Maybe I’m getting old and jaded, so take this with a grain of salt. However, most of the contemporary middle grade fiction books I’m reading these days seem to be what I call problem novels: books that are very obviously written to speak to some “issue” or “identity” or to encourage us to understand and have compassion for some specific sub-group of people. There’s certainly a place for these kinds of books, and some of them can be good (Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor, Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, Things Seen From Above by Shelley Pearsall). Nevertheless, I’m getting tired of reading the book versions of the ABC Afterschool Specials of my childhood. Your mileage may vary, especially if you are particularly interested in learning more about the particular issue dealt with in one of the following middle grade novels.

• Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman. Issues: Israeli-Palestinian relations, moving to a new place, immigration. Okay, so this book had more than just one major problem or issue to illustrate. Twelve year old Yasmeen Khoury moves with her family to San Antonio, TX, and finds that there are no other Middle Eastern classmates in her new school—except maybe one girl who turns out to be Jewish. But the Israeli Jews are the ones who have turned Yasmeen’s grandmother out of her home in Israel, and Yasmeen’s parents are set against her having anything to do with Ayelet, the Jewish girl, and her family. Can Yasmeen and Ayelet be friends even though their families and their heritage would seem to preclude even basic understanding and peace between the two girls? The story does a good job of showing Yasmeen inner struggle between honoring her family by obeying her parents and trying to make friends and fit into a new culture. However, some of the situations and characters are almost caricatures: the mean girl, Hallie; Yasmeen’s high vocabulary little sister, Sara; and Carlos, the Mexican American boy who is a charro in the rodeo. Wishing Upon the Same Stars was OK, but nothing to write home about.
• The Summer of June by Jamie Sumner. Issue: anxiety. June is determined that this summer will be the summer that she becomes a lion instead of a mouse: so to beat her anxiety which manifests as hair-pulling, among other symptoms, June shaves her head. But a bald head doesn’t make the anxiety (that June has been living with for several years now) go away. June’s counselor, Gina, is nice, but the techniques Gina gives for June to calm herself and the different meds that they have tried also don’t magically make the panic attacks and sleepless nights and social anxiety go away. June does make a friend, Homer Juarez, and she does find ways to help herself deal with her anxiety. Nevertheless, this book paints a pretty bleak picture of severe anxiety in children, maybe realistic, but surely not all children with anxiety issues are as severely impacted as June. I would be hesitant to hand this book to an anxious child for fear it would make the problem worse instead of better. But friends who are trying to understand anxiety and panic attacks might benefit. Therapeutic fiction.
• Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan. Issues: girl power and preservation of (butterfly) species. Solimar, who is about to become an official princess, receives the gift of being able to see the future and realizes that she must use her gift to protect the monarch butterflies in their annual migration and also save the mountain kingdom of San Gregorio. All about can girls be ruling kings or queens or whatever. And can they be brave enough to complete a quest and save the kingdom?
• Each of Us a Universe by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo and Ndengo Gladys Mwilelo. Issues: parent with anger, parent in prison, alcoholism, immigration. Yeah, lots of issues to deal with in this story. Cal’s mom has changed because the cancer is taking her life away bit by bit, and Cal doesn’t even want to talk about what her dad did and the reason he’s in prison. Cal just wants to climb Mt. Meteorite, find the magical meteorite that landed there fifty years ago, and use it somehow to heal her mom and make everything right. Cal’s new friend, Rosine, an immigrant from the DRC, also has her own, secret, reasons for wanting to summit the mountain. But will Cal’s broken arm, an encounter with a bear, and the challenge of the mountain that no one has ever climbed before defeat them? OK, but it just felt off somehow. I could have used more about Rosine and her struggles and less about Cal and her temper tantrums.
• Big Rig by Louise Hawes. Issues: single parent, mother deceased, life on the road. Hazmat (Hazel’s trucker nickname) and her dad have been living out of dad’s eighteen-wheeler (Leonardo) for years, ever since Hazel’s mom died and Hazel got old enough to be homeschooled by dad while criss-crossing the USA taking on loads and delivering them to their destinations. Life in the trucking industry is an adventure, and Hazmat loves “being homeschooled by my dad in a traveling classroom, meeting old friends at every truck stop, and swinging between coasts like a pendulum.” This book really ended me and brought me into the world of long distance trucking, but unfortunately, the minor instances of swearing and a brief mention of dad’s one night stand with a lady friend were a no-go for me. Dad won’t have a CB radio in his truck because he wants to protect Hazmat from “all the swears” the truckers on the radio use, but then he manages to use some pretty fine expletives himself?
• This Last Adventure by Ryan Dalton. Issue: Grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Archie’s grandpa has always been his hero, but Alzheimer’s is taking away Grandpa’s memories and his personality. And Archie isn’t sure anymore what he should believe about Grandpa’s past. Was he a fireman hero or a soldier with terrible secrets—or both? And can the role-playing, imaginative games that Archie and his grandpa have played together in the past bring back Grandpa’s memories and stop the progression of his disease? I actually liked this particular problem novel. The fantasy elements give th book a bit of relief from the heaviness of what the family in the story is going through, and the characters and events in the story (except for the imaginative interludes) come across as real and believable.
• Dream, Annie, Dream by Waka T. Brown. Issue: prejudice and racism. “Brown eloquently addresses the history of Asian immigration, microaggressions, the model minority myth, stereotyping, and the impact of the lack of representation.” (Kirkus)That’s a lot to take on in one middle grade novel, but the author manages to include all of those issues and still tell a pretty good story about a Japanese American girl with dreams. Annie wants to act in plays; she wants to be Annie in the musical of the same name, but some of her classmates don’t believe a Japanese American girl can portray red-headed Annie. Haven’t they ever heard of wigs?