Are you ready to face down phobias and middle school drama, go on a treasure hunt with a diabetic alert dog, visit a mysterious uncle and discover your amazing shadow powers, and put on a middle school production of Wicked? The Fall Edition 2021 of Bite-Size Book Reviews includes illustrious titles by Raina Telgemeier, Eve Yohalem, Alyssa Roat, Ali Stroker, and Stacy Davidowitz!
Guts
Food Group: Middle Grade
Flavor: Contemporary, graphic novel
Key Ingredients: Delightful artwork, relatable MC, normalizing counseling, facing phobias, the highs and lows of middle school dynamics
Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪
Allergy Warning: TW etemophobia
Chef's Note: As someone who deals with intense etemophobia myself, this book was like reading a biography of my middle school years, and it meant so much to me. If I could go back in time and gift a book to my younger self, it would be this one!
The Truth According to Blue
Food Group: Middle Grade
Flavor: Adventure, contemporary
Key Ingredients: Treasure hunt, type 1 diabetes awareness, brave girl who doesn't let health challenges stop of her from going on adventures, diabetic alert dog smartness and cuteness, enemies-to-frenemies-to-besties
Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪
Taste Test: You can check out The Truth According to Blue on Amazon or read my full review on Goodreads!
Wraithwood
Food Group: Young Adult
Flavors: Contemporary fantasy
Key Ingredients: Modern-day Arthurian legends, mysterious uncle, enchanting manor, awesome shadow powers, shy narrator coming into her own without losing who she is
Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪
The Chance to Fly
Food Group: Middle Grade
Flavors: Contemporary, musical
Key Ingredients: Middle school production of Wicked (my favorite musical!!!), MC who doesn't let her disability stop of her from pursuing her dream, first crushes, theatre love and appreciation
Cookie Rating: 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪
Taste Test: You can check out
Why "Bite-Size" Book Reviews?
These "bite-size" book reviews are a fun way for me to promote authors and provide short, tasty reviews for readers, but they're also a way for me to raise awareness for a debilitating digestive disease called gastroparesis.
People with gastroparesis have paralyzed stomachs. Severe cases (like myself) can only eat a few bites of food at a time, so we have to make those bites count! I hope these "bite-size" book reviews help feed your mind's appetite in the same way. You can learn more about gastroparesis by reading my blog post on Gastroparesis Awareness Month.
Kristiana Sfirlea is the author of Legend of the Storm Sneezer, a gold medalist of the Readers' Favorite Book Awards, finalist of the international Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and two-time finalist of the Realm Awards. Its sequel, Legend of the Rainbow Eater - which pays homage to the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise as well as Inception - came out August 3rd, 2021. Her short stories, featuring clueless zombies, undercover werewolves, grumpy ghosts, carriages pulled by headless chickens, and marriage counselors for fairy tale couples, have been published in numerous anthologies. She loves Jesus, her family, and imaginary life with her characters.