2022 Schneider Family Middle-Grade Roundup: A Bird Will Soar, A Kind of Spark, Stuntboy in the Meantime

The Schneider Family Book Award is given by the American Library Association for outstanding books “that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience. Last week we posted our roundup of the winning title and honor titles in the picture-book category. This year’s award-winners for middle-grade readers all picture disabilities that are more fashionably called “neurodiversity” (autism, asperger’s, ADHD, etc.)

A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers. Dutton, 2021, 384 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for:

Axel Rastusak comes honestly by his passion for birds. His mother shares it–in fact, her name is Byrd–and his best friend Ray is adapt at sniffing them out and hunting them down. Yes, Ray is a dog, but we’re not talking about that kind of hunt. Axel thinks of his mother as an osprey, the best of bird moms, even if she doesn’t tell him everything he really needs to know. His dad (one of the things Axel would really like to know) is more like a wild turkey, who can’t seem to settle anywhere. A destructive tornado sweeping through their small Pennsylvania town throws everything out of whack, including the eagle’s nest Axel has been keeping an eye on. He finds one of the displaced eaglets and delivers it to a nearby raptor refuge, where he can track its progress. But it’s harder to track what his dad Frank is up to, even when Frank reappears to help repair the tornado damage.

A Bird Will Soar is strong on realistic family relationships, an autistic boy’s point of view, and bird lore. It’s weak, however, on narrative drive. The pacing, though thoughtful, is slow. The middle-grader may be rare who can read this book with steady absorption.

Consideration: The story prominently features an older same-sex couple, owners and residents of the property where Axel and his family live.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Award: Schneider Family Medal

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2021.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 11-13

Adelaide, or Addie, will readily admit she is autistic. Her older sister Keedie, also autistic, has gone before and knocked down some hurdles and prejudices in their small Scottish town. But it doesn’t help that Addie’s teacher this year is the same one her sister had years ago. Ms. Murphy refuses to understand any kind of “difference.” Twelve-year-old students should know how to write neatly and pay attention in class and not go off on tangents, and that’s final. Addie does go off on tangents about her latest interests, and a new topic in her history class captures all her attention: witches. Not the kind who fly around on brooms, but the ordinary women who were accused, convicted and executed during the 17^th-century witch hunts that swept over Scotland. She knows nothing of these women but a few names, but Addie can’t help feeling a kinship with those who were persecuted for being different. Like her, and her sister. Somehow, she needs to speak up for them.

Witches are not “real” in this story, certainly not as malevolent beings with satanic powers. Still, Addie’s affiliation with them feels a bit squirmy to Christians who accept the Bible’s testimony about malevolent forces at work in the world. The author, who defines herself as neurodivergent, effectively gets into Addie’s head and helps us understand how she thinks. We can sympathize with her concern for misunderstood women of the past, as well as the ways she is misunderstood by her classmates and teacher. I could do without the witches, though.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Award: Schneider Family Honor Book

Stuntboy, in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Raul the Third. Atheneum, 2021, 272 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 8-12

Portico Reeves, age 10, has an alter ego. But only one other person knows it: his new best friend Zola Brawner. In fact she gave him the name because of his amazing tricks, like the Zamarama Zigzag and the Plaster Blaster. The stunts are not just for show; some are useful for escaping villains like Herbert Singletary the Worst. Others work as distractions when Portico has the Frets. But some frets nothing can help, like when his parents are fighting over who gets to keep what and they tell him to leave the room in the meantime. It’s a mean time, all right, even though Portico doesn’t understand what it means. But there’s plenty of other stuff going on at skylight Gardens, where Apartment 4D houses Portico, his parents, his Gran Gran, and a cat named A New Name Every Day. The days are full of adventures and block parties and stunts (of course) but the parents keep finding objects to fight over until Portico finally understands the significance.

Portico’s disability is ADHA and anxiety disorder, but (for me, at least) the trauma of his parents’ divorce drives the story:

. . . apartment 4D, piece by piece, turned into giant piles of stuff like junk monsters stacked to the ceiling. Even the living room became a room with no living. And just when Portico thought divorce could get no worse, it got worse. Because the last thing to fight over was . . . him.

 It’s not all that gloomy: Portico’s misapprehensions provide plenty of chuckles, and the typically wild illustrations and comic inserts by Raul the Third make for a lively ride. There’s life around and during divorce, but this is a book I wish feuding parents would read.

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Award: Schneider Family Honor Book

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