Gr. 4-8  ***Starred Review*** Beloved Mrs. Herrera’s sixth-grade class at Milton Falls Middle School is a lively one of 20 students, but since sixth grade is when strange things happen with friendships and other relationships, everyone seems a little bit dazed and confused. Adding to the weirdness is new girl Ellie, who keeps to herself and constantly writes in a notebook as if she’s psychoanalyzing everyone. And then there’s Sam, who supposedly moved away but keeps showing up at odd […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers

****Starred Review*** Gr. 6-9  For 14-year-old bird enthusiast Max Howarth, life is a challenge not only because he has family issues but also because he’s  anorexic. He thinks about food 16 hours a day, and despite all the knowledge he has about his illness, its grip grows increasingly tighter. His journal—addressed to “Ana,” whose voice taunts him at every turn—is filled with his most intimate feelings about himself and the people and events in his life. Max’s journal entries alternate with […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers

Gr. 5-8  Having to go to school over break stinks, but circumstantial evidence surrounding vandalism brings six unhappy seventh-graders together for a justice circle facilitated by a favorite teacher. Like The Breakfast Club, each student carries a label by which they are automatically judged (the nerd, the princess, the jock, the weirdo, the screw-up), and this experimental gathering seeks to discover not only who destroyed Theo’s photographs but why. [Read More]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers

***Starred Review*** Gr. 4-7  Okinawa native Hideki is 13 when American forces storm his Pacific island during WWII, and he and his classmates are pressed into service by the Japanese army. They are given two grenades and told one is to kill the American “monsters” and the other is to kill oneself afterward. Ray, 18, is a Marine enlistee fresh from a farm in Nebraska and about to enter his first battle. Both boys share the fear of the unknown, […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers

Gr. 4-7  Seventh-grader Zoey doesn’t think she’s as good as other kids at school who have nice things. She also doesn’t have the inclination to do homework because she’s too busy taking care of her siblings—Bryce (four), Aurora (three), and baby Hector—all offspring of different fathers. They and their mother live in a trailer with Mom’s fussy bully of a boyfriend, Lenny, and his cantankerous father. When Zoey’s social-studies teacher makes her join the school debate club … [Read More]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers