Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Review: Not Lucille by Mike Steele

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Not Lucille by Mike Steele

Not Lucille
Mike Steele
Creative James Media
Published June 24, 2025

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About Not Lucille

It’s 1931, and children should be seen and not heard.

Ten-year-old Lucy Contento can’t help but be seen and heard. And she’s always in trouble for it. She talks too much. She’s impulsive. She writes with the wrong hand. Her parents would be mad enough knowing she routinely earns afterschool detentions. They’d be furious if they found out she’s been sneaking onto the campus of the nearby Trenton Academy for the Deaf. But there, Lucy has met Florence, a lonely and profoundly deaf girl … Continue reading →

Review: Threat of the Spider by Michael P. Spradlin

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Threat of the Spider by Michael Spradlin

Threat of the Spider (The Web of the Spider #2)
Michael P. Spradlin
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published June 24, 2025

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About Threat of the Spider

A twelve-year-old boy searches for his father and fights for free press amid the chilling rise of Hitler’s Germany in this second book in the action-packed middle grade series Web of the Spider for fans of I Survived and A Night Divided.

Ansel has never been afraid to say what’s on his mind. He’s always the first among his friends to speak up when something doesn’t feel right. When the Hitler Youth first set … Continue reading →

Review: Greenwild: The Forest in the Sky by Pari Thomson

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Grenwild: The Forest in the Sky by Pari Thomson

Greenwild: The Forest in the Sky (Greenwild #3)
Pari Thomson
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published June 3, 2025

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About Greenwild: The Forest in the Sky

The Secret Garden meets A Wrinkle in Time in the spellbinding final book of the New York Times-bestselling Greenwild series.

Daisy and her friends may have defeated the Grim Reapers in Iffenwild, but it’s clear that the battle for the Greenwild is only just beginning…

With the support of the Iffenwilders and their mighty water magic, Daisy and her friends are finally setting off to rescue the Botanists held prisoner in the heart of the Amazon rainforest … Continue reading →

Review: You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino

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You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino

You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!
Alex Gino
Scholastic Press
Published September 25, 2018

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About You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!

Alex Gino, the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Melissa, is back with another sensitive tale based on increasingly relevant social justice issues.

Jilly thinks she’s figured out how life works. But when her sister, Emma, is born deaf, she realizes how much she still has to learn. The world is going to treat Jilly, who is white and hearing, differently from Emma, just as it will treat them both differently from their Black cousins.

A big fantasy reader, … Continue reading →

Review: Storm Singer by Sarwat Chadda

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Storm Singer by Sarwat Chadda

Storm Singer
Sarwat Chadda
Rick Riordan Presents
Published April 15, 2025

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About Storm Singer

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief meets One Thousand and One Nights in this thrilling middle grade fantasy from Rick Riordan Presents author Sarwat Chadda about a girl with the magical power to control the elements with her song.

In a land ruled by fierce winged warriors known as eagle garudas, twelve-year-old Nargis is just a poor, lowly human, a Worm who hates the garudas that killed her parents. But even though she can’t fly—and her childhood attempt left her walking with a crutch—she is far from powerless. … Continue reading →

Review: Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake

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Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake

Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea
Ashley Herring Blake
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published May 25, 2021

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About Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea

A poignant yet hopeful novel about a girl navigating grief, trauma, and friendship, from Ashley Herring Blake, the award-winning author of Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World.

Hazel Bly used to live in the perfect house with the perfect family in sunny California. But when a kayaking trip goes horribly wrong, Mum is suddenly gone forever and Hazel is left with crippling anxiety and … Continue reading →