Middle grade fiction is such a terrific place to find interesting characters and challenges. These three brand new books have an amazing variety of those!
The first one is a graphic novel. It's called Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brogsol. Here's her website if you're interested. She's written and illustrated a number of books, including one of my favorite picture books "Leave Me Alone", which I found hilarious. This one is longer and more detailed and I thought it was just wonderful. It's about Jane, who lives in a place that seems like fairy tale times, in a heavily paternalistic society. Her parents don't think too much of her because she's not beautiful and when they die, she's forced out of her home by her horrible cousin. In desperation, she proposes to Peter, a handsome boy from the village. Peter isn't exactly enthusiastic and as he's storming off, a mermaid appears and takes him under the sea. A crone explains to Jane what really happened and Jane sets off to rescue Peter. This is a fun, exciting story to read. Unlike many fairy tales, where the beautiful people get beautiful things, in this one, kind and persistent, plain Jane ends up getting exactly what she hopes for, including a family who loves her for who she is. It has an interesting subplot about beauty and what it costs and what's expected of beautiful people. I think the kids are going to love this one.
The second one is also by a favorite author, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. You might remember "The War that Saved My Life" which was completely amazing. This one is also World War 2 fiction and like "The War that Saved My Life" it's from a kind of unexpected point of view. It's called "The Night War" and it's told by Miri, a German Jewish girl who's family moved to Paris in 1939, fearing the Nazis. Except now the Nazis have come to Paris. Miri has been worried that she's not very brave (the baker scares her, the the police scare her, the soldiers scare her) and now her teacher has warned her that the police or soldiers will be rounding up all the Jews and she needs to warn people. As the military is rounding up the Jews, she is separated from her parents. A neighbor that she is close to helps to plan a bit of a diversion so that Miri and the neighbor's little daughter, Nora, can escape. Nora and Miri escape, but are separated-Miri ends up in a Catholic school and Nora is placed with a family who wants to adopt her. Miri is desperate to find Nora and to leave to try to find her parents and Nora's parents, in Switzerland. But the school is surprising too-two of the nuns that are there have secrets from the Mother Superior and after an accident injures one of the nuns, Miri is asked to stand in to help, further challenging her bravery. This is an exciting and compelling read. The history around the story will be interesting enough to send some students to do research not only about the French Jews and the Resistance, but also about the castles and historical parallels. Miri is a wonderful character with so much heart. I know the kids are going to love this one too.
The third one (!!!) is also by an author I adore-Lisa Fipps. She wrote "Starfish" and her latest one is just terrific too. It's called "And Then, Boom!". It's about Joe and the story starts by explaining how he got to where he is, which is living with his grandmother in a trailer park, even though they used to have a beautiful home. But his grandfather died and Joe's mom, has trouble with commitments and just leaves periodically. Dad is not in the picture. The trailer park is actually a pretty good place to live. One of his best friends lives there as well and the owner and manager of the trailer park is one of the kindest and most generous people around. His teacher also notices some of the things that Joe is missing (like food and clothes) and tries to help out as well. But then his grandmother gets sick. When things get critical, the people from the hospital contact Joe's mom and she comes back, but the issues she has have not changed. When his grandmother dies and his mom disappears, Joe has to figure things out on his own. This is a hard story to read. I'd like to think that things like this don't happen, but I'm sure they do and I can only hope that I could be the kind, supportive person that notices things and helps in a non-embarrassing sort of way. Joe is an amazing character and the people that surround him are too. The book is a quick read because it's written in free verse and that's going to make it super accessible to kids and people who think Joe's story should be told in a loud voice (like me). The social issues that are touched in here (homelessness, incarceration, abandonment, social services, family and found families) are big and middle grade kids are going to love reading about them and hopefully coming up with ideas to help. Don't miss it!
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