A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

I absolutely loved this middle grade WWII novel about some children who were evacuated from London during the blitz. It was basically a The War that Saved My Life but much less depressing. I loved the whole thing. 

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

I have been wanting to read this book for like seven years and finally got to it by reading it aloud with the boys. We all really enjoyed it, but it took us months to get through. (Pregnancy and having a baby will do that to you.) Dane loved it so much he immediately plowed through the four sequels. A great read-aloud. 

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

After reading her memoir, I really wanted to read more of Dumas's works. This is a YA novel she wrote based off her personal experiences growing up. I think this would be a great book for kids and a great look at the 70s and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

I really loved this graphic novel. I'm so interested in this genre of realistic graphic novels that depict hard, real-life events, like Dancing at the Pity Party. I think it's such an effective way to show emotion and to use simple language to convey what happened. (I remember I wrote a whole essay about the comic book format in Maus my sophomore year of college. I think I need to re-read it.) This is a graphic novel telling the story of a refugee camp in Africa (I can't remember the exact country now), which is an extremely hard and sad topic, from the perspective of two boys living in the refugee camp. I loved the relationship between the two brothers and what they learned as they grew up, and how it showed that there was still hope even in one of the most difficult places on earth. 

Redwall by Brian Jacques

I looooooved Redwall when I was younger. Loved it! And I loved many of the sequels as well. I would happily read a Redwall book any time. But my dedication to it paled to Dane's this winter--he plowed through every book in the Redwall series in chronological order over Christmas break and January and February. There are over 20 books and he made his way through all of them! It was a lifesaver for the weeks we were stuck at home with Covid. And as he always does, he wanted me to read the books with him. And once again, I was happy to oblige with Redwall to see how it held up for me. It definitely was still a fun read, and it was so fun to slowly remember what happened. I only had vague memories of what happened but I definitely had things coming back to me as I read. I love the main character of Matthias and his determination and courage (I can definitely see why Dane loved it) but I think most of all, I love Redwall Abbey and what an amazing home it seems like. The descriptions and the characterization of Redwall as so peaceful (and always so filled with delicious food!) are what make this book so appealing to me. I remember not always loving the Redwall books that weren't actually set at Redwall as much. So this was a fun one to re-read (although I stopped short of reading all 20 books like Dane wanted me to). 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

I read this when I was a kid but hadn't revisited it for over 20 years. I basically didn't remember anything about it except for the boy driving around in his car. But Dane discovered it on his bookshelf and read it and was talking about how good it was and wanted me to read it, and this was one I definitely wanted to remember. (Sometimes he wants me to read the most random books and I don't always have the energy.) I really liked re-reading this and it was fun to remember the funny wordplay and puns that make up a lot of the book. I wasn't sure how much of it a kid would understand, but apparently Dane understood enough of it to like it. 

Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt

I've loved both of the Gary D. Schmidt books I've read (The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now) and I have intended to read his newer books for a while. I loved how he took Shakespeare and made it applicable and interesting and fun in The Wednesday Wars and I loved how he did the same thing with the paintings of James John Audubon in Okay for Now. I had no idea what Pay Attention, Carter Jones was going to be about, but I did not expect for it to be about the game of cricket. I thought it was so fun to see this boy's "coming of age," of a sort, and how he became more confident in himself and more connected to his friends and schoolmates through the game of cricket. I also loved the whole weirdness of having a butler in America and how this butler was determined to be a butler even though it was a completely unheard-of thing here. It was very fun to read--although I still have no idea how cricket is played. 

The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun's Tomb by Candace Fleming

Dane bought this at his school book fair with his birthday money and was raving about it and begged me to read it. I planned on just skimming through it to appease him but I actually enjoyed it enough to read the whole thing. It looks like it's trying to be a scary mummy story, but it was actually a really interesting history of the discovery and digging out of King Tutankhamun's tomb, and went into detail about archaeology and the history of the time period. I learned a lot (even though it was written for kids Dane's age) and I thought it was super interesting. It was amazing to learn about how much stuff they found in the tomb and what a years-long process it was to study and label and get everything out. 

It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville

I wasn't super excited to read this book, at all, but it's one of the Newbery winners so I thought I'd chug through it. And it turned out to be surprisingly pleasant. It really didn't seem like anything earthshaking, but I really enjoyed the story and the many adventures that our main character, Davey, got into with his Cat. I liked how much freedom Davey had and how he just roamed around New York City and got to know all sorts of people. It was very easy to read and quick to get through, which made it very enjoyable, and there was a great cast of characters, like Aunt Kate, the crazy cat lady, Mary, the girl that Davey meets who he can talk to not just like a girl, and Tom, the college dropout who gets into trouble and needs help from Davey and his dad. 

