When Tomorrow Burns

 Rating: 4 out of 5| Buy this for your 6th grade classroom

My Thoughts:

The only other Tae Keller book I’ve read is Jennifer Chan is Not Alone, which explores bullying, alien hunting, a central mystery, and what it means to be unapologetically different. When Tomorrow Burns touches on many of those same themes—friendship, identity, mystery, and embracing who you are—but throws in romance, betrayal, contrasting family dynamics, socioeconomic differences, and a literal world on fire. Keller truly understands the pain and angst of middle school. She honors the "weird" kids, presenting them in their most complex, gifted, and heroic light.

This was a bit of a slow start for me; I put it down several times early on because I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in these three characters. At first, Vi and Nomi felt a bit too overwhelming in that distinct 5th- or 6th-grade way (anyone who has taught middle school girls will know what I mean). Meanwhile, Arthur felt overly needy for acceptance, which seemed at odds with his background and his long-standing friendship with Nomi and Vi.

However, once the three characters start rallying together, the pacing picks up significantly as their actions align more with true seventh-graders. The slow start wasn't a reflection of Keller’s writing—her prose toward the end, along with the poetic tree "memos," is absolutely beautiful. Once those authentic middle school voices truly emerged, the story took off, making this a solid 4-star read.

From the Publisher:

Once there was a tree. For two hundred years, there was a tree. There was a tree. There was a tree. Until the tree fell in a forest--and then there was a book.

When best friends Nomi, Vi, and Arthur were younger, they discovered a book of prophecies. It was so very comforting to know what was coming. But as the kids grew older, they forgot about the book.

Until the final prophecy started coming true.

Now, as seventh grade tests their friendship and wildfires threaten Seattle, the final prophecy promises fire and destruction. Nomi tries everything to prevent calamity. The only problem? She needs help...but Vi's acting strange and Arthur stopped talking to her.

Vi can't tell Nomi, but she's been texting the coolest boy in school, and it's going well--until that boy makes an unexpected request, and she must decide who she wants to be.

Meanwhile, Arthur joined the cross-country team, but he can't outrun the real reason he ended his friendship with Nomi. The best he can do is try to hide it.

As the prophecy escalates, past and present intersect, fate and friendship collide, and secrets spread like wildfire. Together, Nomi, Vi, and Arthur must face the future...even, and especially when it's so uncertain.

Publication Information:

• Author: Tae Keller
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication Date: March 3, 2026
• Print Length: 272 pages
• Grade Level: 5-7

Tree. Table. Book.

 

My Thoughts:

This is a elementary to middle grade book by the trustworthily fabulous author, Lois Lowry. She is the author of the OG of dystopian middle grade novels, The Giver as well as  Number the Stars about the Danish Resistance smuggling Jews to Sweden. Both of these books are Newberry Award winners.

This book is about 11-year-old Sophie Henry Winslow and her very best friend and neighbor, 88-year old Sophie Gershowitz.  The narrator, young Sophie, overhears adult conversation that Sophie Gershowitzʻ son Aaron will come and move the elder Sophie to a care facility. Young Sophie is determined to show her parents and Mr. Aaron that Sophie Gershowitz is just fine, even if the adults say she is in the early stages of dementia. The title of the book comes from one of the mental status exams she finds in the Merck Manual. 

The stories around these three words are just heartbreaking and lovely. They should be read aloud for chapter Fridays in middle school, even if it is heartbreaking.

I had a teacher ask me for book advice and I was trying to figure out what specifically she wanted. At the end of the conversation she said, I just want my students to be kind.

This book is about kindness. It is about wanting the best for someone else even if it is not the best for you.

I think that kind of awareness from an 11 year old is the manifestation of kindness. So to my friend in Nebraska, try this for your 6th graders. 

From the Publisher:

When precocious eleven-year-old Sophie sets out to save her elderly neighbor (who is also her dearest friend), her journey will take her through their familiar suburban landscape and then, steadily yet unexpectedly, deeper into a landscape of history and shared stories.

