FINISHED:
Medina, Meg. (2018). Merci Suárez Changes Gears. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Johnson, Maureen. (2019). The Vanishing Stair. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
Jackson, Tiffany D. (2018). Monday's Not Coming. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
Kelly, Erin Entrada. (2018). You Go First. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Yang, Kelly. (2018). Front Desk. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Johnson, Maureen. (2018). Truly Devious. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Wang, Jen. (2018). The Prince and the Dressmaker. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Tamani, Liara. (2017). Calling My Name. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Rhodes, Jewel Parker. (2018). Ghost Boys. New York: Little, Brown/Hachette.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
Reynolds, Jason. (2017). Patina [Track: Book 2]. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

STARTED & FINISHED:
Kahng, Eik. (2017). David Wiesner & the Art of Wordless Storytelling. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

[.]

STARTED:
Milford, Kate. (2017). The Ghosts of Greenglass House. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Pérez, Celia C. (2017). The First Rule of Punk. New York: Viking/Penguin Random House.

[Twelve year old, Mexican American, zine-creating María Luisa – who goes by Malú – must move from Florida to Chicago for two years when her mom gets a temporary job there, sad that she must leave behind her father (her parents are divorced) and his music store.  Always having felt more of a connection to her father’s punk music influence than her mother’s Mexican heritage, Malú feels a bit out of touch with the primarily Latinx neighborhood and school in which she now finds herself, but when the makeshift band that Malú forms with some schoolmates doesn’t get chosen to be in the school talent show because the school wants it to reflect tradition, Malú and the Cocos (the band’s name) decide to have their own Alterna-Fiesta Talent Show and play a punked-up version of the Mexican classic “Cielito Lindo”.  The singularly-focused and uncluttered narrative is briskly paced and thoroughly engaging, featuring Malú’s likeable voice which often sounds like you are reading excerpts directly from her journal.  By the end, Malú has learned the value of her heritage by interacting with her new neighbors and classmates, and is able to integrate both sides/identities of her parents when she begins to connect with her Mexican heritage through its music. Reproductions of Malu’s multi-page zines provide interludes between select chapters, and serve to provide further explanation on topics such as the slur “coconut”, Calaveras, and dyeing your hair.]

STARTED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2017). Solo. New York: Blink/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Tynion IV, James. (2017). The Backstagers: Volume 1: Rebels Without Applause. Los Angeles: BOOM! Box.

[Umm... this one is just... odd.  Not really at all what I was expecting.]

STARTED:
Haydu, Corey Ann. (2017). The Someday Suitcase. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Her last middle grade book, Rules for Stealing Stars, came out during my Newbery year and was one of my favorites - so much so that I read it a couple of times.  It STILL lingers in my mind, even 2 years later.  There's just something viscerally affecting about it.  It's will definitely be one that I return to from time to time.]

*

FINISHED:
Delaney, Rachelle. (2017). The Bonaventure Adventures. New York: Penguin Random House.

[Clumsy and untalented twelve year-old Sebastian (Seb), worried that he will never be a circus performer and, thus, is a disappointment to his father who is ringmaster of the Konstantinov Family Circus (currently traveling around Eastern Europe), enrolls in the Bonaventure Circus School in Montreal in an effort to learn to modernize the circus and help to save it from financial ruin.  As classes begin, Seb struggles to fit in without having any acrobatic acuity, but finds kinship in two other students (Frankie, a girl from Italy who is into parkour; and Banjo, a boy who is constantly late to class because he has no sense of direction) who have been labeled Bêtes Noires by the headmistress, and discovers a talent for writing stories.  Most of the humor comes from Seb having to keep up appearances by doing anything that he can to get out of having to do any acrobatics at school, ultimately telling everyone that his is a fire breather, knowing that no one will ask him to prove it, and stringing the headmistress along who admitted Seb to the ailing school because she assumes that Seb must be talented and wealthy because he’s a Konstantinov.  Beyond the reassuring message that everyone has their talent(s) and that you just have to put some work toward finding out what that may be, this is a pretty standard tale that is light on world building and character development, skipping forward in time at whim, with an abrupt ending where Seb and the other Bêtes Noires predictably end up saving the day.]

STARTED:
Ruby, Laura. (2017). The Shadow Cipher [York: Book 1]. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Jamieson, Victoria. (2017). All's Faire in Middle School. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Smith, Ronald L. (2017). The Mesmerist. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2016). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

STARTED:
Grimes, Nikki. (2016). Garvey's Choice. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Highlights.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Shevah, Emma. (2016). Dara Palmer's Major Drama. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky.

[.]

STARTED:
Stewart, Trenton Lee. (2016). The Secretkeepers. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Avi. (2016). School of the Dead. New York: HarperCollins.

[Tony and his family move to San Francisco so that he can attend the alma mater, The Penda School, of his afterlife-believing, recently deceased Uncle Charlie.  Upon starting seventh grade at his new school, Tony not only begins to see the ghost of his dead Uncle, but also that of a long dead student, while finding out that over the life of the school, students have been mysteriously disappearing every seven years.  Avi’s latest has its moments where the reader will be fooled by some red herrings, as Tony eventually finds himself caught between a ghost who needs his help, a group of students called the Weird History Club who investigate the odd goings on at the school, and teachers who advise Tony to stay away from the Weird History Club… thus putting him in a position where he’s not sure who to believe has his best interest at heart, and wondering if there is anyone that he can trust.  This aside, the story being set in San Francisco seems inconsequential, and rather than building real tension, this is a standard ghost story with few real scares that feels padded and overlong (not helped by the lack of chapter designations), giving the impression that it could’ve made a much more effective short story.]

STARTED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2016). Every Single Second. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[Rereading before writing a formal review for ACL.  As previously mentioned (and seen by the author!), MOONPENNY ISLAND, from last year, was one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITES, so I'm trying this one again to solidify my feelings.]

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