Unlike most 12-year-olds who face being uprooted, Jeremiah is excited to move. Hillcrest, Ohio, has one of the best high-school baseball teams in the country, with a state-of-the-art field and a town full of fans. Baseball is especially important to Jeremiah following his heart transplant. Since he can no longer play, Jeremiah must stay on the sidelines and work on his new dream of becoming a coach.

Everything in Hillcrest seems perfect at first, but then the Hornets’ star pitcher dies of a heart attack. Soon the coach is being investigated for giving steroids to his players. Hillcrest’s winning tradition has withered into a culture of winning above all else, and the town is fed up. This complicates Jeremiah’s plan to revive the defunct middle-school team, but his health problems have taught him tenacity and optimism. With Coach Jeremiah to remind them of the true importance of baseball, the middle-school team just might be able to restore Hillcrest’s faith in the game.

Soar explores some familiar territory with sickness and sports themes, but Joan Bauer’s detailed novel feels unique and realistic. Jeremiah’s life is not a cliché, but a series of challenges to be confronted with resilience and hope. Jeremiah’s relationship with his adoptive father, Walt, is charming, and his frank musings about his birth mother and the girl who died so he could have a heart are intensely moving. (He named the heart Alice since the doctors wouldn’t disclose her name.) Jeremiah’s wry humor and charm keep his personality believable and, most importantly, likable. For these reasons and so many more, Soar stands apart from the crowd of sports novels for middle-grade readers.

Imagine if Sherlock Holmes were an 11-year-old girl at a ritzy boarding school. That’s the premise of Friday Barnes: Girl Detective, the first in a series by Australian writer R.A. Spratt. This children’s comedy TV writer and author of the award-winning Nanny Piggins series has crafted a likable, intriguing heroine and a lighthearted, breezy mystery.

Friday is the unexpected fifth child of busy, brilliant parents, who name her after the day on which she was born. (Turns out she was actually born on a Thursday, a fact about which they were too distracted to notice.) Friday has been largely left to her own devices, but after helping her beloved Uncle Bernie solve a crime, she uses the reward money to enroll in the ultra-exclusive Highcrest Academy.

Mystery after mystery presents itself, and even though Friday prefers to fly under the radar, she can’t help but take on each challenge. A special clock has been stolen from the Headmaster's desk, homework assignments turn up missing, and fake history presentations are just waiting to be revealed. Barnes uses her innate Sherlockian abilities to solve these conundrums, and also gets help from her Watson―roommate Melanie Pelly, a brilliantly observant girl. There’s an even bigger mystery afoot involving a Yeti said to be haunting the nearby swamp, and before long the Headmaster comes to Friday for help.

Spratt’s characters are entertaining, although she relies too heavily on boarding-school stereotypes of both students and teachers. For instance, the geography teacher informs Friday, “My dear girls, this is a private school. You’ve entered Lord of the Flies now.” Spratt’s writing is nonetheless snappy and smart, and her clever plotting moves the action right along. Everything ends with a giant cliffhanger, which will definitely leave readers ready for more.

Public speaking tops the list of the most common fears, followed closely by claustrophobia and the fear of the unknown. The latest heart-pounding novel from Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Shiloh) taps into these fears in very real ways.  

Small seventh-grader Buck stutters and suffers from bullying at the hands of his peers, even as he pursues a path of self-improvement and tries to reduce his stutter. He and his best friend, David, spend their spare time secretly exploring the caves of Northern Virginia, where they dream of finding a never-before-entered cave. Their fun explorations end when David moves away, but Buck continues to search, ultimately finding an opening that leads far underground. But Buck breaks the cardinal rule of caving by exploring this new fissure by himself, and readers will find themselves holding their breath as Buck struggles to free himself from the tunnel. 

Cavers use the term “going down in” for descending deep into a cave. Readers will enjoy “going down in” this book, traversing Buck’s above and belowground worlds, right up to the story’s intense climax.

