Books In the Middle Podcast

Send us a textIt Happened to Anna by Tehlor Kay MejiaSadie is alone - or so it feels. She has her dad, but in terms of friends, she has none, and that is just how she wants it, sort of. Because the last good friend that she had was killed, and Sadie feels for sure it was her fault. Due to the jealous ghost that lives in Sadie and has since Sadie can remember. What Sadies doesn't know is why and if she will ever be able to be free from it to live her life. Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textTig by Heather SmithTig and her older brother, Peter, have been abandoned by their mother a few months prior to them being discovered living on their own. They are taken in by their mother's brother, their Uncle Scott and his partner, Manny. The problem is, everything is too perfect, for Tig anyway. After all, people can say they love you but leave you when you are not perfect. Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textInternment by Samira AhmedThe future is here and for Muslims, like Layla, things are not good in the United States. The president has made it very clear that Muslims are to blame for everything (sound familiar - think World War II and Jewish people) and many are losing their jobs and having their lives restricted. In fact, Layla's father, a professor at a university, has lost his job and people are now burning his books - and other muslim authors and books that the president and his followers don't think are appropriate for American society to have access to read.It is in this atmosphere that Layla and her family and others find themselves in. One night when her family is taken from their home - right as night has fallen - and ordered to leave, Layla can't believe this is happening to her, an American citizen, all because of her religious beliefs.Recommended for grades 8 and up. *the word "damn" is used in this podcast

Send us a textPlaces We've Never Been by Kasie WestNorah is super excited to be heading out on an RV trip with her mom, her older brother and her mom's good friend  along with her three kids. Especially since one of those kids is Skylar, her bestie from four years before - all through elementary and part of middle school. But in the years since, Norah and Skylar have lost touch, for the most part. Still, Norah is eager to begin just where they left off.However, when Skylar shows up, he doesn't appear to want to have anything to do with Norah, let alone resume their close friendship! Norah is confused and frustrated and not a little hurt. What happened to her fun friend that she could confide anything to? Has she really changed as much as Skylar seems to be implying?Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textViveca is ready! This is her year for it all to be done and great! She is a senior and on track to be the valedictorian of her class. She has a good friend, Wren, who helps Viveca through her anxiety and helps get her out of her comfort zone, but in a good way. So, all is on track to go to the college of her dreams - the one that her mom went to for one year until she had to come back home and take care of her dad. Viveca just needs to get into the college and everything will be as she has always dreamed it would be.Enter Jamison Sharpe, a transfer student into their prep high school and he is good lucking, popular right from the get go, and seems like he can do no wrong. AND he is gunning for Viveca's spot for valedictorian. Viveca is incensed! How can he come in and just take her spot with his perfect everything???? It isn't fair!Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textWarrior on the Mound By Sandra W. HeadenCato loves baseball and plans to follow in his father and big brother's footsteps to become a professional pitcher in the Negro League....just as soon as he can convince his grandfather he is old enough to head out. But there are secrets surrounding his father's death that no one wants to reveal to Cato. And when he and his teammates trespass onto a whites only ball field, some of those secrets come to light. Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textStar Splitter By Matthew J. KirbyThe year is 2199 and people can visit deep space, because teleportation is  possible. Jessica is going to be with her parents for a year on a planet that has been designated Carver 1061c, to examine it for possible habitation by humans. But she isn't happy about it. She wants to stay on Earth, with her grandparents and her friends. Still, she doesn't appear to have a choice. When she wakes up though, it isn't on the ship, orbiting the planet, but it is on the planet in a lander that has crashed. And she isn't alone. Recommended for grades 8 and up.

