Social issues in middle grade fiction
Social issues and building empathy have been hot button topics in middle grade fiction. The current way of thinking about this is windows and mirrors. Some books show us people who are like us and some show us people we never really thought about before. Reading some of both kinds of books is important for kids, so I'm happy to share some new ones with you! The first one is called A Fish Out of Water by Joanne Levy. It's about 12 year old Fishel who is living with his mom, his stepdad and his baby sister. Fish is getting ready to celebrate is bar mitzvah and he needs to do a kind of community service project. His friends have ideas and would like Fish to do the project with them, but Fish really wants to think up his own project. He gets a great idea from his grandmother. He wants to knit socks and give them to people who need them. His grandmother says that boys don't knit. His stepdad agrees and encourages him to take w...