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark

This is a Newbery winner from the 1930s--it beat out Charlotte's Web for the Newbery Medal, which is still hotly contested to this day. And I can see why--after reading it, I think it's pretty obvious that Charlotte's Web is better. This was a nice story set in Peru, which setting I actually really liked since it was original and different (and I'm guessing that's why it won the Newbery). But it was definitely slow-moving, plus by today's standards it seemed super culturally insensitive (the boy referred to himself and his caretaker as Indians throughout the whole book, which is completely inaccurate these days). I was surprised by the big reveal of a treasure at the end of the book--I guess that was the "secret of the Andes" from the title, although I clearly didn't see it coming. I kind of felt like there was a lot that wasn't clear or wasn't explained as the story went on, so I was kind of confused a lot of the time. This definitely wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't super terrible either. 

A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos

This was a fictional diary account of a girl in Massachusetts in 1830. That's basically all you need to know to imagine what this book was like--there were no major twists or turns or unexpected events, but I really loved books like this when I was younger and I still enjoy them now. (I always love diaries and epistolary novels and books made up of fake emails to each other and whatnot.) So I really enjoyed this one and thought it was a fun read. 

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

I almost really liked this one. I feel like this had the feel of many children's books I loved back when I was a kid--kind of Betsy-Tacy ish, Five Little Peppers, etc. The book follows Lucinda, who has been left behind while her parents travel in Europe for a year for her mother's health, and who lives in New York City with her teacher for a year. She goes everywhere on her roller skates, which represent her freedom and her ability to go fast like she wants, and she has this year filled with great experiences getting to know people everywhere around the city, and doing things she was never allowed to do when she was stuck with her governess and her parents. The one part that was shocking and weird was this random murder scene that Lucinda stumbled across and which she was never allowed to talk about because it might be dangerous for her--definitely too dark and creepy and should have been cut from the book, haha. But the rest was perfectly sweet, and made New York City in the 1890s sound like a perfect playground filled with perfectly safe and kind people just waiting to adore this little girl. (Now that I think of it, it was basically like a rose-colored glasses version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, where the little girl is rich and has whatever she wants.)

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

I am having a hard time figuring out how much I liked this book. On the one hand, it was kind of depressing and hard to read, and I didn't exactly want to seek it out to spend more time reading it. I wasn't rushing back to get to it. But on the other hand, the emotions and the feelings in this book felt so real and hard and strong. This book is about Sara Louise, who is eaten up with jealousy of her twin sister Caroline, and feels like she isn't loved or cared about as much as her. I felt like Caroline was easy to hate if she would have been your peer like she was Sara Louise's. I would have been just as upset as she was. Sara Louise was not an easy-to-love narrator herself, though--she was grumpy and unfriendly and filled with anger a lot of the time, which only pushed people more and more towards Caroline. But I thought those emotions and Sara Louise's over-the-top reactions made this book the gripping story that it was. When Sara Louise threw her bottle of lotion at the wall because Caroline was using it without asking her, and when she refused her parents' offer of paying for her boarding school because she was so upset that Caroline was getting to go to a nicer school in Baltimore--those are exactly the irrational, unrealistic things that an upset teenager might do. So although it was not the most fun book to read, I really felt Sara Louise's feelings of disappointment and anger over and over again. (I also really liked the setting and the imagery of the island and the crabbing and everything they did there as well. And the ending with Sara Louise all grown up as a midwife in the mountains--that was unexpected and I loved that.)

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I wanted to read this book to see what reading level it was and to see if it was appropriate for Dane at his age. (I think it's just at his reading level and I think he will love it once he finishes the series he's currently reading.) Also, I've seen these books for years and have never known what they are about, and finally wanted to find out. This book is about Kendra and Seth, a brother and sister who go to stay with their grandparents for a few weeks while their parents are on a trip, and they find out that their grandparents actually live on a magical preserve for magical creatures. They learn all about the magical creatures and get involved in ways they didn't anticipate, and end up having to stop an evil witch from taking down their family and the whole preserve. 

I thought the book was really well done and I probably would have loved it while I was the appropriate age group. As it was, I didn't personally love it a ton--I think I hate reading stories where the main character (or one of them) causes all the problems in the book and gets him or herself into scrapes that you just know are going to be big problems for them later. I just hate that and get more and more uncomfortable as I read, and try to avoid picking a book up when I know that's going to happen. This book relied on Seth breaking every one of the grandpa's rules and getting everyone into more and more trouble, even though he knew the consequences of breaking them--and that really got annoying after a while. I also felt like Mull avoided several really important plot points by having the grandparents say, "We don't have time to talk about that now. We'll have to talk about that later." Like the grandma wouldn't explain why she was a chicken? Why couldn't she just tell them in one paragraph? I'm guessing it will come up in a future book, but I felt like that was a cop-out. 

Overall, I think the book was great for middle-grade readers. I bet the next ones in the series will be even better, but I'm not planning on reading them myself. I will heartily recommend this to Dane, though.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

After just reading Sounder for my Newbery project and really not liking it, it was such a pleasant experience to read The Graveyard Book and to look forward to coming back to it every time I had to put it down. I am surprised that I hadn't heard more about this book (although maybe I would have if I had been reading middle-grade books when this came out 13 years ago) and I think I would have loved this as a child. I would definitely recommend this for my boys. 

