The Only Road (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016) by Alexandra Diaz is a book I wish I could get everyone to read.
After the murder of his cousin Miguel, twelve-year-old Jaime and his fifteen-year-old cousin Angela either have to join the destructive gangs in their village or leave Guatemala. To keep them safe their families spend everything they have to get the two the United States where Jaime’s brother Tomas lives. But once the two are on their way, they are on their own. They face discovery by la migra, gang violence, death by train, hunger, thievery, thirst all in their quest for a safe place to live.
The Only Road is inspired by true events (not the author’s) and is a Pura Belpré Honor book!
Alexandra Diaz has this at the head of her website: “Writing: to experience life in someone else’s shoes.” That’s one of the reasons we read and why I’d like others to read this book.
Alexandra is also the author of Good Girls Don’t Lie–a YA novel–and other books. On her bio page there are lots of links to interviews, too.
Tag: MMGM
The Wolf’s Boy
The Wolf’s Boy (Disney-Hyperion, 2016) by Susan Williams Beckhorn is a touching tale of a boy who struggles because he doesn’t fit in.
Twelve-year-old Kai has a club foot, so he’s not allowed to touch weapons, or hunt. When Kai rescues a motherless wolf club, he’s warned that she can’t eat the People’s food. As the yellow cub grows, the People look on her as a threat. With winter approaching Kai and Uff leave the village. How can a boy who can’t even hunt survive on his own?
This book is a Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2017 Notable Children’s Book. I love the cover too.
Read about Susan here where you can also see a picture of the stone house that she and her husband built themselves. And read about her other books here. She’s also an illustrator.
All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I loved All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook (Katherine Tegen Books, 2016) by Leslie Connor! I’d have chosen it for a Newbery award. It’s a heart-wrenching story. I love Perry–I know, I’m gushing.
Perry T. Cook is pretty much a normal eleven-year-old, well, except for the part that he lives in a prison. But he gets to go “outside” to school. And this way he gets to be with his mom every day–she’s a resident on Cell Block C. Until the new district attorney discovers this arrangement at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility and Perry is forced into foster care with the same DA’s family.
This story has a host of interesting characters. Did I say I love Perry?
Leslie Connor writes for Middle Grade readers, younger readers, and for teens. You can be entertained on her website while you check out those other books. I recommend reading her “My Life” page. I’m off to check out more of her books…
But meanwhile, really, read this book!
Handbook for Dragon Slayers
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Handbook for Dragon Slayers (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013) by Merrie Haskell may be a middle grade fantasy, but I think teens will like it too. (My husband did as well.)
Princess Tilda wishes people would “appreciate the sense of my words and not be thinking about the shape of my foot at the same time.” She’s the lame heir, so when her cousin Ivo comes to take over Alder Brook, she thinks it might be better for her people to have an able-bodied leader. And maybe this would give her the chance to write her own book. But somehow she and her friend Parz and her handmaiden Judith go off to become dragon slayers. Throw in the Wild Hunt, magic horses the color of the three royal metals, an evil lord, and it’s quite an adventure.
This book won the 2014 Schneider Family Book Award (Middle Grades).
On Merrie’s website FAQ page, there’s this question and answer:
What is it about fairy tales that interests you?
How infinite the variations on them can be! I’ve loved retold fairy tales since Robin McKinley’s Beauty (and later, Rose Daughter).
I recommended one of her other books, The Castle Behind the Thorns, here.
One for the Murphys
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
If you like me missed One for the Murphys (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012) by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, run get the book. It is so good.
It’s pretty scary for twelve-year-old Carley Connors to be placed in a foster home with the Murphy family–total strangers. It’s always been her and her mom until just over a year ago when Mom married Dennis. And now because of physical abuse by her step-father, she’s here and her mother is in the hospital. Her mom has taught her not to cry, not to be afraid, but she can’t help shaking.
Living with the Murphys, Carley finds out that her old life had a lot wrong in it. Of course, she misses her mother and is sure she won’t be staying long. But life is full of surprises for Carley and she grows to like her foster family. So what will happen when it’s time to leave?
Author Lynda Mullaly Hunt has created such a believable sympathetic character–she had me aching for Carley and her situation. The book has won awards and been put on many lists. Go here to see all.
Because foster kids often don’t have any books, Lynda has started Book Train to get books into their hands.
I’ve already recommend Lynda’s book Fish in a Tree here.