

It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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at
and #IMWAYR day
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Publication
April 1, 2025 by Shadow Mountain
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Extracurriculars are booming at Hopson Middle School! Jax and Nic, longtime friends, hope to make the basketball team, even though Jax is the second shortest kid in their grade. Once the make the middle school team, they plan to be at the odds and go on to college and professional careers. Meanwhile, Luke hopes to get cast in the play along with his friends. Miley is having trouble making friends at school, so needs to find a group to join before her parents have her homeschooled along with her annoying cousin. Sadly, Luke is the only one of his friends who doesn't get cast, and Jax and Nic don't make the team. Jax even approaches the coach and makes his case; both boys need a break, since their single moms can't afford the fancy camps the other kids attend, and since Nic's father is prison, it would be a welcome bit of luck for him. The coach says that the boys just aren't good enough for the team, but agrees that if Jax can set up his own team and beat the Hawks in a scrimmage, both boys will be put on the varsity team next year. Luke is shown an opportunity for a theatrical competition by Mr. Juma, but needs a couple of others to work with him. Luke is tall, and when Jax is putting together a team, the two reluctantly join forces. Jax also recruits the other boys who almost made the team, along with Martina and Charlotte. Miley becomes their statistician and helps them identify ways to win. Mr. Juma even gets involved, serving as their "coach" while he grades papers in the bleachers when the group practices at 6 a.m. It's not easy to put together a team and figure out strategies on their own, and Jax even doubts his own abilities at some point. Aside from just keeping the kids busy, will these forays into independent projects in their chosen fields allow them to actually make progress towards their goals of turning their interests into careers?
Strengths: A large number of middle school boys really believe that they can grow up to play professional basketball, so this will have an immediate draw! There aren't quite as many who want to pursue theater, but the two activities got tied together in a very clever way. I enjoyed the fact that the boys didn't just give up when they didn't get to work on their skills in a school setting. This is a great message, since there are plenty of kids who don't make sports teams or get cast in school productions. This was from multiple points of view, and Miley's chapters included some illustrations and had lettered text that discussed her challenges in making friends and her discussions with her therapist. I also really liked how both Martina and Charlotte were welcomed onto the team without comment, and how they were able to stand up to the Hawks when they trash talked them. As I tell the boys' cross country team just about every year: if you want to win the district championship, you need to run like girls! This moved quickly, and the cover will appeal to basketball fans.
Weaknesses: The story would have progressed more smoothly with a third person omniscient narrator; I know authors love to write from different perspectives, but it does make the story jump around. Also, 6th graders in Ohio can't be on sports teams with older students, and I doubt that the coach would be able to put Jax and Nic on the varsity team because they won a bet with him.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like to combine sports topics with the performing arts and enjoyed Friday Nigth Stage Lights or Mided's Club Kick Out. Brown and Morris are also the authors of Squint.
Strengths: A large number of middle school boys really believe that they can grow up to play professional basketball, so this will have an immediate draw! There aren't quite as many who want to pursue theater, but the two activities got tied together in a very clever way. I enjoyed the fact that the boys didn't just give up when they didn't get to work on their skills in a school setting. This is a great message, since there are plenty of kids who don't make sports teams or get cast in school productions. This was from multiple points of view, and Miley's chapters included some illustrations and had lettered text that discussed her challenges in making friends and her discussions with her therapist. I also really liked how both Martina and Charlotte were welcomed onto the team without comment, and how they were able to stand up to the Hawks when they trash talked them. As I tell the boys' cross country team just about every year: if you want to win the district championship, you need to run like girls! This moved quickly, and the cover will appeal to basketball fans.
Weaknesses: The story would have progressed more smoothly with a third person omniscient narrator; I know authors love to write from different perspectives, but it does make the story jump around. Also, 6th graders in Ohio can't be on sports teams with older students, and I doubt that the coach would be able to put Jax and Nic on the varsity team because they won a bet with him.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like to combine sports topics with the performing arts and enjoyed Friday Nigth Stage Lights or Mided's Club Kick Out. Brown and Morris are also the authors of Squint.
Lady of the Lines: How Maria Reiche Saved the Nazca Lines by Sweeping the Desert
April 8, 2025 by Astra Young Readers
Copy provided by the publisher
I love reading books that introduce me to things I've never heard of, and Maria Reiche's involvement with saving the Nazca Lines artwork in the Peruvian desert was completely new to me. German born Reiche took a job as a nanny in Peru, and became so invested in this ancient artwork that she spent the rest of her life working on saving it. These massive drawings, Etched into the desert floor, where preserved because of the dry climate and lack of traffic in the area, but centuries of dirt and dust had dimmed their beauty. Reiche set out with actual brooms to sweep away the dirt and reveal the drawings. Working in the 1940s meant that she labored until harsh conditions, living in tents with few amenities and subsisting on a meager diet. While she was successful in uncovering the art, the work took a toll on her health. In addition to preserving the art, she worked hard to have the work protected by the government, so that it would be safe from development as well as uncaring tourists. She wrote books about the art, and managed to call attention to it so that the area was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994. The book includes notes on Reiche's life and work, a timeline, and a bibliography.
The illustrations for a good job of capturing a sense of place and time; one especially appealing spread shows Reiche, in a dress and kerchief, loading brooms onto the top of a Volkswagen Beatle, opposite a picture of her alone in the middle of the vast desert, sweeping the dirt away from the lines while wearing padded flip flops. There is a lot of yellow and bright blue, giving a sense of heat and brightness that brings the desert environment alive.
While this isn't too long for a read aloud, there is plenty of information to get young readers started on a research project into this interesting champion of a archaeological and artistic phenomenon that will be new to many readers in the US.
Reiche's story combines art, archaeology, and activism, and is right at home with books like Rogers and Innerst's Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony, Novesky and Lee's Mary Blair's Unique Flair: The Girl Who Became One of the Disney Legends, Whitehead and Evans' Art From Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter, Brown and Sicuro's Dancing Through Fields of Color (Helen Frankenthaler), and also Skeers and Miguens' Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist.
This sounds a fun story, even for the non-sports fan like me! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLady of the Lines: How Maria Reiche Saved the Nazca Lines sounds fascinating. The story is completely new to me. If one of my local libraries doesn't bring this book in, I might have to actually purchase it for myself!
ReplyDeleteLady of the Lines looks like a book that I would like. I'll try to check it out.Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Maria Reiche. Thanks for sharing.
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