Geo Librarian

  SECRETS OF THE BROKEN HOUSE written by Taryn Souders Sourcebooks, 2026 ISBN: 978-1-4642-4497-1 Source: publisher for review (Thanks!) Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads,.com. ABOUT THE BOOK In the small, southern town of Everson, goats can run for mayor, the mail is always late, and nothing all that bad ever happens. That is, until thirteen-year-old Tucker finds Miss Geraldine dead at the bottom of her stairs. At first glance, it looks like an accident. But Tucker has always had a knack for noticing details that others overlook, and the details surrounding Miss Geraldine's death just aren't adding up. Miss Geraldine was miserable and mean. Miss Geraldine was murdered. The whole town seems to have reason to want her dead, which makes Tucker's search for the truth nearly impossible. The more he investigates for clues, the more danger he finds himself in, and the more he realizes that maybe...

  WISH I WAS A BALLER written by Amar Shah, illustrated by Rashad Doucet Graphix, 2025 ISBN: 9781339042442  Source: purchased eBook Ages 9-12 Genre : Historical fiction (based on author's memories) All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK BALLER is part NEW KID, part THE TRYOUT, and part DRAGON HOOPS Amar Shah has some story to tell! In 1995, he was a fourteen-year-old aspiring sports journalist (and basketball superfan) angling to get into an Orlando Magic team practice. He did, and it took him on the ride of his life! WISH I WAS A BALLER is a graphic memoir chronicling Amar's real-life experiences as a fourteen-year-old sports journalist covering the golden era of the NBA, when he befriended Shaq and hung out with Michael Jordan and the Bulls-all while surviving the high school caste system, dealing with crushes, and friendships being tainted by jealousy. REVIEW Amar Shah joins his...

  EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT The Kids in Mrs. Z's Class #1 written by Kate Messner, illustrated by Algonquin Young Readers, 2024 ISBN: 9781523525737  Ages 7-10 Early middle grade realistic fiction Source: publisher for review All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. REVIEW Emma looks forward to attending her new school, Curiosity Academy with her new teacher, Mrs. Z. Until her former friend turned arch enemy, Lucy shows up in the same classroom.  Emma wants to make friends but after an unfortunate incident between her and Lucy that resulted in an unpleasant nickname, she's wary. Friendships can be tricky things as Emma discovers as she wrestles with her conundrum. In addition to the friendship concerns, Emma wants to participate in helping her school choose a mascot for the school, but she absolutely doesn't want to get up on the stage to present her suggestion. Can Emma find a way through her friendship concer...

SALEM WITCH TRIALS History Smashers written by Kate Messner, illustrated by Falynn Koch Random House, 2024 ISBN: 978-0-593-70527-8 Source: purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK Myths! Lies! Secrets! Uncover the hidden truth about the Salem Witch Trials in the hit History Smashers nonfiction series. Perfect for fans of the I Survived books and Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales.In 1692, a few paranoid Puritans accused their neighbors of being witches sending the town flying off the (broomstick) handle. Before it was all over, dozens of women in Salem, Massachusetts were executed—burned at the stake. RIGHT?WRONG! There was some serious witch worry, but no one in the United States was put on a pyre (though the truth isn't much better). And women weren’t the only ones caught in crossfire…maybe don’t read this one aloud to your dog.What really happened? The truth is historians...

  THE PROBABILITY OF EVERYTHING by Sarah Everett Clarion Books, 2023 ISBN: 9780063256552 Source: purchased eBook Middle grade contemporary/realistic 10-14 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever. Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out. But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life ...

  CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE TAINO PEOPLE History Smashers written by Kate Messner and Jose Barreiro Random House, 2023 ISBN: 978-0-593-56426-4 Source: purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK Myths! Lies! Secrets! Uncover the hidden truth about Christopher Columbus, and learn all about the Taino people. Perfect for fans of the I Survived books and Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean and discovered America. Right? WRONG! Columbus never actually set foot in what is now the United States. His voyages took him to islands in the Caribbean and along the coast of South America. The truth is, when Columbus first arrived, Indigenous peoples, including the Taino, had been living there for thousands of years, raising their families, running their societies, and trading with their neighbors. He didn’t “discover” the lands at all! And his ...

THE WILD JOURNEY OF JUNIPER BERRY written by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown Shadow Mountain, 2023 ISBN: 978-1-63993-099-9 Source: ARC from publisher for review Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK Juniper Berry knows how to handle bobcats, bears, and mountain lions, but can she survive the toughest predator of all—middle school? Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is pretty exciting, but her happy life in the wild ends abruptly when her younger brother gets sick, and they move to the city to be closer to the hospital. Juniper and her older sister end up living with cousins they hardly know and attending public school for the first time, which is harder to navigate than the wild woods ever were. Juniper feels like a wolf cub separated from her pack. As the hospital bills for her brother start piling up, Juniper knows they’ll need...

ALIAS ANNA A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson Harper, 2022 ISBN: 978-0-06-308389-9 Source: purchased Ages 10 and up All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. REVIEW Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya grew up in an Ukraine under Russian control. Still, despite the family's poverty and Jewish heritage, the girls developed into piano prodigies, attending an elite music school, and even helping pay their family's way. When World War II arrived on their doorstep, everything changed as the Nazis put them under surveillance before arresting all the Jews in town and marching them away to be killed. Zhanna's daring nature helped feed her family during this difficult time. On the final march, her father bribes a guard into letting her escape telling her, "I don't care what you do. Just live." Later, Zhanna meets up with her sister, who somehow unknown to this day, managed to escape al...

UNSETTLED by Reem Faruqi, narrated by Ariana Delawari HarperCollins, 2021 ISBN:  9781665077606 (AUDIOBOOK) Source: school library -- Sora Ages 9-12 Middle grade contemporary fiction (novel-in-verse) All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK For fans of Other Words for Home and Front Desk, this powerful, charming own voices immigration story follows a girl who moves from Karachi, Pakistan to Peachtree City, Georgia, and must find her footing in a new world. Reem Faruqi is the ALA Notable author of award-winning Lailah's Lunchbox. A lyrical coming of age story exploring family, immigration, and most of all belonging. Nurah is a compelling main character who I was rooting for all the way through. --Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound When her family moves from Pakistan to Peachtree City, all Nurah wants is to blend in, yet she stands out for all the wrong reasons. Nurah...

JENNIFER CHAN IS NOT ALONE by Tae Keller Random House, 2022 ISBN: 978-0-593-31052-6 Source: purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book summary & book cover provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK Sometimes middle school can make you feel like you're totally alone in the universe...but what if we aren't alone at all? Mallory Moss knows how the world works. After meeting the cool girl, Reagan, she finally has a best friend, and Reagan makes Mallory feel like she belongs, like she can fit in this infinite universe, as long as she follows Reagan’s simple rules: wear the right clothes, control your image, know your place. But when Jennifer Chan moves into the house across the street, those rules don’t feel quite so simple anymore. Because Jennifer is different. She doesn’t seem to care about the laws of middle school, or the laws of the universe. She’s willing to embrace the strange, the unknown… the extraterrestrial. She believes ...

THIRST by Varsha Bajaj Nancy Paulsen Books, 2022 ISBN: 978-0-593-35439-1 Source: purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK The riveting story of a heroic girl who fights for her belief that water should be for everyone. Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity—an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. What Minni also discovers there is one of the water mafia bosses. Now she must decide whether to expose him and risk her job and maybe her life. How did something as simple as access to water g...