middle school books

Review: Kelly Yang’s Front Desk Paints Dazzles With Depth and Nuance

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Kelly Yang’s Front Desk illuminates issues of poverty and immigration with a heartwarming story and fiercely self-aware protagonist at its core.  Hello, kid lit book hive! I’m back with a review of Kelly Yang’s Front Desk. Yang’s middle-grade novel is extremely my speed — that is, a slice-of-life story that so lovingly invests in its details and characters.  The … Read more

Review: The Science of Breakable Things Gets to the Yolk of Human Complexity

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The Science of Breakable Things

Review: Hope remains an unbreakable force in Tae Keller’s The Science of Breakable Things. Tae Keller’s The Science of Breakable Things might be the longest kid lit pick I’ve read in a while, but the length was definitely worth it considering how the book moved me. And it didn’t sway me in a cloyingly sentimental way. I … Read more