What's new? Middle grade fiction!

 I feel like yesterday was Christmas and I blinked and here it is the middle of March.  I could explain that I've been busy (I'm pretty sure I have) but maybe I should just tell you about some of the amazing middle grade fiction I've been reading!

The first one is called Izzy at the End of the World by K. A. Reynolds.  It's about Izzy who lives with her little sister and her grandparents.  Izzy is on the autism spectrum and she's learned some great coping strategies, including using her very good dog, Akka, to help.  Izzy is coping with grief from the loss of her mother as well as surviving middle school.  She's been having weird dreams, so when one day she sees some strange lights and the rest of humanity disappears, she is determined to get her family back.  She takes Akka and starts on a journey of self discovery and alien battling.  She meets Raven along the way, who seems to be the only other person alive and has understanding of some of Izzy's issues, as well as having some of his own.  Together, the find a way to help each other.  This story is very fast paced and left me a little breathless at times, just trying to keep up!  It's exciting and nostalgic and modern all at the same time.  It's a wonderful story and I think the middle grade kids are going to love it.

Check out this awesome cover!

This second one is realistic fiction.  It's called Not an Easy Win by Chrystal Giles.  The main character Lawerence has moved from the big city of Charlotte, NC to small town Larenville, to live with his grandmother, along with his little sister Nikko.  Lawerence's mom has been struggling to find work so moving in with Granny seemed like a good idea.  But it's hard-Granny isn't delighted to see them, in fact, a lot of times she seems really annoyed that they are there.  Lawerence would rather have take out than a lot of the food that Grandma cooks and the kids at Lawerence's new school are really not very nice to him.  His dad is in jail and that's a thing he usually likes to keep to himself. When he gets into one fight too many, he's expelled from school and in looking for something to keep him out of the house all day, he ends up at the local Rec Center, helping out.  He makes some friends (and finds a tough guy) and learns that chess is a difficult but beautiful game, with lessons both on the board and in his life.  This is a wonderful story about finding your place and listening to the stories of others to help understand their actions as well as your own.  I think the kids are going to love this one too.

You can listen to Chrystal read the first chapter here!