Category: middle grade

Things you never knew about cats

Super Cats: True Stories of Felines That Made HistorySuper Cats: True Stories of Felines That Made History by Elizabeth MacLeod
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hey, my mother bread siamese when she was a girl. There were always cats in our house. At one point we had five of them. So, having said all that, I thought I knew everything there was to k now about cats, and though I would be reading the same old stuff that all cat books have.

I was quite wrong.

This is a fantastic, middle-grade reference books, which tells the story of cats, through antidotes, for each stage in their history. And it isn’t the stories you have heard before. One very sad story was of a cat that was accused of hunting the Stephen’s Wren into extinction.

And thrown in are a lot of cat facts, or cat observations.

Another story is of cats that have helped at sea, such as Simon, the only cat to be awarded the Dickin Medal, which is given to animals who have helped out in wartime.

I think this would be a great addition to any school, public or home library.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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The next in the Breadwinner Series

Parvana's Journey (Breadwinner Series)Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Journey

As a whole I hate journey stories because that is usually the whole story. In this case it is a journey that has a purpose, but there is no long term goal. Except to be in Pairs in 20 years.

Good, well researched book. Now on to the next book in the series.

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The Breadwinner series

The Breadwinner (Breadwinner Series)The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disguised

Well written, middle-school story of a girl that is forced to dress as a boy in order to earn money for her family in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.

Although the author is not from Afghanistan, she apparently interviewed many refugees, heard their stories, and wrote this, based on all those interviews. This is the first book in the series. Now, I will move on to the second, as I am curious to see what happens next.

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Hidden Women

Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped America Win the Space RaceHidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped America Win the Space Race by Rebecca Rissman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nicely done middle-grade version of Hidden Figures would be the best way to describe this, though I have to say I have only seen the movie and not read the book, so that may be to simplified, although the bibliography does list that book, as well as others, as one of the author’s sources.

What is nice about this is how Rebecca brings in what was going on socially while these women were working for NASA, about the civil rights movement, and the cold war. And the story does not end with with the landing on the moon, but goes as far, in the final chapter, the epilogue as talking about where women of color are today, in the agency.

Would recommend this for middle school classrooms and libraries. Lost of positive stories of women working to advance despite obstacles. Good to get the story out for the younger readers too.

Thanks to Netgalley and Captstone for making this book available for an honest review.

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Young, gifted and black

Young, Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and PresentYoung, Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present by Jamia Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book, as the authors point out, is written in the spirit of the song “to be young, gifted and black.”

Not all the men and women in this book were young when they became famous. But, it is important to see that there are others who had dreams, before you, who succeeded.

And it may be that you have never heard of Matthew Henson, but he was an explorer who was the first African-American to trek in the Arctic, despite the fact that he didn’t learn to read until 12, and found work on a merchant ship, where the ship’s captain taught him. He was right along there with Admiral Perry when he went to explore the Arctic.

There are the usual people in there, of course, as well, such as Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver. But there is also Mo Farah, Kofi Annan and Jesse Owens. The time line spans the past and the present, including Simone Biles, the gymnast. This is also not limited to African-Americans, but Black people from all over the world. We have Oprah Winfrey next to Pelé. And each short bio has a quote. Nelson Mandela’s “It always seems impossible, until it it’s done”

This is a great book, that should be in every school and library. It will inspire, and delight. And show what has gone before.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Historical novel set in San Francisco

Under the AshesUnder the Ashes by Cindy Rankin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Wonderful middle school historical novel. Well researched and what a great spunky protagonist as well as a guest appearance of Caruso. Truly captures the feeling of being in San Francisco on the morning of April 18th 1906.

I have not been on such a huge disaster as the 1906 earthquake though I have lived through two major ones in my lifetime. The author has caught the feel and comradely and fear that comes with it.

Would highly recommend it.

Thanks to netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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All the dirt

All the Dirt: A History of Getting CleanAll the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean by Katherine Ashenburg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very detailed, yet fun book about the history of cleanliness, all over the world, although the main focus is the Western world. If all you know about how people kept clean, in the past, is the Roman bathes and perfume, then this book will fill you in on the different ideas about cleanliness, as well as how people achieved it from ancient times, to the present.

Each chapter begins with a view of what it must have been like in the time period, to be clean, taken from source material. And how our view of cleanliness changed, as the times changed, how some thought it was more holy to be dirty and some people thought it was the opposite.

Good book to have in the classroom, or home. Apparently, this is a child’s version of the adult book on dirt written by the same author.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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How to become a super hero

Captain SuperlativeCaptain Superlative by J.S. Puller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Junior High was what it used to be called. It is that period of time when you are forging your identity and you are no longer a kid but you aren’t quite a high schooler. It is when friendships change and people changed.

So how, how do most people deal with this? How do most people get by? In Janey’s case, it is by being invisible. In Captain Superlative’s case, it is by not being invisible.

It is a charming, thoughtful story of a friendship and that idea if you do little things, that life changes for the better. I have heard this before. At the school I wanted to send my daughter, one of the things the teachers stressed was that the students became citizens of the world, of the community. That when they saw someone fall, they rushed to help them up. When they saw something that needed to be done, they did it. This too, is what Captain Superlative does. She opens doors, she picks up dropped books. She makes sure the wrongs are righted

It may sound hokey, but it works, and it is one of those stories where you cry, but you smile as well. It is a story about handling mean girls, and bullies. It is a gentle story with a strong message.

Bit by bit we find out why Captain Superlative is doing what she is doing.  She drops hints along the way, but Janey doesn’t quite pick up one them.  Several times she says that life is too short, but that flies over Janey’s head.

There are also hints why the mean girl is the way she is.

So, good to read on the surface, but also good to pick up on what is going on, before the big reveal, so to speak.

I think the introduction could be done away with, because it sort of gives away a little bit of what will happen in the story. But, it works.

Diversity, super heros, strong girls. This is a charming, fun read. Sad, of course, but happy in bits as well.

Strongly recommened.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Kim-bap is not Korean Sushi

Krista Kim-BapKrista Kim-Bap by Angela Ahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I was in the grade school, we studied our heritage, just as Krista does in this middle-school book. And like Krista, we were encouraged to study our cultural history through food. We were all supposed to bring in recipes from our family that were part of our heritage. My heritage was half Italian and have British. But, my father, like the parents in this book, who are first generation born in their country, do not speak to the language of their parents. Thus, like Krista, I did not know Italian, in her case Korean, and so felt closer to my British heritage. So, while all the other kids were brining in strange and exotic recipies, I brought in one for fruit cake. My teacher though I had misunderstood the assignment. She kept saying, bring in something from my heriatage, and I’d tried to explain to her that I had.

She sent me back to try again.

I told my mother, the British side of my family, what had happened, and she realized the teacher wanted something Italian, despite the fact that none of us ate anything more Italian than pizza, and so gave me a receipt for eels in wine sauce.

The teacher approved.

Krista, in this book, does not have this problem, because her grandmother is still alive, and actually wants to help her learn to cook Korean.

But this book is not just about Krista learning how to cook Korean food. This is a fish-out-of-water story. A girl whose best friend is a boy, and how doesn’t understand the girls in her class, not because she is Korean-Canadian, but because she doesn’t understand girls in general.

And it takes her grandmother to help her with the assignment, and with the understanding.

It really is a sweet story, and I am so glad that Krista showed how eating Korean was important to her heritage and who she was.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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