Everyone knows the two Sophies are best friends. One is in elementary school, and one is . . . well . . . in a little trouble of late. She’s elderly, sure, but she’s always been on her game, the best friend any girl struggling to fit in could ever have. The Sophies drink tea, have strong opinions about pretty much everything, and love each other dearly. Now it seems the elder Sophie is having memory problems, burning teakettles, and forgetting just about everything. It looks like her son is going to come and get her and steal her away forever. Young Sophie isn’t having that. Not one bit. So she sets out to help elder Sophie’s memory, with the aid of her neighborhood friends Ralphie and Oliver. But when she opens the floodgates of elder Sophie’s memories, she winds up listening to stories that will illustrate just how much there is to know about her dear friend, stories of war, hunger, cruelty, and ultimately love.

Publication Information:

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Clarion Books First Edition (April 23, 2024)

ISBN 13: 978-0063299504

Hardcover: 208 pages

Grade level: 3--7

Gloria Buenrostro Is Not My Girlfriend

 

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this awkward Vietnamese kid, Gary. His so called "best friend" is cringe worthy and the Roosters are just horrible, but I appreciate a kid who will ride his mother's tandem bike alone. Gloria is also a realistic and complex character. Gary and Gloria are nice kids, but they are also human. They can make each other laugh and also make each other cry as they both learn how to navigate changes in their life. I think what is especially cute is that they are human. Their voice is refreshing in this genre that is littered with characters that are immature, egocentric, privileged, and yucky. I want to root for these two kids.

In another blurb I read that this story is loosely based on the author's life, so perhaps that is why the reactions by the main characters seem so realistic and raw. This is not a stylized fairy tale. This is about real kids having real issues. This is about dreams and disappointments. This is about real families dealing with real issues. As the poor kid at a rich school, Gary is very mature in his values. He has a clear idea of right and wrong even if he does not always make the best choice at first. This is a perfect summer read for anyone wanting a feel good story with characters that you can root for. 

From the Publisher:

Gary Võ is one of the few Vietnamese kids in his school and has been shy for as long as he can remember―being ignored and excluded by his classmates comes with the territory. So when the most popular guy in his grade offers Gary the opportunity to break into his inner circle, Gary jumps at the chance. All he needs to do is steal the prized possession of the most beautiful and untouchable girl they know―Gloria Buenrostro.

But as Gary gets to know Gloria, he’s taken in by her authenticity and genuine interest in who he really is. Soon, they’re best friends. Being part of the “in crowd” has always been Gary’s dream, but as he comes closer to achieving infamy, he risks losing the first person who recognizes his true self. Gary must consider if any amount of popularity is worth losing a true friend.

Publication Information:

Author: Brandon Hoàng

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), June 27, 2023

Hardcover length: 304 pages

Salty, Bitter, Sweet (audiobook)

 

Audiobook narrator: Jennifer Jill Araya

Listening length: 10 hours 38 minutes

My Thoughts:

I have a complex relationship with audiobooks because they are a larger investment in time for me than just reading a book. I can moderate my reading pace and skim some parts so that I can finish quickly, but I am not good at following along when I speed up the reading pace on an audiobook. Because of that, I think I need to put the listening time in  the post and talk about the quality of the narrator from now on. 

Audiobooks moved from cassette tapes and CDs to listening on one's device via apps like Sora or Libby so I need to force myself to listen to more audiobooks. 

For this book, I grabbed it because of several things:

• non-white author
• appealing cover
• foodie fiction

It has all the elements of success - a YA character in a foreign situation, a handsome stranger who both irritates and intrigues the main character, bullies and new friends.  In Isa's case, she is living in France with her father and new stepmom. She has lost her abuela and she just won a prestigious kitchen apprenticeship. Her apprenticeship definitely does not start well and that handsome stranger turn out to be her stepmom's stepson. 

What made this a difficult ten plus hours is the narrator. For me, I did not enjoy her Diego voice. At all. It was creepy and I just could not get to know him because I really did not like his voice. I think I would feel differently if I were just reading. 

So in short, this was probably a good book as a book. I really do believe that the narrator made this a 3 star for me, but it is probably at least a 4 star read. This is perfect for middle grade and young YA females who want a foodie, power of female friendships, family drama, sweet romance read. 