This book is about a live boy who is raised in a graveyard by the ghosts who live there. Just that once sentence sounds macabre and creepy, but this book has such a sweet feeling and definitely gives a sense of coziness and contentment throughout most of it. The boy is named Nobody and called Bod--and Bod grows up wanting to know who he is and why he lives there, and as he slowly learns and decides he wants to avenge his family, he has to learn how to protect himself and his home before he can go out into the world. I thought the ending was so bittersweet, when he leaves and has to say good-bye to all of his ghost friends and family, and they have to say good-bye to him and watch him go. In the interview in the back, Gaiman talks about how he had to learn how to parent and how to help his children go off and leave, and that was what he had to learn in order to write this book. 

The only thing I didn't like about this book was the beginning, when the murderer is at the house and kills Bod's parents and sister--it was too dark and creepy and sad for me. I guess it was a lot like the beginning of Harry Potter, but much more graphic and disturbing to have it described in front of you. But that didn't match the rest of the book.

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

I read this just because it was a Newbery winner and I am SHOCKED that so many of the reviews on Goodreads are of people who love this book and cried while reading it. I basically hated the whole thing. How many dog books win the Pulitzer anyways? I am clearly not a dog person and clearly not a dog book person... but I just really didn't connect with this book. It's a story of a family of sharecroppers in the South probably in the early 1900s, and the father steals some ham to feed his family and gets caught doing it. He is sent to jail and hard labor for years, and his family is left to fend for themselves. His loyal dog Sounder gets shot when he is being arrested, and ends up disfigured but doesn't die, and waits until his master comes home. 

I feel like that summary I just wrote didn't really encapsulate the feeling of the book. It felt really dark--really black and gray and hopeless, except for the boy being able to go to school after a while. I did not like how none of the characters in the book had names, not even the main boy. The one redeeming thing about this book for me was that it was pretty short and I was able to read it in an hour or two. I wouldn't have wanted to spend any more time on this book.

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

This was the 2021 Newbery winner, and it was available on audiobook from our library, so I snapped it right up. I actually really enjoyed this story, about Lily and her Korean grandmother. I loved its focus on stories and the power they have for us, and the influence of Lily's Korean heritage on her life and the story itself. I thought Lily was a determined and strong heroine, but not unbelievable, because she makes mistakes and obviously doesn't think as clearly as an adult, so she would be relatable for a kid. It seemed like it was going to be more magical than it was--there is an invisible-to-everyone-else tiger that talks to Lily, after all--but the book was really more about Lily and her relationship with her grandmother, her mom, and her sister, all of whom have important moments in the book both by themselves and with Lily. I loved that we got to know all of the characters and see them grow. I did feel confused by what Lily and the magical tiger were accomplishing--like, how did this actually happen?--but it was balanced out by the beauty of the rest of the story. 

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I did not love this book. I guess I'm not a dog person, but this story about a boy finding a dog and rescuing it from his abusive and mean owner did not get to me. I also think this book shows how much has changed over time in how we view our collective responsibility towards people and animals--I don't think a person mistreating his animals would be ignored or accepted like Judd Travers was in this book anymore. I think there's a chance Dane would actually really like this book, though--it does seem like one that would actually appeal to kids (appropriately). The boy in the story is pretty heroic in his determination to save the dog and stick up to the mean owner, and I think that would appeal to Dane (but I doubt I'll be able to get him to read it). I did root for Marty and was glad that Shiloh ended up being safe with him at the end, though. I'm not completely heartless. 

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

This book seemed to me like it was similar to A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder--maybe it was the time, or the characters--but it was not nearly as enjoyable and magical. The story is about a boy named Jack Gantos (it's some weird mix of novel and autobiography) who is growing up in a town created by Eleanor Roosevelt and he gets grounded over the summer for helping his dad tear up his mom's cornfield. The only thing he can do is help his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Volker, write the obituaries for all of the old people in town. Mrs. Volker was the best part of this book--she was feisty and smart and talented at amazing things and not at all sentimental. I want to be like her when I grow up and grow old. I was confused by how some of the book seemed like history/autobiography, and some of it seemed like fiction, like the Hell's Angels driving through town and burning houses down, but I did really appreciate the message of how important it is to know and learn history so that we don't repeat our mistakes. I enjoyed this story and thought it was worth a read, but it was not my favorite of the Newberys I've read. 

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars

I had never heard of this Newbery winner, and I just picked it off my stack of library books because it was short and I could tell it would only take me a few hours to get through it, haha. It was a surprisingly good--and short--story about a girl entering her teen years and her little brother, who has a disability. When Charlie gets lost by wandering out of the house during the night, Sara knows she has to be the one to find him. I loved how this book was slow and very much about the characters, and I loved how Sara was going through many of the same wild mood swings that any teenager can relate to. Even though it wasn't very long, I found myself rooting for them and hoping that Charlie was found, and that Sara and Joe would find a way to get together. I really enjoyed it, but I don't know that this is one that most kids would want to read.