Middle grade fiction

The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs by Cylin Busby

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by Alfred A. Knopf 

Summary: Narrator Jacob is the runt of his litter, born to seafaring wonder cat Mrs. Tibbs, a champion ratter who also can predict when a storm is coming. All his brothers and sisters find homes on other ships, but Jacob stays behind with his mother.  He’s devoted to Captain Natick, but not so fond of Archer, the new first mate, who’s the son of the shipping company’s owner and doesn’t have a clue about sailing.  On the first day out, Archer persuades the captain to ignore Mrs. Tibbs’ warning of bad weather.  Disaster follows, setting in motion a chain of events that eventually results in accusations of mutiny, and several sailors, including Jacob, being cast adrift.  It’s one adventure after another in this tale of life on the high seas in a nineteenth-century sailing vessel.  272 pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  From storms to mutiny to shipwreck, the action never stops.  Jacob is an endearing narrator.  This would make an engaging classroom read-aloud.

Cons:  Beloved characters die.

 

The Pages Between Us by Lindsey Leavitt and Robin Mellom

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Published by Harper

 

Summary:  Best friends Olivia and Piper are disappointed to discover they have only one sixth grade class together.  To keep each other updated, and to avoid the detection of passing notes, they create a notebook in which they write to each other, then hand it off between classes.  They’re perfectly happy with their friendship until Piper’s  mother offers to give her a birthday party (a rare event for the third of five children), and she realizes she needs to make some more friends.  The two girls start sampling the after-school clubs.  Some are a lot more fun than expected, some a total disaster.  Each girl finds her niche, and there is some friction when they turn out to be different niches.  Drama threatens on the day of the big party, but all is resolved, and true friendship wins the day.  288 pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  A sweet story of friendship, told in an enjoyable style, mostly through the notebook letters, but also with some texts, flyers, and other memorabilia.

Cons:  Not a lot of action, and the girls’ voices at times sound like middle-aged women trying to write like 11-year-olds.

Study Hall of Justice (Secret Hero Society series) by Derek Fridolfs, illustrated by Dustin Nguyen

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Published by Scholastic 

Summary:  Young Bruce Wayne is looking forward to starting school at the prestigious Ducard Academy, but right from the first day, everyone seems incredibly mean, even the teachers.  He does manage to befriend two kids who are having similar struggles, a boy named Clark Kent and a girl named Diana Prince.  Together, they try to investigate the dark secrets of their new school and who is behind them.  The story is told through comics, letters, journal entries, school forms, and texts.  With the school mystery solved by the end, Bruce’s mention of an upcoming camp visit hints at a sequel.  176  pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  Reluctant readers will flock to this book about the young Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  The variety of formats (graphic novel, letters, texts, etc.) makes it an interesting and fast-paced read.

Cons:  The story was a little more complex than I was expecting, and the different types of text could make it a bit confusing.

Can You Survive an Alien Invasion: An Interactive Doomsday Adventure by Blake Hoena

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Capstone Press 

Summary: You’re out in a field looking at Saturn through your telescope when suddenly you spot a UFO. If you decide to investigate, turn to page 12.  Running away? Page 16.  There are 28 choices and 12 different endings in this You Choose adventure.  All the endings are some form of impending doom (I ended up in the aliens’ food pen) or becoming a soldier in the human army fighting off the aliens.  The last few pages look at the possibility of life in outer space; also included are a glossary, sources of additional information, a survival kit checklist, and top 10 survival tips for an alien invasion.  112 pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  Recommend this to reluctant readers.  If they enjoy it, they may want to move on to the rest of the series, which includes surviving a zombie apocalypse, a virus outbreak, and a global blackout.

Cons:  Each library bound edition retails for a ridiculous $31.32.

Friday Barnes, Girl Detective by R. A. Spratt, illustrated by Phil Gosier

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Published by Roaring Brook Press 

Summary:  Friday’s parents are busy scientists, so she’s been on her own for most of her childhood.  A curious and intelligent child, she’s taught herself more in eleven years than most people learn in a lifetime.  After she cracks a bank robbery case, she decides to use the reward money to pay for a year at the exclusive Highcrest Academy.  Her plans to blend in fail miserably, and she soon finds herself in demand as a private investigator, solving everything from missing homework to the identity of the big hairy monster in the swamp behind the school.  The book ends with her unexpected arrest; readers will have to wait until the sequel comes out in August to learn what that’s all about.  272 pages; grades 4-6.

Pros:  This Australian import features offbeat humor, a quirky but spunky protagonist, and a colorful cast of supporting characters, illuminated with plenty of cartoon-type illustrations.  I’m not always a big fan of “quirky”, but this was done in a way that kept me chuckling until the end.

Cons:  This might not work for a mystery book report, as it is a series of small mysteries rather than one big one.

Pax by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen

~ Janet Dawson ~ 4 Comments

 Published by Balzer + Bray 

Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ErVnRt40I

Summary: When Peter’s father goes to war, Peter is sent to live with his grandfather. His father says that Peter’s pet fox, Pax, must be returned to the wild.  We see this happening from Pax’s point of view, and the story of what happens after that is told in chapters that alternate between Peter’s and Pax’s stories.  Peter realizes he has done a terrible thing, and runs away to try to rescue Pax.  A few days out, he breaks a bone in his foot, and is taken in by Vona, a woman whose own war experiences left her so scarred, both physically and emotionally, that she has withdrawn from the human race.  Meanwhile, Pax meets up with some foxes in the woods, and slowly, still desperately hoping for Peter’s return, starts to make a life for himself in the wild.  While Peter and Pax are on their journeys, the war is slowly encroaching into both of their lives, leading up to a climactic finale.  288 pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  This beautifully written and illustrated story will undoubtedly be a 2016 awards contender.  Filled with love, hope, friendship, and healing, Pax is a book to savor and discuss.

Cons:  This sometimes felt a bit too much like a Book With A Message (see somewhat self-congratulatory book trailer).  A little infusion of humor wouldn’t have made the story any less powerful.

The Cat Who Came In Off the Roof by Annie M. G. Schmidt, translated by David Colmer

~ Janet Dawson ~ 1 Comment

Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers 

Summary:  Tibbles is feeling down after being scolded by his newspaper editor for his inability to write about anything but cats.  He’s distracted by his worries when he comes across a young woman who’s been chased up a tree by a dog.  After rescuing her, Tibbles invites her back to his house, where she proceeds to purr, rub her head on his shoulder, and finally settle down to sleep in a cardboard box lined with newspaper.  It comes as little surprise to learn that Miss Minou began life as a cat, and an unfortunate accident has turned her into a human.  She can still talk with cats, thought, and their little town has plenty of those, each one a source of news from the humans they live with.  When Miss Minou starts sharing her stories with Mr. Tibbles, his newspaper career takes off; that is, until he writes an article accusing the wealthiest man in town of some pretty dastardly deeds, witnessed only by cats.  No one believes his story, and his career is once again in jeopardy.  Meanwhile, Miss Minou has a one-time-only chance to return to her feline form.  Will the cats of the town be able to give this unlikely couple a happily-ever-after ending?  160 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros:  This charming story is a classic in the Netherlands, where the original, entitled Minoes, has been loved by children since 1970.  With a quirky but lovable cast of both feline and human characters, this would make a great read-aloud for kids from the primary grades on up.

Cons:  The wealthy villain bore an unfortunate resemblance to a certain billionaire presidential candidate.

Soar by Joan Bauer

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Published by Viking Books for Young Readers

Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2meh6h7BaE

 

Summary:  Jeremiah has been through more than his share of difficulties, starting when he was abandoned by his mother at the age of nine months and continuing through a series of heart problems that ultimately resulted in a transplant.  Lucky for him, his mother left him in an office building where he was discovered by nerdy but loving Walter, who adopted him and has been by his side ever since.  Jeremiah’s greatest love is baseball, but his heart hasn’t gotten healthy enough for him to play.  When Walter and Jeremiah move to Hillcrest, Ohio, they look forward to cheering on the town’s championship baseball team.  Within days of their arrival, though, scandal has swept through the town, shutting down the team.  When Jeremiah discovers a few kids at his middle school who still love to play, he gets the idea to become their coach.  Step by inching step, the kids work together to build a middle school team and to repair the damage done to Hillcrest.  With Jeremiah leading them on, the Hillcrest Eagles prove there’s more than one way to have a winning team, and that talent isn’t nearly as important as heart.  304 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  “You’re weird…but I like you,” says one of Jeremiah’s teammates, perfectly capturing Jeremiah’s voice as he narrates this story.  Quirky, humorous, and refusing to be kept down, Jeremiah gives the people of Hillcrest and the readers of Soar plenty to cheer about.

Cons:  Occasionally Jeremiah seems a bit unbelievably wise and mature for a sixth-grader.

 

American Ace by Marilyn Nelson

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Published by Dial Books 

Summary: When Connor’s grandmother Lucia dies, she leaves a letter for his father, revealing that Connor’s grandfather wasn’t the Italian man his father grew up with; instead, he was an American pilot who was in Italy during World War II. Connor’s father was raised in a tight-knit Italian family, and the news is devastating to him at first.  Along with the letter, Lucia left a school ring that belonged to the pilot.  Connor uses the ring to research his grandfather.  Eventually, he learns that this man was African American, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.  Just as the mystery is about to be solved, Dad has a stroke and is hospitalized.  Connor helps him heal, both physically and emotionally, by learning and sharing more and more of the courageous history of the Airmen.  117 pages; grades 7-10.

Pros:  In an author’s note, Marilyn Nelson writes how she wanted to tell the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, and eventually had the idea to write a book in which the main character gradually learns their history.  She achieves this brilliantly in just 45 poems told in Connor’s voice.  The history is fascinating, and so is the story of this family who must rethink their entire identity in the light of revelations about their cultural heritage.

Cons:  The structure of Part 7, in which Connor tells his father the story of the Tuskegee Airmen while his dad is convalescing in the hospital, is a little bit confusing.

The Big Dark by Rodman Philbrick

~ Janet Dawson ~ Leave a comment

Published by The Blue Sky Press 

Summary: Charlie Cobb is enjoying an unusual display of the northern lights with the other townspeople of Harmony, New Hampshire, when a massive solar flare knocks out the power. Not even batteries work, so all vehicles and cell phones are gone.  The town has to come together to try to survive the cold and dark.  In the midst of the chaos, Charlie realizes his mom is almost out of her diabetes medication, and if he can’t find more, she may not survive.  Determined to save her, he sets off on a cross-country skiing trip to find a city that may have the prescription they need.  As the people of New Hampshire move into survival mode, their true colors start to be revealed, and a show-down between good and evil seems inevitable.  The final page describes solar flares in history and their potential for damage in the future. 192 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  Charlie is a likable and resourceful character.  The suspense builds from the first few pages, with almost every chapter ending in a cliff-hanger.  Even reluctant readers will find this hard to put down.

Cons:  The villain, living on a well-armed compound complete with camouflage-clad sons and their subservient wives, seemed a bit out there.  Even for New Hampshire.