From the Publisher:

There’s more to becoming a top chef for 17-year-old Isabella Fields than just not getting chopped...especially when the chances of things heating up with an intriguing boy and becoming a food star in the kitchen are both on the chopping block. 

Salty, Bitter, Sweet:

• Is a YA contemporary #OwnVoices novel written by CNN producer Mayra Cuevas
• Is a perfect book for foodies ages 13 and up and features a Latina main character who is trilingual
• Explores complicated family dynamics and relatable themes of friendship, acceptance, and learning to care for yourself 

Aspiring chef Isa’s family life has fallen apart after the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents. And after moving in with her dad and her new stepmom, Margo, in Lyon, France, Isa feels like an outsider in her father’s new life. She balances her time between avoiding the awkward “why-did-you-cheat-on-Mom” conversation with figuring out how a perpetually single woman can at least be a perpetually single chef.

The upside of Isa’s world being turned upside down?

Her father’s house is located only 30 minutes away from the restaurant of world-famous Chef Pascal Grattard, who runs a prestigiously competitive international kitchen apprenticeship. The prize job at Chef Grattard’s renowned restaurant also represents a transformative opportunity for Isa who is desperate to get her life back in order - and desperate to prove she has what it takes to work in an haute kitchen. But Isa’s stress and repressed grief begin to unravel when the attractive, enigmatic Diego shows up unannounced with his albino dog.

How can Isa expect to hold it together when she’s at the bottom of her class at the apprenticeship, her new stepmom is pregnant, she misses her abuela dearly, and things with the mysterious Diego reach a boiling point? 

The Boy From Tomorrow

Description:

Josie and Alec both live at 444 Sparrow Street. They sleep in the same room, but they’ve never laid eyes on each other. They are twelve years old and a hundred years apart.

The children meet through a hand-painted talking board—Josie in 1915, Alec in 2015—and form a friendship across the century that separates them. But a chain of events leave Josie and her little sister Cass trapped in the house and afraid for their safety, and Alec must find out what’s going to happen to them. 

Can he help them change their future when it’s already past?

My thoughts:

The premise is interesting. A Ouija board found in an old house connects two children living in the same house 100 years apart. Once readers accept that part of the fantasy, then this book becomes a sweet adventure, a dark thriller and a tribute to friendship. 

I think the strength in this story is that the Ouija board is not used as the main mode of communication. This makes it stronger because of the negative, dark, occult reputation of the Ouija board. This is not that kind of story. 

Instead, our protagonist, Alec uses Google, the New York public library, microfiche and a little detective work to find letters hidden in the house. What makes it fun is that he is the one who tells Josie that she will hide these letters a hundred years later before she actually has written any letters. Without spoiling the story, just when I think the tricks of the book have been played out, the author brings in more surprises. 

A sweet, feel-good read.

Last sentences:

Their discovery, their secret, their impossible friendship: it was all still ahead of him. She raised the glass to her mouth, smiling to herself as she took the first sip.

Advanced digital copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review. 

What a little boy can teach the old

From the acclaimed author of When We Were the Kennedys and Any Bitter Thing, the incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house—a friendship with unexpected reverberations for the boy's unmoored family.

My thoughts:

This is a perfect book for the middle reader. Miss Ona Vitkus is a 104 year old hermit, but the local boy scout troop sends her boys to help around the house and she usually chases them away until one awkward boy with an obsession for lists, questions and Guiness World Records wedges himself into her life and changes the way she sees herself and her history. But then the boy is gone and his father, Quinn fulfills his sonʻs obligation and a new friendship is formed.

This book is about a boy who is invisible, bullied, misunderstood. It is about a quest. Most importantly it is about the lessons the 11-year old boy is able to teach Miss Ona and his father Quinn about life, and what it means to be truly living. 

The writing style took me a while to get used to, but I like that it does not resort to syrupy sweetness or clean redemption wrapped up in happily ever after. Finally, Wood writes one of the best last chapters I have read in a long time. I am glad that I kept reading because that last chapter was so unexpected and hauntingly divine. 

Advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.