You're listening to All the Backlist, a weekly show about books that are not new.

I'm your host for the week, Tricia Brown, and this is episode number 427.5.

I hope that wherever you are on this late August day that you're doing all right, there

is a lot in the world to navigate these days, and I hope whatever waters and challenges

you are navigating are as clear and smooth as they can possibly be.

For my part, I'm in that odd transitional period between a last summer vacation and the

beginning of school, and I feel like even if you don't have kids, the beginning of school

feels like a season that you still can't really avoid.

School supplies and back-to-school photos on social media, again, no matter whether

or not you have kids, are the thing that kind of transitions many of us from that swimming

pool and sunscreen season to pumpkin spice latte season, and leaves falling and Halloween

costumes.

I definitely saw my first Halloween store out the other day, and in abandoned mall unsurprisingly.

I had that sort of summer-to-fall transition with that school piece shoved in the middle

of it in mind recently because I went on a family vacation, and I did not have the transition

in mind because the weather wasn't any way fall-like, it was 105 degrees, so it was really

more just the vibe of moving into fall, but it was also the fact that I was on vacation

with some of my favorite people, including my two 10-year-old nieces and my almost 13-year-old

nephew, and they are actually about to go back to school, so I was quizzing them about

what they're reading, mostly it was selfish because I have always had a love for middle

great books.

My mom, who is a fifth grade teacher, has collected newberry-winning books for as long as I can

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