S. J. Terra

A book every middle-school teacher should have in their libraries!
I read this book on KU, and as a person who went to college for childhood edu ages birth-6th grade, I think this book would be an amazing read for middle schoolers. It feels like franklin (turtle tv show) and Judy Moody collaborated to write a mystery book with relatable animal/mutant characters. And, just like Zootopia, this book broaches difficult topics, raising awareness about the hard world to young readers, without making it too gruesome. Yes (spoiler) there is even a character sold by her own father- but the book focuses more on how the characters support each other through these traumatic, horrific events- so there is a silver lining even in the dark moments of the book.
As for the plot: it is easy to follow and the mystery is at the perfect level for a young audience. Enough to keep them in suspense, but not so much that they get confused. It is written in 3rd person, and jumps between several POVS, but the character voices never bled together. It is had to pull off such a large cast, without character voices blending together.
Lastly, I can tell the author has a lot of experience with children. You can tell by the way she writes the young characters. They feel real, not like cartoon caricatures.

A fun read! Great engaging characters and a good story line that made it hard to put down. Thoughtful themes to make you think of how we judge others and our willingness to be open minded.
Loved the specific differences that each character had and it was fun to visualize what each character would look like.