Middlegrade Microreviews

I've been reading a ton of middlegrade books for this award committee I'm on, and I thought hey, why not share my thoughts on all these books I'm knocking out? So here we go, several brief reviews of the books I've been reading the last couple of months.

1. Monster Tree by Sarah Allen - Started off strong, but ultimately ended up feeling somewhat half-baked. The explanation for the spooky things that were happening and the reason they were targeting the main character didn't track for me, the ending was rushed and unsatisfying, and overall I just didn't find it terribly spooky.

2. All the Ways to Go by Jessie Janowitz - I really couldn't decide how I felt about this one. On the one hand, it didn't really feel like there was anything driving the story forward, so I was like what is this actually about? On the other, I enjoyed it the entire time. So...I guess that means it was good.

3/4. Link and Hud: Heroes by a Hair and Link and Hud: Sharks and Minnows by Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey - I accidentally read these out of order, and that mistake has me conflicted. The thing is, I read the first one (the "first one" being book 2) and was like wow, these boys have some pretty problematic behaviors, and at the end of the day those behaviors end up basically being celebrated, which is wild to me. Yikes. But then I read the second one (the "second one" being book 1), and while it starts with them having some similarly problematic behaviors, in the end it seems like there is more of a "we're learning that there's a time and a place for actions like this and that we should also sometimes think about how what we do impacts other people" message. So now I'm just kind of baffled. Like...not only NO character growth in the second book, NEGATIVE character growth. I guess book one, thumbs up, book two, thumb sideways.

5. A Split Second by Janae Marks - Realistic fantasy, all about the struggle of navigating friendships and conflict. I thought it was very sweet!

6. Not an Easy Win by Chrystal D. Giles - I'm disappointed I didn't like this one as much as I wanted to. I thought the first bit was excellent, but then it just dragged a little too long. If it were shorter, it would have been five stars. I still enjoyed it, but I have my doubts about if the age group it's intended for would stick with it when it slows down.

7. Heroes of the Water Monster by Brian Young - I think this is technically a "companion" novel to another book, Healer of the Water Monster, and I was hoping that not having the context of the other book wouldn't impact my experience with the story, but it did. I think Young did his best to make it work as a standalone, but there were references to the other book and I just felt the lack of context. Outside of that, I thought it was a slow pace but a good story. Very nuanced.

8. My Name is Hamburger by Jacqueline Jules - A historical fiction about a Jewish girl whose father immigrated to the US from Germany to escape the Holocaust. I thought this story was beautiful, I couldn't put it down.

9. The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson - There are two parts to this story. The first, a boy who just moved to the Pacific Northwest with his mom forms a detective agency with two other students at his school to track a sasquatch. This bit, quite fun and enjoyable. The second, the boy's father, who is not on his birth certificate and has never been in his life, apparently decides that twelve years in he wants and is owed a relationship with his son, finds out where they moved, and follows them across the country, ultimately ending up essentially stalking his son until he gets caught. This was treated as an okay thing to do, and that is just BAFFLING to me. As much as I enjoyed the sasquatch stuff, the weird dad stuff tanked this book for me.

10. Glowrushes by Roberto Piumini - This is a beautiful story, but I'm not sure I would consider it a true kid's book? It's an Italian classic, and while it is short and very good, it seemed to me to be something with more adult appeal. I'm also a little baffled at it being included on our award list, because while the edition I read was published more recently, the story itself is from 1987. Soooooo....weird choice. Like I said, though, it's a beautiful story, read it if you can. Hell, read it to a kid and tell me if they like it.

11. The Curse of the Ten Broken Toes by Matthew Eicheldinger - Dude, the main character in this book can be such a little shit, but I loved this. "The Curse" aside, it felt very realistic, and I appreciated that while he had his asshole 12-year-old moments, there were also some genuinely thoughtful and kind moments. This was a fun read, and one that I think my students will enjoy.

12. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers - Look, I'm not technically done with this one yet, but I love it. I had no idea what to expect, and it has surprised me in the best way.

And...that's it! The Eyes and the Impossible is the last book for me to finish, and then I've read them all. The end of an era...until next year's award cycle!

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times...

Had to reverse the descriptors in the quote to fit the puzzle order, but I still think it's a solid reference.

Anyway, we've had quite the backlog of puzzles at our house, and I decided I was going to really buckle down and knock them out. My ingenious plan was to alternate a harder one with an easier one, and that...worked out soooo well. (Sarcasm. That was sarcasm.)

This puzzle?

SO VERY HARD. Possibly one of the only times that I'll think "hmmm, those pieces that are all exactly the same color will probably be the easiest place to start." It took for. ev. er. to finish. All that said, is it weird that I kind of enjoyed it? Truly every piece that you found was a huge win, and the finished product looks so cool. Putting it all together felt like a victory.

Victory aside, after that monster of a puzzle, we needed a bit of a palette cleanser, so thank goodness it was time for an easy puzzle!

Look, I really enjoyed this puzzle - it's pretty, the pieces are funky shapes, and it was really fun to put together. However, I'm a little on the fence about this puzzle brand (Naturelish) for one reason and one reason only: the back has checkered patterns that are color-coded, so you can sort the pieces into different puzzle sections. Is that cheating? Because it feels like cheating! It did add a little fun, being able to pick a section and slowly work it all out, then fit it into the border and move on to the next section, but also isn't part of the challenge of a puzzle finding the one right piece from ALL the pieces? I know I'm overthinking this, but I can't help it. Is it cheating?! Aside from this moral quandary, I would highly recommend this puzzle brand to a friend. Some are super weird, which is fun in its own way, and others, like this one, are beautiful designs. Solid all around...except for the ethics of it all, of course. 🤣

October Mystery Read

It's that time again, another mystery read! This one is a book I randomly bought from Paperbacks & Frybread, The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta. I believe I bought this and another book that seemed like a similar premise (or at least also centered around sleep/dreaming)...I wonder which I'll end up enjoying more!

So far I've only read the first couple of chapters, and I'm not totally sure what's going on yet. I suppose I could look up the synopsis and see if it clues me in at all...but I think I'll just ride it out and see where I end up.

September read harder

Well, as noted, already read Crier's War. It was interesting, sci-fi meets fantasy, full of suspense. I need to read the second book in the duology so I know what happens! I also finished Where the Library Hides, which I thought was not quite as good as the first book but still enjoyable. The will-they-won't-they between Whit and Inez was the best part.

Color me shocked, I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree, and it didn't even take me the full month! I thought it would take me so much longer to whittle away at, but it was so very good, full of intrigue and world-building, and I couldn't put it down. The biggest challenge with it being so long was how physically big the book is - pro tip? Get yourself a little d20 stuffy, it's the perfect size to sit in your lap and rest a book on top of.

Now I'm just wrapping up The Crimson Moth, my second pick for challenge 4, just to be thorough. I'm reading it at night before bed, so it'll take me a little longer than it normally would, but I'm really enjoying it so far. It immediately dove back into the intrigue of the first book, so much stress but in such a good way.

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For my October books, I rolled challenge #9, read a book based solely on its setting, and challenge #15, read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot's How to Fight Book Bans guides. For #9, I'm planning to read Study Break: 11 College Tales from Orientation to Graduation by Aashna Avachat et. al. College counts as a setting, right? For #15, I'll be reading Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson, and for my action I'll be watching my school board's biweekly meetings and sending them emails and attempting to do the same with my city council. It's a lot of content, but I want to keep on top of it as best I can.

Murder of Crows - K. Ancrum

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When Tig Torres first moved back to her hometown of Hollow Falls, she solved the infamous Lit Killer case - and cleared her late Aunt Beth's name in the process.

Tig's work on the case brought her to the attention of Hollow Falls's local armchair detective group, the Murder of Crows. The eccentric group is obsessed with their town's dark past - but their interests extend far beyond the Lit Killer.

Members of the group are fixated on a decades-long search for the missing body of Hollow Falls's founder. There are rumors about what's buried with the body that could be life-changing for whoever finds it. With a mission like that underway, it's not long before a member of the Murder of Crows turns up dead.

Soon, Tig and her friends Max and Wyn are tangled up in the search, too. But the stakes are getting higher and the hunt more dangerous. Someone's willing to kill to keep the town's secrets buried, and if Tig's not careful, she'll be the next victim."

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Look, if you already read my mystery read post about this book, you know I wasn't impressed by it at the start. I decided to really give it a fair shake, I had to read the whole thing and see how everything played out. It wasn't worth it.

I would say "bypassing the decision to write a book as a 'sequel' to a podcast" but truthfully, I don't think you can. Do I think technically you can read this book without the podcast context and have it stand alone? Yes. In practice, however, there's not a lot of world or character development in the book, and the narrative throughout leaned pretty heavily on the reader having the information from the podcast. It's almost a fan fiction vibe, like this was written exclusively for fans of the Lethal Lit podcast to enjoy.

Let's pass beyond the weird choice to write a book billed as the first in a series that actually requires knowledge from another form of media to really follow, though. Tig and her friends - good characters? Eh. They weren't BAD, I guess, but they all just felt very flat and inconsistent. As noted, it seems like a lot of their development happened in the podcast, but if you're going to write a book set in an existing world, sorry, I think it's still your responsibility to develop that shit yourself. 

