65. The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko

listened on Audible

320 pgs.

2024
Middle Grades CRF

Finished 7/20/24
Goodreads rating: 4.55
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary American city

My comments: Hank is 11 and his baby sister, Boo, is almost 3.  Their mom has an alcohol problem, a major one, and one day she doesn't come home.  After a week goes by and they're totally out of money, Hank has to figure out what to do.  Watching all the problems of a boy who works very hard to be good and kind as well as the thought-processes he goes through are the highlights of this book.  I feel like a lot happens that is rosier than would actually happen in real life - especially with the child welfare system - but it's nice to have a feel-good story with lots of positive people.

Goodreads synopsis:  When eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home, he takes care of his toddler sister, Boo, like he always does. But it’s been a week now. They are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long… Hank knows he needs help, so he and Boo seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact.

But asking for help has consequences. It means social workers, and a new school, and having to answer questions about his mom that he's been trying to keep secret. And if they can't find his mom soon, Hank and Boo may end up in different foster homes--he could lose everything.

Gennifer Choldenko has written a heart-wrenching, healing, and ultimately hopeful story about how complicated family can be. About how you can love someone, even when you can’t rely on them. And about the transformative power of second chances.

27 Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

read on Kindle
218 pgs.

2024
Middle grades Historical Fiction
Finished 3/28/24
Goodreads rating: 4.39
My rating: 4
Setting: 1935 upstate New York

My comments: The lovely cover definitely beckoned to me.  I can remember in second grade a lot of talk about tuberculosis, haven't really heard too much about it since.  The story was eye-opening and interesting with a brave and sassy 10-year-old protagonist.  Quite memorable.  Would sanitoriums be available nowadays that treat people with such humanity?  I don't think so.....

Goodreads synopsis:  It's 1935, and tuberculosis is ravaging the nation. Everyone is afraid of this deadly respiratory illness. But what happens when you actually have it?

When Halle and her mother both come down with TB, they are shunned—and then they are sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital: far from home, far from family, far from the world.

Tucked away in the woods of upstate New York, the hospital is a closed and quiet place. But it is not, Halle learns, a prison. Free of her worried and difficult father for the first time in her life, she slowly discovers joy, family, and the healing power of honey on the children's ward, where the girls on the floor become her confidantes and sisters. But when Mama suffers a lung hemorrhage, their entire future—and recovery—is thrown into question....

Light and Air deals tenderly and insightfully with isolation, quarantine, found family, and illness. Set in the fully realized world of a 1930s hospital, it offers a tender glimpse into a historical epidemic that has become more relatable than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Halle tries to warm her father’s coldness and learns to trust the girls and women of the hospital, and as she and her mother battle a disease that once paralyzed the country, a profound message of strength, hope, and healing emerges.

68. Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

listened on Audible

2021
416 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 9/24/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4
Setting: A contemporary-ish US city

My comments:  My second go at this....got partway through when it first came out and stopped for some reason. Glad I tried it again, it was a fun story. Of any kids' fantasies I've read in recent years, it's the most Harry Potter-ish without being too much like Harry Potter. Characters you hate to love and love to hate...yup, I'll read the second in the series.

Goodreads synopsis:  Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magican threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

8. Attack of the Black Rectangles by A. S. King

listened on Audible

2022
272 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished 1/23/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary PA - I'm guessing a touristy place in Lancaster County, like Intercourse, though the Amish are not mentioned

My comments: Excellent. When three friends are confronted with blocked out words in their sixth grade literature circle book (The Devil's Arithmetic - a really great book in itself), they begin a campaign against censorship. A timely topic that includes a middle school boy dealing with his very odd, untrustworthy father and the usual pre-teenage angst about friendships with girls. My favorite character is the ex-Vietnam vet grandad who practices mindfulness.

Goodreads synopsis:  Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write.

Everyone in town knows and fears Ms. Laura Samuel Sett. She is the town watchdog, always on the lookout for unsavory words and the unsavory people who use them.

