Being Baxters by Karen Kingsbury and Tyler Russell

In this fifth novel of the Baxter family children’s series, author Karen Kingsbury and her son, Tyler Russell, highlight the early years of the mature Baxter children, first introduced in Kingsbury’s Christian adult fiction. 

The five Baxter children and their parents moved from Michigan to Bloomington, Ind., and the siblings have slowly adapted to their new school. But still, challenges remain. Eighth-grader Brooke experiences the barbs of a mean girl. Kari, in sixth grade, is excited to learn that she has been given the solo in a dance recital, only to learn that it isn’t quite as prestigious as she’s been bragging about to her family and friends. Ashley, a year younger than Kari, is funny and loveable, except for the times she oversteps social boundaries and humiliates herself. Erin, younger by two years than Ashley, has to adjust to new glasses and deal with being called names because of them. And second-grader Luke is worried that his class trip to see the Harlem Globetrotters will be canceled because of an impending blizzard-of-the-century, predicted by Farmers’ Almanac. Throughout it all, Ashley has one goal—that at least one of the Baxter children will win a character award, given each week in a school assembly.   

In Being Baxters, middle-grade readers will encounter parents who love and guide their children in godly living and children who feel secure in the love of God and their parents. (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books)