The winter must be a slow time for publishing I’m having a hard time finding middle grade titles that are coming out this month. Maybe it’s me? Let me know if there is anything you are looking forward to. There is certainly plenty of YA.
Stick With Me
Izzy’s best friend’s seem to be ditching her for the meanest girl in middle school Daphne Toll. All Izzy wants is to fit in and have some real friends. But all she really has is her art and the fact that she is attending theatre camp. It doesn’t help that her family rents out their house during winter break for some extra cash, so that family’s daughter is sleeping in her room and attending the same camp, a fact that Izzy isn’t one bit happy about.
Meanwhile the Wren, the girl from the family that is renting out Izzy’s house has problems of her. Before ending up at Izzy’s house Wren was focused on perfecting her ice skating routine after tanking at a big competition last year. But when her sister qualifies for a chance to participate in a life saving treatment for her epilepsy, Wren must forget about all that and stay in a rented home near Boston, what’s worse she has to attend the local theater camp where it seems like the mean girls are making her their number one target.
Izzy and Wren may both be targets of the mean girls, but with their differences is that enough to bring them close enough to have a chance at trying to be friends or will middle school drama win out in the end.
Told from dual perspective this is a story about fitting in and figuring yourself out.
Out November 3rd
Serena Says
A perfect story told by award winning author Tanita S. Davis about a young black girl who finds her voice.
Serena’s friend JC has never had a problem casting a light, she just shines. She’s got the biggest and best idea, the funniest laugh and the party starts when she arrive. Serena St. John is proud just to be known as her best friend.
But JC needed a kidney transplant and time in the hospital, Serena expects everything to be the same when JC returns home but not only does she have a new kidney she’s got a new best friend. Out of JC’s spotlight Serena feels lonely and life just doesn’t have that shine.
Serena works on perfecting her vlogs, hoping to earn a shot at becoming a classroom reporter. But if she can be smart and funny on video, why can’t she do it in real life. If only real life had pause, edit and delete functions for conversations. It would be so much easier to say then right thing when she’s supposed to, instead of not saying what she should or blurting out a secret that wasn’t hers to share.
But life doesn’t have a pause button and as Serena discovers her voice through vlogging, she learns that she’s not just there to reflect JC’s light, she’s fully able to shine on her own.
Tanita S. Davis is an American author of young adult novels, best known for her NAACP Image Award-nominated and Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel Mare’s War.
Serena Says comes out November 3rd.
Unlocked
So book eight of this series was a terrible horrible rip your heart out cliff hanger. But since book nine won’t be out till next year the author is doing something special for the fans.
She’s doing a special kind of book and a half. Taking some of the pain out of the cliffhanger by revealing what happened in a way she’s never done before, from the heroine Sophie whose perspective we usually follow, as well as Keefe one of Sophie’s friend who was particularly affected by the way the last book ended. It will allow for more insight into both characters, as new powers are discovered and tough truths come to light and all of the Keeper of the Lost Cities crew find themselves tested in new ways they could have never imagined.
Not only that! The book also promises to reveal a comprehensive guide to the world of the Lost Cities where we will get new character and world details that haven’t been revealed to readers before. We are also promised cute things like Keeper themed recipes full color illustrations and more.
I for one cannot wait!
Unlocked will be released on November 17th
Image by Pepper Mint from Pixabay