Category Archives: Middle Grade 8-12

Review: Not if I Can Help It by Carolyn Mackler

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,
Not If I Can Help It by Carolyn Mackler

Not If I Can Help It
Carolyn Mackler
Scholastic Press
July 30, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Not If I Can Help It

Willa likes certain things to be certain ways. Her socks have to be soft . . . and definitely can’t have irritating tags on the inside. She loves the crunch of popcorn and nachos . . . but is grossed out by the crunch of a baby carrot. And slimy foods? Those are the worst.

Willa can manage all these things — but there are some things she can’t deal with, like her father’s big news. He’s been keeping a big secret from her . . . that he’s been dating the mom of Willa’s best friend Ruby. Willa does NOT like the idea of them being together. And she does NOT like the idea of combining families. And she does NOT like the idea of her best friend becoming her sister overnight. Will she go along with all of these changes? NOT if she can help it!

My Review

Just when I needed a spunky heroine in my life, I found Willa in NOT IF I CAN HELP IT. She has fierce opinions and specific ideas about how she wants things to go. Some of these things are related to her Sensory Processing Disorder, like her needs for clothes to fit a certain way and feel a certain way, but others are simply her own personal preference, like where she wants to go to school next year, and who her dad happens to be dating.

After her dad and her best friend Ruby’s mom announce that they’re dating, Willa realizes she and Ruby aren’t on the same page about it. This begins a big challenge to their relationship and a challenge to Willa’s way of looking at things. She begins to learn that situations and relationships don’t a;ways look the same from other people’s points of view.

For me, that process is precisely what makes this book amazing. Willa navigates that tug-of-war between her own preferences and needs and those of the other important people in her life, mainly her dad and her best friend. She remains a fierce person, fiercely committed to her way of thinking, but also fiercely committed to the people she loves, which makes her all the more lovable and amazing.

NOT IF I CAN HELP IT makes a great read for kids navigating transitions to blended families in their own lives or helping them develop empathy and understanding for the transition in the lives of people close to them. It’s also a great pick for encouraging understanding and empathy toward children with sensory issues. I highly recommend it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 up.

Representation
Willa has Sensory Processing Disorder. Another character battles anxiety. Willa’s best friend, Ruby in Indian-American. One minor character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of NOT IF I CAN HELP IT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

The Dark Lord Clementine
Sarah Jean Horwitz
Algonquin Young Readers
Published October 1, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Dark Lord Clementine

The new face of big evil is a little . . . small.

Dastardly deeds aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when one hears the name “Clementine,” but as the sole heir of the infamous Dark Lord Elithor, twelve-year-old Clementine Morcerous has been groomed since birth to be the best (worst?) Evil Overlord she can be. But everything changes the day the Dark Lord Elithor is cursed by a mysterious rival.

Now, Clementine must not only search for a way to break the curse, but also take on the full responsibilities of the Dark Lord. As Clementine forms her first friendships, discovers more about her own magic than she ever dared to explore, and is called upon to break her father’s code of good and evil, she starts to question the very life she’s been fighting for. What if the Dark Lord Clementine doesn’t want to be dark after all?

My Review

What a cute book! The story world is quirky and adorable, and the writing is fun but with a lot of emotion packed into it. I giggled through some scenes and had teary eyes in others. It was so easy to identify with Clementine’s wish to do the right thing while also battling her loneliness and her longing to find her own place in life.

The relationships pulled me into the story, too. Clementine gets to know a village boy and a traveling hunter, and through them gains something she’s never experienced before: friendship. She also learns to trust herself and to view her dad in a different way– to see his flaws and love him anyway, but also to challenge him where she believes he’s wrong.

It reminded me a little bit of THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON, though it’s a little less dark than that one is. I think fans of that story would definitely enjoy THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE, though.

If you’re a fan of fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, you really want to check out THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Not much character description other than Clementine’s color-changing hair. 🙂

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some clear attraction between Clementine and a village boy.

Spiritual Content
Use of spells and magic. Mythical creatures like satyrs and unicorns.

Violent Content
A few descriptions of battle, nothing gory.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE in exchange for my honest review.

Review and Blog Tour: Naked Mole Rat Saves the World by Karen Rivers

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , , ,

Naked Mole Rat Saves the World
Karen Rivers
Algonquin Young Readers
Available October 15, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Naked Mole Rat Saves the World

Can Kit’s super-weird superpower save her world?

Kit-with-a-small-k is navigating middle school with a really big, really strange secret: When she’s stressed, she turns into a naked mole rat.

