So many of us grew up reading Judy Blume books, and her stories can still resonate with kids today.
But there are many other great coming of age novels for young teens, and Anthony Ascione, with Brilliant Books in Traverse City, has a few suggestions to share.
‘Merci Suárez Changes Gears’ by Meg Medina
“Great middle school book, I would say,” Ascione says. “(It) follows the story of Merci Suarez, who lives with her extended family in Florida. She is at a new school that she doesn’t necessarily like. It’s sort of a preppy private school. She’s a scholarship kid, she has to do a bunch of community service to keep her scholarship, and she doesn’t want anyone to find out. And it’s just her dealing with life and the things that come with middle school; mean classmates. And she was the new kid, and part of that is that she has to mentor someone in the school and she doesn’t want to do that because she didn’t find the experience very fun. Meanwhile there are some family things happening with her grandfather and his health, and she has to deal with that, and her family has to deal with that around her. Not as light and adventurey, but it hits home in a lot of ways and it will for a lot of people. A really good coming of age book, I think, for the younger set. It’s been compared to Judy Blume’s Superfudge Series, which is a series I loved as a kid and reading this, I definitely felt that same sense of, oh yeah, I remember being 1 and feeling like this at school. Yeah I enjoyed this one a lot as well.”
‘The Splintered Light’ by Ginger Johnson
And if you’re looking to bring the gift of reading to that pre-teen in your life, Ascione has another suggestion.
Here’s how you can take a child into the vibrant and colorful world of Splintered Light.
“This one, ‘The Splintered Light,’ is a very sweet, very fun story about a boy who tends a farm with his mother,” Ascione says. “His father was killed in an accident, his brother has gone off someplace and no one really tells him where he is, just that he’s not coming back. And one day when he’s tending to his chores in the barn, he starts seeing something funny with the light. And then he finds out what he’s seeing is actually colors. It’s not only a fun story, but it made me think about my own perceptions of the world and how I experience life, and I really enjoyed this one. It’s adventure and magical, it will appeal to anyone who likes those things. It’s also arty, he and his brother are using their skill with colors to make these fantastic worlds that are their own things. They get to do projects that are sort of master’s projects and it’s to prove they’ve gotten to the degree that they can actually go out into the world and do these things. So part of the story is him going out to do his project and the process he goes through with that. It’s really neat, I like this one a lot.”
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
