Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Review: On the Block: Stories of Home edited by Ellen Oh

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On the Block: Stories of Home edited by Ellen Oh

On the Block: Stories of Home
Edited by Ellen Oh
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published October 22, 2024

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About On the Block: Stories of Home

From We Need Diverse Books comes a heart-warming middle-grade anthology that follows the loosely interconnected lives of multigenerational immigrant families inhabiting the Entrada apartment building. Edited by Ellen Oh, a founding member of WNDB.”The beauty of their shared home does not come from any single person, but instead from the sum of their experiences” -Meg Medina, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

12 Families. 12 Cultures. 1 Building.Welcome to the Entrada, home to these everyday Americans, includingthe new kid on the block, who is both homesick and curiousa Popsicle-bridge builder, a ghost hunter, and a lion dancer their families, friends, and neighbors from all around the world!

Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this uplifting anthology features award-winning authors Tracey Baptiste, David Bowles, Adrianna Cuevas, Sayantani DasGupta, Debbi Michiko Florence, Adam Gidwitz, Erin Entrada Kelly, Minh Lê, Ellen Oh, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Andrea Wang, and Jasmine Warga.

These inspiring stories celebrate family, friendship, culture, and American immigrant life today.

My Review

I love how cleverly this story collection is put together. Each story is identified by the apartment number where the main character lives (or the story takes place… sometimes it’s a grandparents’ apartment) rather than a traditional title. The stories intersect and reference characters appearing in other stories, but each one could be read independently.

It was interesting reading the book and thinking about the location of each apartment in the building. I think it would have been really cool to have a table of contents or a kind of map that organized the stories visually, so that readers could note where each one takes place in relation to the others. A map of the overall building and surrounding area would have been fun, too. Maybe someone will make one online (or has already!).

Several of the stories center on immigrant families sharing traditional celebrations, food, and forming connections across cultural lines. The underlying message about community and neighborliness repeats in each story, sometimes subtly and other times more overtly.

As someone who grew up in a suburban neighborhood, I’m always fascinated with stories about apartment life. I imagine the same is true for other kids who grew up in similar ways.

Ellen Oh, CEO of We Need Diverse Books, edited the collection which features some well-known middle grade authors, and many that I’ve been meaning to read. The only author featured in the collection that I had read before is David Bowles. I will definitely read more by several of these authors.

I also own an e-book version of another collection edited by Ellen Oh, Flying Lessons and Other Stories, so I’m excited to read that now as well.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a middle school student with a crush on someone.

Spiritual Content
One character lights incense and prays to their ancestors.

Violent Content
Reference to a child dying of pneumonia. (Happens off-scene.)

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

MMGM Review: Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid

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Just Lizzie
Karen Wilfrid
Clarion Books
Published November 14, 2023

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About Just Lizzie

A 2024 LAMBDA AWARD FINALIST

In this beautifully written contemporary middle grade debut, an eighth grader’s study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy. For readers of Alex Gino and Ashley Herring Blake.

“There’s the part of me that doesn’t understand kissing or cuteness or attraction, and then there’s the part of me that feels so lonely. How do I make sense of those two parts? Maybe I’ll never make sense of them.”

What do you do when there’s a question inside you that feels so big, you don’t know how to put words to it? How do you even begin to ask it?

Fourteen-year-old Lizzie is experiencing a lot of change: Her family had to move after the incident with their neighbor, leaving behind not only her beloved apple tree but what feels like her childhood along with it. Lizzie’s brother is too busy for her in his first semester of college, and her friends are more interested in dating than dolls. It’s hard not to feel left behind, especially as she tries to explain the fact that she still has zero interest in boys, girls, or the baffling behavior known as “flirting.”

But just as Lizzie’s world feels like it’s closing in, a class lesson on asexual reproduction in plants piques her curiosity, leading her to look up whether people can be asexual too—and suddenly her world opens up. Lizzie finally finds an identity, a word for all her messy, unnamable feelings that feels like it fits, although she quickly realizes that a label isn’t enough if no one believes it’s real.

