Two (or three) Middle Grade Recommendations to Brighten Your Day

Hello, fellow bookworms! Dragon here to give you some reading recommendations. If you are looking for some "good reads," these middle-grade novels are right up your alley!

First off is Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly. 

This book is about a girl named Iris. She has a gift for fixing anything electronic. Iris seems lonely, being the only deaf girl in her school. She learns about a whale, Blue 55, who is also alone. She starts to connect with him and soon wonders why he is always found by himself if whales generally live in pods and communicate by sound. The more she learns, the more Iris begins to think something is different about this whale. Blue 55 keeps trying to link up with various pods, but after a short period of time, he is off on his own again. Iris ponders this problem and thinks she can help. Her compassion, frustration with being alone and misunderstood, and her ability to tinker with electronics are the only thing Iris has to offer and could be just what Blue 55 needs to find a family. 

I really enjoyed this book. Song for a Whale tells a tale of deaf culture and what it is like to be a kid who is underestimated simply because of having a disability. Iris is rough around the edges, raw and real. This is what I love about her. These parts of her make her more capable of helping someone who she empathizes with to be in the same situation as herself. No matter if he is a whale and she is a girl. I would give this book 5 stars. It simultaneously breaks your heart (you grow to love both Iris and Blue 55) and lifts you up all within the span of 250 or so pages. Song for a Whale won the Schneider Family Book Award for Middle Grades, 2020.  

Lynne Kelly also wrote the book Chained, another middle-grade novel, published in 2012 by McMillan.

Chained also won literary awards, such as the California Young Reader's Medal Nominee for Middle School/Junior High (2015), Alabama Library Association Children's Book of the Year for 4-5 (2013), the Bluestem Book Award Nominee (2015), and SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Award for Texas/Oklahoma (2013). While I haven't read Chained yet, it is on my TBR list (To-Be-Read) and it looks great! It is a story about a ten-year-old kid, Hastin, in northern India who volunteers to move from his home to work of the debt his family incurs after his sister was sick in the hospital. Hastin gets a job as an elephant keeper and works at a circus. The elephant he takes care of, Nandita, is chained up and at the mercy of the cruel circus owner. I don't know much more than that, but it sure looks like one you and I both might enjoy!  

Back to Song for a Whale: Here is my review on Goodreads (November 2019): 

I absolutely loved this book. From the angsty preteen Iris, who fights to have her ‘voice’ heard, to the sign language showcased in the book, to the relationship she has with her schoolmates and her grandparents. Also, the whale Blue 55 has me at hello. This story was beautiful! Iris’s desire to compose a song that would make Blue 55 feel at home, and the lengths she would go to make sure he could hear it. Loved the cruise ship scenes and how wonderful her grandma is!

Either book, Song for a Whale or Chained, are worth the read. If you are a person who loves animals and you are rooting for the kid to partner up with an animal to create an ever-lasting friendship, either of these might be the book for you!

I have one last book recommendation for today - a graphic novel you just HAVE to read (click the link for information about why you should read graphic novels). The book I'm about to recommend as one of the first graphic novels that unlocked my heart and propelled me to recommend it to my friends, my three children, students in my class, and pretty much anyone else that I knew needed a dose of a heartwarming story told through graphics. You just HAVE to read El Deafo by CeCe Bell. This is the story of a young girl who has to start a new school where no one else is deaf. CeCe wears a hearing aid to help her hear the teacher. This wasn't a problem at her old school, but now that she's changed schools, CeCe is having trouble making friends because she is different. She starts to discover that her hearing aid has given her a superpower - to hear far more than anyone thinks she can. This is the true story of the author's childhood, and it made me laugh and warmed my heart. We all know what it's like to try to make friends but feel on the outside looking in. CeCe's story reminds us that we all have a superpower inside of us and that we are far stronger than we give ourselves credit. I loved this book, and I know you will, too!

Well, that's it for now. I will have more book recommendations for you in my next blog. Leave a comment about what books YOU think I should read or any book recommendations you have.  I read just about anything, as long as it has a good story. 

Signing off, 

Dragon😉


Book cover images are from Goodreads.com and are allowable for use on this blog in the instance of a book review, which this is.

The link for the Reason To Read Graphic Novels is from www.today.com :

Garcia, K (2019, October 24). 5 reasons your child should read graphic novels. Today.com. Retrieved July 21, 2020 from https://www.today.com/parents/5-reasons-your-child-should-read-graphic-novels-t165336