MMGM- The Beautiful Game and Shaken

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Mendez, Yamile Saied. The Beautiful Game

September 17, 2024 by Algonquin Young Readers

E ARC provided by Netgalley.com

Valeria Salomón lives in Utah with her grandmother (Lita) and grandfather, who is also her soccer coach for the Overlords. Her parents were very young when she was born, and her father has only visited her five times, since he lives on the east coast and travels a lot as a photographer. Val loves soccer, and is a very good player. She's played with the Overlords for years, and her best friend, Sasha used to be on the team as well. Now, however, Val is the only girl on the team. Her grandmother and father are supposed to come to a crucial game, but the family is devastated to find out that her Tia Antonello in Argentina is not doing well at all. Lita packs up to go, and Val's father joins her. Val isn't feeling well during the game, and realizes too late that it's because she's gotten her period. A time out is called, and the entire team changes from white to black shorts. Distracted, Val blows a play and feels embarassed and awful... until she finds out that Abuelo found out during the game that her aunt has died. Since he's had a tumultuous relationship with the aunt, he doesn't handle things well, and Val decides to stay next door at Sasha's house, where her mother gets her period supplies and tries to help her through the difficult days. Eventually, Lita comes home... with Antonella's son Maxwell in tow. Since it's summer, he has time to settle in to living in Val's father's old room, and even starts to play with the Overlords, since Val was kicked off. Val thinks it's unfair, but her grandmother points out that if she wants to be considered for the Olypic Development Program, she needs to play on a girls' team. The best coach out there is Linda Blume, but when Val calls her, Coach Blume tells her that her team is full, and she's just missed the try out period. Undaunted, Val goes to her house and explains why she didn't go through the tryouts. She gets on the Amazon team as the 19th player on the roster. Still stinging from being kicked off the boys' team, Val doesn't do well at first. Eventually, she starts to realize that she's not playing WITH the team, but is just trying to showcase her own skills. Once she figures this out, she starts to play better, and Sasha helps her connect socially with her teammates. Lita jumps in to full soccer mom mode, bringing her knitting and sitting between Maxwell and Val's teams. Abuela may be struggling with his daughter's death, and letting the other coach, José, work with the team, but Maxwell is slowly acclimating to his new home situation. When both Maxwell and Valeria have a big tournament, Val's dad comes in, and there's plenty of team drama as the Overlords and the Amazons play for their respective league trophies. 

Strengths: This was a very realistic look at how families can take many different forms. While Lita and Abuelo are Val's grandparents, they are raising her, so feel a bit more like a mom and dad. There's a nice scene when the Amazons have a "mother-daughter" party, and Val feels a bit awkward asking Lita, who of course is perfectly happy to attend. There are a lot of my students who are in similar circumstances, so I liked how matter-of-fact the family situations were. The draw for young readers will be all of the soccer details. I know in Ohio, girls can play on boys' teams, but boys can't play on girls' teams, so this seemed realistic. The Overlords generally liked Val, but there were some members who were irritated, which also seemed realistic. The difficult family situation after the aunt's death was well handled, and one of my favorite moments was when Sasha and Maxwell met and Val could tell they liked each other. Yes, tween life still goes on, even under stressful circumstances. Val is a little jealous of Maxwell, since he has spent more time with her dad, but she does acknowledge that this is a bit petty, since he has just lost his mother. There are never enough books with sports in them, and this will be a very popular book with my students, who have also enjoyed this author's Shaking Up the House and Wish Upon a Stray! 
Weaknesses: While I really liked that Val had to contend with her period during a couple of points in the story, I'm not sure how I feel about first periods that are super noticeable to everybody. Having been in a middle school for 26 years, I've never seen this happen, and I am more likely to be consulted for help than the school nurse in these matters. I also talked to several friends and my daughter, who had their doubts. Should girls be prepared? Absolutely. Is it good to scare them this way? I'm still thinking about that one. Both of my daughters would pass out at school on occasion, so it is good to have period issues as part of the story.
What I really think: I'll definitely be purchasing this title, and recommending it to readers who enjoyed 

Morgan's The Kicks series, Matheson's Select, and Lupica's Defending Champ.

Preller, James. Shaken

September 10, 2024 by Feiwel & Friends

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Kristy Barrett is not just a good soccer player, she's been featured on ESPN and mentioned as an Olympic hopeful. Her parents are very invested in her sporting career, and her father will take her early and sit in the car while she does her warmups before games. She's a seventh grader, but playing on the high school team. This makes it a little hard to connect with other players, although she is good friends with Tia, who is three years older. When Kristy dives for a ball, she connects in such a way that she passes out. She is taken to the doctor, who tells her that she needs to stopp, assess her condition, and follow the concussion protocol. Her parents assume that she'll be back to playing within the week, but Kristy is nauseated, unable to focus, and can't even handle being at school. Her mother grudgingly lets her stay home, but doesn't understand the severity of the injury. The other girls on the team quickly forget about her, and she feels bad that she won't be able to play in an important game. She does go to a concussion specialist, who says she has post-concussion syndrome, and that it will take a lot of time before she feels better. This makes her so depressed that her mother does take her to see a therapist. This helps a bit, as does hanging out with her neighbor, Jimbo, who is a year ahead of her in school. What doesn't help is that Jimbo is a bit of a loose cannon, and some of their activities involve shoplifting from CVS, going to the golf course in the middle of the night, and sneaking in through her bedroom window. Her parents are angry about Jimbo, of course, but essentially struggling with the fact that Kristy isn't the daughter they once had. Kristy also questions who she is without soccer, although she does enjoy the art therapy that she does, and starts to embrace art as a new part of her. After months of recuperation, she is able to do some running, but the concussion has definitely changed her essential identity. 

Strengths: Middle grade books should all have some element of personal identity. It's a huge concern with this age group, and tweens are constantly trying out new personalities. Kids who play soccer often start at very young ages and get VERY invested; the father sitting in the car watching Kristy warm up struck home, because during the Washington, D.C. trip with 8th graders, I volunteered to spend a half hour every morning sitting in the parking lot watching a soccer player do the same kind of exercises. She wasn't willing to give that up for even three days. Kristy's inability to focus and frustration are palpable, and her parents' reaction was surprising but very interesting! The idea that Kristy was able to play on a high school team when she was in middle school will be aspirational for many readers. A lot of my students play soccer, and this is a great soccer book to have in a middle school collection, along with Fabbri's Back of the Net series, Greenwald's The Ultimate Goal, and Matheson's fantastic Select. 
Weaknesses: I would have liked a bit more medical detail about what was going on with Kristy; there is a decent amount of detail with the therapy, but more on concussion protocol, treatment, and descriptions of exactly what Kristy should have been doing to rest her brain would have been very helpful. I've had a couple of students who have suffered concussions, and it's been difficult for them to understand what is going on. There was also a strange seen with Binny talking about her younger brother that could have been omitted. 
What I really think: There are a good number of football books dealing with concussion, but soccer is also a leading cause of this injury. Herbach's Cracking the Bell , Greenwald's Dinged, or Weyn's Full Impact address football injuries, so I was glad to see this soccer title. Since so many of my students play soccer, I'll definitely purchase a copy. 

Update Blather:

This is the last week I have off before I return to school. I've been very good, following all of the doctor's instruction, staying strictly off my feet for five weeks. This last week... has been rough. A lot of pain and swelling. I even called the doctor's office, and got the information that I am supposed to walk, but not too much. Well, what's too much? No one could tell me. I have a feeling that re entry will be rough, but I will be glad too be getting out of the house. 

I'm not the sort of person who is ever bored, but I am slowly getting there. I've read a lot of books, tweeted like it was my job, even knit a sweater. But I miss long walks, puttering around the house, and even doing laundry. My home "staff" has done an excellent job picking up the slack, but... how do you burn something in the microwave? My rule has always been that I don't complain about work that I haven't had to do myself, so if I have to use towels that were line dried, so be it! (Don't do this. They're scratchy.)

Almost at the point where I want to break out the desperation projects. Write bad poetry. Haul out the quilting (which is only a summer endeavor). Clean out a closet while sitting on the floor. Learn to crochet. All of those things take more gumption than I currently have, and I would just be sad when I went back to work that I couldn't do them. 

So! One more week of track pants, sitting around reading, and being with Leo, who has discovered that the best thing in the world is full body massage, and will sit on top of my computer until I pay attention to him properly. He misses walks, too, and will not be too pleased when I go back to work! 

Sharks!

Stine, R.L. Shark Night

July 2, 2024 by Blackstone Publishing

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Liam's mother makes documentary television programs and wants to put together one for the Danger Channel. When executives don't like her "Pool Party" idea (invite people to a luxury pool and surprise them by letting killer sharks loose in it), she spitballs a different idea. What about putting a KID in a tank with a shark. The network loves the idea, but Liam makes his mother promise that HE won't be the kid in the tank. She does, and a swimmer and actor named Swan is hired for the show. WHen Liam accidentally causes Swan to break his ankle, he finds himself being put into the tank. Not only that, but when the shark is lowered in, it's not the old, toothless hammerhead his mother promised, but a bull shark, the most dangerous type of shark in the world. Not only that, but the tank he is in explodes, and he is washed out to sea. Luckily, he comes across two sailors, Sully and Ernie, whose trained dolphin has rescued him. They say they are "gathering sharks"... and want to use Liam for bait. He'll be safe, in a cage, and they just need to nick him a LITTLE to draw blood. Panicked, he jumps off the boat, and the dolphin takes him to an island where there is a resort. He meets his sister, Rosa, there. There's no good explanation why she is there, and why Liam's mother isn't looking for him, but he is determined to get in to the resort and find someone with a phone to let him call. The staff is suspicious and say that no phones are allowed, but the two find a kid named Derek who says he will help... but then calls the security guards. Liam finally calls home, but his mother denies she has children. Liam ends up in a lagoon with pirahnas, and Swan shows up to save him. What about his broken ankle? Something is clearly not right. What is going on in Liam's worl?
Strengths: This was fast paced, a little goofy, and didn't have a dull moment. Liam is a reasonable character who finds himself in difficult circumstances but manages to survive in a resilient manner. Rosa was slightly evil, the way most siblings in Stine's work are. The mother was somewhat enigmatic, but this also makes sense given the circumstances. There are enough shark details to keep future marine biologists happy, and the cover is fantastic. 
Weaknesses: I knew exactly what was happening and who was responsible about two pages after Liam got washed out to sea. Of course, I have read everything Stine has written in the last twenty years, so I grok his style. Young readers will just love the fact that bad things are constantly happening and Liam is surviving it all! 
What I really think: Middle school students LOVE Shark Week, and there aren't a whole lot of books about sharks. This is a bit goofy, but have it swim along with Monniger's Dragged From Under series, Northrop's Surrounded by Sharks, or Spradlin's Menace From the Deep.

Crumpton, Nick and Scott, Gavin (illus.)

Everything You Know About Sharks in Wrong!

May 7, 2024 by Nosy Crow

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Here's the perfect book for Shark Week from the team that brought you Everything You Know About Dinosaurs is Wrong! Tween shark aficionados will tell you that sharks are misunderstood, but they need this book to provide the ammunition needed to disabuse those who don't understand sharks of their misconceptions! In the process of addressing various wrongly held ideas, each two page rebuttal to commonly held beliefs (sharks eat people!) offers a lot of information about things that are true about sharks. Where they live, different types, what they eat, and even statistics on various deadly creatures add to the general knowledge about sharks and amuse avid readers. There's a great glossary at the back of the book, as well as a much needed index. 

Not only does this book have a wealth of printed information, but the illustrations also provide a lot of helpful material. I love that there is so much blue in the backgrounds; it makes the pictures of sharks look like they are swimming. It also makes it a little harder to read the smaller fonts on the pages, but younger readers won't notice this as much as I did. 

I can't say that I was all that frightened of sharks, since they are about as unlikely to show up in my yard as I am to show up on the beach, but now I am a little concerned about cows, who apparently killed 22 people in 2021! 

Readers who like sharks often swim towards nonfiction books like Littleboy's How It Works: Sharks or Silen's Can't Get Enough Shark Stuff, but I love to pair nonfiction with fiction books on the same topic. This is perfect for readers who are enjoying Márquez's Swimming With Sharks, Monninger's The Great White Shark, Spradlin's Into the Killing Seas or Northrop's Surrounded by Sharks!

In a Pickle

Greenwald, Lisa and Berstein, Gallia (illus). 

In a Pickle (Ellie's Deli #2)
September 17, 2024 by Andrews McMeel Publishing 

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Ellie should be able to relax now that her Bubbe's deli, Lukshen, has been saved from being redeveloped by Nina's father, but there is still a lot going on. She's behind in her school work, and her advisor has called her parents and wants her to come in early in the morning for tutoring. Not only that, but she has agreed to help Ava's cousin Charlie find a venue for her bat mitzvah celebration after the venue her mother booked closed down. Ellie wants to help everyone, but it's not working out the way she would like, and making her very stressed. Adding to this stress is the drama that Nina seems to bring with her to every relationship. She seems dedicated to pitting friends against each other and accelerating the drama by asking why no one likes her. When Nina's father has a meeting at Lukshen, the answer to one of Ellie's problems becomes clear: he wants the deli to turn unused upstairs space into an event center. Charlie could hold her party there, and one of Bubbe's friends is a retired event planner who would be glad to help. The only problem? Architects are getting involved, so it looks like the upstairs won't be ready for a year, and Ellie needs it in a MONTH. Even though she is spending more time on her schoolwork (and, not surprisingly, doing better!), she has a lot of anxiety and frequently finds herself using the calming techniques that she knows. After Nina is suspended for mean social media posts, she makes some progress in how she treats others, she still has a lot of work to do. She finally tells her mother and grandmother that she needs some help, and they are able to work with Charlie's mother to have the perfect place for the celebration. 

Strengths: Like the first book, Ellie's Deli, this has a delightful combination of friend drama, illustrations, and RECIPES. I loved the setting of the neighborhood and the deli, and the fact that Ellie enjoyed hanging out there, talking to her grandmother's friends. The friend drama with Nina is so spot on; there's always that one girl who just seems to delight in stirring the pot and getting everyone upset. I've never understood it, but Ellie and her friends deal with it pretty well, talking to each other and getting some help from adults. Like Greenwald's Absolutely, Positively Natty, Ellie is having some realistic problems controlling her emotions and her reactions to other people, but she still has lots of positive interactions and has some fun! Her family is generally supportive, and her sisters appear just enough for us to understand her dynamics with them. I hope that Ellie is able to grow up and run the deli!

