Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles

Wes is ready for 6th grade. He has the style, the friends....what he's not prepared for are the challenges of a teacher who wants his students to think about how they fit into the world around theme and a neighborhood that is about to change drastically. A real estate developer wants to buy out the Kensington Oaks and turn it into upscale condos and shops, just minutes from downtown. Wes' mom is the head of the neighborhood association and a leader of the opposition, but the grownups are tempted by the money that selling their homes will bring. They have no unified plan until Wes begins talking to his teacher about community resources, gentrification, and eventually discovers the forgotten history of the neighborhood that might result in being designated for historic preservation.

 

Chirp by Kate Messner

 

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer between 7th and 8th grade, the challenge is more than just starting a new school. She's recovering from a broken arm after a fall from the balance beam in gymnastics and the last thing she wants to do is start up with a new gymnastics team, or any organized activity for that matter. What she really wants to do is help her grandmother keep her cricket farm in business. Strange accidents have convinced Gram that someone is sabotaging the business, but Mia's parents worry that Gram isn't thinking clearly after suffering a stroke. Her parents force Mia to choose some summer activities. She chooses a STEM program that encourages inventions and new businesses. She also choose an unusual gym program that uses an obstacle course like the one on the popular TV show, American Ninja Warriors. With new skills and new friends, can Mia save the cricket farm by the end of the summer?

Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne

Goblins, ghosts, undead, and other magical creatures inhabit the town of 'Allows. For the most part, though, life is pretty normal. 12-year-old goblin-witch Beetle hangs out at the mall (straight out of Stranger Things for folks who are too young to remember malls), watches romantic adventure shows on her laptop, and texts her friends. She's homeschooled by her grandmother, the town witch, and her best friend Blob Ghost is cursed to haunt the mall forever. Occasionally she checks out social media to see what her childhood friend, Kat, is up to at a fancy boarding school for sorcery. Kat is an undead, and based on her social media, she has become glamorous and popular. So when Kat comes back, Beetle is shy and intimidated. But Kat has a secret and is being used by her evil aunt to generate enough power to destroy the mall and regain power over the town of 'Allows. Is goblin magic powerful enough to fight back against undead sorcery and save the town, the mall, Blob Ghost, and possibly Kat and Beetle's friendship? This beautiful graphic novel that weaves together elements of shoujo manga, Tumblr fan fic, and the video game Haunt the House earned a 2021 Stonewall Honor award for positive portrayal of LGBTQ+ themes.

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

On the inside, the boy is named Khosrou, from a prominent Iranian family with a tradition of poetry, on the outside, the hairy, dark skinned boy standing in the front of the class named Daniel tells weird stories that often involve poop and eats funny smelling food for lunch. Like Scherazade who tells the king stories to save her life, Daniel tales about his family's Persian traditions, his escape from Iran, life as a refugee in Italy, and coming to Oklahoma in order to preserve his own sense of himself. While telling the story of his own life, the author draws on truths that all good storytellers know about the relationship between "facts" and "truth." Even the heroic tales from Persian tradition seem tragic, but take on a humorous edge in the telling. Like all good storytellers, I suspect Nayeri had no specific audience in mind when composing these tales. The passages on middle school life can easily be enjoyed by pre-teen readers. The harrowing tales of escape and mistreatment of refugees will be appreciated by teens. But the mixture of the two is there for the appreciation of readers of all ages on multiple readings. There are many stand alone passages begging to be read aloud. The 2021 Printz Award Winner for outstanding Young Adult Literature.

All He Knew by Helen Frost

The novel in verse format is perfect for capturing the intelligence and humor of a boy who becomes deaf in the 1930s when many were confined to cruel institutions that housed children with a variety of learning disabilities. In spite of petty cruelties from ignorant staff and the bullying of other children, Henry makes two good friends, and is blessed to meet Victor, a conscientious objector who is sent to work at Riverview as an alternative to prison. With the support of Victor and his older sister Molly, Henry discovers his talent for drawing which gives him a way to communicate and eventually go home after uncovering the cruelties at Riverview that led to the death of one of his friends.

Loretta Little Looks Back by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Three members of a black sharecropper family in Mississippi tell their stories. Loretta's life could have been different if she'd been able to stay in school, but her hands had a knack for cotton picking that her family needed to survive. Her younger brother Roly describes the humiliation of being a black man and the joy of falling in love. His daughter, Aggie B. and her aunt Loretta work together for the right to vote, learning everything they can about the law in Mississippi so Loretta and other black neighbors can pass the outrageous poll tests and earn the right to vote. They accompany civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hammer to the Democratic National Convention in 1964 where they find that racial prejudice isn't limited to the south. With a mix of fictional first-person narratives, spoken-word poems, traditional storytelling, church preaching, and drawings, the Pinkneys present a kind of living history tableau for young people to experience life in the rural 20th century south. 

It felt fitting that I finished this the night of the Georgia Senate elections.

Bad Best Friend by Rachel Vail

 Niki and Ava have the perfect friendship and both are eager to start eighth grade. Then the gym teacher asks the class to pair up--pick your best friend-- and Ava turns to one of "the cool kids," Britanny, and Nikki is devastated. Nikki has to decide who her real friends are. Meanwhile, life at home is complicated. Niki's nine-year-old brother Danny continues to act out more and more publicly. Their mother refuses to admit that Danny is somewhere on the autism spectrum, but it's clear he needs help. Niki doesn't want to be like her brother, to be labeled as different. She just wants to be popular! Is she a bad sister and a bad best friend?

Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte

Based on historical facts by a hearing impaired author, readers will be drawn into the surprisingly idyllic life of Mary Lambert on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Readers will be conscious of the tension with the island's Native Americans in a way that the characters in the book are not, and then outraged at Mary's treatment in the later part of the book. Her great-great-grandfather was an early English settler and the first deaf islander. Now, over a hundred years later, many people there -- including Mary -- are deaf, and nearly everyone can communicate in sign language. Mary has never felt isolated. She is proud of her lineage. But then her brother dies tragically, leaving her family shattered. Tensions over land disputes are mounting between English settlers and the Wampanoag people. And a cunning young scientist has arrived, hoping to discover the origin of the island's prevalent deafness. His maniacal drive to find answers soon renders Mary a "live specimen" in a cruel experiment. Her struggle to survive is both to physically escape her captors and to communicate and assert her personhood.

The Brave by James Bird

 

Collin can't help himself, in his mind he visualizes every word said to him and is compelled to count every letter. School is impossible and his single father can't cope. He doesn't know much about his mother until he is kicked out of another school and his dad sends him to Minnesota where his mother is Ojibwe and lives on a reservation. Collin and his loyal dog, Seven, finds his mom is eager to welcome him and accept his condition. He also meets the girl next door who lives in a treehouse and believes she is turning into a butterfly. Together they work to overcome his condition, and, as Collin gradually discovers, deal with Orenda's terminal illness.

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas

 

Nestor would love to be able to unpack all of his things and live in own place for more than a few months. He'd love to just have dinner with his dad. But dad is in the military, and for the first time, he and his mom are no longer living on a military base. They have moved into dad's hometown and are living with Nestor's grandmother. Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals. But Nestor does get involved in his new home. He joins a quiz bowl team at school and makes friends with his teammates and when the animals start disappearing, he starts to investigate. The neighbors suspect Nestor's grandmother. Nestor suspects a bully who is also on the quiz bowl team, and begins investigating the woods where they disappeared, he discovers that they are being seized by a tule vieja―a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner. Can he and his friends do anything to stop it?

My Life in the Fish Tank by Barbara Dee

 

Just before leaving for college, twelve-year-old Zinnia Manning’s older brother Gabriel  takes Zinnia out for ice cream. They pig out on an insane amount of ice cream and then Gabe seems to go crazy on the drive home. Zinny is frightened, and then the family learns that he has crashed his college roommate's car and is being sent home with a mental illness diagnosis. The family is turned upside down and Mom and Dad want Zinny, her older sister, Scarlett, and her younger brother, Aiden, to keep Gabriel’s condition “private.” Soon Zinny's life is dominated by the secrets she keeps from her two best friends, and her science teacher, Ms. Molina. A well-meaning guidance counselor invites her to a Lunch Club with a weird mix of kids who Zinny doesn't believe she has anything in common with. As the year progresses, the family attempts to reconnect with Gabe and each other and Zinny learns who she can trust and who she can't.

The Last Lie by Patricia Forde

 

The conclusion of a dystopian series where the leaders of the rebellion believe they can save the world from repeating the environmental destruction of the past by limiting people's ability to speak. 

"If babies never hear a single word, they will never learn to speak."

The battle for Ark seems to be over. As a teenager, Leeta has found herself an unexpected hero, both for murdering one of the the leaders and for teaching the refuge's children the lost words. But the new ruler of Ark is even crueler than her predecessor, and Letta is horrified to find that they are stealing babies so they can get rid of language once and for all: if babies never hear a single word, they will never learn to speak. Letta learns that winning a rebellion is hard when there is evil on both sides and the leaders of the other side are family.