Waiting on Wednesday: Malcolm Lives by Ibram X. Kendi

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Malcolm Lives: the Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers by Ibram X. Kendi. 400p. Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR. May 13, 2025.

I'm so excited for this biography. I'm a fan of Dr. Kendi. This news just inspired my #tbt post for tomorrow!

Publisher synopsis: In collaboration with the Malcolm X Estate, this powerful biography for young readers is a modern classic in the making, written by #1 New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi.

Published 100 years after his birth, Malcolm Lives! is a ground-breaking narrative biography of one of the most influential Americans of all time.

Dr. Kendi expertly crafts a propulsive telling of Malcolm X’s life—from birth to death. He provides context for both Malcolm’s choices—and those around him—not just painting an intimate picture of a famous figure, but of the social and political landscape of America during the civil rights movement.

Ultimately, Malcolm's true legacy is a journey toward anti-racism. Just like history, Malcolm lives.

With short, evocative chapters, exclusive archival documents, photographs from the Malcolm X Collection at the NYPL Schomburg Center, and extensive backmatter,this is a thoughtful and accessible, must-read for all Americans.

#tbt: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Image: Macmillan

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. 224 p. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)/ Macmillan, October, 1999. 9780374311254. (Own)

Happy Thursday! There's a week of rain predicted here in northern NJ and I have a nice stack of books on hand. #TBT features Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda Sordino starts her freshman year of high school as an outcast. She called the police at the big end-of-summer party and some students were arrested, but not the right one. Melinda found that she could not speak about what happened to her to cause her to call the police. She has almost entirely stopped speaking. She can't even stand to look in the mirror. Her parents think she's seeking attention.

This first-person, almost stream-of-consciousness story is often painful to read, and may not be for everyone, but it tells an important story. Speak was published in 1999. It was a National Book Award Finalist, a Printz Honor book, numerous other awards and was also a New York Times Bestseller. It was adapted for film and was released in 2004, starring Kristen Stewart as Melinda. More recently, it was adapted into a graphic novel. It appears regularly on the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom Banned Books Lists.

#tbt: Joey Pizza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos

Image of ppb/ Macmillan

Joey Pizza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. 176 p. Farrar Straus Giroux/ Macmillan, October, 1998. (Own)

#tbt features Joey Pizza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. This first-person narration by fifth grader, Joey Pigza has heart. He really wants to be good, but his severe ADHD gets in the way of his good intentions. His alcoholic father has abandoned the family. His mother has had it and leaves Joey in the care of his grandmother, who is not the kindest caretaker. His teachers all try, but Joey's meds wear off by noon and he's heading toward placement in a special education class. This story veers from hilarious to heartbreaking and back again.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key was a National Book Award Finalist. It was also named an ALA Notable Book and an SLJ Best Book. It is book one of a five-book series about Joey's trials and tribulations.

#tbt: Holes by Louis Sachar

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Holes by Louis Sachar. 233 p. Farrar, Straus, Giroux/ Macmillan Publishers, August, 1998. 9780374332657. (Own.) 

Happy Thursday! I'm winging my way to Peoria a bit later today to visit my second eldest son, his wife and their son. Max is graduating from his neurosurgical residency and heading to UCLA for a spine fellowship. His son turned one last month and they are holding a belated birthday party for him as well. Happy times tinged with sadness as my husband, who was so incredibly proud of Max is not here to celebrate as well.

#tbt features Holes by Louis Sachar. After Stanley Yelnats is wrongly convicted of the theft of some donated basketball sneakers, he's sent to Camp Green Lake. There is no camp and there is no lake. All he and the other boys remanded to the facility do all day is dig holes in the hot sun. They are instructed to report any interesting discoveries to the warden.

The Yelnats family is cursed, and in a series of flashbacks, readers learn about how the family curse came to be. And just what about those holes? There's history behind that as well. Mr. Sachar seamlessly weaves these three strands with memorable characters and some hilarious situations. 

Holes won the Newbery Medal as well as the National Book Award. It was named to numerous State Awards and adapted for film in 2003. In 2006, the author published a companion novel called Small Steps.

Middle Grade Monday: A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner

Image: Macmillan Publishers

A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner. 288 p. Farrar Straus Giroux (BYR)/ Macmillan Publishers, February, 2020. 9780374312732. (Review of finished copy borrowed from public library.)