Weaknesses: Admittedly, this is a strange complaint: the recipes, while very interesting, don't always correspond to the food being mentioned in the text. It's not a problem, but when rugelach was mentioned towards the end of the book and there wasn't a recipe, it occurred to me that I wanted recipes for things that Ellie was making or eating! 
What I really think: I think we need to order up a middle grade trend on family run food shops! What titles can you recall that would go along with Badua's The Takeout, Oh's Haru, Zombie Dog Hero, Granillo's Cruzita and the Mariacheros, Leali's The Truth About Triangles, Kuo's In a Beautiful Country,  Chari's Karthik Delivers, and Hiranandani's How To Find What You're Not Looking For?

Kareem Between

Safadi, Shifa Saltagi. Kareem Between
September 10, 2024 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Set in 2016, this novel in verse follows Kareem, a middle school student whose best friend Adam just moved away. Not only that, but he didn't make the football team. Kareem has an older sister, Jameelah, a younger brother, Sameer, and a father who is a cardiologist in their Chicago area town. Kareem is a huge fan of the Chicago Bears, and often watches the games as a way to decompress and not think about the variety of problems he and his family are facing. At school, Kareem is constantly belittled by Austin, who did make the team, and whose father is the school gym teacher and coach. Austin's comments and actions go far beyond the level of microaggressions, but Kareem hopes to take him at his word that he'll get Kareem on the team in the spring if Kareem does one of his papers for him. Of course, one paper turns into most of the longer assignments. There's a new family from Syria, and Kareem's mother wants him to befriend Fadi, who is Christian and has blond hair. Kareem is afraid to stick up for Fadi when Austin calls him "Cereal", not wanting to imperil his own social standing. The most serious problem is that his mother's father, Jido, is very ill. The family is trying to get him and the grandmother out of Syria, but this is a difficult process. Kareem takes great comfort in reading books, and mentions a lot of middle grade titles like Shovan's The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Woodson's Locomotion, the Barbers' Go Long!, Senzai's Shooting Kabul, and classic titles like Wimpy Kid, Hatchet, The Bad Beginning, and Holes, relating his experiences to those of the characters he has enjoyed. When his mother goes to Syria to bring back her parents, the family feels very different without her steadying presence. Things with Austin escalate at school, and Kareen finds himself not supporting Fadi as he should. There are some bright spots, like meeting fellow football fan Jerry at the public library, but when Kareem gets in trouble at school, he compounds things in a horrible way. He hides his father's phone in the freezer, causing him to miss a call about his mother's flight. Because of this, the travel is delayed, and then runs into the problems of Executive Order 13769. This affects not only his family, but his religious education teacher whose fiance won't be able to come from Yemen. Things get even worse, and Kareem blames himself. When his mother goes missing, he tries to post on social media to try to find her, and eventually gets the attention of a local news reporter who suggests he contact his representative. There are protests in Chicago, and the travel ban is eventually appealed. Things aren't perfect in Kareem's world, but after a heart-to-heart with his father, he knows it is important to apologize for his actions that have hurt people, and to take responsibility for other aspects of his life as well.
Strengths: Putting a football on the cover of a middle grade novel means that it will automatically be picked up, so I appreciate that Safadi manages to weave Kareem's interest in the sport into a book that covers larger social issues as well. It's perfect to have Kareen be very concerned with issues like football, reading, and his social standing while his family faces what most people would consider more pressing problems; middle school is still middle school, and Kareem was born in the US. (The student of Syrian background whom I remember most was an 8th grade boy who would stop by the library first thing in the morning to ask how his hair looked. He trusted me to make sure he started his day without flyaways!) He has realistic struggles about this as well, not feeling that his Arabic is good enough, although the fact that the religious aspects of his life were mainly mentioned without any problems was refreshing to see. (He has a space to pray in the library, attends religious services with his family mostly without complaint, and doesn't really have any crises of faith.) Of course, the travel ban is shown in all its horror, and there are many examples, both in the story and in the author's afterword, about how this affected many families. There's enough football to keep young readers turning the pages as well.
Weaknesses: This is on trend with novels in verse that aren't particularly poetic; my readers don't pick these up quite as much, but we'll see if the inclusion of football outweighs the format. 

What I really think: This is a good addition to other books featuring the stories of other children with Syrian family backgrounds, and has a particularly strong message about the importance of activism. Pair this with other titles such as Dassu's Boy, Everywhere, Hitchcock and Senzai's Flying Over Water, Kullab's Escape from Syria, Rauf's The Boy at the Back of the Class, Roumani's Tagging Freedom, Saeed's Yara's Spring, Saleh's Wild Poppies, Senzai's Escaping Aleppo, and Warga's Other Words for Home.

Cover Reveal- Calonita's ISLE OF EVER!

Jen Calonita has been one of my favorites, ever since her 2007 Secrets of My Hollywood Life series, so I was thrilled to be part of her cover reveal for ISLE OF EVER, the first book in a mystery-adventure series! 12 to 22 is my favorite book to hand to Taylor Swift fans, and The Retake is never on the shelf!

ISLE OF EVER is being published by Sourcebooks Young Readers on March 25, 2025!

 
Here's the publisher's description: 

"Bestselling and beloved author Jen Calonita delivers the first in a brand-new series featuring a girl who will inherit a mysterious fortune if she can break a centuries-old curse! Days after her twelfth birthday, Everly "Benny" Benedict learns she's the heir to a fortune! But to collect the inheritance, she first has to play―and win―a game. Following clues that her ancestor left, Benny must locate a small island that vanished long ago, according to legend. She has only two weeks to play the game and find the island. If she's successful, she'll break a two-hundred-year-old curse. If she fails, the fortune will be forfeited. And if she's not careful, she'll cross paths with someone else who is after the island's secrets, and who will stop at nothing to get them. Because, as it turns out, there's far more than a fortune at stake."

More information about the series is available HERE. 

Preorder now (this helps authors out a lot!) at your favorite independent bookstore, like Columbus' Cover to Cover. 

What other authors have to say:

§ “Isle of Ever will keep you guessing till the last page, then begging for a sequel immediately…you’re bound to find readers up well past their bedtime” ― Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Isle of the Lost

§ “This book has everything…I couldn’t put it down!” ― Stuart Gibbs, New York Times bestselling author of the Spy School series

§ "Calonita leaves us breathless as Benny races to save the day and her family. Young readers will love it!" ― James Ponti, New York Times Bestselling Author of City Spies

§ "The Isle of Ever is a gripping game and grand adventure. A treasure hunt filled with riddles, clues, an ancient curse, and a main character you’ll be cheering for all the way to the final page. I loved it!” — Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mr. Lemoncello's Library series.

And now... the video reveal and THE BOOK COVER!!!

