moving

Winging It

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by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: October 21, 2025
Content: There is talk of dead parents and some awkward situations. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section.

Luna’s mom died when she was a baby, but she and her dad have always gotten along fine. Except now, her dad’s decided that they need to move across the country from LA to Washington DC to live with her (white) mother’s mother, someone that Luna barely knows and doesn’t have a great opinion of. But, in the months that they are there, Luna not only learns to understand her grandmother, but learns to appreciate her dead mother’s love of nature.

This one was…. nice. I like knowing that there are books out there about change and growing – especially moving and making new friends, which is hard – but I wasn’t really drawn in by Luna and her quest to find a luna moth and understand her mother. Perhaps it’s because it took place over a huge chunk of time – an entire year – but it just didn’t resonate with me.

That doesn’t mean that kids won’t love it.

Fresh Start

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by Gale Galligan
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work
Release date: January 7, 2025
Content: There is some online bullying and talk of periods. It will be in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Ollie moves a lot because of her dad’s job and so she’s decided that nothing she does really matters. Embarrassing moment at school? Doesn’t matter; we’re moving soon. Fallout with friends? Doesn’t matter; we’re moving soon. Until her dad takes a job in Virginia (after being overseas for much of Ollie’s 12 years) and her parents buy a house: they’re going to stay put for a while.

Which means Ollie actually needs to adapt and figure out how to make friends and find her place in the world.

This one was super fun and charming. I loved Galligan’s illustrations, and I liked that she balanced Ollie figuring out how to fit in with people who had grown up together and stay true to herself. I loved the relationship Ollie had with her sister, Cat, and that they had some honest struggles with their parents. I liked that Ollie’s mom is Thai, and there was that cultural element as Ollie struggles with not being “Thai” enough.

It was just all-around enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Counting Thyme

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countingthymeby Melanie Conklin
First sentence: “When someone tells you your little brother might die, you’re quick to agree to anything.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s a slight bit of romance (no kissing, just like likeing), but otherwise, it’s great for 4th grade on up. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Thyme has a good life: a best friend, a home near her grandmother in sunny San Diego. But her younger brother has a rare form cancer, and an opportunity for a new treatment has opened up in New York City. Suddenly, Thyme’s good life is taken away from her: in the middle of her sixth grade year her family up and moves. To say she’s not happy with this is an understatement.

It doesn’t help that home isn’t the best place. The treatment is hard on her younger brother, which puts everyone on edge. Her older sister is lobbying for more freedom, which terrifies her mother. And Thyme is just trying to find a place to fit in at school; it’s so very different from home. Which is where she’d rather be.

Cancer books are a dime a dozen, it seems like, so it takes something different to make one stand out. Told from the perspective of a sibling rather than the cancer patient helps. But it’s really the fish out of water theme that makes this one stand out for me. Sure, Conklin captures the stress cancer treatment puts on a family and how difficult it is for everyone, not just the cancer patient. But the parts I liked better were the ones where Thyme was torn between her old life and making a new one. That feeling of being in two places, of having to start over when you move is one that’s hard to capture. And I think Conklin did that well. I liked the variety of people — from the grumpy downstairs neighbor to the Italian babysitter to the friends the Thyme made at school — that populated the book.

A good read.