Books for Middle School

My current review is about Gloom Town, a sad town sitting on a seaside coast. Everything about this book bespeaks a grim sad life where everything is a struggle.  Gloom Town has little to draw to it and fewer opportunities indeed.  Then Rory gets a job!  He’s able to help him single-parent mom out! This story is about what happens next. 

What I am Reviewing

Raincoast BooksClarion Books published this intriguing read Gloom Town by Ronald L. Smith.  This 32 chapter book rounds out to 288 pages.  I received a trade paperback advanced readers copy to review.   It will be released in February as a hardcover.  Reviewed on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

Gloom Town contains some horror, magic and suspense all at a middle school level.  You’ll find humour to break up the tension as together together, Rory and his friend Isabella set out to uncover exactly what Foxglove and his otherworldly accomplices are planning. Can they devise a strategyto defeat them? 

The Details of Gloom Town

Two best friends form the foundation of Gloom Town.  One brave enough to work at the scariest place in town.  The other learning skills that most don’t know about.  Together they learn the importance of friends working together to solve problems. 

This illustration at the beginning of the book spells out the tone really well.  When I opened up this page I wondered what type of book I was getting myself into.  The characters proved interesting, the bad individuals chilling, and the helper lads were a mixed bag with humour mixed in. 

You’ll find some surprises hidden within the pages. Moves that you might expect a character to make the didn’t happen.  Events transpiring that make you think what? What just happened there??  One such instance was how the whole story ended, it was totally not one that I had anticipated. 

Recommendation

It’s honestly not the sort of book I would normally read.  I don’t tend to read scary or creepy books well.  I think that Gloom Town being a middle school read was it’s saving grace.  It means the creepy stuff isn’t as bad and you know that somehow they will get through it. 

I loved how they needed to use their wits, build upon skills they already possessed, and count on each other. Friends who KNEW they were friends and could totally count on each other. Good stuff in that. 

Have you ever started a book and then wondered… where in the world is this book going?  Lost Tide Warriors surprised me and has left me longing for a second book.  I so deparately want to know who Fionn will become.   Fantasy, magic, and mystery.  Good vs evil.  The battle endures.  It is my pleasure to bring my latest review to you. 

What I am Reviewing

Catherine Doyle has put together a middle school read that starts off slow and gradually builds.  Creating characters that intrigue you!  Bloomsbury Children’s Books published this 340 page chapter book.  My advanced reader’s copy came as a trade paperback, the final should be hardcover with a fly.  Lost Tide Warriors is part of A Storm Keeper’s Island Novel series.  Book One I think. I am reviewing this book for Raincoast Books. 

The Details of The Lost Tide Warriors

The location of this story is Arranmore Island where people are either descendants or non-descendants of the original inhabitants.  Descendants can wield magic, non-descendants cannot. 

Fionn is a storm keeper, leader of the Island, though but a lad.  His magic is proving elusive and evil lurks. 

Knowing this, we are led into a world where danger lurks and gets stronger by the day. Fionn needs to figure out what to do. Will he solve it by books’ end?

Characters are carefully built up. Fionn, his grand-dad, his mom and sister.  We meet his friends, discover his enemies.  Characters you’d know if you met them on the street. 

Well written, the only illustrations grace chapter pages. A towering wave of water, could this have something to do with how the story plays out?

Easy to read, the text is a great size. The story flows easily from one page to the next with appropriate cliff hangers.   There are a couple of sections that didn’t set well with me until the explanation came for them later.  If you have youth who are easily alarmed this might not be the book for them. Overall, it was a good read. 

Recommendation

The word in the Write 31 days challenge is strong.   I was trying to think of something I could do with this word and then I thought of this review book, The Other Half of Happy.  Strength is something this family needed, and though it didn’t always seem apparent, it was something they possessed. 

What I am Reviewing

The Other Half of Happy.
Rebecca Balcarcell.
Chronicle Books.
8-12 years, Grades 5-8, 332 pages, hardcover with fly.

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

middle school, fiction, prejudice, racism, death, family tension, Special needs, Latin America, Cross-cultural, Latino, 

Quijana is a girl in pieces. One-half Guatemalan, one-half American : When Quijana’s Guatemalan cousins move to town, her dad seems ashamed that she doesn’t know more about her family’s heritage. One-half crush, one-half buddy : When Quijana meets Zuri and Jayden, she knows she’s found true friends. But she can’t help the growing feelings she has for Jayden. One-half kid, one-half grown-up : Quijana spends her nights Skyping with her ailing grandma and trying to figure out what’s going on with her increasingly hard-to-reach brother. In the course of this immersive and beautifully written novel, Quijana must figure out which parts of herself are most important, and which pieces come together to make her whole.

The Details of The Other Half of Happy

I have to admit, I was surprised. Much of this book I thoroughly enjoyed, I really did.  Good characters, I could see the struggles that Quijana had.  Being a young teen, learning to hold to her preferences, struggling to understand parental concerns, and trying to be a good sister to a younger brother. 

I didn’t expect the bullying she needed to endure over cross-cultural issues. This issue was a surprise to me.  I wasn’t expecting native language use (or lack thereof) to be a concern among Latino Americans. 

The characters were well-developed.  I feel like I could meet Quijana and her friends and know what to expect from them.  Jayden and Zuri became real people in my mind, good people for Quijana to hang out with. 

I loved the closeness between Quijana and her gramma.  The attention of teachers who noticed struggles.  

This middle school book was an easy read.  The only struggle I was with the bits of Spanish, and some of the Latino names.  

Comments

A good book. Enjoyed reading for the most part.  There was a lot thrown into this book.  Homosexuality, what I think is autism, cross-cultural issues. the death of a family member, and a girl coming to understand herself. 

Family tension was a very solid part of this book.  I saw strength in parenting, strength in Quijana holding to what is solid part of who she was despite familial pressure, and growing strength as she realized more was going on in the world then what she was going through herself.   This story, in and of itself would have been enough.  Watching her mature, even in small ways, was wonderful.

I disliked the need to throw a homosexual character into an already divisive book.  Like seriously, what was the real need to do so?  There was so much going on in The Other Half of Happy already, adding this extra element just seemed pointless.

The focus should have remained on Quijana and the cross-cultural issues she was already dealing with.  Internal strength is a part of this book.