For much needed perspective in middle-school, try looking at “Things seen from above.” *Things Seen from Above by ShelleyPearsall, with illustrations by Xingye Jin. Knopf (PRH), 2020, 253 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-15 April Boxler is sitting out sixth grade—almost literally. Her best friend Julie has started wearing makeup and putting colored streaks in her hair and talking about things April is clueless about. Also hanging out with girls who talk the same way. So, instead of suffering through lunch period trying to “fit in,” April has volunteered for the Buddy Bench during fourth grade recess, where she can help keep order among the…

Turner comes to understand himself, his father, his peers, his town, and his world in this bittersweet coming-of-age story set in 1912 Maine. *Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion, 2004. 217 pages. Reading Level: Young adult, ages 12-15 Recommended For: Teens, ages 12-15 When Turner Ernest Buckminster, III, moves to Phippsburg, Maine, from Boston, Maryland, he fervently hopes the town knows how to play baseball. His father, the Reverend Buckminster, newly hired by First Congregational, sets out earnestly to do his new job to the fullest. But Phippsburg, Maine, is not at all what the Buckminster family bargains for. For starters, they play baseball like…

Too Tired to Read? You’ve likely heard of “stress baking.” Have you thought about “stress reading”? Essentially, it’s reading differently because you’re stressed. Some will binge read light, fluffy novels while others will plow through their long list of to-read titles. But others won’t read at all. As adults, we’ve all been there: stressed over health concerns, financial worries, job issues. We’ve been too tired to read at night before dropping into bed, too brain dead from a busy day at work to pick up Les Miserables (which we were determined to finish this year), or too invested in learning something practical that we didn’t pick up a fiction read…

In this classic survival story, Karana learns to fend for herself on an island after her tribe leaves for the mainland. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2010 (originally published 1960). 192 pages. Reading Level: Ages 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 10 and up Karana’s tribe has lived on the Island of the Blue Dolphins for generations. When the Aleuts come again this year to hunt otter, Karana and the rest of her people are vigilant, afraid the Aleuts will cheat them out of their agreed price. Vigilance doesn’t always prevent violence, though, and many of the village’s men (including Karana’s father) die trying…