Published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Summary:  After Genesis’s family gets evicted from their Detroit apartment–again–her father mysteriously finds them a rental in swanky, mostly white Farmington Hills.  Genesis loves the fancy new house, but is apprehensive about going to school, where even the few kids of color are lighter skinned than she is. She is extremely self-conscious about her skin color, due to her father’s negative, often drunken, comments about her taking after him,, and this leads her to try everything from steel wool to bleach to lighten it.  Slowly, though, Genesis begins to make friends and to discover her talent and passion for music. When her family is threatened with eviction yet again, Genesis is afraid she’ll lose the opportunity to perform in her school’s talent show. But ultimately, it’s the talent show performance that finally wakes her father up to the damage he’s doing to his family and the reasons he is doing it.  While the ending isn’t neat or completely happy, it is hopeful for both Genesis and her parents. 384 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  A powerful debut novel.  As in New Kid, a sympathetic narrator shows readers what it’s like to be a person of color in a wealthy, predominantly white environment.  Any middle school reader will identify with Genesis’s struggles between wanting to fit in and being true to herself. I sailed through this in about two days, leaving a Kleenex-strewn couch in my wake.  A contender for some awards, for sure.

Cons:  The family’s sudden move from impoverished Detroit neighborhoods to upscale Farmington Hills seemed unrealistic.

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Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Summary:  Jingwen is struggling with his family’s move to Australia (a.k.a., Mars) from an unnamed Asian country where his parents both worked as bakers.  After his father’s death (yes, another 2019 middle grade novel about dealing with the loss of a family member), Jingwen’s mother decided to follow Dad’s dream to pursue a better life in Australia.  His younger brother Yanghao embraces the new language, while Jingwen resists learning it, weighted down by guilt over his perceived role in his father’s death. When he and Yanghao secretly make a cake one night while his mother works the late shift, he feels happier than he has in months, and decides he will make all the cakes his father dreamed of featuring in the bakery he wanted to open, Pie in the Sky.  Nights of secret baking and eating form the backdrop of the story as Jingwen slowly adjusts to his new home and comes to terms with his grief. 384 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  Despite Jingwen’s loneliness and grief, this story actually has a lot of humor in it.  Comic-style illustrations appear on every page, and Yanghao provides almost constant comic relief. Jingwen is able to often realized the absurdities of many of the situations he’s in, and his narration is funny in a way that tweens and young teens will appreciate.  At the same time, native English speakers will gain a deeper understanding of what life is like for ELL students, and those who are struggling with the language will feel a kinship with Jingwen.

Cons:  Jingwen received no ELL instruction, and seemed to be in a sink-or-swim situation at school.  I find it hard to believe that 21st-century Australia doesn’t do better for kids.

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Published by Little, Brown and Company

Summary:  When Sunny gets a heart transplant after many months of being sick, she resolves to start a new life: finding a new best friend and finding a boy to kiss.  The new best friend soon appears in the form of Quinn, a new girl who has traveled all over the world with her wildlife photographer mother, but is settling down on the island where Sunny has grown up.  The two girls embark on their mission to find boys, but it soon becomes clear that they are more interested in kissing each other. Both have had bad experiences around their attraction to girls, so are shy about revealing their feelings.  To further complicate Sunny’s summer, her mother has come back after giving Sunny up when she was four years old. There’s a lot going on in Sunny’s new life, and sometimes she wishes she could go back to the old one, but she gradually learns to trust her new heart and open up to the people around her.  384 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  As she did in Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, Ashley Herring Blake creates a cast of memorable characters and an engaging story that will find a place not only in LGBQT collections, but also with tweens and teens struggling with self-acceptance of all types.

Cons:  The first few chapters were a bit slow.