She is also Mac's sixth-grade teacher.

Mac and his friends are outraged when they discovered that their class copies of Jane Yolen's THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC have certain works blacked out. Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong, so he and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship. Her response isn't reassuring -- so the protest grows.

80. 365 Days to Alaska by Cathy Carr

read the book, borrowed from the library

2021
272 pgs.
Mid Grade CRF
Finished  7/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.29 - 243 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary CT, with a small part at the beginning in the wilderness/boonies of AK

First line/s:  "Rigel put the tip of the hunting knife into the hare's belly and made a careful slit." 

My comments: After spending her entire life in the middle-of-nowhere "bush" in Alaska, 11 year-old Rigel - pronounced RYE/JILL, is forced to move to Connecticut with her mom and two sister, five and 14 years old, leaving her dad, Bear, in Alaska.  She doesn't want to go, she's never left her home in the middle of nowhere and really, really loves it there.  So this story is the story of the following year in Connecticut, all the changes she has to adapt to, bullies and no friends and not enough nature and coming to love a crow she names Blueberry.  And of course she ends up making wonderful friends, finding the nature she needs, and adapting.  We get to know the diverse personalities of her  wonderful family member, too.  This is a wonderful story with lots and lots to sink your teeth into.

Goodreads synopsis:  A thoughtful middle-grade debut about a girl from off-the-grid Alaska adjusting to suburban life
        Eleven-year-old Rigel Harman loves her life in off-the-grid Alaska. She hunts rabbits, takes correspondence classes through the mail, and plays dominoes with her family in their two-room cabin. She doesn’t mind not having electricity or running water—instead, she’s got tall trees, fresh streams, and endless sky.
        But then her parents divorce, and Rigel and her sisters have to move with their mom to the Connecticut suburbs to live with a grandmother they’ve never met. Rigel hates it in Connecticut. It’s noisy, and crowded, and there’s no real nature. Her only hope is a secret pact that she made with her father: If she can stick it out in Connecticut for one year, he’ll bring her back home.
        At first, surviving the year feels impossible. Middle school is nothing like the wilderness, and she doesn’t connect with anyone . . . until she befriends a crow living behind her school. And if this wild creature has made a life for itself in the suburbs, then, just maybe, Rigel can too.
365 Days to Alaska is a wise and funny debut novel about finding beauty, hope, and connection in the world no matter where you are—even Connecticut.

79. The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm

Read the book, from SPS library
2021
235 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished  7/25/21
Goodreads rating: 4.15 - 1010 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Mars

First line/s: "The trip to Mars was the hardest thing they'd ever experienced.  That's what the grown-ups said."

My comments: I was so sad when this book came to an end.  It was exceptional.  Five kids and six adults live in the American compound inside a lava tunnel on Mars.  There are four other similar colonies close by:  France, Finland, Russia, and China, but for years they have been alienated.  Then all the American adults get deathly ill.  The kids don't, and after some bravery on the part of the protagonis, Bell, things begin to change.  A really wonderful story.

Goodreads synopsis:  A kid raised on Mars learns that he can't be held back by the fears of the grown-ups around him.
          Bell has spent his whole life - all eleven years of it - on Mars. But he's still just a regular kid - he loves cats, any kind of cake, and is curious about the secrets the adults in the US colony are keeping. Like, why don't have contact with anyone on the other Mars colonies? Why are they so isolated? When a virus breaks out and the grown-ups all fall ill, Bell and the other children are the only ones who can help. It's up to Bell - a regular kid in a very different world - to uncover the truth and save his family ... and possibly unite an entire planet.

69. Unplugged by Gordon Korman

listened on Libby/borrowed from library

narrated by many readers

Unabridged audio (6:30)
2021
324 pgs.
Mid Grade CRF
Finished  6/25/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.54 - 2398 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary summer camp, Arkansas

First line/s: "Matt says I could see the majestic beauty of the American southeast if I bother to look out the window."

My comments: (spoiler, but reminder for me:  Alligator farm!)

Goodreads synopsis:   From Gordon Korman comes a middle grade novel about a group of kids forced to “unplug” at a wellness camp—where they instead find intrigue, adventure, and a whole lot of chaos.        
        As the son of the world’s most famous tech billionaire, Jett Baranov has always gotten exactly what he wanted. So, when his father’s private jet drops him in the middle of Little Rock, Arkansas, at a wellness camp called the Oasis, Jett can’t believe it. He’s forced to hand over his cell phone, eat grainy veggie patties, and participate in wholesome activities with the other kids.
        At the Oasis, he meets Grace, who is his polar opposite. She thrives in the wellness atmosphere and resents Jett’s terrible attitude. Then there’s Tyrell, who suffers from a dizzying list of food allergies that render him constantly itchy. And also Brooklynne, a girl who definitely seems to be hiding something.

        As the weeks go on, Jett starts to get used to the unplugged life and even bonds with the other kids over their discovery of a baby lizard-turned-pet, Needles. But he can’t help noticing that the adults at the Oasis are acting really strange…
        Jett is determined to get to the bottom of things, but can he convince the other kids that he is no longer just a spoiled brat making trouble?

66. The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) by David Levithan

listened on Libby, borrowed from library

narrated by Everette Plen

Unabridged audio (3:54)
2021
224 pgs.
Middle Grade Fantasy
Finished 6/22/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.28 - 3713 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s: "They looked everywhere."

My comments: Great listen!  Not too long, a little over four hours, I think.  And I'm really curious to discover what people categorize this genre-wise.  CRF with a touch of fantasy?  Fantasy?  Well told and believable and lots and lots of fun. Apparently, many readers disagree...

Goodreads synopsis:   New York Times bestselling author David Levithan takes young readers on a twisting journey through truth, reality, and fantasy and belief.

        Aidan disappeared for six days. Six agonizing days of searches and police and questions and constant vigils. Then, just as suddenly as he vanished, Aidan reappears. Where has he been? The story he tells is simply. . . impossible. But it's the story Aidan is sticking to.
        His brother, Lucas, wants to believe him. But Lucas is aware of what other people, including their parents, are saying: that Aidan is making it all up to disguise the fact that he ran away.
        When the kids in school hear Aidan's story, they taunt him. But still Aidan clings to his story. And as he becomes more of an outcast, Lucas becomes more and more concerned. Being on Aidan's side would mean believing in the impossible. But how can you believe in the impossible when everything and everybody is telling you not to?

64. Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

listened on Libby, borrowed from the library

narrated by Bernardo dePaula and Ariana Delawari

Unabridged audio (7:25)
2021
336 pgs.
Mid Grades CRF
Finished 6/17/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.83 - 5252 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 2001 Ground Zero, 2018 Afghanistan

First line/s: "Brandon Chavez was in trouble."

My comments: This story is told in two different voices set 18 years apart.  One is Brendan Chavez, a nine-year-old boy who accompanies his dad to work on the morning of 9/11/2001 at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center in New York City.  The second is that of a similarly aged girl in a secluded village in Afghanistan in 2018.  Because she unwittingly helps an injured American soldier, she puts her whole village in danger with the Taliban.  She hates Americans, because an American drone targeted her sister's wedding, killing that 16 year-old sister and many other villagers. That American soldier, "Taz," is actually Brandon. Her twin brother is so angry that much of the story is about him and his relationship with the Taliban.  This is a very powerful story.  There are a lot of intense scenes in the hour and a half that Brandon spends trying to figure out what is going on the the first tower, and then figuring out a way to get out.  His father dies.  It's intense and sad, as is much of the story that takes place in Afghanistan.  I'm not sure what age is would be appropriate for.  Somehow I don't thing my 11 year old grandson could handle it at all, but he's really sensitive.  I do know other fifth graders that could handle it.  There's a lengthy afterword by the author that explains all sorts of information about 9/11,  a fascinating, well-writtenprimer on the horrible day.

Goodreads synopsis:  In time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, bestselling author Alan Gratz delivers a breathtaking, multifaceted, and resonant look at this singular event in US history -- and how it still impacts us today.
            It's September 11, 2001. Brandon, a 9-year-old boy, goes to work for the day with his dad . . . at the World Trade Center in New York City. When two planes hit the towers, Brandon and his father are trapped inside a fiery nightmare as terror and confusion swirl around them. Can they escape -- and what will the world be like when they do?
            In present-day Afghanistan, Reshmina is an 11-year-old girl who is used to growing up in the shadow of war, but she has dreams of peace and unity. When she ends up harboring a wounded young American soldier, she and her entire family are put in mortal danger. But Reshmina also learns something surprising about the roots of this endless war.
            With his trademark skill and insight, Alan Gratz delivers an action-packed and powerful story of two kids whose lives connect in unexpected ways, and reminds us how the past and present are always more linked than we think.

47. Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

read the BOOK

2021
209 pgs.
MidGrade CRF  in Verse
Finished 5/6/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.59 - 1231 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1983 America

First line/s:  TWO

I have two lives.

One that is Indian,

one that is not.

I have two best friends.

One who is Indian,

one who is not.

My comments: Reha is in the eighth grade at a private school, where she has lots of friends.  She spends the weekends with her parents and all sorts of local Indian families that are not the people she knows during the week.  She has a best friend in each "camp."  And I guess the biggest theme of the book is:  where does she belong?  I very much enjoyed learning about the foods and culture of an Indian American family.  Another sad story, though.... There was a lot of talk about music, the music of 1983 to be precise, which is when the story is set.  Ah, such memories!

Goodreads synopsis:  An #ownvoices novel in verse about an Indian American girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother is diagnosed with leukemia.

          Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart.
          Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick.
          Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again. She’ll be the perfect daughter, if it means saving her Amma’s life.

46. Starfish by Lisa Fipps

read the BOOK

2021

244 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF in Verse
Finished 5/5/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.56 - 1954 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary Texas

First line/s:  "I step down into the pool.

The water is bathwater warm

but feels cool

compared to the blistering hot air.

Kick.  Gliiiiiiide.

Stroke.  Gliiiiiiide.

Side to side

and back again.

Dive under the surface.

Soar to the top.

Arch my back.

Flip. Flop.

As soon as I slip into the pool,

I am weightless.

Limitless.

For just a while."

My comments: The book is written in verse, beautiful verse, so it reads fast.  It tugs on the heart.  Ellie is an extremely large young girl, and has been bullied for being fat for as long as she can remember.  She is bullied horribly at school, but she is bullied even more horrendously at home by her mother and older brother.  Her father does the best he can to make her feel better, but it's not until he takes her for weekly visits to a therapist that she stops blaming herself and figures out how to stand up for herself.  She's a swimmer, and, luckily, has a pool and lives in Texas so she can swim every day.  I got so mad in places while reading this book ... do people really say super insulting things to peers, to strangers, to people that they see on the bus or in a restaurant?  Definitely a book to be read by middle schoolers and even better, to be used as a whole class book or read aloud.

Goodreads synopsis:  Ellie is tired of being fat-shamed and does something about it in this poignant debut novel-in-verse.

          Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she’s been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules–like “no making waves,” “avoid eating in public,” and “don’t move so fast that your body jiggles.” And she’s found her safe space–her swimming pool–where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. It’s also where she can get away from her pushy mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie’s weight will motivate her to diet. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to cast aside the Fat Girl Rules and starfish in real life–by unapologetically being her own fabulous self.

