MIDDLE GRADE SUNDAY: Savvy by Ingrid Law

Publisher: Puffin Books
Pages: 342
Series or Stand Alone: has a companion novel called Scumble
Summary: For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a "savvy" -a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity . . . and now it's the eve of Mibs's big day.
As if waiting weren't hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs's birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman's bus . . . only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up-and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.

Review:
There’s magic, secrets, and a great family story in this one. The whole idea of the “savvy” was really cool--there were abilities that seemed totally human, like Mibs’s mother’s ability to do everything perfectly, but also supernatural ones, such as her brother’s control over electricity. I love the idea that everyone, even the non-magical ones, have some sort of savvy that affects the people and environment around them.
Mibs is an awesome protagonist. She doesn’t fit in very well at her school, but she knows that once her savvy kicks in, she’ll probably be pulled from her school anyway so she doesn’t worry about it. She tries to ignore the bitchy girls and stay true to herself and her family. For example, when the girls mock her youngish dress, she doesn’t let it bother her too much because her father bought it for her birthday.
The close-knit relationship Mibs’s family had was really the strong point of this novel. Her love for her father drives the entire story, considering Mibs, her siblings, and friends run away in an attempt to visit him while he’s in the hospital. It was great to see such a great family dynamic in a middle grade book.
Ingrid Law’s Savvy was a wonderful middle grade story with a touch of magic. I’ll definitely be reading Scumble!

Rating: 4.5 - great!

MIDDLE GRADE SUNDAY: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books
Pages: 272
Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Summary: Inspired by the author's own childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam as a refugee and immigrating to Alabama, this tween novel told in verse is sure to capture young readers' hearts and open their eyes.

Review:
I snagged a copy of this one at last year’s BEA and had Lai sign it for me, which was awesome. My boss had picked this one out as being her top Newbury contender. While Jack Gantos’s Dead End in Norvelt  (another book that I snagged and had signed at BEA but have yet to read) eventually took the prize, Inside Out and Back Again still gained the Newbury Honor medal and was a great middle grade book that would be perfect for any age reader.
Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again tells the story of Ha, a girl that flees Vietnam with her family to move to Alabama. As poor as their conditions were in Vietnam, Ha misses it terribly when she is met with the strange customs of America and the bigotry of the people around her.
I loved this book and think it was entirely deserving of its Newbury Honor status. Lai’s verse created a wonderful story. I felt really connected to Ha’s emotions and story as she moved from one place to another. She was incredibly frustrated academically and socially. I loved that she forged a great relationship with her tutor and eventually found friends deserving of her trust.
The descriptions in this book were beautiful and really brought whatever Ha was talking about at the time to life. I was even more impressed that Lai created such intense descriptions through her short chapters told in verse. While many other writers could create the same picture while being incredibly verbose, Lai managed to create imagery using very few words. I personally liked that better; sometimes if a writer is rambling on too much trying to make me believe the picture they have in their minds, they lose me.
If you’re looking for a wonderful middle grade book, look no further than Inside Out and Back Again!

Rating: 5 - fantastic

MIDDLE GRADE SUNDAY: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 492
Series or Stand Alone: Book One in the Mysterious Benedict Society series
Summary: (from goodreads.com) Dozens of children respond to this peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children-two boys and two girls-succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. But what they'll find in the hidden underground tunnels of the school is more than your average school supplies. So, if you're gifted, creative, or happen to know Morse Code, they could probably use your help.

Review:
As someone who works in the children’s room in a public library, I am often asked about middle grade books. I’ve been making a greater effort to read more middle grade fiction so I can know what I’m recommending.
The Mysterious Benedict Society is about the titular group, comprised of members placed together after a series of tests. Once the four main characters--Reynie, Kate, “Sticky” and Constance--pass the tests, they are sent off to a boarding school without any rules in order to uncover a dastardly scheme.
I enjoyed the idea behind this story--orphans or kids without idea parents coming together with extraordinary but realistic abilities in order to go on a mission for an older benefactor seems like the perfect plotline for a middle grade book. Reynie was an orphan with a penchant for puzzle-solving, Kate was a flexible gymnast, Sticky had a super-photographic memory, and Constance’s rude, disrespectful attitude and lack of fear were useful for going against adversaries. They made a great team and I wanted to know whether or not they would defeat Mr. Curtain’s evil plot for world domination.
However, this book was completely too long for what it was. If it had been 250 pages long, I would have given it an entirely different rating. Once the students enter the boarding school, I found the plot dragging. There were long, unnecessary in-depth explanations of irrelevant things that could have been said in a quicker fashion. It was just too long. I will not be continuing this series.
The Mysterious Benedict Society had a great middle grade concept with its kid agents attempting to go against a force of evil in the world, but it unfortunately took too long to get to the point for me.

