Poppy and her family are on the run, from something, or someone? Maybe the police? Poppy honestly doesn’t know. She’s never known. All she does know is she and her family have been running since, well, forever. Her whole life at least. So when they pack up and leave again, while it isn’t great, she isn’t surprised. Just surprised that she keeps making the mistake of thinking her life could be a bit normal, if just for long enough to graduate from high school.
But this latest move, things are different. Her mom especially seems different. The house is different and Poppy realizes that if she is going to get answers, she is going to have to start looking more closely than she has ever done before.
This Golden State by Marit Weisenberg is an intriguing book and shows the lengths people go to for family and what they think is important. Great read that will be hard to put down.
Recommended for 8th graders due to some mature content.
For the longest time, Trev looked up to his stepdad. He seemed to have the answers and so, Trev respected that. Until the day that his stepdad hits Trev’s mom. At that point, Trev feels he can’t believe what his stepdad always told him. And he is scared, because his stepdad said he would get Trev’s mom for calling the police on him and getting him locked up. His stepdad always told him to use his hands to settle a problem. Problem is, Trev doesn’t think he can take on his stepdad when he gets out, and he is getting out soon.
agenda that hasn’t been shared. The night ends in terror for all of them, and a possible death for one of them. As the four who make it out of the woods begin to tell their story to law enforcement, some of what they say matches, and some of it takes a turn. Petra wants her best friend Maylee to be found. Nolan – Petra’s stepbrother – didn’t even want to go on the trip until he found out he might be able to actually locate a Bigfoot. John was thinking he would just get to spend some time with his girlfriend, Maylee. And Abigail showing up was a surprise to everyone, except for Maylee and Abigail.
Simon is thrilled to be moving to a place in the United States with no internet, or cell phones, or computers or even….microwaves! Yup, nothing like that. He and his parents have moved to the National Quiet Zone which is where there are a ton of radio telescopes. These telescopes listen in on outer space and can’t have anything interfere with that. Which makes it the perfect place for Simon and his family, because Simon doesn’t want anyone to know what happened to him, two years before. And he knows no one can find him if the internet isn’t there!
mother happy. But what is really wrong with Marlene’s hair the way it is, naturally? Marlene decides that enough is enough and she wants to find out what her hair would look like if she just let it be! All of this happens after a party for her cousin (who has the PERFECT hair) brings home just how much everyone in Marlene’s family base things on looks. Especially about how the women’s hair looks.
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 interested in the girl who was dancing outside the window of his school. Clearly, the girl was not an Orthodox Jewish girl, the only kind that Hoodie was supposed to notice, if he noticed any girls at all, which he also wasn’t supposed to do.
For Sage, she understands it is bad, that the area around where she lives, is burning. It feels real, and unreal all at the same time. She hears the sirens, she sees the firetrucks and the burned out shells of former homes, but still, she carries on. So does her mom, even though her mom starts talking about moving from the only home Sage has ever known. How can her mom even talk about leaving the house that Sage’s dad grew up in? With her father is gone, the house feels like one solid connection she still has left with him.
Tre feels trapped in some ways. Trapped by the shadow of his older brother, Jaxon, trapped by the pressure of reservation life, and trapped by his own expectations. After all, when you live in a place where everyone tells the story of how your father was one of the greatest basketball players to ever play at the Red Lake Indian Reservation high school, and has the stats and the banners hanging in the school to prove it, things can be a bit overwhelming. Especially when all Tre was interested in for years were comic books and video games. But when he started to get into basketball, it was his older brother Jaxon, already on his way to beating their father’s records, who took the time to show him the ropes and teach him the moves.
drumming, even though some of her past lesson teachers have not be so supportive. That is okay, because her best friend, Zee, and his dad, are. Even if her mom likes things to be super quiet and calm, April knows she can count on her music loving friend and neighbor to pull her along. After all, Zee and his dad get it. Zee is a musical prodigy on the violin and has even gotten into a fancy music school to start the school year. While April misses having him in her life each day at school, she take solace in the fact she sees him each day on the walk to and from school.
school. Her school, and really all the schools in town, have the mascot of a Brave – a stereotype of a Native Indian. Callie, who herself, is part Native is appalled and very frustrated by this image that is being portrayed in her middle school, and soon to be high school. A poem she writes to introduce herself to her English class gets her teacher thinking about all the sides of the argument – whether the mascot should be changed, or kept – in their town.
Books in the Middle: Reading for Middle School 