Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion

I wish so much that this book had been around when I was a bug-obsessed kid biking around the neighborhood with my friends! It’s an awesome middle grade sci-fi story filled with friendship, scientific thinking and mystery. As an adult reader, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Ruby is a well rounded, clever, r......more

Thoroughly enjoyed. A range of smart kids, all smart in different ways. A great investigation and a really nice portrayal of how a community works (and doesn't work). Particularly effective in the ways it depicts the racism that Ruby encounters and the modelling and push back her parents engage in. M......more

I read this work for Norton Award consideration, and I found it to be a fun read! Though it felt a bit slow to get going, I really loved Ruby, her family, and the tight-knit neighborhood children. There was a wonderful sense of community. The interstellar invasion delivered some nice surprises in th......more

This was so much fun. I loved the emphasis on science, but not the usual STEM stuff that we see like coding or engineering or catch-all ‘I’m tinkering in my lab’ stuff. I’m all for STEM learning, however, most of the framing is low-key just about future job opportunities. Middle grade books about gi......more

First sentence: Ruby loved bugs. She loved the cool-looking ones and the creepy ones and the pretty ones and the huge ones. The ones with six legs and eight legs and a thousand legs and no legs. She loved looking at them and talking about them and learning about them and picking them up. That last o......more