LIES LIKE WILDFIRE by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
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Hannah is looking forward to college and to pursuing a career in criminal justice like her father, the sheriff. But when she and her friends accidentally start a forest fire during a day trip to a California mountain lake near their home, suddenly she needs to use her knowledge of the legal system not to solve a crime but to get away with one.
Hannah wasn’t the first to lie (that was Violet) but Hannah is the one who badgers the other four to keep the lies going. She knows her father. He didn’t balk at putting her mom in prison for the drunk driving accident that killed a person. Hannah and her friends have killed 3–and counting. Starting a forest fire, even accidentally, can be a felony with almost a decade of prison time. Her dad can never find out that the five of them were anywhere near the fire’s origin. But as homes are destroyed, more people die, and evidence starts to surface, lies might not be enough to keep them out of jail or save their lifelong friendship. Especially if someone breaks the pact and tells the truth…
This novel is divided into two halves, the first a disaster story, the second a straightforward thriller. The theme of loyalty vs. honesty unites both parts of the novel, but the thematic threads really serve the fast-paced plot which is the main drive, appeal, and strength of the novel. Pick this one up for a teen who loves heart-pounding thrillers with well-intentioned characters making abysmal choices.
IT ALL BEGINS WITH JELLY BEANS by Nova Weetman
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Since her dad dies, the nurse’s office has been Meg’s haven while at school. She can just sit alone, listening to the refrigerator hum and breathing into her paper bag to stave off a panic attack. Sometimes the nurse even gives her food to eat, which is good because Meg doesn’t always have breakfast. Or dinner. Or even real shoes since she outgrew her old ones and her mom hasn’t been in any condition to take her shopping for new ones. She doesn’t think anyone noticed she wears slippers to school every day until the newest 6th grade girl shows up in the nurse’s office with a bag of jelly beans.
Riley hasn’t been keeping her Type 1 Diabetes a secret really. She’s been testing during the day, just probably not as often as she should. And if the nurse calls her mom, her life will be officially over. Her mom is already insanely overprotective, never letting her do anything on her own. It’s one of the reasons she has such a hard time fitting in with her new friends. But at least she has friends, unlike Meg, the weird girl who always wears the same shirt and slippers to school. Riley doesn’t mean to give Meg the nickname “Slipper Girl.” It’s just something that slips out when she’s back in class with her popular friends. But as Riley’s friends’ bullying of Meg intensifies, Riley and Meg keep encountering each other in the nurse’s office and start to wonder if they might be kindred spirits after all.
This sweet friendship story has a beautiful blend of humor and sincerity, heartbreak and hope. The extreme opposite behaviors of the two moms allow Riley and Meg to each understand and appreciate their families more, and the way the school community (bullies excepted) supports both girls as they struggle for safety and acceptance made me smile more than a little. I highly recommend this one to middle grade fans of contemporary fiction.
AFTER/MATH by Emily Barth Isler
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Ever since her little brother died of a heart defect, there has been a line dividing Lucy’s family. Her parents are broken, grieving in different ways but both unable to talk about Theo. In fact, even their house and the town where they live is too painful for them to handle, so without even asking for Lucy’s input, they move to another state and into the former home of a dead girl.
Everyone in Lucy’s new town has lost someone. The school shooting that took place four years ago claimed the lives of many children, all of them in Lucy’s grade, one of them who used to live in Lucy’s new bedroom. Even though Lucy has experienced a loss of her own, it seems impossible to befriend these kids, whose lives are defined by a shared trauma. But when Lucy happens to sit at a lunch table with the the shooter’s younger sister, a social pariah because of her brother’s actions, she really connects with someone for the first time since Theo’s death. And when she and her new friend join an after school drama club run by their math teacher, Lucy begins to work through her feelings about Theo, her relationship with her parents, and the infinite journey of grief and love.
As a middle grade book about a school shooting, this book will be challenged (as many great books are) by adults who feel the content is inappropriate for upper-elementary and middle school students. As with any book about trauma and violence, there will be individual children who would find it unduly upsetting and won’t be ready for it. But I believe AFTER/MATH is developmentally appropriate and relevant for readers in grades 5-8–children who, like the book’s protagonist, have been getting glimpses of school shootings and gun violence in the news or through overhearing adult conversations. Although the characters bluntly share deeply disturbing (but realistic) memories of the shooting, because the novel is set years later and told through the eyes of a girl who experienced a different, less violent loss, the focus throughout the novel is not on violence but on grief, healing, and community. I would recommend this novel to mature middle grade readers, especially those in middle school.
