Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Just like the other middle grade novels by Gary Schmidt, The Labors of Hercules Beal (Harper Collins, May 2023) follows the pattern of lonely or troubled kid learning from a loving and helpful teacher over the course of a school year. Once again, the protagonist is a seventh grader, this time a boy named Hercules
With alternating stories, Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2021) tells the story of two 14-year-olds in 1968 who are coming to terms with something big that happened, which changed their lives completely “just like that.” Meryl Lee Kowalski (a name familiar to those who have read The Wednesday Wars) has been
AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler (Carolrhoda, September 2021) portrays the trauma of dealing with a sibling’s death as well as the effects of a school shooting, even years after the fact. Twelve-year-old Lucy still mourns her younger brother, even as she moves into a community still reeling from the school shooting during third grade. Without
Newbery Honor middle grade novel Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House, 2022) delves into the tumultuous inner struggles of Iveliz, a seventh-grader, as she grapples with a myriad of emotional challenges and her mental illness. In this poignant free verse poetry novel, Arango gives Iveliz a realistically confused voice that resonates
I laughed. I cried. I thought. I laughed again. And I sighed when it was over. Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow (Disney Hyperion, January 2023) is an important story about a boy overcoming trauma in his life. By moving to the fictional Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, he is hoping his secret will
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a biography of the 1936 Olympic mile-runner Louis Zamperini. Zamperini came in seventh place that year, so he was not the winner in that respect. But his subsequent story is incredible and inspiring. After being drafted into the Air Force during World War II, Zamperini served as a bombardier in
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