With winter break here or just days away, The Juice wanted to provide a list of attention-capturing books to keep students’ minds active over the break and to prevent any “winter slide.” The Juice’s Content Manager and Young Adult Literature expert, Lilli Leight has curated a list of 9 books that will keep your students flipping pages all break long.
The Juice’s 2020 Winter Reading Collection contains 3 books for Lower Middle School, 3 for Upper Middle School, and 3 for High School readers. We hope you enjoy the list and find your next book!
We would love to hear what you and your students thought of these books! Send us a message with your reactions if you or your students read any of these books or have other book recommendations for us to share with the Juice community.
Lower Middle School
Ghost Boys
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes is a masterpiece of middle grade fiction that should probably be read with an adult.
Ghost Boys is a heartbreaking story about a police shooting of a 12-year-old boy. One day, Jerome is playing with a toy gun. By mistake a police officer thinks it’s real and shoots him.
Told from beyond the grave, Jerome witnesses his family’s grief, befriends the daughter of the officer who shot him, and meets Emmett Till. Emmett helps Jerome grapple with the events that ended his short life.
This is an incredibly impactful novel written by an award-winning writer who knows the middle grade genre inside and out. That said, the topic is heavy and will leave readers, all readers, with a heavy heart.
From the Desk of Zoe Washington
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks is a wonderful middle grade novel that tackles many important subjects.
Zoe is a 12-year-old girl with a lot going on. She’s not speaking with her best friend, and she’s got the summer internship of her dreams, working at a local bakery. When the summer starts, she gets a letter from her biological dad, who happens to be in prison. Without her mom knowing, she starts to write him letters. Through their correspondence she begins to think that he might be innocent. This new revelation turns her world upside down. Balancing this new information with her internship, means she’s got a lot on her plate and she’s not so sure how to handle it.
This was a fun middle grade novel that handles difficult topics in a way that’s digestible for a young audience. It explores themes of family, friendship, growing up, and racism. Zoe is an incredibly likeable character with just the right amount of flaws to make her relatable. Overall, From the Desk of Zoe Washington is a great read that leaves its readers hungry for cupcakes and hugs.
Other Words for Home
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga is a beautiful novel-in-prose about a young immigrant girl from Syria.
Jude never wanted to leave her father and elder brother behind in Syria, but when conflict breaks out, she and her pregnant mother flee to her uncle’s home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Her arrival in the U.S. marks a change. Now, Jude is more than just a “girl:” she’s a girl with a whole lot of labels. Furthermore, the U.S. is different from the small seaside town she’s used to. Everything is bigger, louder, and faster.
Told in lyrical poems, Jude’s story is an uplifting one about overcoming struggles, family love, and ultimately learning about yourself.
Upper Middle School
What I Like About You
In this absolutely adorable read, Marisa Kanter captures the essence of YA book blogger Kels or Halle in real life.
What I Like About You starts with Halle’s parents heading to Israel for the year. So, Halle and her brother Ollie opt to move in with their grandfather in Middleton, Connecticut. Halle quickly figures out that her online best friend attends her new school. Soon she is caught up in a love triangle where she is two of the triangle’s points – if that’s even possible.
In this delightful novel, Halle is the perfect blend of anxious, confident, smart, nerdy, and lovable. Kanter peppers in Kels tweets as well as the tweets of her friends, which really makes it come alive as a 21st century novel. It was such a fun and smart way of showing us both Halle and Kels.
Furthermore, Kanter does a great job of depicting Jewish characters – something that is pretty rare. Halle has great insights into the YA genre that will definitely resonate with many high schoolers.
Lobizona
Lobizona by Romina Garber is just as magical as it sounds. The story starts off in Miami, but takes readers into a hidden, magical land in Florida’s Everglades.
Manu, the protagonist, is an undocumented immigrant from Argentina. Unknown to her, she’s a member of a magical species called the Septimus. The Septimus are a society of witches or brujas and werewolves or lobizon. They can only access their home, Lunaris, for three days a month on the full moon. Although The Septimus is seeped in sexism and filled rigid gender norms, Manu might just be ready to shake things up.
Garber’s novel is radiant. The writing is wonderful, and Spanish is woven brilliantly into the prose. The characters are realistic teenagers, but also fantastical. This book is an absolute joy that will leave readers itching to read its sequel.
What the Night Sings
It’s not hard to come by Holocaust literature, but What the Night Singes by Vesper Stamper is a Holocaust book like no other: it focuses on what happened after the Holocaust.
What the Night Sings follows Gerta after she is liberated by the British from Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp in Northern Germany. After years in the camps and losing her father in Auschwitz, she is lost. She doesn’t know who she is or where she is going. In fact, she didn’t even know she was Jewish until she was rounded up by the Nazis; her father hid her Jewish identity from her due to rising anti-Semitism. With her new identity and with new opportunities on the horizon, she is overwhelmed. All she does know is that her love of music and desire to be a musician persists.
What the Night Sings is a beautiful piece of writing and art. The illustrations throughout the novel complement the story wonderfully. This is a book that everyone should read. It showcases an important part of Holocaust history that is rarely discussed. It will make readers smile and weep and eager to learn more about Gerta and the path she chooses to make for herself.
High School
All the Bright Places
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven puts teenage love and mental health at center stage and brings you on an emotional journey.
The book follows the subtle love story of Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. Their romance though is not the focus of the book. Both characters are dealing with tremendous emotional baggage and through their friendship they aim to help each other heal.
It’s hard to explain more of this book without spoiling too much. All the Bright Places deals with heavy subjects and has a devastating ending. Niven handles and portrays mental health and depression with an incredible rawness. She does not shy away from challenging subjects.
Monday’s Not Coming
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson does not avoid heartbreaking topics. Jackson is a queen of young adult thrillers and this novel is a perfect demonstration of her talents.
Monday Charles has gone missing, and Claudia seems to be the only person to notice. The two girls are best friends, inseparable at school and constantly writing to one another when apart. When Monday stops responding to Claudia, she knows something is up. Claudia’s fears are confirmed when Monday doesn’t show up for their first day of school after summer break. Claudia starts to investigate her friend’s disappearance and can’t seem to understand why no one else is trying to find Monday.
Monday’s Not Coming is a YA psychological thriller that will leave readers guessing to the end. The novel explores themes of family, education, racism, and friendship. It’s dark, but a compulsive read.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
In this excellent YA thriller, high school senior Pip takes on a murderous senior capstone project. Under the guise of “figuring out how media impacts a criminal case,” Pip tries to solve the murder of Andie Bell and prove that Andie’s boyfriend Sal is innocent. The case is a tough one to crack though since both Andie and Sal are dead. The stakes are heightened when Pip starts receiving threatening messages from someone who claims to be the killer.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was riveting, smart, sassy, fun, and at times, scary. Jackson includes multimedia elements into the novel, which really helps readers get into Pip’s head. The various parts go back and forth from focusing on Pip’s actions to what she is presenting in her project log.
The narrative is fast-paced and suspense filled. The ending comes out of nowhere, and Jackson does a very good job of not rushing it. The characters are complicated and smart. Furthermore, Pip is not the perfectly moral character that one would think. She, too, is human just like the rest of the characters.
