Review of Midsummer Sisters, by Niki Smith

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Midsummer Sisters

by Niki Smith

Graphix (Scholastic), 2026. 270 pages.
Review written July 11, 2026, from a library book.

This graphic novel makes you feel the summer breezes at the beach.

Quinn and Kenzie have been stepsisters pretty much as long as they can remember. But the book starts when their parents are fighting, and together they’re trying to block out the noise. The next day their Gramma (technically, Kenzie’s grandmother) comes to take them to the Outer Banks, so their parents can have some time alone and work things out.

Quinn and Kenzie are in middle school or upper elementary (not entirely clear which), and Quinn’s more upset to leave her friends behind than Kenzie is. Gramma is a veterinarian who keeps an eye on the local herd of wild horses that inhabit the islands, so the girls are excited to go kayaking in the nearby waters and spot the horses – and a newborn foal.

So this graphic novel is about summer fun – and the pictures make you feel like you’re there. But there’s an undercurrent of what are the girls going to do if their parents split up?

This is a lovely story and a quick read – with horses!

niki-smith.com
scholastic.com

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Review of Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom, by Sangu Mandanna

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom

by Sangu Mandanna
read by Zenia Starr

Listening Library, 2021. 7 hours, 5 minutes.
Review written July 4, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

I checked out this audiobook because of how much I love the author’s cozy fantasy novels for adults. It turned out to be a sweet fantasy for kids, in the mythology-is-actually-real genre.

In this case, the mythology in question is Indian mythology, and there’s a twist. Kiki Kallira, a girl who’s recently started having symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (Though it’s not named as such, and she hasn’t gotten a diagnosis yet, because she hasn’t told her mother how bad it is yet.), has been obsessively drawing a world in her sketch book where a heroic girl, based on her disreputable great-aunt, battles a major Indian demon, aided by a band of resourceful orphans. One day, this girl shows up in her bedroom battling a lesser demon.

It turns out that the major demon is real, and had been exiled to The Nowhere Place. He schemed to get back to our world by using his magic to make Kiki’s sketchbook world real – and use that to get out of The Nowhere Place. Now he plans to go from Kiki’s world eventually back to our world.

Now, the girl hero has escaped through a small tear between worlds, and takes Kiki back with her. Kiki needs to defeat the demon in her pocket universe in order to keep him from finding his way to our world. But how can a small, weak little girl with a brain that won’t behave defeat a demon?

And once in her world, Kiki befriends the band of orphans, who were already dear to her. Now that they are real, can she really bear to do something that would make that world stop existing, even though it will defeat the evil demon?

So there are nice undercurrents here, and some twists and turns in the quest. The author continues to display her fantasy-writing chops.

sangumandanna.com

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Review of Dream On, by Shannon Hale and Marcela Cespedes

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Dream On

written by Shannon Hale
illustrated by Marcela Cespedes
colors by Lark Pien

Roaring Brook Press, 2025. 236 pages.
Review written May 26, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I always love it when a children’s book features a big family. We kids from big families are underrepresented, because all those characters are hard to keep track of. This is a graphic novel about a middle school kid named Cassie who’s dealing with friendships and family relationships – so pretty much your classic middle school graphi novel. It reminds me very much of Shannon Hale’s autobiographical Real Friends series, because Cassie, too, is imaginative and not willing to give up pretend play as quickly as her friends are.

One of the features of this book is that early on, Cassie opens a letter that tells her she’s “already won” three fabulous prizes. So she keeps the mailer and thinks about what she’ll do with the prizes when she gets them. And she doesn’t order magazines – it says “No Purchase Necessary” – and doesn’t enclose any money, but she does put stickers for the magazines she likes in the spots on the order form.

The magazines start coming. What will her mother say when she finds out Cassie sent that in? That’s scarier than thinking about what she’ll say when they all get into their new car so they don’t have to go places in two shifts.

So at home, Cassie dreams about that – and finally getting attention from her mother. (The reader doesn’t have to try to keep track of the siblings in her family. There are a lot.) At school, there’ a new girl who’s coming between Cassie and her long-time best friend. And the new girl thinks Cassie’s favorite teacher is weird. Is she maybe right about that? It’s so hard to tell.

I like Cassie’s character because I was an imaginative kid, too – though I’d pretty much stopped admitting to it by middle school. But I also remember the fascination of those “YOU may HAVE ALREADY WON!!!” letters in the mail. My older siblings were quick to disillusion me, but I may have, well, ordered some magazines when I was a young adult. And daydreamed at least a little about what I’d do if I won. So Cassie’s predicament was easy to imagine.

