Heavy Medal
Tag: middle grade realistic fiction
Review of the Day: Losers at the Center of the Galaxy by Mary Winn Heider
In an era of information overload, Mary Winn Heider is the author who will lead us through the pandemonium into the light. Hand this to the kid that wants something smart and funny with a side order of turmoil for spice.
31 Days, 31 Lists: Great Middle Grade Novels of 2020
The penultimate list. Maybe, with lists like this one, we can all try to end 2020 on a slightly less terrible note.
Review of the Day: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
I’m late to the party in celebrating this book, but now that I’m here, let’s dance until dawn! This is one book that kids and adults alike will read and never ever forget.
More Recent Posts
Review of the Day: Wink by Rob Harrell
They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the bit of lighthearted levity we all need and crave.
Review of the Day: Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Not every 12-year-old is going to be ready for the abuse and pain addressed in Bradley’s latest. But for those kids that want a book can be honest with them about the world, written at their age-level, with funny parts and a happy ending where things get better, this is that book. It ain’t easy but it’s there for you.
Review of the Day: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
It’s kind of gratifying to know that the story has been finding its audience. And what child wouldn’t find the notion of living on a school bus, tricked out like a long, yellow mobile home, enticing?
ADVERTISEMENT
Review of the Day: The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus
You know why you haven’t heard more people talking about this book? Because nobody knows how to sell it. Well, sorry folks, but the secret is out now. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read for kids, and maybe the best school rated children’s novel I’ve encountered period. This, right here, is the book of our times.
Review of the Day: Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Good news. I know exactly what to do with this particular middle school book. You need to weigh it down with awards, so many that it can no longer stand under its own weight and is forced to stagger to the display unit that stands front and center in the library where all the best books go. Then, and only then, will it have found its true home.
Review of the Day: A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
Lisa Moore Ramée has taken the complexity of the real world, with all its police shootings and racism and destructive tendencies and made it personal for young readers. I don’t care what kid you hand this book to. Every single one of them will understand what’s going on here and, maybe, what’s going on in the wider world. The new required reading.
Review of the Day: The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss
The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle By Christina Uss Margaret Ferguson Books (an imprint of Holiday House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8234-4007-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. The term “quirky” has gotten a bad rap recently. I blamed forced quirk. Have you ever read or watched something where the book or movie is just trying too […]
Trending on the SLJ Blog Network
Follow This Blog
Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.