Anita Lock

Everything starts with a French horn and a wish for 11-year-old Augusta “Gusta” Neubronner once she moves to Gramma Hoopes’s Orphanage in 1941.

Her papa abruptly vanished during their bus trip from New York City to see her grandmother at her orphanage, leaving her to fend for herself until Gramma Hoope takes her in. Gusta can’t help but apply what she’s learned from her activist father and his connections with immigrant workers and union organizers when she learns of an uncle who’s out of work and can’t pay for a factory-related surgery. Her good intentions—including plans to sell her beloved French horn for cash as a last resort—are met with opposition, and soon Gusta has even more to contemplate when she learns of buried secrets that could threaten her grandmother’s orphanage.

Inspired by Nesbet’s mother’s childhood, The Orphan Band of Springdale is a story filled with thought-provoking metaphors and a host of colorful characters. Nesbet’s narrative has a lilting quality that makes her storytelling both unique and attractive, and young readers will appreciate her well-rounded characters as well as a small but highly engaging group of antagonists. Nesbet also incorporates factual information of the era to highlight relevant themes of injustice, immigration and the labor movement. The Orphan Band of Springdale is a heartwarming and educational read.

It’s a battle between corporate avarice and Wild Magic in The Boggart Fights Back, the third installment of Susan Cooper’s Boggart series.

It’s been five years since Allie and Jay Cameron visited their Granda in Scotland. The twin siblings are in for an adventure of mythic proportions soon after their arrival. William Trout and his monstrous corporation intend to convert the Loch Linnhe area—including Castle Keep, Granda’s store and his family home—into a luxury resort. Wasting no time, Trout’s crew sets to work by clearcutting ancient trees. Even though the whole Cameron family and the magical Boggart of Castle Keep, along with his cousin, the Loch Ness monster, get involved to put a stop to the disastrous demolition, all of their efforts are in vain—until Allie and Jay discover the truth about Trout’s plans. That’s when the real magic begins.

We then meet the Old Things: the Caointeach, Each Uisge, the Blue Men of the Minch, and the dreaded Nuckelavee. Newbery Medal winner Cooper has created another shape-shifting adventure with these mythical creatures, right in the heart of Loch Linnhe’s breathtaking landscape. Punctuated with all things Scottish, Cooper draws her middle grade audience into a fast-paced plot replete with lilting dialogue, Gaelic phrases, traditional songs, and “the defiant regular beat of a drum.” The Boggart Fights Back is an appealing read that provides readers with an appreciation for the environment and a chance to learn a bit about Scotland’s mythology in the process.

Melba Pattillo Beals follows up her award-winning adult memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, with a potent middle grade read that tells the extraordinary story of her childhood as a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who first crossed the color barrier to integrate Central High School in 1957. A precocious child, Beals listened to the political conversations around her and understood far more than the adults anticipate. As a result of these conversations and the social injustices she and her family experience, she constantly questioned the rules of the Jim Crow South: the differences in drinking fountains, not being provided dressing rooms to try on clothing, and waiting for hours to pay for her purchases because white customers are allowed ahead of her.

Fear was also ever-present in her life. When the Ku Klux Klan rides through her neighborhood, attacking or taking people, she recalls feeling fear, but she also experienced everyday fears such as saying the wrong thing or looking the wrong way. At first, Beals felt safe in her house, but that fragile illusion soon crumbled. Church was the only safe harbor—until the KKK took the sanctity of that place away from her, too. After this horrifying event, Beals turned to her books and became an excellent student. Propelled by her grandmother’s advice that sometimes you have to go where you’re not wanted, Beals is accepted into the first integrated class at Central High School in Little Rock.

Beals includes a stirring epilogue summarizing that year and critical years afterward to help young readers put her story into the context of the larger civil rights movement. March Forward, Girl is sure to inspire young people to take action against injustices in their world.

Award-winning author Natalie Lloyd whittles a fortune-telling nursery rhyme (“Monday’s child is fair of face”) into the wacky adventures of seven beguiling children.

Meet the Problim children, each born on a different day of the week: Mona, Toot, Wendell, Thea (Wendell’s twin), Frida, Sal and Sundae. An explosion demolishes the children’s Swampy Woods home, leaving them homeless. Fortunately, moving to another location shouldn’t be a problem, since they have the deed to Grandpa Problim’s Victorian mansion. Regrettably, they have no additional proof that will keep them in the house, and their parents, who are off on a mission, cannot vouch for them. Even more problematic is their next-door neighbor, Desdemona O’pinion, who covets the old mansion and will do everything in her power to turn the neighborhood against the children. With 21 days to come up with evidence of their rightful ownership, the children have to devise a plan to win over their neighbors before Desdemona’s clandestine plan to get rid of the children goes into effect.

Lloyd’s newest middle grade read is nothing less than a rip-roaring, rollicking ride through a wild and wacky world. Indeed, Lloyd has pulled out all literary stops to produce her inimitable cast. Replete with fascinating idiosyncrasies, including a numerically categorized list of farts from the youngest in the troupe, the seven children use their creativity to deal with life’s problems—of which there are plenty, especially with Desdemona continually stirring up trouble. Lloyd’s lyrical narrative and fun-loving storytelling are lightly sprinkled with rhymes, circus spiders, lively plants, a purple squirrel and even onomatopoeia—just to name a few.

The first in a new series that has silver-screen potential, The Problim Children flows from one crazy scene to the next with all the makings of a new favorite.

Activist and award-winning author Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, joins with novelist Renée Watson to give middle grade readers a glimpse into the early life of Shabazz’s mother.

“Count your blessings, young lady. Name them one by one—even the small things.” Eleven-year-old Betty Dean Sanders has no idea that when she takes this advice to heart, it will equip her for bigger life issues. These words, spoken by the woman who eventually becomes Betty’s adoptive mother, are a turning point in the preteen’s abusive childhood.

Betty is growing up during turbulent times in 1940s Detroit, but she maintains a thankful attitude toward family, friends and the opportunity to be involved with the Housewives’ League, which supports black businesses. Keeping sight of graciousness amid hostility helps Betty become “an outspoken advocate for human rights, women’s rights, racial tolerance, and the goal of self-determination and self-reliance.”

This engaging coming-of-age tale shines a light on one young girl’s hope for happiness and equality in the midst of apparent hopelessness and despair. Shabazz and Watson weave the historical horrors of racism into this lyrical story, making Betty Before X a provocative, powerful read.

“It is my hope that by reading my mother’s story,” Shabazz writes in an author’s note, “young people who may be feeling abandoned or neglected, fearful or hopeless, anxious or unsure, will find inspiration.” Shabazz’s goal is completed in this lovely book.