Geo Librarian

  THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES written by Kate Messner Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2025 ISBN: 978-1-5476-1639-8 Source: ARC from author/publisher Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK One summer. 46 mountain peaks. A second chance to make things right. Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn's about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines . . . until now. Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he's in big trouble for kicking down some dead old lady's headstone. But it turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer...climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks with her dead mother's dog, and they can call it even. In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn b...

  NOT NOTHING written by Gayle Forman Aladdin, 2024 ISBN: 978-1-6659-4327-7 Source: publisher for review Ages 10-1 4 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover, author photo, summary & interview provided by the publisher. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels, including those in the Just One Day series, Where She Went, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture. Her first middle grade novel, Frankie & Bug, was a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2021. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. AUTHOR INTERVIEW *What is the 'story behind the story'? The story is the culmination of multiple threads—an apt metaphor in a book where sewing plays a pivotal role. It’s partially my own family history: My grandparents were German Jews who believed they were so assimilated they would be ...

  MAGNOLIA WU UNFOLDS IT ALL by Chanel Miller Philomel, 2024 ISBN: 978-0-593-62452-4 Source: purchased Ages 8-10 Middle grade realistic fiction All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK New York Times bestselling author and artist Chanel Miller tells a fun, funny, and poignant story of friendship and community starring Magnolia Wu, a ten-year-old sock detective bent on returning all the lonely only socks left behind in her parents' NYC laundromat. Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. Magnolia has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all. What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives,...

  HUMMINGBIRD SEASON by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic Bloomsbury Children's Book, 2024 ISBN: 9781547612741 Source: eARC from Netgalley Ages 8-10 Genre: Middle grade realistic fiction (recent history--Covid) All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK A poignant and necessary story about finding hope during difficult times, set in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Archie's life--and the whole world--is turned upside down by Covid-19. Suddenly there are no more Friday night dinners out, no more going to school, no more hanging out with friends . . . no leaving the house at all. Even though he's inside with his family all day every day, Archie can't help but feel more alone than ever before. While everyone else seems to be adapting to their new normal just fine, it's like Archie is permanently on mute, unable to find the words to describe how he feels--and sometimes, unable to fin...

  COYOTE LOST AND FOUND by Dan Gemeinhart Henry Holt & Co, 2024 ISBN:978-1250292773 Source: eARC from Netgalley Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK It's been almost a year since Coyote and her dad left the road behind and settled down in a small Oregon town. . . time spent grieving the loss of her mom and sisters and trying to fit in at school. But just as life is becoming a new version of normal, Coyote discovers a box containing her mom’s ashes. And she thinks she might finally be ready to say goodbye. So Coyote and her dad gear up for an epic cross-country road trip to scatter the ashes at her mom’s chosen resting place. The only problem? Coyote has no idea where that resting place is―and the secret’s hidden in a book that Coyote mistakenly sold last year, somewhere in the country. Now, it’s up to Coyote to track down the treasured book . . . without her dad ever finding ...

  ISABEL IN BLOOM by Mae Respicio Wendy Lamb Books, 2024 ISBN: 9780593302729  Source: Netgalley ARC Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK A Filipina-American girl discovers a connection between her two homes through a culinary garden in this middle grade novel that celebrates nourishment and growth—both in our lives and in nature. Twelve-year-old Isabel is the new kid in her San Francisco middle school. It’s the first time in many years that she’ll be living with her mother again. Mama's job in the US allowed Isabel and her grandparents to live more comfortably in the Philippines, but now Isabel doesn't really know her own mother anymore. Making new friends in a new city, a new country, is hard, but joining the gardening and cooking club at school means Isabel will begin to find her way, and maybe she too, will begin to bloom. In this beautifully rendered novel-in-verse, Mae...

UNSTUCK by Barbara Dee Aladdin, 2024 ISBN: 9781534489882 Source: eARC from publisher for review Ages 10-14 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover, author photo, & book summary provided by the publisher. ABOUT THE BOOK From critically acclaimed author Barbara Dee comes a middle grade novel about a girl whose struggles with writer’s block set off unexpected twists and turns, both on and off the page. Lyla is thrilled when her seventh-grade English language arts class begins a daily creative writing project. For the past year, she’s been writing a brilliant fantasy novel in her head, and here’s her chance to get it on paper! The plot to Lyla’s novel is super complicated, with battle scenes and witches and a mysterious one-toed-beast, but at its core, it’s about an overlooked girl who has to rescue her beautiful, highly accomplished older sister. But writing a fantasy novel turns out to be harder than simply imagining one, and pretty soon Lyla finds herself stuck, exp...

  SOMETHING LIKE HOME by Andrea Beatriz Arango Random House Books for Young Readers, 2023 ISBN: 9780593566190  Source: eBook purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK A moving novel in verse in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family . . . only for them to find family in each other along the way. Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack, but it’s not like I brought a bunch of stuff. How do you prepare for the unpreparable? How do you fit your whole life in one bag? And how am I supposed to trust social services when they won’t trust me back? Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space. So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate....

