Our middle grade book spotlight this week is all about Possibilities of Relationships!! We are exploring books this week that are all about what it means to have a relationship from friendship and siblings and families because those all play a role in our lives and books allow us to learn and explore and then maybe implement in our own lives what we have learned. Relationships are there to help you through the good times as well as the tough so find those people who you can lean on and share one of these titles or two. We have an awesome selection of titles this week including some featuring historical, fantasy, horror, and even one set during the start of the pandemic. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthsiblings, #youthfamilystories, #youthfriendship, and #youthrelationships as well as on Libby and Hoopla.
The 2022 Summer Reading Program Oceans of Possibilities is taking place from June 4th-August 10th with a new theme and badge activities every week. Make sure to watch the Middle Grade Book Spotlight book talk video for this week as it counts towards your badge activities for the week; if you read one of the titles featured or on the tagged list, that counts as another activity as well!!! Earn the weekly themed badges to get your virtual tickets which can be turned into opportunities to win prizes! For more information--such as to sign up or to sign in to your account in order to track your books and activities--visit our Summer Reading page and click “LOG IN NOW”.
Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon--A diverse middle-grade novel that follows ten-year-old Caleb and his big brother Bobby over the summer that they meet their new neighbor, sixteen-year-old Styx Malone. Styx convinces the boys to attempt an "escalator trade" that exchanges one small thing for something better until they achieve the object of their dreams--a moped. But their plan spirals out of control and the brothers quickly learn that Styx has secrets that could ruin everything and get the boys into big trouble.
New from Here by Kelly Yang--Eleven-year-old Knox Wei-Evans lives in Hong Kong with his parents, two siblings, and the family dog. When a strange virus shuts down the city of Wuhan, China, the family decides that Knox, his siblings, and his mother should move to California to escape the coming onslaught of restrictions while his father stays behind. He arrives thinking life will be better, but soon Knox faces racism at school, school shutdowns, and financial tension when his mother loses her job. The stress of being separated from his best friend--his father--begins to take its toll on the whole family and the children launch Operation Dad Come Over with various schemes to raise money for a plane ticket.
Clean Getaway by Nic Stone--William Lamar, known as "Scoob," goes on a road trip through the South with his grandmother in her recreational vehicle, visiting some of the major sites in the Civil Rights movement and learning about how people like him have been treated.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle--Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
Dark Waters by Katherine Arden--Friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian discover their nemesis, the Smiling Man, is back when the group goes sailing on Lake Champlain with their parents and Brian's former best friend Phil, and their boat becomes shipwrecked on a mist-covered island. Hunted by snakelike creatures, the group will have to find a way around the Smiling Man's tricks to escape the island alive.
Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo--After her father runs off with a dental hygienist, Raymie Clarke decides it is up to her to repair her family. She plans to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, get her picture in the paper, and wait for her father to see it and come running home. However, Raymie has competition at the competition—there is fiery Beverly Tapinski, who seems to want to sabotage the contest, and Louisiana Elefante, who claims to be from the famous Flying Elefante family. All of the girls want to win the pageant for different reasons, and none ever imagined they would become friends.