Welcome to Litsy!

This is a story told through alternating timelines including Matthew in the U.S. in 2020 and 3 cousins in Soviet Ukraine and the U.S. in the 1930s. Mila has grown up never knowing want and believing the party propaganda, Nadiya‘s family has starved in the Holdomor but she manages to show up at Mila‘s door to ask for help, and Helen‘s family has immigrated to the U.S. but is still in touch with Nadiya.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #Ukraine #TRS2024

Hazel wants to be a detective and start her own podcast. One night she follows her older brother when he goes to the cemetery for a game of hide and seek. Then things get very creepy in the cemetery and her brother‘s best friend Everett disappears. She starts to investigate, but it seems like a ghost is now following her and her brother. How will they find Everett and help the ghost find peace?

#audiobook #MiddleGrade #TRS2024

Tiffany has felt cursed for the last few years and tries to mostly avoid everyone her own age, but after seeing meteors collide, things change. Suddenly, she can “borrow” a person‘s talent or skill after touching a relevant item. Now, she has to decide how to use this power to help her dad and also whether or not to use it to take down her bullies. She learns life lessons and makes great friends in the process.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2024

I really enjoyed this contemporary MG novel about a boy running a family greenhouse with his older brother after the death of their parents. His teacher assigns a project in which he must relate events & tasks in his own life to the 12 labors of Hercules. There‘s a lot of mythological information and an amazing setting on Cape Cod alongside a story of the importance of found family (including pets) and community connection.

#TRS2024 #MiddleGrade

I listened to this middle grade book over the course of the day. It was ok, with plenty of references to Harry Potter (Vivian‘s favorite books), Dungeons & Dragons (the characters play B&B), and some other fantasy stories, but there‘s nothing that really pulled me into this specific world with these characters.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2024

📷: After a couple days inside because of the snow, Luthien and I got back out for a good walk today.

This was an interesting story of time travel in which Boomi hopes she can change her dad‘s fate but instead makes other changes and learns to make her own choices. I really liked how it was divided into tracks instead of chapters as her dad‘s boombox from 1986 is the key to the time travel. It also deals with some serious issues of parent death and healthy body perception in relation to ballet.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2024 #audiobook

Juniper Berry has grown up deep in the wilderness and knows almost nothing of modern conveniences. Instead she knows how to hunt and forage to survive with her family. Then, her brother becomes acutely ill, and the whole family travels to the city. Suddenly, she has to learn a whole new set of rules while living with an uncle she didn‘t even know existed and cousins who don‘t want her there.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2024

Lawrence is having a tough time at his new school, getting into trouble for fighting although he‘s not the one instigating. When he gets expelled, he starts spending a lot of time at the community rec center meeting new people and learning chess.♟️

#TRS2024 #audiobook #MiddleGrade #NorthCarolina

Overall I liked this historical fiction from the point of view of a girl who stows away on the Titanic, but there were a few issues for me as a reader. Hazel sneaks onto the ship and then makes herself way too visible, including spending time in the first class areas. She asks specific questions that provide lots of clear information about the flaws/mistakes that led to the catastrophe, and of course it all works out well for her in the end.

This was a novel in verse about a girl who is struggling more with her neurodivergence as she gets into middle school. She comes to realize that she‘s on the autism spectrum and other members of her family probably are as well. She becomes an advocate for herself as she learns there are others who feel the same and more about accommodations that can be helpful.

#TRS2024 #NovelInVerse #MiddleGrade