  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 ...

  CLARICE BEAN - THINK LIKE AN ELF written and illustrated by Lauren Child Candlewick Press, 2021 ISBN: 978-1-5362-2365-1 Source: publisher for review (Thanks!) Ages 9-12 Middle grade realistic fiction All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK Join the one and only Clarice Bean and ‘Think Like an Elf’ in this irresistible and spectacularly sparkling Christmas story from the inimitable Lauren Child. Clarice Bean usually looks forward to Christmas. Except this year it is going to be a quiet-ish Christmas in her house, which doesn’t feel right because Christmas is all about noisiness and being full up and FAMILY. And without those things, she is going to have to try exceptionordinarily hard to stop the Christmas spirit completely floating away…But luckily, there is no one in the world like Clarice Bean – and she is going to THINK LIKE AN ELF, and that means everything will be A-OKAY. Won’t it? The one...

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...

THE TRYOUT by Christina Soontornvat and Joanna Cacao Scholastic, 2022 ISBN: 978-1-338-74130-8 Source: purchased Ages 9-12 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK STAND TALL. BE LOUD. GAME FACE ON. When cheerleading tryouts are announced, Christina and her best friend, Megan, literally jump at the chance to join the squad. As two of the only kids of color in the school, they have always yearned to fit in-and the middle school cheerleaders are popular and accepted by everyone. But will the girls survive the terrifying tryouts, with their whole grade watching? And will their friendship withstand the pressures of competition? REVIEW This graphic novel based on the author's middle school experiences presents readers with an enjoyable relatable read. The book works well as both a mirror and a window book. Some middle school experiences  are easy for almost any young reader to connect to, things such as...

YOU ARE HERE: CONNECTING FLIGHTS edited by Ellen Oh Authors: Traci Chee, Mike Chen, Meredith Ireland, Mike June, Erin Entrada Kelly, Minh Le, Grace Lin, Ellen Oh, Linda Sue Park, Randy Ribay, Christina Soontornvat, Susan Tan Allida, 2023 ISBN:   9780063239081 Source: purchased eBook All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover & summary provided by the publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK An incident at a TSA security check point sows chaos and rumors, creating a chain of events that impacts twelve young Asian Americans in a crowded and restless airport. As their disrupted journeys crisscross and collide, they encounter fellow travelers--some helpful, some hostile--as they discover the challenges of friendship, the power of courage, the importance of the right word at the right time, and the unexpected significance of a blue Stratocaster electric guitar. Twelve powerhouse Asian American authors explore themes of identity and belonging in the entwined experien...

FIGURE IT OUT, HENRI WELDON by Tanita S. Davis Katherine Tegan Books, 2023 ISBN:978-0063143579 Source: eARC from Netgalley/Kindle version purchased Ages 10-14 All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. REVIEW Henri Weldon's efforts to balance home life, school work, and soccer make up the heart of this relatable middle grade novel. Henrietta, called Henri, struggles to adapt to a public middle school after attending a private school to help with her learning disability. She befriends a group of foster siblings much to her sister's dismay and tries out for the soccer team despite her family's doubts of her ability to handle it on top of her school work. Increasing conflict with her sister and feeling a lack of support from her family leads Henri to attempt to juggle everything on her own which naturally leads to her making mistakes. The ups and downs of her relationships felt realistic and empathy-inducing. The relations...

A WORK IN PROGRESS by Jarrett Lerner Aladdin, 2023 ISBN: 978-1-6659-0515-2 Source: ARC from publisher/purchased copy Ages 9-12 Middle grade realistic fiction/novel-in-verse All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. REVIEW The unkind words of another kid during elementary school sends Will into a tailspin when he begins to believe them.  Being called 'fat' leads Will down a road of self-reproach bordering on self-hatred that culminates in the loss of friends, confidence, and into disordered eating. The heart-breaking book focuses on Will as he struggles with not only his weight but even more with the way he sees himself.  The free-verse conveys Will's thoughts so clearly and emotionally that I found myself in tears more than once. I wanted to leap into the book and give Will a hug while reassuring him that his weight has nothing to do with his value. Thankfully, Will meets someone who nudges him toward healthier thinkin...

  FINALLY SEEN by Kelly Yang Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2023 ISBN: 978-1-6659-2899-1 Source: from publisher for review Ages 9-12 Middle grade contemporary/realistic fiction All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. REVIEW Lina Gao leaves China to join her parents and little sister in America. To her shock, she discovers that their living situation is very different than she was led to believe. As she struggles to get to know her family again she wonders if there's a place for her in this family.  Helping her mother with her business though helps smooth the way a bit. Her uncertainty extends to school and the teasing she endures because her English isn't perfect. Thanks to a kind teacher, an understanding ELL teacher, a great librarian, and some books she can connect to, Lina begins to adjust to her new environment. But nothing lessons the guilt she feels for leaving her Lao Lao (grandmother) behind in a...