Back to looking at the actual contents of actual libraries. As a reminder, this is Part Two of looking at Durham, NC's library system, an attempt to look at a blue tribe-ish small city (100-300K pop) after doing the same for two red tribe-ish small cities in Texas.
If you're wondering about my synopses, I am looking at Amazon, Goodreads, Publisher pages, and so on as well as the back cover blurbs. I will only do the Middle sChool list this time, and will do the Teen list tomorrow because it was LONG.
Middle School Reading List:
The Crossover: "Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.". Written in poetic style rather than prose.
I Will Always Write Back: True story/Memoi about an american girl and a zimbabwean boy who became close friends after meeting via a school pen pal assignment. Co-written between them and the journalist who popularized their human interest story.
Etiquette & Espionage: Supernatural Steampunk by Gail Carriger about a girl at a boarding school that turns out to teach magic and spy tradecraft as well as etiquette and the three Rs. Set in the same setting as Carriger's other books which I have actually read. Her other series has some romance, but no indications of that here.
Maybe He Just Likes You: "When boys in her class start touching seventh-grader Mila and making her feel uncomfortable, she does not want to tell her friends or mother until she reaches her breaking point. Barbara Dee explores the subject of #MeToo for the middle grade audience in this heart-wrenching—and ultimately uplifting—novel about experiencing harassment and unwanted attention from classmates."
Ashes to Ashville: "Gr 5-8-Following the death of one of her mothers, Mama Lacy, 12-year-old Fella is ripped from the only other parent she has ever known, Mama Shannon, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany. Fella is forced to move in with her grandmother Mrs. Madison, who has never approved of the relationship between her daughter, the more serious Mama Lacy, and the free-spirited Mama Shannon. When Zany shows up in the middle of the night, whisking away Fella and Mrs. Madison's stowaway poodle, Haberdashery, they set off on a misadventure of epic proportions. Zany is steadfastly determined that she and Fella return to Asheville, NC, to honor Mama Lacy's dying wish that her ashes be scattered there. In the span of a night, what can go wrong does-the girls lose (and find) the ash-filled urn and accept a ride with a would-be thief, and the dog is hit by a car-but nothing will stop them in their pursuit to tie together the last shreds of their torn-apart family. Many poor decisions are made during the journey, such as taking a ride with a stranger. While searching for the girls, Mama Shannon and Mrs. Madison come to realize they have more in common than they think, and they begin to understand the importance of putting aside their own grief when making family decisions. Dooley makes readers stop and think about what really constitutes a family and whether laws should ultimately define those parameters."
Paper Things: "Ari and her older brother, Gage, have lived with a strict guardian since their mother died four years ago, but now Gage, 19, wants to leave-and take 11-year-old Ari with him. The siblings' mother implored them to "Stay together always," but without an apartment or a job for Gage, they bounce around among friends' places and a homeless shelter, even spending a night in Gage's girlfriend's car. As Ari falls behind at school, she wonders if she can still fulfill her mother's wish for her to attend a middle-school for gifted kids. Despite an overly neat conclusion, Jacobson (Small as an Elephant) elevates her book beyond "problem novel" territory with an engaging narrator who works hard to be loyal to her brother-and to her mother's memory. Small moments pack big emotional wallops, as when a teacher gives Ari "brand-new, trés cool shoes" to replace her "ratty" ones, or when Ari pretends that the people she cuts from magazine are a family, because, "With a big family you're likely to have someone watching out for you always." A tender exploration of homelessness. Ages 10-up."
Roller Girl: Bildungsroman graphic novel about a pre-teen girl who discovers roller derby and loves it, but has to deal with growing apart from her previous BFF whose interests diverge.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind: Autobiography of a Malawian boy who helps his village survive after a drought by figuring out how to power the local generator using a windmill.
The Makings Of America: Alexander Hamilton: "The America that Alexander Hamilton knew was largely agricultural and built on slave labor. He envisioned something else: a multi-racial, urbanized, capitalistic America with a strong central government. He believed that such an America would be a land of opportunity for the poor and the newcomers. But Hamilton's vision put him at odds with his archrivals who envisioned a pastoral America of small towns, where governments were local, states would control their own destiny, and the federal government would remain small and weak. The disputes that arose during America's first decades continued through American history to our present day. Over time, because of the systems Hamilton set up and the ideas he left, his vision won out. Here is the story that epitomizes the American dream--a poor immigrant who made good in America. In the end, Hamilton rose from poverty through his intelligence and ability, and did more to shape our country than any of his contemporaries."
