New realistic middle grade fiction

 There have been some amazing books that came into the world in the last month.  Here are two of my favorites!

The first one is called “Glory Be” by Jamie Sumner.  Jamie has such a gift for giving a voice to people with big hearts and quirky personalities.  You might remembers some of her other work, like “Roll On”.  This one is a new set of characters and  you are going to love it.  Glory lives with her mom and her dad and their dog Roux.  Except that Roux is missing and Glory is heartbroken.  It takes until almost the end of the book to find out really what happened and it is super fun ride.  The story is written in free verse and as usual, Sumner has a wonderful way of describing not only the setting but also helping readers to understand the depth and complexities of the feelings of the characters.  This would be a great one for teaching personal narrative, for character analysis, for foreshadowing and inferencing.  There are themes of love and family, beloved pets, quests, and questions that sometimes remain unanswered.  I loved this one and I hope you will too.

Here's Jamie talking about the book.  I just love her voice! 

and here's the cover!

The second one is called "Some of Us Are Brave” by Saadia Farqui.  It’s about three kids who are part of each other’s orbits but who are not friends, but come together during Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston.  Yasir is the first story teller.  He’s trying to make the best of his vacation time by volunteering at a local camp teaching younger kids to play soccer.  He wishes he could help his mom out by getting paid or that he was actually learning to be a better soccer player, but neither of those things is going to happen.  Then there’s Mona who is an artist and has been obsessed with drawing flooding storms.  She’s also been left in charge of her 8 year old brother while her parents go on a business trip.  And then there’s Connor, who has a reputation as a bully.  He is often insulting to immigrants (like Yasir) and often resorts to violence in conflict resolution.  Yasir is coaching Mona’s younger brother, Omar and when he meets Mona is very impressed with her art work.  Yasir is also trying to figure out how to handle Cody and be good leader at the same time because they both want to be team captain next school year.  Things come together when the storm sets in.  Families are separated for a variety of reasons but the four kids manage to find each other and work together to stay safe.  The story is as much about personal demons as physical ones and the kids learn lessons in compassion, trust, friendship, and coping with trauma.  There is also a very interesting thread of myths and folk tales about big floods covering the earth that could be a compelling rabbit hole to fall into.  I thought this was a terrific story and I think kids are going to love it too.

Here's the cover: