Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj (192 Pages)

Summary: Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity—an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. What Minni also discovers there is one of the water mafia bosses. Now she must decide whether to expose him and risk her job and maybe her life. How did something as simple as access to water get so complicated?

Opinion: This is a Mark Twain Award nominee. While this chapter book is relatively short, I found it slow. It is very much driven by internal monologues and character development instead of plot. While Minni's character development was positive and inspiring, it's hard to keep one's attention on that alone. There were many plot lines that either never went anywhere or ended with a whimper, so the ending felt lackluster and undeserved. 

Freestyle by Gale Galligan

 Freestyle by Gale Galligan (272 Pages)

Synopsis: Cory's dance crew is getting ready for a major competition. It's the last one before they graduate eighth grade and go their separate ways to high schools all over New York City, so they have to make it count! The group starts to have problems as their crew captain gets increasingly intense about nailing the routine, and things go from bad to worse when Cory's parents ground him for not taking his grades seriously. He gets stuck with a new tutor, Sunna, who he dismisses as a boring nerd… until he catches her secretly practicing cool yo-yo tricks. Cory wants to learn the art of yo-yo, and as his friendship with Sunna grows, he ends up missing practice and bailing on his crew -- and they are not happy about it. With mounting pressure coming from all sides, how is Cory supposed to balance the expectations of his parents, school, dance, and his new friend?

Opinion: This is a Mark Twain Award Nominee for 2024-2025. I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The main characters, Cory and Sunna, are both very relatable. The book does a good job demonstrating the anxieties and hardships of being a kid while also demonstrating their resiliency. Overall, a good realistic fiction graphic novel read. Would recommend. 

Linked by Gordon Korman

Linked by Gordon Korman 246 pages Link, Michael, and Dana live in a quiet town. But it's woken up very quickly when someone sneaks into school and vandalizes it with a swastika. Nobody can believe it. How could such a symbol of hate end up in the middle of their school? Who would do such a thing? Because Michael was the first person to see it, he's the first suspect. Because Link is one of the most popular guys in school, everyone's looking to him to figure it out. And because Dana's the only Jewish girl in the whole town, everyone's treating her more like an outsider than ever. The mystery deepens as more swastikas begin to appear. Some students decide to fight back and start a project to bring people together instead of dividing them further. The closer Link, Michael, and Dana get to the truth, the more there is to face-not just the crimes of the present, but the crimes of the past. With Linked, Gordon Korman, the author of the acclaimed novel Restart, poses a mystery for all readers where the who did it? isn't nearly as important as the why? This is a juvenile chapter book, but I still enjoyed it. The mystery was well written, as Gordon Korman's work always is. The suspense of finding out the real identity of the vandal stretches throughout the book. This book addresses the Holocaust and the KKK, so there was some sensitive material, but I enjoyed the story as well as the author's note at the end.

Wink: Surviving Middle School with One Eye Open by Rob Harrell

Wink: Surviving Middle School with One Eye Open by Rob Harrell 315 Pages Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn't want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don't know what to say to "the cancer kid." But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table. Based on Rob Harrell's real life experience, and packed with comic panels and spot art, this incredibly personal and poignant novel is an unforgettable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting story of survival and finding the music, magic, and laughter in life's weirdness.' What a great story! I was impressed by how Rob Harrell told his own story, yet made it appeal to the middle school age group. He even included comics that he drew, through out the book. I think some of the details of the cancer and radiation treatments may be too much for elementary students, I know middle school students would understand it. I also liked the way he tied in a freindship between a boy and girl that was totally platonic and how some of his friends couldn't "handle" his sickness and didn't know how to act. All very real synerios. He even learns a new skill while facing this life changing illness. A very well written realistic fiction book.