Accessible, moving, and compassionate, Just Lizzie effortlessly braids a nuanced individual journey of identity with the bittersweet angst of growing up, growing apart, and learning there are many ways to live and love.

My Review

I have zero surprise that this book was nominated for awards.

This is one of those books that has so much going on in it, but it’s paced so perfectly that the story never feels cluttered or too busy. It never feels like a thread is dropped only to awkwardly reappear later.

At the start of the story, Lizzie is in the midst of a lot of changes. Her family recently moved from a house she loved because of an incident with a neighbor. This incident left Lizzie and her mom traumatized. Lizzie’s best friend has also just started dating a boy from school. Dating and attraction don’t make sense to Lizzie, so she struggles to respond to her friend’s relationship troubles and questions about who she likes.

One really cool part of the book is that Lizzie takes a self-defense class on Saturdays. In the class, she learns about fight, flight, and freeze responses. Learning to defend herself makes her feel more empowered. She also builds surprising connections with a couple of mentors through the class.

Adults in Lizzie’s life don’t always respond to her in the ways she expects. She faces disappointments, but she also has experiences where adults she thought would brush her off take time to see her. I loved that.

I don’t think I went into this book expecting it to be a favorite, but this is a story I’m going to hold onto for a long time. Just Lizzie perfectly captures that middle school experience where so many changes happen so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. I loved the ace representation. It’s an incredible book, and I hope that a lot more people discover and read it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very rarely.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to kissing and feelings of attraction. Boys show each other diagrams of the human body from their science textbooks, giggling and trying to make people uncomfortable. Vague references to making out or touching. (Nothing is described in the scene.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A neighbor pushed Lizzie’s front door open after being asked to leave, scaring Lizzie and injuring her mom. Lizzie takes a self-defense class and practices defensive maneuvers. A boy at school repeatedly kicks Lizzie’s chair and, at one point, shoves her.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle.

Review: The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner

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The Trouble with Heroes
Kate Messner
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published April 29, 2025

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About The Trouble with Heroes

Bestselling and award-winning author Kate Messner takes readers on a heart-filling journey as a boy finds his path to healing.

One summer.
46 mountain peaks.
A second chance to make things right.

Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn’s about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines . . . until now.

Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he’s in big trouble for kicking down some dead old lady’s headstone. But it turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer…climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks with her dead mother’s dog, and they can call it even.

In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn begins to find his way on the trails. At the top of each peak, he can see for miles and slowly begins to understand more about himself and his dad. But the mountains don’t care about any of that, and as the clock ticks down to September, they have more surprises in store. Finn’s final summit challenge may be more than even a hero can face.

My Review

This story is mostly told in verse with a few letters and articles mixed in. At first, Finn writes poems as part of an English assignment for school. The early poems are written unwillingly, so some of the things he writes are funny from the perspective of watching a kid try to weasel out of doing work. But as he keeps writing, he begins to appreciate poetry as a vehicle to process his thoughts and experiences.

The same is true of his hiking experience. At first, he’s only participating unwillingly. He knows his mom can’t afford to replace the headstone he broke, and this is an alternative way that he can apologize for his behavior and make it right. As he spends more time outdoors, he starts noticing more of the natural world around him and even forms connections with his hiking mentors.

That leads him to process his grief over losing his dad during COVID-19. As the story unfolds, he also learns about connections between his hiking life and his dad’s experiences. I loved some of those connections. One in particular really hits deep, so grab some tissues as you get to the end of the book.

I have enjoyed every book by Kate Messner that I’ve ever read, so it isn’t a huge surprise that I loved this one. I think this is the first novel in verse that I’ve read by her, and I think she did a fabulous job with it.