Song for a Whale: A deaf-from-birth girl goes on a road trip when she learns about a whale that can't communicate with other whales and is inspired to help them.
Under The Mesquite: A Mexican-American English Professor's free-verse autobiography focusing on her teen years and "Aztec heritage".
Cinder: This was on another list earlier. It's a YA Dystopian Sci-Fi romance, part of a series bringing together Dystopian Sci-Fi versions of female fairy tale heroines.
Bloom: Science Fiction Thriller about 3 pre-teen friends whose allergies make them resistant to the alien plants whose seeds rained from space and are now getting ready to take over the world. Looks like the later books move to full on YA Dystopian Sci-Fi as the aliens themselves show up.
All Of The Above: "Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community members relate how a school project to build the world's largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved."
A Good Kind Of Trouble: "After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity."
Ghost: "Reynolds (As Brave As You) uses a light hand to delve into topics that include gun violence, class disparity, and bullying in this compelling series opener. Seventh-grader Castle Cranshaw, nicknamed Ghost, knows nothing about track when a former Olympian recruits him as a sprinter for one of the city's youth teams. As far as Ghost is concerned, "whoever invented track got the whole gun means go thing right," something he learned firsthand when his father tried to shoot Ghost and his mother in their apartment three years prior. The trauma has had ripple effects on Ghost, including angry outbursts ("I was the boy.... with all the scream inside"), altercations at school, stealing, and lying. Joining the track team provides new friends, goals, and an opportunity for Ghost to move beyond his past. Ghost is a well-meaning, personable narrator whose intense struggles are balanced by a love of world records, sunflower seeds, and his mother. Coach's relationship with Ghost develops into a surrogate father-son scenario, adding substantial emotional resonance and humor to the mix. "
Between Shades Of Gray: "Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life -- until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?"
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Team: A" great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story of how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team. Part of a history series that also includes a YA history of The Pentagon Papers and The Port Chicago 50.
"Sheinkin calls out the ignominious history of Indian schools nationwide, pointing to the parts they played in stripping Native children of their languages, cultures, and connections with their families and communities throughout the US. He also factually lays out the school's founder's bigotry and clearly odious "mission" of the school."
Counting By 7s: Brilliant but socially awkward kid learns to deal with grief when they are orphaned and are taken in by an impovrished vietnamese family.
Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase: 3 teenaged psychic detectives team up to fight ghosts in alternate history London.
The Bridge Home: Two siblings in India run away from their abusive father and set up housekeeping with two other children in a hovel outside Chennai, finding a new family.
Deathwatch: "Needing money for school, Ben accepts a job as guide on a desert hunting trip and nearly loses his life when a cutthroat Los Angeles corporation executive hunting bighorn sheep turns him out in the California desert some 45 miles from the nearest town without water, food, weapons, or clothes."
Beyond The Bright Sea: "Several central characters populate Wolk's New England coming-of-age novel. The protagonist, Crow, at 12, has begun asking questions about her past as an abandoned baby-questions that neither her taciturn foster father, Osh, nor their matter-of-fact neighbor Miss Maggie are equipped to answer. As the story unfolds, the three characters venture forth from their tiny island off Cape Cod to discover the truth about Crow's lost family, encountering unexpected dangers along the way"
Again, nothing with LGBTQ messaging here, though there is a recurring theme both in this collection and several others of "Found Family". And again, a lot of definite political and social commentary, but it's pretty expected for children's books to try and inculcate pro-social values, so I would expect a book list in a "Blue Tribe" area to inculcate valuies and teach history from that sort of perspective, just as I would expect "Red Tribe" type lists to do the same. If you were a conservative parent you would probably want to be aware of some of this and be prepared to have discussions about the material, though. The most surprising thing here to me is that the story about Lithuanians in Stalinist Russia made it on the list at all.
