Action, adventure, and chimeras await Maggie and Nate in Yellowstone in the Attack of the Killer Komodos. Attack of the Killer Komodos (A Maggie and Nate Mystery) by Summer Rachel Short. Simon & Shuster, 2021. 240 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, Ages 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 10 and up Maggie and Nate are in Yellowstone for this follow-up adventure to their summer with the mutant mushrooms. This time, Nate’s on the hunt for epic video footage for his YouTube channel, perhaps of Bigfoot? Maggie is concerned that her park ranger dad might be mixed up in something strange in the park. After all, a popular documentary series raised questions about…

“Dead Wednesday” is supposed to be the day middle-schoolers contemplate their own mortality, but for one 8th-grader it’s a turning point in life. Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli. Knopf, 2021, 227 pages. Reading Level: Teen, 12-15 Recommended for: ages 13-16 Amber Springs Middle School has a weird tradition for 8th-graders. On the last Wednesday of the school year, they get to pretend to be dead. That is, they’ll take on the identity of a teen who died in the previous year—mostly by auto accident—and be invisible to teachers, staff, and younger students. It’s supposed to make them think about the fragility of life and be a little more careful once…

Two high-concept picture books present stories of people and movements in a way even small children can grasp. *If the World Were 100 People: A Visual to Our Global Village by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley. Crown, 2021, 26 pages Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 0-4 Recommended for: all ages “It’s tricky to picture 800 billion people, so instead let’s imagine the whole planet as a village where 100 people live . . . If we focus on 100 people, it’s easier to see the things we have in common and the things that make us different.” In our imaginary village, it may be no surprise that half of…

Novelist Alan Gratz and graphic artist Don Brown offer views of 9/11 accessible to middle-grade readers. In The Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months and Years after the 9/11 Attacks by Don Brown. HMH, 2021, 111 pages plus notes and bibliography. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-14 “Jules Naudet runs for his life. That morning, Jules had been with New York City Fire Department Chief Joseph Pfeifer and his firefighting crew in Lower Manhattan filming a documentary about the Fire Department.” As such, he was in a perfect position to aim his camera at a jetliner hitting the North Tower…