2022 Newbery Possibilities

   purchased for school have read but not purchased  other info

AND = Anderson BkShp Mock Newbery (25)

HM = Heavy Medal Mock Newbery List/SLJ (15)

HrnBk = HornBook Fanfare/Best of the Year 

*Have Read Some or ALL

Albus, Kate - A Place to Hang the Moon (9 - 12 yrs.) [10.50 Aud]

*Alston, B. B. - Amari & the Night Brothers AND      own on Aud  

Appelt, Kathi - Once Upon a Camel AND (gr. 3-6)

Arnold, Alana K. - The House That Wasn't There [11.98 Aud]

Arnold, Marie - The Year I Flew Away [10.50 Aud]

Bauer, Marion Dane - Sunshine

Braden, Anne  - Flight of the Puffin  

Bruchac, Joseph - Peacemaker (9 - 12 yrs.) (SLJ gr. 5up)

Bruchac, Joseph - Rez Dogs  

Caprara, Rebecca - Worst-Case Collin

*Carr, Cathy - 365 Days to Alaska [no Aud]

Cuevas, Adriana - Cuba in My Pocket AND 

*Day, Christine - The Sea in Winter AND  (8 - 12 yrs) (SLJ gr. 4-6) started

*de la Pena, Matt - Milo Imagines the World HM 

diCamillo, Kate - Beatryce Prophecy AND HM HrnBk

Dobbs, Alda P. - Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna AND (Gr.5-8)

Ewing, Eve L. - Maya and the Robot AND  (gr. 3-(gr. 6)

*Faruqi, Reem - Unsettled AND 

Faruqi, Saadia - Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero AND 

*Fipps, Lisa, Starfish AND  HM  (ages 10 - 13/SLJ gr. 5 up)  

Freeman - Alone

*Gratz, Alan - Ground Zero (9 - 12 yrs.) SLJ gr. 4-7  

Grimes, Nikki - Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance (10 - 14 yrs) SLJ gr. 7up

Guerro, Tanya - All You Knead is Love   

Haydu, Corey Ann - One Jar of Magic (8 - 12 yrs.) (SLJ gr. 4-7) [Aud. 13.68]

Higuera, Donna Barbra - The Last Cuentista AND HM 

*Holm, Jennifer L. - The Lion of Mars (8 - 12 yrs.) 

Ireland, Justina - Ophie's Ghosts  (HF) AND   [Aud.HM  13.68] (gr. 3-6)

Jenkins, Emily - Harry vs. the First 100 Days of School HM 

Johnson, Varian - Playing the Cards You're Dealt AND (gr. 3-6)

Kelly, Erin Entrada - Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey HrnBk(short book)

Khor, Shing Yin - The Legend of Auntie Po AND HM HrnBk (GN)

*Korman, Gordon - Linked AND 

*Korman, Gordon - Unplugged (8 - 12 yrs.) (SLJ gr 3-5)  

Lane - Pity Party HM 

*LaRocca, Rajani, Red, White, and Whole HM  (ages 8 - 12/SLJ gr. 5 up) 

*Levithan, David - The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) (8 - 12 yrs.) SLJ gr.5up) 

Li, Christine - Clues to the Universe   

Lucido, Aimee - Recipe for Disaster

*Lukoff, Kyle - Too Bright to See AND HM 

Mercado, Yehudi -  Chunky AND 

Milford, Kate - The Raconteur's Commonplace Book (8 - 12 yrs.-))

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert - DaVinci's Cat AND 

Oh, Ellen - Finding Junie Kim [Aud 15.40]

Oshiro, Mark - The Insiders AND 

Park Linda Sue - The One Thing You'd Save   HrnBk 

Paulsen, Gary - Gone to the Woods (SLJ gr. 7up)

Rivera, Kaela - Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls AND 

Royce, Eden - Root Magic [Aud 15.40]

Schlitz, Laura Amy - Amber & Clay HM HrnBk (10 - 14 yrs,)

Schmidt, Gary D. - Just Like That HM  (SLJ gr. 5-8) (Aud. 14.00)

Sheinkein,  Steve - Fallout HM 

Sloan, Holly Goldberg - The Elephant in the Room [Aud 12.60]

Smith, Cynthia Leitich - Ancestor Approved (8 - 12 yrs.) (SLJ gr. 3-6) 

Smith, Cynthia Leitich - Sisters of the Neversea AND 

Sonnenblick, Jordan - The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell  own on Aud

Stroker, Ali & Davidowitz - The Chance to Fly

Valenti, Karla Arenas - Loteria AND 

Venkatraman, Padma - Born Behind Bars AND 

*Wang, Andrea - Watercress HM 

Warga, Jasmine - The Shape of Thunder AND 

Weatherford, Carole Bolton - Unspeakable (SLJ gr 3-6)

Yelchin, Eugene - The Genius Under the Table HM 

Young, Brian - Healer of the Water Monster AND 

GoodReads Newbery Group:

What Book Should We Read in August?

