Jun 18 2024
A graphic novel about viola players, whaaaaaaat! Haha, sorry, as an orchestra cellist, it’s always fun for me to read about underrepresented instruments and their players. Perhaps more importantly, this Middle Grade comic is about two nonbinary teenagers who meet at the title summer camp, which has the no-pressure name of Camp Prodigy, lol. There …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/18/camp-prodigy-by-caroline-palmer/
May 20 2024
I love pretty much everything First Second Books publishes. My relationship with them started with the excellent Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel, and while I haven’t had the time to cover as many of their books as I’d honestly like to, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to review their latest title that also features …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/20/plain-jane-and-the-mermaid-by-vera-brosgol/
May 09 2024
subtitled The Story Of Norman Mineta, A Boy Imprisoned In A Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II. Many Americans will know of Norman Mineta as a trailblazing Japanese American politician, a moderate Democrat who served in both Democratic and Republican cabinets. He always resisted having any books written about his life until he …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/09/enemy-child-by-andrea-warren/
Apr 03 2024
Louis is a good kid, but his life isn’t the typical kind you see portrayed in the media. His dad took early retirement from firefighting in the city to become a fisherman in a much more laidback environment. His mom is a perennial do-gooder who wound up getting significantly hurt while breaking up a fight …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/04/03/walkin-the-dog-by-chris-lynch/
Feb 01 2024
So there are a lot of reasons why this book resonated with me and made me cry for younger me, but foremost among them was the very clear cut, if never fully named, eldest daughter syndrome our main character Deena suffers from. Idk if it’s even a thing in certain cultures, but the expectation she …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/01/drawing-deena-by-hena-khan/
Jan 02 2023
Every Christmas, while the kids are exclaiming over toys and playing in relative harmony, I adopt benevolent mama pose and sit and read a Bad Machinery book while they giggle and coo (clearly romanticized, but if not now, when.) This year, I was so discombobulated by the book series’ change of format that I accidentally …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/01/02/the-case-of-the-forked-road-bad-machinery-7-by-john-allison/
Sep 27 2022
with the most charming illustrations by Nina Mata. Ryan Hart is the one perpetually in the middle: between her prank-loving big brother Ray and her new baby sister Rose, and between her two best friends KiKi and Amanda. Fortunately, Rose is a little sweetheart, even if she does seem to take up almost all of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/27/ways-to-share-joy-a-ryan-hart-story-3-by-renee-watson/
Sep 23 2022
I’m genuinely starting to believe that some of the best under-the-radar writing out there nowadays is coming from middle grade authors. Not that Olivia Jaimes is primarily that (or even her real name.) Having gained acclaim for her reboot of the long-running Nancy comic strip, she’s now published her first middle-grade novel under this name, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/23/the-very-genius-notebooks-1-the-chronicles-of-deltovia-by-olivia-jaimes/
Jul 28 2022
with the loveliest illustrations by Wastana Haikal. Like, I’m not joking, the pictures add so much to an already really terrific story. Bapak Wastana really captures all the different multicultural generations in his line drawings, and I’m wholly in love with them. The story itself far exceeded my expectations from reading just the blurb. Zara …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/28/zaras-rules-for-record-breaking-fun-by-hena-khan/
Jun 22 2022
Combining two volumes of the original series, translated from the French, this volume follows middle-schooler Chloe Blin as she navigates two very of-the-moment issues: environmental friendliness and cyber-bullying. The first half of this book sees Chloe and her friend Mark roped into helping start an eco-friendly vegetable garden at school by their far more enthusiastic …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/22/chloe-6-green-thumb-by-greg-tessier-amandine/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire