CYBILS Middle Grade Fiction 2022

 I'm so excited that I was chosen to be a first round panelist for CYBILS again!  This year, I'm doing middle grade fiction (instead of speculative fiction like last year).  It's so awesome to get to read realistic fiction with all the cultural issues that are typically a part of middle grade fiction.  I've read a few so far, and these are two of my new favorites.  

The first one is by Amy Sarig King, you might know her work- The Year We Fell from Space and Me and Marvin Gardens.  She has a terrific voice, but wait until you read this one-It's called Attack of the Black Rectangles.  It's about Mac who is navigating his final year of elementary school with his two best friends, Marci and Denis.  He lives with his mom and his grandfather.  His dad does not live at their house, but he comes over every week for dinner and to work on an old car in the garage.  His new teacher writes a column for the newspaper that supports conservative values and causes and recently laws have been passed imposing curfews and banning junk food.  Mac hits a wall with this during their first novel study-They are reading The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen and the teacher constantly reminds them not to read ahead (this is a pet peeve of mine) but it turns out, someone has blacked out some of the words in the book.  Mac has really connected to the story and finds it odd that the horrible images that Yolen created could have words that needed to be blacked out, so he goes to a used bookstore in town and finds a copy of the book that hasn't been blacked out and finds that the words that have been blacked out are related to women's breasts.  Marci and Denis are equally (or maybe even more) appalled and they decide to go to the principal, who tries to sweep their concerns under the rug.  The kids decide to stage a protest at the local bookstore and finds that people of the community are supportive of their cause.  At the same time, Mac's dad has a bit of a breakdown and that complicates things and there's romance in the air!  Mac is a super likeable and empathetic character.  The connection he has with grandfather is just terrific and there is a wonderful thread about grace and meditation that runs through the book that adds a lovely dimension to the story.  This is a terrific, complicated, amazing story.   Am I gushing?  Probably.   I LOVED this book.  It's too big for my elementary library but I really hope it finds its way into LOTS of middle school and high school libraries because IT. IS. WONDERFUL.    

And here's a book trailer from the author!

The second one is historical fiction-a personal favorite!  It's always fun (to me, anyway) to find a piece of historical fiction where you find out some little kernel of history that feels brand new and this is exactly that kind of story.  It's called Freewater and it's written by Amina Luqman-Dawson.  It's told from several different points of view, but it opens with Homer as the storyteller.  Homer is about 12 years old and has been living as a slave on a plantation with his mother and younger sister, Ada.  Their mother has decided that they should run away to freedom but Homer feels strongly that they should include a girl named Anna that also lives as a slave on the plantation.  Homer's mother agrees to go back for Anna and Homer and Ada continue on toward the river, as their mother told them to.  Except their mom never comes back.  Homer and Ada are rescued by a man who is unlike anyone they've ever met before but he takes them to a community called Freewater, where a group of people (mostly runaway slaves) have been living for several years.  The group has a highly complicated society with lots of protections built in for their safety, which brings the second storyteller, Sanzi, into focus.  Sanzi has been living with her family in Freewater for her whole life and she REALLY wants to go somewhere that isn't the swamp.  We get to meet other members of the community and learn how they came to Freewater as well as find out what happened to Homer and Ada's mom (it's not good).  This story unfolds in such an exciting and interesting way that I really don't want to spoil it for you but let me tell you that the story moves quickly, has very well developed characters and an ending that is foreshadowed throughout the book, but I was surprised anyway.  I loved this idea that slaves escaped slavery to form communities in the swamp-the Seminoles of Florida have a similar story, but this was the first time I'd heard about this happening in the Dismal Swamp.  I also loved how each character had their own experiences and trauma about being slaves and how they each dealt with that trauma.  I thought this one was great and you should definitely look for it!

Here's the cover.

And here's the book trailer!