SWITCH by A.S. King
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Time stopped on June 23, 2020. The world never stopped. The sun still rises and sets. People still wake up, go to school, come home. But the clocks and stopwatches and oven timers don’t move. Time no longer exists.
For two hours at the start of each school day, teenagers are tasked with brainstorming solutions to this problem. Tru is pretty sure she knows the cause. As with most global crises, it’s people who caused it–people who didn’t care enough about each other. Tru is an expert in the evils of humanity because she spent most of her life living with a bomb, the sister she hasn’t spoken to since she moved out. Sister left Tru’s family in tatters, her mom gone, her brother on edge, her father at the brink of insanity, turning their whole house into a series of plywood boxes, shutting off from one another and covering up the mysterious switch in the wall that no one’s allowed to touch. But just as her father spends his days pounding nails in, Tru spends her nights pulling nails out. And when Javelin throwing on the track team gives her an outlet for the incredible, almost superhuman energy that’s been building inside her, Tru realizes the solution. If a lack of human empathy cause the problem, only a swell of human emotion can break them out. And Tru is going to be the one to flip the switch.
Another stunning, powerful literary novel from A.S. King. Though the novel is slim, it is dense with poetry and heavy thematic content. This is one to savor. The sci-fi of this poetic book is unveiled symbolism for the brokenness of Tru’s family as they resist healing and connection, and I would therefore recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction and literary fiction–both teens and adults.
FORESTBORN by Elayne Audrey Becker
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Rora and her brother have been living as refugees in Telyan since they escaped the deadly forests of the Vale, and before that, the slaughter of their entire village. But although the king and his youngest son have been welcoming of the two shapeshifters, not everyone trusts them. And when the magic-hating king to the north starts threatening war against both Telyan and the magical creatures in the Vale, Rora’s position is more tenuous than ever.
When the young prince is taken ill with a deadly magical plague, Rora and her brother are as desperate as the king to find a cure–desperate enough to consider returning to the Vale. Unfortunately, the king insists they take his eldest son, Weslyn, with them. Weslyn has never appeared to like Rora, and the feeling is mutual. But on their dangerous journey, they will all need to cooperate, and when they uncover an even more dangerous secret, it will take more than just cooperation to save their friends, their home, and all of the magical beings from anihilation.
FORESTBORN is a new high fantasy in the classic tradition: a magical heroine, outcast for her powers, wrestling with her place in the world of humans while being swept up in their politics. It brought to mind Graceling, Frostblood, The Wizards of Once, The Last Magician, with hints of Oz or Wonderland in the shifting, sometimes antagonistic landscape, and of Game of Thrones, as questions of parenthood, madness, and morality arise to complicate the story. It feels timeless (I would believe that it was written in the early 2000s, the ’90s, the 80s) and yet not dated. As the protagonist and her brother are refugees, and as the king tyrant in the neighboring kingdom uses the magical people as scapegoats in his power grab, the themes will certainly resonate with modern readers. I loved every minute of this book and am looking forward to a sequel!
FAST PITCH by Nic Stone
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Shenice “Lightning” Lockwood is making history. She’s the captain of the only all-Black softball team in her Georgia youth league, and they’re on their way to the championships. She knows she’s following in the footsteps of her great-grandfather, who was very nearly one of the first Black players in Major League Baseball before an event that no one will talk about derailed his career.
But when her parents take her to visit her granduncle Jack in his assisted living home, Shenice gets the first clue as to what happened in her great-grandfather’s past. He was accused of stealing a Joe DiMaggio baseball glove, and according to Uncle Jack, he was framed. Her parents claim that Uncle Jack is just senile, but Shenice can’t help wondering if what her uncle said was true. Is it possible that a white man framed her great-grandfather, destroying his career and the family legacy? As the softball championships draw closer, Shenice can’t concentrate on her game. She needs to find out the truth–before a past full of lies and injustices prevents her from leading her own team into their trail-blazing future.
Family, friendships, and a quest for justice burn bright in this gripping middle grade novel. The humor and Shenice’s loving community keep the story fun and uplifting even as Shenice’s quest for racial justice forces her to confront the darkness and pain of racism in the past and the present. This novel has something for mystery lovers, realistic fiction lovers, and sports fans–plus plenty of thought-provoking thematic material–making it an ideal choice for classrooms and book clubs. I highly recommend this book to all middle grade and younger YA readers (grades 4-8).
