Realistic middle grade - summer 2021
It's been lovely having time to read over the last few weeks. Not working is awesome. I will, of course, be happy to go back to work, but having time away is pretty terrific too. And happily, I've been on something of a tear with really great books. Here are two realistic ones you should totally look for. The first one is called Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year by Nina Hamza. It's her debut novel and I hope there are more coming, because this one was great! It's about Ahmed, who's family is moving from Hawaii (where he's lived all his life) to Minnesota (his dad's home town). The family (mom, dad, little sister Sara, and Ahmed) because his dad has a debilitating (and potentially fatal) liver disease and he can get a hopefully life saving treatment in Minnesota. It turns out that Ahmed's dad left Minnesota as a young man, partially because his younger brother died of the same liver disease that Ahmed's dad has. He died as a young man so A...