Latest Middle grade nonfiction Podcast Episodes
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - October 06, 2021 16:00 - 3 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Crossover written by Kwame Alexander and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Thirteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. The Crossover was awarded the Ne...
Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - September 29, 2021 16:00 - 10 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Island of Thieves written by Josh Lacey and published by Houghton Mifflin. Tom goes with his Uncle Harvey to Peru, where they narrowly escape imprisonment and death as they hunt for buried treasure after tracking down a journal written by John Drake, a young relative of...
If We Were Giants by Dave Matthews and Clete Barrett Smith
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - September 22, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of If We Were Giants written by Dave Matthews and Clete Barrett Smith and published by Hyperion. Fourteen-year-old Kirra must summon the courage to face her own mistakes before she can help save her peaceful community from a gigantic threat. If We Were Giants is recommen...
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - September 08, 2021 16:00 - 3 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Explorer written by Katherine Rundell and published by Simon & Schuster. Left stranded in the Amazon jungle when their plane crashes on their way back to England from Manaus, Brazil, four children struggle to survive for days until one of them finds a map that lead...
Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - September 01, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar and published by Katherine Tegen Books. You’ve never seen Earth like this before: continents reshaped, oceans re-formed, cities rebuilt, and mountains sculpted anew. Dinosaurs roam the plains alongside...
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - August 25, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, published by Levine Querido. At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But, no one believes a word he says. To them he i...
Brother from a Box by Evan Kuhlman
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - August 18, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Brother from a Box by Evan Kuhlman published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Matt Rambeau is officially a big brother—to a robot! Matt’s super-computer-genius dad is always getting cool tech stuff in the mail, but the latest box Matt opens contains the most impress...
Lupe Wong Won't Dance by Donna Barba Higuera
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - August 11, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Lupe Wong Won’t Dance written by Donna Barba Higuera and published by Levine Querido. Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy ... like expanding the options for race on school...
The Riverman by Aaron Starmer
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - August 04, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Riverman by Aaron Starmer and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Twelve-year-old Alistair Cleary lives in a town where everyone knows each other. One afternoon, his neighbor, Fiona, shows up at Alistair's doorstep with a strange proposition. She wants him to wr...
The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - July 28, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Key to Extraordinary written by Natalie Lloyd and published by Scholastic Press. Twelve-year old orphan Emma Casey lives by a haunted graveyard in her Tennessee town, giving tours, and helping her brother and Granny Blue with the family bakery, and waiting for the d...
The Moon Within by Aida Salazar
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - July 21, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Moon Within written by Aida Salazar and published by Scholastic Inc. Celi Rivera is an 11-year-old who is experiencing some new changes in her life. Her body is changing, she’s attracted to a boy for the first time, and her best friend is exploring what it means to ...
The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - July 14, 2021 16:00 - 25 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Worst Class Trip Ever written by Dave Barry and published by Hyperion. When the eighth grade civics class of Miami's Culver Middle School goes on a trip to Washington, D.C., Wyatt Palmer finds himself in deep trouble before the plane even lands because his best frie...
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - July 07, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller, published by Random House Books for Young Readers. When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni's Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history...
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - June 30, 2021 16:00 - 5 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, published by Scholastic Press. When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra and Calder together, strange things start to happen. Seemingly unrelated events begin to connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; and an in...
Guest: A Changeling Tale by Mary Downing Hahn
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - June 23, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Guest: A Changeling Tale by Mary Downing Hahn and published by Clarion Books. When her adorable baby brother is replaced by an ugly, ill-tempered changeling, Mollie is determined to find the so-called Kinde Folke who took Thomas, return the changeling she calls Guest, a...
Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - June 16, 2021 16:00 - 9 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Girl Giant and the Monkey King written by Van Hoang and published by Roaring Brook Press. Eleven-year-old Thom Ngho is keeping a secret: she's strong. Like suuuuper strong. Freakishly strong. And it's making it impossible for her to fit in at her new middle school. In a...
