Can You Crack the Code? by Ella Schwartz

Schwartz introduces a number of different ways that people could hide messages using numbers, switching letters, or even creating machines. Each chapter focuses on one way to create a code and then provides examples for the reader to try. Weaving a bit of fun with history, this is a book I would have devoured as a middle schooler.

Three stars
This book came out March 26
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

A Monster Like Me by Wendy S. Swore

This was in the genre "childrens" and has a cover that looks like a picture book. Nope. This book is over 300 pages long. Over. Three. Hundred. I was not expecting that.
That being said, this is a pretty cute story about a kid with a blood tumor on her face. She's dealing with the kind of crap that happens when you look different externally. It begins to affect Sophie internally; she knows that there are monsters in the world because she herself is one, created by her tumor.
She does get to make some friends and learns that she might just be a little bit more human than she thinks.
I wouldn't have put this book in the kids category; more middle school unless it's something you read out loud with your kiddo and then talk about with them.

Three and a half stars
This book came out March 5
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Mabel Opal Pear and the Rules for Spying by Amanda Hosch

Mabel Opal Pear is not your ordinary almost-11-year-old. For one thing, her parents are spies. For another, she's a spy-in-training. She knows immediately that something is wrong when her parents disappear and her Aunt Stella, Uncle Frank, and Cousin Victoria show up. Victoria is mean, Frank is clueless and Stella is something else. Normally Aunt Gertie takes care of Mabel but she's in jail. So it's up to Mabel to not only run the family spoon museum but also figure out the mystery.
I couldn't quite get into Mabel's world. I'm not sure where the connection was missing. It seemed like a serviceable story with some interesting world-building but... not for me.

Three stars
This book comes out August 1