Books In the Middle Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Between Shades of Gray    By Ruta Sepetys It was a knock at the door and everything changed for Lina’s family. The Soviet secret police came and took Lina, her younger brother Jonas and her mother on an epic journey from the country of Lithuania across the vast area of the Soviet Union. Lina’s life becomes about cold and hunger and danger every step of the way.  Recommended for gr...

Send us Fan Mail Dust of Eden    By Mariko Nagai After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mina and her family are shocked when they, along with all other people of Japanese ancestry on the West coast, are rounded up, transported in cattle cars and sent to places far away from their homes. They lost everything. Their homes, their businesses, their property. For years, people were forced to live in harsh...

Send us Fan Mail Soldier X  by Don Wulffson         He never imagined he would be forced to fight at the age of 16. After all, he barely knows how to hold his gun, let alone shoot it. Yet Erik finds himself on the frontlines fighting for his country of Germany at a time when Germany isn’t doing well. He finds out quickly, in order to survive you will do just about anything. Recommended for grades...

Send us Fan Mail Bomb: The Race to Build - and steal - the World’s most Dangerous Weapon    By Steve Sheinkin This all started when it was discovered by a German physicist that a uranium atom could be split. It wasn’t thought possible at the time. That any atom could be split. And when it split, it gave off energy. So what if a bunch of uranium was put in a situation where it was splitting all ove...

Send us Fan Mail Hunt for the Bamboo Rat    By Graham Salisbury Growing up in Honolulu in the late 1930s is a good life for Zenji. The only dark spot on his life is the fact his father was killed in an accident at Pearl Harbor before he was 10. It was hard growing up without a father, but his older brother Henry is always there for him. Zenji has just finished high school and is trying to decide w...

Send us Fan Mail Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashely Herring Blake Ivy has felt like she’s been out of control for some time now. Ever since going into middle school, she feels like she isn’t sure what is up and what is down. All her friends want to talk about are boys, boys, and more boys. The only place she feels like herself is when she’s drawing in her notebook. Ivy is an artist and s...

Send us Fan Mail Dragon’s Bait    By Vivian Vande Velde Accused of witchcraft by a jealous neighbor, Alys is left on a hillside as bait for the local “small” dragon causing havoc in nearby towns. Alys has just watched everyone she knew and loved be talked into believing she is a witch. So when the dragon comes, she feels she has nothing to lose. Recommended for grades 7 and up.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Eddie’s War By Carol Fisher Saller         Eddie is a young boy when talk of a possible war begins. He sees his older brother, Thomas, think about what the coming war means to him and Eddie begins to realize all the fan fair hides some really serious issues. Eddie struggles to understand some complex relationships he didn’t have a grasp of before he got older, and when faced with...

Send us Fan Mail Double Identity By Margaret Peterson Haddix         Lots of kids have overprotective parents, but Bethany’s parents take it to the extreme. As she gets closer and closer to her 13th birthday, her parents get more erratic in their behavior and finally end up leaving her with a woman she’s never met. It seems her parents have been keeping a huge secret...about Bethany herself. Recom...

Send us Fan Mail Out of the Dust      By Karen Hesse Billie Jo’s dad wanted a boy, so he named her after one. But even though Billie Jo tries hard to gain her father’s love and approval, life during the Great Depression keeps getting worse. Living on a farm in the Great Dust Bowl doesn’t make Billie Jo’s life any easier. Recommended for grades 6th and up.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Strong Deaf By  Lynn McElfresh         Sometimes what the outside world views as different is the norm for you, yet you can feel like an outsider in your own home. Such is the case for Jade. Jade can hear. Her sister, Marla, can’t. But Marla resents that Jade can hear, not BECAUSE she can hear, but because Marla feels that Jade is less in some ways because she doesn’t understand h...

Send us Fan Mail POD By Stephen Wallenfels        It seemed like a regular day, until the loud piercing noise and then all the lights zapping anyone outside, and cars everywhere. Josh can’t believe it when he sees the papergirl disappear before his very eyes. Meg knows she can’t leave the parking garage where her mom left her, but she is running out of food and water. What will happen if the stran...

