MMGM- The Scott Fenwick Diaries and The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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Always in the Middle 

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Unleashing Readers

Nilsin, Kristin. The Scott Fenwick Diaries

July 22, 2025 by SparkPress

Copy provided by the publisher

In this sequel to Worldwide Crush, Millie is back home and settling back into school. Topmost in her mind is Scott Fenwick, a super cute boy who seems as interested in her as she is in him! There are passed notes, lingering glances, and Scott even talks to her! Of course, interrupting her constant need to document every interaction she has with her crush in her diary are all of the annoying things real life throws at her. Her grandmother Cheryl (who is delightful) is still staying with the family while her retirement condo is being renovated, and helps a lot with Millie's younger brother Billy. Her great grandmother Phyllis is in an assisted living facility, but likes to be taken out to Target (which takes FOREVER) and is also trying to fix Millie up with another of the residents' grandsons, Kendrick. Her best friend, Shauna, is worried that her father will move back from California with his new wife, and things will be weird. Still, Millie manages to think about and dissect every small action Scott takes. What does it mean that he wants to hang out with her after school? Her friend Tibbs is his neighbor, and manages to arrange some opportunities for the two to hang out, like an elaborate plot for Millie to get a ride to Hebrew school from Scott's mother so that she can be in the back seat while carpooling with Tibbs. Scott's mother is super cool, but wants to check with Millie's parents before she drops Millie off, but invites her to Scott's Bar Mitzvah. This sets a lot of planning in motion, and Millie has to negotiate with her parents so they don't embarass her. There's also an unfortunate incident where Phyllis, who is staying with the family as well, let's Millie's dog, Pringles, out, and he suffers an injury. Throughout all of this, Millie is eddying in a maelstrom of emotions surrounding her relationship with Scott, and wondering if she is doing everything she is supposed to. 

Millie's obsession is completely realistic, and her experiences will resonate with tween readers who are navigating similiar new relationships. While I personally prefer romance books to have a secondary plot so that there is something for the main character to do besides obsess about a love interest, my students are fine with Millie's type of thinking and rethinking of events, because their souls have not, in the words of my older daughter "shrunken in the wash and given you a wedgie" like mine apparently has. The notebook, complete with acrostic odes to Scott,  the machinations to "accidentally" meet Scott, and the sweet moments like when he doodles a heart on the bottom of her tennis shoe will give readers reassurance that their own crushes are not unusual, and may have a happy ending, just like Millie's. 

I love how involved Millie's family is with her life, because many books don't show enough of how irritating family can be! Younger siblings require a lot of care, parents have unreasonable expectations like singing tunes from The Sound of Music at the school talent show, and grandmothers can be helpful, but also embarrassing. The negotiations Millie conducts with her parents about their behavior at the Bar Mitzvah are brilliant. My favorite quote where Millie describes her mother's behavior perfectly sums up my entire experience with my younger daughter's teen years: "She loves me so much that she's doing her best to ignore me, just like I asked. It feels good."

Teachers and librarians who are my age (i.e. a little younger than Grandma Cheryl) will appreciate all of the shout outs to popular culture of our youth, and I highly recommend the podcast that Nilsen does with Caroline Cochrane and Michelle Newman, The Pop Culture Perservation Society. Nilsen, who is also works in a school library, not only remembers her own tween years vividly, but has a good feel for what has changed and what has stayed the same for girls who are tweens now. 

Romance books always circulate well with my students, and readers who enjoyed Angela Darling's Crush books or Suzanne Nelson's Wish books will adore having a ringside seat to Millie's romance with Scott. While this is a sequel, it could also be read alone, although readers won't want to miss all of the references to the fictional pop culture sensation that was Rory Calhoun, especially since Millie frequently quotes his songs. 

Roberts, Barbara Carroll. The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter

July 22, 2025 by Margaret Ferguson Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Theodosia "Bunny" Baxter lives with her older sister, Bella, her veterinarian mother, and garden designer father. She's struggled with anxiety her entire school career, but her friend Alex has always helped her out. Due to school redistricting, she will be starting seventh grade at E.D. Britt Middle School when everyone else from her elementary school will be attending Wade's Run. Bunny's mother knows this is stressing her out, but also knows there is no changing it, so encourages Bunny to just do her best. While Bunny makes some good decisions (gray t shirt and shorts is excellent camoflage), she makes some bad ones as well. She borrows Bella's pink, high heeled sandals, brings along a dead cicada in a baggie as an emotional support bug, and can't manage a civil conversation at the bus stop, even though neighbor (and popular 8th grader) Kyle is perfectly nice. At school, she manages to trip on the stairs and face plant... right on Kyle's butt! Other kids make fun of her, but Sylvia feels bad for Bunny and sits with her at lunch, and they are joined by Elena. Sylvia is fairly awkard as well, and a mishap ends with the dead cicada in the food of the popular 8th grader Paige. To make matters worse, Bunny ends up in Discoveries class AND gym with both Kyle and Sylvia. Kyle doesn't say anything, but Paige is mean. Bunny hears that one of the ways students can choose an alternate school is if they are a disclipline problem, and since she already has a bad attitude, it is surprisingly easy to not turn in homework, not follow the physical education teacher's directions, and generally cause trouble. Ms. Clodfelter, the Directions teacher, is super excited about her elective class, where there aren't tests; the students all think about their place in the universe. There is a project to spend two thousand dollars in grant money, and Bunny, who is extremely interested in insects, wants to put trees and a butterfly garden near the outdoor bleachers. Other projects include a photocollage of students and buying picture books for the library, and the class will vote. Bunny has found out that if she gets expelled, she doesn't get to pick an alternate school, she will get sent to The Alternative Learning Center, which is a completely different thing. Since she is now invested in her project, and has actually been making friends, she has a difficult decision when the superintendent agrees to let her transfer back to Wade's Run. Alex is invested in volleyball and her new friends, and Bunny starts to realize that she would rather compete in the Challenge Day competition at her new school, since she's discovered quite a talent for badminton. Will she stay at her new school?

Strengths: I have to say first of all that I was really torn before I started reading this. Roberts' Nikki on the Line was fantastic, but my patience with real life and fictional people who have to talk about their anxiety all the time has worn exceedingly thin. I get it; times are tough, but my mother would have slapped me sideways into Sunday if she knew how apprehensive I was about middle school. Luckily, Bunny's mother, while supportive of her daughter, also expected her to pull up her socks and get to work. Bunny's thought that she could get transferred made sense in the way that something makes sense to a 12 year old. It was great to see that both parents, as well as Bunny's sister, were involved and around, and there is also a lot of discussion about the fact that Bunny is adopted, which is something I've not seen a lot recently in middle grade literature. The best part was probably that Bunny forgot to be so anxious when she found purpose in her gardening project and had a group of people to talk to. A lot of being anxious is just having too much time on one's hands to wallow in the anxiety.
Weaknesses: At my school, it would be unusual for 7th and 8th graders to have any classes together, and it seemed slightly odd that there wasn't an opportunity for Bunny to apply for open enrollment. My district opened a new middle school last year, and I was surprised at how well even the new 8th graders assimilated. Every school district is different. 
What I really think: I'm glad that Bunny is in seventh grade, and that some of her friends are in 8th, and that she has a lot of school projects and activities in which she is taking part. I wish there were more slightly humorous realistic fiction books like this, with everyday middle school problems. I would have saved up my babysitting money to buy a copy of this title, which reminded me in the best way of Betty Miles' books or the work of Ellen Conford. Hand this to readers who love Miller's Not If You Break Up With Me First, Papademetriou's Far-Fetched, or the Scholastic WISH novels.