Books In the Middle Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This Book Kills by Ravena Guron Jess is going to school at a posh English boarding school, with super rich kids. She is not one of them though and has never felt like she belongs. Luckily, her friend Clem took her under her wing right at the beginning when Jess first arrived, so at least she has one friend. But when Clem's boyfriend is found dead in the woods around the schoo...

Send us Fan Mail Song of a Blackbird by Maria Van Lieshout Annick knows her grandmother, her Oma, is very sick, and she's hoping that Oma's siblings will be a bone marrow match for her. But when the test results show something surprising, it leads Annick back to a dark time in her Oma's life. A time when the Nazis controlled her country of the Netherlands and how prints that have hu...

Send us Fan Mail The Peach Rebellion by Wendelin Van Draanen Ginny Rose and Peggy were great friends as young girls, but then Ginny Roses' family moved away. So, years later when Ginny Rose appears, Peggy is ready to leap right back into their friendship. But now they are older, and things that didn't matter when they were little suddenly seem important now. Will their friendship survive...

Send us Fan Mail The Judgement of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum Yoyo feels lost for the first time in her life. Up until now, she has known exactly who she is - the sister who keeps the house running and a daughter to the Rabbi in her community. Which can come with a lot of pressure, but she has always been able to handle it. She has never questioned why she does what she does, or the rules that her Jew...

Send us Fan Mail Signed Sealed Dead by Cynthia Murphy  Paige and her parents have just moved into her dad's old hometown of Shorehaven. But everything is new for her and her mum, because Paige was born in England and so was her mum. The new house they move into though, has a past. A past that involves a dead girl, and Paige finds something that might help lead her to the girl's killer. O...

Send us Fan Mail Ghost Boys By Jewell Parker Rhodes Jerome has a tough time at school, mostly because of three boys who like to bully him on a daily basis. Still, he tries to put on a brave face for his parents and grandmother. But he has a plan for how to avoid them, most of the time. However, on this particular day, a new boy comes to school, named Carlos. Right away Jerome can tell, Carlos is g...

Send us Fan Mail Offline by Donna Cooner Annie is always on Social Media. She likes to document all aspects of her life. She enjoys getting the likes and the responses. And her boyfriend, Jameson, and she make such a cute couple, why wouldn't she want to document all their moments together?! But then a video comes out showing Jameson wanting to break up with Annie, and all those likes disappe...

Send us Fan Mail Dust by Dusti Bowling Avalyn feels like she is always fighting a battle, a battle with her own lungs. She has asthma. Really bad asthma. So, when she almost died at the age of two, her parents moved her to the town of Clear Canyon City in Arizona. A place where there were virtually no allergens, just the occasional dust storm.  But things are changing, regarding those dust storms....

Send us Fan Mail Unfriended by Rachel Vail Truly was excited that her old best friend, Natasha, had invited her to the Popular Table at lunch. Honestly, she thought that Natasha had completely forgotten about her. But what Truly doesn’t realize is that as she leaves her current best friend, Hazel, behind, that things will not be the same after accepting that invitation.  Recommended for grades 6 a...

Send us Fan Mail Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho Life has not been great since portals directly from Hell opened up about 2 years ago. Most people have just accepted this is how life is now - you might get killed by a demon, but if you just try to avoid the portals, you should be okay. Still, the portals are like, everywhere, including some stores. Like the store where Jasper works. Jasper had an acciden...

Send us Fan Mail Jupiter Rising by Gary D. Schmidt Jack and his family are set to adopt Jupiter, the son of a former foster child named Joseph that had tragically died a few years previous. Everyone loves Jupiter. But when their case manager comes to inform them that Jupiter's grandparents now have decided they indeed want custody, Jack's world begins to implode. He can't imagine a...

Send us Fan Mail Hello All! I hope you are able to have some time off, read some good books, and otherwise recharge your batteries if you work with students.  If you are a student and are looking for some great books to read, hopefully you will find some in this podcast!  Enjoy! Tasha Squires Support the show

Send us Fan Mail My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows  She was devastated! How could he NOT be in love with her? She saved his life, gave up her tail for him, and he wanted to marry someone else? Mary couldn't believe it was happening to her. And why hadn't she turned into sea foam. Any Mer person that had their heartbroken always did! Mary decides to throw hersel...

