Freestyle

Freestyle by Gale Galligan 240 pp.

Freestyle is a juvenile graphic novel about middle school relationships, break dancing, parental conflicts, and yoyo-ing. The main character is an 8th grader named Cory who is part of a team of breakers who are practicing for an upcoming competition. Cory's grades have slipped and his parents hire one of his classmates as a tutor. Sunna, the tutor, and Cory got off to a bad start as lab partners at school. Their animosity leads to Cory getting grounded which means no dance rehearsals. Cory discovers Sunna's talent with the yoyo and persuades her to teach him. Cory finds himself in conflict with the "leader" of the dance group which almost destroys the group. Everything is ultimately resolved for the best. This book is one of the Mark Twain Award nominees for 2024-25.

Linked

 Linked by Gordon Korman 246 pp.

This was the last book for the Treehouse Book Club. I think this is an excellent story about middle schoolers learning about racism and intolerance first hand when swastikas begin appearing in their school. The vandalism also brings to light an incident in the town's history that many want to keep quiet. The kids step up to combat the problem by coming together in a project to tangibly show how large 6,000,000 (the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust) is by making paper chains with that many links. With the help of the town and people across the company and the world they reach their goal. When Link, the most popular kid in 7th grade and a known trouble maker learns he is of Jewish ancestry, it changes his life. Eventually the perpetrators of the vandalism are found with shocking results. The story is told from the points of view of several of the seventh grade students. A worthy read.

One Kid's Trash

One Kid's Trash by Jamie Sumner 231 pp. 

Hugo is a sixth grader who is very small for his age. This has been a constant problem for him at school and made him a victim of bullying. Now he is in a new town at a new school, having to start over with making new friends and settling in. The jokes and bullying begin almost immediately after arriving at school. Hugo's parents are having problems and appear to be heading toward a split. His one anchor at the new school is his cousin Vijay but they start having issues with each other. Things start to improve with his classmates when Hugo begins using his talent for Garbology - analyzing people by the trash they produce. Then it all goes wrong. This book is nominated for the 2023-2024 Missouri Mark Twain Award and is one of the selections chosen for our Treehouse Book Club. 

Tegan & Sara: Junior High

Tegan & Sara: Junior High by Tegan & Sara Quin, art by Tillie Walden, 298 pages

Canadian indie rock duo Tegan & Sara is one of my favorite bands, and when I heard they were teaming up with the amazing artist Tillie Walden for this middle school graphic memoir, I knew I'd have to check it out. (After all, I loved their adult non-graphic memoir, High School.) 

This one presents the trials and tribulations of being a girl in seventh grade, switching to a new school, finding new friends, puberty, and all the good and bad stuff that comes with it — as well as managing all of that with a twin sister. While the Quins went through this back in the early 1990s, I appreciate that they reset their junior high years in the 2020s, as that will certainly help the kids who read this connect with it (cell phones and Taylor Swift and Netflix certainly have more impact with today's kids than corded wall phones and Nirvana and VCRs). 

I really dug this book, and appreciated the clever color-coding way that Walden distinguished between the twins in her artwork — Tegan is blue, Sara is red, and most pages that take place outside of their bedrooms are a wash of pale purple. There's another book on the horizon (focusing on eighth grade), and you can bet I'll pick up that one too.

My Perfect Life

 

My Perfect Life by Lynda Barry  128 pp.

This is a collection of strips originally serialized in Ernie Pook's Comeek. Maybonne and her little sister, Marlys navigate middle school in what seems (in my experience) to be the 1970s. It's all there, the dysfunctional family, uncertainty, smoking, cliques, bullies, first kisses (and more), Jesus Freaks, acid, and angst, lots of angst. Nothing is sugar coated and as the girls grow one year older it seems possible they just might be okay.

Wink

 

Wink by Rob Harrell 316 pp.

Ross Maloy is a seventh grader who just wants to be a normal kid. However, after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that may cause him to lose an eye, his life is anything but normal. Rob Harrell, a survivor of the same type of cancer, created a character who faces the difficulties of being both a middle schooler and a cancer patient with honesty, a little tragedy, and a lot of humor. The humor in the story is not making light of the idea of a potentially fatal disease. Rather it laughs at the oddball situations Ross finds himself in while facing his classmates and manages his treatment. The survivor in me found this story to be well written and factual without being grotesque or maudlin. 

Drama

Drama by Raina Telgemeier, 233 pages

In this delightful graphic novel, seventh grader Callie deals with the drama of middle school while working on the set for the school musical. As expected, there are crushes and miscommunications, complicated sets and even more complicated friendships. My 10-year-old daughter has read this book (and every other Telgemeier title) absolutely ragged, so when she offered this to me in a bit of pre-youth-soccer-game downtime, I couldn't resist. It was fun, and sweet, and absolutely captures the, well, drama of being a tween.

New Kid

 

New Kid / Jerry Craft, audio read by a full cast, 249 pgs.

Jordan Banks is starting at a new school.  It is not exactly his choice.  He wants to go to an school specializing in art, his folks get him into a high end private school in an effort to get him on a different path.  The new school is WAY different from his old school.  He gets lost, he meets all new kids - some good, some bad.  This book takes you through Jordan's seventh grade year, his first at Riverdale Academy Day School.  I think Jerry Craft is brilliant, which was confirmed when I listen to this interview. This is a great book and almost anyone can find a character here or a situation to relate to.

Captain Superlative

 

Captain Superlative by J.S. Puller 245 pp.

Middle school can be a tough time. Janey prefers to stay on the sidelines, hidden from the drama between the popular kids and those on the other end of that spectrum. Then someone arrives at school wearing a blue wig, silver swimsuit, red mask, torn tights, high tops, and a cape to turn the lives of Janey and everyone at the school upside down. Captain Superlative, as she calls herself, is on a mission to be nice to people and get them to be nice in return. Janey is intrigued and determined to find out more about this "superhero". Then she is picked to be the Captain's sidekick and learns what it truly means to be a friend. This moving story seems a perfect read for these uncertain times.