Beyond the Shelves: Back to School

Beyond the Shelves: A Podcast from the Des Moines Public Library

Jes and Sarah are taking us back to middle school this month! They're talking about some of their favorite books from when they were in middle school and giving you some readalikes for those books today!

Show Notes

Middle School Books and Readalikes Weetzie Bat, by Francesca Lia Block

• One Last Stop, by Casey McQuiston
• Stray City, by Chelsey Johnson

Shadow Children series, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

• How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue
• War Girls, by Tochi Onyebuchi

Fear Street series, by R.L. Stine

• My Heart is a Chainsaw, by Stephen Graham Jones
• Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle

Island series, by Gordon Korman

• Into the Jungle, by Erica Ferencik
• The River, by Peter Heller

The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney

• Dear Child, by Romy Hausmann
• A Girl Named Anna, by Lizzy Barber

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg

• Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by C. Alan Bradley

What We're Reading

• The Wallflower Wager, by Tessa Dare
• Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon, by Melissa L. Sevigny
• How Can I Help You, by Laura Sims
• Thornhedge, by T. Kingfisher
• The Forest Brims Over, by Maru Ayase; translated by Haydn Trowell

First Dibs

• A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food, by Will Harris
• Say You'll Be Mine, by Naina Kumar

Best Bets

• Fight Night, by Miriam Toews
• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw