Curtis Pith is a huge fan of the cooking show, Super Chef, and not just because he loves cooking. He has a huge secret: the host of the show, Lucas Taylor is his father. So when Taylor announces a final season of the show, but for kids, Curtis knows he has to apply. Once he’s accepted and meets the four other kids, it’s straight to work. Between contests, homesickness, and figuring out how to keep his secret while observing Lucas Taylor’s changing behavior, Curtis has his hands full. But will he be The Last Super Chef?
Review | Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai
Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai is the companion title to fan favorite, Keep It Together, Keiko Carter. Jenna and Keiko have remained BFFs after their fall out with Audrey. But Jenna is having a hard time with several life issues. For one, she and her boyfriend have just broken up (but she’s still stuck in the same school newspaper as he is) and now her parents are divorcing. Jenna is coping by keeping her feelings shut in and brooding a lot — until she begins to write an investigative piece for the school newspaper contest. She also starts hanging out at a cute Broadway-themed Diner where she meets a schoolmate Rin Watanabe with whom she argues a lot but begins a tentative friendship. Can Jenna find time for all the things in her life, while addressing her hurt feelings and opening up to those who love her?
Review | Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance
Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance is Nisha Sharma’s sophomore YA novel. It follows Radha, a skilled Kathak dancer who decides to stop dancing after anxiety and a family betrayal cause her to bow out of a contest. Jai is a student at the Princeton Academy of the Arts where Radha transfers. Although she is insistent on not dancing, her dance skills may be Jai’s ticket to medical school (which he’s convinced e can’t attend). Add Radha’s grandfather’s cookbook, Jai’s family dilemmas, and plenty of dancing, and this story comes to life.
Review | Ways to Grow Love
Ways to Grow Love is the second book in the Ryan Hart series. I loved the first book in the series and this book picks up soon after! It’s summer and Ryan’s mom is now heavily pregnant. It seems to Ryan that her unborn baby sister only stops her mom from doing all the fun stuff they used to do together. No more market for Ryan because her mom has to be on bed rest. Her mom can’t even come to the library with her to pick up books for the summer reading challenge and her grandma just rushes her and won’t let her pick as many books as she wants.
Review | The Great Peach Experiment #1: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie
The Peach family is embarking on The Great Peach Experiment, their first one: making and selling pies out of a food truck! Oh, and they’ll be road tripping the whole summer too. Lucy, Freddie, and Herb have spent more time with each other than with their father since their mom died. But now one of their mom’s inventions has sold for a lot of money and their dad has bought a food truck and wants them to spend the summer traveling through the country as a family.
Review | All You Knead Is Love
All You Knead Is Love follows 12-year-old Alba whose mother forces her to move from NYC to Barcelona, Spain where her grandmother lives. Alba is gender non-conforming, which means that she doesn’t like the typical “girly” dresses or frilly tops her parents often want her to wear. She’s happiest in her jeans and t-shirts. Alba’s father is physically abusive, especially towards her mother, and generally treats Alba with disregard.
Review | Reckless Glorious Girl
Summary: Reckless Glorious Girl Reckless Glorious Girl is Ellen Hagan’s new middle grade verse novel. Beatrice lives with her Mawmaw (her grandmother) and her mom in Bardstown, Kentucky. Her father died in an accident months before she was born. The…
41 Best Middle-Grade Books About Food
Middle-Grade books about food make for some scrumptious reading! Tuck into these 41 tasty picks for some food, family drama, and middle-school dilemmas.
Review | Red, White and Whole
Red, White, and Whole is Rajani LaRocca’s newest middle-grade verse novel. The year is 1983 and 13-year-old Reha is caught between two cultures: her Indian family and community at home, and the all-American experience at school and with her white “school best friend.” But it’s not all rosy. Her mother doesn’t approve of Reha acting more American than Indian. She makes all of Reha’s clothes, and is upset when Reha says she would like to go to the school dance.
Reha is understandably frustrated at her mother’s lack of understanding, but she’s about to have more problems. Her mom is diagnosed with leukemia and Reha’s life is turned upside down.
Review | Slider by Pete Hautman
14-year-old David is a quintessential middle child. His sister Bridgette is in college and the family’s academic success story. Mal, his younger brother is on the autism spectrum, although his family prefers not to use the autism label. Mal is almost non-verbal and only says the word “okay.” David has always has a large appetite and an interest in competitive eating, but after he accidentally leaves a $2000 bill on his mother’s credit card, he’s forced to join a pizza eating contest to win the grand prize of $5000.
In between finding his place in the family and trying not to ruin his internal organs by overeating, David also has to navigate the fact that his two oldest friends Cyn and HeyMan might be dating each other. Where does that leave him? As the third musketeer still, or an unwanted third wheel?
Graphic Novel Review | Measuring Up
Measuring Up follows 12-year-old Cici who moves from Taiwan to the US with her parents, leaving behind her beloved A-ma (her grandmother). Thankfully, the adjustment period isn’t too hard on her. She makes friends quickly and her English is already pretty good. However, she and her parents struggle with American culture, like sleepovers, fireplaces, and she quickly stops bring Taiwanese food to lunch, preferring instead to learn to make American food, so she can blend in.
Although Cici and her parents want to bring her grandmother over for a visit at least, they can’t afford to yet. Cici misses her A-ma with whom she used to go to the market and cook. So when she stumbles upon a kid cooking contest, it feels like the perfect opportunity to earn $1000. The only problem is that Cici can only cook Taiwanese dishes. Fortunately, she’s paired up with an Italian-American girl, Miranda, whose father runs a restaurant (and who practically grew up working in a restaurant). Halfway through the contest though, each contestant has to compete alone.
Review | The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling
I fell for The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling just for its name alone. Thankfully, the premise is equally as captivating. Anna Chiu is a high schooler who has her hands full caring for her little brother and sort of watching over her younger teen sister. Their father runs a restaurant in a nearby town (about two hours away by car) and their mother is so depressed, she hasn’t gotten out of bed in weeks. When Anna convinces her dad to let her work at their restaurant on weekends, she starts a relationship with Rory, the new delivery boy.
As Anna gets to know Rory (and his own mental illness struggles), things at home go from bad to worse. Anna’s mother gets out of bed, but begins acting erratic and her relationship with her sister, as well as their father becomes strained as Anna has to step in to provide her mother the support she needs.