The Sherlock Society

Ponti, James. The Sherlock Society

Published September 3rd 2024 by Aladdin

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Alex and Zoe Sherlock are glad that school is out for the summer, but we start the book seeing that they are in rather a stressful situation with their grandfather; they are all escaping an exploding yacht off the coast in Miami, Florida. How did they get there? Well, it's always nice to have some discretionary income, so the two decide to start a business. Instead of walking dogs or babysitting, they decide to run a detective agency. Zoe does the research and has a solid business plan of passing out flyers and business cards, creating a social media presence, and even enlisting the help of their grandfather as their "director of transportation and logistics". Things get off to a slow start, but the two, along with friends Yadi and Lina, answer a text request for help and go to a local laundromat/coffee shop to meet their client. It turns out to be their mother, who is a lawyer, who has a LOT of concerns about their undertaking. Not only is it dangerous to go around meeting strangers, but she throws a lot of legalese at them. Their grandfather, a former Miami Herald investigative reporter, has an idea; what if they look at his cold case files and find one to research. After looking through the papers from his stuffed storage unit, the kids come up with two likely topics. They can either delve into the case of Murf the Surf, or try to find Al Capone's treasure. Capone's millions win out, and Grandpa assigns them each one of the five W's of journalism. They interview a few people they find through Grandpa's connections, and head out in Grandpa's aquamarine 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville to the Crandon Park Zoo to look for the location. They realize the years don't line up, so try another tactic. Yadi has drones, so instead of trekking through the Everglades, they decide to fly them over another likely spot. They find a lot of dead animals when they get near the location, and take a water sample back. What's going on? Zoe, who has been arguing a lot with her parents over the fact that they wouldn't send her to a trendy summer camp with her friends and has been generally surly, decides that the group should give up on the Capone treasure hunt and figure out what it going on. They comb through the footage and find some likely culprits and vehicles. Traveling back to Bailey's Bait and Tackle, they pretend to be filming a documentary, and get more information from Bailey. This leads them to Morris Kane, whose family has run Kane Crystals sugar refinery for decades, as well as local newspapers. They continue the documentary ruse with him, and find out plenty of information, and even identify one of his workers as a person in the video. When Lina leaves her recording device running when the group is asked to leave the room, she feels bad, especially since the mother has made the group carry consent forms and observe all the legal niceties before interviewing anyone. The kids have the grandfather listen to the tape, and he says it has nothing interesting... but it does. There is more than toxic waste dumping going on; the possibility that Kane and his cronies are illegally counterfeiting money MIGHT be the reason the CIA's Dale Tyree was called in after the kids were rescued from the yacht. If the CIA is involved, how big a deal is this? Once we catch up with the legal troubles caused by the yacht incident, there turns out to be a lot more at stake. Will the Sherlock Society have its first successful investigation?

Strengths: I know that middle grade authors often kill off a parent or two so that children can have unimpeded adventures, but really, how far can the average 12 year old get WITHOUT an aquamarine Cadillac? Pairing up a sometimes unwise adult with a group of kids, and putting them all against an adult who wants ridiculous things like their safety and security, and there's so much more interesting tension than watching a tween deal with the grieving process, which is, while heart wrenching, often just dull to read about! Big, big bonus points, since the marine biologist father also comes in handy. The fact that the mother went so far as to bait the kids and then scuttle their plans... brilliant. There are many very well thought out things in this book. Ponti has clearly spent time in schools, and has realistic interchanges in the school setting, although I personally am not setting up any escape rooms for any clubs in my library or genrefying it! (I really, really dislike games of any kind and, well, don't feel much different about genrefying.) Not only that, but he cleverly takes some middle grade tropes and then upends them. I had my doubts about the investigative business, but that turned into looking for treasure. Not super thrilled about that, although it can have its moments, but then there's another twist... they have to solve an environmental mystery. That's when it got interesting, and the fact that the CIA is involved and this is actually a dangerous case makes this one that middle grade readers will love. This will also work for adults as well, since Grandpa is one happening guy; I sort of want to know about his date when the Everglades creature that stowed away in his car jumped on his friend! I'll definitely be interested in looking at the next book in this series, as will my students!
Weaknesses: Did I miss Grandpa's name? As one of the best grandfather figures out there, he deserved a name, and I'm sorry if I didn't write it down. 
What I really think: This read like the work of Carl Hiaasen, if Hiaasen had a better feel for what middle graders wanted, and spent a bit of time including a ton of Miami history. Ponti's Framed is the closet read alike, and Stuart Gibbs' books are always somewhat similar. As for other books? You almost have to head over to spy books to get this level of excitement. Gerber's The Liar's Society comes close. 

Hards, Ashley. Hannah Edwards: Secrets of Riverway
September 10, 2024 by Fabled Films Press
ARC provided by the publisher

Hannah lives in the small town of Riverway, population 2000. The area was fairly prosperous, with a booming canola industry that has fallen on hard times as the river has dried up. Hannah's father, who ran a large farming concern, has been missing for four months, and she is determined to find out what happened to him. The local law enforcement has done little, along Rick, one of the officers, stops by weekly to give Hannah's mother an update. Her father's brother, Fergus, is being very helpful, taking care of Hannah and her mother, but there's something that seems off about his involvement. When Hannah's best friend, Sam, sees a ghost that looks like her father at the Old Grain Mill, the two launch into an investigation, using the "grief journal" her mother has given her to take case notes. After consulting a Ouija board, and thinking about the history of ghosts at the mill, Hannah visits the site, and sure enough, a ghost talks to her. It warns her about Fergus, and tells her to look for a pump. At school, Hannah, who struggles with ADHD, has trouble paying attention in class and getting her work in, and has to meet with Ms. Grant, a school counselor she does not like. When she sees a piece of her father's stationery that Ms. Grant is trying to hide in her files, she and Sam asks another classmate, Tim, to help them retrieve the paper. Since Ms. Grant has been saying Fergus, she's definitely suspicious, and the note indicates that Fergus is glad Hannah is getting counseling, but that her mother should not really be bothered with this fact. When Hannah finds out that her mother is going to give 50% of the farm to Fergus, since he's been helping to run it, she's very concerned. Unable to find the pump after several visits to the suggested area, Hannah and Sam sneak away from a school trip to Fergus' farm and try to locate the mysterious pump. Has Fergus really been doing something illegal that has caused the local river to dry up? And did he have a part in his father's death?
Strengths: This was definitely a fantasy book, with ghosts having conversations with several characters. The ghosts aren't scary or murderous, and do give Hannah and Sam some good clues to follow. Younger readers will like the variety of formats, which include transcripts of conversations as well as journal entries.  I liked the environmental tie in with the dropping water levels in the lake and the need to irrigate crops. There are some descriptions of how Hannah's ADHD affects her school performance, and since there are so many students who have some level of this disorder, it's good to see that representation in literature. 
Weaknesses: This had a lot of description and a rather slow pace, and I'm not sure my students would get the Hamlet allusions. Ms. Grant was a little over the top, and seemed awfully intrusive. It was a little surprising that Hannah's mother didn't have her in some kind of grief counseling. For younger readers, the ending, where it is very briefly revealed what happened to Hannah's father, might be disturbing.

What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like a gentle mystery with some clues and supernatural elements, like Lyall's Waking the Dead and Other Fun Activities or Reese's Puzzleheart.

I will pass on purchasing, as this doesn't have the level of excitement my students like to see in mysteries. 

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

Warga, Jasmine. A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

September 10, 2024 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Rami Ahmed's supervises the cleaning at the Penelope L. Brooks museum in Maple Lake, and he loves hanging out there. Unfortunately, a painting has been stolen, and both he and his mom are worried that they are on the list of suspects, especially since the cameras were turned off and it looks like it might have been an inside job. His father is working in Atlanta, and his mother still misses her life in Lebanon. He's also dealing with some issues at school, and his friends are no longer talking to him. His concerns increase when he starts to see a girl hanging around the museum... but she's dressed in old fashioned clothes, and her feet don't quite touch the ground. He meets Veda, a classmate who is willing to talk to him, and she helps him investigate the stolen painting. The girl turns out to be the girl from the H.F. Bottentow painting, so the two determine that there must be some kind of issue with the painting to keep her spirit stuck in the museum. They try to go to the Evergreen Pines Nursing Home, where the elderly artist lives, to try to get information, but this is not sucessful. Eventually, with the help of a turtle, Agatha, who lives in the museum yard, the two are able to solve not only the mystery of the stolen painting, but also of the ghost. 

