Changeling

Magic is fading from the Wild Wood, and the goblins have a choice. Allow themselves to fade away, or do something about it.  When a rare and magical changeling is born, Kull decides to do something.  He ventures out of the forest and into a human home where he plans to swap the changeling for the human baby, but a moment of distraction leaves him confused.  It also leaves a human family with a sudden set of twins.

Tinn and Cole are raised like twins, but everyone knows one of them is really a goblin.  They go about their mischievous 13-year-old boy lives until a mysterious message sends them on a quest to find out the truth once and for all.

As they venture into the Wild Wood, they will meet strange and magical creatures, and it will be difficult to know who to trust.  They know this much.  One of them is a goblin, and if they don't make it through the Oddmire, that brother will die.

There is also The Thing, a dark creature who feeds off fear and despair stalking the boys through the wood.  The Thing can smell the changeling's magic and wants nothing more than to devour him.

This series opener by William Ritter is fast-paced and full of strong ancient magic.  Though the book is relatively short, it fleshes out the characters well and even allows the mothers to be important to the story.  I can't wait to see where the next book goes.  This one gives me Neil Gaiman vibes!  Highly recommended!

Squirm

Billy is a snake guy.  He loves every kind of snake, even the poisonous ones.  What he doesn't like is moving all the time so his mom can be close to an eagle's nest with hatching eggs.  Also, he's pretty annoyed that his dad left when he was just a little kid, never to be heard from again.

Well, maybe not exactly never.  They do get the child support check on the 10th of every month, so they know he's still alive, but Billy's mom destroys the envelops so Billy can't track him down.  Just before summer vacation, his mom slips up, and Billy finds the address.  He decides to leave Florida and head to Montana for a long-overdue reunion.

But when he gets there, his dad is nowhere to be found, instead, Billy finds his dad's new family.  Lil and Summer may be fine with his dad disappearing for weeks or months at a time, but Billy isn't.

In the meantime, his new stepsister, Summer, shows him Montana.  It's a beautiful place, and Billy instantly falls in love with the mountains and wildlife.  But it's not exactly paradise.  There are poachers on the lose, and Billy finds out he and his dad just might something in common:  the desire to protect wildlife from those who would abuse it.

Carl Hiaasen's new middle-grade book is just as wild and improbable as all the rest, but it's a fun ride with beautiful scenery.

The Lonely Dead

Adele has been on medication for the last seven years to deal with her schizophrenia.  She can see the dead.  Her grandfather thinks these are hallucinations, a genetic mental illness passed down from her grandmother and mother.  Adele has accepted this until now. 

She forgets to take a pill one day and wakes up in a whole new world, one were she has energy and spark.  Everything is great until she sees her dead ex-best friend on the way home from school.  Tori begs for Adele's help.  No one else can see or hear her.  Adele isn't sure she if she's hallucinating, but Tori's body seems real enough, so she makes an anonymous phone call to the police and waits to see if she imagined the whole thing. 

Tori really is dead and buried right were Adele saw her.  Has Adele been misdiagnosed all these years?  Because of an argument, the girls had at a party the night Tori died, Adele becomes the prime suspect, so she teams up with Tori to find out the truth before the police pin the crime on her. 

April Henry's new book is her first with a supernatural twist, and I found it to be moderately successful.  I have heard some people say they didn't like the supernatural element, but I actually enjoyed that aspect of the story.  It is more that the mystery gets shoved to the side to explore Adele's visions.  I think the book just needed to be a little longer so the mystery would have time to develop.  I also have mixed feelings about the mental health part of the story.  I don't think it's a good idea to just stop taking your meds.  That generally does not end well.  However, I do know that people are misdiagnosed.  So...recommended with reservations.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Coyote Sunrise has spent the last five years traveling around the country on a converted school bus with Rodeo.  Her name isn't really Coyote, and Rodeo is actually her father, but they don't talk about the past.  After her mother and sisters died in a car accident, Coyote and Rodeo have been living in the present. 

Everything changes the day she trades a watermelon slushie for a kitten.  She knows Rodeo will say no, so her plan is to hide Ivan and gradually let him in on the truth.  Coyote never really asks for anything, not even the truth, and she needs Ivan.  Maybe Rodeo can see that longing in her eyes, or maybe it's Ivan innate charm, but she gets her cat.

When she finds out the park where she and her mom and sisters buried a memory box is about to be destroyed, she knows she needs to get home and claim it.  She also knows Rodeo would never willingly return to a place with such painful memories.  She will have to trick him into it. 

