Book Review: Across the Pond
Across the Pond is a low-key middle grades charmer. Surely I am not the only person who has imagined what it would be like to randomly inherit a castle in Scotland? That’s exactly what happens to Callie’s family: Her mom and dad rented a cottage on the palace grounds while they were in college in Edinburgh, and the owner forged such a bond with her then-newlywed tenants that she left the castle to their family in her will. Adjusting to life in Scotland after growing up in San Diego might seem challenging, but Callie can’t wait — middle school has ripped her friend group to shreds, and she’s ready to reinvent herself in a new place. Only, as it turns out, the scenery has changed, but Callie hasn’t, and within a couple of weeks, she’s made enemies with their new handyman’s daughter and gotten kicked out of the local birding club for arguing that female birds should count in the sighting scores. The only thing keeping her going is the journal the former of the lady of the house kept when she was Callie’s age and shipped off to the countryside during the Blitz. Callie can definitely identify with Pippa’s lonely feeling of being always on the outside.
Of course this is all working toward a happier ending: Callie may have gotten kicked out of the birding club, but it helped introduce her to Rajesh, whose unflappable nice-ness is hard to resist. It also inspired her interest in birds, and as she’s trying to identify the swirling flock of tiny birds that settle in a tree across the lake every night (they’re starlings), she ends up befriending the handyman’s daughter, after all, realizing that everything isn’t always about her. Callie becomes an avid birder, making connections between her life and the birds she observes — just as Pippa did, all those years ago. There’s a core of real sweetness in this book that I loved: We all sometimes feel like we don’t belong, and we’re all delighted when we discover that we’ve found a community. For birding enthusiasts, for middle grades readers who enjoy realistic fiction, for anyone who’s ever wished for that castle in Scotland — you’ll want to pick this one up.
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Three action-packed YA novels that might just scratch your homeschool reading sweet spot.
In this funny, old-fashioned story, two Dalmatian parents set off to rescue their kidnapped puppies. It's so much more fun than the movie!
A wintry middle grades mystery that may remind you a little of The Westing Game.
In this sweet winter story, a friendly troll reminds a farm full of creatures that spring is coming.
Thanksgiving gets weird when a butcher mishap leads a kid to a 266-pound chicken.
A book with a homeschooling scientist as the main character and lots of cool geology facts? We love to see it.
Libraries! Puzzles to solve! Witty book references! While you shouldn’t look for nuanced character development, you’ll be so busy running around the library with Kyle and his allies to crack codes and unpuzzle puzzles, you will hardly miss it.
Hudson’s got a troll curse to break, and if he wants to get back to normal, he’s going to have to team up with hist not-normal-at-all neighbor Charlotte. Charlotte, though, is on a mission of her own: to restore the vanished Princess to the throne and get rid of the evil usurper Prince Varygran once and for all. Along the way, they’ll run into punctuation markets, marauding encyclopedias, unicorns, mermaids, magic, and more.
I don’t know how we get from where we are to where we want to be, but art and asking hard questions is not a bad start.
The Accidental Apprentice is a real middle grades charmer, and I’m delighted it’s the first in a series. Kids who love Pokemon, How to Train Your Dragon, Fablehaven will appreciate the secret magical world inhabited by Lore Keepers, who bond with and train the world’s magical creatures. It’s a great magical world with thoughtful organization, peopled with interesting characters and creatures.
Karma Moon, Ghost Hunter is a middle grades Ghost Hunters, and I’m here for it.
Life at the orphanage is pretty horrible for 12-year-old Mary, so she’s thrilled when a super-nice lady appears, insisting that Mary is the only girl for her. Mary’s even more thrilled when it seems that the super-nice lady only wants to feed her delicious food, buy her pretty clothes, and give her plenty of time to read and play. It seems almost too good to be true. And, of course, it is. Or, at least, it might be. The Door by the Staircase is an engaging middle grades fantasy book that deeply explores what makes a family.
What if the lost civilization of Atlantis was really the ancient Minoan civilization on Crete? That’s the jumping off point for this book, in which an inventor’s daughter gets caught up in a recognizable-but-distinctly-different take on the story of the Minotaur and Daedalus.
Surely I am not the only person who has imagined what it would be like to randomly inherit a castle in Scotland? With bonus birding adventures.
I read this book at a time when I really needed to believe that one person, or a few people, could make a real difference — could make the world a better place. I would have loved this series for giving me that feeling alone, but it was also a deliciously tangled mystery, full of complicated people and challenging puzzles and the possibility of building community in unexpected ways.
This is a tender, nuanced portrait of finding that balance between hope and clear-eyedness that we need in all of our close relationships. Recommended.
Here’s the thing: We have put a lot of pressure on this next generation. We have made a mess, and they are going to have to clean it up. That’s a heavy burden to carry before you even have your driver’s license, and I think it’s one that Riley Redgate handles really well in Alone Out Here.
I am clearly the target audience for a middle grades boarding school novel about taking down the patriarchy through education and fabric crafting, so I am happy to say I really enjoyed this lovely little fantasy. I recommend it.
Omakayas’s adventures continue as she and her family search for a new home.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose, set during Stalin’s great purge in the 1930s, is a great historical fiction conversation starter for discussing propaganda, witch hunts, ethics, and community.
it’s full of hilarious moments that, on reflection, critique everything from stereotyping to the education system in some pretty spot-on ways.
Amy Sharony is the founder and editor-in-chief of home | school | life magazine. She's a pretty nice person until someone starts pluralizing things with apostrophes, but then all bets are off.
Looking for a middle grades fantasy for your next homeschool readaloud? We review three of our newer faves: The Time of Green Magic, Amari and the Night Brothers, and The Language of Ghosts.