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

At the start of World War II, more than 3.5 million people were evacuated from British cities to the countryside. But it wasn’t until Cheryl Blackford began writing Lizzie and the Lost Baby that she realized her father had been sent away from the embattled city of Hull in Yorkshire, where she was born. Although she now lives in Minnesota, Blackford draws on her love of rural Yorkshire in her warmhearted debut novel for young readers. Ten-year-old Lizzie and her world come alive with sparkling details, from the blacked-out windows of the train that takes Lizzie and her little brother, Peter, to safety in the countryside, to the potted meat sandwiches their mother has packed for them. 

Everything is new and strange in Swainedale, the fictional village where the evacuees are sent, and Lizzie feels less than welcome. Here readers meet Elijah, a Gypsy boy trying to cope with local prejudice and to bring in money to help his mother and sisters, including baby Rose. But when Elijah is pressured into making a mistake that puts Rose in jeopardy, Lizzie and Elijah are brought together in unexpected ways.

This is a well-told story of two young people making difficult choices on their own. Though the setting and situation may be new to American children, a helpful glossary defines unfamiliar terms.

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

After a devastating tsunami strikes Osaka, Japan, Kai Ellstrom’s parents send him to stay with family in Oregon until their city stabilizes. Kai barely remembers his father’s brother and family, including his teen cousin Jet, and awkwardness persists until Kai and Jet discover a common interest: their fathers’ boat, the Saga. Kai and Jet decide to sail the Saga in the same race their fathers did as teenagers, but they’re unaware of the unexpected challenges that await them.

Rosanne Parry’s The Turn of the Tide offers middle-grade readers a window into the dangerous lives of bar pilots. Much of the setting centers on the Columbia Bar, a treacherous coastal region infamously known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific.” While lacing her third-person narrative with all things maritime, Parry includes one real character in her well-defined fictional cast: Captain Deborah Dempsey, the first woman to pilot the Columbia Bar and Jet’s personal heroine. Parry builds tension between Jet’s secret bar pilot aspirations, Kai’s familial struggles and Jet and Kai’s relationship, all while accelerating toward the Treasure Island Race. 

As well as a glossary and recommended resources, the book includes a personal message from Captain Dempsey to young mariners. This is an endearing story of courage and determination from the award-winning author of Heart of a Shepherd.

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, January 2016

Refreshingly old-fashioned: There’s no better way to describe When Mischief Came to Town. Standing in contrast to the futuristic sagas and sci-fi series that abound nowadays, Katrina Nannestad’s richly detailed story of an orphan named Inge, set in 1911 in Denmark, has an antique air that’s irresistible. 

After her mother dies, 10-year-old Inge goes to live with Grandmother on her farm on the Danish island of Bornholm. Her new life is nothing like the one she led with her mother in Copenhagen, where they had an apartment and servants. Grandmother, a prickly, inaccessible sort with dark eyes “pressed like raisins into her wrinkled face,” soon has Inge working in the stables and cleaning the kitchen—tasks that she tackles good naturedly. But her playful, spontaneous spirit seems to attract trouble. Inge sings the wrong songs in church, talks to the jam spoon and sometimes makes a mess of her chores. The starchy adults on the island—including elderly twins Olga and Tina Pedersen—don’t know what to make of her lively ways.

Will the farm ever feel like home to Inge? Although her mischievousness makes Grandmother “grumble like an ogre,” the answer is yes. Filled with moments of high humor, this delightful tale introduces a heroine readers are sure to love. Nannestad’s book has all the makings of a classic.

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Life has always been routine for 12-year-old twins Eryn and Nick. They reside in a quiet suburban town and take turns living with their psychologist mother and goofy but good-natured father, who have been amicably divorced since the twins were little. They’ve embraced this arrangement until their mother reveals she’s getting remarried to a professor at a local college. The family is going to move into a new home in the same town, and the twins will get two new stepsiblings, Ava and Jackson. Although Nick easily accepts their mother’s news, Eryn is ruffled by the changes, especially when their mother informs the twins that they will never meet their new siblings. Astute and inquisitive Eryn can’t understand how her logical mother would agree to keep the kids apart. Moved by curiosity, the twins defy their parents and seek out the enigmatic Ava and Jackson. Their discovery shatters everything they’ve understood about themselves, their parents and the world in which they live.

