Middletown

By Sarah Moon,

Book cover of Middletown

Book description

Thirteen-year-old Eli likes baggy clothes, baseball caps, and one girl in particular. Her seventeen-year-old sister Anna is more traditionally feminine; she loves boys and staying out late. They are sisters, and they are also the only family each can count on. Their dad has long been out of the picture,ā€¦

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Why read it?

1 author picked Middletown as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Most books with a 13-year-old protagonist tone reality down to get the story past gatekeepers, but this one digs into the gritty mess of what middle school life is actually like, and itā€™s so refreshing. Iā€™d been searching for a book that accurately reflected my middle-school trans kidā€™s experience of gender exploration and social interactions that didnā€™t make eighth-graders sound like fourth graders, and this was it. Pubescent kids talk rough. They are rough. And they laugh constantly to cope with the mobius loop of disasters that is life in the 2020s. I loved how Eliā€™s experience of gender didnā€™tā€¦

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Book cover of One Giant Leap

One Giant Leap by Ben Gartner,

Editor's Pick, BookLife by Publishers Weekly.

Gold Medal, 2023 Mom's Choice Awards.

Gold Medal, 2023 Readers' Favorite Awards.

First Place, 2023 Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Awards.

Iā€™m pretty sure Iā€™m about to die in space. And I just turned twelve and a half.

Blast off with the four winners ofā€¦

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