Tiffany Parks’ debut middle grade novel will create a frisson of excitement in readers with its promise of a secret passageway to a hidden room, a mysterious stranger and a long-lost diary. Even more irresistible is Midnight in the Piazza’s setting: Rome.

When 13-year-old Beatrice’s father decides to take a professorship in Rome, Beatrice is dismayed even though she loves history. However, the Eternal City exerts its magic on even the most reluctant resident, and Beatrice is soon smitten with its charms, including the wonderful Fountain of Turtles in the square outside her window.

When Beatrice hears of the legend and mystery surrounding the fountain, she is determined to separate fact from fiction. Stumbling upon the Duchess Mattei’s diary from the 1500s only creates more complications for solving the local lore. However, not all mysteries are ancient. While looking out her window one night, Beatrice sees someone tampering with the fountain. Since she doesn’t speak Italian, she finds an ally in a bilingual local boy. However, his behavior becomes suspect, and Beatrice begins to think she made a mistake in telling him of her investigation and the discovery of the diary.

Midnight in the Piazza is a pleasurable escapade in the vein of the Nancy Drew series. Beatrice is a clever sleuth, and the Roman landmarks that appear in this book are an added bonus, allowing readers to vicariously experience and learn about some of the greatest architectural treasures in the world.

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.

A 17th-century German girl with a passion for caterpillars and butterflies may seem like an obscure topic for a children’s book, yet Newbery Honor winner Joyce Sidman has painted a stunningly beautiful and accessible portrait of the relatively unknown scientific illustrator and ecologist Maria Sibylla Merian.

Merian was born to a family of printers, but life wasn’t a world of opportunity for a young girl in her day. Still, she managed to absorb her father’s business knowledge and paired it with her passion for nature and drawing. She studied caterpillars and butterflies incessantly, with a fervor many thought odd. Seeking to understand each insect’s life cycle, she sketched and recorded their stages of development and the plants they ate. Her passion eventually took her to the Dutch colony of Surinam, where her observations led to her grandest accomplishment: publishing her own volume on the insects of the South American country.

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science is filled with Merian’s stunningly detailed and colorful botanical drawings created more than 300 years ago. Sidman’s arrangement of the story and its chapter titles (as well as one of Sidman’s original poetic stanzas) smartly draw a parallel between Merian’s growth as an artist and the stages of a butterfly’s life.

This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

“When people on television talk about walls and documents, I never thought they were talking about my mom,” muses Jason Riazi, the 12-year-old narrator of Nadia Hashimi’s action-packed The Sky at Our Feet. Jason always knew his mother grew up in Iran, but he had no idea that she was an illegal immigrant until he watches immigration officials take her away.

Jason never met his father, an Afghan translator who was murdered while awaiting his American visa. Jason’s mom was already studying in America when Jason was born prematurely, but after her husband’s death, she was too frightened to apply for asylum.

After his mother disappears, Jason goes on the run, leaving his New Jersey home to seek help from his mother’s best friend in New York City. There, he meets an epileptic girl who joins him for an exciting avalanche of events and coincidences. As unbelievable as these circumstances may be, young readers will be swept up in Jason’s likable, sincere narration.

Hashimi’s unusual, riveting thriller provides a thoughtful look at the issues facing two tweens who feel like outsiders.

This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Award-winning children’s author Tracy Barrett, known for her retelling of Greek mythology stories and fairy tales, takes a turn in the world of fantasy with her latest book, Marabel and the Book of Fate. As with her other endeavors, Barrett ably gives the genre a good tweak and skewers traditional expectations.

Marabel and her twin, Marco, are royalty in the kingdom of Magikos, a place where the king is guided by the Book of Fate. The book “predicts” any major event that will alter the course of the kingdom, but it can be a little vague on the details. Everyone assumes, for example, that Marco, firstborn of the twins, is the Chosen One who is prophesized to save Magikos. When he is kidnapped by an evil aunt at the twins’ 13th birthday party, Marabel isn’t content to wait and see if Marco rescues himself as the Book says the Chosen One will do. Teaming up with her best friend, Ellie, and a sassy-mouthed unicorn named Floriano, Marabel decides to brave the Impassable Forest and rescue her brother.

