Characters dealing with challenges

I'm FINALLY getting around to reading new books again (thanks Netgalley!) and there are some terrific ones in my pile!  One of parents of a student asked me to keep an eye out for characters with challenges, so here are a couple that I found!

The first one is called "One Third Nerd" and it's written by Gennifer Choldenko.  Choldenko has written a series of books about a boy growing up on Alcatraz Island in the 1930s who has a sister with a significant unnamed disability (but is probably some form of autism).  Her new book has a child with Down's Syndrome.  However, Izzy is the baby sister and not really a main character.  She has a big brother named Liam and a big sister named Dakota.  Liam is the story teller in this book.  Liam is trying to survive middle school and is profoundly embarrassed by Dakota (who is a science loving genius, just ask her) as well as the fact that they are not exactly poor, but struggle with some money issues and they live in a basement apartment where the landlord is a cranky old man.  They also have a dog named Cupcake who has developed a problem with incontinence.  Unfortunately, the vet has recommended that they take Cupcake to the university vet center for further testing and the family can't really afford it.  The kids decide to try to raise the money themselves in a variety of ways, but it's Izzy that has the best idea which leads to a resolution (which would be a spoiler, so I'm not going to tell you!).  This is a really fun book and a quick read.  This would be a great one as a read aloud for talking about some of the fairly common social issues (splitting your time between your divorced parents, being embarrassed about your financial situation, siblings that embarrass you, friendship, loyalty, animal rights).  I think the kids are going to like this one a lot and I think even the third graders would find this one accessible.  This one comes out at the end of January, 2019.

The second one is not a brand new book but it's pretty new. It was published in September and it's been REALLY hard to get.  I heard about it on Twitter from some of my Twitter friends who all said it was great.  It came up on our list of excellent middle grade fiction during my first round of CYBILS reading.  But it wasn't in my public library, either one of them.  It wasn't in my school library.  It wasn't in Netgalley (or if it was, I didn't see it in time).  So fine.  I got a gift card to Amazon for Christmas and I ordered it.  It was totally worth the wait.  In fact, a couple of times, I put it down, because it was so good, I didn't want it to end.  It's called "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden.  It's about Zoey, a middle schooler, who lives with her mom, her two little brothers, and her little sister.  They live with her mom's boyfriend and his dad.  Things are not awesome at home.  Her mom works a lot, trying to keep peace in the house as well as make enough money to pay the rent (her boyfriend makes her pay rent and help pay for food).  Zoey ends up taking a lot of responsibility for childcare and one afternoon, when she makes a little mistake, her brother and sister end up in grave danger, and her teacher finds out.  But the teacher doesn't report her to the authorities, the teacher invites her to join the debate club.  Zoey doesn't think much of the idea at first, but gradually comes around to it.  Then she's able to use the things she's learning about debate to help her friends and help her mom.  It's really well written and Zoey's voice is so clear and so compelling, it's really hard to put this book down.  It has big themes of friendship, homelessness, poverty, post traumatic stress, gun rights, the basic needs of families, bullying, and self-confidence.  I loved this book and I can't wait to put it my students' hands.  

Here's the book trailer.