I love middle grade reads, so this is my longest list this year. In no particular order, here are the books to which I gave a five-star rating in 2020.This is a book for keeps.More often than not, in India, books that address homosexuality are categorised as young adult or adult books, but with this book more than any others before, I disagree. To Night Owl from Dogfish is clearly a middle grade book. The characters, the themes, the tone - everything, for me, is middle grade. Avery and Bett learn that their dads are going to get married, and they start exchanging emails, laying plans to ensure that they don't get to know each other. They don't want two families to become one, thank you very much. They don't want to become sisters.Their fathers want to send them to summer camp together. They want to refuse to go and when that fails, they determine not to talk to each other. … [Read more...]
Out of My Mind
Why had I never heard of this book? Published in 2010, Out of My Mind was on the New York Times bestseller list for two years, and I just read it!When I wrote about Moonrise a few weeks ago, I mentioned how children often ask me which the first book that made me cry was. I usually respond by telling them, instead, about the most recent book that made me cry - and now, it's Sharon M. Draper's Out of My Mind.Eleven-year-old Melody Brooks is smart. She has a photographic memory and a delicious sense of humour. She loves her family, and her family loves her.But she can't show this part of herself to anyone, at least, not until she finds out about the Medi-Talker, a machine that can help her communicate. With cerebral palsy, she is confined to a wheelchair. She can make jerky movements at best, and easily loses control over her limbs. She drools, she cannot feed herself, and she … [Read more...]