Title: Attack of the Black Rectangles
Author: Amy Sarig King
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright & Publishing Date: 2022
Audience: ages 9 - 12
Lexile: 710L
Awards: Golden Dome Book Award nominee 2023 - 2024
Starred reviews: Booklist (08/01/22), Horn Book Magazine (09/01/22), Kirkus Reviews (09/01/22), School Library Connection (11/01/22), School Library Journal (09/01/22)
Summary: When sixth-grader Mac Delaney is put into his new literature circle, he discovers that some of the words in Jane Yolen's book The Devil's Arithmetic are blacked out. Mac and his friends Denis and Marci go on a quest to find out who blacked out the words and why. However the school and the teacher who did it are non-apologetic for the censorship. While Mac is dealing with censorship at school, he has the added stress of his father who is struggling with mental health issues.
Categories/Genre: This book is a middle grade realistic fiction book. The main character, Mac is in sixth grade. He is dealing with censorship and the mental health of his father, which are realistic problems. This book is included because it is timely with all of the censorship, soft and otherwise, that is happening in schools across the country right now.
Title: A Rover's Story
Author: Jasmine Warga
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Copyright & Publishing Date: 2022
Audience: ages 9 - 13
Awards: Golden Dome Book Award nominee 2023 - 2024
Starred Reviews: Booklist (09/15/22), Kirkus Reviews (08/01/22), Publishers Weekly (08/15/22)
Summary: Told through alternating views points of Resilience, a Mars rover, and Sophie, the daughter of one of the programers of Resilience, the reader follows them over a span of years as Resilience is built, tested, and ultimately launched into outer space. Resilience not only explores Mars, but explores what it means to be human. Sophie's journey takes her from jealousy, to hope, to connections to those around her.
Catergories/Genre: This is a middle grade science fiction novel. It would appeal to those who are interested in space and rovers/robots. I appreciated how the story was told through the rover's point of view and through the letters of Sophie.