Rating: 2.5 - okay.

MIDDLE GRADE SUNDAY: Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books
Pages: 307Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Summary: Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.
That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.
Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.
From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a luminous and magnificent novel that glows with rare magic, ghostly wonders, and a true friendship that lights even the darkest of places.

Review:
Every once and awhile, a middle grade novel strikes my fancy. It intrigued me as a galley (that I didn’t get) at Book Expo. I’ve never read a Lauren Oliver novel before, but have only heard great things about her books, so I decided to give it a go.
I thought this was a great, darkly whimsical read. Oliver created wonderful characters in Liesl, Po, and Will. I just wanted all three of them to not be lonely anymore. Also, to give them each a hug and a cookie. Liesl was endearingly brave and driven--even in her dismal situation with her stepmother, she doesn’t sit around and wallow. Once she meets Po, she does everything to get Po to contact her dead father for her. She’s strong in the face of awful things. Po was curious and quite considerate of Liesl, making for a great friend and companion for her. And Will’s adoration of Liesl is just adorable. I’m telling you, I’m not kidding about wanting to give all of these kids hugs. And maybe some cocoa too.
The Lady Premiere, the alchemist, and Liesl’s stepmother made for awesome middle grade villains. First of all, they’re all in a position of authority over either Liesl and Po, they are driven by their greed, and they are abusive via physical, emotional, or neglectful means. They’re essentially the worst.
I loved the setting and the ideas about the areas between the worlds. The fact that people blurred and lost their names, genders, and personalities (basically everything that made them unique humans) was a new and interesting concept. It was definitely one that I didn’t think would come up in a middle grade novel. Also, the fact that Po was one of these shades and managed to be an engaging, likeable character was wonderful to me.
Lauren Oliver’s Liesl and Po was a wonderfully crafted story about friendship and magic. Oliver very clearly has a talent for creating worlds and lovable characters. I’m looking forward to reading everything else she has written!

Rating: 5 - fantastic!

MIDDLE GRADE SUNDAY: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Pages: 201
Series or Stand Alone: Book one in the Time series
Summary: It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. 
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract". 
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusal book.

Review:

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I got a really cool book called A Wrinkle in Time.  I started reading it a bunch of times, but it never caught my fancy the way those damn Babysitter’s Club Books did. Eventually I finished the book, but I never ended up completing the series. When the 50th anniversary of the book came around, I realized that I didn’t remember most things about the story. I picked it up again in order to rediscover the story.

Meg Murry’s life is not going in a great direction. She constantly gets into trouble at school, often fights her peers for their mocking her five year old brother, and worst of all, her father is missing. Luckily, the Murry family is so awesome that Meg can find solace in her home life, along with her new friend Calvin. When five-year-old Charles Wallace reveals a mysterious stranger and a plan to rescue Mr. Murry, Meg agrees. Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin end up wrinkling through time in order to save Mr. Murry and bring the family back together.
Meg Murry is a great protagonist. She doesn’t fit in at all. In a time where females were expected to be demure, Meg is argumentative and not afraid to throw herself into a scuffle if someone insults Charles Wallace. At the opening of the story, she has a black eye for this exact reason. She doesn’t get along with her classmates and she doesn’t change herself to do so.
A Wrinkle in Time is more of a classic time travel-fantasy-adventure novel with weird non-human companions (i.e., Mrs. Whatsit) and a non-human villain. There is a mini love story between Meg and Calvin (which is adorable) but family is clearly what is important in this novel. The Murry family is awesome together. Also, I want Charles Wallace to be my brilliant younger brother. His overly polite and formal demeanor made him delightful.
A Wrinkle in Time is a great read that I wish I had appreciated more when I was a child. I would advise anyone to read it, especially if they couldn’t get into it as a kid. L’Engle’s classic stories of time should definitely be revisited! I’ll be continuing on with the series as soon as I can find them in my basement. Which could actually take awhile.

Rating: 5 - fantastic