I read many, many middle grade books last year, but somehow just one Indian book stands out this time! Here are my top ten, in no particular order. I highly recommend these books to readers ten and above! The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) Last year, I read many books in verse, primarily because that's what I've been writing. My most recent middle-grade verse read was The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) by Nadine Aisha Jassat. It's a richly woven book about family and a support system. I always find verse novels to be pacy reads, but this one was even more so because it has multiple secrets at its core, secrets that the reader is curious to uncover. It's a story about stories, and I love how all the stories come together at the end. Book review Odder Odder by Katherine Applegate is the second … [Read more...]
The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them)
How are such few people reading verse novels? They're so lovely, so full of emotion and magic! My latest read was The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them), a beautiful middle-grade book about love, stories, and friendship.Nyla Elachi is of mixed heritage, and she's bullied for it. But in some ways, that's the least of her problems. Her beloved grandmother has Alzheimer's. Her mother is overworked. And her father is dead ... or so she thinks.When her grandmother says she saw Basim, her father, Nyla begins to ask questions. And as she follows one clue after another, hope, fear and anticipation alternate. She doesn't even know if she's ready to find out everything that is in store for her, but she hears snippets of whispered conversations that make her more curious than ever. With her grandmother's "time-travelling", as Nyla calls the tendency to mix up timelines, the … [Read more...]