Middle Grade Monday: Nat for Nothing by Maria Scrivan

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Nat for Nothing by Maria Scrivan. 240 p. Nat Enough series #4. Graphix/ Scholastic, February, 2023. 9781338715422.

Happy Monday! Middle Grade Monday features Nat for Nothing by Maria Scrivan. In book 4 of the Nat Enough series, the principal at Nat's school is all about rules and Nat seems to break them alot. It didn't help that she was late for the first day of school and in her rush forgot to change out of her bunny slippers, but then she was caught running in the halls by him. He also issued a rule that all students should be involved in an extra-curricular activity. Nat's friends have no trouble finding their "thing." Flo joins puppetry and Zoe makes the volleyball team...with Lily, her former BFF. Not only does Nat not have a thing, her friends do and she's seeing them less and less, and Zoe and Lily seem to be getting particularly tight. What is Nat to do?

There are quite a few fans of this series at my school and book 4 does not disappoint.

Fact Friday: Where Have All the Birds Gone? : Nature in Crisis by Rebecca E. Hirsch

Image: Lerner Publishing

Happy Friday! Tomorrow is Earth Day and I hope you will get out and do something in nature tomorrow (and every day). Fact Friday features Where Have All the Birds Gone? : Nature in Crisis by Rebecca E. Hirsch. Did you know that birds have an important function in ecosystems around the world? Sure, they are pretty to look at and birdsong is just delightful to hear, but some, like hummingbirds, pollinate flowers, and others, like owls, keep down rodents. Unfortunately, bird populations are plummeting. According to this book, since 1970, the U.S. and Canada have lost nearly 30% of the bird population. This is due to human development, especially tall buildings and light pollution. House cats that are allowed out of doors prey on birds. Pesticides humans dump on lawns and spray in the air get into the insects that birds consume and poison them. And climate change is also affecting migration patterns.

Read this book to learn how scientists are trying to mitigate this loss. Try to notice the birds that surround you each day and consider what you might be able to do to make the environment less harsh.

#tbt: A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

Image: Little, Brown

Happy Thursday! The weather around here has been crazy extremes. It got so hot last week that all the flowering trees burst into bloom and almost immediately faded. This week it's cold. Oh, and my refrigerator broke. It's seven years old and its fancy computer had problems the company couldn't fix from the beginning. Okay, I can live without the computer connecting to the network to tell me the weather, but I need the my food to stay cool enough not to spoil. I'm having trouble getting a repairman because the brand is apparently notoriously difficult to repair. Ugh! My last fridge lasted 30 years without a problem.

#tbt features A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass, who recently posted about it turning twenty! Thirteen-year-old Mia has a secret. She has synethesia and as a synethete, she sees things that no one else sees. She sees the world in colors and shapes. Her beloved cat, for instance, is a mango cloud. This has been an easy secret to keep until she hits algebra and foreign language. Her colors don't translate here. Also, things are not great with her best friend and her brother constantly puts her down.

When it published in 2003, I was working in a different school library. I book talked the title and a student exclaimed, "That's what I have! Can I read this?" She was so thrilled to see herself in a novel and her classmates and friends got to understand her a bit better as well - mirrors and windows.

A Mango-Shaped Space won The Schneider Family Book Award and is a TMS favorite, as most of her books are. 

Middle Grade Monday: Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Happy Monday TMS Readers and welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful spring break. Middle Grade Monday features Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. Jude lives in a seaside town in Syria with her parents, beloved grandmother and older brother, Issa. She dreams of becoming a movie star, but the war is coming close and Issa longs to join the resistance in Aleppo. Jude's pregnant mother wishes to flee Syria, but her father refuses to leave.

This emotionally resonant story is told in first-person blank verse in five parts. Readers follow Jude's journey from Syria to Cincinnati, where she and her mother go to live with her uncle, who is a medical doctor and his family. His daughter, Sarah is not at all pleased and Jude wonders how she will ever fit in.

Other Words for Home was named a Newbery Honor, an SLJ Best Book and an ALA Notable Book. It belongs in every school, public, and classroom library. Highly recommended. 

What's New?

"Stacking the Shelves" was a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It seems the blog is gone though, so I will just continue to post a "What's New? post whenever I receive new books. 

For Review:

Image: Macmillan

Kelcie Murphy and the Hunt for the Heart of Danu by Erika Lewis. The Academy of Unbreakable Arts #2. Starscape/ A Tom Doherty Associates Book/ Macmillan Publishers, July 25, 2023. 9781250208309. 

Publisher synopsis: Kelcie Murphy is back in another action-packed middle grade adventure, Kelcie Murphy and the Hunt for the Heart of Danu!, the second book in Erika Lewis's magical series infused with Celtic mythology, The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts.

It’s hard having a father who’s an infamous traitor. It’s even harder having a mother who’s an omen of doom.

After a summer away, Kelcie Murphy is excited to be back at the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. But she and her friends have barely settled in when they receive a visit from her mother—the war goddess, Nemain—with a warning of coming calamity.

The Heart of Danu, the legendary source of all light and warmth in the Lands of Summer, is going to be stolen. And only Kelcie and her mates can stop it. As they travel with the rest of the students to Summer City to take part in the glorious Ascension Ceremony, Kelcie has no time for the military parade, the lavish ball, or even to visit her father: she’s determined to protect the Heart and her new home.

