Published by Bloomsbury

Summary:  Cat is excited to be traveling with her mom and younger brother Chicken to visit her best friend in Atlanta.  When there’s a sudden change in plans, Cat and Chicken end up on Gingerbread Island in North Carolina with their mother’s parents whom they’ve never met.  Grandma Lily is warm and inviting, and seems to have an intuitive understanding of Chicken’s special needs. But Grandpa Macon is distant, and Cat feels like he doesn’t want them there.  As the summer goes on, Cat makes a new friend, learns how to fish, and gradually comes to understand the estrangement between her mother and grandfather. In the same way her mom felt pushed aside by her grandfather’s dedication to his work as a surgeon, Cat often feels the weight of the responsibilities that come from her mother’s hard work and her brother’s Asperger’s.  A fishing contest at the end of their stay provides Cat with an opportunity to confront her mother about some of the issues their family needs to deal with. 304 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  This beautifully written book by first-time author Gillian McDunn makes a perfect late summer read.  The descriptions of the island and its community sound idyllic, and the various relationships are layered and complex.  The ending is satisfying without being unrealistic.

Cons:  I found Cat’s mom annoying and didn’t always fully understand her motivation for treating Cat and Macon the way she did.

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Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Augusta, a.k.a. Gus, hasn’t had much time for her younger sister Lou since middle school started.  She feels bad about it, so creates this collection for her describing 47 people she’s met since starting sixth grade.  There’s the usual middle school cast of characters: the old friend who’s grown distant, the surprising new friend, the boy who may be more than a friend, and the pack of mean girls.  Gus’s parents have recently divorced, and negotiating between their two homes sometimes adds to her stress. As she goes through the first few months of the school year, she slowly finds a new group of friends who have her back and learns to feel more confident about speaking up for herself.  304 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  Gus’s voice is pitch-perfect, and took me back to my own early middle school days, which is quite a ways back.  Fans of Dork Diaries and other tween realistic fiction will enjoy meeting Gus and the other 47 characters.

Cons:  The mean girls picked on Gus for wearing glasses, which seemed unrealistic, since it seems to me about half the kids in middle school are bespectacled these days.

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Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Summary:  When Henry Davis walks into Barbara Ann’s fifth grade class on the first day of school, she feels like she already knows him.  Before long, they’re good friends, and Henry confides to Barbara Ann that he’s been visited by a ghostly boy named Edgar who seems to live in his new house.  The two begin investigating, soon joined by two other kids in their class, Renee and Zack, and discover that Edgar died during the flu epidemic of 1918. Henry’s 102-year-old neighbor offers a few more clues, and eventually the other kids have a ghostly encounter or two with Edgar.  When Henry gets dangerously ill and ends up in the hospital, Barbara Ann fears history will repeat itself, and discovers how important Henry’s friendship has become to her. 240 pages; grades 4-6.

Pros:  A ghost story is always an easy sell; this one is also a nice friendship subplot about kids who have had trouble connecting in the past finding each other.  Edgar is a pretty benevolent ghost, but there are a few creepy moments that many scary story fans will enjoy.

Cons:  Maybe the current state of the world has made me immune to fictional horrors, but once again I found this story a lot less scary than reviewers had led me to believe it would be.

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Published by Dutton Books for Young Readers

Summary:  When a fisherman friend accidentally catches a great white shark, Lucy and Fred are among the first to go see it.  Fred is excited by anything having to do with science, and Lucy has a connection to sharks because her late mother studied them and even swam with them.  The two of them are working on a field guide about the wildlife they find in their hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts, and they plan to include information and drawings of the shark.  When tragedy strikes, though, the field guide project is put on hold, and Lucy must deal with another huge loss in her life. Fortunately she’s surrounded by community–her dad, neighbors, teachers, and friends–who each offer her a chance to heal in their own unique ways.  When Lucy gets the opportunity to help continue the shark research her mother started, she realizes it’s a chance to move forward into her new life. 384 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  The beautiful writing, memorable characters, and moving story make this award material for sure.  Kate Allen captures the feeling of summer on the Massachusetts shore, with just the right amount of nostalgia for the 1990’s.  Lucy’s drawings of different sharks grace the beginning of each chapter.

Cons:  Out of 37 non-graphic middle-grade books that I’ve read this year, ten feature a main character dealing with the loss of a parent and/or sibling.  That’s a lot, isn’t it? When I got to the Bridge to Terabithia moment of this book, I almost gave up and  chucked it into the library book drop.  I’m glad I persevered, but I wonder how many 11- and 12-year-old readers will.

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Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  It’s bad enough that Caitlyn’s mom has decided to move to Vermont right before Caitlyn starts seventh grade.  But when Caitlyn starts school at Mitchell, she finds she’s part of a group called The Originals, the first kids to go through the tiny community school that opened eight years ago.  Caitlyn’s arrival in seventh grade isn’t the only big news–class clown Paulie Fink has mysteriously disappeared. Caitlyn hates the school at first, and can’t believe there are no lockers, that she has to sit with a kindergartener at lunch, and that her class is in charge of looking after a bunch of goats.  When her classmates decide to create a reality show to find out who the next Paulie Fink will be, Caitlyn reluctantly takes on the role of leader, creating challenges to find out who can take Paulie’s place. When budget troubles threaten to close the school, she is surprised at how much she wants to keep it open.  Interspersed with interviews, emails, and texts, Caitlyn’s narrative shows how she grows and changes throughout the first months at her new school. 368 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  I wasn’t a huge fan of Ali Benjamin’s The Truth About Jellyfish, so my expectations were low for this book. I was pleasantly surprised by the fun and interesting characters.  The format and the reality show idea will appeal to readers. I may have found another fifth grade book club book.

Cons:  Caitlyn comes across as a bit of a brat at the beginning of the book, but readers who persevere will learn the reasons for her behavior and see some positive changes as the story goes on.

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