Category: Middle Grade

Title: City of Ghosts
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Purchased
Release Date: August 28, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cassidy Blake’s parents are The Inspectres, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.

When The Inspectres head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn’t sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn’t belong in her world. Cassidy’s powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.

Review:

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down!

This book reminded me of The Mediator series by Meg Cabot. In that series, Suzannah can speak to ghosts, and she has one particular ghost, Jesse, who follows her around. Cass and Jacob’s relationship reminded me of Suzannah and Jesse. There were also loads of Harry Potter references in this book, which is always a plus for me!

This story was very fast-paced. A lot of things happened in a short amount of time. The ending also left it open to become a series. The only problem is that I want to read the next book now!

I’ll definitely be recommending this book to YA and middle grade readers!

What to read next:

• Shadowland (The Mediator #1) by Meg Cabot
  

• The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles #1) by Toni DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
  

Have you read City of Ghosts? What did you think of it?

 

 

Title: Beauty and Bernice
Author: Nancy Viau
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Release Date: August 28, 2018
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Bernice Baransky likes the grunge look she’s come by honestly as the only girl at Porchtown Skate Park who can pop an ollie, ride the rails, and grind the slabs. She’d love to impress Wyatt Anderson, a skater who calls her Dude, but Bernice can’t seem to do more than mumble when he’s around. Should she accept help from a new neighbor, the proper and princessy Odelia, who is desperate to befriend her? Odelia keeps a fancy notebook called Odelia’s Guide to the Social Graces and spouts off hilarious lessons on poise, posture, manners, and what to do about embarrassing “oopsies” like unexpected burps and spilled soda. This exciting story takes readers on a thrill ride from the skate park’s half-pipe to Smile Academy, a summer camp for Down syndrome children. A novel full of adventure and heart, it asks the question: can two very different people ever be friends?

Review:

This book had some positive lessons, though I found the plot hard to believe.

This book had great representation. Bernice had to volunteer at a summer camp for kids with Down syndrome. She didn’t know how to treat them, and she got in trouble for her behaviour when she yelled at a boy, telling him to act normal. She learned how to treat people with disabilities and to be patient when someone acts in a way that you aren’t expecting.

Odelia seemed like she was right out of a fairy tale. She didn’t know how to behave in the real world. Her home life and family were a mystery throughout most of the story. She has a whole staff of people that we hear about but never see. I wish she was more of a realistic character, because her presence made it seem like there were some fantasy aspects of the story, but there weren’t any.

Unfortunately the mix of the fairytale and the real world didn’t work for me in this story.

Have you read Beauty and Bernice? What did you think of it?

 

Title: A Calf Named Brian Higgins
Author: Kristen Ball
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: One Elm Books
Source: Thomas Allen & Sons (book distributor)
Release Date: July 1, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Thirteen-year-old Hannah Higgins is convinced her summer is ruined when she is forced to travel to Africa and work in a remote village with her mom and uncle. Never having been to a developing country, she finds the food gross and the community filthy. She has to live without electricity or running water. Then she is told she must attend school.
Just when she thinks nothing could make this trip any worse, she learns people there are dying of hunger and preventable disease. Hannah becomes frustrated and wants to help, but when poverty threatens the lives of people she loves, all she wants to do is go home. This story is an adventure of discovery.

Review:

This is an amazing book about an American girl who travels to Kenya. Hannah Higgins knew that Kenya would be a lot different from her hometown of New York, but she didn’t realize how much it would affect her. The people in the small town where her uncle works die from preventable diseases and hunger.

After a tragedy in her family, Hannah wants to leave, but then she feels guilty about not helping the people who live there. She often feels guilty about what she takes for granted at her home, like being able to go into her medicine cabinet for anything, when the people in Sauri, Kenya have to wait for their medical attention.

Hannah had to get used to living without technology. A boy in the town created a cellphone out of wood, so he would have something to play with. She thinks of an app she could create while she’s walking through a corn maze. Hannah learned a lot from the people in Kenya, including how to be compassionate.

Some parts of this story could have been more exciting. Some conversations were summarized, when they could have been written out in dialogue. This happened more at the beginning of the book. I could tell that it was based on real events because it was written like that. The writing improved as it progressed.

This was a great book! It shows the impacts one person can make on the poverty in Africa.

Have you read A Calf Named Brian Higgins? What did you think of it?

 

Title: Be Prepared
Author: Vera Brosgol
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: First Second
Source: Borrowed from a friend
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A gripping and hilarious middle-grade summer camp memoir from the author of Anya’s Ghost.

All Vera wants to do is fit in—but that’s not easy for a Russian girl in the suburbs. Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps. Vera’s single mother can’t afford that sort of luxury, but there’s one summer camp in her price range—Russian summer camp.

Vera is sure she’s found the one place she can fit in, but camp is far from what she imagined. And nothing could prepare her for all the “cool girl” drama, endless Russian history lessons, and outhouses straight out of nightmares!

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier, Cece Bell, and Victoria Jamieson, Vera Brosgol’s Be Prepared is a funny and relatable middle-grade graphic novel about navigating your own culture, struggling to belong, and the value of true friendship.

Review:

This is a good story about making friends.

Vera learns how to be friends with older and younger kids in this story. When she wanted to be friends with the older kids at camp, she would put down others to make them laugh, or give them things to please them. It wasn’t a real friendship. But when she was friends with the younger kids, they looked up to her, so she was more generous.

I liked that Vera found her own Russian camp to go to, since she couldn’t go to the camps her friends from school attended. She embraced her culture, since they did Russian activities at camp, and they were only allowed to speak Russian at camp.

One thing I didn’t like was when Vera went along with teasing the other kids. I felt that she did that for way too long in the book. Some parts were kind of depressing too, like when one girl lost her guinea pig and when Vera was being teased.

The story was left on a cliffhanger, so I’m curious to see if it will continue.

What to read next:

• Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

  

• Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen, Shannon Watters

  

Have you read Be Prepared? What did you think of it?