  | Totally middle school : tales of friends, family, and fitting in | |
| Price: $21.88 | ||
Summary:
Bestselling contributors offer a diverse collection of stories about the sometimes challenging, always rewarding coming-of-age years: middle school.
| Editor: | Groban, Betsy |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (07/15/18)
School Library Journal (08/01/18)
Booklist (08/01/18)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (A) (00/09/18)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 08/01/2018 Confident that writers can help readers face the challenges of their middle-school years, editor Groban offers 11 short stories, most by well-known authors, including Gregory Maguire, Gary D. Schmidt, Lois Lowry, Karen Cushman, Mary Downing Hahn, Margarita Engle, Joyce Sidman, Katherine Paterson (with her granddaughter, Jordan Paterson), and Linda Sue Park (with her daughter, Anna Dobbin). David Wiesner contributes a graphic-novel-style short story in which an 11-year-old boy, feeling lost on his first day at a combined middle and high school, finds a home there: the art room. Hena Khan, a Pakistani American writer, contributes “How to Make S’mores,” an involving story in which a recently immigrated girl and her parents struggle to understand American ways when she goes on a three-day school field trip called Outdoor Ed. The overall quality of the writing is quite good, and the stories are surprisingly varied in theme, tone, and point of view. With its hallway-locker-themed jacket, this book is an inviting choice for kids entering middle school and a good way of discovering writers they might enjoy. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 08/01/2018 Gr 5–8—Groban brings together literary powerhouses including Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, Linda Sue Park, Karen Cushman, Gary D. Schmidt, Gregory Maguire, and more, with tales of friends, family, and fitting in while dealing with the universal middle school angsts. This anthology features a mix of formats: stories in verse, first-person narratives (including one by a dog), email and texts, and even a short graphic novel by Caldecott-winner David Wiesner. Many of the stories involve timeless middle school worries revolving around friends, homework, and family issues, while others grapple with thorny topics such as cultural bias and soldiers returning from the Vietnam War with PTSD. Each selection is followed by a short biography about the author, with interesting tidbits about their lives. Stories swing from heartrending to heartwarming. VERDICT Readers will "totally" relate to the issues and perspectives presented in this well-curated collection. A great purchase for upper elementary and middle school libraries.—Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
