Letters, Lists, and Instant Messages: Epistolary Books for Middle Grade

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, by Kelly Jones, illustrated by Katie Kath
Nobody asked 12-year-old Sophie how she felt about moving from Los Angeles to the middle of nowhere California, to take over the farm her family has inherited from her great uncle. But money is tight, and Sophie knows she has to make the best of it. Soon after her arrival, she discovers one of the hens has a highly unusual superpower, a fact that makes life on the farm suddenly more interesting. Sophie is just beginning to adjust to her new life when somebody tries to steal her chickens. Now, she has to come up with a plan to keep her hens safe. Through letters, articles, and lists, we learn a little about poultry and a lot about Sophie.

Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks, by Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise
When the water fountain at Dry Creek Middle School springs a leak, the principal does what any principal would do: he contacts Flowing Waters Fountains and requests a catalog to order a replacement. The response he receives is not what he expects. All fountains, the designer claims, are custom made. Thus starts an exchange, and a project, that grows more out-of-control by the minute. Soon the school board is involved, and the media, and Mr. N’s class is digging up a font (ha! see what I did there?) of information about their town, mixed in with a little bit of scandal.

Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff, by Jennifer L. Holm and Elicia Castaldi
Ginny has plans for her seventh grade year, starting with the ten items on her to-do list. They range from the serious (“Get a dad”) to the more mundane (“Get pink sweater back!!”), and everything in between. But almost immediately her plans go off the rails. There’s friendship drama, the Hair Incident, and frog-throwing, just to name a few. Told through lists, instant messages, notes, and magazine articles, this is the story of one girl’s attempt to regain control when life doesn’t follow a neat and list.

Archie’s War: My Scrapbook of the First World War 1914-1918, by Marcia Williams
This historical fiction text is a picture book for older readers. When ten-year-old Archie receives a scrapbook from his uncle, he begins filling it with comics and snippets of his daily life. But when war breaks out, life changes and so does Archie’s scrapbook. His collections still include light anecdotal stories, but they also include a letters from the front, newspaper clippings, and reflections of how war has changed Archie’s London home.

Same Sun Here, by Silas House and Neela Vaswani
Meena is an immigrant, recently relocated from India to New York City’s Chinatown. River lives in rural Kentucky. When the two are paired through a school pen pal project, it seems unlikely that they would have anything in common. And at first, it’s only small similarities. But over time the two realize that they have more in common than they thought, though their lives look very different. As each experiences a tumultuous year, their friendship grows. A timely book, recognizing that differences are sometimes what brings us together.

P.S. I Miss You, by Jen Petro-Roy
When Evie’s older sister, Cilla, becomes pregnant, the girls’ religiously conservative parents send Cilla discreetly away to stay with a relative. Gutted by the loss of her sister, and forbidden to speak to her, Evie sends letters. The letters document the pain within their family, day-to-day life as a middle schooler, and Evie’s ongoing quest to discover who she is. Now, if only Cilla would answer those letters and give Evie the much-needed big sister advice she so desperately needs.