Scary Stories for Young Foxes, a 2020 Newbery Honor Book, may be more disturbing than encouraging. Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian Heidicker. Henry Hold, so19, 313 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: hard to say. Deep in Antler Wood on a chilly, smoky autumn night, seven little foxes seek out the storyteller in Bog Cavern to put a shiver in their paws. Are they “brave enough to listen and wise enough to stay to the end”? The first story features Miss Vix, a bold and clever teacher who is suddenly beset with the Yellow (rabies, apparently), and attacks the litter who were formerly her beloved…

A month ago my mother was taken to the hospital with a serious infection and blood poisoning. The former threatened a sobering 80% mortality rate; the latter could have killed her in 24 hours.  To the astonishment of all, especially the hospital staff, God heard the prayers of hundreds of people around the world on her behalf and overwhelmed us with His goodness. She left without a colon, but gained a mission field.  I was there after the immediate crisis, during her week of accelerating gains in the hospital, witnessing her testimony. She demonstrated love for the nurses and cafeteria workers alike by asking questions about their families, their personal…

The Aggie Morton series introduces young readers to a young Agatha Christie, already solving crimes in her seaside home town. The Body under the Piano (Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen #1) by Marthe Jocelyn. Tundra (PRH Canada), 2020, 318 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-14 Though painfully shy, Agatha (Aggie) Morton has a lively imagination. And there’s plenty to occupy her time in the seaside town of Torquay (England), 1902. Her beloved father’s passing the year before has cast a pall, but Mummy and Grannie Jane take good care of her. Also, she’s just made a friend: Hector Perot, a Belgian orphan who shares her curiosity…

The Unteachables rounds up a class full of misfits and molds them into a prize-winning team. The Unteachables by Gordon Korman. Balzer + Bray (HarperColins), 2019, 279 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-15 When Kiana walks into her 8th-grade homeroom on her first day at Greenwich Middle School, the students are roasting marshmallows stuck on pencils over a trash-can fire. Then a (supposedly) responsible adult enters, carrying a coffee mug the size of a toilet bowl. His first act is to calmly pour the contents over the fire. “Good morning. I’m your teacher, Mr. Kermit.” Fortunately, Kiana doesn’t plan to be around long. This is…

20th Century Book List for Young Teens 20th Century: World wars. A Great Depression. First flight. Space flight. Voting Rights. Civil Rights. Communism. Terrorism. Jazz. Nuclear weapons. Computers.   The 20th Century included huge, sweeping changes, inventions, and events which, more than any century previous, connected our globe. A reader could read for years and not cover all the books on WWII alone; clearly, this list below is not exhaustive. Rather, it’s a collection of some of the works we think are great starting points.   Our 20th Century Book List for Young Teens includes political history, science history, social history, and Christian history in a mix of formats. Some…

Every now and then we read a book that seems to warrant more than a standard review—even a starred one. That was Janie and Betsy’s experience recently when they both read Ordinary Hazards, Nikki Grimes’ verse memoir, at about the same time. Emails flew back and forth: “We should have a Newbery-buzz style discussion about this!” Nikki Grimes is one of our favorite authors, and with Ordinary Hazards she lets the reader into personal depths hitherto unknown. She defines “Memoir” as “a work of imperfect memory in which you meticulously capture all that you can recall, and use informed imagination to fill in what remains.” There are reasons why she…