Given my students love of all things weird, I thought this one would be great. And it would, for older readers. Unfortunately, I don't think it really fits my elementary school students.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s not for me. Did not finish @ 15%

This book seems like its about cryptids, and certainly has that wacky appeal that drew me in. But at its core it skillfully examines a strained relationship between a mother and daughter.

Beautiful writing and compelling characters--and a unique storyline too. I continue to be a fan of Lindsay Eagar's work.

Miranda Cho is arriving at the age where she wants her life (and mom) to be like everyone else. Believing and tracking things like Bigfoot seem strange to many. The National Park setting was described very well and seems like a lovely place to visit.

“What if?” can be one of the cruelest questions in the world to someone living with anxiety, a simple two-word phrase that propels you down a hallway lined with doors that either open to increasingly dire circumstances or that just don’t open at all, leaving you pounding your fists to get out even though you know there’s no escape. But there’s another side to “What if?”…a wondrous, free, and open-hearted side that lets you turn your face to the sun and believe in the possibility of hope and magic. The Bigfoot Files examines both aspects of this universal question, and when it ultimately chooses the side of magic and wonder, it leaves the reader determined to keep their face to the sun for as long as they can.

Miranda Cho is a self-described overachiever, a brilliant seventh-grader who meticulously tracks her perfect grades and her perfect extracurriculars in an endless series of to-do lists so that she can attend a prestigious student leadership camp in Washington, D.C. Her mother Kat is the exact opposite of what Miranda wants in a parent. Kat runs a cryptozoology blog (the titular Bigfoot Files), drives a vehicle called the Critter Mobile that sounds like something out of Sid and Marty Krofft’s nightmares, and seems unbothered by the fact that her frequent work trips are jeopardizing Miranda’s school term credits. When Miranda discovers that Kat has been ignoring all their bills, including the ones that say “Foreclosure Notice” in big red letters, she comes up with a plan to turn her mother into the kind of mom she wants: a normal, sensible one with a real job. To accomplish this, Miranda heads out to the forest for one last cryptid hunt to prove to her mother once and for all that Bigfoot isn’t real.

The central theme of the novel is faith. Not religious faith, but faith in yourself, faith in those who love you, and faith in the existence of magic in the world. Author Lindsay Eagar doesn’t believe in blind faith, though. Miranda’s dad left when she was five, and he is just as elusive as Kat’s beloved Sasquatch. He never contacts his daughter or shows any interest in her life, but Miranda holds out hope that he’s out there loving her and waiting for her. It’s heartbreaking to see Miranda, who used to believe so fervently in all of Kat’s cryptid stories, close herself off to the possibility of wonder in the world because her father shows her every day that hope is a foolish, painful thing.

Kat tries to show Miranda just the opposite — she wants her daughter to see magic everywhere, by leaving milk on the windowsill every night as an offering to fairies and viewing footprints in mud as evidence of wild undiscovered species. But in Miranda’s mind, Kat has done more than Miranda’s father has to eliminate the possibility of hope in her life. One day, Kat does something so embarrassing and socially unacceptable to Miranda’s best friend Emma that Miranda can’t bear to speak to her again. There are subtle sapphic overtones to Miranda’s feelings toward Emma, and it’s clear to me that Miranda didn’t just lose her best friend that day; she also lost her first love.

It’s no wonder, then, that Miranda is dealing with anxiety. She’s under tremendous pressure at school, her father has abandoned her, her mother’s irresponsibility is threatening her academic achievements and her home, and she’s lost the girl she loves. Miranda sleeps very little, trying to wrangle her chaotic life into submission via her phone organizer and to-do lists, and when she feels especially stressed out she pulls her hair out one strand at a time. She does it so often that she has a small bald patch on one side of her head. It’s a realistic, empathetic portrait of childhood anxiety, and once again your heart breaks for Miranda. All of Eagar’s characters are spectacularly well-realized — you know from the very first page exactly who these people are — and none more so than Miranda. She’s an incredible girl, and you feel for her throughout every beat of the book.

The strong sense of empathy that Eagar builds makes Miranda’s discovery of magic and enchantment in the forest that much sweeter and more liberating for the reader. The Bigfoot Files may not make you want to camp out in the woods and search for Sasquatch, but it will make you feel like there’s a little more light and a little more wonder in the world than you thought there was before you picked up the book. With devastatingly gorgeous prose and unique, well-drawn characters, this middle grade novel will make you smile, turn your face to the sun, and ask yourself, “What if?”

Content warnings: trichotillomania

I like the central conceit here. Most of us, in our teen years, find our parents embarrassing. How much more for the kid whose parents are truly weird. For a kid trying to fit in, a mom who drives a crittermobile and hunts cryptids is going to be mortifying .So this extreme is used to highlight a standard teen experience. And I liked that the plot takes us from embarrassment and judgement to a place of understanding. We have both mom and daughter admitting to failings. THey are forced to recognized the other's perspective. There are moments of magical realism that I didn't exactly love but could accept.

A really lovely, dreamlike, philosophical middle grade novel that explores mother/daughter relationships, personal identity, and the intersection of faith, doubt, and magic. I especially appreciated its authentic portrayal of anxiety and trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling), which I've never seen in fiction before. Highly recommended!

Lindsay is superb in her writing. All of her books are different, yet equally amazing. I immediately purchased this after reading. My students have not left the book stay on the shelf.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review, so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
The Loch Ness Monster. The Frogman. Bigfoot. Twelve-year-old Miranda Cho used to believe in it all, used to love poring over every strange footprint, every stray hair, everything that proved that the world was full of wonders. But that was before her mother’s obsession with monsters cost Miranda her friends and her perfect school record, before Miranda found the stack of unopened bills and notices of foreclosure in the silverware drawer. Now the fact that her mom’s a cryptozoologist doesn’t seem wonderful — it’s embarrassing and irresponsible, and it could cost them everything. So Miranda agrees to go on one last creature hunt, determined to use all her scientific know-how to prove to her mother, once and for all, that Bigfoot isn’t real. Then her mom will have no choice but to grow up and get a real job — one that will pay the mortgage and allow Miranda to attend the leadership camp of her dreams. But when the trip goes horribly awry, will it be Miranda who’s forced to question everything she believes?
The cover and title is what originally drew me to this book.
This is my first book by this author. It was alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a
4 star rating!

I am FEELING THINGS!!

THE BIGFOOT FILES is the story of Miranda, a hyper-practical girl dealing with her cryptozoologist mother. But there are so many threads to this book, including absent fathers, obsessive compulsive tendencies, friendship fallouts, money worries, school pressures...yet it manages to combat these AND keep a beautifully magical tone.

The scenes in the Fable Forest were my favourite. The imagery Eagar uses is so vivid and ethereal, and the bonding between Miranda and Kat was tenderly wrought. There was danger, monsters (or WERE they monsters?), and a fantastical combination of real-world and outlandish tensions. If I had one complaint, it was that the dynamic between Kat and Miranda felt a bit monotonous after a while, with the kooky/sensible dynamic being enforced again and again. But overall, I ADORED this book, the magic and the heart, and I'll be recommending it to MG fans of all genres!

Thank you to Netgalley and Candlewick Press for access.

I enjoyed "The Bigfoot Files". Coming from a home with a mother who had her own obsession issues, I found myself remembering many of Miranda's emotions from the time when I was growing up as I read through the story. I enjoyed the writer's ability to describe how Miranda was forced to grow up prematurely, while taking care of a mother who never grew up herself. Miranda, although an adult psychologically, finds her own revival in the question of childlike belief. I will be ordering this book for my library and giving it to several 6th grade students I know who need this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book! At first I thought it might be too much for a younger audience but as I read on the plot captured me and I just wanted to find out what would happen next! I would recommend this to 9-13 year olds as the idea of the monsters would be engaging for them. Seeing the relationship between Kat and Miranda was also really interesting especially to see how it would develop and the happy ending made me feel quite warm! Sometimes you just need those books with a good ending!

