“STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF ANCESTORS: MIDDLE GRADE ADVENTURES” – FICTION

Some say our paths are laid out by fate, but three young adventurers rise to the challenge to chart their own course. In RUTH BEHAR’s Across So Many Seas, while on a family vacation to Spain, Paloma retraces four generations of Jewish women as they travel across Europe, Cuba, and Miami to flee persecution and find opportunity. In Not Nothing by GAYLE FORMAN, 12-year-old Alex is stuck volunteering at a retirement home over the summer, but 117-year-old Josey’s vivid recounting of escaping ghettos, dragnets, and a concentration camp inspires the young boy to reflect on his own actions and make some changes in himself. And in CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH’s On a Wing and a Tear, folklore takes the wheel as Great-Grandfather Bat has a torn wing but needs to make it to Chicago for a long-standing contest between Birds and Mammals. His only hope is two kids, a grandpa, and a fated road trip across the country. Moderated by KIMBERLY WHITE, youth services coordinator for the Broward County Libraries Division community engagement team. Grades 5-9.

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Buy Across So Many Seas – Behar

Buy Not Nothing – Forman

Buy On a Wing and a Tear – Smith