Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky is a wonderful hybrid of a regular middle-grade novel and a graphic novel, with illustrations vividly fleshing out all the silly, heartbreaking, and imaginative moments in this story. Eleven-year-old Jingwen has just moved to Australia with his mom and obnoxious little brother Yanghao, and he feels like he'll never fit in in his new home. Lonely and still processing the guilt of his last unkind words to his father before his father's death, Jingwen thinks things will start looking up if he can just make the thirteen cakes that were going to be on the menu at the bakery he and his dad dreamed of opening someday. The brothers begin stealthily baking a cake each night while their mom is at work and eating the entire thing to hide the evidence (which turns out to be less fun that you might imagine). As the secret grows and things spiral out of control, it's up to Jingwen to figure out a way to make things right. Pie in the Sky packs much more of an emotional wallop than I expected from a middle-grade novel, and the book will leave its readers with plenty to chew on when they've turned the last page. (Ages 8 to 12)