Fantasy is the genre I return to again and again, but these realistic middle grade picks are all books I’m excited to share with you!

Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy. Read by the author. Balzer + Bray, 2022. ISBN 978-0063091924 Listened to audiobook on Libby. 

Nikhil’s story opens with a bang, as he’s accepting an award for his long-standing role as the star of a wildly popular animated series, Raj Reddy in Outer Space. Things get rockier as his mother moves them from California to small-town Ohio to help care for his sick grandfather. Now, not only does he have to adjust to a new school, but he also has to deal with his grandfather’s traditional Indian views around homosexuality. At school, joining the drama club seems like a natural fit – but studio voice acting is a whole lot different from getting up on stage in front of people. Managing his stage fright is even more complicated by his having a crush on one of the other drama club members, and again when local parents find out he’s gay and start protesting the “homosexual agenda”. And on top of everything else, puberty is coming – which feels like death for a kid whose identity revolves around playing a kid with a kid’s voice. Can Nikhil figure out who he is without Raj Reddy – and even more importantly, stand up for himself?

Writing all these elements down makes it sound like a very serious story, but Nikhil is an energetic, lighthearted type despite the angst. This book is filled with so much hilarity that I laughed out loud constantly at Nikhil’s physical and verbal missteps. There are some tear-jerking moments as Nikhil and his grandfather develop their relationship, and a sweet, low-key romance. Maulik Pancholy reads this book perfectly, as someone with enough similar experiences, including the voice acting. And if you haven’t already, be sure to go back to read his The Best at It.

On Air with Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. Read by Bahni Turpin. Harper Audio, 2023. ASIN B0B1N73K1R. Listened to audiobook on Libby. 

Zoe might have expected life to just keep on getting better after she proved her incarcerated father’s innocence in From the Desk of Zoe Washington. But even though her dad is now out of prison, the road to a normal life is a long one, with many barriers. Many people don’t want to hire or give an apartment to someone who was in prison – he has no work or credit history, even if he was ultimately proven innocent. And while he’s content to accept things as they are, Zoe isn’t. When she learns of his dream to start his own restaurant with her, she’s determined to make it happen. It will take possibly even more effort, learning, and help from her friends and family to make a plan and find the funding. Along the way, she – and we – learn more about the many difficulties faced by all people trying to build a life after prison.

As with the first book, Marks does a great job of blending these serious topics with Zoe’s relationships balancing her old friendships as things shift, making a new friend, and trying to maintain the bond she’s always had with the stepfather she considers her dad while building a new one with Marcus, her biological father. Zoe’s using a podcast to help spread the word about her efforts, and the details about technology and building an audience will interest young readers who want to spread their own stories through this popular medium. All in all, this is another engaging story about a young women I’d be happy to keep reading about.

The Many Masks of Andy Zhou by Jack Cheng. Dial Books, 2023. ISBN 978-0525553823. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.

Andy’s lived a safe, predictable life for quite some time now.  And then, going into sixth grade, lots of things change all at once.  His father’s parents, Hao Bu and Ah Dia, come to visit from Shanghai.  His best friend, Cindy, whose family shares a duplex with his, decides that they should both bleach their hair and try out for the Movement club at school – neither of which Andy is really interested in.  And for the first time, Andy and Cindy don’t have all their classes together.  In science, he’s paired with a Khaldean boy named Jameel, who is at first the bane of his existence, calling Andy “Irish” for his orange hair.  

All of these changes – any one of them probably manageable on their own – swirl into the pattern of this life, causing a string of further changes. Andy develops anxiety with a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) – but also he slowly builds new friendships, learns things about people he thought he knew, develops his own artistic skills, and begins slowly to push his family towards talking about the difficult things they’ve always avoided.  There’s a lot going on, yet all of it feels real, without the complexity of real life stripped down to focus on just one big problem.  It deals with several weighty topics, including bullying, discrimination, eating disorders, and family health problems while still having many threads of joy, laughter, and connection.  I also loved and recognized the distinctive metro Detroit setting, with its landmarks, snack foods, and ethnic mix.  Also, the movement teacher goes unremarked by the prefix Mx., which is awesome. This is just all-around good, and reminds me a little of 2021 Cybils Finalist Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas.