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MMGM Review: A Year Without Home by V. T. Bidania

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A Year Without Home by V. T. Bidania

A Year Without Home
V. T. Bidania
Nancy Paulsen Books
Published January 13, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Year Without Home

A poignant middle grade novel in verse about a Hmong girl losing and finding home in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. For fans of Jasmine Warga and Veera Hiranandani.

For eleven-year-old Gao Sheng, home is the lush, humid jungles and highlands of Laos. Home is where she can roll down the grassy hill with her younger siblings after her chores, walk to school, and pick ripe peaches from her family’s trees.

But home becomes impossible to hold onto when U.S. troops pull out of the Vietnam War. The communists will be searching for any American allies, like Gao Sheng’s father, a Hmong captain in the Royal Lao Army who fought alongside the Americans against the Vietnamese. If he’s caught, he’ll be killed.

As the adults frantically make plans – contacting family, preparing a route, and bundling up their silver and gold, Gao Sheng wonders if she will ever return to her beloved Laos and what’s to become of her family now. Gao Sheng only knows that a good daughter doesn’t ask questions or complain. A good daughter doesn’t let her family down. Even though sometimes, she wishes she could be just a kid rolling down a grassy hill again.

On foot, by taxi and finally in a canoe, Gao Sheng and her family make haste from the mountains to the capitol Vientiane and across the rushing Mekong River, to finally arrive at an overcrowded refugee camp in Thailand. As a year passes at the camp, Gao Sheng discovers how to rebuild home no matter where she is and finally find her voice.

Inspired by author V.T. Bidania’s family history, A Year Without a Home illuminates the long, difficult journey that many Hmong refugees faced after the Vietnam War.

My Review

My knowledge of the Vietnam War is pretty thin, so learning about the Hmong soldiers from Laos who helped the American forces was new to me. The story includes some of what happened in Laos in and around 1975, especially for the Hmong people, such as Gao Sheng and her family.

I love that the author showed Gao Sheng’s frustration with her family role. (As the oldest daughter, her job is to take care of the younger siblings and cousins, whereas her brother is allowed more unstructured play time. Her feelings were easy to understand, and I think they’ll resonate with young readers today as well. I also thought it was cool that she learned embroidery and felt a connection to her mom and aunties through that activity. It captured that in-between feeling of adolescence, where sometimes she wanted to be a kid and other times she wanted to do things considered more adult.

At the end of the book, the author shares her personal connection to the story. Her family had an experience similar to Gao Sheng’s when she was a baby. I liked how she incorporated her family’s history into the story.

A Year Without Home reminded me a little bit of Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. I think readers who enjoy realistic fiction in verse will like this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to cultural norms. A boy wants to speak with Gao Sheng, but it isn’t proper for them to speak directly, so his cousin passes the message to her.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Gao Sheng hears rumors that people have been arrested and possibly tortured. In the refugee camp, her family hears stories of people who died in the airport bombing. Some families were robbed as they tried to escape Laos.

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: Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulsen

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,

Garlic and the Witch
Bree Paulsen
Quill Tree Books
Published September 6, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Garlic and the Witch

Bree Paulsen’s brave little protagonist, Garlic, is back in this charmingly illustrated standalone companion to Garlic and the Vampire, serving up another tale of friendship, magic, and self-discovery. Give both books to readers who fell in love with Tidesong or Witch Boy!

Garlic loves spending time with Witch Agnes, Carrot, and her new friend, the Count, who has proven to be a delightful neighbor to the village of vegetable people rather than a scary vampire. But despite Agnes’s best attempts to home-brew a vegetarian blood substitute for Count, the ingredient she needs most can only be found at the Magic Market, far from the valley.

Before she knows it, with a broomstick in hand, Garlic is nervously preparing for a journey.

But Garlic is experiencing another change too–finger by finger, she appears to be turning human. Witch Agnes assures her that this is normal for her garden magic, but Garlic isn’t so sure that she’s ready for such a big change. After all, changes are scary…and what if she doesn’t want to be human after all?

My Review

It’s been a while since I read Garlic and the Vampire, but I loved the sweet setting of the story and the way that it explored anxiety. Paulsen brings the same tender exploration to this novel, too.

At the beginning, Garlic notices a change to her hands. She now has five fingers on each hand, where she used to have four. She worries about what this means. As she learns more, we get to see some backstory and learn how the witch brought the vegetables in her garden to life and what will happen to them next.

Garlic also continues to help her friend Count, whom familiar readers will remember from Garlic and the Vampire. The two head out on a brief adventure, offering Garlic even more new experiences. (Her favorite.)

I love the coziness of the story world and the gentle storytelling. The characters are so cute, too. Garlic has other anthropomorphized garden friends, like Carrot and Celery. There’s a little hint of romance, but it is a minor note in the overall story.

I got this book from the library last summer for my littlest to read, and she quite enjoyed it. She ended up reading it to me, which was an excellent bonus. I think fans of K. O’Neill or The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief reference to a romance between two characters.

Spiritual Content
A witch used magic to turn vegetables from her garden into veggie-people. She makes potions for other people in the village to help them with various problems.

