Middle-Grade Book Reviews Archives - Reading Middle Grade

Review & Discussion Questions for Heroes by Alan Gratz

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:32:59 +0000

Friends and army brats Frank and Stanley live in Pearl Harbor where they deal with the usual challenges of bullying and creating comic books.. Until December 7th, 1941 when everything changes during the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Will the boys survive the attack? How will the war change them and their friendship? Master of middle grade historical fiction, Alan Gratz explores these in his latest novel.

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Review | Stranded

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:52:31 +0000

Ava loves nature and wishes she could spend more time in the woods instead of her family’s Manhattan apartment. Fortune seems to smile on her when her auntie Raven, who is estranged from her mom, allows her to come spend the summer in the Adirondacks with her. A summer stay turns into a year-long stay with Ava’s parent's permission. However, a miscommunication leads to Ava being stuck at the cottage in the winter and having to survive on her own before help comes.

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Review | Bodega Cats: Picture Purrfect

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 10:34:21 +0000

Miguel lives in New York City with his Mami and Papi and wants more than anything to be an artist, even though his immigrant parents want him to have a more traditional career. The next thing on Miguel's wishlist is a pet, so what a joy when he finds a cat near his parents' bodega. Written from the perspectives of Lolo the cat and Miguel, we follow these two as Lolo adjusts to having a family and learning to share his space and the love he's received and Miguel finds a way to share his artsy dreams with his family.

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Review & Discussion Guide | Bea and the New Deal Horse

Afoma Umesi — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 05:39:00 +0000

It’s the 1930s, and Bea wakes up in a hayloft to a note from her dad, who’s abandoned her and her little sister Viv to a family friend they’ve never met. There, Bea works hard to be helpful to Mrs. Scott, in the hopes that the farm owner will keep her and her sister forever. She also forms a bond with a wild horse on the farm, which may just be the key to keeping the failing farm afloat.

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Review | Kyra, Just for Today

Afoma Umesi — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 21:08:11 +0000

This companion to A Song Called Home stars Lu's best friend Kyra. Kyra's mother is a sober alcoholic trying to stay on the straight and narrow and she has a great friendship with Lu even though she doesn't have many other friends. But in the 7th grade, everything starts to change. Lu starts to make new friends and splits her time between both friend groups, eventually asking Kyra to join them sometimes. Kyra is also getting bullied for being bigger than most other 13-year-olds. Kyra is a great cook and finds solace cooking at home and helping her mom out with her cleaning jobs until her mom starts acting strange, and Kyra begins to suspect that she's fallen off the sober wagon. How can Kyra stay afloat when her world seems to be crumbling?

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Review | The Season of Styx Malone

Afoma Umesi — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 10:56:04 +0000

When Caleb and his older brother meet a 16-year-old wise-cracking, smart-mouthed Styx Malone in their small town, they are enthralled with the young man and begin to look up to him. Even when Styx's actions are questionable including lying, swindling, and petty theft, verging on illegal, Caleb and Bobby Gene continue to follow him, much to their parents' concerns. As their summer adventure to raise enough money to buy a fancy motorcycle takes a turn, all three boys are surprised by how much they come to care for each other.

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Review | Orphan Eleven

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:04:49 +0000

Four orphans, Lucy, Nico, Eugene, and (Not-Bald) Doris, are four orphans who decide to escape from The Home for Unfriendly Children, their awful orphanage in the 1930s. Their poorly planned escape plan leads them to become circus apprentices. But Lucy has selective mutism, being able to speak but never speaking since some incidents with the home’s matron, which makes it hard to get a job in the circus. With the home's matron hunting down Lucy, Lucy's sister searching for her, and Lucy desperately trying to find her voice again so she can belong in the circus, this book takes readers on a surprising but heartwarming adventure.

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Review | Unstuck

Afoma Umesi — Fri, 31 May 2024 07:15:08 +0000

Lyla is an overlooked second child with a big sister who seems perfect -- smart, beautiful, favored by her parents, and socially adept. In contrast, Lyla has one best friend from whom she's been separated, thanks to zoning laws. She now goes to Whitfield while her best friend Rania attends Dickinson, another middle school in the area. But now Rania is making new friends on her track team, two of whom Gracie and Maeve have a history of bullying other kids like Journey, a quirky girl who befriends Lyla at Whitfield. Although Lyla loves to write, she struggles with anxiety and writer's block because she wants to impress her writing teacher and win a contest. With all the pressure, despite having a brilliant fantasy story idea, Lyla is stuck with writers' block. As she navigates admitting to the problem, writing for the joy of writing (not awards, or impressing people), she also begins to build a new friend network, including Journey, Noah, and Stella (a classmate she didn't like at first).

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Review | Averil Offline

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 22 May 2024 12:38:24 +0000

Averil's mom and several parents of kids in her school and neighborhood use an app called Ruby Slippers to track their kids' location, request video and photos from them on demand, and generally monitor their behavior and actions all day and Averil and Max, another classmate, are sick of it. Especially when they find out that the app will be updated soon to let parents remotely turn on their kids' cameras at will. Both kids make a plot to ditch a camping trip and spend the weekend hunting down the original app developer, Rider Wollybeck, in hopes of asking him to rescind the update.

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Review | Slugfest

Afoma Umesi — Wed, 15 May 2024 18:57:16 +0000

Star athlete Yash is shocked to discover that he won't be able to graduate middle school because he missed most of his PE classes while playing for the high school team. There he meets Jesse, Sarah, Stewart, Arabella, Cleo, and Kaden who are also re-doing PE for different reasons. When these seven (very different) middle schoolers are forced to share space in summer school for failing PE, they experience a mindset-altering summer and find unexpected friendships and team spirit.

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