Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there--like the one I'm reviewing today.   Title: The Long Way Around Author: Anne Nesbet Publication Info: Candlewick Press, 2024. 185 pages (Kindle edition) Source:   Library Publisher's Blurb:* During a hiking trip with their parents in the mountains of California, cousins Owen, Vivian, and Amy are finally allowed to camp for one night at a little lake all on their own. But when a massive earthquake blocks their return path, there’s only one way: the long way around, through a wilderness filled with fierce animals, raging rivers, unstable weather, and high passes. The hardest challenges the cousins face, however, are the troubles they’ve brought with them: bold Vivian’s fear of starting middle school and of changes she c...

Participating today in the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there.   Title: Half Moon Summer 
Author : 
Elaine Vickers. Read by Mark Sanderlin and Charley Flyte Publication Info : 
Peachtree, 2023. Audiobook by Listening Library, 4 hours. Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb: 

 Two seventh graders discover it takes more than grit and a good pair of shoes to run 13.1 miles. You’ve got to have a partner who refuses to let you quit. Drew was never much of a runner. Until his dad’s unexpected diagnosis. Mia has nothing better to do. Until she realizes entering Half Moon Bay’s half-marathon could solve her family’s housing problems. And just like that they decide to spend their entire summer training to run 13.1 miles. Drew and Mia have very different reasons for running, but these two twelve year olds have...

Participating this week in the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there. Title: Red Fox Road 
Author : 
Frances Greenslade Publication Info : 
Puffin Canada, 2020. 238 pages (Kindle edition) Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb: 

 A thirteen-year-old girl on a family vacation becomes stranded alone in the wilderness when the family's GPS leads them astray. A compelling survival story for ages 10 to 14, for fans of Hatchet and The Skeleton Tree . Francie and her parents are on a spring road trip, driving from British Columbia, Canada, to hike in the Grand Canyon. When a shortcut leads them down an old logging road, disaster strikes. Their truck hits a rock and wipes out the oil pan. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Francie can't help feeling a little excited -- she'd often imagined how...

 I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of books in verse. This one will have to be an exception.     Title: Louder Than Hunger Author: John Schu Publication info: Candlewick Press 2024. 528 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: (Goodreads)  Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia—and self-expression as an act of survival—in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse. But another voice inside me says, We need help. We’re going to die. Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).   Title: Just Keep Walking Author: Erin Soderberg Downing Publication info: Scholastic Press, 2024. 242 pages. Publisher's Blurb: Two years after her parents’ surprising and painful split, twelve-year-old Jo and her mom find themselves on the 100-mile hike on the Superior Hiking Trail along Lake Superior’s north shore –a journey that Jo had always looked forward to hiking with her dad. It’s not a situation that either of them ever predicted they’d find themselves in, yet here they are in the wilderness with their entire lives stuffed into a pair of thirty-pound packs. Along the trail, they’ll suffer through endless aches and pains, scorching heat, and crippling self-doubt. They’ll encounter bears, moose, and other wildlife and meet and collect an assortment of unlikely friends...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  I'm grateful to the hop for giving me a renewed interest in MG fiction.   Title: Keeping Pace Author: Laurie Morrison Publication info: Kindle edition, 2024, Amulet Books. 207 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Grace Eller has spent most of middle school working toward one goal: beating her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be the best student in her class. But when Jonah beats her for eighth grade top scholar and then announces he’s switching schools for ninth grade, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And the summer looms over her head. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.   Eager fo...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  This is a review of the audio book. Title: Clean Getaway Author: Nic Stone, read by Dion Graham Publication Info: Penguin Random House audio, 2020, 4 hours. Hardback by Crown Books for Young Readers, 2020, 240 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma: * Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED. * Fasten Your Seatbelt: G'ma's never conventional, so this trip won't be either. * Use the Green Book: G'ma's most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and, most important, the way home. What Not to Bring: * A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G'ma starts acting stranger than usual. Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the Ame...

It's been a long time since I had a middle-grade review, but I finally picked up a couple of audio books at the library and jumped back in.   Title: Author: Linda Williams Jackson, narrated by Reginald James Publication Info: Source: Publisher's Blurb: Award-winning author Linda Williams Jackson pulls from her own childhood in the Mississippi Delta to tell the story of Ellis Earl, who dreams of a real house, food enough for the whole family—and to be someone. It’s 1967, and eleven-year-old Ellis Earl Brown has big dreams. He’s going to grow up to be a teacher or a lawyer—or maybe both—and live in a big brick house in town. There’ll always be enough food in the icebox, and his mama won’t have to run herself ragged looking for work as a maid in order to support Ellis Earl and his eight siblings and niece, Vera. So Ellis Earl applies himself at school, soaking up the lessons that Mr. Foster teaches his class—particularly those about famous colored people like Mr. Thur...

Running a bit behind this Monday morning. I totally forgot to finish my post yesterday thanks to Mother's Day fun.  I picked up the recommendation for this one from J emima Pett's W pos t in the A to Z challenge. Title: What Stars Are Made Of Author: Sarah Allen Publication Info: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2020. 279 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Twelve-year-old Libby Monroe is great at science, being optimistic, and talking to her famous, accomplished friends (okay, maybe that last one is only in her head). She’s not great at playing piano, sitting still, or figuring out how to say the right thing at the right time in real life. Libby was born with Turner Syndrome, and that makes some things hard. But she has lots of people who love her, and that makes her pretty lucky. When her big sister Nonny tells her she’s pregnant, Libby is thrilled—but worried. Nonny and her husband are in a financial black hole, and Libby knows that babies aren’t always born healt...