    48/36.1%  Shape of Thunder - Warga

    26/19.5%  Finding Junie Kim - Oh

    26/19.5%  Alone - Freeman

    11/8.3%  Sisters of the Neversea - Smith

    10/7.5%  Amber & Clay - Schlitz

    8/6.0%  Pity Party - Lane

    2/1.2%  The Road to Wherever - Bradley

    2/1.2% Tune It Out (published 2020?)

108. We're Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey

listened on Libby

narrated by Dani Martineck

Unabridged audio (6:56)
2019
256 pgs.
Middle Grade SciFi
Finished 7/23/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.05 - 1362 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: planet Choom, relocated from Earth

First line/s: "The first time I heard anything about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year."

My comments: Told from the point-of-view of a middle schooler, one of about 1,000 that are in another galaxy trying to be accepted on the planet of Choom after Earth was destroyed.  The planet is currently inhabited by three species, huge mosquito-like beings, enormous marshmallow-like beings, and smaller, also bug-like beings.  Emotions are heralded by smells.  A swarm mentality seems to be easily transferred from being to being.  The humans have to figure out a way to get past the fake news and anger that it manifests to a place where they are accepted and trusted.  Half of the book is angry fighting, which I really didn't enjoy.  The premise of the story was thoughtful, and I always enjoy a good scifi.

Goodreads synopsis:  Imagine being forced to move to a new planet where YOU are the alien! From the creator of the Tapper Twins, New York Times bestselling author Geoff Rodkey delivers a topical, sci-fi middle-grade novel that proves friendship and laughter can transcend even a galaxy of differences.

          The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. But life on the Mars station was grim, and since Earth was no longer an option (we may have blown it up), it was time to find a new home.
          That's how we ended up on Choom with the Zhuri. They're very smart. They also look like giant mosquitos. But that's not why it's so hard to live here. There's a lot that the Zhuri don't like: singing (just ask my sister, Ila), comedy (one joke got me sent to the principal's office), or any kind of emotion. The biggest problem, though? The Zhuri don't like us. And if humankind is going to survive, it's up to my family to change their minds. No pressure

80. Sovereign by Jeff Hirsch

listened to on Audible, a freebie
narrated by Jesse Einstein (Didn't care for his narration at all)
Unabridged audio (6:03)
2019 Audio Studios
Not in hard copy form, so am estimating 175 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 5/18/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.19 - 2485 ratings
My rating: 1
Setting: A planet far, far away, now

My comments: I did not like this book.  Everything Just seemed ridiculous, every twist and turn, of which there were too many.  And the ending -- Geez!  Plus, I did not care for the reader at all.  This young man drew out each word clearly and succinctly and slowly, enunciating every single consonant, in a somewhat effeminate manner.  I know this shouldn't have bothered me, but it did.  It took me months to get from beginning to end,  I kept deciding to give it up, but went back to it just to see what was going to happen.  Blech.

Goodreads synopsis:  Micah Cole has been in deep space for four years now. While his parents chase their obsession with finding intelligent life deeper and deeper into the universe, Micah can’t help but dream of the friends he’s left behind and counts the days until the family returns to Earth. When a devastating meteor shower nearly destroys the Coles’s ship, Micah is separated from his family and stranded alone on Sovereign—a vast planet of raging rivers and towering forests. If Micah ever wants to see his family or his home again, he’ll have to learn how to survive on this hostile alien world. Armed with only his wits and determination, he’ll have to battle the elements, his own deepest fears, and a strange presence that might just hold the key to his parents’ obsession—and be his ticket back home.

47. From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

listened to audio on Libby through Bosler Library
narrated by Bahni Turpin
Unabridged audio (6:10)
2020 Katherine Tegen Books
304 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished 3/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.35 - 554 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Boston/Somerville/Cambridge, Massachusetts

First line/s:  "The day I turned twelve, I was certain it'd be my favorite birthday yet, but then I got the letter."

My comments:   Ms. Marks has written a book with a wonderful 12-year-old voice, real and believable, with faults and fears, ambitions and beliefs.  Becoming acquainted with her imprisoned father for the first time and following clues to help the Innocence Project get him out of jail was the biggest premise of the book.  She also loved to bake, creating a new recipe for Fruit Loop cupcakes as she interned in a local bakery for the summer.  The setting of Boston/Somerville/Cambridge with an emphasis on Davis Square was detailed and fun for this suburban Boston native.  She wasn't perfect, and that made her all the more real.  I didn't like that the mother had completely given up the father as a murderer, even though he protested he'd never done anything wrong.  Then she blocked her daughter from any access to him.  This was harsh and a bit unbelievable.  Put the book down a a point for me.  However, what a great story for kids!  I wasn't super crazy about the narrator, although her reading ability was right on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her twelfth birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime?
          A crime he says he never committed.
          Could Marcus really be innocent? Zoe is determined to uncover the truth. Even if it means hiding his letters and her investigation from the rest of her family. Everyone else thinks Zoe’s worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship and proving to her parents that she’s worthy of auditioning for Food Network’s Kids Bake Challenge.
          But with bakery confections on one part of her mind, and Marcus’s conviction weighing heavily on the other, this is one recipe Zoe doesn’t know how to balance. The only thing she knows to be true: Everyone lies.

13. To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer

read the BOOK!!! (first one this year)
2019 Dial Books
295 pgs.
YA Contemporary Epistolary
Finished 1/20/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.09 - 4115 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary NYC, California coast, Minnesota woods....

First line/s: "From:  Brett Devlin
To:  Avery Bloom
Subject:  you don't know me"

My comments:  Note, the above cover is the only one I've seen on a book, but I found this illustrated cover that may be the Kindle edition cover?
     I read a book, an actual book, not on my phone/Kindle or audio!295 pages, all delightful.  I giggled and laughed out loud all the way throught.  Written entirely in correspondence between two 12-year old  protagonists, they begin as adversaries committed to breaking up their dating fathers, and of course their relationship grows into so much ore.  Clever and completely delicious with a wonderful cast of really well-fleshed-out characters and many wonderful settings.  An almost perfect book for every 12-year-old girl on the planet!

Goodreads synopsis:  From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.
          Avery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who's fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.
          When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends--and possibly, one day, even sisters.
          But things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. Now that they can't imagine life without each other, will the two girls (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?

85. All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker

listened to audio - borrowed from the library
read by Taylor Miskimen beautifully
Unabridged audio (8:28)
2019 Viking Books for Young Readers
320 pgs.
HF (sort of...) MidGrades
Finished 9/5/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 2646 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting: 1981 Soho, NYC - artist community, in an artist's loft....

First line/s:   "May Day is the first day of May.  'Mayday' is a radio signal used by ships and aircraft in distress.  This spring, May Day was the first day that my mom didn't get out of bed."

My comments:  This is a book about color and art and being part of an artist community in Soho, NYC, in 1981.  There is both innocence and maturity in Ollie that makes her a really interesting protagonist.  Character development, setting, and plot were all very strong in the wonderful book.  Exceptionally well narrated.  There's an afterward talking about depression in parents and helping to explain a bit about it to a middle grade reader, telling where they could get help for themselves and the parent who may suffer from it.

