Our Middle Grade book spotlight this week is focused on books that have recently been added to our collection meaning they are new!!!! New books are the best; they have a new book smell and there is just something about being one of the first people to read it. There is a great mix of fiction titles; there is literally something for everyone! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #2023youthnewbooks as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new Middle Grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Valentina Salazar is Not a Monster Hunter by Zoraida Cordova--The Salazars are a family of former monster hunters who retired after their father died during a monster hunt. Now living in a small town in upstate New York, everyone in the Salazar family has seemed to have moved on except for eleven-year-old Valentina. She wants their life to return back to their old ways and when she discovers someone has found an egg of the monster that killed her father, she enlists the help of her siblings Rome and Lola to track down the egg and return it to the magical realm of Finisterra.
It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds--Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway is stuck at home doing chores and missing a beach bash when the power goes out. He pulls on his swimming suit and heads outside to see what's going on. The neighborhood is empty except for four other neighborhood kids: newcomer Xavier, Eddie's former friend Sonia, and siblings Trey and Sage. When night falls, the kids realize the truth--they are the only people left on Earth.
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz--When three children endure separate climate change disasters--a wildfire in the California woods, a close encounter with a hungry polar bear in Canada, and a massive hurricane in Florida--they emerge from their experiences committed to changing the world.
The Visitors by Greg Howard--A lonely, twelve-year-old ghost living down on the forgotten Hollow Pines Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina has been the only child ghost in the area for so long that he has forgotten even his name. When strangers from the world of the living arrive, he begins to hope the kids his age will be able to see him and be his friends--but the kids are there researching for a podcast, and the history they uncover helps the ghost remember his own troubled past. When he does, maybe, just maybe, he could move on from being a ghost.
Rescue by Jennifer Nielsen--Meg Kenyon's father is fighting with the Allies in France, but she is beginning to lose hope of ever seeing him again as the war rages on. To make matters worse, she learns that her father is now a prisoner of the Nazis. The only connection Meg has left of her father are the codes he placed in a jar for her to decipher and even those are running low. But when Meg finds an injured British spy in her grandmother's barn, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to help a family of German refugees across Nazi-occupied France to neutral Spain along with a final code from Papa to help complete the mission. As Meg is able to figure out more of her father's clues, the more dangerous her journey becomes.
Playing Through the Turnaround by Mylisa Larsen--Five dedicated eighth grade musicians at Connor U. Eubanks Middle School look forward to fifth period Jazz Lab with Mr. Lewis each day. When Mr. Lewis abruptly quits, the students are devastated and vow to get involved in getting him to return. The group soon learns that budget cuts are to blame and their extracurricular activity isn't the only one affected. The kids band together to protest, but their first efforts are dismissed by school officials. Digging in their heels, the kids come up with creative ways to get their message across.