Send us Fan Mail The Way the Light Bends By Cordelia Jensen When Linc and Holly were little, it seemed nothing could pull them apart. But, now that they are in high school, it feels like nothing can bring them back together. Linc struggles with school, while Holly excels. Holly has many friends, while Linc has one. Being in the same grade doesn’t help matters out since it is easy to compare the tw...

Send us Fan Mail The Enemy      By Charlie Higson         Something horrible has happened. A disease or virus has infected all adults over the age of 16 and turned them into creatures that eat anything, including children. Kids all over England have banned together to survive. However, one group knows they can’t last much longer since the adults are getting more and more forceful. They decide to v...

Send us Fan Mail Coldest Girl in ColdTown     By Holly Black Waking up after a sundown party in the tub in the bathroom, Tana struggles to recall what happened the night before. But when she opens up the door, she encounters a horrible scene. Vampires have clearly gotten into the party and killed all her friends, except for one, her ex boyfriend, Aidan. But he’s been infected.  Recommended for mat...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime    By Trevor Noah Growing up in South Africa, Trevor didn’t realize it until he was older, but he was born a crime. His mother was black and his father was white, which made him, illegal. If his mother had been caught, Trevor could have ended up in an orphanage, just for mixed race children. Growing up in this inbetween world was difficult for Trevor...

Send us Fan Mail Wild Bird     By Wendelin Van Draanen Wren hates her name. Hates that her family moved to a new house, new town, new state. Hates her new school. Hates to make friends. Do you see a pattern here? Then, one morning in the middle of 9th grade, Wren gets a rude awakening. She is taken from her home, driven to the airport and put on a plane with a bodyguard. Then she is dropped in the...

Send us Fan Mail Glow    By Amy Kathleen Ryan Imagine being out in space, with no way of rescue. Kieran and Waverly are both teens on board the Emprean, a ship that left earth with the idea of colonizing another planet. A sister ship, the New Horizon, left a year before their ship. However, now for reasons that aren’t being shared with the crew or passengers, that sister ship, appears in the darkn...

Send us Fan Mail Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga Jude loves where she lives – by the coast with her mother, father and older brother Issa. The only thing she doesn’t love is the smell of fish some days! She loves looking at the fancy hotels that the tourists come and stay at and dreams of someday staying in one herself, once she’s a famous actress. However, change in their country’s politica...

Send us Fan Mail Three Rivers Rising     By Jame Richards How can so many lives revolve around a man made dam? Such is the case for Peter and Celestia. They meet at the Fishing and Hunting Club, from different social circles and while they want to be together, it seems they never will be. But something happens to the man made dam that changes their lives as well as many others. Recommended for gra...

Send us Fan Mail Hidden     By Helen Frost When Wren is just eight years old, she is kidnapped when a robber steals her mom’s car and doesn’t know she is in the back seat. As soon as the robber takes the car to his house and goes inside, Wren hides in a boat in the garage. She is able to escape, but not before she meets a little girl her age, named Darra.  Recommended for grades 7 and up.  Support...

Send us Fan Mail Game Changer    By Tommy Greenwald  It’s been all over the news - the dangers of football, but some people and kids think the risk is worth the reward. Yet as Teddy Youngblood lies in a coma, friends and family try to piece together what happened on the field that day that lead to Teddy being in such critical condition. This book almost reads like a novel in verse with its sparse...

Send us Fan Mail Up from the Sea     By Leza Lowtiz Kai has always struggled with his dual heritage - not all white and not all Japanese. Growing up in Japan with his mother, and grandparents, Kai doesn’t get why his father left when he was younger and went back to America. Now, at 17, he still feels lost. But on March 11, 2011, his entire world is shaken, again.   Recommended for grades 7th and u...

Send us Fan Mail Garvey’s Choice     By Nikki Grimes Garvey is struggling to connect with his father who only seems to want Garvey to do something athletic. But that is his older sister’s area of expertise. Garvey is more into music and reading than running around! It hurts him to hear his dad complain to his mom about him not being the kind of kid he wanted. Garvey finds himself slipping further...

Send us Fan Mail Liv, Forever     By Amy Talkington Amazing things are on the horizon for Liv! She’s been accepted to an exclusive boarding school to pursue her passion for art and even though she knows she’ll be an outsider with this elite group of students, she doesn’t care - she’ll make her own way. What she doesn’t expect is to attract the attention of Malcolm Aster, one of the rich popular bo...