middle grade – Page 2 – Reading for you

Bats of fun

Megabat by Anna Humphrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A talking fruit bat who like Star Wars. A talking fruit bat who is far from home. A talking fruit bat who is best friends with a lonely boy, the girl next door, and birdgirl, the local pigeon.

All this makes for a fun, silly book about loneliness, and making friends, with bats and people.

Daniel has had to move to a new house from Toronto.

Megabat has accidentally moved to the new house too, by way of Borneo.

With the help of Talia and Birdgirl, Megabat and Jamie find what is important in friendship.

It is silly. It is fun. It is just right for early readers.

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

View all my reviews

Hospital drama

Kasey & Ivy by Alison Hughes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what a delightful book. The cover drew me in, and then the bright, funny, real voice of Kasey pulled me in the rest of the way.

The longest I have had to spend in a hospital was about a week, when my daughter was born. I hated it. Kasey has to stay a month, with old people, as the children’s ward is having renovations. At first Kasey doesn’t like to be around people. She thinks they are strange. Then she warms to them, as the story progresses. As she likes to say, being in the hospital is like being in a little village, with all the different characters you would meet.

And we get to meet all the characters through her letters that she writes home to her best friend. Missy Wong, the old woman who wants to go “upstairs” all the time. Louise, the candy stripper, (or whatever they are known as in Canada), who brings by snacks, and Night Owl, one of the night nurses.

The friendship between Missy Wong and Kasey is so strong, it was wonderful to read that she based it on someone the author met in the hospital when had to stay there, she was nine years old

The funny thing is, as I was reading this book, as an American, I thought, wow, this must be in Canada because the cost of her stay is never brought up, and isn’t part of the plot, the way it would be in the US. What does that say about how different this book would have been.

Highly recommend this book for all, even if you don’t like middle school books. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry. It’ll make you stay up late to finish it, even when you have to get up the next day.

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

View all my reviews

Journey of Reconciliation

Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Monique Gray Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The horror that was the residential schools is explored in this book that talks about what happened and what can be done to reconcile all that has gone before, for previous generations, and existing generations, by talking to survivors of the residential school system, as well as with youths of today who are only now learning about this horrid history.

For thos who don’t know, the residential schools are schools where the Canadian government took children of First Nations’ people, by force, and put them in to schools where they had their hair cut, had their clothes taken away, as well as their language, which they were punished if the spoke. They were not allowed home, except the summer, and sometimes not even then. this went on for generations. This distoryed families, for many generations, as well as obliterated the structure of the First Nations peoples.

Good book for those who want a thorough overview of what can be done, and what has been done, and what needs to be done.

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

View all my reviews

Vikings you need to know about

Vikings in 30 Seconds by Philip Steele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love when I read a children’s book and find facts that I was not aware of.

This is another in the series of “30 second” fact bites of information, this time on Vikings.

We learn about how four of the days of the week, in English, are still named after Viking gods. We learn that Vikings did not have horns on their helmets, and what their helmets looked like. We learn that Vikings used to play games and sing songs.

They had something called “kennings” which were word puzzles. They played board games and sang, but we don’t know what their music sounded like, because when outsiders came to hear it they said it sounded like dogs howling.

Fun, and quick read. Great for children to learn about Vikings.

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

View all my reviews

Figure skating and coming out

Spinning by Tillie Walden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The problem with memoirs, if the author is being true to themselves, is that things don’t always happen in a neat, perfectly rounded up way, the way they do in fictionalized stories. As I was reading this, I didn’t realize it was a memoire, and I kept wondering why the author didn’t expound on what she was writing about, give more details, but the author is in her early 20s. This is her fifth book. As far as I can tell, she is entirely self-taught, so for me to be asking for things that she probably hasn’t finished processing is a bit far fetched.

I bring this up, because, for example, she mentions that she realized she was a lesbian early on, but didn’t know what to do about it. Didn’t know how long to hide it. Didn’t know, exactly how to act on it. She says she realized that she got into figure skating because of the love that her first instructor showed towards her, the mother figure she wished she had, and she realizes that is the only reason she continued to skate, as she was still looking for that love.

This is a sad, longing story, of a girl lost in the world of figure skating, going through the motions, but not happy about it.

And this is a girl that at some point realized that art was what gave her the love and passion and joi de vivre that she once felt for figure skating, and so abandoned it to focus on her art.

I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Deep, interesting read.

View all my reviews

Those wacky humans

50 Wacky Things Humans Do: Weird & amazing facts about the human body! by Walter Foster Jr. Creative Team
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great little book of bits of science to get kids interested in well, the human body.

I went into this thinking, yeah, tell me something I don’t know, and coming out saying, I did not know that.

For example, while I did know that mother’s milk helped babies with their immune system, I did not know that the process of mothers kissing their babies helped move the babies germs into the mother so that her immune system can fight the germs, and give the immunity to her baby through mother’s milk. Way cool.

And while I know we have all heart of fireflies, did you k now that humans give off a very faint glow as well? Too soft for humans themselves to see, but there, none the less.

And another fun fact, is that human newborns have a grip so strong, that if they hung on to your finger, you could lift them up, and they would still hang on.

Kids get these little tastes of fun facts, and more, and hopefully want to delve in deeper than this book takes them, to learn more about the human body.

Great introduction to science.

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

View all my reviews

The right kind of Sherlock retelling

Girl Detective by R.A. Spratt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book is describing Friday as an 11 year-old Sherlock Holmes, and that is sort of correct. But she is not just that. She is a whole person herself.

If you are thinking, oh, this is sort of like Encyclopedia Brown, which is what I thought going in, you will be pleasantly surprised that it is not. The only similiarty is that there are usually simple mysteries that if you are observant you can solve as well. All but a few were like that, at least for me. Some, near the end, felt a little dues ex macina.

There are some great lines in the book, to give you a good idea of the humor, as well as the writing style.

Friday had received an A+ for her presentation on Rosalind Franklin and how Watson, Crick and ovarian cancer had combined to cheat her out of a Nobel Price for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA

See, if you didn’t know this, you learned this now.

Another quote that I put aside for this was:

“Yes,” said Friday. “The one thing Binky excels at is following instructions without thinking.”
“He gets that from our father,” said Melaine. “All the Pelly men are good at not thinking.”

And don’t be put off because the books were originally written and published in Australia. It has been “translated” for the most part, although there were little bits where I could tell it wasn’t originally an American book (which is fine by me).

So, you are probably asking, what is the book about? Well, it is about an 11 year old girl solving mysteries. If I say much more than that, it takes away from the enjoyment of reading and enjoying the book, at least it would for me. Friday is very likable, despite not fitting in (or in spite of, because who really does fit in at school?).

And yes it is Middle School (as opposed to YA), but don’t let that stop you. It is a quick (about 2 or 3 hours) fun read, and if you are burned out on YA or NA or whatever the current trend is, I would suggest picking this one up.

View all my reviews

Roll on roller girl

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is so cool.

This graphic novel reminds me of the best of the middle-school graphic novels, such as Smile, which are very much about making friends, and keeping friends, and growing up and apart.

Astrid, the main character, goes with her best friend, Nicole, to see a Roller Derby show, and falls in love with it. Astrid hopes that her friend will share her desire to take a Roller Derby summer camp, but Nicole wants to do Ballet Summer Camp.

And so, Astrid gets to learn how hard it is to really skate, make new friends, and be a derby-girl.

Very realistic dialogue, normal reactions to life, and I loved it. This is one of those stories I thought I would just glance at, when I really should be working, and ended up reading it instead of doing my work.

This book is for people who have had to try to learn something hard, for people who have had to make new friends, for people who do something that might not fit into what other people think they should do.

View all my reviews

Chickens you need to meet

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a sweet middle-school book, for people who love chickens, and for those who are chicken curious.

This is the tale of a youngster who inherits her great uncles chickens, only she doesn’t know her great uncle has chickens. And each chicken has a super power, so not only does she have to learn to take care of chickens in general, she has to learn to take care of these special, unusual chickens.

It has light humor, information for those who have never had a chicken (so you can learn about that), as well as well written characters.

And that is about all I am going to say, otehr than I have 13 chickens, so I might be a little prejudiced towards chicken based stories.

View all my reviews

Refugees and basketball

Sadia by Colleen Nelson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No one wants to be a refugee. No one wants to leave their homeland to live somewhere far away, away from friends, away, from family, away from things that aren’t familiar.

And Sadia isn’t technically a refugee. Her family emigrated to Canada when her father decided Syria had gotten too dangerous, so while she had seen some bad things, they left before it got really bad. Sadia is interested in basketball, and her friends and family. She does not want to be reminded about coming to Canada, and having to fit in. It is hard enough to fit in with her hijab, without having to help a new refugee from Syria, who just came to Canada, and speaks little to no English.

I liked how this story is told from Sadia’s point of view. Although she is the “other” for most readers of this book, those who are not emegrants, and are not muslim, because she has lived her long enough to know the customs, she brings the reader into her world, so we can see what is going on with her, from racial rules that say she can’t play basketball with a hijab, to her mother being sworn at the bus stop.

Good story for all kids. Good for muslim kids who need to see themselves in books, so they know they have a place in Western society. Good for everyone else to see the same.

And the underlying them, of helping others, that runs very strongly through this book, but does not hit you over the had with a two-by-four. These kids are very human, and make mistakes, but when they see a problem, they try to solve it.

Great book. Good additon to any library, or school, or home.

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

View all my reviews