Barrett weaves in modern references (getting through the “magic detector” at the door to the party is much like getting through airline security) and generally turns the fantasy world on its head. There is enough mystery and adventure to keep middle schoolers interested, but like many books for this age, what Marabel will discover about herself won’t be too much of a surprise to the audience.

Funny and exciting, Marabel and the Book of Fate is a hit.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through eighth-level Catholic school.

From critically acclaimed author Catherine Gilbert Murdock comes an enthralling medieval adventure story featuring an unlikely young hero sure to win readers’ hearts.

With a hump on his back and an uncanny ability with animals, Boy has never really fit in with the other residents of his small village. And it doesn’t help that his past is shrouded in mystery. He is bullied and mistreated by everyone from the cook to the herdsman, and his only companions are the goats that he cares for at the manor he calls home. But all of that changes the day that Secundus, a pilgrim on a quest across Europe to gather seven relics of Saint Peter, sees Boy effortlessly climbing and jumping from trees, and enlists his help on the journey. Unsure about his motives, Boy is initially fearful of Secundus and what this perilous expedition might entail. But as they travel on together, facing all manner of challenges and triumphs, Boy begins to unravel the secrets of his origin and come into his own in ways that he never could have anticipated.

With a unique, multigenerational friendship at its heart and a style of writing that creates a convincing and immersive medieval atmosphere, The Book of Boy stands above the crowded middle grade adventure bookshelves. Murdock artfully strikes a balance between action and emotion, making for a well-rounded reading experience that has something to offer everyone.

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.

Eleven-year-old Frances has taken to calling herself “Figgrotten.” A “natural observer” whose hero is anthropologist Margaret Mead, Figgrotten feels most herself when she’s all alone, perched high atop the rocks behind her house, conducting an experiment that requires feeding crows.

After a hurtful, hateful disagreement, Figgrotten vows to never again speak to her fashionable, popular sister, Christinia, who is mortified by her sister’s oddball ways, her unkempt hair and her too-small coat.

Figgrotten’s world collapses when her 83-year-old bus driver dies. Alvin Turkson was her Shakespeare-loving, Gandhi-quoting best friend. Adding to Figgrotten’s misery is the new kid in class, a shy, smart boy named James who seems to be favored by Figgrotten’s beloved teacher Mr. Stanley. Figgrotten eventually learns to navigate this tricky terrain, to deal with her grief, to make peace with her sister and James, and to even find a new friend. She discovers that she “could hang on to who she was and still be part of the world, which she could now feel tugging at her.”

Author April Stevens’ carefully crafted, beautiful prose imbues this tightly plotted, engrossing tale with weighty themes that never feel heavy-handed or preachy. The Heart and Mind of Frances Pauley sings out heartfelt truths about Stevens’ quirky and genuine characters, who will resonate deeply with lucky readers.

This article was originally published in the February 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In Stanley Will Probably Be Fine, the new novel by Sally J. Pla, Stanley is fine, as long as he’s nestled in the reassuring quiet of his room with a stack of comics. Alas, he’s forced to leave his cocoon for the chaos of middle school, where his best friend, Joon, is distancing himself in favor of more adventurous friends. School is often too much sensory stimulation for Stanley, leading to humiliating breakdowns.

Then Stanley and Joon learn of a Trivia Quest to be held in downtown San Diego. Participants solve a series of clues using their comics expertise, and the winners earn VIP passes to Comics Fest, a dream come true for Stanley and Joon. Stanley, with his encyclopedic knowledge of comics, should be an ace partner—but only if he can brave the noise and crowds of the downtown scene.

Stanley is an engaging narrator, ruefully aware of the ways his personal challenges thwart his successful navigation of middle school. The Trivia Quest allows him to make tentative steps toward adapting, even as he would desperately love to hide in his room. Stanley’s friendship with a homeschooled girl, who is dealing with her own poignant circumstances, allows him to develop a kinship with another outlier.

Comics fans and young readers who experience the world more intensely than their peers will love this one.

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

This article was originally published in the February 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, February 2018

Two-time Newbery Medal-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis’ latest middle grade novel, a coming-of-age tale set in 1858, will resonate with readers for its timeless themes of justice, self-awareness and questions of right and wrong.

