Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.    After winning a copy of Kelly's  The Blue Hearts  in a giveaway, I have gone down the rabbit hole, reading my way through her opus. This one comes before the events in  The Secret Language of Birds , and there is some character overlap.   Title : Song for a Whale Author : Lynne Kelly Publication Info: Delacourt, 2019. 320 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb:  From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she’s the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she’s not very smart. If you’ve ever felt like no one was listening to you, then you know how hard that can be. When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Ir...

Thanks to the author and publisher for the chance to review this book, which I won in a give-away (I also thank the blogger who ran the giveaway, but, alas, I'm not sure who it was, and won't guess). I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.          Title: One Fine Voice Author: Rebecca Langston-George Publishing Info: Historium Press, 2026, 128 pages Source: won a paperback in a giveaway Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): All her life, Esther Hopkins has been told she has a mighty fine voice. Still, she can't believe her luck when just days after moving to town, she's invited to sing a solo at the 1923 Independence Day picnic. But the group sponsoring the picnic is not the benevolent fraternal order they claim to be. Worse, they've recruited her father, the town's freshly ...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.    After reading Three Blue Hearts , by Lynne Kelly, I decided to give her other works a look. For some reason I don't find the blurbs wholly appealing, but I'm liking her stories.   Title : The Secret Language of Birds Author : Lynne Kelly Publication Info : Delacourt Press, 2024, 233 pages (Kindle edition) Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads) :  From the award-winning author of Song for a Whale comes a poignant and heartwarming tale about a girl who discovers a pair of endangered birds about to lay eggs in the marshes of her summer camp...and the secret plan she hatches to help them. Nina is used to feeling like the odd one out, both at school and in her large family. But while trying to fit in at summer camp, she discovers s...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  This week's book I won in a give-away, thanks to author Jamie Sumner and Rosi Hollinbeck for the chance to read this story!     Title : Schooled Author : Jamie Sumner Publication Info: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2025. 218 pages Source: Won a paperback in a giveaway from a 3rd party (not the author or publisher) Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) :  A bighearted, compulsively readable novel from acclaimed author Jamie Sumner about new schools, unexpected friendships, and overcoming loss. Eleven-year-old Lenny Syms is about to start college—sort of. As part of a brand-new experimental school, Lenny and four other students are starting sixth grade on a university campus, where they’ll be taught by the most brilliant professors and given every re...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  I've been on a bit of a roll with audiobooks by Dusti Bowling ( see reviews)    and ended up listening to yet another last week.    Title: 24 Hours in Nowhere Author : Dusti Bowling; read by Aaron Shedlock Publication Info: 2019, Tantor Media. 5 hours. Original hardcover Sterling Children's Books, 2018, 260 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Welcome to Nowhere, Arizona, the least livable town in the United States. For Gus, a bright 13-year-old with dreams of getting out and going to college, life there is made even worse by Bo Taylor, Nowhere’s biggest, baddest bully. When Bo tries to force Gus to eat a dangerously spiny cactus, Rossi Scott, one of the best racers in Nowhere, comes to his rescue—but in return she has to give Bo her p...

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.     I got my recommendation for this author from one of my fellow MMGM bloggers a few weeks ago. Today I'm reviewing  Holding On for Dear Life   and  Dust,  by Dusti Bowling.    Title : Holding on for Dear Life 
Author: Dusti Bowling. Read by Jay Reum 
Publication Info : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025. 5 hours. (Hardcover is 240 pages) 
Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb:  Thirteen-year-old Canyon loves bull riding, but the sport doesn't exactly love him back. His body is in constant pain and doctors have warned him about the dangers of his repeated concussions, but bull riding is the only thing he and his dad connect on ever since Canyon's mom died. Canyon is convinced winning the Junior World Bull Riding champion...

After a long absence (on my part), I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop, and a review of an enjoyable book I won in a giveaway. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.   The beautiful cover of Three Blue Hearts Title: 
 Three Blue Hearts Author: Lynne Kelly 
Publication Info: Delacorte Press 2025. 279 pages 
Source: 

Won in a giveaway Publisher’s Blurb (from Goodreads): 
 Max can’t seem to escape the big, looming shadow of his politician dad. But for the next few months, Max and his mom are going away to a quiet Texas beach town where Max can be someone else. Someone who doesn’t make dumb mistakes that embarrass his father—someone who knows how to be strong. He stumbles on his fresh start right away, when he finds an injured octopus washed up onshore after a storm. With the help of a local wildlife center and a couple of new friend...

