I am so excited to share this book today, because it represents a wonderful first. It was recommended to me by my 11-year-old, Two. She read it, told me about it, then she left it on my book pile and told me I should read it, because it was that good.

She tells me about books all the time, and she is a voracious reader, but this is the first time she was so direct with a recommendation. And true to her word, it was a great book.

My Year In The Middle, by Lila Quintero Weaver, takes place in 1970 in Alabama, right after the schools there were desegregated. It takes place over the course of a school year, focusing on Lu Olivera, a sixth grader, and her class. While the story is fictional, the cultural and historical details are real (although they didn’t happen exactly the year the book took place). Like the best historical fiction, it has an engaging storyline and was so believable that I had a hard time knowing what was history and what was fiction.

The book addresses race, politics, fear, identity, and friendship. The book’s chapters effectively had me reading on to the next one. When I got a chance to read, I had difficulty finding a place where I could stop. There’s also some good, old-fashioned 6th grade romance, which was paced just right.

I ended up playing some of the music mentioned in the book for Two (Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” a personal favorite of mine), and having to look some of it up for myself. Who were Sly and the Family Stone? Would I know them if I heard their music? (Yep, I recognized them when I heard them). To their credit, my daughters wanted to know how I knew the music if I wasn’t alive then.

The storytelling in this book was so good that learning more about the time period was effortless. I enjoyed it all the way through to the end, and I was sorry when it was over.

If you have middle grade-aged girls, or enjoy reading middle grade or YA lit (with the right book, it’s all the good writing without the explicit content of grown up lit), this is a great choice. It could also make a great read-aloud. It is thought-provoking and engaging and I truly enjoyed reading it, even more because it was the beginning of what I hope is a lifetime of sharing books back and forth with my daughter.