New realistic middle grade books! 2024
And the hits just keep coming! Boy, have I read some great books lately! Here are two of my favorites.
The first one is "Max in the House of Spies" by Adam Gidwitz. I haven't read all of Gidwitz's works, but I loved "The Inquisitors" so I was excited to see this one come up in my Netgalley feed. It did NOT disappoint. It's about Max, an 11 year old living with his parents in Berlin in 1939. The family is trying to figure out how to cope with the limitations on their lives that the Nazis are putting in place. After Kristallnacht, Max's parents insist that he go on the Kindertransport to London. He doesn't want to leave his parents, but they don't give him a choice, so he goes. As he's traveling on the ship, he finds he's picked up two immortal beings, Stein and Berg (who sound a bit like tiny vaudevillians) that are now sitting on his shoulders, simultaneously trying to throw him under the bus and help him get through all this. He ends up with a very kind and rich Jewish family in London but Max still really wants to go home. At school, he finds that things are much the same as they were back in Berlin, the kids are bullies and the teachers are not much better. But Max is really smart and has some very interesting and creative problem solving strategies for the bullies in his life. And he REALLY wants to get back home to his parents. It also turns out that the family he's living with has connections to the military and so Max devises a plan to become a spy. This is a super entertaining story with some very strong connections to real people and events from World War 2. The story is well researched and the characters are interesting and well developed. There are big themes of loyalty and family and persistence. There are parts that are laugh out loud funny and parts that made me cry. It's hard to picture what else you could ask for in a book. I think the kids are going to love this one. I know I did.
Here's the cover:
And here's a lesson plan I wrote on TPT for this book.
The second one also made me laugh out loud AND cry. It's called "Simon Sort of Says" by Erin Bow. It's about Simon, who's family is moving from Omaha to a VERY small town called Grin and Bear It, Nebraska. Simon explains (in hilarious detail) why they're moving-his dad was a liturgical deacon at a big Catholic church when they had a blessing for animals that went badly awry (and then viral on social media). The town where they are moving is a hub for scientists who are gathering data using radio telescopes so there is no internet access, no TV signals, no cell phones and no microwaves. Except that the author keeps dropping hints that maybe there's another reason that Simon and his family moved to such a small town. But for the first half of the book, Simon is just trying to figure out this small town and maybe make friends. He finds two-Agate, a girl who comes from a very big family and Kevin, who's mom wants him to be a scientist and have lots of choices. They are excellent allies for him, and Agate gives Simon a puppy to socialize-they raise guide dogs and the puppies need to be raised in loving homes. Agate also comes up with an idea for a school project about communicating with aliens that is brilliant and hilarious. There are parts of the story that are actually painful to read and parts where I had to put the book down because I was laughing so hard. The characters are well developed and are people I would like to be friends with (especially Agate's mom and Simon's mom). There are big themes of social media's influence in our lives, people trying (and failing) to be kind, friendship, and dealing with post traumatic stress. This is a book that lots of kids (and the adults around them) are going to want to read.
Here's the cover
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