I am grateful to the author for my copy of this book, which I won in a giveaway.   Title: Fires Burning Underground Author: Nancy McCabe Publication Info: Regal House Publishing, 2025. 146 pages. Source: Won it in a giveaway Publisher's Blurb:  It's Anny's first day of middle school and, after years of being homeschooled, her first day of public school ever. In art, Larissa asks what kind of ESP is her telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or telekinesis? Tracy asks how she gay, straight, bi, asexual, pan, trans, or confused? And thus kicks off a school year for Anny in which she' ll navigate a path between childhood and adolescence, imagination and identity. In a year of turmoil and transition, with a new awareness of loss after the death of a friend, Anny struggles to find meaning in tragedy, to come to terms with her questions about her sexuality, and to figure out how to negotiate her own ever-shifting new friendships. And when her oldest friend's lif...

I 'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.     Title: Chirp Author: Kate Messner Publication Info: Audible Audio, 2020, 5 hours. Hardcover published by Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2020, 227 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) :  When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she's recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she'd rather forget. Mia's change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram's thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they unco...

I 'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.     Title: The Peach Thief Author: Linda Joan Smith Publication Information: Candlewick Press, 2025, 385 pages Source: Library  Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) :  The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prick...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.    I got this book out of the library thanks to multiple positive reviews from other posters on the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays hop. The plot and setting revolving around a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness were the main attractions. I also liked the cover--very dramatic!    Title: The Burning Season Author: Caroline Starr Rose Publication Info: Audible Audio, 2025. 3 hours. Hardback by Nancy Paulsen Books,  256 pages. Source: Library  Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): In this coming-of-age survival story in verse, a fire lookout-in-training must find her courage when a wildfire breaks out on her watch. Twelve-year-old Opal is deathly afraid of fire. Still Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. This was one of those library books I found by following the "if you liked that" suggestions. It kind of falls into the "issue books" category, but was an interesting read regardless.   Title: Asking For a Friend Author: Ronnie Riley Publication Info: Scholastic Press, 2024. 268 pages in Kindle Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : Why go through the stress of making friends when you can just pretend? It works for Eden and their social anxiety... until their mom announces she's throwing them a birthday party and all their friends are invited. Eden's "friends," Duke, Ramona, and Tabitha, are all real kids from school... but Eden's never actually spoken to them before. Now Eden will do whatever it takes to convince them ...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  IIRC I won today's book in a drawing from someone's web site. It then sat on my TBR pile (the real one, the one that might bury me in an earthquake) for so long that I don't remember from whom I got it. My thanks to you, whoever you are!   Title : Meg Goes to America Author: Katy Hammel Publication Info: 2020, 193 pages Source: won it in a giveaway  My Review: Meg Goes to America  is a fictionalized version of real-life events in the life of the author's mother. As a family story, it's pretty dramatic.  The book deals with some serious issues, and brings up a lot of good food for thought, but somehow it didn't grab me in the way that I think it might have done.  One reason for that might be the writing style. The reading level is probably a little more t...

My June Pride reviews have spilled over into July! Here's another good MG book I read, about a lot more than just being non-binary, but that's part of the character. I think I like it best when the LGBTQ+ issues are balanced with other issues any kid might relate to. P.S. I'm out hiking, but I will return visits and comments!    Title: Just Shy of Ordinary Author: A. J. Sass. Read by P. J. Morgan Publication info: Little, Brown Young Readers, 2024. 7 hours. (Original hardback by Little, Brown, 2024, 384 pages). Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Thirteen-year-old Shai is an expert problem-solver. There’s never been something they couldn’t research and figure out on their own. But there’s one thing Shai hasn’t been able to logic their way through: picking at the hair on their arms.       Ever since their mom lost her job, the two had to move in with family friends, and the world went into pandemic lockdown, Shai’s been unable to control...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  Since this is Pride month, I'm focusing my MMGM book reviews on middle-grade books about sexual orientation and gender identity.  A note for those wondering if books like this are appropriate for middle-grade kids: 9-13 is exactly the age when kids are entering puberty and starting to think about love, sex, and increasingly, gender identity. That makes it exactly the age when they need books that openly address the things that happen in middle school besides using a locker and changing classrooms six times a day. If 10-year-olds are old enough to be thinking about kissing their girl/boy friends (and they are thinking about it, so... yeah), then they are old enough to read about it.   This week's book tells a story of first love from two perspectives.   T...

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  Since this is Pride month, I'm focusing my MMGM book reviews on middle-grade books about sexual orientation and gender identity.  A note for those wondering if books like this are appropriate for middle-grade kids: 9-13 is exactly the age when kids are entering puberty and starting to think about love, sex, and increasingly, gender identity. That makes it exactly the age when they need books that openly address the things that happen in middle school besides using a locker and changing classrooms six times a day. If 10-year-olds are old enough to be thinking about kissing their girl/boy friends (and they are thinking about it, so... yeah), then they are old enough to read about it.  Today I'm featuring two books by Kyle Lukoff that address similar issues in very...