This is a collection of 9 stories from the author, some new and some previously published. I would consider them upper MG due to some language, but they're thoughtful, thought-provoking, and would be excellent to read and discuss in a classroom. There are very few collections of short stories for middle grade readers, and these are both relatable and well-written.

I received this book from Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Canadian author, Tim Wynne-Jones is an award-winning writer for children. In this collection, he writes of scenarios common to young people with real life situational dilemmas. He tackles political agendas, bullying, looking war (Vietnam), dementia, with well written prose. His style is straightforward and simple which will endear him to the middle grade year group of readers.
Good for raising questions about political and difficult topics with children.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the writing style.

This is a compilation of short stories with a mix of already published work and new work. I enjoyed a few of the stories, especially the first one "War at the Snow White Motel". I liked the bit of humor, the characters, and the resolution. The intent of a short story is for the author to play around with themes, characters, and such but to not commit to a lengthier story, but I'd love to have read more about the first story! As for the others, it was a hit or miss for me. I personally did not care for the stories that spewed inappropriate language (at least 3 different foul words/phrases). For this, I would not recommend this book for my younger middle graders but would suggest for kids around 8th grade and up. I did enjoy the author's note at the end that shared what made him write each of the short stories. it gives the reader a better understanding since each story is separate on its own.

I want to thank NetGalley and Groundwork Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I have gone back and forth rating this book and would land on 2.5. I really liked the last two excellent short stories and the first story was very good. The others were average. It is great to add a short story anthology to this year's books for midde schoolers and teens. I adored Scary Stories for Little Foxes. These nine stories to not weave together like that book. The main reason that I lowered this rating to a 2 is because of some of the language in the the middle short stories. There are several curse words that are used and were completely unnecessary. I don't mind it when authors use curse words in middle grade novels when the scene or characters need it to be authentic. These stories did not need it and certainly the word p---y was not needed. Students are already bombarded with crass language and using this type of language did not help the story telling and therefore should not have been used. I would not recommend this book to readers younger than 7th or 8th grades because of the language.

I thought the short stories were pretty good. They were very different from each other. It would have helped to read one story and then put the book down and come back to the next story. I felt like I was just getting to know the characters when the story was over (which is what short stories are all about).