The Littlest Bigfoot

The Littlest Bigfoot
by Jennifer Weiner
304 pages, ages 8-12
Aladdin, 2016

Twelve-year-old Alice doesn't fit it . She's big, ungainly, and her hair is wild and sproingy - no matter how many clips or scrunchies she uses to tame it.

Now she's been shipped her off to her eighth boarding school in as many years. This one's an experimental school in Upstate New York, a converted campground where hippies-turned-teachers refer to students as "learners" and school lunches are full of whole grains and kale. It is a place where everyone is accepted and their differences celebrated. At least that's what it says on the brochure.

Millie Maximus doesn't fit in. She is too small and her hair is too white and fine. Sometimes she wonders if she really is a Bigfoot - or Yare, as the clan call themselves. Millie loves to sing and her secret wish is that she will be discovered and sing on TV. She's insatiably curious about the "no furs" and wonders what her life would be like if she weren't so furry. Her curiosity drives her to steal a canoe and paddle across the lake, and her actions put her entire clan at risk.

Jeremy Bigelow doesn't fit it. A seventh-grader at Standish Middle School, he  is a nerd with single-minded passion: to find a Bigfoot. There are local legends about Bigfoot in the area, and years ago one was captured and put in a circus. When he is invited to join an underground group of Bigfoot hunters, his dreams come true: he discovers evidence that there are Bigfoot in the area. Now all he has to do is prove it!

This is a wonderful adventure about friendship and finding your place in the world. Check out a video and read an excerpt from Littlest Bigfoot here. 

We'll be hanging out on Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers over at Shannon Messenger's blog. Hop over to see what other people are reading.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Lenny Cyrus, School Virus

Lenny Cyrus, School Virus

By Joe Schreiber; illus. by Matt Smith

288 pages, ages 9 – 12

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013

Lenny Cyrus is 13. He’s also a genius. So when he decides that the way to a girl’s heart is to know what she’s thinking, he takes action. Nano-tech action. It may not be ethical, safe, or sane, but Lenny’s chosen course is to shrink himself to the size of an amoeba and get inside Zooey. His goal: her brain.

Turns out, girls are just as hard to understand from the inside as they are from the outside. Not only that, there are so many obstacles – like the semitransparent jelly-bean-looking thing with a flagella whipping back and forth who challenges Lenny for his digestive system pass.

Lenny hooks up with an astrovirus who serves as a guide, figures out how to cross the blood-brain barrier, and basically wreaks havoc and near destruction on his one true love all in the name of science…. or at least middle-school romance.

This book is funny – and I love the way Schreiber (he’s the author) tosses in caffeine molecular chemistry, osmoreceptors, limbic systems and Planck’s Constant.  A perfect April Fool’s read but for one thing: it isn’t released until tomorrow. No fooling.

 This is part of the Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday round-up. Check out more great reading here. Review copy from publisher.