Kid Konnection: Planet Middle School
Joy is a pretty happy kid. She gets along well with her parents and brother, she loves basketball, and she has two great friends, Jake and KeeLee. It seems her life is exactly the way she wants it to be until she hits middle school. Her body starts betraying her, KeeLee starts to dress up for boys, and Santiago makes her heart beat faster. Joy doesn’t know what to make of things.
I loved Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes! It’s a wonderful book for young girls who are experiencing changes physically, socially and emotionally. Written completely in verse, I thought it captured the emotions of those difficult years perfectly with poems like this:
New Math
Up till now,
the math of my life
has been pretty simple:
friends
plus family
plus sports.
What more
could I ask for, right?
But lately,
my outside has been changing
and my inside keeps telling me
more is on the way.
Trouble is,
I’m not sure
I’m ready.
Oh, how I loved Joy! She’s a fabulous character – she’s not sure she’s ready to grow up, but it looks like she has no choice. She notices Santiago and the things she does to try to get his attention backfire and embarrass her instead. Filled with hormones, humor, and life lessons this book is sure to strike a chord with young female readers. I know it did with me. I thought this book was fantastic and recommend it to all young girls at the end of elementary school or the beginning of middle school.
For more children’s books reviews, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.
Review copy provided by Bloomsbury Kids. I am an Indiebound Affiliate.
Sounds ideal for my girls who hitting those years of change. I shall look out for it.
Sounds like a great book! Sadly, I just don’t connect with the verse writing style.
I am so not a verse person but I am glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for the review, Kathy. I am going to tell our school librarian about the book, so they can order it for our students.
I am so glad you enjoyed this one because I know you were a little concerned since it’s written in verse. I’m excited to share with Booking Daughter!
Oh, it’s too bad that my daughter is too old for this one! It sounds like it would be just pitch perfect for kids of a certain age. Great review on this one!
This sounds perfect for my new 6th grader!
This sounds great! Believe it or not I have not yet read a book by Nikki Grimes, so definitely I have to remedy that!
I can’t wait for my niece to grow up fast enough for this one now.
Loved the review
I just used your email feature so I could send this review to my school email to remind myself to order this immediately. Sounds perfect!
This looks like a book I would’ve loved as a teen. Well, even now, but I just don’t have time for it
I like that poem, Kathy! I can certainly relate to Joy for I was once young like her too.
This sounds like an interesting read. I just finished a book about a mom looking to find a middle ground with her jr. high daughter who is going through wild mood swings and hormonal acting out. It would be interesting to read something like this from the kid’s point of view.
With my daughter having just started 6th grade, this sounds right up her alley!
I love hearing more about children’s books. And this one sounds like a definite winner.