The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung

 Matt and Eric are best friends and are in marching band.  Eric learns that he will be moving at the end of the year because his mom has gotten a job all the way across the US.  Matt and Eric get made fun of because they like comic books and people say they are gay.  Matt plays the piccolo (the only boy who ever has at his school) and Eric plays the drums, so during marching season Matt plays the bass drum. Kenny and Sean really bully them.  As they find out they are going to an amusement park to perform at the end of the year, they hatch a plan to sneak off to a ComicCon and meet their favorite author, but Sean finds out and says he wants to come to, but this is their last hurrah together, so they don't want to include him (and the fact that he bullies them).  Now there is some blackmail going on...both ways.  Who knows what will end up happening, but it can't be good...

I like the fact that this a boy based book, and there is some diversity in race/ culture.  Just didn't keep me reading.

 

Love is a Revolution by Renee Watson

 Nala lives with her cousin-sister-friend, Imani, and her family.  Imani is all into community activist groups and Nala is just not into that.  Through Imani's group Nala meets Tye, and she falls hard.  So hard that she starts making up things about herself to make him like her.  Things like she volunteers at her grandmother's retirement home as an activity director, that she is a vegetarian, and she starts changing things about herself to make him like her.  Soon enough her lies catch up to her.  Nala learns that she is good enough as herself and she learns that she has to know who she is and accept herself first.  

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

 Khosrou (AKA Daniel) is telling his story in a 7th grade classroom in Edmond, Oklahoma.  He grew up in Iran until he was 8 and then his mother took he and his sister to escape from death for being a Christian.  His father stayed behind.  As he tells his story, it is very metaphorical and disjointed. As I read I really wanted to quit, but I kept going.  It did get more fluid and better as it continued, but I think for middle school students they will not have the stick-to-it-ness to keep with it.   

Chirp by Kate Messner

Mia and her family move to Vermont to be closer to her grandmother who has started a cricket farm.  She raises crickets for food!  Mia's parents are hoping grandma will be selling it and retiring, but she is not quite ready to yet.  Things start happening at the cricket farm that seem like bad luck or it could be sabotage.  Birds come in, temperatures get too hot and too cold, beetles in the cricket food, etc.  Mia's mom is making her have two activities for the summer. She does NOT want to do gymnastics because she broke her arm badly on the balance beam, so she chooses Warrior Camp(like gladiator camp) and Launch Camp (like a creative make things camp).  As her summer progresses, she makes a good friend in Clover (who attends both camps) and they begin to investigate who is out to get her Gram's business.  

Great read!!

 

Close to Nowhere by Ellen Hopkins

Told in two voices:  Hannah and her cousin Cal..  They are the same age and in the same class at school. Hannah is popular, into competitive gymnastics and dance. Cal's mother died, his dad is in jail and he is living with Hannah's family.  He also has "anger" issues, which embarrass Hannah and she is unaware of his life before living with them.  Her mother says it is not her place to tell Hannah, Cal needs to be the one to share.  
As time goes on Hannah begins to understand why Cal is the way he is, what things he has had to deal with and he learns how to fit into the family.  

Fact or fiction:  You should totally read this book.  
Fact:  yes you should

Definition of understanding:  sympathetically aware of other people's feelings; tolerant and forgiving

 

Tune it Out by Jamie Sumner

 

Lou Montgomery is pretty much homeless.  She lives with her mom in Tahoe in a truck.  She has the voice of an angel, doesn't go to school, and has to pretend like she does go to school and is fine.  As her mom is working late one night, Lou has to drive the truck to go pick her mom up (she's only 12) and it is snowing.  She has a wreck and then CPS gets involved.  She is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Nashville.  There she meets new friends at school, learns she maybe not autistic, but have sensory processing disorder and learns what "normal" things should be.

What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado

 

Stephen loves his bracelet that says "What Lane?" after a basketball player who says it.  It is kinda what Stephen bases his choices on in life.  What lane is he living in?  As a biracial boy, he is starting to notice and feel like he is treated differently from his white peers.  His black and latino friends wonder why he isn't hanging out with them much anymore, and his white friends don't seem to notice how he is treated differently without him pointing it out.  Stephen also learns about BLM and wishes for white and black alike to get along...