Strengths: How cool would it be to get to hang out in a local museum all of the time? Rami's life has some difficulties, but his mother is very supportive. It was good to see him making a new friend and learning how to work with her. There are plenty of clues, and they are untangled in a satisfying way.
Weaknesses: The chapters from Agatha's point of view make this seem a little more suitable for elementary school, even though Rami and Veda are in middle school. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for fans of Blue Balliet's work, McDunn's When Sea Becomes Sky, Gray's The Amelia Six, Wells' Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile or other museum related mysteries. 

 

New FrankinSchool Titles and The Serpent Rider

Rivadeneira, Caryn and Jones, Dani (illus.).
The Cupsnake Escape (FrankinSchool #2)
February 6, 2024 by Red Chair Press Books for Young Readers
Copy provided by the publisher

After his escapades in Monster Match, Fred is back. This time he is very concerned about an upcoming community baking competition for kids, the annual Ook and Spook School Bake-Off. Since his grandmother owns and operates Sigrid's Swedish Bakery and is one of the judges, he doesn't feel there can be a good outcome to his participation. If he wins, people will think it is favoritism, and if he loses, he will be embarassed. It doesn't matter that his own father lost spectacularly years ago; Fred is a much better baker. With his friends Drake and Louisa along on the bus trip to the venue, Fred writes a poem about the competition, hoping that Frank's ghost will save the day. The trio try making snake shaped cupcakes rolled in fondant, but are disappointed that they are dull and mud colored. Fred sees colorful sugar sprinkles that look like they will help, but once he puts them on, the "cupsnakes" wriggle off! The friends morph into their monster forms, and get to work. Now they are faced with not only lacking an entry, but with having magical baked goods slithering around the mansion. Frank is behind it, and outlines some of his reasons, including wanting to get rid of some mice. Will Fred and his friends be able to save the day again? 

Strengths: This is a quick, goofy read, and Fred and his friends are good at trying to manage situations by themselves. The ghost of Frank is helpful, but not always in the way the friends need, which makes sense for a ghost. His backstory is fleshed out a bit more, and there is a surprising family connection. This is a nice sized book, with larger font, and the illustrations add even more appeal. I would have loved these books in elementary school.
Weaknesses: Fondant. Blech! While some of the baked good the kids were making sounded good, the cupsnakes did NOT sound at all appealing!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Dadey and Jones Bailey School Kids (which freaked my younger daughter out!) or other magical early chapter book series like The Magic Treehouse or Malcolm's Jewel Kingdom.

Rivadeneira, Caryn and Jones, Dani (illus.). 

Gone to the Dogs (FrankinSchool #3)
September 10, 2024 by Red Chair Press Books for Young Readers 

Copy provided by the publisher

Luisa, Drake, and Fred have a research project on "World-Changing Ideas", and their teacher wants them to use the card catalog and books in the library, which is very frustrating to Fred, who would rather use the internet. He even tries to write a "what if" poem so that he changes into FrankinSchool and can get out of doing the work, but nothing changes! The library is in an addition to Tamer Mansion, which was renovated in the 1960s, so has a conversation pit and orange shag carpeting. Luisa is working on a project about the jewelry of Princesa Luisa, and writes a poem that does work. Drake turns into "Snake-ula", and Fred is once again FrankinSchool. They run into Frank, the ghost custodian, who is trying to appease the ghost of Jeremiah Tamer, who once owned the mansion. He had a difficult childhood, and found it hard to read. His nanny helped, but his father just called him "dumb". He and his nanny would look at dogs playing in the park from the windows of the attic, but he was never allowed to have a pet. When the family business fell on hard times, the nanny was let go, leaving Jeremiah to struggle. When he died and left the mansion to the city, it was supposed to house an animal shelter, so he's been haunting the mansion and making it unusable. He wants the addition torn down, and insists on haunting until his wishes are met. Drake has been working on a report on service dogs, and tells Jeremiah about the new practice of dogs reading with children. He also helps Jeremiah calm down with "box breathing" techniques that Fred also needs to use. In the end, a compromise is reached; the library addition will remain, but the house will be used for an animal shelter, and the dogs will read with children in the library to help the chances of the dogs being adopted. 

Strengths: It was great fun to see Fred and his friends struggling with doing research the old school way; I keep a set of encyclopedias (that my lovely public library donates!) on hand for this very purpose, although the card catalog was gone years ago. The back story on the Tamer Mansion and the addition is interesting, and of course Fred and his friends save the day. Information about dogs reading with children, and the eventual use of the mansion for an animal shelter, will make children very happy. 
Weaknesses: I'm pretty sure that a public library with orange shag carpeting would have been renovated years ago, especially since the library was in the basement. Young readers won't know how gross that carpet would be, but... ew! 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy beginning chapter books with monsters in them, like Lubar's Monsterific Tales, Fearing's Welcome to Feral, or Stine's Goosebumps House of Shivers.

Diño, Yxavel Magno. The Serpent Rider
September 10, 2024 by Bloomsbury Children's Books
ARC provided by the publisher

Tani works with Swordmaster Pai on drills, since she is supposed to be the "destined hero" of her village, but all of her hard work is for nothing as long as her bakunawa egg that was assigned to her at birth doesn't hatch. Everyone in her village has a special bond with the dragon like creatures, and her friends are already training their bakunawa; Bato has Iska, and Kiri's Lutian hatches soon after the story begins. Tani's father, who was the leader of the village (the Datu) was killed, and her mother has taken over. Her sister, Ligaya, has spent a long time learning all of the village lore, and must be protected. When Tani meets Mutya, she shares her desperation from a bakunawa, since there have been monsters attacking, and the biggest fear is that the Great Bakunawa will return and swallow the final sun. Mutya offers to create a creature for her in exchange for some small tokens, like a blue cone shell, as well as unspecified future payments. Mutya creates Uling, and for a while, Tani feels like this will help her attempts at keeping her sister and village safe. When Mutya takes her payment in kidnapping Ligaya and taking her to Mount Mahiwaga, Tani must go on a quest to return her sister and keep the Great Bakunawa at bay. 

This had some interesting elements of Filipino folklore, and read fairly quickly. There are relatively few fantasy books with Filipino characters, other than Villanueva's  2024 Lulu Sinagtala and the City of Noble Warriors and 2021 Sugar and Spite, Badua's 2022 Freddie vs. the Family Curse, and Torres' and Elbert's 2012 graphic novel Lola: A Ghost Story.  No matter where tweens are in the world, it is up to them to save the world from paranormal destruction! Definitely appreciate that this is a stand alone fantasy novel.

MMGM- Popcorn and All Consuming

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Harrell, Rob. Popcorn.