Violent Content
Garlic gets lost in the woods and feels anxious about her problems.

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 local public library. All opinions are my own.

Review: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

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This is Not a Test: The Definitive Edition with Please Remain Calm
Courtney Summers
Inky Phoenix Press/Bindery
Published January 13, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About This is Not a Test: The Definitive Edition with Please Remain Calm

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High, but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.

To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed, and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways, and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside.

When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

My Review

This is Not a Test is one of the only Courtney Summers novels I hadn’t yet read. (The only one I still haven’t gotten to at this point is Fall for Anything.) This version includes both This is Not a Test and Please Remain Calm, a novella from the love interest’s perspective that takes place after This is Not a Test.

This book was so intense that I literally read it in one session. The threat of zombies is everpresent, but that’s not the only threat the characters face. The tension between members of the survivors Sloane hides with just keeps going up. One group blames a person for the deaths of others. The group disagrees on how to treat a new survivor discovered within the compound. Sloane herself begins the story intending to end her life, so she is a danger to herself for quite a stretch of the narrative.

Throughout the story, Sloane thinks about her missing sister and her father, who abused her. I had a theory about where that thread of the story was going, but I was wrong. I do appreciate that the author wraps up the unanswered questions there in a way that allows Sloane to move on. I also like that she finds a connection to Rhys, a boy from the group of survivors she was with in the school.

As you’d expect from a Courtney Summers novel, this story is sharp, smart, and deeply moving. I don’t even know if I blinked through some of the chapters. I didn’t want to miss a single second.

If you’re looking for a zombie story packed with social commentary and exploring the connection between sisters and girl friends, definitely do not miss this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Vague reference to someone walking in on a couple having sex. A couple starts making out, intending to have sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Mentions of and brief descriptions of domestic violence and child abuse. Suicidal ideation and a vague attempt. One scene shows a character ending their life. Several scenes show zombies attacking one another and anyone still alive. Some members of the group blame another group member for the deaths of others. One person essentially sends others into a fatal situation, hoping it allows the others to escape.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol.

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: Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Beth is Dead
Katie Bernet
Sarah Barley Books
Published January 6, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Beth is Dead

Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.

When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.

Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.

Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.

Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.

Beth’s perspective, told in flashback, unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.

My Review

This is such an interesting way to reimagine this story. I’ve read the “Jane Austen Murder Mysteries” series by Tirzah Price, which reimagines some of Austen’s novels as murder mysteries set in the time period in which the originals took place. Beth is Dead takes that idea a step further by reimagining the story in a modern setting.

The story contains many subtle and overt nods to the original, as well as some elements that seemed to reference Alcott’s real life. (I haven’t seen the author state that as an intention, so it could be a coincidence.) As events unfolded and I connected the dots from this novel to the original, I found myself nodding along or celebrating the parallel’s inventiveness.

I will admit that the modern setting and the way that some components from the original story were stretched to heighten the suspicion about potential culprits challenged me a bit as a fan of the original. For instance, Laurie and Amy hooking up while Amy was fifteen was a lot for me. Yikes.

I will say that I appreciate a lot of how Bernet modernized the March sisters. Jo, in the original, is always getting in trouble for using slang, so it’s not hard for me to imagine her swearing today or posting personal essays online and cultivating a social media following. That feels like a reasonable parallel to the kinds of short stories she published in the original novel.

I have mixed feelings about the fact that, in this book, her dad has written a novel called Little Women. It’s a novel about the girls, which has started a lot of drama. The story does interrogate whether he had any right to novelize the girls’ lives without their permission. It certainly picks apart his choice to write Beth’s (fictional) death in his novel. I think I would have preferred the novel be written by Jo rather than draw to much focus and attention to her dad’s character and whether or not he’s a good person because of this choice. It felt like it drew the story away from the sisters a lot.

Conclusion

On the whole, I am really glad I read the book. I like the clever way that the original elements reappear here. For the most part, I appreciated the modernized versions of the characters, too. I think fans of Belittled Women by Amanda Sellet will not want to miss this clever reimagining of Little Women.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to two people (a fifteen-year-old and a seventeen-year-old) who kissed, undressed, and got into bed together before stopping. Another couple makes out in a couple of scenes.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of a dead body.

Drug Content
Reference to teens drinking alcohol at a New Year’s Eve party. Several teens wake up with awful hangovers. A girl drinks alcohol at school and is suspended. She continues drinking at home, where an adult serves her another glass of wine.

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: 16 Forever by Lance Rubin

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

16 Forever
Lance Rubin
Publisher
Published January 6, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About 16 Forever

It’s the morning of Carter Cohen’s 16th birthday, and everything’s going his way.

He’s psyched and ready to get his driver’s license, his little brother’s not hogging the bathroom, and, man, something smells good for breakfast…

But when Carter bounds downstairs, Mom bursts into tears. It happened again. It’s Carter’s 16th birthday—for the sixth time. Every time he’s supposed to turn 17, he loops back a year. His memory gets wiped clean, his body ages backward—the rest of the world moves on, just not him.