If you’re looking for a nature-centered book about hiking or a story about a kid who’s made some bad choices and has a chance to turn things around, you’ll want to check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Finn kicked over a headstone in a graveyard and broke it. References to September 11th. References to an injured person carried by a firefighter. The story includes brief memories of the COVID-19 pandemic. References to an animal attack. References to the death of a parent.

Drug Content
Finn’s dad struggled with alcohol addiction.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: City Spies by James Ponti

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , , ,

City Spies (City Spies #1)
James Ponti
Aladdin
Published March 10, 2020

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About City Spies

Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI6 agency.

Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.

Before she knows what she’s doing, Sarah is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain…all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.

No one said saving the world was easy…

My Review

I’m waaay behind on the City Spies series, but I keep hearing people talk about it, so I wanted to give it a try. I have books five and six on my shelf, so I would love to catch up enough to read them.

The first novel that I read by James Ponti is The Sherlock Society, which I had a ton of fun reading. The tone of that one is different than City Spies, which makes sense, since one is a mystery and the other is a spy thriller. I think personally, I prefer the more low-key, Florida-based mystery vibe in The Sherlock Society, but I still found a lot to like about City Spies.

City Spies rotates through several points of view. It starts out with Sarah’s perspective and then introduces Paris’s point-of-view and that of the mentor they call “Mother.” We also see some scenes from the perspective of a girl no longer on the City Spies team. This allows us to get some backstory on how the team formed and what’s truly at stake. It also created a really nice setup for a sweet moment between Sarah and Mother at the end.

The book perfectly set up the series. It leaves tons of room for future adventures for the team who operate under the names of the cities they were recruited from. I love that little snippet of geography and the fact that future books take the team to different places. I’m interested to read more.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Someone threatens others with a biological weapon.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.

Review: Dragon Spear by Jessica Day George

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Dragon Spear
Jessica Day George
Bloomsbury
Published May 12, 2009

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About Dragon Spear

The third and final installment in New York Times bestselling author Jessica Day George’s dragon fantasy series races to a dramatic finale.

As far as Creel is concerned, all is finally right with the world. For the first time in centuries it seems dragons and humans might be able to live together in peace. So what better time for Creel and Luka to plan their wedding.

But then the dragon queen, Velika, is kidnapped by a band of rogue dragons in need of a ruler. When Creel and Luka rush to help, they discover that Luka’s father has plans to take back the Far Islands from the dragons. Creel’s happily ever after just might be postponed . . . again.

My Review

Oof. Okay. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, though there are some moments, even in that first one, that I think would benefit from an update. I liked the second book as well, so I decided I would finish the trilogy. (I’m tracking my series reading now, and trying to finish a series when I can.) It didn’t take long before I realized Dragon Spear was going to be a really hard book for me to review due to the problematic content. (See below.)

Each book in the series broadens the world the author has built by exploring other nations and places within it. Each new place has different values and a unique relationship with the dragons who live there. I like the idea of continuing to explore different regions within the world. I wish the story had taken different directions from some of the ones it did take. (See my notes in the representation section below.)

One thing I was interested in seeing the story explore more is the matriarchy of the dragons. In the first book, Creel learns the dragons are led by a queen, and in the second, Queen Velika returns to her people to lead them. In this book, the Creel’s dragons encounter a group of other dragons who enslave humans and make other claims about the matriarchy.

For most of the book, Shardas, the dragon king, leads the dragons, making decisions and forging alliances. Some of the time, Velika is unavailable to make those choices, so it’s clear Shardas stands in her place. But at other times, even though the queen is available, she seems to sit back while the male dragons argue about what to do. It’s possible that I didn’t clearly understand the roles of the queen versus king in the series. I did find myself wishing that the matriarchal rule had been more deeply explored since it would have greatly contrasted the world in which Creel and her other human friends live.

Conclusion

This book wasn’t my favorite in the series, and I think some content would be better removed or revised. In the story, we do get a satisfying conclusion for Creel and Shardas, which is nice. I saw another review in which someone suggested that the author could have included the high notes of this third book as an epilogue in the second book, and I think that’s an interesting idea.