September 3, 2024 by Dial Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Tall, skinny Andrew Yaeger is dealing with a lot. His father lives on the west coast. His grandmother, G, a former middle school social studies teacher, has Alzheimers and is living in his room while he sleeps on the couch. His mother is starting a new job that she hopes will help the family financially, especially if G has to go into a care facility. On top of all of that, it's picture day in seventh grade, and his mother, Susan, wants a picture that does NOT look like Andrew was "attacked by wolves". Susan even buys him a new shirt and makes him take a spare just in case. This upsets Andrew's routine for the day, since his back pack is meticulously organized, and shoving the shirt in will turn his sandwich into "peanut butter and jelly origami". Luckily, he has his best friend, Jonesy, whose mother, Mika, was Susan's college roommate. Jonesy is Andrew's opposite; she loves sports, her family is well off, and she is outgoing and careful, in contrast to Andrew's anxious and awkward personality. Andrew has even gone to three therapy sessions with Dr. Cain. They were very helpful, but his mother couldn't afford more, so he deals with his emotions by drawing in a journal the therapist gave him, and these drawing help illustrate the story. Adding to Andrew's problems, bully behemoth Gene calls him names like "Garage Sale", and roughs him up after Andrew won't help him cheat. After an incident in gym where a basketball slams into Andrew's face, he seeks help from the nurse for his black eye, bloody nose, and broken glasses. She's very supportive, and offers to try to fix the shirt. At lunch, Andrew is dealing with growing anxiety that he likens to a popcorn kernel heating up. He's hit in the head by ketchup from a makeshift ketchup rocket. After a brief stop at the nurse, he heads to science class, where his teacher uses the rocket as a teachable moment, and has the class do a small scale chemical reaction in a beaker. Gene sabotages Andrew's, and soon our hapless hero's face and hands are covered in purple. He and Jonesy are called to the office with the news that G is missing. Mika stepped away for a moment, and now can't contact Susan. Do the two know where G might have gone? In the art room with Mr. Kellerman, using mineral spirits to remove the purple dye, Andrew spirals down into a full-blown panic attack. Mr. Kellerman has Jonesy contact the nurse, puts a girl in charge of the class, and takes Andrew outside. He helps him to breath and calm down, and lets him know that he, too, has anxiety and panic attacks. When G shows up at school, telling the principal to get back to class (he was one of her students years ago!), the police are able to finally contact Susan, talk to her boss, and get G to a safe place. Andrew decides to take his school picture anyway, so that the day can be memorialized, since he survived. He also reaches out to Gene, shares a moment from the past when they were happy together, and asks that the two find a way to be more civil to each other. The end of the book has resources for various issues, as well as a note from the author describing his personal connection to Andrew's story.
Strengths: Harrell understands how schools work, and creates realistic, intriguing characters. Andrew's day could actually happen, as horrible as it was! My heart broke, seeing G's vintage school picture in a fabulous 70s vest and roaming the school halls in her bathrobe. The details of Andrew's therapy, and his recounting of his mental state are very instructive, especially in the depiction of his panic attacks and the events that lead to it. Even though Andrew struggles with multiple issues, he has some coping strategies and tries very hard to fight through difficult issues. His support network is strong, and Jonesy is a good friend. Mr. Kellerman, and his overalls and sandals was great fun. The school nurse (whose name I didn't write down) was also a great character, with her hidden stash of pop and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The fact that she and Mr. Kellerman were dating made me smile. There are a number of other students who make an appearance, and most are understanding and nice to Andrew. Of course, Harrell's drawings are always a plus; he could draw a successful update to Borgman's classic How Are You Feeling Today? A Vocabulary of Emotions poster (probably published in the late 1980s).
Weaknesses: This was a funny book, but Andrew's day was traumatic. I'm glad that Harrell was able to relate this with humor, but I had a hard time laughing at it, since I've been in Mr. Kellerman's position on multiple occasions, doing box breathing with children in distress. I've also fixed a lot of wardrobe malfunctions! I enjoyed the book, but felt that perhaps I shouldn't.
What I really think: This is very similar to Amore and Cosgrove's Monday: The Worst Week Ever, with the a variety of cascading troubles leading up to school pictures, but is much more serious. The best comparison is that the book is a combination of Patterson's Middle School books with the psychological content of Cooke's Puzzled or Sattin and Hickman Buzzing. I think that students will gain a lot from seeing Andrew's travails and his coping skills, and will hopefully also gain empathy for classmates who may be having bad days. This author's Wink and Bat Pig are very popular with my readers, so this book will circulate well. I think this just hit a bit close to home for me, and made me sad, but that means the writing was very effective.

Silver, Erin and Ogawa, Suharu(illustrator). 

All Consuming: Shop Smarter for the Planet
September 17, 2024 by Orca Book Publishers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I have to admit that my mother was of the generation of women who consider shopping to be a hobby, and her favorite place to be was the mall. She didn't buy a lot, but she shopped a lot, always looking for the best bargain. I do the same thing, except that I only shop at the thrift store. There's something primal about hunting and gathering that can lead to a lot of waste now that things are easier to obtain. This is a book that I would like all of my students to read!

Thomas' Fashionopolis is a fascinating look at the garment industry, but is on the longer side for some of my students. All Consuming starts with a chapter on clothing that hits many of the high points of that longer title. I'm not sure how many middle school students really think about clothes these days; they seem to wear primarily pajama pants, hoodies, and Crocs. Still, knowing that there are workers who are ill treated in the fashion industry, and that a lot of clothing is never sold and destroyed, might make young readers think twice about ordering things online from Shein. 

The second chapter covers food, and I have to say that shopping for food that doesn't come in plastic is something I find stressful. Seeing information about how much waste comes from packaging will help younger readers be more mindful in their shopping, and maybe cause them to eat more canned food, like I do! (I also buy a lot of vegetables, cook them, and freeze them rather than getting plastic bags of them.)

Technology waste is definitely something that kids need to learn about. My personal expectation for any tech device lasting is seven years, but when that's half your life, it probably seems unreasonable. Knowing the resources that go into  phones and computers can help people make better choices. 

The chapter on gifts is a catch all, but may speak most to tweens, who love to give each other stuffed animals in gift bags that they throw away. I've rescued a LOT of gift bags from the trash at school. At my house, we have cloth drawstring gift bags, and go so far as to check out books from the library to "give" each other at Christmas. If more people gave gifts like food or regifted items instead of new tchotchkes, that would definitely cut down on waste. 

This is a topic near and dear to me, so I'm looking forward to having this book in my library. The interesting cover and interior design will draw students, and there's a great glossary, list of resources, and an index at the end of the book. At 96 pages, this is the perfect length, and extremely educational! 

Early Chapter Books

Jit, Sita. Divya Far From Home

August 1, 2024 by Stone Arch Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Divya's family must move away from their home in Delhi, India and her Nani to help out her uncle and cousins Geeta and Sameer with a family restaurant, most likely in the US. Divya doesn't want to move, and is not happy that she has to repeat fourth grade and share a room with Geeta, especially when Geeta steals the spicy masala chips that she brought from home! School goes fairly well, and Ms. Yang's class is kind. She even makes a friend, Asima, who moved from Syria last year and know how hard it can be to change. When Divya has to do an "All About Me" project for class, she is able to share her traditions with the class. The book includes a glossary and a "thinking about the story" section. 

I'm a huge fan of early chapter books with characters from different cultures, and would love to read more about Divya and her experiences. This is too young for middle school, but I'd love to see this author write a middle grade book like Mendez' Wish Upon a Stray or Weeks' and Varadarajan's Save Me a Seat, about an 8th grader who has to start over in a new country. 
 

Wells, Stacy and Gama, Maria Gabriells (illustrator)

Tana Cooks with Care 

August 1, 2024 by Picture Window Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Second grader Tana loves to cook with her father, who shares many recipes from the family's Choctaw culture with her. Tana's mother is her school librarian, and her little sister is in kindergarten. When her class prepares to put on a play, Tana is excited about having a role, and her friend Lola wants the lead. Ana, however, is doubtful about whether she wants to get up in front of others, especially when she is more comfortable painting scenery. Tana tries to cheer her friend up by making food like Little Corn Stew, strawberry smoothies, and cream cheese roll ups, but nothing seems to help. Eventually, Ana tries out for set painter and is much happier. Tana will return with similar books centered around Valentines Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving. 