A simultaneously slightly absurd and frightenly real story of WWII, for kids 8 and up.   Title: Island of Spies Author: Sheila Turnage Publication Info: Dial Books, 2022. 384 pages. Source: Library digital resources. Publisher's Blurb: Twelve-year-old Stick Lawson lives on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, where life moves steady as the tides, and mysteries abound as long as you look really hard for them. Stick and her friends Rain and Neb are good at looking hard. They call themselves the Dime Novel Kids. And the only thing Stick wants more than a paying case for them to solve is the respect that comes with it. But on Hatteras, the tides are changing. World War II looms, curious newcomers have appeared on the small island, and in the waters off its shores, a wartime menace lurks that will upend Stick's life and those of everyone she loves. The Dimes are about to face more mysteries than they ever could have wished for, and risk more than they ever could have imagi...

Title: Sweet Home Alaska Author: Carole Estby Dagg Publication Info: Nancy Paulson Books, 2016. 298 pages, Kindle edition Source: Library digital resources (Overdrive) Publisher's Blurb: Terpsichore can’t wait to follow in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s footsteps . . . now she just has to convince her mom. It’s 1934, and times are tough for their family. To make a fresh start, Terpsichore’s father signs up for President Roosevelt’s Palmer Colony project, uprooting them from Wisconsin to become pioneers in Alaska. Their new home is a bit of a shock—it’s a town still under construction in the middle of the wilderness, where the residents live in tents and share a community outhouse. But Terpsichore’s not about to let first impressions get in the way of this grand adventure. Tackling its many unique challenges with her can-do attitude, she starts making things happen to make Alaska seem more like home. Soon, she and her family are able to start settling in and enjoying their new su...

Title: Pine Island Home Author: Polly Hovarth Publication Info: Kindle edition, 151 pages, Margaret Ferguson Books 2020. Source: Library Overdrive collection Publisher's Blurb: When the McCready sisters' parents are washed away in a tsunami, their Great Aunt Martha volunteers to have them live with her on her farm in British Columbia. But while they are traveling there, Martha dies unexpectedly, forcing Fiona, the eldest, to come up with a scheme to keep social services from separating the girls - a scheme that will only work if no one knows they are living on their own. Fiona approaches their grouchy and indifferent neighbor Al and asks if he will pretend to be their live-in legal guardian should papers need to be signed or if anyone comes snooping around. He reluctantly agrees, under the condition that they bring him dinner every night. As weeks pass, Fiona takes on more and more adult responsibilities, while each of the younger girls finds their own special role ...

This is a lousy cover, but is the cover my audiobook had. I'll share a couple of better ones at the end of the post. Title: Lyddie Author: Katherine Paterson, read by Alyssa Bresnahan Publication Info: Recorded Books, Inc., 1993. Originally by Dutton Juvenile, 1991 Source: Library digital resources Blurb (via Overdrive): Lyddie Worthen is only 13 when her family is split up and she is forced to hire herself out at Cutler's tavern. Far from home, she despairs of ever seeing her loved ones again. Desperate, Lyddie makes her way to Concord, Massachusetts where she becomes a factory girl, working as a weaver in a textile mill.  Six days a week Lyddie struggles at the back-breaking looms. In spite of the deafening noise of the machines, the sweltering heat, and the choking air thick with lint and dust, Lyddie holds onto her dream: to save enough money to pay off the family debts and bring everyone back home-together. But as Lyddie earns a reputation for being a hard and thr...

  Title: Mistletoe and Murder (Murder Most Unladylike #5) Author: Robin Stevens Publication Info: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018 (US Edition). 352 pages (Kindle Edition). Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are spending the Christmas holidays in snowy Cambridge. Hazel is looking forward to a calm vacation among the beautiful spires, cozy libraries, and inviting tea-rooms. But there is danger lurking in the dark stairwells of ancient Maudlin College and two days before Christmas, there is a terrible accident. At least, it appears to be an accident—until the Detective Society looks a little closer, and realizes a murder has taken place. Faced with several irritating grown-ups and fierce competition from a rival agency, they must use all their cunning and courage if they’re going to find the killer before Christmas dinner. My Review: This 5th novel in the Wells & Wong/Murder Most Unladylike series is a strong mystery at a fa...

  Title: Getting Near to Baby Author: Audrey Couloumbis Publication Info: 1999, Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. 211 pages in the original hardback. I read the ebook. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Willa Jo and Little Sister are up on the roof at Aunt Patty’s house. Willa Jo went up to watch the sunrise, and Little Sister followed, like she always does. But by mid-morning, they are still up on that roof, and soon it’s clear it wasn’t just the sunrise that brought them there. The trouble is, coming down would mean they’d have to explain, and they just can’t find the words.  This is a funny, sometimes heartbreaking, story about sisters, about grief, and about healing.  Two girls must come to terms with the death of their baby sister, their mother’s unshakable depression, and the ridiculously controlling aunt who takes them in and means well but just doesn’t understand children. Willa Jo has to try and make things right in their new hom...