Middle Grade Readers Archives - Page 2 of 39

One Life: Young Readers Edition by Megan Rapinoe [in School Library Journal]

15 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Megan Rapinoe read her original 2020 memoir herself. Here, for the young readers edition, Nicole Lewis proves to be an optimal, dynamic match. Rapinoe made international headlines – and fielded a vicious media onslaught – when she emulated Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protests against racism targeting...

How to Fight Racism Young Reader’s Edition: A Guide to Standing Up for Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby [in School Library Journal]

13 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Jemar Tisby, who continues here as his own narrator, is a patient, thoughtful reader, remaining consistently gracious even when discussing egregious history and contemporary injustice. Tisby gets immediately personal, introducing his younger self when he realized that the predominantly white school had “all the nice...

Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul [in School Library Journal]

12 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW First came Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, awarded the 2016 National Book Award. Then Jason Reynolds with Kendi presented (and narrated) “ A Remix” with 2020’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You for young adults. Middle grade audiences get their own version, distilled by...

The Story of More (Adapted for Young Adults): How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren [in School Library Journal]

08 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Award-winning scientist Hope Jahren continues her auspicious author/narrator streak, especially ideal for the adaptation of her lauded 2020 original: her chatty, friendly presentation is an immediate invitation to listen to “what happened to my world, to your world – to our world.” Even more compelling...

We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy by Elijah Cummings and Hilary Beard [in School Library Journal]

07 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

The adults got (mostly) Laurence Fishburne, but Adam Lazarre-White is distinctly the softer, better choice for younger listeners to get to know the late congressman in his own words. Elijah Cummings was born to South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore “looking for a better life.”...

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff [in Booklist]

29 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Prolific, perennially youthful-voiced Cassandra Morris channels her infectious energy for Kyle Lukoff’s (Too Bright to See) newest vivacious protagonist, Annabelle, of Tahoma Falls, a small town just 40 minutes (but distinctly far) from Seattle. As a sixth grader, she’s about to start her final year at...

Troublemaker by John Cho [in Booklist]

07 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

Sa-i-gu (Korean for 4-2-9 as in April 29, 1992) was a defining moment in Korean American history, when 2,300-plus Korean-owned businesses were destroyed in the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of Rodney King’s brutal arresting officers. Actor John Cho makes his fiction debut with...

Inheritance: A Visual Poem by Elizabeth Acevedo, illustrated by Andrea Pippins [in Shelf Awareness]

31 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Elizabeth Acevedo, the author of the multi-award-winning The Poet X and Clap When You Land, is also a National Poetry Slam Champion. Inheritance, her most famously performed poem, is here set in print, enhanced with stupendous art by author/illustrator Andrea Pippins (Young, Gifted and Black). Hair – and how...

Timeless Tales: APA Creators Draw on Myth and Folklore to Craft Personal, yet Universal Stories [in School Library Journal]

09 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Hawaiian, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

Welcome to one of the more hope-filled, albeit cautious, Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Months in recent history. Plenty remains unsettled, challenging, and tragic, but a glass-half-full outlook extols the news that the world is finally, excitedly opening up from the last two-plus years of...

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jason Griffin [in Booklist]

07 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Virtuoso Jason Reynolds’ latest is another chameleonic masterpiece, brilliantly consumable in various mediums, each providing transporting rewards. The original collaboration, conceived between best friends Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, works best on the page: Reynolds’ glorious words – cut-out phrases and sentences – laid...

Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Lisa Yee, author of the charming and award-winning Millicent Min, Girl Genius trilogy, combines neglected U.S. history and multi-generational family legends with a thoroughly contemporary story to create the delightful and enlightening Maizy Chen's Last Chance. Three years have passed since 11-year-old Maizy saw her...

How to Find What You’re Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani [in Booklist]

25 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian American, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian American

The second of Veera Hiranandani’s novels with geneses in the award-winning author’s Indian Jewish family history is ideally paired with versatile Priya Ayyar. For Hiranandani’s The Night Diary, Ayyar persuasively drew on her own South Asian heritage. Here Ayyar ciphers Hiranandani’s maternally-inspired latest, channeling her...

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly

07 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Middle Grade Readers

“You’re scared of your own shadow,” Marisol’s older brother declares. She’s hurt but also admits, “Why do I have to be scared of everything all the time? No one else is.” Sometimes, eight-year-old Marisol’s ‘what-if’-worries prevent her from doing what she wants – including climbing her...

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela [in Booklist]

29 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

At 13, Anamaria is a beloved daughter, a top-performing student at an elite academy. But she lives in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico on the Texas border in 1999, threatened by looming femicide. And then Anamaria meets Thirty, who insists she’s Anamaria’s 17-years-in-the-future self. Thirty indeed talks...

Passport by Sophia Glock [in Shelf Awareness]

09 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Few titles need official CIA permission to be published, but Sophia Glock's perceptive graphic novel memoir, Passport, had to go through the "daunting and complicated task" of obtaining the CIA's Publication Review Board approval. Glock's parents were "intelligence officers," an admission they disclosed when they...

Living with Viola by Rosena Fung [in Booklist]

23 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

When new kid Livy enters middle school, she doesn’t yet have friends, but she’s not exactly alone. Viola, her identical blue shadow no one else can see, never leaves her, but she voices every poisonous thought, insisting Livy is a “total disaster” doomed to be...

Girlhood: Teens around the World in Their Own Voices by Masuma Ahuja [in Shelf Awareness]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, Indian American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

What began as a series by journalist Masuma Ahuja for The Lily (a product of the Washington Post) expands here into the enlightening Girlhood. Ahuja gathers "colorful and rich" accounts of 30 girls from 27 countries that reveal similar themes: longing for adventures, big dreams, growing pains, and figuring...

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes [in Booklist]

12 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

At 4, Adaugo lost both parents and a best friend to fire. Grandma Bibi left Nigeria to raise her. Eleven years later, Grandma sends Addy from their Bronx apartment to Wilderness Adventures, a California summer camp for disadvantaged city youth, insisting, “Daughter of an eagle”...

Better Place by Duane Murray, illustrated by Shawn Daley [in Booklist]

05 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Duane Murray, an actor, writer, and producer in film, makes his on-the-page graphic debut, nimbly realized by Canadian artist Shawn Daley. In a rallying example of the axiom “It takes a village,” a half-dozen graphic greats – including Jeff Lemire and Nate Powell – contribute...

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga [in Booklist]

31 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Lebanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Next-door neighbors Cora Hamed and Quinn McCauley’s best-friendship began in toddlerhood, but they’ve spent the last 10 months in silence. Cora’s sister Mabel is dead. Quinn’s brother Parker murdered her; he took a gun to school and killed four people, including himself. Mourning defines the Hamed...

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