Also, for all that Tig was touted as this great detective and the solver of this notorious serial killer case (which, also, so weird they were all super flippant about that), she didn't really seem to solve anything in this book. It was more like she and her friends were like "oh my god, what's happening, we have to figure this out" and then someone else would be like "psst, come over here, I have so much lore to share with you" and they would just straight up spoon feed them answers. The entire book was just Tig tripping from one dumb scenario to another and making arguably the worst decisions possible along the way.

Full spoilers here - even the end was a complete letdown. First of all, continuing the tripping from one scenario to another theme, Tig et al didn't even DO anything to solve what was happening or stop the bad guy from carrying out his evil plot. They thought it was someone else and yelled at that character on the phone, and then that character TOLD them who it really was and they ran headlong into danger with no plan and basically just submitted themselves to that person. Then that person got THEMSELVES killed while Tig and the gang just fucking sat there. But hey, in a not at all earned dramatic scene, Tig almost died in a fire, so there's that.

And after that, when Tig & co. miraculously solved the impossible riddles of this decades-old hidden "scavenger hunt" for the Founder's treasure (that were not impossible and also just straight up made no fucking sense and the whole thing was never explained in a satisfactory way to justify the hullaballoo behind it all), the treasure was a. in a place that would have been incredibly easy to find and b. basically nothing. And then it was just like "cool, well, the end. But PS don't forget, this town is crazy dangerous and everyone is violent and scary, dun dun duuuuuun."

Like I said, impossible to say "aside from the questionable premise of writing a book based on a podcast world," but even if I was willing to, I don't think this is a well-told story. And being very honest, I have my doubts that the podcast is any better. I'm just glad the book is relatively short, so it didn't take me long to read.

500 piece puzzles are where it's at

Another day, another puzzle...or three? 500 piece puzzles are truly the perfect activity for a peaceful afternoon. Have a friend coming over for coffee? Chip away at a picture of Yellowstone while you chat!

Boardwalk Puzzles has a series of national park puzzles, and this is the second one I've done (shout out to Darcy for providing them! Lake Tahoe was equally enjoyable.) This one was created by Bruce Martin and is very vibrant. These puzzles are fun to put together, the pieces have really unique shapes, and overall I'm a huge fan! Truthfully, as I scroll through their website looking at all the other national park puzzles available, my biggest gripe with Boardwalk is how clunky their website is. Puzzle quality? 5/5. Website quality? 3/5. Maybe 3.5 because I think it's cool that they include some history about each national park in the puzzle description (added this after I chose the rating because the page took SO LONG to load.) I might have to add .5 to my puzzle rating too, because I'm resisting blowing all my money on the other park puzzles, they're all so good. 5.5/5? Seems fair.

Other useful moments for a quick little puzzle? Downtime during a beach vacation! Side note, does it break the immersion if I acknowledge that I'm writing this post two days after we came back from a trip to Washington in mid-June even though it's not going to be posted for a few months? Sorry if it does. Now you know what I was getting up to three months ago, that's kind of interesting. Or maybe it isn't.

There were SO many puzzles available at the condo we stayed in, and I really wanted to do them all, but I feel like I picked the two best ones, since we were short of time. (I mean, I love puzzles, but I equally love exploring ruins and hiking to a lighthouse and walking the beach and such.)

These are both Ravensburger puzzles, and oh my god, have I reviewed any other Ravensburger puzzles? I forget if I have, but they're SO GOOD. I know I have some at school, and I'm always really impressed with how well they hold together even with little kids messing with them. 

I couldn't find who created the first puzzle because inexplicably I'm being blocked from accessing their website, so someone else please try to go to the Ravensburger website and tell me if it works for you. But the second puzzle was created by Nancy Wernersbach, and both are gorgeous. The pieces are pretty standard shapes, but they're very high quality and everything holds together super well. 5/5 puzzles, for sure, and such a delight to work on whilst looking out at the ocean waves. Also, in trying to find the creators of both puzzles without access to their actual website, I've discovered that they have a puzzle featuring the Duomo in Florence, Italy, and uhhhh...I'm gonna be getting my hands on that one, for sure. These puzzles rule.

September (almost forgotten!) mystery read

September snuck up on me AND both my sisters I'm doing mystery reads with so hard, it took days before one of us was finally like "oh shit, it's September" and reminded all of us to unwrap our new books.

My new book...let's just say if it reads as good as it looks, it'll be a fun journey.

Truly such a beautiful book, and the wintry vibes have me so ready for colder weather. Looking forward to getting into it!