These eight novels are a great way to help intermediate and/or middle-school readers imagine what it was like to live through various times in the past.

Scattergood
by H. M. Bouwman
Intermediate, Middle School    Porter/Holiday    320 pp.
1/25    9780823457755    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780823462308    $11.99

It’s June 1941 in West Branch, Iowa, and twelve-year-old Peggy’s summer becomes marked by two secrets. The first is that she’s fallen for Gunther, who is handsome, older (sixteen), and, most importantly, from away. A German Jew, Gunther is staying at a local refugee hostel run by Quakers. The second secret, involving Peggy’s cousin and close friend, Delia, is more complicated. Delia has leukemia and has at most six months to live, but this reality is being withheld from the sick girl, who believes that she’s simply anemic. The events of the summer and fall — first love, revelations at the hostel against a background of war — all play out within the context of Peggy’s guilt, anger, resentment, confusion, preemptive grieving, and doomed determination to “fix” her cousin. By the end of six months, she has confronted the difficult truth that the distinctions among stories, lies, and history are not as clear as she had assumed. Bouwman’s (Gossamer Summer, rev. 7/23) writing is crisp and specific, painting a convincing picture of rural life of the period, and she stays firmly in the consciousness of her spirited, questing, analytical, mathematically inclined heroine. SARAH ELLIS

Danilo Was Here
by Tamika Burgess
Intermediate, Middle School    Harper/HarperCollins    304 pp.
1/25    9780063159662    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063159686    $8.99

In this fast-paced historical novel, Danilo is a Black Panamanian living in a neighborhood destroyed by the United States’ invasion of Panama in 1989. Since the first night of the attack, life has become more and more difficult for him and his family. Papá left them prior to the military action in search of better opportunities in the States, but lately he hasn’t been calling or sending money home. As a former baseball player, Papá introduced Danilo to the game and nurtured his considerable talent, but in his absence, Danilo decides to stop playing. But then, ironically, Danilo’s skill as a baseball player provides him with the chance to reconnect with his father by playing and training in California for a few months. Ultimately, he must decide if he wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps to become a baseball player or pursue a different dream. Burgess has created a sympathetic character in Danilo, a kind, hardworking boy who has PTSD and copes with microaggressions and stereotyping in the U.S. The scenes involving baseball are particularly well written and feel authentic. This novel may hold special appeal for baseball fans, but one needn’t be an aficionado to enjoy the story. MARVA ANNE HINTON

The Secret of Honeycake
by Kimberly Newton Fusco
Intermediate    Knopf    368 pp.
1/25    9780593121771    $17.99
Library ed.  9780593121788    $20.99
e-book ed.  9780593121795    $10.99

In this novel set during the Great Depression, protagonist Hurricane, like the eye of the storm that raged during her birth, has a quiet center. She is shy, hesitant, and often unable to speak up among classmates and strangers. With her father killed in WWI and her mother dead from tuberculosis, Hurricane lives in the family’s remote coastal home with her beloved dog and her older sister, Bronte. But when Bronte also contracts tuberculosis and must go to a sanitarium, life changes. Hurricane’s great-aunt Claire swoops in from the city and takes the girl to live with her and her kind, multi-talented chauffeur/cook/housekeeper, Mr. Keats. Having married into money, Aunt Claire adopted many highfalutin ways to appease her now-deceased husband and now wants to force Hurricane into the mold of “proper” young lady — an image far removed from the girl’s freer spirit. When Mr. Keats discovers a stray cat, he and Hurricane slowly coax it into trusting them, a clear metaphor for the protagonist’s gradual acceptance of her new home, an acceptance not coincidently accompanied by the realization that she can speak for herself. Fusco takes her time developing the Depression-era setting and the backgrounds of each character, giving this heartwarming novel depth and authenticity. BETTY CARTER

The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown
by Elizabeth Laird
Intermediate, Middle School    MCB/Pan Macmillan    352 pp.
5/24    9781529075632    $18.99

Thirteen-year-old Charity Brown, youngest of four, is dealing with the lingering effects of polio and starting to question the beliefs and rules of her parents, who adhere to the precepts of a strict Christian sect. “We had to avoid places where the Devil might lurk, like cinemas, or those coffee bars with juke boxes that play wickedly sinful pop music.” The family’s plain, thrifty, and restrained domestic life changes drastically when the Browns come into an unexpected inheritance that includes a mansion and decide to set up a kind of hostel for the “weary and heavy-laden.” Set in postwar London, this narrative touches on antisemitism, racism, and the oppression of women but folds these issues deftly into a child-centered story of a spirited girl who feels inadequate, longs for a friend, is embarrassed by her parents’ behavior in public, and frets about how the idea of a loving God can be reconciled with the sorrows of the world. The tone here, warm and gently funny, matches the setting, as well-orchestrated scenes of family dinner disasters, a teenage brother with attitude, not having the right clothes, an adored auntie who is a bit “fast,” and a short-lived crush could have been plucked from a mid-twentieth-century children’s novel. A nuanced portrait of growing up outside the mainstream. SARAH ELLIS

Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings
by Dionna L. Mann
Intermediate    Ferguson/Holiday    208 pp.
8/24    9780823455553    $17.99
e-book ed.  9780823459261    $10.99

Mann sets this amiable story in 1930s Vinegar Hill, “a thriving African American business and residential community” outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Allie Lewis wants the best for her mama and thinks she needs a husband to help with financial worries and repairs. With her best friend, Jewel, she launches her “Man-for-Mama Plan.” Allie knows once her top choice, Mr. Johnson, tries her mama’s chicken and dumplings, a proposal is sure to follow. Unfortunately, Jewel moves away, leaving Allie to start fifth grade without her friend and someone to calm her attitude (her “inside heat”) around archrival and “NOT-friend” Gwen Turner. What’s more, her mother is proving to be uncooperative with Allie’s plans, and, worst of all, band teacher — and Gwen’s uncle! — Mr. Coles has expressed interest in Mama. The protagonist’s attempts to get the plan back on track have unexpected results, reminding her that maybe not having a plan can work out just as well. Allie is a likable character, and her humorous first-person narration, including detailed descriptions of her community, reflects her intense emotional highs and lows. Back matter includes an author’s note about the history of Vinegar Hill, lists of related books and films, and a link to a recipe for chicken and dumplings. EBONI NJOKU

Zia’s Story
by Shahnaz Qayumi; illus. by Nahid Kazemi
Intermediate    Tradewind    96 pp.
6/24    9781990598128    $15.95
Paper ed.  9781990598142    $12.95

Set during the rise of the Taliban in 1990s Kabul, Afghanistan, this story begins when young Zia’s father is taken away by the police. A sequence of violent acts ensues: the homes of his friends across the street are flattened in an explosion; the Taliban establish draconian measures that limit freedom, such as closing schools for girls and forbidding women from working. Compact prose captures a child’s experience while conveying a deeper, more haunting truth: “Dark nights without lights, cold rooms without heat, and endless gunshots. Blood on the street didn’t shock us anymore.” After furtively selling their belongings to raise money, Zia and his mother flee to Pakistan and find refuge when a religious school offers to not only teach Zia for free but also pay his mother a stipend. He eventually realizes that at this Islamic madrassa, students are being trained to carry out suicide missions. Mother and son finally immigrate to Canada, leaving behind a father whose fate is still unknown. Charcoal illustrations start each chapter, further setting the mood, often counterbalancing the beauty of the landscape and the safety of family against an increasingly hostile political environment. This haunting, sparely narrated novella packs a powerful punch. A historical note is appended, adding further context. JULIE HAKIM AZZAM

Will’s Race for Home
by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Intermediate    Little, Brown    208 pp.
1/25    9780316299336    $17.99
e-book ed.  9780316299541    $9.99

In this coming-of-age Western, twelve-year-old Will Samuels and his father, a stoic, formerly enslaved man, leave their sharecropper home in Texas for the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Along the way, they encounter Caesar, a Black former Union officer who makes the journey with them. The group encounters perils such as wild animals, gunslingers, and, most dangerous of all, former Confederate soldiers who are still fighting the war. Will and Father grow closer during the brutal trek. Eventually, circumstances force Will to show leadership and bravery to help his family lay claim to land. Rhodes’s storytelling is at its strongest during times of high drama, such as when Caesar is shot and when the trio traverses the treacherous Red River. The writing isn’t quite as successful during quieter moments, and the use of relatively modern terms such as “Black” and “enslaved” is a bit jarring in a historical novel. Still, readers who love adventure will find much to enjoy here, and the book would pair well with Cline-Ransome’s One Big Open Sky (rev. 3/24). An afterword addresses how the land rush was made possible by the subjugation of Indigenous people and links this fictional story with the Tulsa Race Massacre that saw racist whites kill successful Black residents, many of whose families participated in the 1889 land rush. MARVA ANNE HINTON

The Kid
by Jeff Schill
Intermediate, Middle School    Charlesbridge Moves    240 pp.
5/24    9781623543648    $17.99

It’s 1881 in Destiny, Colorado. Fourteen-year-old Henry Upton and his three younger brothers have just buried their father. Their mother passed away several years earlier, and now they must manage the homestead by themselves. Henry comes up with a plan to help them get by: he writes stories and sends them east to be published. These stories feature The Kid, a young hometown hero who thwarts a variety of evildoers; they are the product of Henry’s imagination, but he has passed them off as true stories — and they are successful beyond his wildest imagination. Indeed, his editor, Herbert (“pronounced air-bear. It’s French”), heads west to encourage him to write even more. Also headed west is Snake-Eye Sam, a would-be-notorious criminal who is newly escaped from an Arkansas prison and headed to Destiny for his own rendezvous with The Kid. Their narrative strands are interwoven with Henry’s main narrative and the occasional story about The Kid (in a typewriter-esque font). Henry and company ultimately prevail — for real, this time — but not without lots of adventure, dollops of humor, and a little bit of heart. There aren’t too many Westerns written for middle-grade and middle-school readers nowadays, but Schill’s debut is an entertaining genre entry. JONATHAN HUNT

From the March 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.