This book also has the theme of self harm through it and despite it being quite small, the way Miranda pulled out her hair showed representation of younger people doing self harm (even though it may seem tiny and irrelevant to them).

Overall, it was quite a magical book and the ending was lovely! Seeing Kat and Miranda bond and the whole ending to be honest was great!

A great story about love, hope, and the sadness that comes from being a part of a family that is struggling to keep it together. This is a book that all middle graders, and their parents, will love. Middle schoolers will be able to relate to this story, especially the main character's stress. I'm excited to use this in my mock newberry club!

Mirando Cho is tired of being the parent. The 12-year-old student council president is dead set on securing a spot in a leadership camp this summer that will get her out of the house and away from her cryptozoolist mom, Kat. Kat's obsession with mythical monsters, especially the ever-elusive Bigfoot, has taken center stage in her life: bills have gone unpaid, the house is in danger of foreclosure, and neither her father nor her grandmother is interested in helping out. It's time for Kat to grow up, and Miranda has a plan to make it happen. The two set off together for another Bigfoot hunt, where Miranda plans to confront her mother with everything; once she breaks her down, she'll help her get back on track to being a responsible adult. But nature has a different plan, and Kat and Miranda end up lost in the woods together. Miranda may have a thing or two to learn about magic after all.

The Bigfoot Files is an interesting take on the "irresponsible single parent, stressed out smart kid" story. We've got a mom who still has that spark of magic in her, but she's let it take over her life, to the detriment of her daughter and the family finances. She's always ready for the big score: the picture of Bigfoot, the big research grant, the one moment where the proof will magically appear. Miranda has overcompensated for her mother's flightiness by becoming an overachiever with compulsive tendencies - she pulls her hair out to soothe herself and obsessively focuses on her planning, research, and lists, lists, lists. Kat is frustrating, and Miranda isn't always sympathetic, which - let's be real - is spot on. Both parties need to give a little to get somewhere, hence the trip into the woods. And that's where things get interesting. Miranda is the ultimate skeptic - and as readers, so are we - until a pivotal moment that threatens to turn everything upside down. We get a touch of the speculative in our realistic fiction, inviting readers to keep the faith; there is magic to be found out there, if you're willing to find it. Ultimately, readers and our characters come to a compromise and understand that somewhere in the middle lies the best way to go: bills still need to be paid, and magic can still exist.
There are some solid mother-daughter conversations here. The relationship between Miranda and Kat swings to extremes, and the pacing sometimes becomes frustrating as Kat belabors the point on several "finds" along the way, but overall The Bigfoot Files is a read to give middle graders who like a little fantasy in their realistic fiction.

This turned out to be one of my favorite middle grades reads this year. I thought it would just be about a girl and her Mom searching for Bigfoot and that would be enough for me. Instead, it was so much more. I mean there was lots of Bigfoot and associated creatures, but at its heart, this is a story about a family with some issues.

Miranda Cho is an organized high achiever. In school, she gets good grades and is active in school government. She is also highly stressed out and has a habit of pulling her hair out piece by piece. Her Mom is a cryptozoologist with no job and a blog. Miranda thinks they couldn’t be more opposite. She used to believe and even enjoy going on these trips with her Mom, but as she grew up, she became less enthused and more practical.

If you like watching Survivorman and Bear Grylls, you’ll love the middle section of the story where they actually hunt Bigfoot and get a little lost. Spoiler alert: there are even fairies in those woods!

All in all, I think middle-grade readers who come for the Bigfoot portion will be touched by the family dynamics and maybe see a bit of themselves in Miranda as she learns more about her family and their past.

Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick press for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story intrigued me because I love fantasy and mythological creatures and that is what I was expecting. However, what I love even more is the surprisingly complicated layers of the relationship between Miranda and her mother. It is a very relatable portrayal of the pre-teen/early teen dynamic of being totally mortified by your parents.

Seeing a mother and daughter portrayed as opposites like this, not only opposites from each other but from what your assumptions of the characteristics each character would have. The common way to portray a child Miranda’s age in literature is more of a dreamer/believer in magic and fantasy and the parent as the organized perfectionist. It this story the roles are reversed and it is refreshing.