It first happened after kit watched her best friend, Clem, fall and get hurt during an acrobatic performance on TV. Since then, the transformations keep happening—whether kit wants them to or not. Kit can’t tell Clem about it, because after the fall, Clem just hasn’t been herself. She’s sad and mad and gloomy, and keeping a secret of her own: the real reason she fell.

A year after the accident, kit and Clem still haven’t figured out how to deal with all the ways they have transformed—both inside and out. When their secrets come between them, the best friends get into a big fight. Somehow, kit has to save the day, but she doesn’t believe she can be that kind of hero. Turning into a naked mole rat isn’t really a superpower. Or is it? 

My Review

Okay, so you’re probably thinking this book sounds weird. And it is a bit weird. But oh. My. Gosh. It’s layered. And complex. The characters face incredibly challenging things and have these really complicated, very believable (okay except for the changing into a naked mole rat part!) responses to those situations. I love both kit and Clem. Their friendship felt so real. So did kit’s troubling relationship with her mom.

One thing that was tough for me is that though the book has some characters dealing with mental health issues, there isn’t really anyone calling that out and offering help. Kit feels an incredible burden, but she doesn’t know where to turn and the only other adult regularly in her life encourages some enabling behavior rather than seeking help.

I know sometimes that’s really what happens. Sometimes there isn’t anyone really looking out for a person who’s barely treading water in the midst of anxiety or depression. This book made me want to find all the kids like kit and do something to help them. To provide them with better support.

Overall I totally love this book. The emotional journeys of kit and Clem gripped my heart. I love the way the friendships felt so organic and real. I love the way Clem’s grandma told awkward family stories and laughed at strange moments.

I think readers who enjoyed FLORA & ULYSSES will love NAKED MOLE RAT SAVES THE WORLD. It’s got a lot of the same kind of deep emotional wrestling and quirky departures from reality.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Clem is Latina and is depressed. Kit and her mom both have anxiety issues, and kit was born prematurely, so that she is still small for her age and has alopecia universalis, which causes her to have no hair.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Clem’s twin brother has a crush on a girl which she teases him about.

Spiritual Content
One character learns about a relative who joined a cult and died by suicide with the whole group.

Violent Content
Some description of Clem’s accident which results in serious injuries. Brief descriptions of robbery. See above.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of NAKED MOLE RAT SAVES THE WORLD in exchange for my honest review.

About Karen Rivers

I was born, grew up, and currently live in British Columbia, where I take a lot of photos, walk a lot of paths, and write books for children, teens and adults.  

The stories I tell are emotionally honest, but they aren’t about real people.   Fiction has a way of telling the truth though, don’t you think? 

I believe that readers are always asking the question, “Am I OK?”  I write characters who suspect that they are not OK, but who eventually find inside themselves the strength to change that belief. 

Growing up is harder than ever.  The world is often egregiously unfair.  Things can seem impossible.

How do we go on?

I believe in the power of stories.  I think that stories will save us.  They can show us the way.

Novels are magical.  Books can be mirrors or windows.  We sometimes need to see ourselves.  We always need to understand others. 

Stories are all secret passages to alternate worlds where we can be safe to explore the unsafe, the unsettling or the unfair hands some people have been dealt.  

In the pages of a book, we can be braver than we are, we can go further than we’d normally dare, we can understand more than we know.  

Books make us better, period.

I believe in magic.  Do you?  

Be brave.   Be kind.   And believe this:  You are OK.  

I believe in you. 

Review: The Other Better Me by Antony John

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,

The Other Better Me
Antony John
HarperCollins
Published October 1, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Other Better Me

From the critically acclaimed author of Mascot comes this heartfelt novel, perfect for fans of John David Anderson and Cammie McGovern, about a girl searching for the meaning of family.

Lola and Momma have always been a team of two. It hasn’t always been easy for Lola, being one of the only kids she knows with just one parent around. And lately she’s been feeling incomplete, like there’s a part of herself that she can’t know until she knows her dad.

But what will happen—to Lola, to Momma, to their team of two—if she finds him?

My Review

This was such an enjoyable book to read. I laughed and teared up and loved every minute of Lola’s story. The way she pieced together things happening around her, from things like brunch meaning a meal you make when you’re feeling lazy and planning to use a lot of dishes to her empathy and understanding toward a prickly classmate, made me fall totally in love with THE OTHER BETTER ME.

I love the community elements in the story. Lola feels like her family is just herself and her mom, but all the way through the book, she’s surrounded by friends and mentors. All have their own baggage or issues, but they all care for Lola and her mom, too. I love when a book creates a believable, tight-knit community like this.

