(Algonquin Young Readers)
Badger, a rock scientist without steady rock work, but most assuredly on the precipice of an Important Rock Discovery, lives in his Aunt Lulu’s brownstone, offered as a place for him to live, “until-you-get-back-on-your-feet” Aunt Lulu said, three years ago. And while Badger is aware of the many letters from Aunt Lulu that are piling up in the mail pail, he is most decidedly unaware that they contain advance notice of a new roommate, one who will undoubtedly wreak havoc on his most-settled routine. Skunk. Skunk, who also refers to the most gracious and generous owner of the brownstone as Aunt Lulu, since she insisted upon it, since he also was without a home, was implored to go and live with Badger, and she furthermore insisted they would become good-good-good-good-friends (Aunt Lulu, a pine marten, speaks awfully fast). In a tale as old as time, yet made fresh and new in this lovely and heartwarming telling, two very unlikely beings, thrown together in the haphazard way that life often does, begin a friendship in this most inauspicious manner, and learn, that by opening themselves up to new experiences, they can and do appreciate one another and grow in the most unexpected ways. An instant classic, for readers aged 8-12.
— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.
 

11 Modern, Middle Grade Classics
Hello, Universe, by Erin Entrada Kelly
Echo, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Bread and Roses, Too, by Katherine Paterson
Return to Sender, by Julia Alvarez
The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall
Pax, by Sara Pennypacker
The Inquisitor’s Tale, by Adam Gidwitz
Raymie Nightingale, by Kate DiCamillo
The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia
March, by John Lewis