Books In the Middle Podcast

Send us Fan Mail The Silent Unseen by Amanda McCrina Maria is trying to make it home to her parents in Poland. Kostya is trying to make it home to save his mother and sister from a vengeful cousin. Neither of them has much hope of surviving the journey home, but they have to try. Neither of them knows they will meet each other, and how their lives will become entangled and neither knows if they ca...

Send us Fan Mail Playing the Cards You're Dealt by Varian Johnson Ant used to love his nickname, now, not so much.  He used to love playing Spades for fun, but now, not so much. Mostly because he wants to make his father proud. He wants to be able to win the big local Spades tournament coming up, but the year before, he and his best friend and partner, Jamal, pretty much flopped. Now Ant has...

Send us Fan Mail Rites of Passage     By Joy Hensley Sam is only carrying on the family tradition of going to Denmark Military Academy - just like her father and her two brothers did. However, they were male, and she’s a female. And it turns out one of five who will be the first girls ever let into the prestigious DMA. So many, including her older brother at the school, don’t want her to succeed....

Send us Fan Mail The Miscalculations of Lighting Girl by Stacy McAnulty She was average and “normal” until she was eight. Then, she was struck by lightning. Yeah, really! At that point, Lucy’s life changed. Suddenly, numbers made a whole lot of sense to her, so much so, that they become just about the only thing that does make sense. After being struck by lightning, part of her brain goes into ove...

Send us Fan Mail Allies by Alan Gratz Everyone had their reasons for being there that day. Whether it was to avenge people who had already died, to help fight for their country, settle an old score, or simply because they had volunteered, everyone had a story to tell as to how they had gotten to that spot. But what almost all of them could agree on, was how awful everything was turning out. Recomm...

Send us Fan Mail The Shadowed Unicorn by Sheila Kelly Welch Ever think it would be cool to have a clone? Someone who could do all the things you don’t want to do? What if that person was your identical twin? Would you consider that person a clone? What makes you an individual if another person in the world shares your exact DNA? Brendan is struggling with finding his own identity in The Shadowed U...

Send us Fan Mail The Switch by Roland Smith Henry was looking forward to some alone time from his family to explore his new phone, when suddenly, an airplane crashes down in their farm field! But that is only the beginning of the horrible things to come. Something has caused all things with modern electrical components to fail, and that means a world without electricity, for most people. Henry&apo...

Send us Fan Mail A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee Living in a small village with only her father, Miuko tries to stay out of trouble. But it always seems to find her.  Mostly, because she is quite opinionated! But it is hard for her father to run the family inn by himself so she helps where she can. One day though, when he sends her to purchase more teacups, she has to leave the boundarie...

Send us Fan Mail Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley Aza Ray is struggling – to breath. Every since she was about a year old, and suddenly developed a serious problem with breathing, Aza’s life has seemed an endless series of trips to the E.R. and hospitals, where doctors struggle to figure out what on earth is Aza’s problem. In fact, they can’t find another person alive like her, and have named her...

Send us Fan Mail Hi Everyone! I hope you are all enjoying a break! If not, now is a chance to go back through all the podcasts and discover some from a long ways back!  I'm hoping to have an exciting announcement in the next few months, so stay tuned for that! Have a wonderful week! Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac Malian is with her grandparents during COVID because of the shelter in place order after a long weekend turns into months. Her parents are still in Boston, and while she is able to have contact with them, she misses them. Living with her grandparents is giving her time to learn more stories and more about her culture. But something surprising happens, an...

Send us Fan Mail Illegal by Francisco X. Stork They made it through the desert but now, Sara is in a detention center in Texas hoping to get asylum in the United States because she knows if she goes back to Mexico, there are people there who will kill her. Her brother, Emiliano has been hiding at a ranch in Texas after being rescued from near death in the desert. But he has a very important phone...

Send us Fan Mail Fallout by Steve Sheinkin Most people have never heard the name Vasili Arkhipov, but we all should know about him. If it weren't for him, the world would be a very different place, and humans might not even be on it anymore. Or, if any of humanity had survived, it would certainly not be in the current world we exist in. Why? Because in the early 1960s, the Cold War was raging...

Send us Fan Mail Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi Amal Shahid was arrested for supposedly putting another boy in a coma. But he says he didn’t do it. What do you do when no one believes you, except your mom, and there appears to be footage of the attack? How do you keep up hope? Recommended for grades 8 and up due to mature content.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper Stella has found lately that she does better with her writing when she goes outside at night. But this particular night, she has already gone to bed, when her younger brother, Jojo, comes to wake her up. They both go outside and see across their backyard to a pond, where there is a cross burning, surrounded by what appear to be men in white she...

Send us Fan Mail Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson ZJ loves his dad. And so does everyone else! After all, he's a pro football player and what is better than that? His friends all think he is super cool because of his dad, and ZJ doesn't mind one bit. Even though his dad has to be gone a lot for football, when he is home, he makes up for it. He is the best. Until one day, he ge...

Send us Fan Mail Linked by Gordon Korman He only went back to school because he forgot his phone in his locker. It just happened he was the first one to see the ugly sign of hate - a swastika. While the school engages everyone in a ton of social and emotional learning, the students are trying to figure it out for themselves. Who put up this symbol? Lincoln, or as everyone calls him, Link, is used...

Send us Fan Mail Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling Each day it gets harder and harder for Jolene to hide the fact that her mother is a drug addict. She knows that if she asks for help, or draws attention to herself, that will inevitably lead to people finding out about her mother, and Jolene will get placed in a foster home. Mostly, Jolene spends her time in the local public library, reading, or...

Send us Fan Mail Two Truths and a Lie by April Henry All of them were super excited to be heading to the state capital for a major theater competition. Everyone had their parts down and was ready to show the world, or at least the other competitors, just what they had! Nell isn't a front of the house kind of person at high school. She likes bringing her talents to the back stage crew, where s...

Send us Fan Mail Small Spaces by Katherine Arden Ollie is having a hard time reengaging with the world. Life has been hard for her and her father for about a year. Ollie doesn't hang out much with her old friends, and doesn't do the same things she used to. And while her dad tries to make life the same, it just isn't. On her way home from school one day, she stops by her favorite sp...

Send us Fan Mail The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman Valentina knows right away that morning that something is wrong. Her mother tries to make excuses for why her father didn't come home the night before from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where he works. But even though Valentina has been told over and over again that the plant is safe and that nothing could ever happen, she clearly sees...

Send us Fan Mail All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg         The Vietnam War is over, but for Matt, it continues in his mind and in his new home. As a child taken out of Vietnam at the end of the war, he has been adopted into a family who loves him. However, he questions why his biological mother gave him up. Was it love or something he did that made her give him up? And how can he fit into a lif...

Send us Fan Mail The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Avery was having a really bad day, or week, or maybe years? After losing her mother at the age of 15, two years later she is living with her half sister Libby and they are both trying to make ends meet. So when a strange boy shows up, telling Avery her presence is requested, no required, at the reading of his dead grandfather's wi...

Send us Fan Mail Northwind by Gary Paulsen Leif had been bounced around his whole life. After his mother died he was picked up by sailors and found his life was on ships sailing the ocean. When Leif and some other men are put off a ship to harvest salmon, they never expected to be visited by some other men who bring death to the camp. At that point, Leif is sent away with Little Carl, a small boy,...

Send us Fan Mail Beanball     By Gene Fehler This was their year, or so Andy and Luke thought, to go to the State championship in baseball. While Andy knows he isn’t the best player, Luke, aka The Wizard, certainly is. But in one of the first games of the year, something goes horribly wrong and the lives of the players on the team will never be the same. Recommended for 7th grade and up.  Support...