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.    I'm pretty sure I got the recommendation for this book from another MMGM poster. I got the book from the library :)    Title : A Sky Full of Song Author : Susan Lynn Meyer  Publication Info: 2023, Union Square Kids; 272 pages Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): North Dakota, 1905   After fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire, eleven-year-old Shoshana and her family, Jewish immigrants, start a new life on the prairie. Shoshana takes fierce joy in the wild beauty of the plains and the thrill of forging a new, American identity. But it’s not as simple for her older sister, Libke, who misses their Ukrainian village and doesn’t pick up English as quickly or make new friends as easily. Desperate to fit in, Shoshana finds...

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.    In honor of Pride month, I am also seeking out, reading, and reviewing MG books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes.     Title : A World Worth Saving Author : Kyle Lukoff. Read by Will Malloy, with notes read by the author. Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2025. 9 hours. Hardcover by Dial Books, 2025, 344 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):   A groundbreaking, action-packed, and ultimately uplifting adventure that intertwines elements of Jewish mythology with an unflinching examination of the impacts of transphobia, from Newbery Honor winner Kyle Lukoff. Lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he still barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the ...

I meant to do another series of LGBTQ+ books for Pride month, but here we are in the middle of the month and I'm just getting started. I also totally missed the deadline for the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday postings, but check them out anyway. Better late than never!    Title : Mountain Upside Down Author : Sara Ryan. Read by Elena Rey Publication info : Listening Library, 2025, 6 hours. Original hardback, Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025, 240 pages  Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads) : A funny and heartfelt LGBTQIA+ middle grade novel set against the backdrop of family drama and a library funding campaign in a small town. Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is wo...

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...

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. 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...

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...

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. It kind of started with my review of Ollie In Between last month.  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.  Title:  Just Lizzie A...

Because I absolutely loved  The Secret of Honeycake (review in link) by Kimberly Newton Fusco, I nabbed Beholding Bee as an audiobook for my recent trip to Utah. I'm reviewing it for 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 reviews of middle grade books .    Title: Beholding Bee Author: Kimberly Newton Fusco. Read by Ariadne Meyers Publication Info: Listening Library, 2013. 8 hours. Original hardcover by Knopf Books, 2013, 336 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Bee is an orphan who lives with a carnival and sleeps in the back of a tractor trailer. Every day she endures taunts for the birthmark on her face—though her beloved Pauline, the only person who has ever cared for her, tells her it is a precious diamond. When Pauline is sent to work for another carnival, Bee is lost. Then a scruffy dog shows up, as unwanted as she, an...