This book came out in 2025, but our order was a casualty of Baker and Taylor going out of business, and it accidentally didn’t get reordered and the holds have piled up. But I’m happy it’s arrived just in time for summer reading, and the second book in the series, coming out in August.

shannonhale.com
mackids.com

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Review of Buffalo Dreamer, by Violet Duncan

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Historical, Starred Review 0

Buffalo Dreamer

by Violet Duncan
read by Ashley Callingbull

Listening Library, 2024. 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Literature
2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book, Middle Grades

Buffalo Dreamer is short and sweet and packs a lot of power.

12-year-old Summer and her family are traveling to Canada to the reservation where her mother grew up for their annual vacation. Summer’s looking forward to wonderful times, riding horses with her cousin and enjoying her grandparents and her extended family.

But when she crosses the border into Canada and nears the reservation, she starts having vivid dreams about a girl running away from a residential school. Meanwhile, modern equipment has been brought to the residential school where Summer’s grandfather went to school – and they have found bodies of kids buried there.

Could Summer’s dreams be showing her what really happened?

This book navigates the line between talking about horrific abuse in the past and expressing confident joy in the present – and the power of connection between the generations.

violetduncan.com

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Review of Orris and Timble: Star Stories, by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Carmen Mok

Animal Characters, Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Orris and Timble

Star Stories

by Kate DiCamillo
illustrated by Carmen Mok

Candlewick Press, 2026. 76 pages.
Review written April 22, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Kate DiCamillo and Carmen Mok’s beginning chapter book series about a rat and an owl who are friends just got even sweeter.

All the books are gentle, recapping the details of the friendship and thinking about action before it happens. All the books have Orris and Timble telling stories to each other in their nightly meetings.

In this one, Timble invites Orris to fly on his back. Orris isn’t even a little bit interested. But little by little, we see that gently change. Until finally, the saying on Orris’s treasured sardine tin again motivates him to action: Make the good and noble choice!!

It’s all so wonderfully done, taking the reader along on the emotional as well as the physical journey. And with simple language for a beginning reader, too!

katedicamillo.com

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Review of Halfway to Somewhere, by Jose Pimienta

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel 0

Halfway to Somewhere

by Jose Pimienta

RH Graphic, 2025. 250 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
2026 Stonewall Award Winner, Children’s Literature

Halfway to Somewhere is about a nonbinary kid named Ave who moves with their mother and little brother from Mexicali to Lawrence, Kansas, where their mother is teaching at the university. Every night, they talk with their big sister, hoping she and their dad will come join them soon.

Ave isn’t happy to be in Kansas. They don’t like speaking English and sounding like a toddler. Their little brother makes a friend from the house across the street the very first day.

Ave liked hiking in Mexicali, so they start walking around Lawrence, learning the place with their feet. And once they start school, there are folks who try to be friendly.

It’s one of those adjusting to a new place and figuring out how you fit in books. The fact that Ave is nonbinary is refreshingly in the background and not a big problem in the book, though how their dad relates to them does contribute to some of their identity questions. I’ve always said that graphic novels are a good fit for the emotional highs and lows of middle school, and this book effectively uses pictures to tell most of the story.

josepimienta.com

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Review of Phoenix, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Phoenix

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2026. 162 pages.
Review written April 10, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! A new book from Kimberly Brubaker Bradley! And this one says it’s Book 1 of the Ride On series – so there will be more!

This book features Harper, a girl in middle school, whose life has just blown up. Harper’s dad cheated on her mother with Harper’s best friend Cat’s mother – and Harper found that out from gossip at school the morning after her parents told her they were getting divorced.

Harper and her mother decide to get out of town, so they move to a small house on the property of a barn and riding school. Cat was scared of horses, so Harper had always avoided them, too, out of solidarity. But one day a kill truck stops at the barn and abandons a dying horse in the yard. Harper becomes determined to save him. She names him Phoenix because he’s going to rise from the ashes.

But the adults aren’t so sure and keep warning Harper that it will be tough for him to make it. But Harper starts working around the barn, taking lessons, and learning about horses, determined to save her horse.

Meanwhile, she’s got new friends to make at the stables and at her new school. And sometime, she’s going to have to face her dad. And Cat.

This book is nice and short, but tells a good story in that time. Yes, we’re going to want to find out more in the next book of the series, but this was a fantastic way to meet Harper and her rescued horse. I learned plenty about riding and horses and even about how to treat an almost-starved horse. (Don’t let them eat all they want.) Horse-loving kids like I once was are going to be delighted with this series.

kimberlybrubakerbradleycom.wordpress.com

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Review of Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, by Erin Entrada Kelly

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey

by Erin Entrada Kelly
read by Amielynn Abellera

HarperAudio, 2021. 1.75 hours on 2 compact discs.
Review written October 16, 2021, from a library audiobook
Starred Review

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey is a delightful beginning chapter book with a memorable, lovable, and distinct heroine.