Overall, I would recommend this as a middle grade read for the leveled relationship between Miranda and her parents and seeing the progression of understanding and solid undercurrent of love between Miranda and her mom.

I got this book via NetGalley.

This was a unique middle-grade, to say the least. I had never read a book about Bigfoot before, even though I used to be really into cryptozoology. But this is more than a book about Bigfoot.

The mother-daughter relationship was complicated and somehow really relatable. My mom doesn't chase after cyptids, nor have a car with the face of Bigfoot like a Cars (the movie) phenomenon. But it felt close. Miranda's mom's only job is being a freelancer cryptid blog writer, and for that she needs to travel a lot to look for cryptids. Which aren't a regular thing, mind you, since this is kind of contemporary. Miranda is made to go with her, missing school and losing friends and having to fight within herself with the urge to say to her mother that cryptids aren't real, there's no Bigfoot, please let's just go home I don't want to be in this muddy forest for the next four days for nothing.

First, I'd never choose a seventh grader for student council. This is a recurring thing in the contemporaries I've read recently for some reason and I just can't believe it.

Mother and daughter go on this trip to a forest where Bigfoot has been spotted (as if), and they get lost because of a bear chasing them. The book was okay up to that point, and then everything went downhill for me.

(There are spoilers from this point down)
In this forest, they begin to see things. The bear that chased them was particularly intelligent and didn't quite behave like a bear. They use a giant fish as a boat. They see a weird bug that eats tree cores, which Miranda says she's never heard of before, and she's made really extensive research to go on this trip with her mom. And then she sees fairies and dances with them and they change the color of her hair. But still she chooses not to believe in these creatures, firmly and annoyingly. Every second line is her saying fairies, big fishes and core eating bugs don't exist. She's in a constant bad mood even after these events take place because she can't believe her mother believes in these things that don't exist (even though she had been JUST dancing with fairies). And it's really, really annoying. I couldn't stand her for the second half of the book because of this.

And then they see Bigfoot, and they enter its cave, and Miranda is still in the brink of not believing and I swear to god I was so TIRED of her. Because of how much strength she puts on not believing, on making her mother look ridiculous, on screaming and throwing tantrums because these things aren't real. Not because she wants to go back home, or because they're lost, or because she's hungry. Just because her mother believes in these things (that now are palpable) and she doesn't. It drove me mad.

The end is kind of predictable, and choosing to believe at the last second possible still feels kind of unreal, but it was okay. A quick read nonetheless.

This book surprised me. I was expecting more of a fantasy novel. Instead, this book is all about familial misunderstandings and learning to forgive and grow. I loved how the relationship between Miranda and her mother grew through the book and how they learned so much about each other.

First of all, I was super excited to get this ARC from NetGalley, Candlewick Press, and Lindsay Edgar, thank you so much for this copy! It seemed like such a fun story, especially having grown up in the Pacific Northwest with tales of Bigfoot and even Bigfoot festivals. It only seemed natural to want to read this chapter book and I’m so glad I did!

This story is mostly set in the Olympic National Forest in Washington State. I used to live not far from here and it’s just beautiful, lush and green unlike any forest I’ve been in! If Bigfoot exists, I bet he’d be here!

The real story here is not in searching for Bigfoot or whether you believe. The real story is the relationship between Miranda and her mother. Miranda likes to be organized and plan for everything and her mother couldn’t be more different, and it is embarrassing for her. Her mom spends her days searching for Bigfoot, analyzing scat samples, preserving footprints and updating her Bigfoot blog.

I think every child at this age can relate to feeling like you know everything and your parents are total losers. I know, I did as a kid! But as the story goes on, things don’t go exactly as Miranda has planned, and just maybe she doesn’t know everything she thought she did.

This is an awesome middle grade book, I just loved it! I love the magical feeling of the mother and daughter on their trip together and how they work through their differences!

I will definitely be looking for more from this author! All my opinions are my own and this book will be published October 9, 2018