A young boy wakes up to a snowy landscape and decides to build “THE BEST SNOWMAN EVER!” He mulls over the steps to the perfect snowman and about daydreams about the result, so perfect that it will be a dream come true! Well, sometimes the outcome isn’t as perfect as planned. But, this little boy is undaunted. He creates his “BEST SNOWMAN YET!” And, it is.
Bright, bold colors in simple illustrations help tell a story that is full of fun, exuberance and heart. Text is spare, yet moves the story along and readers will enjoy the onomatopoeia along the way. Add this to your collection. It will become a classic!
It’s a special day in Ember City! Young dragons will learn what their “Spark” (special power) is at the Spark Day Ceremony. Among them are Li, Runa and Drake, who are three best friends. At the Ceremony, they see the beautiful disco ball that was created by dragons on the very first Spark Day. During the party after receiving their Sparks, Drake and another dragon, Fizz, get into a bit of tussle and break the special disco ball, ending the Spark Day festivities. Each of the young dragons tries to fix the broken disco ball with disastrous results. Suddenly, Drake remembers something that the mayor said, “Our Sparks shine their brightest when we use them to help one another”. They follow this advice and not only fix the broken disco ball but make it more special, alight with rainbow colors. They had learned a valuable lesson and saved Spark Day!
Brightly colored cartoon-like illustrations in a graphic novel/early chapter book style make this a nice introduction to the genre for young readers. It is not text-heavy and there is a lot of white space on the pages, which makes it even more accessible. The story moves along and the dragons are fun and a little silly. Kids will love it!
While on a trip to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., Forsythe Fitzgerald, known to his family and friends as Fort, watches as his father is snatched and pulled underground by a long clawed monster hand. Desperate to rescue his father, he is stopped by a voice in his head telling him to run. Six months later, a depressed Fort is invited to attend a special school to help him overcome the mysterious loss of his father. The school is out in the middle of no where, looks like an army camp and is heavily guarded by armed soldiers. Fort meets other students and instructors and learns that the school is not an ordinary one but one in which to learn magic to defend against the beings that control the monster hands that took his father. He also learns that several different types of magic books have been unearthed and only people no older than Fort can learn and work magic. Fort wants to learn “destructive” magic to get revenge for the taking of his father. Instead he is assigned to learn “healing” magic and has only three days to learn three spells to catch up with the other students or be sent home! The other students took months to learn just one spell and adults can’t learn any, so how can he possibly learn three in three days? He gets help from an unexpected source…the voice he heard in his head so many months before. This mysterious voice enables Fort not only to learn his three spells but also to master several advanced ones as well. His sudden possession of arcane spells earns him the begrudging respect and the animosity of some of the more accomplished students as somehow their skills are transferred into Fort. With the help of his new allies, he begins to search for the source of this strange voice despite foot dragging by some of them. Eventually his friends and he uncover the source not only of his mysterious voice but also to whom the books of magic originally belonged and why they want them back. Without revealing any spoilers, Fort discovers the true magic power of healing and that cooperation with others is the real strength of leadership. Does he rescue his father and thwart the aliens controlling the monster hands? Well, those answers and other adventures are in the sequels to The Revenge Of Magic. You’ll just have to read those to find out.
All Lia wants is make it into the International Magic School with her friend, Joon. Her overprotective parents, who work mundane desk jobs for the magical organization, won’t let her do anything and she can’t figure out why. In an act of rebellion, Lia attends the party of the popular girl from school and ends up revealing her family’s location (by breaking an ancient protection spell) to the evil diviner spirit, Gaya, who kidnaps her parents and demands a ransom. Lia’s parents manage to get a message to her during the kidnapping and she and Joon are magically transported to Korea. There, they discover Lia’s true lineage as they and Lia’s grandmother desperately fight to save her parents and destroy Gaya before she returns Korea to a vastly different time hundreds of years before.
This book brings together Korean mythology, magic, modern day technology and typical tween feelings in a wonderfully rich, exciting story. Lia is a twelve year old that is feeling a little (ok, a lot) hemmed in by her parents and sets off a chain of events that will change her life (and possibly the world) when she sneaks out to a swim party at the popular girl’s house. This act of rebellion leads to a fast-paced fantasy adventure that will cause you some sleepless nights, because you just can’t put it down. Hand this book to those students that love Rick Riordan’s books. They will thank you!
Mascot is a lively set of conversations around the topic of racism/discrimination which spreads middle school-wide from an eighth-grade Honors English class outward and into the entire community.
Abraham Lincoln made a statement that can apply to the having of indigenous mascots for sports teams- ” You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Or DeShanne Stoke’s statement- “Discrimination is discrimination even when people claim it’s ‘tradition’.”
