MMGM- What Happened Then and They Battled in Blizzards

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Unleashing Readers

Downing, Erin Soderberg. What Happened Then

September 2, 2025 by Scholastic Press

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Avery and her mom Eleanor and dad travel to the island her mom's family owns in the middle of Crooked Lake when her Aunt Robbie wants everyone to gather for one last get together and decide what to do with the property. Jax, along with his father, James, is there as well along with Aunt Robbie and Aunt Di and her family. There's a big house on the property, but also guest cabins that haven't been used since Avery's grandfather died. When Aunt Robbie announces that she has ALS and will probably be gone in two years, she makes it clear that even though her mother left her the property, she feels that it is up to the entire family to decide its fate. James, who has always been difficult, immediately wants to sell everything and be done with it. Avery, who is interested in the unmentioned youngest sibling about whom no one talks, is enthralled with this mystery when she finds pieces of an old journal around the island. As the family works on cleaning out the house, Avery and Jax try to figure out what happened, and uncover a lot of bad feelings among the remaining siblings that will effect the fate of the property. Avery comes to love the island, as well as Aunt Robbie, and wants to find a way for her aunts and uncles to make peace with the past. 

Strengths: There is something appealing about going to an island and meeting up with family one hasn't seen in a long time and uncovering family secrets. The Crooked Lake property is so well described that I could SMELL the cabins! Finding a 30-40 year old diary (Alexander's The Dead Girl's Diary or Ford's The Lonely Ghost also include these documents) is enthralling, and Avery and Jax work well together to solve the mystery. Each character has other problems as well; Avery is impulsive and loud, and has trouble with self regulation, while Jax has a troubled relationship with his father. I loved Aunt Robbie, and was sad that she was so ill, but it was nice that her family was able to rally around her. I don't want to ruin the family secret, but it was satisfying that all of the siblings thought they were responsible, and had felt guilty for years, and that when they finally talked about the issue, they realized that none of them were at fault. This is another great title by Downing, who also wrote Just Keep Walking and When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie. 
Weaknesses: In the middle of the book, Avery decides that the journal was written by Aunt Robbie, and I figured all along that it was. There's a name change, and I somehow got very turned around by this, but it could just be me. 
What I really think: There must be any number of old family lodges, camps, and larger houses that are impossible for younger generations to keep up. This reminded me a bit of Matson's The Firefly Summer, Baron's The Gray, or Haddix's The Mysteries of Trash and Treasure. There need to be more middle grade books that investigate the cultural phenomenon of Cabbage Patch Kids! (I was in high school, and remember selling patterns to grandmothers to make clothes for these dolls. Their stories of waiting in line to buy them were something else!)

Hopkinson, Deborah. World War II Up Close: They Battled in Blizzards
September 2, 2025 by Scholastic Focus
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

World War II is one of those topics about which I am conflicted. I have absolutely no interest in reading about wars, especially one from 80 years ago about which SO MUCH has already been written. However, there are always students who have a keen interest in everything to do with that conflict, so I keep reading the books. Hopkinson, who has several books on this topic, including two other World War II Up Close books, They Saved the Stallions and Race Against Death: The Greatest POW Rescue of World War II, does an excellent job of researching and presenting information in a way that is engaging and accessible. They Battled in Blizzards focuses on The Battle of the Bulge, a six week long conflict in 1944 that involved 600,000 US soldiers and resulted in the death of around 80,000 troops. The weather was a huge problem, and there are fantastic pictures all through the book showing what the landscape was like.

The best part about this book is the fact that Hopkinson made the war personal. She interviewed a few survivors, some of whom died before the book was published at advanced ages. She read memoirs, talked to families, and got personal photographs. Think about this: men during WWII often took cameras with them, so there are snapshots of people sitting around campfires, walking along snowy lanes, and hanging out. I had a friend who fought for the Wehrmacht and was stationed right at the Russian front, and he had photos of himself and his friends hanging out with Russian women as they waited for the US troops to arrive and end things. But did men have cameras with them on the field of battle? My friend also told the story of having his camera hanging on the rear view mirror of his vehicle… and the vehicle getting blown up! So yes, I don’t doubt for a second that there are plenty of photos like this that great grandpa brought back for the war that are now in people’s basements.

The stand out for me was the inclusion of sketches and paintings by official army artists like John Jarvie, Victor Dowd, Robert Blair, Olin Dows, and Ashley Bryan. There should be a whole book on their work. Talk about riveting and moving! I was particularly taken by the work of Dows, who also has mid century landscapes that I would love to hang in my living room.

Hopkinson, who also has the fantastic Deadliest series, has written another great book that is an essential purchase for middle school libraries. This even includes a photo scrapbook at the back as well as a timeline. Her source notes are exquisite, and make me disappointed when I read books that DON’T attribute their sources as well as she does. If you have a Scholastic book fair, make sure you have a good stock of her work for your nonfiction loving readers.