Books In the Middle Podcast

Send us Fan Mail The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum Class can be boring, or interesting, depending on what comes out of Hoodie's (yes, like the sweatshirt) friend's mouth. Because his best friend, Moshe Tzvi could make some interesting arguments with the Rabbi during halacha class where they were all learning about Jewish law. But on this particular day, Hoodie was more in...

Send us Fan Mail The Order of Things by Kaija Langley April really, really, REALLY wants to learn to play the drums. Problem is, her mother would pick that as the very LAST instrument she would like her daughter to learn. Still, April is detemined and has help from her best friend Zee, and his dad, both who love music. In fact, Zee is so good at playing the violin, he was accepted into a special m...

Send us Fan Mail Rez Ball by Byron Graves Tre is living in the shadow of his older brother, who was a basketball star to their Indian Reservation - after their own father. But his brother Jaxon is dead, killed in a car accident before he could lead the high school team to a state championship. Tre is hoping that he can be the one to help the team gain their much longed for victory, but does he rea...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Everyone! I hope you had a great year and were able to read some of the books that I booktalked on this podcast. Please share, subscribe and recommend this podcast to anyone you think might enjoy it.  I'll be taking a break for the next couple of weeks to catch up on my reading and to record some new podcasts. You can expect weekly podcasts to resume on January 8, 2024.  U...

Send us Fan Mail Gone to the Woods by Gary Paulsen As a young child, Gary Paulsen was often placed in situations that were not safe or healthy. At one point, he was sent off on a two day trail ride to live with people he really didn't know well. But that was where he learned his appreciation of the woods and all it could offer. In the years to come, that was the place he would often retreat t...

Send us Fan Mail Crash From Outer Space by Candace Fleming It happened on a hot summer night in New Mexico, just outside of Roswell, a strange storm and an even stranger thing falling from the sky. Just what had Brazell seen and what did he and his kids pick up from the desert. Was it a bunch of sticks and tape, or was it evidence of an alien crash? And what about others who reported to have seen...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Destroyers by Caroline Tung Richmond Jo can't believe that her big break just might have arrived! She is a mecha machine fighter, and because one of the United States' best fighters has gotten injured, she has been asked to fill in for him.  What Jo can't know though, is that before she even gets into the ring, so much is against her, including her own coa...

Send us Fan Mail Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell Cassie is really struggling in her new school, mostly because of the mascot. She feels it is offensive and while many of her classmates see it as tradition and a point of pride, she believes it is anything but. Her year in 8th grade gets taken over by the idea of changing the mascot to something that isn't derogatory but knowing it wi...

Send us Fan Mail Titans Clash by Sigmund Brouwer Jack loves to play basketball, and while he isn't the best, he is pretty good. He knows he has to work for everything, but he is willing to put in the time. He does wish that his dad would be a bit happier though, when he does do well. But for the last  few weeks, he knows why his dad is more down than usual. Jack's mom was in a terrible c...

Send us Fan Mail I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys Everyday things are getting worse. Everyday, some new restrictions are happening. Less food, more time waiting in line for little to nothing, school isn’t safe, home doesn’t feel safe, and now Christian has been targeted - targeted to spy. To spy on everyone in his life, it seems and he has no idea who he can trust in Romania in 1989. Recommended...

Send us Fan Mail Refugee by Alan Gratz Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud all have the same thing in common, even though they are separated by as much as seventy-six years. They are all fleeing their homelands because of awful things that are happening there. For Josef, his family is Jewish, and after his father is taken away and put in prison in Germany, Josef and his mother and little sister are worried...

Send us Fan Mail Dry by Neal Shuterman and Jarrod Shusterman It was being called the Tap-Out. As in, nothing left; it was all gone. Only most people had no idea it was coming. Well, a few had an idea. After all, there had been water restrictions to make sure that people weren't wasting water. Like no more private swimming pools, and of all things - water balloons! But really, who would have t...

