by Phyllis | Dec 9, 2020 | Book reviews
Twelve-year-old Ellie finds her middle-class family thrust by the Great Depression into foraging for existence in the woods on Echo Mountain, far removed from their former lives in town. In this book published in 2020 and written by Lauren Wolk, Ellie finds she loves...
by Phyllis | Nov 4, 2020 | Book reviews
Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan is a novel that pairs the points of view of two fifth grade boys, Ravi, a recent immigrant from India, and Joe, a local guy. Both have to deal with the same bully. The book alternates chapters between the two points...
by Phyllis | Oct 13, 2020 | Book reviews
Chirp by Kate Messner, published in 2020, tells the tale of Mia, a twelve year old former gymnast who’s just moved from Boston to Vermont. Her family moved there to support her grandmother, whose unpredictability makes everyone wonder what’s going to happen next....
by Phyllis | Oct 7, 2020 | Book reviews
Kate Messner’s Ranger in Time series features a rescue dog, Ranger, who who magically is called to other times and places to help save people. In this tale, Soldiers and Spies, Ranger helps a young black soldier in the Continental Army of George Washington....
by Phyllis | Sep 2, 2020 | Book reviews
Georges, that’s with a silent s, moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, another twelve-year-old who starts a spy club for the two of them. They’re spying on a bird nest, on people in the building lobby (through the videocam), on people...
by Phyllis | Aug 5, 2020 | Book reviews
Bryan Davis, author of thirty successful young adult books, wrote this middle-grade tale and published it last year. It’s a delightful comic book story of heroes and villains told as a novel, with plenty of gadget references that remind me of Batman....
by Phyllis | Jul 1, 2020 | Book reviews
Jason Reynolds’ award-winning middle-grade novel Ghost tells the story of a boy who joins a track team. But he’s not just any boy; he’s one who, three years ago,ran for his life from his father. He’s the one whose mother, struggling to work and...
by Phyllis | Apr 1, 2020 | Book reviews, Middle-grade voice example
Middle-grade voice involves a (usually) sassy or joking twelve-year-old who’s finding himself or herself in a pickle and agonizing about it in a very funny way. It’s unique to middle grade books, as far as I can tell. I’ve talked about it before, and...
by Phyllis | Mar 12, 2020 | Book reviews
Rob Currie’s debut middle grade novel, Hunger Winter, tells a suspenseful tale of brave kids in World-War-II Holland. After a neighbor bangs on their door late at night, Dirk must grab his six-year-old sister and flee from the Nazi secret police into the Dutch...