Send us a textIt Found Us by Lindsay CurrieIt started out as a harmless game of hide and seek in the local graveyard, but Hazel and her brother, Den, realize quickly, there is nothing normal about the graveyard, or maybe who is buried there. When Den's best friend disappears during the game, the race is on to figure out where he is and if they can get him back!Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textThe Downstairs Girl by Stacey LeeWhen Jo loses her job, unexpectedly, at the milliner's hat shop, she isn't sure what she will do next for employment. After all, she and Old Gin need her wages to help them keep them going. Luckily, they don't have to worry about where they live, since they have been squatting in the basement of a printing shop for all of Jo's life. The owners of the print shop have no idea that Jo and Old Gin have been there for years, but when she hears the owners might have to move, she worries that means the end of their free living space.  Jo gets an idea for how she can help the owners of the shop stay in business - by becoming an advice columnist for their paper! Recommended for grades 8 and up.

Send us a textIveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz ArangoThis is it! A new school year full of new opportunities - like making good grades again, and maybe making some new friends even though she has a great one in her friend Amir, and this year, she will not get into any trouble at school. Well, these are all goals that Iveliz has for herself as she starts seventh grade, but having them come true is a bit harder than she ever imagined. She is struggling with the fact that her grandmother has come to live with them from Puerto Rico (PR)  and she is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, which Iveliz doesn't really know much about. And while she loves her grandmother, she doesn't understand why her Mimi keeps saying that the medicine that Iveliz takes is not necessary.Things begin to spiral at home and at school, and Iveliz thinks she can manage it all on her own, especially since she is not very close with her mother, after the incident, which is the whole reason she is having mental health issues. So where do you turn when every door seems to be closed?Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textImpossible Escape by Steve SheinkinFor Rudi, escape was all he thought about. Escape and getting information about what was actually happening in the concentration camps in Europe out to the world. After all, how could people really know just how awful things were in Poland and some of the other countries where the Nazis had established these killing centers. For Greta, it was all about trying to stay out of the concentration camps, and avoid being rounded up. For both Rudi and Greta, time is running out. Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textThe Canyon's Edge by Dusti BowlingWhen Nora and her father set out on a hike to a canyon they have never visited before, Nora is hopeful. After all, this year has been awful. First, to lose her mom on her birthday to a shooter has been horrific, but then to see her father change from a confident outgoing person, to someone afraid of everything, has been incredibly hard. The fact that he has removed himself from the world is bad, but he wants to remove Nora from it as well and so when she asks if she can start going back to school again, she is met with her father shutting that idea down fast.But just as fast as that conversation is over, something neither of them thought was possible or had considered happens. A flash flood...and they are in a slot canyon with high sides and no way to outrun the water!Recommended for grades 6th and up.

Send us a textIn the Same Boat by Holly GreenIt is redemption time, at least that is how Sadie feels after wanting to quit the Texas River Odyssey with her dad last year. They didn't quit, but they did have to pull out after Sadie was injured during the race.  She figures that she will do better this year since she is teaming up with her older brother, Tanner, because her dad has decided that last year would be his final year of racing. Sadie is determined to do well this year, but when Tanner bails on her at the last minute, she is left without a partner - since she can't run the race solo at her age. Much to her surprise, and old friend turned enemy, named Cully, volunteers to be her partner. She can't figure out why after all these years Cully is willing to step up and work with her, but she badly wants to run the race and be successful. But can she trust the boy she once thought was her everything, after all so long?Recommended for grades 8 and up.

Send us a textOnce in a Blue Moon by Sharon FlakeOne night, James Henry and his mom were at the lighthouse and then something happened that made James Henry scared. Very scared. So scared that he doesn't like to leave the house because who knows what could happen to him and to other people too. He used to have no problem being outside, but now everything feels too much, including school. Luckily, his twin sister Hattie is there to help him along.But when a new girl moves to town and starts taking Hattie away from the house, James Henry feels like his one main supporter is leaving him. Hattie is convinced that a blue moon that will be coming up soon makes anything possible. If she can only get James Henry to the lighthouse the night of the blue moon, he will be fine again. However, as with any plan, things always go wrong!Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textLumara by Melissa LandersIt was supposed to be a fun trip to meet her boyfriend, Nathaniel's parents and family. After all, it was a wedding, the first one that Talia had ever been to. And she was super surprised that her dad agreed to let her go during her Fall break, since he only got to see her during her breaks from boarding school. Maybe she should have known something was up by how easily he agreed to let her go. But even she could never have imagined what was to come. Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textBusted by Gina CioccaWhen Marisa catches her best friend's boyfriend cheating on her, she has to tell her. But what she doesn't expect is that others will start to think she should help them as well! It seems crazy to Marisa, but then she gets caught up in helping an old friend of hers figure out what is going on with HER boyfriend, and things start to get out of control!Recommended for mature 8th graders due to content and language.

