Garvey’s Choice: The Graphic Novel by Nikki Grimes; illus. by Theodore Taylor IIIIntermediate, Middle School Wordsong/Astra 144 pp.6/23 9781662660023 $22.99Paper ed. 9781662660085 $12.99e-book ed. 9781662660092 $9.99“Why can’t he put those books down, play football or basketball?” Garvey’s father wants to turn him into an athlete, like his sister Angie, but...
The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. SchmidtIntermediate, Middle School Clarion/HarperCollins 352 pp.5/23 9780358659631 $19.99e-book ed. 9780358659570 $10.99“It’s been a pretty lousy year and a half since the Accident, and the Universe owes me one.” Hercules Beal is still hurting from the loss of his parents two years before...
School Trip by Jerry Craft; illus. by the author Intermediate, Middle School HarperAlley/Quill Tree/HarperCollins 256 pp. 4/23 9780062885548 $24.99 Paper ed. 9780062885531 $14.99 e-book ed. 9780062885555 $12.99 In his third graphic-novel outing (New Kid, rev. 1/19; Class Act, rev. 11/20), thirteen-year-old Jordan Banks no longer sees himself as the new...
You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce by Chiquita Mullins Lee and Carmella Van Vleet; illus. by Jennifer Mack-Watkins Primary Kokila/Penguin 40 pp. 1/23 9780593406502 $18.99 e-book ed. 9780593406519 $11.99 Elijah Pierce was a Black Mississippi folk artist born in 1892 in a log...
Maurice Sendak once said, “As a child, I felt that books were holy objects, to be caressed, rapturously sniffed, and devotedly provided for. I gave my life to them.” That’s how I have always felt as a teacher and parent too. I began my teaching career in Newark, New Jersey,...
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat; illus. by the authorMiddle School First Second 320 pp.2/23 9781626724150 $22.99Paper ed. 978-1250851048 $14.99Santat, Caldecott winner for The Adventures of Beekle, shares his own adventures in this graphic memoir that focuses on a trip to Europe the summer before high school. He...
Hands by Torrey MaldonadoIntermediate Paulsen/Penguin 144 pp.1/23 9780593323793 $16.99e-book ed. 9780593323809 $9.99Twelve-year-old Trevor is a gifted comic-book artist, a good student, and a kind brother to his three sisters. But two years earlier, his stepdad was sent to prison for hitting Trevor’s mother, and Trevor fears what will happen when...
The Switch by Roland SmithIntermediate, Middle School Scholastic 304 pp.11/22 9780545803502 $17.99On the morning of his thirteenth birthday, Henry Carter declines his father’s invitation to go with him to the zoo where he works. While Dad is gone, Henry notices something odd: “It was like a lightning strike without the...
My Selma: True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement by Willie Mae Brown Middle School Farrar 240 pp. 1/23 9780374390235 $16.99 e-book ed. 9780374390242 $9.99 Brown, an artist and storyteller, grew up in Selma, Alabama, in the 1950s and 1960s. In her memoir...