Flunked by Jen Calonita
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - June 09, 2021 16:00 - 11 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Flunked by Jen Calonita and published by Sourcebooks Young Readers. Gilly wouldn't call herself wicked, exactly. But when you have five little brothers and sisters and live in a run-down boot, you have to get creative to make ends meet. Gilly's a pretty good thief (if s...
Finn and the Intergalactic Lunchbox by Michael Buckley
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - June 02, 2021 16:00 - 13 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Finn and the Intergalactic Lunchbox written by Michael Buckley and published by Delacorte Press. When Earth is threatened by an invading race of bugs called the Hunger, 11-year-old Finn, his arch-nemesis, Lincoln, his crush, Julep, and one pink unicorn lunchbox become E...
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - May 26, 2021 16:00 - 15 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston and published by Balzer and Bray. Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he ...
Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudi Trueit
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - May 19, 2021 16:00 - 14 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudi Trueit and published by Under the Stars. Cruz leaves his tranquil home in Hawaii to join 23 talented kids from around the globe to train at the Explorer Academy with the world's leading scientists to become the next generati...
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - May 12, 2021 16:00 - 20 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Written in Bone : Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland written by Sally M. Walker and published by Carolrhoda Books. Bright white teeth. Straight leg bones. Awkwardly contorted arm bones. On a hot summer day in 2005, Dr. Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Inst...
The Smartest Kid in the Universe by Chris Grabenstein
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - May 05, 2021 16:00 - 10 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Smartest Kid in the Universe written by Chris Grabenstein and published by Random House. When seventh-grader Jake McQuade mistakes the world's first ingestible knowledge pills for jelly beans, he suddenly knows all about physics and geometry and can speak Swahili (...
The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly by Rebecca K.S. Ansari
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - April 28, 2021 16:00 - 6 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly written by Rebecca K.S. Ansari and published by Walden Pond Press. Charlie O’Reilly is an only child. Which is why it makes everyone uncomfortable when he talks about his brother, Liam. Up until a year ago, Liam slept in the bunk ab...
The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - April 21, 2021 16:00 - 9 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Good Thieves written by Katherine Rundell and published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. In 1920s New York City, Vita recruits some new friends, a pickpocket and two circus performers, to help recover an emerald from her grandfather's mansion in upstat...
Bernard Pepperlin by Cara Hoffman
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - April 14, 2021 16:00 - 4 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Bernard Pepperlin by Cara Hoffman and published by HarperCollins. When the drowsy Dormouse from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is transported to modern-day New York City, he's in for the adventure of a lifetime. After he uncovers a plot by some weasels...
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - April 07, 2021 16:00 - 12 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini written by Sid Fleischman and published by Greenwillow Books. A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death. Profiling his early years, person...
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - March 31, 2021 16:00 - 5 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger, and published by Abrams. Dwight, the weirdest kid in the sixth grade, has started talking to his classmates via an origami finger puppet of Yoda. But, as though that wasn't weird enough, origami Yoda actually seems t...
The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - March 24, 2021 16:00 - 8 minutesEnjoy our presentation of The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles, published by Versify. Otto and Sheed are the local sleuths in their zany Virginia town, masters of unraveling mischief using their unmatched powers of deduction. And as the summer winds down and the first day of school looms, ...
Mermaid Kingdom: Secrets Beneath the Sea by Janet Gurtler
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - March 17, 2021 16:00 - 12 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Mermaid Kingdom: Secrets Beneath the Sea by Janet Gurtler and published by Stone Arch Books. Like most 12-year-old girls, Shyanna, Rachel, and Cora deal with the daily dramas of growing up. Unlike most 12-year-old girls, they deal with it underwater as mermaids. Mermai...
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Calvert Library's Book Bites for Kids - March 10, 2021 17:00 - 5 minutesEnjoy our presentation of Bomb : the Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon written by Steve Sheinkin and published by Roaring Brook Press. The fascinating and frightening true story of the creation of the most destructive force in the world. Recounts the scientific discoverie...
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