Fans of WONDER by R. J. Palacio or JUST MY LUCK by Cammie McGovern will love the emphasis on kindness and community as well as the bold, upbeat writing and precocious narrator. This one is a must-read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Very little character description.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE OTHER BETTER ME in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Evie and the Upside Down World of Nevermore by Birgitte Märgen

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

Evie and the Upside Down World of Nevermore
Birgitte Märgen
Published January 4, 2019

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Evie and the Upside Down World of Nevermore

Girl, Interrupted meets Pan’s Labyrinth

A trailer park Alice. A hole that traps souls. The white rabbit’s a tricky hare. And the world is upside down. This fairy tale just got twisty . . . 

Rule One: Don’t eat or drink. Rule Two: Never, ever tell anyone your name. If ya do – your soul will be lost there forever.

How do I know? I been there myself. This is my story.

There was a full moon brimmin’ that night, and that meant strange things could happen. As I walked through the woods, I reckon I shoulda known by the way my hair stood up on end like Uncle Red’s toupee —that I shoulda coulda stayed home. I call it the willies, but grandpappy calls it premonition. One thing I can tell ya as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks: If you’re fix’n to wander way over yonder —it’s important to know the right direction.

What direction ya ask? Well, ya have to read the story to find that one out.

My Review

I like the frank, earthy voice of the narrator of EVIE AND THE UPSIDE DOWN WORLD OF NEVERMORE. Evie is sweet and empathetic, but also determined and strong.

The story itself reminded me much more of ALICE IN WONDERLAND than GIRL, INTERRUPTED. Alice is on a solo journey where she meets other characters, but doesn’t really form deep relationships with any of them. She’s the only constant character through the story, much like Evie on her journey.

The small cast kept the story pretty focused and small. I liked the focus, but it made me realize how much I look for and enjoy a lot of dialogue in the books I read. Evie’s internal narrative is often entertaining, especially where it comes to her descriptions of things, but I missed the interplay between characters that happens in a larger cast.

Overall, I had fun getting to know Evie as a character and taking the trip through the fantasy world along with her.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Evie is white and from a lower-income family.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Evie likes a boy and witnesses her friend kissing him.

Spiritual Content
Evie falls through a hole into another world in which magical creatures exist. Some seek to harm her.

Violent Content
Some scary descriptions of trees and other creatures attacking Evie or trying to capture her. No gore, but some situations of peril.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of EVIE AND THE UPSIDE DOWN WORLD OF NEVERMORE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Some Places More than Others by Renée Watson

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , , ,

Some Places More than Others
Renée Watson
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Published September 3, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Some Places More Than Others

Newbery Honor author Renée Watson explores a family’s relationships and Harlem—its history, culture, arts, and people.

All Amara wants is to visit her father’s family in Harlem. Her wish comes true when her dad decides to bring her along on a business trip. She can’t wait to finally meet her extended family and stay in the brownstone where her dad grew up. Plus, she wants to visit every landmark from the Apollo to Langston Hughes’s home.

But her family, and even the city, is not quite what Amara thought. Her dad doesn’t speak to her grandpa, and the crowded streets can be suffocating as well as inspiring. But as she learns more and more about Harlem—and her father’s history—Amara realizes how, in some ways more than others, she can connect with this other home and family.

This is a powerful story about family, the places that make us who we are, and how we find ways to connect to our history across time and distance.

My Review

Renée Watson is one of those authors on my auto-read list. I love the way she writes. I love the characters she brings to life in the pages of her books and the way she explores relationships between characters and their friends and family members. Amara really had me at hello. Her goal was clear from the very beginning of the story, but her desire to go to Harlem wasn’t an uncomplicated one.

Watching the story unfold, I found myself surprised by some of the things that happened and their significance. I like that while Amara thought the big project for her trip would be to help repair the rift between her dad and grandfather, she learned about repairing rifts between herself and other people close to her. She learned about relationships and the value of healthy confrontation.

The story made me cry for all the right reasons. I kept turning pages and reading chapter after chapter, and even days after I finished the book, I’m still smiling and thinking back on moments from the story. I love the positive messages and values about race and family in SOME PLACES MORE THAN OTHERS. It’s definitely the kind of book I’d want to see in any library or classroom. Highly recommended.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Amara and her family are black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Amara’s family prays before dinner and attends church with friends. She compares the experience of going to her friend’s church with her other church experiences.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of SOME PLACES MORE THAN OTHERS in exchange for my honest review.