Author: Torrey Maldonado
Published: 2023 When Trev's stepdad puts his hands on Trev's mom and ends up in jail, Trev swears that he is going to learn how to fight so that he can protect his mom and his sisters when his stepdad gets out of prison. The adults in Trev's life don't want him fighting. He is a talented artist, and they think that fighting isn't the way for him to lead a happy life. But is he really supposed to stand back when people threaten him or threaten his family? Trev must decide how he is going to use his hands in this world. Torrey Maldonado does it again with another great middle grade novel!
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Author: Joanna Ho
Published: 2022 Maybelline lives a happy life with her parents and her older brother Danny. But then one night Danny takes his life and suddenly May's world is turned upside down. She is dealing with guilt from not realizing something is wrong and regret that she could have stopped it if she just would have done something different. Unfortunately this wasn't the first suicide this year, and one white parent decides to turn it into something else. He publicly states that Asians are the ones to blame for the suicides because Asian parents are putting too much pressure on their kids to do well in school. Because of the constant stress, kids are taking their own lives. May is absolutely horrified. Her family is already dealing with enough. Now people are blaming them for Danny's death. She decides to write something in the paper in response. Her family starts receiving backlash, and her parents want her to stop writing letters in the paper. But May wants to stand up for what is right. The Silence That Binds Us is a story about racism and family and tragedy. It is about using your voice and standing up for what is right. Author: Coe Booth
Published: 2022 Caprice has just spent the summer at a really nice camp, and the best news is that she was offered a scholarship to attend school there for free. She is having a hard time figuring out if she should take it or not, especially because she doesn't want to ditch her best friend at home. Caprice has also been having a hard time lately because she keeps remembering way back when she was a little kid and she lived with her grandmother and her uncle and some bad things happened. This along with the stress of the possible changes in her life is causing her to have a lot of anxiety. Maybe it's time to speak the truth about what happened all those years ago. Caprice is such a good story about a young girl who experienced something no one should have to go through and is dealing with the aftermath. Author: Chrystal D. Giles
Published: 2023 Lawrence keeps getting in trouble for getting into fights at school, but he doesn't start them. Unfortunately, this fight was the last straw and Lawrence gets expelled from school. Because his grandma refuses to let him just sit at home watching tv everyday, Lawrence finds himself working with his neighbor at the neighborhood rec center. While there, he discovers that they have a chess club, and Lawrence is determined to learn how to play. He feels like he has found his place, but not everybody is happy that he is there. When he gets a chance to play in a chess tournament, Lawrence needs to work hard to make his spot without getting into anymore trouble along the way. Not an Easy Win is a good book about finding your place. Author: Jasmine Warga
Published: 2021 Cora and Quinn used to be best friends, but then a year ago Quinn's older brother Parker was responsible for the school shooting that killed Cora's older sister. Both Cora and Quinn are really struggling from the aftermath. Cora misses her sister and Quinn is dealing with the guilt from what her brother did and she also feels like she doesn't know her brother anymore. Quinn decides that the only way to fix this is to go back in time and stop her brother. She thinks she has found a way to open up a wormhole in the universe and go back to stop Parker. She enlists Cora's help and the two work together to try to save their siblings. The Shape of Thunder is a heartbreaking story about a terrible tragedy and the people left behind. Author: Ellen Hopkins
Published: 2021 Trace and his older brother Will have always had a great relationship. But then Will gets a brain injury during a football game and now things are different. Will is now very angry. He has a facial tic that he can't control, and he is depressed. In order to cope with all this Will has started abusing pills. This leads to all kinds of different issues. Trace feels like he needs to cover for his brother, but he also doesn't know if that's the right thing to do or not. What About Will is a fantastic novel in verse about brothers and trying to do the right thing. Author: Amy Sarig King
Published: 2022 Mac is starting 6th grade, and his teacher is Ms. Sett. He is not super excited about having her because she seems strict. He also finds out that she is the person who writes in complaints to the paper about different things going on in the town. When the class is starting a book club, he discovers that there are words crossed out in the book he is assigned called The Devil's Arithmetic. This book is about the Holocaust, and when he discovers what words are covered up he is shocked. Who is censoring books for kids and why? Mac and his friends decide to go to the principal, and when that doesn't work they decide maybe it's time to fight for what's right. Attack of the Black Rectangles is a great middle grade read about censorship. Author: Kim Johnson
Published: 2020 Tracy writes to Innocence X every week asking them to help her dad who is on death row. Her father was convicted of murdering two people, but even though he had an alibi, he was still put in prison and sentenced to death. She uses every opportunity to try to get him out of there, but his execution date is less than a year away and so far Innocence X hasn't written back. One night the police show up at Tracy's house and accuse her brother, Jamal, of murder. One of Tracy's classmates was killed, and she was seeing Jamal behind her boyfriend's back. This classmate had also reached out to Tracy before she died and said she had a story for her that she wanted reported in the newspaper. Tracy believes that her brother is innocent too, but when people hear about a boy whose father is on death row, they automatically assume he's guilty. While she starts digging, she uncovers dark secrets about the people in her town. This is My America was an absolutely amazing book that would pair well with Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Author: Jane Kuo
Published: 2022 Anna and her parents live in Taiwan with her relatives. They live a very happy life and have plenty of money to get by. They want to go to America for more opportunities. When her family goes to California, they realize that nothing is what they thought it would be. Anna is bullied at school for the way she looks and the food that she brings for lunch. Her parents spent all their money buying a restaurant and realize that they aren't making as much as they hoped and are barely staying afloat. Is America really ever going to be their home? In the Beautiful Country is a fantastic story written in verse that reminds me of Front Desk by Kelly Yang. Perfect for middle grade readers. Author: Varsha Bajaj
Published: 2022 Minni and her family live in Mumbai in India. They live in the poorest section of the city where they have to wait hours in line just to get water to use for the day. On the other side of the city are beautiful buildings where water comes out of faucets whenever people need it. The lack of water for the poor has caused people to start stealing it. When Minni's mom gets sick and has to go somewhere to recover, Minni has to take over all the chores her mother does along with her mom's job so that she doesn't lose it when she comes back. Minni has to go to a building and work as a maid for a very wealthy family, which is hard when the grandmother in the building yells and belittles Minni whenever she sees her. When Minni and her brother witness a crime being committed, suddenly everything is threatened. Thirst is such a good story about what it is like for those who do not have easy access to water. |
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