Sixth grader Silas Wade lives for baseball. He's devoted to his Little League team and hustles in both practice and games. He loves to crack jokes and make his teammates laugh. He's also a devoted student of the sport-the psychology, the strategy and the history. When researching Glenn Burke for an oral report, Silas learns more than the fact that Burke was the inventor of the high five. He learns that Burke was gay. This is earth-moving for Silas, who is coming to realize his own identity. He's thrilled to be sharing his enthusiasm for Burke and his invention, but also terrified that his teammates and classmates will connect the dots. 

He comes out to his best friend, Zoey, and swears her to secrecy. This puts a bit of a strain on their friendship, but then he betrays her, rightfully earning her wrath. His lie explodes in his face and, as the pressure builds, his baseball suffers. 

Phil Bildner nailed it with this engaging novel. In High Five for Glenn Burke, we have a narrator who is endearing as well as irritating. His energy just crackles off the page and that can be a bit exhausting. We all know kids like this.

We also have superb baseball - history, as well as the mechanics of practice and games. We have a stressed out family that is doing their best. We have a best friendship that has hit the skids. Most of all, we have an author who skillfully combined these ingredients to realistically portray an adolescent's coming out in all its messy glory. Highly recommended!

#tbt: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. 154 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux/ Macmillan Publishers, October 1998. 9780374336646. (Own)

#tbt features Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. Joey Pigza is a little boy with a big problem. He can't seem to sit still and he's very impulsive. He wondered what would happen if he stuck his finger into the pencil sharpener and found out. He takes medicine for this, but it's definitely not working and Joey feels very stupid. This first-person narrative is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Joey is as endearing as he is aggravating. Readers will definitely root for Joey.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is the first book in the Joey Pigza series. It was published in the fall of 1998 and won numerous awards, including being named a National Book Finalist and an ALA Notable Book.

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Halfway to Harmony by Barbara O'Connor

Image: Macmillan

Halfway to Harmony by Barbara O'Connor. 256 p. Farrar, Straus & Giroux/ Macmillan, January 12, 2021. 9780374314460.

Waiting on Wednesday features Halfway to Harmony by Barbara O'Connor. Ms. O'Connor is the author of a few TMS favorites such as, How to Steal a Dog and Wish, though my personal favorite is The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. She's a middle grade author who doesn't waste a word. Her books are short, accessible and aim straight for the heart. Here's the publisher's synopsis for Halfway to Harmony, which is due out January 12, 2021.

"Walter Tipple is looking for adventure. He keeps having a dream that his big brother, Tank, appears before him and says, “Let’s you and me go see my world, little man.” But Tank went to the army and never came home, and Walter doesn’t know how to see the world without him.

Then he meets Posey, the brash new girl from next door, and an eccentric man named Banjo, who’s off on a bodacious adventure of his own. What follows is a summer of taking chances, becoming braver, and making friends—and maybe Walter can learn who he wants to be without the brother he always wanted to be like."

#tbt: Holes by Louis Sachar

Image: Macmillan

Holes by Louis Sachar. 272 p. Farrar Straus and Giroux (BYR), August, 1998. 

#tbt features Holes by Louis Sachar. Holes was published in 1998 and won both the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal! Holes is the story of Stanley Yelnats III and his cursed family. Stanley receives a pair of sneakers, a special pair of sneakers, from the sky and finds himself arrested for theft. He's ultimately sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center, where he is informed he has to dig holes - five feet deep and five feet around. The intricate plot travels back in time to tell two stories; that of a school teacher and a Black man who grows onions and wants to learn to read, as well as Stanley's grandfather's story. While humorous, this affecting novel touches on issues of racism as well as incarcerated teens. The book was optioned for a film, which released in 2003. 

Holes is the rare Newbery winner that becomes popular with students. I very clearly recall a student's reactions when it was assigned for summer reading by an LA teacher, "Finally! A winner I enjoyed reading!"

Waiting on Wednesday: Give and Take by Elly Swartz

Give and Take by Elly Swartz. 176 p. Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR, October 15, 2019. 9780374308216.

Publisher synopsis: When eleven-year-old Maggie's parents become foster parents for a new baby, her tendency to hoard spirals out of control.

I absolutely adored this author's debut and sophomore titles. Finding Perfect and Smart Cookie and am so-o excited for this!

Fact Friday: The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater. 320 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux, October, 2017. 9780374303235. (Review from purchased copy.)

Happy Friday TMS Readers! As week seven comes to a close, the first day of school is on the horizon. Or should we not even think about that yet?

