MMGM- The Everybody Experiment and What Is Color

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Ramée, Lisa Moore. The Everybody Experiment.

August 27, 2024 by Balzer + Bray

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

At the end of 6th grade, all of Kylie's friends are excited to make the transition from elementary school to middle school, but she's not thrilled. She worries that she isn't as "mature" as her friends, especially since she has a reputation of being quick to cry. She's even done a science project on the physiological reason for tears, and that causes some of her classmates to make even more fun of her. She's also worried about her father's traveling for his new job, and devastated that he can't be at her promotion. Her mother is studying for her PhD, and her younger sister Brianna requires a lot of time, but the two get along well. Approaching the problem of a new school year scientifically, Kylie hypothesizes that if she tries all of the activities that her friends do over the summer, she will be as "mature" as they are. Her mother reluctantly agrees to this plan, as long as there is a disclaimer that Kylie won't do anything dangerous or harmful. Even though she is out of her comfort zone, Kylie manages to go to a restaurant with her friends, go shopping at the mall, attend a boy-girl party and navigate how to say no to ziplining when she is wearing a skirt. Her friends are fearless in their pursuits and also want to watch scary movies and shave their legs, neither of which are successful endeavors, although Kylie does enjoy it when everyone dances. There is some friend drama when Kylie sees Cory and Naomi kissing, and Naomi denies it. This, combined with other situations, has Kylie thinking philosophically about the whole process of lying. There's a trip to a theme park that is rife with problems, as well as drama with birthday parties, Kylie's karate classes, and of course, Brianna deciding to copy her sister and shave her arm! Will Kylie be able to feel comfortable with her classmates and their level of maturity as she starts seventh grade?
Strengths: Middle grade books are full of trauma and drama, but adults think that this needs to consist of death and other terrible things. For tweens, it's your friends talking about you behind your back, crying in awkward situations, failing a test, or just trying to figure out life. Seeing others work through problems like these is just as valuable as seeing young people dealing with grief, which is not quite as universal. Kylie takes a measured and scientific approach to her problem, loops in her parents, and tries to keep a brave face in front of her friends. Ramée does a great job of capturing little, but critical moments; haven't we all worn just the wrong thing, like Kylie and her lack of bike shorts when she wants to zip line? (I wore shorts to freshman schedule pick up when everyone else wore jeans; thinking about it still makes me cringe.) I wouldn't mind a follow up volume about Kylie, focusing on how well she balances her schoolwork, karate, and babysitting Briann during her 7th grade year. If we could avoid school elections and newspapers, all the better! 
Weaknesses: Brian Crane's Pickles just has a strip that proclaimed "Old folks know more about being young than young people know about being old". In middle school, I was often anxious and prone to tears, but my mother was NOT having that. As a member of Gen X, with Boomer leanings, it's very, very true that people my age want everyone to just "suck it up" or "slap some dirt on it" and move on. This is how we were raised. Today's young people will sympathize with Kylie's tendency toward tears, but I was just a little irritated with her at first. It was good to see that she was resilient and kept going; I'd love to see more of these positive role models for tweens. 
What I really think: Despite, or perhaps because of, my personal feelings, I know this is a book we need in elementary and middle school libraries. If the only middle grade novels published next year involved tweens dealing with school and family problems, with a little sports thrown in, 85% of my students would be perfectly happy, and the remaining 15% would have plenty of fantasy books to read. Readers who enjoyed delle Donne's Hoops: Belle of the Ball series, Hurwitz' How I Saved the World in 65 Days, and Lakritz's Things That Shimmer will enjoy this insightful look at the ordinary stress of middle school. 

Weinberg, Steven. What Is Color?: The Global and Sometimes Gross Story of Pigments, Paint, and the Wondrous World of Art 

August 20, 2024 by Roaring Brook Press

Copy provided by the Publisher

This colorful and frenetic look at the history of color and art is sort of like a printed version of falling down an internet rabbit hole looking for information about painting supplies. It's broken up into chapters that cover different colors, but has all sorts of additional information. It's not just a chapter about green; it's information about verdigris and Scheele's green (which may have poisoned Napoleon), but also how to make different colors, artists who used them, and other tangents. Orange? There's a little history of the robes that Buddhist monks wear. Brown? There's information about henna and how the dye is used for personal ornamentation. Pink? How to make a dye out of avocado pits, but also the history of how it became linked to gender, and also the history involving the pink triangle symbol as well as the LGBTQIA+ flag. A discussion of black leads into Vantablack, which is somehow a series of nanotubes that can only be used by one artist. 

It was sort of like being dropped into a Spin Art machine, both visually and from an information standpoint. I think for the full effect, I should have read this while listening to my 1961 record album, Professor Ludwig von Drake's Wonderful World of Color. (Which I'm a little surprised Weinberg didn't mention. The Green with Envy Blues is one rockin' song.)

The end of the book has a lot of interesting appendices, like a color toolbox, maps of where certain colors originated, how to plant a color garden, links to art in the public domain, and a great glossary and index. 

I can't think of any other  middle grade nonfiction book that so totally discusses color, and how it is used in art. From outlining the differences between pigment, vehicle, and medium to talking about what art can be, this really has it all. If you have young artist who want to immerse themselves into art history, hand them What is Color?, along with Chip Kidd's Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design (2013) or

Pitamic and Laidlaw's Modern Art Adventures: 36 Creative, Hands-On Projects Inspired by Artists from Monet to Banksy (2015).