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

Gr. 4-7 Best friends Mylo Affinito and Dibs Butte, 11, live in dusty Corona, New Mexico, and are obsessed with Superman and Martian comic books. When a flying saucer crash lands on a nearby farm in Roswell on July 4, 1947, Mylo claims he hears someone asking for help. Armed with a Buck Rogers atomic disintegrator pistol, a Kix cereal atomic bomb ring, a Cracker Jack superhero membership card, and an American flag, Mylo, Dibs, and their friends (including Mylo’s […]

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

Gr. 4-7  Near the end of seventh grade, Sophia is assigned to a group project about solar eclipses with DJ (a quiet artist) and Luke (a known delinquent). When Sophia and DJ discover they were born on the same day as the last solar eclipse, they also realize they’ve both been experiencing inexplicable memories. For Sophia, these are vivid recollections of her mother, whose death precludes them from being possible. [Read More]

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

Gr. 4-7  Jason D. Riazi gets the shock of his life when his mother reveals the story of how she came to America from Afghanistan, and how she once was legal but now is undocumented. Soon after, Jason witnesses what he fears most: men with badges taking his mother away. Not knowing what will happen next, he takes the train to New York City to find his mother’s friend, “Auntie” Seema. [Read More]

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

Gr. 4-7 Brodie is a good dog, and not even death deters him from making sure his boy is safe from the Monster, Aiden’s abusive father. Against the advice of other dogs waiting to go to the Forever place, Brodie takes the risk and, with his affable new friend Tuck, returns to earth as a spirit. As words and memories begin to filter through his mind, Brodie gains an understanding of what happened to him and why Aiden meant so […]

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