Our Fact Friday is a tough read. Its written for a YA audience and tackles some tough social justice issues. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater examines a hate crime that was committed in Oakland, California in 2013 on the 57 bus. Seventeen-year-old Sasha attended a private high school and fourteen-year-old Richard attended public high school. They didn't know each other but they both took the 57 bus to get to and from school. Sasha caught Richard's eye on the 57 bus because Sasha had fallen asleep and was wearing a skirt. Sasha appeared to be a boy to Richard so Richard thought it would be a funny prank to set Sasha's skirt on fire with a lighter. The skirt was made of a gauzy material and ignited suddenly, engulifing Sasha's legs in flames. Richard never intended such a catastrophic injury. Sasha spent months in the hospital and many more recovering from his burns. Richard was charged with a hate crime and was also charged as an adult, which meant he would spend many years behind bars once convicted. Slater skillfully delves into the many facets of this headlining-grabbing story. The reader learns about both boys' life, their interests, their challenges. The reader also learns many, many statistics, like how the criminal justice system in California; how the law disproportionately punishes black offenders and how lgbtq people, especially youth, are disproportionately victimized. There's a lot to digest, think about and discuss here for older teens and adults. The 57 Bus won a Stonewall Award and was an Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult finalist.

#tbt: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. 154 p. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. 0374336644. (Own)

#tbt features Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. This is the first of five "Joey Pigza" books. It was published in 1998 and was a National Book Award Finalist that year. This is the first-person narration of Joey, who's up-front about himself. Consider this first line, "At school they say I'm wired bad, or wired mad, or wired sad, or wired glad, depending on my mood and what teacher has ended up with me. But there is no doubt about it, I'm wired." Joey is a good kid, with an unsettled home life and what he calls "dud meds." He wants to behave; but once those meds wear off after lunch, he's on a rollercoaster. So is the reader. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is at turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Writing these words and remembering this character makes me want to reread the book! Perhaps I will, with my ears, later this summer. Jack Gantos narrates and his narrations are always a treat.

#tbt: A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos. 200 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux, March, 2002, 0374399883. (Own)

A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos was published in 2002 and was awarded both Printz and Sibert Honors. It is Gantos' brutally honest account of his life as a jailbird. He didn't have the most stable and supportive parents as he was growing up. He was working a series of dead end jobs hoping to pay for college and getting nowhere when he was approached by two men and asked if he could sail a boat from St. Croix to New York City. The fact that the boat was filled with two tons of hashish didn't bother him. He was getting $10,000! It wasn't long after docking in New York City that the FBI, who had been trailing the men, arrested them. Gantos was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.

Yes, the man who went on to write the Rotten Ralph books, the Jack books and the Joey Pigza books; the man who eventually won a Newbery Medal for Dead End in Norvelt, made some bad choices. He wanted to be a writer. He wanted to go to college. He wanted to survive prison. 

The eighth grade LA teachers do a memoir unit and this is one of my go-to memoirs to book talk. It is a powerful read. Every single student who has checked it out has been bowled over by it and most have go on to read his other books. 

Fact Friday: Writing Radar by Jack Gantos

Writing Radar: using your journal to snoop out and craft great stories by Jack Gantos. 204 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux, August, 2017. 9780374304560. (Own)

I love hosting authors, be it for the day or an hour while on a book tour.  Students are highly interested to hear about the creation of their favorite books - from idea through publication and sometimes beyond (I'm looking at you, Sarah Weeks). I especially love the look on my students' faces when our author talks about revision. Kenneth Oppel shared a slide with a photo of the revisions for This Dark Endeavor that stood several feet high. They were gobsmacked. Students don't like to revise. Many seem to think that authors write a finished product on the first go-round, despite the fact that their teachers and I tell them they don't. As I look around the audience, I see students casting furtive glances at their LA teachers, who are usually nodding in agreement. It's nice to have back up. Reading this book or having your students read this book is the next best thing to having an author come in-person. 

And what an author he is! I have read and adored much of Jack Gantos' work. I have also heard him speak on several occasions and stood on lines for autographs where he greets each person as though he has know them forever. It truly is remarkable. He also draws a cartoon with his autograph.

Writing Radar is a master class in creative writing. It is conversational yet structured, often laugh-out-loud funny and quite practical. It's great to hand to your budding writers or to use in creative writing class. It really is a must purchase for any school or classroom library along with the audiobook, which the author narrates. In fact, read the book with both your ears and eyes simultaneously. That way, you don't miss out on Gantos' many illustrations and you actually get to hear the maestro instruct.

