they would be friends again. But, it wasn’t to be: Ryan found himself, and the fact that he and his mom don’t have a lot of money, the butt of jokes. This summer, Wilder is off to a month-long farming camp in France, and his mom has made it so Ryan can come along. Ryan hopes that this will rekindle their friendship.

Spoiler: Ryan is wrong. When he gets to the farm, Wilder ditches him for some French kids and Ryan is stuck with some other international kids. He’s upset and sad and misses home at first, but with the encouragement of the director, he throws himself into gardening and milking goats, and making new friends. It turns out to be a good summer after all.

This was super fun, because who wouldn’t want to spend a month in France in the summer? Burke does a good job of giving us a feel for a French farm, and Ryan is sympathetic as he learns to make new friends. Wilder never is redeemed – he’s a twat right up to the end – but the book has a good message about letting go of old friends and finding new ones. Plus goats and bees.

I really liked it, in the end.

Harriet Spies

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by Elana K. Arnold
First sentence: “If you’re not a people person, you probably wouldn’t like living at a bed-and-breakfast.”
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Content: There’s a main character who struggles with lying a lot. It’s in the Middle-Grade section (grades 3-5) of the bookstore, but it could also end up in the Beginning Chapter Book section (grades 1-2) of the bookstore as well.

Harriet has gone to live with her grandmother at the bed-and-breakfast she owns for the summer. She’s there not because she wants to be, but because her mother is pregnant and on bed rest, and her father travels too much for work. Harriet’s not entirely happy to be at the Bric-a-Brac B&B, but she’s determined to make the best of it. That is, until the Captain’s binoculars go missing, and no one believes Harriet that she didn’t take them. (Harriet has a bad habit of lying about things. You can see why the adults don’t quite believe her.) So she determines that she needs to find the binoculars to prove to everyone that she didn’t take them! She ropes in her new friend. Clarence, and they set about trying to figure everything out. 

On the one hand, this one is cute and sweet and really hits that 6- to 8-year-old sweet spot. It’s a simple story, but the reader is kept interested in it going through. There are a lot of fun places to see on Marble Island, and Harriet even gets to set up a clubhouse for herself in an old shed and discovers her father’s old dollhouse in that he built furniture. On the other hand, was there a reason for Clarence to be Black? He kind of falls into the magical friend trope – Harriet is a terrible friend to him and just uses him to help figure out the binocular mystery. He, in turn, helps her be a better friend. While I get that he’s Black for diversity’s sake, there’s really nothing indicative of his Blackness. 

Otherwise, though, it’s a fun little book.

The Many Fortunes of Maya

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by Nicole C. Collier
First sentence: “Even though I’ve never seen one in person, wood thrushes are my favorite bird of all time.”
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Content: There’s talk of separation and possibly divorce. It’s in the Middle-Grade section (grades 3-5) of the bookstore.

Maya’s planning on having a fantastic summer. She’s going to hang out with her best friend, Ginger, play soccer, get the MVP of their team, and make it onto the Chargers, the same team her Daddy played on when he was a kid. Except things don’t go as planned: the MVP goes to Ginger, who is also spending more time with Angelica, soccer camp isn’t everything Maya wanted it to be, and – even worse – her dad moves out, as he and Maya’s mom go through a trial separation. This throws Maya for the biggest loop: she thought her family was perfect the way it was…and no one asked her! How is her summer going to be great with all these bad things happening?

This one was super sweet and charming. I liked how the problems were quite serious for an 11-year-old – what is more important than friendships and your parents staying together? I liked that Collier wrote a book with a realistic portrait of parents whose marriage is struggling, but who put their child first, and are kind and loving. Even in their problems, it’s depicting a positive relationship. I liked that Maya was able to see that her friends being friends with others isn’t bad and that she was able to branch her passions out beyond just playing soccer.

A solid middle-grade book.

Amari and the Night Brothers

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by B. B. Alston
First sentence: “I’m sitting in the principal’s office.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are some scary moments, mostly with monsters, and instances of bullying. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Amari’s older brother (and hero), Quinton, has been missing for six months. He had graduated from high school, he had a job – or so he said – and then he just… disappeared. And it’s been affecting Amari’s school life, mostly because she just knows he’s not dead like everyone else assumes. And so when Quinton appears to her in a Wakeful Dream with a nomination to go to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs summer camp, she figures it’s the best way she has to find out what Really Happened. 

Once there, though, Amari discovers that she is a magician; one with a percentage of magic so high that it’s almost impossible. This brings attention to her, and not always the good kind. Additionally, she is trying out to be a Junior Agent in the Department of Supernatural investigations, which is where her brother worked before his disappearance, and she’s met with all sorts of pushback for wanting to be one of the Elite. And, to top it all off, the evil magician Moreau (yes, like in the Island of Dr…) has a nefarious plan to destroy the Bureau and have magicians take over, and wants Amari to join him. 

I think the marketing material is “Artemis Fowl” meets “Men in Black” but I think it’s more along the Percy Jackson lines. A girl, who doesn’t know her worth, finds a secret camp of people with similar powers, and comes into her own fighting a battle by the end of the book? Comparisons aside, this is a LOT of fun. I liked Amari, felt her struggles were real, glad she found some good friends along the way, and there was a satisfying ending as well as leaving things open for the next book in the series (which I immediately put on hold at the library). I think Alston is one of those writers who, like Riordan, has the potential to capture a whole generation (or two) of children’s imaginations. 

I can’t wait to read the next one!

Freewater

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by Amina Luqman-Dawson
First sentence: “Sanzi had broken yet another rule, but she didn’t care.”
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Content: There is violence against human beings – beatings and whippings, talk of removing fingers, and violence in the wild. It is in the Middle Grade section of the bookstore.

Homer is an enslaved boy at a plantation in the south. When we first meet him and his sister, Ada, they are running for their freedom. They’re supposed to be with their mother, but Homer insisted that they go back for his friend, Anna. Which meant that their mother, Rose, was caught. Homer and Ada kept running and found their way into the swamp. From there, they met some formemrly enslaved Black people as well as free Black people in their free community, deep within the swamp: Freewater.

This is less the story of Homer and Ada’s escape – that really only takes a chapter or two – and more of them learning to live free. Homer is obsessed with going back for his mom and works toward being able to do that. Ada is just a 7-year-old getting underfoot. They meet other children: Billy, who is a formerly enslaved person like them, and Sanzi and Juna who were born free in Freewater. Sanzi wants nothing except to be like Suleman – a tracker and explorer. Juna is a homebody and from all accounts, her mother’s “favorite”. We follow them as they experience life in Freewater.

I hate to say it, but I felt like this book was more Important than, well, Good. It is important: these stories of slavery need to be told. While people need to be shown as what they were: often cruel, but sometimes some of them were kind (if misguided). The struggles of Black people need to be told, and their joys and successes – like building a whole community in a swamp! – need to be written down. (The book is based on a real place, which is quite remarkable.)

But I wasn’t engaged. I slogged through until the very end, when it got exciting, as the children (and a couple of adults) raided the plantation wedding (wreaking havoc) during a wedding to rescue Homer’s mother. Luqman-Dawson captured the tension of doing that and made the stakes relatively high.

It was just a chore getting to that point. So, while I see the Importance and Value of this book and am glad it’s out there for people to read, it will not be my favorite.