Today’s pick is a much-loved series — a classic, if I do say so myself — following a group of friends who start a babysitting club. I loved the female friendship, the occasional mystery, and the entrepreneurial and goal-oriented nature of the characters in this series. Here are 7 books for fans of The babysitters Club!
Review | City Spies #1 by James Ponti
Twelve-year old Sara Martinez is a hacker bouncing from foster home to foster home in Brooklyn, New York. After getting arrested for hacking into the NYC foster care system to expose her foster parents as criminals, she meets a man named Mother who is not a lawyer but convinces her to take on her case. Mother somehow wins and Sara gets released only to join a team of kid spies operating out of a base in Scotland.
Graphic Novel Review: Twins
Twins Maureen and Francine Carter have always done everything together, but things have changed as they’re starting sixth grade. For one, they have nearly all their classes apart from each other, and Francine is dressing differently, trying to stand out from her twin Maureen
The girls are still figuring out their new dynamic when Francine decides to run for student council, and by some stroke of fate, her shy, terrified-of-public-speaking sister is also running for president. Despite the ground rules laid by their parents, things get a bit messy as both girls try to establish their personal identities while fighting to reconcile their relationship as twins and sisters.
Review | Not Your All American Girl
In Not Your All-American Girl, Lauren is Jewish and Chinese. It’s the 1980s and Lauren and her best friend — who’s blonde with blue eyes — do everything together. So when they don’t have any sixth-grade classes together, they’re bummed! They decide that they will audition for their school’s musical so that they can at least have that time together. Lauren’s audition goes swimmingly, and she’s obviously the better singer than Tara (even better than any of the other kids), but when the cast list is released Lauren is only part of the ensemble and Tara is cast as lead. Upon confronting the director, she explains that Lauren’s half-Jewish, half-Chinese looks don’t match the role of “all-American girl” in the “all-American town” depicted in their musical.
51 Best Middle-Grade Books About Bullying
In this list, you’ll find books in which bullying is a major subplot. For several of these books, bullying is the plot. I like that in these stories, bullies do not triumph because the bullied party finally speaks up, shuts the bully up by winning them over or finds someone else who will speak up for them. In some of these books, readers will get a peek into the mind of bullies and see how they are often propelled by their own insecurities. Hopefully, overall, your kids find these middle-grade books about bullying to be empowering.
Review | The Thing About Leftovers
Fizzy is the daughter of divorced parents. Her father has remarried and her mother is in a serious relationship. Fizzy is also an excellent cook — so good that she’s entering the Southern Living cook-off. But she has other struggles to contend with. At school, she doesn’t have any real friends, and then her mom announces that she’s marrying her boyfriend, Keane (whom Fizzy dislikes). Fizzy also has to shuttle between both parents’ homes, and she’s constantly feeling like the “leftover” child since both her parents are moving on and forming new families.