Maggie Spear, on the other hand, has been dreading this day ever since she and Carter started dating. When she spies him in the halls, and he doesn’t seem to know her at all, it’s obvious that it’s over between them. She can’t be in a relationship with someone who is just going to forget her again and again. Since Carter doesn’t remember that they’re together, then it’s probably better if she just pretends that they never were.

Except Carter senses that there’s more to their story than Maggie’s letting on, and Maggie’s keeping secrets of her own—but in the process of trying to let the other go, they find themselves falling in love all over again.

With Maggie soon leaving for college and Carter’s birthday quickly coming around again, will they be able to find a forever that isn’t stuck at 16?

Filled with tender moments, silly banter, and lots of teenage angst, 16 Forever is the latest YA page-turner from New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Lance Rubin.

My Review

It’s not unusual for me to spot a twist coming before it hits the page of a book, but the reveal of the secrets in 16 Forever totally took me by surprise. I suspected one secret that a character was keeping from Carter. But I really didn’t see some of the other stuff coming.

I don’t read a ton of books written by men these days, but I really enjoyed reading a teen romance written by a man. I just finished reading Room to Breathe by Kasie West a few days ago, so contrasting those two has kind of fascinated me. The tone in 16 Forever and the humor are different. I love that our shelves are big enough to include both approaches to romance.

The story shows scenes from three different perspectives: Carter, his brother Lincoln, and Maggie, his former girlfriend. Lincoln’s scenes are mostly written in second person, directed at Carter, and share memories Lincoln has of each of Carter’s 16th-birthday mornings and significant moments from the months that follow. The chapters from Maggie and Carter’s perspectives show the present-day scenes unfolding.

Including perspectives outside Carter’s makes this book really interesting. Lincoln used to be Carter’s younger brother, but now he has surpassed him and become the older brother. This made me think of some stories I’ve read about characters who’ve lost a sibling, and the feeling that the sibling remains stuck at the age they died or disappeared. For Lincoln, though, Carter is still alive and present, though just as stuck.

I liked the way the ending unfolded, though I wonder if it will be too subtle for some readers. Ultimately, Carter has to chase down the clues and learn why he got stuck before he can have a chance to move forward again. I love how Rubin pieces all those elements together to lead to a meaningful conclusion.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Some references to touching under tops. Characters discuss if and when to have sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Someone says cruel things to another character, embarrassing them in front of another person.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol at a house party. Carter makes use of his driver’s license, which shows his date of birth and implies that he is over 21, to purchase alcohol, vape juice, and edibles for kids at school.

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: Song of the Court by Katy Farina

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

Song of the Court
Katy Farina
Union Square Books
Published October 6, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Song of the Court

A charming fairy tale—told in graphic novel style—about two unlikely friends who encourage each other to pursue their dreams.

In order to buy seeds for her beautiful garden, Arietta plans to sell her treasured family violin. Then music-loving Princess Cassia spots Arietta with the instrument and excitedly asks her to perform at her upcoming birthday party. What the Princess doesn’t realize is, Arietta can’t play! Too ashamed to tell Cassia the truth, Arietta sets out to learn a special song for the occasion. But as Arietta’s musical passion blossoms, her devotion to her garden fades . . . and her trees and flowers begin to die. Will she be able to master the tune in time for Cassia’s celebration—and save the garden, too?

My Review

One of my big problems this summer has been keeping enough books around the house for my littlest to read. She’s aging out of chapter books and just tiptoeing into middle grade. Graphic novels have worked out as a great format for her right now. I’m able to read a lot of things first before handing them over to her. I’ve also got a backlog of titles that I’ve read that I think she’d be interested in. I’ll probably do a list soon that corrals some of her favorites together, since I’m sure a lot of families face similar challenges as their readers age up into middle grade.

Song of the Court was a lucky find for us at our local library. We have two cats, and my littlest loves them, so I’m always on the lookout for stories with a cute cat on the cover. (I haven’t been able to sell her on the Warriors series yet, but it’s early.)

The story follows a cat named Arietta, who cares for her family’s garden. She sells flowers and fruit at the weekly market to make a living. At the opening of the book, money is short, so Arietta decides to pawn her grandfather’s violin. On the way to the music store, she meets Princess Cassia, who is looking for a musician to perform at her birthday party. Arietta gets so flustered at meeting the princess that before she knows it, she’s promising to play a song at the party.

Fortunately for Arietta, her best friend Emily is an accomplished violinist, and she offers to teach her to play a special song. Arietta finds great joy in learning to play the violin, and soon her garden wilts because she spends so much time playing music. She wants to keep playing music, but she doesn’t want to give up the garden. How can she balance both?

The storytelling is so gentle and upbeat. I love that Arietta wrestles with this problem of passion versus responsibilities. Ultimately she learns that a balanced, happy life has room for both.

Conclusion

What a sweet story! This book is perfect for readers aging out of chapter books into middle grade literature. A couple of the names were hard for my seven-year-old to decode, but that was an easy bridge to cross. If you liked the Cat and Cat Adventures series by Susie Yi or the Tea Dragon Society series by K. O’Neill, then put Song of the Court on your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

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 help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my local public library. All opinions are my own.