Middle Grade Monday: The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Fusco Newton

Image: Penguin Random House

The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Fusco Newton. 368 p. Knopf Books for Young Readers/ Random House Children's Books, January, 2025. 9880593121771. Review of finished copy courtesy of Blue Slip Media. 

Middle Grade Monday features The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Fusco Newton. This historical fiction is set in 1930 and is narrated by Hurricane, a quiet tween who is familiar with loss. She lives with her nineteen-year-old sister, since her mother died of tuberculosis. Her father died in the Great War. She hates school and is convinced her teacher hates her as well, but she confides all this in her journal. She takes comfort in running with her dog along the beach and the fact that her sister, Bronte, will speak for her. Only Bronte has TB and needs to go to a sanatorium to recover and Hurricane must leave her beloved dog and beach to live in the city with great Aunt Claire. She is fussy and her house is unforgiving, but her chauffeur is kind and gets her. 

Hurricane's voice is achingly relatable as she navigates the uncertainties in her life. I highly recommend this gentle, first-person novel for tween readers. Absolutely lovely.

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Lesley Connor

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Lesley Connor. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~8 hours. Read by Patricia Santomasso. HarperAudio, February, 2020/ 9780062971449. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Middle Grade Monday features A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor. Thirteen-year-old Lydia and her mother were very close. So close that her mother homeschooled Lydia in order to maximize the time they spent together before she died of a progressive heart condition. Arrangements had been made for Lydia to live with her Aunt Brat and her wife Eileen. The two live on a farm in rural Connecticut with Elleroy, their landlord. Lydia is grateful that this aunt, her "last of kin," is willing to take her in and resolves to be helpful and accommodating. When Aunt Brat and Eileen adopt a difficult dog a week after Lydia's arrival, Lydia can't help but wonder whether the two have a habit of rescuing lost things. Lydia's not a dog person and Guffer is a difficult dog to love. He runs off into the woods and has accidents in the house. She also needs to attend school for the first time in ages and make friends.

As with all of Ms. Connor's books, the pace is leisurely and the focus is on the characters. Each character is interesting and fully realized. Lydia is wise beyond her years, introspective and so kind and open. While animal abuse is a painful topic, I appreciated the detailed description of recovery and healing and how complicated it is. Lydia's road to recovery and healing was not without complications either. New-to-me narrator, Patricia Santomasso's performance was engaging and her pacing reflected the pace of the narrative. Readers looking for a sad book with a resilient narrator will love A Home for Goddesses and Dogs.

Arc Review: Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker

Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker. 316 p. Viking/ Penguin Young Readers Group, May 21, 2019. 9780451479402. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Book Birthday next week (5/21) to Zenobia July, Lisa Bunker's highly anticipated sophomore novel. Prepare to have your heart touched.

The death of Zenobia's father, while sad, was actually liberating for her. The years between the death of her mother and then her father were stressful and repressive. She was homeschooled, isolated and felt like a constant failure to her dad. After his death, she was sent clear across the country to Maine to live with her Aunt Lucy and her wife, Phil. They give Zen the choice to live her life honestly. So she has a new name and a new life. It is thrilling and terrifying.

As she makes friends, and an enemy or two, a cybercrime is committed at school involving hate speech aimed at a Muslim student. Zenobia has some serious hacking skills and is itching to help her teacher solve this crime. She also jumps to a few wrong conclusions. 

She is a relatable character in that her anxiety over starting a new school and fitting in and finding friends is fairly common. So too, her push-me/ pull-you feelings about her aunts and her new living situation. They are all getting used to each other. Issues around gender identity are woven nicely into the story without becoming instructive or overwhelming. 

Zen has landed in a good place and is surrounded by supportive adults even though they themselves are new to parenting. The story is peopled with a diverse cast of interesting characters from the delightful Uncle Sprinkles, a drag queen friend of the aunts who takes Zen shopping and helps her with make-up tips to Arli, a fearless gender-fluid person eager to make Zen welcome.

All-in-all, Zenobia July is a perfect middle grade novel. I have quite a few students intensely interested in books with transgender characters and am deliriously happy to have a new title to add to the collection.

Arc review: Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko

Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko. 280. p. Wendy Lamb Books/ Random House Children's Books, August 4, 2015. 9780307975775. (arc courtesy of the author)

Motherless thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy loves nothing more than to accompany her physician father on house calls. In fact, she is determined to become a physician despite the fact that, in the early 1900s, female physicians were rare and girls of Lizzie's social class went to finishing schools, came out in society and married suitable boys. She lives with her father, beloved brother, Billy, Jing the cook and Maggie the housemaid on the grounds of her aunt and uncle's Nob Hill estate. Thanks to Aunt Hortense, she attends the odious Miss Barstow's School for Girls each day and counts the hours until she can return to the refuge of Jing's kitchen and watch for another chance to slip out with her father, who seems to appreciate her calm demeanor and steady hands in emergencies. 

Amid plague rumors, Chinatown is put in quarantine and when Jing fails to return home one night, Lizzie fears that he's stuck in Chinatown and is determined to find him and help him escape. She's not quite sure how to do this though and enlists Billy's aid. Surprisingly, he refuses; so she sets out on her own with nearly disastrous results. When she discovers Jing's son Noah hiding in his room, a son she never knew Jing had, Lizzie begins to question how well she really knows her cook. Through Noah, she learns more about how the Chinese population of San Francisco live and deal with the prevalent racism. 

As the rumors swirl, newspapers, including her own uncle's paper deny the epidemic. Lizzie finds some unlikely allies in her search to get to the bottom of this mystery. 

The San Francisco setting is particularly vivid, especially the juxtaposition of high society life and the poverty of Chinatown. Characters are well-drawn as well, with Lizzie being particularly appealing. There's humor, heightening suspense, and tragedy. While this is a work of historical fiction, thoughtful readers will make modern day connections to persistent problems of race, class, sexism and access to health care. 

I usually have trouble enticing my students to try historical fiction. Gennifer Choldenko makes my job easy. My students and I adore her Al Capone trilogy. Her fans should take to this one as easily. Give Chasing Secrets to fans of mystery as well. This is a must-purchase and 2015 favorite.