Candy Bunny Reader

Summer is almost ending and school might have started, but you are never to late to read a cute summer romance with Deaf representation! Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino is about 17 year old Lilah, who has hearing loss (or as she will call it towards the end of the novel, "Deaf gain") and knows some sign language. She struggles a lot with lack of accommodations from her peers in the hearing world. The only place she's really felt like herself (although still feeling out of place sometimes) was at Camp Gray Wolf. It's a summer camp for kids and counselors with all sorts of disabilities.  Coincidentally, Lilah is trying to find a summer job, and she gets to be a junior camp counselor for Camp Gray Wolf. Being a camp counselor isn't easy, especially with the looming threat that their camp might get shut down due to lack of funding (they do start a fundraiser for it halfway through the book). But the highlight of her summer is Isaac--another counselor. As he tries to h...

 TW: Mention of a parent dying This is Morgan Matson's middle grade debut, and I had a blast with it!   Firefly Summer is about Ryanna, who lives with her father, who is a famous movie director, and stepmother. One day they get a letter in the mail from Ryanna's maternal grandparents, the Van Camps, whom she's never met. They want her to come to their vacation house to meet the rest of her late mom's side of the family. The vacation house happens to be situated it what was formerly a summer camp site, that was also owned by the Van Camps. Ryanna's father is a little relunctant to send her at first since he had a falling out with his in-laws after his wife's death, but when he sees a note in the letter that it might be the last summer the Van Camps might be able to get together as a family, he agrees to send Ryanna. It coincidentally happens to be around the same time he has to go to Hungary to film a new movie, too.  When Ryanna gets there, things get off to a...

  My second book from Jen Wang ! The first book I read from her was The Prince and the Dressmaker , a long time ago. You can read that review here . Ash's Cabin follows Ash, a transgender mixed-race teenager who wants to find and restore their eccentric grandfather's old cabin, which is very isolated from the world. Ash gets a bunch of books from the library and watches a bunch of YouTube videos to learn how to survive in the wild. They also raise money through dog walking so they can buy supplies for camping and food. They are finally able to go on the trip when the rest of their family goes to Disneyland. Ash stays with their aunt and uncle and cousin first (who have their own house out in the country) before going to the cabin. When the aunt, uncle and cousin go on their own trip later, Ash lies about staying in their house so they can go find their grandfather's cabin. Camping out and restoring an old cabin isn't easy! But Ash and their dog Chase find surprises alon...

Another classic middle grade! My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is about a preteen boy named Sam, who got fed up with life in his small apartment with his big family in New York City, and he decides to go to the Catskill mountains and try to find the parcel of land that once belonged to his great grandfather. He finds it and ends up living off of the land for about a little over a year. Each chapter is detailed on how he lives in the wilderness, from hunting to berry picking to making clothes to keeping himself warm with fires. Sam learned everything from books he read at the library. He also becomes friends with some of the wild animals, such as a falcon he names Frightful. He even meets other humans that happen to cross his path, such as an English professor who initially got lost. Despite living almost isolated, he ends up becoming  famous in the community. Well, I'll tell you right now that I just gave it 4 stars . It was an enjoyable book, but it wasn't an...