Surprising characters in middle grade fiction
I'm polishing off the last of the turkey AND the last of my CYBILS list. Although every time I think I'm really done I get another a box, so maybe I'm not as done as I think I am! The first one I read that really surprised me was called "Boy Bites Bug" by Rebecca Petruck. It's about Will, who lives in a small town in Minnesota. His community doesn't have many immigrants so he's been with the same group of friends since he was in kindergarten until a new boy named Eloy moves in. Eloy's family is from Mexico and his family runs a Mexican restaurant in town that has been wildly popular. Will is offended when his old friend Darryl uses a racial slur towards Eloy and on a dare, eats a stinkbug which gains him a surprising notoriety in his middle school. Will decides to use that notoriety to make Darryl feel bad about his use of the racial slur in a science project that he does with Eloy about eating bugs. Except that Will often offends Eloy wit...