So who is correct about allowing sports/school teams to continue to use (often derogatory) Indigenous-themed mascots – the team who has been using the mascot for generations or the Indigenous group who claims the mascot is disrespectful and hurtful to their people? Mascot gives a well-rounded set of views, both pro and con, to this very question. Six students, in pairs, are assigned this topic to debate in their Eighth Grade Honors English Class. They are not necessarily assigned the side of this question they favor. Will they be able to sympathize with the other side, at all? Will any of the students change their current position on the topic once their research is completed? Can middle schoolers make a change in their community? The school mascot in question won’t even be their mascot until next year when they graduate from the local high school. HIGH FIVE to authors Charles Waters and Traci Sorell for a job well done! Submitted by Mary Pong for Washington Middle School
Hiding her love for Nora was hard enough in her conservative, small town. After graduating high school, Stevie and Nora had big dreams of moving to a more accepting world. But Stevie’s accident has left her with amnesia — she can’t remember anything from the last two years and she barely feels connected with her own family anymore.
Confusion, frustration, and loneliness are part of the struggles both Nora and Stevie face as they learn about each other again, all while wondering if their love will be rekindled. Alyson Derrick gave enough backstory so one could feel how deep their passion for each other. This reader was cheering them on as Stevie and Nora fell back in love. The only flaw– how easily her parents accepted her sexuality given the community they lived in — is concerning in that not all students reading this would be so lucky. But a theme of the book has to be hope in true love and where one sees a flaw another can argue that it is evidence of the theme. What could have been a tragic love loss story is instead one where each page had a purpose in explaining the intimate details of their connection. A highly recommended love story for high school students.
Ghost by Jason Reynolds is a very impressive piece of writing with an excellent plot Castle Cranshaw lives a life with many hardships but finds his passion in running. The descriptive language and mood of the book were what made it engaging. The amazing literary devices in this book make it a captivating novel. A reader who likes to be motivated would love to read this novel, it could also interest people of diverse backgrounds. This book reviewed was the version translated into Spanish. Reviewed by a Washington Middle School student.
This sweet (pun intended) read is perfect for fans of the Great British Baking show. Shireen, the protagonist, is trying her best to save her family’s donut shop and navigate a love triangle between her ex girlfriend and her new crush. Shireen is Bangledeshi and living in Ireland, which adds an interesting perspective and point of view for young American readers.
Like Jiagirdar’s previous work, it involves queer relationships but is much more lighthearted and moves past acceptance to just pure love and fun; homophobia or intolerance does not have a central place in the story which is refreshingly hopeful.
This is light on romance, more heavily focused on teen drama, and would therefore might be more suitable for middle grade than high school readers who might find the wholesome narration a little childish. But, overall, a light and happy read with a unique perspective and a fun premise!
Marvin Monster writes in his diary about his life and living with ADHD and how that can affect his self-esteem. Through Marvin’s daily life of going to school, he runs into lots of great things but then he becomes overwhelmed with the details of how to follow through with his commitments. Marvin spends time with his Grandmomster (Grammasaurus) and from her learns that she has some of the same troubles he has. Grammasaurus helps Marvin learn strategies for how to cope and manage his life.
The author, Dr. Melmed has included a section in the back of this book for parents and teachers. This resource is full of strategies so children can learn how to use them to help manage their feelings. Dr. Melmed explains what self-esteem is and how that can take a toll on young children.
This book would be great as a read-aloud for a child who is dealing with ADHD and/or self-esteem issues. This would help adults working with their own children, or students, to focus on strategies to help manage ADHA and self-esteem.
Lippincott is known for writing sweet, sometimes heartbreaking stories involving challenges like illness and loss, such as Five Feet Apart. Her characters’ experiences are relatable and are always refreshingly reflective, which is a perk for adult readers, as seen in The Lucky List. Her first venture into sweet, queer ya romance with She Gets the Girl was one of my favorite and most recommended reads of 2022.
In Pride, Prejudice, and Pittsburgh, she adds some time travel and destiny into the mix. Both modern day Pittsburgh and the 1812 settings are characters themselves and the miscommunications about how life works in these different eras between the two main characters, Audrey and Lucy, are amusing. In the beginning, Lucy is betrothed to marry a man and Audrey was recently dumped by her first love, so both are experiencing romantic woes before the sparks fly between them. As with most time travel stories, Audrey learns to appreciate her life and I especially liked her relationship with her dad and their convenience store that felt very Pittsburgh .
My one complaint is that the title is misleading! This is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, at least not that I (someone who is admittedly not a P&P stan) caught.
