Summer Road Trip! 5 Middle Grade Books Set in Arizona, California, New Mexico, New York & Maine

Saving Lucas Biggs, by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague (Arizona)
This book opens with the Honorable Judge Biggs sentencing 13-year-old Margaret O’Malley’s father to death (nothing like jumping right into the action!). Margaret knows her father is innocent, and that politics in the town are corrupt, but to prove it she has to journey back to 1938, using a family “quirk” her father has warned her against. Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, and the only way to get to the truth is to find out what happened to the young Lucas Biggs to make him the angry, bitter man he is today. What she discovers is the mining history of her hometown of Victory, Arizona: A history that includes arson, murder, lies, and coverups. In order to save her father, Margaret will have to change history, but history doesn’t like to change. In fact, history fights back and Margaret may or may not make it back to the present day in one piece.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier (California)
For the middle grade graphic novel enthusiast, this is a must read. This semi-autobiographical story tells the tale of an adolescent Raina, who falls on the way home from a Girl Scout meeting one night, knocking out her two front teeth. Because nothing says “popular” like a middle schooler with two missing front teeth, what follows is the physical trauma of several years of repair, and the emotional trauma of trying to survive middle school amidst surgeries, headgear, braces, and even fake teeth. Not to mention first crushes, broken friendships, family drama, and even the historic San Francisco earthquake of 1989. It’s a brutally honest portrayal of what it means to be an adolescent, told with the humor of one who has survived it and lived to tell the tale.

Kepler’s Dream, by Juliet Bell (New Mexico)
It’s summer, but for 11-year-old Ella, this hardly means freedom. Her mom has been hospitalized for a risky cancer treatment. Her absentee father, an outdoor travel guide, is on yet another one of his fishing trips and can’t be bothered to take care of his daughter. So Ella has been shipped off to Albuquerque to spend the summer with a grandmother she’s never met. Violet von Stern (whom Ella appropriately nicknames “General Major” or “GM”) seems to care for little other than her amazing library. Between the heat, the rules, the boredom, and the fear that her mother may die while she’s gone, it’s looking like it’s going to be a very long summer. But when a precious antique book is stolen from her grandmother’s library, Ella and newfound friend Rosie take it upon themselves to find the book and return it to its owner. Their search reveals family secrets, a whole lot of heartache, and the strong will needed to survive it all.

Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin (New York)
Fifth-grader Rose Howard loves homophones. She collects them, in fact, and clings to them when life gets a little rocky; which seems to happen a lot. At school, Rose insists on people following the rules. She has a hard time reading social cues, and others’ emotions confuse her. At home, Rose’s single-parent alcoholic father doesn’t understand why Rose just won’t try harder to be “normal”, why she can’t just get along with the other kids, and why, for heaven’s sake, she’s so obsessed with her stupid homophone list. So Rose takes comfort in three things: her homophones, her Uncle Weldon, and her dog Rain, whom her father found late one night outside the bar. Then there’s a violent storm, and Rain goes missing. When everybody else has given up on finding Rain, Rose and her Uncle Weldon stick with it, driving all over in the truck, putting up signs, and calling animal shelters. Readers will cheer when Rose and Rain are finally united. But with that reunion comes an unexpected surprise, and Rose faces a hard decision: does she follow the rules, or does she follow her heart?

Listening for Lucca, by Suzanne LaFleur (Maine)
13-year-old Siena’s parents have moved Siena and her 3-year-old brother, Lucca, from Brooklyn to Maine. Lucca hasn’t spoken in a year and a half, and Siena is plagued by dreams. Some of those dreams, like the one about the house on the ocean cliff, are mysterious. Others, like those with images of war, are terrifying. Because of the dreams, Siena has grown apart from her friends and begun obsessively collecting abandoned objects. Enough is enough, her parents decide. It’s time for a fresh start. But when the family pulls up to the seaside house in Maine, Siena recognizes it as the house from her dreams. If that’s not creepy enough, the old house has a haunted feel, and Siena’s suspicions only increase when she finds a pen that magically writes on its own. With the help of the pen, Siena unravels the story of Sarah, who lived in the house during WWII, and her older brother Joshua. As Siena settles into her new home, even making friends, Sarah’s story pulls her deeper into the past, until the two world’s collide in one very dramatic and heartfelt ending.
Happy travels! What states will you be visiting this summer?