1. The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukranian Famine by Katherine Marsh - a Matthew and his mother move in with his great-grandmother during the Covid pandemic and as he is tasked with helping organize his great-grandmother's things, he discovers a family secret - a survival story from the 1930s during the Holodomor that involved his great grandmother. I had never heard of this event in history and found it fascinating (as well as devastating).
2. The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D Schmidt - I love Schmidt's story-telling ability, and the recipe he used for The Wednesday Wars is one he uses in Hercules Beal. Herc is given an assignment by his seventh grade homeroom teacher to find a way to duplicate the twelve myths of Hercules in real life. This one is both humorous and heartbreaking.
3. Bea and the New Deal Horse by LM Elliott - Bea and her sister are abandoned by their father during the Depression, taken in by a friend of their mother's (who doesn't realize the girls' connection to her college friend) who owns horses. Mrs. Scott is also facing financial hardship and needs to sell some horses, but Bea has a way with these animals and just may be able to help out.
4. Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater - this one is definitely YA (8th grade and up) and is the only nonfiction title to make this list. When one teenager makes a racist post on his fake instagram account - which only had thirteen followers- and receives feedback in "likes" he continues to push the envelope further in each subsequent post. And when one of the followers shares these posts with another student, it changes things for everyone. This one has so much in it that needs to be discussed. Parents, students, teachers, administrators - I've passed this one on to a lot of people.
5. 365 Days to Alaska by Cathy Carr- Rigel loves living with her family in Alaska, "off the grid." But her mom moves Rigel and her siblings to suburban Connecticut where they move in with their grandmother for a year as Rigel's parents sort things out. The only thing Rigel is counting on is her dad's promise that she can come back to Alaska after a year.
6. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (also YA, grades 9 and up) - set in the 1950s in Chinatown, San Francisco, Lo's novel explores what life was like for girls who liked other girls. Lily Hu has always conformed to what is expected of her, but when she makes friends with Kathleen and the two spend some evenings at a lesbian bar, Telegraph Hill, the world seems full of possibilities.
7. Forget-Me-Not Blue by Sharrelle Byars Moranville - I love that this is an Iowa author and think this is an underrated gem. Sofie and Con's mom has never been the most reliable, but when she goes missing leaving the two alone and doesn't return, the siblings need to figure out who they can trust and how they can remain together.
8. Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango - novel in verse, Laura wants desperately to live with parents again. But her aunt is raising her since her parents are in a treatment facility. And no matter how hard her aunt tries, Laura just wants to go home where she belongs. But things aren't that easy and Laura learns some important lessons about herself.
9. Free Throws, Friendship and Other Things We Fouled Up by Jenn Bishop - I have loved everything Bishop has written and this one is also awesome. Set in Cincinatti, two DI schools are only three miles apart - and rivals. Riley and Abby want to be friends, but their dads are the head coaches for the rival basketball teams. When they find out that long ago their dads were best friends, the girls decide to uncover the secret to what happened between them and fix their relationship.
10. World Made of Glass by Ami Polonsky - I have such a tender spot in my heart for this book that is set in the 80s, the backdrop to my childhood. Iris tries to carry on as though things are normal, but her dad is dying of AIDS and people are scared about catching it. Not only is Iris watching her dad die, she is also trying to come to terms with how this happened to him and the way people react when they find out what is going on. Rarely does a book make me cry, but after closing this book, I just wanted to weep. It was beautiful.
Although these ten are the ones I'm sharing, I read many other fantastic middle grade and YA books over the past year. And my TBR is still enormous; I have so many more I can't wait to read. What middle grade and YA books were your favorites this year?
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