My friends. MY FRIENDS. Look at all this book mail that I’ve gotten in the past month. Even reading as fast as I can, I can hardly make a dent in my TBR Mountain Range before it starts to fill back up with the daily deliveries. I’m glad it’s almost summer break. I know my plan for this summer, the one before my kid leaves for college, is to alternate between weeping and trying to force him to hold my hand all day long, but in between all that, I also intend to read a LOT. Like, more than my usual a LOT. Forever grateful to all the publishers who keep the Minnesota branch of TLT overflowing wi ..read more

As part of our Mind the Middle project focusing on middle grade books, I’m going to try to do weekly Take Five lists, which is to say, five books on a certain theme.  These Take Five lists can help you with collection development, displays, reading lists, and more. I have a pretty giant list of potential Take Five themes, but if there’s something you’re desperate for a list for, let me know! All descriptions come from the publishers. Today’s list doesn’t have a really neat, tidy name. It includes anthologies, connected stories by various authors, and short stories. These books ..read more

You know what is a terrible term? Sandwich Generation. Because I like sandwiches, but I for sure do NOT like being part of the Sandwich Generation. Yes, this is related to this post. Bear with me. This post has LOTS of post-it reviews because I have spent LOTS of time at my mom’s helping care for her post-surgery. The only upside to missing work and being gone is that at her house I’ve had lots of time to read, thus the many small reviews here. The 50% of the time I’m not at her house, I’m at work, or busy being President of Everything at home, or filling out the endless forms that have alrea ..read more

As part of our Mind the Middle project focusing on middle grade books, I’m going to try to do weekly Take Five lists, which is to say, five books on a certain theme.  These Take Five lists can help you with collection development, displays, reading lists, and more. I have a pretty giant list of potential Take Five themes, but if there’s something you’re desperate for a list for, let me know! All descriptions come from the publishers. Today’s list features characters whose gender expression and sexual identities fall under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. What a wonderful world we live in ..read more

Oxbow Island Gang: Summer Bats is the fifth and final book in this environmental mystery series for middle grade readers. Berend, nicknamed Bear, is heading to his grandmother’s home on Oxbow Island for the Fourth of July when a sudden storm forces the ferry to dock at Great Claw Island. Soaking wet and surrounded by broken glass Bear and his friend, Olivia, decide to sneak off the boat to escape the turmoil of their rough sea crossing. As they set foot on the unfamiliar island, shivering in the howling wind, and surrounded by downed trees, Bear’s vacation dreams of endless ice cream cones, d ..read more

Scene:  We are at a Literary Conference for Writers, Teachers, Librarians—and All Lovers of Books for Young Readers.  It is dinnertime, and the many conferees have gathered after a long day of sessions for an hour of relaxation and refreshment.  The room is huge, the walls are sort of beige, the carpet is sort of dark, the lighting is sort of industrial, the art on the walls is generated by machines with no taste.  Dinner is being served to something like a million and a half people.  Everyone is hungry. LEAH and GARY are sitting at a large round table.  GARY is ..read more

Publisher’s description Laurie Morrison’s Keeping Pace is a poignant middle-grade novel about friends-turned-rivals training for a half-marathon—and rethinking what it means to win and what they mean to each other. Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then the wide, empty summer looms. With nothing planned and no more goa ..read more

It’s late summer in 1999 and twelve-year-old Michael, the protagonist of Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, is overwhelmed with worry over the Y2K problem. His single mother works so hard, so he sees it as his job to make sure they are prepared in case infrastructure fails after the clocks turn to 1/1/2000. The anxiety consumes him, so much that he shoplifts canned food and steals tools to hoard under his bed. Just in case. And it’s not just Y2K, the smallest indication of potential danger sends him spinning off , so when a mysterious boy starts loitering around the complex, Micha ..read more

In this sometimes discouraging era, when middle grade books are being challenged and middle grade sales are in a slump, a couple of positive trends have emerged. One is that graphic novels are increasing in popularity, and another is that backlist titles are being rediscovered. Partly, this rediscovery can be attributed to graphic adaptations of existing series, like Magic Treehouse and The Baby-sitters Club. Once they’ve enjoyed the graphic illustrated versions, kids are finding interest in the original works. However, when we reach back to the titles of yesteryear, we realize that many book ..read more

Publisher’s description Cruzita is going to be a pop star. All she has to do is win a singing contest at her favorite theme park and get famous. But she can’t go to the theme park this summer. Instead, she has to help out at her family’s bakery, which has been struggling ever since Tío Chuy died. Cruzita’s great-uncle poured his heart into the bakery—the family legacy—and now that he’s gone, nothing is the same. When Cruzita’s not rolling uneven tortillas or trying to salvage rock-hard conchas, she has to take mariachi lessons, even though she doesn’t know how to play her great-grandpa’s ..read more