Grow Up, Luchy Zapata by Alexandra Alessandri (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 256 pages, grades 4-7). Luchy’s excited to be starting middle school, joined by her two best friends, Mateo and Cami. Cami and Luchy are both Colombian American, and they’ve been friends since their moms met years before, but they’ve never gone to the same school. Middle school brings changes, though, and Cami, who spent the summer in Colombia, starts acting cool toward Luchy and Mateo. Luchy attempts to figure out what’s happening, first by making Cami a fancy scrapbook to remind her of their long friendship, and, when that doesn’t work, declaring war on Cami and her new friend Melissa. One act of revenge leads to another until Luchy finally does something that jeopardizes her place on the soccer team, something she’s worked hard for all fall. Even though Mateo and Luchy’s parents keep encouraging her to try talking to Cami, it takes a near catastrophe for the two girls to finally sit down and communicate about what’s been going on.

Gut Reaction by Kirby Larson and Quinn Wyatt (Scholastic Press, 272 pages, grades 4-7). Tess is starting eighth grade at a new middle school, where, after a bit of a rocky start, she finds some good friends. They support her dream of competing in the Jubilee Flour Junior Baker contest, something Tess knows her late father, a baker who taught her everything she knows, would also support. But Tess is experiencing increasingly debilitating stomach issues, and a painful episode at school lands her in the hospital. She’s devastated to get a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and to learn that the symptoms can only be managed, not cured. Her friends help her get back on track, and she’s able to compete in the baking contest, where an unfortunate turn of events forces Tess to have to make a difficult decision.

Both of these realistic middle school books feature engaging protagonists and realistic issues. Gut Reaction is written by a mother-daughter team who drew on their real-life experience with Crohn’s disease to write sympathetically about Tess’s symptoms, diagnosis, and gradual acceptance of her illness. Grow Up, Luchy Zapata has many elements of middle school angst: changing friendships, a possible crush, academic and athletic struggles, and embarrassing parents. There are also some issues facing second-generation American immigrants Luchy, Camila, and Mateo (who is Chilean-American). Both books used plots that felt a little timeworn: the cooking/baking prodigy who competes in some kind of contest or reality show, and the friend who goes away the summer before middle school and comes back different and trying to fit in with the cool kids.