February 7, 2023 by Tundra Books (NY)
Public library copy
Leo and Lizzie live with their parents in Toronto. Their mother is a busy administrator with a hospital charity, and their father has recently lost his job at an electronics store and is obsessed with Fatefinder.com, which purports to select ideal jobs for individuals based on personality. Leo is an auditor, because he is anxious about new experiences and all too aware of the dangers. He prefers to have his adventures online, in games like Applewood Acres. The family goes to remote Heron Island to visit their mother's father, a while after her mother has passed away. The grandfather is constantly irritated, which the mother attributes to his grief. While there, the father gets a notification that a popular spa he has tried to book on a nearby isalnd has a sudden opening, and before long, the parents take off, leaving Leo and Lizzie in their gradfather's care. Lizzie is determined to befriend the feral barn cats, but a new wrinkle develops-- all of their grandmother's bee hives disappear. The local organization of apiarists, the Bumblers, show up to help, and the children meet Sofi, who is the daughter of their grandmother's friend and fellow beekeeper, Beatriz. The police are no help, and in order to find the hives, the kids go off with their grandfather on late night sorites, mountain hikes, and a journey to Porpoise Island where an apple orchard owner's need bees. When their grandfather is arrested for driving to fast (and having a LOT Of unpaid tickets!) Leo and Lizzie set off on their own, only to discover that the orchard owners are not thieves, and to be found by their angry parents! Returning to Heron Island, Leo has an idea of who might have taken the hives. Can he prove it and save the day?
Strengths: This is a perfectly paced adventure book with just enough mystery to make it interesting. Leo doesn't let being afraid of things stop him, even when his fears slow him down. I rather enjoyed how much farming information he had gained from the Applewood Acres video game! Lizzie was a great but annoying little sister. Extra bonus points for sending the parents to a spa instead of killing them or having them kidnapped! As an adult, I think that more children need to understand how important bees are, and as a child, I would have been enthralled with Leo's traipsing around Heron Island! I also enjoyed this author's Alice Fleck's Recipe for Disaster.
Weaknesses: The father's interest in Fatefinder.com was a tiny bit overdone, and I wish that the grandfather had either been more pleasant all along or had warmed up more, especially since the grandmother was remembered as being so wonderful. The world needs more sparkly, happy grandparents right now! (Or maybe I do!)
What I really think: I really enjoyed this one, and would definitely buy this for an elementary library, but will probably pass for my middle school library. Pair this one with Scaletta's Rooting for Rafael Rosales Wientge's Honeybees and Frenemies, Cartaya's The Last Beekeeper McDunn's The Queen Bee and Me, and the book that motivated me to make a bee garden in my yard, Burn's The Hive Detectives.
Strengths: This is a perfectly paced adventure book with just enough mystery to make it interesting. Leo doesn't let being afraid of things stop him, even when his fears slow him down. I rather enjoyed how much farming information he had gained from the Applewood Acres video game! Lizzie was a great but annoying little sister. Extra bonus points for sending the parents to a spa instead of killing them or having them kidnapped! As an adult, I think that more children need to understand how important bees are, and as a child, I would have been enthralled with Leo's traipsing around Heron Island! I also enjoyed this author's Alice Fleck's Recipe for Disaster.
Weaknesses: The father's interest in Fatefinder.com was a tiny bit overdone, and I wish that the grandfather had either been more pleasant all along or had warmed up more, especially since the grandmother was remembered as being so wonderful. The world needs more sparkly, happy grandparents right now! (Or maybe I do!)
What I really think: I really enjoyed this one, and would definitely buy this for an elementary library, but will probably pass for my middle school library. Pair this one with Scaletta's Rooting for Rafael Rosales Wientge's Honeybees and Frenemies, Cartaya's The Last Beekeeper McDunn's The Queen Bee and Me, and the book that motivated me to make a bee garden in my yard, Burn's The Hive Detectives.
March 8th 2023 by HarperCollins US
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
MahDi lives with MomDoc and helps "supervise" her veterinary practice, consulting with the dogs who are being taken care of. He also goes with her to the local dog shelter to help the rescues there feel more comfortable, and he and MomDoc do a lot of "matchmaking". The shelter is a no kill one, but is very crowded. The man who runs it with his wife, Mike, has to go in for surgery, so a new manager is hired from a temp company. Huck doesn't have an affinity for dogs, and thought there would be less work at a shelter. He is more interested in the possibility of euthanizing the dogs to clear them out than in placing them with loving homes, which doesn't go over well with anyone. We learn how MahDi lost a leg and ended up in rescue, and meet a lot of dogs. Their stories are interesting, and the successes in matching them with humans is heart warming. Lilah, a dog crush of MahDi's, needs help when her owner, Mr. Crandall, has to go to the hospital. Walter loses his dog Bailey to cancer and eventualy ends up with the sweet Koda. Squirt is rescued by a college girl, but needs help when she leaves the dog in a hot car because she couldn't leave the dog in her apartment while she was away. Tobey, who works at the shelter, and new hire Beth do their best to help the dogs, but Huck, who is supposed to be in charge, does not do a good job caring for the dogs. MomDoc talks to him, but isn't his boss. Things go from bad to worse, and MahDi knows that he has to make a move to save the dogs in the shelter before it is too late. Will he be able to convince Ozzie, another of MomDoc's pets, to work with him to make sure that Huck can no longer hurt the already vulnerable animals?
This is told from MahDi's perspective, but doesn't veer too far into the limitations of what dog's understand in the way some books do. MahDi's voice is definitely more understanding and almost human. His backstory is sad, and provides excellent motivation for him to step up and resist Huck. Huck doesn't have a lot of nuance, and I wondered how he lasted even a day at the shelter!
There are a lot of dog books that run the spectrum from Maple's cheery Roxbury Park Dog Club and Fairbairn's graphic novel PAWS to heart wrenching tales like Lee's 2008 Dog Lost. My favorite is probably Crimi's Secondhand Dogs, that also has a cast of interesting characters and a lot of feel good stories about dogs finding their fur-ever homes. This has a darker mood to it, with the evil Huck, who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a dog shelter, much less in charge of it. It's hard to read about his treatment of the animals, but a villain means there will be a hero, and MahDi harnesses his grief over past circumstances to save the day.
Many of the books about dogs are for younger readers, like Robertshaw, Danta's Life in the Doghouse books or Miles' Puppy Place tales. Grabenstein's Dog Squad offers a goofier, celebrity focused adventure. Midnight at the Shelter will be a good fit for readers who are able to handle some sadness in their dog books and have worked their way through Cameron's A Dog's Purpose novels and Mason and Stephens' excellent Rescue Dogs books.
Stevenson's Lizzie Flying Solo wasn't as dark, and it is by far my favorite of her books, which also include Swing Sideways and Georgia Rules.
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