A new category in middle grade fiction

 I LOVE reading for the CYBILS award.  The list of books we read is virtually the entire catalog of everything that's been printed in the year of the award so I end up digging deep into one category of books, this year, it's middle grade fiction.  A lot of social issues appear in middle grade fiction-these are books written for kids in upper elementary and middle school and those kids are trying to figure out a lot.  Often times books like these end up offering pathways for kids they didn't even know they wanted.  So imagine my surprise today (literally, I read these two books today) that two of the books are centered around kids who want to see themselves or people like themselves in the Civil War.  Yep, the American Civil War, the one that was fought over states rights or slavery?  That ended in 1865?  That one.   I KNOW.  And they're BOTH terrific.

The first one is called The Secret Battle of Evan Pao.  It's written by Wendy Wan-Long Shang.  Evan and his mom and his sister, Celeste are moving from California to Virginia to be closer to his uncle (their mom's brother) because Evan's dad has disappeared.  Evan has a bit of a 6th sense about when people are lying and he is appalled that he never picked up on the fact that their dad was lying to them about SO MANY THINGS.  Evan and Celeste make friends in their new town but they are surprised at the racism they encounter.  When Evan's teacher suggests that Evan be a scribe during an annual Civil War reenactment,  Evan wonders if there were other people who looked like him that served in the Civil War.  It turns out there were and Evan wins respect from many of his classmates and his teacher, except for one boy who seems to step up the bullying.  Evan and the other kids find their own way of dealing with the bully but it turns out the bully has his own story to tell as well.  This was a wonderful story with really interesting, well developed characters.  The idea that American history was only about white people is profound and should get lots of kids (and hopefully grownups) thinking about how we should be telling the stories of America.  BUT THIS IS NOT THE ONLY BOOK LIKE THIS ON OUR LIST.    I know!  Keep reading!

And here's the book trailer!

The second one is called The Civil War of Amos Abernathy.  It was written by Michael Leali.  It's about  Amos Abernathy, a middle school student and historical re enactor in a living history museum in his small Illinois hometown.  His mother is the curator there and his best friend, Chloe is also volunteers there, demonstrating games and different activities around the museum.  Amos is also gay and since he came out when he was in fourth grade, this isn't really big news.  The story bounces around in time-not really historical time but over the course of a few months-Amos writes a series of letters to a historical figure named Albert D. J. Cashiers, that are like diary entries that help tell the story.  One part of the story is a Civil War Battle re-enactment, where Amos plays a drummer boy, who ends up picking up a gun to fight after some of the other soldiers are killed.  But in doing research about the Civil War Era, Amos wonders if there were gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people that served in the Civil War.    There is also a terrific story line about Amos's best friend, Chloe, who wants to become a blacksmith, even though women (especially black women) don't typically do that.  There is another storyline about the stories that DO get told in museums and why (oh boy, that would definitely open up some lines of conversation!) because Amos and Chloe propose a new exhibit about LGBTQ people in history but the exhibit that gets funded is about shoes.  There is also a lovely romantic storyline that will ring true with lots of people.  I loved this one too!  I loved that there was the background about the Civil War but it really got me thinking about the books that I have in my school library about different time periods and how most of them still revolve around straight, white people.  At the end of the day, I think that's one of the best parts about reading books like these, they make you think about things in different ways.  I suppose that's part of what makes them so wonderful.