Category Archives: By Age Range

Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

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The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh

The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukranian Famine
Katherine Marsh
MacMillan
Published January 17, 2023

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About The Lost Year

From the author of Nowhere Boy – called “a resistance novel for our times” by The New York Times – comes a brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation.

But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in … Continue reading →

Review: Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long

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Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame by Meg Long

Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame
Meg Long
Wednesday Books
Published January 17, 2023

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About Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame

A girl hellbent on finding the friend she lost. A planet on the brink of total destruction. Only one way to find answers amidst the chaos: team up with a traitor to stage a revolution, in Meg Long’s Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame.

After a mission gone awry two years ago, Remy Castell has been desperately searching across worlds to find the friend she failed to save—the friend who changed her life by helping her overcome the brainwashing she was … Continue reading →

Review: The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield

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The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers
Jeremy Dronfield
Quill Tree Books
Published January 17, 2023

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About The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholster from Vienna, and his sixteen-year-old son Fritz are arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Germany. Imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, they miraculously survive the Nazis’ murderous brutality.

Then Gustav learns he is being sent to Auschwitz–and certain death.

For Fritz, letting his father go is unthinkable. Desperate to remain together, Fritz makes an incredible choice: he insists he … Continue reading →

Review: Rebel, Brave and Brutal by Shannon Dittemore

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Rebel, Brave and Brutal by Shannon Dittemore

Rebel, Brave and Brutal (Winter, White and Wicked #2)
Shannon Dittemore
Amulet Books
Published January 10, 2023

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About Rebel, Brave and Brutal

The gripping sequel to Winter, White and Wicked that boasts the thrills of Mad Max: Fury Road and the icy magic of Frozen

Sylvi Quine, the best rig driver on Layce, has braved the dangers of the Shiv Road to save her friend and learned the truth of her power over Winter. Now, she’s joined the rebels working to take down the Majority. Her magic could change the course of their fight, and she agrees to meet the king of Paradyia to offer an exchange: the healing powers … Continue reading →

Review: The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby

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The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby

The Science of Being Angry
Nicole Melleby
Algonquin Young Readers
Published May 10, 2022

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About The Science of Being Angry

Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.

After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey … Continue reading →

Review: What Happened to Rachel Riley by Claire Swinarski

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What Happened to Rachel Riley by Claire Swinarski

What Happened to Rachel Riley?
Claire Swinarski
Quill Tree Books
Published January 10, 2023

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About What Happened to Rachel Riley?

In this engrossing and inventive contemporary middle grade novel that’s Where’d You Go Bernadette? with a #MeToo message, an eighth grader uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school.

Anna Hunt may be the new girl at East Middle School, but she can already tell there’s something off about her eighth-grade class. Rachel Riley, who just last year was one of the most popular girls in school, has … Continue reading →