As they begin their journey home, they pick up a series of strangers who seem destined to be part of the ride.  Normally, Coyote and Rodeo roll alone, but it seems like Ivan started something.  Lester is on his way to meet the girl of his dreams, Salvador and his mom are looking for a fresh start, and Val just wants to be someplace safe. 

These are the first real friends Coyote has had in a long time, and as they help her on her journey back home, they also help her come to some realizations about the truth and how you can't run away from it forever. 

I really loved Dan Gemeinhart's new book.  Y'all know I'm a sucker for a kitten, but this is a sweet story about grief and forgiveness.  It is a bit unrealistic.  They never run into any scary people, and I doubt Coyote would have been willing to keep living this sponge bath life for much longer, but I'm willing to overlook that for this beautiful road to truth and healing.  Also, I met Dan Gemeinhart at TLA, and he signed the book to me and Princess Buttercup! 

Stepsister

The truth is out.  Everyone knows what Isabelle and Tavi did to their stepsister Ella, how that abused and belittled her, how they forced her into servitude.  Everyone also knows the stepsisters mutilated their feet for a chance at the prince.  As if a prince would ever want an ugly stepsister.

Isabelle is strong, smart, and feisty in a world that only values beauty and compliance in women.  Her sister Tavi is in no better position.  She only cares about books and equations, but no school would ever take a girl even if her mother would allow it.

It seems Isabell will never outlive the shame of her past, but there are higher stakes in the kingdom of France.  Fate, in the form of a crone, has already plotted Isabelle's life, and on this map, it is brief and tragic.  Chance has another plan in mind.  He's stolen Isabelle's map in an attempt to change not just her fate but the fate of France.

But is it too late for Isabelle to change her course?  She has been carving away pieces of herself for years to try to fit into her mother's and society's expectations.  She may have already lost too much of herself to triumph.

I loved Jennifer Donnelly's new book!  It has so many messages we need to hear.  Your size and appearance don't determine your value.  The world may have knocked you down, but you have the power to get back up and reclaim your place and your value in the world.  Plus, none of the girls turns out to be a villain in the end.  Hooray for female friendship!  Recommended for grades 7 and up for some particularly bloody scenes.

Dear Sweet Pea

When her parents tell her they are getting a divorce, it comes as a complete surprise to Sweet Pea.  She really had no inkling her dad was gay, but that does create a problem for her parents' relationship. They are trying to ease the transition by creating identical homes on the same street.  Her dad's new house is just a few hundred yards away, but it just doesn't feel right.

She also has to sit behind her ex-best friend, Kiera at school.  Kiera seems to have a physical reaction to everything Sweet Pea says or does.  Luckily she has her new best friend Oscar, and her cat Cheese to help her through these challenging times.

The house separating her parents' new identical homes belongs to Miss Flora Mae, the town eccentric who also writes an advice column for the local paper.  When Miss Flora Mae has to leave town unexpectedly to take care of her sister, she asks Sweet Pea to help facilitate her column by getting the letters to her and her answers to the paper.

At first, the house seems creepy, but it doesn't take long for Sweet Pea to feel at home with all the house plants and Aretha Franklin.  It's when she kind of accidentally reads one of the Dear Miss Flora Mae I letters that she might be maybe crossing the line.  She's pretty sure she knows who it's from, and the temptation to answer it is too much.  Thus begins Sweet Pea's clandestine career as an advice columnist, but giving advice is never as clear cut as it seems.

Julie Murphy's new book is her middle grade debut, and it is an absolute treat.  It's a body positive book about a big girl just living her life like everyone else.  Her weight is not a symptom of trauma or a reaction to her parents' divorce.  It's just part of who she is, and it's a problem she has to navigate in the everyday world.  Sweet Pea's friends and parents are fleshed out characters with lives and feelings of their own.  I'm so glad I got the ARC at TLA!  The rest of you will have to wait until October.

Song for a Whale

Iris loves fixing antique radios.  The fact that she's deaf isn't a problem.  She can fell the vibrations coming through when the repair is complete, and she loves making the broken radios whole again.

Her mother is hearing, but Iris's grandparents are both deaf, so she's always been able to communicate easily with her mother and grandparents.  She struggles to communicate with her father who never really learned much sign language and with the kids at school who don't sign at all.

When she hears about a whale named Blue 55, it seems like destiny.  Blue 55 can't communicate with other whales because his song is at a different frequency.  Iris quickly becomes obsessed with helping this lonely whale find a way to communicate.

Lynne Kelly is a novelist and sign language interpreter.  That expertise helps ground this novel in the ASL community.   While this novel does not strictly employ magical realism, it definitely leans in that direction.  Fans of The One and Only Ivan will love this one.  Highly recommended for middle grade readers!