Send us a textThe Lost Year by Katherine MarshMatthew is stuck at home during Covid, just like the rest of the world. Still, it isn't too bad, except that his parents are divorced and his dad took a job assignment right before Covid hit...in Paris! So now his dad is stuck there and Matthew is stuck with his mom and his GG - his great grandmother who is 100 years old. So not a lot of excitement happening around his place.Until his mom tells him he needs to help his GG clean out the boxes that are still packed along the side of her bedroom wall from when she came from the nursing home. When he shows his GG a picture of her from when she was young, she gets very upset. It turns out that his GG went through something horrible as a child and it is up to Matthew to see if he can get the story, the true story, of what life was like in Ukraine in the 1930s from her.Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Send us a textThe Island by Natasha PrestonPaisley thinks this is it! Her big break! She has been invited along with five other teenage influencers to come to an island amusement park created by a billionaire to drum up business before it does its official launch to the public. And this isn't your regular park. No, this is an exclusive resort that caters to rich people and is not designed for little kids. It has a dark, gothic theme to it, which is perfect for Paisley, since she does true crime podcasts. The others do a wide range, from make up to video games. Still they all have in common the fact that they have a large following, and it is about to get bigger with this invite.At first, it is everything Paisley and her fellow influencers could wish for. The resort is amazing, the staff - although limited in number - helpful, and Paisley finds herself surrounded by attractive guys that she has her pick of crushing on! But very quickly, something feels off. Is it the resort owner, Malcolm, who is reserved and a bit dismissive of his guests? Or his assistant, Camilla, who seems to be a shadow but always there? Before long, things go terribly, terribly wrong. And Paisley and her fellow influencers are stuck on an island with a killer on the loose.Recommended for grades 8 and up.

Send us a textShot Clock by Caron Butler and Justin A. ReynoldsTony, or Tone as most people call him, is in shock. Shock that his best friend has been shot and killed by police. And for no reason. Wrong time, wrong place, or so it seems. Because Dante had it all going for him. He was great at school with a 4.0, an amazing basketball player who was nationally ranked and already had his college picked out, even though he was only a sophomore in high school. So, why? And how is Tone or anyone else supposed to know how to move on? After all, you are told if you do everything right, you will be able to come out on top. But now Tone knows that isn't true.Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Send us a textAgent Most Wanted by Sonia PurnellVirginia Hall never wanted a simple or traditional life for herself, even if that was what her mother wanted.The life of a society wife moving in high circles in Baltimore and even better if she married into money was her mother's fondest hope! But Virginia's father was always supportive of her doing what she wanted - including riding horses bareback and going hunting. So when it was time to head off to college or get married, you can guess which way Virginia decided to go. But at first, college didn't really help her adventurous spirit. It wasn't until she went to Paris to study abroad that she realized how much she loved being in France.Virginia was in Europe when things were starting to really go south in terms of the dictators who were coming to power, including Hitler. She was able to see all the politics and thought she could be helpful in the foreign office, perhaps working somehow for the state department. However, right away it became obvious that as much as she wanted to help her country, that they didn't really see the benefit of a woman working for them, other than as a secretary. Virginia became disillusioned after several posts of just doing clerical work when she knew she could do so much more.Recommended for grades 7 and up.