Children's and Middle Grade

Here are my top 5 children's and middle grade books of 2021. Spoiler - they are all middle grade. Usually I find a lot of children's gems in December when I pillage the public library so that I can up my numbers. But since I had such a respectable year this year, I only read four picture books. And they were fine. But it's just not my area of interest. Moving on...

My fifth favorite was this adorable epistolary novel. When Bett and Avery's dads fall in love, they decide to anti-parent-trap them out of it.  I love a summer camp setting, and this is a great one. I also love letters (or emails, in this case) and I love kids trying to manipulate grown-ups. OOH! There's also an awesome granny and a theater subplot. So much to love here. 

This cover is dreadful but FAMILY SABBATICAL, my fourth favorite, is a pure delight! Carol Ryrie Brink was heretofore known to me only for CADDIE WOODLAWN, but a group read on the BETSY TACY listserv introduced it to me. It was published in 1956 and the tone reminded me of Rosamund and Judy duJardin's JUNIOR YEAR ABROAD. But this was also very, very funny. It feels its age a bit, but the interplay of the kids with their new surroundings and acquaintances is timeless.

The next three are all damn near perfect and it is hard to choose the order so I am going in order of how much suffering they contain. BLACKBIRD GIRLS is set during and after the Chernobyl disaster, so, lots of suffering. It also has a sub-plot set during the Holocaust so Blankman really doubles down. She creates the feeling of what it was like to be a tween in the USSR from the ingrained antisemitism to the mistrust of everyone. It is also a beautiful story of kindness and friendship, so go figure. 

I am a huge LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE fan, and yet I was not at all conflicted at the ALA decision to rename the Laura Ingalls Wilder award to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. I can love and appreciate those books while still seeing their flaws. I thought this book, set in the same era, performed that same magic of setting me into another time. I read some review on Goodreads that said basically that there weren't enough "history lessons" in it to which I reply - GOOD!! Park builds the world, she is not trying to indoctrinate children. She is showing not telling. We have the freaking internet now, kids can google whatever they have questions about. Anyway, it is the story of Hannah who is half-Chinese, new in her unwelcoming South Dakota town and longing to be a dressmaker. I am usually such a story-girl. I read ravenously just dying to find out what happens next. This book made me slow down and look at what was going on in the corners. It was beautiful.

My favorite middle grade book of the year was recommended by Janet Dawson of A Kids Book A Day and it has so many of my favorite things going for it:

• Scrappy orphans - gotta love them
• Lonely librarians - ditto
• Terrible foster parents - in fiction ONLY, please!
• WW2 evacuees
• Books, books and more books

A friend described this as THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE but not quite as painful. And I concur.  I mean, Anna, Edmund and William don't have parents, but they do have money. (I know it's not a fair trade, I've seen Good Will Hunting!)  William, at least, remembers a loving mother and he passes these memories on to his siblings. When their grandmother (who has raised them competently, but coldly) dies, they are evacuated out of London with other wartime refugee children. Albus does a great job showing the prejudices against the evacuees. The kids are scoping out possible families at the suggestion of their solicitor, but the pickings are slim. I just loved the way that this played out. I worried for these kids, but I also knew that they were going to be okay because they have each other.