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Published by Simon and Schuster

Summary:  Archie Drake is looking forward to another summer at Camp Shady Brook, conning rich kids out of their money with the help of his faithful sidekick Oliver.  But when a new girl named Vivian overhears the two boys scheming, she wants in on their partnership. Thinking she’s only there for a week, Archie lets her in on a few of his secrets, but when he finds out she’s staying the whole summer, he’s had enough.  They make a bet to see who can pull off the unlikeliest con, with the loser having to give up bilking kids out of money for the rest of the summer. The only problem is, no matter how much Archie and Vivian pretend not to care, they can’t help feeling bad about the hurt feelings and ruined friendships they leave in their wake.  When one of their tricks backfires and threatens to shut down the whole camp, they realize it’s time to pool their talents and turn Camp Shady Crook around once and for all. 288 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  Fun summer reading with a story told points of view alternating between Archie and Veronica, reminiscent of Gordon Korman.

Cons:  It took me awhile to warm up to the two main characters.   

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Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Summary:  Ever since her mother and two sisters were killed in a car accident, Coyote and her father, Rodeo, have been traveling around the U.S. in an old school bus.  Rodeo declares anything that would remind them of their past a “no-go”, but when Coyote hears from her grandmother that a park near her old home is being destroyed, she is determined to go back there.  It turns out that, shortly before the accident, Coyote, her mom, and her sisters buried a memory box in the park. Coyote has to figure out a way to get Rodeo back to their hometown without revealing her motivation for doing so.  As they travel from Florida to Washington, they pick up an interesting assortment of people and animals who make the trip with them and become part of Coyote’s conspiracy to get back home. As they slowly make their way, Rodeo and Coyote have to both finally face the tragedy that befell their family and start to come to terms with their grief.  352 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  A fun cast of characters and a comedy of errors road trip make this an engaging story that also tugs on the heartstrings.  I have seen this mentioned on a few Newbery lists.

Cons:  The journey was fun, but once Coyote got back home, the search for the memory box got bogged down in some pretty mawkish sentimentality, something I though marred two other Gemeinhart books I’ve read, The Honest Truth and Good Dog.

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Published by Wendy Lamb Books

Summary:  Nova and her older sister Bridget have been in the foster care system for years.  To Nova, Bridget has been like a mother: she’s five years older, and Nova is autistic with limited verbal abilities.  As the story opens, Nova is counting down the days until the 1986 launching of the space shuttle Challenger, not only because she and Bridget are huge NASA fans, but also because Bridget is missing and has promised to watch the launch with Nova.  Nova is with a new foster family who finally seem to understand and appreciate her, and she’s placed in a sixth grade classroom where she begins to thrive.  Her story is told in chapters that alternate between third-person narration and letters that Nova writes to Bridget–they appear mostly as scribbles to others but are meaningful to her.  When Nova sees the Challenger explode on TV, she finally understands what has happened to Bridget; it’s a sad day, but one that sets her on a path of hope for the future.  Includes an author’s note with more details on the Challenger and autism, which she herself has.  240 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  Readers will gain some amazing insights into the mind of a nonverbal protagonist that may shift their assumptions about kids with autism.  There’s some depressing stuff about kids in foster care, particularly kids with special needs, but Nova’s final foster parents are nothing short of heroic.

Cons:  Another 2019 middle grade novel with themes of grief and loss.  Yay.

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Published by Random House Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Grace is a collector and a scientist.  When her grandfather takes her for a tour of an old warehouse he’s recently purchased, she’s delighted to have permission to keep any artifacts she finds inside.  On a whim, she asks if she can have the 30 boxes of buttons they find there, and her adoring grandfather ships them to her home. Fast forward a few months:  her class is studying the industrial revolution, and Grace volunteers to share some of her finds from the mill. A few bags of the buttons spark a fad, and before long her classmates are bringing in buttons of their own to trade and show off. The fad turns into a war, and Grace’s longtime friendship with Ellie becomes a casualty.  Grace’s idea to use the science of economics to stop the craze backfires, but new friend and fellow scientist Hank helps her to keep things in perspective and begin to move toward a reconciliation with Ellie. 208 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  Another engaging school story from Andrew Clements; I’m already considering this for a back-to-school fourth grade book club choice that will appeal to kids starting to move into “real” chapter books.

Cons:  Ellie seemed like such an unpleasant kid for most of the book that it was hard to understand why Grace was so anxious to preserve their friendship.

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