#tbt: Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs. 304 p. FunJungle #1. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May, 2010. 9781416987314. Own.

Oops! Happy Thursday! I hope you had a terrific Fourth of July. I have been busy getting ready to take in a foster dog. She's coming tomorrow and you will definitely hear more about her in the coming days. I'm excited. Not so sure about Boo, though. He's going to have to learn to share.

#tbt features Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs is definitely a TMS favorite. His Spy School novels are constantly checked out, but did you know that he has several other series? Belly Up is book one of his FunJungle series and was his debut, publishing in 2010, two years before the publication of his first Spy School book.

Twelve-year-old Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt Fitzroy has just moved to Texas with his zoologist parents from Africa. In Africa, he was homeschooled and everyday was an adventure. At FunJungle, where his parents have just been hired? Not so much. That is, until the irrascible mascot of the theme park, Henry Hippo, turns up dead under mysterious circumstances. The list of suspects is long and Teddy is determined to find justice for Henry. The action is fast-paced and over-the-top - think, Home Alone visits an amusement park. Teddy's first-person narration is sassy and hilarious.

Waiting on Wednesday: Invisible Isabel by Sally J. Play

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Invisible Isabel by Sally J. Pla. 208 p. Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins Publishers, July 9, 2024. 9780063268852.

Happy Wednesday! It's another beautiful day out there! Enjoy it! Waiting on Wednesday features Invisible Isabel by Sally J. Pla. I adored Ms. Pla's debut, The Someday Birds and her most recent novel, The Fire, the Water and Maudie McGinn, which won a Schneider Family Book Award this past January. You won't have to wait long for this one. It publishes next Tuesday, July 9.

Publisher synopsis: From award-winning author Sally J. Pla comes an illustrated middle grade novel about introverted Isabel Beane, who learns to speak up to quiet her worries. This thoughtful, earnest story is perfect for fans of Elana K. Arnold and Leslie Connor.

Isabel Beane is a shy girl who lives in a home full of havoc and hubbub and hullabaloo. With five siblings, there is always too much too much-ness.

At school, there’s a new girl who is immediately popular, but she’s also not very nice to one person—Isabel.

Isabel has never felt more invisible. She begins to get bombarded by fears, like being abandoned by her classmates and taking the upcoming Extremely Important standardized test. Her fears feel like worry-moths that flutter in her belly. With every passing day, they seem to get stronger and stronger. How can Invisible Isabel make people listen?

Teen Tuesday: Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino

Image: Penguin Random House

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino. 320 p. G.P. Putnam's Sons/ Penguin Young Readers, July, 2023. 9780593533796. Review of finished, purchased copy.

Happy Tuesday TMS Readers! We have been gifted with another gorgeous summer day. Please take advantage of it and get out in nature. Teen Tuesday features Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino. This first-person narrative is told by seventeen-year-old Lilah. She has been partially deaf since birth. She wears hearing aids and her IEP calls for an FM system, but they aren't always used, so she relies on lipreading and her hearing aids to "pass," but it's sometimes frustrating and challenging. 

She wants to brush up on her ASL (American Sign Language) skills and applies to be a camp counselor at a summer camp for deaf and blind children. She has fond memories of the camp as she attended one summer when she was in the eighth grade. At camp, she meets a variety of campers and counselors with varying degrees of deafness and blindness. Oh, and one really cute boy.

In addition to being a cute, slow-burn romance, readers will learn about the deaf community - about the myriad degrees of deafness and their causes, as well as the challenges they face in a sometimes uncaring hearing world. Ms. Sortino is deaf and Give Me A Sign is her debut novel. Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday (a day late): The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate. 272 p. HarperCollins Publishers, May 7, 2024. 9780063221123. Review of finished purchased copy.

Happy Monday, a day late! I posted this to my school's learning platform yesterday and didn't get around to pasting and posting here. Happy July as well! It was a lovely day out there, so I hope you enjoyed the weather! Middle Grade Monday features The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate. This is the final book in the quartet called One and Only Ivan Stories. 

Ivan is a silverback gorilla, who is now living in a zoo/ wildlife sanctuary. Life is good. He has his own troop and even has a mate, Kinyani. Ruby lives in the habitat next door and often visits Ivan, and Bob was adopted and visits often as well. Ivan wants to be a good silverback, but grapples with tragedies from his past and worries about the future. Can he be a good dad to his twins? What should he tell them about his past?

Ms. Applegate skillfully juxtaposes humor with intense philosophical questions about conservation and the natural world. The spot art is just lovely. It is best to read all four books to appreciate the growth of this found family. 

Happy reading!