Social issues and building empathy have been hot button topics in middle grade fiction. The current way of thinking about this is windows and mirrors. Some books show us people who are like us and some show us people we never really thought about before. Reading some of both kinds of books is important for kids, so I'm happy to share some new ones with you!
The first one is called A Fish Out of Water by Joanne Levy. It's about 12 year old Fishel who is living with his mom, his stepdad and his baby sister. Fish is getting ready to celebrate is bar mitzvah and he needs to do a kind of community service project. His friends have ideas and would like Fish to do the project with them, but Fish really wants to think up his own project. He gets a great idea from his grandmother. He wants to knit socks and give them to people who need them. His grandmother says that boys don't knit. His stepdad agrees and encourages him to take water polo lessons at the community center. His friends all make fun of him for wanting to learn to knit, but Fish is persistent. This is a lovely story about knowing yourself and making hard choices. It also takes a big whack at gender stereotypes in a way that isn't in anyway related to romance. I liked Fish a lot and think the kids are going to like him too.
Here is the author reading chapter one.
And here is cover!
The second one is called My Life in the Fish Tank by Barbara Dee (hmmm,, maybe this post SHOULD have been about fish...). Barbara Dee also wrote another book that I really loved called "Maybe He Just Likes You" that was a terrific portrayal of gender based bullying. So I was looking forward to this one and I was NOT disappointed. This one is about 12 year old Zinnia who is a middle daughter in a big family. Zinny's family has been struggling for awhile because of her older brother Gabriel. Gabriel can be loud and funny and impulsive but he can also sleep for days and barely speak to anyone. When he goes away to college, things kind of go off the rails for him and he ends up in the hospital. When he is allowed to leave the hospital, he goes directly to a different kind of hospital because Gabriel has a mental illness. Zinny's parents tell her this is private and they shouldn't really discuss it and Zinny takes that to heart. Zinny throws herself into science and that helps, but it's hard. Her friends would like her to talk about it, her older sister is willing to talk about it with everyone and her younger brother is just trying to fit in and be cool. Zinny is a character I would like to be friends with. Her loyalty and love for her family seems boundless. Her confusion over the mixed messages that she's getting from her family is so clearly drawn it's easy to understand her feelings. This is a wonderful story to open lines of communication about all sorts of topics-respect, loyalty, shame, friendship. I can't wait to put this one in someone's hands!
I've been enjoying my spring break and since we were traveling, I had some long uninterrupted time to read (because when I'm at home, there's a lot of "Oh look! Something shiny!" going on). There are some terrific new middle grade fiction books in the pipeline. Here are two of my favorites. The first one is called "The Orphan Band of Springdale" by Anne Nesbet. It's historical fiction but it's based on the author's family stories. It's set in World War 2 and I really loved that it tells the story of what it was like growing up in America at that time, with some of the ugly prejudices that people held as well as some of the social issues that have since been resolved. Gusta's dad leaves her on a train as they were heading to Maine because Gusta's dad is a socialist and believes that workers should have rights and he is being pursued by the police. Gusta ends up at her grandmother's house, which is a kind of an orphan...
I've fallen deep in the dark heart of middle grade fantasy fiction this week and there have been many, many magical creatures! These were my two favorite ones! The first one is "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell. It's not her first book but it's the first one I've read and I thought it was great. The writing is compelling and beautiful. I fell into the book but I kept stopping so I could keep going back to it! As an example, here's the opening line: "It was a very fine day, until something tried to eat him." The story is about two kids-Mal and Christopher. Mal lives with her great aunt Leonor in a place where magical animals are commonplace. Neither of them knows what happened to her parents, but the man who brought her to Leonor left a big coat that allows Mal to fly. And then a murder shows up. Mal narrowly escapes but Lenor does not. Meanwhile, Christopher is going to spend the summer with his gra...
I'm super excited to be reading for the CYBILS again this year! I love reading all the latest speculative fiction and boy are there some great ones! Here are my two latest favorites. The first one is "Island of Wonders" written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett. It feels like an old fashioned story. The format of the book is big-like picture book sized, which is good because there are lot of illustrations. And the illustrations are just amazing-in three colors-black and blue and white, they almost feel like NC Wyeth or that Art Deco kind of traditional children's literature. But the STORY. Whoo-boy, is it great. A super creepy fairy tale kind of story and so beautifully written. It's about Milo, whose father is a ferryman, but a special kind of ferryman, HE ferries the dead to the afterlife. The islanders place a lot of trust in the ferryman, because if he doesn't do his job properly, the de...
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