2020-2021 Middle School TAB Nominations | Arlington Public Library

1) 7 good reasons not to grow up

Author

Description

To his friends at Greycliff Academy, Kirby seems to have it all: charm, brains, and a lucky streak that won't quit. He's also the notorious hero creating the snarky videos "7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up," which expose just how dumb adults can be. Why would any kid want to become one of them? But there's also a mystery about Kirby. And when his best friend, Raja, finds out his secret, Kirby, Raja, and their friends have to grow up fast and face the...

2) Accidental archaeologists: true stories of unexpected discoveries

Author

Description

"A lighthearted but informative look at chance discoveries made by ordinary people, of artifacts (and treasures) from the past. Many of these discoveries have led to leaps in our knowledge of history and science. Each short chapter will begin with a dramatic story of discovery, followed by the significance of the artifact that was discovered, followed by a look into the history of the civilization/era from which the artifact originates. The stories...

3) All thirteen: the incredible cave rescue of the Thai boys' soccer team

Author

Soontornvat, Christina

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon's adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth...

4) Any day with you

Author

Description

"During the summer before seventh grade, Kaia, who enjoys living in Southern California, visiting the beach with her family, and creating movie make-up effects, makes a film with her friends to win a contest and hopefully prevent her beloved great-grandfather from moving back to the Philippines." --

5) The artifact hunters

Author

Description

During World War II, a Czechoslovakian Jewish boy is sent to northern Scotland to live in a castle that houses gifted children who are learning to harness their magical powers to support the Allies' cause.

6) The barren grounds

Author

Robertson, David

Series

Misewa saga volume 1

Description

"Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home -- until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek...

7) Becoming Muhammad Ali: a novel

Author

Patterson, James

Description

A biographical novel tells the story of Cassius Clay, the determined boy who would one day become Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time

8) Before the ever after

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

ZJ's friends Ollie, Darry and Daniel help him cope when his father, a beloved professional football player, suffers severe headaches and memory loss that spell the end of his career.--

9) Blood and germs: the Civil War battle against wounds and disease

Author

Series

Medical fiascoes

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"...explores the science and grisly history of U.S. Civil War medicine, using actual medical cases and first-person accounts by soldiers, doctors, and nurses."--

10) Call me American: a memoir

Author

Iftin, Abdi Nor

Description

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these real Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu...

11) Cattywampus

Author

Van Otterloo, Ash

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Magic is strictly forbidden in the McGill house, but Delpha McGill has found the family book of spells, and plans to use it to make things a little easier for herself and her mother; Katybird Hearn comes from a rival family of witches, but her magic has been slow to emerge, and she thinks a spell book is just what she needs to help things along--and when a quarrel between the two unleashes a graveyard full of angry zombies the two girls must work...

12) Chance: escape from the Holocaust

Author

Description

"The first middle-grade book from a picture book master-a harrowing, heartrending, illustrated account of his childhood escape from the terrors of war"--

13) Cinders & sparrows

Author

Bachmann, Stefan

Description

In a witch's house, nothing is as it seems. When a scarecrow climbs over the garden wall, delivering twelve-year-old orphan Zita Brydgeborn a letter saying she has inherited a distant castle, she jumps at the chance of adventure. But little does she know that she is about to be thrust into a centuries-old battle between good and evil. Blackbird Castle was once home to a powerful dynasty of witches, all of them now dead under mysterious circumstances....

14) Class Act: A Graphic Novel

Author

Series

New kid (Jerry Craft) volume 2

Formats:

eAudiobook, eBook, Graphic Novel, Kindle

Description

New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft returns with a companion book to New Kid, winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize. This time, it's Jordan's friend Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious private school.

Eighth grader Drew Ellis is no

...

Author

Finlay, Adrianne

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

When something goes horribly wrong during the filming of a new virtual reality show, teenaged contestants are trapped in a simulation, questioning how much of the game is real.--

16) Danny Constantino's first (and maybe last?) date

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Between going to the middle school dance with his celebrity crush and watching his mom campaign to be the next town mayor, Danny has a lot to learn about life in the spotlight.

17) Displacement

Author

Description

"Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II. These displacements keep occurring until Kiku finds herself stuck back in time. Living alongside her young grandmother and other Japanese-American citizens in internment camps, Kiku gets the education she never received in history class. She...

18) Don't Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Author

Maberry, Jonathan

Formats:

Description

Featuring stories from R.L. Stine and Madeleine Roux, this middle grade horror anthology, curated by New York Times bestselling author and master of macabre Jonathan Maberry, is a chilling tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Flesh-hungry ogres? Brains full of spiders? Haunted houses you can’t escape? This collection of 35 terrifying stories from the Horror Writers Association has

...

19) Dress coded

Author

Firestone, Carrie

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"An eighth grader starts a podcast to protest the unfair dress code enforcement at her middle school and sparks a rebellion."--

Author

Badger, Darcie Little

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and...