Marisol likes to name things. She lives in a house with a giant tree in the backyard, a tree that everyone else says is the best climbing tree in the world. She has named the tree Peppina, and has even named the two lowest branches, Booster Branch and Knobby Branch. But Marisol has not ever climbed Peppina, and she does not plan to.

Marisol is afraid. Marisol has a big imagination, and it is all too easy for her to imagine falling.

But Marisol has a best friend, Jada, who understands and doesn’t tease Marisol for her fears — unlike her brother and the girl from her classroom, Evie Smythe.

Marisol and Jada have adventures together, biking around the neighborhood together, passing the dog they’ve named Daggers, acting out a silent movie together, and doing other things best friends do.

This is a sweet story of an imaginative girl dealing with fears and joys. I listened to the audiobook, which was a lot of fun — and then noticed when I picked up the print book that I’d missed out on some very amusing illustrations. So in either form, you’re in for a treat.

erinentradakelly.com
harperaudio.com

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Review of The Library of Unruly Treasures, by Jeanne Birdsall

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Library of Unruly Treasures

by Jeanne Birdsall
read by Sorcha Groundsell

Listening Library, 2025. 7 hours, 51 minutes.
Review written March 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

Like The Penderwicks series by the same author, The Library of Unruly Treasures is a sweet and old-fashioned story. There’s magic hidden in the everyday world that only the kids can see.

The Prologue starts with a tale of a girl going with her brother across the sea from Scotland to America, and convincing the Lahdukan of her clan to come along. The Lahdukan are small people with wings. Only children under the age of six – and the Calban of the clan – can see them. The current Calba is responsible for protecting them, and it’s passed down to girls of the clan on their 11th birthday.

Then we come to the present, and Gwen MacKinnon comes to stay with her great-uncle Matthew while her neglectful parents are off on separate adventures. There’s a library in town named after her family, and the small children there talk about small flying people. Before long, they show themselves to Gwen, too – and it looks like they expect her to be their next Calba.

But the Lahdukan are in trouble. The library is going to be renovated and upgraded very soon, and their nests are sure to be disturbed. They will find a prophecy to find out where they need to go next, and they will need Gwen’s help to get there.

Before I comment further, let me say this is a sweet and enjoyable story. Lots of fun, and Gwen and her Uncle Matthew – and the Lahdukan and other characters – are all wonderful people to spend time with.

However, many of the obstacles and trials in the book were based entirely on the prophecies the Lahdukan told Gwen about, and that felt pretty artificial after a while. I suppose it was a cute trait of the Lahdukan that they relied so much on prophecies, but the charm wore off for me. Also, I work in a library and am currently involved in reopening a renovated branch – and I simply could not believe the haphazard job portrayed in this book. The one librarian working there wasn’t even sure when the workers would come and apparently didn’t have a chance to move her own things, and there was no talk of a temporary location, and I just find the lack of bureaucracy over a major renovation extremely hard to believe. (It also gave me new appreciation for bureaucracy, as I wondered how safe it all was for children and other visitors to the library.)

However, most kids won’t care about these persnickety details and will simply enjoy the fun of Gwen helping out these winged people that only children can see.

jeannebirdsall.com

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Review of You’re a Star, Lolo, by Niki Daly

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

You’re a Star, Lolo

by Niki Daly

Catalyst Press, 2020. First published in Great Britain in 2020.
Review written October 29, 2021, from a library book. 86 pages.
Starred Review

I love Lolo! These beginning chapter books written and illustrated by Niki Daly feature a young elementary-school-age girl who lives in Capetown, South Africa, with her mother and grandmother. The grandmother is called Gogo, which I think is delightful.

There are four self-contained stories in this book:

In “Lolo’s Special Soup,” Lolo makes soup for Mama, who’s out and about on a blustery day. Gogo is taking a little too much control of the process for Lolo, so she makes her own contribution.

In “Lolo’s Scary Night,” there’s a big fearsome sound interrupting Lolo’s sleep. Mama has a nice interpretation before they find out the actual source.

In “Lolo’s Snail Garden,” Lolo carefully follows instructions for a class gardening project, getting tomato seedlings started — but she has unusual results.

And in “Lolo’s Holiday,” Lolo and Gogo have a lovely vacation together in a nearby town, but then have an adventure getting home.

As other good beginning chapter books, I love the way these books are child-centric with concerns that mirror those of the target age group. There’s some extra fun that Lolo lives in South Africa, so it’s nice to see what’s the same and what’s different in everyday life.

catalystpress.org

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