Little Charlie Bobo’s family are white sharecroppers for the Tanner plantation. It’s a meager existence, so Charlie’s father tries a few side hustles to earn more money, including joining the Tanner’s overseer and slave catcher, an unremittingly mean and clever man, in a scheme. However, Charlie’s father dies before he can complete his part of the bargain, and the overseer makes 12-year-old Charlie take his father’s place.

At first Charlie is excited to be traveling to Detroit to break up what the overseer explains is a gang of thieves who stole thousands of dollars from the Tanners. On the trip, Charlie carefully observes the overseer and eventually comes to several troubling conclusions about their mission. Charlie is further conflicted when he realizes one of the “stolen goods” is a boy not too different from himself. Without any guidance, Charlie must make several grown-up decisions of his own.

The historical accuracy of The Journey of Little Charlie educates readers on the efforts to capture runaway slaves and the fortitude of those who journeyed north to freedom. In this tale set in the past, modern parallels abound, offering a clear gateway for discussions that are painfully important today. As Curtis writes in his author’s note, the leap taken by Charlie is “[a] step that is available to all of us.”

This article was originally published in the February 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Paul Durham, author of the Luck Uglies series, masterfully draws readers into his new book, The Last Gargoyle, with a cryptic first chapter that ends with a disturbing question: “What goes bump in the night? If you’re lucky, I do.”

And so we are introduced to Penhallow, the last gargoyle, whose mission is to tirelessly watch over his domain—the aged Boston apartment building on which he’s perched—and to protect its residents from all things dangerous and evil. Penhallow has scant memory of being anything but a block of stone with wings, claws and eyes that gleam with the light of life. He can shape-shift at will—at times assuming the form of a humanlike wisp in jeans and hoodie, other times becoming a teeth-gnashing, Netherkin-eating monster.

The city Penhallow inhabits churns with hostile energy. Penhallow can sense it, but he doesn’t know how to vanquish it. He can handle the Netherkins one or two at a time, but when he discovers he is up against the ruler of the underworld, the evil Boneless King, it will take all his strength—and the help of a new friend—to defeat him.

A tale of love, life, evil and death seems heady stuff for young readers, but they will relish it as fully as Penhallow relishes swallowing imps and Netherkins.

Billie B. Little is the Founding Director of Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, a hands-on museum in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Eleven-year-old Leonora (Leo) comes from a long line of talented bakers in Rose Hill, Texas. This Día de los Muertos, however, Leo starts to suspect that a talent for baking isn’t the only thing that runs in the family—and she soon discovers that her mom, her Tía Paloma and her four older sisters are all brujas, witches of Mexican ancestry whose recipes double as magic spells.

Leo has always felt a little separated from her Mexican heritage—she can’t even understand much Spanish—but she’s eager to discover whether she, too, is a bruja. Her sister Isabel assures Leo that she’ll acquire her own special power once she turns 15, but there’s no reason why Leo can’t start practicing some spells now, right? When Leo finds a spell to help her grieving best friend, it seems easy enough—but soon Leo’s magical baking project is wreaking havoc both at school and at home.

Chock full of humor, magic, friendship and sisterhood, Anna Meriano’s debut launches a new series that celebrates Mexican-American culture and traditions. Spanish-speaking readers will appreciate Leo’s renewed desire to learn Spanish, and readers of all backgrounds will be eager to try out their own baking (or magic?) skills with the recipes included at the end of Leo’s story.

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Panthers sleep during the day and prowl at night. That’s how it has been, and always will be. In The Lost Rainforest: Mez’s Magic, written by National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer, the daywalkers and the nightwalkers live separate lives and never mix. That is, until Mez the panther sneaks from her den at dawn and discovers another nightwalker with an astonishing story to tell.

The magic that keeps the nightwalkers asleep during the day and daywalkers asleep at night was broken only once in recent memory: An eclipse combined the magic of the sun and moon, changing every animal born during that time into shadowwalkers, who can cross the Veil and walk in light and dark. Now, Mez discovers a growing group of shadowwalkers—including an anaconda, a bat, a tree frog and a monkey—who become bound together by a larger purpose. They must stop the Ant Queen before she emerges and destroys Caldera, their rainforest home.

Filled with well-developed and extremely likable characters, Mez’s Magic is a fast-paced and broad-reaching first entry in a new series. Animal lovers and fans of adventure tales will get caught up in the tense and twisting action.

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.