I would have absolutely adored this when I was in elementary school; I loved reading about girls my age who did things that were interesting. I could even believe the play; my second grade class put on a version of The Wizard of Oz; I got to play the feet of the Wicked Witch of the West! This reminded me a bit of Lunch Will Never Be the Same! (Phoebe G. Green #1) by Hiranandani and Dreidemy. I would definitely purchase this for an elementary school, and would love to see a book about an 8th grade Choctaw girl! (And yes, more middle grade books need to have characters in 8th grade, since everyone in grade 2-8 will read those, but 7th and 8th graders want characters who are their age or OLDER, rather than reading about younger characters. So many middle grade books seem to have 5th grade characters!)

Saturday Morning Cartoons- Biographies

Bolden, Tanya and Wilkerson, David (illus.)
Great Minds of Science (Black Lives #1): A Nonfiction Graphic Novel
September 10, 2024 by Abrams Fanfare
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Bolden is not new to biographies or Black history; her Speak Up, Speak Out!: The Extraordinary Life of Fighting Shirley Chisholm was fantastic, and she worked with Henry Louis Gates on Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow. This book is a bit different, since it is short biographies of a variety of scientists. Each entry starts with a quotation, includes a little about the person's life, and concentrates on careers. There is a helpful timeline for each. There is some information about the various fields, as well as other contributors. They are arranged in roughly chronological order, starting with the physician Matilda Evans, who was born in 1872, and finishing up with marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (1980). Also included are Archie Alexander (civil engineer), Gladys West (mathematician), Fred Jones (inventor and engineer), Patrice Clark Washington ( aviator), David Wilcots (paleotologist and geologist), Carlotta Berry (robotics engineer), and Scott Edwards (biologist).

This will be perfect for some of the brief biography projects that my students do, but will also be great fun for students who like the graphic novel format. The page design is great, and there's just enough information, interspersed with pictures, to make this a quick read. My only quibble is that there could have been more attention paid to getting the clothing and other historical details (buildings, vehicles) to better reflect the time periods. They are necessarily wrong, but there are some things, like the 1920s bathing suits, that weren't quite right, or were just very plain. I love the graphic format for history because it can show younger readers how different the world was. Perhaps in future volumes, we'll see better examples. After all, could students fully understand Shirley Chisolm's place in history without seeing her striking 1960s and 70s dresses? 

Bycel, Josh,  Korson, Rich, and Scott, Damion (illustrator)

Sports Heroes: Stephen Curry

August 13, 2024 by Penguin Workshop

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Eleven year olds Maya, who is very athletic, and Jesse, who prefers to manage teams and run stats, both win tickets to a big basketball game in New York City because they were cleaning up at their school. When they are at the game with their dads, they sneak off to explore, and get a mysterious text message. They end up in a storage closet that turns out to be an elevator to the Sports Superheroes Sports room. The Superheroes want the kids' help in picking out the next generation of sports superheroes. Maya and Jesse both pick Steph Curry and are asked to defend their choice. They give his origin story, explaining how he was born in Akron to an NBA player and college volleyball star, and was known in his high school career as the "baby-faced assassin". His super power was his shot, and he struggled to get onto a pro team, ending up at small Davidson College when Virginia Tech only offered him a walk on position. They cover career highlights as well as personal ones, such as his wife Ayesha and his three children. Because sports superheroes have to be more than just the game, they talk about the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation that the Currys run. The Superheroes think he is a good choice, and he is magically brought to the throne room while the rest of the world is frozen. Maya and Jesse are glad to be able to talk to their idol, and return to their fathers and the game. Later, they are once again summoned to recommend someone new; this no doubt means there will be other graphic novel biographies in this series. 

Strengths: There are very, very few sports graphic novels, and many of my readers who enjoy this format also enjoy sports. This had a Space Jam (1996) feel to it that will resonate with some readers. 
Weaknesses: I'm not sure if the pictures will be in full color in the finished version, but the black and white illustrations were done in a somewhat unusual way that made the characters seem odd. 
What I really think: The idea of a group of Sports Superheroes was interesting, but made the book seem a little young. For middle school, I prefer Marannis and Hodge's Beyond the Game series. 

Games!

Janowitz, Jessie. All the Ways to Go

September 3, 2024 by Sourcebooks Young Readers

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Milo has been a very successful young chess player, but during a big tournament at the Javits Center in New York City, he finds himself struggling to focus on the game... and care. He makes a move that essentially throws the game, but one that won't let his single mother know that he threw it. Losing ruins his chance at going to a summer camp for chess, but he hopes that he can go with his best friend to a different one, since he can't spend the summer with his grandmother. Gruth (Grandma Ruth, as he calls her) is his favorite person, but she's moved to Florida to be with her sister. His mother, who is a coder, informs him that he won't be going to camp, but the two of them will be spending the summer in Princeton with Nava, a friend from her mothers' group, and her daughter Roxie. It's a bit odd that Milo isn't told until Roxie, who is a "free range" child, shows up at his door in New York City, but it should be an indication of the kind of summer he will have! Milo isn't thrilled about the fact that Roxie and her mother are vegetarians and have a number of rescue cats, but the neighborhood is an intriguing one, and Roxie finds adventures like "spelunking" in one of the university libraries in the middle of the night! (With permission; they don't steal any books!) He's also not pleased with going to a "Little Explorers" summer camp run by Pat and Lou, who is there for community service. He and Roxie are much older than the other campers, so the two get roped into being Counselors in Training. They do demand lunch breaks, and during one of these, they meet two college students, Athena and Dell, who are playing a game called Go. Milo has been lying to his mother about playing chess on the computer; she's put a lot of time and money into his training, and while he no longer loves chess, he doesn't want to disappoint her. Milo becomes enthralled with Go, and he and Roxie do some deep research dives into the game. They ask Pat to try easier versions with the campers, and its a hit. Milo even makes peace with the cats, who can be rather comforting, and comes to realize that sometimes stepping away from the usual and embracing new experiences can be enjoyable.
Strengths: As adults, we forget that tweens are at the mercy of their parents' decisions. Milo controls little about his world; he misses Gruth, although the two text daily, he continues playing chess because his mother is so invested, and he has no say in the decision to decamp to Princeton for the summer to live with strangers... and their cats! How many adults would take this well? I did love the relationship with Gruth. The two play Battleship Online and communicate frequently, and I imagine there are a lot of children who have this kind of long-distance relationship with grandparents. I can also attest to the fact that cats, while they are generally quite evil, can be good companions, having spent a week with my daughter's cat last year. Nava and Milo's mother both chose to have children with the help of donors, so fathers never come into the picture at all, and I've only seen this represented a few times in middle grade literature (Robert's Nikki on the Line, Erskine's The Incredible Magic of Being, and Melleby's The Science of Being Angry). The summer camp is believable, and hanging out in Princeton was fun. I loved that Janowitz gave a specific, real address for the street where Roxie lived! Of course, the main draw of this book is the game of Go, and there's a lot of information on not only the history of this ancient game, but also the philosophy of how to play.
Weaknesses: I came to the conclusion while writing this that the thing that I personally hate the most in the entire world is GAMES. This made reading the description of the history of Go, along with the details of playing, a bit slow for me. There is certainly enough going on in the story that I was able to enjoy the humor and relationships in the book, but readers who DO like to play games will like this even more than I did.
What I really think: While there are plenty of middle grade books about chess (Giles' Not an Easy Win or Gerber's Focused for a start) and a growing number of escape room or puzzle room books (Reese's or Puzzleheart Currie's Mystery of Locked Rooms), there aren't a lot of books about any other games. There's Martin's new Wander Lost, which was an intriguing fantasy involving vintage board games, but the book this reminded me the most of was Anderson's One Last Shot (miniature golf). I did love this author's The Doughnut Fix and The Doughnut King, so it was great to see a new title by her!

