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October has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Month. While we should always focus on the prevention of bullying, this may be a good month for readers to read books to begin conversations about bullying, and You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino is a good place to start.  Through dialogue, we hopefully can dispel some of the myths and misperception about diverse cultures and identities. Intentionally chosen literature can also serve as a catalyst for sparking conversations on complex social issues like bullying, diversity, and the effects of prejudice. An activist and advocate for LGBTQ communities since 1997, Gino uses the singular-theyRead More →

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The protagonists in Stewart Foster’s recent release, All the Things That Could Go Wrong are enemies.  Alex Jones is a germophobe with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  His specialty subject is worrying.  His classmate in Year 7, Dan Curtis is a curious young man with an active imagination who asks questions that sometimes irritate his teachers.  He’s also angry and releases his anger by bullying people like Alex who don’t seem quite normal. Alex’s days are spent wondering how much longer Dan, Sophie, and the two Georges will go on bullying him and how much longer he will have to look for places to hide.  Dan, Sophie,Read More →

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Told with a combination of texting and prose and in an African-American Vernacular English, So Done by Paula Chase is a novel about friendship and growing up in the ‘tween years. Having been a squad since fifth grade, Mo, Sheeda, Tai, and Mila are thirteen and kicking back during the summer before they enter eighth grade at Woodbury Middle School in Del Rio Bay.  Their neighborhood is called Pirates Cove, one of four low-income projects and “home to more than seven hundred people, some Latino but most Black, all of them poor by Del Rio Bay standards” (29). In the Cove, it was boss orRead More →

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Jacqueline Woodson’s recent middle-grade novel, Harbor Me imparts how story holds the power to heal because it helps us make sense of the world.  Woodson tells a tale about rising from tragedy and how tragedy not only takes away but bestows gifts. Similar to other novels that use trees as metaphors for survival and interconnected relationships—novels like Hidden Roots by Joseph Bruchac, Wishtree by Katherine Applegate, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith—Woodson’s book alludes to Ailanthus trees with their extensive root systems that help not only to ground them but to lend endurance in harsh conditions. Set in Brooklyn, the native landRead More →

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The child of first-generation Chinese immigrants to the United States, Kelly Yang writes a work of fiction, Front Desk, based on her own life so that her son could know her story and take inspiration, not fear, from the life of shame and pain and poverty and joy she experienced as a child.  Yang tells her story through Mia Tang and Jason Tao to open the eyes and fill the hearts of readers, giving them empathy for people from all backgrounds and walks of life and arousing in them the courage needed to stand up to injustice when they see it. Jason’s dad, Mr. YaoRead More →

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After their mother’s death, fifth grader Piper Meyer is focused on taking care of her father and monitoring his diet for healthy choices, while her sister, seventh grader Megan Meyer, is simply trying to survive junior high school in a new location.  Since their recent move from Colorado to Scottsdale, Arizona, Megan, whose passion is math equations and science, is hoping to transform from meek to chic. With this clean slate opportunity, Megan would rather be known as Miss Impressive or the Fun Meister than Miss Science Fair or the girl with minimal boobage who snorts when she laughs. However, being popular comes more easily forRead More →

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Readers of Grandpa’s Great Escape will likely enjoy David Walliams’  recent release, The Midnight Gang, also illustrated by Tony Ross.  Presented with opening credits, a set illustration, a cast of characters, and a teaser, the book begins like a feature film with twelve-year-old Tom Charper taking the spotlight as the story’s protagonist.  Walliams welcomes readers to the children’s ward on the 44th floor of Lord Funt’s Hospital, where the children’s parents don’t visit because they are either too poor, too ill, or live too far away to travel.  Essentially abandoned and living under the control of a cruel hospital matron, the children make their own adventuresRead More →

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Just as teen readers of Lauren Myracle’s books, such as ttyl, were inspired to reflect on the bad decisions they might otherwise have made without thinking of the consequences, now tween readers will get the same opportunity by reading Lisa Greenwald’s January release, TBH, This Is SO Awkward. While this novel’s content is not as provocative as that in the Myracle series, Greenwald uses a multi-genre approach, writing her novel with memos, diary entries, texts, emails, postcards, and notes passed in class to recreate sixth grade drama. In addition to navigating math midterms, reading logs, and social groups, Victoria Melford has to endure the tortureRead More →

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More than an adventure story, The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole by Michelle Cuevas is an earth (space) science lesson as well as a grief healing journey.  Overwhelmed by the pain of loss, eleven-year-old Stella Rodriguez narrates her story to her deceased father, whose “missing you feeling” follows her everywhere.  With the Voyager 2 launch date only months away, Stella is desperate to visit with Carl Sagan who might send something into space for her on his Golden Record.  On her way home from the failed attempt, she encounters big needy eyes, “eyes that shimmered and seemed to have tiny galaxies insideRead More →