MMGM- A Royal Conundrum and The Human Body: An Alien's Guide

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at 

Unleashing Readers

Well, unless I've counted incorrectly, I have now posted at least one book review every single day for twelve years. That's the entire life span of half of my students. And yet, I am still not the most revered middle school librarian in the US. Oh, well. Still have to keep on keeping on. 

Yee, Lisa and Santat, Dan (illus.). The Misfits #1: A Royal Conundrum

January 2, 2024 by Random House Books for Young Readers

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Olive Zang makes such a small impression on people in her school that she is all but invisible. Her parents are very busy, and constantly having to travel for work. Now that her grandmother, Mimi, is gone, and her parents have to travel again, they take her out of school (where the principal had no recollection of her) and send her off to RASCH, a "reforming arts school" off the coast of San Francisco. It's located in an old mansion called Foggy Manor.  She's a bit leery at first, having had a less that fantastic experience at her school, but RASCH has fun classes, and she meets some fellow students with whom she gets along. The big test at the school is the Conundrum, and Olive works with several classmates like Phil, Theo, Iggy, and James. Even though other students think it is a competition, the group gets points for working together, and are soon told that they did a great job. The will be junior operative for No One Can Know (NOCK) headed by teachers Monica and Modest, and give themselves the nickname "The Misfits". Olive has a great time learning different techniques, and finds that the aerial gymanstic skills that her Mimi taught her come in very handy. When there is a big gala fundraiser set to take place, there is a lot of pressure, since Dame Gloria Vanderwisp's effort often raises a lot of money that is crucial to keeping the school open. When the day arrives, Dame Gloria wears her Royal Rumpus necklace, as well as a bejeweled pin of her cat, Winky, even though there are rumors that The Bling King is targeting the gala and might steal the jewelry. When he does, the Misfits get called in to investigate. Will they be able to solve the mystery in order to save the school, and will Olive find out additional information about her family members?

David Yoo's 2011 The Detention Club has a very similar cover, also by Santat!

Strengths: Tweens often struggle with personal identity, and often feel as invisible as Olive is at the beginning of the book. Being whisked off to a boarding school where they don't have to deal with difficult parents and where they are able to find friends who share their interests always seems like an appealing thought, especially when they also are taught spy skills and given cases to work on. Olive is a bit unsure of what her special skills might be, and it's good to see her remembering her grandmother as someone with whom she had a lot of fun... while incidentally gaining lots of skills. When Olive becomes accustomed to the school, she is even more motivated to save it, even if it means a somewhat risky investigation. Santat's illustrations are always fun to see, and I'll be interested to see a final copy with more details. Readers who like Yee's Maizy Chen's Last Chance will enjoy seeing a different facet of this author.
Weaknesses: Yee writes a great spy/adventure type book, evidenced by her Super Hero High (2016) series, but there were some quirky names and situations in this title that made it seem better suited for elementary students. I also had some trouble keeping all of the Misfits straight. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy spy academy tales like Walden's 2008 H.I.V.E., Buckley's 2009 N.E.R.D.S., Hale's 2013 School for S.P.I.E.S. or Salane's 2013 Lawless series, or newer books like Carter's The Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor (2019) or Ponti's City Spies books (2020). 

Redford, Ruth and Cunha, Leandro (illus.)

The Human Body: An Alien's Guide

publication January 2, 2024 by Mayo Clinic Press Kid

ARC provided by the publisher

Zag and Zog are aliens who have been sent to observe human specimens on Earth. In order to do this, and keep their Zag-Zog Log, the miniaturize themselves and hop aboard an unsuspecting tween. In Fantastic Voyage style, they investigate all of the strange things they see and hear, from the persistent thumping (the heart) to why humans pee and poo. Going from body system to body system, they cover all of the highlights of what goes on with muscles, skin, digestion, circulation, etc., and even have a bit of an overview of what happens as a body ages. Eventually, the white blood cells repeatedly attack them, thinking they are foreign bodies that need to be expelled, and the two decide they have enough information to take back to their planet. 

Told in graphic novel format, this is an appealing nonfiction book that will interest students in third grade all the way through middle school. While the vocabulary is somewhat simplified, the information isn't dumbed down, and there is a nice glossary at the end. There's a lot of information packed onto each page, and I was amazed at the amount of things that this book really clarified for me. There were things I probably learned in school, but hadn't thought about them in a while, like how joints operate, or all the different sorts of hormones. 

The alien perspective is a bit goofy, but Zag and Zog ask lots of good questions in their mission to understand the human body. I liked that each had a color for all of their dialog that matched the color of their body; I find graphic novels harder to read than straight text, and this was a great way to clearly define the speakers. 

When my children were small, we had a copy of a 1969 book by Kidder entitled Little Corpuscle. As  goofy as it was, it was packed with information. The Human Body is a great book to expose children to human biology, and you never know what information will stick with them and might prove to be very useful when taking the MCAT!