Published by Scholastic

Summary:  Basketball is Sarah’s passion, and she’s concerned when she finds herself slowing down and missing shots.  When her coach tells her that it may have to do with the ways her body is changing as she goes through puberty, Sarah decides to severely restrict her eating to reverse those changes.  She’s supported in this decision at home, where her petite mother lives mostly on cookies and candy, has strict rules about food, and often forgets to grocery shop or make meals.  Food takes on new importance when the boy she has a crush on asks her to be his partner in the upcoming Chef Junior competition.  When Sarah collapses at a basketball game, her best friend confronts her and opens up a way for Sarah to finally get some help. Includes a note from the author telling of her own struggles with food and eating. 272 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  Alyson Gerber addresses a real-world problem that many elementary and middle school kids are dealing with as she did in Braced and Focused.  Like Starfish, this book does a great job showing the crazy messages about eating that abound in our society and creates a memorable narrator whose strength and resilience help her to navigate them.

Cons:  The speed with which Sarah’s parents were ready to make major changes after just a single session with the school counselor seemed a little overly optimistic.

Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Leah usually loves her summer visits to her aunt and uncle’s house in Chicago.  But this year is different: her younger cousin T.J. has been traumatized by a shooting at his school and has stopped talking.  Leah is determined to help him, but is at a loss as to how to do it until one night she sees T.J. sneaking out of the house and follows him.  He goes to a neighborhood laundromat, where she hears him talking and laughing with Michelle, the owner’s daughter who’s about her age.  Eventually, Leah and her new friend Vicki join them, and the four create a world called The Land of Lost Things, using items people have left behind at the laundromat.  When Leah films their creations and puts it on YouTube, their new world suddenly goes viral.  Unexpectedly, with a series of stops and starts, The Land of Lost Things proves to be the key to unlocking T.J.’s secret about what happened the day of the shooting and to help him to move forward with his healing.  304 pages; grades 4-7. 

Pros:  It can’t be easy to write about a school shooting for an elementary audience, but J. S. Puller has found a way to talk about T.J.’s trauma without going into too many details about what actually happened that day.  This is a book that could open up discussions on a wide range of topics, told by a narrator whom many readers will relate to.

Cons:  I thought there was going to be some big reveal about Michelle’s younger brother who lately spends all his time in his room playing video games, but I was disappointed. 

Published by Quill Tree Books

Summary:  Ash is starting at a new school after a bullying incident over their gender.  Daniel is tired of hiding the fact that he feels things deeply and cries easily.  The two of them bond over their shared love of a dog that Daniel is secretly trying to rescue.  When they meet, Ash is dressing and acting more like a girl, and a budding romance soon develops.  But, as has happened before, Ash begins to feel more like a boy, and has to decide how much to reveal to Daniel.  Both have to learn to stand up to parents and other kids who have certain expectations for them, and to learn that, even though each of them possesses seemingly contradictory parts of their personalities, both can be true.  368 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  Ash and Daniel are two well-developed characters with the daunting tasks of taking on gender norms and toxic masculinity in middle school.  Readers will be rooting for both of them as they gradually come to accept who they are and learn to speak up for what they need from those around them.  Their unconventional romance (which remains somewhat ambiguous to the end) is sweet and based on true friendship and caring about one another.

Cons:  The men, especially the dads, were pretty terrible throughout the book.  Daniel’s dad gets a bit of redemption at the end, and Ash’s mom is able to explain some of her dad’s clueless behavior, but it would have been nice to have some more nuanced portrayals.