Across the Pond is a charming, sensitive middle grade book about moving to a new country and finding your tribe. Set in breathtaking Scotland and featuring a birdwatching protagonist and diary entries from a 1939 war evacuee, this book provides an engaging mix of historical and contemporary fiction. If you like books about families, birds, disentangling from toxic friendships, and finding friends that feel like family, this is your pick.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Across the Pond paints many questions: What would it be like to live in a castle?
What kinds of plants would come from books?
What is twitching?

I enjoyed reading this novel and can't wait to share it with my students!

This book was a sweet book about a young girl finding the people she feels like she fits with, with the addition of a phenomenal setting. Definitely want to get this into the hands of my middle schoolers.

I really liked this Middle Grade book! It was a nice read, and I really liked the last chapter (There was a quote that I really liked!). Definitely recommend!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Joy McCullough does it again! I loved reading A Field Guide to Getting lost last year, and this was another great book of hers to add to the stack!

The main character, Callie, is a seventh grader and has to move "across the pond" to Scotland where her parents have inherited a castle. She is an introvert, and eventually convinces her parents to let her homeschool. As she navigates through this new life, she learns a lot about friendship, herself, and even the hobby of birdwatching in Scotland. This was such a joy to read and I cannot wait to recommend it to my students!

Across the Pond is a low-key middle grades charmer. Surely I am not the only person who has imagined what it would be like to randomly inherit a castle in Scotland? That’s exactly what happens to Callie’s family: Her mom and dad rented a cottage on the palace grounds while they were in college in Edinburgh, and the owner forged such a bond with her then-newlywed tenants that she left the castle to their family in her will. Adjusting to life in Scotland after growing up in San Diego might seem challenging, but Callie can’t wait — middle school has ripped her friend group to shreds, and she’s ready to reinvent herself in a new place. Only, as it turns out, the scenery has changed, but Callie hasn’t, and within a couple of weeks, she’s made enemies with their new handyman’s daughter and gotten kicked out of the local birding club for arguing that female birds should count in the sighting scores. The only thing keeping her going is the journal the former of the lady of the house kept when she was Callie’s age and shipped off to the countryside during the Blitz. Callie can definitely identify with Pippa’s lonely feeling of being always on the outside.

Of course this is all working toward a happier ending: Callie may have gotten kicked out of the birding club, but it helped introduce her to Rajesh, whose unflappable nice-ness is hard to resist. It also inspired her interest in birds, and as she’s trying to identify the swirling flock of tiny birds that settle in a tree across the lake every night (they’re starlings), she ends up befriending the handyman’s daughter, after all, realizing that everything isn’t always about her. Callie becomes an avid birder, making connections between her life and the birds she observes — just as Pippa did, all those years ago. There’s a core of real sweetness in this book that I loved: We all sometimes feel like we don’t belong, and we’re all delighted when we discover that we’ve found a community. For birding enthusiasts, for middle grades readers who enjoy realistic fiction, for anyone who’s ever wished for that castle in Scotland — you’ll want to pick this one up.

A sweet middle grade contemporary about a young girl Callie who has had a rough time with friends and peer pressure. When her parent’s tell her and her brother that they inherited a castle in Scotland she thinks this is just what she needed and a way to reinvent herself and be someone different and make new friends.

Things don’t go as she hoped because when her mom takes her to the school to see about registering she is introduced to a class and stumbles over her words, kids snicker and now she doesn’t want to go to the school and is afraid that things are not going to be any different. She talks her parents into letting her homeschool and they agree but she has to join a social extracurricular activity.

She isn’t good at sports and she is sure that hanging with the librarian isn’t going to cute it she finds out about a birdwatching group. The only thing is is that it’s run by a very snotty old man and is all boys. She finds out that birdwatching or twitching as they call it, is very male oriented. They can only count the male birds when looking for them, females don’t count. She voices her opinion and about things and it doesn’t go so well for her.

Also, her parents are turning the castle into a tourist attraction and has hired an older man to do the landscaping and he has a young girl Callie’s age and at first they don’t get off to a good start but she learns that she likes twitching too and they slowly get to where they become friends.

Callie learns a lot about birds and she also finds a journal from the previous owner of the castle and in it she learns about a part of her childhood that was pretty tough and also a lot about birding from her. Callie also learns a lot about herself and how she shouldn’t have to be a certain way to fit in, sometimes she just needs to find the right flock. I really liked Callie and how she took a stand with the birding club and created her own club that allowed counting females.

I really enjoyed this one and would highly recommend it to young readers.

I absolutely fell in love with this book! The author transported me to Scotland, and now all I want to do is visit this idyllic setting in real life! It was a touching story of friendship and becoming comfortable with who you are. It was perfectly paced and had just enough to keep me wanting more! I also appreciated the writing style and found myself rereading some of the beautiful lines. I will be recommending this, and I can’t wait to add it to my middle grade library! Highly recommended!