Zhao, Kyla. May the Best Player Win
September 17, 2024 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

When May Li's best friend and chess team teammate makes a snide comment about her being good "for a girl", she decides not to have much to do with him. She still has her friend Becca, who is on the team just because the school doesn't have a cooking club. May Li feels a little awkward, since she DID win the Judit Polgar award at the tournament, and not only is going to be interviewed for Chessbase Magazine, but is one of the school's choices to be on a bulletin board celebrating the school's 100th anniversary. At the photo shoot for this, she connects with Mario, who is an excellent soccer player, and ends up going to one of his games. There's a lot of demands on May Li's time; she takes lesson with Mr. Wang at a chess academy, and wants to make her parents proud of her. She's still angry with Ralph, and determined that not only will she be on the team going to the national tournament, but also to be the team captain. When a match with Becca is the only thing standing between her and victory of Ralph, she thinks about asking Becca to throw the game, but doesn't. When Becca tries to do this anyway, May Li makes a move that ends in a draw. She and Ralph have to play an Armageddon match to figure out who will win. 

This has a lot of details about chess, and I really enjoyed that May Li and Mario were able to be friendly to one another even though their interests were very different. This had strong traditional feminist themes that were quite refreshing; haven't seen a book with a lot of Girl Power in a while, and chess certainly hasn't always been kind to female players. Hand this to readers who enjoyed Gerber's Focused or Giles' Not An Easy Win. 

The Secret Dead Club and The Inscrutable Doctor Baer

Strong, Karen. The Secret Dead Club

August 20, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Wednesday has always seen ghosts, and has spent her childhood helping them move on, but when an evil ghost attacks her in Arizona, where she and her artist mother Olivia are living in a travel trailer, her mother decides it would be safer to come home to the Callahan House is Alton, Georgia. Wednesday's father is doing a medical residency in London, and her parents are divorced. The house was where Olivia grew up. She was raised by her grandmother, after her mother perished in a fire, and the grandmother worked as a spiritualist. The house has been haunted since the 1940s by Caleb Callahan, whose father was possessed by a ghost and killed Caleb and his sister, but Caleb is a banisher, who can dispatch ghosts. This is all news to Wednesday, who is understandably a bit shaken by the evil ghost experience. Normally, she would be fine seeing ghosts at school and in the neighborhood, but now she is wary of teacher Laura Tarkington, who was killed in a car accident, and Violet, who lived across the street and died of meningitis. The girls at school are friendly, and Miki Okada and Danni-Lynn Porter invite her to eat lunch with them. When the two figure out that Wednesday can see ghosts, they invite her to their secret group, which only discusses group business off school grounds. It's the "secret dead club" and they need Wednesday because they had a falling out with the previous medium, Alexa, who has warned Wednesday away from the group. Not only that, but Violet was the medium before that. Something is up with Violet's ghost, and the girls realize that she is trapped in her house, when the Leehans now live. Luckily, they are on vacation and Olivia's friend Jasmine is watching the house and has the keys. Will Wednesday and her friends be able to get rid of the evil ghost who has Violet in its clutches, and generally smooth over the problems with the local spirits?
Strengths: It goes without saying that if a middle grade character moves, chances are very good that it will be into a house that is haunted. I liked that this had a bit of a twist, with Callahan House being a home that had been in the family since 1966, with protections in place for paranormal activity because of the inherited predisposition towards being attuned to it. I was glad that Miki and Danni-Lynn were welcoming, even though they were still grieving their friend. The official book, on which the club members have to swear their allegiance, is Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes! The mother and family friends were around enough when Wednesday needed them, but distracted enough that she could have a little freedom. This got a bit scary at the end, with murderous ghosts running rampant, but that's what my middle school students like. 
Weaknesses: It was a little odd that Wednesday called her mother Olivia, but I suppose that is the tradition in some families. Also, there was an intriguing bit dropped about Olivia's grandmother being one of the first Black owners of property in the neighborhood is 1966; I would have enjoyed learning more about this period in history and the experience of a neighborhood being integrated. 
What I really think: I don't think that I would buy this book for an elementary school; Caleb's death was fairly brutal, and I can see this being a bit much for younger readers. It's a great choice for morbid middle school readers who enjoyed Senf's The Clackity, Poblocki's Ghost Hunter's Daughter, or Young's What Stays Buried.

Drozd, Jerzy. The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
September 3, 2024 by Iron Circus Comics
ARC provided by the publisher

Doctor Baer, a sentient teddy bear, runs a preserve for cursed magical creatures in the quintessential creepy Victorian mansion that broods under a constantly gloomy and overcast sky. He tries to be a good steward of these artifacts, and also cares deeply for the creatures attached to the relics, serving them foods that they like, giving them a place to roam with others of their kind, and keeping them safe from the forces of evil. He is frequently approached by opportunists like the traveling adventurers, a bear and bird, who want to sell him a werewolf's skull. The house is well guarded against those like Gallus and Wilhelmina, who wish to attack and do harm, but when the bumbling pig pickles, who styles himself a hero, wants to seek Doctor Baer's counsel about a cursed penny, getting his sidekick Taft, a giant tortoise, into the house takes so long that the wards are broken. Spirits escape, and Doctor Baer feels terrible. Pickles, on the other hand, doesn't quite realize the problems he has caused. Some of the elemental magic remains to help, caught in an interesting wand, but the doctor knows that he must retrieve the guardian stone and try to recapture the spirits in order to keep both them and the world safe. He must venture out of his destroyed house to hunt down Gallus. Pickles offers to help, and lacking other support, Baer accepts their offer. This sends the group into a treacherous journey into the Lost City of Terror, to the bottomed of Daemon's Deep, and up the Crags of Everlasting Ice to find fragments of the stone that has safeguarded Baer's menagerie. There are plenty of fights, close calls, and monsters to dispatch on this quest, but also secrets that will be unveiled that change the entire nature of the operation. At the end, what will Doctor Baer's purpose be?

Strengths: This is an ebullient and beautifully illustrated book that is not as grim as the initial pages might forebode. Yes, Doctor Baer is dealing with cursed artifacts, but he is meticulous in his care and trying his best to improve the quality of life of the spirits. Younger readers will love Pickles, since they will see themselves in his brash and impulsive style, and be amused by the parent-like reluctance of Taft to embark on random journeys. There's a well defined quest with many nods to traditional hero's journeys, but I appreciated the twist at the end. I was also glad that Doctor Baer made it home and, like Bilbo Baggins, was able to get a decent cup of tea. 
Weaknesses: I loved that the dedication includes a picture of the author at eleven and is for kids who need "what's said in these pages". Because of this, I tried to find some deep message and rather failed, no doubt because I am not actually eleven, and because graphic novels are not my format of choice. It is a purpose that I wish more authors would embrace, although in order to fill the needs of all of my students, I need more people who were nonreaders as tweens become authors! 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want an epic fantasy in graphic novel format, like Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Road to Epoli, or Camper and Gonzalez' Lowriders in Space trilogy. The author is from the Columbus area and there's a blurb from fellow Ohioan and legendary Bone author, Jeff Smith!