They may not win awards, but I loved all of these, and have enthusiastically recommended them all year.  I couldn’t cross that last one off my list, so today you get six.

 

Posted by John David Anderson.  Published by Walden Pond Press.

The power of words to hurt and to heal is the theme of this middle school book about bullying and friendship.  Link to Amazon.

 

A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting by Joe Ballarini.  Published by Katherine Tegen Books.

What  happens when the monsters under the bed are real?  You become a reluctant superhero, and readers get an extra dose of scary fun.  Link to Amazon.

 

Superstar by Mandy Davis.  Published by Dial Books.

You know how I feel about the line, “Give this book to fans of Wonder”, but it’s impossible not to recommend that for this touching, funny story of Lester Musselbaum’s fifth grade year, learning to live with Asperger’s and navigating public school for the first time after years of homeschooling.  Link to Amazon.

 

Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan.  Published by Salaam Reads/Simon and Schuster.

Amina broadened my world a little bit; I connected with her character and learned more about Islam, Pakistan, and life as a first-generation American by reading her story.  Link to Amazon.

 

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez.  Published by Viking.

Malu was one of my two favorite narrators this year.  I loved how she consistently made mistakes and misread relationships, but still ended up staying true to herself.  Link to Amazon.

 

Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan.  Published by Dial Books.

And here’s my second favorite narrator.  Like Malu, Julia doesn’t always have a lot of confidence, but she’s funny and honest, and you can’t help rooting for her.  Link to Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Feiwel and Friends

Summary:  Adrian Lazarus often feels like an outsider in his seventh grade class.  Not only is he one of the only African American kids in a mostly white school, but he is dead.  Following a bike accident over the summer, he’s mysteriously become a zombie, and he’s not happy about it.  His nose falls off in the middle of class, and he has to drink formaldehyde smoothies to keep the decay in check.  Much to his happy surprise, he makes some new friends at the beginning of the year, including Talal a tech genius, and Gia, a girl who received mysterious powers after she was attacked by a swarm of bees.  The story takes place in the not-too-distant future, when ecological crises are raging around the world.  Many of these disasters are being caused by a couple of tycoon brothers who take a sudden interest in Adrian.  When he is kidnapped and taken to the brothers for possible experimentation, it’s up to his friends to plan his rescue and defeat the bad guys.  As Adrian overcomes one obstacle after another, he finds himself getting physically stronger as well, and a budding romance with Gia may mean a happy ending for him after all.  288 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  I was surprised by the substance to a story I expected just to be silly.  The zombie aspect was funny, but also poignant, and led to some interesting explorations about what it means to be human.  There were also some environmental messages throughout, with an acknowledgement to Bill McKibben and his ecological activism from the author at the end.

Cons:  I was a little confused on a few details, including exactly what happened at the end.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.

Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Gavin, Natalie, Trevor, Scott, and Randi are all looking forward to sixth grade with Mr. Mitchell, and are dismayed when they learn at the end of the summer that he has left, replaced with Mrs. Woods who is coming out of retirement to teach them.  Each kid is struggling with different issues, including an abusive brother (Trevor), an overly ambitious mom pushing her in gymnastics (Randi), a know-it-all attitude that’s resulted in no friends (Natalie), learning disabilities (Gavin), and immaturity and impulsivity (Scott).  They take turns telling the story of how each gradually comes to enjoy Mrs. Woods’ teaching style, only to see the best parts of sixth grade disappear to make way for standardized test preparation.  The test becomes high-stakes for each one of them for a different reason, and the stress about not doing well results in a plan to cheat.  When their perfect scores arouse suspicion, the truth comes out, but with it comes the truth about many of the other issues in the kids’ lives.  There’s a lot to resolve with both students and teachers, but the school year ends on a high note.  368 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  Fans of the author’s Mr. Terupt series will enjoy this new book told in a similar style, with five different narrators.  Many readers will find something to connect with in at least one of the main characters.

Cons:  In today’s Common Core world, a straight multiple choice standardized test seems unrealistic.

If you would like to buy this book through Amazon, click here.

 

Published by Penguin Workshop

Summary:  Lucy is excited to learn how to code in a new after-school club.  Her best friend, Anjali, is part of the theater club, and Lucy doesn’t have any coding friends.  When she gets an anonymous note written in code, she enlists some of the other girls from the club to try to help her solve the mystery.  With the help of her older brother Alex, Lucy and her three new friends create a game that eventually reveals the identity of the note writer.  By the time the mystery is solved, the four have formed a friendship and are ready to move along to book #2.  144 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  Two books about girls coding in the same week!  This one manages to sneak a few coding lessons into a book about friendship that coders and non-coders (and soon-to-be coders) will all enjoy.  Written by the creator of the Girls Who Code movement (www.girlswhocode.com) that is starting coding clubs for girls all over North America.

Cons:  Anjali seemed like an extraneous character.

If you would like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.

Published by Disney Hyperion

Summary:  Allie has worked hard at CodeGirls summer camp, developing at app called Click’d that’s designed to help people make friends.  Her final presentation is so successful that she’s invited to enter the annual Games4Good competition, where  young programmers showcase their games designed to make the world a better place.  Allie’s plan is to keep Click’d under wraps until after the competition, but her friends’ enthusiasm is so flattering that she ends up releasing it early.  Before long, much to Allie’s delight, the game goes viral, but within a few days there’s a security flaw, and one of her friend’s private texts appears on other kids’ phones.  Allie knows she has to fix the problem before the competition, but the only person who can help her is Nathan, another super coder at her school, a fellow competitor at Games4Good, and her long-time nemesis.  It’s a roller-coaster week for Allie as she navigates the highs and lows of both the tech industry and seventh grade.  304 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  A fast-paced, funny story about two smart and talented coders whose skills don’t always extend to the social world of middle school.  Good messages about friendships are subtly woven into the light, breezy plot.

Cons:  Click’d didn’t really seem like it belonged in the Games4Good contest, going up against other games that addressed homelessness and the world’s water supply.

Published by Scholastic

Summary:  Toby is hiking the Appalachian Trail from his home in Vermont to the northern end in Maine.  From the opening scene, it is evident he’s not as knowledgeable and well-prepared as he should be for such a strenuous journey, but it is equally clear that his determination comes from a need to prove himself.  As the story unfolds, the reader learns of the friendship between Lucas, the leader, and Toby, the follower, and of the bucket list they made one June with ten goals for the summer.  One of these, “Jump off the rope swing at the quarry”, led to Lucas’s death, and Toby’s guilt over this has driven him, a year later, to try to cross off the final item, “Hike the Appalachian Trail from Velvet Rocks to Katahdin”.  Along the way, he befriends two older boys; they save him from hypothermia, and Toby later saves one of their lives.  He also rescues an abused dog who teaches him the power of love. Toby’s growth as a hiker along the journey becomes a metaphor for his personal growth, as he finally learns to forgive himself and move on.  240 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  Plenty of adventure and the gradual unfolding of Toby’s and Lucas’s story will keep readers moving quickly along The Trail.

Cons:  The whole “wilderness journey as life metaphor” has been done before (hello, Gary Paulsen); but of course that doesn’t mean readers won’t be able to enjoy yet another take on it.

If you’d like to buy this book on Amazon, click here.