Without spoiling too much, Under Their Skin, like Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series, poses moral questions about the sanctity of life and what makes something human. Although this is a science-fiction story, the novel is set in a familiar 21st century, making each revelation that much more surprising for readers. The first in a duology, Under Their Skin is a page-turner and would make for an excellent addition to a middle-school book club discussion.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

In this fast-paced thriller set in the swamps of the Gulf Coast, 13-year-old Cort is pitted against venomous snakes, a vicious wild boar and a Category 3 hurricane—all at the same time. After he and his father prep for the oncoming storm, Cort and his two young neighbors, Liza and Francie, are inadvertently left at home alone when the worst hits.

As the ruthless storm rages, Francie disappears with Cort's dog, Catfish, so Cort and Liza venture out into the worst to save them. But along the way, the trio is literally swept away, their survival skills put to the test amid wind, cold, blackout darkness, rising waters, hunger and, perhaps the most imposing threat, wild animals also seeking higher ground.

While angered that his father was tending to Cort’s estranged mother while the kids were home alone, Cort must keep his focus on getting them all to the Bottle Creek Indian Mound, where, disastrously, they are met with angry, hungry, scared and violent animals.

There are dark moments indeed, and the reader’s pulse quickens with every page turn. Watt Key has the pacing and personalities down for this thrilling tale of family, friends and triumph over adversity in the face of literal and metaphoric storms. It’s an epic journey for both the characters and the readers.

Like many fifth-graders, Chloe just wants to fit in at school. Trouble is, that’s pretty much impossible for her. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, she’s automatically marked as an outsider at her new school in New Delhi. Chloe’s older sister, Anna, has had no trouble adjusting to the family’s move from Boston to India, but Chloe still feels like a fish out of water.

When another new girl, Lakshmi, joins Chloe’s class, Chloe realizes that even girls from India can be viewed as outsiders. Lakshmi, whose family doesn’t possess anything like the kind of privilege that the other girl’s families enjoy, is all but shunned by Chloe’s classmates—and even when Lakshmi and Chloe begin a friendship outside of class, Chloe can’t bring herself to take the next step and support her new friend at school. When Lakshmi’s talents threaten the ambition of the most popular girl in class, Chloe must decide where her loyalties lie.

In her debut middle-grade novel, Kate Darnton draws on her own experience of living in New Delhi for five years, offering lots of personal details about what it’s like for an American family to live in India. Chloe in India offers plenty of cultural insights as well as opportunities for readers to reflect on class, privilege and discrimination. Chloe’s voice is genuine, her outlook likable and realistic, and her revelations about friendship and identity will resonate with many readers.

The Tin Snail begins in Paris in 1937, when 12-year-old Angelo Fabrizzi sits in a cafe with his father, a pioneering car designer. Inspired by the shape of a lopsided pastry, Angelo gives his father an idea for a new aerodynamic car design. A year later, at the Paris Motor Show, several Nazis clear the way for Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, while Angelo gets behind the wheel of his father’s creation and makes an impactful, unexpected debut.

Angelo and his father end up living in the French countryside, continuing to work on a prototype of their car (nicknamed the Tin Snail), which is meant for everyday people, not just the rich. However, as the Nazis threaten to invade, desperate measures must be taken to hide the innovation. The excitement ramps up once the Germans arrive, along with a German car designer sent to spy. “Hitler himself wanted to see our car?” Angelo wonders in astonishment.

British television writer Cameron McCallister was inspired to write this book after reading a newspaper account about several car prototypes that were discovered, having been hidden in a French barn for 50 years. While McAllister uses World War II as his backdrop, he keeps the tone fairly light, concentrating on thrills and adventure during a dangerous era. Middle-grade car enthusiasts will keep turning the pages of this rollicking, imaginative novel.