Writing Radar: using your journal to snoop out and craft great stories by Jack Gantos. Unabridged audiobook on 3 compact disks. 3.5 hours. Read by the author. Macmillan Audio, August, 2017. 9781427291219. (own)

Middle Grade Monday: Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost. 183 p. Frances Foster Books/ Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2009. 9780374316532. (Own)

Middle Grade Monday features Crossing Stones by Helen Frost. This verse novel is set during World War I. Two families farm on either side of Crabapple Creek. The Jorgensen and the Norman families are great friends and they use the crossing stones in the creek to visit each other often. Muriel is discovering that her feelings for Frank Norman might be more than just friendship. Then he enlists to fight in the war and his brother, Ollie, lies about his age to join him. Muriel opposes the war and is also intrigued by her aunt's work for women's suffrage. 

The poems in this beautiful work of historical fiction are "cupped hand" sonnets and their shape also symbolize the crossing stones that connect the two families and their farms. This remarkable verse novel brings the events of America's entrance into the first World War as well as other issues of the day, to vivid life.

#tbt: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. 208 p. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October, 1999. 9780374371524. (Own.)

Our Teen Tuesday feature is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak should probably be required reading for all eighth grade students as they leave middle school. It was Anderson's YA debut. It was a National Book Award Finalist and won a Printz Honor. It is a diary of sorts, narrated by Melinda Sordino. The book is divided into marking periods. Melinda starts her freshman year as an outcast because of what happened at a senior party during the summer. Yes, she did call the police but not to bust the party. She just can't bring herself to explain what happened. Instead, she has stopped speaking. The narrative is a bit fractured as Melinda struggles to confront her trauma, but gripping from page one. The story was recently turned into a graphic novel.

Waiting on Wednesday: Wonderland by Barbara O'Connor

Learned about this from the author's blog (and also her FB page) a month ago.

Wonderland by Barbara O'Connor. 224 p. Farrar Straus & Giroux BYR, August 28, 2018. 9780374310608.

Publisher synopsis: MAVIS JEETER is fearless and bold, but she has never lived in one place long enough to have a real best friend. Her flighty mother has uprooted them again to another new home and taken a job as a housekeeper for the Tully family. Mavis wants this home to be permanent—which means finding herself a best friend.
ROSE TULLY is a worrier who feels like she doesn’t quite fit in with the other girls in her neighborhood. Her closest friend is Mr. Duffy, but he hasn’t been himself since his dog died. Rose may have to break a few of her mother’s many rules to help Mr. Duffy—and find someone who really understands her.
HENRY has run away from home, but he craves kindness and comfort—and doesn’t know where to look for them.
When Mavis and Rose hatch a scheme to find Mr. Duffy a new dog, their lives and Henry’s intersect—and they all come to find friendship in places they never expected.

I love Barbara O'Connor's books and can't wait to crack open a new one.

Arc Review: Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz

Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz. 304 p. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, October 18, 2016. 9780374303129. (Review from arc courtesy of the publisher.)

Molly Nathan likes things just so. Her cherished collection of glass animals has to be arranged perfectly. Her homework is not allowed to have one erasure. She's at odds with odd numbers. And that moment just before she recites her poetry in the slam, is perfect. Unfortunately, it's getting harder for Molly to achieve perfect. Her brother keeps disturbing her animals. The work is getting harder in school. The rituals she keeps to keep her anxiety down are starting to get in the way. She's terrified that her best friend might find out. She's also yearning for her mom to return to the family. She thinks that if she wins the poetry slam, her mom will have to come back.


In the last two months, I have read four books in which the main character suffers from OCD - two YA and two MG. All were well-drawn, engaging and tugged at my heartstrings. In my book, it is most difficult to write middle grade fiction. The author has to get so much right and it's so easy to get things wrong. In Finding Perfect, we have a winning main character in Molly. She's not only facing common problems - family dysfunction and friendship conflict -  but she's battling irresistible rituals that are taking over her life.

I think it's safe to say that we all have a Molly in our life, especially if we are in education. We just might not know it yet. I think this is an important book. I'm not real into bibliotherapy. I tend prefer to give books not to the "sufferer" per se, but friends and classmates so that they might gain some compassion and insight. I guess I'm on a bit of mission to eradicate offhand comments like, "I am so-o-o OCD!" in both adults and students. No! No! No! No! Young people who are in the grips of this are crippled by anxiety and rituals. This book effectively, even brilliantly portrays the stark reality at an age-appropriate level for the middle grade reader.  (I highly recommend The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten for a brilliant YA treatment.)

Finding Perfect also features well-drawn secondary characters, including sympathetic adults.The dialogue is realistic and Molly's narration is nearly pitch-perfect. I think this would make for a terrific audiobook with the right, young-sounding narrator. I also think the cover is pretty perfect (take a gander at the spine art).

Another notable debut from the "Sweet Sixteens!" I can't wait to booktalk this next school year!