Send us Fan Mail Rivals by Tommy Greenwald When is it more about the play than the player? Is it ever okay to play injured for the sake of the win? Just that one game? Alfie is hoping to be a sports journalist and reporter some day, and she's getting lots of practice in her middle school with her radio program and the school newspaper. She pays attention to the details and she noticed one of...

Send us Fan Mail Possess Me by K. R. Alexander Kaden loves strange objects, or what others might think of as strange. So even though Kaden has grown up hearing about a place called Blood Manor where a lady brought in tons of strange and exotic things, Kaden has never gone there - mostly because rumor has it the place is haunted! Years ago there was a terrible fire, even though the Manor didn'...

Send us Fan Mail They Went Left by Monica Hesse Zofia is struggling at the end of World War II. She has spent years in concentration camps and that time has left her both physically and mentally fragile. One thing has kept her going all these years. To find the one person she believes will help her move on with her life, even when everything else has been destroyed.  Recommended for mature 8th gra...

Send us Fan Mail Victory. Stand! By Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile Never when he was younger and growing up in Texas, did Tommie think he would someday be a world class sprinter, or the center of a national controversy. But one day, he was.   Recommended for grades 7 and up.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Alone by Megan E. Freeman It was supposed to be a secret and fun night with her two best friends. There are a few advantages to having parents that are divorced and being able to say you are at the other parent's house is one of them. Or so Maddie figures when she sets up a fun Friday evening with her friends at her empty grandparents' apartment. But things don't go...

Send us Fan Mail Riot Act by Diane Tullson  Daniel and Nick are best friends and have been for years. So when they decide to go downtown to watch the hometown team in the final game, they are stoked! Even though Daniel's dad, a police officer, tells Daniel to stay home, that things might go badly with so many people going down to watch the game on big screens. Even Nick's sister tries to...

Send us Fan Mail A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner Will's life gets changed, one day in fourth grade. It happened in the hallway at school, when a boy named Nick came up to him and called him fat. In front of everyone. Even though Will's friends came after him and told him that Nick was a jerk and an idiot, from that moment on, Will can't stop thinking about that word. And how ev...

Send us Fan Mail Grape! by Gabriel Arquilevich What happens when you do something that might make sense to you, but no one else? Grape has that happen...a lot! So much so, that he finds he could get kicked out of his school and be sent off to another one. One without his friends and well, who really wants to get booted out of their school? The problem is, he has to write down to his principal why...

Send us Fan Mail Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix When the children of Clifton start to get sick, Jessie isn't too worried. After all, the doctor in the town typically gives them little pills under the counter after telling them some local things to take, but lately, the doctor hasn't had the pills anymore. And Jessie's mom is getting more and more worried about the s...

Send us Fan Mail Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert So much of American history has been glossed over, removed or simply omitted from text books and classrooms, and even the memories of the townspeople who lived through certain events. Such is the case with the Tulsa Race Massacre that happened in 1921. Unfortunately, it was not an event that was shocking because it was the only such occurre...

Send us Fan Mail Perfect Score by A.M. Ellis She misses her old school, doesn't get to see her friends as much as she'd like anymore, and she and her mom STILL are at odds with what Jolene plans to do as a career. So, yeah, life really isn't great these days. The only thing that is going well are how many Cold Cases she and her friends have been able to solve. Jolene has just picked...

Send us Fan Mail The Summer of June by Jamie Sumner This is it! This will be the summer that June is able to rid herself of her anxiety - anxiety that has made life very difficult for her, and she knows, her mom. Even if her mom doesn't say it. She has until the fall to make it all better. The only problem with that is, well, not everything can be put on a schedule, and June is about to learn...

Send us Fan Mail I Know You're Lying by Daphne Benedis-Grab When four students are called down to the office, they each have no idea why. But when their principal tells them they are possible suspects to a crime that happened before school started that day, they are all floored! Could one of them have done this, and why? Recommended for grades 6 and up.  Support the show