Goodreads synopsis:  SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist—and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye.
          Then everything falls apart. Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . .
          Olympia knows her dad is the key--but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

80. Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

listened to Audio - borrowed from the library
read by Vaneh Assadourian
Unabridged audio (3:50)
2019 Balzer & Bray
352 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF
Finished August 19, 2019
Goodreads rating:   4.48 - 1884 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Syria, then US

First line/s:  "It is almost summer and everybody smells like fish,
except for right down by the sea
where if you hold your nose just right
you can smell the sprawling salt water and the jasmine
instead."

My comments:  I wish I'd read this instead of listened to it - the words in verse are so much more beautiful than listening to what sounds like prose.  The book seemed to end abruptly.  I wasn't expecting it because I was listening to it and it had not been very long - so much shorter because it's written in verse.  I found the first half of the book, the part that took place in Syria, to be a little bit slow going.  And I wish that it had given me a little more feel for the country of Syria.  It didn't.  Once they got to America the story became a little more interesting.  It was intriguing to think about how a newcomer to America would not realize the prejudice against Muslims.  I don't think I'd ever considered that point of view, particularly from an innocent young girl who only know of the strife in her country and being a Muslim was just part of every day for her.  Very character driven.  I wanted more setting!

Goodreads synopsis:  
I am learning how to be
sad
and happy
at the same time.
          Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.
          At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.

78. Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker

listened to Audio, borrowed from Library
read by Taylor Meskimen
Unabridged audio (7:43)
2019 Viking Books for Young Readers
320 pgs.
Mid Grade CRF/Transgender female
Finished 8/15/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.08 - 203 ratings
My rating:4
Setting:   Contemporary (Portland?) Maine

First line/s:  "She had that new kid look."

My comments:  A captivating story about a trans girl who, after being orphaned, moves from Arizona to Portland, Maine to live with her aunt and her aunt's wife.  For the first time in her life she is able to dress like a girl and, without telling anyone her backstory, begins middle school in Maine.  What we discover here is a large community of LGBTQ, oodles of questioning, self-hate, extreme bullying, and finally, acceptance -- not only be her community, family, and friends, but by herself.

Goodreads synopsis:  The critically acclaimed author of Felix Yz crafts a bold, heartfelt story about a trans girl solving a cyber mystery and coming into her own.
          Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she's in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she's coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was.
          When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time. Timely and touching, Zenobia July is, at its heart, a story about finding home.

64. Where Is Area 51? by Paula K. Manzanero

In the WHOHQ series for kids
read the book - Bosler - J. 358.417
2018 Penguin Random House
108 pgs.
Middle Grades Nonfiction
Finished 7/19/19
Goodreads rating:  4.04 - 100 ratings
My rating: 4

From the Back Cover:
--It's a Nevada air force base that keeps the public far, far away
--CIA agents do supersecret work there
--Some people believe aliens and their spaceships are stored there

First line/s: "On June 14, 1947, a ranch worker named William Brazel found a pile of strange items smack in the middle of an open field near Roswell, New Mexico."

My comments: Before these "Where Is" books came out, this series began with Who Is/Was.  I used these in my 4th grade classroom for a biography study, finding them to be much more interesting and readable than most other available biographies for middle schoolers.  I no longer teach 4th graders, but was completely caught up in Where Is Area 51?  It seems really well researched, and eye-opening ... I learned a lot!  I read this as an adult for enjoyment because I do NOT LIKE nonfiction, can't get through it, and this fascinating book kept my attention for all 108 pages!  Can't wait to read the next one.

Goodreads synopsis:  You'll find it on a map--but you'll never get anywhere near this top secret military base. What exactly is going on there? 
          Is Area 51 a top secret military base that lies in the middle of the barren Nevada desert? Or could it actually be a facility for examining aliens and their spaceships? People can't drive anywhere close to it; the US government rarely acknowledges its existence; and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted! Conspiracy theories abound about what goes on at Area 51, especially since 1947 when strange objects were found in the middle of a field in Roswell, New Mexico. Author Paula K. Manzanero explains why Area 51 was established and reveals the mystery behind those unidentified flying objects in the sky. Check out this book and decide what you believe.