Jill Ratzan

Violet Diamond has always hated the way people look at her—like she doesn’t belong in her family. Her mother and older half sister are white, but Violet herself is biracial; her father, whom she never met, was African-American. Growing up in a small town outside Seattle, Violet only knows a handful of other people of color. But the summer after she finishes elementary school, Violet asks to meet her paternal grandmother, from whom her mother has been estranged since the car accident that killed Violet’s father.

Violet’s “Bibi” (Swahili for grandmother), a professional artist, lives in a primarily black neighborhood of Los Angeles. As Bibi and Violet build a relationship for the first time, Violet learns to appreciate their shared value of personal prayer, her family’s difficult history and her own racial identity, all while dancing to old records, cooking special-ingredient recipes and touring the city’s landmarks.

Brenda Woods, author of the Coretta Scott Honor book The Red Rose Box, was inspired to write Violet’s story by the circumstances of a biracial daughter of a friend. Although her friend’s daughter was unable to trace the African-American side of her family, Woods wanted to explore how a similar girl might feel in different circumstances.

Violet’s voice is delightfully perfect for a precocious, attentive 11-year-old. She loves learning new words (which she records in her word and wish journal), likes to ice skate and entertains potential career plans ranging from commercial pilot to gourmet chef. A cast of supporting characters, including Violet’s maternal grandparents, her sister’s French-speaking boyfriend, her friends and their families, a newfound (and annoying!) boy cousin and even a newly adopted kitten add texture to the story.

A book about a biracial preteen is as welcome as ever, especially at a time when breakfast cereal commercials featuring interracial families can still spark racist ire. The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond is overall funny, poignant and an important contribution to the diversity of middle grade literature.

Historical fiction and mysteries hold high appeal for middle grade readers. The Great Trouble combines elements from both these genres in a story of one boy's efforts to stop the deadly 1854 Broad Street London cholera epidemic.

Ever since his parents' deaths, Eel's been making his own way with a combination of odd jobs, including cleaning animal cages for well-respected medical man Dr. John Snow.  When cholera strikes Eel's tenement-like neighborhood, most residents assume that poisonous air is to blame. But Dr. Snow believes the culprit is tainted water, and enlists Eel's help in proving his theory. Together with his friend Florrie, Eel must use the tools of scientific inquiry—including drawing maps, combing death records and interviewing residents—to demonstrate the accuracy of Dr. Snow's hypothesis and convince a local committee to close the Broad Street water pump before more victims sicken and die.

Even in the middle of this desperate race against time, Eel's personal troubles demand his attention too. Author (and BookPage reviewer) Deborah Hopkinson fills her tale with relatable characters, lots of suspense and plenty of details on the everyday life of an orphan living in Victorian London. Best of all, observant readers will notice that they have all the clues they need to find the solution . . . if, like Eel, they know the right questions to ask.

In a style that's increasingly becoming the gold standard for historical fiction for young readers, Hopkinson includes an extensive reader's guide at the back of The Great Trouble. In this guide, she outlines which parts of her tale are true and which are fictional, adding a timeline, three separate bibliographies, information about the book's characters and setting and finally a note about public health and the emerging field of epidemiology.

Max Starling’s parents are actors who own a successful theater company in New City, a vague approximation of Victorian London. When an offer to sail to India aboard the Flower of Kashmir arrives, the family happily accepts. But when Max arrives at the dock at the appointed time, he finds that no such ship exists . . . and that his parents have vanished.

Fortunately for Max, his grandmother, a librarian who lives in an adjoining house, is willing to take him in until his parents return. But Max, almost 13, yearns for independence. Max and his grandmother soon strike a bargain, but the compromise involves Max earning some of his own keep. When he accidentally finds and returns a runaway child to the child’s grateful mother, Max knows he’s found the ideal job. Dressing in his parents’ theatrical costumes and taking on personas borrowed from their dramatic oeuvre, Max successfully locates a lost dog, discovers why magazines are disappearing from the library and finds a valuable object that’s been missing for years. Along the way, he tackles other seemingly intractable issues faced by his frustrated painting teacher, a destitute university student and a highly inquisitive girl. But what will Max call his new occupation? It’s not really detecting, finding or even problem solving. The word Max eventually coins to describe his work is the perfect choice.

Newbery Medal winner Cynthia Voigt’s latest middle grade offering is reminiscent of the quasi-Gothic, not-quite-realistic qualities of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Although each of Max’s odd jobs seems at first to be a different episode, the cases soon converge as elements from each are revealed to be part of a larger—and longstanding—mystery. Occasional full-page pen and ink illustrations by Iacopo Bruno break up the text and help establish the mood. And with the stage set in this first volume, look for two more books about Mister Max coming soon.