WE ARE INEVITABLE by Gayle Forman
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Aaron’s family business is going extinct. No one comes into the bookstore anymore. Aaron doesn’t blame them. It’s not just that books are cheaper and easier to get online. It’s that the bookstore itself is crumbling. Shelves are literally crashing to the ground, books scattered in disorganized chaos. And the dinosaurs who run the bookstore–Aaron and his father–have been in a similar condition since a tragedy broke up their family. Aaron has been holding on as best he can, running the business and trying to keep his father sane, but it’s not enough. Their debts will bury them. Although his father won’t entertain the notion, Aaron knows their only chance is to sell to a local real estate shark, even if it means going behind his back. But when Aaron reconnects with his brother’s best friend, he is gradually swept back up into the vibrant and caring community of his small town. As hope begins to blossom around him, Aaron begins to wonder–is it possible to survive when the asteroid has already struck?
This novel is quiet in its heartbreak and loud in its hope. Aaron’s grief rings throughout all of his actions while the undercurrent of love from everyone around him lifts him up until he can see a path forward. It’s a must-read for fans of contemporary fiction, both teens and adults, and will be a wonderful pick for book clubs!
SAY IT OUT LOUD by Allison Varnes
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Charlotte hates her stutter so much that sometimes she wishes she were invisible. When a pair of bullies start picking on another kid on the bus, Charlotte can’t bring herself to stand up for him–not when it might make her the bullies’ next target. And when Charlotte’s best friend tries to stand up to the bullies and becomes a target herself, Charlotte does the unforgivable and abandons her.
Wracked by guilt, Charlotte tries to find new friendships in her musical theater class. But when the school board announces that the class will be cut next semester due to lack of funds, Charlotte won’t make the mistake of staying silent anymore. Through letters, she begins to fight for her musical theater class. And since she can’t stand up for the kids around her with her voice, she starts doing it with her pen, sending anonymous encouraging notes. As the school play draws closer, Charlottes written voice gets stronger. But will she ever find the courage to use her voice to ask for forgiveness?
This novel took me right back to middle school. The shifting, straining friendships, the bullying, trying to fit in so hard you end up pushing other people out–Varnes captures all of it perfectly. Yet SAY IT OUT LOUD does not feel angsty. The musical theater plot line and positive friendships in that class as well as Charlotte’s decision early on to start practicing empathy and encouraging others keep a constant thread of hope and inspiration running through the novel. This is a stand-out middle grade book that will be excellent for contemporary fiction readers, schools, and book clubs.
BOTH CAN BE TRUE by Jules Machias
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Ash’s mom didn’t really check before signing Ash up for a new school. I mean, it’s great that she’s supportive, and great that the new school has a Rainbow Alliance and gender neutral bathroom, but Ash isn’t really ready to talk about gender to the whole school. It’s easier to let everyone assume that Ash is a girl–maybe a tomboy–than try to explain how that identity can change from day to day. Just the existence of the gender neutral bathroom creates problems. What if Daniel saw Ash using a gender neutral bathroom? It’s kind of convenient for Ash’s male crush to think of Ash as a girl.
When Daniel rescues an elderly Pomeranian from euthanasia at the vet clinic where he volunteers, though, he turns to Ash for help. And Ash realizes that the crush is very much mutual. The only problem: Daniel has no idea of Ash’s gender identity. Will their friendship continue to blossom into something more if Ash tells Daniel the truth?
Loved this middle grade novel! The voice of both protagonists is so authentically middle grade with just the right balance of humor, sincerity, and self-doubt. A true delight to read. Highly recommend to 5-7th grade readers, especially dog lovers!
CALL ME ATHENA by Colby Cedar Smith
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Mary loves her large family and her immigrant parents, but she longs to forge her own path. Her Greek father has engaged her to an older man, and her mother insists that she and her twin sister help with the “women’s work” around the house. But Mary dreams of getting a job and someday owning her own business, like her father.
But as the Great Depression rages around them, her father’s business is floundering and as her betrothal to Dimitris moves forward, Mary begins to despair. When she discovers a packet of letters her parents wrote one another during the Great War, she opens a window into their lives in Greece and France and their blossoming love story. And when she meets a boy named Billy, she begins to hope that there might be a love story for her, too.
Beautiful poems weave the stories of three teenagers, each trying to find their way in a difficult world: Mary in 1934 and her parents in 1915. As their stories begin to intertwine, the reader sees not only the parallels in the lives of teenagers in the 1910s and 1930s (and today) but also comes to better understand the dynamics of the family–even as the family comes to better understand each other. The story has its sad moments, but what ultimately shines through is love, hope, and determination. A riveting story that will delight YA fans of novels in verse and/or historical fiction.
Susan the Librarian 