A Rover's Story book review

"I love this book. It is my best friend’s favorite book in the world, and I can see why. "

#iLoveMG is my continuing series where I share middle grade books recommended by my fifth graders. (Please note that my fifth graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for fifth graders.) For younger readers, #3rdfor3rd for recommendations from when I taught third grade.

A Rover's Story

Recommended by Tenny

The book I have reviewed is called A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga. It is told from the perspective of a NASA Mars rover, and I find that very interesting. The rover’s name is Resilience. Resilience isn't the name of a real rover, but it is inspired by real Mars rovers Perseverance and Opportunity. Resilience can hear what the humans (Resilience calls them “hazmats”) say, but only other robots can hear what Resilience says. He is accompanied by a helicopter named Fly that lives inside him most of the time and a satellite that helps to guide him. 

But Mars is more dangerous than it seems. For example, what if Resilience gets caught in a dust devil? What if he gets stuck in rough terrain and stops being able to move? Resilience must do all he can to avoid the dangers of Mars and not go offline, all while collecting rock samples and attempting to bring a previous Mars rover online. 

I love this book. It is my best friend’s favorite book in the world, and I can see why. If I were to rate this book, I would give it five stars. I think it is quite an unusual book for a few reasons. One of them is because it is told from the perspective of a Mars rover. I would definitely recommend this book to many people, especially people who are interested in realistic fiction.

Click here for all of our #iLoveMG posts. What are your favorite middle grade books?

The Way I Say It book review

#iLoveMG is my continuing series where I share middle grade books recommended by my fifth graders. (Please note that my fifth graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for fifth graders.) For younger readers, #3rdfor3rd for recommendations from when I taught third grade.

The Way I Say It

Recommended by Nushi

My book is called The Way I Say It by Nancy Tandon. The genre is realistic fiction. It is about a boy named Rory who has a speech impediment. He can’t say his r’s and he gets bullied a lot. This book is set in Lakeville, Connecticut. 

His old best friend, Brent, even bullies him now. Brent and Rory are not friends anymore because Brent started getting new friends. Rory likes his new speech therapist because they both like rock music. But Brent gets into a bad bike accident and goes to the hospital for a head injury. Brent comes back and has to go to the same speech therapist as Rory, but Rory doesn’t like that. Brent’s friends now bully him because he is not normal anymore. Rory and Brent do a group project together and become closer. Rory keeps practicing his r sounds and on the last day of school, he can say his own name. 

This is a good book because it is about standing up for yourself. I find it a little predictable in some spots but otherwise it's a nice book. I give this book a rating of 4 /5 stars.

Click here for all of our #iLoveMG posts. What are your favorite middle grade books?