RELATED CONTENT: Read a Q&A with McAllister about The Tin Snail.

Nearly 25 years after the publication of Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s beloved trilogy becomes a quartet with this Christmas-themed holiday companion.

Shiloh and his boy, Marty, are inseparable as always—except that Shiloh is afraid to cross over the bridge that leads to Judd Travers’ house. It’s been a year since Marty rescued Shiloh from Judd, and he seems to have found a soft spot in his neighbor’s harsh exterior. Amends have been made, and Marty has been spending time at Judd’s to help with the other dogs. The town even begins to see a very different man as well.

The community has also welcomed a new preacher to town, but soon Marty’s sister, Becky, begins to fear eternal damnation, and the preacher’s daughters, Rachel and Ruthie, seem to be afraid of their father. Marty has a lot of questions about the world but isn’t sure the preacher, who seems better versed in atoning for sins, is the one who can answer them. More questions arise when a fire starts in the neighborhood and accusations fly, blaming Judd for starting it.

The Prestons prepare for Christmas, the community helps those that suffered from the fire, and Marty continues to work in the veterinarian office, thinking he may want to be a vet and help animals. But one day, Ruthie and Rachel are too scared to go home, and Judd helps by sharing the story of his youth and the importance of dreams.

Naylor gently writes of compassion and understanding, the importance of love over fear and the bonds between dogs and their people. A bit of adventure and a few mysteries make A Shiloh Christmas perfect for cozying up in front of the Christmas tree.

It’s one thing to think that you’re different, that you can do things that other people can’t. It’s quite another to be proven correct. In A Sliver of Stardust, written by Marissa Burt, Wren Matthews learns at the worst possible moment that she is part of a unique group of people who are able to harness and manipulate Stardust, the elemental magic that forms the basis of the universe. Along with her sometimes-friend/sometimes-enemy Simon and the mysterious Jack, Wren is catapulted into a world she never knew existed.

As Wren begins to grasp the reality of her new existence, she realizes that not everything to do with harnessing this elemental magic is going to be fun. Things quickly begin to fall apart at the Crooked House, the headquarters of the Fiddler Council, who are the authority of all users of Stardust. Wren finds that she has abilities that set her apart from the other Fiddlers, which draws the attention of the Fiddler Council. And with everything that's happening at the Crooked House, that kind of attention is never a good thing.

Reminiscent of A Wrinkle in Time and inspired by the rhymes of Mother Goose, A Sliver of Stardust is a wide-reaching story that follows Wren through adventures in a world much like ours—but is very different. Full of twists, turns, betrayals and redemptions, A Sliver of Stardust will make you look at everything around you just a little bit differently.

Jayson Barnes’ nickname on the basketball court is Snap, because he moves so quickly when stealing the ball. But when his mother dies, he begins stealing in real life to hide the fact that he’s living alone. He gets away with taking small items from the corner store, but eventually he needs new basketball shoes and tries to lift a pair from Foot Locker. Finally caught, he's placed with the Lawtons, a wealthy family on the other side of town. All at once, Jayson has a new school, a new family and, worst of all, new teammates. Without his old team, which was sure to be the best in the league, how can Jayson hope to make it to the tournament?

There’s a reason Mike Lupica is one of the most popular sports writers for children: The basketball scenes in Fast Break, though acted out by characters in middle school, are as riveting as watching a Final Four game. Jayson’s passion and talent are treated as seriously as if he were already a professional player, which will resonate with readers who understand his commitment to a sport. Besides the basketball games, the strongest moments are between Jayson and his foster mother, Carol. Jayson’s wariness and Carol’s warmth are believable, and their gradual bond is touching. While the provided age range is 10 and up, independent readers as young as 8 could read the book without much trouble.

Though somewhat formulaic, Fast Break is heartfelt and fun, especially for young sports fans.