But the Lands of Summer are still not a welcoming place for Kelcie. When disaster strikes, the Queen, the High Guard, and even some of her schoolmates suspect Kelcie is to blame.

As the world is plunged into darkness, Kelcie will have to decide: does she keep fighting for a place that may always see her as a traitor’s daughter, or for a future greater than the war to come.

I really enjoyed book one, Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. I look forward to immersing myself in Kelcie's world again. 

Purchased: Nothing!

What's new on your pile?

#tbt: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. 368 p. Shatter Me #1. HarperCollins, 2011.  

Happy Thursday! #tbt features Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This dystopian series starter is narrated by seventeen-year-old Juliette from solitary confinement, where she has spent nearly. year. She's there because her touch is lethal and the Reestablishment wants to use her as a weapon of terror. She's confused when she suddenly receives a roommate. Adam was a friend. He's also immune to her touch. Can she trust him?

This plot-driven first-person narrative is fast-paced, suspenseful and violent. The romance between Juliette and Adam sizzles with tension. The ending is not a cliffhanger, but leaves enough unresolved that readers will demand the next book.

Shatter Me is Ms. Mafi's debut. It was published in 2011. Five sequels were published between 2013 and 2020.

Waiting on Wednesday: Cobra Song by Supriya Kelkar

Image: Simon & Schuster

Cobra Song by Supriya Kelkar. 304 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May 16, 2023. 9781665911887.

Happy Wednesday! Waiting on Wednesday features Cobra Song by Supriya Kelkar. This book is due out on May 16 and I just love the cover!

Publisher synopsis: From the author of American as Paneer Pie comes a magical middle grade adventure steeped in Indian folklore following a girl who learns how to find her voice and face her fears, perfect for fans of Aru Shah and Amina’s Song.

Ten-year-old Geetanjali doesn’t mind singing, but she knows she’ll never be as good as her mother, Aai, or grandmother, Aaji, famous classical singers from India whose celebrity has followed the family all the way to their small town of Deadwood, Michigan, where Geetanjali lives with her aai, and father, Baba.

After freezing on stage during a concert performance, Geetanjali adds “fear of singing” to her list of fears, a list that seems to be multiplying daily. Aai tries to stress the importance of using one’s voice and continuing to sing; Geetanjali hopes that when her Aaji, comes to visit this summer, she’ll be able to help her.

But when they pick Aaji up at the airport, she’s not alone. Lata, an auntie Geetanjali has never met before is with Aaji and their neighbor, Heena Auntie, who is acting strange and mean, and not like the warm auntie she normally is. Lata Auntie has heard all about Geetanjali’s family, growing up in India. She knows Aai and Aaji are the only ones who can sing raag Naagshakti. Aai plays it off, but Geetanjali thinks back to the raag in the binder that started with an N that had been torn out. She has never heard of Raag Naagshakti, which sounds like it is about the power of cobras.

Geetanjali is determined not to let her imagination get the best of her and add aunties to her list of fears, but she can’t help but wonder about the connection between the missing raag, Heena Auntie’s cold behavior, and their interesting summer visitor.

Teen Tuesday: A Thousand Steps into the Night by Traci Chee

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Happy Tuesday!  Teen Tuesday features A Thousand Steps into the Night by Traci Chee. Seventeen-year-old Otori Miuko is doomed. She was born, plain and clumsy, into the serving class, bound by restrictive gender and class roles. Still, her father took care of her, even after her mother deserted the family. Then, Miuko is cursed by a demon and she's driven from her village. She has two weeks to undo the curse before she's changed into her demon form forever. She rescues a magpie from some foxes and discovers that it is the shape-shifting trickster, Geiki, who is now in her debt for saving his life. The two set out across Awara and they encounter evil humans and gods as well as unexpected allies.

This fast-paced adventure is filled with gods from Japanese mythology, memorable characters and vivid world building. Atmospheric, suspenseful and filled with moments of humor, this dark fantasy will appeal to fans of Studio Ghibli. 

The narration was well-paced, with the narrator sounding suitably youthful. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

Image: Tantor Audio

The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden. Unabridged e-Audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by Amy Melissa Bentley. Tantor Audio, February, 2019. 

Middle Grade Monday features The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden. Seventh grader Zoey Albro's favorite animal is the octopus. Some qualities she admires are their strength, adaptability and ability to blend in and not be seen. She tries to do this every day, but it's kind of hard when your over-worked mother hasn't done the laundry and you're wearing dirty, old clothes, or when you've forgotten your homework yet again because you were trying to keep your three younger siblings from getting Lenny mad. She admires the ease with which her classmate, Matt, moves through the world- well-dressed, well-fed, probably well-loved and definitely not afraid of making the wrong move in Lenny's pristine trailer.

This coming-of-age novel is filled with heartbreak. Zoey is a bright girl with too much responsibility. But there's hope, especially when one of her teachers looks past the missing homework to understand her.

The Benefits of Being an Octopus was Ms. Braden's debut novel. It was named and NPR Best Book of 2018 and a Bank Street Best Book. The audiobook narration was well-paced and emotionally resonant.