While the writing in the book feels very suited to middle grade readers, some of the content and characters ages make it better suited to older readers. Creel is nearly an adult herself, and busy planning her wedding, for example.

All in all, I’m not sure this is a book I would recommend. I am glad I finished Creel’s journey. Dragon Slippers, the first book in the series, was a lot of fun. It tells a complete story that I think readers could treat as a standalone.

Content Notes for Dragon Spear

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Problematic Content
Creel encounters people described as being primitive and tribal. At first, she believes they have darker skin with white tattoos. She learns the white markings are their actual skin tone, which they preserve by covering the skin with leather pieces while they sleep in the sun. To try to fool the group into believing she is one of them, she darkens her skin. I think this was supposed to come across like a spying disguise, but I couldn’t help thinking that it sounded an awful lot like blackface. The representation of the dragon-enslaved people Creel meets is also problematic and depends on some harmful tropes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A wedding.

Spiritual Content
Creel and the dragon characters discuss the history and lore of the dragons, including practices dating back to the first queen.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Enemies capture Creel and her allies and hold them by force. A group of dragons enslaves humans, forcing them to do their bidding.

Drug Content
Enemy dragons drug Velika to keep her sedated while imprisoned.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Joy to the World by Kai Shappley and Lu Bunker

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Joy to the World
Kai Shappley and Lu Bunker (writing at the time as Lisa Bunker)
Publisher
Published May 9, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Joy to the World

A young Dumplin’ meets Melissa in this joyful and energetic middle grade novel about a twelve-year-old girl living her life to the fullest, celebrating her love for sports and fighting for her right to cheer.

Joy, a twelve-year-old trans girl, just moved to Texas with her mother and older brother. Her family has accepted Joy as the girl she is early in her transition, with little fuss, leaving Joy to explore her love of sports, competition, teamwork, school spirit, and worship. But when she is told she’s off the cheerleading team, Joy wants to fight for her right to cheer.

As her battle with the school board picks up momentum, Joy attracts support from kids all around the country . . . she even gets the attention of her hero, trans activist Kai Shappley. Inspired by Kai’s own life, Joy, to the World is a timely story of living life to the fullest, celebrating and centering trans joy, courage, and resilience. 

My Review

I picked up this book because I want to read more fiction by and about transgender characters, especially trans girls. What I found here, though, is such a beautiful story about a family and community coming together to celebrate cheerleading and validate a young girl’s existence.

I imagine there are still a lot of places in which people don’t meet transgender kids. It’s not a super common thing, and some, like Joy, choose to live in stealth and not advertise their identities, for very understandable reasons. Books like this one offer readers a chance to read about the experience that a trans girl and her family might have. Joy is a sweet, friendly girl who loves cheerleading and enjoys spending time with her friends.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of Joy’s family unit. Her mom takes time to think things through, but she remains supportive of Joy and cares about her feelings. Joy’s older brother, Will, doesn’t always see eye to eye with her, and sometimes takes the opportunity to tease her in the way older brothers do. But when push comes to shove, he supports her and offers helpful insights into how Joy can speak up for herself.

Though in the story, Joy experiences hate and ignorance, the narrative remains positive and often very gentle. Joy relates a positive experience with her faith. She also loves cheerleading. These things challenge the tendency that we have to reduce people to one part of their identity.

This book is an essential narrative about the experience of growing up transgender. I highly recommend it for readers looking for a positive, uplifting story about living authentically, celebrating your interests, and building community.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Joy is a Christian and attends a LGBTQIA+ affirming church. She references finding comfort in her faith and closes each of her journal entries with a brief prayer asking God to bless others around her.

Violent Content
The book contains some transphobic comments, though these are often summarized or referenced rather than outright stated. Joy is misgendered a few times. She experiences hateful comments from people online. One person uses emojis to suggest that they would shoot a transgender child.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.