Thanks #NetGalley for the early copy! I love a story set in England/Scotland and really loved this one. Callie and her family move to Scotland when they inherit a castle. Callie had issues at school back in the United States, and is told by her parents that she can do homeschooling if she joins a club.
She ends up joining a bird watching club and the rest of the story is fantastic!

This book combines so many elements I love: wildlife facts, armchair travel, challenging the patriarchy, a bit of history...and some really lovely characters finding friendship in one another just when they need it most. Highly recommended!

All of this story was right up my alley- moving to Scotland, living in a castle, homeschooling, and birding. I can think of so many kids who will adore this story.

With thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for an early copy in return for an honest review.

I love when books have a strong sense of setting and Across the Pond definitely does! I think kids will enjoy getting to travel through the pages to Scotland and imagine what it would be like to live in your very own castle.

I think the themes related to friendship and family will be relatable to middle grade kids as they wrestle with figuring out who their "flock" is as they are getting older. I think the bird aspect of the book was quite interesting and I hope it encourages kids to learn a bit more about birds.

Thanks to NetGalley and Antheneum Books for making an advance copy of this title available for an honest review.

Whether the pond in question is the Atlantic or an estate's small lake, there's something to be said for crossing over and trying to bridge the gap with those on the other side. This book is really about finding and making a home and about the importance of neighbors to make a home more than a place of residence. It's a heartwarming tale full of love and good advice.

ACROSS THE POND is a delightful novel sure to engage middle grade readers.

The setting of Scotland is charming and conveyed beautifully, both in terms of the castle and the surrounding countryside and village.

The characters are likable and relatable. I was curious what incident from Callie's past kept bothering her. The author did a nice job of stringing out clues until the ultimate reveal.

I really enjoyed the birding aspect and learning about that hobby with Callie as she begins to see the value of it. I was also cheering her on as she made new friends, especially Raj and Sid. This was an important theme and one that's meaningful for middle grade readers.

This book is between 4 and 5 stars for me. Here's why I'm sticking with 4 stars. The historical narrative from the journal felt a bit tacked on or unnecessary. In its place, I would have preferred a bit more about Callie's developing friendships with Sid and Raj. I did enjoy the conclusion, which felt satisfying, particularly the lesson that Raj teaches her about friendship.

Having been to Scotland a few years ago, I loved reading this book. Callie and her family move “across the pond” because her parents inherited a castle. Because she’s been having some friend issues, Callie is excited for a new start. Once there, Callie convinces her parents to homeschool her, she joins a twitching (birding) club, and makes some new friends. When those new friendships hit a snag, Callie has to decide what being a friend really means. I think a lot of middle graders will be able to relate to this book. thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This story follows Callie, a 7th grade girl from California, as she and her family move to Scotland to live in a castle they inherited. She struggles with making friends in her new foreign home. She is holding onto the baggage of a betrayal by her 3 closest friends. She now has trouble trusting people's motives. She convinces her parents to let her homeschool instead of attending the local high school, but she needs a social outlet or they will make her enroll. She is not sporty or musical and hates performing, so her only option is the twitching (bird watching) club.

Along the way she finds potential friends in the town librarian, a boy from the club and the gardener's granddaughter. She also discovers a journal written by the former owner of the castle when she was a girl nearly 70 years ago. She realizes that she is not the only one who has trouble fitting.

This is a great, uplifting story for tweens and young teens. Many positive messages are related. I highly recommend it.

*The Scottish jargon was a bonus and made me laugh.

I don't know who to give this book to. It touched on a lot of things (transitions, birds, friendship, etc.) But none of these enough to make a whole book about. The thing that free me to this book was the fact that it took place in Scotland, but there wasn't enough about Scotland in here either.

This is exactly the type of book I would have loved as a child (and let's be honest -- I loved it now as an adult). Callie is a introverted bookworm dealing with losing her closest friends right before a move. Understandably, she has trust issues, and she convinces her parents to homeschool her for the rest of the semester.

There aren't very many middle-grade novels with homeschooled kids, so I KNOW my girls will enjoy reading about Callie's journey, as she builds community in her new town and starts a new hobby.

I always love reading books set in other countries, and this one made me feel like I was truly back in Scotland. If you loved McCullough’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost then you will love this next novel. Her characterization is something else, and I just love the way she writes about nature. You can vividly imagine the setting at Callie’s new home aka castle and the vast sea of green. I learned a lot about twitching (bird watching), which I never thought I would learn about from a middle grade book? This was beautifully done and I can’t wait till it releases in March.