Send us Fan Mail It Happened to Anna by Tehlor Kay Mejia Sadie is alone - or so it feels. She has her dad, but in terms of friends, she has none, and that is just how she wants it, sort of. Because the last good friend that she had was killed, and Sadie feels for sure it was her fault. Due to the jealous ghost that lives in Sadie and has since Sadie can remember. What Sadies doesn't know is w...

Send us Fan Mail Tig by Heather Smith Tig and her older brother, Peter, have been abandoned by their mother a few months prior to them being discovered living on their own. They are taken in by their mother's brother, their Uncle Scott and his partner, Manny. The problem is, everything is too perfect, for Tig anyway. After all, people can say they love you but leave you when you are not perfe...

Send us Fan Mail Internment by Samira Ahmed The future is here and for Muslims, like Layla, things are not good in the United States. The president has made it very clear that Muslims are to blame for everything (sound familiar - think World War II and Jewish people) and many are losing their jobs and having their lives restricted. In fact, Layla's father, a professor at a university, has los...

Send us Fan Mail Places We've Never Been by Kasie West Norah is super excited to be heading out on an RV trip with her mom, her older brother and her mom's good friend  along with her three kids. Especially since one of those kids is Skylar, her bestie from four years before - all through elementary and part of middle school. But in the years since, Norah and Skylar have lost touch, for...

Send us Fan Mail Viveca is ready! This is her year for it all to be done and great! She is a senior and on track to be the valedictorian of her class. She has a good friend, Wren, who helps Viveca through her anxiety and helps get her out of her comfort zone, but in a good way. So, all is on track to go to the college of her dreams - the one that her mom went to for one year until she had to come...

Send us Fan Mail Warrior on the Mound By Sandra W. Headen Cato loves baseball and plans to follow in his father and big brother's footsteps to become a professional pitcher in the Negro League....just as soon as he can convince his grandfather he is old enough to head out. But there are secrets surrounding his father's death that no one wants to reveal to Cato. And when he and his teamma...

Send us Fan Mail Star Splitter By Matthew J. Kirby The year is 2199 and people can visit deep space, because teleportation is  possible. Jessica is going to be with her parents for a year on a planet that has been designated Carver 1061c, to examine it for possible habitation by humans. But she isn't happy about it. She wants to stay on Earth, with her grandparents and her friends. Still, she...

Send us Fan Mail It Found Us by Lindsay Currie It started out as a harmless game of hide and seek in the local graveyard, but Hazel and her brother, Den, realize quickly, there is nothing normal about the graveyard, or maybe who is buried there. When Den's best friend disappears during the game, the race is on to figure out where he is and if they can get him back! Recommended for grades 6 an...

Send us Fan Mail The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee When Jo loses her job, unexpectedly, at the milliner's hat shop, she isn't sure what she will do next for employment. After all, she and Old Gin need her wages to help them keep them going. Luckily, they don't have to worry about where they live, since they have been squatting in the basement of a printing shop for all of Jo's...

Send us Fan Mail Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango This is it! A new school year full of new opportunities - like making good grades again, and maybe making some new friends even though she has a great one in her friend Amir, and this year, she will not get into any trouble at school. Well, these are all goals that Iveliz has for herself as she starts seventh grade, but having them c...

Send us Fan Mail Impossible Escape by Steve Sheinkin For Rudi, escape was all he thought about. Escape and getting information about what was actually happening in the concentration camps in Europe out to the world. After all, how could people really know just how awful things were in Poland and some of the other countries where the Nazis had established these killing centers. For Greta, it was al...

Send us Fan Mail The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling When Nora and her father set out on a hike to a canyon they have never visited before, Nora is hopeful. After all, this year has been awful. First, to lose her mom on her birthday to a shooter has been horrific, but then to see her father change from a confident outgoing person, to someone afraid of everything, has been incredibly hard. The...